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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4482-0.txt b/4482-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4a77bac --- /dev/null +++ b/4482-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12293 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Lord Ormont and his Aminta, Complete, by George Meredith + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Lord Ormont and his Aminta, Complete + +Author: George Meredith +Last Updated: February 26, 2018 + +Release Date: October 13, 2006 [EBook #4482] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LORD ORMONT AND HIS AMINTA, *** + + + +Produced by Pat Castevans and David Widger + + + + + +LORD ORMONT AND HIS AMINTA, COMPLETE + + +By George Meredith + + + + +CONTENTS. + + BOOK 1. + I. LOVE AT A SCHOOL + II. LADY CHARLOTTE + III. THE TUTOR + IV. RECOGNITION + V. IN WHICH THE SHADES OF BROWNY AND MATEY ADVANCE AND RETIRE + + BOOK 2. + VI. IN A MOOD OF LANGUOR + VII. EXHIBITS EFFECTS OF A PRATTLER'S DOSES + VIII. MRS. LAWRENCE FINCHLEY + IX. A FLASH OF THE BRUISED WARRIOR + X. A SHORT PASSAGE IN THE GAME PLAYED BY TWO + XI. THE SECRETARY TAKEN AS AN ANTIDOTE + + BOOK 3. + XII. MORE OF CUPER'S BOYS + XIII. WAR AT OLMER + XIV. OLD LOVERS NEW FRIENDS + XV. SHOWING A SECRET FISHED WITHOUT ANGLING + XVI. ALONG TWO ROADS TO STEIGNTON + + BOOK 4. + XVII. LADY CHARLOTTE'S TRIUMPH + XVIII. A SCENE ON THE ROAD BACK + XIX. THE PURSUERS + XX. AT THE SIGN OF THE JOLLY CRICKETERS + XXI. UNDER-CURRENTS IN THE MINDS OF LADY CHARLOTTE AND LORD ORMONT + XXII. TREATS OF THE FIRST DAY OF THE CONTENTION OF BROTHER AND SISTER + XXIII. THE ORMONT JEWELS + + BOOK 5. + XXIV. LOVERS MATED + XXXV. PREPARATIONS FOR A RESOLVE + XXVI. VISITS OF FAREWELL + XXVII. A MARINE DUET + XXVIII. THE PLIGHTING + XXIX. AMINTA TO HER LORD + XXX. CONCLUSION + + + + +CHAPTER I. LOVE AT A SCHOOL + +A procession of schoolboys having to meet a procession of schoolgirls on +the Sunday's dead march, called a walk, round the park, could hardly go +by without dropping to a hum in its chatter, and the shot of incurious +half-eyes the petticoated creatures--all so much of a swarm unless you +stare at them like lanterns. The boys cast glance because it relieved +their heaviness; things were lumpish and gloomy that day of the week. +The girls, who sped their peep of inquisition before the moment of +transit, let it be seen that they had minds occupied with thoughts of +their own. + +Our gallant fellows forgot the intrusion of the foreign as soon as it +had passed. A sarcastic discharge was jerked by chance at the usher and +the governess--at the old game, it seemed; or why did they keep +steering columns to meet? There was no fun in meeting; it would never be +happening every other Sunday, and oftener, by sheer toss-penny accident. +They were moved like pieces for the pleasure of these two. + +Sometimes the meeting occurred twice during the stupid march-out, when +it became so nearly vexatious to boys almost biliously oppressed by the +tedium of a day merely allowing them to shove the legs along, ironically +naming it animal excise, that some among them pronounced the sham +variation of monotony to be a bothering nuisance if it was going to +happen every Sunday, though Sunday required diversions. They hated +the absurdity in this meeting and meeting; for they were obliged to +anticipate it, as a part of their ignominious weekly performance; and +they could not avoid reflecting on it, as a thing done over again: it +had them in front and in rear; and it was a kind of broadside mirror, +flashing at them the exact opposite of themselves in an identically +similar situation, that forced a resemblance. + +Touching the old game, Cuper's fold was a healthy school, owing to the +good lead of the head boy, Matey Weyburn, a lad with a heart for games +to bring renown, and no thought about girls. His emulation, the fellows +fancied, was for getting the school into a journal of the Sports. He +used to read one sent him by a sporting officer of his name, and talk +enviously of public schools, printed whatever they did--a privilege and +dignity of which, they had unrivalled enjoyment in the past, days, when +wealth was more jealously exclusive; and he was always prompting for +challenges and saving up to pay expenses; and the fellows were to laugh +at kicks and learn the art of self-defence--train to rejoice in whipcord +muscles. The son of a tradesman, if a boy fell under the imputation, was +worthy of honour with him, let the fellow but show grip and toughness. +He loathed a skulker, and his face was known for any boy who would +own to fatigue or confess himself beaten. “Go to bed,” was one of his +terrible stings. Matey was good at lessons, too--liked them; liked Latin +and Greek; would help a poor stumbler. + +Where he did such good work was in sharpening the fellows to excel. +He kept them to the grindstone, so that they had no time for rusty +brooding; and it was fit done by exhortations off a pedestal, like St. +Paul at the Athenians, it breathed out of him every day of the week. He +carried a light for followers. Whatever he demanded of them, he himself +did it easily. He would say to boys, “You're going to be men,” meaning +something better than women. There was a notion that Matey despised +girls. Consequently, never much esteemed, they were in disfavour. The +old game was mentioned only because of a tradition of an usher and +governess leering sick eyes until they slunk away round a corner and +married, and set up a school for themselves--an emasculate ending. +Comment on it came of a design to show that the whole game had been +examined dismissed as uninteresting and profitless. + +One of the boys alluded in Matey's presence to their general view upon +the part played by womankind on the stage, confident of a backing; and +he had it, in a way: their noble chief whisked the subject, as not worth +a discussion; but he turned to a younger chap, who said he detested +girls, and asked him how about a sister at home; and the youngster +coloured, and Matey took him and spun him round, with a friendly tap on +the shoulder. + +Odd remarks at intervals caused it to be suspected that he had ideas +concerning girls. They were high as his head above the school; and there +they were left, with Algebra and Homer, for they were not of a sort to +inflame; until the boys noticed how he gave up speaking, and fell to +hard looking, though she was dark enough to get herself named Browny. +In the absence of a fair girl of equal height to set beside her, Browny +shone. + +She had a nice mouth, ready for a smile at the corners, or so it was +before Matey let her see that she was his mark. Now she kept her mouth +asleep and her eyes half down, up to the moment of her nearing to pass, +when the girl opened on him, as if lifting her eyelids from sleep to the +window, a full side--look, like a throb, and no disguise--no slyness +or boldness either, not a bit of languishing. You might think her heart +came quietly out. + +The look was like the fall of light on the hills from the first +of morning. It lasted half a minute, and left a ruffle for a good +half-hour. Even the younger fellows, without knowing what affected +them, were moved by the new picture of a girl, as if it had been +a frontispiece of a romantic story some day to be read. She looked +compelled to look, but consenting and unashamed; at home in submission; +just the look that wins observant boys, shrewd as dogs to read by signs, +if they are interested in the persons. They read Browny's meaning: that +Matey had only to come and snatch her; he was her master, and she was a +brave girl, ready to go all over the world with him; had taken to him +as he to her, shot for shot. Her taking to the pick of the school was a +capital proof that she was of the right sort. To be sure, she could not +much help herself. + +Some of the boys regretted her not being fair. But, as they felt, and +sought to explain, in the manner of the wag of a tail, with elbows and +eyebrows to one another's understanding, fair girls could never have let +fly such look; fair girls are softer, woollier, and when they mean to +look serious, overdo it by craping solemn; or they pinafore a jigging +eagerness, or hoist propriety on a chubby flaxen grin; or else they +dart an eye, or they mince and prim and pout, and are sigh-away and +dying-ducky, given to girls' tricks. Browny, after all, was the girl for +Matey. + +She won a victory right away and out of hand, on behalf of her +cloud-and-moon sisters, as against the sunny-meadowy; for slanting +intermediates are not espied of boys in anything: conquered by Browny; +they went over to her colour, equal to arguing, that Venus at her +mightiest must have been dark, or she would not have stood a comparison +with the forest Goddess of the Crescent, swanning it through a lake--on +the leap for run of the chase--watching the dart, with her humming +bow at breast. The fair are simple sugary thing's, prone to fat, +like broad-sops in milk; but the others are milky nuts, good to bite, +Lacedaemonian virgins, hard to beat, putting us on our mettle; and they +are for heroes, and they can be brave. So these boys felt, conquered +by Browny. A sneaking native taste for the forsaken side, known to +renegades, hauled at them if her image waned during the week; and it +waned a little, but Sunday restored and stamped it. + +By a sudden turn the whole upper-school had fallen to thinking of girls, +and the meeting on the Sunday was a prospect. One of the day-boarders +had a sister in the seminary of Miss Vincent. He was plied to obtain +information concerning Browny's name and her parents. He had it pat to +hand in answer. No parents came to see her; an aunt came now and then. +Her aunt's name was not wanted. Browny's name was Aminta Farrell. + +Farrell might pass; Aminta was debated. This female Christian name had +a foreign twang; it gave dissatisfaction. Boy after boy had a try at it, +with the same effect: you could not speak the name without a pursing +of the month and a puckering of the nose, beastly to see, as one little +fellow reminded them on a day when Matey was in more than common favour, +topping a pitch of rapture, for clean bowling, first ball, middle stump +on the kick, the best bat of the other eleven in a match; and, says this +youngster, drawling, soon after the cheers and claps had subsided to +business, “Aminta.” + +He made it funny by saying it as if to himself and the ground, in a +subdued way, while he swung his leg on a half-circle, like a skater, +hands in pockets. He was a sly young rascal, innocently precocious +enough, and he meant no disrespect either to Browny or to Matey; but he +had to run for it, his delivery of the name being so like what was in +the breasts of the senior fellows, as to the inferiority of any Aminta +to old Matey, that he set them laughing; and Browny was on the field, to +reprove them, left of the tea-booth, with her school-mates, part of her +head under a scarlet parasol. + +A girl with such a name as Aminta might not be exactly up to the +standard of old Matey, still, if he thought her so and she had spirit, +the school was bound to subscribe; and that look of hers warranted her +for taking her share in the story, like the brigand's wife loading +gnus for him while he knocks over the foremost carabineer on the +mountain-ledge below, who drops on his back with a hellish expression. + +Browny was then clearly seen all round, instead of only front-face, as +on the Sunday in the park, when fellows could not spy backward after +passing. The pleasure they had in seeing her all round involved no fresh +stores of observation, for none could tell how she tied her back-hair, +which was the question put to them by a cynic of a boy, said to be +queasy with excess of sisters. They could tell that she was tall for a +girl, or tallish--not a maypole. She drank a cup of tea, and ate a slice +of bread-and-butter; no cake. + +She appeared undisturbed when Matey, wearing his holiday white ducks, +and all aglow, entered the booth. She was not expected to faint, only +she stood for the foreign Aminta more than for their familiar Browny in +his presence. Not a sign of the look which had fired the school did she +throw at him. Change the colour and you might compare her to a lobster +fixed on end, with a chin and no eyes. Matey talked to Miss Vincent up +to the instant of his running to bat. She would have liked to guess how +he knew she had a brother on the medical staff of one of the regiments +in India: she asked him twice, and his cheeks were redder than cricket +in the sun. He said he read all the reports from India, and asked her +whether she did not admire Lord Ormont, our general of cavalry, whose +charge at the head of fifteen hundred horse in the last great battle +shattered the enemy's right wing, and gave us the victory--rolled him up +and stretched him out like a carpet for dusting. Miss Vincent exclaimed +that it was really strange, now, he should speak of Lord Ormont, for she +had been speaking of him herself in morning to one of her young ladies, +whose