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diff --git a/4420.txt b/4420.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d17226d --- /dev/null +++ b/4420.txt @@ -0,0 +1,20889 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sandra Belloni, Complete, by George Meredith + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Sandra Belloni, Complete + +Author: George Meredith + +Last Updated: March 6, 2009 +Release Date: October 12, 2006 [EBook #4420] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SANDRA BELLONI, COMPLETE *** + + + +Produced by Pat Castevans and David Widger + + + + + +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 + LIV. 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. + LIX. EMILIA'S GOOD-BYE + + + + + +SANDRA BELLONI + +[ORIGINALLY EMILIA IN ENGLAND] + + + + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +At half-past nine of the clock on the evening of this memorable day, a +body of five-and-twenty stout young fellows, prize-winners, wrestlers, +boxers, and topers, of the Hillford Club, set forth on a march to Ipley +Common. + +Now, a foreigner, hearing of their destination and the provocation +they had endured, would have supposed that they were bent upon deeds of +vengeance; and it requires knowledge of our countrymen to take it as a +fact that the idea and aim of the expedition were simply to furnish the +offending Ipley boys a little music. Such were the idea and the aim. +Hillford had nothing to do with consequences: no more than our England +is responsible when she sails out among the empires and hemispheres, +saying, 'buy' and 'sell,' and they clamour to be eaten up entire. +Foreigners pertinaciously misunderstand us. They have the barbarous +habit of judging by results. Let us know ourselves better. It is +melancholy to contemplate the intrigues, and vile designs, and +vengeances of other nations; and still more so, after we have written so +many pages of intelligible history, to see them attributed to us. Will +it never be perceived that we do not sow the thing that happens? The +source of the flooding stream which drinks up those rich acres of low +flat land is not more innocent than we. If, as does seem possible, we +are in a sort of alliance with Destiny, we have signed no compact, and +accomplish our work as solidly and merrily as a wood-hatchet in the +hands of the woodman. This arrangement to give Ipley a little music, was +projected as a return for the favours of the morning: nor have I in my +time heard anything comparable to it in charity of sentiment, when I +consider the detestable outrage Hillford suffered under. + +The parading of the drum, the trombone, a horn, two whistles, and a +fife, in front of Hillford booth, caught the fancy of the Clubmen, who +roared out parting adjurations that the music was not to be spared; and +that Tom Breeks was a musical fellow, with a fine empty pate, if any one +of the instruments should fail perchance. They were to give Ipley plenty +of music: for Ipley wanted to be taught harmony. Harmony was Ipley's +weak point. "Gie 'em," said one jolly ruddy Hillford man, "gie 'em whack +fol, lol!" And he smacked himself, and set toward an invisible partner. +Nor, as recent renowned historians have proved, are observations of +this nature beneath the dignity of chronicle. They vindicate, as they +localize, the sincerity of Hillford. + +Really, to be an islander full of ale, is to be the kindest creature on +or off two legs. For that very reason, it may be, his wrath at bad blood +is so easily aroused. In our hot moods we would desire things like unto +ourselves, and object violently to whatsoever is unlike. And also we +desire that the benefits we shed be appreciated. If Ipley understands +neither our music nor our intent, haply we must hold a performance on +the impenetrable sconce of Ipley. + +At the hour named, the expedition, with many a promise that the music +should be sweet, departed hilariously: Will Burdock, the left-handed +cricketer and hard-hitter, being leader; with Peter Bartholomew, potboy, +John Girling, miller's man, and Ned Thewk, gardener's assistant, +for lieutenants. On the march, silence was proclaimed, and partially +enforced, after two fights against authority. Near the sign of King +William's Head, General Burdock called a halt, and betrayed irresolution +with reference to the route to be adopted; but as none of his troop +could at all share such a condition of mind in the neighbourhood of an +inn, he was permitted to debate peacefully with his lieutenants, while +the rest burst through the doors and hailed the landlord: a proceeding +he was quickly induced to imitate. Thus, when the tail shows strongest +decision of purpose, the head must follow. + +An accurate oinometer, or method of determining what shall be the +condition of the spirit of man according to the degrees of wine or beer +in him, were surely of priceless service to us. For now must we, to +be certain of our sanity and dignity, abstain, which is to clip, +impoverish, imprison the soul: or else, taking wings of wine, we go +aloft over capes, and islands, and seas, but are even as balloons that +cannot make for any line, and are at the mercy of the winds--without +a choice, save to come down by virtue of a collapse. Could we say to +ourselves, in the great style, This is the point where desire to embrace +humanity is merged in vindictiveness toward individuals: where radiant +sweet temper culminates in tremendous wrath: where the treasures of +anticipation, waxing riotous, arouse the memory of wrongs: in plain +words, could we know positively, and from the hand of science, when we +have had enough, we should stop. There is not a doubt that we should +stop. It is so true we should stop, that, I am ready to say, ladies have +no right to call us horrid names, and complain of us, till they have +helped us to some such trustworthy scientific instrument as this which +I have called for. In its absence, I am persuaded that the true natural +oinometer is the hat. Were the hat always worn during potation; were +ladies when they retire to place it on our heads, or, better still, +chaplets of flowers; then, like the wise ancients, we should be able to +tell to a nicety how far we had advanced in our dithyramb to the theme +of fuddle and muddle. Unhappily the hat does not forewarn: it is simply +indicative. I believe, nevertheless, that science might set to work upon +it forthwith, and found a system. When you mark men drinking who wear +their hats, and those hats are seen gradually beginning to hang on the +backs of their heads, as from pegs, in the fashion of a fez, the bald +projection of forehead looks jolly and frank: distrust that sign: the +may-fly of the soul is then about to be gobbled up by the chub of the +passions. A hat worn fez-fashion is a dangerous hat. A hat on the brows +shows a man who can take more, but thinks he will go home instead, and +does so, peaceably. That is his determination. He may look like +Macduff, but he is a lamb. The vinous reverses the non-vinous passionate +expression of the hat. If I am discredited, I appeal to history, +which tells us that the hats of the Hillford five-and-twenty were all +exceedingly hind-ward-set when the march was resumed. It followed that +Peter Bartholomew, potboy, made irritable objections to that old joke +which finished his name as though it were a cat calling, and the offence +being repeated, he dealt an impartial swing of his stick at divers +heads, and told them to take that, which they assured him they had done +by sending him flying into a hedge. Peter, being reprimanded by his +commanding officer, acknowledged a hot desire to try his mettle, and the +latter responsible person had to be restrained from granting the wish he +cherished by John Girling, whom he threw for his trouble and as Burdock +was the soundest hitter, numbers cried out against Girling, revolting +him with a sense of overwhelming injustice that could be appeased only +by his prostrating two stout lads and squaring against a third, who came +up from a cross-road. This one knocked him down with the gentleness of +a fist that knows how Beer should be treated, and then sang out, in the +voice of Wilfrid Pole: "Which is the nearest way to Ipley, you fellows?" + +"Come along with us, sir, and we'll show you," said Burdock. + +"Are you going there?" + +"Well, that's pretty clear." + +"Hillford men, are you?" + +"We've left the women behind." + +"I'm in a hurry, so, good night." + +"And so are we in a hurry, sir. But, you're a gentleman, and we want to +give them chaps at Ipley a little surprise, d'ye see, in the way of a +dollop o' music: and if you won't go givin' 'em warning, you may trot; +and that road'll take you." + +"All right," said Wilfrid, now fairly divided between his jealousy of +Gambier and anxiety for Emilia. + +Could her artist nature, of which he had heard perplexing talk, excuse +her and make her heart absolutely guiltless (what he called 'innocent'), +in trusting herself to any man's honour? I regret to say that the dainty +adorers of the sex are even thus grossly suspicious of all women when +their sentiment is ever so triflingly offended. + +Lights on Ipley Common were seen from a rise of the hilly road. The moon +was climbing through drifts of torn black cloud. Hastening his pace, for +a double reason now, Wilfrid had the booth within hearing, listened a +moment; and then stood fast. His unconscious gasp of the words: "Thank +God; there she is!" might have betrayed him to another. + +She was sitting near one end of the booth, singing as Wilfrid had never +yet heard her sing: her dark eyes flashing. Behind her stood Captain +Gambier, keeping guard with all the composure of a gentleman-usher at a +royal presentation. Along the tables, men and women were ranged +facing her; open-mouthed, some of them but for the most part wearing +a predetermined expression of applausive judgement, as who should say, +"Queer, but good." They gave Emilia their faces, which was all she +wanted! and silence, save for an intermingling soft snore, here and +there, the elfin trumpet of silence. To tell truth, certain heads had +bowed low to the majesty of beer, and were down on the table between +sprawling doubled arms. No essay on the power of beer could exhibit it +more convincingly than, the happy indifference with which they received +admonishing blows from quart-pots, salutes from hot pipe-bowls, pricks +from pipe-ends, on nose, and cheek, and pate; as if to vindicate for +their beloved beverage a right to rank with that old classic drink +wherewith the fairest of women vanquished human ills. The majority, +however, had been snatched out of this bliss by the intrusion of their +wives, who sat beside them like Consciences in petticoats; and it must +be said that Emilia was in favour with the married men, for one reason, +because she gave these broad-ribboned ladies a good excuse for +allowing their lords to stop where they were so comfortable, a +continually-extending five minutes longer. + +Yet, though the words were foreign and the style of the song and the +singer were strange, many of the older fellows' eyes twinkled, and their +mouths pursed with a kind of half-protesting pleasure. All were reverent +to the compliment paid them by Emilia's presence. The general expression +was much like that seen when the popular ear is given to the national +anthem. Wilfrid hung at the opening of the booth, a cynical spectator. +For what on earth made her throw such energy, and glory of music, into +a song before fellows like these? He laughed dolorously, "she hasn't a +particle of any sense of ridicule," he said to himself. Forthwith +her voice took hold of him, and led him as heroes of old were led +unwillingly into enchanted woods. If she had been singing things holy, a +hymn, a hallelujah, in this company, it struck him that somehow it would +have seemed appropriate; not objectionable; at any rate, not ridiculous. +Dr. Watts would have put a girdle about her; but a song of romance sung +in this atmosphere of pipes and beer and boozy heads, chagrined +Wilfrid in proportion as the softer half of him began to succumb to the +deliciousness of her voice. + +Emilia may have had some warning sense that admiration is only one +ingredient of homage, that to make it fast and true affection must +be won. Now, poor people, yokels, clods, cannot love what is +incomprehensible to them. An idol must have their attributes: a +king must show his face now and then: a song must appeal to their +intelligence, to subdue them quite. This, as we know, is not the case in +the higher circles. Emilia may have divined it: possibly from the +very great respect with which her finale was greeted. Vigorous as the +"Brayvos" were, they sounded abashed: they lacked abandonment. In fact, +it was gratitude that applauded, and not enthusiasm. "Hillford don't +hear stuff like that, do 'em?" which was the main verbal encomium +passed, may be taken testificatorily as to this point. + +"Dame! dame!" cried Emilia, finding her way quickly to one of the more +decently-bonneted women; "am I not glad to see you here! Did I please +you? And you, dear Farmer Wilson? I caught sight of you just as I was +finishing. I remember the song you like, and I want to sing it. I know +the tune, but the words! the words! what are the words? Humming won't +do." + +"Ah, now!" quoth Farmer Wilson, pointing out the end of his pipe, +"that's what they'll swallow down; that's the song to make 'em kick. +Sing that, miss. Furrin songs 's all right enough; but 'Ale it is my +tipple, and England is my nation!' Let's have something plain and flat +on the surface, miss." + +Dame Wilson jogged her husband's arm, to make him remember that talking +was his dangerous pastime, and sent abroad a petition for a song-book; +and after a space a very doggy-eared book, resembling a poodle of that +genus, was handed to her. Then uprose a shout for this song and that; +but Emilia fixed upon the one she had in view, and walked back to her +harp, with her head bent, perusing it attentively all the way. There, +she gave the book to Captain Gambier, and begged him to hold it open +before her, with a passing light of eyes likely to be rather disturbing +to a jealous spectator. The Captain seized the book without wincing, +and displayed a remarkable equanimity of countenance as he held it out, +according to direction. No sooner had Emilia struck a prelude of the +well-known air, than the interior of the booth was transfigured; legs +began to move, elbows jerked upward, fingers fillipped: the whole body +of them were ready to duck and bow, dance, and do her bidding she had +fairly caught their hearts. For, besides the pleasure they had in their +own familiar tune, it was wonderful to them that Emilia should know what +they knew. This was the marvel, this the inspiration. She smiled to see +how true she had struck, and seemed to swim on the pleasure she excited. +Once, as her voice dropped, she looked up at Captain Gambier, so very +archly, with the curving line of her bare throat, that Wilfrid was +dragged down from his cynical observatory, and made to feel as a common +man among them all. + +At the "thrum-thrum" on the harp-strings, which wound up the song, +frenzied shouts were raised for a repetition. Emilia was perfectly +willing to gratify them; Captain Gambier appeared to be remonstrating +with her, but she put up her joined hands, mock-petitioningly, and he +with great affability held out the book anew. Wilfrid was thinking of +moving to her to take her forcibly away when she recommenced. + +At the same instant--but who, knowing that a house of glass is about to +be shattered, can refrain from admiring its glitter in the beams?--Ipley +crooned a ready accompaniment: the sleepers had been awakened: the women +and the men were alive, half-dancing, half-chorusing here a baby was +tossed, and there an old fellow's elbow worked mutely, expressive of +the rollicking gaiety within him: the whole length of the booth was in +a pleasing simmer, ready to overboil with shouts humane and cheerful, +while Emilia pitched her note and led; archly, and quite one with them +all, and yet in a way that critical Wilfrid could not object to, so +plainly did she sing to give happiness. + +I cannot delay; but I request you, that are here privileged to soar +aloft with the Muse, to fix your minds upon one point in this flight. +Let not the heat and dust of the ensuing fray divert your attention from +the magnanimity of Beer. It will be vindicated in the end but be worthy +of your seat beside the Muse, who alone of us all can take one view of +the inevitable two that perplex mortal judgements. + +For, if Ipley had jumped jovially up, and met the Hillford alarum with +laughter,--how then? Why, then I maintain that the magnanimity of Beer +would have blazed effulgent on the spot: there would have been louder +laughter and fraternal greetings. As it was, the fire on the altar +of Wisdom was again kindled by Folly, and the steps to the altar were +broken heads, after the antique fashion. + +In dismay, Ipley started. The members of the Club stared. Emilia +faltered in horror. + +A moment her voice swam stemming the execrable concert, but it was +overwhelmed. Wilfrid pressed forward to her. They could hear nothing but +the din. The booth raged like an insurgent menagerie. Outside it sounded +of brazen beasts, and beasts that whistled, beasts that boomed. A +whirlwind huddled them, and at last a cry, "We've got a visit from +Hillford," told a tale. At once the stoutest hearts pressed to +the opening. "My harp!" Emilia made her voice reach Wilfrid's ear. +Unprovided with weapons, Ipley parleyed. Hillford howled in reply. The +trombone brayed an interminable note, that would have driven to madness +quiescent cats by steaming kettles, and quick, like the springing pulse +of battle, the drum thumped and thumped. Blood could not hear it and +keep from boiling. The booth shook violently. Wilfrid and Gambier threw +over half-a-dozen chairs, forms, and tables, to make a barrier for the +protection of the women. + +"Come," Wilfrid said to Emilia, "leave the harp, I will get you another. +Come." + +"No, no," she cried in her nervous fright. + +"For God's sake, come!" he reiterated, she, stamping her foot, as to +emphasize "No! no! no!" + +"But I will buy you another harp;" he made audible to her through the +hubbub. + +"This one!" she gasped with her hand on it. "What will he think if he +finds that I forsook it?" + +Wilfrid knew her to allude to the unknown person who had given it to +her. + +"There--there," said he. "I sent it, and I can get you another. So, +come. Be good, and come." + +"It was you!" + +Emilia looked at him. She seemed to have no senses for the uproar about +her. + +But now the outer barricade was broken through, and the rout pressed +on the second line. Tom Breeks, the orator, and Jim, transformed from +a lurching yokel to a lithe dog of battle, kept the retreat of Ipley, +challenging any two of Hillford to settle the dispute. Captain Gambier +attempted an authoritative parley, in the midst of which a Hillford man +made a long arm and struck Emilia's harp, till the strings jarred loose +and horrid. The noise would have been enough to irritate Wilfrid beyond +endurance. When he saw the fellow continuing to strike the harp-frame +while Emilia clutched it, in a feeble defence, against her bosom, he +caught a thick stick from a neighbouring hand and knocked that Hillford +man so clean to earth that Hillford murmured at the blow. Wilfrid then +joined the front array. + +"Half-a-dozen hits like that a-piece, sir," nodded Tom Breeks. + +"There goes another!" Jim shouted. + +"Not quite, my lad," interposed Ned Thewk, though Peter Bartholomew was +reeling in confirmation. + +His blow at Jim missed, but came sharply in the swing on Wilfrid's +cheek-bone. + +Maddened at the immediate vision of that feature swollen, purple, even +as a plum with an assiduous fly on it, certifying to ripeness:--Says the +philosopher, "We are never up to the mark of any position, if we are +in a position beneath our own mark;" and it is true that no hero +in conflict should think of his face, but Wilfrid was all the while +protesting wrathfully against the folly of his having set foot in such a +place:--Maddened, I say, Wilfrid, a keen swordman, cleared a space. +John Girling fell to him: Ned Thewk fell to him, and the sconce of Will +Burdock rang. + +"A rascally absurd business!" said Gambier, letting his stick do the +part of a damnatory verb on one of the enemy, while he added, "The +drunken vagabonds!" + +All the Hillford party were now in the booth. Ipley, meantime, was +not sleeping. Farmer Wilson and a set of the Ipley men whom age had +sagaciously instructed to prefer stratagem to force, had slipped +outside, and were labouring as busily as their comrades within: stooping +to the tent-pegs, sending emissaries to the tent-poles. + +"Drunk!" roared Will Burdock. "Did you happen to say 'drunk?'" And +looking all the while at Gambier, he, with infernal cunning, swung at +Wilfrid's fated cheekbone. The latter rushed furiously into the press of +them, and there was a charge from Ipley, and a lock, from which Wilfrid +extricated himself to hurry off Emilia. He perceived that bad blood was +boiling up. + +"Forward!" cried Will Burdock, and Hillford in turn made a tide. + +As they came on in numbers too great for Ipley to stand against, an +obscuration fell over all. The fight paused. Then a sensation as of some +fellows smoothing their polls and their cheeks, and leaning on their +shoulders with obtrusive affection, inspirited them to lash about +indiscriminately. Whoops and yells arose; then peals of laughter. Homage +to the cleverness of Ipley was paid in hurrahs, the moment Hillford +understood the stratagem by which its men of valour were lamed and +imprisoned. The truth was, that the booth was down on them, and they +were struggling entangled in an enormous bag of canvas. + +Wilfrid drew Emilia from under the drooping folds of the tent. He was +allowed, on inspection of features, to pass. The men of Hillford were +captured one by one like wild geese, as with difficulty they emerged, +roaring, rolling with laughter, all. + +Yea; to such an extent did they laugh that they can scarce be said to +have done less than make the joke of the foe their own. And this proves +the great and amazing magnanimity of Beer. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +A pillar of dim silver rain fronted the moon on the hills. Emilia walked +hurriedly, with her head bent, like a penitent: now and then peeping +up and breathing to the keen scent of the tender ferns. Wilfrid still +grasped her hand, and led her across the common, away from the rout. + +When the uproar behind them had sunk, he said "You'll get your feet wet. +I'm sorry you should have to walk. How did you come here?" + +She answered: "I forget." + +"You must have come here in some conveyance. Did you walk?" + +Again she answered: "I forget;" a little querulously; perhaps wilfully. + +"Well!" he persisted: "You must have got your harp to this place by some +means or other?" + +"Yes, my harp!" a sob checked her voice. + +Wilfrid tried to soothe her. "Never mind the harp. It's easily +replaced." + +"Not that one!" she moaned. + +"We will get you another." + +"I shall never love any but that." + +"Perhaps we may hear good news of it to-morrow." + +"No; for I felt it die in my hands. The third blow was the one that +killed it. It's broken." + +Wilfrid could not reproach her, and he had not any desire to preach. So, +as no idea of having done amiss in coming to the booth to sing illumined +her, and she yet knew that she was in some way guilty, she accused +herself of disregard for that dear harp while it was brilliant and +serviceable. "Now I remember what poor music I made of it! I touched +it with cold fingers. The sound was thin, as if it had no heart. +Tick-tick!--I fancy I touched it with a dead man's finger-nails." + +She crossed her wrists tight at the clasp of her waist, and letting her +chin fall on her throat, shook her body fretfully, much as a pettish +little girl might do. Wilfrid grimaced. "Tick-tick" was not a pathetic +elegy in his ears. + +"The only thing is, not to think about it," said he. "It's only an +instrument, after all." + +"It's the second one I've seen killed like a living creature," replied +Emilia. + +They walked on silently, till Wilfrid remarked, that he wondered where +Gambier was. She gave no heed to the name. The little quiet footing and +the bowed head by his side, moved him to entreat her not to be unhappy. +Her voice had another tone when she answered that she was not unhappy. + +"No tears at all?" Wilfrid stooped to get a close view of her face. "I +thought I saw one. If it's about the harp, look!--you shall go into that +cottage where the light is, sit there, and wait for me, and I will bring +you what remains of it. I dare say we can have it mended." + +Emilia lifted her eyes. "I am not crying for the harp. If you go back I +must go with you." + +"That's out of the question. You must never be found in that sort of +place again." + +"Let us leave the harp," she murmured. "You cannot go without me. Let me +sit here for a minute. Sit with me." + +She pointed to a place beside herself on the fork of a dry log under +flowering hawthorn. A pale shadowy blue centre of light among the clouds +told where the moon was. Rain had ceased, and the refreshed earth smelt +all of flowers, as if each breeze going by held a nosegay to their +nostrils. + +Wilfrid was sensible of a sudden marked change in her. His blood was +quicker than his brain in feeling it. Her voice now, even in common +speaking, had that vibrating richness which in her singing swept his +nerves. + +"If you cry, there must be a cause, you know," he said, for the sake of +keeping the conversation in a safe channel. + +"How brave you are!" was Emilia's sedate exclamation, in reply. + +Her cheeks glowed, as if she had just uttered a great confession, but +while the colour mounted to her eyes, they kept their affectionate +intentness upon him without a quiver of the lids. + +"Do you think me a coward?" she relieved him by asking sharply, like +one whom the thought had turned into a darker path. "I am not. I hung my +head while you were fighting, because, what could I do? I would not have +left you. Girls can only say, 'I will perish with him.'" + +"But," Wilfrid tried to laugh, "there was no necessity for that sort +of devotion. What are you thinking of? It was half in good-humour, all +through. Part of their fun!" + +Clearly Emilia's conception of the recent fray was unchangeable. + +"And the place for girls is at home; that's certain," he added. + +"I should always like to be where..." Her voice flowed on with singular +gravity to that stop. + +Wilfrid's hand travelled mechanically to his pricking cheek-bone. + +Was it possible that a love-scene was coming on as a pendant to that +monstrously ridiculous affair of half-an-hour back? To know that she had +sufficient sensibility was gratifying, and flattering that it aimed at +him. She was really a darling little woman: only too absurd! Had she +been on the point of saying that she would always like to be where +he, Wilfrid, was? An odd touch of curiosity, peculiar to the languid +emotions, made him ask her this: and to her soft "Yes," he continued +briskly, and in the style of condescending fellowship: "Of course we're +not going to part!" + +"I wonder," said Emilia. + +There she sat, evidently sounding right through the future with her +young brain, to hear what Destiny might have to say. + +The 'I wonder' rang sweetly in his head. It was as delicate a way +of confessing, "I love you with all my soul," as could be imagined. +Extremely refined young ladies could hardly have improved upon it, +saving with the angelic shades of sentiment familiar to them. + +Convinced that he had now heard enough for his vanity, Wilfrid returned +emphatically to the tone of the world's highroad. + +"By the way," he said, "you mustn't have any exaggerated idea of this +night's work. Remember, also, I have to share the honours with Captain +Gambier." + +"I did not see him," said Emilia. + +"Are you not cold?" he asked, for a diversion, though he had one of her +hands. + +She gave him the other. + +He could not quit them abruptly: nor could he hold both without being +drawn to her. + +"What is it you say?" Wilfrid whispered: "men kiss us when we are happy. +Is that right? and are you happy?" + +She lifted a clear full face, to which he bent his mouth. Over the +flowering hawthorn the moon stood like a windblown white rose of the +heavens. The kiss was given and taken. Strange to tell, it was he who +drew away from it almost bashfully, and with new feelings. + +Quite unaware that he played the feminine part, Wilfrid alluded to her +flight from Richford, with the instinct to sting his heart by a revival +of his jealous sensations previously experienced, and so taste the +luxury of present satisfaction. + +"Why did you run away from me?" he said, semi-reproachfully. + +"I promised." + +"Would you not break a promise to stay with me?" + +"Now I would!" + +"You promised Captain Gambier?" + +"No: those poor people." + +"You are sorry that you went?" + +No: she was happy. + +"You have lost your harp by it," said Wilfrid. + +"What do you think of me for not guessing--not knowing who sent it?" she +returned. "I feel guilty of something all those days that I touched +it, not thinking of you. Wicked, filthy little creature that I was! I +despise ungrateful girls." + +"I detest anything that has to do with gratitude," Wilfrid appended, +"pray give me none. Why did you go away with Captain Gambier?" + +"I was very fond of him," she replied unhesitatingly, but speaking as it +were with numbed lips. "I wanted to tell him, to thank him and hold his +hand. I told him of my promise. He spoke to me a moment in the garden, +you know. He said he was leaving to go to London early, and would wait +for me in the carriage: then we might talk. He did not wish to talk to +me in the garden." + +"And you went with him in the carriage, and told him you were so +grateful?" + +"Yes; but men do not like us to be grateful." + +"So, he said he would do all sorts of things on condition that you were +not grateful?" + +"He said--yes: I forget: I do forget! How can I tell what he said?" +Emilia added piteously. "I feel as if I had been emptied out of a sack!" + +Wilfrid was pierced with laughter; and then the plainspoken simile gave +him a chilling sensation while he was rising to the jealous pitch. + +"Did he talk about taking you to Italy? Put your head into the sack, and +think!" + +"Yes," she answered blandly, an affirmative that caused him some +astonishment, for he had struck at once to the farthest end of his +suspicions. + +"He feels as I do about the Italian Schools," said Emilia. "He wishes me +to owe my learning to him. He says it will make him happy, and I thought +so too." She threw in a "then." + +Wilfrid looked moodily into the opposite hedge. + +"Did he name the day for your going?" he asked presently, little +anticipating another "Yes": but it came: and her rather faltering manner +showed her to be conscious too that the word was getting to be a black +one to him. + +"Did you say you would go?" + +"I did." + +Question and answer crossed like two rapiers. + +Wilfrid jumped up. + +"The smell of this tree's detestable," he said, glancing at the +shadowing hawthorn. + +Emilia rose quietly, plucked a flower off the tree, and put it in her +bosom. + +Their way was down a green lane and across long meadow-paths dim in the +moonlight. A nightingale was heard on this side and on that. Overhead +they had a great space of sky with broken cloud full of the glory of the +moon. The meadows dipped to a brook, slenderly spanned by a plank. Then +there was an ascent through a cornfield to a copse. Rounding this they +had sight of Brookfield. But while they were yet at the brook, Wilfrid +said, "When is it you're going to Italy?" + +In return he had an eager look, so that he was half-ashamed to add, +"With Captain Gambier, I mean." He was suffering, and by being brutal he +expected to draw balm on himself; nor was he deceived. + +Emilia just then gave him her hand to be led over, and answered, as she +neared him, "I am never to leave you." + +"You never shall!" Wilfrid caught her in his arms, quite conquered by +her, proud of her. He reflected with a loving rapture that her manner +at that moment was equal to any lady's; and the phantom of her with +her hand out, and her frank look, and trustful footing, while she spoke +those words, kept on advancing to him all the way to Brookfield, at the +same time that the sober reality murmured at his elbow. + +Love, with his accustomed cunning, managed thus to lift her out of +the mire and array her in his golden dress to idealize her, as we say. +Reconciled for the hour were the contesting instincts in the nature of +this youth the adoration of feminine refinement and the susceptibility +to sensuous impressions. But Emilia walked with a hero: the dream of all +her days! one, generous and gentle, as well as brave: who had fought for +her, had thought of her tenderly, was with her now, having raised her to +his level with a touch! How much might they not accomplish together: he +with sword, she with harp? Through shadowy alleys in the clouds, Emilia +saw the bright Italian plains opening out to her: the cities of marble, +such as her imagination had fashioned them, porticos of stately +palaces, and towers, and statues white among cypresses; and farther, +minutely-radiant in the vista as a shining star, Venice of the sea. +Fancy made the flying minutes hours. Now they marched with the regiments +of Italy, under the folds of her free banner; now she sang to the +victorious army, waving the banner over them; and now she floated in a +gondola, and turning to him, the dear home of her heart, yet pale with +the bleeding of his wound for Italy, said softly, in the tone that had +power with him, "Only let me please you!" + +"When? Where? What with?" came the blunt response from England, with +electric speed, and Emilia fell from the clouds. + +"I meant my singing; I thought of how I sang to you. Oh, happy time!" +she exclaimed, to cut through the mist of vision in her mind. + +"To me? down at the booth?" muttered Wilfrid, perplexed. + +"Oh, no! I mean, just now--" and languid with the burden of so full a +heart, she did not attempt to explain herself further, though he said, +invitingly, "I thought I heard you humming?" + +Then he was seized with a desire to have the force of her spirit upon +him, for Brookfield was in view; and with the sight of Brookfield, the +natural fascination waxed a shade fainter, and he feared it might +be going. This (he was happily as ignorant as any other youth of the +working of his machinery) prompted him to bid her sing before they +parted. Emilia checked her steps at once to do as he desired. Her throat +filled, but the voice quavered down again, like a fainting creature sick +unto death. She made another effort and ended with a sorrowful look at +his narrowly-watching eyes. + +"I can't," she said; and, in fear of his anger, took his hand to beg +forgiveness, while her eyelids drooped. + +Wilfrid locked her fingers in a strong pressure, and walked on, silent +as a man who has faced one of the veiled mysteries of life. It struck +a full human blow on his heart, dragging him out of his sentimental +pastures precipitately. He felt her fainting voice to be the intensest +love-cry that could be uttered. The sound of it coursed through his +blood, striking a rare illumination of sparks in his not commonly +brilliant brain. In truth, that little episode showed an image of nature +weak with the burden of new love. I do not charge the young cavalry +officer with the power of perceiving images. He saw no more than that +she could not sing because of what was in her heart toward him; but such +a physical revelation was a divine love-confession, coming involuntarily +from one whose lips had not formed the name of love; and Wilfrid felt +it so deeply, that the exquisite flattery was almost lost, in a certain +awed sense of his being in the presence of an absolute fact: a thing +real, though it was much talked about, and visible, though it did not +wear a hat or a petticoat. + +It searched him thoroughly enough to keep him from any further pledges +in that direction, propitious as the moment was, while the moon slipped +over banks of marble into fields of blue, and all the midnight promised +silence. They passed quickly through the laurel shrubs, and round the +lawn. Lights were in the sleepless ladies' bed-room windows. + +"Do I love her?" thought Wilfrid, as he was about to pull at the bell, +and the thought that he should feel pain at being separated from her for +half-a-dozen hours, persuaded him that he did. The self-restraint which +withheld him from protesting that he did, confirmed it. + +"To-morrow morning," he whispered. + +"I shall be down by daylight," answered Emilia. + +"You are in the shade--I cannot see you," said he. + +The door opened as Emilia was moving out of the line of shadow. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +On the morrow Wilfrid was gone. No one had seen him go. Emilia, while +she touched the keys of a muted piano softly in the morning quiet of the +house, had heard the front-door close. At that hour one attributes every +noise to the servants. She played on and waited patiently, till the +housemaid expelled her into the dewy air. + +The report from his bedchamber, telling the ladies of his absence, added +that he had taken linen for a lengthened journey. + +This curious retreat of my hero belongs to the order of things that are +done 'None know why;' a curtain which drops conveniently upon either the +bewilderment of the showman or the infirmities of the puppet. + +I must own (though I need not be told what odium frowns on such a +pretension to excess of cleverness) that I do know why. I know why, and, +unfortunately for me, I have to tell what I know. If I do not tell, this +narrative is so constituted that there will be no moral to it. + +One who studies man in puppets (in which purpose lies the chief value of +this amusing species), must think that we are degenerating rapidly. The +puppet hero, for instance, is a changed being. We know what he was; +but now he takes shelter in his wits. His organs affect his destiny. +Careless of the fact that the hero's achievement is to conquer nature, +he seems rather to boast of his subservience to her. + +Still, up to this day, the fixture of a nose upon the puppet-hero's +frontispiece has not been attempted. Some one does it at last. When the +alternative came: "No nose to the hero, no moral to the tale;" could +there be hesitation? + +And I would warn our sentimentalists to admit the nose among the +features proper to heroes, otherwise the race will become extinct. +There is already an amount of dropping of the curtain that is positively +wearisome, even to extremely refined persons, in order to save him from +apparent misconduct. He will have to go altogether, unless we boldly +figure him as other men. Manifestly the moment his career as a fairy +prince was at end, he was on the high road to a nose. The beneficent +Power that discriminated for him having vanished utterly, he was, like +a bankrupt gentleman, obliged to do all the work for himself. This is +nothing more than the tendency of the generations downward from the +ideal. + +The springs that moved Wilfrid upon the present occasion were simple. +We will strip him of his heroic trappings for one fleeting instant, and +show them. + +Jumping briskly from a restless bed, his first act was to address his +features to the looking-glass: and he saw surely the most glorious sight +for a hero of the knightly age that could possibly have been offered. +The battle of the previous night was written there in one eloquent big +lump, which would have passed him current as hero from end to end of +the land in the great days of old. These are the tea-table days. His +preference was for the visage of Wilfrid Pole, which he saw not. At the +aspect of the fearful mask, this young man stared, and then cursed; and +then, by an odd transition, he was reminded, as by the force of a sudden +gust, that Emilia's hair was redolent of pipe-smoke. + +His remark was, "I can't be seen in this state." His thought (a dim +reminiscence of poetical readings): "Ambrosial locks indeed!" A sad +irony, which told that much gold-leaf had peeled away from her image in +his heart. + +Wilfrid was a gallant fellow, with good stuff in him. But, he was young. +Ponder on that pregnant word, for you are about to see him grow. He was +less a coxcomb than shamefaced and sentimental; and one may have these +qualities, and be a coxcomb to boot, and yet be a gallant fellow. One +may also be a gallant fellow, and harsh, exacting, double-dealing, and +I know not what besides, in youth. The question asked by nature is, +"Has he the heart to take and keep an impression?" For, if he has, +circumstances will force him on and carve the figure of a brave man out +of that mass of contradictions. In return for such benefits, he pays +forfeit commonly of the dearest of the things prized by him in this +terrestrial life. Whereat, albeit created man by her, he reproaches +nature, and the sculptor, circumstance; forgetting that to make him man +is their sole duty, and that what betrayed him was the difficulty thrown +in their way by his quondam self--the pleasant boonfellow! + +He forgets, in fact, that he was formerly led by his nose, and +sacrificed his deeper feeling to a low disgust. + +When the youth is called upon to look up, he can adore devoutly and +ardently; but when it is his chance to look down on a fair head, he is, +if not worse, a sentimental despot. + +Wilfrid was young, and under the dominion of his senses; which can be, +if the sentimentalists will believe me, as tyrannous and misleading +when super-refined as when ultra-bestial. He made a good stout effort +to resist the pipe-smoke. Emilia's voice, her growing beauty, her +simplicity, her peculiar charms of feature, were all conjured up to +combat the dismal images suggested by that fatal, dragging-down smell. +It was vain. Horrible pipe-smoke pervaded the memory of her. It seemed +to his offended dainty fancy that he could never dissociate her from +smoking-booths and abominably bad tobacco; and, let us add (for this +was part of the secret), that it never could dwell on her without +the companionship of a hideous disfigured countenance, claiming to be +Wilfrid Pole. He shuddered to think that he had virtually almost +engaged himself to this girl. Or, had he? Was his honour bound? Distance +appeared to answer the question favourably. There was safety in being +distant from her. She possessed an incomprehensible attractiveness. She +was at once powerful and pitiable: so that while he feared her, and was +running from her spell, he said, from time to time, "Poor little thing!" +and deeply hoped she would not be unhappy. + +A showman once (a novice in his art, or ambitious beyond the mark), +after a successful exhibition of his dolls, handed them to the company, +with the observation, "satisfy yourselves, ladies and gentlemen." The +latter, having satisfied themselves that the capacity of the lower limbs +was extraordinary, returned them, disenchanted. That showman did ill. +But I am not imitating him. I do not wait till after the performance, +when it is too late to revive illusion. To avoid having to drop the +curtain, I choose to explain an act on which the story hinges, while it +is advancing: which is, in truth, an impulse of character. Instead +of his being more of a puppet, this hero is less wooden than he was. +Certainly I am much more in awe of him. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +Mr. Pole was one of those men whose characters are read off at a glance. +He was neat, insignificant, and nervously cheerful; with the eyes of a +bird, that let you into no interior. His friends knew him thoroughly. +His daughters were never in doubt about him. At the period of the +purchase of Brookfield he had been excitable and feverish, but that was +ascribed to the projected change in his habits, and the stern necessity +for an occasional family intercommunication on the subject of money. +He had a remarkable shyness of this theme, and reversed its general +treatment; for he would pay, but would not talk of it. If it had to be +discussed with the ladies, he puffed, and blinked, and looked so much +like a culprit that, though they rather admired him for what seemed to +them the germ of a sense delicate above his condition, they would have +said of any man they had not known so perfectly, that he had painful +reasons for wishing to avoid it. Now that they spoke to him of Besworth, +assuring him that they were serious in their desire to change their +residence, the fit of shyness was manifested, first in outrageous praise +of Brookfield, which was speedily and inexplicably followed by a sort +of implied assent to the proposition to depart from it. For Besworth +displayed numerous advantages over Brookfield, and to contest one was +to plunge headlong into the money question. He ventured to ask his +daughters what good they expected from the change. They replied that it +was simply this: that one might live fifty years at Brookfield and not +get such a circle as in two might be established at Besworth. They were +restricted. They had gathering friends, and no means of bringing them +together. And the beauty of the site of Besworth made them enthusiastic. + +"Well, but," said Mr. Pole: "what does it lead to? Is there nothing to +come after?" + +He explained: "You're girls, you know. You won't always stop with me. +You may do just as well at Brookfield for yourselves, as over there." + +The ladies blushed demurely. + +"You forecast very kindly for us, papa," said Cornelia. "Our object is +entirely different." + +"I wish I could see it," he returned. + +"But, you do see, papa, you do see," interposed Adela, "that a select +life is preferable to that higgledy-piggledy city-square existence so +many poor creatures are condemned to!" + +"Select!" said Mr. Pole, thinking that he had hit upon a weakness in +their argument; "how can it be select when you want to go to a place +where you may have a crowd about you?" + +"Selection can only be made from a crowd," remarked Arabella, with +terrible placidity. "It is where we see few that we are at the mercy of +kind fortune for our acquaintances." + +"Don't you see, papa, that the difference between the aristocracy and +the bourgeoisie is, that the former choose their sets, and the latter +are obliged to take what comes to them?" said Adela. + +This was the first domestic discussion upon Besworth. The visit to +Richford had produced the usual effect on the ladies, who were now +looking to other heights from that level. The ladies said: "We have only +to press it with papa, and we shall quit this place." But at the second +discussion they found that they had not advanced. The only change was +in the emphasis that their father added to the interrogations already +uttered. "What does it lead to? What's to come after? I see your object. +But, am I to go into a new house for the sake of getting you out of it, +and then be left there alone? It's against your interests, too. Never +mind how. Leave that to a business man. If your brother had proposed +it...but he's too reasonable." + +The ladies, upon this hint, wrote to Wilfrid to obtain his concurrence +and assistance. He laughed when he read the simple sentence: "We hope +you will not fancy that we have any peculiar personal interest in view;" +and replied to them that he was sure they had none: that he looked upon +Besworth with favour, "and I may inform you," he pursued, "that your +taste is heartily applauded by Lady Charlotte Chillingworth, she bids +me tell you." The letter was dated from Stornley, the estate of the +marquis, Lady Charlotte's father. Her ladyship's brother was a member +of Wilfrid's Club. "He calls Besworth the most habitable place in the +county, and promises to be there as many months out of the twelve as you +like to have him. I agree with him that Stornley can't hold a candle to +it. There are three residences in England that might be preferred to it, +and, of those, two are ducal." + +The letter was a piece of that easy diplomacy which comes from habit. +The "of those, two are ducal," was masterly. It affected the imagination +of Brookfield. "Which two?" And could Besworth be brought to rival them? +Ultimately, it might be! The neighbourhood to London, too, gave it noble +advantages. Rapid relays of guests, and a metropolitan reputation for +country attractions, would distinguish Besworth above most English +houses. A house where all the chief celebrities might be encountered: a +house under suave feminine rule; a house, a home, to a chosen set, and a +refreshing fountain to a widening circle! + +"We have a dispute," they wrote playfully to Wilfrid "a dispute we wish +you or Lady Charlotte to settle. I, Arabella, know nothing of trout. +I, Cornelia, know nothing of river-beds. I, Adela, know nothing of +engineering. But, we are persuaded, the latter, that the river running +for a mile through Besworth grounds may be deepened: we are persuaded, +the intermediate, that the attempt will damage the channel: we are +persuaded, the first, that all the fish will go." + +In reply, Wilfrid appeared to have taken them in earnest. "I rode over +yesterday with Lady Charlotte," he said. "We think something might be +done, without at all endangering the fish or spoiling the channel. At +all events, the idea of making the mile of broad water serviceable for +boats is too good to give up in a hurry. How about the dining-hall? +I told Lady Charlotte you were sure to insist upon a balcony for +musicians. She laughed. You will like her when you know her." + +Thus the ladies of Brookfield were led on to be more serious concerning +Besworth than they had thought of being, and began to feel that their +honour was pledged to purchase this surpassing family seat. In a +household where every want is supplied, and money as a topic utterly +banished, it is not surprising that they should have had imperial views. + +Adela was Wilfrid's favoured correspondent. She described to him gaily +the struggle with their papa. "But, if you care for Besworth, you +may calculate on it.--Or is it only for our sakes, as I sometimes +think?--Besworth is won. Nothing but the cost of the place (to be +considered you know!) could withhold it from us; and of that papa has +not uttered a syllable, though he conjures up every possible objection +to a change of abode, and will not (perhaps, poor dear, cannot) see what +we intend doing in the world. Now, you know that rich men invariably +make the question of the cost their first and loudest outcry. I know +that to be the case. They call it their blood. Papa seems indifferent to +this part of the affair. He does not even allude to it. Still, we do not +progress. It is just possible that the Tinleys have an eye on beautiful +Besworth. Their own place is bad enough, but good enough for them. Give +them Besworth, and they will sit upon the neighbourhood. We shall be +invaded by everything that is mean and low, and a great chance will be +gone for us. I think I may say, for the county. The country? Our advice +is, that you write to papa one of your cleverest letters. We know, +darling, what you can do with the pen as well as the sword. Write word +that you have written." + +Wilfrid's reply stated that he considered it unadviseable that he should +add his voice to the request, for the present. + +The ladies submitted to this quietly until they heard from their father +one evening at dinner that he had seen Wilfrid in the city. + +"He doesn't waste his time like some young people I know," said Mr. +Pole, with a wink. + +"Papa; is it possible?" cried Adela. + +"Everything's possible, my dear." + +"Lady Charlotte?" + +"There is a Lady Charlotte." + +"Who would be Lady Charlotte still, whatever occurred!" + +Mr. Pole laughed. "No, no. You get nothing out of me. All I say is, be +practical. The sun isn't always shining." + +He appeared to be elated with some secret good news. + +"Have you been over to Besworth, the last two or three days?" he asked. + +The ladies smiled radiantly, acknowledging Wilfrid's wonderful +persuasive powers, in their hearts. + +"No, papa; we have not been," said Adela. "We are always anxious to go, +as I think you know." + +The merchant chirped over his glass. "Well, well! There's a way." + +"Straight?" + +"Over a gate; ha, ha!" + +His gaiety would have been perplexing, but for the allusion to Lady +Charlotte. + +The sisters, in their unfailing midnight consultation, persuaded +one another that Wilfrid had become engaged to that lady. They wrote +forthwith Fine Shades to him on the subject. His answer was Boeotian, +and all about Besworth. "Press it now," he said, "if you really want +it. The iron is hot. And above all things, let me beg you not to be +inconsiderate to the squire, when he and I are doing all we can for +you. I mean, we are bound to consider him, if there should happen to be +anything he wishes us to do." + +What could the word 'inconsiderate' imply? The ladies were unable to +summon an idea to solve it. They were sure that no daughters could be +more perfectly considerate and ready to sacrifice everything to their +father. In the end, they deputed the volunteering Adela to sit with him +in the library, and put the question of Besworth decisively, in the name +of all. They, meantime, who had a contempt for sleep, waited aloft to +hold debate over the result of the interview. + +An hour after midnight, Adela came to them, looking pale and uncertain: +her curls seeming to drip, and her blue eyes wandering about the room, +as if she had seen a thing that kept her in a quiver between belief and +doubt. + +The two ladies drew near to her, expressing no verbal impatience, from +which the habit of government and great views naturally saved them, but +singularly curious. + +Adela's first exclamation: "I wish I had not gone," alarmed them. + +"Has any change come to papa?" breathed Arabella. + +Cornelia smiled. "Do you not know him too well?" + +An acute glance from Adela made her ask whether Besworth was to be +surrendered. + +"Oh, no! my dear. We may have Besworth." + +"Then, surely!" + +"But, there are conditions?" said Arabella. + +"Yes. Wilfrid's enigma is explained. Bella, that woman has seen papa." + +"What woman?" + +"Mrs. Chump." + +"She has our permission to see him in town, if that is any consolation +to her." + +"She has told him," continued Adela, "that no explanation, or whatever +it may be, was received by her." + +"Certainly not, if it was not sent." + +"Papa," and Adela's voice trembled, "papa will not think of +Besworth,--not a word of it!-until--until we consent to welcome that +woman here as our guest." + +Cornelia was the first to break the silence that followed this +astounding intelligence. "Then," she said, "Besworth is not to be +thought of. You told him so?" + +Adela's head drooped. "Oh!" she cried, "what shall we do? We shall be +a laughing-stock to the neighbourhood. The house will have to be locked +up. We shall live like hermits worried by a demon. Her brogue! Do you +remember it? It is not simply Irish. It's Irish steeped in brine. It's +pickled Irish!" + +She feigned the bursting into tears of real vexation. + +"You speak," said Cornelia contemptuously, "as if we had very humbly +bowed our heads to the infection." + +"Papa making terms with us!" murmured Arabella. + +"Pray, repeat his words." + +Adela tossed her curls. "I will, as well as I can. I began by speaking +of Besworth cheerfully; saying, that if he really had no strong +affection for Brookfield, that would make him regret quitting it, we +saw innumerable advantages in the change of residence proposed. +Predilection,--not affection--that was what I said. He replied that +Besworth was a large place, and I pointed out that therein lay one of +its principal merits. I expected what would come. He alluded to the +possibility of our changing our condition. You know that idea haunts +him. I told him our opinion of the folly of the thing. I noticed that +he grew red in the face, and I said that of course marriage was a thing +ordained, but that we objected to being submerged in matrimony until we +knew who and what we were. I confess he did not make a bad reply, of +its kind. 'You're like a youngster playing truant that he may gain +knowledge.' What do you think of it?" + +"A smart piece of City-speech," was Arabella's remark: Cornelia placidly +observing, "Vulgarity never contains more than a minimum of the truth." + +"I said," Adela went on, "Think as you will, papa, we know we are right. +He looked really angry. He said, that we have the absurdest ideas--you +tell me to repeat his words--of any girls that ever existed; and then he +put a question: listen: I give it without comment: 'I dare say, you all +object to widows marrying again.' I kept myself quiet. 'Marrying again, +papa! If they marry once they might as well marry a dozen times.' It +was the best way to irritate him. I did not intend it; that is all I can +say. He jumped from his chair, rubbed his hair, and almost ran up and +down the library floor, telling me that I prevaricated. 'You object to a +widow marrying at all--that's my question!' he cried out loud. Of +course I contained my voice all the more. 'Distinctly, papa.' When I +had spoken, I could scarcely help laughing. He went like a pony that is +being broken in, crying, I don't know how many times, 'Why? What's +your reason?' You may suppose, darlings, that I decline to enter upon +explanation. If a person is dense upon a matter of pure sentiment, there +is no ground between us: he has simply a sense wanting. 'What has all +this to do with Besworth?' I asked. 'A great deal more than you fancy,' +was his answer. He seemed to speak every word at me in capital letters. +Then, as if a little ashamed, he sat down, and reached out his hand to +mine, and I saw his eyes were moist. I drew my chair nearer to him. Now, +whether I did right or wrong in this, I do not know I leave it entirely +to your judgement. If you consider how I was placed, you will at all +events excuse me. What I did was--you know, the very farthest suspicion +one has of an extreme possibility one does not mind mentioning: I said +'Papa, if it should so happen that money is the objection to Besworth, +we will not trouble you.' At this, I can only say that he behaved like +an insane person. He denounced me as wilfully insulting him that I might +avoid one subject." + +"And what on earth can that be?" interposed Arabella. + +"You may well ask. Could a genie have guessed that Mrs. Chump was at +the bottom of it all? The conclusion of the dreadful discussion is +this, that papa offers to take the purchase of Besworth into his +consideration, if we, as I said before, will receive Mrs. Chump as our +honoured guest. I am bound to say, poor dear old man, he spoke kindly, +as he always does, and kissed me, and offered to give me anything I +might want. I came from him stupefied. I have hardly got my senses about +me yet." + +The ladies caressed her, with grave looks; but neither of them showed a +perturbation of spirit like that which distressed Adela. + +"Wilfrid's meaning is now explained," said Cornelia. "He is in league +with papa; or has given in his adhesion to papa's demands, at least. He +is another example of the constant tendency in men to be what they call +'practical' at the expense of honour and sincerity." + +"I hope not," said Arabella. "In any case, that need not depress you so +seriously, darling." + +She addressed Adela. + +"Do you not see?" Adela cried, in response. "What! are you both blind to +the real significance of papa's words? I could not have believed it! Or +am I this time too acute? I pray to heaven it may be so!" + +Both ladies desired her to be explicit; Arabella, eagerly; Cornelia with +distrust. + +"The question of a widow marrying! What is this woman, whom papa wishes +to force on us as our guest? Why should he do that? Why should he +evince anxiety with regard to our opinion of the decency of widows +contemplating re-union? Remember previous words and hints when we lived +in the city!" + +"This at least you may spare us," said Cornelia, ruffling offended. + +Adela smiled in tenderness for her beauty. + +"But, it is important, if we are following a track, dear. Think over +it." + +"No!" cried Arabella. "It cannot be true. We might easily have guessed +this, if we ever dreamed of impossibilities." + +"In such cases, when appearances lean in one direction, set principles +in the opposite balance," added Cornelia. "What Adela apprehends may +seem to impend, but we know that papa is incapable of doing it. To +know that, shuts the gates of suspicion. She has allowed herself to be +troubled by a ghastly nightmare." + +Adela believed in her own judgement too completely not to be sure +that her sisters were, perhaps unknowingly, disguising a slowness of +perception they were ashamed of, by thus partially accusing her of +giddiness. She bit her lip. + +"Very well; if you have no fears whatever, you need not abandon the idea +of Besworth." + +"I abandon nothing," said Arabella. "If I have to make a choice, I take +that which is least objectionable. I am chagrined, most, at the idea +that Wilfrid has been treacherous." + +"Practical," Cornelia suggested. "You are not speaking of one of our +sex." + +Questions were then put to Adela, whether Mr. Pole had spoken in the +manner of one who was prompted: whether he hesitated as he spoke: +whether, in short, Wilfrid was seen behind his tongue. Adela resolved +that Wilfrid should have one protectress. + +"You are entirely mistaken in ascribing treachery to him," she said. "It +is papa that is changed. You may suppose it to be without any reason, +if you please. I would tell you to study him for yourselves, only I am +convinced that these special private interviews are anything but good +policy, and are strictly to be avoided, unless of course, as in the +present instance, we have something directly to do." + +Toward dawn the ladies had decreed that it was policy to be quite +passive, and provoke no word of Mrs. Chump by making any allusion to +Besworth, and by fencing with the mention of the place. + +As they rarely failed to carry out any plan deliberately conceived +by them, Mr. Pole was astonished to find that Besworth was altogether +dropped. After certain scattered attempts to bring them upon Besworth, +he shrugged, and resigned himself, but without looking happy. + +Indeed he looked so dismal that the ladies began to think he had a great +longing for Besworth. And yet he did not go there, or even praise it to +the discredit of Brookfield! They were perplexed. + +"Let me ask you how it is," said Cornelia to Mr. Barrett, "that a person +whom we know--whose actions and motives are as plain to us as though +discerned through a glass, should at times produce a completer +mystification than any other creature? Or have you not observed it?" + +"I have had better opportunities of observing it than most people," Mr. +Barren replied, with one of his saddest amused smiles. "I have come to +the conclusion that the person we know best is the one whom we never +understand." + +"You answer me with a paradox." + +"Is it not the natural attendant on an assumption?" + +"What assumption?" + +"That you know a person thoroughly." + +"May we not?" + +"Do you, when you acknowledge this 'complete mystification'?" + +"Yes." Cornelia smiled when she had said it. "And no." + +Mr. Barrett, with his eyes on her, laughed softly. "Which is paradox at +the fountain-head! But, when we say we know any one, we mean commonly +that we are accustomed to his ways and habits of mind; or, that we can +reckon on the predominant influence of his appetites. Sometimes we can +tell which impulse is likely to be the most active, and which principle +the least restraining. The only knowledge to be trusted is a grounded +or scientific study of the springs that move him, side by side with +his method of moving the springs. If you fail to do this, you have two +classes under your eyes: you have sane and madman: and it will seem +to you that the ranks of the latter are constantly being swollen in an +extraordinary manner. The customary impression, as we get older, is that +our friends are the maddest people in the world. You see, we have grown +accustomed to them; and now, if they bewilder us, our judgement, in +self-defence, is compelled to set them down lunatic." + +Cornelia bowed her stately head with gentle approving laughter. + +"They must go, or they despatch us thither," she said, while her fair +face dimpled into serenity. The remark was of a lower nature than an +intellectual discussion ordinarily drew from her: but could Mr. Barrett +have read in her heart, he might have seen that his words were beginning +to rob that organ of its native sobriety. So that when he spoke a cogent +phrase, she was silenced, and became aware of a strange exultation in +her blood that obscured grave thought. Cornelia attributed this display +of mental weakness altogether to Mr. Barrett's mental force. The +interposition of a fresh agency was undreamt of by the lady. + +Meanwhile, it was evident that Mr. Pole was a victim to one of his +fevers of shyness. He would thrum on the table, frowning; and then, as +he met the look of one of the ladies, try to disguise the thought in his +head with a forced laugh. Occasionally, he would turn toward them, as if +he had just caught a lost idea that was peculiarly precious. The ladies +drawing up to attend to the communication, had a most trivial matter +imparted to them, and away he went. Several times he said to them "You +don't make friends, as you ought;" and their repudiation of the charge +made him repeat: "You don't make friends--home friends." + +"The house can be as full as we care to have it, papa." + +"Yes, acquaintances! All very well, but I mean friends--rich friends." + +"We will think of it, papa," said Adela, "when we want money." + +"It isn't that," he murmured. + +Adela had written to Wilfrid a full account of her interview with her +father. Wilfrid's reply was laconic. "If you cannot stand a week of the +brogue, give up Besworth, by all means." He made no further allusion +to the place. They engaged an opera-box, for the purpose of holding a +consultation with him in town. He wrote evasively, but did not appear, +and the ladies, with Emilia between them, listened to every foot-fall +by the box-door, and were too much preoccupied to marvel that Emilia was +just as inattentive to the music as they were. When the curtain dropped +they noticed her dejection. + +"What ails you?" they asked. + +"Let us go out of London to-night," she whispered, and it was difficult +to persuade her that she would see Brookfield again. + +"Remember," said Adela, "it is you that run away from us, not we from +you." + +Soft chidings of this description were the only reproaches for her +naughty conduct. She seemed contrite very still and timid, since that +night of adventure. The ladies were glad to observe it, seeing that it +lent her an air of refinement, and proved her sensible to correction. + +At last Mr. Pole broke the silence. He had returned from business, +humming and rubbing his hands, like one newly primed with a suggestion +that was the key of a knotty problem. Observant Adela said: "Have you +seen Wilfrid, papa?" + +"Saw him in the morning," Mr. Pole replied carelessly. + +Mr. Barrett was at the table. + +"By the way, what do you think of our law of primogeniture?" Mr. Pole +addressed him. + +He replied with the usual allusion to a basis of aristocracy. + +"Well, it's the English system," said Mr. Pole. "That's always in its +favour at starting. I'm Englishman enough to think that. There ought to +be an entail of every decent bit of property, eh?" + +It was observed that Mr. Barrett reddened as he said, "I certainly think +that a young man should not be subject to his father's caprice." + +"Father's caprice! That isn't common. But, if you're founding a family, +you must entail." + +"We agree, sir, from my point of view, and from yours." + +"Knits the family bond, don't you think? I mean, makes the trunk of the +tree firm. It makes the girls poor, though!" + +Mr. Barrett saw that he had some confused legal ideas in his head, and +that possibly there were personal considerations in the background; so +he let the subject pass. + +When the guest had departed, Mr. Pole grew demonstrative in his paternal +caresses. He folded Adela in one arm, and framed her chin in his +fingers: marks of affection dear to her before she had outgrown them. + +"So!" he said, "you've given up Besworth, have you?" + +At the name, Arabella and Cornelia drew nearer to his chair. + +"Given up Besworth, papa? It is not we who have given it up," said +Adela. + +"Yes, you have; and quite right too. You say, 'What's the use of it, for +that's a sort of thing that always goes to the son.'" + +"You suppose, papa, that we indulge in ulterior calculations?" came from +Cornelia. + +"Well, you see, my love!--no, I don't suppose it at all. But to buy a +place and split it up after two or three years--I dare say they wouldn't +insure me for more, that's nonsense. And it seems unfair to you, as you +must think--" + +"Darling papa! we are not selfish!" it rejoiced Adela to exclaim. + +His face expressed a transparent simple-mindedness that won the +confidence of the ladies and awakened their ideal of generosity. + +"I know what you mean, papa," said Arabella. "But, we love Besworth; and +if we may enjoy the place for the time that we are all together, I shall +think it sufficient. I do not look beyond." + +Her sisters echoed the sentiment, and sincerely. They were as little +sordid as creatures could be. If deeply questioned, it would have been +found that their notion of the position Providence had placed them in +(in other words, their father's unmentioned wealth), permitted them +to be as lavish as they pleased. Mr. Pole had endowed them with a +temperament similar to his own; and he had educated it. In feminine +earth it flourished wonderfully. Shy as himself, their shyness took +other forms, and developed with warm youth. Not only did it shut them +up from others (which is the first effect of this disease), but it +tyrannized over them internally: so that there were subjects they had +no power to bring their minds to consider. Money was in the list. +The Besworth question, as at present considered, involved the money +question. All of them felt that; father and children. It is not +surprising, therefore, that they hurried over it as speedily as they +could, and by a most comical exhibition of implied comprehension of +meanings and motives. + +"Of course, we're only in the opening stage of the business," said +Mr. Pole. "There's nothing decided, you know. Lots of things got to be +considered. You mean what you say, do you? Very well. And you want me to +think of it? So I will. And look, my dears, you know that--" (here his +voice grew husky, as was the case with it when touching a shy topic even +beneath the veil; but they were above suspicion) "you know that--a--that +we must all give way a little to the other, now and then. Nothing like +being kind." + +"Pray, have no fear, papa dear!" rang the clear voice of Arabella. + +"Well, then, you're all for Besworth, even though it isn't exactly for +your own interest? All right." + +The ladies kissed him. + +"We'll each stretch a point," he continued. "We shall get on better if +we do. Much! You're a little hard on people who're not up to the mark. +There's an end to that. Even your old father will like you better." + +These last remarks were unintelligible to the withdrawing ladies. + +On the morning that followed, Mr. Pole expressed a hope that his +daughters intended to give him a good dinner that day; and he winked +humorously and kindly by which they understood him to be addressing a +sort of propitiation to them for the respect he paid to his appetite. + +"Papa," said Adela, "I myself will speak to Cook." + +She added, with a smile thrown to her sisters, without looking at them, +"I dare say, she will know who I am." + +Mr. Pole went down to his wine-cellar, and was there busy with bottles +till the carriage came for him. A bason was fetched that he might wash +off the dust and cobwebs in the passage. Having rubbed his hands briskly +with soap, he dipped his head likewise, in an oblivious fit, and then +turning round to the ladies, said, "What have I forgotten?" looking +woebegone with his dripping vacant face. "Oh, ah! I remember now;" and +he chuckled gladly. + +He had just for one moment forgotten that he was acting, and a pang +of apprehension had caught him when the water covered his face, to the +effect that he must forfeit the natural artistic sequence of speech and +conduct which disguised him so perfectly. Away he drove, nodding and +waving his hand. + +"Dear, simple, innocent old man!" was the pitiful thought in the bosoms +of the ladies; and if it was accompanied by the mute exclamation, "How +singular that we should descend from him!" it would not have been for +the first time. + +They passed one of their delightful quiet days, in which they paved the +future with gold, and, if I may use so bold a figure, lifted parasols +against the great sun that was to shine on them. Now they listened to +Emilia, and now strolled in the garden; conversed on the social skill +of Lady Gosstre, who was nevertheless narrow in her range; and on the +capacities of mansions, on the secret of mixing people in society, and +what to do with the women! A terrible problem, this latter one. Not +terrible (to hostesses) at a mere rout or drum, or at a dance pure and +simple, but terrible when you want good talk to circulate for then they +are not, as a body, amused; and when they are not amused, you know, they +are not inclined to be harmless; and in this state they are vipers; and +where is society then? And yet you cannot do without them!--which is the +revolting mystery. I need not say that I am not responsible for these +critical remarks. Such tenderness to the sex comes only from its +sisters. + +So went a day rich in fair dreams to the ladies; and at the hour of +their father's return they walked across the parvenu park, in a state of +enthusiasm for Besworth, that threw some portion of its decorative light +on the donor of Besworth. When his carriage was heard on the road, +they stood fast, and greeted his appearance with a display of +pocket-handkerchiefs in the breeze, a proceeding that should have +astonished him, being novel; but seemed not to do so, for it +was immediately responded to by the vigorous waving of a pair of +pocket-handkerchiefs from the carriage-window! The ladies smiled at this +piece of simplicity which prompted him to use both his hands, as if one +would not have been enough. Complacently they continued waving. Then +Adela looked at her sisters; Cornelia's hand dropped and Arabella, the +last to wave, was the first to exclaim: "That must be a woman's arm!" + +The carriage stopped at the gate, and it was one in the dress of a woman +at least, and of the compass of a big woman, who descended by the aid of +Mr. Pole. Safely alighted, she waved her pocket-handkerchief afresh. +The ladies of Brookfield did not speak to one another; nor did they +move their eyes from the object approaching. A simultaneous furtive +extinction of three pocket-handkerchiefs might have been noticed. There +was no further sign given. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +A letter from Brookfield apprised Wilfrid that Mr. Pole had brought +Mrs. Chump to the place as a visitor, and that she was now in the house. +Formal as a circular, the idea of it appeared to be that the bare fact +would tell him enough and inspire him with proper designs. No reply +being sent, a second letter arrived, formal too, but pointing out +his duty to succour his afflicted family, and furnishing a few tragic +particulars. Thus he learnt, that while Mr. Pole was advancing toward +the three grouped ladies, on the day of Mrs. Chump's arrival, he called +Arabella by name, and Arabella went forward alone, and was engaged in +conversation by Mrs. Chump. Mr. Pole left them to make his way to Adela +and Cornelia. "Now, mind, I expect you to keep to your agreement," he +said. Gradually they were led on to perceive that this simple-minded man +had understood their recent talk of Besworth to signify a consent to the +stipulation he had previously mentioned to Adela. "Perfect simplicity is +as deceiving as the depth of cunning," Adela despairingly wrote, much to +Wilfrid's amusement. + +A third letter followed. It was of another tenor, and ran thus, in +Adela's handwriting: + +"My Darling Wilfrid, + +"We have always known that some peculiar assistance would never be +wanting in our extremity--aid, or comfort, or whatever you please to +call it. At all events, something to show we are not neglected. That old +notion of ours must be true. I shall say nothing of our sufferings +in the house. They continue. Yesterday, papa came from town, looking +important. He had up some of his best wine for dinner. All through +the service his eyes were sparkling on Cornelia. I spare you a family +picture, while there is this huge blot on it. Naughty brother! But, +listen! your place is here, for many reasons, as you will be quick +enough to see. After dinner, papa took Cornelia into the library alone, +and they were together for ten minutes. She came out very pale. She had +been proposed for by Sir Twickenham Pryme, our Member for the borough. I +have always been sure that Cornelia was born for Parliament, and he will +be lucky if he wins her. We know not yet, of course, what her decision +will be. The incident is chiefly remarkable to us as a relief to what I +need not recount to you. But I wish to say one thing, dear Wilfrid. You +are gazetted to a lieutenancy, and we congratulate you: but what I have +to say is apparently much more trifling, and it is, that--will you take +it to heart?--it would do Arabella and myself infinite good if we saw a +little more of our brother, and just a little less of a very gentlemanly +organ-player phenomenon, who talks so exceedingly well. He is a very +pleasant man, and appreciates our ideas, and so forth; but it is our +duty to love our brother best, and think of him foremost, and we wish +him to come and remind us of our duty. + +"At our Cornelia's request, with our concurrence, papa is silent in the +house as to the purport of the communication made by Sir T.P. + +"By the way, are you at all conscious of a sound-like absurdity in +a Christian name of three syllables preceding a surname of one? Sir +Twickenham Pryme! Cornelia's pronunciation of the name first gave me +the feeling. The 'Twickenham' seems to perform a sort of educated +monkey kind of ridiculously decorous pirouette and entrechat before the +'Pryme.' I think that Cornelia feels it also. You seem to fancy elastic +limbs bending to the measure of a solemn church-organ. Sir Timothy? But +Sir Timothy does not jump with the same grave agility as Sir Twickenham! +If she rejects him, it will be half attributable to this. + +"My own brother! I expect no confidences, but a whisper warns me that +you have not been to Stornley twice without experiencing the truth of +our old discovery, that the Poles are magnetic? Why should we conceal +it from ourselves, if it be so? I think it a folly, and fraught with +danger, for people not to know their characteristics. If they attract, +they should keep in a circle where they will have no reason to revolt +at, or say, repent of what they attract. My argumentative sister does +not coincide. If she did, she would lose her argument. + +"Adieu! Such is my dulness, I doubt whether I have made my meaning +clear. + + "Your thrice affectionate + + "Adela. + +"P.S.--Lady Gosstre has just taken Emilia to Richford for a week. Papa +starts for Bidport to-morrow." + +This short and rather blunt exercise in Fine Shades was read impatiently +by Wilfrid. "Why doesn't she write plain to the sense?" he asked, with +the usual injustice of men, who demand a statement of facts, forgetting +how few there are to feed the post; and that indication and suggestion +are the only language for the multitude of facts unborn and possible. +Twilight best shows to the eye what may be. + +"I suppose I must go down there," he said to himself, keeping a +meditative watch on the postscript, as if it possessed the capability of +slipping away and deceiving him. "Does she mean that Cornelia sees +too much of this man Barrett? or, what does she mean?" And now he saw +meanings in the simple passages, and none at all in the intricate ones; +and the double-meanings were monsters that ate one another up till +nothing remained of them. In the end, however, he made a wrathful guess +and came to a resolution, which brought him to the door of the house +next day at noon. He took some pains in noting the exact spot where he +had last seen Emilia half in moonlight, and then dismissed her image +peremptorily. The house was apparently empty. Gainsford, the footman, +gave information that he thought the ladies were upstairs, but did not +volunteer to send a maid to them. He stood in deferential footman's +attitude, with the aspect of a dog who would laugh if he could, but +being a footman out of his natural element, cannot. + +"Here's a specimen of the new plan of treating servants!" thought +Wilfrid, turning away. "To act a farce for their benefit! That fellow +will explode when he gets downstairs. I see how it is. This woman, +Chump, is making them behave like schoolgirls." + +He conceived the idea sharply, and forthwith, without any preparation, +he was ready to treat these high-aspiring ladies like schoolgirls. Nor +was there a lack of justification; for when they came down to his +shouts in the passage, they hushed, and held a finger aloft, and looked +altogether so unlike what they aimed at being, that Wilfrid's sense of +mastery became almost contempt. + +"I know perfectly what you have to tell me," he said. "Mrs. Chump is +here, you have quarrelled with her, and she has shut her door, and you +have shut yours. It's quite intelligible and full of dignity. I really +can't smother my voice in consequence." + +He laughed with unnecessary abandonment. The sensitive young women +wanted no other schooling to recover themselves. In a moment they were +seen leaning back and contemplating him amusedly, as if he had been the +comic spectacle, and were laughing for a wager. There are few things so +sour as the swallowing of one's own forced laugh. Wilfrid got it +down, and commenced a lecture to fill the awkward pause. His sisters +maintained the opera-stall posture of languid attention, contesting his +phrases simply with their eyebrows, and smiling. He was no match for +them while they chose to be silent: and indeed if the business of life +were conducted in dumb show, women would beat men hollow. They posture +admirably. In dumb show they are equally good for attack and defence. +But this is not the case in speech. So, when Arabella explained that +their hope was to see Mrs. Chump go that day, owing to the rigorous +exclusion of all amusement and the outer world from the house, Wilfrid +regained his superior footing and made his lecture tell. In the middle +of it, there rang a cry from the doorway that astonished even him, it +was so powerfully Irish. + +"The lady you have called down is here," said Arabella's cold glance, in +answer to his. + +They sat with folded hands while Wilfrid turned to Mrs. Chump, who +advanced, a shock of blue satin to the eye, crying, on a jump: "Is ut +Mr. Wilfrud?" + +"It's I, ma'am." Wilfrid bowed, and the censorious ladies could not deny +that, his style was good, if his object was to be familiar. And if that +was his object, he was paid for it. A great thick kiss was planted on +his cheek, with the motto: "Harm to them that thinks ut." + +Wilfrid bore the salute like a man who presumes that he is flattered. + +"And it's you!" said Mrs. Chump. "I was just off. I'm packed, and +bonnutted, and ready for a start; becas, my dear, where there's none but +women, I don't think it natural to stop. You're splendid! How a little +fella like Pole could go and be father to such a mighty big son, with +your bit of moustache and your blue eyes! Are they blue or a bit of grey +in 'em?" Mrs. Chump peered closely. "They're kill'n', let their colour +be anyhow. And I that knew ye when ye were no bigger than my garter! +Oh, sir! don't talk of ut; I'll be thinkin', of my coffin. Ye're glad to +see me? Say, yes. Do!" + +"Very glad," quoth Wilfrid. + +"Upon your honour, now?" + +"Upon my honour!" + +"My dears" (Mrs. Chump turned to the ladies), "I'll stop; and just thank +your brother for't, though you can't help being garls." + +Reduced once more to demonstrate like schoolgirls by this woman, the +ladies rose together, and were retiring, when Mrs. Chump swung round and +caught Arabella's hand. "See heer," she motioned to Wilfrid. Arabella +made a bitter effort to disengage herself. "See, now! It's jeal'sy of +me, Mr. Wilfrud, becas I'm a widde and just an abom'nation to garls, +poor darlin's! And twenty shindies per dime we've been havin', and me +such a placable body, if ye'll onnly let m' explode. I'm all powder, +avery bit! and might ha' been christened Saltpetre, if born a boy. She +hasn't so much as a shot to kill a goose, says Chump, poor fella! But he +went, anyway. I must kiss somebody when I talk of 'm. Mr. Wilfrud, I'll +take the girls, and entitle myself to you." + +Arabella was the first victim. Her remonstrance was inarticulate. +Cornelia's "Madam!" was smothered. Adela behaved better, being more +consciously under Wilfrid's eye; she prepared her pocket-handkerchief, +received the salute, and deliberately effaced it. + +"There!" said Mrs. Chump; "duty to begin with. And now for you, Mr. +Wilfrud." + +The ladies escaped. Their misery could not be conveyed to the mind. The +woman was like a demon come among them. They felt chiefly degraded, not +by her vulgarity, but by their inability to cope with it, and by the +consequent sickening sense of animal inefficiency--the block that was +put to all imaginative delight in the golden hazy future they figured +for themselves, and which was their wine of life. An intellectual +adversary they could have combated; this huge brogue-burring engine +quite overwhelmed them. Wilfrid's worse than shameful behaviour was +a common rallying-point; and yet, so absolutely critical were they +by nature, their blame of him was held mentally in restraint by the +superior ease of his manner as contrasted with their own lamentably +silly awkwardness. Highly civilized natures do sometimes, and keen wits +must always, feel dissatisfied when they are not on the laughing side: +their dread of laughter is an instinctive respect for it. + +Dinner brought them all together again. Wilfrid took his father's seat, +facing his Aunt Lupin, and increased the distress of his sisters by his +observance of every duty of a host to the dreadful intruder, whom he +thus established among them. He was incomprehensible. His visit to +Stornley had wrought in him a total change. He used to like being +petted, and would regard everything as right that his sisters did, +before he went there; and was a languid, long-legged, indifferent +cavalier, representing men to them: things made to be managed, snubbed, +admired, but always virtually subservient and in the background. Now, +without perceptible gradation, his superiority was suddenly manifest; +so that, irritated and apprehensive as they were, they could not, by the +aid of any of their intricate mental machinery, look down on him. +They tried to; they tried hard to think him despicable as well as +treacherous. His style was too good. When he informed Mrs. Chump that +he had hired a yacht for the season, and added, after enlarging on the +merits of the vessel, "I am under your orders," his sisters were as +creatures cut in twain--one half abominating his conduct, the other +approving his style. The bow, the smile, were perfect. The ladies had to +make an effort to recover their condemnatory judgement. + +"Oh!" cried Mrs. Chump; "and if you've got a yacht, Mr. Wilfrud, won't +ye have a great parcel o' the arr'stocracy on board?" + +"You may spy a title by the aid of a telescope," said Wilfrid. + +"And I'm to come, I am?" + +"Are you not elected captain?" + +"Oh, if ye've got lords and real ladies on board, I'll come, be sure of +ut! I'll be as sick as a cat, I will. But, I'll come, if it's the rroon +of my stomach. I'd say to Chump, 'Oh, if ye'd only been born a lord, or +would just get yourself struck a knight on one o' your shoulders,--oh, +Chump!' I'd say, 'it wouldn't be necessary to be rememberin' always +the words of the cerr'mony about lovin' and honourin' and obeyin' of a +little whistle of a fella like you.' Poor lad! he couldn't stop for his +luck! Did ye ask me to take wine, Mr. Wilfrud? I'll be cryin', else, as +a widde should, ye know!" + +Frequent administrations of wine arrested the tears of Mrs. Chump, until +it is possible that the fulness of many a checked flow caused her +to redden and talk slightly at random. At the first mention of their +father's name, the ladies went out from the room. It was foolish, +for they might have watched the effect of certain vinous innuendoes +addressed to Wilfrid's apprehensiveness; but they were weakened and +humbled, and everything they did was foolish. From the fact that they +offended their keen critical taste, moreover, they were targets to the +shaft that wounds more fatally than all. No ridicule knocks the strength +out of us so thoroughly as our own. + +Whether or not he guessed their condition favourable for his plans, +Wilfrid did not give them time to call back their scattered powers. At +the hour of eleven he sent for Arabella to come to him in the library. +The council upstairs permitted Arabella to go, on the understanding +that she was prepared for hostilities, and ready to tear the mask from +Wilfrid's face. + +He commenced, without a shadow of circumlocution, and in a +matter-of-fact way, as if all respect for the peculiar genius of the +house of Pole had vanished: "I sent for you to talk a word or two about +this woman, who, I see, troubles you a little. I'm sorry she's in the +house." + +"Indeed!" said Arabella. + +"I'm sorry she's in the house, not for my sake, but for yours, since +the proximity does not seem to... I needn't explain. It comes of your +eternal consultations. You are the eldest. Why not act according to your +judgement, which is generally sound? You listen to Adela, young as she +is; or a look of Cornelia's leads you. The result is the sort of scene I +saw this afternoon. I confess it has changed my opinion of you; it has, +I grieve to say it. This woman is your father's guest; you can't hurt +her so much as you hurt him, if you misbehave to her. You can't openly +object to her and not cast a slur upon him. There is the whole case. +He has insisted, and you must submit. You should have fought the battle +before she came." + +"She is here, owing to a miserable misconception," said Arabella. + +"Ah! she is here, however. That is the essential, as your old governess +Madame Timpan would have said." + +"Nor can a protest against coarseness be sweepingly interpreted as a +piece of unfilial behaviour," said Arabella. + +"She is coarse," Wilfrid nodded his head. "There are some forms of +coarseness which dowagers would call it coarseness to notice. + +"Not if you find it locked up in the house with you--not if you suffer +under a constant repulsion. Pray, do not use these phrases to me, +Wilfrid. An accusation of coarseness cannot touch us." + +"No, certainly," assented Wilfrid. "And you have a right to protest. I +disapprove the form of your protest nothing more. A schoolgirl's...but +you complain of the use of comparisons." + +"I complain, Wilfrid, of your want of sympathy." + +"That for two or three weeks you must hear a brogue at your elbow? The +poor creature is not so bad; she is good-hearted. It's hard that you +should have to bear with her for that time and receive nothing better +than Besworth as your reward." + +"Very; seeing that we endure the evil and decline the sop with it." + +"How?" + +"We have renounced Besworth." + +"Have you! And did this renunciation make you all sit on the edge of +your chairs, this afternoon, as if Edward Buxley had arranged you? You +give up Besworth? I'm afraid it's too late." + +"Oh, Wilfrid! can you be ignorant that something more is involved in the +purchase of Besworth?" + +Arabella gazed at him with distressful eagerness, as one who believes in +the lingering of a vestige of candour. + +"Do you mean that my father may wish to give this woman his name?" said +Wilfrid coolly. "You have sense enough to know that if you make his home +disagreeable, you are taking the right method to drive him into such +a course. Ha! I don't think it's to be feared, unless you pursue these +consultations. And let me say, for my part, we have gone too far about +Besworth, and can't recede." + +"I have given out everywhere that the place is ours. I did so almost at +your instigation. Besworth was nothing to me till you cried it up. And +now I won't detain you. I know I can rely on your sense, if you will +rely on it. Good night, Bella." + +As she was going a faint spark of courage revived Arabella's wits. +Seeing that she was now ready to speak, he opened the door wide, and she +kissed him and went forth, feeling driven. + +But while Arabella was attempting to give a definite version of the +interview to her sisters, a message came requesting Adela to descend. +The ladies did not allow her to depart until two or three ingenuous +exclamations from her made them share her curiosity. + +"Ah?" Wilfrid caught her hand as she came in. "No, I don't intend to +let it go. You may be a fine lady, but you're a rogue, you know, and a +charming one, as I hear a friend of mine has been saying. Shall I +call him out? Shall I fight him with pistols, or swords, and leave him +bleeding on the ground, because he thinks you a pretty rogue?" + +Adela struggled against the blandishment of this old familiar style of +converse--part fun, part flattery--dismissed since the great idea had +governed Brookfield. + +"Please tell me what you called me down for, dear?" + +"To give you a lesson in sitting on chairs. 'Adela, or the Puritan +sister,' thus: you sit on the extremest edge, and your eyes peruse the +ceiling; and..." + +"Oh! will you ever forget that perfectly ridiculous scene?" Adela cried +in anguish. + +She was led by easy stages to talk of Besworth. + +"Understand," said Wilfrid, "that I am indifferent about it. The idea +sprang from you--I mean from my pretty sister Adela, who is President of +the Council of Three. I hold that young woman responsible for all that +they do. Am I wrong? Oh, very well. You suggested Besworth, at all +events. And--if we quarrel, I shall cut off one of your curls." + +"We never will quarrel, my darling," quoth Adela softly. "Unless--" she +added. + +Wilfrid kissed her forehead. + +"Unless what?" + +"Well, then, you must tell me who it is that talks of me in that +objectionable manner; I do not like it." + +"Shall I convey that intimation?" + +"I choose to ask, simply that I may defend myself." + +"I choose to keep him buried, then, simply to save his life." + +Adela made a mouth, and Wilfrid went on: "By the way, I want you to +know Lady Charlotte; you will take to one another. She likes you, +already--says you want dash; but on that point there may be two +opinions." + +"If dash," said Adela, quite beguiled, "--that is, dash!--what does it +mean? But, if Lady Charlotte means by dash--am I really wanting in it? I +should define it, the quality of being openly natural without vulgarity; +and surely...!" + +"Then you two differ a little, and must meet and settle your dispute. +You don't differ about Besworth: or, didn't. I never saw a woman so much +in love with a place as she is." + +"A place?" emphasized Adela. + +"Don't be too arch. I comprehend. She won't take me minus Besworth, you +may be sure." + +"Did you, Wilfrid!--but you did not--offer yourself as owner of +Besworth?" + +Wilfrid kept his eyes slanting on the floor. + +"Now I see why you should still wish it," continued Adela. "Perhaps +you don't know the reason which makes it impossible, or I would +say--Bacchus! it must be compassed. You remember your old schoolboy oath +which you taught me? We used to swear always, by Bacchus!" + +Adela laughed and blushed, like one who petitions pardon for this her +utmost sin, that is not regretted as it should be. + +"Mrs. Chump again, isn't it?" said Wilfrid. "Pole would be a preferable +name. If she has the ambition, it elevates her. And it would be rather +amusing to see the dear old boy in love." + +Adela gave her under-lip a distressful bite. + +"Why do you, Wilfrid--why treat such matters with levity?" + +"Levity? I am the last to treat ninety thousand pounds with levity." + +"Has she so much?" Adela glanced at him. + +"She will be snapped up by some poor nobleman. If I take her down to +the yacht, one of Lady Charlotte's brothers or uncles will bite; to a +certainty." + +"It would be an excellent idea to take her!" cried Adela. + +"Excellent! and I'll do it, if you like." + +"Could you bear the reflex of the woman?" + +"Don't you know that I am not in the habit of sitting on the extreme +edge...?" + +Adela started, breathing piteously: "Wilfrid, dear! you want something +of me--what is it?" + +"Simply that you should behave civilly to your father's guest." + +"I had a fear, dear; but I think too well of you to entertain it for a +moment. If civility is to win Besworth for you, there is my hand." + +"Be civil--that's all," said Wilfrid, pressing the hand given. "These +consultations of yours and acting in concert--one tongue for three +women--are a sort of missish, unripe nonsense, that one sees only in +bourgeoise girls--eh? Give it up. Lady Charlotte hit on it at a glance." + +"And I, my chameleon brother, will return her the compliment, some day," +Adela said to herself, as she hurried back to her sisters, bearing a +message for Cornelia. This lady required strong persuasion. A word from +Adela: "He will think you have some good reason to deny him a private +interview," sent her straight to the stairs. + +Wilfrid was walking up and down, with his arms folded and his brows +bent. Cornelia stood in the doorway. + +"You desire to speak to me, Wilfrid? And in private?" + +"I didn't wish to congratulate you publicly, that's all. I know it's +rather against your taste. We'll shut the door, and sit down, if you +don't mind. Yes, I congratulate you with all my heart," he said, placing +a chair for Cornelia. + +"May I ask, wherefore?" + +"You don't think marriage a matter for congratulation?" + +"Sometimes: as the case may be." + +"Well, it's not marriage yet. I congratulate you on your offer." + +"I thank you." + +"You accept it, of course." + +"I reject it, certainly." + +After this preliminary passage, Wilfrid remained silent long enough for +Cornelia to feel uneasy. + +"I want you to congratulate me also," he recommenced. "We poor fellows +don't have offers, you know. To be frank, I think Lady Charlotte +Chillingworth will have me, if--She's awfully fond of Besworth, and I +need not tell you that as she has position in the world, I ought to show +something in return. When you wrote about Besworth, I knew it was as +good as decided. I told her so and--Well, I fancy there's that sort +of understanding between us. She will have me when... You know how the +poorer members of the aristocracy are situated. Her father's a peer, +and has a little influence. He might push me; but she is one of a large +family; she has nothing. I am certain you will not judge of her as +common people might. She does me a particular honour." + +"Is she not much older than you, Wilfrid?" said Cornelia. + +"Or, in other words," he added, "is she not a very mercenary person?" + +"That, I did not even imply." + +"Honestly, was it not in your head?" + +"Now you put it so plainly, I do say, it strikes me disagreeably; I have +heard of nothing like it." + +"Do you think it unreasonable that I should marry into a noble family?" + +"That is, assuredly, not my meaning." + +"Nevertheless, you are, on the whole, in favour of beggarly alliances." + +"No, Wilfrid." + +"Why do you reject this offer that has been made to you?" + +Cornelia flushed and trembled; the traitorous feint had thrown her off +her guard. She said, faltering: + +"Would you have me marry one I do not love?" + +"Well, well!" He drew back. "You are going to do your best to stop the +purchase of Besworth?" + +"No; I am quiescent." + +"Though I tell you how deeply it concerns me!" + +"Wilfrid, my own brother!" (Cornelia flung herself before him, catching +his hand,) "I wish you to be loved, first of all. Think of the horror of +a loveless marriage, however gilded! Does a woman make stipulations ere +she gives her hand? Does not love seek to give, to bestow? I wish you to +marry well, but chiefly that you should be loved." + +Wilfrid pressed her head in both his hands. + +"I never saw you look so handsome," he said. "You've got back your old +trick of blushing, too! Why do you tremble? By the way, you seem to have +been learning a great deal about that business, lately?" + +"What business?" + +"Love." + +A river of blood overflowed her fair cheeks. + +"How long has this been?" his voice came to her. + +There was no escape. She was at his knees, and must look up, or confess +guilt. + +"This?" + +"Come, my dearest girl!" Wilfrid soothed her. "I can help you, and will, +if you'll take advice. I've always known your heart was generous and +tender, under that ice you wear so well. How long has this been going +on?" + +"Wilfrid!" + +"You want plain speech?" + +She wanted that still less. + +"We'll call it 'this,'" he said. "I have heard of it, guessed it, and +now see it. How far have you pledged yourself in 'this?'" + +"How far?" + +Wilfrid held silent. Finding that her echo was not accepted as an +answer, she moaned his name lovingly. It touched his heart, where a +great susceptibility to passion lay. As if the ghost of Emilia were +about him, he kissed his sister's hand, and could not go on with his +cruel interrogations. + +His next question was dew of relief to her. + +"Has your Emilia been quite happy, of late?" + +"Oh, quite, dear! very. And sings with more fire." + +"She's cheerful?" + +"She does not romp. Her eyes are full and bright." + +"She's satisfied with everything here?" + +"How could she be otherwise?" + +"Yes, yes! You weren't severe on her for that escapade--I mean, when she +ran away from Lady Gosstre's?" + +"We scarcely alluded to the subject, or permitted her to." + +"Or permitted her to!" Wilfrid echoed, with a grimace. "And she's +cheerful now?" + +"Quite." + +"I mean, she doesn't mope?" + +"Why should she?" + +Cornelia had been too hard-pressed to have suspicion the questions were +an immense relief. + +Wilfrid mused gloomily. Cornelia spoke further of Emilia, and her +delight in the visits of Mr. Powys, who spent hours with her, like a man +fascinated. She flowed on, little aware that she was fast restoring to +Wilfrid all his judicial severity. + +He said, at last: "I suppose there's no engagement existing?" + +"Engagement?" + +"You have not, what they call, plighted your troth to the man?" + +Cornelia struggled for evasion. She recognized the fruitlessness of the +effort, and abandoning it stood up. + +"I am engaged to no one." + +"Well, I should hope not," said Wilfrid. "An engagement might be +broken." + +"Not by me." + +"It might, is all that I say. A romantic sentiment is tougher. Now, I +have been straightforward with you: will you be with me? I shall not +hurt the man, or wound his feelings." + +He paused; but it was to find that no admission of the truth, save what +oozed out in absence of speech, was to be expected. She seemed, after +the fashion of women, to have got accustomed to the new atmosphere into +which he had dragged her, without any conception of a forward movement. + +"I see I must explain to you how we are situated," said Wilfrid. "We +are in a serious plight. You should be civil to this woman for several +reasons--for your father's sake and your own. She is very rich." + +"Oh, Wilfrid!" + +"Well, I find money well thought of everywhere." + +"Has your late school been good for you?" + +"This woman, I repeat, is rich, and we want money. Oh! not the ordinary +notion of wanting money, but the more we have the more power we have. +Our position depends on it." + +"Yes, if we can be tempted to think so," flashed Cornelia. + +"Our position depends on it. If you posture, and are poor, you provoke +ridicule: and to think of scorning money, is a piece of folly no girls +of condition are guilty of. Now, you know I am fond of you; so I'll +tell you this: you have a chance; don't miss it. Something unpleasant is +threatening; but you may escape it. It would be madness to throw such a +chance away, and it is your duty to take advantage of it. What is there +plainer? You are engaged to no one." + +Cornelia came timidly close to him. "Pray, be explicit!" + +"Well!--this offer." + +"Yes; but what--there is something to escape from." + +Wilfrid deliberately replied: "There is no doubt of the Pater's +intentions with regard to Mrs. Chump." + +"He means...?" + +"He means to marry her." + +"And you, Wilfrid?" + +"Well, of course, he cuts me out. There--there! forgive me: but what can +I do?" + +"Do you conspire--Wilfrid, is it possible?--are you an accomplice in the +degradation of our house?" + +Cornelia had regained her courage, perforce of wrath. Wilfrid's +singular grey eyes shot an odd look at her. He is to be excused for not +perceiving the grandeur of the structure menaced; for it was invisible +to all the world, though a real fabric. + +"If Mrs. Chump were poor, I should think the Pater demented," he said. +"As it is--! well, as it is, there's grist to the mill, wind to the +organ. You must be aware" (and he leaned over to her with his most +suspicious gentleness of tone) "you are aware that all organs must be +fed; but you will make a terrible mistake if you suppose for a moment +that the human organ requires the same sort of feeding as the one in +Hillford Church." + +"Good-night," said Cornelia, closing her lips, as if for good. + +Wilfrid pressed her hand. As she was going, the springs of kindness in +his heart caused him to say "Forgive me, if I seemed rough." + +"Yes, dear Wilfrid; even brutality, rather than your exultation over the +wreck of what was noble in you." + +With which phrase Cornelia swept from the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +"Seen Wilfrid?" was Mr. Pole's first cheery call to his daughters, on +his return. An answer on that head did not seem to be required by him, +for he went on: "Ah the boy's improved. That place over there, Stornley, +does him as much good as the Army did, as to setting him up, you know; +common sense, and a ready way of speaking and thinking. He sees a thing +now. Well, Martha, what do you,--eh? what's your opinion?" + +Mrs. Chump was addressed. "Pole," she said, fanning her cheek with +vehement languor, "don't ask me! my heart's gone to the young fella." + +In pursuance of a determination to which the ladies of Brookfield +had come, Adela, following her sprightly fancy, now gave the lead in +affability toward Mrs. Chump. + +"Has the conqueror run away with it to bury it?" she laughed. + +"Och! won't he know what it is to be a widde!" cried Mrs. Chump. "A +widde's heart takes aim and flies straight as a bullet; and the hearts +o' you garls, they're like whiffs o' tobacca, curlin' and wrigglin' and +not knowin' where they're goin'. Marry 'em, Pole! marry 'em!" Mrs. Chump +gesticulated, with two dangling hands. "They're nice garls; but, lord! +they naver see a man, and they're stuputly contented, and want to +remain garls; and, don't ye see, it was naver meant to be? Says I to Mr. +Wilfrud (and he agreed with me), ye might say, nice sour grapes, as well +as nice garls, if the creatures think o' stoppin' where they are, and +what they are. It's horrud; and, upon my honour, my heart aches for 'm!" + +Mr. Pole threw an uneasy side-glance of inquisition at his daughters, +to mark how they bore this unaccustomed language, and haply intercede +between the unworthy woman and their judgement of her. But the ladies +merely smiled. Placidly triumphant in its endurance, the smile said: "We +decline even to feel such a martyrdom as this." + +"Well, you know, Martha; I," he said, "I--no father could wish--eh? if +you could manage to persuade them not to be so fond of me. They must +think of their future, of course. They won't always have a home--a +father, a father, I mean. God grant they may never want!