diff options
Diffstat (limited to '4423.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 4423.txt | 4140 |
1 files changed, 4140 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/4423.txt b/4423.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5cda27d --- /dev/null +++ b/4423.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4140 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Rhoda Fleming by George Meredith, v3 +#29 in our series by George Meredith + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before distributing this or any other +Project Gutenberg file. + +We encourage you to keep this file, exactly as it is, on your +own disk, thereby keeping an electronic path open for future +readers. Please do not remove this. + +This header should be the first thing seen when anyone starts to +view the etext. Do not change or edit it without written permission. +The words are carefully chosen to provide users with the +information they need to understand what they may and may not +do with the etext. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These Etexts Are Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get etexts, and +further information, is included below. We need your donations. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) +organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541 + + + +Title: Rhoda Fleming, v3 + +Author: George Meredith + +Release Date: September, 2003 [Etext #4423] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on January 10, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +The Project Gutenberg Etext Rhoda Fleming by George Meredith, v3 +******This file should be named 4423.txt or 4423.zip****** + +This etext was produced by Pat Castevans <patcat@ctnet.net> +and David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep etexts in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our etexts one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our sites at: +https://gutenberg.org or +http://promo.net/pg + +These Web sites include award-winning information about Project +Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new +etexts, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!). + + +Those of you who want to download any Etext before announcement +can get to them as follows, and just download by date. This is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03 + +Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. Our +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If the value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour in 2001 as we release over 50 new Etext +files per month, or 500 more Etexts in 2000 for a total of 4000+ +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +should reach over 300 billion Etexts given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third +of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 4,000 Etexts. We need +funding, as well as continued efforts by volunteers, to maintain +or increase our production and reach our goals. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of November, 2001, contributions are being solicited from people +and organizations in: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, +Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, +Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New +Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, +Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, +Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, +Wisconsin, and Wyoming. + +We have filed in about 45 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list +will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states. +Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally +request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and +you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have, +just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are +not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting +donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to +donate. + +International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about +how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made +deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are +ways. + +All donations should be made to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Ave. +Oxford, MS 38655-4109 + +Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment +method other than by check or money order. + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by +the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN +[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154. Donations are +tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. As fundraising +requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be +made and fundraising will begin in the additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etexts, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this etext, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the etext, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.10/04/01*END* + + + + + +This etext was produced by Pat Castevans <patcat@ctnet.net> +and David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + + + +RHODA FLEMING + +By George Meredith + + + +BOOK 3 + + +XXI. GIVES A GLIMPSE OF WHAT POOR VILLANIES THE STORY CONTAINS +XXII. EDWARD TAKES HIS COURSE +XXIII. MAJOR PERCY WARING +XXIV. WARBEACH VILLAGE CHURCH +XXV. OF THE FEARFUL TEMPTATION WHICH CAME UPON ANTHONY HACKBUT, AND + OF HIS MEETING WITH DAHLIA +XXVI. IN THE PARK +XXVII. CONTAINS A STUDY OF A FOOL IN TROUBLE +XXVIII. EDWARD'S LETTER +XXIX. FURTHERMORE OF THE FOOL + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +Mrs. Boulby's ears had not deceived her; it had been a bet: and the day +would have gone disastrously with Robert, if Mrs. Lovell had not won her +bet. What was heroism to Warbeach, appeared very outrageous +blackguardism up at Fairly. It was there believed by the gentlemen, +though rather against evidence, that the man was a sturdy ruffian, and an +infuriated sot. The first suggestion was to drag him before the +magistrates; but against this Algernon protested, declaring his readiness +to defend himself, with so vehement a magnanimity, that it was clearly +seen the man had a claim on him. Lord Elling, however, when he was told +of these systematic assaults upon one of his guests, announced his +resolve to bring the law into operation. Algernon heard it as the knell +to his visit. + +He was too happy, to go away willingly; and the great Jew City of London +was exceedingly hot for him at that period; but to stay and risk an +exposure of his extinct military career, was not possible. In his +despair, he took Mrs. Lovell entirely into his confidence; in doing +which, he only filled up the outlines of what she already knew concerning +Edward. He was too useful to the lady for her to afford to let him go. +No other youth called her "angel" for listening complacently to strange +stories of men and their dilemmas; no one fetched and carried for her +like Algernon; and she was a woman who cherished dog-like adoration, and +could not part with it. She had also the will to reward it. + +At her intercession, Robert was spared an introduction to the +magistrates. She made light of his misdemeanours, assuring everybody +that so splendid a horseman deserved to be dealt with differently from +other offenders. The gentlemen who waited upon Farmer Eccles went in +obedience to her orders. + +Then came the scene on Ditley Marsh, described to that assembly at the +Pilot, by Stephen Bilton, when she perceived that Robert was manageable +in silken trammels, and made a bet that she would show him tamed. She +won her bet, and saved the gentlemen from soiling their hands, for which +they had conceived a pressing necessity, and they thanked her, and paid +their money over to Algernon, whom she constituted her treasurer. She +was called "the man-tamer," gracefully acknowledging the compliment. +Colonel Barclay, the moustachioed horseman, who had spoken the few words +to Robert in passing, now remarked that there was an end of the military +profession. + +"I surrender my sword," he said gallantly. + +Another declared that ladies would now act in lieu of causing an appeal +to arms. + +"Similia similibus, &c.," said Edward. "They can, apparently, cure what +they originate." + +"Ah, the poor sex!" Mrs. Lovell sighed. "When we bring the millennium to +you, I believe you will still have a word against Eve." + +The whole parade back to the stables was marked by pretty speeches. + +"By Jove! but he ought to have gone down on his knees, like a horse when +you've tamed him," said Lord Suckling, the young guardsman. + +"I would mark a distinction between a horse and a brave man, Lord +Suckling," said the lady; and such was Mrs. Lovell's dignity when an +allusion to Robert was forced on her, and her wit and ease were so +admirable, that none of those who rode with her thought of sitting in +judgement on her conduct. Women can make for themselves new spheres, new +laws, if they will assume their right to be eccentric as an +unquestionable thing, and always reserve a season for showing forth like +the conventional women of society. + +The evening was Mrs. Lovell's time for this important re-establishment of +her position; and many a silly youth who had sailed pleasantly with her +all the day, was wrecked when he tried to carry on the topics where she +reigned the lady of the drawing-room. Moreover, not being eccentric from +vanity, but simply to accommodate what had once been her tastes, and were +now her necessities, she avoided slang, and all the insignia of +eccentricity. + +Thus she mastered the secret of keeping the young men respectfully +enthusiastic; so that their irrepressible praises did not (as is usual +when these are in acclamation) drag her to their level; and the female +world, with which she was perfectly feminine, and as silkenly insipid +every evening of her life as was needed to restore her reputation, +admitted that she belonged to it, which is everything to an adventurous +spirit of that sex: indeed, the sole secure basis of operations. + +You are aware that men's faith in a woman whom her sisters +discountenance, and partially repudiate, is uneasy, however deeply they +may be charmed. On the other hand, she maybe guilty of prodigious +oddities without much disturbing their reverence, while she is in the +feminine circle. + +But what fatal breath was it coming from Mrs. Lovell that was always +inflaming men to mutual animosity? What encouragement had she given to +Algernon, that Lord Suckling should be jealous of him? And what to Lord +Suckling, that Algernon should loathe the sight of the young lord? And +why was each desirous of showing his manhood in combat before an eminent +peacemaker? + +Edward laughed--"Ah-ha!" and rubbed his hands as at a special +confirmation of his prophecy, when Algernon came into his room and said, +"I shall fight that fellow Suckling. Hang me if I can stand his +impudence! I want to have a shot at a man of my own set, just to let +Peggy Lovell see! I know what she thinks." + +"Just to let Mrs. Lovell see!" Edward echoed. "She has seen it lots of +times, my dear Algy. Come; this looks lively. I was sure she would soon +be sick of the water-gruel of peace." + +"I tell you she's got nothing to do with it, Ned. Don't be confoundedly +unjust. She didn't tell me to go and seek him. How can she help his +whispering to her? And then she looks over at me, and I swear I'm not +going to be defended by a woman. She must fancy I haven't got the pluck +of a flea. I know what her idea of young fellows is. Why, she said to +me, when Suckling went off from her, the other day, "These are our +Guards." I shall fight him." + +"Do," said Edward. + +"Will you take a challenge?" + +"I'm a lawyer, Mr. Mars." + +"You won't take a challenge for a friend, when he's insulted?" + +"I reply again, I am a lawyer. But this is what I'll do, if you like. +I'll go to Mrs. Lovely and inform her that it is your desire to gain her +esteem by fighting with pistols. That will accomplish the purpose you +seek. It will possibly disappoint her, for she will have to stop the +affair; but women are born to be disappointed--they want so much." + +"I'll fight him some way or other," said Algernon, glowering; and then +his face became bright: "I say, didn't she manage that business +beautifully this morning? Not another woman in the world could have done +it." + +"Oh, Una and the Lion! Mrs. Valentine and Orson! Did you bet with the +rest?" his cousin asked. + +"I lost my tenner; but what's that!" + +"There will be an additional five to hand over to the man Sedgett. +What's that!" + +"No, hang it!" Algernon shouted. + +"You've paid your ten for the shadow cheerfully. Pay your five for the +substance." + +"Do you mean to say that Sedgett--" Algernon stared. + +"Miracles, if you come to examine them, Algy, have generally had a +pathway prepared for them; and the miracle of the power of female +persuasion exhibited this morning was not quite independent of the +preliminary agency of a scoundrel." + +"So that's why you didn't bet." Algernon signified the opening of his +intelligence with his eyelids, pronouncing "by jingos" and "by Joves," to +ease the sudden rush of ideas within him. "You might have let me into +the secret, Ned. I'd lose any number of tens to Peggy Lovell, but a +fellow don't like to be in the dark." + +"Except, Algy, that when you carry light, you're a general illuminator. +Let the matter drop. Sedgett has saved you from annoyance. Take him his +five pounds." + +"Annoyance be hanged, my good Ned!" Algernon was aroused to reply. "I +don't complain, and I've done my best to stand in front of you; and as +you've settled the fellow, I say nothing; but, between us two, who's the +guilty party, and who's the victim?" + +"Didn't he tell you he had you in his power?" + +"I don't remember that he did." + +"Well, I heard him. The sturdy cur refused to be bribed, so there was +only one way of quieting him; and you see what a thrashing does for that +sort of beast. I, Algy, never abandon a friend; mark that. Take the +five pounds to Sedgett." + +Algernon strode about the room. "First of all, you stick me up in a +theatre, so that I'm seen with a girl; and then you get behind me, and +let me be pelted," he began grumbling. "And ask a fellow for money, who +hasn't a farthing! I shan't literally have a farthing till that horse +'Templemore' runs; and then, by George! I'll pay my debts. Jews are +awful things!" + +"How much do you require at present?" said Edward, provoking his appetite +for a loan. + +"Oh, fifty--that is, just now. More like a thousand when I get to town. +And where it's to come from! but never mind. 'Pon my soul, I pity the +fox I run down here. I feel I'm exactly in his case in London. However, +if I can do you any service, Ned--" + +Edward laughed. "You might have done me the service of not excusing +yourself to the squire when he came here, in such a way as to implicate +me." + +"But I was so tremendously badgered, Ned." + +"You had a sort of gratification in letting the squire crow over his +brother. And he did crow for a time." + +"On my honour, Ned, as to crowing! he went away cursing at me. Peggy +Lovell managed it somehow for you. I was really awfully badgered." + +"Yes; but you know what a man my father is. He hasn't the squire's +philosophy in those affairs." + +"'Pon my soul, Mr. Ned, I never guessed it before; but I rather fancy you +got clear with Sir Billy the banker by washing in my basin--eh, did you?" + +Edward looked straight at his cousin, saying, "You deserved worse than +that. You were treacherous. You proved you were not to be trusted; and +yet, you see, I trust you. Call it my folly. Of course (and I don't +mind telling you) I used my wits to turn the point of the attack. I may +be what they call unscrupulous when I'm surprised. I have to look to +money as well as you; and if my father thought it went in a--what he +considers--wrong direction, the source would be choked by paternal +morality. You betrayed me. Listen." + +"I tell you, Ned, I merely said to my governor--" + +"Listen to me. You betrayed me. I defended myself; that is, I've +managed so that I may still be of service to you. It was a near shave; +but you now see the value of having a character with one's father. Just +open my writing-desk there, and toss out the cheque-book. I confess I +can't see why you should have objected--but let that pass. How much do +you want? Fifty? Say forty-five, and five I'll give you to pay to +Sedgett--making fifty. Eighty before, and fifty--one hundred and thirty. +Write that you owe me that sum, on a piece of paper. I can't see why you +should wish to appear so uncommonly virtuous." + +Algernon scribbled the written acknowledgment, which he despised himself +for giving, and the receiver for taking, but was always ready to give for +the money, and said, as he put the cheque in his purse: "It was this +infernal fellow completely upset me. If you were worried by a bull-dog, +by Jove, Ned, you'd lose your coolness. He bothered my head off. Ask me +now, and I'll do anything on earth for you. My back's broad. Sir Billy +can't think worse of me than he does. Do you want to break positively +with that pretty rival to Peggy L.? I've got a scheme to relieve you, my +poor old Ned, and make everybody happy. I'll lay the foundations of a +fresh and brilliant reputation for myself." + +Algernon took a chair. Edward was fathoms deep in his book. + +The former continued: "I'd touch on the money-question last, with any +other fellow than you; but you always know that money's the hinge, and +nothing else lifts a man out of a scrape. It costs a stiff pull on your +banker, and that reminds me, you couldn't go to Sir Billy for it; you'd +have to draw in advance, by degrees anyhow, look here:--There are lots of +young farmers who want to emigrate and want wives and money. I know one. +It's no use going into particulars, but it's worth thinking over. Life +is made up of mutual help, Ned. You can help another fellow better than +yourself. As for me, when I'm in a hobble, I give you my word of honour, +I'm just like a baby, and haven't an idea at my own disposal. The same +with others. You can't manage without somebody's assistance. What do +you say, old boy?" + +Edward raised his head from his book. "Some views of life deduced from +your private experience?" he observed; and Algernon cursed at book-worms, +who would never take hints, and left him. + +But when he was by himself, Edward pitched his book upon the floor and +sat reflecting. The sweat started on his forehead. He was compelled to +look into his black volume and study it. His desire was to act humanely +and generously; but the question inevitably recurred: "How can I utterly +dash my prospects in the world?" It would be impossible to bring Dahlia +to great houses; and he liked great houses and the charm of mixing among +delicately-bred women. On the other hand, lawyers have married beneath +them--married cooks, housemaids, governesses, and so forth. And what has +a lawyer to do with a dainty lady, who will constantly distract him with +finicking civilities and speculations in unprofitable regions? What he +does want is a woman amiable as a surface of parchment, serviceable as +his inkstand; one who will be like the wig in which he closes his +forensic term, disreputable from overwear, but suited to the purpose. + +"Ah! if I meant to be nothing but a lawyer!" Edward stopped the flow of +this current in Dahlia's favour. His passion for her was silent. Was it +dead? It was certainly silent. Since Robert had come down to play his +wild game of persecution at Fairly, the simple idea of Dahlia had been +Edward's fever. He detested brute force, with a finely-witted man's full +loathing; and Dahlia's obnoxious champion had grown to be associated in +his mind with Dahlia. He swept them both from his recollection +abhorrently, for in his recollection he could not divorce them. He +pretended to suppose that Dahlia, whose only reproach to him was her +suffering, participated in the scheme to worry him. He could even forget +her beauty--forget all, save the unholy fetters binding him. She seemed +to imprison him in bare walls. He meditated on her character. She had +no strength. She was timid, comfort-loving, fond of luxury, credulous, +preposterously conventional; that is, desirous more than the ordinary run +of women of being hedged about and guarded by ceremonies--"mere +ceremonies," said Edward, forgetting the notion he entertained of women +not so protected. But it may be, that in playing the part of fool and +coward, we cease to be mindful of the absolute necessity for sheltering +the weak from that monstrous allied army, the cowards and the fools. He +admitted even to himself that he had deceived her, at the same time +denouncing her unheard-of capacity of belief, which had placed him in a +miserable hobble, and that was the truth. + +Now, men confessing themselves in a miserable hobble, and knowing they +are guilty of the state of things lamented by them, intend to drown that +part of their nature which disturbs them by its outcry. The submission +to a tangle that could be cut through instantaneously by any exertion of +a noble will, convicts them. They had better not confide, even to their +secret hearts, that they are afflicted by their conscience and the +generosity of their sentiments, for it will be only to say that these +high qualities are on the failing side. Their inclination, under the +circumstances, is generally base, and no less a counsellor than +uncorrupted common sense, when they are in such a hobble, will sometimes +advise them to be base. But, in admitting the plea which common sense +puts forward on their behalf, we may fairly ask them to be masculine in +their baseness. Or, in other words, since they must be selfish, let them +be so without the poltroonery of selfishness. Edward's wish was to be +perfectly just, as far as he could be now--just to himself as well; for +how was he to prove of worth and aid to any one depending on him, if he +stood crippled? Just, also, to his family; to his possible posterity; +and just to Dahlia. His task was to reconcile the variety of justness +due upon all sides. The struggle, we will assume, was severe, for he +thought so; he thought of going to Dahlia and speaking the word of +separation; of going to her family and stating his offence, without +personal exculpation; thus masculine in baseness, he was in idea; but +poltroonery triumphed, the picture of himself facing his sin and its +victims dismayed him, and his struggle ended in his considering as to the +fit employment of one thousand pounds in his possession, the remainder of +a small legacy, hitherto much cherished. + +A day later, Mrs. Lovell said to him: "Have you heard of that unfortunate +young man? I am told that he lies in great danger from a blow on the +back of his head. He looked ill when I saw him, and however mad he may +be, I'm sorry harm should have come to one who is really brave. Gentle +means are surely