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Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.10/04/01*END* + + + + + +This etext was produced by Pat Castevans <patcat@ctnet.net> +and David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + + + +SANDRA BELLONI + +By George Meredith + + + +CONTENTS + +BOOK 1 +I. THE POLES PRELUDE +II. THE EXPEDITION BY MOONLIGHT +III. WILFRID'S DIPLOMACY +IV. EMILIA'S FIRST TRIAL IN PUBLIC +V. EMILIA PLAYS ON THE CORNET +VI. EMILIA SUPPLIES THE KEY TO HERSELF AND CONTINUES HER + PERFORMANCE ON THE CORNET +VII. THREATS OF A CRISIS IN THE GOVERNMENT OF BROOKFIELD: + AND OF THE VIRTUE RESIDENT IN A TAIL-COAT +VIII. IN WHICH A BIG DRUM SPEEDS THE MARCH OF + EMILIA'S HISTORY +IX. THE RIVAL CLUBS +X. THE LADIES OF BROOKFIELD AT SCHOOL + +BOOK 2 +XI. IN WHICH WE SEE THE MAGNANIMITY THAT IS IN BEER. +XII. SHOWING HOW SENTIMENT AND PASSION TAKE + THE DISEASE OF LOVE +XIII. CONTAINS A SHORT DISCOURSE ON PUPPETS +XIV. THE BESWORTH QUESTION +XV. WILFRID'S EXHIBITION OF TREACHERY +XVI. HOW THE LADIES OF BROOKFIELD CAME TO THEIR RESOLVE +XVII. IN THE WOODS + +BOOK 3 +XVIII. RETURN OF THE SENTIMENTALIST INTO BONDAGE +XIX. LIFE AT BROOKFIELD. +XX. BY WILMING WEIR +XXI. RETURN OF MR. PERICLES +XXII. THE PITFALL OF SENTIMENT +XXIII. WILFRID DIPLOMATIZES +XXIV. EMILIA MAKES A MOVE +XXV. A FARCE WITHIN A FARCE + +BOOK 4 +XXVI. SUGGESTS THAT THE COMIC MASK HAS SOME KINSHIP WITH A SKULL +XXVII. SMALL LIFE AT BROOKFIELD +XXVIII. GEORGIANA FORD +XXIX. FIRST SCOURGING OF THE FINE SHADES +XXX. OF THE DOUBLE-MAN IN US, AND THE GREAT FIGHT + WHEN THESE ARE FULL-GROWN +XXXI. BESWORTH LAWN +XXXII. THE SUPPER +XXXIII. DEFEAT AND FLIGHT OF MRS. CHUMP + +BOOK 5 +XXXIV. INDICATES THE DEGRADATION OF BROOKFIELD, TOGETHER + WITH CERTAIN PROCEEDINGS OF THE YACHT +XXXV. MRS. CHUMP'S EPISTLE +XXXVI. ANOTHER PITFALL OF SENTIMENT +XXXVII. EMILIA'S FLIGHT. +XXXVIII. SHE CLINGS TO HER VOICE +XXXIX. HER VOICE FAILS + +BOOK 6 +XL. SHE TASTES DESPAIR +XLI. SHE IS FOUND +XLII. DEFECTION OF MR. PERICLES FROM THE BROOKFIELD CIRCLE +XLIII. IN WHICH WE SEE WILFRID KINDLING +XLIV. ON THE HIPPOGRIFF IN AIR: IN WHICH THE + PHILOSOPHER HAS A SHORT SPELL. +XLV. ON THE HIPPOGRIFF ON EARTH. +XLVI. RAPE OF THE BLACK-BRIONY WREATH +XLVII. THE CALL TO ACTION +XLVIII. CONTAINS A FURTHER VIEW OF SENTIMENT +XLIX. BETWEEN EMILIA AND GEORGIANA + +BOOK 7 +L. EMILIA BEGINS TO FEEL MERTHYR'S POWER +LI. A CHAPTER INTERRUPTED BY THE PHILOSOPHER +LII. A FRESH DUETT BETWEEN WILFRID AND EMILIA +LIII. ALDERMAN'S BOUQUET +LIIV. THE EXPLOSION AT BROOKFIELD +LV. THE TRAGEDY OF SENTIMENT +LVI. AN ADVANCE AND A CHECK. +LVII. CONTAINS A FURTHER ANATOMY OF WILFRID +LVIII. FROST ON THE MAY NIGHT. +LVIX. EMILIA'S GOOD-BYE + + + + +SANDRA BELLONI + +ORIGINALLY EMILIA IN ENGLAND + + + +BOOK 1 + +I. THE POLES PRELUDE +II. THE EXPEDITION BY MOONLIGHT +III. WILFRID'S DIPLOMACY +IV. EMILIA'S FIRST TRIAL IN PUBLIC +V. EMILIA PLAYS ON THE CORNET +VI. EMILIA SUPPLIES THE KEY TO HERSELF AND CONTINUES HER + PERFORMANCE ON THE CORNET +VII. THREATS OF A CRISIS IN THE GOVERNMENT OF BROOKFIELD: + AND OF THE VIRTUE RESIDENT IN A TAIL-COAT +VIII. IN WHICH A BIG DRUM SPEEDS THE MARCH OF + EMILIA'S HISTORY +IX. THE RIVAL CLUBS +X. THE LADIES OF BROOKFIELD AT SCHOOL + + + +CHAPTER I + +We are to make acquaintance with some serious damsels, as this English +generation knows them, and at a season verging upon May. The ladies of +Brookfield, Arabella, Cornelia, and Adela Pole, daughters of a +flourishing City-of-London merchant, had been told of a singular thing: +that in the neighbouring fir-wood a voice was to be heard by night, so +wonderfully sweet and richly toned, that it required their strong sense +to correct strange imaginings concerning it. Adela was herself the chief +witness to its unearthly sweetness, and her testimony was confirmed by +Edward Buxley, whose ear had likewise taken in the notes, though not on +the same night, as the pair publicly proved by dates. Both declared that +the voice belonged to an opera-singer or a spirit. The ladies of +Brookfield, declining the alternative, perceived that this was a surprise +furnished for their amusement by the latest celebrity of their circle, +Mr. Pericles, their father's business ally and fellow-speculator; Mr. +Pericles, the Greek, the man who held millions of money as dust compared +to a human voice. Fortified by this exquisite supposition, their strong +sense at once dismissed with scorn the idea of anything unearthly, +however divine, being heard at night, in the nineteenth century, within +sixteen miles of London City. They agreed that Mr. Pericles had hired +some charming cantatrice to draw them into the woods and delightfully +bewilder them. It was to be expected of his princely nature, they said. +The Tinleys, of Bloxholme, worshipped him for his wealth; the ladies of +Brookfield assured their friends that the fact of his being a money-maker +was redeemed in their sight by his devotion to music. Music was now the +Art in the ascendant at Brookfield. The ladies (for it is as well to +know at once that they were not of that poor order of women who yield +their admiration to a thing for its abstract virtue only)--the ladies +were scaling society by the help of the Arts. To this laudable end +sacrifices were now made to Euterpe to assist them. As mere daughters of +a merchant, they were compelled to make their house not simply +attractive, but enticing; and, seeing that they liked music, it seemed a +very agreeable device. The Tinleys of Bloxholme still kept to dancing, +and had effectually driven away Mr. Pericles from their gatherings. For +Mr. Pericles said: "If that they will go 'so,' I will be amused." He +presented a top-like triangular appearance for one staggering second. +The Tinleys did not go `so' at all, and consequently they lost the +satirical man, and were called 'the ballet-dancers' by Adela which thorny +scoff her sisters permitted to pass about for a single day, and no more. +The Tinleys were their match at epithets, and any low contention of this +kind obscured for them the social summit they hoped to attain; the dream +whereof was their prime nourishment. + +That the Tinleys really were their match, they acknowledged, upon the +admission of the despicable nature of the game. The Tinleys had winged a +dreadful shaft at them; not in itself to be dreaded, but that it struck a +weak point; it was a common shot that exploded a magazine; and for a time +it quite upset their social policy, causing them to act like simple young +ladies who feel things and resent them. The ladies of Brookfield had let +it be known that, in their privacy together, they were Pole, Polar, and +North Pole. Pole, Polar, and North Pole were designations of the three +shades of distance which they could convey in a bow: a form of salute +they cherished as peculiarly their own; being a method they had invented +to rebuke the intrusiveness of the outer world, and hold away all +strangers until approved worthy. Even friends had occasionally to submit +to it in a softened form. Arabella, the eldest, and Adela, the youngest, +alternated Pole and Polar; but North Pole was shared by Cornelia with +none. She was the fairest of the three; a nobly-built person; her eyes +not vacant of tenderness when she put off her armour. In her war-panoply +before unhappy strangers, she was a Britomart. They bowed to an iceberg, +which replied to them with the freezing indifference of the floating +colossus, when the Winter sun despatches a feeble greeting messenger-beam +from his miserable Arctic wallet. The simile must be accepted in its +might, for no lesser one will express the scornfulness toward men +displayed by this strikingly well-favoured, formal lady, whose heart of +hearts demanded for her as spouse, a lord, a philosopher, and a +Christian, in one: and he must be a member of Parliament. Hence her +isolated air. + +Now, when the ladies of Brookfield heard that their Pole, Polar, and +North Pole, the splendid image of themselves, had been transformed by the +Tinleys, and defiled by them to Pole, Polony, and Maypole, they should +have laughed contemptuously; but the terrible nerve of ridicule quivered +in witness against them, and was not to be stilled. They could not +understand why so coarse a thing should affect them. It stuck in their +flesh. It gave them the idea that they saw their features hideous, but +real, in a magnifying mirror. + +There was therefore a feud between the Tinleys and the Poles; and when +Mr. Pericles entirely gave up the former, the latter rewarded him by +spreading abroad every possible kind interpretation of his atrocious bad +manners. He was a Greek, of Parisian gilding, whose Parisian hat flew +off at a moment's notice, and whose savage snarl was heard at the +slightest vexation. His talk of renowned prime-donne by their Christian +names, and the way that he would catalogue emperors, statesmen, and +noblemen known to him, with familiar indifference, as things below the +musical Art, gave a distinguishing tone to Brookfield, from which his +French accentuation of our tongue did not detract. + +Mr. Pericles grimaced bitterly at any claim to excellence being set up +for the mysterious voice in the woods. Tapping one forefinger on the +uplifted point of the other, he observed that to sing abroad in the night +air of an English Spring month was conclusive of imbecility; and that no +imbecile sang at all. Because, to sing, involved the highest +accomplishment of which the human spirit could boast. Did the ladies +see? he asked. They thought they saw that he carried on a deception +admirably. In return, they inquired whether he would come with them and +hunt the voice, saying that they would catch it for him. "I shall catch +a cold for myself," said Mr. Pericles, from the elevation of a shrug, +feeling that he was doomed to go forth. He acted reluctance so well that +the ladies affected a pretty imperiousness; and when at last he consented +to join the party, they thanked him with a nicely simulated warmth, +believing that they had pleased him thoroughly. + +Their brother Wilfrid was at Brookfield. Six months earlier he had +returned from India, an invalided cornet of light cavalry, with a +reputation for military dash and the prospect of a medal. Then he was +their heroic brother he was now their guard. They love him tenderly, and +admired him when it was necessary; but they had exhausted their own +sensations concerning his deeds of arms, and fancied that he had served +their purpose. And besides, valour is not an intellectual quality, they +said. They were ladies so aspiring, these daughters of the merchant +Samuel Bolton Pole, that, if Napoleon had been their brother, their +imaginations would have overtopped him after his six months' inaction in +the Tuileries. They would by that time have made a stepping-stone of the +emperor. 'Mounting' was the title given to this proceeding. They went +on perpetually mounting. It is still a good way from the head of the +tallest of men to the stars; so they had their work before them; but, as +they observed, they were young. To be brief, they were very ambitious +damsels, aiming at they knew not exactly what, save that it was something +so wide that it had not a name, and so high in the air that no one could +see it. They knew assuredly that their circle did not please them. So, +therefore, they were constantly extending and refining it: extending it +perhaps for the purpose of refining it. Their susceptibilities demanded +that they should escape from a city circle. Having no mother, they ruled +their father's house and him, and were at least commanders of whatsoever +forces they could summon for the task. + +It may be seen that they were sentimentalists. That is to say, they +supposed that they enjoyed exclusive possession of the Nice Feelings, and +exclusively comprehended the Fine Shades. Whereof more will be said; but +in the meantime it will explain their propensity to mount; it will +account for their irritation at the material obstructions surrounding +them; and possibly the philosopher will now have his eye on the source of +that extraordinary sense of superiority to mankind which was the crown of +their complacent brows. Eclipsed as they may be in the gross +appreciation of the world by other people, who excel in this and that +accomplishment, persons that nourish Nice Feelings and are intimate with +the Fine Shades carry their own test of intrinsic value. + +Nor let the philosopher venture hastily to despise them as pipers to +dilettante life. Such persons come to us in the order of civilization. +In their way they help to civilize us. Sentimentalists are a perfectly +natural growth of a fat soil. Wealthy communities must engender them. +If with attentive minds we mark the origin of classes, we shall discern +that the Nice Feelings and the Fine Shades play a principal part in our +human development and social history. I dare not say that civilized man +is to be studied with the eye of a naturalist; but my vulgar meaning +might almost be twisted to convey: that our sentimentalists are a variety +owing their existence to a certain prolonged term of comfortable feeding. +The pig, it will be retorted, passes likewise through this training. He +does. But in him it is not combined with an indigestion of high German +romances. Here is so notable a difference, that he cannot possibly be +said to be of the family. And I maintain it against him, who have +nevertheless listened attentively to the eulogies pronounced by the +vendors of prize bacon. + +After thus stating to you the vast pretensions of the ladies of +Brookfield, it would be unfair to sketch their portraits. Nothing but +comedy bordering on burlesque could issue from the contrast, though they +graced a drawing-room or a pew, and had properly elegant habits and taste +in dress, and were all fair to the sight. Moreover, Adela had not long +quitted school. Outwardly they were not unlike other young ladies with +wits alert. They were at the commencement of their labours on this night +of the expedition when they were fated to meet something greatly +confusing them. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +Half of a rosy mounting full moon was on the verge of the East as the +ladies, with attendant cavaliers, passed, humming softly, through the +garden-gates. Arabella had, by right of birth, made claim to Mr. +Pericles: not without an unwontedly fretful remonstrance from Cornelia, +who said, "My dear, you must allow that I have some talent for drawing +men out." + +And Arabella replied: "Certainly, dear, you have; and I think I have some +too." + +The gentle altercation lasted half-an-hour, but they got no farther than +this. Mr. Pericles was either hopeless of protecting himself from such +shrewd assailants, or indifferent to their attacks, for all his defensive +measures were against the cold. He was muffled in a superbly mounted +bearskin, which came up so closely about his ears that Arabella had to +repeat to him all her questions, and as it were force a way for her voice +through the hide. This was provoking, since it not only stemmed the +natural flow of conversation, but prevented her imagination from +decorating the reminiscence of it subsequently (which was her profound +secret pleasure), besides letting in the outer world upon her. Take it +as an axiom, when you utter a sentimentalism, that more than one pair of +ears makes a cynical critic. A sentimentalism requires secresy. I can +enjoy it, and shall treat it respectfully if you will confide it to me +alone; but I and my friends must laugh at it outright. + +"Does there not seem a soul in the moonlight?" for instance. Arabella, +after a rapturous glance at the rosy orb, put it to Mr. Pericles, in +subdued impressive tones. She had to repeat her phrase; Mr. Pericles +then echoing, with provoking monotony of tone, "Sol?"--whereupon "Soul!" +was reiterated, somewhat sharply: and Mr. Pericles, peering over the +collar of the bear, with half an eye, continued the sentence, in the +manner of one sent thereby farther from its meaning: "Ze moonlight?" +Despairing and exasperated, Arabella commenced afresh: "I said, there +seems a soul in it"; and Mr. Pericles assented bluntly: "In ze light!"-- +which sounded so little satisfactory that Arabella explained, "I mean the +aspect;" and having said three times distinctly what she meant, in answer +to a terrific glare from the unsubmerged whites of the eyes of Mr. +Pericles, this was his comment, almost roared forth: + +"Sol! you say so-whole--in ze moonlight--Luna? Hein? Ze aspect is of +Sol!