mind was bent on his heroic deeds. Matey turned his face to the +group of young ladies, quite pleased that one of them loved his hero; +and he met a smile here and there--not from Miss Aminta Farrell. She was +a complete disappointment to the boys that day. “Aminta” was mouthed at +any allusions to her. + +So, she not being a match for Matey, they let her drop. The flush that +had swept across the school withered to a dry recollection, except when +on one of their Sunday afternoons she fanned the desert. Lord Ormont +became the subject of inquiry and conversation; and for his own +sake--not altogether to gratify Matey. The Saturday autumn evening's +walk home, after the race out to tea at a distant village, too late +in the year for cricket, too early for regular football, suited Matey, +going at long strides, for the story of his hero's adventures; and it +was nicer than talk about girls, and puzzling. Here lay a clear field; +for he had the right to speak of a cavalry officer: his father died +of wounds in the service, and Matey naturally intended to join the +Dragoons; if he could get enough money to pay for mess, he said, +laughing. Lord Ormont was his pattern of a warrior. We had in him a +lord who cast off luxury to live like a Spartan when under arms, with +a passion to serve his country and sustain the glory of our military +annals. He revived respect for the noble class in the hearts of +Englishmen. He was as good an authority on horseflesh as any Englishman +alive; the best for the management of cavalry: there never was a better +cavalry leader. The boys had come to know that Browny admired Lord +Ormont, so they saw a double reason why Matey should; and walking home +at his grand swing in the October dusk, their school hero drew their +national hero closer to them. + +Every fellow present was dead against the usher, Mr. Shalders, when he +took advantage of a pause to strike in with his “Murat!” + +He harped on Murat whenever he had a chance. Now he did it for the +purpose of casting eclipse upon Major-General Lord Ormont, the son and +grandson of English earls; for he was an earl by his title, and Murat +was the son of an innkeeper. Shalders had to admit that Murat might +have served in the stables when a boy. Honour to Murat, of course, +for climbing the peaks! Shalders, too, might interest him in military +affairs and Murat; he did no harm, and could be amusing. It rather added +to his amount of dignity. It was rather absurd, at the same time, for an +English usher to be spouting and glowing about a French general, who had +been a stable-boy and became a king, with his Murat this, Murat that, +and hurrah Murat in red and white and green uniform, tunic and breeches, +and a chimney-afire of feathers; and how the giant he was charged at the +head of ten thousand horse, all going like a cataract under a rainbow +over the rocks, right into the middle of the enemy and through; and he a +spark ahead, and the enemy streaming on all sides flat away, as you see +puffed smoke and flame of a bonfire. That was fun to set boys jigging. +No wonder how in Russia the Cossacks feared him, and scampered from the +shadow of his plumes--were clouds flying off his breath! That was a +fine warm picture for the boys on late autumn or early winter evenings, +Shalders warming his back at the grate, describing bivouacs in the snow. +They liked well enough to hear him when he was not opposing Matey and +Lord Ormont. He perked on his toes, and fetched his hand from behind him +to flourish it when his Murat came out. The speaking of his name clapped +him on horseback--the only horseback he ever knew. He was as fond of +giving out the name Murat as you see in old engravings of tobacco-shops +men enjoying the emission of their whiff of smoke. + +Matey was not inclined to class Lord Ormont alongside Murat, a +first-rate horseman and an eagle-eye, as Shalders rightly said; and +Matey agreed that forty thousand cavalry under your orders is a toss +above fifteen hundred; but the claim for a Frenchman of a superlative +merit to swallow and make nothing of the mention of our best cavalry +generals irritated him to call Murat a mountebank. + +Shalders retorted, that Lord Ormont was a reprobate. + +Matey hoped he would some day write us an essay on the morale of +illustrious generals of cavalry; and Shalders told him he did not +advance his case by talking nonsense. + +Each then repeated to the boys a famous exploit of his hero. Their +verdict was favourable to Lord Ormont. Our English General learnt riding +before he was ten years old, on the Pampas, where you ride all day, and +cook your steak for your dinner between your seat and your saddle. He +rode with his father and his uncle, Muncastle, the famous traveller, +into Paraguay. He saw fighting before he was twelve. Before he was +twenty he was learning outpost duty in the Austrian frontier cavalry. He +served in the Peninsula, served in Canada, served in India, volunteered +for any chance of distinction. No need to say much of his mastering the +picked Indian swordsmen in single combat: he knew their trick, and +was quick to save his reins when they made a dash threatening the +headstroke--about the same as disabling sails in old naval engagements. + +That was the part for the officer; we are speaking of the General. For +that matter, he had as keen an eye for the field and the moment for his +arm to strike as any Murat. One world have liked to see Murat matched +against the sabre of a wily Rajpoot! As to campaigns and strategy, Lord +Ormont's head was a map. What of Murat and Lord Ormont horse to horse +and sword to sword? Come, imagine that, if you are for comparisons. And +if Lord Ormont never headed a lot of thousands, it does not prove he was +unable. Lord Ormont was as big as Murat. More, he was a Christian to his +horses. How about Murat in that respect? Lord Ormont cared for his men: +did Murat so particularly much? And he was as cunning fronting odds, +and a thunderbolt at the charge. Why speak of him in the past? He is an +English lord, a lord by birth, and he is alive; things may be expected +of him to-morrow or next day. + +Shalders here cut Matey short by meanly objecting to that. + +“Men are mortal,” he said, with a lot of pretended stuff, deploring +our human condition in the elegy strain; and he fell to reckoning the +English hero's age--as that he, Lord Ormont, had been a name in the +world for the last twenty-five years or more. The noble lord could be no +chicken. We are justified in calculating, by the course of nature, that +his term of activity is