--eh? the +dinner; boh! let's in to dinner. Ma'am!" + +He bowed an arm to Mrs. Chump, who took it, with a scared look at him: +"Why, if ye haven't got a tear in your eye, Pole?" + +"Nonsense, nonsense," quoth he, bowing another arm to Adela. + +"Papa, I'm not to be winked at," said she, accepting convoy; and there +was some laughter, all about nothing, as they went in to dinner. + +The ladies were studiously forbearing in their treatment of Mrs. +Chump. Women are wonderfully quick scholars under ridicule, though it +half-kills them. Wilfrid's theory had impressed the superior grace of +civility upon their minds, and, now that they practised it, they +were pleased with the contrast they presented. Not the less were they +maturing a serious resolve. The suspicion that their father had secret +vile designs in relation to Mrs. Chump, they kept in the background. It +was enough for them that she was to be a visitor, and would thus destroy +the great circle they had projected. To accept her in the circle, they +felt, was out of the question. Wilfrid's plain-speaking broke up the +air-bubble, which they had so carefully blown, and in which they had +embarked all their young hopes. They had as much as given one another a +pledge that their home likewise should be broken up. + +"Are you not almost too severe a student?" Mr. Barrett happened to say +to Cornelia, the day after Wilfrid had worried her. + +"Do I show the signs?" she replied. + +"By no means. But last night, was it not your light that was not +extinguished till morning?" + +"We soon have morning now," said Cornelia; and her face was pale as the +first hour of the dawn. "Are you not a late foot-farer, I may ask in +return?" + +"Mere restlessness. I have no appetite for study. I took the liberty to +cross the park from the wood, and saw you--at least I guessed it your +light, and then I met your brother." + +"Yes? you met him?" + +Mr. Barrett gestured an affirmative. + +"And he--did he speak?" + +"He nodded. He was in some haste." + +"But, then, you did not go to bed at all that night? It is almost my +turn to be lecturer, if I might expect to be listened to." + +"Do you not know--or am I constitutionally different from others?" Mr. +Barrett resumed: "I can't be alone in feeling that there are certain +times and periods when what I would like to call poisonous influences +are abroad, that touch my fate in the days to come. I know I am +helpless. I can only wander up and down." + +"That sounds like a creed of fatalism." + +"It is not a creed; it is a matter of nerves. A creed has its 'kismet.' +The nerves are wild horses." + +"It is something to be fought against," said Cornelia admonishingly. + +"Is it something to be distrusted?" + +"I should say, yes." + +"Then I was wrong?" + +He stooped eagerly, in his temperate way, to catch sight of her +answering face. Cornelia's quick cheeks took fire. She fenced with a +question of two, and stood in a tremble, marvelling at his intuition. +For possibly, at that moment when he stood watching her window-light +(ah, poor heart!) she was half-pledging her word to her sisters (in a +whirl of wrath at Wilfrid, herself, and the world), that she would take +the lead in breaking up Brookfield. + +An event occurred that hurried them on. They received a visit from +their mother's brother, John Pierson, a Colonel of Uhlans, in the +Imperial-Royal service. He had rarely been in communication with them; +his visit was unexpected. His leave of absence from his quarters in +Italy was not longer than a month, and he was on his way to Ireland, to +settle family business; but he called, as he said, to make acquaintance +with his nieces. The ladies soon discovered, in spite of his foreign-cut +chin and pronounced military habit of speech and bearing, that he was at +heart fervidly British. His age was about fifty: a man of great force of +shoulder and potent length of arm, courteous and well-bred in manner, +he was altogether what is called a model of a cavalry officer. Colonel +Pierson paid very little attention to his brother-in-law, but the ladies +were evidently much to his taste; and when he kissed Cornelia's hand, +his eyes grew soft, as at a recollection. + +"You are what your mother once promised to be," he said. To her he gave +that mother's portrait, taking it solemnly from his breast-pocket, +and attentively contemplating it before it left his hands. The ladies +pressed him for a thousand details of their mama's youthful life; +they found it a strange consolation to talk of her and image her like +Cornelia. The foreign halo about the Colonel had an effect on them that +was almost like what nobility produces; and by degrees they heated +their minds to conceive that they were consenting to an outrage on that +mother's memory, in countenancing Mrs. Chump's transparent ambition to +take her place, as they did by staying in the house with the woman. +The colonel's few expressive glances at Mrs. Chump, and Mrs. Chump's +behaviour before the colonel, touched them with intense distaste for +their present surly aspect of life. Civilized little people are moved to +fulfil their destinies and to write their histories as much by distaste +as by appetite. This fresh sentimental emotion, which led them to +glorify their mother's image in their hearts, heightened and gave an +acid edge to their distaste for the think they saw. Nor was it wonderful +that Cornelia, said to be so like that mother, should think herself +bound to accept the office of taking the initiative in a practical +protest against the desecration of the name her mother had borne. At +times, I see that sentiment approaches too near the Holy of earthly +Holies for us to laugh at it; it has too much truth in it to be +denounced--nay, if we are not alert and quick of wit, we shall be +deceived by it, and wonder in the end, as the fool does, why heaven +struck that final blow; concluding that it was but another whimsy of the +Gods. The ladies prayed to their mother. They were indeed suffering vile +torture. Ethereal eyes might pardon the unconscious jugglery which made +their hearts cry out to her that the step they were about to take was +to save her children from seeming to acquiesce in a dishonour to her +memory. Some such words Adela's tongue did not shrink from; and as it is +a common habit for us to give to the objects we mentally address just +as much brain as is wanted for the occasion, she is not to be held +singular. + +Colonel Pierson promised to stay a week on his return from Ireland. +"Will that person be here?" he designated Mrs. Chump; who, among other +things, had reproached him for fighting with foreign steel and wearing +any uniform but the red. + +The ladies and Colonel Pierson were soon of one mind in relation to Mrs. +Chump. Certain salient quiet remarks dropped by him were cherished after +his departure; they were half-willing to think that he had been directed +to come to them, bearer of a message from a heavenly world to urge them +to action. They had need of a spiritual exaltation, to relieve them +from the palpable depression caused by the weight of Mrs. Chump. They +encouraged one another with exclamations on the oddness of a visit from +their mother's brother, at such a time of tribulation, indecision, and +general darkness. + +Mrs. Chump remained on the field. When Adela begged her papa to tell her +how long the lady was to stay, he replied: "Eh? By the way, I haven't +asked her;" and retreated from this almost too obvious piece of +simplicity, with, "I want you to know her: I want you to like her--want +you to get to understand her. Won't talk about her going just yet." + +If they could have seen a limit to that wholesale slaughter of the Nice +Feelings, they might have summoned patience to avoid the desperate step +to immediate relief: but they saw none. Their father's quaint kindness +and Wilfrid's treachery had fixed her there, perhaps for good. The +choice was, to let London come and see them dragged through the mire by +the monstrous woman, or to seek new homes. London, they contended, could +not further be put off, and would come, especially now that the season +was dying. After all, their parting from one another was the bitterest +thing to bear, and as each seemed content to endure it for the good of +all, and as, properly considered, they did not bury their ambition by +separating, they said farewell to the young delicious dawn of it. +By means of Fine Shades it was understood that Brookfield was to be +abandoned. Not one direct word was uttered. There were expressions of +regret that the village children of Ipley would miss the supervizing +eyes that had watched over them--perchance! at any rate, would lose +them. All went on in the household as before, and would have continued +so, but that they had a chief among them. This was Adela Pole, who found +her powers with the occasion. + +Adela thought decisively: "People never move unless they are pushed." +And when you have got them to move ever so little, then propel; but by +no means expect that a movement on their part means progression. Without +propulsion nothing results. Adela saw what Cornelia meant to do. It +was not to fly to Sir Twickenham, but to dismiss Mr. Barrett. Arabella +consented to write to Edward Buxley, but would not speak of old days, +and barely alluded to a misunderstanding; though if she loved one man, +this was he. Adela was disengaged. She had moreover to do penance, for a +wrong committed; and just as children will pinch themselves, pleased +up to the verge of unendurable pain, so do sentimentalists find a keen +relish in performing secret penance for self-accused offences. Thus +they become righteous to their own hearts, and evade, as they hope, the +public scourge. The wrong committed was (translated out of Fine +Shades), that she had made love to her sister's lover. In the original +tongue--she had innocently played with the sacred fire of a strange +affection; a child in the temple!--Our penitent child took a keen +pinching pleasure in dictating words for Arabella to employ toward +Edward. + +And then, recurring to her interview with Wilfrid, it struck her: +"Suppose that, after all, Money!..." Yes, Mammon has acted Hymen before +now. Nothing else explained Mrs. Chump; so she thought, in one clear +glimpse. Inveterate sentimental habit smeared the picture with two +exclamations--"Impossible!" and "Papa!" I desire it to be credited that +these simple interjections absolutely obscured her judgement. Little +people think either what they are made to think, or what they choose to +think; and the education of girls is to make them believe that facts are +their enemies-a naughty spying race, upon whom the dogs of Pudeur are to +be loosed, if they surprise them without note of warning. Adela silenced +her suspicion, easily enough; but this did not prevent her taking a +measure to satisfy it. Petting her papa one evening, she suddenly asked +him for ninety pounds. + +"Ninety!" said Mr. Pole, taking a sharp breath. He was as composed as +possible. + +"Is that too much, papa, darling?" + +"Not if you want it--not if you want it, of course not." + +"You seemed astonished." + +"The sum! it's an odd sum for a girl to want. Ten, twenty, fifty--a +hundred; but you never hear of ninety, never! unless it's to pay a debt; +and I have all the bills, or your aunt has them." + +"Well, papa, if it excites you, I will do without it. It is for a +charity, chiefly." + +Mr. Pole fumbled in his pocket, muttering, "No money here--cheque-book +in town. I'll give it you," he said aloud, "to-morrow morning--morrow +morning, early." + +"That will do, papa;" and Adela relieved him immediately by shooting far +away from the topic. + +The ladies retired early to their hall of council in the bedchamber of +Arabella, and some time after midnight Cornelia went to her room; but +she could not sleep. She affected, in her restlessness, to think that +her spirits required an intellectual sedative, so she went down to +the library for a book; where she skimmed many--a fashion that may be +recommended, for assisting us to a sense of sovereign superiority +to authors, and also of serene contempt for all mental difficulties. +Fortified in this way, Cornelia took a Plutarch and an Encyclopaedia +under her arm, to return to her room. But one volume fell, and as she +stooped to recover it, her candle shared its fate. She had to find her +way back in the dark. On the landing of the stairs, she fancied that she +heard a step and a breath. The lady was of unshaken nerves. She moved +on steadily, her hand stretched out a little before her. What it touched +was long in travelling to her brain; but when her paralyzed heart beat +again, she knew that her hand clasped another hand. Her nervous horror +calmed as the feeling came to her of the palpable weakness of the hand. + +"Who are you?" she asked. Some hoarse answer struck her ear. She asked +again, making her voice distincter. The hand now returned her pressure +with force. She could feel that the person, whoever it was, stood +collecting strength to speak. Then the words came-- + +"What do you mean by imitating that woman's brogue?" + +"Papa!" said Cornelia. + +"Why do you talk Irish in the dark? There, goodnight. I've just come up +from the library; my candle dropped. I shouldn't have been frightened, +but you talked with such a twang." + +"But I have just come from the library myself," said Cornelia. + +"I mean from the dining-room," her father corrected himself hastily. "I +can't sit in the library; shall have it altered--full of draughts. Don't +you think so, my dear? Good-night. What's this in your arm? Books! Ah, +you study! I can get a light for myself." + +The dialogue was sustained in the hard-whispered tones prescribed by +darkness. Cornelia kissed her father's forehead, and they parted. + +At breakfast in the morning it was the habit of all the ladies to +assemble, partly to countenance the decency of matin-prayers, and also +to give the head of the household their dutiful society till business +called him away. Adela, in earlier days, had maintained that early +rising was not fashionable; but she soon grasped the idea that a +great rivalry with Fashion, in minor matters (where the support of the +satirist might be counted on), was the proper policy of Brookfield. Mrs. +Chump was given to be extremely fashionable in her hours, and began her +Brookfield career by coming downstairs at ten and eleven o'clock, when +she found a desolate table, well stocked indeed, but without any of the +exuberant smiles of nourishment which a morning repast should wear. + +"You are a Protestant, ma'am, are you not?" Adela mildly questioned, +after informing her that she missed family prayer by her late descent. +Mrs. Chump assured her that she was a firm Protestant, and liked to see +faces at the breakfast-table. The poor woman was reduced to submit to +the rigour of the hour, coming down flustered, and endeavouring to look +devout, while many uncertainties as to the condition of the hooks of her +attire distracted her mind and fingers. On one occasion, Gainsford, the +footman, had been seen with his eye on her; and while Mr. Pole read of +sacred things, at a pace composed of slow march and amble, this unhappy +man was heard struggling to keep under and extinguish a devil of +laughter, by which his human weakness was shaken: He retired from the +room with the speed of a voyager about to pay tribute on high seas. Mr. +Pole cast a pregnant look at the servants' row as he closed the book; +but the expression of his daughters' faces positively signified that no +remark was to be made, and he contained himself. Later, the ladies told +him that Gainsford had done no worse than any uneducated man would have +been guilty of doing. Mrs. Chump had, it appeared, a mother's feeling +for one flat curl on her rugged forehead, which was often fondly +caressed by her, for the sake of ascertaining its fixity. Doubts of +the precision of outline and general welfare of this curl, apparently, +caused her to straighten her back and furtively raise her head, with an +easy upward motion, as of a cork alighted in water, above the level +of the looking-glass on her left hand--an action she repeated, with a +solemn aspect, four times; at which point Gainsford gave way. The ladies +accorded him every extenuation for the offence. They themselves, but +for the heroism of exalted natures, must have succumbed to the gross +temptation. "It is difficult, dear papa, to bring one's mind to +religious thoughts in her company, even when she is quiescent," they +said. Thus, by the prettiest exercise of charity that can be conceived, +they pleaded for the man Gainsford, while they struck a blow at Mrs. +Chump; and in performing one of the virtues laid down by religion, +proved their enemy to be hostile to its influences. + +Mrs. Chump was this morning very late. The office of morning reader was +new to Mr. Pole, who had undertaken it, when first Squire of Brookfield, +at the dictate of the ladies his daughters; so that, waiting with the +book before him and his audience expectant, he lacked composure, spoke +irritably in an under-breath of 'that woman,' and asked twice whether +she was coming or not. At last the clump of her feet was heard +approaching. Mr. Pole commenced reading the instant she opened the door. +She stood there, with a face like a petrified Irish outcry. An imploring +sound of "Pole! Pole!" issued from her. Then she caught up one hand to +her mouth, and rolled her head, in evident anguish at the necessitated +silence. A convulsion passed along the row of maids, two of whom dipped +to their aprons; but the ladies gazed with a sad consciousness of wicked +glee at the disgust she was exciting in the bosom of their father. + +"Will you shut the door?" Mr. Pole sternly addressed Mrs. Chump, at the +conclusion of the first prayer. + +"Pole! ye know that money ye gave me in notes? I must speak, Pole!" + +"Shut the door." + +Mrs. Chump let go the door-handle with a moan. The door was closed by +Gainsford, now one of the gravest of footmen. A chair was placed for +her, and she sat down, desperately watching the reader for the fall of +his voice. The period was singularly protracted. The ladies turned to +one another, to question with an eyelid why it was that extra allowance +was given that morning. Mr. Pole was in a third prayer, stumbling on +and picking himself up, apparently unaware that he had passed the limit. +This continued until the series of ejaculations which accompanied him +waxed hotter--little muffled shrieks of: "Oh!--Deer--Oh, Lard!--When +will he stop? Oh, mercy! Och! And me burrstin' to speak!--Oh! what'll I +do? I can't keep 't in!--Pole! ye're kill'n me--Oh, deer! I'll be sayin' +somethin' to vex the prophets presently. Pole!" + +If it was a race that he ran with Mrs. Chump, Mr. Pole was beaten. He +came to a sudden stop. + +Mrs. Chump had become too deeply absorbed in her impatience to notice +the change in his tone; and when he said, "Now then, to breakfast, +quick!" she was pursuing her lamentable interjections. At sight of the +servants trooping forth, she jumped up and ran to the door. + +"Ye don't go.--Pole, they're all here. And I've been robbed, I have. +Avery note I had from ye, Pole, all gone. And my purse left behind, like +the skin of a thing. Lord forbid I accuse annybody; but when I get up, +my first rush is to feel in my pocket. And, ask 'em!--If ye didn't keep +me so poor, Pole, they'd know I'm a generous woman, but I cann't bear to +be robbed. And pinmoney 's for spendin;' annybody'll tell you that. +And I ask ye t' examine 'em, Pole; for last night I counted my notes, +wantin' change, and I thought of a salmon I bought on the banks of the +Suir to make a present to Chump, which was our onnly visit to Waterford +together: for he naver went t' Ireland before or after--dyin' as he did! +and it's not his ingrat'tude, with his talk of a Severrn salmon-to the +deuce with 'm! that makes me soft-poor fella!--I didn't mean to the +deuce;--but since he's gone, his widde's just unfit to bargain for +a salmon at all, and averybody robs her, and she's kept poor, and +hatud!--D'ye heer, Pole? I've lost my money, my money! and I will speak, +and ye shann't interrupt me!" + +During the delivery of this charge against the household, Mr. Pole had +several times waved to the servants to begone; but as they had always +the option to misunderstand authoritative gestures, they preferred +remaining, and possibly he perceived that they might claim to do so +under accusation. + +"How can you bring this charge against the inmates of my house--eh? +I guarantee the honesty of all who serve me. Martha! you must be mad, +mad!--Money? why, you never have money; you waste it if you do." + +"Not money, Pole? Oh! and why? Becas ye keep me low o' purpose, till I +cringe like a slut o' the scullery, and cry out for halfpence. But, oh! +that seventy-five pounds in notes!" + +Mr. Pole shook his head, as one who deals with a gross delusion: "I +remember nothing about it." + +"Not about--?" Mrs. Chump dropped her chin. "Ye don't remember the +givin' of me just that sum of seventy-five, in eight notes, Pole?" + +"Eh? I daresay I have given you the amount, one time or other. Now, +let's be quiet about it." + +"Yesterday mornin', Pole! And the night I go to bed I count my money, +and, says I, I'll not lock ut up, for I'll onnly be unlockin' again +to-morrow; and doin' a thing and undoin' ut's a sign of a brain that's +addled--like yours, Pole, if ye say ye didn't go to give me the notes." + +Mr. Pole frowned at her sagaciously. "Must change your diet, Martha!" + +"My dite? And what's my dite to do with my money?" + +"Who went into Mrs. Chump's bedchamber this morning?" asked Mr. Pole +generally. + +A pretty little housemaid replied, with an indignant flush, that she +was the person. Mrs. Chump acknowledged to being awake when the shutters +were opened, and agreed that it was not possible her pockets could have +been rifled then. + +"So, you see, Martha, you're talking nonsense," said Mr. Pole. "Do you +know the numbers of those notes?" + +"The numbers at the sides, ye mean, Pole?" + +"Ay, the numbers at the sides, if you like; the 21593, and so on?" + +"The 21593! Oh! I can't remember such a lot as that, if ever I leave off +repeatin' it." + +"There! you see, you're not fit to have money in your possession, +Martha. Everybody who has bank-notes looks at the numbers. You have a +trick of fancying all sorts of sums in your pocket; and when you +don't find them there, of course they're lost! Now, let's have some +breakfast." + +Arabella told the maids to go out. Mr. Pole turned to the +breakfast-table, rubbing his hands. Seeing herself and her case +abandoned, Mrs. Chump gave a deplorable shout. "Ye're crool! and young +women that look on at a fellow-woman's mis'ry. Oh! how can ye do ut! But +soft hearts can be the hardest. And all my seventy-five gone, gone! and +no law out of annybody. And no frightenin' of 'em off from doin' the +like another time! Oh, I will, I will have my money!" + +"Tush! Come to breakfast, Martha," said Mr. Pole. "You shall have money, +if you want it; you have only to ask. Now, will you promise to be quiet? +and I'll give you this money--the amount you've been dreaming about last +night. I'll fetch it. Now, let us have no scenes. Dry your eyes." + +Mr. Pole went to his private room, and returned just as Mrs. Chump +had got upon a succession of quieter sobs with each one of which she +addressed a pathetic roll of her eyes to the utterly unsympathetic +ladies respectively. + +"There, Martha; there's exactly the sum for you--free gift. Say thank +you, and eat a good breakfast to show your gratitude. Mind, you take +this money on condition that you let the servants know you made a +mistake." + +Mrs. Chump sighed heavily, crumpling the notes, that the crisp sweet +sound might solace her for the hard condition. + +"And don't dream any more--not about money, I mean," said Mr. Pole. + +"Oh! if I dream like that I'll be living double." Mrs. Chump put her +hand to the notes, and called him kind, and pitied him for being the +loser. The sight of a fresh sum in her possession intoxicated her. It +was but feebly that she regretted the loss to her Samuel Bolton Pole. +"Your memory's worth more than that!" she said as she filled her purse +with the notes. "Anyhow, now I can treat somebody," and she threw a wink +of promise at Adela. Adela's eyes took refuge with her papa, who leaned +over to her, and said: "You won't mind waiting till you see me again? +She's taken all I had." Adela nodded blankly, and the next moment, with +an angry glance toward Mrs. Chump, "Papa," said she, "if you wish to see +servants in the house on your return, you must yourself speak to them, +and tell them that we, their master and mistresses, do not regard them +as thieves." Out of this there came a quarrel as furious as the ladies +would permit it to be. For Mrs. Chump, though willing to condone the +offence for the sum she had received, stuck infamy upon the whole +list of them. "The Celtic nature," murmured Cornelia. And the ladies +maintained that their servants should be respected, at any cost. +"You, ma'am," said Arabella, with a clear look peculiar to her when +vindictive--"you may have a stain on your character, and you are not +ruined by it. But these poor creatures..." + +"Ye dare to compar' me--!" + +"Contrast you, ma'am." + +"It's just as imp'dent." + +"I say, our servants, ma'am..." + +"Oh! to the deuce with your 'ma'am;' I hate the word. It's like fittin' +a cap on me. Ye want to make one a turbaned dow'ger, ye malicious young +woman!" + +"Those are personages that are, I believe, accepted in society!" + +So the contest raged, Mrs. Chump being run clean through the soul twenty +times, without touching the consciousness of that sensitive essence. +Mr. Pole appeared to take the part of his daughters, and by-and-by Mrs. +Chump, having failed to arouse Mrs. Lupin's involuntary laugh (which +always consoled her in such cases), huffed out of the room. Then Mr. +Pole, in an abruptly serious way, bashfully entreated the ladies to be +civil to Martha, who had the best heart in the world. It sounded as if +he were going to say more. After a pause, he added emphatically, "Do!" +and went. He was many days absent: nor did he speak to Adela of the +money she had asked for when he returned. Adela had not the courage to +allude to it. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +Emilia sat in her old place under the dwarf pine. Mr. Powys had brought +her back to Brookfield, where she heard that Wilfrid had been seen; and +now her heart was in contest with an inexplicable puzzle: "He was here, +and did not come to me!" Since that night when they had walked home from +Ipley Green, she had not suffered a moment of longing. Her senses had +lain as under a charm, with heart at anchor and a mind free to work. No +one could have guessed that any human spell was on the girl. "Wherever +he is, he thinks of me. I find him everywhere. He is safe, for I pray +for him and have my arms about him. He will come." So she waited, +as some grey lake lies, full and smooth, awaiting the star below the +twilight. If she let her thoughts run on to the hour of their meeting, +she had to shut her eyes and press at her heart; but as yet she was not +out of tune for daily life, and she could imagine how that hour was to +be strewn with new songs and hushed surprises. And 'thus' he would look: +and 'thus.' "My hero!" breathed Emilia, shuddering a little. But now +she was perplexed. Now that he had come and gone, she began to hunger +bitterly for the sight of his face, and that which had hitherto +nourished her grew a sickly phantom of delight. She wondered how she +had forced herself to be patient, and what it was that she had found +pleasure in. + +None of the ladies were at home when Emilia returned. She went out +to the woods, and sat, shadowed by the long bent branch; watching +mechanically the slow rounding and yellowing of the beam of sunlight +over the thick floor of moss, up against the fir-stems. The chaffinch +and the linnet flitted off the grey orchard twigs, singing from new +stations; and the bee seemed to come questioning the silence of the +woods and droning disappointed away. The first excess of any sad feeling +is half voluntary. Emilia could not help smiling, when she lifted her +head out of a musing fit, to find that she had composed part of a minuet +for the languid dancing motes in the shaft of golden light at her feet. +"Can I remember it?" she thought, and forgot the incident with the +effort. + +Down at her right hand, bordering a water, stood a sallow, a dead tree, +channelled inside with the brown trail of a goat-moth. Looking in this +direction, she saw Cornelia advancing to the tree. When the lady had +reached it, she drew a little book from her bosom, kissed it, and +dropped it in the hollow. This done, she passed among the firs. Emilia +had perceived that she was agitated: and with that strange instinct of +hearts beginning to stir, which makes them divine at once where they +will come upon the secret of their own sensations, she ran down to the +tree and peered on tiptoe at the embedded volume. On a blank page stood +pencilled: "This is the last fruit of the tree. Come not to gather +more." There was no meaning for her in that sentimental chord but she +must have got some glimpse of a meaning; for now, as in an agony, her +lips fashioned the words: "If I forget his face I may as well die;" and +she wandered on, striving more and more vainly to call up his features. +The--"Does he think of me?" and--"What am I to him?"--such timorous +little feather-play of feminine emotion she knew nothing of: in her +heart was the strong flood of a passion. + +She met Edward Buxley and Freshfield Sumner at a cross-path, on their +way to Brookfield; and then Adela joined the party, which soon embraced +Mr. Barrett, and subsequently Cornelia. All moved on in a humming +leisure, chattering by fits. Mr. Sumner was delicately prepared to +encounter Mrs. Chump, "whom," said Adela, "Edward himself finds it +impossible to caricature;" and she affected to laugh at the woman. + +"Happy the pencil that can reproduce!" Mr. Barrett exclaimed; and, +meeting his smile, Cornelia said: "Do you know, my feeling is, and I +cannot at all account for it, that if she were a Catholic she would not +seem so gross?" + +"Some of the poetry of that religion would descend upon her, possibly," +returned Mr. Barrett. + +"Do you mean," Freshfield said quickly, "that she would stand a fair +chance of being sainted?" + +Out of this arose some polite fencing between the two. Freshfield might +have argued to advantage in a Court of law; but he was no match, on such +topics and before such an audience, for a refined sentimentalist. More +than once he betrayed a disposition to take refuge in his class (he +being son to one of the puisne Judges). Cornelia speedily punished him, +and to any correction from her he bowed his head. + +Adela was this day gifted with an extraordinary insight. Emilia alone +of the party was as a blot to her; but the others she saw through, as +if they had been walking transparencies. She divined that Edward and +Freshfield had both come, in concert, upon amorous business--that it was +Freshfield's object to help Edward to a private interview with her, and, +in return, Edward was to perform the same service for him with +Cornelia. So that Mr. Barrett was shockingly in the way of both; and the +perplexity of these stupid fellows--who would insist upon wondering why +the man Barrett and the girl Emilia (musicians both: both as it were, +vagrants) did not walk together and talk of quavers and minims--was +extremely comic. Passing the withered tree, Mr. Barrett deserved +thanks from Freshfield, if he did not obtain them; for he lingered, +surrendering his place. And then Adela knew that the weight of Edward +Buxley's remonstrative wrath had fallen on silent Emilia, to whom she +clung fondly. + +"I have had a letter," Edward murmured, in the voice that propitiates +secresy. + +"A letter?" she cried loud; and off flew the man like a rabbit into his +hole, the mask of him remaining. + +Emilia presently found Mr. Barrett at her elbow. His hand clasped the +book Cornelia had placed in the tree. + +"It is hers," said Emilia. + +He opened it and pointed to his initials. She looked in his face. + +"Are you very ill?" + +Adela turned round from Edward's neighbouring head. "Who is ill?" + +Cornelia brought Freshfield to a stop: "Ill?" + +Before them all, book in hand, Mr. Barrett had to give assurance that +he was hearty, and to appear to think that his words were accepted, in +spite of blanched jowl and reddened under-lid. Cornelia threw him one +glance: his eyes closed under it. Adela found it necessary to address +some such comforting exclamation as 'Goodness gracious!' to her +observant spirit. + +In the park-path, leading to the wood, Arabella was seen as they came +out the young branches that fringed the firs. She hurried up. + +"I have been looking for you. Papa has arrived with Sir Twickenham +Pryme, who dines with us." + +Adela unhesitatingly struck a blow. + +"Lady Pryme, we make place for you." + +And she crossed to Cornelia. Cornelia kept her eyes fixed on Adela's +mouth, as one looks at a place whence a venomous reptile has darted out. +Her eyelids shut, and she stood a white sculpture of pain, pitiable to +see. Emilia took her hand, encouraging the tightening fingers with a +responsive pressure. The group shuffled awkwardly together, though +Adela did her best. She was very angry with Mr. Barrett for wearing that +absurdly pale aspect. She was even angry with his miserable bankrupt +face for mounting a muscular edition of the smile Cornelia had shown. +"His feelings!" she cried internally; and the fact presented itself to +her, that feelings were a luxury utterly unfit for poor men, who were to +be accused of presumption for indulging in them. + +"Now, I suppose you are happy?" she spoke low between Arabella and +Edward. + +The effect of these words was to colour violently two pair of cheeks. +Arabella's behaviour did not quite satisfy the fair critic. Edward +Buxley was simply caught in a trap: He had the folly to imagine that by +laughing he released himself. + +"Is not that the laugh of an engaged?" said Adela to Freshfield. + +He replied: "That would have been my idea under other conditions," and +looked meaningly. + +She met the look with: "There are harsh conditions in life, are there +not?" and left him sufficiently occupied by his own sensations. + +"Mr. Barrett," she inquired (partly to assist the wretch out of his +compromising depression, and also that the question represented a real +matter of debate in her mind), "I want your opinion; will you give it +me? Apropos of slang, why does it sit well on some people? It certainly +does not vulgarize them. After all, in many cases, it is what they call +'racy idiom.' Perhaps our delicacy is strained?" + +Now, it was Mr. Barrett's established manner to speak in a deliberately +ready fashion upon the introduction of a new topic. Habit made him, on +this occasion, respond instantly; but the opening of the gates displayed +the confusion of ideas within and the rageing tumult. + +He said: "In many cases. There are two sorts. If you could call it the +language of nature! which anything... I beg your pardon, Slang! Polite +society rightly excludes it, because...." + +"Yes, yes," returned Adela; "but do we do rightly in submitting to +the absolute tyranny?--I mean, I think, originality flies from us in +consequence." + +The pitiable mortal became a trifle more luminous: "The objection is +to the repetition of risked phrases. A happy audacity of expression may +pass. It is bad taste to repeat it, that is all. Then there is the slang +of heavy boorishness, and the slang of impatient wit..." + +"Is there any fine distinction between the extremes?" said Cornelia, in +as clear a tone as she could summon. + +"I think," observed Arabella, "that whatever shows staleness speedily is +self-condemned; and that is the case with slang." + +"And yet it's to avoid some feeling of the sort that people employ it," +was Adela's remark; and the discussion of this theme dropped lifelessly, +and they walked on as before. + +Coming to a halt near the garden gate, Adela tapped Emilia's cheek, +addressing her: "How demure she has become!" + +"Ah!" went Arabella, "does she know papa has had a letter from Mr. +Pericles, who wrote from Milan to say that he has made arrangements +for her to enter the Academy there, and will come to fetch her in a few +days?" + +Emilia's wrists crossed below her neck, while she gave ear. + +"To take me away?" she said. + +The tragic attitude and outcry, with the mournful flash of her eyes, +might have told Emilia's tale. + +Adela unwillingly shielded her by interpreting the scene. "See! she must +be a born actress. They always exaggerate in that style, so that you +would really think she had a mighty passion for Brookfield." + +"Or in it," suggested Freshfield. + +"Or in it!" she laughed assentingly. + +Mr. Pole was perceived entering the garden, rubbing his hands a little +too obsequiously to some remark of the baronet's, as the critical ladies +imagined. Sir Twickenham's arm spread out in a sweep; Mr. Pole's head +nodded. After the ceremony of the salute, the ladies were informed of +Sir Twickenham's observation: Sir Twickenham Pryme, a statistical member +of Parliament, a well-preserved half-century in age, a gentleman in +bearing, passably grey-headed, his whiskers brushed out neatly, as if he +knew them individually and had the exact amount of them collectively +at his fingers' ends: Sir Twickenham had said of Mr. Pole's infant park +that if devoted to mangold-wurzel it would be productive and would pay: +whereas now it was not ornamental and was waste. + +"Sir Twickenham calculates," said Mr. Pole, "that we should have a crop +of--eh?" + +"The average?" Sir Twickenham asked, on the evident upward mounting of a +sum in his brain. And then, with a relaxing look upon Cornelia: "Perhaps +you might have fifteen, sixteen, perhaps for the first year; or, +say--you see, the exact acreage is unknown to me. Say roughly, ten +thousand sacks the first year." + +"Of what?" inquired Cornelia. + +"Mangold-wurzel," said the baronet. + +She gazed about her. Mr. Barrett was gone. + +"But, no doubt, you take no interest in such reckonings?" Sir Twickenham +added. + +"On the contrary, I take every interest in practical details." + +Practical men believe this when they hear it from the lips of +gentlewomen, and without philosophically analyzing the fact that it is +because the practical quality possesses simply the fascination of a +form of strength. Sir Twickenham pursued his details. Day closed on +Brookfield blankly. Nevertheless, the ladies felt that the situation +was now dignified by tragic feeling, and remembering keenly how they had +been degraded of late, they had a sad enjoyment of the situation. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +Meantime Wilfrid was leading a town-life and occasionally visiting +Stornley. He was certainly not in love with Lady Charlotte +Chillingworth, but he was in harness to that lady. In love we have +some idea whither we would go: in harness we are simply driven, and the +destination may be anywhere. To be reduced to this condition (which will +happen now and then in the case of very young men who are growing up +to something, and is, if a momentary shame to them, rather a sign of +promise than not) the gentle male need not be deeply fascinated. Lady +Charlotte was not a fascinating person. She did not lay herself out to +attract. Had she done so, she would have failed to catch Wilfrid, whose +soul thirsted for poetical refinement and filmy delicacies in a woman. +What she had, and what he knew that he wanted, and could only at +intervals assume by acting as if he possessed it, was a victorious +aplomb, which gave her a sort of gallant glory in his sight. He could +act it well before his sisters, and here and there a damsel; and +coming fresh from Lady Charlotte's school, he had recently done so with +success, and had seen the ladies feel toward him, as he felt under his +instructress in the art. Some nature, however, is required for every +piece of art. Wilfrid knew that he had been brutal in his representation +of the part, and the retrospect of his conduct at Brookfield did not +satisfy his remorseless critical judgement. In consequence, when +he again saw Lady Charlotte, his admiration of that one prized +characteristic of hers paralyzed him. She looked, and moved, and spoke, +as if the earth were her own. She was a note of true music, and he felt +himself to be an indecisive chord; capable ultimately of a splendid +performance, it might be, but at present crying out to be played upon. +This is the condition of a man in harness, whom witlings may call what +they will. He is subjugated: not won. In this state of subjugation +he will joyfully sacrifice as much as a man in love. For, having no +consolatory sense of happiness, such as encircles and makes a nest +for lovers, he seeks to attain some stature, at least, by excesses of +apparent devotion. Lady Charlotte believed herself beloved at last. She +was about to strike thirty; and Rumour, stalking with a turban of cloud +on her head,--enough that this shocking old celestial dowager, from +condemnation had passed to pity of the dashing lady. Beloved at last! +After a while there is no question of our loving; but we thirst for +love, if we have not had it. The key of Lady Charlotte will come in +the course of events. She was at the doubtful hour of her life, a +warm-hearted woman, known to be so by few, generally consigned by +devout-visaged Scandal (for who save the devout will dare to sit in the +chair of judgement?) as a hopeless rebel against conventional laws; and +worse than that, far worse,--though what, is not said. + +At Stornley the following letter from Emilia hit its mark:-- + +Dear Mr. Wilfrid, + +"It is time for me to see you. Come when you have read this letter. +I cannot tell you how I am, because my heart feels beating in another +body. Pray come; come now. Come on a swift horse. The thought of you +galloping to me goes through me like a flame that hums. You will come, +I know. It is time. If I write foolishly, do forgive me. I can only make +sure of the spelling, and I cannot please you on paper, only when I see +you." + +The signature of 'Emilia Alessandra Belloni' was given with her wonted +proud flourish. + +Wilfrid stared at the writing. "What! all this time she has been +thinking the same thing!" Her constancy did not swim before him in +alluring colours. He regarded it as a species of folly. Disgust had left +him. The pool of Memory would have had to be stirred to remind him of +the pipe-smoke in her hair. "You are sure to please me when you see me?" +he murmured. "You are very confident, young lady!" So much had her charm +faded. And then he thought kindly of her, and that a meeting would +not be good for her, and that she ought to go to Italy and follow +her profession. "If she grows famous," whispered coxcombry, "why then +oneself will take a little of the praises given to her." And that seemed +eminently satisfactory. Men think in this way when you have loved them, +ladies. All men? No; only the coxcombs; but it is to these that you give +your fresh affection. They are, as it were, the band of the regiment of +adorers, marching ahead, while we sober working soldiers follow to their +music. "If she grows famous, why then I can bear in mind that her +heart was once in my possession: and it may return to its old owner, +perchance." Wilfrid indulged in a pleasant little dream of her singing +at the Opera-house, and he, tied to a ferocious, detested wife, how +softly and luxuriously would he then be sighing for the old time! It +was partly good seed in his nature, and an apprehension of her force +of soul, that kept him from a thought of evil to her. Passion does not +inspire dark appetite. Dainty innocence does, I am told. Things are +tested by the emotions they provoke. Wilfrid knew that there was no +trifling with Emilia, so he put the letter by, commenting thus "she's +right, she doesn't spell badly." Behind, which, to those who have caught +the springs of his character, volumes may be seen. + +He put the letter by. Two days later, at noon, the card of Captain +Gambier was brought to him in the billiard-room,--on it was written: +"Miss Belloni waits on horseback to see you." Wilfrid thought "Waits!" +and the impossibility of escape gave him a notion of her power. + +"So, you are letting that go on," said Lady Charlotte, when she heard +that Emilia and the captain were in company. + +"There is no fear for her whatever." + +"There is always fear when a man gives every minute of his time to that +kind of business," retorted her ladyship. + +Wilfrid smiled the smile of the knowing. Rivalry with Gambier (and +successful too!) did not make Emilia's admiration so tasteless. Some one +cries out: "But, what a weak creature is this young man!" I reply, he +was at a critical stage of his career. All of us are weak in the period +of growth, and are of small worth before the hour of trial. This fellow +had been fattening all his life on prosperity; the very best dish in the +world; but it does not prove us. It fattens and strengthens us, just +as the sun does. Adversity is the inspector of our constitutions; +she simply tries our muscle and powers of endurance, and should be a +periodical visitor. But, until she comes, no man is known. Wilfrid was +not absolutely engaged to Lady Charlotte (she had taken care of that), +and being free, and feeling his heart beat in more lively fashion, he +turned almost delightedly to the girl he could not escape from. As when +the wriggling eel that has been prodded by the countryman's fork, finds +that no amount of wriggling will release it, to it twists in a knot +around the imprisoning prong. This simile says more than I mean it to +say, but those who understand similes will know the measure due to them. + +There sat Emilia on her horse. "Has Gambier been giving her lessons?" +thought Wilfrid. She sat up, well-balanced; and, as he approached, began +to lean gently forward to him. A greeting 'equal to any lady's,' there +was no doubt. This was the point Emilia had to attain, in his severe +contemplation. A born lady, on her assured level, stood a chance of +becoming a Goddess; but ladyship was Emilia's highest mark. Such is +the state of things to the sentimental fancy when girls are at a +disadvantage. She smiled, and held out both hands. He gave her one, +nodding kindly, but was too confused to be the light-hearted cavalier. +Lady Charlotte walked up to her horse's side, after receiving Captain +Gambier's salute, and said: "Come, catch hold of my hands and jump." + +"No," replied Emilia; "I only came to see him." + +"But you will see him, and me in the bargain, if you stay." + +"I fancy she has given her word to return early," interposed Wilfrid. + +"Then we'll ride back with her," said Lady Charlotte. "Give me five +minutes. I'll order a horse out for you." + +She smiled, and considerately removed the captain, by despatching him to +the stables. + +A quivering dimple of tenderness hung for a moment in Emilia's cheeks, +as she looked upon Wilfrid. Then she said falteringly, "I think they +wish to be as we do." + +"Alone?" cried Wilfrid. + +"Yes; that is why I brought him over. He will come anywhere with me." + +"You must be mistaken." + +"No; I know it." + +"Did he tell you so?" + +"No; Mr. Powys did." + +"Told you that Lady Charlotte--" + +"Yes. Not, is; but, was. And he used that word... there is no word like +it,... he said 'her lover'--Oh! mine!" Emilia lifted her arms. Her voice +from its deepest fall had risen to a cry. + +Wilfrid caught her as she slipped from her saddle. His heart was in a +tumult; stirred both ways: stirred with wrath and with love. He clasped +her tightly. + +"Am I?--am I?" he breathed. + +"My lover!" Emilia murmured. + +He was her slave again. + +For, here was something absolutely his own. His own from the roots; from +the first growth of sensation. Something with the bloom on it: to which +no other finger could point and say: "There is my mark." + +(And, ladies, if you will consent to be likened to a fruit, you must +bear with these observations, and really deserve the stigma. If you will +smile on men, because they adore you as vegetable products, take what +ensues.) + +Lady Charlotte did no more than double the time she had asked for. The +party were soon at a quiet canter up the lanes; but entering a broad +furzy common with bramble-plots and oak-shaws, the Amazon flew ahead. +Emilia's eyes were so taken with her, that she failed to observe a tiny +red-flowing runlet in the clay, with yellow-ridged banks almost baked +to brick. Over it she was borne, but at the expense of a shaking that +caused her to rely on her hold of the reins, ignorant of the notions +of a horse outstripped. Wilfrid looked to see that the jump had been +accomplished, and was satisfied. Gambier was pressing his hack to keep a +respectable second. + +Lady Charlotte spun round suddenly, crying, "Catch the mare!" and +galloped back to Emilia, who was deposited on a bush of bramble. +Dismounting promptly, the lady said: "My child, you're not hurt?" + +"Not a bit." Emilia blinked. + +"Not frightened?" + +"Not a bit," was half whispered. + +"That's brave. Now jump on your feet. Tell me why you rode over to us +this morning. Quick. Don't hesitate." + +"Because I want Wilfrid to see his sister Cornelia," came the answer, +with the required absence of indecision. + +Emilia ran straightway to meet Wilfrid approaching; and as both her +hands, according to her fashion, were stretched out to him to assure +him of her safety and take his clasp, forgetful of the instincts derived +from riding-habits, her feet became entangled; she trod herself down, +falling plump forward and looking foolish--perhaps for the first time in +her life plainly feeling so. + +"Up! little woman," said Lady Charlotte, supporting her elbow. + +"Now, Sir Wilfrid, we part here; and don't spoil her courage, now she +has had a spill, by any 'assiduous attentions' and precautions. She's +sure to take as many as are needed. If Captain Gambler thinks I require +an escort, he may offer." + +The captain, taken by surprise, bowed, and flowed in ardent commonplace. +Wilfrid did not look of a wholesome colour. + +"Do you return?" he stammered; not without a certain aspect of righteous +reproach. + +"Yes. You will ride over to us again, probably, in a day or two? Captain +Gambler will see me safe from the savage admirers that crowd this +country, if I interpreted him rightly." + +Emilia was lifted to her seat. Lady Charlotte sprang unassisted to hers. +"Ta-ta!" she waved her fingers from her lips. The pairs then separated; +one couple turning into green lanes, the other dipping to blue hills. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +Gossip of course was excited on the subject of the choice of a partner +made by the member for the county. Cornelia placed her sisters in one +of their most pleasing of difficulties. She had not as yet pledged her +word. It was supposed that she considered it due to herself to withhold +her word for a term. The rumour in the family was, that Sir Twickenham +appreciated her hesitation, and desired that he might be intimately +known before he was finally accepted. When the Tinleys called, they +heard that Cornelia's acceptance of the baronet was doubtful. The +Copleys, on the other hand, distinctly understood that she had decided +in his favour. Owing to the amiable dissension between the Copleys and +the Tinleys, each party called again; giving the ladies of Brookfield +further opportunity for studying one of the levels from which they +had risen. Arabella did almost all the fencing with Laura Tinley, +contemptuously as a youth of station returned from college will turn and +foil an ill-conditioned villager, whom formerly he has encountered on +the green. + +"Had they often met, previous to the... the proposal?" inquired Laura; +and laughed: "I was going to say 'popping.'" + +"Pray do not check yourself, if a phrase appears to suit you," returned +Arabella. + +"But it was in the neighbourhood, was it not?" + +"They have met in the neighbourhood." + +"At Richford?" + +"Also at Richford." + +"We thought it was sudden, dear; that's all." + +"Why should it not be?" + +"Perhaps the best things are, it is true." + +"You congratulate us upon a benefit?" + +"He is to be congratulated seriously. Naturally. When she decides, let +me know early, I do entreat you, because... well, I am of a different +opinion from some people, who talk of another attachment, or engagement, +and I do not believe in it, and have said so." + +Rising to depart, Laura Tinley resumed: "Most singular! You are aware, +of course, that poor creature, our organist--I ought to say yours--who +looked (it was Mr. Sumner I heard say it--such a good thing!) as if +he had been a gentleman in another world, and was the ghost of one in +this: really one of the cleverest things! but he is clever!--Barrett's +his name: Barrett and some: musical name before it, like Handel. I mean +one that we are used to. Well, the man has totally and unexpectedly +thrown up his situation." + +"His appointment," said Arabella. Permitting no surprise to be visible, +she paused: "Yes. I don't think we shall give our consent to her filling +the post." + +Laura let it be seen that her adversary was here a sentence too quick +for her. + +"Ah! you mean your little Miss Belloni?" + +"Was it not of her you were thinking?" + +"When?" asked Laura, shamefully bewildered. + +"When you alluded to Mr. Barrett's vacant place." + +"Not at the moment." + +"I thought you must be pointing to her advancement." + +"I confess it was not in my mind." + +"In what consisted the singularity, then?" + +"The singularity?" + +"You prefaced your remarks with the exclamation, 'Singular!'" + +Laura showed that Arabella had passed her guard. She hastened to +compliment her on her kindness to Emilia, and so sheathed her weapon for +the time, having just enjoyed a casual inspection of Mrs. Chump entering +the room, and heard the brogue an instant. + +"Irish!" she whispered, smiling, with a sort of astonished discernment +of the nationality, and swept through the doorway: thus conveying +forcibly to Arabella her knowledge of what the ladies of Brookfield were +enduring: a fine Parthian shot. + +That Cornelia should hold a notable county man, a baronet and owner of +great acres, in a state between acceptance and rejection, was considered +high policy by the ladies, whom the idea of it elevated; and they +encouraged her to pursue this course, without having a suspicion, shrewd +as they were, that it was followed for any other object than the honour +of the family. But Mr. Pole was in the utmost perplexity, and spoke of +baronets as things almost holy, to be kneeled to, prayed for. He was +profane. "I thought, papa," said Cornelia, "that women conferred the +favour when they gave their hands!" + +It was a new light to the plain merchant. "How should you say if a +Prince came and asked for you?" + +"Still that he asked a favour at my hands." + +"Oh!" went Mr. Pole, in the voice of a man whose reason is outraged. +The placidity of Cornelia's reply was not without its effect on him, +nevertheless. He had always thought his girls extraordinary girls, +and born to be distinguished. "Perhaps she has a lord in view," he +concluded: it being his constant delusion to suppose that high towering +female sense has always a practical aim at a material thing. He was no +judge of the sex in its youth. "Just speak to her," he said to Wilfrid. + +Wilfrid had heard from Emilia that there was a tragic background to this +outward placidity; tears on the pillow at night and long vigils. Emilia +had surprised her weeping, and though she obtained no confidences, the +soft mood was so strong in the stately lady, that she consented to weep +on while Emilia clasped her. Petitioning on her behalf to Wilfrid for +aid, Emilia had told him the scene; and he, with a man's stupidity, +alluded to it, not thinking what his knowledge of it revealed to a +woman. + +"Why do you vacillate, and keep us all in the dark as to what you mean?" +he began. + +"I am not prepared," said Cornelia; the voice of humility issuing from a +monument. + +"One of your oracular phrases! Are you prepared to be straightforward in +your dealings?" + +"I am prepared for any sacrifice, Wilfrid." + +"The marrying of a man in his position is a sacrifice!" + +"I cannot leave papa." + +"And why not?" + +"He is ill. He does not speak of it, but he is ill. His actions are +strange. They are unaccountable." + +"He has an old friend to reside in his house?" + +"It is not that. I have noticed him. His mind...he requires watching." + +"And how long is it since you made this discovery?" + +"One sees clearer perhaps when one is not quite happy." + +"Not happy! Then it's for him that you turn the night to tears?" + +Cornelia closed her lips. She divined that her betrayer must be close in +his confidence. She went shortly after to Emilia, whose secret at once +stood out bare to a kindled suspicion. There was no fear that Cornelia +would put her finger on it accusingly, or speak of it directly. She had +the sentimentalist's profound respect for the name and notion of love. +She addressed Emilia vaguely, bidding her keep guard on her emotions, +and telling her there was one test of the truth of masculine +protestations; this, Will he marry you? The which, if you are poor, is a +passably infallible test. Emilia sucked this in thoughtfully. She heard +that lovers were false. Why, then of course they were not like her +lover! Cornelia finished what she deemed her duty, and departed, while +Emilia thought: "I wonder whether he could be false to me;" and she +gave herself shrewd half-delicious jarrings of pain, forcing herself to +contemplate the impossible thing. + +She was in this state when Mrs. Chump came across her, and with a slight +pressure of a sovereign into her hand, said: "There, it's for you, +little Belloni! and I see ye've been thinkin' me one o' the scrape-hards +and close-fists. It's Pole who keeps me low, on purpose. And I'm a +wretch if I haven't my purse full, so you see I'm all in the dark in +the house, and don't know half so much as the sluts o' the kitchen. So, +ye'll tell me, little Belloni, is Arr'bella goin' to marry Mr. Annybody? +And is Cornelia goin' to marry Sir Tickleham? And whether Mr. Wilfrud's +goin' to marry Lady Charlotte Chill'nworth? Becas, my dear, there's +Arr'bella, who's sharp, she is, as a North-easter in January, (which +Chump 'd cry out for, for the sake of his ships, poor fella--he kneelin' +by 's bedside in a long nightgown and lookin' just twice what he was!) +she has me like a nail to my vary words, and shows me that nothin' can +happen betas o' what I've said. And Cornelia--if ye'll fancy a tall +codfish on its tail: 'Mrs. Chump, I beg ye'll not go to believe +annything of me.' So I says to her, 'Cornelia! my dear! do ye think, +now, it's true that Chump went and marrud his cook, that ye treat me so? +becas my father,' I tell her, 'he dealt in porrk in a large way, and +I was a fine woman, full of the arr'stocracy, and Chump a little +puffed-out bladder of a man.' So then she says: 'Mrs. Chump, I listen to +no gossup: listen you to no gossup. 'And Mr. Wilfrud, my dear, he sends +me on the flat o' my back, laughin'. And Ad'la she takes and turns me +right about, so that I don't see the thing I'm askin' after; and there's +nobody but you, little Belloni, to help me, and if ye do, ye shall know +what the crumple of paper sounds like." + +Mrs. Chump gave a sugary suck with her tongue. Emilia returned the money +to her. + +"Ye're foolush!" said Mrs. Chump. "A shut fist's good in fight and bad +in friendship. Do ye know that? Open your hand." + +"Excuse me," persisted Emilia. + +"Pooh! take the money, or I'll say ye're in a conspiracy to make me +blindman's-buff of the parrty. Take ut." + +"I don't want it." + +"Maybe, it's not enough?" + +"I don't want any, ma'am." + +"Ma'am, to the deuce with ye! I'll be callin' ye a forr'ner in a minute, +I will." + +Emilia walked away from a volley of terrific threats. + +For some reason, unfathomed by her, she wanted to be alone with Wilfrid +and put a question to him. No other, in sooth, than the infallible test. +Not, mind you, that she wished to be married. But something she had +heard (she had forgotten what it was) disturbed her, and that recent +trifling with pain, in her excess of happiness, laid her open to it. Her +heart was weaker, and fluttered, as if with a broken wing. She thought, +"if I can be near him to lean against him for one full hour!" it would +make her strong again. For, she found that if her heart was rising on a +broad breath, suddenly, for no reason that she knew, it seemed to stop +in its rise, break, and sink, like a wind-beaten billow. Once or twice, +in a quick fear, she thought: "What is this? Is this a malady coming +before death?" She walked out gloomily, thinking of the darkness of +the world to Wilfrid, if she should die. She plucked flowers, and then +reproached herself with plucking them. She tried to sing. "No, not till +I have been with him alone;" she said, chiding her voice to silence. +A shadow crossed her mind, as a Spring-mist dulls the glory of May. +"Suppose all singing has gone from me--will he love wretched me?" + +By-and-by she met him in the house. "Come out of doors to-night," she +whispered. + +Wilfrid's spirit of intrigue was never to be taken by surprise. "In the +wood, under the pine, at nine," he replied. + +"Not there," said Emilia, seeing this place mournfully dark from +Cornelia's grief. "It is too still; say, where there's water falling. +One can't be unhappy by noisy water." + +Wilfrid considered, and named Wilming Weir. "And there we'll sit and +you'll sing to me. I won't dine at home, so they won't susp-a-fancy +anything.--Soh! and you want very much to be with me, my bird? What am +I?" He bent his head. + +"My lover." + +He pressed her hand rapturously, half-doubting whether her pronunciation +of the word had not a rather too confident twang. + +Was it not delightful, he asked her, that they should be thus one to +the other, and none know of it. She thought so too, and smiled happily, +promising secresy, at his request; for the sake of continuing so +felicitous a life. + +"You, you know, have an appointment with Captain Gambier, and, I with +Lady Charlotte Chillingworth," said he. "How dare you make appointments +with a captain of hussars?" and he bent her knuckles fondlingly. + +Emilia smiled as before. He left her with a distinct impression that she +did not comprehend that part of her lesson. + +Wilfrid had just bled his father of a considerable sum of money; +having assured him that he was the accepted suitor of Lady Charlotte +Chillingworth, besides making himself pleasant in allusion to Mrs. +Chump, so far as to cast some imputation on his sisters' judgement +for not perceiving the virtues of the widow. The sum was improvidently +large. Mr. Pole did not hear aright when he heard it named. Even at the +repetition, he went: "Eh?" two or three times, vacantly. The amount was +distinctly nailed to his ear: whereupon he said, "Ah!--yes! you young +fellows want money: must have it, I suppose. Up from the bowels of the +earth Up from the--: you're sure they're not playing the fool with you, +over there?" + +Wilfrid understood the indication to Stornley. "I think you need have no +fear of that, sir." And so his father thought, after an examination of +the youth, who was of manly shape, and had a fresh, non-fatuous, air. + +"Well, if that's all right..." sighed Mr. Pole. "Of course you'll always +know that money's money. I wish your sisters wouldn't lose their time, +as they do. Time's worth more than money. What sum?" + +"I told you, sir, I wanted--there's the yacht, you know, and a lot of +tradesmen's bills, which you don't like to see standing:-about--perhaps +I had better name the round sum. Suppose you write down eight hundred. I +shan't want more for some months. If you fancy it too much..." + +Mr. Pole had lifted his head. But he spoke nothing. His lips and brows +were rigid in apparent calculation. Wilfrid kept his position for +a minute or so; and then, a little piqued, he moved about. He had +inherited the antipathy to the discussion of the money question, and +fretted to find it unnecessarily prolonged. + +"Shall I come to you on this business another time, sir?" + +"No, God bless my soul!" cried his father; "are you going to keep this +hanging over me for ever? Eight hundred, you said." He mumbled: "salary +of a chief clerk of twenty years' standing. Eight: twice four:--there +you have it exactly." + +"Will you send it me in a letter?" said Wilfrid, out of patience. + +"I'll send it you in a letter," assented his father. Upon which Wilfrid +changed his mind. "I can take a chair, though. I can easily wait for it +now." + +"Save trouble, if I send it. Eh?" + +"Do you wish to see whether you can afford it, sir?" + +"I wish to see you show more sense--with your confounded 'afford.' Have +you any idea of bankers' books?--bankers' accounts?" Mr. Pole fished his +cheque-book from a drawer and wrote Wilfrid's name and the sum, tore +out the leaf and tossed it to him. "There, I've written to-day. Don't +present it for a week." He rubbed his forehead hastily, touching here +and there a paper to put it scrupulously in a line with the others. +Wilfrid left him, and thought: "Kind old boy! Of course, he always means +kindly, but I think I see a glimpse of avarice as a sort of a sign of +age coming on. I hope he'll live long!" + +Wilfrid was walking in the garden, imagining perhaps that he was +thinking, as the swarming sensations of little people help them to +imagine, when Cornelia ran hurriedly up to him and said: "Come with me +to papa. He's ill: I fear he is going to have a fit." + +"I left him sound and well, just now," said Wilfrid. "This is your +mania." + +"I found him gasping in his chair not two minutes after you quitted him. +Dearest, he is in a dangerous state!" + +Wilfrid stept back to his father, and was saluted with a ready "Well?" +as he entered; but the mask had slipped from half of the old man's face, +and for the first time in his life Wilfrid perceived that he had become +an old man. + +"Well, sir, you sent for me?" he said. + +"Girls always try to persuade you you're ill--that's all," returned Mr. +Pole. His voice was subdued; but turning to Cornelia, he fired up: "It's +preposterous to tell a man who carries on a business like mine, you've +observed for a long while that he's queer!--There, my dear child, I know +that you mean well. I shall look all right the day you're married." + +This allusion, and the sudden kindness, drew a storm of tears to +Cornelia's eyelids. + +"Papa! if you will but tell me what it is!" she moaned. + +A nervous frenzy seemed to take possession of him. He ordered her out of +the room. + +She was gone, but his arm was still stretched out, and his expression of +irritated command did not subside. + +Wilfrid took his arm and put it gently down on the chair, saying: +"You're not quite the thing to-day, sir." + +"Are you a fool as well?" Mr. Pole retorted. "What do you know of, to +make me ill? I live a regular life. I eat and drink just as you all do; +and if I have a headache, I'm stunned with a whole family screaming as +hard as they can that I'm going to die. Damned hard! I say, sir, it's--" +He fell into a feebleness. + +"A little glass of brandy, I think," Wilfrid suggested; and when Mr. +Pole had gathered his mind he assented, begging his son particularly to +take precautions to prevent any one from entering the room until he had +tasted the reviving liquor. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +A half-circle of high-banked greensward, studded with old park-trees, +hung round the roar of the water; distant enough from the white-twisting +fall to be mirrored on a smooth-heaved surface, while its out-pushing +brushwood below drooped under burdens of drowned reed-flags that caught +the foam. Keen scent of hay, crossing the dark air, met Emilia as +she entered the river-meadow. A little more, and she saw the white +weir-piles shining, and the grey roller just beginning to glisten to +the moon. Eastward on her left, behind a cedar, the moon had cast off +a thick cloud, and shone through the cedar-bars with a yellowish hazy +softness, making rosy gold of the first passion of the tide, which, +writhing and straining on through many lights, grew wide upon the +wonderful velvet darkness underlying the wooded banks. With the full +force of a young soul that leaps from beauty seen to unimagined beauty, +Emilia stood and watched the picture. Then she sat down, hushed, +awaiting her lover. + +Wilfrid, as it chanced, was ten minutes late. She did not hear his voice +till he had sunk on his knee by her side. + +"What a reverie!" he said half jealously. "Isn't it lovely here?" + +Emilia pressed his hand, but without turning her face to him, as +her habit was. He took it for shyness, and encouraged her with soft +exclamations and expansive tenderness. + +"I wish I had not come here!" she murmured. + +"Tell me why?" He folded his arm about her waist. + +"Why did you let me wait?" said she. + +Wilfrid drew out his watch; blamed the accident that had detained him, +and remarked that there were not many minutes to witness against him. + +She appeared to throw off her moodiness. "You are here at last. Let me +hold your hand, and think, and be quite silent." + +"You shall hold my hand, and think, and be quite silent, my own girl! if +you will tell me what's on your mind." + +Emilia thought it enough to look in his face, smiling. + +"Has any one annoyed you?" he cried out. + +"No one." + +"Then receive the command of your lord, that you kiss him." + +"I will kiss him," said Emilia; and did so. + +The salute might have appeased an imperious lord, but was not so +satisfactory to an exacting lover. He perceived, however, that, whether +as lover or as lord, he must wait for her now, owing to her having +waited for him: so, he sat by her, permitting his hand to be softly +squeezed, and trying to get at least in the track of her ideas, while +her ear was turned to the weir, and her eyes were on the glowing edges +of the cedar-tree. + +Finally, on one of many deep breaths, she said: "It's over. Why were +you late? But, never mind now. Never let it be long again when I am +expecting you. It's then I feel so much at his mercy. I mean, if I am +where I hear falling water; sometimes thunder." + +Wilfrid masked his complete mystification with a caressing smile; +not without a growing respect for the only person who could make him +experience the pangs of conscious silliness. You see, he was not a +coxcomb. + +"That German!" Emilia enlightened him. + +"Your old music-master?" + +"I wish it, I wish it! I should soon be free from him. Don't you know +that dreadful man I told you about, who's like a black angel to me, +because there is no music like his? and he's a German! I told you how I +first dreamed about him, and then regularly every night, after talking +with my father about Italy and his black-yellow Tedeschi, this man came +over my pillow and made me call him Master, Master. And he is. He seems +as if he were the master of my soul, mocking me, making me worship him +in spite of my hate. I came here, thinking only of you. I heard the +water like a great symphony. I fell into dreaming of my music. That's +when I am at his mercy. There's no one like him. I must detest music to +get free from him. How can I? He is like the God of music." + +Wilfrid now remembered certain of her allusions to this rival, who had +hitherto touched him very little. Perhaps it was partly the lovely scene +that lifted him to a spiritual jealousy, partly his susceptibility to +a sentimental exaggeration, and partly the mysterious new charm in +Emilia's manner, that was as a bordering lustre, showing how the full +orb was rising behind her. + +"His name?" Wilfrid asked for. + +Emilia's lips broke to the second letter of the alphabet; but she cut +short the word. "Why should you hear it? And now that you are here, you +drive him away. And the best is," she laughed, "I am sure you will +not remember any of his pieces. I wish I could not--not that it's the +memory; but he seems all round me, up in the air, and when the trees +move all together...you chase him away, my lover!" + +It was like a break in music, the way that Emilia suddenly closed her +sentence; coming with a shock of flattering surprise upon Wilfrid. + +Then she pursued: "My English lover! I am like Italy, in chains to that +German, and you...but no, no, no! It's not quite a likeness, for my +German is not a brute. I have seen his picture in shop-windows: the wind +seemed in his hair, and he seemed to hear with his eyes: his forehead +frowning so. Look at me, and see. So!" + +Emilia pressed up the hair from her temples and bent her brows. + +"It does not increase your beauty," said Wilfrid. + +"There's the difference!" Emilia sighed mildly. "He sees angels, +cherubs, and fairies, and imps, and devils; or he hears them: they come +before him from far off, in music. They do to me, now and then. Only now +and then, when my head's on fire.--My lover!" + +Wilfrid pressed his mouth to the sweet instrument. She took his kiss +fully, and gave her own frankly, in return. Then, sighing a very little, +she said: "Do not kiss me much." + +"Why not?" + +"No!" + +"But, look at me." + +"I will look at you. Only take my hand. See the moon is getting whiter. +The water there is like a pool of snakes, and then they struggle out, +and roll over and over, and stream on lengthwise. I can see their long +flat heads, and their eyes: almost their skins. No, my lover! do not +kiss me. I lose my peace." + +Wilfrid was not willing to relinquish his advantage, and the tender +deep tone of the remonstrance was most musical and catching. What if he +pulled her to earth from that rival of his in her soul? She would then +be wholly his own. His lover's sentiment had grown rageingly jealous of +the lordly German. But Emilia said, "I have you on my heart more when I +touch your hand only, and think. If you kiss me, I go into a cloud, and +lose your face in my mind." + +"Yes, yes;" replied Wilfrid, pleased to sustain the argument for the +sake of its fruitful promises. "But you must submit to be kissed, my +darling. You will have to." + +She gazed inquiringly. + +"When you are married, I mean." + +"When will you marry me?" she said. + +The heir-apparent of the house of Pole blinked probably at that moment +more foolishly than most mortal men have done. Taming his astonishment +to represent a smile, he remarked: "When? are you thinking about it +already?" + +She answered, in a quiet voice that conveyed the fact forcibly, "Yes." + +"But you're too young yet; and you're going to Italy, to learn in the +schools. You wouldn't take a husband there with you, would you? What +would the poor devil do?" + +"But you are not too young," said she. + +Wilfrid supposed not. + +"Could you not go to my Italy with me?" + +"Impossible! What! as a dangling husband?" Wilfrid laughed scornfully. + +"They would love you too," she said. "They are such loving people. Oh, +come! Consent to come, my lover! I must learn. If I do not, you will +despise me. How can I bring anything to lay at your feet, my dear! my +dear! if I do not?" + +"Impossible!" Wilfrid reiterated, as one who had found moorings in the +word. + +"Then I will give up Italy!" + +He had not previously acted hypocrite with this amazing girl. +Nevertheless, it became difficult not to do so. He could scarcely +believe that he had on a sudden, and by strange agency, slipped into an +earnest situation. Emilia's attitude and tone awakened him to see it. +Her hands were clenched straight down from the shoulders: all that she +conceived herself to be renouncing for his sake was expressed in her +face. + +"Would you, really?" he murmured. + +"I will!" + +"And be English altogether?" + +"Be yours!" + +"Mine?" + +"Yes; from this time." + +Now stirred his better nature: though not before had he sceptically +touched her lips and found them cold, as if the fire had been taken out +of them by what they had uttered. He felt that it was no animal love, +but the force of a soul drawn to him; and, forgetting the hypocritical +foundation he had laid, he said: "How proud I shall be of you!" + +"I shall go with you to battle," returned Emilia. + +"My little darling! You won't care to see those black fellows killed, +will you?" + +Emilia shuddered. "No; poor things! Why do you hurt them? Kill wicked +people, tyrant white-coats! And we will not talk of killing now. Proud +of me? If I can make you!" + +"You sigh so heavily!" + +"Something makes me feel like a little beggar." + +"When I tell you I love you?" + +"Yes; but I only feel rich when I am giving; and I seem to have nothing +to give now:--now that I have lost Italy!" + +"But you give me your love, don't you?" + +"All of it. But I seem to give it to you in tatters it's like a beggar; +like a day without any sun." + +"Do you think I shall have that idea when I hear you sing to me, and +know that this little leaping fountain of music here is mine?" + +Dim rays of a thought led Emilia to remark, "Must not men keel to women? +I mean, if they are to love them for ever?" + +Wilfrid smiled gallantly: "I will kneel to you, if it pleases you." + +"Not now. You should have done so, once, I dreamed only once, just for a +moment, in Italy; when all were crying out to me that I had caught their +hearts. I fancied standing out like a bright thing in a dark crowd, and +then saying 'I am his!' pointing to you, and folding my arms, waiting +for you to take me." + +The lover's imagination fired at the picture, and immediately he told +a lover's lie; for the emotion excited by the thought of her glory +coloured deliciously that image of her abnegation of all to him. He +said: "I would rather have you as you are." + +Emilia leaned to him more, and the pair fixed their eyes on the moon, +that had now topped the cedar, and was pure silver: silver on the grass, +on the leafage, on the waters. And in the West, facing it, was an arch +of twilight and tremulous rose; as if a spirit hung there over the +shrouded sun. + +"At least," thought Wilfrid, "heaven, and the beauty of the world, +approve my choice." And he looked up, fancying that he had a courage +almost serene to meet his kindred with Emilia on his arm. + +She felt his arm dreamily stressing its clasp about her, and said: "Now +I know you love me. And you shall take me as I am. I need not be so poor +after all. My dear! my dear! I cannot see beyond you." + +"Is that your misery?" said he. + +"My delight! my pleasure! One can live a life anywhere. And how can I +belong to Italy, if I am yours? Do you know, when we were silent just +now, I was thinking that water was the history of the world flowing out +before me, all mixed up of kings and queens, and warriors with armour, +and shouting armies; battles and numbers of mixed people; and great +red sunsets, with women kneeling under them. Do you know those long low +sunsets? I love them. They look like blood spilt for love. The noise of +the water, and the moist green smell, gave me hundreds of pictures that +seemed to hug me. I thought--what could stir music in me more than this? +and, am I not just as rich if I stay here with my lover, instead of +flying to strange countries, that I shall not care for now? So, you +shall take me as I am. I do not feel poor any longer." + +With that she gave him both her hands. + +"Yes," said Wilfrid. + +As if struck by the ridicule of so feeble a note, falling upon her +passionate speech, he followed it up with the "yes!" of a man; adding: +"Whatever you are, you are my dear girl; my own love; mine!" + +Having said it, he was screwed up to feel it as nearly as possible, such +virtue is there in uttered words. + +Then he set about resolutely studying to appreciate her in the new +character she had assumed to him. It is barely to be supposed that he +should understand what in her love for him she sacrificed in giving up +Italy, as she phrased it. He had some little notion of the sacrifice; +but, as he did not demand any sacrifice of the sort, and as this +involved a question perplexing, irritating, absurd, he did not regard +it very favourably. As mistress of his fancy, her prospective musical +triumphs were the crown of gold hanging over her. As wife of his bosom, +they were not to be thought of. But the wife of his bosom must take her +place by virtue of some wondrous charm. What was it that Emilia could +show, if not music? Beautiful eyebrows: thick rare eyebrows, no doubt +couched upon her full eyes, they were a marvel: and her eyes were a +marvel. She had a sweet mouth, too, though the upper lip did not boast +the aristocratic conventional curve of adorable pride, or the under +lip a pretty droop to a petty rounded chin. Her face was like the +aftersunset across a rose-garden, with the wings of an eagle poised +outspread on the light. Some such coloured, vague, magnified impression +Wilfrid took of her. Still, it was not quite enough to make him +scorn contempt, should it whisper: nor even quite enough to combat +successfully the image of elegant dames in their chosen attitudes--the +queenly moments when perhaps they enter an assembly, or pour out tea +with an exquisite exhibition of arm, or recline upon a couch, commanding +homage of the world of little men. What else had this girl to count +upon to make her exclusive? A devoted heart; she had a loyal heart, and +perfect frankness: a mind impressible, intelligent, and fresh. She gave +promise of fair companionship at all seasons. She could put a spell +upon him, moreover. By that power of hers, never wilfully exercised, she +came, in spite of the effect left on him by her early awkwardnesses and +'animalities,' nearer to his idea of superhuman nature than anything +he knew of. But how would she be regarded when the announcement of Mrs. +Wilfrid Pole brought scrutinizing eyes and gossiping mouths to bear on +her? + +It mattered nothing. He kissed her, and the vision of the critical world +faded to a blank. Whatever she was, he was her prime luminary, so he +determined to think that he cast light upon a precious, an unrivalled +land. + +"You are my own, are you not, Emilia?" + +"Yes; I am," she answered. + +"That water seems to say 'for ever,'" he murmured; and Emilia's fingers +pressed upon his. + +Of marriage there was no further word. Her heart was evidently quite +at ease; and that it should be so without chaining him to a date, was +Wilfrid's peculiar desire. He could pledge himself to eternity, but +shrank from being bound to eleven o'clock on the morrow morning. + +So, now, the soft Summer hours flew like white doves from off the +mounting moon, and the lovers turned to go, all being still: even the +noise of the waters still to their ears, as life that is muffled in +sleep. They saw the cedar grey-edged under the moon: and Night, that +clung like a bat beneath its ancient open palms. The bordering sward +about the falls shone silvery. In its shadow was a swan. These scenes +are but beckoning hands to the hearts of lovers, waving them on to that +Eden which they claim: but when the hour has fled, they know it; and by +the palpitating light in it they know that it holds the best of them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +At this season Mr. Pericles reappeared. He had been, he said, through +"Paris, Turin, Milano, Veniss, and by Trieste over the Summering to +Vienna on a tour for a voice." And in no part of the Continent, his +vehement declaration assured the ladies, had he found a single one. +It was one universal croak--ahi! And Mr. Pericles could, affirm that +Purgatory would have no pains for him after the torments he had recently +endured. "Zey are frogs if zey are not geese," said Mr. Pericles. +"I give up. Opera is dead. Hein? for a time;" and he smiled almost +graciously, adding: "Where is she?" For Emilia was not present. + +The ladies now perceived a greatness of mind in the Greek's devotion to +music, and in his non-mercenary travels to assist managers of Opera by +discovering genius. His scheme for Emilia fired them with delight. They +were about to lay down all the material arrangements at once, but Mrs. +Chump, who had heard that there was a new man in the house, now entered +the room, prepared to conquer him. As thus, after a short form of +introduction: "D'ye do, sir! and ye're Mr. Paricles. Oh! but ye're a +Sultan, they say. Not in morr'ls, sir. And vary pleasant to wander on +the Cont'nent with a lot o' lacqueys at your heels. It's what a bachelor +can do. But I ask ye, sir, is ut fair, ye think, to the poor garls that +has to stop at home?" + +Hereat the ladies of Brookfield, thus miserably indicated, drew upon +their self-command that sprang from the high sense of martyrdom. + +Mr. Pericles did not reply to Mrs. Chump at all. He turned to Adela, +saying aloud: "What is zis person?" + +It might have pleased them to hear any slight put publicly on Mrs. Chump +in the first resistance to the woman, but in the present stage their +pride defended her. "Our friend," was the reply with which Arabella +rebuked his rudeness; and her sister approved her. "We can avoid showing +that we are weak in our own opinion, whatsoever degrades us," they had +said during a consultation. Simultaneously they felt that Mr. Pericles +being simply a millionaire and not In Society, being also a middle-class +foreigner (a Greek whose fathers ran with naked heels and long lank hair +on the shores of the Aegean), before such a man they might venture to +identify this their guest with themselves an undoubted duty, in any +case, but not always to be done; at least, not with grace and personal +satisfaction. Therefore, the "our friend" dispersed a common gratulatory +glow. Very small points, my masters; but how are coral-islands built? + +Mrs. Chump fanned her cheek, in complete ignorance of the offence and +defence. Chump, deceased, in amorous mood, had praised her management of +the fan once, when breath was in him: "'Martha,' says he, winkin' a sort +of 'mavourneen' at me, ye know--'Martha! with a fan in your hand, +if ye're not a black-eyed beauty of a Spaniard, ye little devil of +Seville!' says he." This she had occasionally confided to the ladies. +The marital eulogy had touched her, and she was not a woman of +coldly-flowing blood, she had an excuse for the constant employment of +the fan. + +"And well, Mr. Paricles! have ye got nothin' to tell us about foreign +countesses and their slips? Because, we can listen, sir, garls or not. +Sure, if they understand ye, ye teach 'em nothin'; and if they don't +understand ye, where's the harm done? D'ye see, sir? It's clear in +favour of talkin'." + +Mr. Pericles administered consolation to his moustache by twisting it +into long waxy points. "I do not know; I do not know," he put her away +with, from time to time. In the end Mrs. Chump leaned over to Arabella. +"Don't have 'm, my dear," she murmured. + +"You mean--?" quoth Arabella. + +"Here's the driest stick that aver stood without sap." + +Arabella flushed when she took the implication that she was looking on +the man as a husband. Adela heard the remarks, and flushed likewise. +Mrs. Chump eyed them both. "It's for the money o' the man," she +soliloquized aloud, as her fashion was. Adela jumped up, and with +an easy sprightly posture of her fair, commonly studious person, and +natural run of notes "Oh!" she cried, "I begin to feel what it is to be +like a live fish on the fire, frying, frying, frying! and if he can keep +his Christian sentiments under this infliction, what a wonderful hero he +must be! What a hot day!" + +She moved swiftly to the door, and flung it open. A sight met her eyes +at which she lost her self-possession. She started back, uttering a soft +cry. + +"Ah! aha! oh!" went the bitter ironic drawl of Mr. Pericles, whose sharp +glance had caught the scene as well. + +Emilia came forward with a face like sunset. Diplomacy, under the form +of Wilfrid Pole, kicked its heels behind, and said a word or two in a +tone of false cheerfulness. + +"Oh! so!" Mr. Pericles frowned, while Emilia held her hand out to him. +"Yeas! You are quite well? H'm! You are burnt like a bean--hein? I shall +ask you what you have been doing, by and by." + +Happily for decency, Mrs. Chump had not participated in the fact +presented by ocular demonstration. She turned about comfortably to greet +Wilfrid, uttering the inspired remark: "Ye look red from a sly kiss!" + +"For one?" said he, sharpening his blunted wits on this dull instrument. + +The ladies talked down their talk. Then Wilfrid and Mr. Pericles +interchanged quasi bows. + +"Oh, if he doesn't show his upper teeth like an angry cat, or a leopard +I've seen!" cried Mrs. Chump in Adela's ear, designating Mr. Pericles. +"Does he know Mr. Wilfrud's in the British army, and a new lieuten't, +gazetted and all?" + +Mr. Pericles certainly did not look pleasantly upon Wilfrid: Emilia +received his unconcealed wrath and spite. + +"Go and sing a note!" he said. + +"At the piano?" Emilia quietly asked. + +"At piano, harp, what you will--it is ze voice I want." + +Emilia pitched her note high from a full chest and with glad bright +eyes, which her fair critics thought just one degree brazen, after the +revelation in the doorway. + +Mr. Pericles listened; wearing an aching expression, as if he were +sending one eye to look up into his brain for a judgement disputed in +that sovereign seat. + +Still she held on, and then gave a tremulous, rich, contralto note. + +"Oh! the human voice!" cried Adela, overcome by the transition of tones. + +"Like going from the nightingale to the nightjar," said Arabella. + +Mrs. Chump remarked: "Ye'll not find a more susceptible woman to musuc +than me." + +Wilfrid looked away. Pride coursed through his veins in a torrent. + +When the voice was still, Mr. Pericles remained in a pondering posture. + +"You go to play fool with zat voice in Milano, you are flogged," he +cried terribly, shaking his forefinger. + +Wilfrid faced round in wrath, but Mr. Pericles would not meet his +challenge, continuing: "You hear? you hear?--so!" and Mr. Pericles +brought the palms of his hands in collision. + +"Marcy, man!" Mrs. Chump leaped from her chair; "d'ye mean that those +horrud forr'ners'll smack a full-grown young woman?--Don't go to 'm, my +dear. Now, take my 'dvice, little Belloni, and don't go. It isn't the +sting o' the smack, ye know--" + +"Shall I sing anything to you?" Emilia addressed Mr. Pericles. The +latter shrugged to express indifference. Nevertheless she sang. She had +never sung better. Mr. Pericles clutched his chin in one hand, elbow on +knee. The ladies sighed to think of the loss of homage occasioned by +the fact of so few being present to hear her. Wilfrid knew himself +the fountain of it all, and stood fountain-like, in a shower of secret +adulation: a really happy fellow. This: that his beloved should be the +centre of eyes, and pronounced exquisite by general approbation, besides +subjecting him to a personal spell: this was what he wanted. It was +mournful to think that Circumstance had not at the same time created the +girl of noble birth, or with an instinct for spiritual elegance. But the +world is imperfect. + +Presently he became aware that she was understood to be singing +pointedly to him: upon which he dismissed the council of his sensations, +and began to diplomatize cleverly. Leaning over to Adela, he whispered: + +"Pericles wants her to go to Italy. My belief is, that she won't." + +"And why?" returned Adela, archly reproachful. + +"Well, we've been spoiling her a little, perhaps. I mean, we men, of +course. But, I really don't think that I'm chiefly to blame. You won't +allow Captain Gambier to be in fault, I know." + +"Why not?" said Adela. + +"Well, if you will, then he is the principal offender." + +Adela acted disbelief; but, unprepared for her brother's perfectly +feminine audacity of dissimulation, she thought: "He can't be in +earnest about the girl," and was led to fancy that Gambier might, and to +determine to see whether it was so. + +By this manoeuvre, Wilfrid prepared for himself a defender when the +charge was brought against him. + +Mr. Pericles was thunderstruck on hearing Emilia refuse to go to Italy. +A scene of tragic denunciation on the one hand, and stubborn decision on +the other, ensued. + +"I shall not mind zis" (he spoke of Love and the awakening of the female +heart) "not when you are trained. It is good, zen, and you have fire +from it. But, now! little fool, I say, it is too airly--too airly! How +shall you learn--eh? with your brain upon a man? And your voice, little +fool, a thing of caprice, zat comes and goes as he will, not you will. +Hein? like a barrel-organ, which he turns ze handle.--Mon Dieu! Why did +I leave her?" Mr. Pericles struck his brow with his wrist, clutching at +the long thin slice of hair that did greasy duty for the departed crop +on his poll. "Did I not know it was a woman? And so you are, what you +say, in lofe." + +Emilia replied: "I have not said so," with exasperating coolness. + +"You have your eye on a man. And I know him, zat man! When he is tired +of you--whiff, away you go, a puff of smoke! And you zat I should make +a Queen of Opera! A Queen? You shall have more rule zan twenty +Queens--forty! See" (Mr. Pericles made his hand go like an aspen-leaf +from his uplifted wrist); "So you shall set ze hearts of sossands! To +dream of you, to adore you! and flowers, flowers everywhere, on your +head, at your feet. You choose your lofer from ze world. A husband, if +it is your taste. Bose, if you please. Zen, I say, you shall, you shall +lofe a man. Let him tease and sting--ah! it will be magnifique: Aha! ze +voice will sharpen, go deep; yeas! to be a tale of blood. Lofe till you +could stab yourself:--Brava! But now? Little fool, I say!" + +Emilia believed that she was verily forfeiting an empire. Her face wore +a soft look of delight. This renunciation of a splendid destiny for +Wilfrid's sake, seemed to make her worthier of him, and as Mr. Pericles +unrolled the list of her rejected treasures, her bosom heaved without a +regret. + +"Ha!" Mr. Pericles flung away from her: "go and be a little +gutter-girl!" + +The musical connoisseur drew on his own disappointment alone for +eloquence. Had he been thinking of her, he might have touched cunningly +on her love for Italy. Music was the passion of the man; and a +millionaire's passion is something that can make a stir. He knew that +in Emilia he had discovered a pearl of song rarely to be found, and +his object was to polish and perfect her at all cost: perhaps, as a +secondary and far removed consideration, to point to her as a thing +belonging to him, for which Emperors might envy him. The thought of +losing her drove him into fits of rage. He took the ladies one by one, +and treated them each to a horrible scene of gesticulation and outraged +English. H accused their brother of conduct which they were obliged to +throw (by a process of their own) into the region of Fine Shades, before +they dared venture to comprehend him. Gross facts in relationship with +the voice, this grievous "machine, not man,"--as they said--stated to +them, harshly, impetuously. The ladies felt that he had bored their +ears with hot iron pins. Adela tried laughter as a defence from his +suggestion against Wilfrid, but had shortly afterwards to fly from the +fearful anatomist. She served her brother thoroughly in the Council of +Three; so that Mr. Pericles was led by them to trust that there had; +been mere fooling in his absence, and that the emotions he looked to as +the triumphant reserve in Emilia's bosom, to be aroused at some crisis +when she was before the world, slumbered still. She, on her part, +contrasting her own burning sensations with this quaint, innocent +devotion to Art and passion for music, felt in a manner guilty; and +whenever he stormed with additional violence, she became suppliant, +and seemed to bend and have regrets. Mr. Pericles would then say, with +mollified irritability: "You will come to Italy to-morrow?--Ze day +after?--not at all?" The last was given with a roar, for lack of her +immediate response. Emilia would find a tear on her eyelids at +times. Surround herself as she might with her illusions, she had no +resting-place in Wilfrid's heart, and knew it. She knew it as the young +know that they are to die on a future day, without feeling the sadness +of it, but with a dimly prevalent idea that this life is therefore +incomplete. And again her blood, as with a wave of rich emotion, washed +out the blank spot. She thought: "What can he want but my love?" And +thus she satisfied her own hungry questioning by seeming to supply an +answer to his. + +The ladies of Brookfield by no means encouraged Emilia to refuse the +generous offer of Mr. Pericles. They thought, too, that she might--might +she? Oh! certainly she might go to Italy under his protection. "Would +you let one of your blood?" asked Wilfrid brutally. With some cunning he +led them to admit that Emilia's parents should rightly be consulted in +such a case. + +One day Mr. Pericles said to the ladies: "I shall give a fete: a party +monstre. In ze air: on grass. I beg you to invite friends of yours." + +Before the excogitation of this splendid resolve, he had been observed +to wear for some period a conspiratorial aspect. When it was +delivered, and Arabella had undertaken the management of the "party +monstre"--(which was to be on Besworth Lawn, and, as it was not +their own party, could be conducted with a sort of quasi-contemptuous +superiority to incongruous gatherings)--this being settled, the forehead +of Mr. Pericles cleared and he ceased to persecute Emilia. + +"I am not one that is wopped," he said significantly; nodding to his +English hearers, as if this piece of shrewd acquaintance with the +expressive mysteries of their language placed them upon equal terms. + +It was really 'a providential thing' (as devout people phrase it) that +Laura Tinley and Mabel Copley should call shortly after this, and invite +the ladies to a proposed picnic of theirs on Besworth Lawn. On Besworth +Lawn, of all places! and they used the word 'picnic.' + +"A word suggestive of gnawed drumstick and ginger-beer bottles." Adela +quoted some scapegoat of her acquaintance, as her way was when she +wished to be pungent without incurring the cold sisterly eye of reproof +for a vulgarism. + +Both Laura and Mabel, when they heard of the mighty entertainment fixed +for Besworth Lawn by Mr. Pericles, looked down. They were invited, and +looked up. There was the usual amount of fencing with the combative +Laura, who gave ground at all points, and as she was separating, said +(so sweetly!) "Of course you have heard of the arrest of your--what does +one call him?--friend?--or a French word?" + +"You mean?" quoth Arabella. + +"That poor, neatly brushed, nice creature whom you patronized--who +played the organ!" she jerked to Arabella's dubious eyes. + +"And he?" Arabella smiled, complacently. + +"Then perhaps you may know that all is arranged for him?" said Laura, +interpreting by the look more than the word, after a habit of women. + +"Indeed, to tell you the truth, I know nothing," said Arabella. + +"Really?" Laura turned sharply to Cornelia, who met her eyes and did not +exhibit one weak dimple. + +The story was, that Mr. Chips, the Bookseller of Hillford, objected to +the departure of Mr. Barrett, until Mr. Barrett had paid the bill of Mr. +Chips: and had signified his objection in the form of a writ. "When, +if you know anything of law," said Laura, "you will see why he remains. +For, a writ once served, you are a prisoner. That is, I believe, if it's +above twenty pounds. And Mr. Chips' bill against Mr. Barrett was, I have +heard, twenty-three pounds and odd shillings. Could anything be more +preposterous? And Mr. Chips deserves to lose his money!" + +Ah! to soar out of such a set as this, of which Laura Tinley is a +sample, are not some trifling acts of inhumanity and practices in the +art of 'cutting' permissible? So the ladies had often asked of the +Unseen in their onward course, if they did not pointedly put the +question now. Surely they had no desire to give pain, but the nature +that endowed them with a delicate taste, inspired them to defend it. +They listened gravely to Laura, who related that not only English books, +but foreign (repeated and emphasized), had been supplied by Mr. Chips to +Mr. Barrett. + +They were in the library, and Laura's eyes rested on certain yellow and +blue covers of books certainly not designed for the reading of Mr. Pole. + +"I think you must be wrong as to Mr. Barrett's position," said Adela. + +"No, dear; not at all," Laura was quick to reply. "Unless you know +anything. He has stated that he awaits money remittances. He has, in +fact, overrun the constable, and my brother Albert says, the constable +is very likely to overrun ham, in consequence. Only a joke! But +an organist with, at the highest computation--poor absurd +thing!--fifty-five pounds per annum: additional for singing lessons, +it is true,--but an organist with a bookseller's bill of twenty-three +pounds! Consider!" + +"Foreign books, too!" interjected Adela. + +"Not so particularly improving to his morals, either!" added Laura. + +"You are severe upon the greater part of the human race," said Arabella. + +"So are the preachers, dear," returned Laura. + +"The men of our religion justify you?" asked Arabella. + +"Let me see;--where were we?" Laura retreated in an affected +mystification. + +"You had reached the enlightened belief that books written by any but +English hands were necessarily destructive of men's innocence," said +Arabella; and her sisters thrilled at the neatness of the stroke, for +the moment, while they forgot the ignoble object it transfixed. +Laura was sufficiently foiled by it to be unable to return to the +Chips-Barrett theme. Throughout the interview Cornelia had maintained a +triumphant posture, superior to Arabella's skill in fencing, seeing +that it exposed no weak point of the defence by making an attack, +and concealed especially the confession implied by a relish for the +conflict. Her sisters considerately left her to recover herself, after +this mighty exercise of silence. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +Cornelia sat with a clenched hand. "You are rich and he is poor," was +the keynote of her thoughts, repeated from minute to minute. "And it +is gold gives you the right in the world's eye to despise him!" she +apostrophized the vanished Laura, clothing gold with all the baseness of +that person. Now, when one really hates gold, one is at war with one's +fellows. The tide sets that way. There is no compromise: to hate it is +to try to stem the flood. It happens that this is one of the temptations +of the sentimentalist, who should reflect, but does not, that the fine +feelers by which the iniquities of gold are so keenly discerned, are a +growth due to it, nevertheless. Those 'fine feelers,' or antennae of +the senses, come of sweet ease; that is synonymous with gold in our +island-latitude. The sentimentalists are represented by them among the +civilized species. It is they that sensitively touch and reject, +touch and select; whereby the laws of the polite world are ultimately +regulated, and civilization continually advanced, sometimes +ridiculously. The sentimentalists are ahead of us, not by weight of +brain, but through delicacy of nerve, and, like all creatures in the +front, they are open to be victims. I pray you to observe again the +shrinking life that afflicts the adventurous horns of the snail, for +example. Such are the sentimentalists to us--the fat body of mankind. We +owe them much, and though they scorn us, let us pity them. + +Especially when they are young they deserve pity, for they suffer +cruelly. I for my part prefer to see boys and girls led into the ways of +life by nature; but I admit that in many cases, in most cases, our +good mother has not (occupied as her hands must be) made them perfectly +presentable; by which fact I am warned to have tolerance for the finer +beings who labour under these excessive sensual subtleties. I perceive +their uses. And they are right good comedy; for which I may say that +I almost love them. Man is the laughing animal: and at the end of an +infinite search, the philosopher finds himself clinging to laughter as +the best of human fruit, purely human, and sane, and comforting. So let +us be cordially thankful to those who furnish matter for sound embracing +laughter. + +Cornelia detested gold--entirely on general grounds and for abstract +reasons. Not a word of Mr. Barrett was shaped, even in fancy; but she +interjected to herself, with meditative eye and mouth: "The saints were +poor!" (the saints of whom he had read, translating from that old Latin +book) "St. Francis! how divine was his life!" and so forth, until the +figure of Mr. Penniless Barrett walked out in her imagination clad in +saintly garments, superior not only to his creditor, Mr. Chips, but to +all who bought or sold. + +"I have been false," she said; implying the "to him." Seeing him on that +radiant height above her, she thought "How could I have fallen so!" It +was impossible for her mind to recover the delusion which had prompted +her signing herself to bondage--pledging her hand to a man she did +not love. Could it have been that she was guilty of the immense folly, +simply to escape from that piece of coarse earth, Mrs. Chump? Cornelia +smiled sadly, saying: "Oh, no! I should not have committed a wickedness +for so miserable an object." Despairing for a solution of the puzzle, +she cried out, "I was mad!", and with a gasp of horror saw herself madly +signing her name to perdition. + +"I was mad!" is a comfortable cloak to our sins in the past. Mournful +to think that we have been bereft of reason; but the fit is over, and we +are not in Bedlam! + +Cornelia next wrestled with the pride of Mr. Barrett. Why had he not +come to her once after reading the line pencilled in the book? Was +it that he would make her his debtor in everything? He could have +reproached her justly; why had he held aloof? She thirsted to be +scourged by him, to hang her head ashamed under his glance, and hug the +bitter pain he dealt her. Revolving how the worst man on earth would +have behaved to a girl partially in his power (hands had been permitted +to be pressed, and the gateways of the eyes had stood open: all but vows +had been interchanged), she came to regard Mr. Barrett as the best man +on the earth. That she alone saw it, did not depreciate the value of her +knowledge. A goal gloriously illumined blazed on her from the distance. +"Too late!" she put a curb on the hot courses in her brain, and they +being checked, turned all at once to tears and came in a flood. How +indignant would the fair sentimentalist have been at a whisper of her +caring for the thing before it was too late! + +Cornelia now daily trod the red pathways under the firs, and really +imagined herself to be surprised, even vexed, when she met Mr. Barrett +there at last. Emilia was by his side, near a drooping birch. She +beckoned to Cornelia, whose North Pole armour was doing its best to keep +down a thumping heart. + +"We are taking our last walk in the old wood," said, Mr. Barrett, +admirably collected. "That is, I must speak for myself." + +"You leave early?" Cornelia felt her throat rattle hideously. + +"In two days, I expect--I hope," said he. + +"Why does he hope?" thought Cornelia, wounded, until a vision of the +detaining Chips struck her with pity and remorse. + +She turned to Emilia. "Our dear child is also going to leave us." + +"I?" cried Emilia, fierily out of languor. + +"Does not your Italy claim you?" + +"I am nothing to Italy any more. Have I not said so? I love England +now." + +Cornelia smiled complacently. "Let us hope your heart is capacious +enough to love both." + +"Then your theory is" (Mr. Barrett addressed Cornelia in the winning old +style), "that the love of one thing enlarges the heart for another?" + +"Should it not?" She admired his cruel self-possession pitiably, as she +contrasted her own husky tones with it. + +Emilia looked from one to the other, fancying that they must have her +case somewhere in prospect, since none could be unconscious of the +vehement struggle going on in her bosom; but they went farther and +farther off from her comprehension, and seemed to speak of bloodless +matters. "And yet he is her lover," she thought. "When they meet they +talk across a river, and he knows she is going to another man, and +does not gripe her wrist and drag her away!" The sense that she had no +kinship with such flesh shut her mouth faster than Wilfrid's injunctions +(which were ordinarily conveyed in too subtle a manner for her to feel +their meaning enough to find them binding). Cornelia, for a mask to +her emotions, gave Emilia a gentle, albeit high-worded lecture on the +artist's duty toward Art, quoting favourite passages from Mr. Barrett's +favourite Art-critic. And her fashion of dropping her voice as she +declaimed the more dictatorial sentences (to imply, one might guess, +by a show of personal humility that she would have you to know her +preaching was vicarious; that she stood humbly in the pulpit, and was +but a vessel for the delivery of the burden of the oracle), all this was +beautiful to him who could see it. I cannot think it was wholesome +for him; nor that Cornelia was unaware of a naughty wish to glitter +temporarily in the eyes of the man who made her feel humble. The sorcery +she sent through his blood communicated itself to hers. When she had +done, Emilia, convincedly vanquished by big words, said, "I cannot +talk," and turned heavily from them without bestowing a smile upon +either. + +Cornelia believed that the girl would turn back as abruptly as she +had retreated; and it was not until Emilia was out of sight that she +remembered the impropriety of being alone with Mr. Barrett. The Pitfall +of Sentiment yawned visible, but this lady's strength had been too +little tried for her to lack absolute faith in it. So, out of deep +silences, the two leapt to speech and immediately subsided to the depths +again: as on a sultry summer's day fishes flash their tails in the +sunlight and leave a solitary circle widening on the water. + +Then Cornelia knew what was coming. In set phrase, and as one who +performs a duty frigidly pleasant, he congratulated her on her rumored +union. One hand was in his buttoned coat; the other hung elegantly +loose: not a feature betrayed emotion. He might have spoken it in a +ballroom. To Cornelia, who exulted in self-compression, after the Roman +method, it was more dangerous than a tremulous tone. + +"You know me too well to say this, Mr. Barrett." + +The words would come. She preserved her steadfast air, when they had +escaped, to conceal her shame. Seeing thus much, he took it to mean that +it was a time for plain-speaking. To what end, he did not ask. + +"You have not to be told that I desire your happiness above all earthly +things," he said: and the lady shrank back, and made an effort to +recover her footing. Had he not been so careful to obliterate any badge +of the Squire of low degree, at his elbows, cuffs, collar, kneecap, and +head-piece, she might have achieved it with better success. For cynicism +(the younger brother of sentiment and inheritor of the family property) +is always on the watch to deal fatal blows through such vital parts +as the hat or the H's, or indeed any sign of inferior estate. But Mr. +Barrett was armed at all points by a consummate education and a most +serviceable clothesbrush. + +"You know how I love this neighbourhood!" said she. + +"And I! above all that I have known!" + +They left the pathway and walked on mosses--soft yellow beds, run over +with grey lichen, and plots of emerald in the midst. + +"You will not fall off with your reading?" he recommenced. + +She answered "Yes," meaning "No"; and corrected the error languidly, +thinking one of the weighty monosyllables as good as the other: for what +was reading to her now? + +"It would be ten thousand pities if you were to do as so many women do, +when... when they make these great changes," he continued. + +"Of what avail is the improvement of the mind?" she said, and followed +his stumble over the "when," and dropped on it. + +"Of what avail! Is marriage to stop your intellectual growth?" + +"Without sympathy," she faltered, and was shocked at what she said; but +it seemed a necessity. + +"You must learn to conquer the need for it." + +Alas! his admonition only made her feel the need more cravingly. + +"Promise me one thing," he said. "You will not fall into the rut? Let me +keep the ideal you have given me. For the sake of heaven, do not cloud +for me the one bright image I hold! Let me know always that you are +growing, and that the pure, noble intelligence which distinguishes you +advances, and will not be subdued." + +Cornelia smiled faintly. "You have judged me too generously, Mr. +Barrett." + +"Too little so! might I tell you!" He stopped short, and she felt the +silence like a great wave sweeping over her. + +They were nearing the lake, with the stump of the pollard-willow in +sight, and toward it they went. + +"I shall take the consolation of knowing that I shall hear of you, some +day," she said, having recourse to a look of cheerfulness. + +He knew her to allude to certain hopes of fame. "I am getting wiser, I +fear--too wise for ambition!" + +"That is a fallacy, a sophism." + +He pointed to the hollow tree. "Is there promise of fruit from that?" + +"You...you are young, Mr. Barrett." + +"And on a young, forehead it may be written, 'Come not to gather more.'" + +Cornelia put her hand out: "Oh, Mr. Barrett! unsay it!" The nakedness of +her spirit stood forth in a stinging tear. "The words were cruel." + +"But, if they live, and are?" + +"I feel that you must misjudge me. When I wrote them...you cannot +know! The misery of our domestic life was so bitter! And yet, I have no +excuse, none! I can only ask for pity." + +"And if you are wretched, must not I be? You pluck from me my last +support. This, I petitioned Providence to hear from you--that you would +be happy! I can have no comfort but in that." + +"Happy!" Cornelia murmured the word musically, as if to suck an irony +from the sweetness of the sound. "Are we made for happiness?" + +Mr. Barrett quoted the favourite sage, concluding: "But a brilliant +home and high social duties bring consolation. I do acknowledge that an +eminent station will not only be graced by you, but that you give the +impression of being born to occupy it. It is your destiny." + +"A miserable destiny!" + +It pleased Cornelia to become the wilful child who quarrels with its +tutor's teachings, upon this point. + +Then Mr. Barrett said quickly: "Your heart is not in this union?" + +"Can you ask? I have done my duty." + +"Have you, indeed!" + +His tone was severe in the deliberation of its accents. + +Was it her duty to live an incomplete life? He gave her a definition +of personal duty, and shadowed out all her own ideas on the subject; +seeming thus to speak terrible, unanswerable truth. + +As one who changes the theme, he said: "I have forborne to revert to +myself in our interviews; they were too divine for that. You will always +remember that I have forborne much." + +"Yes!" She was willing at the instant to confess how much. + +"And if I speak now, I shall not be misinterpreted?" + +"You never would have been, by me." + +"Cornelia!" + +Though she knew what was behind the door, this flinging of it open with +her name startled the lady; and if he had faltered, it would not have +been well for him. But, plainly, he claimed the right to call her by her +Christian name. She admitted it; and thenceforward they were equals. + +It was an odd story that he told of himself. She could not have repeated +it to make it comprehensible. She drank at every sentence, getting no +more from it than the gratification of her thirst. His father, at least, +was a man of title, a baronet. What was meant by estates not entailed? +What wild freak of fate put this noble young man in the power of an +eccentric parent, who now caressed him, now made him an outcast? She +heard of the sum that was his, coming from his dead mother to support +him just one hundred pounds annual! Was ever fate so mournful? + +Practically, she understood that if Mr. Barrett would write to his +father, pledging himself to conform to his mysterious despotic will in +something, he would be pardoned and reinstated. + +He concluded: "Hitherto I have preferred poverty. You have taught me at +what a cost! Is it too late?" + +The fall of his voice, with the repetition of her name, seemed as if +awakening her, but not in a land of reason. + +"Why...why!" she whispered. + +"Beloved?" + +"Why did you not tell me this before?" + +"Do you upbraid me?" + +"Oh, no! Oh, never!" she felt his hand taking hers gently. "My friend," +she said, half in self-defence; and they, who had never kissed as +lovers, kissed under the plea of friendship. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +All Wilfrid's diplomacy was now brought into play to baffle Mr. +Pericles, inspire Emilia with the spirit of secresy, and carry on his +engagement to two women to their common satisfaction. Adela, whose +penetration he dreaded most, he had removed by a flattering invitation +to Stornley; and that Emilia might be occupied during his absences, and +Mr. Pericles thrown on a false scent, he persuaded Tracy Runningbrook +to come to Brookfield, and write libretti for Emilia's operas. The two +would sit down together for an hour, drawing wonderful precocious +noses upon juvenile visages, when Emilia would sigh and say: "I can't +work!"--Tracy adding, with resignation: "I never can!" At first Mr. +Pericles dogged them assiduously. After a little while he shrugged, +remarking: "It is a nonsense." + +They were, however, perfectly serious about the production of an opera, +Tracy furnishing verse to Emilia's music. He wrote with extraordinary +rapidity, but clung to graphic phrases, that were not always supple +enough for nuptials with modulated notes. Then Emilia had to hit his +sense of humour by giving the words as they came in the run of the song. +"You make me crow, or I croak," she said. + +"The woman follows the man, and music fits to verse," cried Tracy. +"Music's the vine, verse the tree." + +Emilia meditated. "Not if they grow up together," she suggested, and +broke into a smile at his rapture of amusement; which was succeeded by a +dark perplexity, worthy of the present aspect of Mr. Pericles. + +"That's what has upset us," he said. "We have been trying to 'grow up +together,' like first-cousins, and nature forbids the banns. To-morrow +you shall have half a libretto. And then, really, my child, you must +adapt yourself to the words." + +"I will," Emilia promised; "only, not if they're like iron to the +teeth." + +"My belief is," said Tracy savagely, "that music's a fashion, and as +delusive a growth as Cobbett's potatoes, which will go back to the +deadly nightshade, just as music will go back to the tom-tom." + +"What have you called out when I sang to you!" Emilia reproached him for +this irreverent nonsense. + +"Oh! it was you and not the music," he returned half-cajolingly, while +he beat the tom-tom on air. + +"Hark here!" cried Emilia. She recited a verse. "Doesn't that sound +dead? Now hark!" She sang the verse, and looked confidently for Tracy's +verdict at the close. + +"What a girl that is!" He went about the house, raving of her to +everybody, with sundry Gallic interjections; until Mrs. Chump said: +"'Deed, sir, ye don't seem to have much idea of a woman's feelin's." + +Tracy produced in a night two sketches of libretti for Emilia to choose +from--the Roman Clelia being one, and Camillus the other. Tracy praised +either impartially, and was indifferent between them, he told her. +Clelia offered the better theme for passionate song, but there was +a winning political object and rebuff to be given to Radicalism in +Camillus. "Think of Rome!" he said. + +Emilia gave the vote for Camillus, beginning forthwith to hum, with +visions of a long roll of swarthy cavalry, headed by a clear-eyed young +chief, sunlight perching on his helm. + +"Yes; but you don't think of the situations in Clelia, and what I can +do with her," snapped Tracy. "I see a song there that would light up all +London. Unfortunately, the sentiment's dead Radical. It wouldn't so much +matter if we were certain to do Camillus as well; because one would act +as a counterpoise to the other, you know. Well, follow your own fancy. +Camillus is strictly classical. I treat opera there as Alfieri conceived +tragedy. Clelia is modern style. Cast the die for Camillus, and let's +take horse. Only, we lose the love-business--exactly where I +show my strength. Clelia in the camp of the king: dactyllic +chorus-accompaniment, while she, in heavy voluptuous anapaests, +confesses her love for the enemy of her country. Remember, this is our +romantic opera, where we do what we like with History, and make up our +minds for asses telling us to go home and read our 'student's Rome.' +Then that scene where she and the king dance the dactyls, and the +anapaests go to the chorus. Sublime! Let's go into the woods and begin. +We might give the first song or two to-night. In composition, mind, +always strike out your great scene, and work from it--don't work up to +it, or you've lost fire when you reach the point. That's my method." + +They ran into the woods, skipping like schoolboy and schoolgirl. On +hearing that Camillus would not be permitted to love other than his +ungrateful country, Emilia's conception of the Roman lord grew pale, +and a controversy ensued-she maintaining that a great hero must love a +woman; he declaring that a great hero might love a dozen, but that it +was beneath the dignity of this drama to allow of a rival to Rome in +Camillus's love. + +"He will not do for music," said Emilia firmly, and was immoveable. In +despair, Tracy proposed attaching a lanky barbarian daughter to Brennus, +whose deeds of arms should provoke the admiration of the Roman. + +"And so we relinquish Alfieri for Florian! There's a sentimental +burlesque at once!" the youth ejaculated, in gloom. "I chose this +subject entirely to give you Rome for a theme." + +Emilia took his hand. "I do thank you. If Brennus has a daughter, why +not let her be half Roman?" + +Tracy fired out: "she's a bony woman, with a brawny development; mammoth +haunches, strong of the skeleton; cheek-bones, flat-forward, as a fish +'s rotting on a beach; long scissor lips-nippers to any wretched rose of +a kiss! a pugilist's nose to the nostrils of a phoca; and eyes!--don't +you see them?--luminaries of pestilence; blotted yellow, like a tallow +candle shining through a horny lantern." + +At this horrible forced-poetic portrait, Emilia cried in pain: "You hate +her suddenly!" + +"I loathe the creature--pah!" went Tracy. + +"Why do you make her so hideous?" Emilia complained. "I feel myself +hating her too. Look at me. Am I such a thing as that?" + +"You!" Tracy was melted in a trice, and gave the motion of hugging, as a +commentary on his private opinion. + +"Can you also be sure that Camillus can love nothing but his country? +Would one love stop the other?" she persisted, gazing with an air of +steady anxiety for the answer. + +"There isn't a doubt about it," said Tracy. + +Emilia caught her face in her hands, and exclaimed in a stifling voice: +"It's true! it's true!" + +Tracy saw that her figure was shaken with sobs--unmistakeable, hard, +sorrowful convulsions. + +"Confound historical facts that make her cry!" he murmured to himself, +in a fury at the Roman fables. "It's no use comforting her with Niebuhr +now. She's got a live Camillus in her brain, and there he'll stick." +Tracy began to mutter the emphatic D.; quite cognizant of her case, +as he supposed. This intensity of human emotion about a dry faggot of +history by no means surprised him; and he was as tender to the grief of +his darling little friend as if he had known the conflict that tore +her in two. Subsequently he related the incident, in a tone of tender +delight, to Wilfrid, whom it smote. "Am I a brute?" asked the latter +of the Intelligences in the seat of his consciousness, and they for the +moment gravely affirmed it. I have observed that when young men obtain +this mental confirmation of their suspicions, they wax less reluctant to +act as brutes than when the doubt restrained them. + +He reasoned thus: "I can bring my mind to the idea of losing her, if it +must be so." (Hear, hear! from the unanimous internal Parliament.) "But +I can't make her miserable (cheers)--I can't go and break her heart" +(loud cheers, drowning a faint dissentient hum).--The scene, of which +Tracy had told him, gave Wilfrid a kind of dread of the girl. If that +was her state of feeling upon a distant subject, how would it be when he +applied the knife. Simply, impossible to use the knife at all! Wield it +thou, O Circumstance, babe-munching Chronos, whosoever thou art, that +jarrest our poor human music effectually from hour to hour! + +Colonel Pierson paid his promised visit, on his way back to his quarters +at Verona. His stay was shortened by rumours of anticipated troubles in +Italy. One day at table he chanced to observe, speaking of the Milanese, +that they required another lesson, and that it would save the shedding +of blood if, annually, the chief men of the city took a flogging for the +community (senseless arrogance that sensible, and even kindly, men +will sometimes be tempted to utter, and prompted to act on, in that +deteriorating state of a perpetual repressive force).--Emilia looked at +him till she caught his eye: "I hope I shall never meet you there," she +said. + +The colonel coloured, and drew his finger along each curve of his +moustache. The table was silent. Colonel Pierson was a gentleman, but +a false position and the irritating topic deprived him of proper +self-command. + +"What would you do?" he said, not gallantly. + +Emilia would have been glad to have been allowed to subside, but the +tone stung her. + +"I could not do much; I am a woman," said she. + +Whereto the colonel: "It's only the women who do anything over there." + +"And that is why you flog them!" + +The colonel, seeing himself surrounded by ladies, lost the right +guidance of his wits, at this point, reddened, and was saved by an Irish +outcry of horror from some unpleasant and possibly unmanly retort. "Mr. +Paricles said exactly the same. Oh, sir! do ye wear an officer's uniform +to go about behavin' in that shockin' way to poor helpless females?" + +This was the first time Mrs. Chump had ever been found of service at the +Brookfield dining-table. Colonel Pierson joined the current smile, and +the matter passed. + +He was affectionate with Wilfrid, and invited him to Verona, with the +assurance that his (the Austrian) school of cavalry was the best in +the world. "You beat us in pace and weight; but you can't skirmish, you +can't manage squadrons, and you know nothing of outpost duty," said the +colonel. Wilfrid promised to visit him some day: a fact he denied to +Emilia, when she charged him with it. Her brain seemed to be set on fire +by the presence of an Austrian officer. The miserable belief that +she had abandoned her country pressing on her remorsefully, she lost +appetite, briskness of eye, and the soft reddish-brown ripe blood-hue +that made her cheeks sweet to contemplate. She looked worn, small, +wretched: her very walk indicated self-contempt. Wilfrid was keen to see +the change for which others might have accused a temporary headache. Now +that she appeared under this blight, it seemed easier to give her +up; and his magnanimity being thus encouraged (I am not hard on +him--remember the constitution of love, in which a heart un-aroused is +pure selfishness, and a heart aroused heroic generosity; they being +one heart to outer life)--his magnanimity, I say, being under this +favourable sun, he said to himself that there should be an end of +double-dealing; and, possibly consoled by feeling a martyr, he persuaded +himself to act the gentle ruffian. To which end, he was again absent +from Brookfield, for a space, and bitterly missed. + +Emilia, for the last two Sundays, had taken Mr. Barrett's place at the +organ. She was playing the prelude to one of the evening hymns, when the +lover, whose features she dreaded to be once more forgetting, appeared +in the curtained enclosure. A stoppage in the tune, and a prolonged +squeal of the instrument, gave the congregation below matter to +speculate upon. Wilfrid put up his finger and sat reverently down, while +Emilia plunged tremblingly at the note that was howling its life away. +And as she managed to swim into the stream of the sacred melody again, +her head was turned toward her lover under a new sensation; and the +first words she murmured were, "We have never been in church together, +before." + +"Not in the evening," he whispered, likewise impressed. + +"No," said Emilia softly; flattered by his greater accuracy. + +If Wilfrid could have been sure that he would be perfect master of that +sentimental crew known to him under the denomination of his feelings, +the place he selected for their parting interview might be held +creditable to this young officer's acknowledged strategical ability. +It was a place where any fervid appeals were impossible; where he could +contemplate her, listen to her, be near her, alone with her, having +nothing to dread from tears, supplications, or passion, as a consequence +of the short indulgence of his tenderness. But he had failed to reckon +on the chances that he himself might prove weak and be betrayed by the +crew for whose comfort he was always providing; and now, as she sat +there, her face being sideways to him, the flush of delight faint on her +cheek, and her eyelids half raised to the gilded pipes, while full and +sonorous harmony rolled out from her touch, it seemed the very chorus of +the heavens that she commanded, and a subtle misty glory descended upon +her forehead, which he was long in perceiving to be cast from a moisture +on his eyelids. + +When the sermon commenced, Emilia quitted the organ and took his hand. +In very low whispers, they spoke: + +"I have wanted to see you so!" + +"You see me now, little woman." + +"On Friday week next I am to go away." + +"Nonsense! You shall not." + +"Your sisters say, yes! Mr. Pericles has got my father's consent, they +say, to take me to Italy." + +"Do you think of going?" + +Emilia gazed at her nerveless hands lying in her lap. + +"You shall not go!" he breathed imperiously in her ear. + +"Then you will marry me quite soon?" And Emilia looked as if she would +be smiling April, at a word. + +"My dear girl!" he had an air of caressing remonstrance. + +"Because," she continued, "if my father finds me out, I must go +to Italy, or go to that life of torment in London--seeing those +Jew-people--horrible!--or others and the thought of it is like being +under the earth, tasting bitter gravel! I could almost bear it before +you kissed me, my lover! It would kill me now. Say! say! Tell me we +shall be together. I shudder all day and night, and feel frozen hands +catching at me. I faint--my heart falls deep down, in the dark...I think +I know what dying is now!" + +She stopped on a tearless sob; and, at her fingers' ends, Wilfrid felt +the quivering of her frame. + +"My darling!" he interjected. He wished to explain the situation to her, +as he then conceived it. But he had, in his calculation, failed also to +count on a peculiar nervous fretfulness, that the necessity to reiterate +an explanation in whispers must superinduce. So, when Emilia looked +vacant of the intelligence imparted to her, he began anew, and +emphatically; and ere he was half through it, Mr. Marter, from the +pulpit underneath, sent forth a significant reprimand to the conscience +of a particular culprit of his congregation, in the form of a solemn +cough. Emilia had to remain unenlightened, and she proceeded to build on +her previous assumption; doing the whispering easily and sweetly; in +the prettiest way from her tongue's tip, with her chin lifted up; and +sending the vowels on a prolonged hushed breath, that seemed to print +them on the hearing far more distinctly than a volume of sound. Wilfrid +fell back on monosyllables. He could not bring his mouth to utter flinty +negatives, so it appeared that he assented; and then his better nature +abused him for deluding her. He grew utterly ashamed of his aimless +selfish double-dealing. "Can it be?" he questioned his own mind, and +listened greedily to any mental confirmations of surpassing excellence +in her, that the world might possibly acknowledge. Having, with great +zeal, created a set of circumstances, he cursed them heartily, after the +fashion of little people. He grew resigned to abandon Lady Charlotte, +and to give his name to this subduing girl; but a comfortable quieting +sensation came over him, at the thought that his filial duty stood in +the way. His father, he knew, was anxious for him to marry into a noble +family--incomprehensibly anxious to have the affair settled; and, as two +or three scenes rose in his mind, Wilfrid perceived that the obstacle to +his present fancy was his father. + +As clearly as he could, with the dread of the preacher's admonishing +cough before him, Wilfrid stated the case to Emilia; saying that he +loved her with his whole heart; but that the truth was, his father was +not in a condition of health to bear contradiction to his wishes, and +would, he was sure, be absolutely opposed to their union. He brought +on himself another reprimand from Mr. Marter, in seeking to propitiate +Emilia's reason to comprehend the position rightly; and could add little +more to the fact he had spoken, than that his father had other views, +which it would require time to combat. + +Emilia listened attentively, replying with a flying glance to +the squeeze of his hand. He was astonished to see her so little +disconcerted. But now the gradual fall of Mr. Marter's voice gave them +warning. + +"My lover?" breathed Emilia, hurriedly and eagerly; questioning with eye +and tone. + +"My darling!" returned Wilfrid. + +She sat down to the organ with a smile. He was careful to retreat before +the conclusion of the service; somewhat chagrined by his success. That +smile of hers was inexplicable to him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +Mr. Pole was closeted in his City counting-house with Mr. Pericles, +before a heap of papers and newly-opened foreign letters; to one of +which, bearing a Russian stamp, he referred fretfully at times, as if +to verify a monstrous fact. Any one could have seen that he was not in +a condition to transact business. His face was unnaturally patched with +colour, and his grey-tinged hair hung tumbled over his forehead like +waves blown by a changeing wind. Still, he maintained his habitual +effort to look collected, and defeat the scrutiny of the sallow-eyed +fellow opposite; who quietly glanced, now and then, from the nervous +feet to the nervous fingers, and nodded to himself a sardonic outlandish +nod. + +"Now, listen to me," said Mr. Pericles. "We shall not burst out about +zis Riga man. He is a villain,--very well. Say it. He is a villain,--say +so. And stop. Because" (and up went the Greek's forefinger), "we must +not have a scandal, in ze fairst place. We do not want pity, in ze +second. Saird, we must seem to trust him, in spite. I say, yeas! What +is pity to us of commerce? It is contempt. We trust him on, and we lose +what he pocket--a sossand. We burst on him, and we lose twenty, serty, +forty; and we lose reputation." + +"I'd have every villain hanged," cried Mr. Pole. "The scoundrel! I'd +hang him with his own hemp. He talks of a factory burnt, and dares to +joke about tallow! and in a business letter! and when he is telling one +of a loss of money to that amount!" + +"Not bad, ze joke," grinned Mr. Pericles. "It is a lesson of coolness. +We learn it. But mind! he say, 'possible loss.' It is not positif. Hein! +ze man is trying us. So! shall we burst out and make him desperate? We +are in his hand at Riga, you see?" + +"I see this," said Mr. Pole, "that he's a confounded rascal, and I'll +know whether the law can't reach him." + +"Ha! ze law!" Mr. Pericles sneered. "So you are, you. English. Always, +ze law! But, we are men--we are not machine. Law for a machine, not +a man! We punish him, perhaps. Well; he is punished. He is +imprisoned--forty monz. We pay for him a sossand pound a monz. He is +flogged--forty lashes. We pay for him a sossand pound a lash. You can +afford zat? It is a luxury like anozer. It is not for me." + +"How long are we to trust the villain?" said Mr. Pole. "If we trust him +at all, mind! I don't say I do, or will." + +"Ze money is locked up for a year, my friend. So soon we get it, so soon +he goes, from ze toe off." Mr. Pericles' shining toe's-tip performed +an agile circuit, and he smoothed his square clean jaw and venomous +moustache reflectively. "Not now," he resumed. "While he hold us in his +hand, we will not drive him to ze devil, or we go too, I believe, or +part of ze way. But now, we say, zat money is frozen in ze Nord. We +will make it in Australie, and in Greek waters. I have exposed to you my +plan." + +"Yes," said Mr. Pole, "and I've told you I've no pretensions to be a +capitalist. We have no less than three ventures out, already." + +"It is like you English! When you have ze world to milk, you go to +one point and stick. It fails, and you fail. What is zat word?"--Mr. +Pericles tapped his brow--"pluck,--you want pluck. It is your decadence. +Greek, and Russian, and Yankee, all zey beat you. For, it is pluck. You +make a pin's head, not a pin. It is in brain and heart you do fail. You +have only your position,--an island, and ships, and some favour. You +are no match in pluck. We beat you. And we live for pleasure, while you +groan and sweat--mon Dieu! it is slavery." + +Mr. Pericles twinkled his white eyes over the blinking merchant, and +rose from his chair, humming a bit of opera, and announcing, casually, +that a certain prima-donna had obtained a divorce from her husband. + +"But," he added suddenly, "I say to you, if you cannot afford to +speculate, run away from it as ze fire. Run away from it, and hold +up your coat-tail. Jump ditches, and do not stop till you are safe +home--hein? you say 'cosy?' I hear my landlady. Run till you are safe +cosy. But if you are a man wis a head and a pocket, zen you know that +'speculate' means a dozen ventures. So, you come clear. Or, it is ruin. +It is ruin, I say: you have been playing." + +"An Englishman," returned Mr. Pole, disgusted at the shrugs he had +witnessed--"an Englishman's as good as any of you. Look at us--look at +our history--look at our wealth. By Jingo! But we like plain-dealing and +common sense; and as to afford, what do you mean?" + +"No, no," Mr. Pericles petitioned with uplifted hand; "my English is +bad. It is--ah! bad. You shall look it over--my plan. It will strike +your sense. Next week I go to Italy. I take ze little Belloni. You will +manage all. I have in you, my friend, perfec' confidence. An Englishman, +he is honest. An Englishman and a Greek conjoined, zey beat ze world! +It is true, ma foi. For zat, I seek you, and not a countryman. +A Frenchman?--oh, no! A German?--not a bit! A Russian?--never! A +Yankee?--save me! I am a Greek--I take an Englishman." + +"Well, well, you must leave me to think it over," said Mr. Pole, +pleasantly smoothed down. "As to honesty, that's a matter of course with +us: that's the mere footing we go upon. We don't plume ourselves upon +what's general, here. There is, I regret to say, a difference between +us and other nations. I believe it's partly their religion. They swindle +us, and pay their priests for absolution with our money. If you're a +double-dyed sinner, you can easily get yourself whitewashed over there. +Confound them! When that fellow sent no remittance last month, I told +you I suspected him. Who was, the shrewdest then? As for pluck, I +never failed in that yet. But, I will see a thing clear. The man who +speculates blindfold, is a fowl who walks into market to be plucked. +Between being plucked, and having pluck, you'll see a distinction when +you know the language better; but you must make use of your head, or the +chances are you won't be much of a difference,--eh? I'll think over your +scheme. I'm not a man to hesitate, if the calculations are sound. I'll +look at the papers here." + +"My friend, you will decide before zat I go to Italy." said Mr. +Pericles, and presently took his leave. + +When he was gone, Mr. Pole turned his chair to the table, and made an +attempt to inspect one of the papers deliberately. Having untied it, +he retied it with care, put it aside, marked 'immediate,' and read the +letter from Riga anew. This he tore into shreds, with animadversions on +the quality of the rags that had produced it, and opened the important +paper once more. He got to the end of a sentence or two, when his +fingers moved about for the letter; and then his mind conceived a +necessity for turning to the directory, for which he rang the bell. The +great red book was brought into his room by a youthful clerk, who waited +by, while his master, unaware of his presence, tracked a name with his +forefinger. It stopped at Pole, Samuel Bolton; and a lurking smile was +on the merchant's face as he read the name: a smile of curious meaning, +neither fresh nor sad; the meditative smile of one who looks upon +an afflicted creature from whom he is aloof. After a lengthened +contemplation of this name, he said, with a sigh, "Poor Chump! I wonder +whether he's here, too." A search for the defunct proved that he was out +of date. Mr. Pole thrust his hand to the bell that he might behold poor +Chump in an old directory that would call up the blotted years. + +"I am here, sir," said his clerk, who had been holding deferential watch +at a few steps from the table. + +"What do you do here then, sir, all this time?" + +"I waited, sir, because--" + +"You waste and dawdle away twenty or thirty minutes, when you ought to +be doing your work. What do you mean?" Mr. Pole stood up and took an +angry stride. + +The young man could scarcely believe his master was not stooping to jest +with him. He said: "For that matter, sir, it can't be a minute that I +have been wasting." + +"I called you in half an hour ago," returned Mr. Pole, fumbling at his +watch-fob. + +"It must have been somebody else, sir." + +"Did you bring in this directory? Look at it! This?" + +"This is the book that I brought in, sir." + +"How long since?" + +"I think, not a minute and a half, sir." + +Mr. Pole gazed at him, and coughed slowly. "I could have sworn..." he +murmured, and commenced blinking. + +"I suppose I must be a little queer," he pursued; and instantly his +right hand struck out, quivering. The young clerk grasped it, and drew +him to a chair. + +"Tush," said his master, working his feverish fingers across his +forehead. "Want of food. I don't eat like you young fellows. Fetch me +a glass of wine and a biscuit. Good wine, mind. Port. Or, no; you can't +trust tavern Port:--brandy. Get it yourself, don't rely on the porter. +And bring it yourself, you understand the importance? What is your +name?" + +"Braintop," replied the youth, with the modesty of one whose name has +been too frequently subjected to puns. + +"I think I never heard so singular a name in my life," Mr. Pole +ejaculated seriously. "Braintop! It'll always make me think of brandy. +What are you waiting for now?" + +"I took the liberty of waiting before, to say that a lady wished to see +you, sir." + +Mr. Pole started from his chair. "A foreign lady?" + +"She may be foreign. She speaks English, sir, and her name, I think, was +foreign. I've forgotten it, I fear." + +"It's the wife of that fellow from Riga!" cried the merchant. "Show her +in. Show her in, immediately. I suspected this. She's in London, I know. +I'm equal to her: show her in. When you fetch the Braintop and biscuit, +call me to the door. You understand." + +The youth affected meekly to enjoy this fiery significance given to his +name, and said that he understood, without any doubt. He retired, and in +a few moments ushered in Emilia Belloni. + +Mr. Pole was in the middle of the room, wearing a countenance of marked +severity, and watchful to maintain it in his opening bow; but when he +perceived his little Brookfield guest standing timidly in the doorway, +his eyebrows lifted, and his hands spread out; and "Well, to be sure!" +he cried; while Emilia hurried up to him. She had to assure him that +everything was right at home, and was next called upon to state what had +brought her to town; but his continued exclamation of "Bless my soul!" +reprieved her reply, and she sat in a chair panting quickly. + +Mr. Pole spoke tenderly of refreshments; wine and cake, or biscuits. + +"I cannot eat or drink," said Emilia. + +"Why, what's come to you, my dear?" returned Mr. Pole in unaffected +wonder. + +"I am not hungry." + +"You generally are, at home, about this time--eh?" + +Emilia sighed, and feigned the sad note to be a breath of fatigue. + +"Well, and why are you here, my dear?" Mr. Pole was beginning to step to +the right and the left of her uneasily. + +"I have come--" she paused, with a curious quick speculating look +between her eyes; "I have come to see you." + +"See me, my dear? You saw me this morning." + +"Yes; I wanted to see you alone." + +Emilia was having the first conflict with her simplicity; out of which +it was not to issue clear, as in the foregone days. She was thinking of +the character of the man she spoke to, studying him, that she might win +him to succour the object she had in view. It was a quality going, and a +quality coming; nor will we, if you please, lament a law of growth. + +"Why, you can see me alone, any day, my dear," said Mr. Pole; "for many +a day, I hope." + +"You are more alone to me here. I cannot speak at Brookfield. Oh!"--and +Emilia had to still her heart's throbbing--"you do not want me to go to +Italy, do you?" + +"Want you to go? Not a bit. There is some talk of it, isn't there? I +don't want you to go. Don't you want to go." + +"No! no!" said Emilia, with decisive fervour. + +"Don't want to go?" + +"No: to stay! I want to stay!" + +"Eh? to stay?" + +"To stay with you! Never to leave England, at least! I want to give up +all that I may stay." + +"All?" repeated Mr. Pole, evidently marvelling as to what that +sounding box might contain; and still more, perplexed to hear Emilia's +vehement--"Yes! all!" as if there were that in the mighty abnegation to +make a reasonable listener doubtful. + +"No. I really don't want you to go," he said. "In fact," and the +merchant's hospitable nature was at war with something in his mind, "I +like you, my dear; I like to have you about me. You're cheerful; you're +agreeable; I like your smile; your voice, too. You're a very pleasant +companion. Only, you know, we may break up our house. If the girls get +married, I must live somewhere in lodgings, and I couldn't very well ask +you to cook for me." + +"I can cook a little," Emilia smiled. "I went into the kitchen, till +Adela objected." + +"Yes, but it wouldn't do, you know," pursued Mr. Pole, with the +seriousness of a man thrown out of his line of argument. "You can cook, +eh? Got an idea of it? I always said you were a useful little woman. Do +have a biscuit and some wine:--No? well, where was I?--That confounded +boy. Brainty-top, top! that's it Braintop. Was I talking of him, my +dear? Oh no! about your getting married. For if you can cook, why not? +Get a husband and then you won't got to Italy. You ought to get one. +Some young fellows don't look for money." + +"I shall make money come, in time," said Emilia; in the leaping ardour +of whose eyes might be seen that what she had journeyed to speak was +hot within her. "I know I shall be worth having. I shall win a name, I +think--I do hope it!" + +"Well, so Pericles says. He's got a great notion of you. Perhaps he +means it himself. He's rich. Rash, I admit. But, as the chances go, he's +tremendously rich. He may mean it." + +"What?" asked Emilia. + +"Marry you, you know." + +"Ah, what a torture!" + +In that heat of her feelings she realized the horror of the words to +her, with an intensity that made them seem to quiver like an arrow in +her breast. + +"You don't like him?" said Mr. Pole. + +"Not love him! not love him!" + +"Yes, yes, but that comes after marriage. Often the case. Look here: +don't you go against your interests. You mustn't be flighty. If Pericles +speaks to you, have him. Clap your hands. Dozens of girls would, that I +know." + +"But, oh!" interposed Emilia; "if he married me he would kiss me!" + +Mr. Pole coughed and blinked. "Well!" he remarked, as one gravely +cogitating; and with the native delicacy of a Briton turned it off in a +playful, "So shall I now," adding, "though I ain't your husband." + +He stooped his head. Emilia put her hands on his shoulders, and +submitted her face to him. + +"There!" went Mr. Pole: "'pon my honour, it does me good:--better than +medicine! But you mustn't give that dose to everybody, my dear. You +don't, of course. All right, all right--I'm quite satisfied. I was only +thinking of you going to Italy, among those foreign rascals, who've no +more respect for a girl than they have for a monkey--their brother. A +set of swindlers! I took you for the wife of one when you came in, at +first. And now, business is business. Let's get it over. What have you +come about? Glad to see you--understand that." + +Emilia lifted her eyes to his. + +"You know I love you, sir." + +"I'm sure you're a grateful little woman." + +She rose: "Oh! how can I speak it!" + +An idea that his daughters had possibly sent her to herald one of the +renowned physicians of London, concerning whom he was perpetually being +plagued by them, or to lead him to one, flashed through Mr. Pole. He was +not in a state to weigh the absolute value of such a suspicion, but it +seemed probable; it explained an extraordinary proceeding; and, having +conceived, his wrath took it up as a fact, and fought with it. + +"Stop! If that's what you've come for, we'll bring matters to a crisis. +You fancy me ill, don't you, my dear?" + +"You do not look well, sir." + +Emilia's unhesitating reply confirmed his suspicion. + +"I am well. I am, I say! And now, understand that, if that's your +business, I won't go to the fellow, and I won't see him here. They'll +make me out mad, next. He shall never have a guinea from me while I +live. No, nor when I die. Not a farthing! Sit down, my dear, and wait +for the biscuits. I wish to heaven they'd come. There's brandy coming, +too. Where's Braintop?" + +He took out his handkerchief to wipe his forehead, and jerked it like a +bell-rope. + +Emilia, in a singular bewilderment, sat eyeing a beam of sombre city +sunlight on the dusty carpet. She could only suppose that the offending +"he" was Wilfrid; but, why he should be so, she could not guess: and how +to plead for him, divided her mind. + +"Don't blame him; be angry with me, if you are angry," she began softly. +"I know he thinks of you anxiously. I know he would do nothing to hurt +you. No one is so kind as he is. Would you deprive him of money, because +he offends you?" + +"Deprive him of money," repeated Mr. Pole, with ungrudging accentuation. +"Well, I've heard about women, but I never knew one so anxious for a +doctor to get his fee as you are." + +Emilia wonderingly fixed her sight on him an instant, and, quite +unillumined, resumed: "Blame me, sir. But, I know you will be too kind. +Oh! I love him. So, I must love you, and I would not give you pain. It +is true he loves me. You will not see him, because he loves me?" + +"The doctor?" muttered Mr. Pole. "The doctor?" he almost bellowed; +and got sharp up from his chair, and looked at himself in the glass, +blinking rapidly; and then turned to inspect Emilia. + +Emilia drew him to her side again. + +"Go on," he said; and there became visible in his face a frightful +effort to comprehend her, and get to the sense of her words. + +And why it was so frightful as to be tragic, you will know presently. + +He thought of the arrival of Braintop, freighted with brandy, as the +only light in the mist, and breathing heavily from his nose, almost +snorting the air he took in from a widened mouth, he sat and tried to +listen to her words as well as for Braintop's feet. + +Emilia was growing too conscious of her halting eloquence, as the +imminence of her happiness or misery hung balancing in doubtful scales +before her. + +"Oh! he loves me, and I love him," she gasped, and wondered why words +should be failing her. "See us together, sir, and hear us. We will make +you well." + +The exclamation "Good Lord!" groaned out in a tone as from the lower +pits of despair, cut her short. + +Tearfully she murmured: "You will not see us, sir?" + +"Together?" bawled the merchant. + +"Yes, I mean together." + +"If you're not mad, I am." And he jumped on his legs and walked to the +farther corner of the room. "Which of us is it?" His features twitched +in horribly comic fashion. "What do you mean? I can't understand a word. +My brain must have gone;" throwing his hand over his forehead. "I've +feared so for the last four months. Good God! a lunatic asylum! and +the business torn like a piece of old rag! I know that fellow at +Riga's dancing like a cannibal, and there--there 'll be articles in the +papers.--Here, girl! come up to the light. Come here, I say." + +Emilia walked up to him. + +"You don't look mad. I dare say everybody else understands you. Do +they?" + +The sad-flushed pallor of his face provoked Emilia to say: "You ought to +have the doctor here immediately. Let me bring him, sir." + +A gleam as of a lantern through his oppressive mental fog calmed the +awful irritability of his nerves somewhat. + +"You've got him outside?" + +"No, sir." + +The merchant's eagerness faded out. He put his hand to her shoulder, and +went along to a chair, sinking into it, and closing his eyelids. So they +remained, Emilia at his right hand. She watched him breathing with a +weak open mouth, and thought more of the doctor now than of Wilfrid. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +Braintop's knock at the door had been unheeded for some minutes. At last +Emilia let him in. The brandy and biscuits were placed on a table, and +Emilia resumed her watch by Mr. Pole. She saw that his lips moved, after +a space, and putting her ear down, understood that he desired not to see +any one who might come for an interview with him: nor were the clerks +to be admitted. The latter direction was given in precise terms. Emilia +repeated the orders outside. On her return, the merchant's eyes were +open. + +"My forehead feels damp," he said; "and I'm not hot at all. Just take +hold of my hands. They're like wet crumpets. I wonder what makes me so +stiff. A man mustn't sit at business too long at a time. Sure to make +people think he's ill. What was that about a doctor? I seem to remember. +I won't see one." + +Emilia had filled a glass with brandy. She brought it nearer to his +hand, while he was speaking. At the touch of the glass, his fingers went +round it slowly, and he raised it to his mouth. The liquor revived him. +He breathed "ah!" several times, and grimaced, blinking, as if seeking +to arouse a proper brightness in his eyes. Then, he held out his empty +glass to her, and she filled it, and he sipped deliberately, saying: +"I'm warm inside. I keep on perspiring so cold. Can't make it out. Look +at my finger-ends, my dear. They're whitish, aren't they?" + +Emilia took the hand he presented, and chafed it, and put it against her +bosom, half under one arm. The action appeared to give some warmth to +his heart, for he petted her, in return. + +A third time he held out the glass, and remarked that this stuff was +better than medicine. + +"You women!" he sneered, as at a reminiscence of their faith in drugs. + +"My legs are weak, though!" He had risen and tested the fact. "Very +shaky. I wonder what makes 'em--I don't take much exercise." Pondering +on this problem, he pursued: "It's the stomach. I'm as empty as an +egg-shell. Odd, I've got no appetite. But, my spirits are up. I begin +to feel myself again. I'll eat by-and-by, my dear. And, I say; I'll tell +you what:--I'll take you to the theatre to-night. I want to laugh. A +man's all right when he's laughing. I wish it was Christmas. Don't you +like to see the old pantaloon tumbled over, my boy?--my girl, I mean. I +did, when I was a boy. My father took me. I went in the pit. I can smell +oranges, when I think of it. I remember, we supped on German sausage; or +ham--one or the other. Those were happy old days!" + +He shook his head at them across the misty gulf. + +"Perhaps there's a good farce going on now. If so, we'll go. Girls ought +to learn to laugh as well as boys. I'll ring for Braintop." + +He rang the bell, and bade Emilia be careful to remind him that he +wanted Braintop's address; for Braintop was useful. + +It appeared that there were farces at several of the theatres. Braintop +rattled them out, their plot and fun and the merits of the actors, +with delightful volubility, as one whose happy subject had been finally +discovered. He was forthwith commissioned to start immediately and +take a stage-box at one of the places of entertainment, where two great +rivals of the Doctor genus promised to laugh dull care out of the spirit +of man triumphantly, and at the description of whose drolleries any one +with faith might be half cured. The youth gave his address on paper to +Emilia. + +"Make haste, sir," said Mr. Pole. "And, stop. You shall go, yourself; go +to the pit, and have a supper, and I'll pay for it. When you've ordered +the box--do you know the Bedford Hotel? Go there, and see Mrs. Chickley, +and tell her I am coming to dine and sleep, and shall bring one of my +daughters. Dinner, sittingroom, and two bed-rooms, mind. And tell Mrs. +Chickley we've got no carpet-bag, and must come upon her wardrobe. All +clear to you? Dinner at half-past five going to theatre." + +Braintop bowed comprehendingly. + +"Now, that fellow goes off chirping," said Mr. Pole to Emilia. "It's +just the thing I used to wish to happen to me, when I was his age--my +master to call me in and say 'There! go and be jolly.' I dare say the +rascal'll order a champagne supper. Poor young chap! let his heart be +merry. Ha! ha! heigho!--Too much business is bad for man and boy. I feel +better already, if it weren't for my legs. My feet are so cold. Don't +you think I'm pretty talkative, my dear?" + +"I am glad to hear you talk," said Emilia, striving to look less +perplexed than she felt. + +He asked her slyly why she had come to London; and she begged that she +might speak of it by-and-by; whereat Mr. Pole declared that he intended +to laugh them all out of that nonsense. "And what did you say about +being in love with him? A doctor in good practice--but you needn't +commence by killing me if you do go and marry the fellow. Eh? what is +it?" + +Emilia was too much entangled herself to attempt to extricate him; and +apparently his wish to be enlightened passed away, for he was the next +instant searching among his papers for the letter from Riga. Not finding +it, he put on his hat. + +"Must give up business to-day. Can't do business with a petticoat in the +room. I wish the Lord Mayor'd stop them all at Temple Bar. Now we'll go +out, and I'll show you a bit of the City." + +He offered her his arm, and she noticed that in walking through the +office, he was erect, and the few words he spoke were delivered in the +peremptory elastic tone of a vigorous man. + +"My girls," he said to her in an undertone, "never come here. Well! we +don't expect ladies, you know. Different spheres in this world. They +mean to be tip-top in society; and quite right too. My dear, I think +we'll ride. Do you mind being seen in a cab?" + +He asked her hesitatingly: and when Emilia said, "Oh, no! let us ride," +he seemed relieved. "I can't see the harm in a cab. Different tastes, in +this world. My girls--but, thank the Lord! they've got carriages." + +For an hour the merchant and Emilia drove about the City. He showed her +all the great buildings, and dilated on the fabulous piles of wealth +they represented, taking evident pleasure in her exclamations of +astonishment. + +"Yes, yes; they may despise us City fellows. I say, 'Come and see,' +that's all! Now, look up that court. Do you see three dusty windows +on the second floor? That man there could buy up any ten princes in +Europe--excepting one or two Austrians or Russians. He wears a coat just +like mine." + +"Does he?" said Emilia, involuntarily examining the one by her side. + +"We don't show our gold-linings, in the City, my dear." + +"But, you are rich, too." + +"Oh! I--as far as that goes. Don't talk about me. I'm--I'm still cold in +the feet. Now, look at that corner house. Three months ago that man was +one of our most respected City merchants. Now he's a bankrupt, and can't +show his head. It was all rotten. A medlar! He tampered with documents; +betrayed trusts. What do you think of him?" + +"What was it he did?" asked Emilia. + +Mr. Pole explained, and excused him; then he explained, and abused him. + +"He hadn't a family, my dear. Where did the money go? He's called a +rascal now, poor devil! Business brings awful temptations. You think, +this'll save me! You catch hold of it and it snaps. That'll save me; +but you're too heavy, and the roots give way, and down you go lower and +lower. Lower and lower! The gates of hell must be very low down if one +of our bankrupts don't reach 'em." He spoke this in a deep underbreath. +"Let's get out of the City. There's no air. Look at that cloud. It's +about over Brookfield, I should say." + +"Dear Brookfield!" echoed Emilia, feeling her heart fly forth to sing +like a skylark under the cloud. + +"And they're not satisfied with it," murmured Mr. Pole, with a voice of +unwonted bitterness. + +At the hotel, he was received very cordially by Mrs. Chickley, and +Simon, the old waiter. + +"You look as young as ever, ma'am," Mr. Pole complimented her +cheerfully, while he stamped his feet on the floor, and put forward +Emilia as one of his girls; but immediately took the landlady aside, to +tell her that she was "merely a charge--a ward--something of that sort;" +admitting, gladly enough, that she was a very nice young lady. "She's a +genius, ma'am, in music:--going to do wonders. She's not one of them." +And Mr. Pole informed Mrs. Chickley that when they came to town, they +usually slept in one or other of the great squares. He, for his part, +preferred old quarters: comfort versus grandeur. + +Simon had soon dressed the dinner-table. By the time dinner was ready, +Mr. Pole had sunk into such a condition of drowsiness, that it was hard +to make him see why he should be aroused, and when he sat down, fronting +Emilia, his eyes were glazed, and he complained that she was scarcely +visible. + +"Some of your old yellow seal, Simon. That's what I want. I haven't got +better at home." + +The contents of this old yellow seal formed the chief part of the +merchant's meal. Emilia was induced to drink two full glasses. + +"Doesn't that make your feet warm, my dear?" said Mr. Pole. + +"It makes me want to talk," Emilia confessed. + +"Ah! we shall have some fun to-night. 'To-the-rutte-ta-to!' If you could +only sing, 'Begone dull care!' I like glees: good, honest, English, +manly singing for me! Nothing like glees and madrigals, to my mind. With +chops and baked potatoes, and a glass of good stout, they beat all other +music." + +Emilia sang softly to him. + +When she had finished, Mr. Pole applauded her mildly. + +"Your music, my dear?" + +"My music: Mr. Runningbrook's words. But only look. He will not change +a word, and some of the words are so curious, they make me lift my chin +and pout. It's all in my throat. I feel as if I had to do it on tiptoe. +Mr. Runningbrook wrote the song in ten minutes." + +"He can afford to--comes of a family," said Mr. Pole, and struck up a +bit of "Celia's Arbour," which wandered into "The Soldier Tired," as he +came bendingly, both sets of fingers filliping, toward Emilia, with +one of those ancient glee--suspensions, "Taia--haia--haia--haia," etc., +which were meant for jolly fellows who could bear anything. + +"Eh?" went Mr. Pole, to elicit approbation in return. + +Emilia smoothed the wrinkles of her face, and smiled. + +"There's nothing like Port," said Mr. Pole. "Get little Runningbrook to +write a song: 'There's nothing like Port.' You put the music. I'll sing +it." + +"You will," cried Emilia. + +"Yes, upon my honour! now my feet are warmer, I by Jingo! what's that?" +and again he wore that strange calculating look, as if he were being +internally sounded, and guessed at his probable depth. "What a twitch! +Something wrong with my stomach. But a fellow must be all right when his +spirits are up. We'll be off as quick as we can. Taia--haihaia--hum. If +the farce is bad, it's my last night of theatre-going." + +The delight at being in a theatre kept Emilia dumb when she gazed on +the glittering lights. After an inspection of the house, Mr. Pole kindly +remarked: "You must marry and get out of this. This'd never do. All very +well in the boxes: but on the stage--oh, no! I shouldn't like you to +be there. If my girls don't approve of the doctor, they shall look out +somebody for you. I shouldn't like you to be painted, and rigged out; +and have to squall in this sort of place. Stage won't do for you. No, +no!" + +Emilia replied that she had given up the stage; and looked mournfully at +the drop-scene, as at a lost kingdom, scarcely repressing her tears. + +The orchestra tuned and played a light overture. She followed up the +windings of the drop-scene valley, meeting her lover somewhere beneath +the castle-ruin, where the river narrowed and the trees intertwined. On +from dream to dream the music carried her, and dull fell the first words +of the farce. Mr. Pole said, "Now, then!" and began to chuckle. As +the farce proceeded, he grew more serious, repeating to Emilia, quite +anxiously: "I wonder whether that boy Braintop's enjoying it." Emilia +glanced among the sea of heads, and finally eliminated the head +of Braintop, who was respectfully devoting his gaze to the box she +occupied. When Mr. Pole had been assisted to discover him likewise, his +attention alternated between Braintop and the stage, and he expressed +annoyance from time to time at the extreme composure of Braintop's +countenance. "Why don't the fellow laugh? Does he think he's listening +to a sermon?" Poor Braintop, on his part, sat in mortal fear lest his +admiration of Emilia was perceived. Divided? between this alarming +suspicion, and a doubt that the hair on his forehead was not properly +regulated, he became uneasy and fitful in his deportment. His +imagination plagued him with a sense of guilt, which his master's +watchfulness of him increased. He took an opportunity to furtively +to eye himself in a pocket-mirror, and was subsequently haunted by an +additional dread that Emilia might have discovered the instrument; and +set him down as a vain foolish dog. When he saw her laugh he was sure +of it. Instead of responding to Mr. Pole's encouragement, he assumed a +taciturn aspect worthy of a youthful anchorite, and continued to be the +spectator of a scene to which his soul was dead. + +"I believe that fellow's thinking of nothing but his supper," said Mr. +Pole. + +"I dare say he dined early in the day," returned Emilia, remembering how +hungry she used to be in the evenings of the potatoe-days. + +"Yes, but he might laugh, all the same." And Mr. Pole gave Emilia the +sound advice: "Mind you never marry a fellow who can't laugh." + +Braintop saw Emilia smile. Then, in an instant, her face changed its +expression to one of wonder and alarm, and her hands clasped together +tightly. What on earth was the matter with her? His agitated fancy, +centred in himself, now decided that some manifestation of most shocking +absurdity had settled on his forehead, or his hair, for he was certain +of his neck-tie. Braintop had recourse to his pocket-mirror once more. +It afforded him a rapid interchange of glances with a face which he at +all events could distinguish from the mass, though we need not. + +The youth was in the act of conveying the instrument to its retreat, +when conscience sent his eyes toward Emilia, who, to his horror, +beckoned to him, and touched Mr. Pole, entreating him to do the same. +Mr. Pole gesticulated imperiously, whereat Braintop rose, and requested +his neighbour to keep his seat for ten minutes, as he was going into +that particular box; and "If I don't come back in ten minutes, I shall +stop there," said Braintop, a little grandly, through the confusion of +his ideas, as he guessed at the possible reasons for the summons. + +Emilia had seen her father in the orchestra. There he sat, under the +leader, sullenly fiddling the prelude to the second play, like a man +ashamed, and one of the beaten in this world. Flight had been her first +thought. She had cause to dread him. The more she lived and the dawning +knowledge of what it is to be a woman in the world grew with her, the +more she shrank from his guidance, and from reliance on him. Not that +she conceived him designedly base; but he outraged her now conscious +delicacy, and what she had to endure as a girl seemed unbearable to her +now. Besides, she felt a secret shuddering at nameless things, which +made her sick of the thought of returning to him and his Jew friends. +But, alas! he looked so miserable--a child of harmony among the sons +of discord! He kept his head down, fiddling like a machine. The old +potatoe-days became pathetically edged with dead light to Emilia. She +could not be cruel. "When I am safe," she laid stress on the word in +her mind, to awaken blessed images, "I will see him often, and make him +happy; but I will let him know that all is well with me now, and that I +love him always." + +So she said to Mr. Pole, "I know one of those in the orchestra. May I +write a word to him on a piece of paper before we go? I wish to." + +Mr. Pole reflected, and seeing her earnest in her desire to do this, +replied: "Well, yes; if you must--the girls are not here." + +Emilia borrowed his pencil-case, and wrote:-- + +"Sandra is well, and always loves her caro papa, and is improving, and +will see him soon. Her heart is full of love for him and for her mama; +and if they leave their lodgings they are to leave word where they go. +Sandra never forgets Italy, and reads the papers. She has a copy of +the score of an unknown opera by our Andronizetti, and studies it, and +anatomy, English, French, and pure Italian, and can ride a horse. She +has made rich friends, who love her. It will not be long, and you will +see her." + +The hasty scrawl concluded with numerous little caressing exclamations +in Italian diminutives. This done, Emilia thought: "But he will look up +and see me!" She resolved not to send it till they were about to quit +the theatre. Consequently, Braintop, on his arrival, was told to sit +down. "You don't look cheerful in the pit," said Mr. Pole. "You're above +it?--eh? You're all alike in that. None of you do what your dads did. +Up-up-up? You may get too high, eh?--Gallery?" and Mr. Pole winked +knowingly and laughed. + +Braintop, thus elevated, tried his best to talk to Emilia, who sat +half fascinated with the fear of seeing her father lift his eyes and +recognize her suddenly. She sat boldly in the front, as before; not +being a young woman to hide her head where there was danger, and +having perhaps a certain amount of the fatalism which is often youth's +philosophy in the affairs of life. "If this is to be, can I avert it?" + +Mr. Pole began to nod at the actors, heavily. He said to Emilia, "If +there is any fun going on, give me a nudge." Emilia kept her eyes on her +father in the orchestra, full of pity for his deplorable wig, in +which she read his later domestic history, and sad tales of the family +dinners. + +"Do you see one of those"--she pointed him out to Braintop; "he is next +to the leader, with his back to us. Are you sure? I want you to give him +this note before he goes; when we go. Will you do it? I shall always be +thankful to you." + +Considering what Braintop was ready to do that he might be remembered +for a day and no more, the request was so very moderate as to be painful +to him. + +"You will leave him when you have given it into his hand. You are not to +answer any questions," said Emilia. + +With a reassuring glance at the musician's wig, Braintop bent his head. + +"Do see," she pursued, "how differently he bows from the other men, +though it is only dance music. Oh, how his ears are torn by that +violoncello! He wants to shriek:--he bears it!" + +She threw a piteous glance across the agitated instruments, and Braintop +was led to inquire: "Is he anything particular?" + +"He can bring out notes that are more like honey--if you can fancy a +thread of honey drawn through your heart as if it would never end! He is +Italian." + +Braintop modestly surveyed her hair and brows and cheeks, and taking the +print of her eyes on his brain to dream over, smelt at a relationship +with the wry black wig, which cast a halo about it. + +The musicians laid down their instruments, and trooped out, one by one. +Emilia perceived a man brush against her father's elbow. Her father +flicked at his offended elbow with the opposite hand, and sat crumpled +up till all had passed him: then went out alone. That little action +of disgust showed her that he had not lost spirit, albeit condemned to +serve amongst an inferior race, promoters of discord. + +Just as the third play was opening, some commotion was seen in the pit, +rising from near Braintop's vacated seat; and presently a thing that +shone flashing to the lights, came on from hand to hand, each hand +signalling subsequently toward Mr. Pole's box. It approached. Braintop's +eyes were in waiting on Emilia, who looked sadly at the empty orchestra. +A gentleman in the stalls, a head beneath her, bowed, and holding up a +singular article, gravely said that he had been requested to pass it. +She touched Mr. Pole's shoulder. "Eh? anything funny?" said he, and +glanced around. He was in time to see Braintop lean hurriedly over the +box, and snatch his pocket-mirror from the gentleman's hand. "Ha! ha!" +he laughed, as if a comic gleam had illumined him. A portion of the pit +and stalls laughed too. Emilia smiled merrily. "What was it?" said she; +and perceiving many faces beneath her red among handkerchiefs, she was +eager to see the thing that the unhappy Braintop had speedily secreted. + +"Come, sir, let's see it!" quoth Mr. Pole, itching for a fresh laugh; +and in spite of Braintop's protest, and in defiance of his burning +blush, he compelled the wretched youth to draw it forth, and be +manifestly convicted of vanity. + +A shout of laughter burst from Mr. Pole. "No wonder these young sparks +cut us all out. Lord, what cunning dogs they are! They ain't satisfied +with seeing themselves in their boots, but they--ha! ha! By George! +We've got the best fun in our box. I say, Braintop! you ought to have +two, my boy. Then you'd see how you looked behind. Ha-ha-hah! Never +enjoyed an evening so much in my life! A looking-glass for their +pockets! ha! ha!--hooh!" + +Luckily the farce demanded laughter, or those parts of the pit which had +not known Braintop would have been indignant. Mr. Pole became more +and more possessed by the fun, as the contrast of Braintop's abject +humiliation with this glaring testimony to his conceit tickled him. +He laughed till he complained of hunger. Emilia, though she thought +it natural that Braintop should carry a pocket-mirror if he pleased, +laughed from sympathy; until Braintop, reduced to the verge of +forbearance, stood up and remarked that, to perform the mission +entrusted to him, he must depart immediately. Mr. Pole was loth to let +him go, but finally commending him to a good supper, he sighed, and +declared himself a new man. + +"Oh! what a jolly laugh! The very thing I wanted! It's worth hundreds to +me. I was queer before: no doubt about that!" + +Again the ebbing convulsion of laughter seized him. "I feel as clear as +day," he said; and immediately asked Emilia whether she thought he +would have strength to get down to the cab. She took his hand, trying to +assist him from the seat. He rose, and staggered an instant. "A sort of +reddish cloud," he murmured, feeling over his forehead. "Ha! I know what +it is. I want a chop. A chop and a song. But, I couldn't take you, and +I like you by me. Good little woman!" He patted Emilia's shoulder, +preparatory to leaning on it with considerable weight, and so descended +to the cab, chuckling ever and anon at the reminiscence of Braintop. + +There was a disturbance in the street. A man with a foreign accent was +shouting by the door of a neighbouring public-house, that he would not +yield his hold of the collar of a struggling gentleman, till the villain +had surrendered his child, whom he scandalously concealed from her +parents. A scuffle ensued, and the foreign voice was heard again: + +"Wat! wat you have de shame, you have de pluck, ah! to tell me you know +not where she is, and you bring me a letter? Ho!--you have de cheeks to +tell me!" + +This highly effective pluralizing of their peculiar slang, brought a +roar of applause from the crowd of Britons. + +"Only a street row," said Mr. Pole, to calm Emilia. + +"Will he be hurt?" she cried. + +"I see a couple of policemen handy," said Mr. Pole, and Emilia cowered +down and clung to his hand as they drove from the place. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +It was midnight. Mr. Pole had appeased his imagination with a chop, and +was trying to revive the memory of his old after-theatre night carouses +by listening to a song which Emilia sang to him, while he sipped at a +smoking mixture, and beat time on the table, rejoiced that he was warm +from head to foot at last. + +"That's a pretty song, my dear," he said. "A very pretty song. It does +for an old fellow; and so did my supper: light and wholesome. I'm an old +fellow; I ought to know I've got a grown-up son and grown-up daughters. +I shall be a grandpa, soon, I dare say. It's not the thing for me to go +about hearing glees. I had an idea of it. I'm better here. All I want is +to see my children happy, married and settled, and comfortable!" + +Emilia stole up to him, and dropped on one knee: "You love them?" + +"I do. I love my girls and my boy. And my brandy-and-water, do you mean +to say, you rogue?" + +"And me?" Emilia looked up at him beseechingly. + +"Yes, and you. I do. I haven't known you long, my dear, but I shall be +glad to do what I can for you. You shall make my house your home as long +as you live; and if I say, make haste and get married, it's only just +this: girls ought to marry young, and not be in an uncertain position." + +"Am I worth having?" + +"To be sure you are! I should think so. You haven't got a penny; but, +then, you're not for spending one. And"--Mr. Pole nodded to right and +left like a man who silenced a host of invisible logicians, urging this +and that--"you're a pleasant companion, thrifty, pretty, musical: by +Jingo! what more do they want? They'll have their song and chop at +home." + +"Yes; but suppose it depends upon their fathers?" + +"Well, if their fathers will be fools, my dear, I can't help 'em. We +needn't take 'em in a lump: how about the doctor? I'll see him to-morrow +morning, and hear what he has to say. Shall I?" + +Mr. Pole winked shrewdly. + +"You will not make my heart break?" Emilia's voice sounded one low chord +as she neared the thing she had to say. + +"Bless her soul!" the old merchant patted her; "I'm not the sort of man +for that." + +"Nor his?" + +"His?" Mr. Pole's nerves became uneasy in a minute, at the scent of a +mystification. He dashed his handkerchief over his forehead, repeating: +"His? Break a man's heart! I? What's the meaning of that? For God's +sake, don't bother me!" + +Emilia was still kneeling before him, eyeing him with a shadowed +steadfast air. + +"I say his, because his heart is in mine. He has any pain that hurts +me." + +"He may be tremendously in love," observed Mr. Pole; "but he seems a +deuced soft sort of a doctor! What's his name?" + +"I love Wilfrid." + +The merchant appeared to be giving ear to her, long after the words had +been uttered, while there was silence in the room. + +"Wilfrid? my son?" he cried with a start. + +"He is my lover." + +"Damned rascal!" Mr. Pole jumped from his chair. "Going and playing +with an unprotected girl. I can pardon a young man's folly, but this is +infamous. My dear child," he turned to Emilia, "if you've got any notion +about my son Wilfrid, you must root it up as quick as you can. If he's +been behaving like a villain, leave him to me. I detest, I hate, I +loathe, I would kick, a young man who deceives a girl. Even if he's my +son!--more's the reason!" + +Mr. Pole was walking up and down the room, fuming as he spoke. Emilia +tried to hold his hand, as he was passing, but he said: "There, my +child! I'm very sorry for you, and I'm damned angry with him. Let me +go." + +"Can you, can you be angry with him for loving me?" + +"Deceiving you," returned Mr. Pole; "that's what it is. And I tell you, +I'd rather fifty times the fellow had deceived me. Anything rather than +that he should take advantage of a girl." + +"Wilfrid loves me and would die for me," said Emilia. + +"Now, let me tell you the fact," Mr. Pole came to a halt, fronting her. +"My son Wilfrid Pole may be in love, as he says, here and there, but he +is engaged to be married to a lady of title. I have his word--his oath. +He got near a thousand pounds out of my pocket the other day on +that understanding. I don't speak about the money, but--now--it's a +lump--others would have made a nice row about it--but is he a liar? Is +he a seducing, idling, vagabond dog? Is he a contemptible scoundrel?" + +"He is my lover," said Emilia. + +She stood without changing a feature; as in a darkness, holding to the +one thing she was sure of. Then, with a sudden track of light in her +brain: "I know the mistake," she said. "Pardon him. He feared to offend +you, because you are his father, and he thought I might not quite please +you. For, he loves me. He has loved me from the first moment he saw +me. He cannot be engaged to another. I could bring him from any woman's +side. I have only to say to myself--he must come to me. For he loves me! +It is not a thing to doubt." + +Mr. Pole turned and recommenced his pacing with hasty steps. All the +indications of a nervous tempest were on him. Interjecting half-formed +phrases, and now and then staring at Emilia, as at an incomprehensible +object, he worked at his hair till it lent him the look of one in horror +at an apparition. + +"The fellow's going to marry Lady Charlotte Chillingworth, I tell you. +He has asked my permission. The infernal scamp! he knew it pleased me. +He bled me of a thousand pounds only the other day. I tell you, he's +going to marry Lady Charlotte Chillingworth." + +Emilia received this statement with a most perplexing smile. She shook +her head. "He cannot." + +"Cannot? I say he shall, and must, and in a couple of months, too!" + +The gravely sceptical smile on Emilia's face changed to a blank pallor. + +"Then, you make him, sir--you?" + +"He'll be a beggar, if he don't." + +"You will keep him without money?" + +Mr. Pole felt that he gazed on strange deeps in that girl's face. Her +voice had the wire-like hum of a rising wind. There was no menace in her +eyes: the lashes of them drooped almost tenderly, and the lips were but +softly closed. The heaving of the bosom, though weighty, was regular: +the hands hung straight down, and were open. She looked harmless; but +his physical apprehensiveness was sharpened by his nervous condition, +and he read power in her: the capacity to concentrate all animal and +mental vigour into one feeling--this being the power of the soul. + +So she stood, breathing quietly, steadily eyeing him. + +"No, no;" went on Mr. Pole. "Come, come. We'll sit down, and see, and +talk--see what can be done. You know I always meant kindly by you." + +"Oh, yes!" Emilia musically murmured, and it cost her nothing to smile +again. + +"Now, tell me how this began." Mr. Pole settled himself comfortably to +listen, all irritation having apparently left him, under the influence +of the dominant nature. "You need not be ashamed to talk it over to me." + +"I am not ashamed," Emilia led off, and told her tale simply, with here +and there one of her peculiar illustrations. She had not thought of love +till it came to life suddenly, she said; and then all the world looked +different. The relation of Wilfrid's bravery in fighting for her, varied +for a single instant the low monotony of her voice. At the close of the +confession, Mr. Pole wore an aspect of distress. This creature's utter +unlikeness to the girls he was accustomed to, corroborated his personal +view of the case, that Wilfrid certainly could not have been serious, +and that she was deluded. But he pitied her, for he had sufficient +imagination to prevent him from despising what he did not altogether +comprehend. So, to fortify the damsel, he gave her a lecture: first, on +young men--their selfish inconsiderateness, their weakness, the wanton +lives they led, their trick of lying for any sugar-plum, and how they +laughed at their dupes. Secondly, as to the conduct consequently to +be prescribed to girls, who were weaker, frailer, by disposition more +confiding, and who must believe nothing but what they heard their elders +say. + +Emilia gave patient heed to the lecture. + +"But I am safe," she remarked, when he had finished; "for my lover is +not as those young men are." + +To speak at all, and arrange his ideas, was a vexation to the poor +merchant. He was here like an irritable traveller, who knocks at a +gate, which makes as if it opens, without letting him in. Emilia's naive +confidence he read as stupidity. It brought on a fresh access of the +nervous fever lurking in him, and he cried, jumping from his +seat: "Well, you can't have him, and there's an end. You must give +up--confound! why! do you expect to have everything you want at +starting? There, my child--but, upon my honour! a man loses his temper +at having to talk for an hour or so, and no result. You must go to bed; +and--do you say your prayers? Well! that's one way of getting out of +it--pray that you may forget all about what's not good for you. Why, +you're almost like a young man, when you set your mind on a thing. +Bad! won't do! Say your prayers regularly. And, please, pour me out a +mouthful of brandy. My hand trembles--I don't know what's the matter +with it;--just like those rushes on the Thames I used to see when out +fishing. No wind, and yet there they shake away. I wish it was daylight +on the old river now! It's night, and no mistake. I feel as if I had a +fellow twirling a stick over my head. The rascal's been at it for the +last month. There, stop where you are, my dear. Don't begin to dance!" + +He pressed at his misty eyes, half under the impression that she was +taking a succession of dazzling leaps in air. Terror of an impending +blow, which he associated with Emilia's voice, made him entreat her to +be silent. After a space, he breathed a long breath of relief, saying: +"No, no; you're firm enough on your feet. I don't think I ever saw you +dance. My girls have given it up. What led me to think...but, let's to +bed, and say our prayers. I want a kiss." + +Emilia kissed him on the forehead. The symptoms of illness were strange +to her, and passed unheeded. She was too full of her own burning passion +to take evidence from her sight. The sun of her world was threatened +with extinction. She felt herself already a wanderer in a land of tombs, +where none could say whether morning had come or gone. Intensely she +looked her misery in the face; and it was as a voice that said, "No sun: +never sun any more," to her. But a blue-hued moon slipped from among +the clouds, and hung in the black outstretched fingers of the tree of +darkness, fronting troubled waters. "This is thy light for ever! thou +shalt live in thy dream." So, as in a prison-house, did her soul now +recall the blissful hours by Wilming Weir. She sickened but an instant. +The blood in her veins was too strong a tide for her to crouch in that +imagined corpse-like universe which alternates with an irradiated Eden +in the brain of the passionate young. + +"Why should I lose him!" The dry sob choked her. + +She struggled with the emotion in her throat, and Mr. Pole, who had +previously dreaded supplication and appeals for pity, caressed her. +Instantly the flood poured out. + +"You are not cruel. I knew it. I should have died, if you had come +between us. Oh, Wilfrid's father, I love you!--I have never had a very +angry word on my mouth. Think! think! if you had made me curse you. For, +I could! You would have stopped my life, and Wilfrid's. What would our +last thoughts have been? We could not have forgiven you. Take up dead +birds killed by frost. You cry: Cruel winter! murdering cold! But I +knew better. You are Wilfrid's father, whom I can kneel to. My lover's +father! my own father! my friend next to heaven! Oh! bless my love, +for him. You have only to know what my love for him is! The thought of +losing him goes like perishing cold through my bones;--my heart jerks, +as if it had to pull up my body from the grave every time it beats...." + +"God in heaven!" cried the horrified merchant, on whose susceptible +nerves these images wrought with such a force that he absolutely had +dread of her. He gasped, and felt at his heart, and then at his pulse; +rubbed the moisture from his forehead, and throwing a fixedly wild look +on her eyes, he jumped up and left her kneeling. + +His caress had implied mercy to Emilia: for she could not reconcile it +with the rejection of the petition of her soul. She was now a little +bewildered to see him trotting the room, frowning and blinking, and +feeling at one wrist, at momentary pauses, all his words being: "Let's +be quiet. Let's be good. Let's go to bed, and say our prayers;" mingled +with short ejaculations. + +"I may say," she intercepted him, "I may tell my dear lover that you +bless us both, and that we are to live. Oh, speak! sir! let me hear +you!" + +"Let's go to bed," iterated Mr. Pole. "Come, candles! do light them. In +God's name! light candles. And let's be off and say our prayers." + +"You consent, sir?" + +"What's that your heart does?" Mr. Pole stopped to enquire; adding: +"There, don't tell me. You've played the devil with mine. Who'd ever +have made me believe that I should feel more at ease running up and down +the room, than seated in my arm-chair! Among the wonders of the world, +that!" + +Emilia put up her lips to kiss him, as he passed her. There was +something deliciously soothing and haven-like to him in the aspect of +her calmness. + +"Now, you'll be a good girl," said he, when he had taken her salute. + +"And you," she rejoined, "will be happier!" + +His voice dropped. "If you go on like this, you've done for me!" + +But she could make no guess at any tragic meaning in his words. "My +father--let me call you so!" + +"Will you see that you can't have him?" he stamped the syllables into +her ears: and, with a notion of there being a foreign element about her, +repeated:--"No!--not have him!--not yours!--somebody else's!" + +This was clear enough. + +"Only you can separate us," said Emilia, with a brow levelled intently. + +"Well, and I--" Mr. Pole was pursuing in the gusty energy of his +previous explanation. His eyes met Emilia's, gravely widening. "I--I'm +very sorry," he broke down: "upon my soul, I am!" + +The old man went to the mantel-piece and leaned his elbow before the +glass. + +Emilia's bosom began to rise again. + +She was startled to hear him laugh. A slight melancholy little burst; +and then a louder one, followed by a full-toned laughter that fell short +and showed the heart was not in it. + +"That boy Braintop! What fun it was!" he said, looking all the while +into the glass. "Why can't we live in peace, and without bother! Is your +candle alight, my dear?" + +Emilia now thought that he was practising evasion. + +"I will light it," she said. + +Mr. Pole gave a wearied sigh. His head being still turned to the glass, +he listened with a shrouded face for her movements: saying, "Good night; +good night; I'll light my own. There's a dear!" + +A shouting was in his ears, which seemed to syllable distinctly: "If she +goes at once, I'm safe." + +The sight of pain at all was intolerable to him; but he had a prophetic +physical warning now that to witness pain inflicted by himself would be +more than he could endure. + +Emilia breathed a low, "Good night." + +"Good night, my love--all right to-morrow!" he replied briskly; and +remorse touching his kind heart as the music of her 'good night' +penetrated to it by thrilling avenues, he added injudiciously: "Don't +fret. We'll see what we can do. Soon make matters comfortable." + +"I love you, and I know you will not stab me," she answered. + +"No; certainly not," said Mr. Pole, still keeping his back to her. + +Struck with a sudden anticipating fear of having to go through this +scene on the morrow, he continued: "No misunderstands, mind! Wilfrid's +done with." + +There was a silence. He trusted she might be gone. Turning round, he +faced her; the light of the candle throwing her pale visage into ghostly +relief. + +"Where is sleep for you if you part us?" + +Mr. Pole flung up his arms. "I insist upon your going to bed. Why +shouldn't I sleep? Child's folly!" + +Though he spoke so, his brain was in strings to his timorous ticking +nerves; and he thought that it would be well to propitiate her and get +her to utter some words that would not haunt his pillow. + +"My dear girl! it's not my doing. I like you. I wish you well and happy. +Very fond of you;--blame circumstances, not me." Then he murmured: "Are +black spots on the eyelids a bad sign? I see big flakes of soot falling +in a dark room." + +Emilia's mated look fleeted. "You come between us, sir, because I have +no money?" + +"I tell you it's the boy's only chance to make his hit now." Mr. Pole +stamped his foot angrily. + +"And you make my Cornelia marry, though she loves another, as Wilfrid +loves me, and if they do not obey you they are to be beggars! Is it you +who can pray? Can you ever have good dreams? I saved my father from the +sin, by leaving him. He wished to sell me. But my poor father had no +money at all, and I can pardon him. Money was a bright thing to him: +like other things to us. Mr. Pole! What will any one say for you!" + +The unhappy merchant had made vehement efforts to perplex his hearing, +that her words might be empty and not future dragons round his couch. +He was looking forward to a night of sleep as a cure for the evil +sensations besetting him--his only chance. The chance was going; and +with the knowledge that it was unjustly torn from him--this one gleam of +clear reason in his brain undimmed by the irritable storm which plucked +him down--he cried out, to clear himself:-- + +"They are beggars, both, and all, if they don't marry before two months +are out. I'm a beggar then. I'm ruined. I shan't have a penny. I'm in +a workhouse. They are in good homes. They are safe, and thank their old +father. Now, then; now. Shall I sleep?" + +Emilia caught his staggering arm. The glazed light of his eyes went out. +He sank into a chair; white as if life had issued with the secret of +his life. Wonderful varying expressions had marked his features and +the tones of his voice, while he was uttering that sharp, succinct +confession; so that, strange as it sounded, every sentence fixed itself +on her with incontrovertible force, and the meaning of the whole flashed +through her mind. It struck her too awfully for speech. She held fast +to his nerveless hand, and kneeling before him, listened for his long +reluctant breathing. + +The 'Shall I sleep?' seemed answered. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +For days after the foregoing scene, Brookfield was unconscious of what +had befallen it. Wilfrid was trying his yacht, the ladies were preparing +for the great pleasure-gathering on Besworth lawn, and shaping astute +designs to exclude the presence of Mrs. Chump, for which they partly +condemned themselves; but, as they said, "Only hear her!" The excitable +woman was swelling from conjecture to certainty on a continuous public +cry of, "'Pon my hon'r!--d'ye think little Belloni's gone and marrud +Pole?" + +Emilia's supposed flight had deeply grieved the ladies, when alarm and +suspicion had subsided. Fear of some wretched male baseness on the part +of their brother was happily diverted by a letter, wherein he desired +them to come to him speedily. They attributed her conduct to dread of +Mr. Pericles. That fervid devotee of Euterpe received the tidings +with an obnoxious outburst, which made them seriously ask themselves +(individually and in secret) whether he was not a moneyed brute, and +nothing more. Nor could they satisfactorily answer the question. He +raved: "You let her go. Ha! what creatures you are--hein? But you find +not anozer in fifty years, I say; and here you stop, and forty hours +pass by, and not a sing in motion. What blood you have! It is water--not +blood. Such a voice, a verve, a style, an eye, a devil, zat girl! and +all drawn up and out before ze time by a man: she is spoilt!" + +He exhibited an anguish that they were not able to commiserate. Certain +expressions falling from him led them to guess that he had set some plot +in motion, which Emilia's flight had arrested; but his tragic outcries +were all on the higher ground of the loss to Art. They were glad to see +him go from the house. Soon he returned to demand Wilfrid's address. +Arabella wrote it out for him with rebuking composure. Then he insisted +upon having Captain Gambier's, whom he described as "ce nonchalant +dandy." + +"Him you will have a better opportunity of seeing by waiting here," +said Adela; and the captain came before Mr. Pericles had retreated. "Ce +nonchalant" was not quite true to his title, when he heard that Emilia +had flown. He did not say much, but iterated "Gone!" with an elegant +frown, adding, "She must come back, you know!" and was evidently more +than commonly puzzled and vexed, pursuing the strain in a way that +satisfied Mr. Pericles more thoroughly than Adela. + +"She shall come back as soon as she has a collar," growled Mr. Pericles, +meaning captivity. + +"If she'd only come back with her own maiden name," interjected Mrs. +Chump, "I'll give her a character; but, upon my hon'r--d'ye think ut +possible, now...?" + +Arabella talked over her, and rescued her father's name. + +The noisy sympathy and wild speculations of the Tinleys and Copleys had +to be endured. On the whole, the feeling toward Emilia was kind, and the +hope that she would come to no harm was fervently expressed by all +the ladies; frequently enough, also, to show the opinion that it might +easily happen. On such points Mrs. Chump never failed to bring the +conversation to a block. Supported as they were by Captain Gambier, +Edward Buxley, Freshfield Sumner, and more than once by Sir Twickenham +(whom Freshfield, launching angry shafts, now called the semi-betrothed, +the statistical cripple, and other strong things that show a developing +genius for street-cries and hustings--epithets in every member of the +lists of the great Rejected, or of the jilted who can affect to be +philosophical), notwithstanding these aids, the ladies of Brookfield +were crushed by Mrs. Chump. Her main offence was, that she revived for +them so much of themselves that they had buried. "Oh! the unutterably +sordid City life!" It hung about her like a smell of London smoke. As a +mere animal, they passed her by, and had almost come to a state of mind +to pass her off. It was the phantom, or rather the embodiment of their +First Circle, that they hated in the woman. She took heroes from the +journals read by servant-maids; she thought highly of the Court of +Aldermen; she went on public knees to the aristocracy; she was proud, in +fact, of all City appetites. What, though none saw the peculiar sting? +They felt it; and one virtue in possessing an 'ideal' is that, lodging +in you as it does, it insists upon the interior being furnished by your +personal satisfaction, and not by the blindness or stupidity of the +outer world. Thus, in one direction, an ideal precludes humbug. +The ladies might desire to cloak facts, but they had no pleasure +in deception. They had the feminine power of extinguishing things +disagreeable, so long as nature or the fates did them no violence. When +these forces sent an emissary to confound them, as was clearly the case +with Mrs. Chump, they fought. The dreadful creature insisted upon shows +of maudlin affection that could not be accorded to her, so that she +existed in a condition of preternatural sensitiveness. Among ladies +pretending to dignity of life, the horror of acrid complaints +alternating with public offers of love from a gross woman, may be +pictured in the mind's eye. The absence of Mr. Pole and Wilfrid, which +caused Mrs. Chump to chafe at the restraint imposed by the presence of +males to whom she might not speak endearingly, and deprived the ladies +of proper counsel, and what good may be at times in masculine authority, +led to one fierce battle, wherein the great shot was fired on both +sides. Mrs. Chump was requested to leave the house: she declined. +Interrogated as to whether she remained as an enemy, knowing herself +to be so looked upon, she said that she remained to save them from +the dangers they invited. Those dangers she named, observing that Mrs. +Lupin, their aunt, might know them, but was as liable to be sent to +sleep by a fellow with a bag of jokes as a watchdog to be quieted by +a bone. The allusion here was to Mrs. Lupin's painful, partially +inexcusable, incurable sense of humour, especially when a gleam of it +led to the prohibited passages of life. The poor lady was afflicted +so keenly that, in instances where one of her sex and position in the +social scale is bound to perish rather than let even the shadow of a +laugh appear, or any sign of fleshly perception or sympathy peep out, +she was seen to be mutely, shockingly, penitentially convulsed: a +degrading sight. And albeit repeatedly remonstrated with, she, upon +such occasions, invariably turned imploring glances--a sort of frowning +entreaty--to the ladies, or to any of her sex present. "Did you not +see that? Oh! can you resist it?" she seemed to gasp, as she made those +fruitless efforts to drag them to her conscious level. "Sink thou, if +thou wilt," was the phrase indicated to her. She had once thought her +propensity innocent enough, and enjoyable. Her nieces had almost cured +her, by sitting on her, until Mrs. Chump came to make her worst than +ever. It is to be feared that Mrs. Chump was beginning to abuse her +power over the little colourless lady. We cannot, when we find ourselves +possessed of the gift of sending a creature into convulsions, avoid +exercising it. Mrs. Lupin was one of the victims of the modern feminine +'ideal.' She was in mind merely a woman; devout and charitable, as her +nieces admitted; but radically--what? They did not like to think, or to +say, what;--repugnant, seemed to be the word. A woman who consented +to perceive the double-meaning, who acknowledged its suggestions of a +violation of decency laughable, and who could not restrain laughter, +was, in their judgement, righteously a victim. After signal efforts to +lift her up, the verdict was that their Aunt Lupin did no credit to +her sex. If we conceive a timorous little body of finely-strung nerves, +inclined to be gay, and shrewdly apprehensive, but depending for her +opinion of herself upon those about her, we shall see that Mrs. Lupin's +life was one of sorrow and scourges in the atmosphere of the 'ideal.' +Never did nun of the cloister fight such a fight with the flesh, as this +poor little woman, that she might not give offence to the Tribunal +of the Nice Feelings which leads us to ask, "Is sentimentalism in +our modern days taking the place of monasticism to mortify our poor +humanity?" The sufferings of the Three of Brookfield under Mrs. Chump +was not comparable to Mrs. Lupin's. The good little woman's soul +withered at the self-contempt to which her nieces helped her daily. +Laughter, far from expanding her heart and invigorating her frame, was a +thing that she felt herself to be nourishing as a traitor in her bosom: +and the worst was, that it came upon her like a reckless intoxication at +times, possessing her as a devil might; and justifying itself, too, and +daring to say, "Am I not Nature?" Mrs. Lupin shrank from the remembrance +of those moments. + +In another age, the scenes between Mrs. Lupin and Mrs. Chump, greatly +significant for humanity as they are, will be given without offence +on one side or martyrdom on the other. At present, and before our +sentimentalists are a concrete, it would be profitless rashness to +depict them. When the great shots were fired off (Mrs. Chump being +requested to depart, and refusing) Mrs. Lupin fluttered between the +belligerents, doing her best to be a medium for the restoration of +peace. In repeating Mrs. Chump's remarks, which were rendered purposely +strong with Irish spice by that woman, she choked; and when she conveyed +to Mrs. Chump the counter-remarks of the ladies, she provoked utterances +that almost killed her. A sadder life is not to be imagined. The +perpetual irritation of a desire to indulge in her mortal weakness, +and listening to the sleepless conscience that kept watch over it; her +certainty that it would be better for her to laugh right out, and +yet her incapacity to contest the justice of her nieces' rebuke; her +struggle to resist Mrs. Chump, which ended in a sensation of secret +shameful liking for her--all these warring influences within were seen +in her behaviour. + +"I have always said," observed Cornelia, "that she labours under a +disease." What is more, she had always told Mrs. Lupin as much, and her +sisters had echoed her. Three to one in such a case is a severe trial to +the reason of solitary one. And Mrs. Lupin's case was peculiar, inasmuch +as the more she yielded to Chump-temptation and eased her heart of +its load of laughter, the more her heart cried out against her and +subscribed to the scorn of her nieces. Mrs. Chump acted a demon's part; +she thirsted for Mrs. Lupin that she might worry her. Hitherto she had +not known that anything peculiar lodged in her tongue, and with no other +person did she think of using it to produce a desired effect; but now +the scenes in Brookfield became hideous to the ladies, and not wanting +in their trials to the facial muscles of the gentlemen. A significant +sign of what the ladies were enduring was, that they ceased to speak of +it in their consultations. It is a blank period in the career of young +creatures when a fretting wretchedness forces them out of their dreams +to action; and it is then that they will do things that, seen from +the outside (i.e. in the conduct of others), they would hold to be +monstrous, all but impossible. Or how could Cornelia persuade herself, +as she certainly persuaded Sir Twickenham and the world about her, that +she had a contemplative pleasure in his society? Arabella drew nearer to +Edward Buxley, whom she had not treated well, and who, as she might have +guessed, had turned his thoughts toward Adela; though clearly without +encouragement. Adela indeed said openly to her sisters, with a Gallic +ejaculation, "Edward follows me, do you know; and he has adopted a sort +of Sicilian-vespers look whenever he meets me with Captain Gambier. I +could forgive him if he would draw out a dagger and be quite theatrical; +but, behold, we meet, and my bourgeois grunts and stammers, and seems to +beg us to believe that he means nothing whatever by his behaviour. Can +you convey to his City-intelligence that he is just a trifle ill-bred?" + +Now, Arabella had always seen Edward as a thing that was her own, which +accounts for the treatment to which, he had been subjected. A quick +spur of jealousy--a new sensation--was the origin of her leaning toward +Edward; and the plea of saving Adela from annoyance excused and covered +it. He, for his part, scarcely concealed his irritation, until a little +scented twisted note was put in his hand, which said, "You are as +anxious as I can be about our sweet lost Emilia! We believe ourselves +to be on her traces." This gave him wonderful comfort. It put Adela in +a beautiful fresh light as a devoted benefactress and delicious +intriguante. He threw off some of his most telling caricatures at this +period. Adela had divined that Captain Gambier suspected his cousin +Merthyr Powys of abstracting Emilia, that he might shield her from Mr. +Pericles. The Captain confessed it, calmly blushing, and that he was in +communication with Miss Georgiana Ford, Mr. Powys's half-sister; +about whom Adela was curious, until the Captain ejaculated, "A +saint!"--whereat she was satisfied, knowing by instinct that the +preference is for sinners. Their meetings usually referred to Emilia; +and it was astonishing how willingly the Captain would talk of her. +Adela repeated to herself, "This is our mask," and thus she made it the +Captain's; for it must be said that the conquering Captain had never +felt so full of pity to any girl or woman to whom he fancied he had done +damage, as to Emilia. He enjoyed a most thorough belief that she was +growing up to perplex him with her love, and he had not consequently +attempted to precipitate the measure; but her flight had prematurely +perplexed him. In grave debate with the ends of his moustache for a +term, he concluded by accusing Merthyr Powys; and with a little feeling +of spite not unknown to masculine dignity, he wrote to Merthyr's +half-sister--"merely to inquire, being aware that whatever he does +you have been consulted on, and the friends of this Miss Belloni are +distressed by her absence." + +The ladies of Brookfield were accustomed to their father's occasional +unpremeditated absences, and neither of them had felt an apprehension +which she could not dismiss, until one morning Mr. Powys sent up his +card to Arabella, requesting permission to speak with her alone. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +Georgiana Ford would have had little claim among the fair saints to be +accepted by them as one of their order. Her reputation for coldness was +derived from the fact of her having stood a siege from Captain Gambier. +But she loved a creature of earth too well to put up a hand for +saintly honours. The passion of her life centred in devotion to her +half-brother. Those who had studied her said, perhaps with a touch of +malignity, that her religious instinct had its source in a desire to +gain some place of intercession for him. Merthyr had leaned upon it too +often to doubt the strength of it, whatever its purity might be. She, +when barely more than a child (a girl of sixteen), had followed him over +the then luckless Italian fields--sacrificing as much for a cause +that she held to be trivial, as he in the ardour of his half-fanatical +worship. Her theory was: "These Italians are in bondage, and since +heaven permits it, there has been guilt. By endurance they are +strengthened, by suffering chastened; so let them endure and suffer." +She would cleave to this view with many variations of pity. Merthyr's +experience was tolerant to the weaker vessel's young delight in +power, which makes her sometimes, though sweet and merciful by nature, +enunciate Hebraic severities oracularly. He smiled, and was never +weary of pointing out practical refutations. Whereat she said, "Will a +thousand instances change the principle?" When the brain, and especially +the fine brain of a woman, first begins to act for itself, the work is +of heavy labour; she finds herself plunging abroad on infinite seas, and +runs speedily into the anchorage of dogmas, obfuscatory saws, and what +she calls principles. Here she is safe; but if her thinking was +not originally the mere action of lively blood upon that battery of +intelligence, she will by-and-by reflect that it is not well for a live +thing to be tied to a dead, and that long clinging to safety confesses +too much. Merthyr waited for Georgians patiently. On all other points +they were heart-in-heart. It was her pride to say that she loved him +with no sense of jealousy, and prayed that he might find a woman, in +plain words, worthy of him. This woman had not been found; she confessed +that she had never seen her. + +Georgians received Captain Gambier's communication in Monmouth. Merthyr +had now and then written of a Miss Belloni; but he had seemed to refer +to a sort of child, and Georgians had looked on her as another Italian +pensioner. She was decisive. The moment she awoke to feel herself +brooding over the thought of this girl, she started to join Merthyr. +Solitude is pasturage for a suspicion. On her way she grew persuaded +that her object was bad, and stopped; until the thought came, 'If he is +in a dilemma, who shall help him save his sister?' And, with spiritually +streaming eyes at a vision of companionship broken (but whether by his +taking another adviser, or by Miss Belloni, she did not ask), Georgiana +continued her journey. + +At the door of Lady Gosstre's town-house she hesitated, and said in her +mind, "What am I doing? and what earthliness has come into my love for +him?" + +Or, turning to the cry, "Will he want me?" stung herself. Conscious +that there was some poison in her love, but clinging to it not less, she +entered the house, and was soon in Merthyr's arms. + +"Why have you come up?" he asked. + +"Were you thinking of coming to me quickly?" she murmured in reply. + +He did not say yes, but that he had business in London. Nor did he say +what. + +Georgiana let him go. + +"How miserable is such a weakness! Is this my love?" she thought again. + +Then she went to her bedroom, and knelt, and prayed her Saviour's pardon +for loving a human thing too well. But, if the rays of her mind were +dimmed, her heart beat too forcibly for this complacent self-deceit. +"No; not too well! I cannot love him too well. I am selfish. When I say +that, it is myself I am loving. To love him thrice as dearly as I do +would bring me nearer to God. Love I mean, not idolatry--another form of +selfishness." + +She prayed to be guided out of the path of snares. + + "CAN YOU PRAY? CAN YOU PUT AWAY ALL PROPS OF SELF? THIS IS TRUE + WORSHIP, UNTO WHATSOEVER POWER YOU KNEEL." + +This passage out of a favourite book of sentences had virtue to help her +now in putting away the 'props of self.' It helped her for the time. She +could not foresee the contest that was commencing for her. + + "LOVE THAT SHRIEKS AT A MORTAL WOUND, AND BLEEDS HUMANLY, WHAT IS HE + BUT A PAGAN GOD, WITH THE PASSIONS OF A PAGAN GOD?" + +"Yes," thought Georgiana, meditating, "as different from the Christian +love as a brute from a man!" + +She felt that the revolution of the idea of love in her mind (all that +consoled her) was becoming a temptation. Quick in her impulses, she +dismissed it. "I am like a girl!" she said scornfully. "Like a woman" +would not have flattered her. Like what did she strive to be? The +picture of another self was before her--a creature calmly strong, +unruffled, and a refuge to her beloved. It was a steady light through +every wind that blew, save when the heart narrowed; and then it waxed +feeble, and the life in her was hungry for she knew not what. + +Georgiana's struggle was to make her great passion eat up all the +others. Sure of the intensity and thoroughness of her love for Merthyr, +she would forecast for herself tasks in his service impossible save to +one sensually dead and therefore spiritually sexless. "My love is +pure," she would say; as if that were the talisman which rendered +it superhuman. She was under the delusion that lovers' love was a +reprehensible egoism. Her heart had never had place for it; and thus her +nature was unconsummated, and the torment of a haunting insufficiency +accompanied her sweetest hours, ready to mislead her in all but very +clearest actions. + +She saw, or she divined, much of this struggle; but the vision of it was +fitful, not consecutive. It frightened and harassed without illuminating +her. Now, upon Merthyr's return, she was moved by it just enough to take +his hand and say:-- + +"We are the same?" + +"What can change us?" he replied. + +"Or who?" and as she smiled up to him, she was ashamed of her smile. + +"Yes, who!" he interjected, by this time quite enlightened. All subtle +feelings are discerned by Welsh eyes when untroubled by any mental +agitation. Brother and sister were Welsh, and I may observe that there +is human nature and Welsh nature. + +"Forgive me," she said; "I have been disturbed about you." + +Perceiving that it would be well to save her from any spiritual twists +and turns that she might reach what she desired to know, he spoke out +fully: "I have not written to you about Miss Belloni lately. I think it +must be seven or eight days since I had a letter from her--you shall see +it--looking as if it had been written in the dark. She gave the address +of a London hotel. I went to her, and her story was that she had come +to town to get Mr. Pole's consent to her marriage with his son; and +that when she succeeded in making herself understood by him, the old +man fell, smitten with paralysis, crying out that he was ruined, and his +children beggars." + +"Ah!" said Georgiana; "then this son is engaged to her?" + +"She calls him her lover." + +"Openly?" + +"Have I not told you? 'naked and unashamed.'" + +"Of course that has attracted my Merthyr!" Georgians drew to him +tenderly, breathing as one who has a burden off her heart. + +"But why did she write to you?" the question started up. + +For this reason: it appears that Mr. Pole showed such nervous irritation +at the idea of his family knowing the state he was in, that the doctor +attending him exacted a promise from her not to communicate with one of +them. She was alone, in great perplexity, and did what I had requested +her to do. She did me the honour to apply to me for any help it was in +my power to give. + +Georgiana stood eyeing the ground sideways. "What is she like?" + +"You shall see to-morrow, if you will come with me." + +"Dark, or fair?" + +Merthyr turned her face to the light, laughing softly. Georgiana +coloured, with dropped eyelids. + +She raised her eyes under their load of shame. "I will come gladly," she +said. + +"Early to-morrow, then," rejoined Merthyr. + +On the morrow, as they were driving to the hotel, Georgians wanted to +know whether he called 'this Miss Belloni' by her Christian name--a +question so needless that her over-conscious heart drummed with +gratitude when she saw that he purposely spared her from one meaning +look. In this mutual knowledge, mutual help, in minute as in great +things, as well as in the recognition of a common nobility of mind, the +love of the two was fortified. + +Emilia had not been left by Mr. Powys without the protection of a +woman's society in her singular position. Lady Charlotte's natural +prompt kindness required no spur from her friend that she should go +and brace up the spirits of a little woman, whom she pitied doubly for +loving a man who was deceiving her, and not loving one who was good for +her. She went frequently to Emilia, and sat with her in the sombre hotel +drawing-room. Still, frank as she was and blunt as she affected to be, +she could not bring her tongue to speak of Wilfrid. If she had fancied +any sensitive shuddering from the name and the subject to exist, she +would have struck boldly, being capable of cruelty and, where she was +permitted to see a weakness, rather fond of striking deep. A belief in +the existence of Emilia's courage touched her to compassion. One day, +however, she said, "What is it you take to in Merthyr Powys?" and this +brought on plain speaking. + +Emilia could give no reason; and it is a peculiarity of people who +ask such questions that they think a want of directness in the answer +suspicious. + +Lady Charlotte said gravely, "Come, come!" + +"What do you mean?" asked Emilia. "I like so many things in him." + +"You don't like one thing chiefly?" + +"I like--what do I like?--his kindness." + +"His kindness!" This was the sort of reply to make the lady implacable. +She seldom read others shrewdly, and could not know, that near her, +Emilia thought of Wilfrid in a way that made the vault of her brain +seem to echo with jarred chords. "His kindness! What a picture is the +'grateful girl!' I have seen rows of white-capped charity children +giving a bob and a sniffle as the parson went down the ranks promising +buns. Well! his kindness! You are right in appreciating as much as you +can see. I'll tell you why I like him;--because he is a gentleman. And +you haven't got an idea how rare that animal is. Dear me! Should I be +plainer to you if I called him a Christian gentleman? It's the cant of +a detestable school, my child. It means just this--but why should I +disturb your future faith in it? The professors mainly profess to be 'a +comfort to young women,' and I suppose you will meet your comfort, and +worship them with the 'growing mind;' and I must confess that they bait +it rather cunningly; nothing else would bite. They catch almost all the +raw boys who have anything in them. But for me, Merthyr himself would +have been caught long ago. There's no absolute harm in them, only that +they're a sentimental compromise. I deny their honesty; and if +it's flatly proved, I deny their intelligence. Well! this you can't +understand." + +"I have not understood you at all," said Emilia. + +"No? It's the tongue that's the natural traitor to a woman, and takes +longer runs with every added year. I suppose you know that Mr. Powys +wishes to send you to Italy?" + +"I do," said Emilia. + +"When are you going?" + +"I am not going?" + +"Why?" + +Emilia's bosom rose. She cried "Dear lady!" on the fall of it, and was +scarce audible--adding, "Do you love Wilfrid?" + +"Well, you have brought me to the point quickly," Lady Charlotte +remarked. "I don't commonly beat the bush long myself. Love him! You +might as well ask me my age. The indiscretion would be equal, and the +result the same. Love! I have a proper fear of the word. When two play +at love they spoil the game. It's enough that he says he loves me." + +Emilia looked relieved. "Poor lady!" she sighed. + +"Poor!" Lady Charlotte echoed, with curious eyes fixed on the puzzle +beside her. + +"Tell me you will not believe him," Emilia continued. "He is mine; I +shall never give him up. It is useless for you or any one else to love +him. I know what love is now. Stop while you can. I can be sorry for +you, but I will not let him go from me. He is my lover." + +Emilia closed her lips abruptly. She produced more effect than was +visible. Lady Charlotte drew out a letter, saying, "Perhaps this will +satisfy you." + +"Nothing!" cried Emilia, jumping to her feet. + +"Read it--read it; and, for heaven's sake, ma fille sauvage, don't +think I'm here to fight for the man! He is not Orpheus; and our modern +education teaches us that it's we who are to be run after. Will you read +it?" + +"No." + +"Will you read it to please me?" + +Emilia changed from a look of quiet opposition to gentleness of feature. +"Why will it please you if I read that he has flattered you? I never lie +about what I feel; I think men do." Her voice sank. + +"You won't allow yourself to imagine, then, that he has spoken false to +you?" + +"Tell me," retorted Emilia, "are you sure in your heart--as sure as it +beats each time--that he loves you? You are not." + +"It seems that we are dignifying my gentleman remarkably," said Lady +Charlotte. "When two women fight for a man, that is almost a meal for +his vanity. Now, listen. I am not, as they phrase it, in love. I am an +experienced person--what is called a woman of the world. I should not +make a marriage unless I had come to the conclusion that I could help my +husband, or he me. Do me the favour to read this letter." + +Emilia took it and opened it slowly. It was a letter in the tone of the +gallant paying homage with some fervour. Emilia searched every sentence +for the one word. That being absent, she handed back the letter, her +eyes lingering on the signature. + +"Do you see what he says?" asked Lady Charlotte; "that I can be a right +hand to him, as I believe I can." + +"He writes like a friend." Emilia uttered this as when we have a +contrast in the mind. + +"You excuse him for writing to me in that style?" + +"Yes; he may write to any woman like that." + +"He has latitude! You really fancy that's the sort of letter a friend +would write?" + +"That is how Mr. Powys would write to me," said Emilia. Lady Charlotte +laughed. "My unhappy Merthyr!" + +"Only if I could be a great deal older," Emilia hastened to add; and +Lady Charlotte slightly frowned, but rubbed it out with a smile. + +Rising, the lady said: "I have spoken to you upon equal terms; and +remember, very few women would have done what I have done. You are cared +for by Merthyr Powys, and that's enough. It would do you no harm to fix +your eyes upon him. You won't get him; but it would do you no harm. He +has a heart, as they call it; whatever it is, it's as strong as a cable. +He is a knight of the antique. He is specially guarded, however. Well, +he insists that you are his friend; so you are mine, and that is why I +have come to you and spoken to you. You will be silent about it, I need +not say. No one but yourself is aware that Lieutenant Pole does me the +honour to liken me to the good old gentleman who accompanied Telemachus +in his voyages, and chooses me from among the handmaidens of earth. On +this head you will promise to be silent." + +Lady Charlotte held forth her hand. Emilia would not take it before she +had replied, "I knew this before you came," and then she pressed the +extended fingers. + +Lady Charlotte drew her close. "Has Wilfrid taken you into his +confidence so far?" + +Emilia explained that she had heard it from his father. + +The lady's face lit up as from a sting of anger. "Very well--very well," +she said; and, presently, "You are right when you speak of the power of +lying in men. Observe--Wilfrid told me that not one living creature knew +there was question of an engagement between us. What would you do in my +case?" + +Emilia replied, "Forgive him; and I should think no more of it." + +"Yes. It would be right; and, presuming him to have the vice, I could be +of immense service to him, if at least he does not lie habitually. But +this is a description of treachery, you know." + +"Oh!" cried Emilia, "what kind of treachery is that, if he only will +keep his heart open for me to give all mine to it!" + +She stood clutching her hands in the half-sobbing ecstasy which +signalises a spiritual exaltation built on disquiet. She had shown small +emotion hitherto. The sight of it was like the sight of a mighty hostile +power to Lady Charlotte--a power that moved her--that challenged, and +irritated, and subdued her. For she saw there something that she had +not; and being of a nature leaning to great-mindedness, though not +of the first rank, she could not meanly mask her own deficiency by +despising it. To do this is the secret evil by which souls of men and +women stop their growth. + +Lady Charlotte decided now to say good-bye. Her parting was +friendly--the form of it consisting of a nod, an extension of the hand, +and a kind word or two. + +When alone, Emilia wondered why she kept taking long breaths, and tried +to correct herself: but the heart laboured. Yet she seemed to have no +thought in her mind; she had no active sensation of pity or startled +self-love. She went to smooth Mr. Pole's pillow, as to a place of +forgetfulness. The querulous tyrannies of the invalid relieved her; but +the heavy lifting of her chest returned the moment she was alone. She +mentioned it to the doctor, who prescribed for liver, informing her +that the said organ conducted one of the most important functions of her +bodily system. + +Emilia listened to the lecturer, and promised to take his medicine, +trusting to be perfectly quieted by the nauseous draught; but when Mr. +Powys came, she rushed up to him, and fell with a cry upon his breast, +murmuring broken words that Georgiana might fairly interpret as her +suspicions directed. Nor had she ever seen Merthyr look as he did when +their eyes next met. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +The card of Mr. Powys found Arabella alone in the house. Mrs. Lupin +was among village school-children; Mrs. Chump had gone to London to see +whether anything was known of Mr. Pole at his office, where she fell +upon the youth Braintop, and made him her own for the day. Adela was +out in the woods, contemplating nature; and Cornelia was supposed to be +walking whither her stately fancy drew her. + +"Will you take long solitary walks unprotected?" she was asked. + +"I have a parasol," she replied; and could hear, miles distant, the +domestic comments being made on her innocence; and the story it would +be--"She thinks of no possible danger but from the sun." + +A little forcing of her innocence now was necessary as an opiate for her +conscience. She was doing what her conscience could only pardon on +the plea of her extreme innocence. The sisters, and the fashion at +Brookfield, permitted the assumption, and exaggerated it willingly. It +chanced, however, that Adela had reason to feel discontented. It was a +breach of implied contract, she thought, that Cornelia should, as she +did only yesterday, tell her that she had seen Edward Buxley in the +woods, and that she was of opinion that the air of the woods was bad +for her. Not to see would have been the sisterly obligation, in Adela's +idea--especially when seeing embraced things that no loving sister +should believe. + +Bear in mind that we are sentimentalists. The eye is our servant, not +our master; and--so are the senses generally. We are not bound to accept +more than we choose from them. Thus we obtain delicacy; and thus, as you +will perceive, our civilization, by the aid of the sentimentalists, has +achieved an effective varnish. There, certainly, to the vulgar, mind a +tail is visible. The outrageous philosopher declares vehemently that no +beast of the field or the forest would own such a tail. (His meaning is, +that he discerns the sign of the animal slinking under the garb of the +stately polished creature. I have all the difficulty in the world to +keep him back and let me pursue my course.) These philosophers are a +bad-mannered body. Either in opposition, or in the support of them, +I maintain simply that the blinking sentimentalist helps to make +civilization what it is, and civilization has a great deal of merit. + +"Did you not leave your parasol behind you at Ipley?" said Adela, as she +met Cornelia in the afternoon. + +Cornelia coloured. Her pride supported her, and she violated fine shades +painfully in her response: "Mr. Barrett left me there. Is that your +meaning?" + +Adela was too much shocked to note the courageousness of the reply. +"Well! if all we do is to come into broad daylight!" was her horrified +mental ejaculation. + +The veil of life was about to be lifted for these ladies. They found +Arabella in her room, crying like an unchastened school-girl; and their +first idea was one of intense condemnation--fresh offences on the part +of Mrs. Chump being conjectured. Little by little Arabella sobbed out +what she had heard that day from Mr. Powys. + +After the first stupor Adela proposed to go to her father instantly, and +then suggested that they should all go. She continued talking in random +suggestions, and with singular heat, as if she conceived that the +sensibility of her sisters required to be aroused. By moving and acting, +it seemed to her that the prospect of a vast misery might be expunged, +and that she might escape from showing any likeness to Arabella's +shamefully-discoloured face. It was impossible for her to realize grief +in her own bosom. She walked the room in a nervous tremour, shedding a +note of sympathy to one sister and to the other. At last Arabella got +fuller command of her voice. When she had related that her father's +positive wish, furthered by the doctor's special injunction to obey it +scrupulously, was that they were not to go to him in London, and not to +breathe a word of his illness, but to remain at Brookfield entertaining +friends, Adela stamped her foot, saying that it was more than human +nature could bear. + +"If we go," said Arabella, "the London doctor assured Mr. Powys that he +would not answer for papa's life." + +"But, good heavens! are we papa's enemies? And why may Mr. Powys see him +if we, his daughters, cannot? Tell me how Mr. Powys met him and knew of +it! Tell me--I am bewildered. I feel that we are cheated in some way. +Oh! tell me something clear." + +Arabella said calmingly: "Emilia is with papa. She wrote to Mr. Powys. +Whether she did rightly or not we have not now to inquire. I believe +that she thought it right." + +"Entertain friends!" interjected Adela. "But papa cannot possibly mean +that we are to go through--to--the fete on Besworth Lawn, Bella! It's in +two days from this dreadful day." + +"Papa has mentioned it to Mr. Powys; he desires us not to postpone it. +We..." Arabella's voice broke piteously. + +"Oh! but this is torture!" cried Adela, with a deplorable vision of +the looking-glass rising before her, as she felt the tears sting her +eyelids. "This cannot be! No father would...not loving us as dear papa +does! To be quiet! to sit and be gay! to flaunt at a fete! Oh, mercy! +mercy! Tell me--he left us quite well--no one could have guessed. I +remember he looked at me from the carriage window. Tell me--it must be +some moral shock--what do you attribute it to? Wilfrid cannot be the +guilty one. We have been only too compliant to papa's wishes about that +woman. Tell me what you think it can be!" + +A voice said, "Money!" + +Which of the sisters had spoken Adela did not know. It was bitter enough +that one could be brought to utter the thing, even if her ideas were so +base as to suspect it. The tears now came dancing over her under-lids +like triumphing imps. "Money!" echoed through her again and again. +Curiously, too, she had no occasion to ask how it was that money might +be supposed to have operated on her father's health. Unable to realize +to herself the image of her father lying ill and suffering, but just +sufficiently touched by what she could conceive of his situation, the +bare whisper of money came like a foul insult to overwhelm her in floods +of liquid self-love. She wept with that last anguish of a woman who +is compelled to weep, but is incapable of finding any enjoyment in her +tears. Cornelia and Arabella caught her hands; she was the youngest, and +had been their pet. It gratified them that Adela should show a deep +and keen feeling. Adela did not check herself from a demonstration that +enabled her to look broadly, as it were, on her own tenderness of heart. +Following many outbursts, she asked, "And the illness--what is it? not +its cause--itself!" + +A voice said, "Paralysis!" + +Adela's tears stopped. She gazed on both faces, trying with open mouth +to form the word. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +Flying from port to port to effect an exchange of stewards (the +endless occupation of a yacht proprietor), Wilfrid had no tidings from +Brookfield. The night before the gathering on Besworth Lawn he went to +London and dined at his Club--a place where youths may drink largely of +the milk of this world's wisdom. Wilfrid's romantic sentiment was always +corrected by an hour at his Club. After dinner he strolled to a not +perfectly regulated theatre, in company with a brother officer; and when +they had done duty before the scenes for a space of time, they lounged +behind to disenchant themselves, in obedience to that precocious +cynicism which is the young man's extra-Luxury. The first figure that +caught Wilfrid's attention there was Mr. Pericles, in a white overcoat, +stretched along a sofa--his eyelids being down, though his eyes were +evidently vigilant beneath. A titter of ladies present told of some +recent interesting commotion. + +"Only a row between that rich Greek fellow who gave the supper, and +Marion," a vivacious dame explained to Wilfrid. "She's in one of her +jealous fits; she'd be jealous if her poodle-dog went on its hind-legs +to anybody else." + +"Poodle, by Jove!" said Wilfrid. "Pericles himself looks like an +elongated poodle shaved up to his moustache. Look at him. And he plays +the tyrant, does he?" + +"Oh! she stands that. Some of those absurd women like it, I think. She's +fussing about another girl." + +"You wouldn't?" + +"What man's worth it?" + +"But, would you?" + +"It depends upon the 'him,' monsieur. + +"Depends upon his being very handsome!" + +"And good." + +"And rich?" + +"No!" the lady fired up. "There you don't know us." + +The colloquy became almost tender, until she said, "Isn't this gassy, +and stifling? I confess I do like a carriage, and Richmond on a Sunday. +And then, with two daughters, you know! But what I complain of is her +folly in being in love, or something like it, with a rich fellow." + +"Love the poor devil--manage the rich, you mean." + +"Yes, of course; that makes them both happy." + +"It's a method of being charitable to two." + +A rather fleshy fairy now entered, and walked straight up to the +looking-glass to examine her paint--pronouncedly turning her back to the +sofa, where Mr. Pericles still lay at provoking full length. Her panting +was ominous of a further explosion. + +"Innocent child!" in the mockery of a foreign accent, commenced it; +while Wilfrid thought how unjustly and coldly critically he had accused +his little Emilia of vulgarity, now that he had this feminine display of +it swarming about him. + +"Innocent child, indeed! Be as deaf as you like, you shall hear. And +sofas are not made for men's dirty boots, in this country. I believe +they're all pigs abroad--the men; and the women--cats! Oh! don't open +your eyes--don't speak, pray. You're certain I must go when the bell +rings. You're waiting for that, you unmanly dog!" + +"A pig," Mr. Pericles here ventured to remind her, murmuring as one in a +dream. + +"A peeg!" she retorted mildly, somewhat mollified by her apparent +success. But Mr. Pericles had relapsed into his exasperating composure. +The breath of a deliberate and undeserved peacefulness continued to be +drawn in by his nostrils. + +At the accustomed warning there was an ostentatious rustle of retiring +dresses; whereat Mr. Pericles chose to proclaim himself awake. The +astute fairy-fury immediately stepped before him. + +"Now you can't go on pretending sleep. You shall hear, and everybody +shall hear. You know you're a villain! You're a wolf seeking..." + +Mr. Pericles waved his hand, and she was caught by the wrist and told +that the scene awaited her. + +"Let them wait!" she shouted, and, sharpening her cry as she was dragged +off, "Dare to take that girl to Italy! I know what that means, with you. +An Englishman might mean right--but you! You think you've been dealing +with a fool! Why, I can stop this in a minute, and I will. It's you're +the fool! Why, I know her father: he plays in the orchestra. I know her +name--Belloni!" + +Up sprang the Greek like a galvanized corpse; while two violent jerks +from the man hauling her out rattled the laugh of triumph which burst +from her. At the same time Wilfrid strove forward, with the frown of +one still bent listening, and he and Pericles were face to face. The +eyebrows of the latter shot up in a lively arch. He made a motion +toward the ceremony of 'shake-hands;' but, perceiving no correspondent +overture, grinned, "It is warm--ha?" + +"You feel the heat? Step outside a minute," said Wilfrid. + +"Oh, no!" Mr. Pericles looked pleasantly sagacious. "Ze draught--a +cold." + +"Will you come?" pursued Wilfrid. + +"Many sanks!" + +Wilfrid's hand was rising. At this juncture his brother officer slipped +out some languid words in his ear, indicative of his astonishment that +he should be championing a termagant, and horror at the idea of such +a thing being publicly imagined, tamed Wilfrid quickly. He recovered +himself with his usual cleverness. Seeing the signs of hostility vanish, +Mr. Pericles said, "You are on a search for your father? You have +found him? Hom! I should say a maladie of nerfs will come to him. A pin +fall--he start! A storm at night--he is out dancing among his ships of +venture! Not a bid of corage!--which is bad. If you shall find Mr. Pole +for to-morrow on ze lawn, vary glad." + +With a smile compounded of sniffing dog and Parisian obsequiousness, +Mr. Pericles passed, thinking "He has not got her:" for such was his +deduction if he saw that a man could flush for a woman's name. + +Wilfrid stood like a machine with a thousand wheels in revolt. +Sensations pricked at ideas, and immediately left them to account for +their existence as they best could. The ideas committed suicide without +a second's consideration. He felt the great gurgling sea in which they +were drowned heave and throb. Then came a fresh set, that poised better +on the slack-rope of his understanding. By degrees, a buried dread in +his brain threw off its shroud. The thought that there was something +wrong with his father stood clearly over him, to be swallowed at once in +the less tangible belief that a harm had come to Emilia--not was coming, +but had come. Passion thinks wilfully when it thinks at all. That night +he lay in a deep anguish, revolving the means by which he might help and +protect her. There seemed no way open, save by making her his own; and +did he belong to himself? What bound him to Lady Charlotte? She was not +lovely or loving. He had not even kissed her hand; yet she held him in a +chain. + +The two men composing most of us at the outset of actual life began +their deadly wrestle within him, both having become awakened. If they +wait for circumstance, that steady fire will fuse them into one, who is +commonly a person of some strength; but throttling is the custom between +them, and we are used to see men of murdered halves. These men have +what they fought for: they are unaware of any guilt that may be charged +against them, though they know that they do not embrace Life; and so it +is that we have vague discontent too universal. Change, O Lawgiver! +the length of our minority, and let it not end till this battle is +thoroughly fought out in approving daylight. The period of our duality +should be one as irresponsible in your eyes as that of our infancy. +Is he we call a young man an individual--who is a pair of alternately +kicking scales? Is he educated, when he dreams not that he is divided? +He has drunk Latin like a vital air, and can quote what he remembers +of Homer; but how has he been fortified for this tremendous conflict of +opening manhood, which is to our life here what is the landing of a soul +to the life to come? + +Meantime, it is a bad business when the double-man goes about kneeling +at the feet of more than one lady. Society (to give that institution its +due) permits him to seek partial invulnerability by dipping himself in a +dirty Styx, which corrects, as we hear said, the adolescent tendency to +folly. Wilfrid's sentiment had served him (well or ill as it may be), +by keeping him from a headlong plunge in the protecting river; and his +folly was unchastened. He did not even contemplate an escape from the +net at Emilia's expense. The idea came. The idea will come to a young +man in such a difficulty. "My mistress! My glorious stolen fruit! My +dark angel of love!" He deserves a little credit for seeing that Emilia +never could be his mistress, in the debased sense of the term. Union +with her meant life-long union, he knew. Ultimate mental subjection +he may also have seen in it, unconsciously. For, hazy thoughts of that +nature may mix with the belief that an alliance with her degrades us, in +this curious hotch-potch of emotions known to the world as youthful man. +A wife superior to her husband makes him ridiculous wilfully, if the +wretch is to be laughed at; but a mistress thus ill-matched cannot fail +to cast the absurdest light on her monstrous dwarf-custodian. Wilfrid +had the sagacity to perceive, and the keen apprehension of ridicule to +shrink from, the picture. Besides, he was beginning to love Emilia. +His struggle now was to pluck his passion from his heart; and such was +already his plight that he saw no other way of attempting it than by +taking horse and riding furiously in the direction of Besworth. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +"I am curious to see what you will make of this gathering. I can cook a +small company myself. It requires the powers of a giantess to mix a body +of people in the open air; and all that is said of commanders of armies +shall be said of you, if you succeed." + +This was Lady Gosstre's encouragement to the fair presidents of the fete +on Besworth Lawn. There had been a time when they would have cried out +internally: "We will do it, fail who may." That fallow hour was over. +Their sole thought was to get through the day. A little feverish impulse +of rivalry with her great pattern may have moved Arabella; but the +pressure of grief and dread, and the contrast between her actions and +feelings, forcibly restrained a vain display. As a consequence, she did +her duty better, and won applause from the great lady's moveable court +on eminences of the ground. + +"These girls are clever," she said to Lady Charlotte. "They don't bustle +too much. They don't make too distinct a difference of tone with the +different sets. I shall propose Miss Pole as secretary to our Pin and +Needle Relief Society." + +"Do," was the reply. "There is also the Polish Dance Committee; and, if +she has any energy left, she might be treasurer to the Ladies' General +Revolution Ball." + +"That is an association with which I am not acquainted," said Lady +Gosstre, directing her eye-glass on the field. "Here comes young Pole. +He's gallant, they tell me, and handsome: he studies us too obviously. +That's a mistake to be corrected, Charlotte. One doesn't like to see a +pair of eyes measuring us against a preconception quelconque. Now, there +is our Ionian Am...but you have corrected me, Merthyr:--host, if you +please. But, see! What is the man doing? Is he smitten with madness?" + +Mr. Pericles had made a furious dash at the band in the centre of the +lawn, scattered their music, and knocked over the stands. When his +gesticulations had been observed for some moments, Freshfield Sumner +said: "He has the look of a plucked hen, who remembers that she once +clapped wings, and tries to recover the practice." + +"Very good," said Lady Gosstre. She was not one who could be unkind to +the professional wit. "And the music-leaves go for feathers. What has +the band done to displease him? I thought the playing was good." + +"The instruments appear to have received a dismissal," said Lady +Charlotte. "I suppose this is a clearing of the stage for coming alarums +and excursions. Behold! the 'female element' is agitated. There are--can +you reckon at this distance, Merthyr?--twelve, fourteen of my sex +entreating him in the best tragic fashion. Can he continue stern?" + +"They seem to be as violent as the women who tore up Orpheus," said Lady +Gosstre. + +Tracy Runningbrook shrieked, in a paroxysm, "Splendid!" from his couch +on the sward, and immediately ran off with the idea, bodily. + +"Have I stumbled anywhere?" Lady Gosstre leaned to Mr. Powys. + +He replied with a satiric sententiousness that told Lady Gosstre what +she wanted to know. + +"This is the isolated case where a little knowledge is truly dangerous," +said Lady Gosstre. "I prohibit girls from any allusion to the classics +until they have taken their degree and are warranted not to open the +wrong doors. On the whole, don't you think, Merthyr, it's better for +women to avoid that pool?" + +"And accept what the noble creature chooses to bring to us in buckets," +added Lady Charlotte. "What is your opinion, Georgey? I forget: Merthyr +has thought you worthy of instruction." + +"Merthyr taught me in camp," said Georgians, looking at her brother--her +face showing peace and that confirmed calm delight habitual to it. "We +found that there are times in war when you can do nothing, and you are +feverish to be employed. Then, if you can bring your mind to study, you +are sure to learn quickly. I liked nothing better than Latin Grammar." + +"Studying Latin Grammar to the tune of great guns must be a new +sensation," Freshfield Sumner observed. + +"The pleasure is in getting rid of all sensation," said she. "I mean you +command it without at all crushing your excitement. You cannot feel a +fuller happiness than when you look back on those hours: at least, I +speak for myself." + +"So," said Lady Gosstre, "Georgey did not waste her time after all, +Charlotte." + +What the latter thought was: "She could not handle a sword or fire a +pistol. Would I have consented to be mere camp-baggage?" Yet no woman +admired Georgiana Ford so much. Disappointment vitiated many of Lady +Charlotte's first impulses; and not until strong antagonism had thrown +her upon her generosity could she do justice to the finer natures about +her. There was full life in her veins; and she was hearing the thirty +fatal bells that should be music to a woman, if melancholy music; and +she had not lived. Time, that sounded in her ears, as it kindled no +past, spoke of no future. She was in unceasing rivalry with all of her +sex who had a passion, or a fixed affection, or even an employment. A +sense that she was wronged by her fate haunted this lady. Rivalry on +behalf of a man she would have held mean--she would have plucked it from +her bosom at once. She was simply envious of those who in the face of +death could say, "I have lived." Pride, and the absence of any power of +self-inspection, kept her blind to her disease. No recollection gave her +boy save of the hours in the hunting-field. There she led gallantly; but +it was not because of leading that she exulted. There the quick blood +struck on her brain like wine, and she seemed for a time to have some +one among the crowns of life. An object--who cared how small?--was +ahead: a poor old fox trying to save his brush; and Charlotte would have +it if the master of cunning did not beat her. "It's my natural thirst +for blood," she said. She did not laugh as she thought now and then that +the old red brush dragging over grey dews toward a yellow yolk in the +curdled winter-morning sky, was the single thing that could make her +heart throb. + +Brookfield was supported in its trial by the discomfiture of the +Tinleys. These girls, with their brother, had evidently plotted to 'draw +out' Mrs. Chump. They had asked concerning her, severally; and hearing +that she had not returned from town, had each shown a blank face, or had +been doubtful of the next syllable. Of Wilfrid, Emilia, and Mr. Pole, +question and answer were interchanged. "Wilfrid will come in a few +minutes. Miss Belloni, you know, is preparing for Italy. Papa? Papa, +I really do fear will not be able to join us." Such was Brookfield's +concerted form of reply. The use of it, together with the gaiety of +dancing blood, gave Adela (who believed that she ought to be weeping, +and could have wept easily) strange twitches of what I would ask +permission to call the juvenile 'shrug-philosophy.' As thus: 'What +creatures we are, but life is so!' And again, 'Is not merriment dreadful +when a duty!' She was as miserable as she could be but not knowing that +youth furnished a plea available, the girl was ashamed of being cheerful +at all. Edward Burley's sketch of Mr. Pericles scattering his band, sent +her into muffled screams of laughter; for which she did internal penance +so bitter that, for her to be able to go on at all, the shrug-philosophy +was positively necessary; Mr. Pericles himself saw the sketch, and +remarked critically, "It is zat I have more hair:" following which, he +tapped the signal for an overture to commence, and at the first stroke +took a run, with his elbows clapping exactly as the shrewd hand of +Edward had drawn him. + +"See him--zat fellow," Mr. Pericles said to Laura Tinley, pointing to +the leader. "See him pose a maestro! zat leads zis tintamarre. He is a +hum-a-bug!" + +Laura did the vocal caricaturing, when she had gathered plenty of matter +of this kind. Altogether, as host, Mr. Pericles accomplished his duty in +furnishing amusement. + +Late in the afternoon, Sir Twickenham Pryme and Wilfrid arrived in +company. The baronet went straight to Cornelia. Wilfrid beckoned to +Adela, from whom he heard of his father's illness at the hotel in town, +and the conditions imposed on them. He nodded, said lightly, "Where's +Emilia?" and nodded again to the answer, "With papa," and then stopped +as he was walking off to one of the groups. "After all, it won't do for +us to listen to the whims of an invalid. I'm going back. You needn't say +you've seen me." + +"We have the doctor's most imperative injunction, dearest," pleaded +Adela, deceived for a moment. "Papa's illness is mental chiefly. He +is able to rise and will be here very soon, if he is not in any way +crossed. For heaven's sake, command yourself as we have done--painfully +indeed! Besides, you have been seen." + +"Has she--?" Wilfrid began; and toned an additional carelessness. "She +writes, of course?" + +"No, not once; and we are angry with her. It looks like ingratitude, or +stupidity. She can write." + +"People might say that we are not behaving well," returned Wilfrid, +repeating that he must go to town. But now Edward Burley camp running +with a message from the aristocratic heights, and thither Wilfrid walked +captive--saying in Adela's ear, "Don't be angry with her." + +Adela thought, very justly, "I shall, if you've been making a fool of +her, naughty boy!" + +Wilfrid saluted the ladies, and made his bow of introduction to +Georgiana Ford, at whom he looked twice, to confirm an impression that +she was the perfect contrast to Emilia; and for this reason he chose not +to look at her again. Lady Charlotte dropped him a quick recognition. + +If Brookfield could have thrown the burden from its mind, the day was +one to feel a pride in. Three Circles were present, and Brookfield +denominated two that it had passed through, and patronized all--from +Lady Gosstre (aristocracy) to the Tinley set (lucre), and from these to +the representative Sumner girls (cultivated poverty). There were also +intellectual, scientific, and Art circles to deal with; music, pleasant +to hear, albeit condemned by Mr. Pericles; agreeable chatter, courtly +flirtation and homage, and no dread of the defection of the letter H +from their family. + +"I feel more and more convinced," said Adela, meeting Arabella, "that we +can have really no cause for alarm; otherwise papa would not have been +cruel to his children." Arabella kindly reserved her opinion. "So let +us try and be happy," continued Adela, determining to be encouraged by +silence. With that she went on tiptoe gracefully and blew a kiss to +her sister's lips. Running to Captain Gambier, she said, "Do you really +enjoy this?" + +"Charming," replied the ever-affable gentleman. "If I might only venture +to say what makes it so infinitely!" + +Much to her immediate chagrin at missing a direct compliment, which +would have had to be parried, and might have led to 'vistas,' the too +sprightly young lady found herself running on: "It's as nice as sin, +without the knowledge that you are sinning." + +"Oh! do you think that part of it disagreeable?" said the captain. + +"I think the heat terrific:" she retrieved her ground. + +"Coquet et coquette," muttered Lady Charlotte, observing them from a +distance; and wondered whether her sex might be strongly represented in +this encounter. + +It was not in the best taste, nor was it perhaps good policy (if I may +quote the Tinley set), for the ladies of Brookfield to subscribe openly +to the right of certain people present to be exclusive. Arabella would +have answered: "Lady Gosstre and her party cannot associate with you to +your mutual pleasure and profit; and do you therefore blame her for not +attempting what would fail ludicrously?" With herself, as she was not +sorry to show, Lady Gosstre could associate. Cornelia had given up work +to become a part of the Court. Adela made flying excursions over the +lawn. Laura Tinley had the field below and Mr. Pericles to herself. +That anxious gentleman consulted his watch from time to time, as if he +expected the birth of an event. + +Lady Gosstre grew presently aware that there was more acrimony in +Freshfield Sumner's replies to Sir Twickenham (whom he had seduced into +a political argument) than the professional wit need employ; and as +Mr. Powys's talk was getting so attractive that the Court had become +crowded, she gave a hint to Georgiana and Lady Charlotte, prompt +lieutenants, whose retirement broke the circle. + +"I never shall understand how it was done," Adela said subsequently. +It is hoped that everybody sees the importance of understanding such +points. + +She happened to be standing alone when a messenger came up to her and +placed a letter in her hand, addressed to her sister Cornelia. Adela +walked slowly up to the heights. She knew Mr. Barrett's handwriting. +"Good heavens!"--her thought may be translated out of Fine Shades--"does +C. really in her heart feel so blind to our situation that she can go +on playing still?" When she reached the group it was to hear Mr. Powys +speaking of Mr. Barrett. Cornelia was very pale, and stood wretchedly in +contrast among the faces. Adela beckoned her to step aside. "Here is a +letter," she said: "there's no postmark. What has been the talk of that +man?" + +"Do you mean of Mr. Barrett?" Cornelia replied:--"that his father was a +baronet, and a madman, who has just disinherited him." + +"Just?" cried Adela. She thought of the title. Cornelia had passed on. +A bizarre story of Mr. Barrett's father was related to Adela by Sir +Twickenham. She grappled it with her sense, and so got nothing out of +it. "Disinherited him because he wrote to his father, who was dying, +to say that he had gained a livelihood by playing the organ! He had a +hatred of music? It's incomprehensible! You know, Sir Twickenham, the +interest we take in Mr. Barrett." The masked anguish of Cornelia's voice +hung in her ears. She felt that it was now possible Cornelia might throw +over the rich for the penniless baronet, and absolutely for an instant +she thought nakedly, "The former ought not to be lost to the family." +Thick clouds obscured the vision. Lady Gosstre had once told her that +the point of Sir Twickenham's private character was his susceptibility +to ridicule. Her ladyship had at the same time complimented his +discernment in conjunction with Cornelia. "Yes," Adela now thought; "but +if my sister shows that she is not so wise as she looks!" Cornelia's +figure disappeared under the foliage bordering Besworth Lawn. + +As usual, Arabella had all the practical labour--a fact that was noticed +from the observant heights. "One sees mere de famille written on that +young woman," was the eulogy she won from Lady Gosstre. How much +would the great dame have marvelled to behold the ambition beneath the +bustling surface! Arabella was feverish, and Freshfield Sumner reported +brilliant things uttered by her. He became after a time her attendant, +aide, and occasional wit-foil. They had some sharp exchanges: and he +could not but reflect on the pleasure her keen zest of appreciation gave +him compared with Cornelia's grave smile, which had often kindled in +him profane doubts of the positive brightness, or rapidity of her +intelligence. + +"Besworth at sunset! What a glorious picture to have living before you +every day!" said Lady Charlotte to her companion. + +Wilfrid flushed. She read his look; and said, when they were out of +hearing, "What a place for old people to sit here near the end of +life! The idea of it makes one almost forgive the necessity for getting +old--doesn't it? Tracy Runningbrook might make a poem about silver heads +and sunset--something, you know! Very easy cantering then--no hunting! +I suppose one wouldn't have even a desire to go fast--a sort of +cock-horse, just as we began with. The stables, let me tell you, are too +near the scullery. One is bound to devise measures for the protection of +the morals of the household." + +While she was speaking, Wilfrid's thoughts ran: "My time has come to +strike for liberty." + +This too she perceived, and was prepared for him. + +He said: "Lady Charlotte, I feel that I must tell you...I fear that +I have been calculating rather more hopefully..." Here the pitfall of +sentiment yawned before him on a sudden. "I mean" (he struggled to avoid +it, but was at the brink in the next sentence) "--I mean, dear lady, +that I had hopes...Besworth pleased you... to offer you this..." + +"With yourself?" she relieved him. A different manner in a protesting +male would have charmed her better. She excused him, knowing what stood +in his way. + +"That I scarcely dared to hope," said Wilfrid, bewildered to see the +loose chain he had striven to cast off gather tightly round him. + +"You do hope it?" + +"I have." + +"You have hoped that I..." (she was not insolent by nature, and +corrected the form) "--to marry me?" + +"Yes, Lady Charlotte, I--I had that hope...if I could have offered +this place--Besworth. I find that my father will never buy it; I have +misunderstood him." + +He fixed his eyes on her, expecting a cool, or an ironical, rejoinder to +end the colloquy;--after which, fair freedom! She answered, "We may do +very well without it." + +Wilfrid was not equal to a start and the trick of rapturous +astonishment. He heard the words like the shooting of dungeon-bolts, +thinking, "Oh, heaven! if at the first I had only told the woman I do +not love her!" But that sentimental lead had ruined him. And, on second +thoughts, how could he have spoken thus to the point, when they had +never previously dealt in anything save sentimental implications? The +folly was in his speaking at all. The game was now in Lady Charlotte's +hands. + +Adela, in another part of the field, had released herself by a +consummate use of the same weapon Wilfrid had so clumsily handled. Her +object was to put an end to the absurd and compromising sighs of Edward +Buxley; and she did so with the amiable contempt of a pupil dismissing +a first instructor in an art "We saw from the beginning it could not +be, Edward." The enamoured caricaturist vainly protested that he had not +seen it from the beginning, and did not now. He recalled to her that she +had said he was 'her first.' She admitted the truth, with eyes +dwelling on him, until a ringlet got displaced. Her first. To be that, +sentimental man would perish in the fires. To have been that will +sometimes console him, even when he has lived to see what a thing he was +who caught the budding fancy. The unhappy caricaturist groaned between +triumph as a leader, and anguish at the prospect of a possible host of +successors. King in that pure bosom, the thought would come--King of a +mighty line, mayhap! And sentimental man, awakened to this disastrous +view of things, endures shrewder pangs of rivalry in the contemplation +of his usurping posterity than if, as do they, he looked forward to a +tricked, perfumed, pommaded whipster, pirouetting like any Pierrot--the +enviable image of the one who realized her first dream, and to whom +specially missioned angels first opened the golden gates of her heart. + +"I have learnt to see, Edward, that you do not honour me with a love +you have diverted from one worthier than I am;" and in answer to the +question whether, though having to abjure her love, she loved him: "No, +no; it is my Arabella I love. I love, I will love, no one but her"--with +sundry caressing ejaculations that spring a thirst for kisses, and a +tender 'putting of the case,' now and then. + +So much for Adela's part in the conflict. Edward was unaware that the +secret of her mastering him was, that she was now talking common-sense +in the tone of sentiment. He, on the contrary, talked sentiment in the +tone of common-sense. Of course he was beaten: and O, you young lovers, +when you hear the dear lips setting what you call the world's harsh +language to this music, know that an hour has struck for you! It is a +fatal sound to hear. Edward believed that his pleading had produced an +effect when he saw Miss Adela's bosom rise as with a weight on it. The +burden of her thoughts was--"How big and heavy Edward's eyes look when +he is not amusing!" To get rid of him she said, as with an impassioned +coldness, "Go." Her figure, repeating this under closed eyelids, was +mysterious, potent. When he exclaimed, "Then I will go," her eyelids +lifted wide: she shut them instantly, showing at the same time a slight +tightening-in of the upper lip. You beheld a creature tied to the stake +of Duty. + +But she was exceedingly youthful, and had not reckoned upon man's being +a live machine, possessing impulses of his own. A violent seizure of +her waist, and enough of kisses to make up the sum popularly known as +a 'shower,' stopped her performance. She struggled, and muttered +passionately to be released. "We are seen," she hazarded. At the +repetition, Edward, accustomed to dread the warning, let her go and +fled. Turning hurriedly about, Adela found that she had spoken truth +unawares, and never wished so much that she had lied. Sir Twickenham +Pryme came forward to her, with his usual stiff courtly step. + +"If you could have been a little--a little earlier," she murmured, with +an unflurried face, laying a trembling hand in his; and thus shielded +herself from a suspicion. + +"Could I know that I was wanted?" He pressed her hand. + +"I only know that I wish I had not left your side," said she--adding, +"Though you must have thought me what, if I were a man, you Members of +Parliament would call 'a bore,' for asking perpetual questions." + +"Nay, an apposite interrogation is the guarantee of a proper interest in +the subject," said the baronet. + +Cornelia was very soon reverted to. + +"Her intellect is contemplative," said Adela, exhibiting marvellous +mental composure. "She would lose her unerring judgement in active life. +She cannot weigh things in her mind rapidly. She is safe if her course +of action is clear." + +Sir Twickenham reserved his opinion of the truth of this. "I wonder +whether she can forgive those who offend or insult her, easily?" + +A singular pleasure warmed Adela's veins. Her cheeks kindling, +she replied, giving him her full face. "No; if they are worthy of +punishment. But--" and now he watched a downcast profile--"one must have +some forgiveness for fools." + +"Indeed, you speak like charity out of the windows of wisdom," said the +baronet. + +"Do you not require in Parliament to be tolerant at times?" Adela +pursued. + +He admitted it, and to her outcry of "Oh, that noble public life!" +smiled deprecatingly--"My dear young lady, if you only knew the burden +it brings!" + +"It brings its burden," said Adela, correcting, with a most proper +instinct, another enthusiastic burst. "At the same time the honour +is above the load. Am I talking too romantically? You are at least +occupied." + +"Nine-tenths of us to no very good purpose," the baronet appended. + +She rejoined: "If it were but a fraction, the good done would survive." + +"And be more honourable to do, perhaps," he ejaculated. "The consolation +should be great." + +"And is somehow small," said she; and they laughed softly. + +At this stage, Adela was 'an exceedingly interesting young person' +in Sir Twickenham's mental register. He tried her on politics +and sociology. She kept her ears open, and followed his lead +carefully--venturing here and there to indicate an opinion, and +suggesting dissent in a pained interrogation. Finally, "I confess," +she said, "I understand much less than I am willing to think; and so I +console myself with the thought that, after all, the drawing-room, and +the... the kitchen?--well, an educated 'female' must serve her term +there, if she would be anything better than a mere ornament, even in the +highest walks of life--I mean the household is our sphere. From that we +mount to companionship--if we can." + +Amazement of Sir Twickenham, on finding his own thought printed, as it +were, on the air before him by these pretty lips! + +The conversation progressed, until Adela, by chance, turned her eyes +up a cross pathway and perceived her sister Cornelia standing with Mr. +Barrett under a beech. The man certainly held one of her hands pressed +to his heart; and her attitude struck a doubt whether his other hand was +disengaged or her waist free. Adela walked nervously on without looking +at the baronet; she knew by his voice presently that his eyes had also +witnessed the sight. "Two in a day," she thought; "what will he imagine +us to be!" The baronet was thinking: "For your sister exposed, you +display more agitation than for yourself insulted." + +Adela found Arabella in so fresh a mood that she was sure good news had +been heard. It proved that Mrs. Chump had sent a few lines in a letter +carried by Braintop, to this effect: "My dears all! I found your father +on his back in bed, and he discharged me out of the room; and the sight +of me put him on his legs, and you will soon see him. Be civil to Mr. +Braintop, who is a faithful young man, of great merit, and show your +gratitude to--Martha Chump." + +Braintop confirmed the words of the letter: and then Adela said--"You +will do us the favour to stay and amuse yourself here. To-night there +will be a bed at Brookfield." + +"What will he do?" Arabella whispered. + +"Associate with the Tinleys," returned Adela. + +In accordance with the sentiment here half concealed, Brookfield soon +showed that it had risen from the hour of depression when it had simply +done its duty. Arabella formed an opposition-Court to the one in which +she had studied; but Mr. Pericles defeated her by constantly sending to +her for advice concerning the economies of the feast. Nevertheless, +she exhibited good pretensions to social queendom, both personal and +practical; and if Freshfield Sumner, instead of his crisp waspish +comments on people and things, had seconded her by keeping up a +two-minutes' flow of talk from time to time, she might have thought that +Lady Gosstre was only luckier than herself--not better endowed. + +Below, the Tinleys and their set surrounded Mr. Pericles--prompting him, +as was seen, to send up continual messages. One, to wit, "Is there to +be dancing to-night?" being answered, "Now, if you please," provoked +sarcastic cheering; and Laura ran up to say, "How kind of you! We +appreciate it. Continue to dispense blessings on poor mortals." + +"By the way, though" (Freshfield took his line from the calm closed lips +of his mistress), "poor mortals are not in the habit of climbing Olympus +to ask favours." + +"I perceived no barrier," quoth Laura. + +"Audacity never does." + +"Pray, how am I to be punished?" + +Freshfield paused for a potent stroke. "Not like Semele. She saw the +God:--you never will!" + +While Laura was hanging on the horrid edge between a false laugh and +a starting blush, Arabella said: "That visual excommunication has been +pronounced years ago, Freshfield." + +"Ah! then he hasn't changed his name in heaven?" Laura touched her thus +for the familiar use of the gentle-man's Christian name. + +"You must not imagine that very great changes are demanded of those who +can be admitted." + +"I really find it hotter than below," said Laura, flying. + +Arabella's sharp eyes discerned a movement in Lady Gosstre's circle; and +she at once went over to her, and entreated the great lady, who set her +off so well, not to go. The sunset fronted Besworth Lawn; the last light +of day was danced down to inspiriting music: and now Arabella sent word +for Besworth hall-doors and windows to be opened; and on the +company beginning to disperse, there beckoned promise of a brilliant +supper-table. + +"Admirable!" said Lady Gosstre, and the encomium was general among the +crowd surrounding Arabella; for up to this point the feasting had been +delicate, and something like plain hunger prevailed. Indeed, Arabella +had heard remarks of a bad nature, which she traced to the Tinley set, +and bore with, to meet her present reward. Making light of her triumph, +she encouraged Freshfield to start a wit-contest, and took part in +it herself, with the gaiety of an unoccupied mind. Her sisters had +aforetime more than once challenged her supremacy, but they bowed to it +now; and Adela especially did when, after a ringing hit to Freshfield +(which the Tinleys might also take to their own bosoms), she said in +an undertone, "What is there between C. and--?" Surprised by this +astonishing vigilance and power of thinking below the surface while +she performed above it, Adela incautiously turned her face toward the +meditative baronet, and was humiliated by Arabella's mute indication +of contempt for her coming answer. This march across the lawn to the +lighted windows of Besworth was the culmination of Brookfield's joy, and +the crown for which it had striven; though for how short a term it was +to be worn was little known. Was it not a very queenly sphere of Fine +Shades and Nice Feelings that Brookfield had realized? + +In Arabella's conscience lay a certain reproach of herself for +permitting the "vice of a lower circle" to cling to her--viz., she had +still betrayed a stupid hostility to the Tinleys: she had rejoiced to +see them incapable of mixing with any but their own set, and thus be +stamped publicly for what they were. She had struggled to repress it, +and yet, continually, her wits were in revolt against her judgement. +Perhaps one reason was that Albert Tinley had haunted her steps at an +early part of the day; and Albert--a sickening City young man, "full +of insolence, and half eyeglass," according to Freshfield--had once +ventured to propose for her. + +The idea that the Tinleys strove to catch at her skirts made Arabella +spiteful. Up to the threshold of Besworth, Freshfield, Mr. Powys, Tracy, +and Arabella kept the wheel of a dazzling run of small-talk, throwing +intermittent sparks. Laura Tinley would press up, apparently to hear, +but in reality (as all who knew her could see) with the object of being +a rival representative of her sex in this illustrious rare encounter +of divine intelligences. "You are anxious to know?" said Arabella, +hesitatingly. + +"To know, dear?" echoed Laura. + +"There was, I presumed, something you did not hear." Arabella was half +ashamed of the rudeness to which her antagonism to Laura's vulgarity +forced her. + +"Oh! I hear everything," Laura assured her. + +"Indeed!" said Arabella. "By the way, who conducts you?" (Laura was on +Edward Burley's arm.) "Oh! will you go to"--such and such an end of the +table. "And if, Lady Gosstre, I may beg of you to do me the service +to go there also," was added aloud; and lower, but quite audibly, "Mr. +Pericles will have music, so there can be no talking." This, with the +soupcon of a demi-shrug; "You will not suffer much" being implied. +Laura said to herself, "I am not a fool." A moment after, Arabella was +admitting in her own mind, as well as Fine Shades could interpret it, +that she was. On entering the dining-hall, she beheld two figures seated +at the point whither Laura was led by her partner. These were Mrs. Chump +and Mr. Pole, with champagne glasses in their hands. Arabella was pushed +on by the inexorable crowd of hungry people behind. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +Despite the pouring in of the flood of guests about the tables, Mrs. +Chump and Mr. Pole sat apparently unconcerned in their places, and, as +if to show their absolute indifference to observation and opinion, went +through the ceremony of drinking to one another, upon which they nodded +and chuckled: a suspicious eye had the option of divining that they +used the shelter of the table cloth for an interchange of squeezes. +This would have been further strengthened by Mrs. Chump's arresting +exclamation, "Pole! Company!" Mr. Pole looked up. He recognized Lady +Gosstre, and made an attempt, in his usual brisk style, to salute +her. Mrs. Champ drew him back. "Nothin' but his legs, my lady," she +whispered. "There's nothin' sets 'm up like champagne, my dears!" she +called out to the Three of Brookfield. + +Those ladies were now in the hall, gazing, as mildly as humanity would +allow, at their common destiny, thus startlingly displayed. There was +no doubt in the bosom of either one of them that exposure was to follow +this prelude. Mental resignation was not even demanded of them--merely +physical. They did not seek comfort in an interchange of glances, but +dropped their eyes, and masked their sight as they best could. Caesar +assassinated did a similar thing. + +"My dears!" pursued Mrs. Chump, in Irish exaggerated by wine, "I've +found 'm for ye! And if ye'd seen 'm this afternoon--the little peaky, +shaky fellow that he was! and a doctor, too, feelin' his pulse. 'Is +ut slow,' says I, 'doctor?' and draws a bottle of champagne. He could +hardly stand before his first glass. 'Pon my hon'r, my lady, ye naver +saw s'ch a change in a mortal bein.--Pole, didn't ye go 'ha, ha!' now, +and seem to be nut-cracking with your fingers? He did; and if ye aver +saw an astonished doctor! 'Why,' says I, 'doctor, ye think ut's maguc! +Why, where's the secret? drink with 'm, to be sure! And you go and do +that, my lord doctor, my dear Mr. Doctor! Do ut all round, and your +patients 'll bless your feet." Why, isn't cheerful society and champagne +the vary best of medicines, if onnly the blood 'll go of itself a +little? The fault's in his legs; he's all right at top!--if he'd smooth +his hair a bit. + +Checking her tongue, Mrs. Chump performed this service lightly for him, +in the midst of his muttered comments on her Irish. + +The fact was manifest to the whole assembly, that they had indeed been +drinking champagne to some purpose. + +Wilfrid stepped up to two of his sisters, warning them hurriedly not +to go to their father: Adela he arrested with a look, but she burst the +restraint to fulfil a child's duty. She ran up gracefully, and taking +her father's hand, murmured a caressing "Dear papa!" + +"There--all right--quite right--quite well," Mr. Pole repeated. "Glad to +see you all: go away." + +He tried to look kindly out of the nervous fit into which a word, in a +significant tone, from one of his daughters had instantly plunged him. +Mrs. Chump admonished her: "Will ye undo all that I've been doin' this +blessed day?" + +"Glad you haven't missed the day altogether, sir," Wilfrid greeted his +father in an offhand way. + +"Ah, my boy!" went the old man, returning him what was meant for a bluff +nod. + +Lady Charlotte gave Wilfrid an open look. It meant: "If you can act like +that, and know as much as I know, you are worth more than I reckoned." +He talked evenly and simply, and appeared on the surface as composed as +any of the guests present. Nor was he visibly disturbed when Mrs. Chump, +catching his eye, addressed him aloud:-- + +"Ye'd have been more grateful to me to have brought little Belloni as +well now, I know, Mr. Wilfrid. But I was just obliged to leave her at +the hotel; for Pole can't endure her. He 'bomunates the sight of 'r. If +ye aver saw a dog burnt by the fire, Pole's second to 'm, if onnly ye +speak that garl's name." + +The head of a strange musician, belonging to the band stationed outside, +was thrust through one of the window apertures. Mr. Pericles beckoned +him imperiously to retire, and perform. He objected, and an altercation +in bad English diverted the company. It was changed to Italian. "Mia +figlia," seized Wilfrid's ear. Mr. Pericles bellowed, "Allegro." Two +minutes after Braintop felt a touch on his shoulder; and Wilfrid, +speaking in a tone of friend to friend, begged him to go to town by +the last train and remove Miss Belloni to an hotel, which he named. +"Certainly," said Braintop; "but if I meet her father...?" Wilfrid +summoned champagne for him; whereupon Mrs. Chump cried out, "Ye're kind +to wait upon the young man, Mr. Wilfrid; and that Mr. Braintop's an +invalu'ble young man. And what do ye want with the hotel, when we've +left it, Mr. Paricles?" + +The Greek raised his head from Mr. Pole, shrugging at her openly. He and +Wilfrid then measured eyes a moment. "Some champagne togezer?" said Mr. +Pericles. "With all my heart," was the reply; and their glasses were +filled, and they bowed, and drank. Wilfrid took his seat, drew forth his +pocket-book; and while talking affably to Lady Charlotte beside him, +and affecting once or twice to ponder over her remarks, or to meditate a +fitting answer, wrote on a slip of paper under the table:-- + + "Mine! my angel! You will see me to-morrow. + + "YOUR LOVER." + +This, being inserted in an envelope, with zig-zag letters of address +to form Emilia's name, he contrived to pass to Braintop's hands, and +resumed his conversation with Lady Charlotte, who said, when there was +nothing left to discover, "But what is it you concoct down there?" "I!" +cried Wilfrid, lifting his hands, and so betraying himself after the +fashion of the very innocent. She despised any reading of acts not on +the surface, and nodded to the explanation he gave--to wit: "By the way, +do you mean--have you noticed my habit of touching my fingers' ends as I +talk? I count them backwards and forwards." + +"Shows nervousness," said Lady Charlotte; "you are a boy!" + +"Exceedingly a boy." + +"Now I put a finger on his vanity," said she; and thought indeed that +she had played on him. + +"Mr. Pole," (Lady Gosstre addressed that gentleman,) "I must hope +that you will leave this dining-hall as it is; there is nothing in the +neighbourhood to match it!" + +"Delightful!" interposed Laura Tinley; "but is it settled?" + +Mr. Pole leaned forward to her ladyship; and suddenly catching the +sense of her words, "Ah, why not?" he said, and reached his hand to +some champagne, which he raised to his mouth, but drank nothing of. +Reflection appeared to tell him that his safety lay in drinking, and he +drained the glass at a gulp. Mrs. Chump had it filled immediately, and +explained to a wondering neighbour, "It's that that keeps 'm on his +legs." + +"We shall envy you immensely," said Laura Tinley to Arabella; who +replied, "I assure you that no decision has been come to." + +"Ah, you want to surprise us with cards on a sudden from Besworth!" + +"That is not the surprise I have in store," returned Arabella sedately. + +"Then you have a surprise? Do tell me." + +"How true to her sex is the lady who seeks to turn 'what it is' into +'what it isn't!'" said Freshfield, trusty lieutenant. + +"I think a little peeping makes surprises sweeter; I'm weak enough to +think that," Lady Charlotte threw in. + +"That is so true!" exclaimed Laura. + +"Well; and a secret shared is a fact uncommonly well aired--that is +also true. But, remember, you do not desire the surprise; you are a +destroying force to it;" and Freshfield bowed. + +"Curiosity!" sighed some one, relieving Freshfield from a sense of the +guilt of heaviness. + +"I am a Pandora," Laura smilingly said. + +"To whom?" Tracy Runningbrook's shout was heard. + +"With champagne in the heads of the men, and classics in the heads of +the women, we shall come; to something," remarked Lady Gosstre half to +herself and Georgiana near her. + +An observer of Mr. Pole might have seen that he was fretting at a +restriction on his tongue. Occasionally he would sit forward erect in +his chair, shake his coat-collar, frown, and sound a preparatory 'hem; +but it ended in his rubbing his hair away on the back of his head. Mrs. +Chump, who was herself perceiving new virtues in champagne with every +glass, took the movements as indicative of a companion exploration of +the spiritual resources of this vintage. She no longer called for +it, but lifted a majestic finger (a Siddons or tenth-Muse finger, as +Freshfield named it) behind the row of heads; upon which champagne +speedily bubbled in the glasses. Laughter at the performance had fairly +set in. Arabella glanced nervously round for Mr. Pericles, who looked +at his watch and spread the fingers of one hand open thrice--an act that +telegraphed fifteen minutes. In fifteen minutes an opera troupe, with +three famous chiefs and a renowned prima-donna were to arrive. The fact +was known solely to Arabella and Mr. Pericles. It was the Surprise of +the evening. But within fifteen minutes, what might not happen, with +heads going at champagne-pace? + +Arabella proposed to Freshfield to rise. "Don't the ladies go first?" +the wit turned sensualist stammered; and incurred that worse than +frown, a cold look of half-comprehension, which reduces indefinitely +the proportions of the object gazed at. There were probably a dozen very +young men in the room waiting to rise with their partners at a +signal for dancing; and these could not be calculated upon to take an +initiative, or follow one--as ladies, poor slaves! will do when the +electric hostess rustles. The men present were non-conductors. Arabella +knew that she could carry off the women, but such a proceeding +would leave her father at the mercy of the wine; and, moreover, the +probability was that Mrs. Chump would remain by him, and, sole in a +company of males, explode her sex with ridicule, Brookfield in the +bargain. So Arabella, under a prophetic sense of evil, waited; and this +came of it. Mr. Pole patted Mrs. Chump's hand publicly. In spite of the +steady hum of small-talk--in spite of Freshfield Sumner's circulation of +a crisp anecdote--in spite of Lady Gosstre's kind effort to stop him by +engaging him in conversation, Mr. Pole forced on for a speech. He said +that he had not been the thing lately. It might be his legs, as his dear +friend Martha, on his right, insisted; but he had felt it in his head, +though as strong as any man present. + +"Harrk at 'm!" cried Mrs. Chump, letting her eyes roll fondly away from +him into her glass. + +"Business, my lady!" Mr. Pole resumed. "Ah, you don't know what that +is. We've got to work hard to keep our heads up equal with you. We don't +swim with corks. And my old friend, Ralph Tinley--he sells iron, and has +got a mine. That's simple. But, my God, ma'am, when a man has his eye on +the Indian Ocean, and the Atlantic, and the Baltic, and the Black Sea, +and half-a-dozen colonies at once, he--you--" + +"Well, it's a precious big eye he's got, Pole," Mrs. Chump came to his +relief. + +"--he don't know whether he's a ruined dog, or a man to hold up his head +in any company." + +"Oh, Lord, Pole, if ye're going to talk of beggary!" Mrs. Chump threw +up her hands. "My lady, I naver could abide the name of 't. I'm a kind +heart, ye know, but I can't bear a ragged friend. I hate 'm! He seems to +give me a pinch." + +Having uttered this, it struck her that it was of a kind to convulse +Mrs. Lupin, for whose seizures she could never accurately account; and +looking round, she perceived, sure enough, that little forlorn body +agitated, with a handkerchief to her mouth. + +"As to Besworth," Mr. Pole had continued, "I might buy twenty Besworths. +If--if the cut shows the right card. If--" Sweat started on his +forehead, and he lifted his eyebrows, blinking. "But none!" (he smote +the table) "none can say I haven't been a good father! I've educated +my girls to marry the best the land can show. I bought a house to marry +them out of; it was their own idea." He caught Arabella's eyes. "I +thought so, at all events; for why should I have paid the money if I +hadn't thought so? when then--yes, that sum..." (was he choking!) "saved +me!--saved me!" + +A piteous desperate outburst marked the last words, that seemed to +struggle from a tightened cord. + +"Not that there's anything the matter," he resumed, with a very brisk +wink. "I'm quite sound: heart's sound, lungs sound, stomach regular. I +can see, and smell, and hear. Sense of touch is rather lumpy at times, I +know; but the doctor says it's nothing--nothing at all; and I should +be all right, if I didn't feel that I was always wearing a great leaden +hat." + +"My gracious, Pole, if ye're not talkin' pos'tuv nonsense!" exclaimed +Mrs. Chump. + +"Well, my dear Martha" (Mr. Pole turned to her argumentatively), "how do +you account for my legs? I feel it at top. I declare I've felt the edge +of the brim half a yard out. Now, my lady, a man in that state--sound +and strong as the youngest--but I mean a vexed man--worried man bothered +man, he doesn't want a woman to look after him;--I mean, he does--he +does! And why won't young girls--oh! they might, they might--see that? +And when she's no extra expense, but brings him--helps him to face--and +no one has said the world's a jolly world so often as I have. It's +jolly!" He groaned. + +Lady Charlotte saw Wilfrid gazing at one spot on the table without a +change of countenance. She murmured to him, "What hits you hits me." + +Mr. Pole had recommenced, on the evident instigation of Laura Tinley, +though Lady Gosstre and Freshfield Sumner had both sought to check the +current. In Chump's lifetime, it appeared, he (Mr. Pole) had thought of +Mrs. Chump with a respectful ardour; and albeit she was no longer what +she was when Chump brought her over, a blooming Irish girl--"her hair +exactly as now, the black curl half over the cheek, and a bright laugh, +and a white neck, fat round arms, and--" + +A shout of "Oh, Pole! ye seem to be undressin' of me before them all," +diverted the neighbours of the Beauty. + +"Who would not like such praise?" Laura Tinley, to keep alive the +subject, laid herself open to Freshfield by a remark. + +"At the same personal peril?" he inquired smoothly. + +Mr. Pericles stood up, crying "Enfin!" as the doors were flung open, and +a great Signora of operatic fame entered the hall, supported on one side +by a charming gentleman (a tenore), who shared her fame and more with +her. In the rear were two working baritones; and behind them, outside, +Italian heads might be discerned. + +The names of the Queen of Song and Prince of Singers flew round the +room; and Laura uttered words of real gratitude, for the delightful +surprise, to Arabella, as the latter turned from her welcome of them. +"She is exactly like Emilia--young," was uttered. The thought went with +a pang through Wilfrid's breast. When the Signora was asked if she would +sup or take champagne, and she replied that she would sup by-and-by, +and drink porter now, the likeness to Emilia was established among the +Poles. + +Meantime the unhappy Braintop received an indication that he must +depart. As he left the hall he brushed past the chief-clerk of his +office, who soon appeared bowing and elbowing among the guests. "What +a substitute for me!" thought Braintop bitterly; and in the belief that +this old clerk would certainly go back that night, and might undertake +his commission, he lingered near the band on the verge of the lawn. A +touch at his elbow startled him. In the half-light he discerned Emilia. +"Don't say you have seen me," were her first words. But when he gave +her the letter, she drew him aside, and read it by the aid of lighted +matches held in Braintop's hat drawing in her fervent breath to a +"Yes! yes!" at the close, while she pressed the letter to her throat. +Presently the singing began in an upper room, that had shortly before +flashed with sudden light. Braintop entreated Emilia to go in, and then +rejoiced that she had refused. They stood in a clear night-air, under +a yellowing crescent, listening to the voice of an imperial woman. +Impressed as he was, Braintop had, nevertheless, leisure to look out of +his vinous mist and notice, with some misgiving, a parading light at +a certain distance--apparently the light of cigarettes being freshly +kindled. He was too much elated to feel alarm: but "If her father were +to catch me again," he thought. And with Emilia on his arm! + +Mr. Pole's chief-clerk had brought discomposing news. He was received by +an outburst of "No business, Payne; I won't have business!" + +Turning to Mr. Pericles, the old clerk said: "I came rather for you, +sir, not expecting to find Mr. Pole." He was told by Mr. Pericles to +speak what he had to say: and then the guests, who had fallen slightly +back, heard a cavernous murmur; and some, whose eyes where on Mr. Pole, +observed a sharp conflict of white and red in his face. + +"There, there, there, there!" went Mr. Pole. "'Hem, Pericles!" His +handkerchief was drawn out; and he became engaged, as it were, in wiping +a moisture from the palm of his hand. "Pericles, have you got pluck now? +Eh?" + +Mr. Pericles had leaned down his ear for the whole of the news. + +"Ten sossand," he said, smoothing his waistbands, and then inserting his +thumbs into the pits of his waistcoat. "Also a chance of forty. Let us +not lose time for ze music." + +He walked away. + +"I don't believe in that d---d coolness, ma'am," said Mr. Pole, wheeling +round on Freshfield Sumner. "It's put on. That wears a mask; he's one +of those confounded humbugs who wear a mask. Ten-forty! and all for a +shrug; it's not human. I tell you, he does that just out of a sort of +jealousy to rival me as an Englishman. Because I'm cool, he must be. Do +you think a mother doesn't feel the loss of her children?" + +"I fear that I must grow petticoats before I can answer purely feminine +questions," said Freshfield. + +"Of course--of course," assented Mr. Pole; "and a man feels like a +mother to his money. For the moment, he does--for the moment. What are +those fellows--Spartans--women who cut off their breasts--?" + +Freshfield suggested, "Amazons." + +"No; they were women," Mr. Pole corrected him; "and if anything hurt +them, they never cried out. That's what--ha!--our friend Pericles is +trying at. He's a fool. He won't sleep to-night. He'll lie till he gets +cold in the feet, and then tuck them up like a Dutch doll, and perspire +cold till his heart gives a bound, and he'll jump up and think his last +hour's come. Wind on the stomach, do ye call it? I say it's wearing a +mask!" + +The bird's-eye of the little merchant shot decisive meaning. + +Two young ladies had run from his neighbourhood, making as if to lift +hands to ears. The sight of them brought Mrs. Chump to his side. "Pole! +Pole!" she said, "is there annything wrong?" + +"Wrong, Martha?" He bent to her, attempting Irish--"Arrah, now! and +mustn't all be right if you're here?" + +She smote his cheek fondly. "Ye're not a bit of an Irish-man, ye deer +little fella." + +"Come along and dance," cried he imperiously. + +"A pretty spectacle--two fandangoes, when there's singing, ye silly!" +Mrs. Chump led him upstairs, chafing one of his hands, and remarking +loudly on the wonder it was to see his knees constantly 'give' as he +walked. + +On the dark lawn, pressing Wilfrid's written words for fiery nourishment +to her heart, Emilia listened to the singing. + +"Why do people make a noise, and not be satisfied to feel?" she said +angrily to Braintop, as a great clapping of hands followed a divine +aria. Her ideas on this point would have been different in the room. + +By degrees a tender delirium took hold of her sense; and then a subtle +emotion--which was partly prompted by dim rivalry with the voice that +seemed to be speaking so richly to the man she loved--set her bosom +rising and falling. She translated it to herself thus: "What a joy it +will be to him to hear me now!" And in a pause she sang clear out-- + + "Prima d'Italia amica;" + +and hung on the last note, to be sure that she would be heard by him. + +Braintop saw the cigarette dash into sparks on the grass. At the +same moment a snarl of critical vituperation told Emilia that she had +offended taste and her father. He shouted her name, and, striding up +to her, stumbled over Braintop, whom he caught with one hand, while the +other fell firmly on Emilia. + +"'Amica--amica-a-a,'" he burlesqued her stress of the luckless +note--lowing it at her, and telling her in triumphant Italian that she +was found at last. Braintop, after a short struggle, and an effort at +speech, which was loosely shaken in his mouth, heard that he stood +a prisoner. "Eh! you have not lost your cheeks," insulted his better +acquaintance with English slang. + +Alternately in this queer tongue and in Italian the pair of victims were +addressed. + +Emilia knew her father's temper. He had a habit of dallying with an evil +passion till it boiled over and possessed him. Believing Braintop to +be in danger of harm, she beckoned to some of the faces crowding the +windows; but the movement was not seen, as none of the circumstances +were at all understood. Wilfrid, however, knew well who had sung those +three bars, concerning which the 'Prima donna' questioned Mr. Pericles, +and would not be put off by hearing that it was a startled jackdaw, +or an owl, and an ole nightingale. The Greek rubbed his hands. "Now to +recommence," he said; "and we shall not notice a jackdaw again." His eye +went sideways watchfully at Wilfrid. "You like zat piece of opera?" + +"Immensely," said Wilfrid, half bowing to the Signora--to whom, as to +Majesty, Mr. Pericles introduced him, and fixed him. + +"Now! To seats!" + +Mr. Pericles' mandates was being obeyed, when a cry of "Wilfrid!" from +Emilia below, raised a flutter. + +Mr. Pole had been dozing in his chair. He rose at the cry, looking hard, +with a mechanical jerk of the neck, at two or three successive faces, +and calling, "Somebody--somebody" to take his outstretched hand +trembling in a paroxysm of nervous terror. + +Hearing his son's name again, but more faintly, he raised his voice +for Martha. "Don't let that girl come near me! I--I can't get on with +foreign girls!" + +His eyes went among the curious faces surrounding him. "Wilfrid!" he +shouted. To the second summons, "Sir" was replied, in the silence. +Neither saw the other as they spoke. + +"Are you going out to her, Wilfrid?" + +"Someone called me, sir." + +"He's got the cunning of hell," said Mr. Pole, baffled by his own +agitation. + +"Oh! don't talk o' that place," moaned Mrs. Chump. + +"Stop!" cried the old man. "Are you going? Stop! you shan't do mischief. +I mean--there--stop! Don't go. You're not to go. I say you're not to go +out." + +Emphasis and gesticulations gave their weight to the plain words. + +But rage at the upset of all sentiments and dignity that day made +Wilfrid reckless, and he now felt his love to be all he had. He heard +his Emilia being dragged away to misery--perhaps to be sold to shame. +Maddened, he was incapable of understanding his father's state, or +caring for what the world thought. His sisters gathered near him, but +were voiceless. + +"Is he gone?" Mr. Pole burst forward. "You're gone, sir? Wilfrid, have +you gone to that girl? I ask you whether...(there's one shot at my +heart," he added in a swift undertone to one of the heads near him, +while he caught at his breast with both hands). "Wilfrid, will you stay +here?" + +"For God's sake, go to him, Wilfrid," murmured Adela. "I can't." + +"Because if you do--if you don't--I mean, if you go..." The old man +gasped at the undertone. "Now I have got it in my throat." + +A quick physical fear caught hold of him. In a moment his voice changed +to entreaty. "I beg you won't go, my dear boy. Wilfrid, I tell you, +don't go. Because, you wouldn't act like a d--d--I'm not angry; but it +is like acting like a--Here's company, Wilfrid; come to me, my boy; do +come here. You mayn't ha--have your poor old father long, now he's got +you u--up in the world. I mean accidents, for I'm sound enough; only a +little nervous from brain--Is he gone?" + +Wilfrid was then leaving the room. + +Lady Gosstre had been speaking to Mr. Powys. She was about to say a +word to Lady Charlotte, when the latter walked to the doorway, and. In a +manner that smote his heart with a spasm of gratitude, said; "Don't heed +these people. He will bring on a fit if you don't stop. His nerves are +out, and the wine they have given him... Go to him: I will go to Emilia, +and do as much for her as you could." + +Wilfrid reached his father in time to see him stagger back into the arms +of Mrs. Chump, whose supplication was for the female stimulant known as +'something.' + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +On reaching home that night, Arabella surprised herself thinking, in the +midst of her anguish: "Whatever is said of us, it cannot be said that +there is a house where the servants have been better cared for." And +this reflection continued to burn with an astounding brilliancy through +all the revolutions of a mind contemplating the dread of a fallen +fortune, the fact of a public exposure, and what was to her an ambition +destroyed. Adela had no such thoughts. "I have been walking on a plank," +she gasped from time to time, as she gave startled glances into the +abyss of poverty, and hurried to her bedchamber--a faint whisper of +self-condemnation in her ears at the 'I' being foremost. The sisters +were too proud to touch upon one another's misery in complaints, or to +be common by holding debate on it. They had not once let their eyes meet +at Besworth, as the Tinleys wonderingly noticed. They said good night +to their papa, who was well enough to reply, adding peremptorily, +"Downstairs at half-past eight,"--an intimation that he would be at the +break-fast table and read prayers as usual. Inexperienced in nervous +disease, they were now filled with the idea that he was possibly +acting--a notion that had never been kindled in them before; or, +otherwise, how came these rapid, almost instantaneous, recoveries? + +Cornelia alone sounded near the keynote. Since the night that she had +met him in the passage, and the next morning when Mrs. Chump had raised +the hubbub about her loss, Cornelia's thoughts had been troubled by some +haunting spectral relationship with money. It had helped to make her +reckless in granting interviews to Purcell Barrett. "If we are poor, I +am free;" and that she might then give herself to whomever she pleased, +was her logical deduction. The exposure at Besworth, and the partial +confirmation of her suspicions, were not without their secret comfort +to her. In the carriage, coming home, Wilfrid had touched her hand +by chance, and pressed it with good heart. She went to the library, +imagining that if he wished to see her he would appear, and by exposing +his own weakness learn to excuse hers. She was right in her guess; +Wilfrid came. He came sauntering into the room with "Ah! you here?" +Cornelia consented to play into his hypocrisy. "Yes, I generally think +better here," she replied. + +"And what has this pretty head got to do with thinking?" + +"Not much, I suppose, my lord," she replied, affecting nobly to +acknowledge the weakness of the female creature. + +Wilfrid kissed her with an unaccustomed fervour. This delicate mumming +was to his taste. It was yet more so when she spoke playfully to him of +his going soon to be a married man. He could answer to that in a smiling +negative, playing round the question, until she perceived that he really +desired to have his feeling for the odd dark girl who had recently shot +across their horizon touched, if only it were led to by the muffled ways +of innuendo. + +As a dog, that cannot ask you verbally to scratch his head, but wishes +it, will again and again thrust his head into your hand, petitioning +mutely that affection may divine him, so:--but we deal with a +sentimentalist, and the simile is too gross to be exact. For no +sooner was Wilfrid's head scratched, than the operation stuck him as +humiliating; in other words, the moment he felt his sisters fingers +in the ticklish part, he flew to another theme, then returned, and so +backward and forward--mystifying her not slightly, and making her think, +"Then he has no heart." She by no means intended to encourage love for +Emilia, but she hoped for his sake, that the sentiment he had indulged +was sincere. By-and-by he said, that though he had no particular +affection for Lady Charlotte, he should probably marry her. + +"Without loving her, Wilfrid? It is unfair to her; it is unfair to +yourself." + +Wilfrid understood perfectly who it was for whom she pleaded thus +vehemently. He let her continue: and when she had dwelt on the horrors +of marriages without love, and the supreme duty of espousing one who has +our 'heart's loyalty,' he said, "You may be right. A man must not play +with a girl. He must consider that he owes a duty to one who is more +dependent;"--implying that a woman s duty was distinct and different in +such a case. + +Cornelia could not rise and plead for her sex. Had she pushed forth the +'woman,' she must have stood for her. + +This is the game of Fine Shades and Nice Feelings, under whose empire +you see this family, and from which they are to emerge considerably +shorn, but purified--examples of One present passage of our +civilization. + +"At least, dear, if" (Cornelia desperately breathed the name) "--if +Emilia were forced to give her hand...loving...you...we should be right +in pitying her?" + +The snare was almost too palpable. Wilfrid fell into it, from the +simple passion that the name inspired; and now his hand tightened. "Poor +child!" he moaned. + +She praised his kind heart: "You cannot be unjust and harsh, I know +that. You could not see her--me--any of us miserable. Women feel, dear. +Ah! I need not tell you that. Their tears are not the witnesses. When +they do not weep, but the hot drops stream inwardly:--and, oh! Wilfrid, +let this never happen to me. I shall not disgrace you, because I intend +to see you happy with...with her, whoever she is; and I would leave +you happy. But I should not survive it. I can look on Death. A marriage +without love is dishonour." + +Sentiment enjoys its splendid moods. Wilfrid having had the figure of +his beloved given to him under nuptial benediction, cloaked, even as +he wished it to be, could afford now to commiserate his sister, and +he admired her at the same time. "I'll take care you are not made a +sacrifice of when the event is fixed," he said--as if it had never been +in contemplation. + +"Oh! I have not known happiness for years, till this hour," Cornelia +whispered to him bashfully; and set him wondering why she should be +happy when she had nothing but his sanction to reject a man. + +On the other hand, her problem was to gain lost ground by letting him +know that, of the pair, it was not she who would marry beneath her +station. She tried it mentally in various ways. In the end she thought +it best to give him this positive assurance. "No," he rejoined, "a woman +never should." There was no admission of equality to be got out of him, +so she kissed him. Of their father's health a few words were said--of +Emilia nothing further. She saw that Wilfrid's mind was resolved upon +some part to play, but shrank from asking his confidence, lest facts +should be laid bare. + +At the breakfast-table Mr. Pole was a little late. He wore some of his +false air of briskness on a hazy face, and read prayers--drawing breath +between each sentence and rubbing his forehead; but the work was done by +a man in ordinary health, if you chose to think so, as Mrs. Chump did. +She made favourable remarks on his appearance, begging the ladies to +corroborate her. They were silent. + +"Now take a chop, Pole, and show your appetite," she said. "'A +Chump-chop, my love?' my little man used to invite me of a mornin'; and +that was the onnly joke he had, so it's worth rememberin'." + +A chop was placed before Mr. Pole. He turned it in his plate, and +wonderingly called to mind that he had once enjoyed chops. At a loss to +account for the distressing change, he exclaimed to himself, "Chump! I +wish the woman wouldn't thrust her husband between one's teeth. An egg!" + +The chop was displaced for an egg, which he tapped until Mrs. Chump +cried out, "Oh! if ye're not like a postman, Pole; and d'ye think ye've +got a letter for a chick inside there?" + +This allusion scared Mr. Pole from the egg. He quitted the table, +muttering, "Business! business!" and went to the library. + +When he was gone Mrs. Chump gave a cry to know where Braintop was, +but, forgetting him immediately, turned to the ladies and ejaculated, +"Broth'm. It's just brothin' he wants. Broth, I say, for anny man that +won't eat his chop or his egg. And, my dears, now, what do ye say to +me for bringing him home to ye? I expect to be thanked, I do; and then +we'll broth Pole together, till he's lusty as a prize-ox, and capers +like a monkey." + +Wretched woman! that could not see the ruin she had inflicted--that +could not imagine how her bitter breath cut against those sensitive +skins! During a short pause little Mrs. Lupin trotted to the door, and +shot through it, in a paroxysm. + +Then Wilfrid's voice was heard. He leaned against a corner of the +window, and spoke without directly looking at Mrs. Chump; so that she +was some time in getting to understand the preliminary, "Madam, you +must leave this house." But presently her chin dropped; and after feeble +efforts to interpose an exclamation, she sat quiet--overcome by the +deliberate gravity of his manner, and motioning despairingly with her +head, to relieve the swarm of unborn figure-less ideas suggested by his +passing speech. The ladies were ranged like tribunal shapes. It could +not be said of souls so afflicted that they felt pleasure in the scene; +but to assist in the administration of a rigorous justice is sweet to +them that are smarting. They scarcely approved his naked statement +of things when he came to Mrs. Chump's particular aspiration in the +household--viz., to take a station and the dignity of their name. The +effect he produced satisfied them that the measure was correct. Her back +gave a sharp bend, as if an eternal support had snapped. "Oh! ye hit +hard," she moaned. + +"I tell you kindly that we (who, you will acknowledge, must count for +something here) do not sanction any change that revolutionizes our +domestic relations," said Wilfrid; while Mrs. Chump heaved and rolled +on the swell of the big words like an overladen boat. "You have only to +understand so much, and this--that if we resist it, as we do, you, +by continuing to contemplate it, are provoking a contest which will +probably injure neither you nor me, but will be death to ham in his +present condition." + +Mrs. Chump was heard to mumble that she alone knew the secret of +restoring him to health, and that he was rendered peaky and poky only by +people supposing him so. + +"An astonishin' thing!" she burst out. "If I kiss 'm and say 'Poor +Pole!' he's poor Pole on the spot. And, if onnly I--" + +But Wilfrid's stern voice flowed over her. "Listen, madam, and let this +be finished between us. You know well that when a man has children, he +may wish to call another woman wife--a woman not their mother; but the +main question is, will his children consent to let her take that place? +We are of one mind, and will allow no one--no one--to assume that +position. And now, there's an end. We'll talk like friends. I have only +spoken in that tone that you might clearly comprehend me on an important +point. I know you entertain a true regard for my father, and it is that +belief which makes me--" + +"Friends!" cried Mrs. Chump, getting courage from the savour of cajolery +in these words. "Friends! Oh, ye fox! ye fox!" + +And now commenced a curious duett. Wilfrid merely wished to terminate +his sentence; Mrs. Chump wantonly sought to prevent him. Each was +burdened with serious matter; but they might have struck hands here, +had not this petty accidental opposition interposed. --"Makes me feel +confident..." Wilfrid resumed. + +"And Pole's promos, Mr. Wilfrud; ye're forgettin' that." + +"Confident, ma'am." + +"He was the first to be soft." + +"I say, ma'am, for his sake--" + +"An' it's for his sake. And weak as he is on 's legs, poor fells; which +marr'ge 'll cure, bein' a certain rem'dy." + +"Mrs. Chump! I beg you to listen." + +"Mr. Wilfrud! and I can see too, and it's three weeks and ye kissed +little Belloni in the passage, outside this vary door, and out in the +garden." + +The blow was entirely unexpected, and took Wilfrid's breath, so that he +was not ready for his turn in this singular piece of harmony. + +"Ye did!" Mrs. Chump rejoiced to behold how her chance spark kindled +flame in his cheeks. "It's pos'tuv ye did. And ye're the best blusher +of the two, my dear; and no shame to ye, though it is a garl's business. +That little Belloni takes to 't like milk; but you--" + +Wilfrid strode up to her, saying imperiously, "I tell you to listen!" + +She succumbed at once to a show of physical ascendency, murmuring, +"It's sure he was seen kissin' of her twice, and mayhap more; and hearty +smacks of the lips, too--likin' it." + +The ladies rewarded Wilfrid for his service to their cause by absolutely +hearing nothing--a feat women can be capable of. + +Wilfrid, however, was angered by the absurdity of the charge and the +scene, and also by the profane touch on Emilia's name. + +"I must tell you, ma'am, that for my father's sake I must desire you to +quit this--you will see the advisability of quitting this house for a +time." + +"Pole's promus! Pole's promus!" Mrs. Chump wailed again. + +"Will you give me your assurance now that you will go, to be our guest +again subsequently?" + +"In writin' and in words, Mr. Wilfrud!" + +"Answer me, ma'am." + +"I will, Mr. Wilfrud; and Mr. Braintop's a witness, knowin' the nature +of an oath. There naver was a more sacrud promus. Says Pole, 'Martha--'" + +Wilfrid changed his tactics. Sitting down by her side, he said: "I am +sure you have an affection for my father." + +"I'm the most lovin' woman, my dear! If it wasn't for my vartue I don't +know what'd become o' me. Ye could ask Chump, if he wasn't in his grave, +poor fella! I'll be cryin' like a squeezed orr'nge presently. What with +Chump and Pole, two's too many for a melanch'ly woman." + +"You have an affection for my father I know, ma'am. Now, see! he's ill. +If you press him to do what we certainly resist, you endanger his life." + +Mrs. Chump started back from the man who bewildered her brain without +stifling her sense of justice. She knew that there was another way of +putting the case, whereby she was not stuck in the criminal box; but the +knowledge groped about blindly, and finding herself there, Mrs. Chump +lost all idea of a counter-accusation, and resorted to wriggling and +cajolery. "Ah! ye look sweeter when ye're kissin' us, Mr. Wilfrud; and I +wonder where the little Belloni has got to!" + +"Tell me, that there maybe no misunderstanding." Wilfrid again tried to +fix her. + +"A rosy rosy fresh bit of a mouth she's got! and pouts ut!" + +Wilfrid took her hand. "Answer me." + +"'Deed, and I'm modust, Mr. Wilfrud." + +"You do him the honour to be very fond of him. I am to believe that? +Then you must consent to leave us at the end of a week. You abandon +any idea of an impossible ceremony, and of us you make friends and not +enemies." + +At the concluding word, Mrs. Chump was no longer sustained by her +excursive fancy. She broke down, and wrung her hands, crying, "En'mies! +Pole's children my en'mies! Oh, Lord! that I should live to hear ut! and +Pole, that knew me a bride first blushin'!" + +She wailed and wept so that the ladies exchanged compassionate looks, +and Arabella rose to press her hand and diminish her distress. Wilfrid +saw that his work would be undone in a moment, and waved her to her +seat. The action was perceived by Mrs. Chump. + +"Oh, Mr. Wilfrud! my dear! and a soldier! and you that was my favourut! +If half my 'ffection for Pole wasn't the seein' of you so big and +handsome! And all my ideas to get ye marrud, avery one so snug in a +corner, with a neat little lawful ring on your fingers! And you that go +to keep me a lone woman, frightened of the darrk! I'm an awful coward, +that's the truth. And ye know that marr'ge is a holy thing! and it's +such a beaut'ful cer'mony! Oh, Mr. Wilfrud!--Lieuten't y' are! and I'd +have bought ye a captain, and made the hearts o' your sisters jump with +bonnuts and gowns and jools. Oh, Pole! Pole! why did you keep me so +short o' cash? It's been the roon of me! What did I care for your +brooches and your gifts? I wanted the good will of your daughters, +sir--your son, Pole!" + +Mrs. Chump stopped her flow of tears. "Dear hearts!" she addressed +her silent judges, in mysterious guttural tones, "is it becas ye think +there's a bit of a fear of...?" + +The ladies repressed a violent inclination to huddle together, like +cattle from the blowing East. + +"I assure ye, 'taint poss'ble," pursued Mrs. Chump. "Why do I 'gree +to marry Pole? Just this, now. We sit chirpin' and chatterin' of times +that's gone, and live twice over, Pole and myself; and I'm used to 'm; +and I was soft to 'm when he was a merry buck, and you cradle lumber +in ideas, mind! for my vartue was always un'mpeach'ble. That's just the +reason. So, come, and let's all be friends, with money in our pockuts; +yell find me as much of a garl as army of ye. And, there! my weak time's +after my Porrt, my dears. So, now ye know when I can't be refusin' a +thing to ye. Are we friends?--say! are we?" + +Even if the ladies had been disposed to pardon her vulgarity, they could +not by any effort summon a charitable sentiment toward one of their sex +who degraded it by a public petition for a husband. This was not to be +excused; and, moreover, they entertained the sentimentalist's abhorrence +of the second marriage of a woman; regarding the act as simply +execrable; being treason to the ideal of the sex--treason to Woman's +purity--treason to the mysterious sentiment which places Woman so high, +that when a woman slips there is no help for it but she must be smashed. + +Seeing that each looked as implacable as the other, Mrs. Chump called +plaintively, "Arr'bella!" + +The lady spoke:-- + +"We are willing to be your friends, Mrs. Chump, and we request that you +will consider us in that light. We simply do not consent to give you a +name...." + +"But, we'll do without the name, my dear," interposed Mrs. Chump. "Ye'll +call me plain Martha, which is almost mother, and not a bit of 't. +There--Cornelia, my love! what do ye say?" + +"I can only reiterate my sister's words, which demand no elucidation," +replied Cornelia. + +The forlorn woman turned her lap towards the youngest. + +"Ad'la! ye sweet little cajoler! And don't use great cartwheels o' words +that leave a body crushed." + +Adela was suffering from a tendency to levity, which she knew to be +unbefitting the occasion, and likely to defeat its significance. She +said: "I am sure, Mrs. Chump, we are very much attached to you as Mrs. +Chump; but after a certain period of life, marriage does make people +ridiculous, and, as much for your sake as our own, we would advise +you to discard a notion that cannot benefit anybody. Believe in our +attachment; and we shall see you here now and then, and correspond with +you when you are away. And...." + +"Oh, ye puss! such an eel as y' are!" Mrs. Chump cried out. "What are +ye doin' but sugarin' the same dose, miss! Be qu't! It's a traitor that +makes what's nasty taste agree'ble. D'ye think my stomach's a fool? Ye +may wheedle the mouth, but not the stomach." + +At this offence there fell a dead silence. Wilfrid gazed on them all +indifferently, waiting for the moment to strike a final blow. + +When she had grasped the fact that Pity did not sit in the assembly, +Mrs. Chump rose. + +"Oh! if I haven't been sitting among three owls and a raven," she +exclaimed. Then she fussed at her gown. "I wish ye good day, young +ladus, and mayhap ye'd like to be interduced to No. 2 yourselves, some +fine mornin'? Prov'dence can wait. There's a patient hen on the eggs +of all of ye! I wouldn't marry Pole now--not if he was to fall flat and +howl for me. Mr. Wilfrud, I wish ye good-bye. Ye've done your work. I'll +be out of this house in half-an-hour." + +This was not quite what Wilfrid had meant to effect. He proposed to her +that she should come to the yacht, and indeed leave Brookfield to go on +board. But Mrs. Chump was in that frame of mind when, shamefully wounded +by others, we find our comfort in wilfully wounding ourselves. "No," she +said (betraying a meagre mollification at every offer), "I'll not stop. +I won't go to the yacht--unless I think better of ut. But I won't +stop. Ye've hurrt me, and I'll say good-bye. I hope ye'll none of ye be +widows. It's a crool thing. And when ye've got no children of your own, +and feel, all your inside risin' to another person's, and they hate +ye--hate ye! Oh! Oh!--There, Mr. Wilfrud, ye needn't touch me elbow. Oh, +dear! look at me in the glass! and my hair! Annybody'd swear I'd been +drinkin'. I won't let Pole look at me. That'd cure 'm. And he must let +me have money, because I don't care for 'cumulations. Not now, when +there's no young--no garls and a precious boy, who'd say, when I'm gone, +'Bless her' Oh! 'Poor thing! Bless--' Oh! Augh!" A note of Sorrow's +own was fetched; and the next instant, with a figure of dignity, the +afflicted woman observed: "There's seven bottles of my Porrt, and +there's eleven of champagne, and some comut clar't I shall write where +ut's to be sent. And, if you please, look to the packing; for bits o' +glass and a red stain's not like your precious hope when you're undoin +a hamper. And that's just myself now, and I'm a broken woman; but naver +mind, nobody!" + +A very formal and stiff "Good-bye," succeeding a wheezy lamentation, +concluded the speech. Casting a look at the glass, Mrs. Chump retired, +with her fingers on the ornamental piece of hair. + +The door having closed on her, Wilfrid said to his sisters: "I want one +of you to come with me to town immediately. Decide which will go." + +His eyes questioned Cornelia. Hers were dropped. + +"I have work to do," pleaded Adela. + +"An appointment? You will break it." + +"No, dear, not--" + +"Not exactly an appointment. Then there's nothing to break. Put on your +bonnet." + +Adela slipped from the room in a spirit of miserable obedience. + +"I could not possibly leave papa," said Arabella, and Wilfrid nodded +his head. His sisters knew quite well what was his business in town, +but they felt that they were at his mercy, and dared not remonstrate. +Cornelia ventured to say, "I think she should not come back to us till +papa is in a better state." + +"Perhaps not," replied Wilfrid, careless how much he betrayed by his +apprehension of the person indicated. + +The two returned late that night, and were met by Arabella at the gate. + +"Papa has been--don't be alarmed," she began. "He is better now. But +when he heard that she was not in the house, the blood left his hands +and feet. I have had to use a falsehood. I said, 'She left word that she +was coming back to-night or to-morrow.' Then he became simply angry. Who +could have believed that the sight of him so would ever have rejoiced +me!" + +Adela, worn with fatigue, sobbed, "Oh! Oh!" + +"By the way, Sir Twickenham called, and wished to see you," said +Arabella curiously. + +"Oh! so weary!" the fair girl ejaculated, half-dreaming that she saw +herself as she threw back her head and gazed at stars and clouds. "We +met Captain Gambier in town." Here she pinched Arabella's arm. + +The latter said, "Where?" + +"In a miserable street, where he looked like a peacock in a quagmire." + +Arabella entreated Wilfrid to be careful in his management of their +father. "Pray, do not thwart him. He has been anxious to know where you +have gone. He--he thinks you have conducted Mrs. Chump, and will bring +her back. I did not say it--I merely let him think so." + +She added presently, "He has spoken of money." + +"Yes?" went Adela, in a low breath. + +"Cornelia imagines that--that we--he is perhaps in--in want of it. +Merchants are, sometimes." + +"Did Sir Twickenham say he would call to-morrow?" asked Adela. + +"He said that most probably he would." + +Wilfrid had been silent. As he entered the house, Mr. Pole's +bedroom-bell rang, and word came that he was to go to his father. As +soon as the sisters were alone, Adela groaned: "We have been hunting +that girl all day in vile neighbourhoods. Wilfrid has not spoken more +than a dozen sentences. I have had to dine on buns and hideous soup. I +am half-dead with the smell of cabs. Oh! if ever I am poor it will kill +me. That damp hay and close musty life are too intolerable! Yes! You see +I care for what I eat. I seem to be growing an animal. And Wilfrid is +going to drag me over the same course to-morrow, if you don't prevent +him. I would not mind, only it is absolutely necessary that I should see +Sir Twickenham." + +She gave a reason why, which appeared to Arabella so cogent that she +said at once: "If Cornelia does not take your place I will." + +The kiss of thanks given by Adela was accompanied by a request for tea. +Arabella regretted that she had sent the servants to bed. + +"To bed!" cried her sister. "But they are the masters, not we! Really, +if life were a round of sensual pleasure, I think our servants might +congratulate themselves." + +Arabella affected to show that they had their troubles; but her +statement made it clear that the servants of Brookfield were peculiarly +favoured servants, as it was their mistress's pride to make them. +Eventually Adela consented to drink some sparkling light wine; and being +thirsty she drank eagerly, and her tongue was loosed, insomuch that she +talked of things as one who had never been a blessed inhabitant of the +kingdom of Fine Shades. She spoke of 'Cornelia's chances;' of 'Wilfrid's +headstrong infatuation--or worse;' and of 'Papa's position,' remarking +that she could both laugh and cry. + +Arabella, glad to see her refreshed, was pained by her rampant tone; and +when Adela, who had fallen into one of her reflective 'long-shot' moods, +chanced to say, "What a number of different beings there are in the +world!" her reply was, "I was just then thinking we are all less unlike +than we suppose." + +"Oh, my goodness!" cried Adela. "What! am I at all--at all--in the +remotest degree--like that creature we have got rid of?" + +The negative was not decisively enunciated or immediate; that is, it did +not come with the vehemence and volume that could alone have satisfied +Adela's expectation. + +The "We are all of one family" was an offensive truism, of which Adela +might justly complain. + +That night the ladies received their orders from Wilfrid--they were to +express no alarm before their father as to the state of his health, or +to treat him ostensibly as an invalid; they were to marvel publicly at +Mrs. Chump's continued absence, and a letter requesting her to return +was to be written. At the sign of an expostulation, Wilfrid smote them +down by saying that the old man's life hung on a thread, and it was for +them to cut it or not. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +Lady Charlotte was too late for Emilia, when she went forth to her to +speak for Wilfrid. She found the youth Braintop resting heavily against +a tree, muttering to himself that he had no notion where he was, as +an excuse for his stationary posture, while the person he presumed he +should have detained was being borne away. Near him a scrap of paper lay +on the ground, struck out of darkness by long slips of light from the +upper windows. Thinking this might be something purposely dropped, she +took possession of it; but a glance subsequently showed her that the +writing was too fervid for a female hand. "Or does the girl write in +that way?" she thought. She soon decided that it was Wilfrid who had +undone her work in the line of thirsty love-speech. "How can a little +fool read them and not believe any lie that he may tell!" she cried to +herself. She chose to say contemptuously: "It's like a child proclaiming +he is hungry." That it was couched in bad taste she positively +conceived--taking the paper up again and again to correct her memory. +The termination, "Your lover," appeared to her, if not laughable, +revolting. She was uncertain in her sentiments at this point. + +Was it amusing? or simply execrable? Some charity for the unhappy +document Lady Charlotte found when she could say: "I suppose this is the +general run of the kind of again." "Was it?" she reflected; and drank at +the words again. "No," she came to think; "men don't commonly write as +he does, whoever wrote this." She had no doubt that it was Wilfrid. By +fits her wrath was directed against him. "It's villany," she said. But +more and more frequently a crouching abject longing to call the words +her own--to have them poured into her heart and brain--desire for the +intoxication of the naked speech of love usurped her spirit of pride, +until she read with envious tears, half loathing herself, but fascinated +and subdued: "Mine! my angel! You will see me to-morrow.--Your Lover." + +Of jealousy she felt very little--her chief thought coming like a wave +over her: "Here is a man that can love!" + +She was a woman of chaste blood, which spoke to her as shyly as a +girl's, now that it was in tumult: so indeed that, pressing her heart, +she thought youth to have come back, and feasted on the exultation we +have when, at an odd hour, we fancy we have cheated time. The +sensation of youth and strength seemed to set a seal of lawfulness and +naturalness, hitherto wanting, on her feeling for Wilfrid. "I can help +him," she thought. "I know where he fails, and what he can do. I can +give him position, and be worth as much as any woman can be to a man." +Thus she justified the direction taken by the new force in her. + +Two days later Wilfrid received a letter from Lady Charlotte, saying +that she, with a chaperon, had started to join her brother at the +yacht-station, according to appointment. Amazed and utterly discomfited, +he looked about for an escape; but his father, whose plea of sickness +had kept him from pursuing Emilia, petulantly insisted that he should go +down to Lady Charlotte. Adela was ready to go. There were numbers either +going or now on the spot, and the net was around him. Cornelia held +back, declaring that her place was by her father's side. Fine Shades +were still too dominant at Brookfield for anyone to tell her why she +stayed. + +With anguish so deep that he could not act indifference, Wilfrid went on +his miserable expedition--first setting a watch over Mr. Pericles, the +which, in connection with the electric telegraph, was to enable him to +join that gentleman speedily, whithersoever he might journey. He was +not one to be deceived by the Greek's mask in running down daily to +Brookfield. A manoeuvre like that was poor; and besides, he had seen the +sallow eyes give a twinkle more than once. + +Now, on the Besworth night, Georgiana Ford had studied her brother +Merthyr's face when Emilia's voice called for Wilfrid. Her heart was +touched; and, in the midst of some little invidious wonder at the power +of a girl to throw her attraction upon such a man, she thought, as she +hoped, that probably it was due to the girl's Italian blood. Merthyr was +not unwilling to speak of her, and say what he feared and desired for +Emilia's sake; and Georgiana read, by this mark of confidence, how +sincerely she was loved and trusted by him. "One never can have more +than half of a man's heart," she thought--adding, "It's our duty to +deserve that, nevertheless." + +She was mystified. Say that Merthyr loved a girl, whom he certainly +distinguished with some visible affection, what sort of man must he be +that was preferred to Merthyr? And this set Georgiana at work thinking +of Wilfrid. "He has at times the air of a student. He is one who trusts +his own light too exclusively. Is he godless?" She concluded: "He is +a soldier, and an officer with brains--a good class:" Rare also. +Altogether, though Emilia did not elevate herself in this lady's mind by +choosing Wilfrid when she might have had Merthyr, the rivalry of the two +men helped to dignify the one of whom she thought least. Might she have +had Merthyr? Georgiana would not believe it--that is to say, she shut +the doors and shot the bolts, the knocking outside went on. + +Her brother had told her the whole circumstances of Emilia's life and +position. When he said, "Do what you can for her," she knew that it was +not the common empty phrase. Young as she was, simple in habits, clear +in mind, open in all practices of daily life, she was no sooner +brought into an active course than astuteness and impetuosity combined +wonderfully in her. She did not tell Merthyr that she had done anything +to discover Emilia, and only betrayed that she was moving at all in a +little conversation they had about a meeting at the house of his friend +Marini, an Italian exile. + +"Possibly Belloni goes there," said Merthyr. "I wonder whether Marini +knows anything of him. They have a meeting every other night." + +Georgiana replied: "He went there and took his daughter the night after +we were at Besworth. He took her to be sworn in." + +"Still that old folly of Marini's!" cried Merthyr, almost wrathfully. He +had some of the English objection to the mixing-up of women in political +matters. + +Georgiana instantly addressed herself to it: "He thinks that the country +must be saved by its women as well as its men; and if they have not +brains and steadfast devotion, he concludes that the country will not be +saved. But he gives them their share of the work; and, dearest, has he +had reason to repent it?" + +"No," Merthyr was forced to admit--taking shelter in his antipathy to +the administration of an oath to women. "And consider that this is a +girl!" + +"The oaths of girls are sometimes more binding on them than the oaths of +women." + +"True, it affects their imaginations vividly; but it seems childish. +Does she have to kiss a sword and a book?" + +Merthyr made a gesture like a shrug, with a desponding grimace. + +"You know," answered Georgiana, smiling, "that I was excused any +formula, by special exemption. I have no idea of what is done. Water, +salt, white thorns, and other Carbonaro mysteries may be in use or not: +I think no worse of the cause, whatever is done." + +"I love the cause," said Merthyr. "I dislike this sort of conspiratorial +masque Marini and his Chief indulge in. I believe it sustains them, and +there's its only use." + +"I," said Georgiana, "love the cause only from association with it; but +in my opinion Marini is right. He deals with young and fervent minds, +that require a ceremony to keep them fast--yes, dear, and women +more than others do. After that, they cease to have to rely upon +themselves--a reliance their good instinct teaches them is frail. There, +now; have I put my sex low enough?" + +She slid her head against her brother's shoulder. If he had ever met +a man worthy of her, Merthyr would have sighed to feel that all her +precious love was his own. + +"Is there any likelihood that Belloni will be there tonight?" he asked. + +She shook her head. "He has not been there since. He went for that +purpose." + +"Perhaps Marini is right, after all," said Merthyr, smiling. + +Georgiana knew what he meant, and looked at him fondly. + +"But I have never bound you to an oath," he resumed, in the same tone. + +"I dare say you consider me a little different from most," said +Georgiana. She had as small reserve with her brother as vanity, +and could even tell him what she thought of her own worth without +depreciating it after the fashion of chartered hypocrites. + +Mr. Powys wrote to Marini to procure him an interview with Belloni +as early as possible, and then he and Georgiana went down to Lady +Charlotte. + +Letters from Adela kept the Brookfield public informed of the doings +on board the yacht. Before leaving home, Wilfrid with Arabella's +concurrence certainly--at her instigation, as he thought--had led +his father to imagine, on tolerably good grounds, that Mrs. Chump had +quitted Brookfield to make purchases for her excursion on lively waters, +and was then awaiting him at the appointed station. One of the old man's +intermittent nervous fits had frightened them into the quasi-fabrication +of this little innocent tale. The doctor's words were that Mr. Pole +was to be crossed in nothing--"Not even if it should appear to be of +imminent necessity that I should see him, and he refuses." The man +of science stated that the malady originated in some long continued +pressure of secret apprehension. Both Wilfrid and Arabella conceived +that persuasion alone was wanted to send Mrs. Chump flying to the yacht; +so they had less compunction in saying, "She is there." + +And here began a terrible trial for the children of Nine Shades. To save +a father they had to lie grievously--to continue the lie from day to +day--to turn it from a lie extensive and inappreciable to the lie minute +and absolute. Then, to get a particle of truth out of this monstrous +lie, they had to petition in utter humiliation the woman they had +scorned, that she would return among them and consider their house +her own. No answer came from Mrs. Chump; and as each day passed, the +querulous invalid, still painfully acting the man in health, had to +be fed with fresh lies; until at last, writing of one of the scenes in +Brookfield, Arabella put down the word in all its unblessed aboriginal +bluntness, and did not ask herself whether she shrank from it. "Lies!" +she wrote. "What has happened to Bella?" thought Adela, in pure wonder. +Salt-air and dazzling society kept all idea of penance from this +vivacious young person. It was queer that Sit Twickenham should be at +the seaside, instead of at Brookfield, wooing; but a man's physical +condition should be an excuse for any intermission of attentions. "Now +that I know him better," wrote Adela, "I think him the pink of chivalry; +and of this I am sure I can convince you, Bella, C. will be blessed +indeed; for a delicate nature in a man of the world is a treasure. He +has a beautiful little vessel of his own sailing beside us." + +Arabella was critic enough to smile at this last. On the whole she +was passably content for the moment, in a severe fashion, save to feel +herself the dreadful lying engine and fruitlessly abject person that she +had become. + +We imagine that when souls have had a fall, they immediately look up +and contrast their present with their preceding position. This does not +occur. The lower their fall, the less, generally, their despair, for +despair is a business of the Will, and when they come heavily upon their +humanity, they get something of the practical seriousness of nature. If +they fall very low, the shock and the sense that they are still on +their feet make them singularly earnest to set about the plain plan of +existence--getting air for their lungs and elbow-room. Contrast, that +mother of melancholy, comes when they are some way advanced upon the +upward scale. The Poles did not look up to their lost height, but merely +exerted their faculties to go forward; and great as their ambition had +been in them, now that it was suddenly blown to pieces, they did not sit +and weep, but strove in a stunned way to work ahead. The truth is, that +we rarely indulge in melancholy until we can take it as a luxury: little +people never do, and they, when we have not put them on their guard, are +humankind naked. + +The yachting excursions were depicted vividly by Adela, and were +addressed as a sort of reproach to the lugubrious letters of her sister. +She said pointedly once: "Really, if we are to be miserable, I turn +Catholic and go into a convent." The strange thing was that Arabella +imagined her letters to be rather of a cheerful character. She related +the daily events at Brookfield:--the change in her father's soups, +and his remarks on them, and which he preferred; his fight with his +medicine, and declaration that he was as sound as any man on shore; the +health of the servants; Mr. Marter the curate's call with a Gregorian +chant; doubts of his orthodoxy; Cornelia's lonely walks and singular +appetite; the bills, and so forth--ending, "What is to be said further +of her?" + +In return, Adela's delight was to date each day from a different port, +to which, catching the wind, the party had sailed, and there slept. +The ladies were under the protecting wing of the Hon. Mrs. Bayruffle, a +smooth woman of the world. "You think she must have sinned in her time, +but are certain it will never be known," wrote Adela. "I do confess, +kind as she is, she does me much harm; for when she is near me I begin +to think that Society is everything. Her tact is prodigious; it is +never seen--only felt. I cannot describe her influence; yet it leads to +nothing. I cannot absolutely respect her; but I know I shall miss her +acutely when we part. What charm does she possess? I call her the Hon. +Mrs. Heathen--Captain G., the Hon. Mrs. Balm. I know you hate nicknames. +Be merciful to people yachting. What are we to do? I would look through +a telescope all day and calculate the number of gulls and gannets we +see; but I am not so old as Sir T., and that occupation could not absorb +me. I begin to understand Lady Charlotte and her liking for Mr. Powys +better. He is ready to play or be serious, as you please; but in either +case 'Merthyr is never a buffoon nor a parson'--Lady C. remarked this +morning; and that describes him, if it were not for the detestable fling +at the clergy, which she never misses. It seems in her blood to think +that all priests are hypocrites. What a little boat to be in on a stormy +sea, Bella! She appears to have no concern about it. Whether she adores +Wilfrid or not I do not pretend to guess. She snubs him--a thing he +would bear from nobody but her. I do believe he feels flattered by it. +He is chiefly attentive to Miss Ford, whom I like and do not like, and +like and do not like--but do like. She is utterly cold, and has not an +affection on earth. Sir T.