--Yez." + +And Mr. Pericles sank into his bear again, while Wilfrid Pole, who was +swinging his long cavalry legs to rearward, shouted; and Mr. Sumner, a +rising young barrister, walking beside Cornelia, smiled a smile of +extreme rigidity. Arabella was punished for claiming rights of birth. +She heard the murmuring course of the dialogue between Cornelia and Mr. +Sumner, sufficiently clear to tell her it was not fictitious and was well +sustained, while her heart was kept thirsting for the key to it. In +advance were Adela and Edward Buxley, who was only a rich alderman's only +son, but had the virtue of an extraordinary power of drawing caricatures, +and was therefore useful in exaggerating the features of disagreeable +people, and showing how odious they were: besides endearing pleasant ones +exhibiting how comic they could be. Gossips averred that before Mr. Pole +had been worried by his daughters into giving that mighty sum for +Brookfield, Arabella had accepted Edward as her suitor; but for some +reason or other he had apparently fallen from his high estate. To tell +the truth, Arabella conceived that he had simply obeyed her wishes, while +he knew he was naughtily following his own; and Adela, without +introspection at all, was making her virgin effort at the caricaturing of +our sex in his person: an art for which she promised well. + +Out of the long black shadows of the solitary trees of the park, and +through low yellow moonlight, they passed suddenly into the muffed ways +of the wood. Mr. Pericles was ineffably provoking. He had come for +gallantry's sake, and was not to be rallied, and would echo every +question in a roar, and there was no drawing of the man out at all. He +knocked against branches, and tripped over stumps, and ejaculated with +energy; but though he gave no heed or help to his fair associate, she +thought not the worse of him, so heroic can women be toward any creature +that will permit himself to be clothed by a mystery. At times the party +hung still, fancying the voice aloft, and then, after listening to the +unrelieved stillness, they laughed, and trod the stiff dry ferns and soft +mosses once more. At last they came to a decided halt, when the +proposition to return caused Adela to come up to Mr. Pericles and say to +him, "Now, you must confess! You have prohibited her from singing to- +night so that we may continue to be mystified. I call this quite +shameful of you!" + +And even as Mr. Pericles was protesting that he was the most mystified of +the company, his neck lengthened, and his head went round, and his ear +was turned to the sky, while he breathed an elaborate "Ah!" And sure +enough that was the voice of the woods, cleaving the night air, not +distant. A sleepy fire of early moonlight hung through the dusky fir- +branches. The voice had the woods to itself, and seemed to fill them and +soar over them, it was so full and rich, so light and sweet. And now, to +add to the marvel, they heard a harp accompaniment, the strings being +faintly touched, but with firm fingers. A woman's voice: on that could +be no dispute. Tell me, what opens heaven more flamingly to heart and +mind, than the voice of a woman, pouring clear accordant notes to the +blue night sky, that grows light blue to the moon? There was no flourish +in her singing. All the notes were firm, and rounded, and sovereignly +distinct. She seemed to have caught the ear of Night, and sang confident +of her charm. It was a grand old Italian air, requiring severity of tone +and power. Now into great mournful hollows the voice sank steadfastly. +One soft sweep of the strings succeeded a deep final note, and the +hearers breathed freely. + +"Stradella!" said the Greek, folding his arms. + +The ladies were too deeply impressed to pursue their play with him. Real +emotions at once set aside the semi-credence they had given to their own +suggestions. + +"Hush! she will sing again," whispered Adela. "It is the most delicious +contralto." Murmurs of objection to the voice being characterized at all +by any technical word, or even for a human quality, were heard. + +"Let me find zis woman!" cried the prose enthusiast Mr. Pericles, +imperiously, with his bearskin thrown back on his shoulders, and forth +they stepped, following him. + +In the middle of the wood there was a sandy mound, rising half the height +of the lesser firs, bounded by a green-grown vallum, where once an old +woman, hopelessly a witch, had squatted, and defied the authorities to +make her budge: nor could they accomplish the task before her witch-soul +had taken wing in the form of a black night-bird, often to be heard +jarring above the spot. Lank dry weeds and nettles, and great lumps of +green and gray moss, now stood on the poor old creature's place of +habitation, and the moon, slanting through the fir-clumps, was scattered +on the blossoms of twisted orchard-trees, gone wild again. Amid this +desolation, a dwarfed pine, whose roots were partially bared as they +grasped the broken bank that was its perch, threw far out a cedar-like +hand. In the shadow of it sat the fair singer. A musing touch of her +harp-strings drew the intruders to the charmed circle, though they could +discern nothing save the glimmer of the instrument and one set of fingers +caressing it. How she viewed their rather impertinent advance toward +her, till they had ranged in a half-circle nearer and nearer, could not +be guessed. She did not seem abashed in any way, for, having preluded, +she threw herself into another song. + +The charm was now more human, though scarcely less powerful. This was a +different song from the last: it was not the sculptured music of the old +school, but had the richness and fulness of passionate blood that marks +the modern Italian, where there is much dallying with beauty in the thick +of sweet anguish. Here, at a certain passage of the song, she gathered +herself up and pitched a nervous note, so shrewdly triumphing, that, as +her voice sank to rest, her hearers could not restrain a deep murmur of +admiration. + +Then came an awkward moment. The ladies did not wish to go, and they +were not justified in stopping. They were anxious to speak, and they +could not choose the word to utter. Mr. Pericles relieved them by moving +forward and doffing his hat, at the same time begging excuse for the +rudeness they were guilty of. + +The fair singer answered, with the quickness that showed a girl: "Oh, +stay; do stay, if I please you!" A singular form of speech, it was +thought by the ladies. + +She added: "I feel that I sing better when I have people to listen to +me." + +"You find it more sympathetic, do you not?" remarked Cornelia. + +"I don't know," responded the unknown, with a very honest smile. "I like +it." + +She was evidently uneducated. "A professional?" whispered Adela to +Arabella. She wanted little invitation to exhibit her skill, at all +events, for, at a word, the clear, bold, but finely nervous voice, was +pealing to a brisker measure, that would have been joyous but for one +fall it had, coming unexpectedly, without harshness, and winding up the +song in a ringing melancholy. + +After a few bars had been sung, Mr. Pericles was seen tapping his +forehead perplexedly. The moment it ended, he cried out, in a tone of +vexed apology for strange ignorance: "But I know not it? It is Italian-- +yes, I swear it is Italian! But--who then? It is superbe! But I know +not it!" + +"It is mine," said the young person. + +"Your music, miss?" + +"I mean, I composed it." + +"Permit me to say, Brava!" + +The ladies instantly petitioned to have it sung to them again; and +whether or not they thought more of it, or less, now that the authorship +was known to them, they were louder in their applause, which seemed to +make the little person very happy. + +"You are sure it pleases you?" she exclaimed. + +They were very sure it pleased them. Somehow the ladies were growing +gracious toward her, from having previously felt too humble, it may be. +She was girlish in her manner, and not imposing in her figure. She would +be a sweet mystery to talk about, they thought: but she had ceased to be +quite the same mystery to them. + +"I would go on singing to you," she said; "I could sing all night long: +but my people at the farm will not keep supper for me, when it's late, +and I shall have to go hungry to bed, if I wait." + +"Have you far to go?" ventured Adela. + +"Only to Wilson's farm; about ten minutes' walk through the wood," she +answered unhesitatingly. + +Arabella wished to know whether she came frequently to this lovely spot. + +"When it does not rain, every evening," was the reply. + +"You feel that the place inspires you?" said Cornelia. + +"I am obliged to come," she explained. "The good old dame at the farm is +ill, and she says that music all day is enough for her, and I must come +here, or I should get no chance of playing at all at night." + +"But surely you feel an inspiration in the place, do you not?" Cornelia +persisted. + +She looked at this lady as if she had got a hard word given her to crack, +and muttered: "I feel it quite warm here. And I do begin to love the +place." + +The stately Cornelia fell back a step. + +The moon was now a silver ball on the edge of the circle of grey blue +above the ring of firs, and by the light falling on the strange little +person, as she stood out of the shadow to muffle up her harp, it could be +seen that she was simply clad, and that her bonnet was not of the newest +fashion. The sisters remarked a boot-lace hanging loose. The peculiar +black lustre of her hair, and thickness of her long black eyebrows, +struck them likewise. Her harp being now comfortably mantled, Cornet +Wilfrid Pole, who had been watching her and balancing repeatedly on his +forward foot, made a stride, and "really could not allow her to carry it +herself," and begged her permission that he might assist her. "It's very +heavy, you know," he added. + +"Too heavy for me," she said, favouring him with a thankful smile. "I +have some one who does that. Where is Jim?" + +She called for Jim, and from the back of the sandy hillock, where he had +been reclining, a broad-shouldered rustic came lurching round to them. + +"Now, take my harp, if you please, and be as careful as possible of +branches, and don't stumble." She uttered this as if she were giving Jim +his evening lesson: and then with a sudden cry she laughed out: "Oh! but +I haven't played you your tune, and you must have your tune!" + +Forthwith she stript the harp half bare, and throwing a propitiatory +bright glance at her audience on the other side of her, she commenced +thrumming a kind of Giles Scroggins, native British, beer-begotten air, +while Jim smeared his mouth and grinned, as one who sees his love dragged +into public view, and is not the man to be ashamed of her, though he +hopes you will hardly put him to the trial. + +"This is his favourite tune, that he taught me," she emphasized to the +company. "I play to him every night, for a finish; and then he takes +care not to knock my poor harp to pieces and tumble about." + +The gentlemen were amused by the Giles Scroggins air, which she had +delivered with a sufficient sense of its lumping fun and leg-for-leg +jollity, and they laughed and applauded; but the ladies were silent after +the performance, until the moment came to thank her for the entertainment +she had afforded them: and then they broke into gentle smiles, and +trusted they might have the pleasure of hearing her another night. + +"Oh! just as often and as much as you like," she said, and first held her +hand to Arabella, next to Cornelia, and then to Adela. She seemed to be +hesitating before the gentlemen, and when Wilfrid raised his hat, she was +put to some confusion, and bowed rather awkwardly, and retired. + +"Good night, miss!" called Mr. Pericles. + +"Good night, sir!" she answered from a little distance, and they could +see that she was there emboldened to drop a proper curtsey in +accompaniment. + +Then the ladies stood together and talked of her, not with absolute +enthusiasm. For, "Was it not divine?" said Adela; and Cornelia asked her +if she meant the last piece; and, "Oh, gracious! not that!" Adela +exclaimed. And then it was discovered how their common observation had +fastened on the boot-lace; and this vagrant article became the key to +certain speculations on her condition and character. + +"I wish I'd had a dozen bouquets, that's all!" cried Wilfrid. "she +deserved them." + +"Has she sentiment for what she sings? or is it only faculty?" Cornelia +put it to Mr. Sumner. + +That gentleman faintly defended the stranger for the intrusion of the +bumpkin tune. "She did it so well!" he said. + +"I complain that she did it too well," uttered Cornelia, whose use of +emphasis customarily implied that the argument remained with her. + +Talking in this manner, and leisurely marching homeward, they were +startled to hear Mr. Pericles, who had wrapped himself impenetrably in +the bear, burst from his cogitation suddenly to cry out, in his harshest +foreign accent: "Yeaz!" And thereupon he threw open the folds, and laid +out a forefinger, and delivered himself: "I am made my mind! I send her +abroad to ze Academie for one, two, tree year. She shall be instructed +as was not before. Zen a noise at La Scala. No--Paris! No--London! +She shall astonish London fairst.--Yez! if I take a theatre! Yez! if I +buy a newspaper! Yez! if I pay feefty-sossand pound!" + +His singular outlandish vehemence, and the sweeping grandeur of a +determination that lightly assumed the corruptibility of our Press, sent +a smile circling among the ladies and gentlemen. The youth who had +wished to throw the fair unknown a dozen bouquets, caught himself +frowning at this brilliant prospect for her, which was to give him his +opportunity. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +The next morning there were many "tra-las" and "tum-te-turns" over the +family breakfast-table; a constant humming and crying, "I have it"; and +after two or three bars, baffled pauses and confusion of mind. Mr. +Pericles was almost abusive at the impotent efforts of the sisters to +revive in his memory that particular delicious melody, the composition of +the fair singer herself. At last he grew so impatient as to arrest their +opening notes, and even to interrupt their unmusical consultations, with +"No: it is no use; it is no use: no, no, I say!" But instantly he would +plunge his forehead into the palm of his hand, and rub it red, and work +his eyebrows frightfully, until tender humanity led the sisters to +resume. Adela's, "I'm sure it began low down--tum!" Cornelia's: "The +key-note, I am positive, was B flat--ta!" and Arabella's putting of these +two assertions together, and promise to combine them at the piano when +breakfast was at an end, though it was Sunday morning, were exasperating +to the exquisite lover of music. Mr. Pericles was really suffering +torments. Do you know what it is to pursue the sylph, and touch her +flying skirts, think you have caught her, and are sure of her--that she +is yours, the rapturous evanescent darling! when some well-meaning +earthly wretch interposes and trips you, and off she flies and leaves you +floundering? A lovely melody nearly grasped and lost in this fashion, +tries the temper. Apollo chasing Daphne could have been barely polite to +the wood-nymphs in his path, and Mr. Pericles was rude to the daughters +of his host. Smoothing his clean square chin and thick moustache +hastily, with outspread thumb and fingers, he implored them to spare his +nerves. Smiling rigidly, he trusted they would be merciful to a +sensitive ear. Mr. Pole--who, as an Englishman, could not understand +anyone being so serious in the pursuit of a tune--laughed, and asked +questions, and almost drove Mr. Pericles mad. On a sudden the Greek's +sallow visage lightened. "It is to you! it is to you!" he cried, +stretching his finger at Wilfrid. The young officer, having apparently +waited till he had finished with his knife and fork, was leaning his +cheek on his fist, looking at nobody, and quietly humming a part of the +air. Mr. Pericles complimented and thanked him. + +"But you have ear for music extraordinaire!" he said. + +Adela patted her brother fondly, remarking--"Yes, when his feelings are +concerned." + +"Will you repeat zat?" asked the Greek. "'To-to-ri:' hein? I lose it. +'To-to-ru:' bah! I lose it; 'To-ri:--to--ru--ri ro:' it is no use: I lose +it." + +Neither his persuasions, nor his sneer, "Because it is Sunday, perhaps!" +would induce Wilfrid to be guilty of another attempt. The ladies tried +sisterly cajoleries on him fruitlessly, until Mr. Pole, seeing the +desperation of his guest, said: "Why not have her up here, toon and all, +some week-day? Sunday birds won't suit us, you know. We've got a piano +for her that's good enough for the first of 'em, if money means +anything." + +The ladies murmured meekly: "Yes, papa." + +"I shall find her for you while you go to your charch," said Mr. +Pericles. And here Wilfrid was seized with a yawn, and rose, and asked +his eldest sister if she meant to attend the service that morning. + +"Undoubtedly," she answered; and Mr. Pole took it up: "That's our +discipline, my boy. Must set an example: do our duty. All the house +goes to worship in the country." + +"Why, in ze country?" queried Mr. Pericles. + +"Because"--Cornelia came to the rescue of her sire; but her impetuosity +was either unsupported by a reason, or she stooped to fit one to the +comprehension of the interrogator: "Oh, because--do you know, we have +very select music at our church?" + +"We have a highly-paid organist," added Arabella. + +"Recently elected," said Adela. + +"Ah! mon Dieu!" Mr. Pericles ejaculated. "Some music sound well at afar- +-mellow, you say. I prefer your charch music mellow." + +"Won't you come?" cried Wilfrid, with wonderful briskness. + +"No. Mellow for me!" + +The Greek's grinders flashed, and Wilfrid turned off from him sulkily. +He saw in fancy the robber-Greek prowling about Wilson's farm, setting +snares for the marvellous night-bird, and it was with more than his +customary inattention to his sisters' refined conversation that he formed +part of their male escort to the place of worship. + +Mr. Pericles met the church-goers on their return in one of the green +bowery lanes leading up to Brookfield. Cold as he was to English scenes +and sentiments, his alien ideas were not unimpressed by the picture of +those daintily-clad young women demurely stepping homeward, while the air +held a revel of skylarks, and the scented hedgeways quickened with +sunshine. + +"You have missed a treat!" Arabella greeted him. + +"A sermon?" said he. + +The ladies would not tell him, until his complacent cynicism at the +notion of his having missed a sermon, spurred them to reveal that the +organ had been handled in a masterly manner; and that the voluntary +played at the close of the service was most exquisite. + +"Even papa was in raptures." + +"Very good indeed," said Mr. Pole. "I'm no judge; but you might listen +to that sort of playing after dinner." + +Mr. Pericles seemed to think that was scarcely a critical period, but he +merely grimaced, and inquired: "Did you see ze player?" + +"Oh, no: they are hidden," Arabella explained to him, "behind a curtain." + +"But, what!" shouted the impetuous Greek: "have you no curiosity? +A woman! And zen, you saw not her?" + +"No," remarked Cornelia, in the same aggravating sing-song voice of utter +indifference: "we don't know whether it was not a man. Our usual +organist is a man, I believe." + +The eyes of the Greek whitened savagely, and he relapsed into frigid +politeness. + +Wilfrid was not present to point their apprehensions. He had loitered +behind; but when he joined them in the house subsequently, he was +cheerful, and had a look of triumph about him which made his sisters say, +"So, you have been with the Copleys:" and he allowed them to suppose it, +if they pleased; the Copleys being young ladies of position in the +neighbourhood, of much higher standing than the Tinleys, who, though very +wealthy, could not have given their brother such an air, the sisters +imagined. + +At lunch, Wilfrid remarked carelessly: "By the way, I met that little +girl we saw last night." + +"The singer! where?" asked his sisters, with one voice. + +"Coming out of church." + +"She goes to church, then!" + +This exclamation showed the heathen they took her to be. + +"Why, she played the organ," said Wilfrid. + +"And how does she look by day? How does she dress?" + +"Oh! very jolly little woman! Dresses quiet enough." + +"She played the organ! It was she, then! An organist! Is there +anything approaching to gentility in her appearance?" + +"I--really I'm no judge," said Wilfrid. "You had better ask Laura +Tinley. She was talking to her when I went up." + +The sisters exchanged looks. Presently they stood together in +consultation. Then they spoke with their aunt, Mrs. Lupin, and went to +their papa. The rapacity of those Tinleys for anything extraordinary was +known to them, but they would not have conceived that their own +discovery, their own treasure, could have been caught up so quickly. If +the Tinleys got possession of her, the defection of Mr. Pericles might be +counted on, and the display of a phenomenon would be lost to them. They +decided to go down to Wilson's farm that very day, and forestall their +rivals by having her up to Brookfield. The idea of doing this had been +in a corner of their minds all the morning: it seemed now the most +sensible plan in the world. It was patronage, in its right sense. And +they might be of great service to her, by giving a proper elevation and +tone to her genius; while she might amuse them, and their guests, and be +let off, in fact, as a firework for the nonce. Among the queenly cases +of women who are designing to become the heads of a circle (if I may use +the term), an accurate admeasurement of reciprocal advantages can +scarcely be expected to rank; but the knowledge that an act, depending +upon us for execution, is capable of benefiting both sides, will make the +proceeding appear so unselfish, that its wisdom is overlooked as well as +its motives. The sisters felt they were the patronesses of the little +obscure genius whom they longed for to illumine their household, before +they knew her name. Cornet Wilfrid Pole must have chuckled mightily to +see them depart on their mission. These ladies, who managed everybody, +had themselves been very cleverly managed. It is doubtful whether the +scheme to surprise and delight Mr. Pericles would have actuated the step +they took, but for the dread of seeing the rapacious Tinleys snatch up +their lawful prey. The Tinleys were known to be quite capable of doing +so. They had, on a particular occasion, made transparent overtures to a +celebrity belonging to the Poles, whom they had first met at Brookfield: +could never have hoped to have seen had they not met him at Brookfield; +and girls who behaved in this way would do anything. The resolution was +taken to steal a march on them; nor did it seem at all odd to people +naturally so hospitable as the denizens of Brookfield, that the stranger +of yesterday should be the guest of to-day. Kindness of heart, combined +with a great scheme in the brain, easily put aside conventional rules. + +"But we don't know her name," they said, when they had taken the advice +of the gentlemen on what they had already decided to do: all excepting +Mr. Pericles, for whom the surprise was in store. + +"Belloni--Miss Belloni," said Wilfrid. + +"Are you sure? How do you know--?" + +"She told Laura Tinley." + +Within five minutes of the receipt of this intelligence the ladies were +on their way to Wilson's farm. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +The circle which the ladies of Brookfield were designing to establish +just now, was of this receipt:--Celebrities, London residents, and County +notables, all in their severally due proportions, were to meet, mix, and +revolve: the Celebrities to shine; the Metropolitans to act as +satellites; the County ignoramuses to feel flattered in knowing that all +stood forth for their amusement: they being the butts of the quick-witted +Metropolitans, whom they despised, while the sons of renown were +encouraged to be conscious of their magnanimous superiority over both +sets, for whose entertainment they were ticketed. + +This is a pudding indeed! And the contemplation of the skill and energy +required to get together and compound such a Brookfield Pudding, well- +nigh leads one to think the work that is done out of doors a very +inferior business, and, as it were, mere gathering of fuel for the fire +inside. It was known in the neighbourhood that the ladies were preparing +one; and moreover that they had a new kind of plum; in other words, that +they intended to exhibit a prodigy of genius, who would flow upon the +world from Brookfield. To announce her with the invitations, rejecting +the idea of a surprise in the assembly, had been necessary, because there +was no other way of securing Lady Gosstre, who led the society of the +district. The great lady gave her promise to attend: "though," as she +said to Arabella, "you must know I abominate musical parties, and think +them the most absurd of entertainments possible; but if you have anything +to show, that's another matter." + +Two or three chosen friends were invited down beforehand to inspect the +strange girl, and say what they thought of her; for the ladies themselves +were perplexed. They had found her to be commonplace: a creature without +ideas and with a decided appetite. So when Tracy Runningbrook, who had +also been a plum in his day, and was still a poet, said that she was +exquisitely comic, they were induced to take the humorous view of the +inexplicable side in the character of Miss Belloni, and tried to laugh at +her eccentricities. Seeing that Mr. Pericles approved of her voice as a +singer, and Tracy Runningbrook let pass her behaviour as a girl, they +conceived that on the whole they were safe in sounding a trumpet loudly. +These gentlemen were connoisseurs, each in his walk. + +Concerning her position and parentage, nothing was known. She had met +Adela's delicately-searching touches in that direction with a marked +reserve. It was impossible to ask her point-blank, after probing her +with a dozen suggestions, for the ingenuousness of an indifferent inquiry +could not then be assumed, so that Adela was constantly baked and felt +that she must some day be excessively 'fond with her,' which was +annoying. The girl lit up at any sign of affection. A kind look gave +Summer depths to her dark eyes. Otherwise she maintained a simple +discretion and walked in her own path, content to look quietly pleased on +everybody, as one who had plenty to think of and a voice in her ear. + +Apparently she was not to be taught to understand 'limits': which must be +explained as a sort of magnetic submissiveness to the variations of Polar +caprice; so that she should move about with ease, be cheerful, friendly, +and, at a signal, affectionate;, still not failing to recognize the +particular nooks where the family chalk had traced a line. As the day of +exhibition approached, Adela thought she would give her a lesson in +limits. She ventured to bestow a small caress on the girl, after a +compliment; thinking that the compliment would be a check: but the +compliment was passed, and the caress instantly replied to with two arms +and a tender mouth. At which, Adela took fright and was glad to slip +away. + +At last the pudding flowed into the bag. + +Emilia was posted by the ladies in a corner of the room. Receiving her +assurance that she was not hungry, they felt satisfied that she wanted +nothing. Wilfrid came up to her to console her for her loneliness, until +Mr. Pericles had stationed himself at the back of her chair, and then +Wilfrid nodded languidly and attended to his graver duties. Who would +have imagined that she had hurt him? But she certainly looked with +greater animation on Mr. Pericles; and when Tracy Runningbrook sat down +by her, a perfect little carol of chatter sprang up between them. These +two presented such a noticeable contrast, side by side, that the ladies +had to send a message to separate them. She was perhaps a little the +taller of the two; with smoothed hair that had the gloss of black briony +leaves, and eyes like burning brands in a cave; while Tracy's hair was +red as blown flame, with eyes of a grey-green hue, that may be seen +glistening over wet sunset. People, who knew him, asked: "Who is she?" +and it was not in the design of the ladies to have her noted just yet. + +Lady Gosstre's exclamation on entering the room was presently heard. +"Well! and where's our extraordinary genius? Pray, let me see her +immediately." + +Thereat Laura Tinley, with gross ill-breeding, rushed up to Arabella, who +was receiving her ladyship, and touching her arm, as if privileges were +permitted her, cried: "I'm dying to see her. Has she come?" + +Arabella embraced the offensive girl in a hostess's smile, and talked +flowingly to the great lady. + +Laura Tinley was punished by being requested to lead off with a favourite +song in a buzz. She acceded, quite aware of the honour intended, and sat +at the piano, taming as much as possible her pantomime of one that would +be audible. Lady Gosstre scanned the room, while Adela, following her +ladyship's eyeglass, named the guests. + +"You get together a quaint set of men," said Lady Gosstre. + +"Women!" was on Adela's tongue's tip. She had really thought well of her +men. Her heart sank. + +"In the country!" she began. + +"Yes, yes!" went my lady. + +These were the lessons that made the ladies of Brookfield put a check +upon youth's tendency to feel delightful satisfaction with its immediate +work, and speedily conceive a discontented suspicion of anything +whatsoever that served them. + +Two other sacrifices were offered at the piano after Laura Tinley. Poor +victims of ambition, they arranged their dresses, smiled at the leaves, +and deliberately gave utterance to the dreadful nonsense of the laureates +of our drawing-rooms. Mr. Pericles and Emilia exchanged scientific +glances during the performance. She was merciless to indifferent music. +Wilfrid saw the glances pass. So, now, when Emilia was beckoned to the +piano, she passed by Wilfrid, and had a cold look in return for beaming +eyes. + +According to directions, Emilia sang a simple Neapolitan air. The singer +was unknown, and was generally taken for another sacrifice. + +"Come; that's rather pretty," Lady Gosstre hailed the close. + +"It is of ze people--such as zat," assented Mr. Pericles. + +Adela heard my lady ask for the singer's name. She made her way to her +sisters. Adela was ordinarily the promoter, Cornelia the sifter, and +Arabella the director, of schemes in this management. The ladies had a +moment for counsel over a music-book, for Arabella was about to do duty +at the piano. During a pause, Mr. Pole lifting his white waistcoat with +the effort, sent a word abroad, loudly and heartily, regardless of its +guardian aspirate, like a bold-faced hoyden flying from her chaperon. +They had dreaded it. They loved their father, but declined to think his +grammar parental. Hushing together, they agreed that it had been a false +move to invite Lady Gosstre, who did not care a bit for music, until the +success of their Genius was assured by persons who did. To suppose that +she would recognize a Genius, failing a special introduction, was absurd. +The ladies could turn upon aristocracy too, when it suited them. + +Arabella had now to go through a quartett. The fever of ill-luck had +seized the violin. He would not tune. Then his string broke; and while +he was arranging it the footman came up to Arabella. Misfortunes, we +know, are the most united family on earth. The news brought to her was +that a lady of the name of Mrs. Chump was below. Holding her features +rigidly bound, not to betray perturbation, Arabella confided the fact to +Cornelia, who, with a similar mental and muscular compression, said +instantly, "Manoeuvre her." Adela remarked, "If you tell her the company +is grand, she will come, and her Irish once heard here will destroy us. +The very name of Chump!" + +Mrs. Chump was the wealthy Irish widow of an alderman, whose +unaccountable bad taste in going to Ireland for a wife, yet filled the +ladies with astonishment. She pretended to be in difficulties with her +lawyers; for which reason she strove to be perpetually in consultation +with her old flame and present trustee Mr. Pole. The ladies had fought +against her in London, and since their installation at Brookfield they +had announced to their father that she was not to be endured there. Mr. +Pole had plaintively attempted to dilate on the virtues of Martha Chump. +"In her place," said the ladies, and illustrated to him that amid a +nosegay of flowers there was no fit room for an exuberant vegetable. The +old man had sighed and seemed to surrender. One thing was certain: Mrs. +Chump had never been seen at Brookfield. "She never shall be, save by +the servants," said the ladies. + +Emilia, not unmarked of Mr. Pericles, had gone over to Wilfrid once or +twice, to ask him if haply he disapproved of anything she had done. Mr. +Pericles shrugged, and went "Ah!" as who should say, "This must be +stopped." Adela now came to her and caught her hand, showering sweet +whispers on her, and bidding her go to her harp and do her best. "We +love you; we all love you!" was her parting instigation. + +The quartett was abandoned. Arabella had departed with a firm +countenance to combat Mrs. Chump. + +Emilia sat by her harp. The saloon was critically still; so still that +Adela fancied she heard a faint Irish protest from the parlour. Wilfrid +was perhaps the most critical auditor present: for he doubted whether she +could renew that singular charm of her singing in the pale lighted woods. +The first smooth contralto notes took him captive. He scarcely believed +that this could be the raw girl whom his sisters delicately pitied. + +A murmur of plaudits, the low thunder of gathering acclamation, went +round. Lady Gosstre looked a satisfied, "This will do." Wilfrid saw +Emilia's eyes appeal hopefully to Mr. Pericles. The connoisseur +shrugged. A pain lodged visibly on her black eyebrows. She gripped her +harp, and her eyelids appeared to quiver as she took the notes. Again, +and still singing, she turned her head to him. The eyes of Mr. Pericles +were white, as if upraised to intercede for her with the Powers of +Harmony. Her voice grew unnerved. On a sudden she excited herself to +pitch and give volume to that note which had been the enchantment of the +night in the woods. It quavered. One might have thought her caught by +the throat. + +Emilia gazed at no one now. She rose, without a word or an apology, +keeping her eyes down. + +"Fiasco!" cruelly cried Mr. Pericles. + +That was better to her than the silly kindness of the people who deemed +it well to encourage her with applause. Emilia could not bear the +clapping of hands, and fled. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +The night was warm under a slowly-floating moon. Full of compassion for +the poor girl, who had moved him if she had failed in winning the +assembly, Wilfrid stepped into the garden, where he expected to find her, +and to be the first to pet and console her. Threading the scented +shrubs, he came upon a turn in one of the alleys, from which point he had +a view of her figure, as she stood near a Portugal laurel on the lawn. +Mr. Pericles was by her side. Wilfrid's intention was to join them. A +loud sob from Emilia checked his foot. + +"You are cruel," he heard her say. + +"If it is good, I tell it you; if it is bad; abominable, I tell it you, +juste ze same," responded Mr. Pericles. + +"The others did not think it very bad." + +"Ah! bah!" Mr. Pericles cut her short. + +Had they been talking of matters secret and too sweet, Wilfrid would have +retired, like a man of honour. As it was, he continued to listen. The +tears of his poor little friend, moreover, seemed to hold him there in +the hope that he might afford some help. + +"Yes; I do not care for the others," she resumed. "You praised me the +night I first saw you." + +"It is perhaps zat you can sing to z' moon," returned Mr. Pericles. +"But, what! a singer, she must sing in a house. To-night it is warm, +to-morrow it is cold. If you sing through a cold, what noise do we hear? +It is a nose, not a voice. It is a trompet." + +Emilia, with a whimpering firmness, replied: "You said I am lazy. I am +not." + +"Not lazy," Mr. Pericles assented. + +"Do I care for praise from people who do not understand music? It is not +true. I only like to please them." + +"Be a street-organ," Mr. Pericles retorted. + +"I must like to see them pleased when I sing," said Emilia desperately. + +"And you like ze clap of ze hands. Yez. It is quite natural. Yess. +You are a good child, it is clear. But, look. You are a voice +uncultivated, sauvage. You go wrong: I hear you: and dese claps of zese +noodels send you into squeaks and shrills, and false! false away you go. +It is a gallop ze wrong way." + +Here Mr. Pericles attempted the most horrible reproduction of Emilia's +failure. She cried out as if she had been bitten. + +"What am I to do?" she asked sadly. + +"Not now," Mr. Pericles answered. "You live in London?--at where?" + +"Must I tell you?" + +"Certainly, you must tell me." + +"But, I am not going there; I mean, not yet." + +"You are going to sing to z' moon through z' nose. Yez. For how long?" + +"These ladies have asked me to stay with them. They make me so happy. +When I leave them--then!" + +Emilia sighed. + +"And zen?" quoth Mr. Pericles. + +"Then, while my money lasts, I shall stay in the country." + +"How much money?" + +"How much money have I?" Emilia frankly and accurately summed up the +condition of her treasury. "Four pounds and nineteen shillings." + +"Hom! it is spent, and you go to your father again?" + +"Yes." + +"To ze old Belloni?" + +"My father." + +"No!" cried Mr. Pericles, upon Emilia's melancholy utterance. He bent to +her ear and rapidly spoke, in an undertone, what seemed to be a vivid +sketch of a new course of fortune for her. Emilia gave one joyful +outcry; and now Wilfrid retreated, questioning within himself whether he +should have remained so long. But, as he argued, if he was convinced +that the rascally Greek fellow meant mischief to her, was he not bound to +employ every stratagem to be her safeguard? The influence of Mr. +Pericles already exercised over her was immense and mysterious. Within +ten minutes she was singing triumphantly indoors. Wilfrid could hear +that her voice was firm and assured. She was singing the song of the +woods. He found to his surprise that his heart dropped under some +burden, as if he had no longer force to sustain it. + +By-and-by some of the members of the company issued forth. Carriages +were heard on the gravel, and young men in couples, preparing to light +the ensign of happy release from the ladies (or of indemnification for +their absence, if you please), strolled about the grounds. + +"Did you see that little passage between Laura Tinley and Bella Pole?" +said one, and forthwith mimicked them: "Laura commencing:-'We must have +her over to us.' 'I fear we have pre-engaged her.'--'Oh, but you, dear, +will do us the favour to come, too?' 'I fear, dear, our immediate +engagements will preclude the possibility.'--'Surely, dear Miss Pole, we +may hope that you have not abandoned us?'--'That, my dear Miss Tinley, is +out of the question.'--'May we not name a day?'