approaching, or has approached, or, in fact, has +drawn to its close. + +“If your estimate, sir, approaches to correctness,” rejoined +Matey--tellingly, his comrades thought. + +“Sixty, as you may learn some day, is a serious age, Matthew Weyburn.” + +Matey said he should be happy to reach it with half the honours Lord +Ormont had won. + +“Excepting the duels,” Shalders had the impudence to say. + +“If the cause is a good one!” cried Matey. + +“The cause, or Lord Ormont has been maligned, was reprehensible in the +extremest degree.” Shalders cockhorsed on his heels to his toes and back +with a bang. + +“What was the cause, if you please, sir?” a boy, probably naughty, +inquired; and as Shalders did not vouchsafe a reply, the bigger boys +knew. + +They revelled in the devilish halo of skirts on the whirl encircling +Lord Ormont's laurelled head. + +That was a spark in their blood struck from a dislike of the tone +assumed by Mr. Shalders to sustain his argument; with his “men are +mortal,” and talk of a true living champion as “no chicken,” and the +wordy drawl over “justification for calculating the approach of a close +to a term of activity”--in the case of a proved hero! + +Guardians of boys should make sure that the boys are on their side +before they raise the standard of virtue. Nor ought they to summon +morality for support of a polemic. Matey Weyburn's object of worship +rode superior to a morality puffing its phrasy trumpet. And, somehow, +the sacrifice of an enormous number of women to Lord Ormont's glory +seemed natural; the very thing that should be, in the case of a +first-rate military hero and commander--Scipio notwithstanding. It +brightens his flame, and it is agreeable to them. That is how they come +to distinction: they have no other chance; they are only women; they +are mad to be singed, and they rush pelf-mall, all for the honour of the +candle. + +Shortly after this discussion Matey was heard informing some of the +bigger fellows he could tell them positively that Lord Ormont's age was +under fifty-four--the prime of manhood, and a jolly long way off death! +The greater credit to him, therefore, if he had been a name in the world +for anything like the period Shalders insinuated, “to get himself out of +a sad quandary.” Matey sounded the queer word so as to fix it sticking +to the usher, calling him Mr. Peter Bell Shalders, at which the boys +roared, and there was a question or two about names, which belonged to +verses, for people caring to read poems. + +To the joy of the school he displayed a greater knowledge of Murat than +Shalders had: named the different places in Europe where Lord Ormont and +Murat were both springing to the saddle at the same time--one a Marshal, +the other a lieutenant; one a king, to be off his throne any day, the +other a born English nobleman, seated firm as fate. And he accused Murat +of carelessness of his horses, ingratitude to his benefactor, circussy +style. Shalders went so far as to defend Murat for attending to the +affairs of his kingdom, instead of galloping over hedges and ditches +to swell Napoleon's ranks in distress. Matey listened to him there; he +became grave; he nodded like a man saying, “I suppose we must examine +it in earnest.” The school was damped to hear him calling it a nice +question. Still, he said he thought he should have gone; and that +settled it. + +The boys inclined to speak contemptuously of Shalders. Matey world +not let them; he contrasted Shalders with the other ushers, who had +no enthusiasms. He said enthusiasms were salt to a man; and he liked +Shalders for spelling at his battles and thinking he understood them, +and admiring Murat, and leading Virgil and parts of Lucan for his +recreation. He said he liked the French because they could be splendidly +enthusiastic. He almost lost his English flavour when he spoke in +downright approval of a small French fellow, coming from Orthez, near +the Pyrenees, for senselessly dashing and kicking at a couple of English +who jeered to hear Orthez named--a place trampled under Wellington's +heels, on his march across conquered France. The foreign little cockerel +was a clever lad, learning English fast, and anxious to show he had got +hold of the English trick of not knowing when he was beaten. His French +vanity insisted on his engaging the two, though one of them stood aside, +and the other let him drive his nose all the compass round at a poker +fist. What was worse, Matey examined these two, in the interests of fair +play, as if he doubted. + +Little Emile Grenat set matters right with his boast to vindicate his +country against double the number, and Matey praised him, though he knew +Emile had been floored without effort by the extension of a single fist. +He would not hear the French abused; he said they were chivalrous, they +were fine fellows, topping the world in some things; his father had +fought them and learnt to respect them. Perhaps his father had learnt to +respect Jews, for there was a boy named Abner, he protected, who smelt +Jewish; he said they ran us Gentiles hard, and carried big guns. + +Only a reputation like Matey's could have kept his leadership from +a challenge. Joseph Masner, formerly a rival, went about hinting and +shrugging; all to no purpose, you find boys born to be chiefs. On the +day of the snow-fight Matey won the toss, and chose J. Masner first +pick; and Masner, aged seventeen and some months, big as a navvy, +lumbered across to him and took his directions, proud to stand in the +front centre, at the head of the attack, and bear the brunt--just what +he was fit for, Matey gave no offence by choosing, half-way down the +list, his little French friend, whom he stationed beside himself, rather +off his battle-front, as at point at cricket, not quite so far removed. +Two boys at his heels piled ammunition. The sides met midway of a marshy +ground, where a couple of flat and shelving banks, formed for a broad +new road, good for ten abreast--counting a step of the slopes--ran +transverse; and the order of the game was to clear the bank and drive +the enemy on to the frozen ditch-water. Miss Vincent heard in the +morning from the sister of little Collett of the great engagement +coming off; she was moved by curiosity, and so the young ladies of +her establishment beheld the young gentlemen of Mr. Cuper's in furious +division, and Matey's sore aim and hard fling, equal to a slinger's, +relieving J. Masner of a foremost assailant with a spanker on the +nob. They may have fancied him clever for selecting a position rather +comfortable, as