best. It is so with horses, it must be so with men. As +to women, I don't pretend to unriddle them." + +"Gentle means are decidedly best," said Edward, perceiving that her +little dog Algy had carried news to her, and that she was setting herself +to fathom him. "You gave an eminent example of it yesterday. I was so +sure of the result that I didn't bet against you." + +"Why not have backed me?" + +The hard young legal face withstood the attack of her soft blue eyes, out +of which a thousand needles flew, seeking a weak point in the mask. + +"The compliment was, to incite you to a superhuman effort." + +"Then why not pay the compliment?" + +"I never pay compliments to transparent merit; I do not hold candles to +lamps." + +"True," said she. + +"And as gentle means are so admirable, it would be as well to stop +incision and imbruing between those two boys." + +"Which?" she asked innocently. + +"Suckling and Algy." + +"Is it possible? They are such boys." + +"Exactly of the kind to do it. Don't you know?" and Edward explained +elaborately and cruelly the character of the boys who rushed into +conflicts. Colour deep as evening red confused her cheeks, and she +said, "We must stop them." + +"Alas!" he shook his head; "if it's not too late." + +"It never is too late." + +"Perhaps not, when the embodiment of gentle means is so determined." + +"Come; I believe they are in the billiard room now, and you shall see," +she said. + +The pair were found in the billiard room, even as a pair of terriers that +remember a bone. Mrs. Lovell proposed a game, and offered herself for +partner to Lord Suckling. + +"Till total defeat do us part," the young nobleman acquiesced; and total +defeat befell them. During the play of the balls, Mrs. Lovell threw a +jealous intentness of observation upon all the strokes made by Algernon; +saying nothing, but just looking at him when he did a successful thing. +She winked at some quiet stately betting that went on between him and +Lord Suckling. + +They were at first preternaturally polite and formal toward one another; +by degrees, the influence at work upon them was manifested in a thaw of +their stiff demeanour, and they fell into curt dialogues, which Mrs. +Lovell gave herself no concern to encourage too early. + +Edward saw, and was astonished himself to feel that she had ceased to +breathe that fatal inciting breath, which made men vindictively emulous +of her favour, and mad to match themselves for a claim to the chief +smile. No perceptible change was displayed. She was Mrs. Lovell still; +vivacious and soft; flame-coloured, with the arrowy eyelashes; a pleasant +companion, who did not play the woman obtrusively among men, and show a +thirst for homage. All the difference appeared to be, that there was an +absence as of some evil spiritual emanation. + +And here a thought crossed him--one of the memorable little evanescent +thoughts which sway us by our chance weakness; "Does she think me wanting +in physical courage?" + +Now, though the difference between them had been owing to a scornful +remark that she had permitted herself to utter, on his refusal to accept +a quarrel with one of her numerous satellites, his knowledge of her +worship of brains, and his pride in his possession of the burdensome +weight, had quite precluded his guessing that she might haply suppose him +to be deficient in personal bravery. He was astounded by the reflection +that she had thus misjudged him. It was distracting; sober-thoughted as +he was by nature. He watched the fair simplicity of her new manner with +a jealous eye. Her management of the two youths was exquisite; but to +him, Edward, she had never condescended to show herself thus mediating +and amiable. Why? Clearly, because she conceived that he had no virile +fire in his composition. Did the detestable little devil think silly +duelling a display of valour? Did the fair seraph think him anything less +than a man? + +How beautifully hung the yellow loop of her hair as she leaned over the +board! How gracious she was and like a Goddess with these boys, as he +called them! She rallied her partner, not letting him forget that he had +the honour of being her partner; while she appeared envious of Algernon's +skill, and talked to both and got them upon common topics, and laughed, +and was like a fair English flower of womanhood; nothing deadly. + +"There, Algy; you have beaten us. I don't think I'll have Lord Suckling +for my partner any more," she said, putting up her wand, and pouting. + +"You don't bear malice?" said Algernon, revived. + +"There is my hand. Now you must play a game alone with Lord Suckling, +and beat him; mind you beat him, or it will redound to my discredit." + +With which, she and Edward left them. + +"Algy was a little crestfallen, and no wonder," she said. "He is soon +set up again. They will be good friends now." + +"Isn't it odd, that they should be ready to risk their lives for +trifles?" + +Thus Edward tempted her to discuss the subject which he had in his mind. + +She felt intuitively the trap in his voice. + +"Ah, yes," she replied; "it must be because they know their lives are not +precious." + +So utterly at her mercy had he fallen, that her pronunciation of that +word "precious" carried a severe sting to him, and it was not spoken with +peculiar emphasis; on the contrary, she wished to indicate that she was +of his way of thinking, as regarded this decayed method of settling +disputes. He turned to leave her. + +"You go to your Adeline, I presume," she said. + +"Ah! that reminds me. I have never thanked you." + +"For my good services? such as they are. Sir William will be very happy, +and it was for him, a little more than for you, that I went out of my way +to be a matchmaker." + +"It was her character, of course, that struck you as being so eminently +suited to mine." + +"Can I tell what is the character of a girl? She is mild and shy, and +extremely gentle. In all probability she has a passion for battles and +bloodshed. I judged from your father's point of view. She has money, +and you are to have money; and the union of money and money is supposed +to be a good thing. And besides, you are variable, and off to-morrow +what you are on to-day; is it not so? and heiresses are never jilted. +Colonel Barclay is only awaiting your retirement. Le roi est mort; vive +le roi! Heiresses may cry it like kingdoms." + +"I thought," said Edward, meaningly, "the colonel had better taste." + +"Do you not know that my friends are my friends because they are not +allowed to dream they will do anything else? If they are taken poorly, I +commend them to a sea-voyage--Africa, the North-West Passage, the source +of the Nile. Men with their vanity wounded may discover wonders! They +return friendly as before, whether they have done the Geographical +Society a service or not. That is, they generally do." + +"Then I begin to fancy I must try those latitudes." + +"Oh! you are my relative." + +He scarcely knew that he had uttered "Margaret." + +She replied to it frankly, "Yes, Cousin Ned. You have made the voyage, +you see, and have come back friends with me. The variability of opals! +Ah! Sir John, you join us in season. We were talking of opals. Is the +opal a gem that stands to represent women?" + +Sir John Capes smoothed his knuckles with silken palms, and with +courteous antique grin, responded, "It is a gem I would never dare to +offer to a lady's acceptance." + +"It is by repute unlucky; so you never can have done so. + +"Exquisite!" exclaimed the veteran in smiles, "if what you deign to imply +were only true!" + +They entered the drawing-room among the ladies. + +Edward whispered in Mrs. Lovell's ear, "He is in need of the voyage." + +"He is very near it," she answered in the same key, and swam into general +conversation. + +Her cold wit, Satanic as the gleam of it struck through his mind, gave +him a throb of desire to gain possession of her, and crush her. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +The writing of a letter to Dahlia had previously been attempted and +abandoned as a sickening task. Like an idle boy with his holiday +imposition, Edward shelved it among the nightmares, saying, "How can I +sit down and lie to her!" and thinking that silence would prepare her +bosom for the coming truth. + +Silence is commonly the slow poison used by those who mean to murder +love. There is nothing violent about it; no shock is given; Hope is not +abruptly strangled, but merely dreams of evil, and fights with gradually +stifling shadows. When the last convulsions come they are not terrific; +the frame has been weakened for dissolution; love dies like natural +decay. It seems the kindest way of doing a cruel thing. But Dahlia +wrote, crying out her agony at the torture. Possibly your nervously +organized natures require a modification of the method. + +Edward now found himself able to conduct a correspondence. He despatched +the following:-- + + "My Dear Dahlia,--Of course I cannot expect you to be aware of the + bewildering occupations of a country house, where a man has + literally not five minutes' time to call his own; so I pass by your + reproaches. My father has gone at last. He has manifested an + extraordinary liking for my society, and I am to join him elsewhere + --perhaps run over to Paris (your city)--but at present for a few + days I am my own master, and the first thing I do is to attend to + your demands: not to write 'two lines,' but to give you a good long + letter. + + "What on earth makes you fancy me unwell? You know I am never + unwell. And as to your nursing me--when has there ever been any + need for it? + + "You must positively learn patience. I have been absent a week or + so, and you talk of coming down here and haunting the house! Such + ghosts as you meet with strange treatment when they go about + unprotected, let me give you warning. You have my full permission + to walk out in the Parks for exercise. I think you are bound to do + it, for your health's sake. + + "Pray discontinue that talk about the alteration in your looks. You + must learn that you are no longer a child. Cease to write like a + child. If people stare at you, as you say, you are very well aware + it is not because you are becoming plain. You do not mean it, I + know; but there is a disingenuousness in remarks of this sort that + is to me exceedingly distasteful. Avoid the shadow of hypocrisy. + Women are subject to it--and it is quite innocent, no doubt. I + won't lecture you. + + "My cousin Algernon is here with me. He has not spoken of your + sister. Your fears in that direction are quite unnecessary. He is + attached to a female cousin of ours, a very handsome person, witty, + and highly sensible, who dresses as well as the lady you talk about + having seen one day in Wrexby Church. Her lady's-maid is a + Frenchwoman, which accounts for it. You have not forgotten the + boulevards? + + "I wish you to go on with your lessons in French. Educate yourself, + and you will rise superior to these distressing complaints. I + recommend you to read the newspapers daily. Buy nice picture-books, + if the papers are too matter-of-fact for you. By looking eternally + inward, you teach yourself to fret, and the consequence is, or will + be, that you wither. No constitution can stand it. All the ladies + here take an interest in Parliamentary affairs. They can talk to + men upon men's themes. It is impossible to explain to you how + wearisome an everlasting nursery prattle becomes. The idea that men + ought never to tire of it is founded on some queer belief that they + are not mortal. + + "Parliament opens in February. My father wishes me to stand for + Selborough. If he or some one will do the talking to the tradesmen, + and provide the beer and the bribes, I have no objection. In that + case my Law goes to the winds. I'm bound to make a show of + obedience, for he has scarcely got over my summer's trip. He holds + me a prisoner to him for heaven knows how long--it may be months. + + "As for the heiress whom he has here to make a match for me, he and + I must have a pitched battle about her by and by. At present my + purse insists upon my not offending him. When will old men + understand young ones? I burn your letters, and beg you to follow + the example. Old letters are the dreariest ghosts in the world, and + you cannot keep more treacherous rubbish in your possession. A + discovery would exactly ruin me. + + "Your purchase of a black-velvet bonnet with pink ribands, was very + suitable. Or did you write 'blue' ribands? But your complexion can + bear anything. + + "You talk of being annoyed when you walk out. Remember, that no + woman who knows at all how to conduct herself need for one moment + suffer annoyance. + + "What is the 'feeling' you speak of? I cannot conceive any + 'feeling' that should make you helpless when you consider that you + are insulted. There are women who have natural dignity, and women + who have none. + + "You ask the names of the gentlemen here:--Lord Carey, Lord Wippern + (both leave to-morrow), Sir John Capes, Colonel Barclay, Lord + Suckling. The ladies:--Mrs. Gosling, Miss Gosling, Lady Carey. + Mrs. Anybody--to any extent. + + "They pluck hen's feathers all day and half the night. I see them + out, and make my bow to the next batch of visitors, and then I don't + know where I am. + + "Read poetry, if it makes up for my absence, as you say. Repeat it + aloud, minding the pulsation of feet. Go to the theatre now and + then, and take your landlady with you. If she's a cat, fit one of + your dresses on the servant-girl, and take her. You only want a + companion--a dummy will do. Take a box and sit behind the curtain, + back to the audience. + + "I wrote to my wine-merchant to send Champagne and Sherry. I hope + he did: the Champagne in pints and half-pints; if not, return them + instantly. I know how Economy, sitting solitary, poor thing, would + not dare to let the froth of a whole pint bottle fly out. + + "Be an obedient girl and please me. + + "Your stern tutor, + + "Edward the First." + +He read this epistle twice over to satisfy himself that it was a warm +effusion, and not too tender; and it satisfied him. By a stretch of +imagination, he could feel that it represented him to her as in a higher +atmosphere, considerate for her, and not so intimate that she could deem +her spirit to be sharing it. Another dose of silence succeeded this +discreet administration of speech. + +Dahlia replied with letter upon letter; blindly impassioned, and again +singularly cold; but with no reproaches. She was studying, she said. +Her head ached a little; only a little. She walked; she read poetry; she +begged him to pardon her for not drinking wine. She was glad that he +burnt her letters, which were so foolish that if she could have the +courage to look at them after they were written, they would never be +sent. He was slightly revolted by one exclamation: "How ambitious you +are!" + +"Because I cannot sit down for life in a London lodging-house!" he +thought, and eyed her distantly as a poor good creature who had already +accepted her distinctive residence in another sphere than his. From such +a perception of her humanity, it was natural that his livelier sense of +it should diminish. He felt that he had awakened; and he shook her off. + +And now he set to work to subdue Mrs. Lovell. His own subjugation was +the first fruit of his effort. It was quite unacknowledged by him: but +when two are at this game, the question arises--"Which can live without +the other?" and horrid pangs smote him to hear her telling musically of +the places she was journeying to, the men she would see, and the chances +of their meeting again before he was married to the heiress Adeline. + +"I have yet to learn that I am engaged to her," he said. Mrs. Lovell +gave him a fixed look,-- + +"She has a half-brother." + +He stepped away in a fury. + +"Devil!" he muttered, absolutely muttered it, knowing that he fooled and +frowned like a stage-hero in stagey heroics. "You think to hound me into +this brutal stupidity of fighting, do you? Upon my honour," he added in +his natural manner, "I believe she does, though!" + +But the look became his companion. It touched and called up great vanity +in his breast, and not till then could he placably confront the look. He +tried a course of reading. Every morning he was down in the library, +looking old in an arm-chair over his book; an intent abstracted figure. + +Mrs. Lovell would enter and eye him carelessly; utter little commonplaces +and go forth. The silly words struck on his brain. The book seemed +hollow; sounded hollow as he shut it. This woman breathed of active +striving life. She was a spur to black energies; a plumed glory; +impulsive to chivalry. Everything she said and did held men in scales, +and approved or rejected them. + +Intoxication followed this new conception of her. He lost altogether his +right judgement; even the cooler after-thoughts were lost. What sort of +man had Harry been, her first husband? A dashing soldier, a quarrelsome +duellist, a dull dog. But, dull to her? She, at least, was reverential +to the memory of him. + +She lisped now and then of "my husband," very prettily, and with intense +provocation; and yet she worshipped brains. Evidently she thirsted for +that rare union of brains and bravery in a man, and would never surrender +till she had discovered it. Perhaps she fancied it did not exist. It +might be that she took Edward as the type of brains, and Harry of +bravery, and supposed that the two qualities were not to be had actually +in conjunction. + +Her admiration of his (Edward's) wit, therefore, only strengthened the +idea she entertained of his deficiency in that other companion manly +virtue. + +Edward must have been possessed, for he ground his teeth villanously in +supposing himself the victim of this outrageous suspicion. And how to +prove it false? How to prove it false in a civilized age, among sober- +living men and women, with whom the violent assertion of bravery would +certainly imperil his claim to brains? His head was like a stew-pan over +the fire, bubbling endlessly. + +He railed at her to Algernon, and astonished the youth, who thought them +in a fair way to make an alliance. "Milk and capsicums," he called her, +and compared her to bloody mustard-haired Saxon Queens of history, and +was childishly spiteful. And Mrs. Lovell had it all reported to her, as +he was-quite aware. + +"The woman seeking for an anomaly wants a master." + +With this pompous aphorism, he finished his reading of the fair Enigma. + +Words big in the mouth serve their turn when there is no way of +satisfying the intelligence. + +To be her master, however, one must not begin by writhing as her slave. + +The attempt to read an inscrutable woman allows her to dominate us too +commandingly. So the lordly mind takes her in a hard grasp, cracks the +shell, and drawing forth the kernel, says, "This was all the puzzle." + +Doubtless it is the fate which women like Mrs. Lovell provoke. The truth +was, that she could read a character when it was under her eyes; but its +yesterday and to-morrow were a blank. She had no imaginative hold on +anything. For which reason she was always requiring tangible signs of +virtues that she esteemed. + +The thirst for the shows of valour and wit was insane with her; but she +asked for nothing that she herself did not give in abundance, and with +beauty super-added. Her propensity to bet sprang of her passion for +combat; she was not greedy of money, or reckless in using it; but a +difference of opinion arising, her instinct forcibly prompted her to back +her own. If the stake was the risk of a lover's life, she was ready to +put down the stake, and would have marvelled contemptuously at the lover +complaining. "Sheep! sheep!" she thought of those who dared not fight, +and had a wavering tendency to affix the epithet to those who simply did +not fight. + +Withal, Mrs. Lovell was a sensible person; clearheaded and shrewd; +logical, too, more than the run of her sex: I may say, profoundly +practical. So much so, that she systematically reserved the after-years +for enlightenment upon two or three doubts of herself, which struck her +in the calm of her spirit, from time to time. + +"France," Edward called her, in one of their colloquies. + +It was an illuminating title. She liked the French (though no one was +keener for the honour of her own country in opposition to them), she +liked their splendid boyishness, their unequalled devotion, their +merciless intellects; the oneness of the nation when the sword is bare +and pointing to chivalrous enterprise. + +She liked their fine varnish of sentiment, which appears so much on the +surface that Englishmen suppose it to have nowhere any depth; as if the +outer coating must necessarily exhaust the stock, or as if what is at the +source of our being can never be made visible. + +She had her imagination of them as of a streaming banner in the jaws of +storm, with snows among the cloud-rents and lightning in the chasms:-- +which image may be accounted for by the fact that when a girl she had in +adoration kissed the feet of Napoleon, the giant of the later ghosts of +history. + +It was a princely compliment. She received it curtseying, and disarmed +the intended irony. In reply, she called him "Great Britain." I regret +to say that he stood less proudly for his nation. Indeed, he flushed. +He remembered articles girding at the policy of peace at any price, and +half felt that Mrs. Lovell had meant to crown him with a Quaker's hat. +His title fell speedily into disuse; but, "Yes, France," and "No, +France," continued, his effort being to fix the epithet to frivolous +allusions, from which her ingenuity rescued it honourably. + +Had she ever been in love? He asked her the question. She stabbed him +with so straightforward an affirmative that he could not conceal the +wound. + +"Have I not been married?" she said. + +He began to experience the fretful craving to see the antecedents of the +torturing woman spread out before him. He conceived a passion for her +girlhood. He begged for portraits of her as a girl. She showed him the +portrait of Harry Lovell in a locket. He held the locket between his +fingers. Dead Harry was kept very warm. Could brains ever touch her +emotions as bravery had done? + +"Where are the brains I boast of?" he groaned, in the midst of these +sensational extravagances. + +The lull of action was soon to be disturbed. A letter was brought to +him. + +He opened it and read-- + + "Mr. Edward Blancove,--When you rode by me under Fairly Park, I did + not know you. I can give you a medical certificate that since then + I have been in the doctor's hands. I know you now. I call upon you + to meet me, with what weapons you like best, to prove that you are + not a midnight assassin. The place shall be where you choose to + appoint. If you decline I will make you publicly acknowledge what + you have done. If you answer, that I am not a gentleman and you are + one, I say that you have attacked me in the dark, when I was on + horseback, and you are now my equal, if I like to think so. You + will not