--'If it depends upon us, +frankly, we cannot bid you do so.'" + +The other joined him in laughter, adding: "'Frankly' 's capital! What +absurd creatures women are! How the deuce did you manage to remember it +all?" + +"My sister was at my elbow. She repeated it, word for word." + +"Pon my honour, women are wonderful creatures!" + +The two young men continued their remarks, with a sense of perfect +consistency. + +Lady Gosstre, as she was being conducted to her carriage, had pronounced +aloud that Emilia was decidedly worth hearing. + +"She's better worth knowing," said Tracy Runningbrook. "I see you are +all bent on spoiling her. If you were to sit and talk with her, you +would perceive that she's meant for more than to make a machine of her +throat. What a throat it is! She has the most comical notion of things. +I fancy I'm looking at the budding of my own brain. She's a born artist, +but I'm afraid everybody's conspiring to ruin her." + +"Surely," said Adela, "we shall not do that, if we encourage her in her +Art." + +"He means another kind of art," said Lady Gosstre. "The term 'artist,' +applied to our sex, signifies 'Frenchwoman' with him. He does not allow +us to be anything but women. As artists then we are largely privileged, +I assure you." + +"Are we placed under a professor to learn the art?" Adela inquired, +pleased with the subject under such high patronage. + +"Each new experience is your accomplished professor," said Tracy. "One +I'll call Cleopatra a professor: she's but an illustrious example." + +"Imp! you are corrupt." With which my lady tapped farewell on his +shoulder. Leaning from the carriage window, she said: "I suppose I shall +see you at Richford? Merthyr Powys is coming this week. And that +reminds me: he would be the man to appreciate your 'born artist.' Bring +her to me. We will have a dinner. I will despatch a formal invitation +to-morrow. The season's bad out of town for getting decent people to +meet you. I will do my best." + +She bowed to Adela and Tracy. Mr. Pole, who had hovered around the +unfamiliar dialogue to attend the great lady to the door, here came in +for a recognition, and bowed obsequiously to the back of the carriage. + +Arabella did not tell her sisters what weapons she had employed to effect +the rout of Mrs. Chump. She gravely remarked that the woman had +consented to go, and her sisters thanked her. They were mystified by +Laura's non-recognition of Emilia, and only suspected Wilfrid so faintly +that they were able to think they did not suspect him at all. On the +whole, the evening had been a success. It justified the ladies in +repeating a well-known Brookfield phrase: "We may be wrong in many +things, but never in our judgement of the merits of any given person." +In the case of Tracy Runningbrook, they had furnished a signal instance +of their discernment. Him they had met at the house of a friend of the +Tinleys (a Colonel's wife distantly connected with great houses). The +Tinleys laughed at his flaming head and him, but the ladies of Brookfield +had ears and eyes for a certain tone and style about him, before they +learnt that he was of the blood of dukes, and would be a famous poet. +When this was mentioned, after his departure, they had made him theirs, +and the Tinleys had no chance. Through Tracy, they achieved their +introduction to Lady Gosstre. And now they were to dine with her. They +did not say that this was through Emilia. In fact, they felt a little +that they had this evening been a sort of background to their prodigy: +which was not in the design. Having observed, "She sang deliciously," +they dismissed her, and referred to dresses, gaucheries of members of the +company, pretensions here and there, Lady Gosstre's walk, the way to +shuffle men and women, how to start themes for them to converse upon, and +so forth. Not Juno and her Court surveying our mortal requirements in +divine independence of fatigue, could have been more considerate for the +shortcomings of humanity. And while they were legislating this and that +for others, they still accepted hints for their own improvement, as those +who have Perfection in view may do. Lady Gosstre's carriage of her +shoulders, and general manner, were admitted to be worthy of study. "And +did you notice when Laura Tinley interrupted her conversation with Tracy +Runningbrook, how quietly she replied to the fact and nothing else, so +that Laura had not another word?"--"And did you observe her deference to +papa, as host?"--"And did you not see, on more than one occasion, with +what consummate ease she would turn a current of dialogue when it had +gone far enough?" They had all noticed, seen, and observed. They agreed +that there was a quality beyond art, beyond genius, beyond any special +cleverness; and that was, the great social quality of taking, as by +nature, without assumption, a queenly position in a circle, and making +harmony of all the instruments to be found in it. High praise of Lady +Gosstre ensued. The ladies of Brookfield allowed themselves to bow to +her with the greater humility, owing to the secret sense they nursed of +overtopping her still in that ineffable Something which they alone +possessed: a casket little people will be wise in not hurrying our Father +Time to open for them, if they would continue to enjoy the jewel they +suppose it to contain. Finally, these energetic young ladies said their +prayers by the morning twitter of the birds, and went to their beds, less +from a desire for rest than because custom demanded it. + +Three days later Emilia was a resident in the house, receiving lessons in +demeanour from Cornelia, and in horsemanship from Wilfrid. She expressed +no gratitude for kindnesses or wonder at the change in her fortune, save +that pleasure sat like an inextinguishable light on her face. A splendid +new harp arrived one day, ticketed, "For Miss Emilia Belloni." + +"He does not know I have a second Christian name," was her first remark, +after an examination of the instrument. + +"'He?'" quoth Adela. "May it not have been a lady's gift?" + +Emilia clearly thought not. + +"And to whom do you ascribe it?" + +"Who sent it to me? Mr. Pericles, of course." + +She touched the strings immediately, and sighed. + +"Are you discontented with the tone, child?" asked Adela. + +"No. I--I'll guess what it cost!" + +Surely the ladies had reason to think her commonplace! + +She explained herself better to Wilfrid, when he returned to Brookfield +after a short absence. Showing the harp, "See what Mr. Pericles thinks +me worth!" she said. + +"Not more than that?" was his gallant rejoinder. "Does it suit you?" + +"Yes; in every way." + +This was all she said about it. + +In the morning after breakfast, she sat at harp or piano, and then ran +out to gather wild flowers and learn the names of trees and birds. On +almost all occasions Wilfrid was her companion. He laughed at the little +sisterly revelations the ladies confided concerning her too heartily for +them to have any fear that she was other than a toy to him. Few women +are aware with how much ease sentimental men can laugh outwardly at what +is internal torment. They had apprised him of their wish to know what +her origin was, and of her peculiar reserve on that topic: whereat he +assured them that she would have no secrets from him. His conduct of +affairs was so open that none could have supposed the gallant cornet +entangled in a maze of sentiment. For, veritably, this girl was the last +sort of girl to please his fancy; and he saw not a little of fair ladies: +by virtue of his heroic antecedents, he was himself well seen of them. +The gallant cornet adored delicacy and a gilded refinement. The female +flower could not be too exquisitely cultivated to satisfy him. And here +he was, running after a little unformed girl, who had no care to conceal +the fact that she was an animal, nor any notion of the necessity for +doing so! He had good reason to laugh when his sisters talked of her. +It was not a pleasant note which came from the gallant cornet then. But, +in the meadows, or kindly conducting Emilia's horse, he yielded pretty +music. Emilia wore Arabella's riding-habit, Adela's hat, and Cornelia's +gloves. Politic as the ladies of Brookfield were, they were full of +natural kindness; and Wilfrid, albeit a diplomatist, was not yet mature +enough to control and guide a very sentimental heart. There was an +element of dim imagination in all the family: and it was this that +consciously elevated them over the world in prospect, and made them +unconsciously subject to what I must call the spell of the poetic power. + +Wilfrid in his soul wished that Emilia should date from the day she had +entered Brookfield. But at times it seemed to him that a knowledge of +her antecedents might relieve him from his ridiculous perplexity of +feeling. Besides though her voice struck emotion, she herself was +unimpressionable. "Cold by nature," he said; looking at the unkindled +fire. She shook hands like a boy. If her fingers were touched and +retained, they continued to be fingers for as long as you pleased. +Murmurs and whispers passed by her like the breeze. She appeared also to +have no enthusiasm for her Art, so that not even there could Wilfrid find +common ground. Italy, however, he discovered to be the subject that made +her light up. Of Italy he would speak frequently, and with much +simulated fervour. + +"Mr. Pericles is going to take me there," said Emilia. "He told me to +keep it secret. I have no secrets from my friends. I am to learn in the +academy at Milan." + +"Would you not rather let me take you?" + +"Not quite." She shook her head. "No; because you do not understand +music as he does. And are you as rich? I cost a great deal of money +even for eating alone. But you will be glad when you hear me when I come +back. Do you hear that nightingale? It must be a nightingale." + +She listened. "What things he makes us feel!" + +Bending her head, she walked on silently. Wilfrid, he knew not why, had +got a sudden hunger for all the days of her life. He caught her hand +and, drawing her to a garden seat, said: "Come; now tell me all about +yourself before I knew you. Do you mind?" + +"I'll tell you anything you want to hear," said Emilia. + +He enjoined her to begin from the beginning. + +"Everything about myself?" she asked. + +"Everything. I have your permission to smoke?" + +Emilia smiled. "I wish I had some Italian cigars to give you. My father +sometimes has plenty given to him." + +Wilfrid did not contemplate his havannah with less favour. + +"Now," said Emilia, taking a last sniff of the flowers before +surrendering her nostril to the invading smoke. She looked at the scene +fronting her under a blue sky with slow flocks of clouds: "How I like +this!" she exclaimed. "I almost forget that I long for Italy, here." + +Beyond a plot of flowers, a gold-green meadow dipped to a ridge of gorse +bordered by dark firs and the tips of greenest larches. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +"My father is one of the most wonderful men in the whole world!" + +Wilfrid lifted an eyelid. + +"He is one of the first-violins at the Italian Opera!" + +The gallant cornet's critical appreciation of this impressive +announcement was expressed in a spiral ebullition of smoke from his +mouth. + +"He is such a proud man! And I don't wonder at that: he has reason to be +proud." + +Again Wilfrid lifted an eyelid, and there is no knowing but that ideas of +a connection with foreign Counts, Cardinals, and Princes passed hopefully +through him. + +"Would you believe that he is really the own nephew of Andronizetti!" + +"Deuce he is!" said Wilfrid, in a mist. "Which one?" + +"The composer!" + +Wilfrid emitted more smoke. + +"Who composed--how I love him!--that lovely "la, la, la, la," and the +"te-de, ta-da, te-dio," that pleases you, out of "Il Maladetto." And I +am descended from him! Let me hope I shall not be unworthy of him. You +will never tell it till people think as much of me, or nearly. My father +says I shall never be so great, because I am half English. It's not my +fault. My mother was English. But I feel that I am much more Italian +than English. How I long for Italy--like a thing underground! My father +did something against the Austrians, when he was a young man. Would not +I have done it? I am sure I would--I don't know what. Whenever I think +of Italy, night or day, pant-pant goes my heart. The name of Italy is my +nightingale: I feel that somebody lives that I love, and is ill-treated +shamefully, crying out to me for help. My father had to run away to save +his life. He was fifteen days lying in the rice-fields to escape from +the soldiers--which makes me hate a white coat. There was my father; and +at night he used to steal out to one of the villages, where was a good, +true woman--so they are, most, in Italy! She gave him food; maize-bread +and wine, sometimes meat; sometimes a bottle of good wine. When my +father thinks of it he cries, if there is gin smelling near him. At last +my father had to stop there day and night. Then that good woman's +daughter came to him to keep him from starving; she risked being stripped +naked and beaten with rods, to keep my father from starving. When my +father speaks of Sandra now, it makes my mother--she does not like it. I +am named after her: Emilia Alessandra Belloni. 'Sandra' is short for it. +She did not know why I was christened that, and will never call me +anything but Emilia, though my father says Sandra, always. My father +never speaks of that dear Sandra herself, except when he is tipsy. Once +I used to wish him to be tipsy; for then I used to sit at my piano while +he talked, and I made all his words go into music. One night I did it so +well, my father jumped right up from his chair, shouting "Italia!" and he +caught his wig off his head, and threw it into the fire, and rushed out +into the street quite bald, and people thought him mad. + +"It was the beginning of all our misfortunes! My father was taken and +locked up in a place as a tipsy man. That he has never forgiven the +English for! It has made me and my mother miserable ever since. My +mother is sure it is all since that night. Do you know, I remember, +though I was so young, that I felt the music--oh! like a devil in my +bosom? Perhaps it was, and it passed out of me into him. Do you think +it was?" + +Wilfrid answered: "Well, no! I shouldn't think you had anything to do +with the devil." Indeed, he was beginning to think her one of the +smallest of frocked female essences. + +"I lost my piano through it," she went on. "I could not practise. I was +the most miserable creature in all the world till I fell in love with my +harp. My father would not play to get money. He sat in his chair, and +only spoke to ask about meal-time, and we had no money for food, except +by selling everything we had. Then my piano went. So then I said to my +mother, I will advertize to give lessons, as other people do, and make +money for us all, myself. So we paid money for a brass-plate, and our +landlady's kind son put it up on the door for nothing, and we waited for +pupils to come. I used to pray to the Virgin that she would blessedly +send me pupils, for my poor mother's complaints were so shrill and out of +tune it's impossible to tell you what I suffered. But by-and-by my +father saw the brass-plate. He fell into one of his dreadful passions. +We had to buy him another wig. His passions were so expensive: my mother +used to say, "There goes our poor dinner out of the window!" But, well! +he went to get employment now. He can, always, when he pleases; for such +a touch on the violin as my father has, you never heard. You feel +yourself from top to toe, when my father plays. I feel as if I breathed +music like air. One day came news from Italy, all in the newspaper, of +my father's friends and old companions shot and murdered by the +Austrians. He read it in the evening, after we had a quiet day. I +thought he did not mind it much, for he read it out to us quite quietly; +and then he made me sit on his knee and read it out. I cried with rage, +and he called to me, 'Sandra! Peace!' and began walking up and down the +room, while my mother got the bread and cheese and spread it on the +table, for we were beginning to be richer. I saw my father take out his +violin. He put it on the cloth and looked at it. Then he took it up, +and laid his chin on it like a man full of love, and drew the bow across +just once. He whirled away the bow, and knocked down our candle, and in +the darkness I heard something snap and break with a hollow sound. When +I could see, he had broken it, the neck from the body--the dear old +violin! I could cry still. I--I was too late to save it. I saw it +broken, and the empty belly, and the loose strings! It was murdering a +spirit--that was! My father sat in a corner one whole week, moping like +such an old man! I was nearly dead with my mother's voice. By-and-by we +were all silent, for there was nothing to eat. So I said to my mother, +"I will earn money." My mother cried. I proposed to take a lodging for +myself, all by myself; go there in the morning and return at night, and +give lessons, and get money for them. My landlady's good son gave me the +brass-plate again. Emilia Alessandra Belloni! I was glad to see my +name. I got two pupils very quickly one, an old lady, and one, a young +one. The old lady--I mean, she was not grey--wanted a gentleman to marry +her, and the landlady told me--I mean my pupil--it makes me laugh--asked +him what he thought of her voice: for I had been singing. I earned a +great deal of money: two pounds ten shillings a week. I could afford to +pay for lessons myself, I thought. What an expense! I had to pay ten +shillings for one lesson! Some have to pay twenty; but I would pay it to +learn from the best masters;--and I had to make my father and mother live +on potatoes, and myself too, of course. If you buy potatoes carefully, +they are extremely cheap things to live upon, and make you forget your +hunger more than anything else. + +"I suppose," added Emilia, "you have never lived upon potatoes entirely? +Oh, no!" + +Wilfrid gave a quiet negative. + +"But I was pining to learn, and was obliged to keep them low. I could +pitch any notes, and I was clear but I was always ornamenting, and what I +want is to be an accurate singer. My music-master was a German--not an +Austrian--oh, no!--I'm sure he was not. At least, I don't think so, for +I liked him. He was harsh with me, but sometimes he did stretch his +fingers on my head, and turn it round, and say words that I pretended not +to think of, though they sent me home burning. I began to compose, and +this gentleman tore up the whole sheet in a rage, when I showed it him; +but he gave me a dinner, and left off charging me ten shillings--only +seven, and then five--and he gave me more time than he gave others. He +also did something which I don't know yet whether I can thank him for. +He made me know the music of the great German. I used to listen: I could +not believe such music could come from a German. He followed me about, +telling me I was his slave. For some time I could not sleep. I laughed +at myself for composing. He was not an Austrian: but when he was alive +he lived in Vienna, the capital of Austria. He ate Austrian bread, and +why God gave him such a soul of music I never can think!