things went, until they had sight of him with his little +French ally and two others, ammunition boys to rear, descending one +bank and scaling another right into the flank of the enemy, when his +old tower of a Masner was being heavily pressed by numbers. Then came a +fight hand to hand, but the enemy stood in a clamp; not to split like +a nut between crackers, they gave way and rolled, backing in lumps from +bank to ditch. + +The battle was over before the young ladies knew. They wondered to see +Matey shuffling on his coat and hopping along at easy bounds to pay his +respects to Miss Vincent, near whom was Browny; and this time he and +Browny talked together. He then introduced little Emile to her. She +spoke of Napoleon at Brienne, and complimented Matey. He said he was +cavalry, not artillery, that day. They talked to hear one another's +voices. By constantly appealing to Miss Vincent he made their +conversation together seem as under her conduct; and she took a slide on +some French phrases with little Emile. Her young ladies looked shrinking +and envious to see the fellows wet to the skin, laughing, wrestling, +linking arms; and some, who were clown-faced with a wipe of scarlet, +getting friends to rub their cheeks with snow, all of them happy as +larks in air, a big tea steaming for them at the school. Those girls +had a leap and a fail of the heart, glad to hug themselves in their dry +clothes, and not so warm as the dripping boys were, nor so madly fond of +their dress-circle seats to look on at a play they were not allowed +even to desire to share. They looked on at blows given and taken in +good temper, hardship sharpening jollity. The thought of the difference +between themselves and the boys must have been something like the tight +band--call it corset--over the chest, trying to lift and stretch for +draughts of air. But Browny's feeling naturally was, that all this +advantage for the boys came of Matey Weyburn's lead. + +Miss Vincent with her young ladies walked off in couples, orderly +chicks, the usual Sunday march of their every day. The school was +coolish to them; one of the fellows hummed bars of some hymn tune, +rather faster than church. And next day there was a murmur of letters +passing between Matey and Browny regularly, little Collett for postman. +Anybody might have guessed it, but the report spread a feeling that +girls are not the entirely artificial beings or flat targets we suppose. +The school began to brood, like air deadening on oven-heat. Winter +is hen-mother to the idea of love in schools, if the idea has fairly +entered. Various girls of different colours were selected by boys +for animated correspondence, that never existed and was vigorously +prosecuted, with efforts to repress contempt of them in courtship for +their affections. They found their part of it by no means difficult when +they imagined the lines without the words, or, better still, the letter +without the lines. A holy satisfaction belonged to the sealed thing; the +breaking of the seal and inspection of the contents imposed perplexity +on that sentiment. They thought of certain possible sentences Matey +and Browny would exchange; but the plain, conceivable, almost visible, +outside of the letter had a stronger spell for them than the visionary +inside. This fancied contemplation of the love-letter was reversed +in them at once by the startling news of Miss Vincent's discovery +and seizure of the sealed thing, and her examination of the burden +it contained. Then their thirst was for drama--to see, to drink every +wonderful syllable those lovers had written. + +Miss Vincent's hand was upon one of Matey's letters. She had come across +the sister of little Collett, Selina her name was, carrying it. She saw +nothing of the others. Aminta was not the girl to let her. Nor did Mr. +Cuper dare demand from Matey a sight or restitution of the young lady's +half of the correspondence. He preached heavily at Matey; deplored that +the boy he most trusted, etc.--the school could have repeated it without +hearing. We know the master's lecture in tones--it sings up to sing +down, and touches nobody. As soon as he dropped to natural talk, and +spoke of his responsibility and Miss Vincent's, Matey gave the word of +a man of honour that he would not seek to communicate farther with Miss +Farrell at the school. + +Now there was a regular thunder-hash among the boys on the rare +occasions when they met the girls. All that Matey and Browny were +forbidden to write they looked--much like what it had been before the +discovery; and they dragged the boys back from promised instant events. +It was, nevertheless, a heaving picture, like the sea in the background +of a marine piece at the theatre, which rouses anticipations of storm, +and shows readiness. Browny's full eyebrow sat on her dark eye like a +cloud of winter noons over the vanishing sun. Matey was the prisoner +gazing at light of a barred window and measuring the strength of the +bars. She looked unhappy, but looked unbeaten more. Her look at him fed +the school on thoughts of what love really is, when it is not fished +out of books and poetry. For though she was pale, starved and pale, they +could see she was never the one to be sighing; and as for him, he looked +ground dower all to edge. However much they puzzled over things, she +made them feel they were sure, as to her, that she drove straight and +meant blood, the life or death of it: all her own, if need be, and +confidence in the captain she had chosen. She could have been imagined +saying, There is a storm, but I am ready to embark with you this minute. + +That sign of courage in real danger ennobled her among girls. The name +Browny was put aside for a respectful Aminta. Big and bright events to +come out in the world were hinted, from the love of such a couple. The +boys were not ashamed to speak the very word love. How he does love +that girl! Well, and how she loves him! She did, but the boys had to be +seeing her look at Matey if they were to put the girl on some balanced +equality with a fellow she was compelled to love. It seemed to them +that he gave, and that she was a creature carried to him, like driftwood +along the current of the flood, given, in spite of herself. When they +saw those eyes of hers they were impressed with an idea of her as +a voluntary giver too; pretty well the half to the bargain; and it +confused their notion of feminine inferiority. They resolved to think +her an exceptional girl, which, in truth, they could easily do, for none +but an exceptional girl could win Matey