talk about the law after that night. The man you employed + I may punish or I may leave, though he struck the blow. But I will + meet you. To-morrow, a friend of mine, who is a major in the army, + will be down here, and will call on you from me; or on any friend of + yours you are pleased to name. I will not let you escape. Whether + I shall face a guilty man in you, God knows; but I know I have a + right to call upon you to face me. + + "I am, Sir, + "Yours truly, + + "Robert Eccles." + +Edward's face grew signally white over the contents of this unprecedented +challenge. The letter had been brought in to him at the breakfast table. +"Read it, read it," said Mrs. Lovell, seeing him put it by; and he had +read it with her eyes on him. + +The man seemed to him a man of claws, who clutched like a demon. Would +nothing quiet him? Edward thought of bribes for the sake of peace; but a +second glance at the letter assured his sagacious mind that bribes were +powerless in this man's case; neither bribes nor sticks were of service. +Departure from Fairly would avail as little: the tenacious devil would +follow him to London; and what was worse, as a hound from Dahlia's family +he was now on the right scent, and appeared to know that he was. How was +a scandal to be avoided? By leaving Fairly instantly for any place on +earth, he could not avoid leaving the man behind; and if the man saw Mrs. +Lovell again, her instincts as a woman of her class were not to be +trusted. As likely as not she would side with the ruffian; that is, she +would think he had been wronged--perhaps think that he ought to have been +met. There is the democratic virus secret in every woman; it was +predominant in Mrs. Lovell, according to Edward's observation of the +lady. The rights of individual manhood were, as he angrily perceived, +likely to be recognized by her spirit, if only they were stoutly +asserted; and that in defiance of station, of reason, of all the ideas +inculcated by education and society. + +"I believe she'll expect me to fight him," he exclaimed. At least, he +knew she would despise him if he avoided the brutal challenge without +some show of dignity. + +On rising from the table, he drew Algernon aside. It was an insufferable +thought that he was compelled to take his brainless cousin into his +confidence, even to the extent of soliciting his counsel, but there was +no help for it. In vain Edward asked himself why he had been such an +idiot as to stain his hands with the affair at all. He attributed it to +his regard for Algernon. Having commonly the sway of his passions, he +was in the habit of forgetting that he ever lost control of them; and the +fierce black mood, engendered by Robert's audacious persecution, had +passed from his memory, though it was now recalled in full force. + +"See what a mess you drag a man into," he said. + +Algernon read a line of the letter. "Oh, confound this infernal fellow!" +he shouted, in sickly wonderment; and snapped sharp, "drag you into the +mess? Upon my honour, your coolness, Ned, is the biggest part about you, +if it isn't the best." + +Edward's grip fixed on him, for they were only just out of earshot of +Mrs. Lovell. They went upstairs, and Algernon read the letter through. + +"'Midnight assassin,'" he repeated; "by Jove! how beastly that sounds. +It's a lie that you attacked him in the dark, Ned--eh?" + +"I did not attack him at all," said Edward. "He behaved like a ruffian +to you, and deserved shooting like a mad dog." + +"Did you, though," Algernon persisted in questioning, despite his +cousin's manifest shyness of the subject "did you really go out with that +man Sedgett, and stop this fellow on horseback? He speaks of a blow. +You didn't strike him, did you, Ned? I mean, not a hit, except in +self-defence?" + +Edward bit his lip, and shot a level reflective side-look, peculiar to +him when meditating. He wished his cousin to propose that Mrs. Lovell +should see the letter. He felt that by consulting with her, he could +bring her to apprehend the common sense of the position, and be so far +responsible for what he might do, that she would not dare to let her +heart be rebellious toward him subsequently. If he himself went to her +it would look too much like pleading for her intercession. The subtle +directness of the woman's spirit had to be guarded against at every +point. + +He replied to Algernon,-- + +"What I did was on your behalf. Oblige me by not interrogating me. I +give you my positive assurance that I encouraged no unmanly assault on +him." + +"That'll do, that'll do," said Algernon, eager not to hear more, lest +there should come an explanation of what he had heard. "Of course, then, +this fellow has no right--the devil's in him! If we could only make him +murder Sedgett and get hanged for it! He's got a friend who's a major in +the army? Oh, come, I say; this is pitching it too stiff. I shall +insist upon seeing his commission. Really, Ned, I can't advise. I'll +stand by you, that you may be sure of--stand by you; but what the deuce +to say to help you! Go before the magistrate.... Get Lord Elling to +issue a warrant to prevent a breach of the peace. No; that won't do. +This quack of a major in the army's to call to-morrow. I don't mind, if +he shows his credentials all clear, amusing him in any manner he likes. +I can't see the best scheme. Hang it, Ned, it's very hard upon me to ask +me to do the thinking. I always go to Peggy Lovell when I'm bothered. +There--Mrs. Lovell! Mistress Lovell! Madame! my Princess Lovell, if you +want me to pronounce respectable titles to her name. You're too proud to +ask a woman to help you, ain't you, Ned?" + +"No," said Edward, mildly. "In some cases their wits are keen enough. +One doesn't like to drag her into such a business." + +"Hm," went Algernon. "I don't think she's so innocent of it as you +fancy." + +"She's very clever," said Edward. + +"She's awfully clever!" cried Algernon. He paused to give room for more +praises of her, and then pursued: + +"She's so kind. That's what you don't credit her for. I'll go and +consult her, if positively you don't mind. Trust her for keeping it +quiet. Come, Ned, she's sure to hit upon the right thing. May I go?" + +"It's your affair, more than mine," said Edward. + +"Have it so, if you like," returned the good-natured fellow. "It's worth +while consulting her, just to see how neatly she'll take it. Bless your +heart, she won't know a bit more than you want her to know. I'm off to +her now." He carried away the letter. + +Edward's own practical judgement would have advised his instantly sending +a short reply to Robert, explaining that he was simply in conversation +with the man Sedgett, when Robert, the old enemy of the latter, rode by, +and, that while regretting Sedgett's proceedings, he could not be held +accountable for them. But it was useless to think of acting in +accordance with his reason. Mrs. Lovell was queen, and sat in reason's +place. It was absolutely necessary to conciliate her approbation of his +conduct in this dilemma, by submitting to the decided unpleasantness of +talking with her on a subject that fevered him, and of allowing her to +suppose he required the help of her sagacity. Such was the humiliation +imposed upon him. Further than this he had nothing to fear, for no woman +could fail to be overborne by the masculine force of his brain in an +argument. The humiliation was bad enough, and half tempted him to think +that his old dream of working as a hard student, with fair and gentle +Dahlia ministering to his comforts, and too happy to call herself his, +was best. Was it not, after one particular step had been taken, the +manliest life he could have shaped out? Or did he imagine it so at this +moment, because he was a coward, and because pride, and vanity, and +ferocity alternately had to screw him up to meet the consequences of his +acts, instead of the great heart? + +If a coward, Dahlia was his home, his refuge, his sanctuary. Mrs. Lovell +was perdition and its scorching fires to a man with a taint of cowardice +in him. + +Whatever he was, Edward's vanity would not permit him to acknowledge +himself that. Still, he did not call on his heart to play inspiriting +music. His ideas turned to subterfuge. His aim was to keep the good +opinion of Mrs. Lovell while he quieted Robert; and he entered +straightway upon that very perilous course, the attempt, for the sake of +winning her, to bewilder and deceive a woman's instincts. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +Over a fire in one of the upper sitting-rooms of the Pilot Inn, Robert +sat with his friend, the beloved friend of whom he used to speak to +Dahlia and Rhoda, too proudly not to seem betraying the weaker point of +pride. This friend had accepted the title from a private soldier of his +regiment; to be capable of doing which, a man must be both officer and +gentleman in a sterner and less liberal sense than is expressed by that +everlasting phrase in the mouth of the military parrot. Major Percy +Waring, the son of a clergyman, was a working soldier, a slayer, if you +will, from pure love of the profession of arms, and all the while the +sweetest and gentlest of men. I call him a working soldier in opposition +to the parading soldier, the, coxcomb in uniform, the hero by accident, +and the martial boys of wealth and station, who are of the army of +England. He studied war when the trumpet slumbered, and had no place but +in the field when it sounded. To him the honour of England was as a babe +in his arms: he hugged it like a mother. He knew the military history of +every regiment in the service. Disasters even of old date brought groans +from him. This enthusiastic face was singularly soft when the large dark +eyes were set musing. The cast of it being such, sometimes in speaking +of a happy play of artillery upon congregated masses, an odd effect was +produced. Ordinarily, the clear features were reflective almost to +sadness, in the absence of animation; but an exulting energy for action +would now and then light them up. Hilarity of spirit did not belong to +him. He was, nevertheless, a cheerful talker, as could be seen in the +glad ear given to him by Robert. Between them it was "Robert" and +"Percy." Robert had rescued him from drowning on the East Anglian shore, +and the friendship which ensued was one chief reason for Robert's +quitting the post of trooper and buying himself out. It was against +Percy's advice, who wanted to purchase a commission for him; but the +humbler man had the sturdy scruples of his rank regarding money, and his +romantic illusions being dispersed by an experience of the absolute +class-distinctions in the service, Robert; that he might prevent his +friend from violating them, made use of his aunt's legacy to obtain +release. Since that date they had not met; but their friendship was +fast. Percy had recently paid a visit to Queen Anne's Farm, where he had +seen Rhoda and heard of Robert's departure. Knowing Robert's birthplace, +he had come on to Warbeach, and had seen Jonathan Eccles, who referred +him to Mrs. Boulby, licenced seller of brandy, if he wished to enjoy an +interview with Robert Eccles. + +"The old man sent up regularly every day to inquire how his son was +faring on the road to the next world," said Robert, laughing. "He's +tough old English oak. I'm just to him what I appear at the time. It's +better having him like that than one of your jerky fathers, who seem to +belong to the stage of a theatre. Everybody respects my old dad, and I +can laugh at what he thinks of me. I've only to let him know I've served +an apprenticeship in farming, and can make use of some of his ideas- +-sound! every one of 'em; every one of 'em sound! And that I say of my +own father." + +"Why don't you tell him?" Percy asked. + +"I want to forget all about Kent and drown the county," said Robert. +"And I'm going to, as far as my memory's concerned." + +Percy waited for some seconds. He comprehended perfectly this state of +wilfulness in an uneducated sensitive man. + +"She has a steadfast look in her face, Robert. She doesn't look as if +she trifled. I've really never seen a finer, franker girl in my life, if +faces are to be trusted." + +"It's t' other way. There's no trifling in her case. She's frank. She +fires at you point blank." + +"You never mentioned her in your letters to me, Robert." + +"No. I had a suspicion from the first I was going to be a fool about the +girl." + +Percy struck his hand. + +"You didn't do quite right." + +"Do you say that?" + +Robert silenced him with this question, for there was a woman in Percy's +antecedent history. + +The subject being dismissed, they talked more freely. Robert related the +tale of Dahlia, and of his doings at Fairly. + +"Oh! we agree," he said, noting a curious smile that Percy could not +smooth out of sight. "I know it was odd conduct. I do respect my +superiors; but, believe me or not, Percy, injury done to a girl makes me +mad, and I can't hold back; and she's the sister of the girl you saw. By +heaven! if it weren't for my head getting blind now when my blood boils, +I've the mind to walk straight up to the house and screw the secret out +of one of them. What I say is--Is there a God up aloft? Then, he sees +all, and society is vapour, and while I feel the spirit in me to do it, I +go straight at my aim." + +"If, at the same time, there's no brandy in you," said Percy, "which +would stop your seeing clear or going straight." + +The suggestion was a cruel shock. Robert nodded. "That's true. I +suppose it's my bad education that won't let me keep cool. I'm ashamed +of myself after it. I shout and thunder, and the end of it is, I go away +and think about the same of Robert Eccles that I've frightened other +people into thinking. Perhaps you'll think me to blame in this case? +One of those Mr. Blancoves--not the one you've heard of--struck me on the +field before a lady. I bore it. It was part of what I'd gone out to +meet. I was riding home late at night, and he stood at the corner of the +lane, with an old enemy of mine, and a sad cur that is! Sedgett's his +name--Nic, the Christian part of it. There'd just come a sharp snowfall +from the north, and the moonlight shot over the flying edge of the +rear-cloud; and I saw Sedgett with a stick in his hand; but the gentleman +had no stick. I'll give Mr. Edward Blancove credit for not meaning to be +active in a dastardly assault. + +"But why was he in consultation with my enemy? And he let my enemy--by +the way, Percy, you dislike that sort of talk of 'my enemy,' I know. You +like it put plain and simple: but down in these old parts again, I catch +at old habits; and I'm always a worse man when I haven't seen you for a +time. Sedgett, say. Sedgett, as I passed, made a sweep at my horse's +knees, and took them a little over the fetlock. The beast reared. While +I was holding on he swung a blow at me, and took me here." + +Robert touched his head. "I dropped like a horse-chestnut from the tree. +When I recovered, I was lying in the lane. I think I was there flat, +face to the ground, for half an hour, quite sensible, looking at the +pretty colour of my blood on the snow. The horse was gone. I just +managed to reel along to this place, where there's always a home for me. +Now, will you believe it possible? I went out next day: I saw Mr. Edward +Blancove, and I might have seen a baby and felt the same to it. I didn't +know him a bit. Yesterday morning your letter was sent up from Sutton +farm. Somehow, the moment I'd read it, I remembered his face. I sent +him word there was a matter to be settled between us. You think I was +wrong?" + +Major Waring had set a deliberately calculating eye on him. + +"I want to hear more," he said. + +"You think I have no claim to challenge a man in his position?" + +"Answer me first, Robert. You think this Mr. Blancove helped, or +instigated this man Sedgett in his attack upon you?" + +"I haven't a doubt that he did." + +"It's not plain evidence." + +"It's good circumstantial evidence." + +"At any rate, you are perhaps justified in thinking him capable of this: +though the rule is, to believe nothing against a gentleman until it is +flatly proved--when we drum him out of the ranks. But, if you can fancy +it true, would you put yourself upon an equal footing with him?" + +"I would," said Robert. + +"Then you accept his code of morals." + +"That's too shrewd for me: but men who preach against duelling, or any +kind of man-to-man in hot earnest, always fence in that way." + +"I detest duelling," Major Waring remarked. "I don't like a system that +permits knaves and fools to exercise a claim to imperil the lives of +useful men. Let me observe, that I am not a preacher against it. I +think you know my opinions; and they are not quite those of the English +magistrate, and other mild persons who are wrathful at the practice upon +any pretence. Keep to the other discussion. You challenge a man--you +admit him your equal. But why do I argue with you? I know your mind as +well as my own. You have some other idea in the background." + +"I feel that he's the guilty man," said Robert. + +"You feel called upon to punish him." + +"No. Wait: he will not fight; but I have him and I'll hold him. I feel +he's the man who has injured this girl, by every witness of facts that I +can bring together; and as for the other young fellow I led such a dog's +life down here, I could beg his pardon. This one's eye met mine. I saw +it wouldn't have stopped short of murder--opportunity given. Why? +Because I pressed on the right spring. I'm like a woman in seeing some +things. He shall repent. By--! Slap me on the face, Percy. I've taken +to brandy and to swearing. Damn the girl who made me forget good +lessons! Bless her heart, I mean. She saw you, did she? Did she colour +when she heard your name?" + +"Very much," said Major Waring. + +"Was dressed in--?" + +"Black, with a crimson ribbon round the collar." + +Robert waved the image from his eyes. + +"I'm not going to dream of her. Peace, and babies, and farming, and +pride in myself with a woman by my side--there! You've seen her--all +that's gone. I might as well ask the East wind to blow West. Her face +is set the other way. Of course, the nature and value of a man is shown +by how he takes this sort of pain; and hark at me! I'm yelling. I +thought I was cured. I looked up into the eyes of a lady ten times +sweeter--when?--somewhen! I've lost dates. But here's the girl at me +again. She cuddles into me--slips her hand into my breast and tugs at +strings there. I can't help talking to you about her, now we've got over +the first step. I'll soon give it up. + +"She wore a red ribbon? If it had been Spring, you'd have seen roses. +Oh! what a stanch heart that girl has. Where she sets it, mind! Her +life where that creature sets her heart! But, for me, not a penny of +comfort! Now for a whole week of her, day and night, in that black dress +with the coloured ribbon. On she goes: walking to church; sitting at +table; looking out of the window! + +"Will you believe I thought those thick eyebrows of hers ugly once--a +tremendous long time ago. Yes; but what eyes she has under them! And if +she looks tender, one corner of her mouth goes quivering; and the eyes +are steady, so that it looks like some wonderful bit of mercy. + +"I think of that true-hearted creature praying and longing for her +sister, and fearing there's shame--that's why she hates me. I wouldn't +say I was certain her sister had not fallen into a pit. I couldn't. I +was an idiot. I thought I wouldn't be a hypocrite. I might have said I +believed as she did. There she stood ready to be taken--ready to have +given herself to me, if I had only spoken a word! It was a moment of +heaven, and God the Father could not give it to me twice The chance has +gone. + +"Oh! what a miserable mad dog I am to gabble on in this way.