--Well, by-and-by +my father wanted to know what I did in the day, and why they never had +anything but potatoes for dinner. My mother came to me, and I told her +to say, I took walks. My father said I was an idle girl, and like my +mother--who was a slave to work. People are often unjust! So my father +said he would watch me. I had to cross the park to give a lesson to a +lady who had a husband, and she wanted to sing to him to keep him at home +in the evening. I used to pray he might not have much ear for music. +One day a gentleman came behind me in the park. He showed me a +handkerchief, and asked me if it was mine. I felt for my own and found +it in my pocket. He was certain I had dropped it. He looked in the +corners for the name, I told him my name--Emilia Alessandra Belloni. He +found A.F.G. there. It was a beautiful cambric handkerchief, white and +smooth. I told him it must be a gentleman's, as it was so large; but he +said he had picked it up close by me, and he could not take it, and I +must; and I was obliged to keep it, though I would much rather not. Near +the end of the park he left me." + +At this point Wilfrid roused up. "You met him the next day near the same +place?" he remarked. + +She turned to him with astonishment on her features. "How did you know +that? How could you know?" + +"Sort of thing that generally happens," said Wilfrid. + +"Yes; he was there," Emilia slowly pursued, controlling her inclination +to question further. "He had forgotten about the handkerchief, for when +I saw him, I fancied he might have found the owner. We talked together. +He told me he was in the Army, and I spoke of my father's playing and my +singing. He was so fond of music that I promised him he should hear us +both. He used to examine my hand, and said they were sensitive fingers +for playing. I knew that. He had great hopes of me. He said he would +give me a box at the Opera, now and then. I was mad with joy; and so +delighted to have made a friend. I had never before made a rich friend. +I sang to him in the park. His eyes looked beautiful with pleasure. I +know I enchanted him." + +"How old were you then?" inquired Wilfrid. + +"Sixteen. I can sing better now, I know; but I had voice then, and he +felt that I had. I forgot where we were, till people stood round us, and +he hurried me away from them, and said I must sing to him in some quiet +place. I promised to, and he promised he would have dinner for me at +Richmond Hill, in the country, and he would bring friends to hear me." + +"Go on," said Wilfrid, rather sharply. + +She sighed. "I only saw him once after that. It was such a miserable +day! It rained. It was Saturday. I did not expect to find him in the +rain; but there he stood, exactly where he had given me the handkerchief. +He smiled kindly, as I came up. I dislike gloomy people! His face was +always fresh and nice. His moustache reminded me of Italy. I used to +think of him under a great warm sky, with olives and vine-trees and +mulberries like my father used to speak of. I could have flung my arms +about his neck." + +"Did you?" The cornet gave a strangled note. + +"Oh, no!" said Emilia seriously. "But I told him how happy the thought +of going into the country made me, and that it was almost like going to +Italy. He told me he would take me to Italy, if I liked. I could have +knelt at his feet. Unfortunately his friends could not come. Still, I +was to go, and dine, and float on the water, plucking flowers. I +determined to fancy myself in Venice, which is the place my husband must +take me to, when I am married to him. I will give him my whole body and +soul for his love, when I am there!" + +Here the cornet was capable of articulate music for a moment, but it +resolved itself into: "Well, well! Yes, go on!" + +"I took his arm this time. It gave me my first timid feeling that I +remember, and he laughed at me, and drove it quite away, telling me his +name: Augustus Frederick what was it? Augustus Frederick--it began with +G something. O me! have I really forgotten? Christian names are always +easier to remember. A captain he was--a riding one; just like you. I +think you are all kind!" + +"Extremely," muttered the ironical cornet. "A.F.G.;--those are the +initials on the handkerchief!" + +"They are!" cried Emilia. "It must have been his own handkerchief!" + +"You have achieved the discovery," quoth Wilfrid. "He dropped it there +overnight, and found it just as you were passing in the morning." + +"That must be impossible," said Emilia, and dismissed the subject +forthwith, in a feminine power of resolve to be blind to it. + +"I am afraid," she took up her narrative, "my father is sometimes really +almost mad. He does such things! I had walked under this gentleman's +umbrella to the bridge between the park and the gardens with the sheep, +and beautiful flowers in beds. In an instant my father came up right in +our faces. He caught hold of my left hand. I thought he wanted to shake +it, for he imitates English ways at times, even with us at home, and +shakes our hands when he comes in. But he swung me round. He stood +looking angrily at this gentleman, and cried 'Yes! yes!' to every word he +spoke. The gentleman bowed to me, and asked me to take his umbrella; but +I was afraid to; and my father came to me,--oh, Madonna, think of what he +did! I saw that his pockets were very big. He snatched out potatoes, +and began throwing them as hard as he could throw them at the gentleman, +and struck him with some of them. He threw nine large potatoes! I +begged him to think of our dinner; but he cried "Yes! it is our dinner we +give to your head, vagabond!" in his English. I could not help running +up to the gentleman to beg for his pardon. He told me not to cry, and +put some potatoes he had been picking up all into my hand. They were +muddy, but he wiped them first; and he said it was not the first time he +had stood fire, and then said good-bye; and I slipped the potatoes into +my pocket immediately, thankful that they were not wasted. My father +pulled me away roughly from the laughing and staring people on the +bridge. But I knew the potatoes were only bruised. Even three potatoes +will prevent you from starving. They were very fine ones, for I always +took care to buy them good. When I reached home--" + +Wilfrid had risen, and was yawning with a desperate grimace. He bade her +continue, and pitched back heavily into his seat. + +"When I reached home and could be alone with my mother, she told me my +father had been out watching me the day before, and that he had filled +his pockets that morning. She thought he was going to walk out in the +country and get people on the road to cook them for him. That is what he +has done when he was miserable,--to make himself quite miserable, I +think, for he loves streets best. Guess my surprise! My mother was +making my head ache with her complaints, when, as I drew out the potatoes +to show her we had some food, there was a purse at the bottom of my +pocket,--a beautiful green purse! O that kind gentleman! He must have +put it in my hand with the potatoes that my father flung at him! How I +have cried to think that I may never sing to him my best to please him! +My mother and I opened the purse eagerly. It had ten pounds in paper +money, and five sovereigns, and silver,--I think four shillings. We +determined to keep it a secret; and then we thought of the best way of +spending it, and decided not to spend it all, but to keep some for when +we wanted it dreadfully, and for a lesson or two for me now and then, and +a music-score, and perhaps a good violin for my father, and new strings +for him and me, and meat dinners now and then, and perhaps a day in the +country: for that was always one of my dreams as I watched the clouds +flying over London. They seemed to be always coming from happy places +and going to happy places, never stopping where I was! I cannot be +sorrowful long. You know that song of mine that you like so much--my own +composing? It was a song about that kind gentleman. I got words to suit +it as well as I could, from a penny paper, but they don't mean anything +that I mean, and they are only words." + +She did not appear to hear the gallant cornet's denial that he cared +particularly for that song. + +"What I meant was,--that gentleman speaks--I have fought for Italy; I am +an English hero and have fought for Italy, because of an Italian child; +but now I am wounded and a prisoner. When you shoot me, cruel Austrians, +I shall hear her voice and think of nothing else, so you cannot hurt me." + +Emilia turned spitefully on herself at this close. "How I spoil it! My +words are always stupid, when I feel.--Well, now my mother and I were +quite peaceful, and my father was better fed. One night he brought home +a Jew gentleman, beautifully dressed, with diamonds all over him. He +sparkled like the Christmas cakes in pastry-cooks" windows. I sang to +him, and he made quite a noise about me. But the man made me so +uncomfortable, touching my shoulders, and I could not bear his hands, +even when he was praising me. I sang to him till the landlady made me +leave off, because of the other lodgers who wanted to sleep. He came +every evening; and then said I should sing at a concert. It turned out +to be a public-house, and my father would not let me go; but I was sorry; +for in public the man could not touch me as he did. It damped the +voice!" + +"I should like to know where that fellow lives," cried the cornet. + +"I don't know, I'm sure," she said. "He lends money. Do you want any? +I heard your sisters say something, one day. You can always have all +that I have, you know." + +A quick spirit of pity and honest kindness went through Wilfrid's veins +and threatened to play the woman with his eyes, for a moment. He took +her hand and pressed it. She put her lips to his fingers. + +"Once," she continued, "when the Jew gentleman had left, I spoke to my +father of his way with me, and then my father took me on his knee, and +the things he told me of what that man felt for me made my mother come +and tear me away to bed. I was obliged to submit to the Jew gentleman +patting and touching me always. He used to crush my dreams afterwards! +I know my voice was going. My father was so eager for me to please him, +I did my best; but I felt dull, and used to sit and shake my head at my +harp, crying; or else I felt like an angry animal, and could have torn +the strings. + +"Think how astonished I was when my mother came to me to say my father +had money in his pockets!--one pound, seventeen shillings, she counted: +and he had not been playing! Then he brought home a new violin, and he +said to me, 'I shall go; I shall play; I am Orphee, and dinners shall +rise!' I was glad, and kissed him; and he said, 'This is Sandra's gift +to me,' showing the violin. I only knew what that meant two days +afterwards. Is a girl not seventeen fit to be married?" + +With this abrupt and singular question she had taken an indignant figure, +and her eyes were fiery: so that Wilfrid thought her much fitter than a +minute before. + +"Married!" she exclaimed. "My mother told me about that. You do not +belong to yourself: you are tied down. You are a slave, a drudge; +mustn't dream, mustn't think! I hate it. By-and-by, I suppose it will +happen. Not yet! And yet that man offered to take me to Italy. It was +the Jew gentleman. He said I should make money, if he took me, and grow +as rich as princesses. He brought a friend to hear me, another Jew +gentleman; and he was delighted, and he met me near our door the very +next morning, and offered me a ring with blue stones, and he proposed to +marry me also, and take me to Italy, if I would give up his friend and +choose him instead. This man did not touch me, and, do you know, for +some time I really thought I almost, very nearly, might,--if it had not +been for his face! It was impossible to go to Italy--yes, to go to +heaven! through that face of his! That face of his was just like the +pictures of dancing men with animals' hairy legs and hoofs in an old +thick poetry book belonging to my mother. Just fancy a nose that seemed +to be pecking at great fat red lips! He met me and pressed me to go +continually, till all of a sudden up came the first Jew gentleman, and he +cried out quite loud in the street that he was being robbed by the other; +and they stood and made a noise in the street, and I ran away. But then +I heard that my father had borrowed money from the one who came first, +and that his violin came from that man; and my father told me the violin +would be taken from him, and he would have to go to prison, if I did not +marry that man. I went and cried in my mother's arms. I shall never +forget her kindness; for though she could never see anybody crying +without crying herself, she did not, and was quiet as a mouse, because +she knew how her voice hurt me. There's a large print-shop in one of the +great streets of London, with coloured views of Italy. I used to go +there once, and stand there for I don't know how long, looking at them, +and trying to get those Jew gentlemen--" + +"Call them Jews--they're not gentlemen," interposed Wilfrid. + +"Jews," she obeyed the dictate, "out of my mind. When I saw the views of +Italy they danced and grinned up and down the pictures. Oh, horrible! +There was no singing for me then. My music died. At last that oldish +lady gave up her lessons, and said to me, 'You little rogue! you will do +what I do, some day;' for she was going to be married to that young man +who thought her voice so much improved; and she paid me three pounds, and +gave me one pound more, and some ribbons and gloves. I went at once to +my mother, and made her give me five pounds out of the gentleman's purse. +I took my harp and music-scores. I did not know where I was going, but +only that I could not stop. My mother cried: but she helped to pack my +things. If she disobeys me I act my father, and tower over her, and +frown, and make her mild. She was such a poor good slave to me that day! +but I trusted her no farther than the door. There I kissed her, full of +love, and reached the railway. They asked me where I was going, and +named places to me: I did not know one. I shut my eyes, and prayed to be +directed, and chose Hillford. In the train I was full of music in a +moment. There I met farmer Wilson, of the farm near us--where your +sisters found me; and he was kind, and asked me about myself; and I +mentioned lodgings, and that I longed for woods and meadows. Just as we +were getting out of the train, he said I was to come with him; and I did, +very gladly. Then I met you; and I am here. All because I prayed to be +directed--I do think that!" + +Emilia clasped her hands, and looked pensively at the horizon sky, with a +face of calm gratefulness. + +The cornet was on his legs. "So!" he said. "And you never saw anything +more of that fellow you kissed in the park?" + +"Kissed?--that gentleman?" returned Emilia. "I have not kissed him. He +did not want it. Men kiss us when we are happy, and we kiss them when +they are unhappy." + +Wilfrid was perhaps incompetent to test the truth of this profound +aphoristic remark, delivered with the simplicity of natural conviction. +The narrative had, to his thinking, quite released from him his temporary +subjection to this little lady's sway. All that he felt for her +personally now was pity. It speaks something for the strength of the +sentiment with which he had first conceived her, that it was not pelted +to death, and turned to infinite disgust, by her potatoes. For sentiment +is a dainty, delicate thing, incapable of bearing much: revengeful, too, +when it is outraged. Bruised and disfigured, it stood up still, and +fought against them. They were very fine ones, as Emilia said, and they +hit him hard. However, he pitied her, and that protected him like a +shield. He told his sisters a tale of his own concerning the strange +damsel, humorously enough to make them see that he enjoyed her presence +as that of no common oddity. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +While Emilia was giving Wilfrid her history in the garden, the ladies of +Brookfield were holding consultation over a matter which was well +calculated to perplex and irritate them excessively. Mr. Pole had +received a curious short epistle from Mrs. Chump, informing him of the +atrocious treatment she had met with at the hands of his daughter; and +instead of reviewing the orthography, incoherence, and deliberate +vulgarity of the said piece of writing with the contempt it deserved, he +had taken the unwonted course of telling Arabella that she had done a +thing she must necessarily repent of, or in any case make apology for. +An Eastern Queen, thus addressed by her Minister of the treasury, could +not have felt greater indignation. Arabella had never seen her father +show such perturbation of mind. He spoke violently and imperiously. The +apology was ordered to be despatched by that night's post, after having +been submitted to his inspection. Mr. Pole had uttered mysterious +phrases: "You don't know what you've been doing:--You think the ship'll +go on sailing without wind: You'll drive the horse till he drops," and +such like; together with mutterings. The words were of no import +whatsoever to the ladies. They were writings on the wall; +untranslateable. But, as when the earth quakes our noble edifices +totter, their Palace of the Fine Shades and the Nice Feelings groaned and +creaked, and for a moment they thought: "Where are we?" Very soon they +concluded, that the speech Arabella had heard was due to their darling +papa's defective education. + +In the Council of Three, with reference to the letter of apology to Mrs. +Chump, Adela proposed, if it pleased Arabella, to fight the battle of the +Republic. She was young, and wished both to fight and to lead, as +Arabella knew. She was checked. "It must be left to me," said Arabella. + +"Of course you resist, dear?" Cornelia carelessly questioned. + +"Assuredly I do." + +"Better humiliation! better anything! better marriage! than to submit in +such a case," cried Adela. + +For, so united were the ladies of Brookfield, and so bent on their grand +hazy object, that they looked upon married life unfavourably: and they +had besides an idea that Wedlock, until 'late in life' (the age of +thirty, say), was the burial alive of woman intellectual. + +Toward midday the ladies put on their garden hats and went into the +grounds together, for no particular purpose. Near the West copse they +beheld Mr. Pole with Wilfrid and Emilia talking to a strange gentleman. +Assuming a proper dignity, they advanced, when, to their horror, Emilia +ran up to them crying: "This is Mr. Purcell Barrett, the gentleman who +plays the organ at church. I met him in the woods before I knew you. I +played for him the other Sunday, and I want you to know him." + +She had hold of Arabella's hand and was drawing her on. There was no +opportunity for retreat. Wilfrid looked as if he had already swallowed +the dose. Almost precipitated into the arms of the ladies, Mr. Barrett +bowed. He was a tolerably youthful man, as decently attired as old black +cloth could help him to be. A sharp inspection satisfied the ladies that +his hat and boots were inoffensive: whereupon they gave him the three +shades of distance, tempered so as not to wound his susceptible poverty. + +The superlative Polar degree appeared to invigorate Mr. Barrett. He +devoted his remarks mainly to Cornelia, and cheerfully received her +frozen monosyllables in exchange. The ladies talked of Organs and Art, +Emilia and Opera. He knew this and that great organ, and all the operas; +but he amazed the ladies by talking as if he knew great people likewise. +This brought out Mr. Pole, who, since he had purchased Brookfield, had +been extinguished by them and had not once thoroughly enjoyed his money's +worth. A courtly poor man was a real pleasure to him. + +Giving a semicircular sweep of his arm: "Here you see my little estate, +sir," he said. "You've seen plenty bigger in Germany, and England too. +We can't get more than this handful in our tight little island. Unless +born to it, of course. Well! we must be grateful that all our nobility +don't go to the dogs. We must preserve our great names. I speak against +my own interest." + +He lifted Adela's chin on his forefinger. She kept her eyes demurely +downward, and then gazed at her sisters with gravity. These ladies took +a view of Mr. Barrett. His features wore an admirable expression of +simple interest. "Well, sir; suppose you dine with us to-day?" Mr. Pole +bounced out. "Neighbours should be neighbourly." + +This abrupt invitation was decorously accepted. + +"Plain dinner, you know. Nothing like what you get at the tables of +those Erzhogs, as you call 'em, over in Germany. Simple fare; sound +wine! At all events, it won't hurt you. You'll come?" + +Mr. Barrett bowed, murmuring thanks. This was the very man Mr. Pole +wanted to have at his board occasionally: one who had known great people, +and would be thankful for a dinner. He could depreciate himself as a +mere wealthy British merchant imposingly before such a man. His +daughters had completely cut him off from his cronies; and the sense of +restriction, and compression, and that his own house was fast becoming +alien territory to him, made him pounce upon the gentlemanly organist. +His