--I have not a dictionary--calls her a fair +clictic, I think. (Let even Cornelia read hard, or woe to her in their +hours of privacy!--his vocabulary grows distressingly rich the more you +know him. I am not uneducated, but he introduces me to words that seem +monsters; I must pretend to know them intimately.) Well, whether a +clictic or not--and pray, burn this letter, lest I should not have +the word correct--she has the air of a pale young princess above any +creature I have seen in the world. I know it has struck Wilfred also; my +darling and I are ever twins in sentiment. He converses with Miss Ford a +great deal. Lady C. is peculiarly civil to Captain G. We scud along, +and are becalmed. 'Having no will of our own, we have no knowledge of +contrary winds,' as Mr. Powys says.--The word is 'eclictic,' I find. +I ventured on it, and it was repeated; and I heard that I had missed +a syllable. Ask C. to look it out--I mean, to tell me they mining on a +little slip of paper in your next. I would buy a pocket-dictionary at +one of the ports, but you are never alone. "Aesthetic," we know. Mr. +Barrett used to be of service for this sort of thing. I admit I am +inferior to Mrs. Bayruffle, who, if men talk difficult words in her +presence, holds her chin above the conversation, and seems to shame +them. I love to learn--I love the humility of learning. And there +is something divine in the idea of a teacher. I listen to Sir T. on +Parliament and parties, and chide myself if my interest flags. +His algebra-puzzles, or Euclid-puzzles in figures--sometimes about +sheep-boys and sheep, and hurdles or geese, oxen or anything--are +delicious: he quite masters the conversation with them. I disagree with +Mrs. Bayruffle when she complains that they are posts in the way of +speech. There is a use in all men; and though she is an acknowledged +tactician materially, she cannot see she has in Sir T. a quality +necessary to intellectual conversation, if she knew how to employ it." + +Remarks of this nature read very oddly to Arabella, insomuch that she +would question herself at times, in forced seriousness, whether she +had dreamed that an evil had befallen Brookfield, or whether Adela were +forgetting that it had, in a dream. One day she enclosed a letter from +her father to Mrs. Chump. Adela did not forge a reply; but she had the +audacity to give the words of a message from the woman (in which Mrs. +Chump was supposed to say that she could not write while she was being +tossed about.) "We must carry it on," Adela told her sister, with +horrible bluntness. The message savoured strongly of Mrs. Chump. It +was wickedly clever. Arabella resolved to put it by; but morning after +morning she saw her father's anxiety for the reply mounting to a pitch +of fever. She consulted with Cornelia, who said, "No; never do such a +thing!" and subsequently, with a fainter firmness, repeated the +negative monosyllable. Arabella, in her wretchedness, became endued +with remorseless discernment. "It means that Cornelia would never do it +herself," she thought; and, comforted haply by reflecting that for their +common good she could do it, she did it. She repeated an Irish message. +Her father calmed immediately, making her speak it over twice. He +smiled, and blinked his bird's-eyes pleasurably: "Ah! that's Martha," +he said, and fell into a state of comparative repose. For some hours +a sensation of bubbling hot-water remained about the sera of Arabella. +Happily Mrs. Chump in person did not write. + +A correspondence now commenced between the fictitious Mrs. Chump on sea +and Mr. Pole, dyspeptic, in his armchair. Arabella took the doctor aside +to ask him, if in a hypothetical instance, it would really be dangerous +to thwart or irritate her father. She asked the curate if he deemed it +wicked to speak falsely to an invalid for the invalid's benefit. The +spiritual and bodily doctors agreed that occasion altered and necessity +justified certain acts. So far there was comfort. But the task of +assisting in this correspondence, and yet more, the contemplation of +Adela's growing delight in it (she would now use Irish words, vulgar +words, words expressive of physical facts; airing her natural wit in +Irish as if she had found a new weapon), became a bitter strain on +Arabella's mind, and she was compelled to make Cornelia take her share +of the burden. "But I cannot conceal--I cannot feign," said Cornelia. +Arabella looked at her, whom she knew to be feigning, thinking, "Must +I lose my high esteem of both my sisters? Action alone saved her from +denuding herself of this garment." + +"That night!" was now the allusion to the scene at Besworth. It stood +for all the misery they suffered; nor could they see that they had since +made any of their own. + +A letter with the Dover postmark brought exciting news. + +A debate had been held on board the yacht. Wilfrid and Lady Charlotte +gave their votes for the Devon coast. All were ready to be off, when +Miss Ford received a telegram from shore, and said, "No; it must be +Dover." Now, Mrs. Chump's villa was on the Devon coast. Lady Charlotte +had talked to Wilfrid about her, and in the simplest language had said +that she must be got on board. This was the reason of their deciding for +Devon. But Georgiana stood for Dover; thither Merthyr said that he must +go, whether be sailed or went on land. By a simultaneous reading of +Georgiana's eyes, both Wilfrid and Lady Charlotte saw what was meant by +her decision. Wilfrid at once affected to give way, half-protestingly. +"And this," wrote Adela, "taught me that he was well pleased to abandon +the West for the East. Lady C. favoured him with a look such as I +could not have believed I should ever behold off the stage. There was a +perfect dagger in her eyes. She fought against Dover: do men feel +such compliments as these? They are the only true ones! She called the +captain to witness that the wind was not for Dover she called the mate: +she was really eloquent--yes, and handsome. I think Wilfrid thought so; +or the reason far the opposition to Dover impressed my brother. I like +him to be made to look foolish, for then he retrieves his character so +dashingly--always. His face was red, and he seemed undecided--was--until +one taunt (it must have been a taunt), roused him up. They exchanged +about six sentences--these two. I cannot remember them, unhappily; but +for neatness and irony, never was anything so delicious heard. They came +sharp as fencing-thrusts; and you could really believe, if you liked, +that they were merely stating grounds for diverse opinions. Of course we +sailed East, reaching Dover at ten; and the story is this--I knew Emilia +was in it:--Tracy Runningbrook had been stationed at Dover ten days by +Miss Ford, to intercept Emilia's father, if he should be found taking +her to the Continent by that route. He waited, and met them at last on +the Esplanade. He telegraphed to Miss Ford and a Signor Marini (we were +wrong in not adding illustrious exiles to our list), while he invited +them to dine, and detained them till the steamboat was starting; and +Signor Marini came down by rail in a great hurry, and would not let +Emilia be taken away. There was a quarrel; but, by some mysterious power +that he possesses, this Signor Marini actually prevented the father +from taking his child. Mysterious? But is anything more mysterious than +Emilia's influence? I cannot forget what she was ere we trained her; and +when I think that we seem to be all--all who come near her--connected +with her fortunes! Explain it if you can. I know it is not her singing; +I know it is not her looks. Captivations she does not deal in. Is it the +magic of indifference? No; for then some one whom you know and who longs +to kiss her bella Bella now would be dangerous! She is very little so, +believe me! + +"Emilia is (am I chronicling a princess?)--she is in London with Signor +Marini; and Wilfrid has not seen her. Lady Charlotte managed to get the +first boat full, and pushed off as he was about to descend. I pitied his +poor trembling hand I went on shore in the second boat with him. We did +not find the others for an hour, when we heard that Emilia had gone with +Signor M. The next day, whom should we sea but Mr. Pericles. He (I have +never seen him so civil)--he shook Wilfrid by the hand almost like an +Englishman; and Wilfrid too, though he detests him, was civil to him, +and even laughed when he said: 'Here it is dull; ze Continent for a +week. I follow Philomela--ze nightingales.' I was just going to say, +'Well then, you are running away from one.' Wilfrid pressed my fingers, +and taught me to be still; and I did not know why till I reflected. Poor +Mr. Pericles, seeing him friendly for the first time, rubbed his hands +and it was most painful to me to see him shake hands with Wilfrid again +and again, till he was on board the vessel chuckling. Wilfrid suddenly +laughed with all his might--a cruel laugh; and Mr. Pericles tried to be +as loud, but commenced coughing and tapping his chest, to explain that +his intention was good. Bella! the passion of love must be judged by the +person who inspires it; and I cannot even go so far as to feel pity for +Wilfrid if he has stooped to the humiliation of--there is another way +of regarding it, know. Let him be sincere and noble; but not his own +victim. He scarcely holds up his head. We are now for Devon. Tracy +is with us; and we never did a wiser thing than when we decided to +patronize poets. If kept in order--under--they are the aristocracy of +light conversationalists. Adieu! We speed for beautiful Devon. 'Me love +to Pole, and I'm just,' etc. That will do this time; next, she will +speak herself. That I should wish it! But the world is full of change, +as I begin to learn. What will ensue?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +When Mrs. Chump had turned her back on Brookfield, the feelings of the +outcast woman were too deep for much distinctly acrimonious sensation +toward the ladies; but their letters soon lifted and revived her, until, +being in a proper condition of prickly wrath, she sat down to compose +a reply that should bury them under a mountain of shame. The point, +however, was to transfer this mountain from her bosom, which laboured +heavily beneath it, to their heads. Nothing could appear simpler. Here +is the mountain; the heads are yonder. Accordingly, she prepared to +commence. In a moment the difficulty yawned monstrous. For the mountain +she felt was not a mountain of shame; yet that was the character of +mountain she wished to cast. If she crushed them, her reputation as a +forgiving soul might suffer: she could not pardon without seeing them +abased. Thus shaken at starting, she found herself writing: "I know that +your father has been hearing tales told of me, or he would have written, +and he has not; so you shall never see me, not if you cried to me from +the next world--the hot part." + +Perusing this, it was too tremendous. "Oh, that's awful!" she said, +getting her body a little away from the manuscript. "Ye couldn't curse +much louder." + +A fresh trial found her again rounding the fact that Mr. Pole had not +written to her, and again flying into consequent angers. She had some +dim conception of the sculpture of an offended Goddess. "I look so," +she said before the glass "I'm above ye, and ye can't hurt me, and +don't come anigh me: but here's a cheque--and may ye be haunted in your +dreams!--but here's a cheque." + +There was pain in her heart, for she had felt faith in Mr. Pole's +affection for her. "And he said," she cried out in her lonely room--"he +said, 'Martha, ye've onnly to come and be known to 'm, and then they'll +take to the ideea.' And wasn't I a patient creature! And it's Pole +that's turned--Pole!" + +Varied with the frequent 'Oh!' and 'Augh!' these dramatic monologues +occupied her time while the yacht was sailing for her Devon bay. + +At last the thought struck her that she would send for +Braintop--telegraphing that expenses would be paid, and that he must +come with a good quill. "It goes faster," she whispered, suggesting the +pent-up torrent, as it were, of blackest ink in her breast that there +was to pour forth. A very cunning postscript to the telegram brought +Braintop almost as quick to her as a return message. It was merely +'Little Belloni.' + +She had forgotten this piece of artifice: but when she saw him start +at the opening of the door, keeping a sheepish watch in that direction, +"By'n-by," she said, with a nod; and shortly afterward unfolded her +object in summoning him from his London labours: "A widde-woman ought +to get marrud, Mr. Braintop, if onnly to have a husband to write letters +for 'rr. Now, that's a task! But sup to-night, and mind ye say yer +prayers before gettin' into bed; and no tryin' to flatter your Maker +with your knees cuddled up to your chin under the counterpane. I do 't +myself sometimes, and I know one prayer out of bed's worrth ten of 'm +in. Then I'll pray too; and mayhap we'll get permission and help to +write our letter to-morrow, though Sunday, as ye say." + +On the morrow Braintop's spirits were low, he having perceived that the +'Little Belloni' postscript had been but an Irish chuckle and nudge in +his ribs, by way of sly insinuation or reminder. He looked out on the +sea, and sighed to be under certain white sails visible in the offing. +Mrs. Chump had received by the morning's post another letter from +Arabella, enclosing one for Wilfrid. A dim sense of approaching mastery, +and that she might soon be melted, combined with the continued silence +of Mr. Pole to make her feel yet more spiteful. She displayed no +commendable cunning when, to sharpen and fortify Braintop's wits, she +plumped him at breakfast with all things tempting to the appetite of +man. "I'll help ye to 'rr," she said from time to time, finding that no +encouragement made him potent in speech. + +Fronting the sea a desk was laid open. On it were the quills faithfully +brought down by Braintop. + +"Pole's own quills," she said, having fixed Braintop in this official +seat, while she took hers at a station half-commanding the young clerk's +face. The mighty breakfast had given Braintop intolerable desire +to stretch his limbs by the sounding shore, and enjoy life in +semi-oblivion. He cheered himself with the reflection that there was +only one letter to write, so he remarked politely that he was at his +hostess's disposal. Thereat Mrs. Chump questioned him closely whether +Mr. Pole had spoken her name aloud; and whether he did it somehow, now +and then by accident, and whether he had looked worse of late. Braintop +answered the latter question first, assuring her that Mr. Pole was +improving. + +"Then there's no marcy from me," said Mrs. Chump; and immediately +discharged an exclamatory narrative of her recent troubles, and the +breach between herself and Brookfield, at Braintop's ears. This done, +she told him that he was there to write the reply to the letters of the +ladies, in her name. "Begin," she said. "Ye've got head enough to guess +my feelin's. I'm invited, and I won't go--till I'm fetched. But don't +say that. That's their guess ye know. 'And I don't care for ye enough to +be angry at all, but it's pity I feel at a parcel of fine garls'--so on, +Mr. Braintop." + +The perplexities of epistolary correspondence were assuming the like +proportions to the recruited secretary that they had worn to Mrs. +Chump. Steadily watching his countenance; she jogged him thus: "As if +ye couldn't help ut, ye know, ye begin. Jest like wakin' in the mornin' +after dancin' all night. Ye make the garls seem to hear me seemin' to +say--Oooo! I was so comfortable before your disturbin' me with your +horrud voices. Ye understand, Mr. Braintop? 'I'm in bed, and you're +a cold bath.' Begin like that, ye know. 'Here's clover, and you're +nettles.' D'ye see? Here from my glass o' good Porrt to your tumbler of +horrud acud vin'gar.' Bless the boy! he don't begin." + +She stamped her foot. Braintop, in desperation, made a plunge at the +paper. Looking over his shoulder in a delighted eagerness, she suddenly +gave it a scornful push. "'Dear!'" she exclaimed. "You're dearin' them, +absurd young man I'm not the woman to I dear 'em--not at the starrt! I'm +indignant--I'm hurrt. I come round to the 'dear' by-and-by, after I have +whipped each of the proud sluts, and their brother Mr. Wilfrid, just as +if by accident. Ye'll promus to forget avery secret I tell ye; but our +way is always to pretend to believe the men can't help themselves. So +the men look like fools, ye sly laughin' fella! and the women horrud +scheming spiders. Now, away, with ye, and no dearin'." + +The Sunday-bells sounded mockingly in Braintop's ears, appearing to ask +him how he liked his holiday; and the white sails on the horizon line +have seldom taunted prisoner more. He spread out another sheet of +notepaper and wrote "My," and there he stopped. + +Mrs. Chump was again at his elbow. "But, they aren't 'my,'" she +remonstrated, "when I've nothin' to do with 'm. And a 'my' has a 'dear' +to 't always. Ye're not awake, Mr. Braintop; try again." + +"Shall I begin formally, 'Mrs. Chump presents her compliments,' ma'am?" +said Braintop stiffly. + +"And I stick myself up on a post, and talk like a parrot, sir! Don't you +see, I'm familiar, and I'm woundud? Go along; try again." + +Braintop's next effort was, "Ladies." + +"But they don't behave to me like ladus; and it's against my conscience +to call 'em!" said Mrs. Chump, with resolution. + +Braintop wrote down "Women," in the very irony of disgust. + +"And avery one of 'em unmarred garls!" exclaimed Mrs. Chump, throwing up +her hands. "Mr. Braintop! Mr. Braintop! ye're next to an ejut!" + +Braintop threw dawn the pen. "I really do not know what to say," he +remarked, rising in distress. + +"I naver had such a desire to shake anny man in all my life," said Mrs. +Chump, dropping to her chair. + +The posture of affairs was chimed to by the monotonous bell. After +listening to it for some minutes, Mrs. Chump was struck with a notion +that Braintop's sinfulness in working on a Sunday, or else the shortness +of the prayer he had put up to gain absolution, was the cause of his +lack of ready wit. Hearing that he had gloves, she told him to go to +church, listen devoutly, and return to luncheon. Braintop departed, with +a sensation of relief in the anticipation of a sermon, quite new to him. +When he next made his bow to his hostess, he was greeted by a pleasant +sparkle of refreshments. Mrs. Chump herself primed him with Sherry, +thinking in the cunning of her heart that it might haply help the +inspiration derived from his devotional exercise. After this, pen and +paper were again produced. + +"Well, now, Mr. Braintop, and what have ye thought of?" said Mrs. Chump, +encouragingly. + +Braintop thought rapidly over what he might possibly have been thinking +of; and having put a file of ideas into the past, said, with the air of +a man who delicately suggests a subtlety: "It has struck me, ma'am, that +perhaps 'Girls' might begin very well. To be sure 'Dear girls' is the +best, if you would consent to it." + +"Take another glass of wine, Mr. Braintop," Mrs. Chump nodded. "Ye're +nearer to ut now. 'Garls' is what they are, at all events. But don't you +see, my dear your man, it isn't the real thing we want so much as a sort +of a proud beginnin', shorrt of slappin' their faces. Think of dinner. +Furrst soup; that prepares ye for what's comin'. Then fish, which is on +the road to meat, dye see?--we pepper 'em. Then joint, Mr. Braintop--out +we burrst: (Oh, and what ins'lent hussies ye've been to me, and yell +naver see annything of me but my back!) Then the sweets,--But I'm a +forgivin' woman, and a Christian in the bargain, ye ungrateful minxes; +and if ye really are sorrowful! And there, Mr. Braintop, ye've got it +all laid out as flat as a pancake." + +Mrs. Chump gave the motion of a lightning scrawl of the pen. Braintop +looked at the paper, which now appeared to recede from his eyes, +and flourish like a descending kite. The nature of the task he had +undertaken became mountainous in his imagination, till at last he fixed +his forehead in his thumbs and fingers, and resolutely counted a number +of meaningless words one hundred times. As this was the attitude of a +severe student, Mrs. Chump remained in expectation. Aware of the fearful +confidence he had excited in her, Braintop fell upon a fresh hundred, +with variations. + +"The truth is, I think better in church," he said, disclosing at last as +ingenuous a face as he could assume. He scarcely ventured to hope for a +second dismissal. + +To his joy, Mrs. Chump responded with a sigh: "There, go again; and the +Lord forgive ye for directin' your mind to temporal matters when ye're +there! It's none of my doin', remember that; and don't be tryin' to make +me a partic'pator in your wickudness." + +"This is so difficult, ma'am, because you won't begin with Dear," he +observed snappishly, as he was retiring. + +"Of coorse it's difficult if it bothers me," retorted Mrs. Chump, +divided between that view of the case and contempt of Braintop for being +on her own level. + +"Do you see, we are not to say 'Dear' anything, or 'Ladies,' or--in +short, really, if you come to think, ma'am!" + +"Is that a woman's business, Mr. Braintop?" said Mrs. Chump, as from a +height; and the youth retired in humiliation. + +Braintop was not destitute of the ambition of his time of life, and +yearned to be what he believed himself--something better than a clerk. +If he had put forth no effort to compose Mrs. Chump's letter, he would +not have felt that he was the partner of her stupidity; but he had +thoughtlessly attempted the impossible thing, and now, contemplating his +utter failure, he was in so low a state of mind that he would have taken +pen and written himself down, with ordinary honesty, good-for-nothing. +He returned to his task, and found the dinner spread. Mrs. Chump gave +him champagne, and drank to him, requesting him to challenge her. "We +won't be beaten," she said; and at least they dined. + +The 'we' smote Braintop's swelling vanity. It signified an alliance, and +that they were yoked to a common difficulty. + +"Oh! let's finish it and have it over," he remarked, with a complacent +roll in his chair. + +"Naver stop a good impulse," said Mrs. Chump, herself removing the lamp +to light him. + +Braintop sat in the chair of torture, and wrote flowingly, while his +taskmistress looked over him, "Ladies of Brookfield." He read it out: +"Ladies of Brookfield." + +"I'll be vary happy to represent ye at the forthcomin' 'lection," Mrs. +Chump gave a continuation in his tone. + +"Why, won't that do, ma'am?" Braintop asked in wonderment. + +"Cap'tal for a circular, Mr. Braintop. And ye'll allow me to say that I +don't think ye've been to church at all." + +This accusation containing a partial truth (that is, true if it referred +to the afternoon, but not as to the morning), it was necessary for +Braintop's self-vindication that he should feel angry. The two were +very soon recriminating, much in the manner of boy and girl shut up on a +sunny afternoon; after which they, in like manner, made it up--the fact +of both having a habit of consulting the glass, and the accident of +their doing it at the same time, causing an encounter of glances there +that could hardly fail to be succeeded by some affability. For a last +effort, Mrs. Chump laid before Braintop a prospect of advancement in his +office, if he so contrived as to write a letter that should land her +in Brookfield among a scourged, repentant, and forgiven people. That +he might understand the position, she went far modestly to reveal her +weakness for Mr. Pole. She even consented to let 'Ladies' be the opening +apostrophe, provided the word 'Young' went before it: "They'll feel that +sting," she said. Braintop stipulated that she should not look till the +letter was done; and, observing his pen travelling the lines in quick +succession, Mrs. Chump became inspired by a great but uneasy hope. She +was only to be restrained from peeping, by Braintop's petulant "Pray, +ma'am!" which sent her bouncing back to her chair, with a face upon one +occasion too solemn for Braintop's gravity. He had written himself into +excellent spirits; and happening to look up as Mrs. Chump retreated from +his shoulder, the woman's comic reverence for his occupation--the prim +movement of her lips while she repeated mutely the words she supposed he +might be penning--touched him to laughter. At once Mrs. Chump seized on +the paper. "Young ladus," she read aloud, "yours of the 2nd, the 14th, +and 21st ulto. The 'ffection I bear to your onnly remaining parent." + +Her enunciation waxed slower and significantly staccato toward a pause. +The composition might undoubtedly have issued from a merchant's office, +and would have done no discredit to the establishment. When the pause +came, Braintop, half for an opinion, and to encourage progress, said, +"Yes, ma'am;" and with "There, sir!" Mrs. Chump crumpled up the paper +and flung it at him. "And there, sir!" she tossed a pen. Hearing +Braintop mutter, "Lady-like behaviour," Mrs. Chump came out in a fiery +bloom. "Ye detestable young fella! Oh, ye young deceiver! Ye cann't do +the work of a man! Oh! and here's another woman dis'pointed, and when +she thought she'd got a man to write her letters!" + +Braintop rose and retorted. + +"Ye're false, Mr. Braintop--ye're offensuv, sir!" said Mrs. Chump; and +Braintop instantly retired upon an expressive bow. When he was out of +the room, Mrs. Chump appealed spitefully to an audience of chairs; +but when she heard the front-door shut with a report, she jumped up in +terror, crying incredulously, "Is the young man pos'tively one? Oh! and +me alone in a rage!--" the contemplated horrors of which position set +her shouting vociferously. "Mr. Braintop!" sounded over the stairs, and +"Mr. Braintop!" into the street. The maid brought Mrs. Chump her bonnet. +Night had fallen; and nothing but the greatest anxiety to recover +Braintop would have tempted her from her house. She made half-a-dozen +steps, and then stopped to mutter, "Oh! if ye'd onnly come, I'd forgive +ye--indeed I would!" + +"Well, here I am," was instantaneously answered; her waist was clasped, +and her forehead was kissed. + +The madness of Braintop's libertinism petrified her. + +"Ye've taken such a liberty, sir 'deed ye've forgotten yourself!" + +While she was speaking; she grew confused with the thought that Braintop +had mightily altered both his voice and shape. When on the doorstep +he said; "Come out of the darkness or, upon my honour, I shall behave +worse," she recognized Wilfrid, and understood by his yachting costume +in what manner he had come. He gave her no time to think of her dignity +or her wrath. "Lady Charlotte is with me. I sleep at the hotel; but you +have no objection to receive her, have you?" This set her mind upon her +best bedroom, her linen, and the fitness of her roof to receive a +title. Then, in a partial fit of gratitude for the honour, and immense +thankfulness at being spared the task of the letter, she fell on +Wilfrid's shoulder, beginning to sob--till he, in alarm at his absurd +position, suggested that Lady Charlotte awaited a welcome. Mrs. Chump +immediately flew to her drawing-room and rang bells, appearing presently +with a lamp, which she set on a garden-pillar. Together they stood by +the lamp, a spectacle to ocean: but no Lady Charlotte drew near. + + + + +CHAPTER, XXXVI + +Though Mrs. Chump and Wilfrid, as they stood by the light of the lamp, +saw no one, they themselves were seen. Lady Charlotte had arranged to +give him a moment in advance to make his peace. She had settled it with +that air of practical sense which her title made graceful to him. "I +will follow; and I dare say I can complete what you leave unfinished," +she said. Her humorous sense of the aristocratic prestige was conveyed +to him in a very taking smile. He scarcely understood why she should +have planned so decisively to bring about a reconciliation between Mrs. +Chump and his family; still, as it now chimed perfectly with his own +views and wishes, he acquiesced in her scheme, giving her at the same +time credit for more than common wisdom. + +While Lady Charlotte lingered on the beach, she became aware of a figure +that hung about her; as she was moving away, a voice of one she knew +well enough asked to be directed to the house inhabited by Mrs. Chump. +The lady was more startled than it pleased her to admit to herself. + +"Don't you know me?" she said, bluntly. + +"You!" went Emilia's voice. + +"Why on earth are you here? What brings you here? Are you alone?" +returned the lady. + +Emilia did not answer. + +"What extraordinary expedition are you making? But, tell me one thing: +are you here of your own accord, or at somebody else's bidding?" + +Impatient at the prospect of a continuation of silences, Lady Charlotte +added, "Come with me." + +Emilia seemed to be refusing. + +"The appointment was made at that house, I know," said the lady; "but if +you come with me, you will see him just as readily." + +At this instant, the lamp was placed on the pillar, showing Wilfrid, in +his sailor's hat and overcoat, beside the fluttering Irishwoman. + +"Come, I must speak to you first," said Lady Charlotte hurriedly, +thinking that she saw Emilia's hands stretch out. "Pray, don't go into +attitudes. There he is, as you perceive; and I don't use witchcraft. +Come with me; I will send for him. Haven't you learnt by this time +that there's nothing he detests so much as a public display of the kind +you're trying to provoke?" + +Emilia half comprehended her. + +"He changes when he's away from me," she said, low toneless voice. + +"Less than I fancied," the lady thought. + +Then she told Emilia that there was really no necessity for her to whine +and be miserable; she was among friends, and so forth. The simplicity of +her manner of speech found its way to Emilia's reason quicker than her +arguments; and, in the belief that Wilfrid was speaking to Mrs. Chump +on urgent private matters (she had great awe of the word 'business'), +Emilia suffered herself to be led away. She uttered twice a little +exclamation, as she looked back, that sounded exceedingly comical to +Lady Charlotte's ears. They were the repressions of a poignant outcry. +"Doggies make that noise," thought the lady, and succeeded in feeling +contemptuous. + +Wilfrid, when he found that Lady Charlotte was not coming, bestowed a +remark upon her sex, and went indoors for his letter. He considered it +politic not to read it there, Mrs. Chump having grown so friendly, and +even motherly, that she might desire, out of pure affection, to share +the contents. He put it by and talked gaily, till Mrs. Chump, partly to +account for the defection of the lady, observed that she knew they had +a quarrel. She was confirmed in this idea on a note being brought in to +him, over which, before opening it, he frowned and flushed. Aware of the +treachery of his countenance, he continued doing so after his eyes had +taken in the words, though there was no special ground furnished by +them for any such exhibition. Mrs. Chump immediately, with a gaze of +mightiest tribulation, burst out: "I'll help ye; 'pon my honour, I'll +help ye. Oh! the arr'stocracy! Oh, their pride! But if I say, my dear, +when I die (which it's so horrud to think of), you'll have a share, +and the biggest--this vary cottage, and a good parrt o' the Bank +property--she'll come down at that. And if ye marry a lady of title, +I'll be 's good as my word, I will." + +Wilfrid pressed her fingers. "Can you ever believe that, I have called +you a 'simmering pot of Emerald broth'?" + +"My dear! annything that's lots o' words, Ye may call me," returned Mrs. +Chump, "as long as it's no name. Ye won't call me a name, will ye? Lots +o' words--it's onnly as if ye peppered me, and I sneeze, and that's all; +but a name sticks to yer back like a bit o' pinned paper. Don't call me +a name," and she wriggled pathetically. + +"Yes," said Wilfrid, "I shall call you Pole." + +"Oh! ye sweetest of young fellas!" + +Mrs. Chump threw out her arms. She was on the point of kissing him, but +he fenced with the open letter; and learning that she might read it, she +gave a cry of joy. + +"Dear W.!" she begins; and it's twice dear from a lady of title. She's +just a multiplication-table for annything she says and touches. "Dear +W.!" and the shorter time a single you the better. I'll have my joke, +Mr. Wilfrud. "Dear W.!" Bless her heart now! I seem to like her next +best to the Queen already.--"I have another plan. Ye'd better keep to +the old; but it's two paths, I suppose, to one point.--Another plan. +Come to me at the Dolphin, where I am alone. Oh, Lord! 'Alone,' with a +line under it, Mr. Wilfrud! But there--the arr'stocracy needn't matter a +bit." + +"It's a very singular proceeding not the less," said Wilfrid. "Why +didn't she go to the hotel where the others are, if she wouldn't come +here?" + +"But the arr'stocracy, Mr. Wilfrud! And alone--alone! d'ye see? which +couldn't be among the others; becas of sweet whisperin'. 'Alone,'" Mrs. +Chump read on; "'and to-morrow I'll pay my respects to what you call +your simmering pot of Emerald broth.' Oh ye hussy! I'd say, if ye +weren't a borrn lady. And signs ut all, 'Your faithful Charlotte.' +Mr. Wilfrud, I'd give five pounds for this letter if I didn't know ye +wouldn't part with it under fifty. And 'deed I am a simmerin' pot; for +she'll be a relation, my dear! Go to 'r. I'll have your bed ready for +ye here at the end of an hour; and to-morrrow perhaps, if Lady Charlotte +can spare me, I'll condescend to see Ad'la." + +Wilfrid fanned her cheek with the note, and then dropped it on her +neck and left the room. He was soon hurrying on his way to the Dolphin: +midway he stopped. "There may be a bad shot in Bella's letter," he +thought. Shop-lights were ahead: a very luminous chemist sent a green +ray into the darkness. Wilfrid fixed himself under it. "Confoundedly +appropriate for a man reading that his wife has run away from him!" he +muttered, and hard quickly plunged into matter quite as absorbing. When +he had finished it he shivered. Thus it ran: + +"My beloved brother, + +"I bring myself to plain words. Happy those who can trifle with human +language! Papa has at last taken us into his confidence. He has +not spoken distinctly; he did us the credit to see that it was +not necessary. If in our abyss of grief we loss delicacy, what is +left?--what! + +"The step he desired to take, Which We Opposed, he has anticipated, And +Must Consummate. + +"Oh, Wilfrid! you see it, do you not? You comprehend me I am surf! I +should have said 'had anticipated.' How to convey to you! (but it would +be unjust to him--to ourselves--were I to say emphatically what I have +not yet a right to think). What I have hinted above is, after all; +nothing but Cornelia's conjecture, I wish I could not say confirmed by +mine. We sat with Papa two hours before any idea of his meaning dawned +upon us. He first scolded us. We both saw from this that more was to +come. + +"I hope there are not many in this world to whom the thought of honour +being tied to money ever appears possible. If it is so there is wide +suffering--deep, for it, must be silent. Cornelia suggests one comfort +for them that they will think less of poverty. + +"Why was Brookfield ever bought? Our old peaceful City-life--the vacant +Sundays!--my ears are haunted by their bells for Evening Service. I said +'There they go, the dowdy population of heaven!' I remember it now. +It should be almost punishment enough to be certain that of all those +people going to church, there cannot be one more miserable than we who +stood at the old window ridiculing them. They at least do not feel +that everything they hope for in human life is dependent upon one human +will--the will of a mortal weather-vane! It is the case, and it must be +conciliated. There is no half-measure--no choice. Feel that nothing you +have ever dreamed of can be a disgrace if it is undergone to forestall +what positively impends, and act immediately. I shall expect to see you +in three days. She is to have the South-west bedroom (mine), for which +she expressed a preference. Prepare every mind for the ceremony:--an old +man's infatuation--money--we submit. It will take place in town. To have +the Tinleys in the church! But this is certainly my experience, that +misfortune makes me feel more and more superior to those whom I despise. +I have even asked myself--was I so once? And, Apropos of Laura! We hear +that their evenings are occupied in performing the scene at Besworth. +They are still as distant as ever from Richford. Let me add that Albert +Tinley requested my hand in marriage yesterday. I agree with Cornelia +that this is the first palpable sign that we have sunk. Consequent upon +the natural consequences came the interview with Papa. + +"Dearest, dearest Wilfrid! can you, can I, can any one of us +settle--that is, involve another life in doubt while doubt exists? Papa +insists; his argument is, 'Now, now, and no delay.' I accuse nothing but +his love. Excessive love is perilous for principle! + +"You have understood me, I know, and forgiven me for writing so nakedly. +I dare not reperuse it. You must satisfy him that Lady C. has fixed a +date. Adela is incomprehensible. One day she sees a friend in Lady +C., and again it is an enemy. Papa's immediate state of health is not +alarming. Above all things, do not let the girl come near him. Papa will +send the cheque you required." + +"When?" Wilfrid burst out upon Arabella's affectionate signature. "When +will he send it? He doesn't do me the honour to mention the time. And +this is his reply to a third application!" + +The truth was that Wilfrid was in dire want of tangible cash simply to +provision his yacht. The light kindled in him by this unsatisfied need +made him keen to comprehend all that Arabella's attempt at plain writing +designed to unfold. + +"Good God, my father's the woman's trustee!" shaped itself in Wilfrid's +brain. + +And next: "If he marries her we may all be as poor as before." That is +to say, "Honour may be saved without ruin being averted." + +His immediate pressing necessity struck like a pulse through all the +chords of dismal conjecture. His heart flying about for comfort, dropped +at Emilia's feet. + +"Bella's right," he said, reverting to the green page in his hand; "we +can't involve others in our scrape, whatever it may be." + +He ceased on the spot to be at war with himself, as he had been for many +a day; by which he was taught to imagine that he had achieved a mental +indifference to misfortune. This lightened his spirit considerably. "So +there's an end of that," he emphasized, as the resolve took form to +tell Lady Charlotte flatly that his father was ruined, and that the son, +therefore, renounced his particular hope and aspiration. + +"She will say, in the most matter-of-fact way in the world, 'Oh, +very well, that quite alters the case,'" said Wilfrid aloud, with the +smallest infusion of bitterness. Then he murmured, "Poor old governor!" +and wondered whether Emilia would come to this place according to his +desire. Love, that had lain crushed in him for the few recent days, +sprang up and gave him the thought, "She may be here now;" but, his eyes +not being satiated instantly with a sight of her, the possibility of +such happiness faded out. + +"Blessed little woman!" he cried openly, ashamed to translate in +tenderer terms the soft fresh blossom of love that his fancy conjured +forth at the recollection of her. He pictured to himself hopefully, +moreover, that she would be shy when they met. A contradictory vision of +her eyes lifted hungry for his first words, or the pressure of his +arm displeased him slightly. It occurred to him that they would be +characterized as a singular couple. To combat this he drew around him +all the mysteries of sentiment that had issued from her voice and her +eyes. She had made Earth lovely to him and heaven human. She--what +a grief for ever that her origin should be what it was! For this +reason:--lovers must live like ordinary people outwardly; and say, ye +Fates, how had she been educated to direct a gentlemen's household? + +"I can't exist on potatoes," he pronounced humorously. + +But when his thoughts began to dwell with fitting seriousness on the +woman-of-the-world tone to be expected from Lady Charlotte, he folded +the mental image of Emilia closely to his breast, and framed a misty +idea of a little lighted cottage wherein she sat singing to +herself while he was campaigning. "Two or three fellows--Lumley and +Fredericks--shall see her," he thought. The rest of his brother officers +were not even to know that he was married. + +His yacht was lying in a strip of moonlight near Sir Twickenham's +companion yawl. He gave one glance at it as at a history finished, and +sent up his name to Lady Charlotte. + +"Ah! you haven't brought the good old dame with you?" she said, rising +to meet him. "I thought it better not to see her to-night." + +He acquiesced, mentioning the lateness of the hour, and adding, "You are +alone?" + +She stared, and let fall "Certainly," and then laughed. "I had forgotten +your regard for the proprieties. I have just sent my maid for Georgiana; +she will sleep here. I preferred to come here, because those people at +the hotel tire me; and, besides, I said I should sleep at the villa, and +I never go back to people who don't expect me." + +Wilfrid looked about the room perplexed, and almost suspicious because +of his unexplained perplexity. Her (as he deemed it--not much above +the level of Mrs. Chump in that respect) aristocratic indifference to +opinion and conventional social observances would have pleased him by +daylight, but it fretted him now. + +Lady Charlotte's maid came in to say that Miss Ford would join her. The +maid was dismissed to her bed. "There's nothing to do there," said her +mistress, as she was moving to the folding-doors. The window facing +seaward was open. He went straight to it and closed it. Next, in an +apparent distraction, he went to the folding-doors. He was about to +press the handle, when Lady Charlotte's quiet remark, "My bedroom," +brought him back to his seat, crying pardon. + +"Have you had news?" she inquired. "You thought that a letter might be +there. Bad, is it?" + +"It is not good," he replied, briefly. + +"I am sorry." + +"That is--it tells me--" (Wilfrid disciplined his tongue) "that I--we +are--a lieutenant on half-pay may say that he is ruined, I suppose, when +his other supplies are cut off!..." + +"I can excuse him for thinking it," said Lady Charlotte. She exhibited +no sign of eagerness for his statement of facts. + +Her outward composure and a hard animation of countenance (which, +having ceased the talking within himself, he had now leisure to notice) +humiliated him. The sting helped him to progress. + +"I may try to doubt it as much as I please, to avoid seeing what must +follow.... I may shut my eyes in the dark, but when the light stares me +in the face...I give you my word that I have not been justified even in +imagining such a catastrophe." + +"The preamble is awful," said Lady Charlotte, rising from her recumbent +posture. + +"Pardon me; I have no right to intrude my feelings. I learn to-day, for +the first time, that we are--are ruined." + +She did not lift her eyebrows, or look fixedly; but without any change +at all, said, "Is there no doubt about it?" + +"None whatever." This was given emphatically. Resentment at the perfect +realization of her anticipated worldly indifference lent him force. + +"Ruined?" she said. + +"Yes." + +"You I'll be more so than you were a month ago. I mean, you tell me +nothing new, I have known it." + +Amid the crush and hurry in his brain, caused by this strange +communication, pressed the necessity to vindicate his honour. + +"I give you the word of a gentleman, Lady Charlotte, that I came to +you the first moment it has been made known to me. I never suspected it +before this day." + +"Nothing would prompt me to disbelieve that." She reached him her hand. + +"You have known it!" he broke from a short silence. + +"Yes--never mind how. I could not allude to it. Of course I had to wait +till you took the initiative." + +The impulse to think the best of what we are on the point of renouncing +is spontaneous. If at the same time this object shall exhibit itself +in altogether new, undreamt-of, glorious colours, others besides a +sentimentalist might waver, and be in some danger of clutching it a +little tenderly ere it is cast off. + +"My duty was to tell you the very instant it came to my knowledge," he +said, fascinated in his heart by the display of greatness of mind which +he now half divined to be approaching, and wished to avoid. + +"Well, I suppose that is a duty between friends?" said she. + +"Between friends! Shall we still--always be friends?" + +"I think I have said more than once that it won't be my fault if we are +not." + +"Because, the greater and happier ambition to which I aspired..." This +was what he designed to say, sentimentally propelled, by way of graceful +exit, and what was almost printed on a scroll in his head for the +tongue to read off fluently. He stopped at 'the greater,' beginning to +stumble--to flounder; and fearing that he said less than was due as a +compliment to the occasion, he said more. + +By no means a quick reader of character, Lady Charlotte nevertheless +perceived that the man who spoke in this fashion, after what she had +confessed, must be sentimentally, if not actually, playing double. + +Thus she came to his assistance: "Are you begging permission to break +our engagement?" + +"At least, whatever I do get I must beg for now!" He took refuge +adroitly in a foolish reply, and it served him. That he had in all +probability lost his chance by the method he had adopted, and +by sentimentalizing at the wrong moment, was becoming evident, +notwithstanding. In a sort of despair he attempted comfort by critically +examining her features, and trying to suit them to one or other of the +numerous models of Love that a young man carries about with him. Her +eyes met his, and even as he was deciding against her on almost every +point, the force of their frankness held his judgement in suspense. + +"The world is rather harsh upon women in these cases," she said, turning +her head a lithe, with a conscious droop of the eyelids. "I will act as +if we had an equal burden between us. On my side, what you have to tell +me does not alter me. I have known it.... You see that I am just the +same to you. For your part, you are free, if you please. That is fair +dealing, is it not?" + +The gentleman's mechanical assent provoked the lady's smile. + +But Wilfrid was torn between a profound admiration of her and the +galling reflection that until she had named the engagement, none had +virtually existed which diplomacy, aided by time and accident, might not +have stopped. + +"You must be aware that I am portionless," she continued. "I have--let +me name the sum--a thousand pounds. It is some credit to me that I have +had it five years and not spent it. Some men would think that a quality +worth double the amount. Well, you will make up your mind to my bringing +you no money;--I have a few jewels. En revanche, my habits are not +expensive. I like a horse, but I can do without one. I like a large +house, and can live in a small one. I like a French cook, and can dine +comfortably off a single dish. Society is very much to my taste; I shall +indulge it when I am whipped at home." + +Wilfrid took her hand and pressed his lips to the fingers, keeping his +face ponderingly down. He was again so divided that the effort to find +himself absorbed all his thinking faculties. + +At last he muttered: "A lieutenant's pay!"--expecting her to reply, "We +can wait," as girls do that find it pleasant to be adored by curates, +Then might follow a meditative pause--a short gaze at her, from +which she could have the option of reflecting that to wait is not the +privilege of those who have lived to acquire patience. The track he +marked out was clever in a poor way; perhaps it was not positively +unkind to instigate her to look at her age: but though he read character +shrewdly, and knew hers pretty accurately, he was himself too much of a +straw at the moment to be capable of leading-moves. + +"We can make up our minds, without great difficulty, to regard the +lieutenant's pay as nothing at all," was Lady Charlotte's answer. "You +will enter the Diplomatic Service. My interest alone could do that. If +we are married, there would be plenty to see the necessity for pushing +us. I don't know whether you could keep the lieutenancy; you might. +I should not like you to quit the Army: an opening might come in it. +There's the Indian Staff--the Persian Mission: they like soldiers +for those Eastern posts. But we must take what we can get. We should, +anyhow, live abroad, where in the matter of money society is more +sensible. We should be able to choose our own, and advertize tea, +brioche, and conversation in return for the delicacies of the season." + +"But you, Charlotte--you could never live that life!" Wilfrid broke in, +the contemplation of her plain sincerity diminishing him to himself. "It +would drag you down too horribly!" + +"Remorse at giving tea in return for dinners and balls?" + +"Ah! there are other things to consider." + +She blushed unwontedly. + +Something, lighted by the blush, struck him as very feminine and noble. + +"Then I may flatter myself that you love me?" he whispered. + +"Do you not see?" she rejoined. "My project is nothing but a whim--a +whim." + +The divided man saw himself whole, if not happy in the ranks of +Diplomacy, with a resolute, frank, faithful woman (a lady of title) +loving him, to back him. Fortune shone ahead, and on the road he saw +where his deficiencies would be filled up by her. She was firm and +open--he irresolute and self-involved. Animal courage both possessed. +Their differences were so extreme that they met where they differed. +It struck him specially now that she would be like Day to his spirit in +continued intercourse. Young as he was he had wisdom to know the right +meaning of the word "helpmate." It was as if the head had dealt the +heart a blow, saying, "See here the lady thou art to serve." But the +heart was a surly rebel. Lady Charlotte was fully justified in retorting +upon his last question: "I think I also should ask, do you love me? It +is not absolutely imperative for the occasion or for the catastrophe, I +merely ask for what is called information." + +And yet, despite her flippancy, which was partly designed to relieve his +embarrassment, her hand was moist and her eyes were singularly watchful. + +"You who sneer at love!" He gave a musical murmur. + +"Not at all. I think it a very useful part of the capital to begin the +married business upon." + +"You unsay your own words." + +"Not 'absolutely imperative,' I think I said, if I remember rightly." + +"But I take the other view, Charlotte." + +"You imagine that there must be a little bit of love." + +"There should be no marriage without it." + +"On both sides?" + +"At least, if not on both sides, one should bring such a love." + +"Enough for two! So, then, we are not to examine your basket?" + +Touched by the pretty thing herein implied, he squeezed her hand. + +"This is the answer?" said she. + +"Can you doubt me?" + +She rose from her seat. "Oh! if you talk in that style, I really am +tempted to say that I do. Are there men--women and women--men? My dear +Wilfrid, have we changed parts to-night?" + +His quickness in retrieving a false position, outwardly, came to his +aid. He rose likewise, and, while perfecting the minor details of an +easy attitude against the mantelpiece, said: "I am so constituted, +Charlotte, that I can't talk of my feelings in a business tone; and I +avoid that subject unless... You spoke of a basket just now. Well, I +confess I can't bring mine into the market and bawl out that I have +so many pounds' weight of the required material. Would a man go to the +market at all if he had nothing to dispose of? In plain words--since +my fault appears to be, according to your reading, in the opposite +direction--should I be here if my sentiments could not reply eloquently +to your question?" + +This very common masterpiece of cunning from a man in a corner, which +suggests with so persuasive an air that he has ruled his actions up +to the very moment when he faces you, and had almost preconceived the +present occasion, rather won Lady Charlotte; or it seemed to, or the +scene had been too long for her vigilance. + +"In the affirmative?" she whispered, coming nearer to him. + +She knew that she had only to let her right shoulder slip under his left +arm, and he would very soon proclaim himself her lover as ardently as +might be wished. Why did she hesitate to touch the blood of the man? It +was her fate never to have her great heart read aright. Wilfrid could +not know that generosity rather than iciness restrained her from +yielding that one unknown kiss which would have given the final spring +to passion in his breast. He wanted the justification of his senses, and +to run headlong blindly. Had she nothing of a woman's instinct? + +"In the affirmative!" was his serene reply. + +"That means 'Yes.'" Her tone had become pleasantly soft. + +"Yes, that means 'Yes,'" said he. + +She shut her eyes, murmuring, "How happy are those who hear that they +are loved!" and opening them, all her face being red, "Say it!" she +pleaded. Her fingers fell upon his wrist. "I have this weakness, +Wilfrid; I wish to hear you say it." + +The flush of her face, and tremour of her fingers, told of an unimagined +agitation hardly to be believed, though seen and felt. Yet, still some +sign, some shade of a repulsion in her figure, kept him as far from her +as any rigid rival might have stipulated for. + +The interrogation to the attentive heavens was partially framed in his +mind, "How can I tell this woman I love her, without..." without putting +his arm about her waist, and demonstrating it satisfactorily to himself +as well as to her? In other words, not so framed, "How, without that +frenzy which shall make me forget whether it be so or not?" + +He remained in his attitude, incapable of moving or speaking, but +fancying, that possibly he was again to catch a glimpse of the vanished +mountain nymph, sweet Liberty. Her woman's instinct warmed more and +more, until, if she did not quite apprehend his condition, she at least +understood that the pause was one preliminary to a man's feeling himself +a fool. + +"Dear Wilfrid," she whispered, "you think you are doubted. I want to be +certain that you think you have met the right woman to help you, in me." + +He passed through the loophole here indicated, and breathed. + +"Yes, Charlotte, I am sure of that. If I could be only half as worthy! +You are full of courage and unselfishness, and, I could swear, faithful +as steel." + +"Thank you--not dogs," she laughed. "I like steel. I hope to be a good +sword in your hand, my knight--or shield, or whatever purpose you put me +to." + +She went on smiling, and seeming to draw closer to him and throw down +defences. + +"After all, Wilfrid, the task of loving your good piece of steel won't +be less thoroughly accomplished because you find it difficult. Sir, I do +not admit any protestation. Handsome faces, musical voices, sly manners, +and methods that I choose not to employ, make the business easy to men." + +"Who discover that the lady is not steel," said Wilfrid. "Need she, in +any case, wear so much there?" + +He pointed, flittingly as it were, with his little finger to the slope +of her neck. + +She turned her wrist, touching the spot: "Here? You have seen, then, +that it is something worn?" + +There followed a delicious interplay of eyes. Who would have thought +that hers could be sweet and mean so much? + +"It is something worn, then? And thrown aside for me only, Charlotte?" + +"For him who loves me," she said. + +"For me!" + +"For him who loves me," she repeated. + +"Then it is for me!" + +She had moved back, showing a harder figure, or the "I love you, love +you!" would have sounded with force. It came, though not so vehemently +as might have been, to the appeal of a soft fixed look. + +"Yes, I love you, Charlotte; you know that I do." + +"You love me?" + +"Yes." + +"Say it." + +"I love you! Dead, inanimate Charlotte, I love you!" + +She threw out her hand as one would throw a bone to a dog. + +"My living, breathing, noble Charlotte," he cried, a little bewitched, +"I love you with all my heart!" + +It surprised him that her features should be gradually expressing less +delight. + +"With all your heart?" + +"Could I give you a part?" + +"It is done, sometimes," she said, mock-sadly. Then, in her original +voice: "Good. I never credited that story of you and the girl Emilia. I +suppose what people say is a lie?" + +Her eyes, in perfect accordance with the tone she had adopted, set a +quiet watch on him. + +"Who says it?" he thundered, just as she anticipated. + +"It's not true?" + +"Not true!--how can it be true?" + +"You never loved Emilia Belloni?--don't love her now?--do not love her +now? If you have ever said that you love Emilia Belloni, recant, and you +are forgiven; and then go, for I think I hear Georgiana below. Quick! +I am not acting. It's earnest. The word, if you please, as you are a +gentleman. Tell me, because I have heard tales. I have been perplexed +about you. I am sure you're a manly fellow, who would never have played +tricks with a girl you were bound to protect; but you might have--pardon +the slang--spooned,--who knows? You might have been in love with her +downright. No harm, even if a trifle foolish; but in the present case, +set my mind at rest. Quick! There are both my hands. Take them, press +them, and speak." + +The two hands were taken, but his voice was not so much at command. No +image of Emilia rose in his mind to reproach him with the casting over +of his heart's dear mistress, but a blind struggle went on. It seemed +that he could do what he dared not utter. The folly of lips more loyal +than the spirit touched his lively perception; and as the hot inward +struggle, masked behind his softly-playing eyes, had reduced his +personal consciousness so that if he spoke from his feeling there was a +chance of his figuring feebly, he put on his ever-ready other self:-- + +"Categorically I reply: Have I loved Miss Emilia Belloni?--No. Do +I?--No. Do I love Charlotte Chillingworth?--Yes, ten thousand times! And +now let Britomart disarm." + +He sought to get his reward by gentle muscular persuasion. Her arms +alone yielded: and he judged from the angle of the neck, ultra-sharp +though it was, that her averted face might be her form of exhibiting +maidenly reluctance, feminine modesty. Suddenly the fingers in his grasp +twisted, and not being at once released, she turned round to him. + +"For God's sake, spare the girl!" + +Emilia stood in the doorway. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +A knock at Merthyr's chamber called him out while he sat writing to +Marini on the national business. He heard Georgiana's voice begging +him to come to her quickly. When he saw her face the stain of tears was +there. + +"Anything the matter with Charlotte?" was his first question. + +"No. But, come: I will tell you on the way. Do not look at me." + +"No personal matter of any kind?" + +"Oh, no! I can have none;" and she took his hand for a moment. + +They passed into the dark windy street smelling of the sea. + +"Emilia is here," said Georgiana. "I want you to persuade her--you will +have influence with her. Oh, Merthyr! my darling brother! I thank God +I love my brother with all my love! What a dreadful thing it is for a +woman to love a man:" + +"I suppose it is, while she has nothing else to do," said Merthyr. "How +did she come?--why?" + +"If you had seen Emilia to-night, you would have felt that the +difference is absolute." Georgiana dealt first with the general case, +"she came, I think, by some appointment." + +"Also just as absolute between her and her sex," he rejoined, +controlling himself, not to be less cool. "What has happened?" + +Georgiana pointed to the hotel whither their steps were bent. "That +is where Charlotte sleeps. Her going there was not a freak; she had +an object. She wished to cure Emilia of her love for Mr. Wilfrid Pole. +Emilia had come down to see him. Charlotte put her in an adjoining room +to hear him say--what I presume they do say when the fit is on them! Was +it not singular folly?" + +It was a folly that Merthyr could not understand in his friend +Charlotte. He said so, and then he gave a kindly sad exclamation of +Emilia's name. + +"You do pity her still!" cried Georgiana, her heart leaping to hear it +expressed so simply. + +"Why, what other feeling can I have?" said he unsuspiciously. + +"No, dear Merthyr," she replied; and only by her tone he read the guilty +little rejoicing in her heart, marvelling at jealousy that could twist +so straight a stem as his sister's spirit. This had taught her, who knew +nothing of love, that a man loving does not pity in such a case. + +"I hope you will find her here:" Georgiana hurried her steps. "Say +anything to comfort her. I will have her with me, and try and teach her +what self-control means, and how it is to be won. If ever she can act +on the stage as she spoke to-night, she will be a great dramatic genius. +She was transformed. She uses strange forcible expressions that one does +not hear in every-day life. She crushed Charlotte as if she had taken +her up in one hand, and without any display at all: no gesture, or +spasm. I noticed, as they stood together, that there is such a contrast +between animal courage and imaginative fire." + +"Charlotte could meet a great occasion, I should think," said Merthyr; +and, taking his sister by the elbow: "You speak as if you had observed +very coolly. Did Emilia leave you so cold? Did she seem to speak from +head, not from heart?" + +"No; she moved me--poor child! Only, how humiliating to hear her beg for +love!--before us." + +Merthyr smiled: "I thought it must be the woman's feeling that would +interfere to stop a natural emotion. Is it true--or did I not see that +certain eyes were red just now?" + +"That was for him," said Georgiana, hastily. "I am sure that no man has +stood in such a position as he did. To see a man made publicly ashamed, +and bearing it. I have never had to endure so painful a sight." + +"To stand between two women, claimed by both, like Solomon's babe! A man +might as well at once have Solomon's judgement put into execution upon +him. You wept for him! Do you know, Georgey, that charity of your +sex, which makes you cry at any 'affecting situation,' must have been +designed to compensate to us for the severities of Providence." + +"No, Merthyr;" she arrested his raillery. "Do I ever cry? But I +thought--if it had been my brother! and almost at the thought I felt the +tears rush at my eyelids, as if the shame had been mine." + +"The probability of its not being your brother seemed distant at the +moment," said Merthyr, with his half-melancholy smile. "Tell me--I can +conjure up the scene: but tell me whether you saw more passions than one +in her face?" + +"Emilia's? No. Her face reminded me of the sombre--that dull glow of a +fire that you leave burning in the grate late on winter nights. Was that +natural? It struck me that her dramatic instinct was as much alive as +her passion." + +"Had she been clumsy, would you not have been less suspicious of her? +And if she had only shown the accustomed northern retenue, and merely +looked all that she had to say 'preserved her dignity'--our womanly +critic would have been completely satisfied." + +"But, Merthyr, to parade her feelings, and then to go on appealing!" + +"On the principle that she ought to be ashamed of them, she was wrong." + +"If you had heard her utter abandonment!" + +"I can believe that she did not blush." + +"It seems to me to belong to those excesses that prompt--that are in +themselves a species of suicide." + +"Love is said to be the death of self." + +"No; but I must use cant words, Merthyr; I do wish to see modesty. Yes, +I know I must be right." + +"There is very little of it to be had in a tropical storm." + +"You admit, then, that this sort of love is a storm that passes?" + +"It passes, I hope." + +"But where is your defence of her now?" + +"Have I defended her? I need not try. A man has deceived her, and she +doesn't think it possible; and has said so, I presume. When she sees it, +she will be quieter than most. She will not reproach him subsequently. +Here is the hotel, and that must be Charlotte's room, if I may judge +by the lights. What pranks will she always be playing! We seem to have +brought new elements into the little town. Do you remember Bergamo the +rainy night the Austrian trooped out of Milan?--one light that was a +thousand in the twinkling of an eye!" + +Having arrived, he ran hastily up to the room, expecting to find the +three; but Lady Charlotte was alone, sitting in her chair with +knotted arms. "Ah, Merthyr!" she said, "I'm sorry you should have been +disturbed. I perceive what Georgey's leaving the room meant. I suppose +the hotel people are used to yachting-parties." And then, not seeing any +friendly demonstration on his part, she folded her arms in another knot. +Georgiana asked where Emilia was. Lady Charlotte replied that Emilia had +gone, and then Wilfrid had followed her, one minute later, to get her +into shelter somewhere. Or put penknives out of her way. "I am rather +fatigued with a scene, Merthyr. I never had an idea before of what your +Southern women were. One plays decidedly second to them while the fit +lasts. Of course, you have a notion that I planned the whole of the +absurd business. This is the case:--I found the girl on the beach: she +follows him everywhere, which is bad for her reputation, because in +this climate people suspect, positive reasons for that kind of female +devotedness. So, to put an end to it--really for her own sake, quite as +much as anything else--am I a monster of insensibility, Merthyr?--I made +her swear an oath: one must be a point above wild animals to feel that +to be binding, however! I made her swear to listen and remain there +silent till I opened the door to set her at liberty. She consented--gave +her word solemnly. I calculated that she might faint, and fixed her in +an arm-chair. Was that cruel? Merthyr, you have called me Austrian more +than once; but, upon my honour, I wanted her to get over her delusion +comfortably. I thought she would have kept the oath, I confess; she +looked up like a child when she was making it. You have heard the rest +from Georgey. I must say the situation was rather hard on Wilfrid. If he +blames me it will be excuseable, though what I did plan was to save him +from a situation somewhat worse. So now you know the whole, Merthyr. +Commence your lecture. Make me a martyr to the sorrows of Italy once +more." + +Merthyr took her wrist, feeling the quick pulse, and dropped it. She +was effectually humbled by this direct method of dealing with her secret +heart. After some commonplace remarks had passed, she herself urged him +to send out men in search for Emilia. Before he went, she murmured a +soft "Forgive me." The pressure of her fingers was replied to, but the +words were not spoken. + +"There," she cried to Georgiana, "I have offended the only man for whose +esteem I care one particle! Devote yourself to your friends!" + +"How? 'devote yourself!'" murmured Georgiana, astonished. + +"Do you think I should have got into this hobble if I hadn't wished to +serve some one else? You must have seen that Merthyr has a sentimental +sort of fondness--call it passion--for this girl. She's his Italy in the +flesh. Is there a more civilized man in the world than Merthyr? So he +becomes fascinated by a savage. We all play the game of opposites--or +like to, and no woman in his class will ever catch him. I couldn't have +believed that he was touched by a girl, but for two or three recent +indications. You must have noticed that he has given up reading others, +and he objected the other day to a responsible office which would have +thrown him into her neighbourhood alone. These are unmistakeable signs +in Merthyr, though he has never been in love, and doesn't understand his +case a bit. Tell me, do you think it impossible?" + +Georgiana answered dryly, "You have fallen into a fresh mistake." + +Exactly. Then let me rescue you from a similar fatality, Georgey. If +your eyes are bandaged now..." + +"Are you going to be devoted to me also, Charlotte?" + +"I believe I'm a miracle of devotion," said the lady, retiring into +indifferent topics upon that phrase. She had at any rate partially +covered the figure of ridicule presented to her feminine imagination by +the aspect of her fair self exposed in public contention with one of +her sex--and for a man. It was enough to make her pulse and her brain +lively. On second thoughts, too, it had struck her that she might +be serving Merthyr in disengaging Emilia; and undoubtedly she served +Georgiana by giving her a warning. Through this silliness went the +current of a clear mind, nevertheless. The lady's heart was justified +in crying out: "What would I not abandon for my friend in his need?" +Meantime her battle in her own behalf looked less pleasing by the light +of new advantages. The question recurred: "Shall I care to win at all?" +She had to force the idea of a violent love to excuse her proceedings. +To get up any flame whatsoever, an occasional blast of jealousy had to +be called for. Jealousy was a quality she could not admit as possible to +her. So she acted on herself by an agent she repudiated, and there was +no help for it. Had Wilfrid loved her the woman's heart was ready. It +was ready with a trembling tenderness, softer and deeper than a girl's. +For Charlotte would have felt: "With this love that I have craved for, +you give me life." And she would have thanked him for both, exultingly, +to feel: "I can repay you as no girl could do;" though she had none of +the rage of love to give; as it was, she thought conscientiously that +she could help him. She liked him: his peculiar suppleness of a growing +mind, his shrouded sensibility, in conjunction with his reputation for +an evidently quite reliable prompt courage, and the mask he wore, which +was to her transparent, pleased her and touched her fancy. + +Nor was he so vain of his person as to make him seem like a boy to her. +He affected maturity. He could pass a mirror on his right or his left +without an abstracted look over either shoulder;--a poor example, but +worth something to a judge of young men. Indeed, had she chosen from a +crowd, the choice would have been one of his age. She was too set for +an older man; but a youth aspiring to be older than he was; whose faults +she saw and forgave; whose merits supplied two or three of her own +deficiencies; whom her station might help to elevate; to whom she +might come as a benefactress; feeling so while she accomplished her own +desire;--such a youth was everything to her, as she awoke to discover +after having played with him a season. If she lost him, what became of +her? Even if she had rejoiced in a mother to plot and play,--to bait and +snare for her, her time was slipping, and the choosers among her class +were wary. Her spirit, besides, was high and elective. It was gradually +stooping to nature, but would never have bowed to a fool, or, save under +protest, to one who gave all. On Wilfrid she had fixed her mind: so, +therefore, she bore the remembrance of the recent scene without much +fretting at her burdens;--the more, that Wilfrid had in no way shamed +her; and the more, that the heat of Emilia's love played round him and +illumined him. This borrowing of the passion of another is not uncommon. + +At daybreak Mrs. Chump was abroad. She had sat up for Wilfrid almost +through the night. "Oh! the arr'stocracy!" she breathed exclamations, as +she swept along the esplanade. "I'll be killed and murdered if I tell +a word." Meeting Captain Gambier, she fell into a great agitation, and +explained it as an anxiety she entertained for Wilfrid; when, becoming +entangled in the mesh of questions, she told all she knew, and nearly as +much as she suspected: which fatal step to retrieve, she entreated his +secresy. Adela was now seen fluttering hastily up the walk, fresh as a +creature of the sea-wave. Before Mrs. Chump could summon her old wrath +of yesterday, she was kissed, and to the arch interrogation as to what +she had done with this young lady's brother, replied by telling the tale +of the night again. Mrs. Chump was ostentatiously caressed into a more +comfortable opinion of the world's morality, for the nonce. Invited +by them to breakfast at the hotel, she hurried back to her villa for a +flounced dress and a lace cap of some pretensions, while they paced the +shore. + +"See what may be said!" Adela's countenance changed as she muttered it. +"Thought, would be enough," she added, shuddering. + +"Yes; if one is off guard--careless," the captain assented, flowingly. + +"Can one in earnest be other than careless? I shall walk on that line up +to the end. Who makes me deviate is my enemy!" + +The playful little person balanced herself to make one foot follow the +other along a piece of washed grey rope on the shingle. Soon she had +to stretch out her hand for help, and the captain at full arm's length +conducted her to the final knot. + +"Arrived safe!" she said, smiling. + +"But not disengaged," he rejoined, in similar style. + +"Please!" She doubled her elbow to give a little tug for her fingers. + +"No." He pressed them tighter. + +"Pray?" + +"No." + +"Must I speak to somebody else to get me released?" + +"Would you?" + +"Must I?" + +"Thank heaven, he is not yet in existence!" + +'Husband' being implied. Games of this sweet sort are warranted to carry +little people as far as they may go swifter than any other invention of +lively Satan. + +The yachting party, including Mrs. Chump, were at the breakfast-table, +and that dumb guest had done all the blushing for Lady Charlotte, when +Wilfrid entered, neat, carefully brushed, and with ready answers, though +his face could put on no fresh colours. To Mrs. Chump he bent, passing, +and was pushed away and drawn back. "Your eyes!" she whispered. + +"My--yeyes!" went Wilfrid, in schoolboy style; and she, who rarely +laughed, was struck by his humorous skill, saying to Sir Twickenham, +beside her: "He's as cunnin' as a lord!" + +Sir Twickenham expressed his ignorance of lords having usurped +priority in that department. Frightened by his portentous parliamentary +phraseology, she remained tolerably demure till the sitting was over: +now sidling in her heart to the sins of the great, whom anon she angrily +reproached. Her principal idea was, that as the world was discovered to +be so wicked, they were all in a boat going to perdition, and it would +be as well to jump out immediately: but while so resolving, she hung +upon Lady Charlotte's looks and little speeches, altogether seduced by +so fresh and frank a sinner. If safe from temptation, here was the soul +of a woman in great danger of corruption. + +"Among the aristocracy," thought Mrs. Chump, "it's just the male that +hangs his head, and the female struts and is sprightly." The contrast +between Lady Charlotte and Wilfrid (who when he ceased to set +outrageously, sat like a man stricken by a bolt), produced this +reflection: and in spite of her disastrous vision of the fate of the +boat they were in, Mrs. Chump owned to the intoxication of gliding +smoothly--gliding on the rapids. + +The breakfast was coming to an end, when Braintop's name was sent in +to Mrs. Chump. She gave a cry of motherly compassion for Braintop, and +began to relate the little deficiencies of his temper, while, as it +were, simmering on her seat to go to him. Wilfrid sent out word for him +to appear, which he did, unluckily for himself, even as Mrs. Chump wound +up the public description of his character by remarking: "He's just the +opposite of a lord, now, in everything." Braintop stood bowing like the +most faithful confirmation of an opinion ever seen. He looked the victim +of fatigue, in the bargain. A light broke on Mrs. Chump. + +"I'll never forgive myself, ye poor gentle heart, to throw pens and +pen-wipers at ye, that did your best, poor boy! What have ye been doin'? +and why didn't ye return, and not go hoppin' about about all night +like a young kangaroo, as they say they do? Have ye read the 'Arcana of +Nature and Science,' ma'am?" + +The Hon. Mrs. Bayruffle, thus abruptly addressed, observed that she had +not, and was it an amusing book? + +"Becas it'll open your mind," pursued Mrs. Chump; "and there, he's +eatin'! and when a man takes to eatin', ye'll never have any fear about +his abouts. And if ye read the 'Arcana of Nature and Science,' ma'am, +ye'll first feel that ye've gone half mad. For it contains averything +in the world; and ye'll read ut ten times all through, and not remember +five lines runnin'! Oh, it's a dreadful book: and that's the book to +read to your husband when he's got a fit o' the gout. He's got nothin' +to do but swallow knolludge then. Now, Mr. Braintop, don't stop, but +tell me as ye go on what ye did with yourself all night." + +A slight hesitation in Braintop caused her to cross-examine him rigidly, +suggesting that he might not dare to tell, and he, exercising some +self-command, adopted narrative as the less ignominious form of +confession. No one save Mrs. Chump listened to him until he mentioned +the name Miss Belloni; and then it was curious to see the steadiness +with which certain eyes, feigning abstraction, fixed in his direction. +He had met Emilia on the outskirts of the town, and unable to persuade +her to take shelter anywhere, had walked on with her in dead silence +through the night, to the third station of the railway for London. + +"Is this a mad person?" asked the Hon. Mrs. Bayruffle. + +Adela shrugged. "A genius." + +"Don't eat with the tips of your teeth, like a bird, Mr. Braintop, +for no company minds your eatin'," cried Mrs. Chump, angrily and +encouragingly; "and this little Belloni--my belief is that she came +after you; and what have ye done with her?" + +It was queerly worried out of Braintop, who was trying his best all the +time to be obedient to Wilfrid's direct eye, that the two wanderers by +night had lost themselves in lanes, refreshed themselves with purloined +apples from the tree at dawn, obtained a draught of morning milk, with +a handful of damsons apiece, and that nothing would persuade Emilia to +turn back from the route to London. Braintop bit daintily at his toast, +unwilling to proceed under the discouraging expression of Wilfrid's +face, and the meditative silence of two or three others. The discovery +was forcibly extracted that Emilia had no money;--that all she had in +her possession was sevenpence and a thimble; and that he, Braintop, had +but a few shillings, which she would not accept. + +"And what has become of her?" was asked. + +Braintop stated that she had returned to London, and, blushing, +confessed that he had given her his return ticket. + +Georgiana here interposed to save him from the awful encomiums of Mrs. +Chump, by desiring to know whether Emilia seemed unhappy or distressed. +Braintop's spirited reply, "Not at all," was corrected to: "She did +not cry;" and further modified: "That is, she called out sharply when I +whistled an opera tune." + +Lady Charlotte put a stop to the subject by rising pointedly. Watch in +hand, she questioned the ladies as to their occupations, and told them +what time they had to dispose of. Then Baynes, captain of the yacht, +heard to be outside, was summoned in. He pronounced doubtfully about the +weather, but admitted that there was plenty of wind, and if the ladies +did not mind it a little fresh, he was sure he did not. Wind was +favourable for the island head-quarters of the yacht. "We'll see who +gets there first," she said to Wilfrid, and the company learnt that +Wilfrid was going to other head-quarters on special business, whereupon +there followed chatter and exclamations. Wilfrid quickly explained that +his father's condition called him away imperiously. To Adela and Mrs. +Chump, demanding peculiar personal explanations, he gave reassuring +reasons separately, aside. Mrs. Chump understood that this was merely +his excuse to get away, that he might see her safe to Brookfield. Adela +only required a look and a gesture. Merthyr and Georgiana likewise spoke +expected adieux, as did Sir Twickenham, who parted company in his own +little yawl. Lady Charlotte, with her head over a map, and one hand +arranging an eye-glass, hastily nodded them off, scarcely looking at +them. She allowed herself to be diverted from this study for an instant +by the unbefitting noise made by Adela for the loss of her brother; +not that she objected to the noise particularly (it was modulated and +delicate in tone), but that she could not understand it. Seeing Sir +Twickenham, however, in a leave-taking attitude, she uttered an easy +"Oh!" to herself, and diligently recommenced spying at ports and +harbours, and following the walnut thumb of Baynes on the map. All +seemed to be perfectly correct in the arrangements. To go to London was +Wilfrid's thought; and the rest were almost as much occupied with their +own ideas. Captain Gambier received their semi-ironical congratulations +and condolences incident to the man who is left alone in the charge of +sweet ladies; and the Hon. Mrs. Bayruffle remarked, that she supposed +ten hours not a long period of time, though her responsibility was +onerous. + +"Lady Gosstre is at the island," said Lady Charlotte, to show where it +might end, if she pleased. Within an hour the yacht was flying for +the island with a full Western breeze: and Mrs. Chump and Wilfrid were +speeding to Brookfield, as the latter permitted her to imagine. Braintop +realized the fruits of the sacrifice of his return ticket by facing Mrs. +Chump in the train. Merthyr had telegraphed to Marini to meet Emilia at +the station in London, and instructed Braintop to deliver a letter for +her at Marini's house. To Marini he wrote: "Let Giulia guard her as no +one but a woman can in such a case. By this time Giulia will know her +value. There is dangerous stuff in her now, and my anxiety is very +great. Have you seen what a nature it is? You have not alluded to her +beyond answers to instructions, but her character cannot have escaped +you. I am never mistaken in my estimates of Italian and Cymric blood. +Singularly, too, she is part Welsh on the mother's side, to judge by +the name. Leave her mind entirely free till it craves openly for some +counteraction. Her Italy and her music will not do. Let them be. My fear +is that you have seen too clearly what a daughter of Italy I have found +for you. But whatever you put up now to distract her, you sacrifice. My +good Marini! bear that in mind. It will be a disgust in her memory, +and I wish her to love her country and her Art when she recovers. So we +treat the disease, dear friend. Let your Italy have no sorrows for her +ears till the storm within is tranquil. I am with you speedily." + +Marini's reply said: "Among all the things we have to thank our Merthyr +for, this treasure, if it is not the greatest he has given to us, makes +us grateful the most. We met her at the station. Ah! there was an elbow +when she gave her hand. She thought to be alone, and started, and hated, +till Giulia smothered her face. And there was dead fire in the eyes, +which is powder when you spring it. We go with her to her new lodging, +and the track is lost. This is your wish? It is pitching new camps to +avoid the enemy. But so! a man takes this disease and his common work +at once of a woman--she is all the disease, till it is extinct, or she! +What is this disease but a silly, a senseless waste? Giulia--woman that +she is!--will not call it so. See her eyes doze and her voice go a soft +buzz when she speaks it! As a dove of the woods! That it almost makes it +sweet to me! Yes, a daughter of Italy! So Giulia has been:--will be? +I know not! So will this your Emilia be in the time that comes to the +young people, she has this, as you say, malady very strong--ma, ogni +male ha la sua ricetta; I can say it of persons. Of nations to think my +heart is as an infidel--very heavy. Ah! till I turn to you--who revive +to the thought, as you were an army of deliverance. For you are Hope. +You know not Despair. You are Hope. And you love as myself a mother +whose son you are not! 'Oh!' is Giulia's cry, 'will our Italy reward +him with a daughter?'--the noblest that we have. Yes, for she would be +Italian always through you. We pray that you may not get old too soon, +before she grows for you and is found, only that you may know in her our +love. See! I am brought to talk this language. The woman is in me." + +Merthyr said, as he read this, "I could wish no better." His feeling for +Emilia waxed toward a self-avowal as she advanced to womanhood; and +the last stage of it had struck among trembling strings in the inmost +chambers of his heart. That last stage of it--her passionate claiming +of Wilfrid before two women, one her rival--slept like a covered furnace +within him. "Can you remember none of her words?" he said more than once +to Georgiana, who replied: "I would try to give you an idea of what she +said, but I might as well try to paint lightning." + +"'My lover'?" suggested Merthyr. + +"Oh, yes; that she said." + +"It sounded oddly to your ears?" + +"Very, indeed." + +"What more?" + +"--did she say, do you mean?" + +"Is my poor sister ashamed to repeat it?" + +"I would repeat anything that would give you pleasure to hear." + +"Sometimes pain, you know, is sweet." + +Little by little, and with a contest at each step, Georgiana coasted the +conviction that her undivided reign was over. Then she judged Emilia by +human nature's hardest standard: the measure of the qualities brought as +usurper and successor. Unconsciously she placed herself in the seat +of one who had fulfilled all the great things demanded of a woman +for Merthyr, and it seemed to her that Emilia exercised some fatal +fascination, girl though she was, to hurl her from that happy +sovereignty. + +But Emilia's worst crime before the arraigning lady was that Wilfrid had +cast her off. Female justice, therefore, said: "You must be unworthy +of my brother;" and female delicacy thought: "You have been soiled by +a previous history." She had pitied Wilfrid: now she held him partially +blameless: and while love was throbbing in many pulses all round her. +The man she had seen besieged by passionate love, touched her cold +imagination with a hue of fire, as Winter dawn lies on a frosty field. +She almost conceived what this other, not sisterly, love might be; +though not as its victim, by any means. She became, as she had never +before been, spiritually tormented and restless. The thought framed +itself that Charlotte and Wilfrid were not, by any law of selection, to +match. What mattered it? Simply that it in some way seemed to increase +the merits of one of the two. The task, moreover, of avoiding to tease +her brother was made easier to her by flying to this new refuge of +mysterious reflection. At times she poured back the whole flood of her +heart upon Merthyr, and then in alarm at the host of little passions +that grew cravingly alive in her, she turned her thoughts to Wilfrid +again; and so, till they turned wittingly to him. That this host of +little passions will invariably surround a false great one, she learnt +by degrees, by having to quell them and rise out of them. She knew that +now she occasionally forced her passion for Merthyr; but what nothing +could teach her was, that she did so to eject another's image. On the +contrary, her confession would have been: "Voluntarily I dwell upon that +other, that my love for Merthyr may avoid excess." To such a state of +clearness much self-questioning brought her: but her blood was as yet +unwarmed; and that is a condition fostering self-deception as much as +when it rages. + +Madame Marini wrote to ask whether Emilia might receive the visits of +a Sir Purcell Barrett, whom they had met, and whom Emilia called her +friend; adding: "The other gentleman has called at our old lodgings +three times. The last time our landlady says, he wept. Is it an +Englishman, really?" + +Merthyr laughed at this, remarking: "Charlotte is not so vigilant, after +all." + +"He wept." Georgiana thought and remembered the cold self-command that +his face had shown when Emilia claimed him, and his sole reply was, "I +am engaged to this lady," designating Lady Charlotte. Now, too, some +of Emilia's phrases took life in her memory. She studied them, thinking +over them, as if a voice of nature had spoken. Less and less it seemed +to her that a woman need feel shame to utter them. She interpreted this +as her growth of charity for a girl so violently stricken with love. +"In such a case, the more she says the more is she to be excused; for +nothing but a frenzy of passion could move her to speak so," thought +Georgiana. Accepting the words, and sanctioning the passion, the person +of him who had inspired it stood magnified in its light. She believed +that if he had played with the girl, he repented, and the idea of a man +shedding tears burnt to her heart. + +Merthyr and Georgiana remained in Devonshire till a letter from Madame +Marini one morning told them that Emilia had disappeared. + +"You delayed too long to go to her, Merthyr," said his sister, +astonishing him. "I understand why; but you may trust to time and scorn +chance too much. Let us go now and find her, if it is not too late." + +Marini met them at the station in London, and they heard that Wilfrid +had discovered Marini's new abode, and had called there that morning. "I +had my eye on him. It was not a piece of love-play," said Marini: "and +today she should have seen my Chief, which would have cured her of sis +pestilence of a love, to give her sublime thoughts. Do you love her, +Miss Ford? Aha! it will be Christian names in Italy again." + +"I like her very much," said Georgiana; "but I confess it mystifies +me to see you all so excited about her. It must be some attraction +possessed by her--what, I cannot say. I like her, certainly." + +"Figlia mia! she is an element--she is fire!" said Marini. "My sought, +when our Mertyr brought her, was, it is Italy he sees in her face--her +voice--name--anysing! And a day passed, and I could not lose her for my +own sake, and felt a somesing, too! She is half man." + +"A singular reason for an attraction." Georgiana smiled. + +"She is not," Marini put out his fingers like claws to explain, while +his eyelashes met over his eyes--"she is not what man has made of your +sex; and she is brave of heart." + +"Can you possibly tell what such a child can be?" questioned Georgiana, +almost irritably. + +Marini did not reply to her. + +"A face to find a home in!--eh, Mertyr?" + +"Let's discover where that face has found a home," said Merthyr. "She is +a very plain and unpretending person, if people will not insist upon her +being more. This morbid admiration of heroines puts a trifle too much +weight upon their shoulders, does it not?" + +Georgiana knew that to call Emilia 'child' was to wound the most +sensitive nerve in Merthyr's system, if he loved her, and she had +determined to try harshly whether he did. Nevertheless, though the +expression succeeded, and was designedly cruel, she could not forgive +the insincerity of his last speech; craving in truth for confidence +as her smallest claim on him now. So, at all the consultations, she +acquiesced in any scheme that was proposed; the advertizings and the use +of detectives; the communication with Emilia's mother and father; and +the callings at suburban concert-rooms. Sir Purcell Barrett frequently +called to assist in the discovery. At first he led them to suspect Mr. +Pericles; but a trusty Italian playing spy upon that gentleman soon +cleared him, and they were more in the dark than ever. It was only +when at last Georgiana heard Merthyr, the picture of polished +self-possession, giving way to a burst of disappointment in the +room before them all: "Are we sure that she lives?" he cried:--then +Georgiana, looking at the firelight over her joined fingers, said:-- + +"But, have you forgotten the serviceable brigade you have in your +organ-boys, Marini? If Emilia sees one, be sure she will speak to him." + +"Have I not said she is a General?" Marini pointed at Georgiana with a +gleam of his dark eyes, and Merthyr squeezed his sister's hand, thanking +her; by which he gave her one whole night of remorse, because she had +not spoken earlier. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +"My voice! I have my voice!" + +Emilia had cried it out to herself almost aloud, on the journey from +Devon to London. The landscape slipping under her eyes, with flashing +grey pools and light silver freshets, little glades, little copses, +farms, and meadows rounding away to spires of village churches under +blue hills, would not let her sink, heavy as was the spirit within her, +and dead to everything as she desired to be. Here, a great strange old +oak spread out its arms and seemed to hold the hurrying train a minute. +When gone by, Emilia thought of it as a friend, and that there, there, +was the shelter and thick darkness she had hoped she might be flying +to. Or the reach of a stream was seen, and in the middle of it one fair +group of clouds, showing distance beyond distance in colour. Emilia shut +her sight, and tried painfully to believe that there were no distances +for her. This was an easy task when the train stopped. It was surprising +to her then why the people moved. The whistle of the engine and rush +of the scenery set her imagination anew upon the horror of being +motionless. + +"My voice! I have my voice!" The exclamation recurred at intervals, as +a quick fear, that bubbled up from blind sensation, of her being utterly +abandoned, and a stray thing carrying no light, startled her. Darkness +she still had her desire for; but not to be dark in the darkness. She +looked back on the recent night as a lake of fire, through which she had +plunged; and of all the faculties about her, memory had suffered most, +so that it could recall no images of what had happened, but lay against +its black corner a shuddering bundle of nerves. The varying fields and +woods and waters offering themselves to her in the swiftness, were as +wine dashed to her lips, which could not be dead to it. The wish to be +of some worth began a painful quickening movement. At first she could +have sobbed with the keen anguish that instantaneously beset her. +For--"If I am of worth, who looks on me?" was her outcry, and the +darkness she had previously coveted fell with the strength of a mace on +her forehead; but the creature's heart struggled further, and by-and-by +in despite of her the pulses sprang a clear outlook on hope. It struck +through her like the first throb of a sword-cut. She tried to blind +herself to it; the face of hope was hateful. + +This conflict of the baffled spirit of youth with its forceful flood of +being continued until it seemed that Emilia was lifted through the +fiery circles into daylight; her last cry being as her first: "I have my +voice!" + +Of that which her voice was to achieve for her she never thought. She +had no thought of value, but only an eagerness to feel herself possessor +of something. Wilfrid had appeared to her to have taken all from her, +until the recollection of her voice made her breathe suddenly quick and +deep, as one recovering the taste of life. + +Despair, I have said before, is a wilful business, common to corrupt +blood, and to weak woeful minds: native to the sentimentalist of the +better order. The only touch of it that came to Emilia was when she +attempted to penetrate to Wilfrid's reason for calling her down to Devon +that he might renounce and abandon her. She wanted a reason to make him +in harmony with his acts, and she could get none. This made the world +look black to her. But, "I have my voice!" she said, exhausted by the +passion of the night, tearless, and only sensible to pain when the keen +swift wind, and the flying squares of field and meadow prompted her +nature mysteriously to press for healthy action. + +A man opposite to her ventured a remark: "We're going at a pretty good +pace now, miss." + +She turned her eyes to him, and the sense of speed was reduced in her at +once, she could not comprehend how. Remembering presently that she had +not answered him, she said: "It is because you are going home, perhaps, +that you think it fast." + +"No, miss," he replied, "I'm going to market. They can't put on steam +too stiff for me when I'm bound on business." + +Emilia found it impossible to fathom the sensations of the man, and +their common desire for speed bewildered her more. She was relieved +when the train was lightened of him. Soon the skirts of red vapour were +visible, and when the guard took poor Braintop's return-ticket from her +petulant hand, all of the journey that she bore in mind was the sight +of a butcher-boy in blue, with a red cap, mounted on a white horse, who +rode gallantly along a broad highroad, and for whom she had struck out +some tune to suit the measure of his gallop. + +She accepted her capture by the Marinis more calmly than Merthyr had +been led to suppose. The butcher-boy's gallop kept her senses in motion +for many hours, and that reckless equestrian embodied the idea of the +vivifying pace from which she had dropped. He went slower and slower. +By degrees the tune grew dull, and jarred; and then Emilia looked out +on the cold grey skies of our autumn, the rain and the fogs, and roaring +London filled her ears. So had ended a dream, she thought. She would +stand at the window listening to street-organs, whose hideous discord +and clippings and drawls did not madden her, and whose suggestion of +a lovely tune rolled out no golden land to her. That treasure of her +voice, to which no one in the house made allusion, became indeed a +buried treasure. + +In the South-western suburb where the Marinis lived, plots of foliage +were to be seen, and there were lanes not so black but that they showed +the hues of the season. These led to the parks and to noble gardens. +Emilia daily went out to keep the dying colours of the year in view, and +walked to get among the trees, where, with Madame attendant on her, she +sat counting the leaves as each one curved, and slid, and spun to earth, +or on a gust of air hosts went aloft; but it always ended in their +coming down; Emilia verified that fact repeatedly. However high they +flew, the ground awaited them. Madame entertained her with talk of +Italy, and Tuscan wine, and Lombard bread, and Turin chocolate. +Marini never alluded to his sufferings for the loss of these cruelly +interdicted dainties, never! But Madame knew how his exile affected him. +And in England the sums one paid for everything! "One fancies one pays +for breath," said Madame, shivering. + +One day the ex-organist of Hillford Church passed before them. Emilia +let him go. The day following he passed again, but turned at the end of +the alley and simulated astonishment at the appearance of Emilia, as he +neared her. They shook hands and talked, while Madame zealously eyed any +chance person promenading the neighbourhood. She wrote for instructions +concerning this gentleman calling himself Sir Purcell Barrett, and +receiving them, she permitted Emilia to invite him to their house. "He +is an Englishman under a rope, ready for heaven," Madame described him +to her husband, who, though more at heart with Englishmen, could not but +admit that this one wore a look that appeared as a prognostication of +sadness. + +Sir Purcell informed Emilia of his accession to title; and in reply to +her "Are you not glad?" smiled and said that a mockery could scarcely +make him glad; indicating nevertheless how feeble the note of poverty +was in his grand scale of sorrow. He came to the house and met them in +the gardens frequently. With some perversity he would analyze to herself +Emilia's spirit of hope, partly perhaps for the sake of probing to what +sort of thing it might be in its nature and defences; and, as against an +accomplished disputant she made but a poor battle, he injured what was +precious to her without himself gaining any good whatever. + +"Why, what do you look forward to?" she said wondering, at the end of +one of their arguments, as he courteously termed this play of logical +foils with a baby. + +"Death," answered the grave gentleman, striding on. + +Emilia pitied him, thinking: "I might feel as he does, if I had not my +voice." Seeing that calamity very remote, she added: "I should!" + +She knew of his position toward Cornelia: that is, she knew as much +as he did: for the want of a woman's heart over which to simmer +his troubles was urgent within him and Emilia's, though it lacked +experience, was a woman's regarding love. And moreover, she did not +weep, but practically suggested his favourable chances, which it was a +sad satisfaction to him to prove baseless, and to knock utterly over. +The grief in which the soul of a human creature is persistently seeking +(since it cannot be thrown off) to clothe itself comfortably, finds in +tears an irritating expression of sympathy. Hints of a brighter future +are its nourishment. Such embryos are not tenacious of existence, and +when destroyed they are succulent food for a space to the moody grief I +am describing. + +The melancholy gentleman did Emilia this good, that, never appearing to +imagine others to know misery save himself, he gave her full occupation +apart from the workings of her own mind. As to her case, he might +have offered the excuse that she really had nothing of the aspect of a +lovesick young lady, and was not a bit sea-green to view, or lamentable +in tone. He was sufficiently humane to have felt for anyone suffering, +and the proof of it is, that the only creature he saw under such an +influence he pitied so deplorably, as to make melancholy a habit with +him. He fretted her because he would do nothing, and this spectacle of +a lover beloved, but consenting to be mystified, consentingly +paralyzed:--of a lover beloved--! + +"Does she love you?" said Emilia, beseechingly. + +"If the truth is in her, she does," he returned. + +"She has told you she loves you?--that she loves no one else?" + +"Of this I am certain." + +"Then, why are you downcast? my goodness! I would take her by the hand +'Woman; do you know yourself? you belong to me!'