--Come in! +come in, mother." + +Mrs. Boulby entered, with soft footsteps, bearing a letter. + +"From the Park," she said, and commenced chiding Robert gently, to +establish her right to do it with solemnity. + +"He will talk, sir. He's one o' them that either they talk or they hang +silent, and no middle way will they take; and the doctor's their foe, and +health they despise; and since this cruel blow, obstinacy do seem to have +been knocked like a nail into his head so fast, persuasion have not a +atom o' power over him." + +"There must be talking when friends meet, ma'am," said Major Waring. + +"Ah!" returned the widow, "if it wouldn't be all on one side." + +"I've done now, mother," said Robert. + +Mrs. Boulby retired, and Robert opened the letter. + +It ran thus:-- + + "Sir, I am glad you have done me the favour of addressing me + temperately, so that I am permitted to clear myself of an unjust and + most unpleasant imputation. I will, if you please, see you, or your + friend; to whom perhaps I shall better be able to certify how + unfounded is the charge you bring against me. I will call upon you + at the Pilot Inn, where I hear that you are staying; or, if you + prefer it, I will attend to any appointment you may choose to direct + elsewhere. But it must be immediate, as the term of my residence in + this neighbourhood is limited. + + "I am, + "Sir, + "Yours obediently, + + "Edward Blancove." + +Major Waning read the lines with a critical attention. + +"It seems fair and open," was his remark. + +"Here," Robert struck his breast, "here's what answers him. What shall I +do? Shall I tell him to come?" + +"Write to say that your friend will meet him at a stated place." + +Robert saw his prey escaping. "I'm not to see him?" + +"No. The decent is the right way in such cases. You must leave it to +me. This will be the proper method between gentlemen." + +"It appears to my idea," said Robert, "that gentlemen are always, +somehow, stopped from taking the straight-ahead measure." + +"You," Percy rejoined, "are like a civilian before a fortress. Either he +finds it so easy that he can walk into it, or he gives it up in despair +as unassailable. You have followed your own devices, and what have you +accomplished?" + +"He will lie to you smoothly." + +"Smoothly or not, if I discover that he has spoken falsely, he is +answerable to me." + +"To me, Percy." + +"No; to me. He can elude you; and will be acquitted by the general +verdict. But when he becomes answerable to me, his honour, in the +conventional, which is here the practical, sense, is at stake, and I have +him." + +"I see that. Yes; he can refuse to fight me," Robert sighed. "Hey, +Lord! it's a heavy world when we come to methods. But will you, Percy, +will you put it to him at the end of your fist--'Did you deceive the +girl, and do you know where the girl now is?' Why, great heaven! we only +ask to know where she is. She may have been murdered. She's hidden from +her family. Let him confess, and let him go." + +Major Waring shook his head. "You see like a woman perhaps, Robert. You +certainly talk like a woman. I will state your suspicions. When I have +done so, I am bound to accept his reply. If we discover it to have been +false, I have my remedy." + +"Won't you perceive, that it isn't my object to punish him by and by, but +to tear the secret out of him on the spot--now--instantly," Robert cried. + +"I perceive your object, and you have experienced some of the results of +your system. It's the primitive action of an appeal to the god of +combats, that is exploded in these days. You have no course but to take +his word." + +"She said"--Robert struck his knee--"she said I should have the girl's +address. She said she would see her. She pledged that to me. I'm +speaking of the lady up at Fairly. Come! things get clearer. If she +knows where Dahlia is, who told her? This Mr. Algernon--not Edward +Blancove--was seen with Dahlia in a box at the Playhouse. He was there +with Dahlia, yet I don't think him the guilty man. There's a finger of +light upon that other." + +"Who is this lady?" Major Waring asked, with lifted eyebrows. + +"Mrs. Lovell." + +At the name, Major Waring sat stricken. + +"Lovell!" he repeated, under his breath. "Lovell! Was she ever in +India?" + +"I don't know, indeed." + +"Is she a widow?" + +"Ay; that I've heard." + +"Describe her." + +Robert entered upon the task with a dozen headlong exclamations, and very +justly concluded by saying that he could give no idea of her; but his +friend apparently had gleaned sufficient. + +Major Waring's face was touched by a strange pallor, and his smile had +vanished. He ran his fingers through his hair, clutching it in a knot, +as he sat eyeing the red chasm in the fire, where the light of old days +and wild memories hangs as in a crumbling world. + +Robert was aware of there being a sadness in Percy's life, and that he +had loved a woman and awakened from his passion. Her name was unknown to +him. In that matter, his natural delicacy and his deference to Percy had +always checked him from sounding the subject closely. He might be, as he +had said, keen as a woman where his own instincts were in action; but +they were ineffective in guessing at the cause for Percy's sudden +depression. + +"She said--this lady, Mrs. Lovell, whoever she may be--she said you +should have the girl's address:--gave you that pledge of her word?" Percy +spoke, half meditating. "How did this happen? When did you see her?" + +Robert related the incident of his meeting with her, and her effort to be +a peacemaker, but made no allusion to Mrs. Boulby's tale of the bet. + +"A peacemaker!" Percy interjected. "She rides well?" + +"Best horsewoman I ever saw in my life," was Robert's ready answer. + +Major Waring brushed at his forehead, as in impatience of thought. + +"You must write two letters: one to this Mrs. Lovell. Say, you are +about to leave the place, and remind her of her promise. It's +incomprehensible; but never mind. Write that first. Then to the man. +Say that your friend--by the way, this Mrs. Lovell has small hands, has +she? I mean, peculiarly small? Did you notice, or not? I may know her. +Never mind. Write to the man. Say--don't write down my name--say that I +will meet him." Percy spoke on as in a dream. "Appoint any place and +hour. To-morrow at ten, down by the river--the bridge. Write briefly. +Thank him for his offer to afford you explanations. Don't argue it with +me any more. Write both the letters straight off." + +His back was to Robert as he uttered the injunction. Robert took pen and +paper, and did as he was bidden, with all the punctilious obedience of a +man who consents perforce to see a better scheme abandoned. + +One effect of the equality existing between these two of diverse rank in +life and perfect delicacy of heart, was, that the moment Percy assumed +the lead, Robert never disputed it. Muttering simply that he was +incapable of writing except when he was in a passion, he managed to +produce what, in Percy's eyes, were satisfactory epistles, though Robert +had horrible misgivings in regard to his letter to Mrs. Lovell--the +wording of it, the cast of the sentences, even down to the character of +the handwriting. These missives were despatched immediately. + +"You are sure she said that?" Major Waring inquired more than once during +the afternoon, and Robert assured him that Mrs. Lovell had given him her +word. He grew very positive, and put it on his honour that she had said +it. + +"You may have heard incorrectly." + +"I've got the words burning inside me," said Robert. + +They walked together, before dark, to Sutton Farm, but Jonathan Eccles +was abroad in his fields, and their welcome was from Mistress Anne, whom +Major Waring had not power to melt; the moment he began speaking praise +of Robert, she closed her mouth tight and crossed her wrists meekly. + +"I see," said Major Waring, as they left the farm, "your aunt is of the +godly who have no forgiveness." + +"I'm afraid so," cried Robert. "Cold blood never will come to an +understanding with hot blood, and the old lady's is like frozen milk. +She's right in her way, I dare say. I don't blame her. Her piety's +right enough, take it as you find it." + +Mrs. Boulby had a sagacious notion that gentlemen always dined well every +day of their lives, and claimed that much from Providence as their due. +She had exerted herself to spread a neat little repast for Major Waring, +and waited on the friends herself; grieving considerably to observe that +the major failed in his duty as a gentleman, as far as the relish of +eating was concerned. + +"But," she said below at her bar, "he smokes the beautifullest--smelling +cigars, and drinks coffee made in his own way. He's very particular." +Which was reckoned to be in Major Waring's favour. + +The hour was near midnight when she came into the room, bearing another +letter from the Park. She thumped it on the table, ruffling and making +that pretence at the controlling of her bosom which precedes a feminine +storm. Her indignation was caused by a communication delivered by Dick +Curtis, in the parlour underneath, to the effect that Nicodemus Sedgett +was not to be heard of in the neighbourhood. + +Robert laughed at her, and called her Hebrew woman--eye-for-eye and +tooth-for-tooth woman. + +"Leave real rascals to the Lord above, mother. He's safe to punish them. +They've stepped outside the chances. That's my idea. I wouldn't go out +of my way to kick them--not I! It's the half-and-half villains we've got +to dispose of. They're the mischief, old lady." + +Percy, however, asked some questions about Sedgett, and seemed to think +his disappearance singular. He had been examining the handwriting of the +superscription to the letter. His face was flushed as he tossed it for +Robert to open. Mrs. Boulby dropped her departing curtsey, and Robert +read out, with odd pauses and puzzled emphasis: + + "Mrs. Lovell has received the letter which Mr. Robert Eccles has + addressed to her, and regrets that a misconception should have + arisen from anything that was uttered during their interview. The + allusions are obscure, and Mrs. Lovell can only remark, that she is + pained if she at all misled Mr. Eccles in what she either spoke or + promised. She is not aware that she can be of any service to him. + Should such an occasion present itself, Mr. Eccles may rest assured + that she will not fail to avail herself of it, and do her utmost to + redeem a pledge to which he has apparently attached a meaning she + can in no way account for or comprehend." + +When Robert had finished, "It's like a female lawyer," he said. "That +woman speaking, and that woman writing, they're two different creatures-- +upon my soul, they are! Quick, sharp, to the point, when she speaks; and +read this! Can I venture to say of a lady, she's a liar?" + +"Perhaps you had better not," said Major Waring, who took the letter in +his hand and seemed to study it. After which he transferred it to his +pocket. + +"To-morrow? To-morrow's Sunday," he observed. "We will go to church +to-morrow." His eyes glittered. + +"Why, I'm hardly in the mood," Robert protested. "I haven't had the +habit latterly." + +"Keep up the habit," said Percy. "It's a good thing for men like you." + +"But what sort of a fellow am I to be showing myself there among all the +people who've been talking about me--and the people up at Fairly!" Robert +burst out in horror of the prospect. "I shall be a sight among the +people. Percy, upon my honour, I don't think I well can. I'll read the +Bible at home if you like." + +"No; you'll do penance," said Major Waring. + +"Are you meaning it?" + +"The penance will be ten times greater on my part, believe me." + +Robert fancied him to be referring to some idea of mocking the +interposition of religion. + +"Then we'll go to Upton Church," he said. "I don't mind it at Upton." + +"I intend to go to the church attended by 'The Family,' as we say in our +parts; and you must come with me to Warbeach." + +Clasping one hand across his forehead, Robert cried, "You couldn't ask me +to do a thing I hate so much. Go, and sit, and look sheepish, and sing +hymns with the people I've been badgering; and everybody seeing me! How +can it be anything to you like what it is to me?" + +"You have only to take my word for it that it is, and far more," said +Major Waring, sinking his voice. "Come; it won't do you any harm to make +an appointment to meet your conscience now and then. You will never be +ruled by reason, and your feelings have to teach you what you learn. At +any rate, it's my request." + +This terminated the colloquy upon that topic. Robert looked forward to a +penitential Sabbath-day. + +"She is a widow still," thought Major Waring, as he stood alone in his +bed-room, and, drawing aside the curtains of his window, looked up at the +white moon. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +When the sun takes to shining in winter, and the Southwest to blowing, +the corners of the earth cannot hide from him--the mornings are like +halls full of light. Robert had spent his hopes upon a wet day that +would have kept the congregation sparse and the guests at Fairly absent +from public devotions. + +He perceived at once that he was doomed to be under everybody's eyes when +he walked down the aisle, for everybody would attend the service on such +a morning as this. + +Already he had met his conscience, in so far as that he shunned asking +Percy again what was the reason for their going to church, and he had not +the courage to petition to go in the afternoon instead of the morning. + +The question, "Are you ashamed of yourself, then?" sang in his ears as a +retort ready made. + +There was no help for it; so he set about assisting his ingenuity to make +the best appearance possible--brushing his hat and coat with +extraordinary care. + +Percy got him to point out the spot designated for the meeting, and +telling him to wait in the Warbeach churchyard, or within sight of it, +strolled off in the direction of the river. His simple neatness and +quiet gentlemanly air abashed Robert, and lured him from his intense +conception of abstract right and wrong, which had hitherto encouraged and +incited him, so that he became more than ever crestfallen at the prospect +of meeting the eyes of the church people, and with the trembling +sensitiveness of a woman who weighs the merits of a lover when passion is +having one of its fatal pauses, he looked at himself, and compared +himself with the class of persons he had outraged, and tried to think +better of himself, and to justify himself, and sturdily reject +comparisons. They would not be beaten back. His enemies had never +suggested them, but they were forced on him by the aspect of his friend. + +Any man who takes the law into his own hands, and chooses to stand +against what is conventionally deemed fitting:--against the world, as we +say, is open to these moods of degrading humility. Robert waited for the +sound of the bells with the emotions of a common culprit. Could he have +been driven to the church and deposited suddenly in his pew, his mind +would have been easier. + +It was the walking there, the walking down the aisle, the sense of his +being the fellow who had matched himself against those well-attired +gentlemen, which entirely confused him. And not exactly for his own +sake--for Percy's partly. He sickened at the thought of being seen by +Major Waring's side. His best suit and his hat were good enough, as far +as they went, only he did not feel that he wore them--he could not divine +how it was--with a proper air, an air of signal comfort. In fact, the +graceful negligence of an English gentleman's manner had been +unexpectedly revealed to him; and it was strange, he reflected, that +Percy never appeared to observe how deficient he was, and could still +treat him as an equal, call him by his Christian name, and not object to +be seen with him in public. + +Robert did not think at the same time that illness had impoverished his +blood. Your sensational beings must keep a strong and a good flow of +blood in their veins to be always on a level with the occasion which they +provoke. He remembered wonderingly that he had used to be easy in gait +and ready of wit when walking from Queen Anne's Farm to Wrexby village +church. Why was he a different creature now? He could not answer the +question. + +Two or three of his Warbeach acquaintances passed him in the lanes. They +gave him good day, and spoke kindly, and with pleasant friendly looks. + +Their impression when they left him was that he was growing proud. + +The jolly butcher of Warbeach, who had a hearty affection for him, +insisted upon clapping his hand, and showing him to Mrs. Billing, and +showing their two young ones to Robert. With a kiss to the children, and +a nod, Robert let them pass. + +Here and there, he was hailed by young fellows who wore their hats on one +side, and jaunty-fashioned coats--Sunday being their own bright day of +exhibition. He took no notice of the greetings. + +He tried to feel an interest in the robins and twittering wrens, and +called to mind verses about little birds, and kept repeating them, behind +a face that chilled every friendly man who knew him. + +Moody the boat-builder asked him, with a stare, if he was going to +church, and on Robert's replying that perhaps he was, said "I'm dashed!" +and it was especially discouraging to one in Robert's condition. + +Further to inspirit him, he met Jonathan Eccles, who put the same +question to him, and getting the same answer, turned sharp round and +walked homeward. + +Robert had a great feeling of relief when the bells were silent, and +sauntered with a superior composure round the holly and laurel bushes +concealing the church. Not once did he ponder on the meeting between +Major Waring and Mr. Edward Blancove, until he beheld the former standing +alone by the churchyard gate, and then he thought more of the empty +churchyard and the absence of carriages, proclaiming the dreadful +admonition that he must immediately consider as to the best way of +comporting himself before an observant and censorious congregation. + +Major Waring remarked, "You are late." + +"Have I kept you waiting?" said Robert. + +"Not long. They are reading the lessons." + +"Is it full inside?" + +"I dare say it is." + +"You have seen him, I suppose?" + +"Oh yes; I have seen him." + +Percy was short in his speech, and pale as Robert had never seen him +before. He requested hastily to be told the situation of Lord Elling's +pew. + +"Don't you think of going into the gallery?" said Robert, but received no +answer, and with an inward moan of "Good God! they'll think I've come +here in a sort of repentance," he found himself walking down the aisle; +and presently, to his amazement, settled in front of the Fairly pew, and +with his eyes on Mrs. Lovell. + +What was the matter with her? Was she ill? Robert forgot his own +tribulation in an instant. Her face was like marble, and as she stood +with the prayer-book in her hand, her head swayed over it: her lips made +a faint effort at smiling, and she sat quietly down, and was concealed. +Algernon and Sir John Capes were in the pew beside her, as well as Lady +Elling, who, with a backward-turned hand and disregarding countenance, +reached out her smelling-bottle. + +"Is this because she fancies I know of her having made a bet of me?" +thought Robert, and it was not his vanity prompted the supposition, +though his vanity was awakened by it. "Or is she ashamed of her +falsehood?" he thought again, and forgave her at the sight of her sweet +pale face. The singing of the hymns made her evident suffering seem holy +as a martyr's. He scarce had the power to conduct himself reverently, so +intense was his longing to show her his sympathy. + +"That is Mrs. Lovell--did you see her just now?" he whispered. + +"Ah?" said Major Waring. + +"I'm afraid she has fainted." + +"Possibly." + +But Mrs. Lovell had not fainted. She rose when the time for rising came +again, and fixing her eyes with a grave devotional collectedness upon the +vicar at his reading-desk, looked quite mistress of herself--but mistress +of herself only when she kept them so fixed. When they moved, it was as +if they had relinquished some pillar of support, and they wavered; livid +shades chased her face, like the rain-clouds on a grey lake-water. Some +one fronting her weighed on her eyelids. This was evident. Robert +thought her a miracle of beauty. She was in colour like days he had +noted thoughtfully: days with purple storm, and with golden horizon +edges. She had on a bonnet of black velvet, with a delicate array of +white lace, that was not suffered to disturb the contrast to her warm +yellow hair. Her little gloved hands were both holding the book; at +times she perused it, or, the oppression becoming unendurable, turned her +gaze toward the corner of the chancel, and thence once more to her book. +Robert rejected all idea of his being in any way the cause of her strange +perturbation. He cast a glance at his friend. He had begun to nourish a +slight suspicion; but it was too slight to bear up against Percy's +self-possession; for, as he understood the story, Percy had been the +sufferer, and the lady had escaped without a wound. How, then, if such +were the case, would she be showing emotion thus deep, while he stood +before her with perfect self-command? + +Robert believed that if he might look upon that adorable face for many +days together, he could thrust Rhoda's from his memory. The sermon was +not long enough for him; and he was angry with Percy for rising before +there was any movement for departure in the Fairly pew. In the doorway +of the church Percy took his arm, and asked him to point out the family +tombstone. They stood by it, when Lady Elling and Mrs. Lovell came forth +and walked to the carriage, receiving respectful salutes from the people +of Warbeach. + +"How lovely she is!" said Robert. + +"Do you think her handsome?" said Major Waring. + +"I can't understand such a creature dying." Robert stepped over an open +grave. + +The expression of Percy's eyes was bitter. + +"I should imagine she thinks it just as impossible." + +The Warbeach villagers waited for Lady Elling's carriage to roll away, +and with a last glance at Robert, they too went off in gossiping groups. +Robert's penance was over, and he could not refrain from asking what good +his coming to church had done. + +"I can't assist you," said Percy. "By the way, Mr. Blancove denies +everything. He thinks you mad. He promises, now that you have adopted +reasonable measures, to speak to his cousin, and help, as far as he can, +to discover the address you are in search of." + +"That's all?" cried Robert. + +"That is all." + +"Then where am I a bit farther than when I began?" + +"You are only at the head of another road, and a better one." + +"Oh, why do I ever give up trusting to my right hand--" Robert muttered. + +But the evening brought a note to him from Algernon Blancove. It +contained a dignified condemnation of Robert's previous insane behaviour, +and closed by giving Dahlia's address in London. + +"How on earth was this brought about?" Robert now questioned. + +"It's singular, is it not?" said Major blaring; "but if you want a dog to +follow you, you don't pull it by the collar; and if you want a potato +from the earth, you plant the potato before you begin digging. You are a +soldier by instinct, my good Robert: your first appeal is to force. I, +you see, am a civilian: I invariably try the milder methods. Do you +start for London tonight? I remain. I wish to look at the +neighbourhood." + +Robert postponed his journey to the morrow, partly in dread of his +approaching interview with Dahlia, but chiefly to continue a little +longer by the side of him whose gracious friendship gladdened his life. +They paid a second visit to Sutton Farm. Robert doggedly refused to let +a word be said to his father about his having taken to farming, and +Jonathan listened to all Major Waring said of his son like a man +deferential to the accomplishment of speaking, but too far off to hear +more than a chance word. He talked, in reply, quite cheerfully of the +weather and the state of the ground; observed that the soil was a +perpetual study, but he knew something of horses and dogs, and +Yorkshiremen were like Jews in the trouble they took to over-reach in a +bargain. "Walloping men is poor work, if you come to compare it with +walloping Nature," he said, and explained that, according to his opinion, +"to best a man at buying and selling was as wholesome an occupation as +frowzlin' along the gutters for parings and strays." He himself +preferred to go to the heart of things: "Nature makes you rich, if your +object is to do the same for her. Yorkshire fellows never think except +of making theirselves rich by fattening on your blood, like sheep-ticks." +In fine, Jonathan spoke sensibly, and abused Yorkshire, without +hesitating to confess that a certain Yorkshireman, against whom he had +matched his wits in a purchase of horseflesh, had given him a lively +recollection of the encounter. + +Percy asked him what he thought of his country. "I'll tell you," said +Jonathan; "Englishmen's business is to go to war with the elements, and +so long as we fight them, we're in the right academy for learnin' how the +game goes. Our vulnerability commences when we think we'll sit down and +eat the fruits, and if I don't see signs o' that, set me mole-tunnelling. +Self-indulgence is the ruin of our time." + +This was the closest remark he made to his relations with Robert, who +informed him that he was going to London on the following day. Jonathan +shook his hand heartily, without troubling himself about any inquiries. + +"There's so much of that old man in me," said Robert, when Percy praised +him, on their return, "that I daren't call him a Prince of an old boy: +and never a spot of rancour in his soul. Have a claim on him--and +there's your seat at his table: take and offend him--there's your seat +still. Eat and drink, but you don't get near his heart. I'll surprise +him some day. He fancies he's past surprises." + +"Well," said Percy, "you're younger than I am, and may think the future +belongs to you." + +Early next morning they parted. Robert was in town by noon. He lost no +time in hurrying to the Western suburb. As he neared the house where he +was to believe Dahlia to be residing, he saw a man pass through the +leafless black shrubs by the iron gate; and when he came to the gate +himself the man was at the door. The door opened and closed on this man. +It was Nicodemus Sedgett, or Robert's eyes did him traitorous service. +He knocked at the door violently, and had to knock a second and a third +time. Dahlia was denied to him. He was told that Mrs. Ayrton had lived +there, but had left, and her present address was unknown. He asked to be +allowed to speak a word to the man who had just entered the house. No +one had entered for the last two hours, was the reply. Robert had an +impulse to rush by the stolid little female liar, but Percy's recent +lesson to him acted as a restraint; though, had it been a brawny woman or +a lacquey in his path, he would certainly have followed his natural +counsel. He turned away, lingering outside till it was dusk and the +bruise on his head gave great throbs, and then he footed desolately +farther and farther from the house. To combat with evil in his own +country village had seemed a simple thing enough, but it appeared a +superhuman task in giant London. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +It requires, happily, many years of an ordinary man's life to teach him +to believe in the exceeding variety and quantity of things money can buy: +yet, when ingenuous minds have fully comprehended the potent character of +the metal, they are likely enough to suppose that it will buy everything: +after which comes the groaning anxiety to possess it. + +This stage of experience is a sublime development in the great souls of +misers. It is their awakening moment, and it is their first real sense +of a harvest being in their hands. They have begun under the influence +of the passion for hoarding, which is but a blind passion of the +finger-ends. The idea that they have got together, bit by bit, a power, +travels slowly up to their heavy brains. Once let it be grasped, +however, and they clutch a god. They feed on everybody's hunger for it. +And, let us confess, they have in that a mighty feast. + +Anthony Hackbut was not a miser. He was merely a saving old man. His +vanity was, to be thought a miser, envied as a miser. He lived in daily +hearing of the sweet chink of gold, and loved the sound, but with a +poetical love, rather than with the sordid desire to amass gold pieces. +Though a saving old man, he had his comforts; and if they haunted him and +reproached him subsequently, for indulging wayward appetites for herrings +and whelks and other sea-dainties that render up no account to you when +they have disappeared, he put by copper and silver continually, weekly +and monthly, and was master of a sum. + +He knew the breadth of this sum with accuracy, and what it would expand +to this day come a year, and probably this day come five years. He knew +it only too well. The sum took no grand leaps. It increased, but did +not seem to multiply. And he was breathing in the heart of the place, of +all places in the world, where money did multiply. + +He was the possessor of twelve hundred pounds, solid, and in haven; that +is, the greater part in the Bank of England, and a portion in Boyne's +Bank. He had besides a few skirmishing securities, and some such bits of +paper as Algernon had given him in the public-house on that remarkable +night of his visit to the theatre. + +These, when the borrowers were defaulters in their payments and pleaded +for an extension of time, inspired him with sentiments of grandeur that +the solid property could not impart. Nevertheless, the anti-poetical +tendency within him which warred with the poetical, and set him reducing +whatsoever he claimed to plain figures, made it but a fitful hour of +satisfaction. + +He had only to fix his mind upon Farmer Fleming's conception of his +wealth, to feel the miserable smallness of what seemed legitimately his +own; and he felt it with so poignant an emotion that at times his fears +of death were excited by the knowledge of a dead man's impotence to +suggest hazy margins in the final exposure of his property. There it +would lie, dead as himself! contracted, coffined, contemptible! + +What would the farmer think when he came to hear that his brother Tony's +estate was not able to buy up Queen Anne's Farm?--when, in point of fact, +he found that he had all along been the richer man of the two! + +Anthony's comfort was in the unfaltering strength of his constitution. +He permitted his estimate of it to hint at the probability of his +outlasting his brother William John, to whom he wished no earthly ill, +but only that he should not live with a mitigated veneration for him. He +was really nourished by the farmer's gluttonous delight in his supposed +piles of wealth. Sometimes, for weeks, he had the gift of thinking +himself one of the Bank with which he had been so long connected; and +afterward a wretched reaction set in. + +It was then that his touch upon Bank money began to intoxicate him +strangely. He had at times thousands hugged against his bosom, and his +heart swelled to the money-bags immense. He was a dispirited, but a +grateful creature, after he had delivered them up. The delirium came by +fits, as if a devil lurked to surprise him. + +"With this money," said the demon, "you might speculate, and in two days +make ten times the amount." + +To which Anthony answered: "My character's worth fifty times the amount." + +Such was his reply, but he did not think it. He was honest, and his +honesty had become a habit; but the money was the only thing which acted +on his imagination; his character had attained to no sacred halo, and was +just worth his annual income and the respect of the law for his person. +The money fired his brain! + +"Ah! if it was mine!" he sighed. "If I could call it mine for just forty +or fifty hours! But it ain't, and I can't." + +He fought dogged battles with the tempter, and beat him off again and +again. One day he made a truce with him by saying that if ever the +farmer should be in town of an afternoon he would steal ten minutes or +so, and make an appointment with him somewhere and show him the +money-bags without a word: let him weigh and eye them: and then the plan +was for Anthony to talk of politics, while the farmer's mind was in a +ferment. + +With this arrangement the infernal Power appeared to be content, and +Anthony was temporarily relieved of his trouble. In other words, the +intermittent fever of a sort of harmless rascality was afflicting this +old creature. He never entertained the notion of running clear away with +the money entrusted to him. + +Whither could an aged man fly? He thought of foreign places as of spots +that gave him a shivering sense of its being necessary for him to be born +again in nakedness and helplessness, if ever he was to see them and set +foot on them. + +London was his home, and clothed him about warmly and honourably, and so +he said to the demon in their next colloquy. + +Anthony had become guilty of the imprudence of admitting him to +conferences and arguing with him upon equal terms. They tell us, that +this is the imprudence of women under temptation; and perhaps Anthony was +pushed to the verge of the abyss from causes somewhat similar to those +which imperil them, and employed the same kind of efforts in his +resistance. + +In consequence of this compromise, the demon by degrees took seat at his +breakfast-table, when Mrs. Wicklow, his landlady, could hear Anthony +talking in the tone of voice of one who was pushed to his sturdiest +arguments. She conceived that the old man's head was softening. + +He was making one of his hurried rushes with the porterage of money on an +afternoon in Spring, when a young female plucked at his coat, and his +wrath at offenders against the law kindled in a minute into fury. + +"Hands off, minx!" he cried. "You shall be given in charge. Where's a +policeman?" + +"Uncle!" she said. + +"You precious swindler in petticoats!" Anthony fumed. + +But he had a queer recollection of her face, and when she repeated +piteously: "Uncle!" he peered at her features, saying,-- + +"No!" in wonderment, several times. + +Her hair was cut like a boy's. She was in common garments, with a +close-shaped skull-cap and a black straw bonnet on her head; not gloved, +of ill complexion, and with deep dark lines slanting down from the +corners of her eyes. Yet the inspection convinced him that he beheld +Dahlia, his remembering the niece. He was amazed; but speedily priceless +trust in his arms, and the wickedness of the streets, he bade her follow +him. She did so with some difficulty, for he ran, and dodged, and +treated the world as his enemy, suddenly vanished, and appeared again +breathing freely. + +"Why, my girl?" he said: "Why, Dahl--Mrs. What's-your-name? Why, who'd +have known you? Is that"--he got his eyes close to her hair; "is that +the ladies' fashion now? 'Cause, if it is, our young street scamps has +only got to buy bonnets, and--I say, you don't look the Pomp. Not as you +used to, Miss Ma'am, I mean--no, that you don't. Well, what's the news? +How's your husband?" + +"Uncle," said Dahlia; "will you, please, let me speak to you somewhere?" + +"Ain't we standing together?" + +"Oh! pray, out of the crowd!" + +"Come home with me, if my lodgings ain't too poor for you," said Anthony. + +"Uncle, I can't. I have been unwell. I cannot walk far. Will you take +me to some quiet place?" + +"Will you treat me to a cab?" Anthony sneered vehemently. + +"I have left off riding, uncle." + +"What! Hulloa!" Anthony sang out. "Cash is down in the mouth at home, +is it? Tell me that, now?" + +Dahlia dropped her eyelids, and then entreated him once more to conduct +her to a quiet place where they might sit together, away from noise. She +was very earnest and very sad, not seeming to have much strength. + +"Do you mind taking my arm?" said Anthony. + +She leaned her hand on his arm, and he dived across the road with her, +among omnibuses and cabs, shouting to them through the roar,-- + +"We're the Independence on two legs, warranted sound, and no +competition;" and saying to Dahlia: "Lor' bless you! there's no retort in +'em, or I'd say something worth hearing. It's like poking lions in cages +with raw meat, afore you get a chaffing-match out o' them. Some of 'em +know me. They'd be good at it, those fellows. I've heard of good things +said by 'em. But there they sit, and they've got no circulation--ain't +ready, except at old women, or when they catch you in a mess, and getting +the worst of it. Let me tell you; you'll never get manly chaff out of +big bundles o' fellows with ne'er an atom o' circulation. The river's +the place for that. I've heard uncommon good things on the river--not of +'em, but heard 'em. T' other's most part invention. And, they tell me, +horseback's a prime thing for chaff. Circulation, again. Sharp and +lively, I mean; not bawl, and answer over your back--most part impudence, +and nothing else--and then out of hearing. That sort o' chaff's +cowardly. Boys are stiff young parties--circulation--and I don't tackle +them pretty often, 'xcept when I'm going like a ball among nine-pins. +It's all a matter o' circulation. I say, my dear," Anthony addressed her +seriously, "you should never lay hold o' my arm when you see me going my +pace of an afternoon. I took you for a thief, and worse--I did. +That I did. Had you been waiting to see me?" + +"A little," Dahlia replied, breathless. + +"You have been ill?" + +"A little," she said. + +"You've written to the farm? O' course you have!" + +"Oh! uncle, wait," moaned Dahlia. + +"But, ha' you been sick, and not written home?" + +"Wait; please, wait," she entreated him. + +"I'll wait," said Anthony; "but that's no improvement to queerness; and +'queer''s your motto. Now we cross London Bridge. There's the Tower +that lived in times when no man was safe of keeping his own money, 'cause +of grasping kings--all claws and crown. I'm Republican as far as 'none +o' them'--goes. There's the ships. The sun rises behind 'em, and sets +afore 'em, and you may fancy, if you like, there's always gold in their +rigging. Gals o' your sort think I say, come! tell me, if you are a +lady?" + +"No, uncle, no!" Dahlia cried, and then drawing in her breath, added: +"not to you." + +"Last time I crossed this bridge with a young woman hanging on my arm, it +was your sister; they say she called on you, and you wouldn't see her; +and a gal so good and a gal so true ain't to be got for a sister every +day in the year! What are you pulling me for?" + +Dahlia said nothing, but clung to him with a drooping head, and so they +hurried along, until Anthony stopped in front of a shop displaying cups +and muffins at the window, and leprous-looking strips of bacon, and +sausages that had angled for appetites till they had become pallid sodden +things, like washed-out bait. + +Into this shop he led her, and they took possession of a compartment, and +ordered tea and muffins. + +The shop was empty. + +"It's one of the expenses of relationship," Anthony sighed, after probing +Dahlia unsatisfactorily to see whether she intended to pay for both, or +at least for herself; and finding that she had no pride at all. "My +sister marries your father, and, in consequence--well! a muffin now and +then ain't so very much. We'll forget it, though it is a breach, mind, +in counting up afterwards, and two-pences every day's equal to a good big +cannonball in the castle-wall at the end of the year. Have you written +home?" + +Dahlia's face showed the bright anguish of unshed tears. + +"Uncle-oh! speak low. I have been near death. I have been ill for so +long a time. I have come to you to hear about them--my father and Rhoda. +Tell me what they are doing, and do they sleep and eat well, and are not +in trouble? I could not write. I was helpless. I could not hold a pen. +Be kind, dear uncle, and do not reproach me. Please, tell me that they +have not been sorrowful." + +A keenness shot from Anthony's eyes. "Then, where's your husband?" he +asked. + +She made a sad attempt at smiling. "He is abroad." + +"How about his relations? Ain't there one among 'em to write for you +when you're ill?" + +"He... Yes, he has relatives. I could not ask them. Oh! I am not +strong, uncle; if you will only leave following me so with questions; but +tell me, tell me what I want to know." + +"Well, then, you tell me where your husband banks," returned Anthony. + +"Indeed, I cannot say." + +"Do you," Anthony stretched out alternative fingers, "do you get money +from him to make payments in gold, or, do you get it in paper?" + +She stared as in terror of a pit-fall. "Paper," she said at a venture. + +"Well, then, name your Bank." + +There was no cunning in her eye as she answered: "I don't know any bank, +except the Bank of England." + +"Why the deuce didn't you say so at once--eh?" cried Anthony. "He gives +you bank-notes. Nothing better in the world. And he a'n't been givin' +you many lately--is that it? What's his profession, or business?" + +"He is...he is no profession." + +"Then, what is he? Is he a gentleman?" + +"Yes," she breathed plaintively. + +"Your husband's a gentleman. Eh?--and lost his money?" + +"Yes." + +"How did he lose it?" + +The poor victim of this pertinacious interrogatory now beat about within +herself for succour. "I must not say," she replied. + +"You're going to try to keep a secret, are ye?" said Anthony; and she, in +her relief at the pause to her torment, said: "I am," with a little +infantile, withering half-smile. + +"Well, you've been and kept yourself pretty secret," the old man pursued. +"I suppose your husband's proud? He's proud, ain't he? He's of a family, +I'll be bound. Is he of a family? How did he like your dressing up like +a mill'ner gal to come down in the City and see me?" + +Dahlia's guile was not ready. "He didn't mind," she said. + +"He didn't mind, didn't he? He don't mind your cutting of your hair so?- +-didn't mind that?" + +She shook her head. "No." + +Anthony was down upon her like a hawk. + +"Why, he's abroad!" + +"Yes; I mean, he did not see me." + +With which, in a minute, she was out of his grasp; but her heart beat +thick, her lips were dry, and her thoughts were in disorder. + +"Then, he don't know you've been and got shaved, and a poll like a +turnip-head of a thief? That's something for him to learn, is it?" + +The picture of her beauty gone, seared her eyes like heated brass. She +caught Anthony's arm with one firm hand to hold him silent, and with the +other hand covered her sight and let the fit of weeping pass. + +When the tears had spent themselves, she relinquished her hold of the +astonished old man, who leaned over the table to her, and dominated by +the spirit of her touch, whispered, like one who had accepted a bond of +secresy: "Th' old farmer's well. So's Rhoda--my darkie lass. They've +taken on a bit. And then they took to religion for comfort. Th' old +farmer attends Methody meetin's, and quotes Scriptur' as if he was fixed +like a pump to the Book, and couldn't fetch a breath without quotin'. +Rhoda's oftenest along with your rector's wife down there, and does works +o' charity, sicknussin', readin'--old farmer does the preachin'. Old +mother Sumfit's fat as ever, and says her money's for you. Old Gammon +goes on eatin' of the dumplins. Hey! what a queer old ancient he is. He +seems to me to belong to a time afore ever money was. That Mr. Robert's +off...never been down there since he left, 'cause my darkie lass thought +herself too good for him. So she is!--too good for anybody. They're +going to leave the farm; sell, and come to London." + +"Oh, no!" exclaimed Dahlia; "not going to leave the dear old farm, and +our lane, and the old oaks, leading up to the heath. Are they? Father +will miss it. Rhoda will mourn so. No place will ever be like that to +them. I love it better than any place on earth." + +"That's queer," said Anthony. "Why do you refuse to go, or won't let +your husband take you down there; if you like the place that raving-like? +But 'queer''s your motto. The truth is this--you just listen. Hear me-- +hush! I won't speak in a bawl. You're a reasonable being, and you +don't--that's to say, you do understand, the old farmer feels it +uncomfortable--" + +"But I never helped him when I was there," said Dahlia, suddenly +shrinking in a perceptible tremble of acute divination. "I was no use. +I never helped him--not at all. I was no--no use!" + +Anthony blinked his eyes, not knowing how it was that he had thus been +thrown out of his direct road. He began again, in his circumlocutory +delicacy: "Never mind; help or no help, what th' old farmer feels is--and +quite nat'ral. There's sensations as a father, and sensations as a man; +and what th' old farmer feels is--" + +"But Rhoda has always been more to father than I have," Dahlia cried, now +stretching forward with desperate courage to confront her uncle, distract +his speech, and avert the saying of the horrible thing she dreaded. +"Rhoda was everything to him. Mother perhaps took to me--my mother!" + +The line of her long underlie drawn sharp to check her tears, stopped her +speaking. + +"All very well about Rhoda," said Anthony. "She's everything to me, +too." + +"Every--everybody loves her!" Dahlia took him up. + +"Let 'em, so long as they don't do no harm to her," was Anthony's remark. +There was an idea in this that he had said, and the light of it led off +his fancy. It was some time before he returned to the attack. + +"Neighbours gossip a good deal. O' course you know that." + +"I never listen to them," said Dahlia, who now felt bare at any instant +for the stab she saw coming. + +"No, not in London; but country's different, and a man hearing of his +child 'it's very odd!' and 'keepin' away like that!' and 'what's become +of her?' and that sort of thing, he gets upset." + +Dahlia swallowed in her throat, as in perfect quietude of spirit, and +pretended to see no meaning for herself in Anthony's words. + +But she said, inadvertently, "Dear father!" and it gave Anthony his +opening. + +"There it is. No doubt you're fond of him. You're fond o' th' old +farmer, who's your father. Then, why not make a entry into the village, +and show 'em? I loves my father, says you. I can or I can't bring my +husband, you seems to say; but I'm come to see my old father. Will you +go down to-morrow wi' me?" + +"Oh!" Dahlia recoiled and abandoned all defence in a moan: "I can't--I +can't!" + +"There," said Anthony, "you can't. You confess you can't; and there's +reason for what's in your father's mind. And he hearin' neighbours' +gossip, and it comes to him by a sort of extractin'--'Where's her +husband?' bein' the question; and 'She ain't got one,' the answer--it's +nat'ral for him to leave the place. I never can tell him how you went +off, or who's the man, lucky or not. You went off sudden, on a morning, +after kissin' me at breakfast; and no more Dahly visible. And he +suspects--he more'n suspects. Farm's up for sale. Th' old farmer thinks +it's unbrotherly of me not to go and buy, and I can't make him see I +don't understand land: it's about like changeing sovereigns for lumps o' +clay, in my notions; and that ain't my taste. Long and the short is-- +people down there at Wrexby and all round say you ain't married. He +ain't got a answer for 'em; it's cruel to hear, and crueller to think: +he's got no answer, poor old farmer! and he's obliged to go inter exile. +Farm's up for sale." + +Anthony thumped with his foot conclusively. + +"Say I'm not married!" said Dahlia, and a bad colour flushed her +countenance. "They say--I'm not married. I am--I am. It's false. It's +cruel of father to listen to them--wicked people! base--base people! I +am married, uncle. Tell father so, and don't let him sell the farm. +Tell him, I said I was married. I am. I'm respected. I have only a +little trouble, and I'm sure others have too. We all have. Tell father +not to leave. It breaks my heart. Oh! uncle, tell him that from me." + +Dahlia gathered her shawl close, and set an irresolute hand upon her +bonnet strings, that moved as if it had forgotten its purpose. She could +say no more. She could only watch her uncle's face, to mark the effect +of what she had said. + +Anthony nodded at vacancy. His eyebrows were up, and did not descend +from their elevation. "You see, your father wants assurances; he wants +facts. They're easy to give, if give 'em you can. Ah, there's a weddin' +ring on your finger, sure enough. Plain gold--and, Lord! how bony your +fingers ha' got, Dahly. If you are a sinner, you're a bony one now, and +that don't seem so bad to me. I don't accuse you, my dear. Perhaps I'd +like to see your husband's banker's book. But what your father hears, +is--You've gone wrong." + +Dahlia smiled in a consummate simulation of scorn. + +"And your father thinks that's true." + +She smiled with an equal simulation of saddest pity. + +"And he says this: 'Proof,' he says, 'proof's what I want, that she's an +honest woman.' He asks for you to clear yourself. He says, 'It's hard +for an old man'--these are his words 'it's hard for an old man to hear +his daughter called...'" + +Anthony smacked his hand tight on his open mouth. + +He was guiltless of any intended cruelty, and Dahlia's first impulse when +she had got her breath, was to soothe him. She took his hand. "Dear +father! poor father! Dear, dear father!" she kept saying. + +"Rhoda don't think it," Anthony assured her. + +"No?" and Dahlia's bosom exulted up to higher pain. + +"Rhoda declares you are married. To hear that gal fight for you--there's +ne'er a one in Wrexby dares so much as hint a word within a mile of her." + +"My Rhoda! my sister!" Dahlia gasped, and the tears came pouring down her +face. + +In vain Anthony lifted her tea-cup and the muffin-plate to her for +consolation. His hushings and soothings were louder than her weeping. +Incapable of resisting such a protest of innocence, he said, "And I don't +think it, neither." + +She pressed his fingers, and begged him to pay the people of the shop: at +which sign of her being probably moneyless, Anthony could not help +mumbling, "Though I can't make out about your husband, and why he lets ye +be cropped--that he can't help, may be--but lets ye go about dressed like +a mill'ner gal, and not afford cabs. Is he very poor?" + +She bowed her head. + +"Poor?" + +"He is very poor." + +"Is he, or ain't he, a gentleman?" + +Dahlia seemed torn by a new anguish. + +"I see," said Anthony. "He goes and persuades you he is, and you've been +and found out he's nothin' o' the sort--eh? That'd be a way of +accounting for your queerness, more or less. Was it that fellow that +Wicklow gal saw ye with?" + +Dahlia signified vehemently, "No." + +"Then, I've guessed right; he turns out not to be a gentleman--eh, Dahly? +Go on noddin', if ye like. Never mind the shop people; we're +well-conducted, and that's all they care for. I say, Dahly, he ain't a +gentleman? You speak out or nod your head. You thought you'd caught a +gentleman and 'taint the case. Gentlemen ain't caught so easy. They all +of 'em goes to school, and that makes 'em knowin'. Come; he ain't a +gentleman?" + +Dahlia's voice issued, from a terrible inward conflict, like a voice of +the tombs. "No," she said. + +"Then, will you show him to me? Let me have a look at him." + +Pushed from misery to misery, she struggled within herself again, and +again in the same hollow manner said, "Yes." + +"You will?" + +"Yes." + +"Seein's believin'. If you'll show him to me, or me to him..." + +"Oh! don't talk of it." Dahlia struck her fingers in a tight lock. + +"I only want to set eye on him, my gal. Whereabouts does he live?" + +"Down--down a great--very great way in the West." + +Anthony stared. + +She replied to the look: "In the West of London--a long way down." + +"That's where he is?" + +"Yes." + +"I thought--hum!" went the old man suspiciously. When am I to see him? +Some day?" + +"Yes; some day." + +"Didn't I say, Sunday?" + +"Next Sunday?"