to love her. + +Since nothing appeared likely to happen at the school, they speculated +upon what would occur out in the world, and were assisted to conjecture, +by a rumour, telling of Aminta Farrell's aunt as a resident at Dover. +Those were days when the benevolently international M. de Porquet had +begun to act as interpreter to English schools in the portico of the +French language; and under his guidance it was asked, in contempt of the +answer, Combien de postes d'ici a Douvres? But, accepting the rumour +as a piece of information, the answer became important. Ici was twenty +miles to the north-west of London. How long would it take Matey to reach +Donvres? Or at which of the combien did he intend to waylay and away +with Aminta? The boys went about pounding at the interrogative French +phrase in due sincerity, behind the burlesque of traveller bothering +coachman. Matey's designs could be finessed only by a knowledge of his +character: that he was not the fellow to give up the girl he had taken +to; and impediments might multiply, but he would bear them down. Three +days before the break-up of the school another rumour came tearing +through it: Aminta's aunt had withdrawn her from Miss Vincent's. And +now rose the question, two-dozen-mouthed, Did Matey know her address at +Douvres? His face grew stringy and his voice harder, and his eyes ready +to burst from a smother of fire. All the same, he did his work: he was +the good old fellow at games, considerate in school affairs, kind to +the youngsters; he was heard to laugh. He liked best the company of his +little French friend from Orthez, over whose shoulder his hand was laid +sometimes as they strolled and chatted in two languages. He really went +a long way to make French fellows popular, and the boys were sorry that +little Emile was off to finish his foreign education in Germany. His +English was pretty good, thanks to Matey. He went away, promising to +remember Old England, saying he was French first, and a Briton next. He +had lots of plunk; which accounted for Matey's choice of him as a friend +among the juniors. + + + + +CHAPTER II. LADY CHARLOTTE + +Love-passages at a school must produce a ringing crisis if they are to +leave the rosy impression which spans the gap of holidays. Neither Matey +nor Browny returned to their yoke, and Cuper's boys recollected the +couple chiefly on Sundays. They remembered several of Matey's doings and +sayings: his running and high leaping, his bowling, a maxim or two of +his, and the tight strong fellow he was; also that the damsel's colour +distinctly counted for dark. She became nearly black in their minds. +Well, and Englishmen have been known to marry Indian princesses: +some have a liking for negresses. There are Nubians rather pretty in +pictures, if you can stand thick lips. Her colour does not matter, +provided the girl is of the right sort. The exchange of letters between +the lovers was mentioned. The discovery by Miss Vincent of their cool +habit of corresponding passed for an incident; and there it remained, +stiff as a poet, not being heated by a story to run. So the foregone +excitement lost warmth, and went out like a winter sun at noon or a +match lighted before the candle is handy. + +Lord Ormont continued to be a subject of discussion from time to time, +for he was a name in the newspapers; and Mr. Shalders had been worked +by Matey Weyburn into a state of raw antagonism at the mention of the +gallant General; he could not avoid sitting in judgement on him. + +According to Mr. Shalders, the opinion of all thoughtful people in +England was with John Company and the better part of the Press to +condemn Lord Ormont in his quarrel with the Commissioner of one of the +Indian provinces, who had the support of the Governor of his Presidency +and of the Viceroy; the latter not unreservedly, yet ostensibly inclined +to condemn a too prompt military hand. The Gordian knot of a difficulty +cut is agreeable in the contemplation of an official chief hesitating +to use the sword and benefiting by having it done for him. Lord Ormont +certainly cut the knot. + +Mr. Shalders was cornered by the boys, coming at him one after another +without a stop, vowing it was the exercise of a military judgement upon +a military question at a period of urgency, which had brought about +the quarrel with the Commissioner and the reproof of the Governor. He +betrayed the man completely cornered by generalizing. He said-- + +“We are a civilian people; we pride ourselves on having civilian +methods.” + +“How can that be if we have won India with guns and swords?” + +“But that splendid jewel for England's tiara won,” said he (and he might +as well have said crown), “we are bound to sheathe the sword and govern +by the Book of the Law.” + +“But if they won't have the Book of the Law!” + +“They knew the power behind it.” + +“Not if we knock nothing harder than the Book of the Law upon their +skulls.” + +“Happily for the country, England's councils are not directed by boys!” + +“Ah, but we're speaking of India, Mr. Shalders.” + +“You are presuming to speak of an act of insubordination committed by a +military officer under civilian command.” + +“What if we find an influential prince engaged in conspiracy?” + +“We look for proof.” + +“Suppose we have good proof?” + +“We summon him to exonerate himself.” + +“No; we mount and ride straight away into his territory, spot the +treason, deport him, and rule in his place!” + +It was all very well for Mr. Shalders to say he talked to boys; he was +cornered again, as his shrug confessed. + +The boys asked among themselves whether he would have taken the same +view if his Murat had done it! + +These illogical boys fought for Matey Weyburn in their defence of Lord +Ormont. Somewhere, they wee sure, old Matey was hammering to the same +end--they could hear him. Thought of him inspired them to unwonted +argumentative energy, that they might support his cause; and scatter +the gloomy prediction of the school, as going to the dogs now Matey had +left. + +The subject provoked everywhere in Great Britain a division similar to +that between master and boys at Cuper's establishment: one party for +our modern English magisterial methods with Indians, the other for the +decisive Oriental at the early time, to suit their native tastes; +and the Book of the Law is to be conciliatingly addressed to their +sentiments by a benign civilizing Power, or the sword is out smartly at +the hint of a warning to protect the sword's conquests. Under one aspect +we appear potteringly European; under