--I would say that; and +never let go her hand. That would decide everything. She must come +to you then, or you know what it is that means to separate you. My +goodness! I see it so plain!" + +But he declined to look thus low, and stood pitifully smiling:--This +spectacle, together with some subtle spur from the talk of love, roused +Emilia from her lethargy. The warmth of a new desire struck around her +heart. The old belief in her power over Wilfrid joined to a distinct +admission that she had for the moment lost him; and she said, "Yes; now, +as I am now, he can abandon me:" but how if he should see her and hear +her in that hushed hour when she was to stand as a star before men? +Emilia flushed and trembled. She lived vividly though her far-projected +sensations, until truly pity for Wilfrid was active in her bosom, she +feeling how he would yearn for her. The vengeance seemed to her so keen +that pity could not fail to come. Thus, to her contemplation, their +positions became reversed: it was Wilfrid now who stood in the darkness, +unselected. Her fiery fancy, unchained from the despotic heart, +illumined her under the golden future. + +"Come to us this evening, I will sing to you," she said, and the +'Englishman under a rope' bowed assentingly. + +"Sad songs, if you like," she added. + +"I have always thought sadness more musical than mirth," said he. +"Surely there is more grace in sadness!" + +Poetry, sculpture, and songs, and all the Arts, were brought forward in +mournful array to demonstrate the truth of his theory. + +When Emilia understood him, she cited dogs and cats, and birds, and all +things of nature that rejoiced and revelled, in support of the opposite +view. + +"Nay, if animals are to be your illustration!" he protested. He had been +perhaps half under the delusion that he spoke with Cornelia, and with a +sense of infinite misery, he compressed the apt distinction that he had +in his mind; which was to show where humanity and simple nature drew a +line, and wherein humanity claimed the loftier seat. + +"But such talk must be uttered to a soul," he phrased internally, and +Emilia was denied what belonged to Cornelia. + +Hitherto Emilia had refused to sing, and Madame Marini, faithful to her +instructions, had never allowed her to be pressed to sing. Emilia would +brood over notes, thinking: "I can take that; and that; and dwell on +such and such a note for any length of time;" but she would not call up +her voice; she would not look at her treasure. It seemed more to her, +untouched; and went on doubling its worth, until doubtless her idea +of capacity greatly relieved her of the burden on her breast, and +the reflection that she held a charm for all, and held it from all, +flattered one who had been cruelly robbed. + +On their way homeward, among the chrysanthemums in the long garden-walk, +they met Tracy Runningbrook, between whose shouts of delight and +Emilia's reserve there was so marked a contrast that one would have +deemed Tracy an offender in her sight. She had said to him entreatingly, +"Do not come," when he volunteered to call on the Marinis in the +evening; and she got away from him as quickly as she could, promising to +be pleased if he called the day following. Tracy flew leaping to one of +the great houses where he was tame cat. When Sir Purcell as they passed +on spoke a contemptuous word of his soft habits and idleness, Emilia +said: "He is one of my true friends." + +"And why is he interdicted the visit this evening?" + +"Because," she answered, and grew pale, "he--he does not care for music. +I wish I had not met him." + +She recollected how Tracy's flaming head had sprung up before her--he +who had always prophesied that she would be famous for arts unknown to +her, and not for song just when she was having a vision of triumph and +caressing the idea of her imprisoned voice bursting its captivity, and +soaring into its old heavens. + +"He does not care for music!" interjected Sir Purcell, with something +like a frown. "I have nothing in common with him. But that I might +have known. I can have nothing in common with a man who is not to be +impressed by music." + +"I love him quite as well," said Emilia. "He is a quick friend. I am +always certain of him." + +"And I imagine also that you are quits with your quick friend," added +Sir Purcell. "You do not care for verse, or he for voices!" + +"Poetry?" said Emilia; "no, not much. It seems like talking on tiptoe; +like animals in cages, always going to one end and back again...." + +"And making the same noise when they get at the end--like the bears!" +Sir Purcell slightly laughed. "You don't approve of the rhymes?" + +"Yes, I like the rhymes; but when you use words--I mean, if you are +in earnest--how can you count and have stops, and--no, I do not care +anything for poetry." + +Sir Purcell's opinion of Emilia, though he liked her, was, that if a +genius, she was an incomplete one; and his positive judgement (which +I set down in phrase that would have startled him) ranked both her and +Tracy as a pair of partial humbugs, entertaining enough. They were both +too real for him. + +Haply at that moment the girl was intensely susceptible, for she chilled +by his side; and when he left her she begged Madame to walk fast. "I +wonder whether I have a cold!" she said. + +Madame explained all the signs of it with tragic minuteness, deciding +that Emilia was free at present, and by miracle, from this English +scourge; but Emilia kept her hands at her mouth. Over the hornbeam hedge +of the lane that ran through the market-gardens, she could see a murky +sunset spreading its deep-coloured lines, that seemed to her really +like a great sorrowing over earth. It had never seemed so till now; and, +entering the house, the roar of vehicles in a neighbouring road sounded +like something implacable in the order of things among us, and clung +about her ears pitilessly. Running upstairs, she tried a scale of notes +that broke on a cough. "Did I cough purposely?" she asked herself; +but she had not the courage to try the notes again. While dressing she +hummed a passage, and sought stealthily to pass the barrier of her own +watchfulness by dwelling on a deep note, from which she was to rise +bursting with full bravura energy, and so forth on a tide of song. But +her breath failed. She stared into the glass and forced the note. A +panic caught at her heart when she heard the sound that issued. "Am +I ill? I must be hungry!" she exclaimed. "It is a cough! But I don't +cough! What is the matter with me?" + +Under these auspices she forced her voice again, and subsequently +loosened her dress, complaining of the dressmaker's affection for +tightness. "Now," she said, having fallen upon an attempt at simple "do, +re, me, fa," and laughed at herself. Was it the laugh, that stopping +her at "si," made that "si" so husky, asthmatic, like the wheezing of a +crooked old witch? "I am unlucky, to-night," said Emilia. Or, rather, +so said her surface-self. The submerged self--self in the depths--rarely +speaks to the occasions, but lies under calamity quietly apprehending +all; willing that the talker overhead should deceive others, and herself +likewise, if possible. Emilia found her hands acting daintily and +critically in the attirement of her person; and then surprised herself +murmuring: "I forgot that Tracy won't be here to-night." By which she +betrayed that she had divined those arts she was to shine in, according +to Tracy; and betrayed that she had a terrible fear of a loss of all +else. It pained her now that Tracy should not be coming. "Can I send +for him?" she thought, as she looked winningly into the glass, trying to +feel what sort of a feeling it was to be in love with a face like +that one fronting her, so familiar in its aspects, so strange when +scrutinized studiously! She drew a chair, and laying her elbow on the +toilet-table, gazed hard, until the thought: "What face did Wilfrid see +last?" (meaning, "when he saw me last") drove her away. + +Not only did she know herself now a face of many faces; but the +life within her likewise as a soul of many souls. The one Emilia, so +unquestioning, so sure, lay dead; and a dozen new spirits, with but +a dim likeness to her, were fighting for possession of her frame, now +occupying it alone, now in couples; and each casting grim reflections on +the other. Which is only a way of telling you that the great result of +mortal suffering--consciousness--had fully set in; to ripen; perhaps to +debase; at any rate, to prove her. + +To be of worth was still her fixed idea--all that was clear in the +thickening mist. "I cannot be ugly," she said, and reproved herself for +simulating a childish tone. "Why do I talk in that way? I know I am not +ugly. But if a fire scorched my face? There is nothing that seems safe!" +The love of friends was suggested to her as something to rely on; and +the loving them. "But if I have nothing to give!" said Emilia, and +opened both her empty hands. She had diverted her mind from the pressure +upon it, by this colloquy with a looking-glass, and gave herself a great +rapture by running up notes to this theme:-- + +"No, no, no, no, no!--nothing! nothing!" + +Clear, full, sonant notes; the notes of her true voice. She did not +attempt them a second time; nor, when Sir Purcell requested her to sing +in the course of the evening, did she comply. "The Signora thinks I have +a cold," she said. Madame Marini protested that she hoped not, she even +thought not, though none could avoid it at this season in this climate, +and she turned to Sir Purcell to petition for any receipts he might have +in his possession, specifics for warding off the frightful affliction of +households in England. + +"I have now twenty," said Madame, and throwing up her eyes; "I have +tried all! oh! so many lozenge!" + +Marini and Emilia laughed. While Sir Purcell was maintaining the fact of +his total ignorance of the subject against Madame's incredulity, Emilia +left the room. When she came back Madame was pressing her visitor to +be explicit with regard to a certain process of cure conducted by an +application of cold water. The Neapolitan gave several shudders as she +marked him attentively. "Water cold!" she murmured with the deepest +pathos, and dropped her face in her hands with narrowed shoulders. +Emilia held a letter over to Sir Purcell. He took it, first assuring +himself that Marini was in complicity with them. To Marini Emilia +addressed a Momus forefinger, and Marini shrugged, smiling. "Water +cold!" ejaculated Madame, showing her countenance again. "In winter! +Luigi, they are mad!" Marini poked the fire briskly, for his sensations +entirely sided with his wife. + +The letter Sir Purcell held contained these words: + + "Be kind, and meet me to-morrow at ten in the morning, at that place + where you first saw me sitting. I want you to take me to one who + will help me. I cannot lose time any more. I must work. I have + been dead for I cannot say how long. I know you will come. + + "I am, for ever, + + "Your thankful friend, + + "Emilia." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +The pride of punctuality brought Sir Purcell to that appointed seat in +the gardens about a minute in advance of Emilia. She came hurrying up to +him with three fingers over her lips. The morning was cold; frost edged +the flat brown chestnut and beech leaves lying about on rimy grass; +so at first he made no remark on her evident unwillingness to open her +mouth, but a feverish look of her eyes touched him with some kindly +alarm for her. + +"You should not have come out, if you think you are in any danger," he +said. + +"Not if we walk fast," she replied, in a visibly-controlled excitement. +"It will be over in an hour. This way." + +She led the marvelling gentleman toward the row, and across it under +the big black elms, begging him to walk faster. To accommodate her, he +suggested, that if they had any distance to go, they might ride, and +after a short calculating hesitation, she consented, letting him know +that she would tell him on what expedition she was bound whilst they +were riding. The accompaniment of the wheels, however, necessitated a +higher pitch of her voice, which apparently caused her to suffer from a +contraction of the throat, for she remained silent, with a discouraged +aspect, her full brown eyes showing as in a sombre meditation beneath +the thick brows. The direction had been given to the City. On they went +with the torrent, and were presently engulfed in fog. The roar grew +muffled, phantoms poured along the pavement, yellow beamless lights were +in the shop-windows, all the vehicles went at a slow march. + +"It looks as if Business were attending its own obsequies," said Sir +Purcell, whose spirits were enlivened by an atmosphere that confirmed +his impression of things. + +Emilia cried twice: "Oh! what cruel weather!" Her eyelids blinked, +either with anger or in misery. + +They were set down a little beyond the Bank, and when they turned from +the cabman, Sir Purcell was warm in his offer of his arm to her, for he +had seen her wistfully touching what money she had in her pocket, and +approved her natural good breeding in allowing it to pass unmentioned. + +"Now," he said, "I must know what you want to do." + +"A quiet place! there is no quiet place in this City," said Emilia +fretfully. + +A gentleman passing took off his hat, saying, with City politeness, +"Pardon me: you are close to a quiet place. Through that door, and +the hall, you will find a garden, where you will hear London as if it +sounded fifty miles off." + +He bowed and retired, and the two (Emilia thankful, Sir Purcell tending +to anger), following his indication, soon found themselves in a most +perfect retreat, the solitude of which they had the misfortune, however, +of destroying for another, and a scared, couple. + +Here Emilia said: "I have determined to go to Italy at once. Mr. +Pericles has offered to pay for me. It's my father's wish. And--and +I cannot wait and feel like a beggar. I must go. I shall always love +England--don't fear that!" + +Sir Purcell smiled at the simplicity of her pleading look. + +"Now, I want to know where to find Mr. Pericles," she pursued. "And if +you will come to him with me! He is sure to be very angry--I thought you +might protect me from that. But when he hears that I am really going at +last--at once!--he can laugh sometimes! you will see him rub his hands." + +"I must enquire where his chambers are to be found," said Sir Purcell. + +"Oh! anybody in the City must know him, because he is so rich." Emilia +coughed. "This fog kills me. Pray make haste. Dear friend, I trouble +you very much, but I want to get away from this. I can hardly breathe. I +shall have no heart for my task, if I don't see him soon." + +"Wait for me, then," said Sir Purcell; "you cannot wait in a better +place. And I must entreat you to be careful." He half alluded to the +adjustment of her shawl, and to anything else, as far as she might +choose to apprehend him. Her dexterity in tossing him the letter, unseen +by Madame Marini, might have frightened him and given him a dread, that +albeit woman, there was germ of wickedness in her. + +This pained him acutely, for he never forgot that she had been the +means of his introduction to Cornelia, from whom he could not wholly +dissociate her: and the idea that any prospective shred of impurity hung +about one who had even looked on his beloved, was utter anguish to the +keen sentimentalist. "Be very careful," he would have repeated, but that +he had a warning sense of the ludicrous, and Emilia's large eyes when +they fixed calmly on a face were not of a flighty east She stood, too, +with the "dignity of sadness," as he was pleased to phrase it. + +"She must be safe here," he said to himself. And yet, upon reflection, +he decided not to leave her, peremptorily informing her to that effect. +Emilia took his arm, and as they were passing through the hall of +entrance they met the same gentleman who had directed them to the spot +of quiet. Both she and Sir Purcell heard him say to a companion: "There +she is." A deep glow covered Emilia's face. "Do they know you?" asked +Sir Purcell. "No," she said: and then he turned, but the couple had gone +on. + +"That deserves chastisement," he muttered. Briefly telling her to +wait, he pursued them. Emilia was standing in the gateway, not at all +comprehending why she was alone. "Sandra Belloni!" struck her ear. +Looking forward she perceived a hand and a head gesticulating from +a cab-window. She sprang out into the street, and instantly the hand +clenched and the head glared savagely. It was Mr. Pericles himself, in +travelling costume. + +"I am your fool?" he began, overbearing Emilia's most irritating "How +are you?" and "Are you quite well? + +"I am your fool? hein? You send me to Paris! to Geneve! I go over Lago +Maggiore, and aha! it is your joke, meess! I juste return. Oh capital! +At Milano I wait--I enquire--till a letter from old Belloni, and I learn +I am your fool--of you all! Jomp in." + +"A gentleman is coming," said Emilia, by no means intimidated, though +the forehead of Mr. Pericles looked portentous. "He was bringing me to +you." + +"Zen, jomp in!" cried Mr. Pericles. + +Here Sir Purcell came up. + +Emilia said softly: "Mr. Pericles." + +There was the form of a bow of moderate recognition between them, but +other hats were off to Emilia. The two gentlemen who had offended Sir +Purcell had insisted, on learning the nature of their offence, that they +had a right to present their regrets to the lady in person, and beg an +excuse from her lips. Sir Purcell stood white with a futile effort at +self-control, as one of them, preluding "Pardon me," said: "I had the +misfortune to remark to my friend, as I passed you, 'There she is.' May +I, indeed, ask your pardon? My friend is an artist. I met him after +I had first seen you. He, at least, does not think foolish my +recommendation to him that he should look on you at all hazards. Let me +petition you to overlook the impertinence." + +"I think, gentlemen, you have now made the most of the advantage my +folly, in supposing you would regret or apologize fittingly for an +impropriety, has given you," interposed Sir Purcell. + +His new and superior tone (for he had previously lost his temper and +spoken with a silly vehemence) caused them to hesitate. One begged the +word of pardon from Emilia to cover his retreat. She gave it with an air +of thorough-bred repose, saying, "I willingly pardon you," and looking +at them no more, whereupon they vanished. Ten minutes later, Emilia and +Sir Purcell were in the chambers of Mr. Pericles. + +The Greek had done nothing but grin obnoxiously to every word spoken on +the way, drawing his hand down across his jaw, to efface the hard pale +wrinkles, and eyeing Emilia's cavalier with his shrewdest suspicious +look. + +"You will excuse,"--he pointed to the confusion of the room they were +in, and the heap of unopened letters,--"I am from ze Continent; I do not +expect ze pleasure. A seat?" + +Mr. Pericles handed chairs to his visitors. + +"It is a climate, is it not," he resumed. + +Emilia said a word, and he snapped at her, immediately adding, "Hein? +Ah! so!" with a charming urbanity. + +"How lucky that we should meet you," exclaimed Emilia. "We were just +coming to you--to find out, I mean, where you were, and call on you." + +"Ough! do not tell me lies," said Mr. Pericles, clasping the hollow of +his cheeks between thumb and forefinger. + +"Allow me to assure you that what Miss Belloni has said is perfectly +correct," Sir Purcell remarked. + +Mr. Pericles gave a short bow. "It is ze same; I am much obliged." + +"And you have just come from Italy?" said Emilia. + +"Where you did me ze favour to send me, it is true. Sanks!" + +"Oh, what a difference between Italy and this!" Emilia turned her face +to the mottled yellow windows. + +"Many sanks," repeated Mr. Pericles, after which the three continued +silent for a time. + +At last Emilia said, bluntly, "I have come to ask you to take me to +Italy." + +Mr. Pericles made no sign, but Sir Purcell leaned forward to her with a +gaze of astonishment, almost of horror. + +"Will you take me?" persisted Emilia. + +Still the sullen Greek refused either to look at her or to answer. + +"Because I am ready to go," she went on. "I want to go at once; to-day, +if you like. I am getting too old to waste an hour." + +Mr. Pericles uncrossed his legs, ejaculating, "What a fog! Ah!" and that +was all. He rose, and went to a cupboard. + +Sir Purcell murmured hurriedly in Emilia's ear, "Have you considered +what you've been saying?" + +"Yes, yes. It is only a journey," Emilia replied, in a like tone. + +"A journey!" + +"My father wishes it." + +"Your mother?" + +"Hush! I intend to make him take the Madre with me." + +She designated Mr. Pericles, who had poured into a small liqueur glass +some green Chartreuse, smelling strong of pines. His visitors declined +to eject the London fog by this aid of the mountain monks, and Mr. +Pericles warmed himself alone. + +"You are wiz old Belloni," he called out. + +"I am not staying with my father," said Emilia. + +"Where?" Mr. Pericles shed a baleful glance on Sir Purcell. + +"I am staying with Signor Marini." + +"Servente!" Mr. Pericles ducked his head quite low, while his hand swept +the floor with an imaginary cap. Malice had lighted up his features, and +finding, after the first burst of sarcasm, that it was vain to indulge +it toward an absent person, he altered his style. "Look," he cried to +Emilia, "it is Marini stops you and old Belloni--a conspirator, aha! Is +it for an artist to conspire, and be carbonaro, and kiss books, and, mon +Dieu! bon! it is Marini plays me zis trick. I mark him. I mark him, I +say! He is paid by young Pole. I hold zat family in my hand, I say! So +I go to be met by you, and on I go to Italy. I get a letter at +Milano,--'Marini stop me at Dover,' signed 'Giuseppe Belloni.' Ze letter +have been spied into by ze Austrians. I am watched--I am dogged--I +am imprisoned--I am examined. 'You know zis Giuseppe Belloni?' 'Meine +Herrn! he was to come. I leave word at Paris for him, at Geneve, at +Stresa, to bring his daughter to ze Conservatoire, for which I pay. She +has a voice--or she had.'" + +"Has!" exclaimed Emilia. + +"Had!" Mr. Pericles repeated. + +"She has!" + +"Zen sing!" with which thunder of command, Mr. Pericles gave up his +vindictive narration of the points of his injuries sustained, and, +pitching into a chair, pressed his fingers to his temples, frowning +attention. His eyes were on the floor. Presently he glanced up, and saw +Emilia's chest rising quickly. No voice issued. + +"It is to commence," cried Mr. Pericles. "Hein! now sing." + +Emilia laid her hand under her throat. "Not now! Oh, not now! When you +have told me what those Austrians did to you. I want to hear; I am very +anxious to hear. And what they said of my father. How could he have come +to Milan without a passport? He had only a passport to Paris." + +"And at Paris I leave instructions for ze procuration of a passport over +Lombardy. Am I not Antonio Pericles Agriolopoulos? Sing, I say!" + +"Ah, but what voices you must have heard in Italy," said Emilia softly. +"I am afraid to sing after them. Si: I dare not." + +She panted, little in keeping with the cajolery of her tones, but she +had got Mr. Pericles upon a theme serious to his mind. + +"Not a voice! not one!" he cried, stamping his foot. "All is French. I +go twice wizin six monz, and if I go to a goose-yard I hear better. Oh, +yes! it is tune--'ta-ta-ta--ti-ti-ti--to!' and of ze heart--where is +zat? Mon Dieu! I despair. I see music go dead. Let me hear you, Sandra." + +His enthusiasm had always affected Emilia, and painfully since her love +had given her a consciousness of infidelity to her Art, but now the +pathetic appeal to her took away her strength, and tears rose in her +eyes at the thought of his faith in her. His repetition of her name--the +'Sandra' being uttered with unwonted softness--plunged her into a fit of +weeping. + +"Ah!" Mr. Pericles shouted. "See what she has come to!" and he walked +two or three paces off to turn upon her spitefully, "she will be +vapeurs, nerfs, I know not! when it wants a physique of a saint! Sandra +Belloni," he added, gravely, "lift up ze head! Sing, 'Sempre al tuo +santo nome.'" + +Emilia checked her tears. His hand being raised to beat time, she could +not withstand the signal. "Sempre;"--there came two struggling notes, to +which another clung, shuddering like two creatures on the deeps. + +She stopped; herself oddly calling out "Stop." + +"Stop who, donc?" Mr. Pericles postured an indignant interrogation. + +"I mean, I must stop," Emilia faltered. "It's the fog. I cannot sing in +this fog. It chokes me." + +Apparently Mr. Pericles was about to say something frightfully savage, +which was restrained by the presence of Sir Purcell. He went to the door +in answer to a knock, while Emilia drew breath as calmly as she +might; her head moving a little backward with her breathing, in a sad +mechanical way painful to witness. Sir Purcell stretched his hand out to +her, but she did not take it. She was listening to voices at the door. +Was it really Mr. Pole who was there? Quite unaware of the effect +the sight of her would produce on him, Emilia rose and walked to the +doorway. She heard Mr. Pole abusing Mr. Pericles half banteringly for +his absence while business was urgent, saying that they must lay their +heads together and consult, otherwise--a significant indication appeared +to close the sentence. + +"But if you've just come off your journey, and have got a lady in there, +we must postpone, I suppose. Say, this afternoon. I'll keep up to the +mark, if nothing happens...." + +Emilia pushed the door from the hand of Mr. Pericles, and was advancing +toward the old man on the landing; but no sooner did the latter verify +to his startled understanding that he had seen her, than with an +exclamation of "All right! good-bye!" he began a rapid descent, of the +stairs. A distance below, he bade Mr. Pericles take care of her, and as +an excuse for his abrupt retreat, the word "busy" sounded up. + +"Does my face frighten him?" Emilia thought. It made her look on +herself with a foreign eye. This is a dreadful but instructive piece +of contemplation; acting as if the rich warm blood of self should +have ceased to hug about us, and we stand forth to be dissected +unresistingly. All Emilia's vital strength now seemed to vanish. At the +renewal of Mr. Pericles' peremptory mandate for her to sing, she could +neither appeal to him, nor resist; but, raising her chest, she made +her best effort, and then covered her face. This was done less for +concealment of her shame-stricken features than to avoid sight of the +stupefaction imprinted upon Mr. Pericles. + +"Again, zat A flat!" he called sternly. + +She tried it. + +"Again!" + +Again she did her utmost to accomplish the task. If you have seen a girl +in a fit of sobs elevate her head, with hard-shut eyelids, while her +nostrils convulsively take in a long breath, as if for speech, but it +is expended in one quick vacant sigh, you know how Emilia looked. And it +requires a humane nature to pardon such an aspect in a person from whom +we have expected triumphing glances and strong thrilling tones. + +"What is zis?" Mr. Pericles came nearer to her. + +He would listen to no charges against the atmosphere. Commanding her to +give one simple run of notes, a contralto octave, he stood over her with +keenly watchful eyes. Sir Purcell bade him observe her distress. + +"I am much obliged," Mr. Pericles bowed, "she is ruined. I have +suspected. Ha! But I ask for a note! One!" + +This imperious signal drew her to another attempt. The deplorable sound +that came sent Emilia sinking down with a groan. + +"Basta, basta! So, it is zis tale," said Mr. Pericles, after an +observation of her huddled shape. "Did I not say--" + +His voice was so menacingly loud and harsh that Sir Purcell remarked: +"This is not the time to repeat it--pardon me--whatever you said." + +"Ze fool--she play ze fool! Sir, I forget ze Christian--ah! Purcell!--I +say she play ze fool, and look at her! Why is it she comes to me now? A +dozen times I warn her. To Italy! to Italy! all is ready: you will have +a place at ze Conservatorio. No: she refuse. I say 'Go, and you are a +queen. You are a Prima at twenty, and Europe is beneas you.' No: she +refuse, and she is ruined. 'What,' I say, 'what zat dam silly smile +mean?' Oh, no! I am not lazy!' 'But you area fool!' 'Oh, no!' 'And what +are you, zen? And what shall you do?' Nussing! nussing! nussing! And, +dam! zere is an end." + +Emilia had caught blindly at Sir Purcell's hand, by which she raised +herself, and then uncovering her face, looked furtively at the malign +furnace-white face of Mr. Pericles. + +"It cannot have gone,"--she spoke, as if mentally balancing the +possibility. + +"It has gone, I say; and you know why, Mademoiselle ze Fool!" Mr. +Pericles retorted. + +"No, no; it can't be gone. Gone? voices never go!" + +The reiteration of the "You know why," from Mr. Pericles, and all the +wretchedness of loss it suggested, robbed her of the little spark of +nervous fire by which she felt half-reviving in courage and confidence. + +"Let me try once more," she appealed to him, in a frenzy. + +Mr. Pericles, though fully believing in his heart that it might only +be a temporary deprivation of voice, affected to scout the notion of +another trial, but finally extended his forefinger: "Well, now; start! +'Sempre al tuo Santo!' Commence: Sem--" and Mr. Pericles hummed the +opening bar, not as an unhopeful man would do. The next moment he was +laughing horribly. Emilia, to make sure of the thing she dreaded, forced +the note, and would not be denied. What voice there was in her came to +the summons. It issued, if I may so express it, ragged, as if it had +torn through a briar-hedge: then there was a whimper of tones, and +the effect was like the lamentation of a hardly-used urchin, lacking a +certain music that there is in his undoubted heartfelt earnestness. No +single note poised firmly for the instant, but swayed, trembling on its +neighbour to right and to left when pressed for articulate sound, it +went into a ghastly whisper. The laughter of Mr. Pericles was pleasing +discord in comparison. + + + + +CHAPTER XL + +Emilia stretched out her hand and said, "Good-bye." Seeing that the +hardened girl, with her dead eyelids, did not appear to feel herself at +his mercy, and also that Sir Purcell's forehead looked threatening, Mr. +Pericles stopped his sardonic noise. He went straight to the door, which +he opened with alacrity, and mimicking very wretchedly her words of +adieu, stood prepared to bow her out. She astonished him by passing +without another word. Before he could point a phrase bitter enough for +expression, Sir Purcell had likewise passed, and in going had given him +a quietly admonishing look. + +"Zose Poles are beggars!" Mr. Pericles roared after them over the +stairs, and slammed his door for emphasis. Almost immediately there +was a knock at it. Mr. Pericles stood bent and cat-like as Sir Purcell +reappeared. The latter, avoiding all preliminaries, demanded of the +Greek that he should promise not to use the names of his friends +publicly in such a manner again. + +"I require a promise for the future. An apology will be needless from +you." + +"I shall not give it," said Mr. Pericles, with a sharp lift of his upper +lip. + +"But you will give me the promise I have returned for." + +In answer Mr. Pericles announced that he had spoken what was simply +true: that the prosperity of the Poles was fictitious: that he, or any +unfavourable chance, could ruin them: and that their friends might do +better to protect their interests than by menacing one who had them in +his power. + +Sir Purcell merely reiterated his demand for the promise, which was +ultimately snarled to him; whereupon he retired, joy on his features. +For, Cornelia poor, she might be claimed by him fearlessly: that is to +say, without the fear of people whispering that the penniless baronet +had sued for gold, and without the fear of her father rejecting his +suit. At least he might, with this knowledge that he had gained, appoint +to meet her now! All the morning Sir Purcell had been combative, owing +to that subordinate or secondary post he occupied in a situation of some +excitement;--which combativeness is one method whereby men thus placed, +imagining that they are acting devotedly for their friends, contrive +still to assert themselves. He descended to the foot of the stairs, +where he had told Emilia to wait for him, full of kind feelings and +ready cheerful counsels; as thus: "Nothing that we possess belongs to +us;--All will come round rightly in the end; Be patient, look about for +amusement, and improve your mind." And more of this copper coinage of +wisdom in the way of proverbs. But Emilia was nowhere visible to receive +the administration of comfort. Outside the house the fog appeared to +have swallowed her. With some chagrin on her behalf (partly a sense +of duty unfulfilled) Sir Purcell made his way to the residence of the +Marinis, to report of her there, if she should not have arrived. The +punishment he inflicted on himself in keeping his hand an hour from +that letter to be written to Cornelia, was almost pleasing; and he +was rewarded by it, for the projected sentences grew mellow and rich, +condensed and throbbed eloquently. What wonder, that with such a mental +occupation, he should pass Emilia and not notice her? She let him go. + +But when he was out of sight, all seemed gone. The dismally-lighted city +wore a look of Judgement terrible to see. Her brain was slave to her +senses: she fancied she had dropped into an underground kingdom, among +a mysterious people. The anguish through which action had just hurried +her, now fell with a conscious weight upon her heart. She stood a +moment, seeing her desolation stretch outwardly into endless labyrinths; +and then it narrowed and took hold of her as a force within: changing +thus, almost with each breathing of her body. + +The fog had thickened. Up and down the groping city went muffled men, +few women. Emilia looked for one of her sex who might have a tender +face. Desire to be kissed and loved by a creature strange to her, and +to lay her head upon a woman's bosom, moved her to gaze around with +a longing once or twice; but no eyes met hers, and the fancy recurred +vividly that she was not in the world she had known. Otherwise, what +had robbed her of her voice? She played with her fancy for comfort, long +after any real vitality in it had oozed out. Her having strength to +play at fancies showed that a spark of hope was alive. In truth, firm +of flesh as she was, to believe that all worth had departed from her was +impossible, and when she reposed simply on her sensations, very little +trouble beset her: only when she looked abroad did the aspect of +numerous indifferent faces, and the harsh flowing of the world its own +way, tell her she had lost her power. Could it be lost? The prospect of +her desolation grew so wide to her that she shut her eyes, abandoning +herself to feeling; and this by degrees moved her to turn back and throw +herself at the feet of Mr. Pericles. For, if he said, "Wait, my child, +and all will come round well," she was prepared blindly to think so. The +projection of the words in her mind made her ready to weep: but as she +neared the house of his office the wish to hear him speak that, became +passionate; she counted all that depended on it, and discovered the size +of the fabric she had built on so thin a plank. After a while, her steps +were mechanically swift. Before she reached the chambers of Mr. Pericles +she had walked, she knew not why, once round the little quiet enclosed +city-garden, and a cold memory of those men who had looked at her face +gave her some wonder, to be quickly kindled into fuller comprehension. + +Beholding Emilia once more, Mr. Pericles enjoyed a revival of his taste +for vengeance; but, unhappily for her, he found it languid, and when he +had rubbed his hands, stared, and by sundry sharp utterances brought her +to his feet, his satisfaction was less poignant than he had expected. As +a consequence, instead of speaking outrageously, according to his habit, +in wrath, he was now frigidly considerate, informing Emilia that it +would be good for her if she were dead, seeing that she was of no use +whatever; but, as she was alive, she had better go to her father and +mother, and learn knitting, or some such industrial employment. "Unless +zat man for whom you play fool!--" Mr. Pericles shrugged the rest of his +meaning. + +"But my voice may not be gone," urged Emilia. "I may sing to you +to-morrow--this evening. It must be the fog. Why do you think it lost? +It can't be--" + +"Cracked!" cried Mr. Pericles. + +"It is not! No; do not think it. I may stay here. Don't tell me to go +yet. The streets make me wish to die. And I feel I may, perhaps, sing +presently. Wait. Will you wait?" + +A hideous imitation of her lamentable tones burst from Mr. Pericles. +"Cracked!" he cried again. + +Emilia lifted her eyes, and looked at him steadily. She saw the idea +grow in the eyes fronting her that she had a pleasant face, and she at +once staked this little bit of newly-conceived worth on an immediate +chance. Remember; that she was as near despair as a creature constituted +so healthily could go. Speaking no longer in a girlish style, but with +the grave pleading manner of a woman, she begged Mr. Pericles to take +her to Italy, and have faith in the recovery of her voice. He, however, +far from being softened, as he grew aware of her sweetness of feature, +waxed violent and insulting. + +"Take me," she said. "My voice will reward you. I feel that you can cure +it." + +"For zat man! to go to him again!" Mr. Pericles sneered. + +"I never shall do that." There sprang a glitter as of steel in Emilia's +eyes. "I will make myself yours for life, if you like. Take my hand, and +let me swear. I do not break my word. I will swear, that if I recover +my voice to become what you expected,--I will marry you whenever you ask +me, and then--" + +More she was saying, but Mr. Pericles, sputtering a laugh of "Sanks!" +presented a postured supplication for silence. + +"I am not a man who marries." + +He plainly stated the relations that the woman whom he had distinguished +by the honours of selection must hold toward him. + +Emilia's cheeks did not redden; but, without any notion of shame at the +words she listened to, she felt herself falling lower and lower the +more her spirit clung to Mr. Pericles: yet he alone was her visible +personification of hope, and she could not turn from him. If he cast +her off, it seemed to her that her voice was condemned. She stood there +still, and the cold-eyed Greek formed his opinion. + +He was evidently undecided as regards his own course of proceeding, for +his chin was pressed by thumb and forefinger hard into his throat, while +his eyebrows were wrinkled up to their highest elevation. From this +attitude, expressive of the accurate balancing of the claims of an +internal debate, he emerged into the posture of a cock crowing, and +Emilia heard again his bitter mimicry of her miserable broken tones, +followed by, "Ha! dam! Basta! basta!" + +"Sit here," cried Mr. Pericles. He had thrown himself into a chair, and +pointed to his knee. + +Emilia remained where she was standing. + +He caught at her hand, but she plucked that from him. Mr. Pericles rose, +sounding a cynical "Hein!" + +"Don't touch me," said Emilia. + +Nothing exasperates certain natures so much as the effort of the visibly +weak to intimidate them. + +"I shall not touch you?" Mr. Pericles sneered. "Zen, why are you here?" + +"I came to my friend," was Emilia's reply. + +"Your friend! He is not ze friend of a couac-couac. Once, if you please: +but now" (Mr. Pericles shrugged), "now you are like ze rest of women. +You are game. Come to me." + +He caught once more at her hand, which she lifted; then at her elbow. + +"Will you touch me when I tell you not to?" + +There was the soft line of an involuntary frown over her white face, and +as he held her arm from the doubled elbow, with her clenched hand aloft, +she appeared ready to strike a tragic blow. + +Anger and every other sentiment vanished from Mr. Pericles in the +rapturous contemplation of her admirable artistic pose. + +"Mon Dieu! and wiz a voice!" he exclaimed, dashing his fist in a +delirium of forgetfulness against the one plastered lock of hair on his +shining head. "Little fool! little dam fool!--zat might have been"--(Mr. +Pericles figured in air with his fingers to signify the exaltation she +was to have attained)--"Mon Dieu! and look at you! Did I not warn you? +non a vero? Did I not say 'Ruin, ruin, if you go so? For a man!--a +voice! You will not come to me? Zen, hear! you shall go to old Belloni. +I do not want you, my pretty dear. Woman is a trouble, a drug. You +shall go to old Belloni; and, crack! if ze voice will come back to a +whip,--bravo, old Belloni!" + +Mr. Pericles turned to reach down his hat from a peg. At the same +instant Emilia quitted the room. + +Dusk was deepening the yellow atmosphere, and the crowd was now steadily +flowing in one direction. The bereaved creature went with the stream, +glad to be surrounded and unseen, till it struck her, at last, that she +was moving homeward. She stopped with a pang of grief, turned, and met +all those people to whom the fireside was a beacon. For some time she +bore against the pressure, but her loneliness overwhelmed her. None +seemed to go her way. For a refuge, she turned into one of the city +side streets, where she was quite alone. Unhappily, the street was of +no length, and she soon came to the end of it. There was the choice +of retracing her steps, or entering a strange street; and while she +hesitated a troop of sheep went by, that made a piteous noise. She +followed them, thinking curiously of the something broken that appeared +to be in their throats. By-and-by, the thought flashed in her that they +were going to be slaughtered. She held her step, looking at them, but +without any tender movement of the heart. They came to a butcher's yard, +and went in. + +When she had passed along a certain distance, a shiver seized her, +and her instinct pushed her toward the lighted shops, where there were +pictures. In one she saw the portrait of that Queen of Song whom she had +heard at Besworth. Two young men, glancing as they walked by arm in +arm, pronounced the name of the great enchantress, and hummed one of +her triumphant airs. The features expressed health, humour, power, every +fine animal faculty. Genius was on the forehead and the plastic mouth; +the forehead being well projected, fair, and very shapely, showing clear +balance, as well as capacity to grasp flame, and fling it. The line +reaching to a dimple from the upper lip was saved from scornfulness by +the lovely gleam, half-challenging, half-consoling, regal, roguish--what +you would--that sat between her dark eyelashes, like white sunlight on +the fringed smooth roll of water by a weir. Such a dimple, and such a +gleam of eyes, would have been keys to the face of a weakling, and it +was the more fascinating from the disregard of any minor charm notable +upon this grand visage, which could not suffer a betrayal. You saw, +and there was no effort to conceal, that the spirit animating it was +intensely human; but it was human of the highest chords of humanity, +indifferent to finesse and despising subtleties; gifted to speak, to +inspire, and to command all great emotions. In fact, it was the masque +of a dramatic artist in repose. Tempered by beauty, the robust frame +showed that she possessed a royal nature, and could, as a foremost +qualification for Art, feel harmoniously. She might have many of the +littlenesses of which women are accused; for Art she promised unspotted +excellence; and, adorable as she was by attraction of her sex, she was +artist over all. + +Emilia found herself on one of the bridges, thinking of this aspect. +Beneath her was the stealing river, with its red intervals, and the fog +had got a wider circle. She could not disengage that face from her mind. +It seemed to say to her, boldly, "I live because success is mine;" and +to hint, as with a paler voice, "Death the fruit of failure." Could she, +Emilia, ever be looked on again by her friends? The dread of it gave her +shudders. Then, death was certainly easy! But death took no form in her +imagination, as it does to one seeking it. She desired to forget and to +hide her intolerable losses; to have the impostor she felt herself to +be buried. As she walked along she held out her hands, murmuring, +"Helpless! useless!" It came upon her as a surprise that one like +herself should be allowed to live. "I don't want to," she said; and the +neat moment, "I wonder what a drowned woman is like?" She hurried +back to the streets and the shops. The shops failed now to give her +distraction, for a stiff and dripping image floated across all the +windows, and she was glad to see the shutters being closed; though, when +the streets were dark, some friendliness seemed to have gone. When the +streets were quits dark, save for the row of lamps, she walked fast, +fearing she knew not what. + +A little Italian boy sat doubled over his organ on a doorstep, while +a yet smaller girl at his elbow plied him with questions in English. +Emilia stopped before them, and the girl complained to her that the +perverse little foreigner would not answer. Two or three words in his +native tongue soon brought his face to view. Emilia sat down between +them, and listened to the prattle of two languages. The girl said that +she never had supper, which was also the case with the boy; so Emilia +felt for her purse, and sent the girl with sixpence in search of a shop +that sold cafes. The girl came back with her apron full. As they were +all about to eat, a policeman commanded them to quit the spot, informing +them that he knew both them and their dodges. Emilia stood up, and +was taking her little people away, when the policeman, having suddenly +changed his accurate opinion of her, said, "You're giving 'em some +supper, miss? Oh, they must sit down to their suppers, you know!" and +walked away, not to be a witness of this infraction of the law. So, they +sat down and ate, and the boy and girl tried to say intelligible things +to one another, and laughed. Emilia could not help joining in their +laughter. The girl was very anxious to know whether the boy was +ever beaten, and hearing that he was, she appeared better satisfied, +remarking that she was also, but curious still as to the different +forms of chastisement they received. This being partially explained, +she wished to know whether he would be beaten that night, Emilia +interpreting. A grin, and a rapid whistle and 'cluck,' significant of +the application of whips, told the state of his expectations; at which +the girl clapped her hands, adding, lamentably, "So shall I, 'cause I am +always." Emilia gathered them under each shoulder, when, to her delight +and half perplexity, they closed their eyes, leaning against her. + +The policeman passed, and for an hour endured this spectacle. At last +he felt compelled to explain to Emilia what were the sentiments of +gentlefolks with regard to their doorsteps, apart from the law of +the matter. He put it to her human nature whether she would like her +doorsteps to be blocked, so that no one could enter, and anyone emerging +stood a chance of being precipitated, nose foremost, upon the pavement. +Then, again, as gentle-folks had good experience of, the young ones in +London were twice as cunning as the old. Emilia pleaded for her sleeping +pair, that they might not be disturbed. Her voice gave the keeper of +the peace notions of her being one of the eccentric young ladies who are +occasionally 'missing,' and have advertizing friends. He uttered a stern +ahem! preliminary to assent; but the noise wakened the children, who +stared, and readily obeyed his gesture, which said, "Be off!" while his +words were those of remonstrance. Emilia accompanied them a little way. +Both promised eagerly that they would be at the same place the night +following and departed--the boy with laughing nods and waving of hands, +which the girl imitated. Emilia's feeling of security went with them. +She at once feigned a destination in the distance, and set forward to +reach it, but the continued exposure of this delusion made it difficult +to renew. She fell to counting the hours that were to elapse before she +would meet those children, saying to herself, that whatever she did she +must keep her engagement to be at the appointed steps. This restriction +set her darkly fancying that she wished for her end. + +Remembering those men who had looked at her admiringly, "Am I worth +looking at?" she said; and it gave her some pleasure to think that she +had it still in her power to destroy a thing of value. She was savagely +ashamed of going to death empty-handed. By-and-by, great fatigue +stiffened her limbs, and she sat down from pure want of rest. The luxury +of rest and soothing languor kept hard thoughts away. She felt as +if floating, for a space. The fear of the streets left her. But when +necessity for rest had gone, she clung to the luxury still, and sitting +bent forward, with her hands about her knees, she began to brood over +tumbled images of a wrong done to her. She had two distinct visions of +herself, constantly alternating and acting like the temptation of two +devils. One represented her despicable in feature, and bade her die; the +other showed a fair face, feeling which to be her own, Emilia had fits +of intolerable rage. This vision prevailed; and this wicked side of her +humanity saved her. Active despair is a passion that must be superseded +by a passion. Passive despair comes later; it has nothing to do with +mental action, and is mainly a corruption or degradation of our blood. +The rage in Emilia was blind at first, but it rose like a hawk, and +singled its enemy. She fixed her mind to conceive the foolishness of +putting out a face that her rival might envy, and of destroying anything +that had value. The flattery of beauty came on her like a warm garment. +When she opened her eyes, seeing what she was and where, she almost +smiled at the silly picture that had given her comfort. Those men had +looked on her admiringly, it was true, but would Wilfrid have ceased +to love her if she had been beautiful? An extraordinary intuition of +Wilfrid's sentiment tormented her now. She saw herself in the light +that he would have seen her by, till she stood with the sensations of an +exposed criminal in the dark length of the street, and hurried down it, +back, as well as she could find her way, to the friendly policeman. + +Her question on reaching him, "Are you married?" was prodigiously +astonishing, and he administered the rebuff of an affirmative with +severity. "Then," said Emilia, "when you go home, let me go with you to +your wife. Perhaps she will consent to take care of me for this night." +The policeman coughed mildly and replied, "It's plain you know nothing +of women--begging your pardon, miss,--for I can see you're a lady." +Emilia repeated her petition, and the policeman explained the nature of +women. Not to be baffled, Emilia said, "I think your wife must be a good +woman." Hereat the policeman laughed, arming "that the best of them knew +what bad suspicions was." Ultimately, he consented to take her to his +wife, when he was relieved, after the term of so many minutes. Emilia +stood at a distance, speculating on the possible choice he would make of +a tune to accompany his monotonous walk to and fro, and on the certainty +of his wearing any tune to nothing. + +She was in a bed, sleeping heavily, a little before dawn. + +The day that followed was her day of misery. The blow that had stunned +her had become as a loud intrusive pulse in her head. By this new +daylight she fathomed the depth, and reckoned the value, of her loss. +And her senses had no pleasure in the light, though there was sunshine. +The woman who was her hostess was kind, but full of her first surprise +at the strange visit, and too openly ready for any information the young +lady might be willing to give with regard to her condition, prospects, +and wishes. Emilia gave none. She took the woman's hand, asking +permission to remain under her protection. The woman by-and-by named a +sum of money as a sum for weekly payment, and Emilia transferred all +to her that she had. The policeman and his wife thought her, though +reasonable, a trifle insane. She sat at a window for hours watching a +'last man' of the fly species walking up and plunging down a pane +of glass. On this transparent solitary field for the most objectless +enterprise ever undertaken, he buzzed angrily at times, as if he had +another meaning in him, which was being wilfully misinterpreted. Then he +mounted again at his leisure, to pitch backward as before. Emilia found +herself thinking with great seriousness that it was not wonderful +for boys to be always teasing and killing flies, whose thin necks and +bobbing heads themselves suggested the idea of decapitation. She said to +her hostess: "I don't like flies. They seem never to sing but when +they are bothered." The woman replied: "Ah, indeed?" very smoothly, +and thought: "If you was to bust out now, which of us two would be +strongest?" Emilia grew distantly aware that the policeman and his wife +talked of her and watched her with combined observation. + +When it was night she went to keep her appointment. The girl was there, +but the boy came late. He said he had earned only a few pence that day, +and would be beaten. He spoke in a whimpering tone which caused the girl +to desire a translation of his words. Emilia told her how things were +with him, and the girl expressed a wish that she had an organ, as in +that case she would be sure to earn more than sixpence a day; such being +the amount that procured her nightly a comfortable reception in the arms +of her parents. "Do you like music?" said Emilia. The girl replied that +she liked organs; but, as if to avoid committing an injustice, cited +parrots as foremost in her affections. Holding them both to her breast, +Emilia thought that she would rescue them from this beating by giving +them the money they had to offer for kindness: but the restlessness of +the children suddenly made her a third party to the thought of +cakes. She had no money. Her heart bled for the poor little hungry, +apprehensive creatures. For a moment she half fancied she had her voice, +and looked up at the windows of the pitiless houses with a bold look; +but there was a speedy mockery of her thought "You shall listen: you +shall open!" She coughed hoarsely, and then fell into fits of crying. +Her friend the policeman came by and took her arm with a force that he +meant to be persuasive; so lifting her and handing her some steps beyond +the limit of his beat, with stern directions for her to proceed home +immediately. She obeyed. Next day she asked her hostess to lend her +half-a-crown. The woman snapped shortly in answer: "No; the less you +have the better." Emilia was obliged to abandon her little people. + +She was to this extent the creature of mania: that she could not +conceive of a way being open by which she might return to her father and +mother, or any of her friends. It was to her not a matter for her +will to decide upon, but simply a black door shut that nothing could +displace. When the week, for which term of shelter she had paid, was +ended, her hostess spoke upon this point, saying, more to convince +Emilia of the necessity for seeking her friends than from any +unkindness: "Me and my husband can't go on keepin' you, you know, my +dear, however well's our meaning." Emilia drew the woman toward her with +both her lands, softly shaking her head. She left the house about noon. + +It was now her belief that she had probably no more than another day to +live, for she was destitute of money. The thought relieved her from that +dreadful fear of the street, and she walked at her own pace, even +after dark. The rumble and the rattle of wheels; the cries and grinding +noises; the hum of motion and talk; all under the lingering smoky red +of a London Winter sunset, were not discord to her animated blood. Her +unhunted spirit made a music of them. It was not like the music of other +days, nor was the exultation it created at all like happiness: but she +at least forgot herself. Voices came in her ear, and hung unheard until +long after the speaker had passed. Hunger did not assail her. She was +not beset by an animal weakness; and having in her mind no image of +death, and with her ties to life cut away;--thus devoid of apprehension +or regret, she was what her quick blood made her, for the time. She +recognized that, for one near extinction, it was useless to love or to +hate: so Wilfrid and Lady Charlotte were spared. Emilia thought of them +both with a sort of equanimity; not that any clear thought filled her +brain through that delirious night. The intoxicating music raged there +at one level depression, never rising any scale, never undulating ever +so little, scarcely changing its barbarous monotony of notes. She had +no power over it. Her critical judgement would at another moment have +shrieked at it. She was moved by it as by a mechanical force. + +The South-west wind blew, and the hours of the night were not evil to +outcasts. Emilia saw many lying about, getting rest where they might. +She hurried her eye pityingly over little children, but the devil +that had seized her sprang contempt for the others--older beggars, who +appeared to succumb to their fate when they should have lifted their +heads up bravely. On she passed from square to market, market to park; +and presently her mind shot an arrow of desire for morning, which was +nothing less than hunger beginning to stir. "When will the shops open?" +She tried to cheat herself by replying that she did not care when, but +pangs of torment became too rapid for the counterfeit. Her imagination +raised the roof from those great rich houses, and laid bare a brilliancy +of dish-covers; and if any sharp gust of air touched the nerve in +her nostril, it seemed instantaneously charged with the smell of old +dinners. "No," cried Emilia, "I dislike anything but plain food." She +quickly gave way, and admitted a craving for dainty morsels. "One +lump of sugar!" she subsequently sighed. But neither sugar nor meat +approached her. + +Her seat was under trees, between a man and a woman who slanted from +her with hidden chins. The chilly dry leaves began to waken, and the sky +showed its grey. Hunger had become as a leaden ball in Emilia's chest. +She could have eaten eagerly still, but she had no ravenous images of +food. Nevertheless, she determined to beg for bread at a baker's shop. +Coming into the empty streets again, the dread of exposing her solitary +wretchedness and the stains of night upon her, kept her back. When she +did venture near the baker's shop, her sensation of weariness, want of +washing, and general misery, made her feel a contrast to all other women +she saw, that robbed her of the necessary effrontery. She preferred to +hide her head. + +The morning hours went in this conflict. She was between-whiles hungry +and desperate, or stricken with shame. Fatigue, bringing the imperious +necessity for rest, intervened as a relief. Emilia moaned at the weary +length of the light, but when dusk fell and she beheld flame in the +lamps, it seemed to be too sudden and she was alarmed. Passive despair +had set in. She felt sick, though not weak, and the thought of asking +help had gone. + +A street urchin, of the true London species, in whom excess of woollen +comforter made up for any marked scantiness in the rest of his attire, +came trotting the pavement, pouring one of the favourite tunes of his +native metropolis through the tube of a penny-whistle, from which it did +not issue so disguised but that attentive ears might pronounce it the +royal march of the Cannibal Islands. A placarded post beside a lamp met +this musician's eye; and, still piping, he bent his knees and read the +notification. Emilia thought of the Hillford and Ipley clubmen, the big +drum, the speeches, the cheers, and all the wild strength that lay in +her that happy morning. She watched the boy piping as if he were reading +from a score, and her sense of humour was touched. "You foolish boy!" +she said to herself softly. But when, having evidently come to the last +printed line, the boy rose and pocketed his penny-whistle, Emilia was +nearly laughing. "That's because he cannot turn over the leaf," she +said, and stood by the post till long after the boy had disappeared. +The slight emotion of fun had restored to her some of her lost human +sensations, and she looked about for a place where to indulge them +undisturbed. One of the bridges was in sight She yearned for the +solitude of the wharf beside it, and hurried to the steps. To descend +she had to pass a street-organ and a small figure bent over it. "Sei +buon' Italiano?" she said. The answer was a surly "Si." Emilia cried +convulsively "Addio!" Her brain had become on a sudden vacant of a +thought, and all she knew was that she descended. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI + +"Sei buon' Italiana?" + +Across what chasm did the words come to her? + +It seemed but a minutes and again many hours back, that she had asked +that question of a little fellow, who, if he had looked up and nodded +would have given her great joy, but who kept his face dark from her +and with a sullen "Si" extinguished her last feeling of a desire for +companionship with life. + +"Si," she replied, quite as sullenly, and without looking up. + +But when her hand was taken and other words were uttered, she that had +crouched there so long between death and life immovable, loving +neither, rose possessed of a passion for the darkness and the void, and +struggling bitterly with the detaining hand, crying for instant death. +No strength was in her to support the fury. + +"Merthyr Powys is with you," said her friend, "and will never leave +you." + +"Will never take me up there?" Emilia pointed to the noisy level above +them. + +"Listen, and I will tell you how I have found you," replied Merthyr. + +"Don't force me to go up." + +She spoke from the end of her breath. Merthyr feared that it was more +than misery, even madness, afflicting her. He sat on the wharf-bench +silent till she was reassured. But at his first words, the eager +question came: "You will not force me to go up there?" + +"No; we can stay and talk here," said Merthyr. "And this is how I have +found you. Do you suppose you have been hidden from us all this time? +Perhaps you fancy you do not belong to your friends? Well, I spoke to +all of your 'children,' as you used to call them. Do you remember? The +day before yesterday two had seen you. You said to one, 'From Savoy or +Piedmont?' He said, 'From Savoy;' and you shook your head: 'Not looking +on Italy!' you said. This night I roused one of them, and he stretched +his finger down the steps, saying that you had gone down there. 'Sei +buon' Italiano?" you said. "And that is how I have found you. Sei buon' +Italiana?" + +Emilia let her hand rest in Merthyr's, wondering to think that there +should be no absolute darkness for a creature to escape into while +living. A trembling came on her. "Let me look over at the water," she +said; and Merthyr, who trusted her even in that extremity, allowed her +to lean forward, and felt her grasp grow moist in his, till she turned +back with shudders, giving him both her hands. "A drowned woman looks so +dreadful!" Her speech was faint as she begged to be taken away from that +place. Merthyr put his hand to her arm-pit, sustaining her steps. As +they neared the level where men were, she looked behind her and realized +the black terrors she had just been blindly handling. Fright sped her +limbs for a second or two, and then her whole weight hung upon Merthyr. +He held her in both arms, thinking that she had swooned, but she +murmured: "Have you heard that my voice has gone?" + +"If you have suffered, I do not wonder," he said. + +"I am useless. My voice is dead." + +"Useless to your friends? Tush, my little Emilia! Sandra mia! Don't you +know that while you love your friends that's all they want of you?" + +"Oh!" she moaned; "the gas-lamp hurts me. What a noise there is!" + +"We shall soon get away from the noise." + +"No; I like it; but not the light. Oh, my feet!--why are you walking +still? What friends?" + +"For instance, myself." + +"You knew of my wandering about London! It makes me believe in heaven. I +can't bear to think of being unseen." + +"This morning," said Merthyr, "I saw the policeman in whose house you +have been staying." + +Emilia bowed her head to the mystery by which this friend was endowed +to be cognizant of her actions. "I feel that I have not seen the streets +for years. If it were not for you I should fall down.--Oh! do you +understand that my voice has quite gone?" + +Merthyr perceived her anxiety to be that she might not betaken on +doubtful terms. "Your hand hasn't," he said, pressing it, and so +gratified her with a concrete image of something that she could still +bestow upon a friend. To this she clung while the noisy wheels bore her +through London, till her weak body failed to keep courage in her breast, +and she wept and came closer to Merthyr. He who supposed that her recent +despair and present tears were for the loss of her lover, gave happily +more comfort than he took. "When old gentlemen choose to interest +themselves about very young ladies," he called upon his humorous +philosophy to observe internally, as men do to forestall the possible +cynic external;--and the rest of the sentence was acted under his eyes +by the figures of three persons. But, there she was, lying within his +arm, rescued, the creature whom he had found filling his heart, when +lost, and whom he thought one of the most hopeful of the women of earth! +He thanked God for bare facts. She lay against him with her eyelids +softly joined, and as he felt the breathing of her body, he marvelled to +think how matter-of-fact they had both been on the brink of a tragedy, +and how naturally she had, as it were, argued herself up to the gates of +death. For want of what? "My sister may supply it," thought Merthyr. + +"Oh! that river is like a great black snake with a sick eye, and will +come round me!" said Emilia, talking as from sleep; then started, with +fright in her face: "Oh! my hunger again!" + +"Hunger!" said he, horrified. + +"It comes worse than ever," she moaned. "I was half dead just now, and +didn't feel it. There's--there's no pain in death. But this--it's like +fire and frost! I feel being eaten up. Give me something." + +Merthyr set his teeth and enveloped her in a tight hug that relieved her +from the sharper pangs; and so held her, the tears bursting through his +shut eyelids, till at the first hotel they reached he managed to get +food for her. She gave a little gasping cry when he put bread through +the window of the cab. Bit by bit he handed her the morsels. It was +impossible to procure broth. When they drove on, she did not complain of +suffering, but her chest rose and fell many times heavily. She threw him +out in the reading of her character, after a space, by excusing herself +for having eaten with such eagerness; and it was long before he learnt +what Wilfrid's tyrannous sentiment had done to this simple nature. +He understood better the fear she expressed of meeting Georgiana. +Nevertheless, she exhibited none on entering the house, and returned +Georgiana's embrace with what strength was left to her. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII + +Up the centre aisle of Hillford Church, the Tinleys (late as usual) were +seen trooping for morning service in midwinter. There was a man in the +rear known to be a man by the sound of his boots and measure of his +stride, for the ladies of Brookfield, having rejected the absurd +pretensions of Albert Tinley, could not permit curiosity to encounter +the risk of meeting his gaze by turning their heads. So, with charitable +condescension they returned the slight church nod of prim Miss Tinley +passing, of the detestable Laura Tinley, of affected Rose Tinley (whose +complexion was that of a dust-bin), and of Madeline Tinley (too young +for a character beyond what the name bestowed), and then they arranged +their prayer-books, and apparently speculated as to the possible text +that morning to be given forth from the pulpit. But it seemed to them +all that an exceedingly bulky object had passed as guardian of the +light-footed damsels preceding him. Though none of the ladies had looked +up as he passed, they were conscious of a stature and a circumference +which they had deemed to be entirely beyond the reach of the Tinleys, +and a scornful notion of the Tinleys having hired a guardsman, made +Arabella smile at the stretch of her contempt, that could help her to +conceive the ironic possibility. Relieved on the suspicion that Albert +was in attendance of his sisters, they let their eyes fall calmly on +the Tinley pew. Could two men upon this earthly sphere possess such a +bearskin? There towered the shoulders of Mr. Pericles; his head looking +diminished by the hugeous collar. Arabella felt a seizure of her hand +from Adela's side. She placed her book open before her, and stared +at the pulpit. From neither of the three of Brookfield could Laura's +observation extract a sign of the utter astonishment she knew they must +be experiencing; and had it not been for the ingenuous broad whisper +of Mrs. Chump, which sounded toward the verge even of her conception of +possibilities, the Tinleys would not have been gratified by the first +public display of the prize they had wrested from the Poles. + +"Mr. Paricles--oh!" went Mrs. Chump, and a great many pews were set in +commotion. + +Forthwith she bent over Cornelia's lap, and Cornelia, surveying her +placidly, had to murmur, "By-and-by; by-and-by." + +"But, did ye see 'm, my dear? and a forr'ner in a Protestant Church! And +such a forr'ner as he is, to be sure! And, ye know, ye said he'd naver +come with you, and it's them creatures ye don't like. Corrnelia!" + +"The service commences," remarked that lady, standing up. + +Many eyes were on Mr. Pericles, who occasionally inspected the cornices +and corbels and stained glass to right and left, or detected a young +lady staring at him, or anticipated her going to stare, and put her to +confusion by a sharp turn of his head, and then a sniff and smoothing +down of his moustache. But he did not once look at the Brookfield pew. +By hazard his eye ranged over it, and after the first performance of +this trick he would have found the ladies a match for him, even if he +had sought to challenge their eyes. They were constrained to admit that +Laura Tinley managed him cleverly. She made him hold a book and appear +respectably devout. She got him down in good time when seats were taken, +and up again, without much transparent persuasion. The first notes of +the organ were seen to agitate the bearskin. Laura had difficulty to +induce the man to rise for the hymn, and when he had listened to the +intoning of a verse, Mr. Pericles suddenly bent, as if he had snapped in +two: nor could Laura persuade him to rejoin the present posture of +the congregation. Then only did Laura, to cover her failure, turn the +subdued light of a merry smile upon the Brookfield pew. + +The smile was noticed by Apprehension sitting in the corner of one eye, +and it was likewise known that Laura's chagrin at finding that she +was not being watched affected her visibly. At the termination of the +sermon, the ladies bowed their heads a short space, and placing Mrs. +Chump in front drove her out, so that her exclamations of wonderment, +and affectedly ostentatious gaspings of sympathy for Brookfield, were +heard by few. On they hurried, straight and fast to Brookfield. Mr. Pole +was talking to Tracy Runningbrook at the gate. The ladies cut short his +needless apology to the young man for not being found in church that +day, by asking questions of Tracy. The first related to their brother's +whereabouts; the second to Emilia's condition. Tracy had no time to +reply. Mrs. Chump had identified herself with Brookfield so warmly that +the defection of Mr. Pericles was a fine legitimate excitement to her. +"I hate 'm!" she cried. "I pos'tively hate the man! And he to go to +church! A pretty figure for an angel--he, now! But, my dears, we cann't +let annybody else have 'm. Shorrt of his bein' drowned or killed, we +must intrigue to keep the wretch to ourselves." + +"Oh, dear!" said Adela impatiently. + +"Well, and I didn't say to myself, ye little jealous thing!" retorted +Mrs. Chump. + +"Indeed, ma'am, you are welcome to him." + +"And indeed, miss, I don't want 'm. And, perhaps, ye were flirtin' all +the fun out of him on board the yacht, and got tired of 'm; and that's +why." + +Adela said: "Thank you," with exasperating sedateness, which provoked an +intemperate outburst from Mrs. Chump. "Sunday! Sunday!" cried Mr. Pole. + +"Ain't I the first to remember ut, Pole? And didn't I get up airly so as +to go to church and have my conscience qui't, and 'stead of that I come +out full of evil passions, all for the sake o' these ungrateful garls +that's always where ye cann't find 'em. Why, if they was to be married +at the altar, they'd stare and be 'ffendud if ye asked them if they +was thinking of their husbands, they would! 'Oh, dear, no! and +ye're mistaken, and we're thinkin' o' the coal-scuttle in the back +parlour,'--or somethin' about souls, if not coals. There's their answer. +What did ye do with Mr. Paricles on board the yacht? Aha!" + +"What's this about Pericles?" said Mr. Pole. + +"Oh, nothing, Papa," returned Adela. + +"Nothing, do ye call ut!" said Mrs. Chump. "And, mayhap, good cause too. +Didn't ye tease 'm, now, on board the yacht? Now, did he go on board the +yacht at all?" + +"I should think you ought to know that as well as Adela," said Mr. Pole. + +Adela interposed, hurriedly: "All this, my dear Papa, is because +Mr. Pericles has thought proper to visit the Tinleys' pew. Who would +complain how or where he does it, so long as the duty is fulfilled?" + +Mr. Pole stared, muttering: "The Tinleys!" + +"She's botherin' of ye, Pole, the puss!" said Mrs. Chump, certain that +she had hit a weak point in that mention of the yacht. "Ask her what +sorrt of behaviour--" + +"And he didn't speak to any of you?" said Mr. Pole. + +"No, Papa." + +"He looked the other way?" + +"He did us that honour." + +"Ask her, Pole, how she behaved to 'm on board the yacht," cried Mrs. +Chump. "Oh! there was flirtin', flirtin'! And go and see what the noble +poet says of tying up in sacks and plumpin' of poor bodies of women into +forty fathoms by them Turks and Greeks, all because of jeal'sy. So, they +make a woman in earnest there, the wretches, 'cause she cann't have onny +of her jokes. Didn't ye tease Mr. Paricles on board the yacht, Ad'la? +Now, was he there?" + +"Martha! you're a fool!" said Mr. Pole, looking the victim of one of +his fits of agitation. "Who knows whether he was there better than you? +You'll be forgetting soon that we've ever dined together. I hate to +see a woman so absurd! There--never mind! Go in: take off bonnet +something--anything! only I can't bear folly! Eh, Mr. Runningbrook?" + +"'Deed, Pole, and ye're mad." Mrs. Chump crossed her hands to reply with +full repose. "I'd like to know how I'm to know what I never said." + +The scene was growing critical. Adela consulted the eyes of her sisters, +which plainly said that this was her peculiar scrape. Adela ended it by +going up to Mrs. Chump, taking her by the shoulders, and putting a kiss +upon her forehead. "Now you will see better," she said. "Don't you know +Mr. Pericles was not with us? As surely as he was with the Tinleys this +morning!" + +"And a nice morning it is!" ejaculated Mr. Pole, trotting off hurriedly. + +"Does Pole think--" Mrs. Chump murmured, with reference to her voyaging +on the yacht. The kiss had bewildered her sequent sensations. + +"He does think, and will think, and must think," Adela prattled some +persuasive infantine nonsense: her soul all the while in revolt against +her sisters, who left her the work to do, and took the position of +spectators and critics, condemning an effort they had not courage to +attempt. + +"By the way, I have to congratulate a friend of mine," said Tracy, +selecting Adela for an ironical bow. + +"Then it is Captain Gambier," cried Mrs. Chump, as if a whole revelation +had burst on her. Adela blushed. "Oh! and what was that I heard?" +continued the aggravating woman. + +Adela flashed her eyes round on her sisters. Even then they left her +without aid, their feeling being that she had debased the house by her +familiarity with this woman before Tracy. + +"Stay! didn't ye both--" Mrs. Chump was saying. + +"Yes?"--Adela passed by her--"only in your ears alone, you know!" At +which hint Mrs. Chump gleefully turned and followed her. A rumour was +prevalent of some misadventure to Adela and the captain on board +the yacht. Arabella saw her depart, thinking, "How singular is her +propensity to imitate me!" for the affirmative uttered in the tone +of interrogation was quite Arabella's own; as also occasionally the +negative,--the negative, however, suiting the musical indifference of +the sound, and its implied calm breast. + +"As for Pericles," said Tracy, "you need not wonder that the fellow +prays in other pews than yours. By heaven! he may pray and pray: I'd +send him to Hades with an epigram in his heart!" + +From Tracy the ladies learnt that Wilfrid had inflicted public +chastisement upon Mr. Pericles for saying a false thing of Emilia. He +danced the prettiest pas seal that was ever footed by debutant on the +hot iron plates of Purgatory. They dared not ask what it was that Mr. +Pericles had said, but Tracy was so vehement on the subject of his +having met his deserts, that they partly guessed it to bear some +relation to their sex's defencelessness, and they approved their +brother's work. + +Sir Twickenham and Captain Gambier dined at Brookfield that day. However +astonishing it might be to one who knew his character and triumphs, the +captain was a butterfly netted, and was on the highroad to an exhibition +of himself pinned, with his wings outspread. During the service of the +table Tracy relieved Adela from Mrs. Chump's inadvertencies and +little bits of feminine malice, but he could not help the captain, who +blundered like a schoolboy in her rough hands. It was noted that Sir +Twickenham reserved the tolerating smile he once had for her. Mr. +Pole's nervous fretfulness had increased. He complained in occasional +underbreaths, correcting himself immediately with a "No, no!" and +blinking briskly. + +But after dinner came the time when the painfullest scene was daily +enacted. Mrs. Chump drank Port freely. To drink it fondly, it was +necessary that she should have another rosy wineglass to nod to, and +Mr. Pole, whose taste for wine had been weakened, took this post as his +duty. The watchful, pinched features of the poor pale little man bloomed +unnaturally, and his unintelligible eyes sparkled as he emptied his +glass. His daughters knew that he drank, not for his pleasure, but for +their benefit; that he might sustain Martha Chump in the delusion that +he was a fitting bridegroom, and with her money save them from ruin. +Each evening, with remorse that blotted all perception of the tragic +comicality of the show, they saw him, in his false strength and his +anxiety concerning his pulse's play, act this part. The recurring words, +"Now, Martha, here's the Port," sent a cold wave through their blood. +They knew what the doctor remarked on the effect of that Port. "Ill!" +Mrs. Chump would cry, when she saw him wink after sipping; "you, Pole! +what do they say of ye, ye deer!" and she returned the wink, the ladies +looking on. Not to drink a proper quantum of Port, when Port was on the +table, was, in Mrs. Chump's eyes, mean for a man. Even Chump, she would +say, was master of his bottle, and thought nothing of it. "Who does?" +cried her present suitor, and the Port ebbed, and his cheeks grew +crimson. + +This frightful rivalry with the ghost of Alderman Chump continued night +after night. The rapturous Martha was incapable of observing that if she +drank with a ghost in memory, in reality she drank with nothing better +than an animated puppet. The nights ended with Mr. Pole either sleeping +in his arm-chair (upon which occasions one daughter watched him and told +dreadful tales of his waking), or staggering to bed, debating on the +stairs between tea and brandy, complaining of a loss of sensation at his +knee-cap, or elbow, or else rubbing his head and laughing hysterically. +His bride was not at such moments observant. No wonder Wilfrid kept out +of the way, if he had not better occupation elsewhere. The ladies, in +their utter anguish, after inveighing against the baneful Port, had +begged their father to delay no more to marry the woman. "Why?" said Mr. +Pole, sharply; "what do you want me to marry her for?" They were obliged +to keep up the delusion, and said, "Because she seems suited to you as +a companion." That satisfied him. "Oh! we won't be in a hurry," he said, +and named a day within a month; and not liking their unready faces, +laughed, and dismissed the idea aloud, as if he had not earnestly been +entertaining it. + +The ladies of Brookfield held no more their happy, energetic midnight +consultations. They had begun to crave for sleep and a snatch of +forgetfulness, the scourge being daily on their flesh: and they had now +no plans to discuss; they had no distant horizon of low vague lights +that used ever to be beyond their morrow. They kissed at the bedroom +door of one, and separated. Silence was their only protection to the +Nice Feelings, now that Fine Shades had become impossible. Adela +had almost made herself distinct from her sisters since the yachting +expedition. She had grown severely careful of the keys of her +writing-desk, and would sometimes slip the bolt of her bedroom door, and +answer "Eh?" dubiously in tone, when her sisters had knocked twice, and +had said "Open" once. The house of Brookfield showed those divisional +rents which an admonitory quaking of the earth will create. Neither +sister was satisfied with the other. Cornelia's treatment of Sir +Twickenham was almost openly condemned, but at the same time it seemed +to Arabella that the baronet was receiving more than the necessary +amount of consolation from the bride of Captain Gambier, and that yacht +habits and moralities had been recently imported to Brookfield. Adela, +for her part, looked sadly on Arabella, and longed to tell her, as she +told Cornelia, that if she continued to play Freshfield Sumner purposely +against Edward Buxley, she might lose both. Cornelia quietly measured +accusations and judged impartially; her mind being too full to bring any +personal observations to bear. She said, perhaps, less than she would +have said, had she not known that hourly her own Nice Feelings had to +put up a petition for Fine Shades: had she not known, indeed, that +her conduct would soon demand from her sisters an absolutely merciful +interpretation. For she was now simply attracting Sir Twickenham to +Brookfield as a necessary medicine to her Papa. Since Mrs. Chump's +return, however, Mr. Pole had spoken cheerfully of himself, and, by +innuendo emphasized, had imparted that his mercantile prospects +were brighter. In fact, Cornelia half thought that he must have been +pretending bankruptcy to gain his end in getting the consent of his +daughters to receive the woman. She, and Adela likewise, began to +suspect that the parental transparency was a little mysterious, and that +there is, after all, more than we see in something that we see through. +They were now in danger of supposing that because the old man had +possibly deceived them to some extent, he had deceived them altogether. +But was not the after-dinner scene too horribly true? Were not his +hands moist and cold while the forehead was crimson? And could a human +creature feel at his own pulse, and look into vacancy with that intense +apprehensive look, and be but an actor? They could not think so. But his +conditions being dependent upon them, the ladies felt in their hearts +a spring of absolute rebellion when the call for fresh sacrifices came. +Though they did not grasp the image, they had a feeling that he was +nourished bit by bit by everything they held dear; and though they loved +him, and were generous, they had begun to ask, "What next?" + +The ladies were at a dead-lock, and that the heart is the father of our +histories, I am led to think when I look abroad on families stagnant +because of so weak a motion of the heart. There are those who have none +at all; the mass of us are moved from the propulsion of the toes of the +Fates. But the ladies of Brookfield had hearts lively enough to get them +into scrapes. The getting out of them, or getting on at all, was left to +Providence. They were at a dead-lock, for Arabella, flattered as she was +by Freshfield Sumner's wooing, could not openly throw Edward over, whom +indeed she thought that she liked the better of the two, though his +letters had not so wide an intellectual range. Her father was irritably +anxious that she should close with Edward. Adela could not move: +at least, not openly. Cornelia might have taken an initiative; but +tenderness for her father's health had hitherto restrained her, and she +temporized with Sir Twickenham on the noblest of principles. She was, by +the devotion of her conduct, enabled to excuse herself so far that she +could even fish up an excuse in the shape of the effort she had made to +find him entertaining: as if the said effort should really be re-payment +enough to him for his assiduous and most futile suit. One deep grief +sat on Cornelia's mind. She had heard from Lady Gosstre that there was +something like madness in the Barrett family. She had consented to meet +Sir Purcell clandestinely (after debate on his claim to such a sacrifice +on her part), and if, on those occasions, her lover's tone was raised, +it gave her a tremour. And he had of late appeared to lose his noble +calm; he had spoken (it might almost be interpreted) as if he doubted +her. Once, when she had mentioned her care for her father, he had cried +out upon the name of father with violence, looking unlike himself. + +His condemnation of the world, too, was not so Christian as it had been; +it betrayed what the vulgar would call spite, and was not all compassed +in his peculiar smooth shrug--expressive of a sort of border-land +between contempt and charity: which had made him wear in her sight all +the superiority which the former implies, with a considerable share +of the benign complacency of the latter. This had gone. He had been +sarcastic even to her; saying once, and harshly: "Have you a will?" +Personally she liked the poor organist better than the poor baronet, +though he had less merit. It was unpleasant in her present mood to be +told "that we have come into this life to fashion for ourselves souls;" +and that "whosoever cannot decide is a soulless wretch fit but to pass +into vapour." He appeared to have ceased to make his generous allowances +for difficult situations. A senseless notion struck Cornelia, that +with the baronetcy he had perhaps inherited some of the madness of his +father. + +The two were in a dramatic tangle of the Nice Feelings worth a glance +as we pass on. She wished to say to him, "You are unjust to my +perplexities;" and he to her, "You fail in your dilemma through +cowardice." Instead of uttering which, they chid themselves severally +for entertaining such coarse ideas of their idol. Doubtless they were +silent from consideration for one another: but I must add, out of +extreme tenderness for themselves likewise. There are people who can +keep the facts that front them absent from their contemplation by not +framing them in speech; and much benevolence of the passive order may be +traced to a disinclination to inflict pain upon oneself. "My duty to my +father," being cited by Cornelia, Sir Purcell had to contend with it. + +"True love excludes no natural duty," she said. + +And he: "Love discerns unerringly what is and what is not duty." + +"In the case of a father, can there be any doubt?" she asked, the answer +shining in her confident aspect. + +"There are many things that fathers may demand of us!" he interjected +bitterly. + +She had a fatal glimpse here of the false light in which his resentment +coloured the relations between fathers and children; and, deeming +him incapable of conducting this argument, she felt quite safe in her +opposition, up to a point where feeling stopped her. + +"Devotedness to a father I must conceive to be a child's first duty," +she said. + +Sir Purcell nodded: "Yes; a child's!" + +"Does not history give the higher praise to children who sacrifice +themselves for their parents?" asked Cornelia. + +And he replied: "So, you seek to be fortified in such matters by +history!" + +Courteous sneers silenced her. Feeling told her she was in the wrong; +but the beauty of her sentiment was not to be contested, and therefore +she thought that she might distrust feeling: and she went against it +somewhat; at first very tentatively, for it caused pain. She marked a +line where the light of duty should not encroach on the light of our +human desires. "But love for a parent is not merely duty," thought +Cornelia. "It is also love;--and is it not the least selfish love?" + +Step by step Sir Purcell watched the clouding of her mind with false +conceits, and knew it to be owing to the heart's want of vigour. Again +and again he was tempted to lay an irreverent hand on the veil his lady +walked in, and make her bare to herself. Partly in simple bitterness, he +refrained: but the chief reason was that he had no comfort in giving a +shock to his own state of deception. He would have had to open a +dark closet; to disentangle and bring to light what lay in an +undistinguishable heap; to disfigure her to herself, and share in her +changed eyesight; possibly to be, or seem, coarse: so he kept the door +of it locked, admitting sadly in his meditation that there was such +a place, and saying all the while: "If I were not poor!" He saw her +running into the shelter of egregious sophisms, till it became an effort +to him to preserve his reverence for her and the sex she represented. +Finally he imagined that he perceived an idea coming to growth in her, +no other than this: "That in duty to her father she might sacrifice +herself, though still loving him to whom she had given her heart; thus +ennobling her love for father and for lover." With a wicked ingenuity +he tracked her forming notions, encouraged them on, and provoked her +enthusiasm by putting an ironical question: "Whether the character of +the soul was subdued and shaped by the endurance and the destiny of the +perishable?" + +"Oh! no, no!" she exclaimed. "It cannot be, or what comfort should we +have?" + +Few men knew better that when lovers' sentiments stray away from +feeling, they are to be suspected of a disloyalty. Yet he admired the +tone she took. He had got an 'ideal' of her which it was pleasanter to +magnify than to distort. An 'ideal' is so arbitrary, that if you only +doubt of its being perfection, it will vanish and never come again. +Sir Purcell refused to doubt. He blamed himself for having thought it +possible to doubt, and this, when all the time he knew. + +Through endless labyrinths of delusion these two unhappy creatures might +be traced, were it profitable. Down what a vale of little intricate +follies should we be going, lighted by one ghastly conclusion! At times, +struggling from the midst of her sophisms, Cornelia prayed her lover +would claim her openly, and so nerve her to a pitch of energy that +would clinch the ruinous debate. Forgetting that she was an 'ideal'--the +accredited mistress of pure wisdom and of the power of deciding +rightly--she prayed to be dealt with as a thoughtless person, and one of +the herd of women. She felt that Sir Purcell threw too much on her. He +expected her to go calmly to her father, and to Sir Twickenham, and tell +them individually that her heart was engaged; then with a stately figure +to turn, quit the house, and lay her hand in his. He made no allowance +for the weakness of her sex, for the difficulties surrounding her, for +the consideration due to Sir Twickenham's pride, and to her father's +ill-health. She half-protested to herself that he expected from her the +mechanical correctness of a machine, and overlooked the fact that she +was human. It was a grave comment on her ambition to be an 'ideal.' + +So let us leave them, till we come upon the ashy fruit of which this +blooming sentimentalism is the seed. + +It was past midnight when Mrs. Chump rushed to Arabella's room, and her +knock was heard vociferous at the door. The ladies, who were at work +upon diaries and letters, allowed her to thump and wonder whether she +had come to the wrong door, for a certain period; after which, Arabella +placidly unbolted her chamber, and Adela presented herself in the +passage to know the meaning of the noise. + +"Oh! ye poor darlin's, I've heard ut all, I have." + +This commencement took the colour from their cheeks. Arabella invited +her inside, and sent Adela for Cornelia. + +"Oh, and ye poor deers!" cried Mrs. Chump to Arabella, who remarked: +"Pray wait till my sisters come;" causing the woman to stare and +observe: "If ye're not as cold as the bottom of a pot that naver felt +fire." She repeated this to Cornelia and Adela as an accusation, and +then burst on "My heart's just breakin' for ye, and ye shall naver +want bread, eh! and roast beef, and my last bottle of Port ye'll share, +though ye've no ideea what a lot o' thoughts o' poor Chump's under +that cork, and it'll be a waste on you. Oh! and that monster of a Mr. +Paricles that's got ye in his power and's goin' to be the rroon of +ye--shame to 'm! Your father's told me; and, oh! my darlin' garls, don't +think ut my fault. For, Pole--Pole--" + +Mrs. Chump was choked by her grief. The ladies, unbending to some +curiosity, eliminated from her gasps and sobs that Mr. Pole had, in the +solitude of his library below, accused her of causing the defection of +Mr. Pericles, and traced his possible ruin to it, confessing, that in +the way of business, he was at Mr. Pericles' mercy. + +"And in such a passion with me!" Mrs. Chump wrung her hands. "What could +I do to Mr. Paricles? He isn't one o' the men that I can kiss; and Pole +shouldn't wish me. And Pole settin' down his rroon to me! What'll I do? +My dears! I do feel for ye, for I feel I'd feel myself such a beast, +without money, d'ye see? It's the most horrible thing in the world. It's +like no candle in the darrk. And I, ye know, I know I'd naver forgive +annybody that took my money; and what'll Pole think of me? For oh! ye +may call riches temptation, but poverty's punishment; and I heard a +young curate say that from the pulpit, and he was lean enough to know, +poor fella!" + +Both Cornelia and Arabella breathed more freely when they had heard Mrs. +Chump's tale to an end. They knew perfectly well that she was blameless +for the defection of Mr. Pericles, and understood from her exclamatory +narrative that their father had reason to feel some grave alarm at the +Greek's absence from their house, and had possibly reasons of his +own for accusing Mrs. Chump, as he had done. The ladies administered +consolation to her, telling her that for their part they would never +blame her; even consenting to be kissed by her, hugged by her, playfully +patted, complimented, and again wept over. They little knew what a +fervour of secret devotion they created in Mrs. Chump's bosom by this +astounding magnanimity displayed to her, who laboured under the charge +of being the source of their ruin; nor could they guess that the little +hypocrisy they were practising would lead to any singular and pregnant +resolution in the mind of the woman, fraught with explosion to their +house, and that quick movement which they awaited. + +Mrs. Chump, during the patient strain of a tender hug of Arabella, had +mutely resolved in a great heat of gratitude that she would go to Mr. +Pericles, and, since he was necessary to the well-being of Brookfield, +bring him back, if she had to bring him back in her arms. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII + +[Georgiana Ford to Wilfrid:] + +"I have omitted replying to your first letter, not because of the nature +of its contents: nor do I write now in answer to your second because of +the permission you give me to lay it before my brother. I cannot think +that concealment is good, save for very base persons; and since you take +the initiative in writing very openly, I will do so likewise. + +"It is true that Emilia is with me. Her voice is lost, and she has +fallen as low in spirit as one can fall and still give us hope of her +recovery. But that hope I have, and I am confident that you will not +destroy it. In the summer she goes with us to Italy. We have consulted +one doctor, who did not prescribe medicine for her. In the morning +she reads with my brother. She seems to forget whatever she reads: the +occupation is everything necessary just now. Our sharp Monmouth air +provokes her to walk briskly when she is out, and the exercise has once +or twice given colour to her cheeks. Yesterday being a day of clear +frost, we drove to a point from which we could mount the Buckstone, and +here, my brother says, the view appeared to give her something of her +lost animation. It was a look that I had never seen, and it soon went: +but in the evening she asked me whether I prayed before sleeping, and +when she retired to her bedroom, I remained there with her for a time. + +"You will pardon me for refusing to let her know that you have written +to your relative in the Austrian service to obtain a commission for you. +But, on the other hand, I have thought it right to tell her incidentally +that you will be married in the Summer of this year. I can only say that +she listened quite calmly. + +"I beg that you will not blame yourself so vehemently. By what you +do, her friends may learn to know that you regret the strange effect +produced by certain careless words, or conduct: but I cannot find that +self-accusation is ever good at all. In answer to your question, I may +add that she has repeated nothing of what she said when we were together +in Devon. + +"Our chief desire (for, as we love her, we may be directed by our +instinct), in the attempt to restore her, is to make her understand that +she is anything but worthless. She has recently followed my brother's +lead, and spoken of herself, but with a touch of scorn. This morning, +while the clear frosty sky continues, we were to have started for an old +castle lying toward Wales; and I think the idea of a castle must have +struck her imagination, and forced some internal contrast on her mind. +I am repeating my brother's suggestion--she seemed more than usually +impressed with an idea that she was of no value to anybody. She asked +why she should go anywhere, and dropped into a chair, begging to +be allowed to stay in a darkened room. My brother has some strange +intuition of her state of mind. She has lost any power she may have had +of grasping abstract ideas. In what I conceived to be play, he told +her that many would buy her even now. She appeared to be speculating on +this, and then wished to know how much those persons would consider her +to be worth, and who they were. Nor did it raise a smile on her face to +hear my brother mention Jews, and name an absolute sum of money; but, +on the contrary, after evidently thinking over it, she rose up, and +said that she was ready to go. I write fully to you, telling you these +things, that you may see she is at any rate eager not to despair, and is +learning, much as a child might learn it, that it need not be. + +"Believe me, that I will in every way help to dispossess your mind of +the remorse now weighing upon you, as far as it shall be within my power +to do so. + +"Mr. Runningbrook has been invited by my brother to come and be her +companion. They have a strong affection for one another. He is a true +poet, full of reverence for a true woman." + +[Wilfrid to Georgiana Ford:] + +"I cannot thank you enough. When I think of her I am unmanned; and if +I let my thoughts fall back upon myself, I am such as you saw me that +night in Devon--helpless, and no very presentable figure. But you do not +picture her to me. I cannot imagine whether her face has changed; and, +pardon me, were I writing to you alone, I could have faith that the +delicate insight and angelic nature of a woman would not condemn my +desire to realize before my eyes the state she has fallen to. I see her +now under a black shroud. Have her features changed? I cannot remember +one--only at an interval her eyes. Does she look into the faces of +people as she used? Or does she stare carelessly away? Softly between +the eyes, is what I meant. I mean--but my reason for this particularity +is very simple. I would state it to you, and to no other. I cannot have +peace till she is restored; and my prayer is, that I may not haunt her +to defeat your labour. Does her face appear to show that I am quite +absent from her thoughts? Oh! you will understand me. You have seen me +stand and betray no suffering when a shot at my forehead would have been +mercy. To you I will dare to open my heart. I wish to be certain that +I have not injured her--that is all. Perhaps I am more guilty than +you think: more even than I can call to mind. If I may fudge by the +punishment, my guilt is immeasurable. Tell me--if you will but tell +me that the sacrifice of my life to her will restore her, it is hers. +Write, and say this, and I will come: Do not delay or spare me. Her dumb +voice is like a ghost in my ears. It cries to me that I have killed +it. Be actuated by no charitable considerations in refraining to write. +Could a miniature of her be sent? You will think the request strange; +but I want to be sure she is not haggard--not the hospital face I +fancy now, which accuses me of murder. Does she preserve the glorious +freshness she used to wear? She had a look--or did you see her before +the change? I only want to know that she is well." + +[Tracy Runningbrook to Wilfrid:] + +"You had my promise that I would write and give your conscience +a nightcap. I have a splendid one for you. Put it on without any +hesitation. I find her quite comfortable. Powys reads Italian with her +in the morning. His sister (who might be a woman if she liked, but +has an insane preference for celestial neutrality) does the moral +inculcation. The effect is comical. I should like you to see Cold Steel +leading Tame Fire about, and imagining the taming to be her work! You +deserve well of your generation. You just did enough to set this darling +girl alight. Knights and squires numberless will thank you. The idea of +your reproaching yourself is monstrous. Why, there's no one thanks you +more than she does. You stole her voice, which some may think a pity, +but I don't, seeing that I would rather have her in a salon than before +the footlights. Imagine my glory in her!--she has become half cat! She +moves softly, as if she loved everything she touched; making you throb +to feel the little ball of her foot. Her eyes look steadily, like green +jewels before the veil of an Egyptian temple. Positively, her eyes have +grown green--or greenish! They were darkish hazel formerly, and talked +more of milkmaids and chattering pastorals than a discerning master +would have wished. Take credit for the change; and at least I don't +blame you for the tender hollows under the eyes, sloping outward, just +hinted... Love's mark on her, so that men's hearts may faint to know +that love is known to her, and burn to read her history. When she is +about to speak, the upper lids droop a very little; or else the under +lids quiver upward--I know not which. Take further credit for her +manner. She has now a manner of her own. Some of her naturalness has +gone, but she has skipped clean over the 'young lady' stage; from raw +girl she has really got as much of the great manner as a woman can have +who is not an ostensibly retired dowager, or a matron on a pedestal +shuffling the naked virtues and the decorous vices together. She looks +at you with an immense, marvellous gravity, before she replies to +you--enveloping you in a velvet light. This, is fact, not fine stuff, +my dear fellow. The light of her eyes does absolutely cling about you. +Adieu! You are a great master, and know exactly when to make your bow +and retire. A little more, and you would have spoilt her. Now she is +perfect." + +[Wilfrid to Tracy Runningbrook:] + +"I have just come across a review of your last book, and send it, +thinking you may wish to see it. I have put a query to one of the +passages, which I think misquoted: and there will be no necessity to +call your attention to the critic's English. You can afford to laugh +at it, but I confess it puts your friends in a rage. Here are a set +of fellows who arm themselves with whips and stand in the public +thoroughfare to make any man of real genius run the gauntlet down their +ranks till he comes out flayed at the other extremity! What constitutes +their right to be there?--By the way, I met Sir Purcell Barrett (the +fellow who was at Hillford), and he would like to write an article +on you that should act as a sort of rejoinder. You won't mind, of +course--it's bread to him, poor devil! I doubt whether I shall see you +when you comeback, so write a jolly lot of letters. Colonel Pierson, of +the Austrian army, my uncle (did you meet him at Brookfield?), +advises me to sell out immediately. He is getting me an Imperial +commission--cavalry. I shall give up the English service. And if they +want my medal, they can have it, and I'll begin again. I'm sick of +everything except a cigar and a good volume of poems. Here's to light +one, and now for the other! + + "'Large eyes lit up by some imperial sin,'" etc. + (Ten lines from Tracy's book are here copied neatly.) + +[Tracy Runningbrook to Wilfrid:] + +"Why the deuce do you write me such infernal trash about the opinions of +a villanous dog who can't even en a decent sentence? I've been damning +you for a white-livered Austrian up and down the house. Let the fellow +bark till he froths at the mouth, and scatters the virus of the beast +among his filthy friends. I am mad-dog proof. The lines you quote were +written in an awful hurry, coming up in the train from Richford one +morning. You have hit upon my worst with commendable sagacity. If it +will put money in Barren's pocket, let him write. I should prefer to +have nothing said. The chances are all in favour of his writing like +a fool. If you're going to be an Austrian, we may have a chance of +shooting one another some day, so here's my hand before you go and sell +your soul; and anything I can do in the meantime--command me." + +[Georgiana Ford to Wilfrid:] + +"I do not dare to charge you with a breach of your pledged word. Let me +tell you simply that Emilia has become aware of your project to enter +the Austrian service, and it has had the effect on her which I foresaw. +She could bear to hear of your marriage, but this is too much for her, +and it breaks my heart to see her. It is too cruel. She does not betray +any emotion, but I can see that every principle she had gained is gone, +and that her bosom holds the shadows of a real despair. I foresaw it, +and sought to guard her against it. That you, whom she had once +called (to me) her lover, should enlist himself as an enemy, of her +country!--it comes to her as a fact striking her brain dumb while she +questions it, and the poor body has nothing to do but to ache. Surely +you could have no object in doing this? I will not suspect it. Mr. +Runningbrook is acquainted with your plans, I believe; but he has +no remembrance of having mentioned this one to Emilia. He distinctly +assures me that he has not done so, and I trust him to speak truth. How +can it have happened? But here is the evil done. I see no remedy. I am +not skilled in sketching the portraits you desire of her, and yet, if +you have ever wished her to know this miserable thing, it would be +as well that you should see the different face that has come among us +within twenty hours." + +[Wilfrid to Georgiana Ford:] + +"I will confine my reply to a simple denial of having caused this fatal +intelligence to reach her ears; for the truth of which, I pledge my +honour as a gentleman. A second's thought would have told me--indeed I +at once acquiesced in your view--that she should not know it. How it has +happened it is vain to attempt to guess. Can you suppose that I desired +her to hate me? Yet this is what the knowledge of the step I am taking +will make her do! If I could see--if I might see her for five minutes, I +should be able to explain everything, and, I sincerely think (painful as +it would be to me), give her something like peace. It is too late even +to wish to justify myself; but her I can persuade that she--Do you not +see that her mind is still unconvinced of my--I will call it baseness! +Is this the self-accusing you despise? A little of it must be heard. If +I may see her I will not fail to make her understand my position. +She shall see that it is I who am worthless--not she! You know the +circumstances under which I last beheld her--when I saw pang upon pang +smiting her breast from my silence! But now I may speak. Do not be +prepossessed against my proposal! It shall be only for five minutes--no +more. Not that it is my desire to come. In truth, it could not be. I +have felt that I alone can cure her--I who did the harm. Mark me: +she will fret secretly--, but dear and kindest lady, do not smile too +critically at the tone I adopt. I cannot tell how I am writing or what +saying. Believe me that I am deeply and constantly sensible of your +generosity. In case you hesitate, I beg you to consult Mr. Powys." + +[Georgiana Ford to Wilfrid:] + +"I had no occasion to consult my brother to be certain that an interview +between yourself and Emilia should not take place. There can be no +object, even if the five minutes of the meeting gave her happiness, why +the wound of the long parting should be again opened. She is wretched +enough now, though her tenderness for us conceals it as far as possible. +When some heavenly light shall have penetrated her, she will have a +chance of peace. The evil is not of a nature to be driven out by your +hands. If you are not going into the Austrian service, she shall know +as much immediately. Otherwise, be as dead to her as you may, and your +noblest feelings cannot be shown under any form but that." + +[Wilfrid to Tracy Runningbrook:] + +"Some fellows whom I know want you to write a prologue to a play they +are going to get up. It's about Shakespeare--at least, the proceeds go +to something of that sort. Do, like a good fellow, toss us off twenty +lines. Why don't you write? By the way, I hope there's no truth in a +report that has somehow reached me, that they have the news down in +Monmouth of my deserting to the black-yellow squadrons? Of course, +such a thing as that should have been kept from them. I hear, too, that +your--I suppose I must call her now your--pupil is falling into bad +health. Think me as cold and 'British' as you like; but the thought of +this does really affect me painfully. Upon my honour, it does! 'And now +he yawns!' you're saying. You're wrong. We Army men feel just as you +poets do, and for a longer time, I think, though perhaps not so acutely. +I send you the 'Venus' cameo which you admired. Pray accept it from an +old friend. I mayn't see you again." + +[Tracy Runningbrook to Wilfrid:] (enclosing lines) + +"Here they are. It will require a man who knows something about metre to +speak them. Had Shakespeare's grandmother three Christian names? and +did she anticipate feminine posterity in her rank of life by saying +habitually, 'Drat it?' There is as yet no Society to pursue this +investigation, but it should be started. Enormous thanks for the Venus. +I wore it this morning at breakfast. Just as we were rising, I leaned +forward to her, and she jumped up with her eyes under my chin. 'Isn't +she a beauty?' I said. 'It was his,' she answered, changing eyes of +eagle for eyes of dove, and then put out the lights. I had half a mind +to offer it, on the spot. May I? That is to say, if the impulse seizes +me I take nobody's advice, and fair Venus certainly is not under my chin +at this moment. As to ill health, great mother Nature has given a house +of iron to this soul of fire. The windows may blaze, or the windows may +be extinguished, but the house stands firm. When you are lightning or +earthquake, you may have something to reproach yourself for; as it is, +be under no alarm. Do not put words in my mouth that I have not uttered. +'And now he yawns,' is what I shall say of you only when I am sure you +have just heard a good thing. You really are the best fellow of your +set that I have come across, and the only one pretending to brains. +Your modesty in estimating your value as a leader of Pandours will be +pleasing to them who like that modesty. Good-bye. This little Emilia is +a marvel of flying moods. Yesterday she went about as if she said, +'I've promised Apollo not to speak till to-morrow.' To-day, she's in a +feverish gabble--or began the day with a burst of it; and now she's soft +and sensible. If you fancy a girl at her age being able to see, that +it's a woman's duty to herself and the world to be artistic--to perfect +the thing of beauty she is meant to be by nature!--and, seeing, too, +that Love is an instrument like any other thing, and that we must play +on it with considerate gentleness, and that tearing at it or dashing it +to earth, making it howl and quiver, is madness, and not love!--I assure +you she begins to see it! She does see it. She is going to wear a wreath +of black briony (preserved and set by Miss Ford, a person cunning in +these matters). She's going to the ball at Penarvon Castle, and will +look--supply your favourite slang word. A little more experience, and +she will have malice. She wants nothing but that to make her consummate. +Malice is the barb of beauty. She's just at present a trifle blunt. She +will knock over, but not transfix. I am anxious to watch the effect +she produces at Penarvon. Poor little woman! I paid a compliment to her +eyes. 