--Dahlia gave a muffled cry. + +"Yes, next Sunday. Day after to-morrow. And I'll write off to-morrow, +and ease th' old farmer's heart, and Rhoda 'll be proud for you. She +don't care about gentleman--or no gentleman. More do th' old farmer. +It's let us, live and die respectable, and not disgrace father nor +mother. Old-fashioned's best-fashioned about them things, I think. +Come, you bring him--your husband--to me on Sunday, if you object to my +callin' on you. Make up your mind to." + +"Not next Sunday--the Sunday after," Dahlia pleaded. "He is not here +now." + +"Where is he?" Anthony asked. + +"He's in the country." + +Anthony pounced on her, as he had done previously. + +"You said to me he was abroad." + +"In the country--abroad. Not--not in the great cities. I could not make +known your wishes to him." + +She gave this cool explanation with her eyelids fluttering timorously, +and rose as she uttered it, but with faint and ill-supporting limbs, for +during the past hour she had gone through the sharpest trial of her life, +and had decided for the course of her life. Anthony was witless thereof, +and was mystified by his incapability of perceiving where and how he had +been deluded; but he had eaten all the muffin on the plate, and her +rising proclaimed that she had no intention of making him call for +another; which was satisfactory. He drank off her cup of tea at a gulp. + +The waitress named the sum he was to pay, and receiving a meditative look +in return for her air of expectancy after the amount had been laid on the +table, at once accelerated their passage from the shop by opening the +door. + +"If ever I did give pennies, I'd give 'em to you," said Anthony, when he +was out of her hearing. "Women beat men in guessing at a man by his +face. Says she--you're honourable--you're legal--but prodigal ain't your +portion. That's what she says, without the words, unless she's a reader. +Now, then, Dahly, my lass, you take my arm. Buckle to. We'll to the +West. Don't th' old farmer pronounce like 'toe' the West? We'll 'toe' +the West. I can afford to laugh at them big houses up there. + +"Where's the foundation, if one of them's sound? Why, in the City. + +"I'll take you by our governor's house. You know--you know--don't ye, +Dahly, know we been suspecting his nephew? 'cause we saw him with you at +the theatre. + +"I didn't suspect. I knew he found you there by chance, somehow. And I +noticed your dress there. No wonder your husband's poor. He wanted to +make you cut a figure as one of the handsomes, and that's as ruinous as +cabs--ha! ha!" + +Anthony laughed, but did not reveal what had struck him. + +"Sir William Blancove's house is a first-rater. I've been in it. He +lives in the library. All the other rooms--enter 'em, and if 'taint like +a sort of, a social sepulchre! Dashed if he can get his son to live with +him; though they're friends, and his son'll get all the money, and go +into Parliament, and cut a shine, never fear. + +"By the way, I've seen Robert, too. He called on me at the Bank. Asked +after you. + +"'Seen her?' says he. + +"'No,' I says. + +"'Ever see Mr. Edward Blancove here?' he says. + +"I told him, I'd heard say, Mr. Edward was Continentalling. And then +Robert goes off. His opinion is you ain't in England; 'cause a policeman +he spoke to can't find you nowhere. + +"'Come," says I, 'let's keep our detectives to catch thieves, and not go +distracting of 'em about a parcel o' women.' + +"He's awfully down about Rhoda. She might do worse than take him. I +don't think he's got a ounce of a chance now Religion's set in, though +he's the mildest big 'un I ever come across. I forgot to haul him over +about what he 'd got to say about Mr. Edward. I did remark, I thought- +-ain't I right?--Mr. Algernon's not the man?--eh? How come you in the +theatre with him?" + +Dahlia spoke huskily. "He saw me. He had seen me at home. It was an +accident." + +"Exactly how I put it to Robert. And he agreed with me. There's sense +in that young man. Your husband wouldn't let you come to us there--eh? +because he...why was that?" + +Dahlia had it on her lips to say it "Because he was poorer than I +thought;" but in the intensity of her torment, the wretchedness of this +lie, revolted her. "Oh! for God's sake, uncle, give me peace about +that." + +The old man murmured: "Ay, ay;" and thought it natural that she should +shun an allusion to the circumstance. + +They crossed one of the bridges, and Dahlia stopped and said: "Kiss me, +uncle." + +"I ain't ashamed," said Anthony. + +This being over, she insisted on his not accompanying her farther. + +Anthony made her pledge her word of honour as a married woman, to bring +her husband to the identical spot where they stood at three o'clock in +the afternoon of Sunday week. She promised it. + +"I'll write home to th' old farmer--a penny," said Anthony, showing that +he had considered the outlay and was prepared for it. + +"And uncle," she stipulated in turn, "they are not to see me yet. Very +soon; but not yet. Be true to me, and come alone, or it will be your +fault--I shall not appear. Now, mind. And beg them not to leave the +farm. It will kill father. Can you not," she said, in the faded +sweetness of her speech, "could you not buy it, and let father be your +tenant, uncle? He would pay you regularly." + +Anthony turned a rough shoulder on her. + +"Good-bye, Dahly. You be a good girl, and all 'll go right. Old farmer +talks about praying. If he didn't make it look so dark to a chap, I'd be +ready to fancy something in that. You try it. You try, Dahly. Say a +bit of a prayer to-night." + +"I pray every night," Dahlia answered. + +Her look of meek despair was hauntingly sad with Anthony on his way home. + +He tracked her sorrowfulness to the want of money; and another of his +terrific vague struggles with the money-demon set in. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +Sir William Blancove did business at his Bank till the hour of three in +the afternoon, when his carriage conveyed him to a mews near the park of +Fashion, where he mounted horse and obeyed the bidding of his doctor for +a space, by cantering in a pleasant, portly, cock-horsey style, up and +down the Row. + +It was the day of the great race on Epsom Downs, and elderly gentlemen +pricked by the doctors were in the ascendant in all London congregations +on horseback. + +Like Achilles (if the bilious Shade will permit the impudent comparison), +they dragged their enemy, Gout, at their horses' heels for a term, and +vengeance being accomplished went to their dinners and revived him. + +Sir William was disturbed by his son's absence from England. A youth to +whom a baronetcy and wealth are to be bequeathed is an important +organism; and Sir William, though his faith reposed in his son, was +averse to his inexplicably prolonged residence in the French metropolis, +which, a school for many things, is not a school for the study of our +Parliamentary system, and still less for that connubial career Sir +William wished him to commence. + +Edward's delightful cynical wit--the worldly man's profundity--and his +apt quotations of the wit of others, would have continued to exercise +their charm, if Sir William had not wanted to have him on the spot that +he might answer certain questions pertinaciously put by Mama Gosling on +behalf of her daughter. + +"There is no engagement," Edward wrote; "let the maiden wait and discern +her choice: let her ripen;" and he quoted Horace up to a point. + +Nor could his father help smiling and completing the lines. He laughed, +too, as he read the jog of a verse: "Were I to marry the Gosling, pray, +which would be the goose?" + +He laughed, but with a shade of disappointment in the fancy that he +perceived a wearing away of the robust mental energy which had +characterized his son: and Sir William knew the danger of wit, and how +the sharp blade cuts the shoots of the sapling. He had thought that +Edward was veritable tough oak, and had hitherto encouraged his light +play with the weapon. + +It became a question with him now, whether Wit and Ambition may dwell +together harmoniously in a young man: whether they will not give such +manifestation of their social habits as two robins shut in a cage will +do: of which pretty birds one will presently be discovered with a +slightly ruffled bosom amid the feathers of his defunct associate. + +Thus painfully revolving matters of fact and feeling, Sir William +cantered, and, like a cropped billow blown against by the wind, drew up +in front of Mrs. Lovell, and entered into conversation with that lady, +for the fine needles of whose brain he had the perfect deference of an +experienced senior. She, however, did not give him comfort. She +informed him that something was wrong with Edward; she could not tell +what. She spoke of him languidly, as if his letters contained wearisome +trifling. + +"He strains to be Frenchy," she said. "It may be a good compliment for +them to receive: it's a bad one for him to pay." + +"Alcibiades is not the best of models," murmured Sir William. "He +doesn't mention Miss Gosling." + +"Oh dear, yes. I have a French acrostic on her name." + +"An acrostic!" + +A more contemptible form of mental exercise was not to be found, +according to Sir William's judgement. + +"An acrostic!" he made it guttural. "Well!" + +"He writes word that he hears Moliere every other night. That can't harm +him. His reading is principally Memoirs, which I think I have heard you +call 'The backstairs of history.' We are dull here, and I should not +imagine it to be a healthy place to dwell in, if the absence of friends +and the presence of sunshine conspire to dullness. Algy, of course, is +deep in accounts to-day?" + +Sir William remarked that he had not seen the young man at the office, +and had not looked for him; but the mention of Algernon brought something +to his mind, and he said,-- + +"I hear he is continually sending messengers from the office to you +during the day. You rule him with a rod of iron. Make him discontinue +that practice. I hear that he despatched our old porter to you yesterday +with a letter marked 'urgent.'" + +Mrs. Lovell laughed pleadingly for Algernon. + +"No; he shall not do it again. It occurred yesterday, and on no other +occasion that I am aware of. He presumes that I am as excited as he is +himself about the race--" + +The lady bowed to a passing cavalier; a smarting blush dyed her face. + +"He bets, does he!" said Sir William. "A young man, whose income, at the +extreme limit, is two hundred pounds a year." + +"May not the smallness of the amount in some degree account for the +betting?" she asked whimsically. "You know, I bet a little--just a +little. If I have but a small sum, I already regard it as a stake; I am +tempted to bid it fly." + +"In his case, such conduct puts him on the high road to rascality," said +Sir William severely. "He is doing no good." + +"Then the squire is answerable for such conduct, I think." + +"You presume to say that he is so because he allows his son very little +money to squander? How many young men have to contain their expenses +within two hundred pounds a year!" + +"Not sons of squires and nephews of baronets," said Mrs. Lovell. "Adieu! +I think I see a carrier-pigeon flying overhead, and, as you may suppose, +I am all anxiety." + +Sir William nodded to her. He disliked certain of her ways; but they +were transparent bits of audacity and restlessness pertaining to a +youthful widow, full of natural dash; and she was so sweetly mistress of +herself in all she did, that he never supposed her to be needing caution +against excesses. Old gentlemen have their pets, and Mrs. Lovell was a +pet of Sir William's. + +She was on the present occasion quite mistress of herself, though the +stake was large. She was mistress of herself when Lord Suckling, who had +driven from the Downs and brushed all save a spot of white dust out of +his baby moustache to make himself presentable, rode up to her to say +that the horse Templemore was beaten, and that his sagacity in always +betting against favourites would, in this last instance, transfer a "pot +of money" from alien pockets to his own. + +"Algy Blancove's in for five hundred to me," he said; adding with energy, +"I hope you haven't lost? No, don't go and dash my jolly feeling by +saying you have. It was a fine heat; neck-and-neck past the Stand. Have +you?" + +"A little," she confessed. "It's a failing of mine to like favourites. +I'm sorry for Algy." + +"I'm afraid he's awfully hit." + +"What makes you think so?" + +"He took it so awfully cool." + +"That may mean the reverse." + +"It don't with him. But, Mrs. Lovell, do tell me you haven't lost. Not +much, is it? Because, I know there's no guessing, when you are +concerned." + +The lady trifled with her bridle-rein. + +"I really can't tell you yet. I may have lost. I haven't won. I'm not +cool-blooded enough to bet against favourites. Addio, son of Fortune! +I'm at the Opera to-night." + +As she turned her horse from Lord Suckling, the cavalier who had saluted +her when she was with Sir William passed again. She made a signal to her +groom, and sent the man flying in pursuit of him, while she turned and +cantered. She was soon overtaken. + +"Madam, you have done me the honour." + +"I wish to know why it is your pleasure to avoid me, Major Waring?" + +"In this place?" + +"Wherever we may chance to meet." + +"I must protest." + +"Do not. The thing is evident." + +They rode together silently. + +Her face was toward the sunset. The light smote her yellow hair, and +struck out her grave and offended look, as in a picture. + +"To be condemned without a hearing!" she said. "The most dastardly +criminal gets that. Is it imagined that I have no common feelings? Is +it manly to follow me with studied insult? I can bear the hatred of +fools. Contempt I have not deserved. Dead! I should be dead, if my +conscience had once reproached me. I am a mark for slander, and brave +men should beware of herding with despicable slanderers." + +She spoke, gazing frontward all the while. The pace she maintained in no +degree impeded the concentrated passion of her utterance. + +But it was a more difficult task for him, going at that pace, to make +explanations, and she was exquisitely fair to behold! The falling beams +touched her with a mellow sweetness that kindled bleeding memories. + +"If I defend myself?" he said. + +"No. All I ask is that you should Accuse me. Let me know what I have +done--done, that I have not been bitterly punished for? What is it? what +is it? Why do you inflict a torture on me whenever you see me? Not by +word, not by look. You are too subtle in your cruelty to give me +anything I can grasp. You know how you wound me. And I am alone." + +"That is supposed to account for my behaviour?" + +She turned her face to him. "Oh, Major blaring! say nothing unworthy of +yourself. That would be a new pain to me." + +He bowed. In spite of a prepossessing anger, some little softness crept +through his heart. + +"You may conceive that I have dropped my pride," she said. "That is the +case, or my pride is of a better sort." + +"Madam, I fully hope and trust," said he. + +"And believe," she added, twisting his words to the ironic tongue. "You +certainly must believe that my pride has sunk low. Did I ever speak to +you in this manner before?" + +"Not in this manner, I can attest." + +"Did I speak at all, when I was hurt?" She betrayed that he had planted +a fresh sting. + +"If my recollection serves me," said he, "your self-command was +remarkable." + +Mrs. Lovell slackened her pace. + +"Your recollection serves you too well, Major Waring. I was a girl. You +judged the acts of a woman. I was a girl, and you chose to put your own +interpretation on whatever I did. You scourged me before the whole army. +Was not that enough? I mean, enough for you? For me, perhaps not, for I +have suffered since, and may have been set apart to suffer. I saw you in +that little church at Warbeach; I met you in the lanes; I met you on the +steamer; on the railway platform; at the review. Everywhere you kept up +the look of my judge. You! and I have been 'Margaret' to you. Major +Waring, how many a woman in my place would attribute your relentless +condemnation of her to injured vanity or vengeance? In those days I +trifled with everybody. I played with fire. I was ignorant of life. I +was true to my husband; and because I was true, and because I was +ignorant, I was plunged into tragedies I never suspected. This is to be +what you call a coquette. Stamping a name saves thinking. Could I read +my husband's temper? Would not a coquette have played her cards +differently? There never was need for me to push my husband to a +contest. I never had the power to restrain him. Now I am wiser; and now +is too late; and now you sit in judgement on me. Why? It is not fair; +it is unkind." + +Tears were in her voice, though not in her eyes. + +Major Waring tried to study her with the coolness of a man who has learnt +to doubt the truth of women; but he had once yearned in a young man's +frenzy of love to take that delicate shape in his arms, and he was not +proof against the sedate sweet face and keen sad ring of the voice. + +He spoke earnestly. + +"You honour me by caring for my opinion. The past is buried. I have +some forgiveness to ask. Much, when I think of it--very much. I did you +a public wrong. From a man to a woman it was unpardonable. It is a blot +on my career. I beg you humbly to believe that I repent it." + +The sun was flaming with great wings red among the vapours; and in the +recollection of the two, as they rode onward facing it, arose that day of +the forlorn charge of English horse in the Indian jungle, the thunder and +the dust, the fire and the dense knot of the struggle. And like a ghost +sweeping across her eyeballs, Mrs. Lovell beheld, part in his English +freshness, part ensanguined, the image of the gallant boy who had ridden +to perish at the spur of her mad whim. She forgot all present +surroundings. + +"Percy!" she said. + +"Madam?" + +"Percy!" + +"Margaret?" + +"Oh, what an undying day, Percy!" + +And then she was speechless. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +The Park had been empty, but the opera-house was full; and in the +brilliance of the lights and divine soaring of the music, the genius of +Champagne luncheons discussed the fate of the horse Templemore; some, as +a matter of remote history; some, as another delusion in horse-flesh the +greater number, however, with a determination to stand by the beaten +favourite, though he had fallen, and proclaim him the best of racers and +an animal foully mishandled on the course. There were whispers, and +hints, and assertions; now implicating the jockey, now the owner of +Templemore. The Manchester party, and the Yorkshire party, and their +diverse villanous tricks, came under review. Several offered to back +Templemore at double the money they had lost, against the winner. A +favourite on whom money has been staked, not only has friends, but in +adversity he is still believed in; nor could it well be otherwise, for +the money, no doubt, stands for faith, or it would never have been put up +to the risks of a forfeit. + +Foremost and wildest among the excited young men who animated the stalls, +and rushed about the lobby, was Algernon. He was the genius of Champagne +luncheon incarnate. On him devolves, for a time, the movement of this +story, and we shall do well to contemplate him, though he may seem +possibly to be worthless. What is worthless, if it be well looked at? +Nay, the most worthless creatures are most serviceable for examination, +when the microscope is applied to them, as a simple study of human +mechanism. This youth is one of great Nature's tom-fools: an elegant +young gentleman outwardly, of the very large class who are simply the +engines of their appetites, and, to the philosophic eye, still run wild +in woods, as did the primitive nobleman that made a noise in the earlier +world. + +Algernon had this day lost ten times more than he could hope to be in a +position to pay within ten years, at the least, if his father continued +to argue the matter against Providence, and live. He had lost, and might +speedily expect to be posted in all good betting circles as something not +pleasantly odoriferous for circles where there is no betting. +Nevertheless, the youth was surcharged with gaiety. The soul of mingled +chicken and wine illumined his cheeks and eyes. He laughed and joked +about the horse--his horse, as he called Templemore--and meeting Lord +Suckling, won five sovereigns of him by betting that the colours of one +of the beaten horses, Benloo, were distinguished by a chocolate bar. The +bet was referred to a dignified umpire, who, a Frenchman, drew his right +hand down an imperial tuft of hair dependent from his chin, and gave a +decision in Algernon's favour. Lord Suckling paid the money on the spot, +and Algernon pocketed it exulting. He had the idea that it was the first +start in his making head against the flood. The next instant he could +have pitched himself upon the floor and bellowed. For, a soul of chicken +and wine, lightly elated, is easily dashed; and if he had but said to +Lord Suckling that, it might as well be deferred, the thing would have +become a precedent, and his own debt might have been held back. He went +on saying, as he rushed forward alone: "Never mind, Suckling. Oh, hang +it! put it in your pocket;" and the imperative necessity for talking, and +fancying what was adverse to fact, enabled him to feel for a time as if +he had really acted according to the prompting of his wisdom. It amazed +him to see people sitting and listening. The more he tried it, the more +unendurable it became. Those sitters and loungers appeared like absurd +petrifactions to him. If he abstained from activity for ever so short a +term, he was tormented by a sense of emptiness; and, as he said to +himself, a man who has eaten a chicken, and part of a game-pie, and drunk +thereto Champagne all day, until the popping of the corks has become as +familiar as minute-guns, he can hardly be empty. It was peculiar. He +stood, just for the sake of investigating the circumstance--it was so +extraordinary. The music rose in a triumphant swell. And now he was +sure that he was not to be blamed for thinking this form of entertainment +detestable. How could people pretend to like it? "Upon my honour!" he +said aloud. The hypocritical nonsense of pretending to like opera-music +disgusted him. + +"Where is it, Algy?" a friend of his and Suckling's asked, with a languid +laugh. + +"Where's what?" + +"Your honour." + +"My honour? Do you doubt my honour?" Algernon stared defiantly at the +inoffensive little fellow. + +"Not in the slightest. Very sorry to, seeing that I have you down in my +book." + +"Latters? Ah, yes," said Algernon, musically, and letting his under-lip +hang that he might restrain the impulse to bite it. "Fifty, or a +hundred, is it? I lost my book on the Downs." + +"Fifty; but wait till settling-day, my good fellow, and don't fiddle at +your pockets as if I'd been touching you up for the money. Come and sup +with me to-night." + +Algernon muttered a queer reply in a good-tempered tone, and escaped him. + +He was sobered by that naming of settling-day. He could now listen to +the music with attention, if not with satisfaction. As he did so, the +head of drowned memory rose slowly up through the wine-bubbles in his +brain, and he flung out a far thought for relief: "How, if I were to +leave England with that dark girl Rhoda at Wrexby, marry her like a man, +and live a wild ramping life in the colonies?" A curtain closed on the +prospect, but if memory was resolved that it would not be drowned, he had +at any rate dosed it with something fresh to occupy its digestion. + +His opera-glass had been scouring the house for a sight of Mrs. Lovell, +and at last she appeared in Lord Elling's box. + +"I can give you two minutes, Algy," she said, as he entered and found her +opportunely alone. "We have lost, I hear. No interjection, pray. Let +it be, fors l'honneur, with us. Come to me to-morrow. You have tossed +trinkets into my lap. They were marks of esteem, my cousin. Take them +in the same light back from me. Turn them into money, and pay what is +most pressing. Then go to Lord Suckling. He is a good boy, and won't +distress you; but you must speak openly to him at once. Perhaps he will +help you. I will do my best, though whether I can, I have yet to learn." + +"Dear Mrs. Lovell!" Algernon burst out, and the corners of his mouth +played nervously. + +He liked her kindness, and he was wroth at the projected return of his +gifts. A man's gifts are an exhibition of the royalty of his soul, and +they are the last things which should be mentioned to him as matters to +be blotted out when he is struggling against ruin. The lady had blunt +insight just then. She attributed his emotion to gratitude. + +"The door may be opened at any minute," she warned him. + +"It's not about myself," he said; "it's you. I believe I tempted you to +back the beastly horse. And he would have won--a fair race, and he would +have won easy. He was winning. He passed the stand a head ahead. He +did win. It's a scandal to the Turf. There's an end of racing in +England. It's up. They've done for themselves to-day. There's a gang. +It's in the hands of confederates." + +"Think so, if it consoles you," said Mrs. Lovell, "don't mention your +thoughts, that is all." + +"I do think so. Why should we submit to a robbery? It's a sold affair. +That Frenchman, Baron Vistocq, says we can't lift our heads after it." + +"He conducts himself with decency, I hope." + +"Why, he's won!" + +"Imitate him." + +Mrs. Lovell scanned the stalls. + +"Always imitate the behaviour of the winners when you lose," she resumed. +"To speak of other things: I have had no letter of late from Edward. He +should be anxious to return. I went this morning to see that unhappy +girl. She consents." + +"Poor creature," murmured Algernon; and added "Everybody wants money." + +"She decides wisely; for it is the best she can do. She deserves pity, +for she has been basely used." + +"Poor old Ned didn't mean," Algernon began pleading on his cousin's +behalf, when Mrs. Lovell's scornful eye checked the feeble attempt. + +"I am a woman, and, in certain cases, I side with my sex." + +"Wasn't it for you?" + +"That he betrayed her? If that were so, I should be sitting in ashes." + +Algernon's look plainly declared that he thought her a mystery. + +The simplicity of his bewilderment made her smile. + +"I think your colonies are the right place for you, Algy, if you can get +an appointment; which must be managed by-and-by. Call on me to-morrow, +as I said." + +Algernon signified positively that he would not, and doggedly refused to +explain why. + +"Then I will call on you," said Mrs. Lovell. + +He was going to say something angrily, when Mrs. Lovell checked him: +"Hush! she is singing." + +Algernon listened to the prima donna in loathing; he had so much to +inquire about, and so much to relate: such a desire to torment and be +comforted! + +Before he could utter a word further, the door opened, and Major Waring +appeared, and he beheld Mrs. Lovell blush strangely. Soon after, Lord +Elling came in, and spoke the ordinary sentence or two concerning the +day's topic--the horse Templemore. Algernon quitted the box. His ears +were surcharged with sound entirely foreign to his emotions, and he +strolled out of the house and off to his dingy chambers, now tenanted by +himself alone, and there faced the sealed letters addressed to Edward, +which had, by order, not been forwarded. No less than six were in +Dahlia's handwriting. He had imagination sufficient to conceive the +lamentations they contained, and the reproach they were to his own +subserviency in not sending them. He looked at the postmarks. The last +one was dated two months back. + +"How can she have cared a hang for Ned, if she's ready to go and marry a +yokel, for the sake of a home and respectability?" he thought, rather in +scorn; and, having established this contemptuous opinion of one of the +sex, he felt justified in despising all. "Just like women! They--no! +Peggy Lovell isn't. She's a trump card, and she's a coquette--can't help +being one. It's in the blood. I never saw her look so confoundedly +lovely as when that fellow came into the box. One up, one down. Ned's +away, and it's this fellow's turn. Why the deuce does she always think +I'm a boy? or else, she pretends to. But I must give my mind to +business." + +He drew forth the betting-book which his lively fancy had lost on the +Downs. Prompted by an afterthought, he went to the letter-box, saying,-- + +"Who knows? Wait till the day's ended before you curse your luck." + +There was a foreign letter in it from Edward, addressed to him, and +another addressed to "Mr. Blancuv," that he tore open and read with +disgusted laughter. It was signed "N. Sedgett." Algernon read it twice +over, for the enjoyment of his critical detection of the vile grammar, +with many "Oh! by Joves!" and a concluding, "This is a curiosity!" + +It was a countryman's letter, ill-spelt, involved, and of a character to +give Algernon a fine scholarly sense of superiority altogether novel. +Everybody abused Algernon for his abuse of common Queen's English in his +epistles: but here was a letter in comparison with which his own were +doctorial, and accordingly he fell upon it with an acrimonious rapture of +pedantry known to dull wits that have by extraordinary hazard pounced on +a duller. + +"You're 'willing to forgeit and forgeive,' are you, you dog!" he +exclaimed, half dancing. "You'd forge anything, you rascal, if you could +disguise your hand--that, I don't doubt. You 'expeck the thousand pound +to be paid down the day of my marriage,' do you, you impudent ruffian! +'acording to agremint.' What a mercenary vagabond this is!" + +Algernon reflected a minute. The money was to pass through his hands. +He compressed a desire to dispute with Sedgett that latter point about +the agreement, and opened Edward's letter. + +It contained an order on a firm of attorneys to sell out so much Bank +Stock and pay over one thousand pounds to Mr. A. Blancove. + +The beautiful concision of style in this document gave Algernon a feeling +of profound deference toward the law and its officers. + +"Now, that's the way to Write!" he said. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +Accompanying this pleasant, pregnant bit of paper, possessed of such +admirable literary excellence, were the following flimsy lines from +Edward's self, to Algernon incomprehensible. + +As there is a man to be seen behind these lines in the dull unconscious +process of transformation from something very like a villain to something +by a few degrees more estimable, we may as well look at the letter in +full. + +It begins with a neat display of consideration for the person addressed, +common to letters that are dictated by overpowering egoism:-- + + + "Dear Algy,--I hope you are working and attending regularly to + office business. Look to that and to your health at present. + Depend upon it, there is nothing like work. Fix your teeth in it. + Work is medicine. A truism! Truisms, whether they lie in the + depths of thought, or on the surface, are at any rate the pearls of + experience. + + "I am coming home. Let me know the instant this affair is over. I + can't tell why I wait here. I fall into lethargies. I write to no + one but to you. Your supposition that I am one of the hangers-on of + the coquette of her time, and that it is for her I am seeking to get + free, is conceived with your usual discrimination. For Margaret + Lovell? Do you imagine that I desire to be all my life kicking the + beam, weighed in capricious scales, appraised to the direct nicety, + petulantly taken up, probed for my weakest point, and then flung + into the grate like a child's toy? That's the fate of the several + asses who put on the long-eared Lovell-livery. + + "All women are the same. Know one, know all. Aware of this, and + too wise to let us study them successfully, Nature pretty language + this is for you, Algy! I can do nothing but write nonsense. I am + sick of life. I feel choked. After a month, Paris is sweet + biscuit. + + "I have sent you the order for the money. If it were two, or + twenty, thousand pounds, it would be the same to me. + + "I swear to heaven that my lowest cynical ideas of women, and the + loathing with which their simply animal vagaries inspires a + thoughtful man, are distanced and made to seem a benevolent + criticism, by the actualities of my experience. I say that you + cannot put faith in a woman. Even now, I do not--it's against + reason--I do not believe that she--this Dahlia--means to go through + with it. She is trying me. I have told her that she was my wife. + Her self-respect--everything that keeps a woman's head up--must have + induced her to think so. Why, she is not a fool! How can she mean + to give herself to an ignorant country donkey? She does not: mark + me. For her, who is a really--I may say, the most refined nature I + have ever met, to affect this, and think of deceiving me, does not + do credit to her wits--and she is not without her share. + + "I did once mean that she should be honourably allied to me. It's + comforting that the act is not the wife of the intention, or I + should now be yoked to a mere thing of the seasons and the hours--a + creature whose 'No' to-day is the 'Yes' of to-morrow. Women of this + cast are sure to end comfortably for themselves, they are so + obedient to the whips of Providence. + + "But I tell you candidly, Algy, I believe she's pushing me, that she + may see how far I will let her go. I do not permit her to play at + this game with me." The difficulty is in teaching women that we are + not constituted as they are, and that we are wilfully earnest, while + they, who never can be so save under compulsion, carry it on with + us, expecting that at a certain crisis a curtain will drop, and we + shall take a deep breath, join hands, and exclaim, 'What an exciting + play!'--weeping luxuriously. The actualities of life must be + branded on their backs--you can't get their brains to apprehend + them. + + "Poor things! they need pity. I am ready to confess I did not keep + my promise to her. I am very sorry she has been ill. Of course, + having no brains--nothing but sensations wherewith to combat every + new revolution of fortune, she can't but fall ill. But I think of + her; and I wish to God I did not. She is going to enter her own + sphere--though, mark me, it will turn out as I say, that, when it + comes to the crisis, there will be shrieks and astonishment that the + curtain doesn't fall and the whole resolve itself to what they call + a dream in our language, a farce. + + "I am astonished that there should be no letters for me. I can + understand her not writing at first; but apparently she cherishes + rancour. It is not like her. I can't help thinking there must be + one letter from her, and that you keep it back. I remember that I + told you when I left England I desired to have no letter forwarded + to me, but I have repeatedly asked you since if there was a letter, + and it appears to me that you have shuffled in your answer. I + merely wish to know if there is a letter; because I am at present + out in my study of her character. It seems monstrous that she + should never have written! Don't you view it in that light? To be + ready to break with me, without one good-bye!--it's gratifying, but + I am astonished; for so gentle and tender a creature, such as I knew + her, never existed to compare with her. Ce qui est bien la preuve + que je ne la connaissais pas! I thought I did, which was my error. + I have a fatal habit of trusting to my observation less than to my + divining wit; and La Rochefoucauld is right: 'on est quelquefois un + sot avec de l'esprit; mais on ne Pest jamais avec du jugement.' + Well! better be deceived in a character than doubt it. + + "This will soon be over. Then back to the dear old dusky chambers, + with the pick and the axe in the mine of law, till I strike a gold + vein, and follow it to the woolsack. I want peace. I begin to hate + pleading. I hope to meet Death full-wigged. By my troth, I will + look as grimly at him as he at me. Meantime, during a vacation, I + will give you holiday (or better, in the February days, if I can + spare time and Equity is dispensed without my aid), dine you, and + put you in the whirl of Paris. You deserve a holiday. Nunc est + bibendum! You shall sing it. Tell me what you think of her + behaviour. You are a judge of women. I think I am developing + nerves. In fact, work is what I need--a file to bite. And send me + also the name of this man who has made the bargain--who is to be her + husband. Give me a description of him. It is my duty to see that + he has principle; at least we're bound to investigate his character, + if it's really to go on. I wonder whether you will ever perceive + the comedy of, life. I doubt whether a man is happier when he does + perceive it. Perhaps the fact is, that he has by that time lost his + power of laughter; except in the case of here and there a very + tremendous philosopher. + + "I believe that we comic creatures suffer more than your tragic + personages. We, do you see, are always looking to be happy and + comfortable; but in a tragedy, the doomed wretches are + liver-complexioned from the opening act. Their laughter is the owl: + their broadest smile is twilight. All the menacing horrors of an + eclipse are ours, for we have a sun over us; but they are born in + shades, with the tuck of a curtain showing light, and little can be + taken from them; so that they find scarce any terrors in the + inevitable final stroke. No; the comedy is painfullest. You and I, + Algy, old bachelors, will earn the right just to chuckle. We will + take the point of view of science, be the stage carpenters, and let + the actors move on and off. By this, we shall learn to take a + certain pride in the machinery. To become stage carpenter, is to + attain to the highest rank within the reach of intellectual man. + But your own machinery must be sound, or you can't look after that + of the theatre. Don't over-tax thy stomach, O youth! + + "And now, farewell, my worthy ass! You have been thinking me one + through a fair half of this my letter, so I hasten to be in advance + of you, by calling you one. You are one: I likewise am one. We are + all one. The universal language is hee-haw, done in a grievous + yawn. + + "Yours, + + "Edward B. + + "P.S.--Don't fail to send a letter by the next post; then, go and + see her; write again exactly what she says, and let me know the + man's name. You will not lose a minute. Also, don't waste ink in + putting Mrs. Lovell's name to paper: I desire not to hear anything + of the woman." + +Algernon read this letter in a profound mystification, marvelling how it +could possibly be that Edward and Mrs. Lovell had quarrelled once more, +and without meeting. + +They had parted, he knew or supposed that he knew, under an engagement to +arrange the preliminaries of an alliance, when Edward should return from +France; in other words, when Edward had thrown grave-dust on a naughty +portion of his past; severing an unwise connection. Such had certainly +been Edward's view of the matter. But Mrs. Lovell had never spoken to +Algernon on that subject. She had spoken willingly and in deep sympathy +of Dahlia. She had visited her, pitied her, comforted her; and Algernon +remembered that she had looked very keen and pinched about the mouth in +alluding to Dahlia; but how she and Edward had managed to arrive at +another misunderstanding was a prodigious puzzle to him; and why, if +their engagement had snapped, each consented to let Dahlia's marriage +(which was evidently distasteful to both) go on to the conclusion of the +ceremony, he could not comprehend. There were, however, so many things +in the world that he could not comprehend, and he had grown so +accustomed, after an effort to master a difficulty, to lean his head back +upon downy ignorance, that he treated this significant letter of Edward's +like a tough lesson, and quietly put it by, together with every +recommendation it contained. For all that was practical in it, it might +just as well not have been written. + +The value of the letter lies in the exhibition it presents of a rather +mark-worthy young man, who has passed through the hands of a--(what I +must call her; and in doing so, I ask pardon of all the Jack Cades of +Letters, who, in the absence of a grammatical king and a government, sit +as lords upon the English tongue) a crucible woman. She may be +inexcusable herself; but you for you to be base, for you to be cowardly, +even to betray a weakness, though it be on her behalf,--though you can +plead that all you have done is for her, yea, was partly instigated by +her,--it will cause her to dismiss you with the inexorable contempt of +Nature, when she has tried one of her creatures and found him wanting. + +Margaret Lovell was of this description: a woman fashioned to do both +harm and good, and more of harm than of good; but never to sanction a +scheme of evil or blink at it in alliance with another: a woman, in +contact with whom you were soon resolved to your component elements. +Separated from a certain fascination that there was for her in Edward's +acerb wit, she saw that he was doing a dastardly thing in cold blood. We +need not examine their correspondence. In a few weeks she had contrived +to put a chasm between them as lovers. Had he remained in England, +boldly facing his own evil actions, she would have been subjugated, for +however keenly she might pierce to the true character of a man, the show +of an unflinching courage dominated her; but his departure, leaving all +the brutality to be done for him behind his back, filled this woman with +a cutting spleen. It is sufficient for some men to know that they are +seen through, in order to turn away in loathing from her whom they have +desired; and when they do thus turn away, they not uncommonly turn with a +rush of old affection to those who have generously trusted them in the +days past, and blindly thought them estimable beings. + +Algernon was by no means gifted to perceive whether this was the case +with his cousin in Paris. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +So long as the fool has his being in the world, he will be a part of +every history, nor can I keep him from his place in a narrative that is +made to revolve more or less upon its own wheels. Algernon went to bed, +completely forgetting Edward and his own misfortunes, under the influence +of the opiate of the order for one thousand pounds, to be delivered to +him upon application. The morning found him calmly cheerful, until a +little parcel was brought to his door, together with a note from Mrs. +Lovell, explaining that the parcel contained those jewels, his precious +gifts of what she had insultingly chosen to call "esteem" for her. + +Algernon took it in his hand, and thought of flinging it through the +window; but as the window happened to be open, he checked the impulse, +and sent it with great force into a corner of the room: a perfectly +fool-like proceeding, for the fool is, after his fashion, prudent, and +will never, if he can help it, do himself thorough damage, that he may +learn by it and be wiser. + +"I never stand insult," he uttered, self-approvingly, and felt manlier. +"No; not even from you, ma'am," he apostrophized Mrs. Lovell's portrait, +that had no rival now upon the wall, and that gave him a sharp fight for +the preservation of his anger, so bewitching she was to see. Her not +sending up word that she wished him to come to her rendered his battle +easier. + +"It looks rather like a break between us," he said. "If so, you won't +find me so obedient to your caprices, Mrs. Margaret L.; though you are a +pretty woman, and know it. Smile away. I prefer a staunch, true sort of +a woman, after all. And the colonies it must be, I begin to suspect." +This set him conjuring before his eyes the image of Rhoda, until he +cried, "I'll be hanged if the girl doesn't haunt me!" and considered the +matter with some curiosity. + +He was quickly away, and across the square of Lincoln's Inn Fields to the +attorney's firm, where apparently his coming was expected, and he was +told that the money would be placed in his hands on the following day. +He then communicated with Edward, in the brief Caesarian tongue of the +telegraph: "All right. Stay. Ceremony arranged." After which, he +hailed a skimming cab, and pronouncing the word "Epsom," sank back in it, +and felt in his breast-pocket for his cigar-case, without casting one +glance of interest at the deep fit of cogitation the cabman had been +thrown into by the suddenness of the order. + +"Dash'd if it ain't the very thing I went and gone and dreamed last +night," said the cabman, as he made his dispositions to commence the +journey. + +Certain boys advised him to whip it away as hard as he could, and he +would come in the winner. + +"Where shall I grub, sir?" the cabman asked through the little door +above, to get some knowledge of the quality of his fare. + +"Eat your 'grub' on the course," said Algernon. + +"Ne'er a hamper to take up nowheres, is there, sir?" + +"Do you like the sight of one?" + +"Well, it ain't what I object to." + +"Then go fast, my man, and you will soon see plenty." + +"If you took to chaffin' a bit later in the day, it'd impart more +confidence to my bosom," said the cabman; but this he said to that bosom +alone. + +"Ain't no particular colours you'd like me to wear, is there? I'll get a +rosette, if you like, sir, and enter in triumph. Gives ye something to +stand by. That's always my remark, founded on observation." + +"Go to the deuce! Drive on," Algernon sang out. "Red, yellow, and +green." + +"Lobster, ale, and salad!" said the cabman, flicking his whip; "and good +colours too. Tenpenny Nail's the horse. He's the colours I stick to." +And off he drove, envied of London urchins, as mortals would have envied +a charioteer driving visibly for Olympus. + +Algernon crossed his arms, with the frown of one looking all inward. + +At school this youth had hated sums. All arithmetical difficulties had +confused and sickened him. But now he worked with indefatigable industry +on an imaginary slate; put his postulate, counted probabilities, allowed +for chances, added, deducted, multiplied, and unknowingly performed +algebraic feats, till his brows were stiff with frowning, and his brain +craved for stimulant. + +This necessity sent his hand to his purse, for the calling of the cab had +not been a premeditated matter. He discovered therein some half-crowns +and a sixpence, the latter of which he tossed in contempt at some boys +who were cheering the vehicles on their gallant career. + +There was something desperately amusing to him in the thought that he had +not even money enough to pay the cabman, or provide for a repast. He +rollicked in his present poverty. Yesterday he had run down with a party +of young guardsmen in a very royal manner; and yesterday he had lost. +To-day he journeyed to the course poorer than many of the beggars he +would find there; and by a natural deduction, to-day he was to win. + +He whistled mad waltzes to the measure of the wheels. He believed that +he had a star. He pitched his half-crowns to the turnpike-men, and +sought to propitiate Fortune by displaying a signal indifference to small +change; in which method of courting her he was perfectly serious. He +absolutely rejected coppers. They "crossed his luck." Nor can we say +that he is not an authority on this point: the Goddess certainly does not +deal in coppers. + +Anxious efforts at recollection perplexed him. He could not remember +whether he had "turned his money" on looking at the last new moon. When +had he seen the last new moon, and where? A cloud obscured it; he had +forgotten. He consoled himself by cursing superstition. Tenpenny Nail +was to gain the day in spite of fortune. Algernon said this, and +entrenched his fluttering spirit behind common sense, but he found it a +cold corner. The longing for Champagne stimulant increased in fervour. +Arithmetic languished. + +As he was going up the hill, the wheels were still for a moment, and +hearing "Tenpenny Nail" shouted, he put forth his head, and asked what +the cry was, concerning that horse. + +"Gone lame," was the answer. + +It hit the centre of his nerves, without reaching his comprehension, and +all Englishmen being equal on Epsom Downs, his stare at the man who had +spoken, and his sickly colour, exposed him to pungent remarks. + +"Hullos! here's another Ninepenny--a penny short!" and similar specimens +of Epsom wit, encouraged by the winks and retorts of his driver, +surrounded him; but it was empty clamour outside. A rage of emotions +drowned every idea in his head, and when he got one clear from the mass, +it took the form of a bitter sneer at Providence, for cutting off his +last chance of reforming his conduct and becoming good. What would he +not have accomplished, that was brilliant, and beautiful, and soothing, +but for this dead set against him! + +It was clear that Providence cared "not a rap," whether he won or lost +--was good or bad. One might just as well be a heathen; why not? + +He jumped out of the cab (tearing his coat in the acts minor evil, but +"all of a piece," as he said), and made his way to the Ring. The +bee-swarm was thick as ever on the golden bough. Algernon heard no +curses, and began to nourish hope again, as he advanced. He began to +hope wildly that this rumour about the horse was a falsity, for there was +no commotion, no one declaiming. + +He pushed to enter the roaring circle, which the demand for an +entrance-fee warned him was a privilege, and he stammered, and forgot the +gentlemanly coolness commonly distinguishing him, under one of the acuter +twinges of his veteran complaint of impecuniosity. And then the cabman +made himself heard: a civil cabman, but without directions, and uncertain +of his dinner and his pay, tolerably hot, also, from threading a crowd +after a deaf gentleman. His half-injured look restored to Algernon his +self-possession. + +"Ah! there you are:--scurry away and fetch my purse out of the bottom of +the cab. I've dropped it." + +On this errand, the confiding cabman retired. Holding to a gentleman's +purse is even securer than holding to a gentleman. + +While Algernon was working his forefinger in his waistcoat-pocket +reflectively, a man at his elbow said, with a show of familiar +deference,-- + +"If it's any convenience to you, sir," and showed the rim of a gold piece +'twixt finger and thumb. + +"All right," Algernon replied readily, and felt that he was known, but +tried to keep his eyes from looking at the man's face; which was a vain +effort. He took the money, nodded curtly, and passed in. + +Once through the barrier, he had no time to be ashamed. He was in the +atmosphere of challenges. He heard voices, and saw men whom not to +challenge, or try a result with, was to acknowledge oneself mean, and to +abandon the manliness of life. Algernon's betting-book was soon out and +in operation. While thus engaged, he beheld faces passing and repassing +that were the promise of luncheon and a loan; and so comfortable was the +assurance thereof to him, that he laid the thought of it aside, quite in +the background, and went on betting with an easy mind. + +Small, senseless bets, they merely occupied him; and winning them was +really less satisfactory than losing, which, at all events, had the merit +of adding to the bulk of his accusation against the ruling Powers unseen. + +Algernon was too savage for betting when the great race was run. He +refused both at taunts and cajoleries; but Lord Suckling coming by, said +"Name your horse," and, caught unawares, Algernon named Little John, one +of the ruck, at a hazard. Lord Suckling gave him fair odds, asking: "In +tens?--fifties?" + +"Silver," shrugged Algernon, implacable toward Fortune; and the kindly +young nobleman nodded, and made allowance for his ill-temper and want of +spirit, knowing the stake he had laid on the favourite. + +Little John startled the field by coming in first at a canter. + +"Men have committed suicide for less than this" said Algernon within his +lips, and a modest expression of submission to fate settled on his +countenance. He stuck to the Ring till he was haggard with fatigue. His +whole nature cried out for Champagne, and now he burst away from that +devilish circle, looking about for Lord Suckling and a hamper. Food and +a frothing drink were all that he asked from Fortune. It seemed to him +that the concourse on the downs shifted in a restless way. + +"What's doing, I wonder?" he thought aloud. + +"Why, sir, the last race ain't generally fashionable," said his cabman, +appearing from behind his shoulder. "Don't you happen to be peckish, +sir?--'cause, luck or no luck, that's my case. I couldn't see, your +purse, nowheres." + +"Confound you! how you hang about me! What do you want?" Algernon cried; +and answered his own question, by speeding the cabman to a booth with +what money remained to him, and appointing a place of meeting for the +return. After which he glanced round furtively to make sure that he was +not in view of the man who had lent him the sovereign. It became evident +that the Downs were flowing back to London. + +He hurried along the lines of carriages, all getting into motion. The +ghastly conviction overtook him that he was left friendless, to starve. +Wherever he turned, he saw strangers and empty hampers, bottles, straw, +waste paper--the ruins of the feast: Fate's irony meantime besetting him +with beggars, who swallowed his imprecations as the earnest of coming +charity in such places. + +At last, he was brought almost to sigh that he might see the man who had +lent him the sovereign, and his wish was hardly formed, when Nicodemus +Sedgett approached, waving a hat encircled by preposterous wooden +figures, a trifle less lightly attired than the ladies of the ballet, and +as bold in the matter of leg as the female fashion of the period. + +Algernon eyed the lumpy-headed, heavy-browed rascal with what disgust he +had left in him, for one who came as an instrument of the Fates to help +him to some poor refreshment. Sedgett informed him that he had never had +such fun in his life. + +"Just 'fore matrimony," he communicated in a dull whisper, "a fellow +ought to see a bit o' the world, I says--don't you, sir? and this has +been rare sport, that it has! Did ye find your purse, sir? Never mind +'bout that ther' pound. I'll lend you another, if ye like. How sh'll it +be? Say the word." + +Algernon was meditating, apparently on a remote subject. He nodded +sharply. + +"Yes. Call at my chambers to-morrow." + +Another sovereign was transferred to him: but Sedgett would not be shaken +off. + +"I just wanted t' have a bit of a talk with you," he spoke low. + +"Hang it! I haven't eaten all day," snapped the irritable young +gentleman, fearful now of being seen in the rascal's company. + +"You come along to the jolliest booth--I'll show it to you," said +Sedgett, and lifted one leg in dancing attitude. "Come along, sir: the +jolliest booth I ever was in, dang me if it ain't! Ale and music--them's +my darlings!" the wretch vented his slang. "And I must have a talk with +you. I'll stick to you. I'm social when I'm jolly, that I be: and I +don't know a chap on these here downs. Here's the pint: Is all square? +Am I t' have the cash in cash counted down, I asks? And is it to be +before, or is it to be after, the ceremony? There! bang out! say, yes or +no." + +Algernon sent him to perdition with infinite heartiness, but he was dry, +dispirited, and weak, and he walked on, Sedgett accompanying him. He +entered a booth, and partook of ale and ham, feeling that he was in the +dregs of calamity. Though the ale did some service in reviving, it did +not cheer him, and he had a fit of moral objection to Sedgett's +discourse. + +Sedgett took his bluntness as a matter to be endured for the honour of +hob-a-nobbing with a gentleman. Several times he recurred to the theme +which he wanted, as he said, to have a talk upon. + +He related how he had courted the young woman, "bashful-like," and had +been so; for she was a splendid young woman; not so handsome now, as she +used to be when he had seen her in the winter: but her illness had pulled +her down and made her humble: they had cut her hair during the fever, +which had taken her pride clean out of her; and when he had put the +question to her on the evening of last Sunday, she had gone into a sort +of faint, and he walked away with her affirmative locked up in his +breast-pocket, and was resolved always to treat her well--which he swore +to. + +"Married, and got the money, and the lease o' my farm disposed of, I'm +off to Australia and leave old England behind me, and thank ye, mother, +thank ye! and we shan't meet again in a hurry. And what sort o' song I'm +to sing for 'England is my nation, ain't come across me yet. Australia's +such a precious big world; but that'll come easy in time. And there'll I +farm, and damn all you gentlemen, if you come anigh me." + +The eyes of the fellow were fierce as he uttered this; they were rendered +fierce by a peculiar blackish flush that came on his brows and +cheek-bones; otherwise, the yellow about the little brown dot in the +centre of the eyeball had not changed; but the look was unmistakably +savage, animal, and bad. He closed the lids on them, and gave a sort of +churlish smile immediately afterward. + +"Harmony's the game. You act fair, I act fair. I've kept to the +condition. She don't know anything of my whereabouts--res'dence, I mean; +and thinks I met you in her room for the first time. That's the truth, +Mr. Blancove. And thinks me a sheepish chap, and I'm that, when I'm +along wi' her. She can't make out how I come to call at her house and +know her first. Gives up guessing, I suppose, for she's quiet about it; +and I pitch her tales about Australia, and life out there. I've got her +to smile, once or twice. She'll turn her hand to making cheeses, never +you fear. Only, this I say. I must have the money. It's a thousand and +a bargain. No thousand, and no wife for me. Not that I don't stand by +the agreement. I'm solid." + +Algernon had no power of encountering a human eye steadily, or he would +have shown the man with a look how repulsive he was to a gentleman. His +sensations grew remorseful, as if he were guilty of handing a victim to +the wretch. + +But the woman followed her own inclination, did she not? There was no +compulsion: she accepted this man. And if she could do that, pity was +wasted on her! + +So thought he: and so the world would think of the poor forlorn soul +striving to expiate her fault, that her father and sister might be at +peace, without shame. + +Algernon signified to Sedgett that the agreement was fixed and +irrevocable on his part. + +Sedgett gulped some ale. + +"Hands on it," he said, and laid his huge hand open across the table. + +This was too much. + +"My word must satisfy you," said Algernon, rising. + +"So it shall. So it do," returned Sedgett, rising with him. "Will you +give it in writing?" + +"I won't." + +"That's blunt. Will you come and have a look at a sparring-match in +yond' brown booth, sir?" + +"I am going back to London." + +"London and the theayter that's the fun, now, ain't it!" Sedgett laughed. + +Algernon discerned his cabman and the conveyance ready, and beckoned him. + +"Perhaps, sir," said Sedgett, "if I might make so bold--I don't want to +speak o' them sovereigns--but I've got to get back too, and cash is run +low. D' ye mind, sir? Are you kind-hearted?" + +A constitutional habit of servility to his creditor when present before +him signalized Algernon. He detested the man, but his feebleness was +seized by the latter question, and he fancied he might, on the road to +London, convey to Sedgett's mind that it would be well to split that +thousand, as he had previously devised. + +"Jump in," he said. + +When Sedgett was seated, Algernon would have been glad to walk the +distance to London to escape from the unwholesome proximity. He took the +vacant place, in horror of it. The man had hitherto appeared respectful; +and in Dahlia's presence he had seemed a gentle big fellow with a +reverent, affectionate heart. Sedgett rallied him. + +"You've had bad luck--that's wrote on your hatband. Now, if you was a +woman, I'd say, tak' and go and have a peroose o' your Bible. That's +what my young woman does; and by George! it's just like medicine to her-- +that 'tis! I've read out to her till I could ha' swallowed two quart o' +beer at a gulp--I was that mortal thirsty. It don't somehow seem to +improve men. It didn't do me no good. There was I, cursin' at the +bother, down in my boots, like, and she with her hands in a knot, +staring the fire out o' count'nance. They're weak, poor sort o' things." + +The intolerable talk of the ruffian prompted Algernon to cry out, for +relief,-- + +"A scoundrel like you must be past any good to be got from reading his +Bible." + +Sedgett turned his dull brown eyes on him, the thick and hateful flush of +evil blood informing them with detestable malignity. + +"Come; you be civil, if you're going to be my companion," he said. +"I don't like bad words; they don't go down my windpipe. 'Scoundrel 's +a name I've got a retort for, and if it hadn't been you, and you a +gentleman, you'd have had it spanking hot from the end o' my fist. +Perhaps you don't know what sort of a arm I've got? Just you feel +that ther' muscle." + +He doubled his arm, the knuckles of the fist toward Algernon's face. + +"Down with it, you dog!" cried Algernon, crushing his hat as he started +up. + +"It'll come on your nose, if I downs with it, my lord," said Sedgett. +"You've what they Londoners calls 'bonneted yourself.'" + +He pulled Algernon by the coat-tail into his seat. + +"Stop!" Algernon shouted to the cabman. + +"Drive ahead!" roared Sedgett. + +This signal of a dissension was heard along the main street of Epsom, and +re-awakened the flagging hilarity of the road. + +Algernon shrieked his commands; Sedgett thundered his. They tussled, and +each having inflicted an unpleasant squeeze on the other, they came apart +by mutual consent, and exchanged half-length blows. Overhead, the +cabman--not merely a cabman, but an individual--flicked the flanks of his +horse, and cocked his eye and head in answer to gesticulations from shop- +doors and pavement. + +"Let 'em fight it out, I'm impartial," he remarked; and having lifted his +little observing door, and given one glance, parrot-wise, below, he shut +away the troubled prospect of those mortals, and drove along benignly. + +Epsom permitted it; but Ewell contained a sturdy citizen, who, smoking +his pipe under his eaves, contemplative of passers-by, saw strife rushing +on like a meteor. He raised the waxed end of his pipe, and with an +authoritative motion of his head at the same time, pointed out the case +to a man in a donkey-cart, who looked behind, saw pugnacity upon wheels, +and manoeuvred a docile and wonderfully pretty-stepping little donkey in +such a manner that the cabman was fain to pull up. + +The combatants jumped into the road. + +"That's right, gentlemen; I don't want to spile sport," said the donkey's +man. "O' course you ends your Epsom-day with spirit." + +"There's sunset on their faces," said the cabman. "Would you try a +by-lane, gentlemen?" + +But now the donkey's man had inspected the figures of the antagonistic +couple. + +"Taint fair play," he said to Sedgett. "You leave that gentleman alone, +you, sir?" + +The man with the pipe came up. + +"No fighting," he observed. "We ain't going to have our roads disgraced. +It shan't be said Englishmen don't know how to enjoy themselves without +getting drunk and disorderly. You drop your fists." + +The separation had to be accomplished by violence, for Algernon's blood +was up. + +A crowd was not long in collecting, which caused a stoppage of vehicles +of every description. + +A gentleman leaned from an open carriage to look at the fray critically, +and his companion stretching his neck to do likewise, "Sedgett!" burst +from his lips involuntarily. + +The pair of original disputants (for there were many by this time) turned +their heads simultaneously toward the carriage. + +"Will you come on?" Sedgett roared, but whether to Algernon, or to one of +the gentlemen, or one of the crowd, was indefinite. None responding, he +shook with ox-like wrath, pushed among shoulders, and plunged back to his +seat, making the cabman above bound and sway, and the cab-horse to start +and antic. + +Greatly to the amazement of the spectators, the manifest gentleman (by +comparison) who had recently been at a pummelling match with him, and +bore the stains of it, hung his head, stepped on the cab, and suffered +himself to be driven away. + +"Sort of a 'man-and-wife' quarrel," was the donkey's man's comment. +"There's something as corks 'em up, and something uncorks 'em; but what +that something is, I ain't, nor you ain't, man enough to inform the +company." + +He rubbed his little donkey's nose affectionately. + +"Any gentleman open to a bet I don't overtake that ere Hansom within +three miles o' Ewell?" he asked, as he took the rein. + +But his little donkey's quality was famous in the neighbourhood. + +"Come on, then," he said; "and show what you can do, without emilation, +Master Tom." + +Away the little donkey trotted. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +All women are the same--Know one, know all +Exceeding variety and quantity of things money can buy +He will be a part of every history (the fool) +I never pay compliments to transparent merit +I haven't got the pluck of a flea +Love dies like natural decay +Pleasant companion, who did not play the woman obtrusively among men +Silence is commonly the slow poison used by those who mean to murder love +The woman seeking for an anomaly wants a master +The backstairs of history (Memoirs) +To be her master, however, one must not begin by writhing as her slave +Wait till the day's ended before you curse your luck +With this money, said the demon, you might speculate +Work is medicine + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Rhoda Fleming, v3 +by George Meredith + |