daughters wondered why he should, in the presence of this stranger, +exaggerate his peculiar style of speech. But the worthy merchant's +consciousness of his identity was vanishing under the iron social rule of +the ladies. His perishing individuality prompted the inexplicable +invitation, and the form of it. + +After Mr. Barrett had departed, the ladies ventured to remonstrate with +their papa. He at once replied by asking whether the letter to Mrs. +Chump had been written; and hearing that it had not, he desired that +Arabella should go into the house and compose it straightway. The ladies +coloured. To Adela's astonishment, she found that Arabella had turned. +Joining her, she said, "Dearest, what a moment you have lost! We could +have stood firm, continually changing the theme from Chump to Barrett, +Barrett to Chump, till papa's head would have twirled. He would have +begun to think Mr. Barrett the Irish widow, and Mrs. Chump the organist." + +Arabella rejoined: "Your wit misleads you, darling. I know what I am +about. I decline a wordy contest. To approach to a quarrel, or, say +dispute, with one's parent apropos of such a person, is something worse +than evil policy, don't you think?" + +So strongly did the sisters admire this delicate way of masking a piece +of rank cowardice, that they forgave her. The craven feeling was common +to them all, which made it still more difficult to forgive her. + +"Of course, we resist?" said Cornelia. + +"Undoubtedly." + +"We retire and retire," Adela remarked. "We waste the royal forces. +But, dear me, that makes us insurgents!" + +She laughed, being slightly frivolous. Her elders had the proper +sentimental worship of youth and its supposed quality of innocence, and +caressed her. + +At the ringing of the second dinner-bell, Mr. Pole ran to the foot of the +stairs and shouted for Arabella, who returned no answer, and was late in +her appearance at table. Grace concluded, Mr. Pole said, "Letter gone? +I wanted to see it, you know." + +"It was as well not, papa," Arabella replied. + +Mr. Pole shook his head seriously. The ladies were thankful for the +presence of Mr. Barrett. And lo! this man was in perfect evening +uniform. He looked as gentlemanly a visitor as one might wish to see. +There was no trace of the poor organist. Poverty seemed rather a gold- +edge to his tail-coat than a rebuke to it; just as, contrariwise, great +wealth is, to the imagination, really set off by a careless costume. One +need not explain how the mind acts in such cases: the fact, as I have put +it, is indisputable. And let the young men of our generation mark the +present chapter, that they may know the virtue residing in a tail-coat, +and cling to it, whether buffeted by the waves, or burnt out by the fire, +of evil angry fortune. His tail-coat safe, the youthful Briton is always +ready for any change in the mind of the moody Goddess. And it is an +almost certain thing that, presuming her to have a damsel of condition in +view for him as a compensation for the slaps he has received, he must +lose her, he cannot enter a mutual path with her, if he shall have failed +to retain this article of a black tail, his social passport. I mean of +course that he retain respect for the article in question. Respect for +it firmly seated in his mind, the tail may be said to be always handy. +It is fortune's uniform in Britain: the candlestick, if I may dare to say +so, to the candle; nor need any young islander despair of getting to +himself her best gifts, while he has her uniform at command, as glossy as +may be. + +The ladies of Brookfield were really stormed by Mr. Barrett's elegant +tail. When, the first glass of wine nodded over, Mr. Pole continued the +discourse of the morning, with allusions to French cooks, and his cook, +their sympathies were taken captive by Mr. Barrett's tact: the door to +their sympathies having been opened to him as it were by his attire. +They could not guess what necessity urged Mr. Pole to assert his locked- +up self so vehemently; but it certainly made the stranger shine with a +beautiful mild lustre. Their spirits partly succumbed to him by a +process too lengthened to explain here. Indeed, I dare do no more than +hint at these mysteries of feminine emotion. I beg you to believe that +when we are dealing with that wonder, the human heart female, the part +played by a tail-coat and a composed demeanour is not insignificant. No +doubt the ladies of Brookfield would have rebutted the idea of a tail- +coat influencing them in any way as monstrous. But why was it, when Mr. +Pole again harped on his cook, in almost similar words, that they were +drawn to meet the eyes of the stranger, on whom they printed one of the +most fabulously faint fleeting looks imaginable, with a proportionately +big meaning for him that might read it? It must have been that this +uniform of a tail had laid a basis of equality for the hour, otherwise +they never would have done so; nor would he have enjoyed the chance of +showing them that he could respond to the remotest mystic indications, +with a muffled adroitness equal to their own, and so encouraged them to +commence a language leading to intimacy with a rapidity that may well +appear magical to the uninitiated. In short, the man really had the +language of the very elect of polite society. If you are not versed in +this alphabet of mute intelligence, you are in the ranks with waiters and +linen-drapers, and are, as far as ladies are concerned, tail-coated to no +purpose. + +Mr. Pole's fresh allusion to his cook: "I hope you don't think I keep a +man! No; no; not in the country. Wouldn't do. Plays the deuce, you +know. My opinion is, Mrs. Mallow's as clever as any man-cook going. I'd +back her:" and Mr. Barrett's speech: "She is an excellent person!" +delivered briefly, with no obtrusion of weariness, confirmed the triumph +of the latter; a triumph all the greater, that he seemed unconscious of +it. They leaped at one bound to the conclusion that there was a romance +attached to him. Do not be startled. An attested tail-coat, clearly out +of its element, must contain a story: that story must be interesting; +until its secret is divulged, the subtle essence of it spreads an aureole +around the tail. The ladies declared, in their subsequent midnight +conference, that Mr. Barrett was fit for any society. They had visions +of a great family reduced; of a proud son choosing to earn his bread +honourably and humbly, by turning an exquisite taste to account. Many +visions of him they had, and were pleased. + +Patronage of those beneath, much more than the courting of those above +them, delighted the ladies of Brookfield. They allowed Emilia to give +Mr. Barrett invitations, and he became a frequent visitor; always neat, +pathetically well-brushed, and a pleasanter pet than Emilia, because he +never shocked their niceties. He was an excellent talker, and was very +soon engaged in regular contests with the argumentative Cornelia. Their +political views were not always the same, as Cornelia sometimes had read +the paper before he arrived. Happily, on questions of religion, they +coincided. Theories of education occupied them mainly. In these +contests Mr. Barrett did not fail to acknowledge his errors, when +convicted, and his acknowledgment was hearty and ample. She had many +clear triumphs. Still, he could be positive; a very great charm in him. +Women cannot repose on a man who is not positive; nor have they much +gratification in confounding him. Wouldst thou, man, amorously +inclining! attract to thee superior women, be positive. Be stupidly +positive, rather than dubious at all. Face fearful questions with a +vizor of brass. Array thyself in dogmas. Show thy decisive judgement on +the side of established power, or thy enthusiasm in the rebel ranks, if +it must be so; but be firm. Waver not. If women could tolerate +waverings and weakness, and did not rush to the adoration of decision of +mind, we should not behold them turning contemptuously from philosophers +in their agony, to find refuge in the arms of smirking orthodoxy. I do +not say that Mr. Barrett ventured to play the intelligent Cornelia like a +fish; but such a fish was best secured by the method he adopted: that of +giving her signal victory in trifles, while on vital matters he held his +own. + +Very pleasant evenings now passed at Brookfield, which were not at all +disturbed by the wonder expressed from time to time by Mr. Pole, that he +had not heard from Martha, meaning Mrs. Chump. "You have Emilia," the +ladies said; this being equivalent to "She is one of that sort;" and Mr. +Pole understood it so, and fastened Emilia in one arm, with "Now, a kiss, +my dear, and then a toon." Emilia readily gave both. As often as he +heard instances of her want of ladylike training, he would say, "Keep her +here; we'll better her." Mr. Barrett assisted the ladies to see that +there was more in Emilia than even Mr. Pericles had perceived. Her story +had become partially known to them; and with two friendly dependents of +the household, one a gentleman and the other a genius, they felt that +they had really attained a certain eminence, which is a thing to be felt +only when we have something under our feet. Flying about with a +desperate grip on the extreme skirts of aristocracy, the ladies knew to +be the elevation of dependency, not true eminence; and though they +admired the kite, they by no means wished to form a part of its tail. +They had brains. A circle was what they wanted, and they had not to +learn that this is to be found or made only in the liberally-educated +class, into the atmosphere of which they pressed like dungeoned plants. +The parasite completes the animal, and a dependent assures us of our +position. The ladies of Brookfield, therefore, let Emilia cling to them, +remarking, that it seemed to be their papa's settled wish that she should +reside among them for a time. Consequently, if the indulgence had ever +to be regretted, they would not be to blame. In their hearts they were +aware that it was Emilia who had obtained for them their first invitation +to Lady Gosstre's. Gratitude was not a part of their policy, but when it +assisted a recognition of material facts they did not repress it. "And +if," they said, "we can succeed in polishing her and toning her, she may +have something to thank us for, in the event of her ultimately making a +name." That event being of course necessary for the development of so +proper a sentiment. Thus the rides with Wilfrid continued, and the sweet +quiet evenings when she sang. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +The windows of Brookfield were thrown open to the air of May, and bees +wandered into the rooms, gold spots of sunshine danced along the floors. +The garden-walks were dazzling, and the ladies went from flower-bed to +flower-bed in broad garden hats that were, as an occasional light glance +flung at a window-pane assured Adela, becoming. Sunshine had burst on +them suddenly, and there was no hat to be found for Emilia, so Wilfrid +placed his gold-laced foraging-cap on her head, and the ladies, after a +moment's misgiving, allowed her to wear it, and turned to observe her now +and then. There was never pertness in Emilia's look, which on the +contrary was singularly large and calm when it reposed: perhaps her +dramatic instinct prompted her half-jaunty manner of leaning against the +sunny corner of the house where the Chinese honeysuckle climbed. She was +talking to Wilfrid. Her laughter seemed careless and easy, and in +keeping with the Southern litheness of her attitude. + +"To suit the cap; it's all to suit the cap," said Adela, the keen of eye. +Yet, critical as was this lady, she acknowledged that it was no mere +acting effort to suit the cap. + +The philosopher (I would keep him back if I could) bids us mark that the +crown and flower of the nervous system, the head, is necessarily +sensitive, and to that degree that whatsoever we place on it, does, for a +certain period, change and shape us. Of course the instant we call up +the forces of the brain, much of the impression departs but what remains +is powerful, and fine-nerved. Woman is especially subject to it. A girl +may put on her brother's boots, and they will not affect her spirit +strongly; but as soon as she puts on her brother's hat, she gives him a +manly nod. The same philosopher who fathers his dulness on me, asserts +that the modern vice or fastness ('Trotting on the Epicene Border,' he +has it) is bred by apparently harmless practices of this description. He +offers to turn the current of a Republican's brain, by resting a coronet +on his forehead for just five seconds. + +Howsoever these things be, it was true that Emilia's feet presently +crossed, and she was soon to be seen with her right elbow doubled against +her head as she leaned to the wall, and the little left fist stuck at her +belt. And I maintain that she had no sense at all of acting Spanish +prince disguised as page. Nor had she an idea that she was making her +friend Wilfrid's heart perform to her lightest words and actions, like +any trained milk-white steed in a circus. Sunlight, as well as Wilfrid's +braided cap, had some magical influence on her. He assured her that she +looked a charming boy, and she said, "Do I?" just lifting her chin. + +A gardener was shaving the lawn. + +"Please, spare those daisies," cried Emilia. "Why do you cut away +daisies?" + +The gardener objected that he really must make the lawn smooth. Emilia +called to Adela, who came, and hearing the case, said: "Now this is nice +of you. I like you to love daisies and wish to protect them. They +disfigure a lawn, you know." And Adela stooped, and picked one, and +called it a pet name, and dropped it. + +She returned to her sisters in the conservatory, and meeting Mr. Barren +at the door, made the incident a topic. "You know how greatly our Emilia +rejoices us when she shows sentiment, and our thirst is to direct her to +appreciate Nature in its humility as well as its grandeur." + +"One expects her to have all poetical feelings," said Mr. Barrett, while +they walked forth to the lawn sloping to the tufted park grass. + +Cornelia said: "You have read Mr. Runningbrook's story?" + +"Yes." + +But the man had not brought it back, and her name was in it, written with +her own hand. + +"Are you of my opinion in the matter?" + +"In the matter of the style? I am and I am not. Your condemnation may +be correct in itself; but you say, 'He coins words'; and he certainly +forces the phrase here and there, I must admit. The point to be +considered is, whether friction demands a perfectly smooth surface. +Undoubtedly a scientific work does, and a philosophical treatise should. +When we ask for facts simply, we feel the intrusion of a style. Of +fiction it is part. In the one case the classical robe, in the other any +mediaeval phantasy of clothing." + +"Yes; true;" said Cornelia, hesitating over her argument. "Well, I must +conclude that I am not imaginative." + +"On the contrary, permit me to say that you are. But your imagination is +unpractised, and asks to be fed with a spoon. We English are more +imaginative than most nations." + +"Then, why is it not manifested?" + +"We are still fighting against the Puritan element, in literature as +elsewhere." + +"Your old bugbear, Mr. Barrett!" + +"And more than this: our language is not rich in subtleties for prose. A +writer who is not servile and has insight, must coin from his own mint. +In poetry we are rich enough; but in prose also we owe everything to the +licence our poets have taken in the teeth of critics. Shall I give you +examples? It is not necessary. Our simplest prose style is nearer to +poetry with us, for this reason, that the poets have made it. Read +French poetry. With the first couplet the sails are full, and you have +left the shores of prose far behind. Mr. Runningbrook coins words and +risks expressions because an imaginative Englishman, pen in hand, is the +cadet and vagabond of the family--an exploring adventurer; whereas to a +Frenchman it all comes inherited like a well filled purse. The audacity +of the French mind, and the French habit of quick social intercourse, +have made them nationally far richer in language. Let me add, +individually as much poorer. Read their stereotyped descriptions. They +all say the same things. They have one big Gallic trumpet. Wonderfully +eloquent: we feel that: but the person does not speak. And now, you will +be surprised to learn that, notwithstanding what I have said, I should +still side with Mr. Runningbrook's fair critic, rather than with him. +The reason is, that the necessity to write as he does is so great that a +strong barrier--a chevaux-de-frise of pen points--must be raised against +every newly minted word and hazardous coiner, or we shall be inundated. +If he can leap the barrier he and his goods must be admitted. So it has +been with our greatest, so it must be with the rest of them, or we shall +have a Transatlantic literature. By no means desirable, I think. Yet, +see: when a piece of Transatlantic slang happens to be tellingly true-- +something coined from an absolute experience; from a fight with the +elements--we cannot resist it: it invades us. In the same way poetic +rashness of the right quality enriches the language. I would make it +prove its quality." + +Cornelia walked on gravely. His excuse for dilating on the theme, +prompted her to say: "You give me new views": while all her reflections +sounded from the depths: "And yet, the man who talks thus is a hired +organ-player!" + +This recurring thought, more than the cogency of the new views, kept her +from combating certain fallacies in them which had struck her. + +"Why do you not write yourself, Mr. Barrett?" + +"I have not the habit." + +"The habit!" + +"I have not heard the call." + +"Should it not come from within?" + +"And how are we to know it?" + +"If it calls to you loudly!" + +"Then I know it to be vanity." + +"But the wish to make a name is not vanity." + +"The wish to conceal a name may exist." + +Cornelia took one of those little sly glances at his features which print +them on the brain. The melancholy of his words threw a somber hue about +him, and she began to think with mournfulness of those firm thin lips +fronting misfortune: those sunken blue eyes under its shadow. + +They walked up to Mr. Pole, who was standing with Wilfrid and Emilia on +the lawn; giving ear to a noise in the distance. + +A big drum sounded on the confines of the Brookfield estate. Soon it was +seen entering the precincts at one of the principal gates, followed by +trombone, and horn, and fife. In the rear trooped a regiment of Sunday- +garmented villagers, with a rambling tail of loose-minded boys and girls. +Blue and yellow ribands dangled from broad beaver hats, and there were +rosettes of the true-blue mingled with yellow at buttonholes; and there +was fun on the line of march. Jokes plumped deep into the ribs, and were +answered with intelligent vivacity in the shape of hearty thwacks, +delivered wherever a surface was favourable: a mode of repartee worthy of +general adoption, inasmuch as it can be passed on, and so with certainty +made to strike your neighbour as forcibly as yourself: of which felicity +of propagation verbal wit cannot always boast. In the line of +procession, the hat of a member of the corps shot sheer into the sky from +the compressed