'I've got nothing else,' said she. Dine as well as you can while +you are in England. German cookery is an education for the sentiment of +hogs. The play of sour and sweet, and crowning of the whole with fat, +shows a people determined to go down in civilization, and try the +business backwards. Adieu, curst Croat! On the Wallachian border mayst +thou gather philosophy from meditation." + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV + +Dexterously as Wilfrid has turned Tracy to his uses by means of the +foregoing correspondence, in doing so he had exposed himself to the +retributive poison administered by that cunning youth. And now the +Hippogriff seized him, and mounted with him into mid-air; not as when +the idle boy Ganymede was caught up to act as cup-bearer in celestial +Courts, but to plunge about on yielding vapours, with nothing near him +save the voice of his desire. + +The Philosopher here peremptorily demands the pulpit. We are subject, +he says, to fantastic moods, and shall dry ready-minted phrases picture +them forth? As, for example, can the words 'delirium,' or 'frenzy,' +convey an image of Wilfrid's state, when his heart began to covet Emilia +again, and his sentiment not only interposed no obstacle, but trumpeted +her charms and fawned for her, and he thought her lost, remembered that +she had been his own, and was ready to do any madness to obtain her? +'Madness' is the word that hits the mark, but it does not fully embrace +the meaning. To be in this state, says the Philosopher, is to be 'On The +Hippogriff;' and to this, as he explains, the persons who travel to Love +by the road of sentiment will come, if they have any stuff in them, and +if the one who kindles them is mighty. He distinguishes being on the +Hippogriff from being possessed by passion. Passion, he says, is noble +strength on fire, and points to Emilia as a representation of passion. +She asks for what she thinks she may have; she claims what she imagines +to be her own. She has no shame, and thus, believing in, she never +violates, nature, and offends no law, wild as she may seem. Passion does +not turn on her and rend her when it is thwarted. She was never carried +out of the limit of her own intelligent force, seeing that it directed +her always, with the simple mandate to seek that which belonged to +her. She was perfectly sane, and constantly just to herself, until the +failure of her voice, telling her that she was a beggar in the world, +came as a second blow, and partly scared her reason. Constantly just +to herself, mind! This is the quality of true passion. Those who make a +noise, and are not thus distinguishable, are on Hippogriff. --By which +it is clear to me that my fantastic Philosopher means to indicate the +lover mounted in this wise, as a creature bestriding an extraneous +power. "The sentimentalist," he says, "goes on accumulating images +and hiving sensations, till such time as (if the stuff be in him) they +assume a form of vitality, and hurry him headlong. This is not passion, +though it amazes men, and does the madder thing." + +In fine, it is Hippogriff. And right loath am I to continue my +partnership with a fellow who will not see things on the surface, and +is, as a necessary consequence, blind to the fact that the public detest +him. I mean, this garrulous, super-subtle, so-called Philosopher, who +first set me upon the building of 'The Three Volumes,' it is true, but +whose stipulation that he should occupy so large a portion of them +has made them rock top-heavy, to the forfeit of their stability. He +maintains that a story should not always flow, or, at least, not to +a given measure. When we are knapsack on back, he says, we come +to eminences where a survey of our journey past and in advance is +desireable, as is a distinct pause in any business, here and there. +He points proudly to the fact that our people in this comedy move +themselves,--are moved from their own impulsion,--and that no arbitrary +hand has posted them to bring about any event and heap the catastrophe. +In vain I tell him that he is meantime making tatters of the puppets' +golden robe illusion: that he is sucking the blood of their warm +humanity out of them. He promises that when Emilia is in Italy he +will retire altogether; for there is a field of action, of battles and +conspiracies, nerve and muscle, where life fights for plain issues, and +he can but sum results. Let us, he entreats, be true to time and place. +In our fat England, the gardener Time is playing all sorts of delicate +freaks in the lines and traceries of the flower of life, and shall +we not note them? If we are to understand our species, and mark the +progress of civilization at all, we must. Thus the Philosopher. Our +partner is our master, and I submit, hopefully looking for release with +my Emilia, in the day when Italy reddens the sky with the banners of a +land revived. + +I hear Wilfrid singing out that he is aloft, burning to rush ahead, +while his beast capers in one spot, abominably ludicrous. This trick of +Hippogriff is peculiar, viz., that when he loses all faith in himself, +he sinks--in other words, goes to excesses of absurd humility to regain +it. Passion has likewise its panting intervals, but does nothing so +preposterous. The wreath of black briony, spoken of by Tracy as the +crown of Emilia's forehead, had begun to glow with a furnace-colour in +Wilfrid's fancy. It worked a Satanic distraction in him. The girl sat +before him swathed in a darkness, with the edges of the briony leaves +shining deadly--radiant above--young Hecate! The next instant he was +bleeding with pity for her, aching with remorse, and again stung to +intense jealousy of all who might behold her (amid a reserve of angry +sensations at her present happiness). + +Why had she not made allowance for his miserable situation that night +in Devon? Why did she not comprehend his difficulties in relation to his +father's affairs? Why did she not know that he could not fail to love +her for ever? + +Interrogations such as these were so many switches of the whip in the +flanks of Hippogriff. + +Another peculiarity of the animal gifted with wings is, that around the +height he soars to he can see no barriers nor any of the fences raised +by men. And here again he differs from Passion, which may tug against +common sense but is never, in a great nature, divorced from it: In air +on Hippogriff, desires wax boundless, obstacles are hidden. It seemed +nothing to Wilfrid (after several tremendous descents of humility) that +he should hurry for Monmouth away, to gaze on Emilia under her fair, +infernal, bewitching wreath; nothing that he should put an arm round +her; nothing that he should forthwith carry her off, though he died for +it. Forming no design beyond that of setting his eyes on her, he turned +the head of Hippogriff due Westward. + + + + +CHAPTER XLV + +Penarvon castle lay over the borders of Monmouthshire. Thither, on a +night of frosty moonlight, troops of carriages were hurrying with the +usual freightage for a country ball:--the squire who will not make +himself happy by seeing that his duty to the softer side of his family +must be performed during the comfortable hours when bachelors snooze +in arm-chairs, and his nobler dame who, not caring for Port or tobacco, +cheerfully accepts the order of things as bequeathed to her: the +everlastingly half-satisfied young man, who looks forward to the hour +when his cigar-light will shine; and the damsel thrice demure as a cover +for her eagerness. Within a certain distance of one of the carriages, +a man rode on horseback. The court of the castle was reached, and +he turned aside, lingering to see whether he could get a view of the +lighted steps. To effect his object, he dismounted and led his horse +through the gates, turning from gravel to sward, to keep in the dusk. +A very agile middle-aged gentleman was the first to appear under the +portico-lamps, and he gave his hand to a girl of fifteen, and then to +a most portly lady in a scarlet mantle. The carriage-door slammed +and drove off, while a groan issued from the silent spectator. "Good +heavens! have I followed these horrible people for five-and-twenty +miles!" Carriage after carriage rattled up to the steps, was disburdened +of still more 'horrible people' to him, and went the way of the others. +"I shan't see her, after all," he cried hoarsely, and mounting, said to +the beast that bore him, "Now go sharp." + +Whether you recognize the rider of Hippogriff or not, this is he; and +the poor livery-stable screw stretched madly till wind failed, when he +was allowed to choose his pace. Wilfrid had come from London to have +sight of Emilia in the black-briony wreath: to see her, himself unseen, +and go. But he had not seen her; so he had the full excuse to continue +the adventure. He rode into a Welsh town, and engaged a fresh horse for +the night. + +"She won't sing, at all events," thought Wilfrid, to comfort himself, +before the memory that she could not, in any case, touched springs of +weakness and pitying tenderness. From an eminence to which he walked +outside the town, Penarvon was plainly visible with all its lighted +windows. + +"But I will pluck her from you!" he muttered, in a spasm of jealousy; +the image of himself as an outcast against the world that held her, +striking him with great force at that moment. + +"I must give up the Austrian commission, if she takes me." + +And be what? For he had sold out of the English service, and was to +receive the money in a couple of days. How long would the money support +him? It would not pay half his debts! What, then, did this pursuit +of Emilia mean? To blink this question, he had to give the spur to +Hippogriff. It meant (upon Hippogriff at a brisk gallop), that he +intended to live for her, die for her, if need be, and carve out of +the world all that she would require. Everything appears possible, on +Hippogriff, when he is going; but it is a bad business to put the spur +on so willing a beast. When he does not go of his own will;--when he +sees that there are obstructions, it is best to jump off his back. And +we should abandon him then, save that having once tasted what he can do +for us, we become enamoured of the habit of going keenly, and defying +obstacles. Thus do we begin to corrupt the uses of the gallant beast +(for he is a gallant beast, though not of the first order); we spoil his +instincts and train him to hurry us to perdition. + +"If my sisters could see me now!" thought Wilfrid, half-smitten with a +distant notion of a singularity in his position there, the mark for a +frosty breeze, while his eyes kept undeviating watch over Penarvon. + +After a time he went back to the inn, and got among coachmen +and footmen, all battling lustily against the frost with weapons +scientifically selected at the bar. They thronged the passages, and +lunged hearty punches at one another, drank and talked, and only noticed +that a gentleman was in their midst when he moved to get a light. One +complained that he had to drive into Monmouth that night, by a road that +sent him five miles out of his way, owing to a block--a great stone that +had fallen from the hill. "You can't ask 'em to get out and walk ten +steps," he said; "or there! I'd lead the horses and just tip up the off +wheels, and round the place in a twinkle, pop 'm in again, and nobody +hurt; but you can't ask ladies to risk catchin' colds for the sake of +the poor horses." + +Several coachmen spoke upon this, and the shame and marvel it was that +the stone had not been moved; and between them the name of Mr. Powys was +mentioned, with the remark that he would spare his beasts if he could. + +"What's that block you're speaking of, just out of Monmouth?" enquired +Wilfrid; and it being described to him, together with the exact bearings +of the road and situation of the mass of stone, he at once repeated a +part of what he had heard in the form of the emphatic interrogation, +"What! there?" and flatly told the coachman that the stone had been +moved. + +"It wasn't moved this morning, then, sir," said the latter. + +"No; but a great deal can be done in a couple of hours," said Wilfrid. + +"Did you see 'em at work, sir?" + +"No; but I came that way, and the road was clear." + +"The deuce it was!" ejaculated the coachman, willingly convinced. + +"And that's the way I shall return," added Wilfrid. + +He tossed some money on the bar to aid in warming the assemblage, and +received numerous salutes as he passed out. His heart was beating fast. +"I shall see her, in the teeth of my curst luck," he thought, picturing +to himself the blessed spot where the mass of stone would lie; and to +that point he galloped, concentrating all the light in his mind on this +maddest of chances, till it looked sound, and finally certain. + +"It's certain, if that's not a hired coachman," he calculated. "If he +is, he won't risk his fee. If he isn't, he'll feel on the safe side +anyhow. At any rate, it's my only chance." And away he flew between +glimmering slopes of frost to where a white curtain of mist hung across +the wooded hills of the Wye. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI + +Emilia was in skilful hands, and against anything less powerful than a +lover mounted upon Hippogriff, might have been shielded. What is poison +to most girls, Merthyr prescribed for her as medicine. He nourished her +fainting spirit upon vanity. In silent astonishment Georgiana heard him +address speeches to her such as dowagers who have seen their day +can alone of womankind complacently swallow. He encouraged Tracy +Runningbrook to praise the face of which she had hitherto thought shyly. +Jewels were placed at her disposal, and dresses laid out cunningly +suited to her complexion. She had a maid to wait on her, who gabbled at +the momentous hours of robing and unrobing: "Oh, miss! of all the dark +young ladies I ever see!"--Emilia was the most bewitching. By-and-by, +Emilia was led to think of herself; but with a struggle and under +protest. How could it be possible that she was so very nice to the +eye, and Wilfrid had abandoned her? The healthy spin of young new blood +turned the wheels of her brain, and then she thought: "Perhaps I am +really growing handsome?" The maid said artfully of her hair: "If +gentlemen could only see it down, miss! It's the longest, and thickest, +and blackest, I ever touched!" And so saying, slid her fingers softly +through it after the comb, and thrilled the owner of that hair till soft +thoughts made her bosom heave, and then self-love began to be sensibly +awakened, followed by self-pity, and some further form of what we +understand as consciousness. If partially a degradation of her nature, +this saved her mind from true despair when it began to stir after the +vital shock that had brought her to earth. "To what purpose should I be +fair?" was a question that did not yet come to her; but it was sweet +to see Merthyr's eyes gather pleasure from the light of her own. Sweet, +though nothing more than coldly sweet. She compared herself to her +father's old broken violin, that might be mended to please the sight; +but would never give the tones again. Sometimes, if hope tormented her, +she would strangle it by trying her voice: and such a little piece of +self-inflicted anguish speedily undid all Merthyr's work. He was patient +as one who tends a flower in the Spring. Georgiana marvelled that the +most sensitive and proud of men should be striving to uproot an image +from the heart of a simple girl, that he might place his own there. His +methods almost led her to think that his estimate of human nature was +falling low. Nevertheless, she was constrained to admit that there was +no diminution of his love for her, and it chastened her to think so. +"Would it be the same with me, if I--?" she half framed the sentence, +blushing remorsefully while she denied that anything could change +her great love for her brother. She had caught a glimpse of Wilfrid's +suppleness and selfishness. Contrasting him with Merthyr, she was +singularly smitten with shame, she knew not why. + +The anticipation of the ball at Penarvon Castle had kindled very little +curiosity in Emilia's bosom. She seemed to herself a machine; "one +of the rest;" and looked more to see that she was still coveted by +Merthyr's eyes than at the glitter of the humming saloons. A touch +of her old gladness made her smile when Captain Gambier unexpectedly +appeared and walked across the dancers to sit beside her. She asked him +why he had come from London: to which he replied, with a most expressive +gaze under her eyelids, that he had come for one object. "To see me?" +thought Emilia, wondering, and reddening as she ceased to wonder. +She had thought as a child, and the neat instant felt as a woman. He +finished Merthyr's work for him. Emilia now thought: "Then I must be +worth something." And with "I am," she ended her meditation, glowing. +He might have said that she had all beauty ever showered upon woman: she +would have been led to believe him at that moment of her revival. + +Now, Lady Charlotte had written to Georgiana, telling her that Captain +Gambier was soon to be expected in her neighbourhood, and adding that it +would be as well if she looked closely after her charge. When Georgiana +saw him go over to Emilia she did not remember this warning: but when +she perceived the sudden brilliancy and softness in Emilia's face after +the first words had fallen on her ears, she grew alarmed, knowing his +reputation, and executed some diversions, which separated them. The +captain made no effort to perplex her tactics, merely saying that he +should call in a day or two. Merthyr took to himself all the credit of +the visible bloom that had come upon Emilia, and pacing with her between +the dances, said: "Now you will come to Italy, I think." + +She paused before answering, "Now?" and feverishly continued: "Yes; at +once. I will go. I have almost felt my voice again to-night." + +"That's well. I shall write to Marini to-morrow. You will soon find your +voice if you will not fret for it. Touch Italy!" + +"Yes; but you must be near me," said Emilia. + +Georgiana heard this, and could not conceive other than that Emilia was +growing to be one of those cormorant creatures who feed alike on the +homage of noble and ignoble. She was critical, too, of that very assured +pose of Emilia's head and firm planting of her feet as the girl paraded +the room after the dances in which she could not join. Previous to this +evening, Georgiana had seen nothing of the sort in her; but, on the +contrary, a doubtful droop of the shoulders and an unwilling gaze, as of +a soul submerged in internal hesitations. "I earnestly trust that this +is a romantic folly of Merthyr's, and no more," thought Georgiana, who +would have had that view concerning his love for Italy likewise, +if recollection of her own share of adventure there had not softly +interposed. + +Tracy, Georgiana, Merthyr, and Emilia were in the carriage, well muffled +up, with one window open to the white mist. Emilia was eager to +thank her friend, if only for the physical relief from weariness and +sluggishness which she was experiencing. She knew certainly that the dim +light of a recovering confidence in herself was owing, all, to him, and +burned to thank him. Once on the way their hands touched, and he felt +a shy pressure from her fingers as they parted. Presently the carriage +stopped abruptly, and listening they heard the coachman indulge his +companion outside with the remark that they were a couple of fools, and +were now regularly 'dished.' + +"I don't see why that observation can't go on wheels," said Tracy. + +Merthyr put out his head, and saw the obstruction of the mass of stone +across the road. He alighted, and together with the footman, examined +the place to see what the chance was of their getting the carriage past. +After a space of waiting, Georgiana clutched the wraps about her throat +and head, and impetuously followed her brother, as her habit had always +been. Emilia sat upright, saying, "I must go too." Tracy moaned +a petition to her to rest and be comfortable while the Gods were +propitious. He checked her with his arm, and tried to pacify her by +giving a description of the scene. The coachman remained on his seat. +Merthyr, Georgiana, and the footman were on the other side of the rock, +measuring the place to see whether, by a partial ascent of the sloping +rubble down which it had bowled, the carriage might be got along. + +"Go; they have gone round; see whether we can give any help," said +Emilia to Tracy, who cried: "My goodness! what help can we give? This is +an express situation where the Fates always appear in person and move us +on. We're sure to be moved, if we show proper faith in them. This is my +attitude of invocation." He curled his legs up on the seat, resting his +head on an arm; but seeing Emilia preparing for a jump he started up, +and immediately preceded her. Emilia looked out after him. She perceived +a figure coming stealthily from the bank. It stopped, and again +advanced, and now ran swiftly down. She drew back her head as it +approached the open door of the carriage; but the next moment trembled +forward, and was caught with a cat-like clutch upon Wilfrid's breast. + +"Emilia! my own for ever! I swore to die this night it I did not see +you!" + +"You love me, Wilfrid? love me?" + +"Come with me now!" + +"Now?" + +"Away! with me! your lover!" + +"Then you love me! + +"I love you! Come!" + +"Now? I cannot move." + +"I am out in the night without you." + +"Oh, my lover! Oh, Wilfrid!" + +"Come to me!" + +"My feet are dead!" + +"It's too late!" + +A sturdy hulloa! sounding from the coachman made Merthyr's ears alive. +When he returned he found Emilia huddled up on the seat, alone, her face +in her hands, and the touch of her hands like fire. He had to entreat +her to descend, and in helping her to alight bore her whole weight, +and supported her in a sad wonder, while the horses were led across +the rubble, and the carriage was with difficulty, and some confusions, +guided to clear its wheels of the obstructing mass. Emilia persisted in +saying that nothing ailed her; and to the coachman, who could have told +him something, and was willing to have done so (notwithstanding a gold +fee for silence that stuck in his palm), Merthyr put no question. + +As they were taking their seats in the carriage again, Georgiana said, +"Where is your wreath, Sandra?" + +The black-briony wreath was no longer on her head. + +"Then, it wasn't a dream!" gasped Emilia, feeling at her temples. + +Georgiana at once fell into a scrutinizing coldness, and when Merthyr, +who fancied the wreath might have fallen as he was lifting Emilia from +the carriage, proposed to go and search the place for it, his sister +laid her fingers on his arm, remarking, "You will not find it, dear;" +and Emilia cried "Oh! no, no! it is not there;" and, with her hands +pressed hard against her bosom, sat fixed and silent. + +Out of this mood she issued with looks of such tenderness that one who +watched her, speculating on her character as Merthyr did, could see +that in some mysterious way she had been, during the few minutes that +separated them, illumined upon the matter nearest her heart. Was it +her own strength, inspired by some sublime force, that had sprung up +suddenly to eject a worthless love? So he hoped in despite of whispering +reason, till Georgiana spoke to him. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII + +When the force of Wilfrid's embrace had died out from her body, Emilia +conceived wilfully that she had seen an apparition, so strange, sudden, +and wild had been his coming and going: but her whole body was a song to +her. "He is not false: he is true." So dimly, however, was the 'he' now +fashioned in her brain, and so like a thing of the air had he descended +on her, that she almost conceived the abstract idea, 'Love is true,' and +possibly, though her senses did not touch on it to shape it, she had the +reflection in her: "After all, power is mine to bring him to my side." +Almost it seemed to her that she had brought him from the grave. She sat +hugging herself in the carriage, hating to hear words, and seeing a ball +of fire away in the white mist. Georgiana looked at her no more; and +when Tracy remarked that he had fancied having seen a fellow running up +the bank, she said quietly, "Did you?" + +"Robert must have seen him, too," added Merthyr, and so the interloper +was dismissed. + +On reaching home, no sooner were they in the hall than Emilia called for +her bedroom candle in a thin, querulous voice that made Tracy shout with +laughter and love of her quaintness. + +Emilia gave him her hand, and held up her mouth to kiss Georgiana, but +no cheek was bent forward for the salute. The girl passed from among +them, and then Merthyr said to his sister: "What is the matter?" + +"Surely, Merthyr, you should not be at a loss," she answered, in a +somewhat unusual tone, that was half irony. + +Merthyr studied her face. Alone with her, he said: "I could almost +suppose that she has seen this man." + +Georgiana smiled sadly. "I have not seen him, dear; and she has not told +me so." + +"You think it was so?" + +"I can imagine it just possible." + +"What! while we were out and had left her! He must be mad!" + +"Not necessarily mad, unless to be without principle is to be mad." + +"Mad, or graduating for a Spanish comedie d'intrigue," said Merthyr. +"What on earth can he mean by it? If he must see her, let him come +here. But to dog a carriage at midnight, and to prefer to act startling +surprises!--one can't help thinking that he delights in being a +stage-hero." + +Georgiana's: "If he looks on her as a stage-heroine?" was unheeded, +and he pursued: "She must leave England at once," and stated certain +arrangements that were immediately to be made. + +"You will not give up this task you have imposed on yourself?" she said. + +"To do what?" + +She could have answered: "To make this unsatisfactory creature love +you;" but her words were, "To civilize this little savage." + +Merthyr was bright in a moment: "I don't give up till I see failure." + +"Is it not possible, dear, to be dangerously blind?" urged Georgiana. + +"Keep to the particular case," he returned; "and don't tempt me into +your woman's snare of a generalization. It's possible, of course, to be +one-ideaed and obstinate. But I have not yet seen your savage guilty of +a deceit. Her heart has been stirred, and her heart, as you may judge, +has force enough to be constant, though none can deny that it has been +roughly proved." + +"For which you like her better?" said Georgiana, herself brightening. + +"For which I like her better," he replied, and smiled, perfectly armed. + +"Oh! is it because I am a woman that I do not understand this sort of +friendship?" cried Georgiana. "And from you, Merthyr, to a girl such as +she is! Me she satisfies less and less. You speak of force of heart, as +if it were manifested in an abandonment of personal will." + +"No, my darling, but in the strong conception of a passion." + +"Yes; if she had discriminated, and fixed upon a worthy object!" + +"That," rejoined Merthyr, "is akin to the doctrine of justification by +success." + +"You seek to foil me with sophisms," said Georgiana, warming. "A +woman--even a girl--should remember what is due to herself. You are +attracted by a passionate nature--I mean, men are." + +"The general instance," assented Merthyr. + +"Then, do you never reflect," pursued Georgiana, "on the composition and +the elements of that sort of nature? I have tried to think the best of +it. It seems to me still no, not contemptible at all--but selfishness +is the groundwork of it; a brilliant selfishness, I admit. I see that +it shows its best feature, but is it the nobler for that? I think, and +I must think, that excellence is a point to be reached only by +unselfishness, and that usefulness is the test of excellence." + +"Before there has been any trial of her?" asked Merthyr. "Have you not +been a little too eager to put the test to her?" + +Georgiana reluctantly consented to have her argument attached to a +single person. "She is not a child, Merthyr." + +"Ay; but she should bethought one." + +"I confess I am utterly at sea," Georgiana sighed. "Will you at least +allow that sordid selfishness does less mischief than this 'passion' you +admire so much?" + +"I will allow that she may do herself more mischief than if she had the +opposite vice of avarice--anything you will, of that complexion." + +"And why should she be regarded as a child?" asked Georgiana piteously. + +"Because, if she has outnumbered the years of a child, she is no further +advanced than a child, owing to what she has to get rid of. She is +overburdened with sensations that set her head on fire. Her solid, firm, +and gentle heart keeps her balanced, so long as there is no one playing +on it. That a fool should be doing so, is scarcely her fault." + +Georgiana murmured to herself, "He is not a fool." She said, "I do see +a certain truth in what you say, dear Merthyr. But I have been +disappointed in her. I have taken her among my poor. She listens to +their tales, without sympathy. I took her into a sick-room. She stood +by a dying bed like a statue. Her remark when we came into the air was, +'Death seems easy, if it were not so stifling!' Herself always! herself +the centre of what she sees and feels! And again, she has no active +desire to do good to any mortal thing. A passive wish that everybody +should be happy, I know she has. Few have not. She would give money if +she had it. But this is among the mysteries of Providence to me, that +one no indifferent to others should be gifted with so inexplicable a +power of attraction." + +Merthyr put this case to her: "Suppose you saw any of the poor souls +you wait on lying sick with fever, would it be just to describe the +character of one so situated as fretful, ungrateful, of rambling tongue, +poor in health, and generally of loose condition of mind?" + +"There, again, is that foreign doctrine which exults in the meanest +triumphs by getting the thesis granted that we are animal--only +animals!" Georgiana burst out. "You argue that at this season and at +that season she is helpless. If she is a human creature, must she not +have a mind to cover those conditions?" + +"And a mind," Merthyr took her up, "specially experienced, armed, and +alert to be a safeguard to her at the most critical period of her life! +Oh, yes! Whether she 'must' have it is one thing; but no one can content +the value of such a jewel to any young person." + +Georgiana stood silenced; and knew later that she had been silenced by a +fallacy. For, is youth the most critical period of life? Neither brother +nor sister, however, were talking absolutely for the argument. Beneath +this dialogue, the current in her mind pressed to elicit some avowal of +his personal feeling for the girl, toward whom Georgiana's disposition +was kindlier than her words might lead one to think. He, on the other +hand, talked with the distinct object of disguising his feelings under +a tone of moderate friendship for Emilia, that was capable of excusing +her. A sensitive man of thirty odd years does not loudly proclaim his +appreciation of a girl under twenty: moreover, Merthyr wished to spare +his sister. + +He thought of questioning Robert, the coachman, whether anyone had +visited the carriage during his five minutes' absence from it: but +Merthyr's peculiar Welsh delicacy kept him from doing that, hard as +it was to remain in doubt and endure the little poisoned shafts of a +suspicion. + +In the morning there was a letter from Marini on the breakfast-table. +Merthyr glanced down the contents. His countenance flashed with a +marvellous light. "Where is she?" he said, looking keenly for Emilia. + +Emilia came in from the garden. + +"Now, my Sandra!" cried Merthyr, waving the letter to her; "can you pack +up, to start in an hour? There's work coming on for us, and I shall be +a boy again, and not the drumstick I am in this country. I have a +letter from Marini. All Lombardy is prepared to rise, and this time the +business will be done. Marini is off for Genoa. Under the orange-trees, +my Sandra! and looking on the bay, singing of Italy free!" + +Emilia fell back a step, eyeing him with a grave expression of wonder, +as if she beheld another being from the one she had hitherto known. The +calm Englishman had given place to a volcanic spirit. + +"Isn't that the sketch we made?" he resumed. "The plot's perfect. I +detest conspiracies, but we must use what weapons we can, and be Old +Mole, if they trample us in the earth. Once up, we have Turin to back +us. This I know. We shall have nothing but the Tedeschi to manage: and +if they beat us in cavalry, it's certain that they can't rely on their +light horse. The Magyars would break in a charge. We know that they +will. As for the rest:-- + + 'Soldati settentrionali, + Come sarebbe Boemi a Croati,' + +we are a match for them! Artillery we shall get. The Piedmontese are mad +for the signal. Come; sit and eat. The air seems dead down in this quiet +country; we're out of the stream. I must rush up to London to breathe +and then we won't lose a moment. We shall be in Italy in four days. Four +days, my Sandra! And Italy going to be free; Georgey, I'm fasting. And +you will see all your old friends. All? Good God! No!--not all! Their +blood shall nerve us. The Austrian thinks he wastes us by slaughter. +With every dead man he doubles the life of the living! Am I talking like +a foreigner, Sandra mia? My child, you don't eat! And I, who dreamed +last night that I looked out over Novara from the height of the Col di +Colma, and saw the plain under a red shadow from a huge eagle!" + +Merthyr laughed, swinging round his arm. Emilia continued staring at him +as at a man transformed, while Georgiana asked: "May Marini's letter be +seen?" Her visage had become firm and set in proportion as her brother's +excitement increased. + +"Eat, my Sandra! eat!" called Merthyr, who was himself eating with a +campaigning appetite. + +Georgiana laid down the letter folded under Merthyr's fingers, keeping +her hand on it till he grew alive to her meaning, that it should be put +away. + +"Marini is vague about artillery," she murmured. + +"Vague!" echoed Merthyr. "Say prudent. If he said we could lay hands on +fifty pieces, then distrust him!" + +"God grant that this be not another pit for further fruitless +bloodshed!" was the interjection standing in Georgiana's eyes, and then +she dropped them pensively, while Merthyr recounted the patient schemes +that had led to this hour, the unuttered anxieties and the bursting +hopes. + +Still Emilia kept her distressfully unenthusiastic looks turned from one +to the other, though her Italy was the theme. She did not eat, but had +dropped one hand flat on her plate, looking almost idiotic. She heard +of Italy as of a distant place, known to her in ancient years. Merthyr's +transformation, too, helped some form of illusion in her brain that she +was cut off from any kindred feeling with other people. + +As soon as he had finished, Merthyr jumped up; and coming round to +Emilia, touched her shoulder affectionately, saying: "Now! There won't +be much packing to do. We shall be in London to-night in time for your +mother to pass the evening with you." + +Emilia rose straightway, and her eyes fell vacantly on Georgiana for +help, as far as they could express anything. + +Georgiana gave no response, save a look well nigh as vacant in the +interchange. + +"But you haven't eaten at all!" said Merthyr. + +Emilia shook her head. "No." + +"Eat, my Sandra! to please me! You will need all your strength if you +would be a match for Georgey anywhere where there's action." + +"Yes!" Emilia traversed his words with a sudden outcry. "Yes, I will go +to London. I am ready to go to London now." + +It was clear that a new light had fallen on her intelligence. + +Merthyr was satisfied to see her sit down to the table, and he at once +went out to issue directions for the first step in the new and momentous +expedition. + +Emilia put the bread to her mouth, and crumbled it on a dry lip: but it +was evident to Georgiana, hostile witness as she was, that Emilia's mind +was gradually warming to what Merthyr had said, and that a picture was +passing before the girl. She perceived also a thing that no misery of +her own had yet drawn from Emilia. It was a tear that fell heavily on +the back of her hand. Soon the tears came in quick succession, while the +girl tried to eat, and bit at salted morsels. It was a strange sight for +Georgiana, this statuesque weeping, that got human bit by bit, till +the bosom heaved long sobs: and yet no turn of the head for sympathy; +nothing but passionless shedding of big tear-drops! + +She went to the girl, and put her hand upon her; kissed her, and then +said: "We have no time to lose. My brother never delays when he has come +to a resolve." + +Emilia tried to articulate: "I am ready." + +"But you have not eaten!" + +Emilia made a mechanical effort to eat. + +"Remember," said Georgiana, "we have a long distance to go. You will +want your strength. You would not be a burden to him? Eat, while I get +your things ready." And Georgiana left her, secretly elated to feel that +in this expedition it was she, and she alone, who was Merthyr's mate. +What storm it was, and what conflict, agitated the girl and stupefied +her, she cared not to guess, now that she had the suitable designation, +'savage,' confirmed in all her acts, to apply to her. + +When Tracy Runningbrook came down at his ordinary hour of noon to +breakfast, he found a twisted note from Georgiana, telling him that +important matters had summoned Merthyr to London, and that they were all +to be seen at Lady Gosstre's town-house. + +"I believe, by Jove! Powys manoeuvres to get her away from me," he +shouted, and sat down to his breakfast and his book with a comforted +mind. It was not Georgiana to whom he alluded; but the appearance of +Captain Gambier, and the pronounced discomposure visible in the handsome +face of the captain on his hearing of the departure, led Tracy to think +that Georgiana's was properly deplored by another, though that other was +said to be engaged. 'On revient toujours,' he hummed. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII + +Three days passed as a running dream to Emilia. During that period she +might have been hurried off to Italy without uttering a remonstrance. +Merthyr's spirited talk of the country she called her own; of its heroic +youth banded to rise, and sworn to liberate it or die; of good historic +names borne by men, his comrades, in old campaigning adventures; and +stories and incidents of those past days--all given with his changed +face, and changed ringing voice, almost moved her to plunge forgetfully +into this new tumultuous stream while the picture of the beloved land, +lying shrouded beneath the perilous star it was about to follow grew in +her mind. + +"Shall I go with the Army?" she asked Georgiana. + +"No, my child; you will simply go to school," was the cold reply. + +"To school!" Emilia throbbed, "while they are fighting!" + +"To the Academy. My brother's first thought is to further your progress +in Art. When your artistic education is complete, you will choose your +own course." + +"He knows, he knows that I have no voice!" Emilia struck her lap with +twisted fingers. "My voice is thick in my throat. If I am not to march +with him, I can't go; I will not go. I want to see the fight. You have. +Why should I keep away? Could I run up notes, even if I had any voice, +while he is in the cannon-smoke?" + +"While he is in the cannon-smoke!" Georgiana revolved the line +thoughtfully. "You are aware that my brother looks forward to the +recovery of your voice," she said. + +"My voice is like a dead serpent in my throat," rejoined Emilia. "My +voice! I have forgotten music. I lived for that, once; now I live for +nothing, only to take my chance everywhere with my friend. I want to +smell powder. My father says it is like salt, the taste of blood, and is +like wine when you smell it. I have heard him shout for it. I will go to +Italy, if I may go where my friend Merthyr goes; but nothing can keep me +shut up now. My head's a wilderness when I'm in houses. I can scarcely +bear to hear this London noise, without going out and walking till I +drop." + +Coming to a knot in her meditation, Georgiana concluded that Emilia's +heart was warming to Merthyr. She was speedily doubtful again. + +These two delicate Welsh natures, as exacting as they were delicate, +were little pleased with Emilia's silence concerning her intercourse +with Wilfrid. Merthyr, who had expressed in her defence what could be +said for her, was unwittingly cherishing what could be thought in +her disfavour. Neither of them hit on the true cause, which lay in +Georgiana's coldness to her. One little pressure of her hand, carelessly +given, made Merthyr better aware of the nature he was dealing with. He +was telling her that a further delay might keep them in London for a +week; and that he had sent for her mother to come to her. + +"I must see my mother," she had said, excitedly. The extension of +the period named for quitting England made it more imminent m her +imagination than when it was a matter of hours. "I must see her." + +"I have sent for her," said Merthyr, and then pressed Emilia's hand. But +she who, without having brooded on complaints of its absence, thirsted +for demonstrative kindness, clung to the hand, drawing it, doubled, +against her chin. + +"That is not the reason," she said, raising her full eyes up at him over +the unrelinquished hand. "I love the poor Madre; let her come; but I +have no heart for her just now. I have seen Wilfrid." + +She took a tighter hold of his fingers, as fearing he might shrink from +her. Merthyr hated mysteries, so he said, "I supposed it must have been +so--that night of our return from Penarvon?" + +"Yes," she murmured, while she read his face for a shadow of a +repulsion; "and, my friend, I cannot go to Italy now!" + +Merthyr immediately drew a seat beside her. He perceived that there +would be no access to her reason, even as he was on the point of +addressing it. + +"Then all my care and trouble are to be thrown away?" he said, taking +the short road to her feelings. + +She put the hand that was disengaged softly on his shoulder. "No; not +thrown away. Let me be what Merthyr wishes me to be! That is my chief +prayer." + +"Why, then, will you not do what Merthyr wishes you to do?" + +Emilia's eyelids shut, while her face still fronted him. + +"Oh! I will speak all out to you," she cried. "Merthyr, my friend, he +came to kiss me once, before I have only just understood it! He is going +to Austria. He came to touch me for the last time before his hand is +red with my blood. Stop him from going! I am ready to follow you:--I can +hear of his marrying that woman:--Oh! I cannot live and think of him in +that Austrian white coat. Poor thing!--my dear! my dear!" And she turned +away her head. + +It is not unnatural that Merthyr hearing these soft epithets, should +disbelieve in the implied self-conquest of her preceding words. He had +no clue to make him guess that these were simply old exclamations of +hers brought to her lips by the sorrowful contrast in her mind. + +"It will be better that you should see him," he said, with less of his +natural sincerity; so soon are we corrupted by any suspicion that our +egoism prompts. + +"Here?" And she hung close to him, open-lipped, open-eyed, open-eared, +as if (Georgiana would think it, thought Merthyr) her savage senses had +laid the trap for this proposal, and now sprung up keen for their prey. +"Here, Merthyr? Yes! let me see him. You will! Let me see him, for he +cannot resist me. He tries. He thinks he does: but he cannot. I can +stretch out my finger--I can put it on the day when, if he has galloped +one way he will gallop another. Let him come." + +She held up both her hands in petition, half dropping her eyelids, with +a shadowy beauty. + +In Merthyr's present view, the idea of Wilfrid being in ranks opposed +to him was so little provocative of intense dissatisfaction, that it +was out of his power to believe that Emilia craved to see him simply to +dissuade the man from the obnoxious step. "Ah, well! See him; see him, +if you must," he said. "Arrange it with my sister." + +He quitted the room, shrinking from the sound of her thanks, and still +more from the consciousness of his torment. + +The business that detained him was to get money for Marini. Georgiana +placed her fortune at his disposal a second time. There was his own, +which he deemed it no excess of chivalry to fling into the gulf. The two +sat together, arranging what property should be sold, and how they would +share the sacrifice in common. Georgiana pressed him to dispose of a +little estate belonging to her, that money might immediately be raised. +They talked as they sat over the fire toward the dusk of the winter +evening. + +"You would not have refused me once, Merthyr!" + +"When you were a child, and I hardly better than a boy. Now it's +different. Let mine go first, Georgey. You may have a husband, who will +not look on these things as we do." + +"How can I love a husband!" was all she said; and Merthyr took her in +his arms. His gaiety had gone. + +"We can't go dancing into a pit of this sort," he sighed, partly to +baffle the scrutiny he apprehended in her silence. "The garrison at +Milan is doubled, and I hear they are marching troops through Tyrol. +Some alerte has been given, and probably some traitors exist. One +wouldn't like to be shot like a dog! You haven't forgotten poor Tarani? +I heard yesterday of the girl who calls herself his widow." + +"They were betrothed, and she is!" exclaimed Georgiana. + +"Well, there's a case of a man who had two loves--a woman and his +country; and both true to him!" + +"And is he so singular, Merthyr?" + +"No, my best! my sweetest! my heart's rest! no!" + +They exchanged tender smiles. + +"Tarani's bride--beloved! you can listen to such matters--she has +undertaken her task. Who imposed it? I confess I faint at the thought of +things so sad and shameful. But I dare not sit in judgement on a people +suffering as they are. Outrage upon outrage they have endured, and that +deadens--or rather makes their heroism unscrupulous. Tarani's bride +is one of the few fair girls of Italy. We have a lock of her hair. She +shore it close the morning her lover was shot, and wore the thin white +skull-cap you remember, until it was whispered to her that her beauty +must serve." + +"I have the lock now in my desk," said Georgiana, beginning to tremble. +"Do you wish to look at it?" + +"Yes; fetch it, my darling." + +He sat eyeing the firelight till she returned, and then taking the long +golden lock in his handy he squeezed it, full of bitter memories and +sorrowfulness. + +"Giulietta?" breathed his sister. + +"I would put my life on the truth of that woman's love. Well!" + +"Yes?" + +"She abandons herself to the commandant of the citadel." + +A low outcry burst from Georgiana. She fell at Merthyr's knees sobbing +violently. He let her sob. In the end she struggled to speak. + +"Oh! can it be permitted? Oh! can we not save her? Oh, poor soul! my +sister! Is she blind to her lover in heaven?" + +Georgiana's face was dyed with shame. + +"We must put these things by," said Merthyr. "Go to Emilia presently, +and tell her--settle with her as you think fitting, how she shall see +this Wilfrid Pole. I have promised her she shall have her wish." + +Coloured by the emotion she was burning from, these words smote +Georgiana with a mournful compassion for Merthyr. + +He had risen, and by that she knew that nothing could be said to alter +his will. + +A sentimental pair likewise, if you please; but these were +sentimentalists who served an active deity; and not that arbitrary +protection of a subtle selfishness which rules the fairer portion of our +fat England. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIX + +"My brother tells me it is your wish to see Mr. Wilfrid Pole." + +Emilia's "Yes" came faintly in answer to Georgiana's cold accents. + +"Have you considered what you are doing in expressing such a desire?" + +Another "Yes" was heard from under an uplifted head:--a culprit +affirmative, whereat the just take fire. + +"Be honest, Emilia. Seek counsel and guidance to-night, as you have done +before with me, and profited, I think. If I write to bid him come, what +will it mean?" + +"Nothing more," breathed Emilia. + +"To him--for in his way he seems to care for you fitfully--it will +mean--stop! hear me. The words you speak will have no part of the +meaning, even if you restrain your tongue. To him it will imply that +his power over you is unaltered. I suppose that the task of making you +perceive the effect it really will have on you is hopeless." + +"I have seen him, and I know," said Emilia, in a corresponding tone. + +"You saw him that night of our return from Penarvon? Judge of him by +that. He would not spare you. To gratify I know not what wildness in his +nature, he did not hesitate to open your old wound. And to what purpose? +A freak of passion!" + +"He could not help it. I told him he would come, and he came." + +"This, possibly, you call love; do you not?" + +Emilia was about to utter a plain affirmative, but it was checked. The +novelty of the idea of its not being love arrested her imagination. + +"If he comes to you here," resumed Georgiana-- + +"He must come!" cried Emilia. + +"My brother has sanctioned it, so his coming or not will rest with him. +If he comes, let me know the good that you think will result from an +interview? Ah! you have not weighed that question. Do so;--or you give +no heed to it? In any ease, try to look into your own breast. You were +not born to live unworthily. You can be, or will be, if you follow your +better star, self-denying and noble. Do you not love your country? Judge +of this love by that. Your love, if you have this power over him, is +merely a madness to him; and his--what has it done for you? If he comes, +and this begins again, there will be a similar if not the same destiny +for you." + +Emilia panted in her reply. "No; it will not begin again." She threw out +both arms, shaking her head. "It cannot, I know. What am I now? It is +what I was that he loves. He will not know what I am till he sees me. +And I know that I have done things that he cannot forgive. You have +forgiven it, and Merthyr, because he is my friend; but I am sure Wilfrid +will not. He might pardon the poor 'me,' but not his Emilia! I shall +have to tell him what I did; so" (and she came closer to Georgiana) +"there is some pain for me in seeing him." + +Georgiana was not proof against this simplicity of speech, backed by a +little dying dimple, which seemed a continuation of the plain sadness of +Emilia's tone. + +She said, "My poor child!" almost fondly, and then Emilia looked in her +face, murmuring, "You sometimes doubt me." + +"Not your truth, but the accuracy of your perceptions and your knowledge +of your real designs. You are certainly deceiving yourself at this +instant. In the first place, the relation of that madness--no, poor +child, not wickedness--but if you tell it to him, it is a wilful and +unnecessary self-abasement. If he is to be your husband, unburden your +heart at once. Otherwise, why? why? You are but working up a scene, +provoking needless excesses: you are storing misery in retrospect, or +wretchedness to be endured. Had you the habit of prayer! By degrees it +will give you the thirst for purity, and that makes you a fountain of +prayer, in whom these blind deceits cannot hide." + +Georgiana paused emphatically; as when, by our unrolling out of our +ideas, we have more thoroughly convinced ourselves. + +"You pray to heaven," said Emilia, and then faltered, and blushed. "I +must be loved!" she cried. "Will you not put your arms round me?" + +Georgiana drew her to her bosom, bidding her continue. Emilia lay +whispering under her chin. "You pray, and you wish to be seen as you +are, do you not? You do. Well, if you knew what love is, you would see +it is the same. You wish him to see and know you: you wish to be sure +that he loves nothing but exactly you; it must be yourself. You are +jealous of his loving an idea of you that is not you. You think, 'He +will wake up and find his mistake;' or you think, 'That kiss was not +intended for me; not for me as I am.' Those are tortures!" + +Her discipline had transformed her, when she could utter such sentiments +as these! + +Feeling her shudder, and not knowing how imagination forestalls +experience in passionate blood, Georgiana said, "You speak like one who +has undergone them. But now at least you have thrown off the mask. You +love him still, this man! And with as little strength of will! Do you +not see impiety in the comparison you have made?" + +"Oh! what I see is, that I wish I could say to him, 'Look on me, for I +need not be ashamed--I am like Miss Ford!'" + +The young lady's cheeks took fire, and the clear path of speech becoming +confused in her head she said, "Miss Ford?" + +"Georgiana," said Emilia, and feeling that her friend's cold manner had +melted; "Georgey! my beloved! my darling in Italy, where will we go! I +envy no woman but you who have seen my dear ones fight. You and I, and +Merthyr! Nothing but Austrian shot shall part us." + +"And so we make up a pretty dream!" interjected Georgiana. "The Austrian +shot, I think, will be fired by one who is now in the Austrian service, +or who will soon be." + +"Wilfrid?" Emilia called out. "No; that is what I am going to stop. Why +did I not tell you so at first? But I never know what I say or do when +I am with you, and everything seems chance. I want to see him to prevent +him from doing that. I can." + +"Why should you?" asked Georgiana; and one to whom the faces of the two +had been displayed at that moment would have pronounced them a hostile +couple. + +"Why should I prevent him?" Emilia doled out the question slowly, and +gave herself no further thought of replying to it. + +Apparently Georgiana understood the significance of this odd silence: +she was perhaps touched by it. She said, "You feel that you have a power +over him. You wish to exercise it. Never mind wherefore. If you do--if +you try, and succeed--if, by the aid of this love presupposed to exist, +you win him to what you require of him--do you honestly think the love +is then immediately to be dropped?" + +Emilia meditated. She caught up her voice hastily. "I think so. Yes. I +hope so. I mean it to be." + +"With a noble lover, Emilia. Not with a selfish one. In showing him the +belief you have in your power over him, you betray that he has power +over you. And it is to no object. His family, his position, his +prospects--all tell you that he cannot marry you if he would. And he is, +besides, engaged--" + +"Let her suffer!" Emilia's eyes flashed. + +"Ah!" and Georgiana thought, "Have I come upon your nature at last?" + +However it might be, Emilia was determined to show it. + +"She took my lover from me, and I say, let her suffer! I would not hurt +her myself--I would not lay my finger on her: but she has eyes like blue +stones, and such a mouth!--I think the Austrian executioner has one like +it. If she suffers, and goes all dark as I did, she will show a better +face. Let her keep my lover. He is not mine, but he was; and she took +him from me. That woman cannot feed on him as I did. I know she has no +hunger for love. He will look at those blue bits of ice, and think of +me. I told him so. Did I not tell him that in Devon? I saw her eyelids +move as fast as I spoke. I think I look on Winter when I see her lips. +Poor, wretched Wilfrid!" + +Emilia half-sobbed this exclamation out. "I don't wish to hurt either +of them," she added, with a smile of such abrupt opposition to her words +that Georgiana was in perplexity. A lady who has assumed the office +of lecturer, will, in such a frame of mind, lecture on, if merely to +vindicate to herself her own preconceptions. Georgiana laid her finger +severely upon Wilfrid's manifest faults; and, in fine, she spoke a great +deal of the common sense that the situation demanded. Nevertheless, +Emilia held to her scheme. But, in the meantime, Georgiana had seen more +clearly into the girl's heart; and she had been won, also, by a natural +gracefulness that she now perceived in her, and which led her to think, +"Is Merthyr again to show me that he never errs in his judgement?" +An unaccountable movement of tenderness to Emilia made her drop a few +kisses on her forehead. Emilia shut her eyes, waiting for more. Then +she looked up, and said, "Have you felt this love for me very long?" at +which the puny flame, scarce visible, sprang up, and warmed to a great +heat. + +"My own Emilia! Sandra! listen to me: promise me not to seek this +interview." + +"Will you always love me as much?" Emilia bargained. + +"Yes, yes; I never vary. It is my love for you that begs you." + +Emilia fell into a chair and propped her head behind both hands, tapping +the floor briskly with her feet. Georgiana watched the conflict going +on. To decide it promptly, she said: "And not only shall I love you +thrice as well, but my brother Merthyr, whom you call your friend--he +will--he cannot love you better; but he will feel you to be worthy the +best love he can give. There is a heart, you simple girl! He loves you, +and has never shown any of the pain your conduct has given him. When +I say he loves you, I tell you his one weakness--the only one I have +discovered. And judge whether, he has shown want of self-control +while you were dying for another. Did he attempt to thwart you? No; to +strengthen you; and never once to turn your attention to himself. That +is love. Now, think of what anguish you have made him pass through: and +think whether you have ever witnessed an alteration of kindness in his +face toward you. Even now, when he had the hope that you were cured of +your foolish fruitless affection for a man who merely played with you, +and cannot give up the habit, even now he hides what he feels--" + +So far Emilia let her speak without interruption; but gradually +awakening to the meaning of the words:-- + +"For me?" she cried. + +"Yes; for you." + +"The same sort of love as Wilfrid feels?" + +"By no means the same sort; but the love of man for woman." + +"And he saw me when I was that wretched heap? And he knows everything! +and loves me. He has never kissed me." + +"Does that miserable test--?" Georgiana was asking. + +"Pardon, pardon," said Emilia penitently; "I know that is almost +nothing, now. I am not a child. I spoke from a sudden feeling. For if +he loves me, how--! Oh, Merthyr! what a little creature I seem. I cannot +understand it. I lose a brother. And he was such a certainty to me. What +did he love--what did he love, that night he found me on the pier? I +looked like a creature picked off a mud-bank. I felt like a worm, and +miserably abandoned, I was a shameful sight. Oh! how can I look on +Merthyr's face again?" + +In these interjections Georgiana did not observe the proper humility and +abject gratitude of a young person who had heard that she was selected +by a prince of the earth. A sort of 'Eastern handmaid' prostration, with +joined hands, and, above all things, a closed mouth, the lady desired. +She half regretted the revelation she had made; and to be sure at once +that she had reaped some practical good, she said: "I need scarce ask +you whether you have come to a right decision upon that other question." + +"To see Wilfrid?" said Emilia. She appeared to pause musingly, and then +turned to Georgiana, showing happy features; "Yes: I shall see him. I +must see him. Let him know he is to come immediately." + +"That is your decision." + +"Yes." + +"After what I have told you?" + +"Oh, yes; yes! Write the letter." + +Georgiana chid at an internal wrath that struggled to win her lips. +"Promise me simply that what I have told you of my brother, you will +consider yourself bound to keep secret. You will not speak of it to +others, nor to him." + +Emilia gave the promise, but with the thought; "To him?--will not he +speak of it?" + +"So, then, I am to write this letter?" said Georgiana. + +"Do, do; at once!" Emilia put on her sweetest look to plead for it. + +"Decidedly the wisest of men are fools in this matter," Georgiana's +reflection swam upon her anger. + +"And dearest! my Georgey!" Emilia insisted on being blunt to the outward +indications to which she was commonly so sensitive and reflective; "my +Georgey! let me be alone this evening in my bedroom. The little Madre +comes, and--and I haven't the habit of being respectful to her. And, I +must be alone! Do not send up for me, whoever wishes it." + +Georgiana could not stop her tongue: "Not if Mr. Wilfrid Pole--?" + +"Oh, he! I will see him," said Emilia; and Georgiana went from her +straightway. + + + + +CHAPTER L + +Emilia remained locked up with her mother all that evening. The good +little shrill woman, tender-eyed and slatternly, had to help try on +dresses, and run about for pins, and express her critical taste in +undertones, believing all the while that her daughter had given up music +to go mad with vanity. The reflection struck her, notwithstanding, +that it was a wiser thing for one of her sex to make friends among rich +people than to marry a foreign husband. + +The girl looked a brilliant woman in a superb Venetian dress of purple +velvet, which she called 'the Branciani dress,' and once attired in it, +and the rich purges and swelling creases over the shoulders puffed +out to her satisfaction, and the run of yellow braid about it properly +inspected and flattened, she would not return to her more homely wear, +though very soon her mother began to whimper and say that she had lost +her so long, and now that she had found her it hardly seemed the same +child. Emilia would listen to no entreaties to put away her sumptuous +robe. She silenced her mother with a stamp of her foot, and then sighed: +"Ah! Why do I always feel such a tyrant with you?" kissing her. + +"This dress," she said, and held up her mother's chin fondlingly between +her two hands, "this dress was designed by my friend Merthyr--that +is, Mr. Powys--from what he remembered of a dress worn by Countess +Branciani, of Venice. He had it made to give to me. It came from Paris. +Countess Branciani was one of his dearest friends. I feel that I am +twice as much his friend with this on me. Mother, it seems like a deep +blush all over me. I feel as if I looked out of a rose." + +She spread her hands to express the flower magnified. + +"Oh! what silly talk," said her mother: "it does turn your head, this +dress does!" + +"I wish it would give me my voice, mother. My father has no hope. I wish +he would send me news to make me happy about him; or come and run his +finger up the strings for hours, as he used to. I have fancied I heard +him at times, and I had a longing to follow the notes, and felt sure of +my semi-tones. He won't see me! Mother! he would think something of me +if he saw me now!" + +Her mother's lamentations reached that vocal pitch at last which Emilia +could not endure, and the little lady was despatched to her home under +charge of a servant. + +Emilia feasted on the looking-glass when alone. Had Merthyr, in +restoring her to health, given her an overdose of the poison? + +"Countess Branciani made the Austrian Governor her slave," she uttered, +planting one foot upon a stool to lend herself height. "He told her who +were suspected, and who would be imprisoned, and gave her all the State +secrets. Beauty can do more than music. I wonder whether Merthyr loved +her? He loves me!" + +Emilia was smitten with a fear that he would speak of it when she next +saw him. "Oh! I hope he will be just the same as he has been," she +sighed; and with much melancholy shook her head at her fair reflection, +and began to undress. It had not struck her with surprise that two men +should be loving her, until, standing away from the purple folds, she +seemed to grow smaller and smaller, as a fire-log robbed of its flame, +and felt insufficient and weak. This was a new sensation. She depended +no more on her own vital sincerity. It was in her nature, doubtless, +to crave constantly for approval, but in the service of personal beauty +instead of divine Art, she found herself utterly unwound without it: +victim of a sense of most uncomfortable hollowness. She was glad to +extinguish the candle and be covered up dark in the circle of her +warmth. Then her young blood sang to her again. + +An hour before breakfast every morning she read with Merthyr. Now, this +morning how was she to appear to him? There would be no reading, of +course. How could he think of teaching one to whom he trembled. Emilia +trusted that she might see no change in him, and, above all, that he +would not speak of his love for her. Nevertheless, she put on her robe +of conquest, having first rejected with distaste a plainer garb. She +went down the stairs slowly. Merthyr was in the library awaiting her. +"You are late," he said, eyeing the dress as a thing apart from her, and +remarking that it was hardly suited for morning wear. "Yellow, if you +must have a strong colour, and you wouldn't exhibit the schwartz-gelb of +the Tedeschi willingly. But now!" + +This was the signal for the reading to commence. + +"Wilfrid would not have been so cold to me," thought Emilia, turning the +leaves of Ariosto as a book of ashes. Not a word of love appeared to be +in his mind. This she did not regret; but she thirsted for the assuring +look. His eyes were quietly friendly. So friendly was he, that he blamed +her for inattention, and took her once to task about a melodious accent +in which she vulgarized the vowels. All the flattery of the Branciani +dress could not keep Emilia from her feeling of smallness. Was it +possible that he loved her? She watched him as eagerly as her shyness +would permit. Any shadow of a change was spied for. Getting no softness +from him, or superadded kindness, no shadow of a change in that +direction, she stumbled in her reading purposely, to draw down rebuke; +her construing was villanously bad. He told her so, and she replied: "I +don't like poetry." But seeing him exchange Ariosto for Roman History, +she murmured, "I like Dante." Merthyr plunged her remorselessly into the +second Punic war. + +But there was worse to follow. She was informed that after breakfast she +would be called upon to repeat the principal facts she had been reading +of. Emilia groaned audibly. + +"Take the book," said Merthyr. + +"It's so heavy," she complained. + +"Heavy?" + +"I mean, to carry about." + +"If you want to 'carry it about,' the boy shall follow you with it." + +She understood that she was being laughed at. Languor, coupled with the +consciousness of ridicule, overwhelmed her. + +"I feel I can't learn," she said. + +"Feel, that you must," was replied to her. + +"No; don't take any more trouble with me!" + +"Yes; I expect you to distinguish Scipio from Cicero, and not make the +mistake of the other evening, when you were talking to Mrs. Cameron." + +Emilia left him, abashed, to dread shrewdly their meeting within five +minutes at the breakfast-table; to dread eating under his eyes, with +doubts of the character of her acts generally. She was, indeed, his +humble scholar, though she seemed so full of weariness and revolt. He, +however, when alone, looked fixedly at the door through which she had +passed, and said, "She loves that man still. Similar ages, similar +tastes, I suppose! She is dressed to be ready for him. She can't learn: +she can do nothing. My work mayn't be lost, but it's lost for me." + +Merthyr did not know that Georgiana had betrayed him, but in no case +would he have given Emilia the signs she expected: in the first place, +because he had self-command; and, secondly, because of those years he +counted in advance of her. So she had the full mystery of his loving her +to think over, without a spot of the weakness to fasten on. + +Georgiana's first sight of Emilia in her Branciani dress shut her heart +against the girl with iron clasps. She took occasion to remark, "We need +not expect visitors so very early;" but the offender was impervious. +Breakfast finished, the reading with Merthyr recommenced, when Emilia, +having got over her surprise at the sameness of things this day, +acquitted herself better, and even declaimed the verses musically. +Seeing him look pleased, she spoke them out sonorously. Merthyr +applauded. Upon which Emilia said, with odd abruptness and solemnity, +"Will he come to-day?" It was beyond Merthyr's power of self-control to +consent to be taken into a consultation on this matter, and he attempted +to put it aside. "He may or he may not--probably to-morrow." + +"No; to-day, in the afternoon," said Emilia, "be near me." + +"I have engagements." + +"Some word, say, that will seem to be you with me." + +"Some flattery, or you won't remember it." + +"Yes, I like flattery." + +"Well, you look like Countess Branciani when, after thinking her husband +the basest of men, she discovered him to be the noblest." + +Emilia blushed. "That's not easily forgotten! But she must have looked +braver, bolder, not so under a burden as I feel." + +"The comparison was meant to suit the moment of your reciting." + +"Yes," said Emilia, half-mournfully, "then 'myself' doesn't sit on my +shoulders: I don't even care what I am." + +"That is what Art does for you." + +"Only by fits and starts now. Once I never thought of myself." + +There was a knock at the street-door, and she changed countenance. +Presently there came a gentle tap at their own door. + +"It is that woman," said Emilia. + +"I fancy it must be Lady Charlotte. You will not see her?" + +Merthyr was anticipating a negative, but Emilia said, "Let her come in." + +She gave her hand to the lady, and was the less concerned of the two. +Lady Charlotte turned away from her briskly. + +"Georgey didn't say anything of you in her letter, Merthyr; I am +going up to her, but I wished to satisfy myself that you were in town, +first:--to save half-a-minute, you see I anticipate the philosophic +manly sneer. Is it really true that you are going to mix yourself up in +this mad Italian business again? Now that you're a man, my dear Merthyr, +it seems almost inexcuseable--for a sensible Englishman!" + +Lady Charlotte laughed, giving him her hand at the same time. + +"Don't you know I swore an oath?" Merthyr caught up her tone. + +"Yes, but you never succeed. I complain that you never succeed. Of what +use on earth are all your efforts if you never succeed?" + +Emilia's voice burst out:-- + + "'Piacemi almen che i miei sospir sien quali + Spera 'l Tevero e 'l Arno, + E 'l Po,--'" + +Merthyr continued the ode, acting a similar fervour:-- + + "'Ben provvide Natura al nostro stato + Quando dell' Alpi schermo + Pose fra noi e la tedesca rabbis." + +"We are merely bondsmen to the re-establishment of the provisions of +nature." + +"And we know we shall succeed!" said Emilia, permitting her antagonism +to pass forth in irritable emphasis. + +Lady Charlotte quickly left them, to run up to Georgiana. She was not +long in the house. Emilia hung near Merthyr all day, and she was near +him when the knock was heard which she could suppose to be Wilfrid's, as +it proved. Wilfrid was ushered in to Georgiana. Delicacy had prevented +Merthyr from taking special notice to Emilia of Lady Charlotte's visit, +and he treated Wilfrid's similarly, saying, "Georgey will send down +word." + +"Only, don't leave me till she does," Emilia rejoined. + +Her agitation laid her open to be misinterpreted. It was increased when +she saw him take a book and sit in the armchair between two lighted +candles, calmly careless of her. She did not actually define to herself +that he should feel jealously, but his indifference was one extreme +which provoked her instinct to imagine a necessity for the other. Word +came from Georgiana, and Emilia moved to the door. "Remember, we dine +half-an-hour earlier to-day, on account of the Cameron party," was all +that he uttered. Emilia made an effort to go. She felt herself as a +ship sailing into perilous waters, without compass. Why did he not speak +tenderly? Before Georgiana had revealed his love for her, she had been +strong to see Wilfrid. Now, the idea smote her softened heart that +Wilfrid's passion might engulf her if she had no word of sustainment +from Merthyr. She turned and flung herself at his feet, murmuring, "Say +something to me." Merthyr divined this emotion to be a sort of foresight +of remorse on her part: he clasped the interwoven fingers of her hands, +letting his eyes dwell upon hers. The marvel of their not wavering or +softening meaningly kept her speechless. She rose with a strength not +her own: not comforted, and no longer speculating. It was as if she had +been eyeing a golden door shut fast, that might some day open, but was +in itself precious to behold. She arose with deep humbleness, which +awakened new ideas of the nature of worth in her bosom. She felt herself +so low before this man who would not be played upon as an obsequious +instrument--who would not leap into ardour for her beauty! Before that +man upstairs how would she feel? The question did not come to her. She +entered the room where he was, without a blush. Her step was firm, and +her face expressed a quiet gladness. Georgiana stayed through the first +commonplaces: then they were alone. + + + + +CHAPTER LI + +Commonplaces continued to be Wilfrid's refuge, for sentiment was surging +mightily within him. The commonplaces concerning father, sisters, +health, weather, sickened him when uttered, so much that for a time he +was unobservant of Emilia's ready exchange of them. To a compliment +on her appearance, she said: "You like this dress? I will tell you the +history of it. I call it the Branciani dress. Mr. Powys designed it for +me. The Countess Branciani was his friend. She used always to dress in +this colour; just in this style. She also was dark. And she imagined +that her husband favoured the Austrians. She believed he was an Austrian +spy. It was impossible for her not to hate him--" + +"Her husband!" quoth Wilfrid. The unexpected richness that had come upon +her beauty and the coolness of her prattle at such an interview amazed +and mortified him. + +"She supposed him to be an Austrian spy!" + +"Still he was her husband!" + +Emilia gave her features a moment's play, but she had not full command +of them, and the spark of scorn they emitted was very slight. + +"Ah!" his tone had fallen into a depth, "how I thank you for the honour +you have done me in desiring to see me once before you leave England! I +know that I have not merited it." + +More he said on this theme, blaming himself emphatically, until, +startled by the commonplaces he was uttering, he stopped short; and the +stopping was effective, if the speech was not. Where was the tongue of +his passion? He almost asked it of himself. Where was Hippogriff? He who +had burned to see her, he saw her now, fair as a vision, and yet in the +flesh! Why was he as good as tongue-tied in her presence when he had +such fires to pour forth? + +(Presuming that he has not previously explained it, the philosopher +here observes that Hippogriff, the foal of Fiery Circumstance out of +Sentiment, must be subject to strong sentimental friction before he is +capable of a flight: his appetites must fast long in the very eye of +provocation ere he shall be eloquent. Let him, the Philosopher, repeat +at the same time that souls harmonious to Nature, of whom there are few, +do not mount this animal. Those who have true passion are not at the +mercy of Hippogriff--otherwise Sur-excited Sentiment. You will mark in +them constantly a reverence for the laws of their being, and a natural +obedience to common sense. They are subject to storm, as in everything +earthly, and they need no lesson of devotion; but they never move to an +object in a madness.) + +Now this is good teaching: it is indeed my Philosopher's object--his +purpose--to work out this distinction; and all I wish is that it were +good for my market. What the Philosopher means, is to plant in the +reader's path a staring contrast between my pet Emilia and his puppet +Wilfrid. It would be very commendable and serviceable if a novel were +what he thinks it: but all attestation favours the critical dictum, that +a novel is to give us copious sugar and no cane. I, myself, as a reader, +consider concomitant cane an adulteration of the qualities of sugar. My +Philosopher's error is to deem the sugar, born of the cane, inseparable +from it. The which is naturally resented, and away flies my book back at +the heads of the librarians, hitting me behind them a far more grievous +blow. + +Such is the construction of my story, however, that to entirely deny the +Philosopher the privilege he stipulated for when with his assistance I +conceived it, would render our performance unintelligible to that acute +and honourable minority which consents to be thwacked with aphorisms and +sentences and a fantastic delivery of the verities. While my Play goes +on, I must permit him to come forward occasionally. We are indeed in a +sort of partnership, and it is useless for me to tell him that he is not +popular and destroys my chance. + + + + +CHAPTER LII + +"Don't blame yourself, my Wilfrid." + +Emilia spoke thus, full of pity for him, and in her adorable, +deep-fluted tones, after the effective stop he had come to. + +The 'my Wilfrid' made the owner of the name quiver with satisfaction. He +breathed: "You have forgiven me?" + +"That I have. And there was indeed no blame. My voice has gone. Yes, but +I do not think it your fault." + +"It was! it is!" groaned Wilfrid. "But, has your voice gone?" He leaned +nearer to her, drawing largely on the claim his incredulity had +to inspect her sweet features accurately. "You speak just as--more +deliciously than ever! I can't think you have lost it. Ah! forgive me! +forgive me!" + +Emilia was about to put her hand over to him, but the prompt impulse was +checked by a simultaneous feminine warning within. She smiled, saying: +"'I forgive' seems such a strange thing for me to say;" and to convey +any further meaning that might comfort him, better than words could +do, she held on her smile. The smile was of the acceptedly feigned, +conventional character; a polished Surface: belonging to the passage +of the discourse, and not to the emotions. Wilfrid's swelling passion +slipped on it. Sensitively he discerned an ease in its formation and +disappearance that shot a first doubt through him, whether he really +maintained his empire in her heart. If he did not reign there, why had +she sent for him? He attributed the unheated smile to a defect in her +manner, that was always chargeable with something, as he remembered. +He began systematically to account for his acts: but the man was so +constituted that as he laid them out for pardon, he himself condemned +them most; and looking back at his weakness and double play, he broke +through his phrases to cry without premeditation: "Can you have loved me +then?" + +Emilia's cheeks tingled: "Don't speak of that night in Devon," she +replied. + +"Ah!" sighed he. "I did not mean then. Then you must have hated me." + +"No; for, what did I say? I said that you would come to me--nothing +more. I hated that woman. You? Oh, no!" + +"You loved me, then?" + +"Did I not offer to work for you, if you were poor? And--I can't +remember what I said. Please, do not speak of that night." + +"Emilia! as a man of honour, I was bound--" + +She lifted her hands: "Oh! be silent, and let that night die." + +"I may speak of that night when you drove home from Penarvon Castle, and +a robber? You have forgotten him, perhaps! What did he steal? not what +he came for, but something dearer to him than anything he possesses. How +can I say--? Dear to me? If it were dipped in my heart's blood!--" + +Emilia was far from being carried away by the recollection of the scene; +but remembering what her emotion had then been, she wondered at her +coolness now. + +"I may speak of Wilming Weir?" he insinuated. + +Her bosom rose softly and heavily. As if throwing off some cloak of +enchantment that clogged her spirit! "I was telling you of this dress," +she said: "I mean, of Countess Branciani. She thought her husband was +the Austrian spy who had betrayed them, and she said, 'He is not +worthy to live.' Everybody knew that she had loved him. I have seen his +portrait and hers. I never saw faces that looked so fond of life. +She had that Italian beauty which is to any other like the difference +between velvet and silk." + +"Oh! do I require to be told the difference?" Wilfrid's heart throbbed. + +"She," pursued Emilia, "she loved him still, I believe, but her country +was her religion. There was known to be a great conspiracy, and no one +knew the leader of it. All true Italians trusted Countess Branciani, +though she visited the Austrian Governor's house--a General with some +name on the teeth. One night she said to him, 'You have a spy who +betrays you.' The General never suspected Countess Branciani. Women are +devils of cleverness sometimes. + +"But he did suspect it must be her husband--thinking, I suppose, 'How +otherwise would she have known he was my spy?' He gave Count Branciani +secret work and high pay. Then he set a watch on him. Count Branciani +was to find out who was this unknown leader. He said to the Austrian +Governor, 'You shall know him in ten days.' This was repeated to +Countess Branciani, and she said to herself, 'My husband! you shall +perish, though I should have to stab you myself.'" + +Emilia's sympathetic hand twitched. Wilfrid's seized it, but it +proved no soft melting prize. She begged to be allowed to continue. +He entreated her to. Thereat she pulled gently for her hand, and +persisting, it was grudgingly let go. + +"One night Countess Branciani put the Austrians on her husband's track. +He knew that she was true to her country, and had no fear of her, +whether she touched the Black-yellow gold or not. But he did not confide +any, of his projects to her. And his reason was, that as she went to the +Governor's, she might accidentally, by a word or a sign, show that +she was an accomplice in the conspiracy. He wished to save her from a +suspicion. Brave Branciani!" + +Emilia had a little shudder of excitement. + +"Only," she added, "why will men always think women are so weak? The +Count worked with conspirators who were not dreaming they would do +anything, but were plotting to do it. The Countess belonged to the other +party--men who never thought they were strong enough to see their ideas +acting--I mean, not bold enough to take their chance. As if we die more +than one death, and the blood we spill for Italy is ever wasted! That +night the Austrian spy followed the Count to the meeting-house of the +conspirators. It was thought quite natural that the Count should go +there. But the spy, not having the password, crouched outside, and heard +from two that came out muttering, the next appointment for a meeting. +This was told to Countess Branciani, and in the meantime she heard +from the Austrian Governor that her husband had given in names of the +conspirators. She determined at once. 'Now may Christ and the Virgin +help me!'" + +Emilia struck her knees, while tears started through her shut eyelids. +The exclamation must have been caught from her father, who liked not the +priests of his native land well enough to interfere between his English +wife and their child in such a matter as religious training. + +"What happened?" said Wilfrid, vainly seeking for personal application +in this narrative. + +"Listen!--Ah!" she fought with her tears, and said, as they rolled down +her face: "For a miserable thing one can not help, I find I must cry. +This is what she did. She told him she knew of the conspiracy, and asked +permission to join it, swearing that she was true to Italy. He said he +believed her.--Oh, heaven!--And for some time she had to beg and beg; +but to spare her he would not let her join. I cannot tell why--he gave +her the password for the neat meeting, and said that an old gold coin +must be shown. She must have coaxed it, though he was a strong man, who +could resist women. I suppose he felt that he had been unkind.--Were I +Queen of Italy he should stand for ever in a statue of gold!--The next +appointed night a spy entered among the conspirators, with the password +and the coin. Did I tell you the Countess had one child--a girl! She +lives now, and I am to know her. She is like her mother. That little +girl was playing down the stairs with her nurse when a band of Austrian +soldiers entered the hall underneath, and an officer, with his sword +drawn, and some men, came marching up in their stiff way--the machines! +This officer stooped to her, and before the nurse could stop her, made +her say where her father was. Those Austrians make children betray their +parents! They don't think how we grow up to detest them. Do I? Hate is +not the word: it burns so hot and steady with me. The Countess came out +on the first landing; she saw what was happening. When her husband was +led out, she asked permission to embrace him. The officer consented, +but she had to say to him, 'Move back,' and then, with her lips to +her husband's cheek, 'Betray no more of them!' she whispered. Count +Branciani started. Now he understood what she had done, and why she had +done it. 'Ask for the charge that makes me a prisoner,' he said. Her +husband's noble face gave her a chill of alarm. The Austrian spoke. 'He +is accused of being the chief of the Sequin Club.' And then the Countess +looked at her husband; she sank at his feet. My heart breaks. Wilfrid! +Wilfrid! You will not wear that uniform? Say 'Never, never!' You will +not go to the Austrian army--Wilfrid? Would you be my enemy? Brutes, +knee-deep in blood! with bloody fingers! Ogres! Would you be one of +them? To see me turn my head shivering with loathing as you pass? This +is why I sent for you, because I loved you, to entreat you, Wilfrid, +from my soul, not to blacken the dear happy days when I knew you! Will +you hear me? That woman is changeing you--doing all this. Resist her! +Think of me in this one thing! Promise it, and I will go at once, and +want no more. I will swear never to trouble you. Oh, Wilfrid it's not +so much our being enemies, but what you become, I think of. If I say to +myself, 'He also, who was once my lover--Oh! paid murderer of my dear +people!'" + +Emilia threw up both hands to her eyes: but Wilfrid, all on fire with a +word, made one of her hands his own, repeating eagerly: "Once? once?" + +"Once?" she echoed him. + +"'Once my love?'" said he. "Not now?--does it mean, 'not now?' My +darling!--pardon me, I must say it. My beloved! you said: 'He who was +once my lover:'--you said that. What does it mean? Not that--not--? does +it mean, all's over? Why did you bring me here? You know I must love you +forever. Speak! 'Once?'" + +"'Once?'" Emilia was breathing quick, but her voice was well contained: +"Yes, I said 'once.' You were then." + +"Till that night in Devon? + +"Let it be." + +"But you love me still?" + +"We won't speak of it." + +"I see! You cannot forgive. Good heavens! I think I remember your saying +so once--Once! Yes, then: you said it then, during our 'Once;' when +I little thought you would be merciless to me--who loved you from the +first! the very first! I love you now! I wake up in the night, thinking +I hear your voice. You haunt me. Cruel! cold!--who guards you and +watches over you but the man you now hate? You sit there as if you +could make yourself stone when you pleased. Did I not chastise that man +Pericles publicly because he spoke a single lie of you? And by that act +I have made an enemy to our house who may crush us in ruin. Do I regret +it? No. I would do any madness, waste all my blood for you, die for +you!" + +Emilia's fingers received a final twist, and were dropped loose. She +let them hang, looking sadly downward. Melancholy is the most irritating +reply to passion, and Wilfrid's heart waged fierce at the sight of +her, grown beautiful!--grown elegant!--and to reject him! When, after a +silence which his pride would not suffer him to break, she spoke to ask +what Mr. Pericles had said of her, he was enraged, forgot himself, and +answered: "Something disgraceful." + +Deep colour came on Emilia. "You struck him, Wilfrid?" + +"It was a small punishment for his infamous lie, and, whatever might be +the consequences, I would do it again." + +"Wilfrid, I have heard what he has said. Madame Marini has told me. I +wish you had not struck him. I cannot think of him apart from the days +when I had my voice. I cannot bear to think of your having hurt him. He +was not to blame. That is, he did not say: it was not untrue." + +She took a breath to make this last statement, and continued with the +same peculiar implicity of distinctness, which a terrific thunder of +"What?" from Wilfrid did not overbear: "I was quite mad that day I went +to him. I think, in my despair I spoke things that may have led him to +fancy the truth of what he has said. On my honour, I do not know. And I +cannot remember what happened after for the week I wandered alone about +London. Mr. Powys found me on a wharf by the river at night." + +A groan burst from Wilfrid. Emilia's instinct had divined the antidote +that this would be to the poison of revived love in him, and she felt +secure, though he had again taken her hand; but it was she who nursed +a mere sentiment now, while passion sprang in him, and she was not +prepared for the delirium with which he enveloped her. She listened to +his raving senselessly, beginning to think herself lost. Her tortured +hands were kissed; her eyes gazed into. He interpreted her stupefaction +as contrition, her silence as delicacy, her changeing of colour +as flying hues of shame: the partial coldness at their meeting he +attributed to the burden on her mind, and muttering in a magnanimous +sublimity that he forgave her, he claimed her mouth with force. + +"Don't touch me!" cried Emilia, showing terror. + +"Are you not mine?" + +"You must not kiss me." + +Wilfrid loosened her waist, and became in a minute outwardly most cool +and courteous. + +"My successor may object. I am bound to consider him. Pardon me. +Once!--" + +The wretched insult and silly emphasis passed harmlessly from her: but +a word had led her thoughts to Merthyr's face, and what is meant by the +phrase 'keeping oneself pure,' stood clearly in Emilia's mind. She +had not winced; and therefore Wilfrid judged that his shot had missed +because there was no mark. With his eye upon her sideways, showing its +circle wide as a parrot's, he asked her one of those questions that +lovers sometimes permit between themselves. "Has another--?" It is here +as it was uttered. Eye-speech finished the sentence. + +Rapidly a train of thought was started in Emilia, and she came to +this conclusion, aloud: "Then I love nobody!" For she had never kissed +Merthyr, or wished for his kiss. + +"You do not?" said Wilfrid, after a silence. "You are generous in being +candid." + +A pressure of intensest sorrow bowed his head. The real feeling in him +stole to Emilia like a subtle flame. + +"Oh! what can I do for you?" she cried. + +"Nothing, if you do not love me," he was replying mournfully, when, +"Yes! yes!" rushed to his lips; "marry me: marry me to-morrow. You have +loved me. 'I am never to leave you!' Can you forget the night when you +said it? Emilia! Marry me and you will love me again. You must. This +man, whoever he is--Ah! why am I such a brute! Come! be mine! Let me +call you my own darling! Emilia!--or say quietly 'you have nothing to +hope for:' I shall not reproach you, believe me." + +He looked resigned. The abrupt transition had drawn her eyes to his. She +faltered: "I cannot be married." And then: "How could I guess that you +felt in this way?" + +"Who told me that I should?" said he. "Your words have come true. You +predicted that I should fly from 'that woman,' as you called her, and +come to you. See! here it is exactly as you willed it. You--you are +changed. You throw your magic on me, and then you are satisfied, and +turn elsewhere." + +Emilia's conscience smote her with a verification of this charge, and +she trembled, half-intoxicated for the moment, by the aspect of her +power. This filled her likewise with a dangerous pity for its victim; +and now, putting out both hands to him, her chin and shoulders raised +entreatingly, she begged the victim to spare her any word of marriage. + +"But you go, you run away from me--I don't know where you are or what +you are doing," said Wilfrid. "And you leave me to that woman. She loves +the Austrians, as you know. There! I will ask nothing--only this: I will +promise, if I quit the Queen's service for good, not to wear the white +uniform--" + +"Oh!" Emilia breathed inward deeply, scarce noticing the 'if' that +followed; nodding quick assent to the stipulation before she heard the +nature of it. It was, that she should continue in England. + +"Your word," said Wilfrid; and she pledged it, and did not think she was +granting much in the prospect of what she gained. + +"You will, then?" said he. + +"Yes, I will." + +"On your honour?" + +These reiterated questions were simply pretexts for steps nearer to the +answering lips. + +"And I may see you?" he went on. + +"Yes." + +"Wherever you are staying? And sometimes alone? Alone!--" + +"Not if you do not know that I am to be respected," said Emilia, huddled +in the passionate fold of his arms. He released her instantly, and was +departing, wounded; but his heart counselled wiser proceedings. + +"To know that you are in England, breathing the same air with me, near +me! is enough. Since we are to meet on those terms, let it be so. Let me +only see you till some lucky shot puts me out of your way." + +This 'some lucky shot,' which is commonly pointed at themselves by the +sentimental lovers, with the object of hitting the very centre of the +hearts of obdurate damsels, glanced off Emilia's, which was beginning to +throb with a comprehension of all that was involved in the word she had +given. + +"I have your promise?" he repeated: and she bent her head. + +"Not," he resumed, taking jealousy to counsel, now that he had advanced +a step: "Not that I would detain you against your will! I can't +expect to make such a figure at the end of the piece as your Count +Branciani--who, by the way, served his friends oddly, however well he +may have served his country." + +"His friends?" She frowned. + +"Did he not betray the conspirators? He handed in names, now and then." + +"Oh!" she cried, "you understand us no better than an Austrian. He +handed in names--yes he was obliged to lull suspicion. Two or three of +the least implicated volunteered to be betrayed by him; they went and +confessed, and put the Government on a wrong track. Count Branciani made +a dish of traitors--not true men--to satisfy the Austrian ogre. No +one knew the head of the plot till that night of the spy. Do you not +see?--he weeded the conspiracy!" + +"Poor fellow!" Wilfrid answered, with a contracted mouth: "I pity him +for being cut off from his handsome wife." + +"I pity her for having to live," said Emilia. + +And so their duett dropped to a finish. He liked her phrase better than +his own, and being denied any privileges, and feeling stupefied by a +position which both enticed and stung him, he remarked that he presumed +he must not detain her any longer; whereupon she gave him her hand. He +clutched the ready hand reproachfully. + +"Good-bye," said she. + +"You are the first to say it," he complained. + +"Will you write to that Austrian colonel, your cousin, to say 'Never! +never!' to-morrow, Wilfrid?" + +"While you are in England, I shall stay, be sure of that." + +She bade him give her love to all Brookfield. + +"Once you had none to give but what I let you take back for the +purpose!" he said. "Farewell! I shall see the harp to-night. It stands +in the old place. I will not have it moved or touched till you--" + +"Ah! how kind you were, Wilfrid!" + +"And how lovely you are!" + +There was no struggle to preserve the backs of her fingers from his +lips, and, as this time his phrase was not palpably obscured by the one +it countered, artistic sentiment permitted him to go. + + + + +CHAPTER LIII + +A minute after his parting with Emilia, Wilfrid swung round in the +street and walked back at great strides. "What a fool I was not to see +that she was acting indifference!" he cried. "Let me have two seconds +with her!" But how that was to be contrived his diplomatic brain +refused to say. "And what a stiff, formal fellow I was all the time!" +He considered that he had not uttered a sentence in any way pointed to +touch her heart. "She must think I am still determined to marry that +woman." + +Wilfrid had taken his stand on the opposite side of the street, and +beheld a male figure in the dusk, that went up to the house and then +stood back scanning the windows. Wounded by his audacious irreverence +toward the walls behind which his beloved was sheltered, Wilfrid crossed +and stared at the intruder. It proved to be Braintop. + +"How do you do, sir!--no! that can't be the house," stammered Braintop, +with a very earnest scrutiny. + +"What house? what do you want?" enquired Wilfrid. + +"Jenkinson," was the name that won the honour of rescuing Braintop from +this dilemma. + +"No; it is Lady Gosstre's house: Miss Belloni is living there; and stop: +you know her. Just wait, and take in two or three words from me, and +notice particularly how she is looking, and the dress she wears. You +can say--say that Mrs. Chump sent you to enquire after Miss Belloni's +health." + +Wilfrid tore a leaf from his pocket-book, and wrote: + +"I can be free to-morrow. One word! I shall expect it, with your name in +full." + +But even in the red heat of passion his born diplomacy withheld his own +signature. It was not difficult to override Braintop's scruples about +presenting himself, and Wilfrid paced a sentinel measure awaiting the +reply. "Free to-morrow," he repeated, with a glance at his watch under a +lamp: and thus he soliloquized: "What a time that fellow is! Yes, I can +be free to-morrow if I will. I wonder what the deuce Gambier had to do +in Monmouthshire. If he has been playing with my sister's reputation, +he shall have short shrift. That fellow Braintop sees her now--my little +Emilia! my bird! She won't have changed her dress till she has dined. +If she changes it before she goes out--by Jove, if she wears it to-night +before all those people, that'll mean 'Good-bye' to me: 'Addio, caro,' +as those olive women say, with their damned cold languor, when they have +given you up. She's not one of them! Good God! she came into the room +looking like a little Empress. I'll swear her hand trembled when I went, +though! My sisters shall see her in that dress. She must have a clever +lady's maid to have done that knot to her back hair. She's getting as +full of art as any of them--Oh! lovely little darling! And when she +smiles and holds out her hand! What is it--what is it about her? Her +upper lip isn't perfectly cut, there's some fault with her nose, but +I never saw such a mouth, or such a face. 'Free to-morrow?' Good God! +she'll think I mean I'm free to take a walk!" + +At this view of the ghastly shortcoming of his letter as regards +distinctness, and the prosaic misinterpretation it was open to, Wilfrid +called his inventive wits to aid, and ran swiftly to the end of the +street. He had become--as like unto a lunatic as resemblance can +approach identity. Commanding the length of the pavement for an instant, +to be sure that no Braintop was in sight, he ran down a lateral street, +but the stationer's shop he was in search of beamed nowhere visible +for him, and he returned at the same pace to experience despair at the +thought that he might have missed Braintop issuing forth, for whom he +scoured the immediate neighbourhood, and overhauled not a few quiet +gentlemen of all ages. "An envelope!" That was the object of his desire, +and for that he wooed a damsel passing jauntily with a jug in her hand, +first telling her that he knew her name was Mary, at which singular +piece of divination she betrayed much natural astonishment. But a fine +round silver coin and an urgent request for an envelope, told her as +plainly as a blank confession that this was a lover. She informed him +that she lived three streets off, where there were shops. "Well, then," +said Wilfrid, "bring me the envelope here, and you'll have another +opportunity of looking down the area." + +"Think of yourself," replied she, saucily; but proved a diligent +messenger. Then Wilfrid wrote on a fresh slip: + +"When I said 'Free,' I meant free in heart and without a single chain +to keep me from you. From any moment that you please, I am free. This is +written in the dark." + +He closed the envelope, and wrote Emilia's name and the address as +black as his pencil could achieve it, and with a smart double-knock he +deposited the missive in the box. From his station opposite he guessed +the instant when it was taken out, and from that judged when she would +be reading it. Or perhaps she would not read it till she was alone? +"That must be her bedroom," he said, looking for a light in one of the +upper windows; but the voice of a fellow who went by with: "I should +keep that to myself, if I was you," warned him to be more discreet. + +"Well, here I am. I can't leave the street," quoth Wilfrid, to the stock +of philosophy at his disposal. He burned with rage to think of how he +might be exhibiting himself before Powys and his sister. + +It was half-past nine when a carriage drove up to the door. Into this +Mr. Powys presently handed Georgiana and Emilia. Braintop followed the +ladies, and then the coachman received his instructions and drove away. +Forthwith Wilfrid started in pursuit. He calculated that if his wind +held till he could jump into a light cab, his legitimate prey Braintop +might be caught. For, "they can't be taking him to any party with them!" +he chose to think, and it was a fair calculation that they were simply +conducting Braintop part of his way home. The run was pretty swift. +Wilfrid's blood was fired by the pace, until, forgetting the traitor +Braintop, up rose Truth from the bottom of the well in him, and he felt +that his sole desire was to see Emilia once more--but once! that night. +Running hard, in the midst of obstacles, and with eye and mind fined +on one object, disasters befell him. He knocked apples off a stall, and +heard vehement hallooing behind: he came into collision with a gentleman +of middle age courting digestion as he walked from his trusty dinner at +home to his rubber at the Club: finally he rushed full tilt against +a pot-boy who was bringing all his pots broadside to the flow of the +street. "By Jove! is this what they drink?" he gasped, and dabbed +with his handkerchief at the beer-splashes, breathlessly hailing the +looked-for cab, and, with hot brow and straightened-out forefinger, +telling the driver to keep that carriage in sight. The pot-boy had to +be satisfied on his master's account, and then on his own, and away +shot Wilfrid, wet with beer from throat to knee--to his chief protesting +sense, nothing but an exhalation of beer! "Is this what they drink?" he +groaned, thinking lamentably of the tastes of the populace. All idea +of going near Emilia was now abandoned. An outward application of beer +quenched his frenzy. She seemed as an unattainable star seen from the +depths of foul pits. "Stop!" he cried from the window. + +"Here we are, sir," said the cabman. + +The carriage had drawn up, and a footman's alarum awakened one of +the houses. The wretched cabman had likewise drawn up right under the +windows of the carriage. Wilfrid could have pulled the trigger of a +pistol at his forehead that moment. He saw that Miss Ford had recognized +him, and he at once bowed elegantly. She dropped the window, and said, +"You are in evening dress, I think; we will take you in with us." + +Wilfrid hoped eagerly he might be allowed to hand them to the door, and +made three skips across the mire. Emilia had her hands gathered away +from the chances of seizure. In wild rage he began protesting that he +could not possibly enter, when Georgiana said, "I wish to speak to you," +and put feminine pressure upon him. He was almost on the verge of the +word "beer," by way of despairing explanation, when the door closed +behind him. + +"Permit me to say a word to your recent companion. He is my father's +clerk. I had to see him on urgent business; that is why I took this +liberty," he said, and retreated. + +Braintop was still there, quietly posted, performing upon his head with +a pocket hair-brush. + +Wilfrid put Braintop's back to the light, and said, "Is my shirt +soiled?" + +After a short inspection, Braintop pronounced that it was, "just a +little." + +"Do you smell anything?" said Wilfrid, and hung with frightful suspense +on the verdict. "A fellow upset beer on me." + +"It is beer!" sniffed Braintop. + +"What on earth shall I do?" was the rejoinder; and Wilfrid tried to +remember whether he had felt any sacred joy in touching Emilia's dress +as they went up the steps to the door. + +Braintop fumbled in the breast-pocket of his coat. "I happen to have," +he said, rather shamefacedly. + +"What is it?" + +"Mrs. Chump gave it to me to-day. She always makes me accept something: +I can't refuse. It's this:--the remains of some scent she insisted on my +taking, in a bottle." + +Wilfrid plucked at the stopper with a reckless desperation, saturated +his handkerchief, and worked at his breast as if he were driving a lusty +dagger into it. + +"What scent is it?" he asked hurriedly. + +"Alderman's Bouquet, sir." + +"Of all the detestable!---" Wilfrid had no time for more, owing to fresh +arrivals. He hastened in, with his smiling, wary face, half trusting +that there might after all be purification in Alderman's Bouquet, and +promising heaven due gratitude if Emilia's senses discerned not the +curse on him. In the hall a gust from the great opening contention +between Alderman's Bouquet and bad beer, stifled his sickly hope. +Frantic, but under perfect self-command outwardly, he glanced to right +and left, for the suggestion of a means of escape. They were seven steps +up the stairs before his wits prompted him to say to Georgiana, "I have +just heard very serious news from home. I fear--" + +"What?--or, pardon me: does it call you away?" she asked, and Emilia +gave him a steady look. + +"I fear I cannot remain here. Will you excuse me?" + +His face spoke plainly now of mental torture repressed. Georgiana put +her hand out in full sympathy, and Emilia said, in her deep whisper, +"Let me hear to-morrow." Then they bowed. Wilfrid was in the street +again. + +"Thank God, I've seen her!" was his first thought, overhearing "What did +she think of me?" as he sighed with relief at his escape. For, lo! the +Branciani dress was not on her shoulders, and therefore he might imagine +what he pleased:--that she had arrayed herself so during the day to +delight his eyes; or that, he having seen her in it, she had determined +none others should. Though feeling utterly humiliated, he was yet happy. +Driving to the station, he perceived starlight overhead, and blessed it; +while his hand waved busily to conduct a current of fresh, oblivious air +to his nostrils. The quiet heavens seemed all crowding to look down on +the quiet circle of the firs, where Emilia's harp had first been heard +by him, and they took her music, charming his blood with imagined +harmonies, as he looked up to them. Thus all the way to Brookfield his +fancy soared, plucked at from below by Alderman's Bouquet. + +The Philosopher, up to this point rigidly excluded, rushes forward +to the footlights to explain in a note, that Wilfrid, thus setting a +perfume to contend with a stench, instead of wasting for time, change +of raiment, and the broad lusty airs of heaven to blow him fresh again, +symbolizes the vice of Sentimentalism, and what it is always doing. +Enough! + + + + +CHAPTER LIV + +"Let me hear to-morrow." Wilfrid repeated Emilia's petition in the tone +she had used, and sent a delight through his veins even with that clumsy +effort of imitation. He walked from the railway to Brookfield through +the circle of firs, thinking of some serious tale of home to invent for +her ears to-morrow. Whatever it was, he was able to conclude it--"But +all's right now." He noticed that the dwarf pine, under whose spreading +head his darling sat when he saw her first, had been cut down. Its +absence gave him an ominous chill. + +The first sight that saluted him as the door opened, was a pile of Mrs. +Chump's boxes: he listened, and her voice resounded from the library. +Gainsford's eye expressed a discretion significant that there had been +an explosion in the house. + +"I sha'nt have to invent much," said Wilfrid to himself, bitterly. + +There was a momentary appearance of Adela at the library-door; and over +her shoulder came an outcry from Mrs. Chump. Arabella then spoke: Mr. +Pole and Cornelia following with a word, to which Mrs. Chump responded +shrilly: "Ye shan't talk to 'm, none of ye, till I've had the bloom of +his ear, now!" A confused hubbub of English and Irish ensued. The ladies +drew their brother into the library. + +Doubtless you have seen a favourite sketch of the imaginative youthful +artist, who delights to portray scenes on a raft amid the tossing +waters, where sweet and satiny ladies, in a pardonable abandonment +to the exigencies of the occasion, are exhibiting the full energy and +activity of creatures that existed before sentiment was born. The ladies +of Brookfield had almost as utterly cast off their garb of lofty reserve +and inscrutable superiority. They were begging Mrs. Chump to be, +for pity's sake, silent. They were arguing with the woman. They were +remonstrating--to such an extent as this, in reply to an infamous +outburst: "No, no: indeed, Mrs. Chump, indeed!" They rose, as she rose, +and stood about her, motioning a beseeching emphasis with their hands. +Not visible for one second was the intense indignation at their fate +which Wilfrid, spying keenly into them, perceived. This taught him that +the occasion was as grave as could be. In spite of the oily words his +father threw from time to time abruptly on the tumult, he guessed what +had happened. + +Briefly, Mrs. Chump, aided by Braintop, her squire, had at last hunted +Mr. Pericles down, and the wrathful Greek had called her a beggar. With +devilish malice he had reproached her for speculating in such and +such Bonds, and sending ventures to this and that hemisphere, laughing +infernally as he watched her growing amazement. "Ye're jokin', Mr. +Paricles," she tried to say and think; but the very naming of poverty +had given her shivers. She told him how she had come to him because +of Mr. Pole's reproach, which accused her of causing the rupture. Mr. +Pericles twisted the waxy points of his moustache. "I shall advise you, +go home," he said; "go to a lawyer: say, 'I will see my affairs, how zey +stand.' Ze man will find Pole is ruined. It may be--I do not know--Pole +has left a little of your money; yes, ma'am, it may be." + +The end of the interview saw Mrs. Chump flying past Mr. Pericles to +where Braintop stood awaiting her with a meditative speculation on that +official promotion which in his attention to the lady he anticipated. +It need scarcely be remarked that he was astonished to receive a +scent-bottle on the spot, as the only reward his meritorious service was +probably destined ever to meet with. Breathless in her panic, Mrs. Chump +assured him she was a howling beggar, and the smell of a scent was like +a crool blow to her; above all, the smell of Alderman's Bouquet, which +Chump--"tell'n a lie, ye know, Mr. Braintop, said was after him. And +I, smell'n at 't over 'n Ireland--a raw garl I was--I just thought 'm a +prince, the little sly fella! And oh! I'm a beggar, I am!" With which, +she shouted in the street, and put Braintop to such confusion that he +hailed a cab recklessly, declaring to her she had no time to lose, if +she wished to catch the train. Mrs. Chump requested the cabman that as a +man possessed of a feeling heart for the interests of a helpless woman, +he would drive fast; and, at the station, disputed his charge on the +ground of the knowledge already imparted to him of her precarious +financial state. In this frame of mind she fell upon Brookfield, and +there was clamour in the house. Wilfrid arrived two hours after Mrs. +Chump. For that space the ladies had been saying over and over again +empty words to pacify her. The task now devolved on their brother. Mr. +Pole, though he had betrayed nothing under the excitement of the sudden +shock, had lost the proper control of his mask. Wilfrid commenced by +fixedly listening to Mrs. Chump until for the third time her breath had +gone. Then, taking on a smile, he said: "Perhaps you are aware that Mr. +Pericles has a particular reason for animosity tome. We've disagreed +together, that's all. I suppose it's the habit of those fellows to +attack a whole family where one member of it offends them." As soon as +the meaning of this was made clear to Mrs. Chump, she caught it to +her bosom for comfort; and finding it gave less than at the moment she +required, she flung it away altogether; and then moaned, a suppliant, +for it once more. "The only thing, if you are in a state of alarm about +my father's affairs, is for him to show you by his books that his house +is firm," said Wilfrid, now that he had so far helped to eject suspicion +from her mind. + +"Will Pole do ut?" ejaculated Mrs. Chump, half off her seat. + +"Of course I will--of course! of course. Haven't I told you so?" said +Mr. Pole, blinking mightily from his armchair over the fire. "Sit down, +Martha." + +"Oh! but how'll I understand ye, Pole?" she cried. + +"I'll do my best to assist in explaining," Wilfrid condescended to say. + +The ladies were touched when Mrs. Chump replied, with something of a +curtsey, "I'll thank ye vary much, sir." She added immediately, "Mr. +Wilfrud," as if correcting the 'sir,' for sounding cold. + +It was so trustful and simple, that it threw alight on the woman under +which they had not yet beheld her. Compassion began to stir in their +bosoms, and with it an inexplicable sense of shame, which soon threw any +power of compassion into the background. They dared not ask themselves +whether it was true that their father had risked the poor thing's +money in some desperate stake. What hopeful force was left to them they +devoted to her property, and Adela determined to pray that night for its +safe preservation. The secret feeling in the hearts of the ladies was, +that in putting them on their trial with poverty, Celestial Powers would +never at the same time think it necessary to add disgrace. Consequently, +and as a defence against the darker dread, they now, for the first time, +fully believed that monetary ruin had befallen their father. They were +civil to Mrs. Chump, and forgiving toward her brogue, and her naked +outcries of complaint and suddenly--suggested panic; but their pity, +save when some odd turn in her conduct moved them, was reserved +dutifully for their father. His wretched sensations at the pouring of a +storm of tears from the exhausted creature, caused Arabella to rise and +say to Mrs. Chump kindly, "Now let me take you to bed." + +But such a novel mark of tender civility caused the woman to exclaim: +"Oh, dear! if ye don't sound like wheedlin' to keep me blind." + +Even this was borne with. "Come; it will do you good to rest," said +Arabella. + +"And how'll I sleep?" + +"By shutting my eye--'peeps,'--as I used to tell my old nurse," said +Adela; and Mrs. Chump, accustomed to an occasional (though not public) +bit of wheedling from her, was partially reassured. + +"I'll sit with you till you do sleep," said Arabella. + +"Suppose," Mrs. Chump moaned, "suppose I'm too poor aver to repay ye? If +I'm a bankrup'?--oh!" + +Arabella smiled. "Whatever I may do is certainly not done for a +remuneration, and such a service as this, at least, you need not speak +of." + +Mrs. Chump's evident surprise, and doubt of the honesty of the change +in her manner, caused Arabella very acutely to feel its dishonesty. She +looked at Cornelia with envy. The latter lady was leaning meditatively, +her arm on a side of her chair, like a pensive queen, with a ready, +mild, embracing look for the company. 'Posture' seemed always to triumph +over action. + +Before quitting the room, Mrs. Chump asked Mr. Pole whether he would be +up early the next morning. + +"Very early,--you beat me, if you can," said he, aware that the question +was put as a test to his sincerity. + +"Oh, dear! Suppose it's onnly a false alarrm of the 'bomunable Mr. +Paricles--which annybody'd have listened to--ye know that!" said Mrs. +Chump, going forth. + +She stopped in the doorway, and turned her head round, sniffing, in a +very pronounced way. "Oh, it's you," she flashed on Wilfrid; "it's you, +my dear, that smell so like poor Chump. Oh! if we're not rooned, +won't we dine together! Just give me a kiss, please. The smell of ye's +comfortin'." + +Wilfrid bent his cheek forward, affecting to laugh, though the subject +was tragic to him. + +"Oh! perhaps I'll sleep, and not look in the mornin' like that +beastly tallow, Mr. Paricles says I spent such a lot of money on, +speculator--whew, I hate ut!--and hemp too! Me!--Martha Chump! Do I want +to hang myself, and burn forty thousand pounds worth o' candles round my +corpse danglin' there? Now, there, now! Is that sense? And what'd Pole +want to buy me all that grease for? And where'd I keep ut, I'll ask ye? +And sure they wouldn't make me a bankrup' on such a pretence as that. +For, where's the Judge that's got the heart?" + +Having apparently satisfied her reason with these interrogations, Mrs. +Chump departed, shaking her head at Wilfrid: "Ye smile so nice, ye do!" +by the way. Cornelia and Adela then rose, and Wilfrid was left alone +with his father. + +It was natural that he should expect the moment for entire confidence +between them to have come. He crossed his legs, leaning over the +fireplace, and waited. The old man perceived him, and made certain +humming sounds, as of preparation. Wilfrid was half tempted to think he +wanted assistance, and signified attention; upon which Mr. Pole became +immediately absorbed in profound thought. + +"Singular it is, you know," he said at last, with a candid air, "people +who know nothing about business have the oddest ideas--no common sense +in 'em!" + +After that he fell dead silent. + +Wilfrid knew that it would be hard for him to speak. To encourage him, +he said: "You mean Mrs. Chump, sir?" + +"Oh! silly woman--absurd! No, I mean all of you; every man Jack, as +Martha'd say. You seem to think--but, well! there! let's go to bed." + +"To bed?" cried Wilfrid, frowning. + +"Why, when it's two or three o'clock in the morning, what's an old +fellow to do? My feet are cold, and I'm queer in the back--can't talk! +Light my candle, young gentleman--my candle there, don't you see it? And +you look none of the freshest. A nap on your pillow'll do you no harm." + +"I wanted to talk to you a little, sir," said Wilfrid, about as much +perplexed as he was irritated. + +"Now, no talk of bankers' books to-night!" rejoined his father. "I can't +and won't. No cheques written 'tween night and morning. That's positive. +There! there's two fingers. Shall have three to-morrow morning--a pen in +'em, perhaps." + +With which wretched pleasantry the little merchant nodded to his son, +and snatching up his candle, trotted to the door. + +"By the way, give a look round my room upstairs, to see all right when +you're going to turn in yourself," he said, before disappearing. + +The two fingers given him by his father to shake at parting, had told +Wilfrid more than the words. And yet how small were these troubles +around him compared with what he himself was suffering! He looked +forward to the bittersweet hour verging upon dawn, when he should be +writing to Emilia things to melt the vilest obduracy. The excitement +which had greeted him on his arrival at Brookfield was to be thanked for +its having made him partially forget his humiliation. He had, of +course, sufficient rational feeling to be chagrined by calamity, but his +dominant passion sucked sustaining juices from every passing event. + +In obedience to his father's request, Wilfrid went presently into the +old man's bedroom, to see that all was right. The curtains of the bed +were drawn close, and the fire in the grate burnt steadily. Calm sleep +seemed to fill the chamber. Wilfrid was retiring, with a revived anger +at his father's want of natural confidence in him, or cowardly secresy. +His name was called, and he stopped short. + +"Yes, sir?" he said. + +"Door's shut?" + +"Shut fast." + +The voice, buried in curtains, came after a struggle. + +"You've done this, Wilfrid. Now, don't answer:--I can't stand talk. And +you must undo it. Pericles can if he likes. That's enough for you to +know. He can. He won't see me. You know why. If he breaks with me--it's +a common case in any business--I'm... we're involved together." Then +followed a deep sigh. The usual crisp brisk way of his speaking was +resumed in hollow tones: "You must stop it. Now, don't answer. Go to +Pericles to-morrow. You must. Nothing wrong, if you go at once." + +"But, Sir! Good heaven!" interposed Wilfrid, horrified by the thought of +the penance here indicated. + +The bed shook violently. + +"If not," was uttered with a sort of muted vehemence, "there's another +thing you can do. Go to the undertaker's, and order coffins for us all. +There--good night!" + +The bed shook again. Wilfrid stood eyeing the mysterious hangings, as if +some dark oracle had spoken from behind them. In fear of irritating the +old man, and almost as much in fear of bringing on himself a revelation +of the frightful crisis that could only be averted by his apologizing +personally to the man he had struck, Wilfrid stole from the room. + + + + +CHAPTER LV + +There is a man among our actors here who may not be known to you. It had +become the habit of Sir Purcell Barren's mind to behold himself as under +a peculiarly malign shadow. Very young men do the same, if they are much +afflicted: but this is because they are still boys enough to have the +natural sense to be ashamed of ill-luck, even when they lack courage +to struggle against it. The reproaching of Providence by a man of full +growth, comes to some extent from his meanness, and chiefly from his +pride. He remembers that the old Gods selected great heroes whom to +persecute, and it is his compensation for material losses to conceive +himself a distinguished mark for the Powers of air. One who wraps +himself in this delusion may have great qualities; he cannot be of a +very contemptible nature; and in this place we will discriminate more +closely than to call him fool. Had Sir Purcell sunk or bent under the +thong that pursued him, he might, after a little healthy moaning, have +gone along as others do. Who knows?--though a much persecuted man, +he might have become so degraded as to have looked forward with +cheerfulness to his daily dinner; still despising, if he pleased, the +soul that would invent a sauce. I mean to say, he would, like the larger +body of our sentimentalists, have acquiesced in our simple humanity, but +without sacrificing a scruple to its grossness, or going arm-in-arm with +it by any means. Sir Purcell, however, never sank, and never bent. He +was invariably erect before men, and he did not console himself with a +murmur in secret. He had lived much alone; eating alone; thinking alone. +To complain of a father is, to a delicate mind, a delicate matter, and +Sir Purcell was a gentleman to all about him. His chief affliction in +his youth, therefore, kept him dumb. A gentleman to all about him, he +unhappily forgot what was due to his own nature. Must we not speak under +pressure of a grief? Little people should know that they must: but then +the primary task is to teach them that they are little people. For, +if they repress the outcry of a constant irritation, and the complaint +against injustice, they lock up a feeding devil in their hearts, and +they must have vast strength to crush him there. Strength they must have +to kill him, and freshness of spirit to live without him, after he has +once entertained them with his most comforting discourses. Have you +listened to him, ever? He does this:--he plays to you your music (it is +he who first teaches thousands that they have any music at all, so guess +what a dear devil he is!); and when he has played this ravishing melody, +he falls to upon a burlesque contrast of hurdy-gurdy and bag-pipe squeal +and bellow and drone, which is meant for the music of the world. How +far sweeter was yours! This charming devil Sir Purcell had nursed from +childhood. + +As a child, between a flighty mother and a father verging to insanity +from caprice, he had grown up with ideas of filial duty perplexed, +and with a fitful love for either, that was not attachment: a baffled +natural love, that in teaching us to brood on the hardness of our lot, +lays the foundation for a perniciously mystical self-love. He had waged +precociously philosophic, when still a junior. His father had kept +him by his side, giving him no profession beyond that of the obedient +expectant son and heir. His first allusion to the youth's dependency +had provoked their first breach, which had been widened by many an +ostentatious forgiveness on the one hand, and a dumbly-protesting +submission on the other. His mother died away from her husband's roof. +The old man then sought to obliterate her utterly. She left her boy a +little money, and the injunction of his father was, that he was never +to touch it. He inherited his taste for music from her, and his father +vowed, that if ever he laid hand upon a musical instrument again, he +would be disinherited. All these signs of a vehement spiteful antagonism +to reason, the young man might have treated more as his father's +misfortune than his own, if he could only have brought himself to +acknowledge that such a thing as madness stigmatized his family. But +the sentimental mind conceived it as 'monstrous impiety' to bring +this accusation against a parent who did not break windows, or grin to +deformity. He behaved toward him as to a reasonable person, and felt the +rebellious rancour instead of the pity. Thus sentiment came in the way +of pity. By degrees, Sir Purcell transferred all his father's madness +to the Fates by whom he was persecuted. There was evidently madness +somewhere, as his shuddering human nature told him. It did not offend +his sentiment to charge this upon the order of the universe. + +Against such a wild-hitting madness, or concentrated ire of the superior +Powers, Sir Purcell stood up, taking blow upon blow. As organist of +Hillford Church, he brushed his garments, and put a polish on his +apparel, with an energetic humility that looked like unconquerable +patience; as though he had said: "While life is left in me, I will be +seen for what I am." We will vary it--"For what I think myself." In +reality, he fought no battle. He had been dead-beaten from his boyhood. +Like the old Spanish Governor, the walls of whose fortress had been +thrown down by an earthquake, and who painted streets to deceive the +enemy, he was rendered safe enough by his astuteness, except against a +traitor from within. + +One who goes on doggedly enduring, doggedly doing his best, must subsist +on comfort of a kind that is likely to be black comfort. The mere piping +of the musical devil shall not suffice. In Sir Purcell's case, it +had long seemed a magnanimity to him that he should hold to a life so +vindictively scourged, and his comfort was that he had it at his own +disposal. To know so much, to suffer, and still to refrain, flattered +his pride. "The term of my misery is in my hand," he said, softened by +the reflection. It is our lowest philosophy. + +But, when the heart of a man so fashioned is stirred to love a woman, it +has a new vital force, new health, and cannot play these solemn pranks. +The flesh, and all its fatality, claims him. When Sir Purcell became +acquainted with Cornelia, he found the very woman his heart desired, or +certainly a most admirable picture of her. It was, perhaps, still +more to the lady's credit, if she was only striving to be what he was +learning to worship. The beneficial change wrought in him, made him +enamoured of healthy thinking and doing. Had this, as a result of sharp +mental overhauling, sprung from himself, there would have been hope for +him. Unhappily, it was dependent on her who inspired it. He resolved +that life should be put on a fresh trial in her person; and expecting +that naturally to fail, of which he had always entertained a base +conception, he was perforce brought to endow her with unexampled +virtues, in order to keep any degree of confidence tolerably steadfast +in his mind. The lady accepted the decorations thus bestowed on her, +with much grace and willingness. She consented, little aware of her +heroism, to shine forth as an 'ideal;' and to this he wantonly pinned +his faith. Alas! in our world, where all things must move, it becomes, +by-and-by, manifest that an 'ideal,' or idol, which you will, has not +been gifted with two legs. What is, then, the duty of the worshipper? +To make, as I should say, some compromise between his superstitious +reverence and his recognition of facts. Cornelia, on her pedestal, +could not prefer such a request plainly; but it would have afforded her +exceeding gratification, if the man who adored her had quietly taken her +up and fixed her in a fresh post, of his own choosing entirely, in the +new circles of changeing events. Far from doing that, he appeared to be +unaware that they went, with the varying days, through circles, forming +and reforming. He walked rather as a man down a lengthened corridor, +whose light to which he turns is in one favourite corner, visible till +he reaches the end. What Cornelia was, in the first flaming of his +imagination around her, she was always, unaffected by circumstance, +to remain. It was very hard. The 'ideal' did feel the want--if not of +legs--of a certain tolerant allowance for human laws on the part of her +worshipper; but he was remorselessly reverential, both by instinct and +of necessity. Women are never quite so mad in sentimentalism as men. + +We have now looked into the hazy interior of their systems--our last +halt, I believe, and last examination of machinery, before Emilia quits +England. + +About the time of the pairing of the birds, and subsequent to the +Brookfield explosion, Cornelia received a letter from her lover, bearing +the tone of a summons. She was to meet him by the decayed sallow--the +'fruitless tree,' as he termed it. Startled by this abruptness, her +difficulties made her take counsel of her dignity. "He knows that these +clandestine meetings degrade me. He is wanting in faith, to require +constant assurances. He will not understand my position!" She remembered +the day at Besworth, of which Adela (somewhat needlessly, perhaps) +had told her; that it had revealed two of the family, in situations +censurable before a gossiping world, however intrinsically blameless. +That day had been to the ladies a lesson of deference to opinion. It +was true that Cornelia had met her lover since, but she was +then unembarrassed. She had now to share in the duties of the +household--duties abnormal, hideous, incredible. Her incomprehensible +father was absent in town. Daily Wilfrid conducted Adela thither on +mysterious business, and then Mrs. Chump was left to Arabella and +herself in the lonely house. Numberless things had to be said for the +quieting of this creature, who every morning came downstairs with the +exclamation that she could no longer endure her state of uncertainty, +and was "off to a lawyer." It was useless to attempt the posture of +a reply. Words, and energetic words, the woman demanded, not +expostulations--petitions that she would be respectful to the house +before the household. Yes, occasionally (so gross was she!) she had to +be fed with lies. Arabella and Cornelia heard one another mouthing these +dreadful things, with a wretched feeling of contemptuous compassion. The +trial was renewed daily, and it was a task, almost a physical task, to +hold the woman back from London, till the hour of lunch came. If they +kept her away from her bonnet till then they were safe. + +At this meal they had to drink champagne with her. Diplomatic Wilfrid +had issued the order, with the object, first, of dazzling her vision; +and secondly, to set the wheels of her brain in swift motion. The effect +was marvellous; and, had it not been for her determination never to +drink alone, the miserable ladies might have applauded it. Adela, on the +rare days when she was fortunate enough to reach Brookfield in time for +dinner, was surprised to hear her sisters exclaim, "Oh, the hatefulness +of that champagne!" She enjoyed it extremely. She, poor thing, had again +to go through a round of cabs and confectioners' shops in London. "If +they had said, 'Oh, the hatefulness of those buns and cold chickens!'" +she thought to herself. Not objecting to champagne at lunch with any +particular vehemence, she was the less unwilling to tell her sisters +what she had to do for Wilfrid daily. + +"Three times a week I go to see Emilia at Lady Gosstre's town-house. Mr. +Powys has gone to Italy, and Miss Ford remains, looking, if I can read +her, such a temper. On the other days I am taken by Wilfrid to the +arcades, or we hire a brougham to drive round the park,--for nothing but +the chance of seeing that girl an instant. Don't tell me it's to meet +Lady Charlotte! That lovely and obliging person it is certainly not my +duty to undeceive. She's now at Stornley, and speaks of our affairs to +everybody, I dare say. Twice a week Wilfrid--oh! quite casually!--calls +on Miss Ford, and is gratified, I suppose; for this is the +picture:--There sits Emilia, one finger in her cheek, and the thumb +under her chin, and she keeps looking down so. Opposite is Miss Ford, +doing some work--making lint for patriots, probably. Then Wilfrid, +addressing commonplaces to her; and then Emilia's father--a personage, +I assure you! up against the window, with a violin. I feel a bitter edge +on my teeth still! What do you think he does to please his daughter for +one while hour! He draws his fingers--does nothing else; she won't +let him; she won't hear a tune-up the strings in the most horrible +caterwaul, up and down. It is really like a thousand lunatics +questioning and answering, and is enough to make you mad; but there that +girl sits, listening. Exactly in this attitude--so. She scarcely ever +looks up. My brother talks, and occasionally steals a glance that way. +We passed one whole hour as I have described. In the middle of it, I +happened to look at Wilfrid's face, while the violin was wailing down. I +fancied I heard the despair of one of those huge masks in a pantomime. I +was almost choked." + +When Adela had related thus much, she had to prevent downright revolt, +and spoil her own game, by stating that Wilfrid did not leave the house +for his special pleasure, and a word, as to the efforts he was making +to see Mr. Pericles, convinced the ladies that his situation was as +pitiable as their own. + +Cornelia refused to obey her lover's mandate, and wrote briefly. +She would not condescend to allude to the unutterable wretchedness +afflicting her, but spoke of her duty to her father being foremost in +her prayers for strength. Sir Purcell interpreted this as indicating +the beginning of their alienation. He chided her gravely in an otherwise +pleasant letter. She was wrong to base her whole reply upon the little +sentence of reproach, but self-justification was necessary to her +spirit. Indeed, an involuntary comparison of her two suitors was +forced on her, and, dry as was Sir Twickenham's mind, she could not +but acknowledge that he had behaved with an extraordinary courtesy, +amounting to chivalry, in his suit. On two occasions he had declined to +let her be pressed to decide. He came to the house, and went, like an +ordinary visitor. She was indebted to him for that splendid luxury of +indecision, which so few of the maids of earth enjoy for a lengthened +term. The rude shakings given her by Sir Purcell, at a time when she +needed all her power of dreaming, to support the horror of accumulated +facts, was almost resented. "He as much as says he doubts me, when +this is what I endure!" she cried to herself, as Mrs. Chump ordered her +champagne-glass to be filled, with "Now, Cornelia, my dear; if it's bad +luck we're in for, there's nothin' cheats ut like champagne," and she +had to put the (to her) nauseous bubbles to her lips. Sir Purcell had +not been told of her tribulations, and he had not expressed any doubt +of her truth; but sentimentalists can read one another with peculiar +accuracy through their bewitching gauzes. She read his unwritten doubt, +and therefore expected her unwritten misery to be read. + +So it is when you play at Life! When you will not go straight, you get +into this twisting maze. Now he wrote coldly, and she had to repress a +feeling of resentment at that also. She ascribed the changes of his +tone fundamentally to want of faith in her, and absolutely, during the +struggle she underwent, she by this means somehow strengthened her idea +of her own faithfulness. She would have phrased her projected line of +conduct thus: "I owe every appearance of assent to my poor father's +scheme, that will spare his health. I owe him everything, save the +positive sacrifice of my hand." In fact, she meant to do her duty to +her father up to the last moment, and then, on the extreme verge, to +remember her duty to her lover. But she could not write it down, and +tell her lover as much. She knew instinctively that, facing the eyes, +it would not look well. Perhaps, at another season, she would have acted +and thought with less folly; but the dull pain of her great uncertainty, +and the little stinging whips daily applied to her, exaggerated her +tendency to self-deception. "Who has ever had to bear so much?--what +slave?" she would exclaim, as a refuge from the edge of his veiled +irony. For a slave has, if not selection of what he will eat and drink, +the option of rejecting what is distasteful. Cornelia had not. She had +to act a part every day with Mrs. Chump, while all those she loved, and +respected, and clung to, were in the same conspiracy. The consolation +of hating, or of despising, her tormentress was denied. The thought that +the poor helpless creature had been possibly ruined by them, chastened +Cornelia's reflections mightily, and taught her to walk very humbly +through the duties of the day. Her powers of endurance were stretched +to their utmost. A sublime affliction would, as she felt bitterly, +have enlarged her soul. This sordid misery narrowed it. Why did not her +lover, if his love was passionate, himself cut the knot claim her, and +put her to a quick decision? She conceived that were he to bring on a +supreme crisis, her heart would declare itself. But he appeared to be +wanting in that form of courage. Does it become a beggar to act such +valiant parts? perhaps he was even then replying from his stuffy +lodgings. + +The Spring was putting out primroses,--the first handwriting of the +year,--as Sir Purcell wrote to er prettily. Deire for fresh air, and the +neighbourhood of his beloved, sent him on a journey down to Hillford. +Near the gates of the Hillford station, he passed Wilfrid and Adela, +hurrying to catch the up-train, and received no recognition. His face +scarcely changed colour, but the birds on a sudden seemed to pipe +far away from him. He asked himself, presently, what were those black +circular spots which flew chasing along the meadows and the lighted +walks. It was with an effort that he got the landscape close about +his eyes, and remembered familiar places. He walked all day, making +occupation by directing his steps to divers eminences that gave a view +of the Brookfield chimneys. After night-fall he found himself in the +firwood, approaching the 'fruitless tree.' He had leaned against it +musingly, for a time, when he heard voices, as of a couple confident in +their privacy. + +The footman, Gainsford, was courting a maid of the Tinley's, and here, +being midway between the two houses, they met. He had to obtain pardon +for tardiness, by saying that dinner at Brookfield had been delayed for +the return of Mr. Pole. The damsel's questions showed her far advanced +in knowledge of affairs at Brookfield and may account for Laura Tinley's +gatherings of latest intelligence concerning those 'odd girls,' as she +impudently called the three. + +"Oh! don't you listen!" was the comment pronounced on Gainsford's stock +of information. But, he told nothing signally new. She wished to hear +something new and striking, "because," she said, "when I unpin Miss +Laura at night, I'm as likely as not to get a silk dress that ain't been +worn more than half-a-dozen times--if I manage. When I told her that Mr. +Albert, her brother, had dined at your place last Thursday--demeaning +of himself, I do think--there!--I got a pair of silk stockings,--not +letting her see I knew what it was for, of coursed and about Mrs. +Dump,--Stump;--I can't recollect the woman's name; and her calling of +your master a bankrupt, right out, and wanting her money of him,--there! +if Miss Laura didn't give me a pair of lavender kid-gloves out of +her box!--and I wish you would leave my hands alone, when you know I +shouldn't be so silly as to wear them in the dark; and for you, indeed!" + +But Gainsford persisted, upon which there was fooling. All this was too +childish for Sir Purcell to think it necessary to give warning of his +presence. They passed, and when they had gone a short way the damsel +cried, "Well, that is something," and stopped. "Married in a month!" she +exclaimed. "And you don't know which one?" + +"No," returned Gainsford; "master said 'one of you' as they was at +dinner, just as I come into the room. He was in jolly spirits, and kept +going so: 'What's a month! champagne, Gainsford,' and you should have +sees Mrs.--not Stump, but Chump. She'll be tipsy to-night, and I shall +bust if I have to carry of her upstairs. Well, she is fun!--she don't +mind handin' you a five-shilling piece when she's done tender: but I +have nearly lost my place two or three time along of that woman. She'd +split logs with laughing:--no need of beetle and wedges! 'Och!' she +sings out, 'by the piper!'--and Miss Cornelia sitting there--and, +'Arrah!'--bother the woman's Irish," (thus Gainsford gave up the effort +at imitation, with a spirited Briton's mild contempt for what he +could not do) "she pointed out Miss Cornelia and said she was like the +tinker's dog:--there's the bone he wants himself, and the bone he don't +want anybody else to have. Aha! ain't it good?" + +"Oh! the tinker's dog! won't I remember that!" said the damsel, "she +can't be such a fool." + +"Well, I don't know," Gainsford meditated critically. "She is; and yet +she ain't, if you understand me. What I feel about her is--hang it! she +makes ye laugh." + +Sir Purcell moved from the shadow of the tree as noiselessly as he +could, so that this enamoured couple might not be disturbed. He had +already heard more than he quite excused himself for hearing in such +a manner, and having decided not to arrest the man and make him +relate exactly what Mr. Pole had spoken that evening at the Brookfield +dinner-table, he hurried on his return to town. + +It was not till he had sight of his poor home; the solitary company of +chairs; the sofa looking bony and comfortless as an old female house +drudge; the table with his desk on it; and, through folding-doors, his +cold and narrow bed; not till then did the fact of his great loss stand +before him, and accuse him of living. He seated himself methodically and +wrote to Cornelia. His fancy pictured her now as sharp to every turn +of language and fall of periods: and to satisfy his imagined, rigorous +critic, he wrote much in the style of a newspaper leading article. No +one would have thought that tragic meaning underlay those choice and +sounding phrases. On reperusing the composition, he rejected it, but +only to produce one of a similar cast. He could not get to nature in his +tone. He spoke aloud a little sentence now and then, that had the ring +of a despairing tenderness. Nothing of the sort inhabited his written +words, wherein a strained philosophy and ironic resignation went on +stilts. "I should desire to see you once before I take a step that +some have not considered more than commonly serious," came toward the +conclusion; and the idea was toyed with till he signed his name. "A +plunge into the deep is of little moment to one who has been stripped +of all clothing. Is he not a wretch who stands and shivers still?" This +letter, ending with a short and not imperious, or even urgent, request +for an interview, on the morrow by the 'fruitless tree,' he sealed for +delivery into Cornelia's hands some hours before the time appointed. +He then wrote a clear business letter to his lawyer, and one of studied +ambiguity to a cousin on his mother's side. His father's brother, +Percival Barrett, to whom the estates had gone, had offered him an +annuity of five hundred pounds: "though he had, as his nephew was +aware, a large family." Sir Purcell had replied: "Let me be the first to +consider your family," rejecting the benevolence. He now addressed +his cousin, saying: "What would you think of one who accepts such a +gift?--of me, were you to hear that I had bowed my head and extended my +hand? Think this, if ever you hear of it: that I have acceded for the +sake of winning the highest prize humanity can bestow: that I certainly +would not have done it for aught less than the highest." After that he +went to his narrow bed. His determination was to write to his uncle, +swallowing bitter pride, and to live a pensioner, if only Cornelia came +to her tryst, "the last he would ask of her," as he told her. Once face +to face with his beloved, he had no doubt of his power; and this feeling +which he knew her to share, made her reluctance to meet him more darkly +suspicious. + +As he lay in the little black room, he thought of how she would look +when a bride, and of the peerless beauty towering over any shades of +earthliness which she would present. His heated fancy conjured up every +device and charm of sacredness and adoring rapture about that white +veiled shape, until her march to the altar assumed the character of a +religious procession--a sight to awe mankind! And where, when she +stood before the minister in her saintly humility, grave and white, and +tall--where was the man whose heart was now racing for that goal at her +right hand? He felt at the troubled heart and touched two fingers on the +rib, mock-quietingly, and smiled. Then with great deliberation he rose, +lit a candle, unlocked a case of pocket-pistols, and loaded them: but a +second idea coming into his head, he drew the bullet out of one, and +lay down again with a luxurious speculation on the choice any hand might +possibly make of the life-sparing or death-giving of those two weapons. +In his neat half-slumber he was twice startled by a report of fire-arms +in a church, when a crowd of veiled women and masked men rushed to +the opening, and a woman throwing up the veil from her face knelt to a +corpse that she lifted without effort, and weeping, laid it in a grave, +where it rested and was at peace, though multitudes hurried over it, and +new stars came and went, and the winds were strange with new tongues. +The sleeper saw the morning upon that corpse when light struck his +eyelids, and he awoke like a man who knew no care. + +His landlady's little female scrubber was working at the grate in his +sitting-room. He had endured many a struggle to prevent service of this +nature being done for him by one of the sex--at least, to prevent +it within his hearing and sight. He called to her to desist; but she +replied that she had her mistress's orders. Thereupon he maintained that +the grate did not want scrubbing. The girl took this to be a matter +of opinion, not a challenge to controversy, and continued her work in +silence. Irritated by the noise, but anxious not to seem harsh, he said: +"What on earth are you about, when there was no fire there yesterday?" + +"There ain't no stuff for afire now, sir," said she. + +"I tell you I did not light it." + +"It's been and lit itself then," she mumbled. + +"Do you mean to say you found the fire burnt out, when you entered the +room this morning?" + +She answered that she had found it so, and lots of burnt paper lying +about. + +The symbolism of this fire burnt out, that had warmed and cheered none, +oppressed his fancy, and he left the small maid-of-all-work to triumph +with black-lead and brushes. + +She sang out, when she had done: "If you please, sir, missus have had a +hamper up from the country, and would you like a country aig, which is +quite fresh, and new lay. And missus say, she can't trust the bloaters +about here bein' Yarmouth, but there's a soft roe in one she've +squeezed; and am I to stop a water-cress woman, when the last one sold +you them, and all the leaves jellied behind 'em, so as no washin' could +save you from swallowin' some, missus say?" + +Sir Purcell rolled over on his side. "Is this going to be my epitaph?" +he groaned; for he was not a man particular in his diet, or exacting in +choice of roes, or panting for freshness in an egg. He wondered what his +landlady could mean by sending up to him, that morning of all others, +to tempt his appetite after her fashion. "I thought I remembered eating +nothing but toast in this place;" he observed to himself. A grunting +answer had to be given to the little maid, "Toast as usual." She +appeared satisfied, but returned again, when he was in his bath, to ask +whether he had said "No toast to-day?" + +"Toast till the day of my death--tell your mistress that!" he replied; +and partly from shame at his unaccountable vehemence, he paused in his +sponging, meditated, and chilled. An association of toast with spectral +things grew in his mind, when presently the girl's voice was heard: +"Please, sir, did say you'd have toast, or not, this morning?" It cost +him an effort to answer simply, "Yes." + +That she should continue, "Not sir?" appeared like perversity. "No aig?" +was maddening. + +"Well, no; never mind it this morning," said he. + +"Not this morning," she repeated. + +"Then it will not be till the day of your death, as you said," she is +thinking that, was the idea running in his brain, and he was half ready +to cry out "Stop," and renew his order for toast, that he might seem +consecutive. The childishness of the wish made him ask himself what it +mattered. "I said 'Not till the day;' so, none to-day would mean that +I have reached the day." Shivering with the wet on his pallid skin, he +thought this over. + +His landlady had used her discretion, and there was toast on the table. +A beam of Spring's morning sunlight illuminated the toast-rack. He sat, +and ate, and munched the doubt whether "not till" included the final +day, or stopped short of it. By this the state of his brain may be +conceived. A longing for beauty, and a dark sense of an incapacity to +thoroughly enjoy it, tormented him. He sent for his landlady's canary, +and the ready shrill song of the bird persuaded him that much of the +charm of music is wilfully swelled by ourselves, and can be by ourselves +withdrawn: that is to say, the great chasm and spell of sweet sounds is +assisted by the force of our imaginations. What is that force?--the heat +and torrent of the blood. When that exists no more--to one without hope, +for instance--what is music or beauty? Intrinsically, they are next +to nothing. He argued it out so, and convinced himself of his own +delusions, till his hand, being in the sunlight, gave him a pleasant +warmth. "That's something we all love," he said, glancing at the blue +sky above the roofs. "But there's little enough of it in this climate," +he thought, with an eye upon the darker corners of his room. When he had +eaten, he sent word to his landlady to make up his week's bill. The week +was not at an end, and that good woman appeased before him, astonished, +saying: "To be sure, your habits is regular, but there's little items +one I'll guess at, and how make out a bill, Sir Purcy, and no items?" + +He nodded his head. + +"The country again?" she asked smilingly. + +"I am going down there," he said. + +"And beautiful at this time of the year, it is! though, for market +gardening, London beats any country I ever knew; and if you like +creature comforts, I always say, stop in London! And then the policemen! +who really are the greatest comfort of all to us poor women, and seem +sent from above especially to protect our weakness. I do assure you, Sir +Purcy, I feel it, and never knew a right-minded woman that did not. And +how on earth our grandmothers contrived to get about without them! But +there! people who lived before us do seem like the most uncomfortable! +When--my goodness! we come to think there was some lived before tea! +Why, as I say over almost every cup I drink, it ain't to be realized. +It seems almost wicked to say it, Sir Purcy; but it's my opinion there +ain't a Christian woman who's not made more of a Christian through her +tea. And a man who beats his wife my first question is, 'Do he take +his tea regular?' For, depend upon it, that man is not a tea-drinker at +all." + +He let her talk away, feeling oddly pleased by this mundane chatter, as +was she to pour forth her inmost sentiments to a baronet. + +When she said: "Your fire shall be lighted to-night to welcome you," +the man looked up, and was going to request that the trouble might be +spared, but he nodded. His ghost saw the burning fire awaiting him. Or +how if it sparkled merrily, and he beheld it with his human eyes that +night? His beloved would then have touched him with her hand--yea, +brought the dead to life! He jumped to his feet, and dismissed the +worthy dame. On both sides of him, 'Yes,' and 'No,' seemed pressing like +two hostile powers that battled for his body. They shrieked in his ears, +plucked at his fingers. He heard them hushing deeply as he went to his +pistol-case, and drew forth one--he knew not which. + + + + +CHAPTER LVI + +On a wild April morning, Emilia rose from her bed and called to mind a +day of the last year's Spring when she had watched the cloud streaming +up, and felt that it was the curtain of an unknown glory. But now it +wore the aspect of her life itself, with nothing hidden behind those +stormy folds, save peace. South-westward she gazed, eyeing eagerly the +struggle of twisting vapour; long flying edges of silver went by, and +mounds of faint crimson, and here and there a closing space of blue, +swift as a thought of home to a soldier in action. The heavens were like +a battle-field. Emilia shut her lips hard, to check an impulse of prayer +for Merthyr fighting in Italy: for he was in Italy, and she once more +among the Monmouth hills: he was in Italy fighting, and she chained here +to her miserable promise! Three days after she had given the promise +to Wilfrid, Merthyr left, shaking her hand like any common friend. +Georgiana remained, by his desire, to protect her. Emilia had written +to Wilfrid for release, but being no apt letter-writer, and hating the +task, she was soon involved by him in a complication of bewildering +sentiments, some of which she supposed she was bound to feel, while +perhaps one or two she did feel, at the summons. The effect was that she +lost the true wording of her blunt petition for release: she could no +longer put it bluntly. But her heart revolted the more, and gave her +sharp eyes to see into his selfishness. The purgatory of her days with +Georgiana, when the latter was kept back from her brother in his peril, +spurred Emilia to renew her appeal; but she found that all she said drew +her into unexpected traps and pitfalls. There was only one thing she +could say plainly: "I want to go." If she repeated this, Wilfrid was +ready with citations from her letters, wherein she had said 'this,' +and 'that,' and many other phrases. His epistolary power and skill in +arguing his own case were creditable to him. Affected as Emilia was by +other sensations, she could not combat the idea strenuously suggested +by him, that he had reason to complain of her behaviour. He admitted +his special faults, but, by distinctly tracing them to their origin, +he complacently hinted the excuse for them. Moreover, and with artistic +ability, he painted such a sentimental halo round the 'sacredness of her +pledged word,' that Emilia could not resist a superstitious notion about +it, and about what the breaking of it would imply. Georgiana had removed +her down to Monmouth to be out of his way. A constant flight of letters +pursued them both, for Wilfrid was far too clever to allow letters +in his hand-writing to come for one alone of two women shut up in +a country-house together. He saw how the letterless one would sit +speculating shrewdly and spitefully; so he was careful to amuse his +mystified Dragon, while he drew nearer and nearer to his gold apple. +Another object was, that by getting Georgiana to consent to become in +part his confidante, he made it almost a point of honour for her to be +secret with Lady Charlotte. + +At last a morning came with no Brookfield letter for either of them. The +letters stopped from that time. It was almost as if a great buzzing had +ceased in Emilia's ears, and she now heard her own sensations clearly. +To Georgiana's surprise, she manifested no apprehension or regret. "Or +else," the lady thought, "she wears a mask to me;" and certainly it was +a pale face that Emilia was beginning to wear. At last came April and +its wild morning. No little female hypocrisies passed between them when +they met; they shook hands at arm's length by the breakfast-table. Then +Emilia said: "I am ready to go to Italy: I will go at once." + +Georgiana looked straight at her, thinking: "This is a fit of +indignation with Wilfrid." She answered: "Italy! I fancied you had +forgotten there was such a country." + +"I don't forget my country and my friends," said Emilia. + +"At least, I must ask the ground of so unexpected a resolution," was +rejoined. + +"Do you remember what Merthyr wrote in his letter from Arona? How long +it takes to understand the meaning of some, words! He says that I should +not follow an impulse that is not the impulse of all my nature--myself +altogether. Yes! I know what that means now. And he tells me that my +life is worth more than to be bound to the pledge of a silly moment. +It is! He, Georgey, unkind that you are!--he does not distrust me; but +always advises and helps me: Merthyr waits for me. I cannot be instantly +ready for every meaning in the world. What I want to do, is to see +Wilfrid: if not, I will write to him. I will tell him that I intend to +break my promise." + +A light of unaffected pride shone from the girl's face, as she threw +down this gauntlet to sentimentalism. + +"And if he objects?" said Georgiana. + +"If he objects, what can happen? If he objects by letter, I am gone. I +shall not write for permission. I shall write what my will is. If I +see him, and he objects, I can look into his eyes and say what I think +right. Why, I have lived like a frozen thing ever since I gave him my +word. I have felt at times like a snake hissing at my folly. I think I +have felt something like men when they swear." + +Georgiana's features expressed a slight but perceptible disgust. Emilia +continued humbly: "Forgive me. I wish you to know how I hate the word I +gave that separates me from Merthyr in my Italy, and makes you dislike +your poor Emilia. You do. I have pardoned it, though it was twenty stabs +a day." + +"But, why, if this promise was so hateful to you, did you not break it +before?" asked Georgiana. + +"I had not the courage," Emilia stooped her head to confess; "and +besides," she added, curiously half-closing her eyelids, as one does to +look on a minute object, "I could not see through it before." + +"If," suggested Georgiana, "you break your word, you release him from +his." + +"No! if he cannot see the difference," cried Emilia, wildly, "then +let him keep away from me for ever, and he shall not have the name of +friend! Is there no difference--I wish you would let me cry out as they +do in Shakespeare, Georgey!" Emilia laughed to cover her vehemence. "I +want something more than our way of talking, to witness that there is +such a difference between us. Am I to live here till all my feelings are +burnt out, and my very soul is only a spark in a log of old wood? and to +keep him from murdering my countrymen, or flogging the women of Italy! +God knows what those Austrians would make him do. He changes. He would +easily become an Austrian. I have heard him once or twice, and if I had +shut my eyes, I might have declared an Austrian spoke. I wanted to keep +him here, but it is not right that I--I should be caged till I scarcely +feel my finger-ends, or know that I breathe sensibly as you and others +do. I am with Merthyr. That is what I intend to tell him." + +She smiled softly up to Georgiana's cold eyes, to get a look of +forgiveness for her fiery speaking. + +"So, then, you love my brother?" said Georgiana. + +Emilia could have retorted, "Cruel that you are!" The pain of having an +unripe feeling plucked at without warning, was bitter; but she repressed +any exclamation, in her desire to maintain simple and unsensational +relations always with those surrounding her. + +"He is my friend," she said. "I think of something better than that +other word. Oh, that I were a man, to call him my brother-in-arms! +What's a girl's love in return for his giving his money, his heart, and +offering his life every day for Italy?" + +As soon as Georgiana could put faith in her intention to depart, she +gave her a friendly hand and embrace. + +Two days later they were at Richford, with Lady Gosstre. The journals +were full of the Italian uprising. There had been a collision between +the Imperial and patriotic forces, near Brescia, from which the former +had retired in some confusion. Great things were expected of Piedmont, +though many, who had reason to know him, distrusted her king. All +Lombardy awaited the signal from Piedmont. Meanwhile blood was flowing. + +In the excitement of her sudden rush from dead monotony to active life, +Emilia let some time pass before she wrote to Wilfrid. Her letter was in +her hand, when one was brought in to her from him. It ran thus:-- + +"I have just returned home, and what is this I hear? Are you utterly +faithless? Can I not rely on you to keep the word you have solemnly +pledged! Meet me at once. Name a place. I am surrounded by misery and +distraction. I will tell you all when we meet. I have trusted that you +were firm. Write instantly. I cannot ask you to come here. The house +is broken up. There is no putting to paper what has happened. My father +lies helpless. Everything rests on me. I thought that I could rely on +you." + +Emilia tore up her first letter, and replied:-- + +"Come here at once. Or, if you would wish to meet me elsewhere, it shall +be where you please: but immediately. If you have heard that I am going +to Italy, it is true. I break my promise. I shall hope to have your +forgiveness. My heart bleeds for my dear Cornelia, and I am eager to +see my sisters, and embrace them, and share their sorrow. If I must not +come, tell them I kiss them. Adieu!" + +Wilfrid replied:-- + +"I will be by Richford Park gates to-morrow at a quarter to nine. You +speak of your heart. I suppose it is a habit. Be careful to put on a +cloak or thick shawl; we have touches of frost. If I cannot amuse you, +perhaps the nightingales will. Do you remember those of last year? I +wonder whether we shall hear the same?--we shall never hear the same." + +This iteration, whether cunningly devised or not, had a charm for +Emilia's ear. She thought: "I had forgotten all about them." When she +was in her bedroom at night, she threw up her window. April was leaning +close upon May, and she had not to wait long before a dusky flutter of +low notes, appearing to issue from the great rhododendron bank across +the lawn, surprised her. She listened, and another little beginning was +heard, timorous, shy, and full of mystery for her. The moon hung over +branches, some that showed young buds, some still bare. Presently the +long, rich, single notes cut the air, and melted to their glad delicious +chuckle. The singer was answered from a farther bough, and again from +one. It grew to be a circle of melody round Emilia at the open window. +Was it the same as last year's? The last year's lay in her memory +faint and well-nigh unawakened. There was likewise a momentary sense of +unreality in this still piping peacefulness, while Merthyr stood in +a bloody-streaked field, fronting death. And yet the song was sweet. +Emilia clasped her arms, shut her eyes, and drank it in. Not to think +at all, or even to brood on her sensations, but to rest half animate and +let those divine sounds find a way through her blood, was medicine to +her. + +Next day there were numerous visits to the house. Emilia was reserved, +and might have been thought sad, but she welcomed Tracy Runningbrook +gladly, with "Oh! my old friend!" and a tender squeeze of his hand. + +"True, if you like; hot, if you like; but I old?" cried Tracy. + +"Yes, because I seem to have got to the other side of you; I mean, I +know you, and am always sure of you," said Emilia. "You don't care +for music; I don't care for poetry, but we're friends, and I am quite +certain of you, and think you 'old friend' always." + +"And I," said Tracy, better up to the mark by this time, "I think of +you, you dear little woman, that I ought to be grateful to you, for, by +heaven! you give me, every time I see you, the greatest temptation to be +a fool and let me prove that I'm not. Altro! altro!" + +"A fool!" said Emilia caressingly; showing that his smart insinuation +had slipped by her. + +The tale of Brookfield was told over again by Tracy, and Emilia +shuddered, though Merthyr and her country held her heart and imagination +active and in suspense, from moment to moment. It helped mainly to +discolour the young world to her eyes. She was under the spell of an +excitement too keen and quick to be subdued, by the sombre terrors of +a tragedy enacted in a house that she had known. Brookfield was in the +talk of all who came to Richford. Emilia got the vision of the wretched +family seated in the library as usual, when upon midnight they were +about to part, and a knock came at the outer door, and two men entered +the hall, bearing a lifeless body with a red spot above the heart. She +saw Cornelia fall to it. She saw the pale-faced family that had given +her shelter, and moaned for lack of a way of helping them and comforting +them. She reproached herself for feeling her own full physical life so +warmly, while others whom she had loved were weeping. It was useless to +resist the tide of fresh vitality in her veins, and when her thoughts +turned to their main attraction, she was rejoicing at the great strength +she felt coming to her gradually. Her face was smooth and impassive: +this new joy of strength came on her like the flowing of a sea to a +land-locked water. "Poor souls!" she sighed for her friends, while +irrepressible exultation filled her spirit. + +That afternoon, in the midst of packing and preparations for the +journey, at all of which Lady Gosstre smiled with a complacent +bewilderment, a card, bearing the name of Miss Laura Tinley, was sent up +to Emilia. She had forgotten this person, and asked Lady Gosstre who it +was. Arabella's rival presented herself most winningly. For some time, +Emilia listened to her, with wonder that a tongue should be so glib on +matters of no earthly interest. At last, Laura said in an undertone: "I +am the bearer of a message from Mr. Pericles; do you walk at all in the +garden?" + +Emilia read her look, and rose. Her thoughts struck back on the +creature that she was when she had last seen Mr. Pericles, and again, by +contrast, on what she was now. Eager to hear of him, or rather to divine +the mystery in her bosom aroused by the unexpected mention of his name, +she was soon alone with Laura in the garden. + +"Oh, those poor Poles!" Laura began. + +"You were going to say something of Mr. Pericles," said Emilia. + +"Yes, indeed, my dear; but, of course, you have heard all the details of +that dreadful night? It cannot be called a comfort to us that it enables +my brother Albert to come forward in the most disinterested--I might +venture to say, generous--manner, and prove the chivalry of his soul; +still, as things are, we are glad, after such misunderstandings, to +prove to that sorely-tried family who are their friends. I--you would +little think so from their treatment of me--I was at school with them. +I knew them before they became unintelligible, though they always had a +turn for it. To dress well, to be refined, to marry well--I understand +all that perfectly; but who could understand them? Not they themselves, +I am certain! And now penniless! and not only that, but lawyers! You +know that Mrs. Chump has commenced an action?--no? Oh, yes! but I shall +have to tell you the whole story." + +"What is it?--they want money?" said Emilia. + +"I will tell you. Our poor gentlemanly organist, whom you knew, was +really a baronet's son, and inherited the title." + +Emilia interrupted her: "Oh, do let me hear about them!" + +"Well, my dear, this unfortunate--I may call him 'lover,' for if a man +does not stamp the truth of his affection with a pistol, what other +means has he? And just a word as to romance. I have been sighing for +it--no one would think so--all my life. And who would have thought that +these poor Poles should have lived to convince me of the folly! Oh, +delicious humdrum!--there is nothing like it. But you are anxious, +naturally. Poor Sir Purcell Barren--he may or may not have been mad, but +when he was brought to the house at Brookfield--quite by chance--I mean, +his body--two labouring men found him by a tree--I don't know whether +you remembered a pollard-willow that stood all white and rotten by the +water in the fir-wood:--well, as I said, mad or not, no sooner did poor +Cornelia see him than she shrieked that she was the cause of his death. +He was laid in the hall--which I have so often trod! and there Cornelia +sat by his poor dead body, and accused Wilfrid and her father of every +unkindness. They say that the scene was terrible. Wilfrid--but I need +not tell you his character. He flutters from flower to flower, but he +has feeling Now comes the worst of all--in one sense; that is, looking +on it as people of the world; and being in the world, we must take a +worldly view occasionally. Mr. Pole--you remember how he behaved once at +Besworth: or, no; you were not there, but he used your name. His mania +was, as everybody could see, to marry his children grandly. I don't +blame him in any way. Still, he was not justified in living beyond +his means to that end, speculating rashly, and concealing his actual +circumstances. Well, Mr. Pericles and he were involved together; that +is, Mr. Pericles--" + +"Is Mr. Pericles near us now?" said Emilia quickly. + +"We will come to him," Laura resumed, with the complacency of one who +saw a goodly portion of the festival she was enjoying still before her. +"I was going to say, Mr. Pericles had poor Mr. Pole in his power; has +him, would be the correcter tense. And Wilfrid, as you may have heard, +had really grossly insulted him, even to the extent of maltreating +him--a poor foreigner--rich foreigner, if you like! but not capable of +standing against a strong young man in wrath. However, now there can be +little doubt that Wilfrid repents. He had been trying ever since to see +Mr. Pericles; and the very morning of that day, I believe, he saw him +and humbled himself to make an apology. This had put Mr. Pole in good +spirits, and in the evening--he and Mrs. Chump were very fond of their +wine after dinner--he was heard that very evening to name a day for his +union with her; for that had been quite understood, and he had asked his +daughters and got their consent. The sight of Sir Purcell's corpse, and +the cries of Cornelia, must have turned him childish. I cannot conceive +a situation so harrowing as that of those poor children hearing their +father declare himself an impostor! a beggar! a peculator! He cried, +poor unhappy man, real tears! The truth was that his nerves suddenly +gave way. For, just before--only just before, he was smiling and talking +largely. He wished to go on his knees to every one of them, and kept +telling them of his love--the servants all awake and listening! and +more gossiping servants than the Poles always, by the most extraordinary +inadvertence, managed to get, you never heard of! Nothing would stop him +from humiliating himself! No one paid any attention to Mrs. Chump until +she started from her chair. They say that some of the servants who were +crying outside, positively were compelled to laugh when they heard her +first outbursts. And poor Mr. Pole confessed that he had touched her +money. He could not tell her how much. Fancy such a scene, with a dead +man in the house! Imagination almost refuses to conjure it up! Not to +dwell on it too long--for, I have never endured such a shock as it has +given me--Mrs. Chump left the house, and the next thing received from +her was a lawyer's letter. Business men say she is not to blame: +women may cherish their own opinion. But, oh, Miss Belloni! is it not +terrible? You are pale." + +Emilia behind what she felt for her friends, had a dim comprehension of +the meaning of their old disgust at Laura, during this narration. But, +hearing the word of pity, she did not stop to be critical. "Can you do +nothing for them?" she said abruptly. + +The thought in Laura's shocked grey eyes was, "They have done little +enough for you," i.e., toward making you a lady. "Oh!" she cried; "I +can you teach me what to do? I must be extremely delicate, and calculate +upon what they would accept from me. For--so I hear--they used +to--and may still--nourish a--what I called--silly--though not in +unkindness--hostility to our family--me. And perhaps now natural +delicacy may render it difficult for them to..." + +In short, to accept an alms from Laura Tinley; so said her pleading look +for an interpretation. + +"You know Mr. Pericles," said Emilia, "he can do the mischief--can he +not? Stop him." + +Laura laughed. "One might almost say that you do not know him, Miss +Belloni. What is my influence? I have neither a voice, nor can I play on +any instrument. I would--indeed I will--do my best my utmost; only, how +even to introduce the subject to him? Are not you the person? He speaks +of you constantly. He has consulted doctors with regard to your voice, +and the only excuse, dear Miss Belloni, for my visit to you to-day, is +my desire that any misunderstanding between you may be cleared. Because, +I have just heard--Miss Belloni will forgive me!--the origin of it; and +tidings coming that you were in the neighbourhood, I thought--hoped +that I might be the means of re-uniting two evidently destined to be of +essential service to one another. And really, life means that, does it +not?" + +Emilia was becoming more critical of this tone the more she listened. +She declared, her immediate willingness to meet Mr. Pericles. With +which, and Emilia's assurance that she would write, and herself make the +appointment, Laura retired, in high glee at the prospect of winning the +gratitude of the inscrutable millionaire. It was true that the absence +of any rivalry for the possession of the man took much of his sweetness +from him. She seemed to be plucking him from the hands of the dead, +and half recognized that victory over uncontesting rivals claps the +laurel-wreath rather rudely upon our heads. + +Emilia lost no time in running straight to Georgiana, who was busy +at her writing-desk. She related what she had just heard, ending +breathlessly: "Georgey! my dear! will you help them?" + +"In what possible way can I do so?" said Georgiana. "To-morrow night we +shall have left England." + +"But to-day we are here." Emilia pressed a hand to her bosom: "my heart +feels hollow, and my friends cry out in it. I cannot let him suffer." +She looked into Georgiana's eyes. "Will you not help them?--they want +money." + +The lady reddened. "Is it not preposterous to suppose that I can offer +them assistance of such a kind?" + +"Not you," returned Emilia, sighing; and in an under-breath, "me--will +you lend it to me? Merthyr would. I shall repay it. I cannot tell what +fills me with this delight, but I know I am able to repay any sum. Two +thousand pounds would help them. I think--I think my voice has come +back." + +"Have you tried it?" said Georgiana, to produce a diversion from the +other topic. + +"No; but believe me when I tell you, it must be. I scarcely feel the +floor; no misery touches me. I am only sorry for my friends, not down +on the ground with them. Believe me! And I have been studying all this +while. I have not lost an hour. I would accept a part, and step on the +boards within a week, and be certain to succeed. I am just as willing +to go to the Conservatorio and submit to discipline. Only, dear friend, +believe me, that I ask for money now, because I am sure I can repay it. +I want to send it immediately, and then, good-bye to England." + +Georgiana closed her desk. She had been suspicious at first of another +sentiment in the background, but was now quite convinced of the +simplicity of Emilia's design. She said: "I will tell you exactly how +I am placed. I do not know, that under any circumstances, I could +have given into your hands so large a sum as this that you ask for. My +brother has a fortune; and I have also a little property. When I say my +brother has a fortune, he has the remains of one. All that has gone has +been devoted to relieve your countrymen, and further the interests he +has nearest at heart. What is left to him, I believe, he has now thrown +into the gulf. You have heard Lady Charlotte call him a fanatic." + +Emilia's lip quivered. + +"You must not blame her for that," Georgiana continued. "Lady Gosstre +thinks much the same. The world thinks with them. I love him, and prove +my love by trusting him, and wish to prove my love by aiding him, and +being always at hand to succour, as I should be now, but that I obeyed +his dearest wish in resting here to watch over you. I am his other self. +I have taught him to feel that; so that in his devotion to this cause he +may follow every impulse he has, and still there is his sister to fall +back on. My child! see what I have been doing. I have been calculating +here." Georgiana took a scroll from her desk, and laid it under Emilia's +eyes. "I have reckoned our expenses as far as Turin, and have only +consented to take Lady Gosstre's valet for courier, just to please her. +I know that he will make the cost double, and I feel like a miser about +money. If Merthyr is ruined, he will require every farthing that I have +for our common subsistence. Now do you understand? I can hardly put the +case more plainly. It is out of my power to do what you ask me to do." + +Emilia sighed lightly, and seemed not much cast down by the refusal. She +perceived that it was necessarily positive, and like all minds framed to +resolve to action, there was an instantaneous change of the current of +her thoughts in another direction. + +"Then, my darling, my one prayer!" she said. "Postpone our going for a +week. I will try to get help for them elsewhere." + +Georgiana was pleased by Emilia's manner of taking the rebuff; but it +required an altercation before she consented to this postponement; she +nodded her head finally in anger. + + + + +CHAPTER LVII + +By the park-gates that evening, Wilfrid received a letter from the hands +of Tracy Runningbrook. It said: "I am not able to see you now. When I +tell you that I will see you before I leave England, I insist upon your +believing me. I have no head for seeing anybody now. Emilia"--was the +simple signature, perused over and over again by this maddened lover, +under the flitting gate-lamp, after Tracy had left him. The coldness of +Emilia's name so briefly given, concentrated every fire in his heart. +What was it but miserable cowardice, he thought, that prevented him from +getting the peace poor Barrett had found? Intolerable anguish weakened +his limbs. He flung himself on a wayside bank, grovelling, to rise again +calm and quite ready for society, upon the proper application of the +clothes-brush. Indeed; he patted his shoulder and elbow to remove the +soil of his short contact with earth, and tried a cigar: but the first +taste of the smoke sickened his lips. Then he stood for a moment as +a man in a new world. This strange sensation of disgust with familiar +comforting habits, fixed him in perplexity, till a rushing of wild +thoughts and hopes from brain to heart, heart to brain, gave him +insight, and he perceived his state, and that for all he held to in +our life he was dependent upon another; which is virtually the curse of +love. + +"And he passed along the road," adds the Philosopher, "a weaker man, a +stronger lover. Not that love should diminish manliness or gains by so +doing; but travelling to love by the ways of Sentiment, attaining to the +passion bit by bit, does full surely take from us the strength of our +nature, as if (which is probable) at every step we paid fee to move +forward. Wilfrid had just enough of the coin to pay his footing. He was +verily fining himself down. You are tempted to ask what the value of +him will be by the time that he turns out pure metal? I reply, something +considerable, if by great sacrifice he gets to truth--gets to that +oneness of feeling which is the truthful impulse. At last, he will stand +high above them that have not suffered. The rejection of his cigar." + +This wages too absurd. At the risk of breaking our partnership for ever, +I intervene. My Philosopher's meaning is plain, and, as usual, good; +but not even I, who have less reason to laugh at him than anybody, can +gravely accept the juxtaposition of suffering and cigars. And, moreover, +there is a little piece of action in store. + +Wilfrid had walked half way to Brookfield, when the longing to look +upon the Richford chamber-windows stirred so hotly within him that he +returned to the gates. He saw Captain Gambier issuing on horseback +from under the lamp. The captain remarked that it was a fine night, and +prepared to ride off, but Wilfrid requested him to dismount, and his +voice had the unmistakeable ring in it by which a man knows that there +must be no trifling. The captain leaned forward to look at him before he +obeyed the summons, All self-control had abandoned Wilfrid in the rage +he felt at Gambier's having seen Emilia, and the jealous suspicion that +she had failed to keep her appointment for the like reason. + +"Why do you come here?" he said, hoarsely. + +"By Jove! that's an odd question," said the captain, at once taking his +ground. + +"Am I to understand that you've been playing with my sister, as you do +with every other woman?" + +Captain Gambier murmured quietly, "Every other woman?" and smoothed his +horse's neck. "They're not so easily played with, my dear fellow. You +speak like a youngster." + +"I am the only protector of my sister's reputation," said Wilfrid, "and, +by heaven! if you have cast her over to be the common talk, you shall +meet me." + +The captain turned to his horse, saying, "Oh! Well!" Being mounted, he +observed: "My dear Pole, you might have sung out all you had to say. Go +to your sister, and if she complains of my behaviour, I'll meet you. +Oh, yes! I'll meet you; I have no objection to excitement. You're in the +hands of an infernally clever woman, who does me the honour to wish to +see my blood on the carpet, I believe; but if this is her scheme, it's +not worthy of her ability. She began pretty well. She arranged the +preliminaries capitally. Why, look here," he relinquished his ordinary +drawl; "I'll tell you something, which you may put down in my favour or +not--just as you like. That woman did her best to compromise your sister +with me on board the yacht. I can't tell you how, and won't. Of course, +I wouldn't if I could; but I have sense enough to admire a very charming +person, and I did the only honourable thing in my power. It's your +sister, my good fellow, who gave me my dismissal. We had a little common +sense conversation--in which she shines. I envy the man that marries +her, but she denies me such luck. There! if you want to shoot me for my +share in that transaction, I'll give you your chance: and if you do, +my dear Pole, either you must be a tremendous fool, or that woman's ten +times cleverer than I thought. You know where to find me. Good night." + +The captain gave heel to his horse, hearing no more. + +Adela confirmed to Wilfrid what Gambier had spoken; and that it was she +who had given him his dismissal. She called him by his name, "Augustus," +in a kindly tone, remarking, that Lady Charlotte had persecuted him +dreadfully. "Poor Augustus! his entire reputation for evil is owing +to her black paint-brush. There is no man so easily 'hooked,' as Mrs. +Bayruffle would say, as he, though he has but eight hundred a year: +barely enough to live on. It would have been cruel of me to keep him, +for if he is in love, it's with Emilia." + +Wilfrid here took upon himself to reproach her for a certain +negligence of worldly interests. She laughed and blushed with humorous +satisfaction; and, on second thoughts, he changed his opinion, telling +her that he wished he could win his freedom as she had done. + +"Wilfrid," she said suddenly, "will you persuade Cornelia not to wear +black?" + +"Yes, if you wish it," he replied. + +"You will, positively? Then listen, dear. I don't like the prospect of +your alliance with Lady Charlotte." + +Wilfrid could not repress a despondent shrug. + +"But you can get released," she cried; and ultimately counselled him: +"Mention the name of Lord Eltham before her once, when you are alone. +Watch the result. Only, don't be clumsy. But I need not tell you that." + +For hours he cudgelled his brains to know why she desired Cornelia not +to wear black, and when the light broke in on him he laughed like a +jolly youth for an instant. The reason why was in a web so complicated, +that, to have divined what hung on Cornelia's wearing of black, showed a +rare sagacity and perception of character on the little lady's part. As +thus:--Sir Twickenham Pryme is the most sensitive of men to ridicule and +vulgar tattle: he has continued to visit the house, learning by +degrees to prefer me, but still too chivalrous to withdraw his claim to +Cornelia, notwithstanding that he has seen indications of her not too +absolute devotion towards him:--I have let him become aware that I +have broken with Captain Gambier (whose income is eight hundred a +year merely), for the sake of a higher attachment: now, since the +catastrophe, he can with ease make it appear to the world that I was +his choice from the first, seeing that Cornelia will assuredly make no +manner of objection:--but, if she, with foolish sentimental persistence, +assumes the garb of sorrow, then Sir Twickenham's ears will tingle; he +will retire altogether; he will not dare to place himself in a position +which will lend a colour to the gossip, that jilted by one sister, he +flew for consolation to the other; jilted, too, for the mere memory of a +dead man! an additional insult! + +Exquisite intricacy! Wilfrid worked through all the intervolutions, +and nearly forgot his wretchedness in admiration of his sister's mental +endowments. He was the more willing to magnify them, inasmuch as he +thereby strengthened his hope that liberty would follow the speaking of +the talismanic name of Eltham to Lady Charlotte, alone. He had come to +look upon her as the real barrier between himself and Emilia. + +"I think we have brains," he said softly, on his pillow, upon a review +of the beggared aspect of his family; and he went to sleep with a smile +on his face. + + + + +CHAPTER LVIII + +A sharp breath of air had passed along the dews, and all the young green +of the fresh season shone in white jewels. The sky, set with very dim +distant stars, was in grey light round a small brilliant moon. Every +space of earth lifted clear to her; the woodland listened; and in the +bright silence the nightingales sang loud. + +Emilia and Tracy Runningbrook were threading their way toward a lane +over which great oak branches intervolved; thence under larches all with +glittering sleeves, and among spiky brambles, with the purple leaf and +the crimson frosted. The frost on the edges of the brown-leaved bracken +gave a faint colour. Here and there, intense silver dazzled their eyes. +As they advanced amid the icy hush, so hard and instant was the ring of +the earth under them, their steps sounded as if expected. + +"This night seems made for me!" said Emilia. + +Tracy had no knowledge of the object of the expedition. He was her +squire simply; had pitched on a sudden into an enamoured condition, and +walked beside her, caring little whither he was led, so that she left +him not. + +They came upon a clearing in the wood where a tournament of knights +might have been held. Ranged on two sides were rows of larches, and +forward, fit to plume a dais, a clump of tall firs stood with a flowing +silver fir to right and left, and the white stems of the birch-tree +shining from among them. This fair woodland court had three broad oaks, +as for gateways; and the moon was above it. Moss and the frosted brown +fern were its flooring. + +Emilia said eagerly, "This way," and ran under one of the oaks. She +turned to Tracy following: "There is no doubt of it." Her hand was lying +softly on her throat. + +"Your voice?" Tracy divined her. + +She nodded, but frowned lovingly at the shout he raised, and he +understood that there was haply some plot to be worked out. The open +space was quite luminous in the middle of those three deep walls of +shadow. Emilia enjoined him to rest where he was, and wait for her +on that spot like a faithful sentinel, whatsoever ensued. Coaxing his +promise, she entered the square of white light alone. Presently she +stood upon a low mound, so that her whole figure was distinct, while the +moon made her features visible. + +Expectancy sharpened the stillness to Tracy's ears. A nightingale began +the charm. He was answered by another. Many were soon in song, till even +the pauses were sweet with them. Tracy had the thought that they were +calling for Emilia to commence; that it was nature preluding the divine +human voice, weaving her spell for it. He was seized by a thirst to hear +the adorable girl, who stood there patiently, with her face lifted soft +in moonlight. And then the blood thrilled along his veins, as if one +more than mortal had touched him. It seemed to him long before he knew +that Emilia's voice was in the air. + +In such a place, at such a time, there is no wizardry like a woman's +voice. Emilia had gained in force and fulness. She sang with a stately +fervour, letting the notes flow from her breast, while both her arms +hung loose, and not a gesture escaped her. Tracy's fiery imagination set +him throbbing, as to the voice of the verified spirit of the place. He +heard nothing but Emilia, and scarce felt that it was she, or that tears +were on his eyelids, till her voice sank richly, deep into the bosom +of the woods. Then the stillness, like one folding up a precious jewel, +seemed to pant audibly. + +"She's not alone!" This was human speech at his elbow, uttered in some +stupefied amazement. In an extremity of wrath, Tracy turned about to +curse the intruder, and discerned Wilfrid, eagerly bent forward on the +other side of the oak by which he leaned. Advancing toward Emilia, +two figures were seen. Mr. Pericles in his bearskin was easily to be +distinguished. His companion was Laura Tinley. The Greek moved at +rapid strides, and coming near upon Emilia, raised his hands as in +exclamation. At once he disencumbered his shoulders of the enormous +wrapper, held it aloft imperiously, and by main force extinguished +Emilia. Laura's shrill laugh resounded. + +"Oh! beastly bathos!" Tracy groaned in his heart. "Here we are down in +Avernus in a twinkling!" + +There was evidently quick talk going on among the three, after which +Emilia, heavily weighted, walked a little apart with Mr. Pericles, who +looked lean and lank beside her, and gesticulated in his wildest manner. +Tracy glanced about for Wilfrid. The latter was not visible, but, +stepping up the bank of sand and moss, appeared a lady in shawl and hat, +in whom he recognized Lady Charlotte. He went up to her and saluted. + +"Ah! Tracy," she said. "I saw you leave the drawing room, and expected +to find you here. So, the little woman has got her voice again; but why +on earth couldn't she make the display at Richford? It's very pretty, +and I dare say you highly approve of this kind of romantic interlude, +Signor Poet, but it strikes me as being rather senseless." + +"But, are you alone? What on earth brings you here?" asked Tracy. + +"Oh!" the lady shrugged. "I've a guard to the rear. I told her I would +come. She said I should hear something to-night, if I did. I fancied +naturally the appointment had to do with her voice, and wished to please +her. It's only five minutes from the west-postern of the park. Is she +going to sing any more? There's company apparently. Shall we go and +declare ourselves?" + +"I'm on duty, and can't," replied Tracy, and twisting his body in an +ecstasy, added: "Did you hear her?" + +Lady Charlotte laughed softly. "You speak as if you had taken a hurt, my +dear boy. This sort of scene is dangerous to poets. But, I thought you +slighted music." + +"I don't know whether I'm breathing yet," Tracy rejoined. "She's a +Goddess to me from this moment. Not like music? Am I a dolt? She would +raise me from the dead, if she sang over me. Put me in a boat, and let +her sing on, and all may end! I could die into colour, hearing her! +That's the voice they hear in heaven." + +"When they are good, I suppose," the irreverent lady appended. "What's +that?" And she held her head to listen. + +Emilia's mortal tones were calling Wilfrid's name. The lady became +grave, as with keen eyes she watched the open space, and to a second +call Wilfrid presented himself in a leisurely way from under cover of +the trees; stepping into the square towards the three, as one equal to +all occasions, and specially prepared for this. He was observed to bow +to Mr. Pericles, and the two men extended hands, Laura Tinley standing +decently away from them. + +Lady Charlotte could not contain her mystification. "What does it mean?" +she said. "Wilfrid was to be in town at the Ambassador's to-night! He +wrote to me at five o'clock from his Club! Is he insane? Has he lost +every sense of self-interest? He can't have made up his mind to miss +his opportunity, when all the introductions are there! Run, like a good +creature, Tracy, and see if that is Wilfrid, and come back and tell me; +but don't sag I am here." + +"Desert my post?" Tracy hugged his arms tight together. "Not if I freeze +here!" + +The doubt in Lady Charlotte's eyes was transient. She dropped her glass. +Visible adieux were being waved between Mr. Pericles and Laura Tinley on +the one hand, and Wilfrid and Emilia, on the other. After which, and +at a quick pace, manifestly shivering, Mr. Pericles drew Laura into the +shadows, and Emilia, clad in the immense bearskin, as with a trailing +black barbaric robe, walked toward the oaks. Wilfrid's head was stooped +to a level with Emilia's, into whose face he was looking obliviously, +while the hot words sprang from his lips. They neared the oak, and +Emilia slanted her direction, so as to avoid the neighbourhood of the +tree. Tracy felt a sudden grasp of his arm. It was momentary, coming +simultaneously with a burst of Wilfrid's voice. + +"Do I know what I love, you ask? I love your footprints! Everything you +have touched is like fire to me. Emilia! Emilia!" + +"Then," came the clear reply, "you do not love Lady Charlotte?" + +"Love her!" he shouted scornfully, and subdued his voice to add: "she +has a good heart, and whatever scandal is talked of her and Lord Eltham, +she is a well-meaning friend. But, love her! You, you I love!" + +"Theatrical business," Lady Charlotte murmured, and imagined she had +expected it when she promised Emilia she would step out into the night +air, as possibly she had. + +The lady walked straight up to them. + +"Well, little one!" she addressed Emilia; "I am glad you have recovered +your voice. You play the game of tit-for-tat remarkably well. We will +now sheath our battledores. There is my hand." + +The unconquerable aplomb in Lady Charlotte, which Wilfrid always +artistically admired, and which always mastered him; the sight of her +pale face and courageous eyes; and her choice of the moment to come +forward and declare her presence;--all fell upon the furnace of +Wilfrid's heart like a quenching flood. In a stupefaction, he confessed +to himself that he could say actually nothing. He could hardly look up. + +Emilia turned her eyes from the outstretched hand, to the lady's face. + +"What will it mean?" she said. + +"That we are quits, I presume; and that we bear no malice. At any rate, +that I relinquish the field. I like a hand that can deal a good stroke. +I conceived you to be a mere little romantic person, and correct my +mistake. You win the prize, you see." + +"You would have made him an Austrian, and he is now safe from that. I +win nothing more," said Emilia. + +When Tracy and Emilia stood alone, he cried out in a rapture of praise, +"Now I know what a power you have. You may bid me live or die." + +The recent scene concerned chiefly the actors who had moved onward: +it had touched Emilia but lightly, and him not at all. But, while +he magnified the glory of her singing, the imperishable note she had +sounded this night, and the power and the triumph that would be hers, +Emilia's bosom began to heave, and she checked him with a storm of +tears. "Triumph! yes! what is this I have done? Oh, Merthyr, my true +hero! He praises me and knows nothing of how false I have been to you. +I am a slave! I have sold myself--sold myself!" She dropped her face in +her hands, broken with grief. "He fights," she pursued; "he fights for +my country. I feel his blood--it seems to run from my body as it runs +from his. Not if he is dying--I dare not go to him if he is dying! I am +in chains. I have sworn it for money. See what a different man Merthyr +is from any on earth! Would he shoot himself for a woman? Would he grow +meaner the more he loved her? My hero! my hero! and Tracy, my friend! +what is my grief now? Merthyr is my hero, but I hear him--I hear him +speaking it into my ears with his own lips, that I do not love him. And +it is true. I never should have sold myself for three weary years away +from him, if I had loved him. I know it now it is done. I thought more +of my poor friends and Wilfrid, than of Merthyr, who bleeds for my +country! And he will not spurn me when we meet. Yes, if he lives, he +will come to me gentle as a ghost that has seen God!" + +She abandoned herself to weeping. Tracy, in a tender reverence for one +who could speak such solemn matter spontaneously, supported her, and +felt her tears as a rain of flame on his heart. + +The nightingales were mute. Not a sound was heard from bough or brake. + + + + +CHAPTER LIX + +A wreck from the last Lombard revolt landed upon our shores in June. His +right arm was in a sling, and his Italian servant following him, kept +close by his side, with a ready hand, as if fearing that at any moment +the wounded gentleman's steps might fail. There was no public war going +on just then: for which reason he was eyed suspiciously by the rest of +the passengers making their way up the beach; who seemed to entertain an +impression that he had no business at such a moment to be crippled, +and might be put down as one of those foreign fools who stand out for +a trifle as targets to fools a little luckier than themselves. Here, +within our salt girdle, flourishes common sense. We cherish life; +we abhor bloodshed; we have no sympathy with your juvenile points of +honour: we are, in short, a civilized people; and seeing that Success +has made us what we are, we advise other nations to succeed, or be +quiet. Of all of which the gravely-smiling gentleman appeared well +aware; for, with an eye that courted none, and a perfectly calm face, he +passed through the crowd, only once availing himself of his brown-faced +Beppo's spontaneously depressed shoulder when a twinge of pain shooting +from his torn foot took his strength away. While he remained in sight, +some speculation as to his nationality continued: he had been heard to +speak nothing but Italian, and yet the flower of English cultivation was +signally manifest in his style and bearing. The purchase of that day's +journal, giving information that the Lombard revolt was fully, it was +thought finally, crushed out, and the insurgents scattered, hanged, or +shot, suggested to a young lady in a group melancholy with luggage, that +the wounded gentleman was one who had escaped from the Austrians. + +"Only, he is English." + +"If he is, he deserves what he's got." + +A stout Briton delivered this sentence, and gave in addition a sermon on +meddling, short, emphatic, and not uncheerful apparently, if estimated +by the hearty laugh that closed it; though a lady remarked, "Oh, dear +me! You are very sweeping." + +"By George! ma'am," cried the Briton, holding out his newspaper, "here's +a leader on the identical subject, with all my views in it! Yes! those +Italians are absurd: they never were a people: never agreed. Egad! the +only place they're fit for is the stage. Art! if you like. They know all +about colouring canvas, and sculpturing. I don't deny 'em their merits, +and I don't mind listening to their squalling, now and then: though, +I'll tell you what: have you ever noticed the calves of those +singers?--I mean, the men. Perhaps not--for they' ve got none. They're +sticks, not legs. Who can think much of fellows with such legs? Now, the +next time you go to the Italian Opera, notice 'em. Ha! ha!--well, that +would sound queer, told at secondhand; but, just look at their legs, +ma'am, and ask yourself whether there's much chance for a country that +stands on legs like those! Let them paint, and carve blocks, and sing. +They're not fit for much else, as far as I can see." + +Thus, in the pride of his manliness, the male Briton. A shrill cry drew +the attention of this group once more to the person who had just kindly +furnished a topic. He had been met on his way by a lady unmistakeably +foreign in her appearance. "Marini!" was the word of the cry; and the +lady stood with her head bent and her hands stiffened rigidly. + +"Lost her husband, I dare say!" the Briton murmured. "Perhaps he's +one of the 'hanged, or shot,' in the list here Hanged! shot! Ask those +Austrians to be merciful, and that's their reply. Why, good God! it's +like the grunt of a savage beast! Hanged! shot!--count how many for one +day's work! Ten at Verona; fifteen at Mantua; five--there, stop! If we +enter into another alliance with those infernal ruffians!--if they're +not branded in the face of Europe as inhuman butchers! if I--by George! +if I were an Italian I'd handle a musket myself, and think great guns +the finest music going. Mind, if there's a subscription for the widows +of these poor fellows, I put down my name; so shall my wife, so shall my +daughters, so we will all, down to the baby!" + +Merthyr's name was shouted first on his return to England by Mrs. Chump. +He was waiting on the platform of the London station for the train to +take him to Richford, when, "Oh! Mr. Pow's, Mr. Pow's!" resounded, and +Mrs. Chump fluttered before him. She was on her way to Brookfield, she +said; and it was, she added, her firm belief that heaven had sent him +to her sad, not deeming "that poor creature, Mr. Braintop, there, +sufficient for the purpose. For what I've got to go through, among +them at Brookfield, Mr. Pow's, it's perf'ctly awful. Mr. Braintop," +she turned to the youth, "you may go now. And don't go takin' ship +and sailin' for Italy after the little Belloni, for ye haven't a +chance--poor fella! though he combs 's hair so careful, Mr. Pow's, and +ye might almost laugh and cry together to see how humble he is, and +audacious too--all in a lump. For, when little Belloni was in the +ship, ye know, and she thinkin', 'not one of my friends near to wave a +handkerchief!' behold, there's that boy Braintop just as by maguc, and +he wavin' his best, which is a cambric, and a present from myself, +and precious wet that night, ye might swear; for the quiet lovers, Mr. +Pow's, they cry, they do, buckutsful!" + +"And is Miss Belloni gone?" said Merthyr, looking steadily for answer. + +"To be sure, sir, she has; but have ye got a squeak of pain? Oh, dear! +it makes my blood creep to see a man who's been where there's been +firing of shots in a temper. Ye're vary pale, sir." + +"She went--on what day?" asked Merthyr. + +"Oh! I can't poss'bly tell ye that, Mr. Pow's, havin' affairs of my own +most urrgent. But, Mr. Paricles has got her at last. That's certain. +Gall'ns of tears has poor Mr. Braintop cried over it, bein' one of the +mew-in-a-corner sort of young men, ye know, what never win the garl, but +cry enough to float her and the lucky fella too, and off they go, and he +left on the shore." + +Merthyr looked impatiently out of the window. His wounds throbbed and +his forehead was moist. + +"With Mr. Pericles?" he queried, while Mrs. Chump was giving him the +reasons for the immediate visit to Brookfield. + +"They're cap'tal friends again, ye know, Mr. Pow's, Mr. Paricles and +Pole; and Pole's quite set up, and yesterday mornin' sends me two +thousand pounds--not a penny less! and ye'll believe me, I was in a +stiff gape for five minutes when Mr. Braintop shows the money. What a +temptation for the young man! But Pole didn't know his love for little +Belloni." + +"Has she no one with her?" Merthyr seized the opportunity of her name +being pronounced to get clear tidings of her, if possible. + +"Oh, dear, yes, Mr. Paricles is with her," returned Mrs. Chump. "And, +as I was sayin', sir, two thousand pounds! I ran off to my lawyer; for, +it'll seem odd to ye, now, Mr. Pow's, that know my 'ffection for the +Poles, poor dears, I'd an action against 'em. 'Stop ut,' I cries out +to the man: if he'd been one o' them that wears a wig, I couldn't ha' +spoken so--'Stop ut,' I cries, not a bit afraid of 'm. I wouldn't let +the man go on, for all I want to know is, that I'm not rrooned. And +now I've got money, I must have friends; for when I hadn't, ye know, +my friends seemed against me, and now I have, it's the world that does, +where'll I hide it? Oh, dear! now I'm with you, I don't mind, though +this brown-faced forr'ner servant of yours, he gives me shivers. Can he +understand English?--becas I've got ut all in my pockut!" + +Merthyr sighed wearily for release. At last the train slackened speed, +and the well-known fir-country appeared in sight. Mrs. Chump caught him +by the arm as he prepared to alight. "Oh! and are ye goin' to let me +face the Poles without anyone to lean on in that awful moment, and no +one to bear witness how kind I've spoken of 'em. Mr. Pow's! will +ye prove that you're a blessed angel, sir, and come, just for five +minutes--which is a short time to do a thing for a woman she'll never +forget." + +"Pray spare me, madam," Merthyr pleaded. "I have much to learn at +Richford." + +"I cann't spare ye, sir," cried Mrs. Chump. "I cann't go before that +fam'ly quite alone. They're a tarr'ble fam'ly. Oh! I'll be goin' on my +knees to ye, Mr. Pow's. Weren't ye sent by heaven now? And you to run +away! And if you're woundud, won't I have a carr'ge from the station, +which'll be grander to go in, and impose on 'em, ye know. Pray, sir! I +entreat ye!" + +The tears burst from her eyes, and her hot hand clung to his +imploringly. + +Merthyr was a witness of the return of Mrs. Chump to Brookfield. In +that erewhile abode of Fine Shades, the Nice Feelings had foundered. The +circle of a year, beginning so fairly for them, enfolded the ladies and +their first great scheme of life. Emilia had been a touchstone to this +family. They could not know it in their deep affliction, but in manger +they had much improved. Their welcome of Mrs. Chump was an admirable +seasoning of stateliness with kindness. Cornelia and Arabella took +her hand, listening with an incomparable soft smile to her first +protestations, which they quieted, and then led her to Mr. Pole; of whom +it may be said, that an accomplished coquette could not in his situation +have behaved with a finer skill; so that, albeit received back into the +house, Mrs. Chump had yet to discover what her footing there was to +be, and trembled like the meanest of culprits. Mr. Pole shook her +hand warmly, tenderly, almost tearfully, and said to the melted woman: +"You're right, Martha; it's much better for us to examine accounts in a +friendly way, than to have strangers and lawyers, and what not--people +who can't possibly know the whole history, don't you see--meddling and +making a scandal; and I'm much obliged to you for coming." + +Vainly Mrs. Chump employed alternately innuendo and outcry to make him +perceive that her coming involved a softer business, and that to money, +she having it now, she gave not a thought. He assured her that in future +she must; that such was his express desire; that it was her duty to +herself and others. And while saying this, which seemed to indicate that +widowhood would be her state as far as he was concerned, he pressed her +hand with extreme sweetness, and his bird's-eyes twinkled obligingly. It +is to be feared that Mr. Pole had passed the age of improvement, save +in his peculiar art. After a time Nature stops, and says to us 'thou art +now what thou wilt be.' + +Cornelia was in black from neck to foot. She joined the conversation as +the others did, and indeed more flowingly than Adela, whose visage +was soured. It was Cornelia to whom Merthyr explained his temporary +subjection to the piteous appeals of Mrs. Chump. She smiled humorously +to reassure him of her perfect comprehension of the apology for his +visit, and of his welcome: and they talked, argued a little, differed, +until the terrible thought that he talked, and even looked like some one +else, drew the blood from her lips, and robbed her pulses of their play. +She spoke of Emilia, saying plainly and humbly: "All we have is owing +to her." Arabella spoke of Emilia likewise, but with a shade of the +foregone tone of patronage. "She will always be our dear little sister." +Adela continued silent, as with ears awake for the opening of a door. +Was it in ever-thwarted anticipation of the coming of Sir Twickenham? + +Merthyr's inquiry after Wilfrid produced a momentary hesitation on +Cornelia's Part--"He has gone to Verona. We have an uncle in the +Austrian service," she said; and Merthyr bowed. + +What was this tale of Emilia, that grew more and more perplexing as he +heard it bit by bit? The explanation awaited him at Richford. There, +when Georgiana had clasped her brother in one last jealous embrace, she +gave him the following letter straightway, to save him, haply, from the +false shame of that eager demand for one, which she saw ready to leap +to words in his eyes. He read it, sitting in the Richford library alone, +while the great rhododendron bloomed outside, above the shaven sunny +sward, looking like a monstrous tropic bird alighted to brood an hour in +full sunlight. + +"My Friend!" + +"I would say my Beloved! I will not write it, for it would be false. I +have read of the defeat. Why was a battle risked at that cruel place! +Here are we to be again for so many years before we can win God to be +on our side! And I--do you not know? we used to talk of it!--I never can +think it the Devil who has got the upper hand. What succeeds, I always +think should succeed--was meant to, because the sky looks clear over +it. This knocks a blow at my heart and keeps it silent and only just +beating. I feel that you are safe. That, I am thankful for. If you were +not, God would warn me, and not let me mock him with thanks when I pray. +I pray till my eyelids burn, on purpose to get a warning if there is any +black messenger to be sent to me. I do not believe it. + +"For three years I am a prisoner. I go to the Conservatorio in Milan +with Mr. Pericles, and my poor little mother, who cries, asking me where +she will be among such a people, until I wonder she should be my mother. +My voice has returned. Oh, Merthyr! my dear, calm friend! to keep +calling you friend, and friend, puts me to sleep softly!--Yes, I have my +voice. I felt I had it, like some one in a room with us when we will not +open our eyes. There was misery everywhere, and yet I was glad. I kept +it secret. I began to feel myself above the world. I dreamed of what I +would do for everybody. I thought of you least! I tell you so, and take +a scourge and scourge myself, for it is true that in her new joy this +miserable creature that I am thought of you least. Now I have the +punishment! + +"My friend! the Poles were at the mercy of Mr. Pericles: Wilfrid had +struck him: Mr. Pericles was angry and full of mischief. Those dear +people had been kind to me, and I heard they were poor. I felt money in +my breast, in my throat, that only wanted coining. I went to Georgiana, +and oh! how truly she proved to me that she loves you better than I do. +She refused to part with money that you might soon want. I laid a scheme +for Mr. Pericles to hear me sing. He heard me, and my scheme succeeded. +If Italy knew as well as I, she would never let her voice be heard till +she is sure of it:--Yes! from foot to head, I knew it was impossible to +fail. If a country means to be free, the fire must run through it and +make it feel that certainty. Then--away the whitecoat! I sang, and +the man twisted, as if I had bent him in my hand. He rushed to me, and +offered me any terms I pleased, if for three years I would go to the +Conservatorio at Milan, and learn submissively. It is a little grief to +me that I think this man loves music more deeply than I do. In the two +things I love best, the love of others exceeds mine. I named a sum of +money--immense! and I desired that Mr. Pericles should assist Mr. Pole +in his business. He consented at once to everything. The next day he +gave me the money, and I signed my name and pledged my honour to an +engagement. My friends were relieved. + +"It was then I began to think of you. I had not to study the matter long +to learn that I did not love you: and I will not trust my own feelings +as they come to me now. I judge myself by my acts, or, Merthyr! I should +sink to the ground like a dead body when I think of separation from you +for three years. But, what am I? I am a raw girl. I command nothing but +raw and flighty hearts of men. Are they worth anything? Let me study +three years, without any talk of hearts at all. It commenced too early, +and has left nothing to me but a dreadful knowledge of the weakness in +most people:--not in you! + +"If I might call you my Beloved! and so chain myself to you, I think I +should have all your firmness and double my strength. I will not; for I +will not have what I do not deserve. I think of you reading this, till +I try to get to you; my heart is like a bird caught in the hands of +a cruel boy. By what I have done I know I do not love you. Must we +half-despise a man to love him? May no dear woman that I know ever marry +the man she first loves! My misery now is gladness, is like rain-drops +on rising wings, if I say to myself 'Free! free, Emilia!' I am bound for +three years, but I smile at such a bondage to my body. Evviva! my soul +is free! Three years of freedom, and no sounding of myself--three years +of growing, and studying; three years of idle heart!--Merthyr! I +throb to think that those three years--true man! my hero, I may call +you!--those three years may make me worthy of you. And if you have given +all to Italy, that a daughter of Italy should help to return it, seems, +my friend, so tenderly sweet--here is the first drop from my eyes! + +"I would break what you call a Sentiment: I broke my word to Wilfrid. +But this sight of money has a meaning that I cannot conquer. I know you +would not wish me to for your own pleasure; and therefore I go. I hope +to be growing; I fly like a seed to Italy. Let me drill, and take sharp +words, and fret at trifles! I lift my face to that prospect as if I +smelt new air. I am changeing--I have no dreams of Italy, no longings, +but go to see her like a machine ready to do my work. Whoever speaks +to me, I feel that I look at them and know them. I see the faults of my +country--Oh, beloved Breseians! not yours, Florentines! nor yours, dear +Venice! We will be silent when they speak of the Milanese, till Italy +can say to them, 'That conduct is not Italian, my children.' I see the +faults. Nothing vexes me. + +"Addio! My friend, we will speak English in dear England! Tell all that +I shall never forget England! My English Merthyr! the blood you have +shed is not for a woman. The blood that you have shed, laurels spring +from it! For a woman, the blood spilt is sickly and poor, and nourishes +nothing. I shudder at the thought of one we knew. He makes Love seem +like a yellow light over a plague-spotted city, like a painting I have +seen. Goodbye to the name of Love for three years! My engagement to Mr. +Pericles is that I am not to write, not to receive letters. To you I say +now, trust me for three years! Merthyr's answer is already in my bosom. +Beloved!--let me say it once--when the answer to any noble thing I might +ask of you is in my bosom instantly, is not that as much as marriage? +But be under no deception. See me as I am. Oh, good-bye! good-bye! +Good-bye to you! Good-bye to England! + + "I am, + + "Most humbly and affectionately, + + "Your friend, + + "And her daughter by the mother's side, + + "Emilia Alessandra Belloni." + + + + ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS + + A plunge into the deep is of little moment + A marriage without love is dishonour + Active despair is a passion that must be superseded + Am I ill? I must be hungry! + And, ladies, if you will consent to be likened to a fruit + And he passed along the road, adds the Philosopher + Bear in mind that we are sentimentalists--The eye is our servant + Being heard at night, in the nineteenth century + Beyond a plot of flowers, a gold-green meadow dipped to a ridge + But love for a parent is not merely duty + Depreciating it after the fashion of chartered hypocrites. + Emilia alone of the party was as a blot to her + Fine Shades were still too dominant at Brookfield + Had Shakespeare's grandmother three Christian names? + He thinks that the country must be saved by its women as well + His alien ideas were not unimpressed by the picture + Hushing together, they agreed that it had been a false move + I had to cross the park to give a lesson + I cannot delay; but I request you, that are here privileged + I had to make my father and mother live on potatoes + I detest anything that has to do with gratitude + I know that your father has been hearing tales told of me + I am not ashamed + It was as if she had been eyeing a golden door shut fast + Littlenesses of which women are accused + Love that shrieks at a mortal wound, and bleeds humanly + Love discerns unerringly what is and what is not duty + Love the poor devil + Love, with his accustomed cunning + Man who beats his wife my first question is, 'Do he take his tea?' + My mistress! My glorious stolen fruit! My dark angel of love + My voice! I have my voice! Emilia had cried it out to herself + My engagement to Mr. Pericles is that I am not to write + No nose to the hero, no moral to the tale + Nor can a protest against coarseness be sweepingly interpreted + Oh! beastly bathos + On a wild April morning + Once my love? said he. Not now?--does it mean, not now? + One of those men whose characters are read off at a glance + Our partner is our master + Passion does not inspire dark appetite--Dainty innocence does + Passion, he says, is noble strength on fire + Pleasure sat like an inextinguishable light on her face + Poor mortals are not in the habit of climbing Olympus to ask + Revived for them so much of themselves + She was perhaps a little the taller of the two + She had great awe of the word 'business' + Silence was their only protection to the Nice Feelings + So it is when you play at Life! When you will not go straight + Solitude is pasturage for a suspicion + The majority, however, had been snatched out of this bliss + The circle which the ladies of Brookfield were designing + The woman follows the man, and music fits to verse, + The sentimentalists are represented by them among the civilized + The dismally-lighted city wore a look of Judgement terrible to see + The sentimentalist goes on accumulating images + The gallant cornet adored delicacy and a gilded refinement + The philosopher (I would keep him back if I could) + Their way was down a green lane and across long meadow-paths + They, meantime, who had a contempt for sleep + They had all noticed, seen, and observed + To know that you are in England, breathing the same air with me + True love excludes no natural duty + Victims of the modern feminine 'ideal' + We have now looked into the hazy interior of their systems + We are, in short, a civilized people + What was this tale of Emilia, that grew more and more perplexing + Wilfrid perceived that he had become an old man + Women are wonderfully quick scholars under ridicule + You have not to be told that I desire your happiness above all + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Sandra Belloni, Complete, by George Meredith + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SANDRA BELLONI, COMPLETE *** + +***** This file should be named 4420.txt or 4420.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/2/4420/ + +Produced by Pat Castevans and David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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