energy of his brain; for he and all his comrades +vociferously denied having cast it up, and no other solution was +possible. This mysterious incident may tell you that beer was thus early +in the morning abroad. In fact, it was the procession day of a +provincial Club-feast or celebration of the nuptials of Beef and Beer; +whereof later you shall behold the illustrious offspring. + +All the Brookfield household were now upon the lawn, awaiting the attack. +Mr. Pole would have liked to impound the impouring host, drum and all, +for the audacity of the trespass, and then to have fed them liberally, as +a return for the compliment. Aware that he was being treated to the +honours of a great man of the neighbourhood, he determined to take it +cheerfully. + +"Come; no laughing!" he said, directing a glance at the maids who were +ranged behind their mistresses. "'Hem! we must look pleased: we mustn't +mind their music, if they mean well." + +Emilia, whose face was dismally screwed up at the nerve-searching +discord, said: "Why do they try to play anything but a drum?" + +"In the country, in the country;" Mr. Pole emphasized. "We put up with +this kind of thing in the country. Different in town; but we--a--say +nothing in the country. We must encourage respect for the gentry, in the +country. One of the penalties of a country life. Not much harm in it. +New duties in the country." + +He continued to speak to himself. In proportion as he grew aware of the +unnecessary nervous agitation into which the drum was throwing him, he +assumed an air of repose, and said to Wilfrid: "Read the paper to-day?" +and to Arabella, "Quiet family dinner, I suppose?" + +"Yes, sir," he remarked to Mr. Barrett, as if resuming an old +conversation: "I dare say, you've seen better marching in foreign parts. +Right--left; right--left. Ha! ha! And not so bad, not so bad, I call +it! with their right--left; right--left. Ha! ha! You've seen better. +No need to tell me that. But, in England, we look to the meaning of +things. We're a practical people. What's more, we're volunteers. +Volunteers in everything. We can't make a regiment of ploughmen march +like clock-work in a minute; and we don't want to. But, give me the +choice; I'll back a body of volunteers any day." + +"I would rather be backed by them, sir," said Mr. Barrett. + +"Very good. I mean that. Honest intelligent industry backing rank and +wealth! That makes a nation strong. Look at England!" + +Mr. Barrett observed him stand out largely, as if filled by the spirit of +the big drum. + +That instrument now gave a final flourish and bang whereat Sound, as if +knocked on the head, died languishingly. + +And behold, a spokesman was seen in relief upon a background of grins, +that were oddly intermixed with countenances of extraordinary solemnity. + +The same commenced his propitiatory remarks by assuring the proprietor of +Brookfield that he, the spokesman, and every man present, knew they had +taken a liberty in coming upon Squire Pole's grounds without leave or +warning. They knew likewise that Squire Pole excused them. + +Chorus of shouts from the divining brethren. + +Right glad they were to have such a gentleman as Squire Pole among them: +and if nobody gave him a welcome last year, that was not the fault of the +Yellow-and-Blues. Eh, my boys? + +Groans and cheers. + +Right sure was spokesman that Squire Pole was the friend of the poor man, +and liked nothing better than to see him enjoy his holiday. As why +shouldn't he enjoy his holiday now and then, and have a bit of relaxation +as well as other men? + +Acquiescent token on the part of the new dignitary, Squire Pole. + +Spokesman was hereby encouraged to put it boldly, whether a man was not a +man all the world over. + +"For a' that!" was sung out by some rare bookworm to rearward: but no +Scot being present, no frenzy followed the quotation. + +It was announced that the Club had come to do homage to Squire Pole and +ladies: the Junction Club of Ipley and Hillford. What did Junction mean? +Junction meant Harmony. Harmonious they were, to be sure: so they joined +to good purpose. + +Mr. Barrett sought Emilia's eyes smilingly, but she was intent on the +proceedings. + +A cry of "Bundle o' sticks, Tom Breeks. Don't let slip 'bout bundle o' +sticks," pulled spokesman up short. He turned hurriedly to say, "All +right," and inflated his chest to do justice to the illustration of the +faggots of Aesop: but Mr. Tom Breeks had either taken in too much air, or +the ale that had hitherto successfully prompted him was antipathetic to +the nice delicacy of an apologue; for now his arm began to work and his +forehead had to be mopped, and he lashed the words "Union and Harmony" +right and left, until, coming on a sentence that sounded in his ears like +the close of his speech, he stared ahead, with a dim idea that he had +missed a point. "Bundle o' sticks," lustily shouted, revived his +apprehension; but the sole effect was to make him look on the ground and +lift his hat on the point of a perplexed finger. He could not conceive +how the bundle of sticks was to be brought in now; or what to say +concerning them. Union and Harmony:--what more could be said? Mr. Tom +Breeks tried a remonstrance with his backers. He declared to them that +he had finished, and had brought in the Bundle. They replied that they +had not heard it; that the Bundle was the foundation--sentiment of the +Club; the first toast, after the Crown; and that he must go on until the +Bundle had been brought in. Hereat, the unhappy man faced Squire Pole +again. It was too abject a position for an Englishman to endure. Tom +Breeks cast his hat to earth. "I'm dashed if I can bring in the bundle!" + +There was no telling how conduct like this might have been received by +the Yellow-and-Blues if Mr. Barrett had not spoken. "You mean everything +when you say "Union," and you're quite right not to be tautological. You +can't give such a blow with your fingers as you can with your fists, can +you?" + +Up went a score of fists. "We've the fists: we've the fists," was +shouted. + +Cornelia, smiling on Mr. Barrett, asked him why he had confused the poor +people with the long word "tautological." + +"I threw it as a bone," said he. "I think you will observe that they are +already quieter. They are reflecting on what it signifies, and will by- +and-by quarrel as to the spelling of it. At any rate it occupies them." + +Cornelia laughed inwardly, and marked with pain that his own humour gave +him no merriment. + +At the subsiding of the echoes that coupled Squire Pole and the Junction +Club together, Squire Pole replied. He wished them well. He was glad to +see them, and sorry he had not ale enough on the premises to regale every +man of them. Clubs were great institutions. One fist was stronger than +a thousand fingers--"as my friend here said just now." Hereat the +eyelids of Cornelia shed another queenly smile on the happy originator of +the remark. + +Squire Pole then descended to business. He named the amount of his +donation. At this practical sign of his support, heaven heard the +gratitude of the good fellows. The drum awoke from its torpor, and +summoned its brethren of the band to give their various versions of the +National Anthem. + +"Can't they be stopped?" Emilia murmured, clenching her little hands. + +The patriotic melody, delivered in sturdy democratic fashion, had to be +endured. It died hard, but did come to an end, piecemeal. Tom Breeks +then retired from the front, and became a unit once more. There were +flourishes that indicated a termination of the proceedings, when another +fellow was propelled in advance, and he, shuffling and ducking his head, +to the cries of "Out wi' it, Jim!" and, "Where's your stomach?" came +still further forward, and showed a most obsequious grin. + +"Why, it's Jim!" exclaimed Emilia, on whom Jim's eyes were fastened. +Stepping nearer, she said, "Do you want to speak to me?" + +Jim had this to say: which, divested of his petition for pardon on the +strength of his perfect knowledge that he took a liberty, was, that the +young lady had promised, while staying at Wilson's farm, that she would +sing to the Club-fellows on the night of their feast. + +"I towl'd 'em they'd have a rare treat, miss," mumbled Jim, "and they're +all right mad for 't, that they be--bain't ye, boys?" + +That they were! with not a few of the gesticulations of madness too. + +Emilia said: "I promised I would sing to them. I remember it quite well. +Of course I will keep my promise." + +A tumult of acclamation welcomed her words, and Jim looked immensely +delighted. + +She was informed by several voices that they were the Yellow-and-Blues, +and not the Blues: that she must not go to the wrong set: and that their +booth was on Ipley Common: and that they, the Junction Club, only would +honour her rightly for the honour she was going to do them: all of which +Emilia said she would bear in mind. + +Jim then retired hastily, having done something that stout morning ale +would alone have qualified him to perform. The drum, in the noble belief +that it was leading, announced the return march, and with three cheers +for Squire Pole, and a crowning one for the ladies, away trooped the +procession. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +Hardly had the last sound of the drum passed out of hearing, when the +elastic thunder of a fresh one claimed attention. The truth being, that +the Junction Club of Ipley and Hillford, whose colours were yellow and +blue, was a seceder from the old-established Hillford Club, on which it +had this day shamefully stolen a march by parading everywhere in the +place of it, and disputing not only its pasture-grounds but its identity. + +There is no instrument the sound of which proclaims such a vast internal +satisfaction as the drum. I know not whether it be that the sense we +have of the corpulency of this instrument predisposes us to imagine it +supremely content: as when an alderman is heard snoring the world is +assured that it listens to the voice of its own exceeding gratulation. +A light heart in a fat body ravishes not only the world but the +philosopher. If monotonous, the one note of the drum is very correct. +Like the speaking of great Nature, what it means is implied by the +measure. When the drum beats to the measure of a common human pulsation +it has a conquering power: inspiring us neither to dance nor to trail the +members, but to march as life does, regularly, and in hearty good order, +and with a not exhaustive jollity. It is a sacred instrument. + +Now the drum which is heard to play in this cheerful fashion, while at +the same time we know that discomfiture is cruelly harrying it: that its +inmost feelings are wounded, and that worse is in store for it, affects +the contemplative mind with an inexpressibly grotesque commiseration. Do +but listen to this one, which is the joint corporate voice of the men of +Hillford. Outgeneraled, plundered, turned to ridicule, it thumps with +unabated briskness. Here indeed might Sentimentalism shed a fertile +tear! + +Anticipating that it will eventually be hung up among our national +symbols, I proceed. The drum of Hillford entered the Brookfield grounds +as Ipley had done, and with a similar body of decorated Clubmen; sounding +along until it faced the astonished proprietor, who held up his hand and +requested to know the purpose of the visit. One sentence of explanation +sufficed. + +"What!" cried Mr. Pole, "do you think you can milk a cow twice in ten +minutes?" + +Several of the Hillford men acknowledged that it would be rather sharp +work. + +Their case was stated: whereupon Mr. Pole told them that he had just been +'milked,' and regretted it, but requested them to see that he could not +possibly be equal to any second proceeding of the sort. On their turning +to consult together, he advised them to bear it with fortitude. "All +right, sir!" they said: and a voice from the ranks informed him that +their word was 'Jolly.' Then a signal was given, and these indomitable +fellows cheered the lord of Brookfield as lustily as if they had +accomplished the feat of milking him twice in an hour. Their lively +hurrahs set him blinking in extreme discomposure of spirit, and he was +fumbling at his pocket, when the drum a little precipitately thumped: the +ranks fell into order, and the departure was led by the tune of the 'King +of the Cannibal islands:' a tune that is certain to create a chorus on +the march. On this occasion, the line:-- + + "Oh! didn't you know you were done, sir?" + +became general at the winding up of the tune. Boys with their elders +frisked as they chimed it, casting an emphasis of infinite relish on the +declaration 'done'; as if they delighted in applying it to Mr. Pole, +though at their own expense. + +Soon a verse grew up:-- + + "We march'd and call'd on Mister Pole, + Who hadn't a penny, upon his soul, + For Ipley came and took the whole, + And didn't you know you were done, sir!" + +I need not point out to the sagacious that Hillford and not Mr. Pole had +been 'done;' but this was the genius of the men who transferred the +opprobrium to him. Nevertheless, though their manner of welcoming +misfortune was such, I, knowing that there was not a deadlier animal than +a 'done' Briton, have shudders for Ipley. + +We relinquished the stream of an epic in turning away from these mighty +drums. + +Mr. Pole stood questioning all who surrounded him: "What could I do? I +couldn't subscribe to both. They don't expect that of a lord, and I'm a +commoner. If these fellows quarrel and split, are we to suffer for it? +They can't agree, and want us to pay double fines. This is how they +serve us." + +Mr. Barrett, rather at a loss to account for his excitement, said, that +it must be admitted they had borne the trick played upon them, with +remarkable good humour. + +"Yes, but," Mr. Pole fumed, "I don't. They put me in the wrong, between +them. They make me uncomfortable. I've a good mind to withdraw my +subscription to those rascals who came first, and have nothing to do with +any of them. Then, you see, down I go for a niggardly fellow. That's +the reputation I get. Nothing of this in London! you make your money, +pay your rates, and nobody bothers a man." + +"You should have done as our darling here did, papa," said Adela. "You +should have hinted something that might be construed a promise or not, as +we please to read it." + +"If I promise I perform," returned Mr. Pole. + +"Our Hillford people have cause for complaint," Mr. Barrett observed. +And to Emilia: "You will hardly favour one party more than another, will +you?" + +"I am for that poor man Jim," said Emilia, "He carried my harp evening +after evening, and would not even take sixpence for the trouble." + +"Are you really going to sing there?" + +"Didn't you hear? I promised." + +"To-night?" + +"Yes; certainly." + +"Do you know what it is you have promised?" + +"To sing." + +Adela glided to her sisters near at hand, and these ladies presently +hemmed Emilia in. They had a method of treating matters they did not +countenance, as if nature had never conceived them, and such were the +monstrous issue of diseased imaginations. It was hard for Emilia to hear +that what she designed to do was "utterly out of the question and not to +be for one moment thought of." She reiterated, with the same interpreting +stress, that she had given her promise. + +"Do you know, I praised you for putting them off so cleverly," said Adela +in tones of gentle reproach that bewildered Emilia. + +"Must we remind you, then, that you are bound by a previous promise?" +Cornelia made a counter-demonstration with the word. "Have you not +promised to dine with us at Lady Gosstre's to-night?" + +"Oh, of course I shall keep that," replied Emilia. "I intend to. I will +sing there, and then I will go and sing to those poor people, who never +hear anything but dreadful music--not music at all, but something that +seems to tear your flesh!" + +"Never mind our flesh," said Adela pettishly: melodiously remonstrating +the next instant: "I really thought you could not be in earnest." + +"But," said Arabella, "can you find pleasure in wasting your voice and +really great capabilities on such people?" + +Emilia caught her up--"This poor man? But he loves music: he really +knows the good from the bad. He never looks proud but when I sing to +him." + +The situation was one that Cornelia particularly enjoyed. Here was a low +form of intellect to be instructed as to the precise meaning of a word, +the nature of a pledge. "There can be no harm that I see, in your +singing to this man," she commenced. "You can bid him come to one of the +out-houses here, if you desire, and sing to him. In the evening, after +his labour, will be the fit time. But, as your friends, we cannot permit +you to demean yourself by going from our house to a public booth, where +vulgar men are smoking and drinking beer. I wonder you have the courage +to contemplate such an act! You have pledged your word. But if you had +pledged your word, child, to swing upon that tree, suspended by your +arms, for an hour, could you keep it? I think not; and to recognize an +impossibility economizes time and is one of the virtues of a clear +understanding. It is incompatible that you should dine with Lady +Gosstre, and then run away to a drinking booth. Society will never +tolerate one who is familiar with boors. If you are to succeed in life, +as we, your friends, can conscientiously say that we most earnestly hope +and trust you will do, you must be on good terms with Society. You must! +You pledge your word to a piece of folly. Emancipate yourself from it as +quickly as possible. Do you see? This is foolish: it, therefore, cannot +be. Decide, as a sensible creature." + +At the close of this harangue, Cornelia, who had stooped slightly to +deliver it, regained her stately posture, beautified in Mr. Barrett's +sight by the flush which an unwonted exercise in speech had thrown upon +her cheeks. + +Emilia stood blinking like one sensible of having been chidden in a +strange tongue. + +"Does it offend you--my going?" she faltered. + +"Offend!--our concern is entirely for you," observed Cornelia. + +The explanation drew out a happy sparkle from Emilia's eyes. She seized +her hand, kissed it, and cried: "I do thank you. I know I promised, but +indeed I am quite pleased to go!" + +Mr. Barrett swung hurriedly round and walked some paces away with his +head downward. The ladies remained in a tolerant attitude for a minute +or so, silent. They then wheeled with one accord, and Emilia was left to +herself. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +Richford was an easy drive from Brookfield, through lanes of elm and +white hawthorn. + +The ladies never acted so well as when they were in the presence of a +fact which they acknowledged, but did not recognize. Albeit constrained +to admit that this was the first occasion of their ever being on their +way to the dinner-table of a person of quality, they could refuse to look +the admission in the face. A peculiar lightness of heart beset them; for +brooding ambition is richer in that first realizing step it takes, +insignificant though it seem, than in any subsequent achievement. I fear +to say that the hearts of the ladies boiled, because visages so sedate, +and voices so monotonously indifferent, would witness decidedly against +me. The common avoidance of any allusion to Richford testified to the +direction of their thoughts; and the absence of a sign of exultation may +be accepted as a proof of the magnitude of that happiness of which they +might not exhibit a feature. The effort to repress it must have cost +them horrible pain. Adela, the youngest of the three, transferred her +inward joy to the cottage children, whose staring faces from garden porch +and gate flashed by the carriage windows. "How delighted they look!" she +exclaimed more than once, and informed her sisters that a country life +was surely the next thing to Paradise. "Those children do look so +happy!" Thus did the weak one cunningly relieve herself. Arabella +occupied her mind by giving Emilia leading hints for conduct in the great +house. "On the whole, though there is no harm in your praising +particular dishes, as you do at home, it is better in society to say +nothing on those subjects until your opinion is asked: and when you +speak, it should be as one who passes the subject by. Appreciate +flavours, but no dwelling on them! The degrees of an expression of +approbation, naturally enough, vary with age. Did my instinct prompt me +to the discussion of these themes, I should be allowed greater licence +than you." And here Arabella was unable to resist a little bit of the +indulgence Adela had taken: "You are sure to pass a most agreeable +evening, and one that you will remember." + +North Pole sat high above such petty consolation; seldom speaking, save +just to show that her ideas ranged at liberty, and could be spontaneously +sympathetic on selected topics. + +Their ceremonious entrance to the state-room of Richford accomplished, +the ladies received the greeting of the affable hostess; quietly +perturbed, but not enough so to disorder their artistic contemplation of +her open actions, choice of phrase, and by-play. Without communication +or pre-arrangement, each knew that the other would not let slip the +opportunity, and, after the first five minutes of languid general +converse; they were mentally at work comparing notes with one another's +imaginary conversations, while they said "Yes," and "Indeed," and "I +think so," and appeared to belong to the world about them. + +"Merthyr, I do you the honour to hand this young lady to your charge," +said Lady Gosstre, putting on equal terms with Emilia a gentleman of +perhaps five-and-thirty years; who reminded her of Mr. Barrett, but was +unclouded by that look of firm sadness which characterized the poor +organist. Mr. Powys was a travelled Welsh squire, Lady Gosstre's best +talker, on whom, as Brookfield learnt to see, she could perfectly rely to +preserve the child from any little drawing-room sins or dinner-table +misadventures. This gentleman had made sacrifices for the cause of +Italy, in money, and, it was said, in blood. He knew the country and +loved the people. Brookfield remarked that there was just a foreign +tinge in his manner; and that his smile, though social to a degree +unknown to the run of English faces, did not give him all to you, and at +a second glance seemed plainly to say that he reserved much. + +Adela fell to the lot of a hussar-captain: a celebrated beauty, not too +foolish. She thought it proper to punish him for his good looks till +propitiated by his good temper. + +Nobody at Brookfield could remember afterwards who took Arabella down to +dinner; she declaring that she had forgotten. Her sisters, not unwilling +to see insignificance banished to annihilation, said that it must have +been nobody in person, and that he was a very useful guest when ladies +were engaged. Cornelia had a different lot. She leaned on the right arm +of the Member for Hillford, the statistical debate, Sir Twickenham Pryme, +who had twice before, as he ventured to remind her, enjoyed the honour of +conversing, if not of dining, with her. Nay, more, he revived their +topics. "And I have come round to your way of thinking as regards +hustings addresses," he said. "In nine cases out of ten--at least, +nineteen-twentieths of the House will furnish instances--one can only, as +you justly observed, appeal to the comprehension of the mob by pledging +oneself either to their appetites or passions, and it is better plainly +to state the case and put it to them in figures." Whether the Baronet +knew what he was saying is one matter: he knew what he meant. + +Wilfrid was cavalier to Lady Charlotte Chillingworth, of Stornley, about +ten miles distant from Hillford; ninth daughter of a nobleman who passed +current as the Poor Marquis; he having been ruined when almost a boy in +Paris, by the late illustrious Lord Dartford. Her sisters had married +captains in the army and navy, lawyers, and parsons, impartially. Lady +Charlotte was nine-and-twenty years of age; with clear and telling stone- +blue eyes, firm but not unsweet lips, slightly hollowed cheeks, and a jaw +that certainly tended to be square. Her colour was healthy. Walking or +standing her figure was firmly poised. Her chief attraction was a bell- +toned laugh, fresh as a meadow spring. She had met Wilfrid once in the +hunting-field, so they soon had common ground to run on. + +Mr. Powys made Emilia happy by talking to her of Italy, in the intervals +of table anecdotes. + +"Why did you leave it?" she said. + +"I found I had more shadows than the one allotted me by nature; and as I +was accustomed to a black one, and not half a dozen white, I was fairly +frightened out of the country." + +"You mean, Austrians." + +"I do." + +"Do you hate them?" + +"Not at all." + +"Then, how can you love the Italians?" + +"They themselves have taught me to do both; to love them and not to hate +their enemies. Your Italians are the least vindictive of all races of +men." + +"Merthyr, Merthyr!" went Lady Gosstre; Lady Charlotte murmuring aloud: +"And in the third chapter of the Book of Paradox you will find these +words." + +"We afford a practical example and forgive them, do we not?" Mr. Powys +smiled at Emilia. + +She looked round her, and reddened a little. + +"So long as you do not write that Christian word with the point of a +stiletto!" said Lady Charlotte. + +"You are not mad about the Italians?" Wilfrid addressed her. + +"Not mad about anything, I hope. If I am to choose, I prefer the +Austrians. A very gentlemanly set of men! At least, so I find them +always. Capital horsemen!" + +"I will explain to you how it must be," said Mr. Powys to Emilia. "An +artistic people cannot hate long. Hotly for the time, but the oppression +gone, and even in the dream of its going, they are too human to be +revengeful." + +"Do we understand such very deep things?" said Lady Gosstre, who was near +enough to hear clearly. + +"Yes: for if I ask her whether she can hate when her mind is given to +music, she knows that she cannot. She can love." + +"Yet I think I have heard some Italian operatic spitfires, and of some!" +said Lady Charlotte. + +"What opinion do you pronounce in this controversy?" Cornelia made appeal +to Sir Twickenham. + +"There are multitudes of cases," he began: and took up another end of his +statement: "It has been computed that five-and-twenty murders per month +to a population...to a population of ninety thousand souls, is a fair +reckoning in a Southern latitude." + +"Then we must allow for the latitude?" + +"I think so." + +"And also for the space into which the ninety thousand souls are packed," +quoth Tracy Runningbrook. + +"Well! well!" went Sir Twickenham. + +"The knife is the law to an Italian of the South," said Mr. Powys. "He +distrusts any other, because he never gets it. Where law is established, +or tolerably secure, the knife is not used. Duels are rare. There is +too much bonhomie for the point of honour." + +"I should like to believe that all men are as just to their mistresses," +Lady Charlotte sighed, mock-earnestly. + +Presently Emilia touched the arm of Mr. Powys. She looked agitated. "I +want to be told the name of that gentleman." His eyes were led to rest on +the handsome hussar-captain. + +"Do you know him?" + +"But his name!" + +"Do me the favour to look at me. Captain Gambier." + +"It is!" + +Captain Gambier's face was resolutely kept in profile to her. + +"I hear a rumour," said Lady Gosstre to Arabella, "that you think of +bidding for the Besworth estate. Are you tired of Brookfield?" + +"Not tired; but Brookfield is modern, and I confess that Besworth has won +my heart." + +"I shall congratulate myself on having you nearer neighbours. Have you +many, or any rivals?" + +"There is some talk of the Tinleys wishing to purchase it. I cannot see +why." + +"What people are they?" asked Lady Charlotte. "Do they hunt?" + +"Oh, dear, no! They are to society what Dissenters are to religion. I +can't describe them otherwise." + +"They pass before me in that description," said Lady Gosstre. + +"Besworth's an excellent centre for hunting," Lady Charlotte remarked to +Wilfrid. "I've always had an affection for that place. The house is on +gravel; the river has trout; there's a splendid sweep of grass for the +horses to exercise. I think there must be sixteen spare beds. At all +events, I know that number can be made up; so that if you're too poor to +live much in London, you can always have your set about you." + +The eyes of the fair economist sparkled as she dwelt on these particular +advantages of Besworth. + +Richford boasted a show of flowers that might tempt its guests to parade +the grounds on balmy evenings. Wilfrid kept by the side of Lady +Charlotte. She did not win his taste a bit. Had she been younger, less +decided in tone, and without a title, it is very possible that she would +have offended his native, secret, and dominating fastidiousness as much +as did Emilia. Then, what made him subject at all to her influence, as +he felt himself beginning to be? She supplied a deficiency in the youth. +He was growing and uncertain: she was set and decisive. In his soul he +adored the extreme refinement of woman; even up to the thin edge of +inanity (which neighbours what the philosopher could tell him if he +would, and would, if it were permitted to him). Nothing was too white, +too saintly, or too misty, for his conception of abstract woman. But the +practical wants of our nature guide us best. Conversation with Lady +Charlotte seemed to strengthen and ripen him. He blushed with pleasure +when she said: "I remember reading your name in the account of that last +cavalry charge on the Dewan. You slew a chief, I think. That was +creditable, for they are swordmen. Cavalry in Europe can't win much +honour--not individual honour, I mean. I suppose being part of a +victorious machine is exhilarating. I confess I should not think much of +wearing that sort of feather. It's right to do one's duty, comforting to +trample down opposition, and agreeable to shed blood, but when you have +matched yourself man to man, and beaten--why, then, I dub you knight." + +Wilfrid bowed, half-laughing, in a luxurious abandonment to his +sensations. Possibly because of their rule over him then, the change in +him was so instant from flattered delight to vexed perplexity. Rounding +one of the rhododendron banks, just as he lifted his head from that +acknowledgment of the lady's commendation, he had sight of Emilia with +her hand in the hand of Captain Gambier. What could it mean? what right +had he to hold her hand? Even if he knew her, what right? + +The words between Emilia and Captain Gambier were few. + +"Why did I not look at you during dinner?" said he. "Was it not better +to wait till we could meet?" + +"Then you will walk with me and talk to me all the evening?" + +"No: but I will try and come down here next week and meet you again." + +"Are you going to-night?" + +"Yes." + +"To-night? To-night before it strikes a quarter to ten, I am going to +leave here alone. If you would come with me! I want a companion. I +know they will not hurt me, but I don't like being alone. I have given +my promise to sing to some poor people. My friends say I must not go. I +must go. I can't break a promise to poor people. And you have never +heard me really sing my best. Come with me, and I will." + +Captain Gambier required certain explanations. He saw that a companion +and protection would be needed by his curious little friend, and as she +was resolved not to break her word, he engaged to take her in the +carriage that was to drive him to the station. + +"You make me give up an appointment in town," he said. + +"Ah, but you will hear me sing," returned Emilia. "We will drive to +Brookfield and get my harp, and then to Ipley Common. I am to be sure +you will be ready with the carriage at just a quarter to ten?" + +The Captain gave her his assurance, and they separated; he to seek out +Adela, she to wander about, the calmest of conspirators against the +serenity of a household. + +Meeting Wilfrid and Lady Charlotte, Emilia was asked by him, who it was +she had quitted so abruptly. + +"That is the gentleman I told you of. Now I know his name. It is +Captain Gambier." + +She was allowed to pass on. + +"What is this she says?" Lady Charlotte asked. + +"It appears...something about a meeting somewhere accidentally, in the +park, in London, I think; I really don't know. She had forgotten his +name." + +Lady Charlotte spurred him with an interrogative "Yes?" + +"She wanted to remember his name. That's all. He was kind to her." + +"But, after all," remonstrated Lady Charlotte, "that's only a +characteristic of young men, is it not? no special distinction. You are +all kind to girls, to women, to anything!" + +Captain Gambier and Adela crossed their path. He spoke a passing word, +Lady Charlotte returned no answer, and was silent to her companion for +some minutes. Then she said, "If you feel any responsibility about this +little person, take my advice, and don't let her have appointments and +meetings. They're bad in any case, and for a girl who has no brother-- +has she? no:--well then, you should make the best provision you can +against the cowardice of men. Most men are cowards." + +Emilia sang in the drawing-room. Brookfield knew perfectly why she +looked indifferent to the plaudits, and was not dissatisfied at hearing +Lady Gosstre say that she was a little below the mark. The kindly lady +brought Emilia between herself and Mr. Powys, saying, "I don't intend to +let you be the star of the evening and outshine us all." After which, +conversation commenced, and Brookfield had reason to admire her +ladyship's practised play upon the social instrument, surely the grandest +of all, the chords being men and women. Consider what an accomplishment +this is! + +Albeit Brookfield knew itself a student at Richford, Adela was of too +impatient a wit to refrain from little ventures toward independence, if +not rivalry. "What we do," she uttered distinctively once or twice. +Among other things she spoke of "our discovery," to attest her +declaration that, to wakeful eyes, neither Hillford nor any other place +on earth was dull. Cornelia flushed at hearing the name of Mr. Barrett +pronounced publicly by her sister. + +"An organist an accomplished man!" Lady Gosstre repeated Adela's words. +"Well, I suppose it is possible, but it rather upsets one's notions, does +it not?" + +"Yes, but agreeably," said Adela, with boldness; and related how he had +been introduced, and hinted that he was going to be patronized. + +"The man cannot maintain himself on the income that sort of office brings +him," Lady Gosstre observed. + +"Oh, no," said Adela. "I fancy he does it simply for some sort of +occupation. One cannot help imagining a disguise." + +"Personally I confess to an objection to gentlemen in disguise," said +Lady Gosstre. "Barrett!--do you know the man?" + +She addressed Mr. Powys. + +"There used to be good quartett evenings given by the Barretts of +Bursey," he said. "Sir Justinian Barrett married a Miss Purcell, who +subsequently preferred the musical accomplishments of a foreign professor +of the Art." + +"Purcell Barrett is his name," said Adela. "Our Emilia brought him to +us. Where is she? But, where can she be?" + +Adela rose. + +"She pressed my hand just now," said Lady Gosstre. + +"She was here when Captain Gambler quitted the room," Arabella remarked. + +"Good heaven!" + +The exclamation came from Adela. + +"Oh, Lady Gosstre! I fear to tell you what I think she has done." + +The scene of the rival Clubs was hurriedly related, together with the +preposterous pledge given by Emilia, that she would sing at the Ipley +Booth: "Among those dreadful men!" + +"They will treat her respectfully," said Mr. Powys. + +"Worship her, I should imagine, Merthyr," said Lady Gosstre. "For all +that, she had better be away. Beer is not a respectful spirit." + +"I trust you will pardon her," Arabella pleaded. "Everything that +explanations of the impropriety of such a thing could do, we have done. +We thought that at last we had convinced her. She is quite untamed." + +Mr. Powys now asked where this place was that she had hurried to. + +The unhappy ladies of Brookfield, quick as they were to read every sign +surrounding them, were for the moment too completely thrown off their +balance by Emilia's extraordinary exhibition of will, to see that no +reflex of her shameful and hideous proceeding had really fallen upon +them. Their exclamations were increasing, until Adela, who had been the +noisiest, suddenly adopted Lady Gosstre's tone. "If she has gone, I +suppose she must be simply fetched away." + +"Do you see what has happened?" Lady Charlotte murmured to Wilfrid, +between a phrase. + +He stumbled over a little piece of gallantry. + +"Excellent! But, say those things in French.--Your dark-eyed maid has +eloped. She left the room five minutes after Captain Gambier." + +Wilfrid sprang to his feet, looking eagerly to the corners of the room. + +"Pardon me," he said, and moved up to Lady Gosstre. On the way he +questioned himself why his heart should be beating at such a pace. +Standing at her ladyship's feet, he could scarcely speak. + +"Yes, Wilfrid; go after her," said Adela, divining his object. + +"By all means go," added Lady Gosstre. "Now she is there, you may as +well let her keep her promise; and then hurry her home. They will saddle +you a horse down below, if you care to have one." + +Wilfrid thanked her ladyship, and declined the horse. He was soon +walking rapidly under a rough sky in the direction of Ipley, with no firm +thought that he would find Emilia there. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Being heard at night, in the nineteenth century +Pleasure sat like an inextinguishable light on her face +Beyond a plot of flowers, a gold-green meadow dipped to a ridge +His alien ideas were not unimpressed by the picture +Hushing together, they agreed that it had been a false move +I had to make my father and mother live on potatoes +I had to cross the park to give a lesson +She was perhaps a little the taller of the two +The circle which the ladies of Brookfield were designing +The gallant cornet adored delicacy and a gilded refinement +The philosopher (I would keep him back if I could) +They had all noticed, seen, and observed + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Sandra Belloni, v1 +by George Meredith + diff --git a/4413.zip b/4413.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..eaaf5a0 --- /dev/null +++ b/4413.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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