another, drunk of the East. + +Lord Ormont's ride at the head of two hundred horsemen across a stretch +of country including hill and forest, to fall like a bolt from the blue +on the suspected Prince in the midst of his gathering warriors, was a +handsome piece of daring, and the high-handed treatment of the Prince +was held by his advocates to be justified by the provocation, and the +result. He scattered an unprepared body of many hundreds, who might have +enveloped him, and who would presumptively have stood their ground, had +they not taken his handful to be the advance of regiments. These are the +deeds that win empires! the argument in his favour ran. Are they of a +character to maintain empires? the counter-question was urged. Men of +a deliberative aspect were not wanting in approval of the sharp and +summary of the sword in air when we have to deal with Indians. They +chose to regard it as a matter of the dealing with Indians, and put +aside the question of the contempt of civil authority. + +Counting the cries, Lord Ormont won his case. Festival aldermen, smoking +clubmen, buckskin squires, obsequious yet privately excitable tradesmen, +sedentary coachmen and cabmen, of Viking descent, were set to think like +boys about him: and the boys, the women, and the poets formed a tipsy +chorea. Journalists, on the whole, were fairly halved, as regarded +numbers. In relation to weight, they were with the burgess and the +presbyter; they preponderated heavily in the direction of England's +burgess view of all cases disputed between civilian and soldier. But +that was when the peril was over. + +Admirers of Lord Ormont enjoyed a perusal of a letter addressed by him +to the burgess's journal; and so did his detractors. The printing of it +was an act of editorial ruthlessness. The noble soldier had no mould in +his intellectual or educational foundry for the casting of sentences; +and the editor's leading type to the letter, without further notice +of the writer--who was given a prominent place or scaffolding for +the execution of himself publicly, if it pleased him to do that +thing--tickled the critical mind. Lord Ormont wrote intemperately. + +His Titanic hurling of blocks against critics did no harm to an enemy +skilled in the use of trimmer weapons, notably the fine one of letting +big missiles rebound. He wrote from India, with Indian heat--“curry and +capsicums,” it was remarked. He dared to claim the countenance of the +Commander-in-chief of the Army of India for an act disapproved by the +India House. Other letters might be on their way, curryer than the +preceding, his friends feared; and might also be malevolently printed, +similarly commissioning the reverberation of them to belabour his name +before the public. Admirers were still prepared to admire; but aldermen +not at the feast, squire-archs not in the saddle or at the bottle, some +few of the juvenile and female fervent, were becoming susceptible to a +frosty critical tone in the public pronunciation of Lord Ormont's name +since the printing of his letter and the letters it called forth. None +of them doubted that his case was good. The doubt concerned the effect +on it of his manner of pleading it. And if he damaged his case, he +compromised his admirers. Why, the case of a man who has cleverly won +a bold stroke for his country must be good, as long as he holds his +tongue. A grateful country will right him in the end: he has only to +wait, and not so very long. “This I did: now examine it.” Nothing more +needed to be said by him, if that. + +True, he has a temper. It is owned that he is a hero. We take him with +his qualities, impetuosity being one, and not unsuited to his arm of the +service, as he has shown. If his temper is high, it is an element of a +character proved heroical. So has the sun his blotches, and we believe +that they go to nourish the luminary, rather than that they are a +disease of the photosphere. + +Lord Ormont's apologists had to contend with anecdotes and dicta now +pouring in from offended Britons, for illustration of an impetuosity +fit to make another Charley XII. of Sweden--a gratuitous Coriolanus +haughtiness as well, new among a people accustomed socially to bow +the head to their nobles, and not, of late, expecting a kick for their +pains. Newspapers wrote of him that, “a martinet to subordinates, he +was known for the most unruly of lieutenants.” They alluded to current +sayings, as that he “habitually took counsel of his horse on the field +when a movement was entrusted to his discretion.” Numerous were the +journalistic sentences running under an air of eulogy of the lordly +warrior purposely to be tripped, and producing their damnable effect, +despite the obvious artifice. The writer of the letter from Bombay, +signed Ormont, was a born subject for the antithetical craftsmen's +tricky springes. + +He was, additionally, of infamous repute for morale in burgess +estimation, from his having a keen appreciation of female beauty and +a prickly sense of masculine honour. The stir to his name roused +pestilential domestic stories. In those days the aristocrat still +claimed licence, and eminent soldier-nobles, comporting themselves as +imitative servants of their god Mars, on the fields of love and war, +stood necessarily prepared to vindicate their conduct as the field of +the measured paces, without deeming themselves bounden to defend the +course they took. Our burgess, who bowed head to his aristocrat, +and hired the soldier to fight for him, could not see that such +mis-behaviour necessarily ensued. Lord Ormont had fought duels at home +and abroad. His readiness to fight again, and against odds, and with a +totally unused weapon, was exhibited by his attack on the Press in the +columns of the Press. It wore the comical face to the friends deploring +it, which belongs to things we do that are so very like us. They agreed +with his devoted sister, Lady Charlotte Eglett, as to the prudence of +keeping him out of England for a time, if possible. + +At the first perusal of the letter, Lady Charlotte quitted her place +in Leicestershire, husband, horses, guests, the hunt, to scour across a +vacant London and pick up acquaintances under stress to be spots there +in the hunting season, with them to gossip for counsel on the subject +of “Ormont's hand-grenade,” and how to stop and extinguish a second. +She was a person given to plain speech. “Stinkpot” she called it, when +acknowledging foul elements in the composition and the harm it did to +the unskilful balist. Her view of the burgess English imaged a mighty +monster behind bars, to whom we offer anything but our hand. As soon as +he gets held of that he has you; he won't let it loose with flesh on the +bones. We must offend him--we can't be man or woman without offending +his tastes and his worships; but while we keep from contact (i.e. +intercommunication) he may growl, he is harmless. Witness the many +occasions when her brother offended worse, and had been unworried, only +growled at, and distantly, not in a way to rouse concern; and at the +neat review, or procession into the City, or public display of any +sort, Ormont had but to show himself, he was the popular favourite +immediately. He had not committed the folly of writing a letter to a +newspaper then. + +Lady Charlotte paid an early visit to the office of the great London +solicitor, Arthur Abner, who wielded the law as an instrument of +protection for countless illustrious people afflicted by what they stir +or attract in a wealthy metropolis. She went simply to gossip of her +brother's affairs with a refreshing man of the world, not given to +circumlocutions, and not afraid of her: she had no deeper object; but +fancying she heard the clerk, on his jump from the stool, inform +her that Mr. Abner was out, “Out?” she cried, and rattled the room, +thumping, under knitted brows. “Out of town?” For a man of business +taking holidays, when a lady craves for gossip, disappointed her faith +in him as cruelly as the shut-up, empty inn the broken hunter knocking +at a hollow door miles off home. + +Mr. Abner, hatted and gloved and smiling, came forth. “Going out, the +man meant, Lady Charlotte. At your service for five minutes.” + +She complimented his acuteness, in the remark, “You see I've only come +to chat,” and entered his room. + +He led her to her theme: “The excitement is pretty well over.” + +“My brother's my chief care--always was. I'm afraid he'll be +pitchforking at it again, and we shall have another blast. That letter +ought never to have been printed. That editor deserves the horsewhip +for letting it appear. If he prints a second one I shall treat him as a +personal enemy.” + +“Better make a friend of him.” + +“How?” + +“Meet him at my table.” + +She jumped an illumined half-about on her chair. “So I will, then. What +are the creature's tastes?” + +“Hunts, does he?” The editor rose in her mind from the state of neuter +to something of a man. “I recollect an article in that paper on the +Ormont duel. I hate duelling, but I side with my brother. I had to +laugh, though. Luckily, there's no woman on hand at present, as far as +I know. Ormont's not likely to be hooked by garrison women or blacks. +Those coloured women--some of ours too--send the nose to the clouds; +not a bad sign for health. And there are men like that old Cardinal +Guicciardini tells of... hum! Ormont's not one of them. I hope +he'll stay in India till this blows over, or I shall be hearing of +provocations.” + +“You have seen the Duke?” + +She nodded. Her reserve was a summary of the interview. “Kind, as he +always is,” she said. “Ormont has no chance of employment unless there's +a European war. They can't overlook him in case of war. He'll have to +pray for that.” + +“Let us hope we shan't get it.” + +“My wish; but I have to think of my brother. If he's in England with +no employment, he's in a mess with women and men both. He kicks if he's +laid aside to rust. He has a big heart. That's what I said: all he wants +is to serve his country. If you won't have war, give him Gibraltar or +Malta, or command of one of our military districts. The South-eastern +'ll be vacant soon. He'd like to be Constable of the Castle, and have an +eye on France.” + +“I think he's fond of the French?” + +“Loves the French. Expects to have to fight them all the same. He loves +his country best. Here's the man everybody's abusing!” + +“I demur, my lady. I was dining the other day with a client of mine, and +a youngster was present who spoke of Lord Ormont in a way I should like +you to have heard. He seemed to know the whole of Lord Ormont's career, +from the time of the ride to Paraguay up to the capture of the plotting +Rajah. He carried the table.” + +“Good boy! We must turn to the boys for justice, then. Name your day for +this man, this editor.” + +“I will see him. You shall have the day to-night.” + +Lady Charlotte and the editor met. She was racy, he anecdotal. Stag, +fox, and hare ran before them, over fields and through drawing-rooms: +the scent was rich. They found that they could talk to one another +as they thought; that he was not the Isle-bound burgess, nor she the +postured English great lady; and they exchanged salt, without which your +current scandal is of exhausted savour. They enjoyed the peculiar novel +relish of it, coming from a social pressman and a dame of high society. +The different hemispheres became known as one sphere to these birds of +broad wing convening in the upper blue above a quartered carcase earth. + +A week later a letter, the envelope of a bulky letter in Lord Ormont's +handwriting, reached Lady Charlotte. There was a line from the editor: + + “Would it please your ladyship to have this printed?” + +She read the letter, and replied: + + “Come to me for six days; you shall have the best mount in the + county.” + +An editor devoid of malice might probably have forborne to print a +letter that appealed to Lady Charlotte, or touched her sensations, as +if a glimpse of the moon, on the homeward ride in winter on a nodding +horse, had suddenly bared to view a precipitous quarry within two steps. +There is no knowing: few men can forbear to tell a spicy story of +their friends; and an editor, to whom an exhibition of the immensely +preposterous on the part of one writing arrogantly must be provocative, +would feel the interests of his Journal, not to speak of the claims +of readers, pluck at him when he meditated the consignment of such a +precious composition to extinction. Lady Charlotte withheld a sight of +the letter from Mr. Eglett. She laid it in her desk, understanding well +that it was a laugh lost to the world. Poets could reasonably feign it +to shake the desk inclosing it. She had a strong sense of humour; her +mind reverted to the desk in a way to make her lips shut grimly. She +sided with her brother. + +Only pen in hand did he lay himself open to the enemy. In his personal +intercourse he was the last of men to be taken at a disadvantage. Lady +Charlotte was brought round to the distasteful idea of some help coming +from a legitimate adjunct at his elbow: a restraining woman--wife, it +had to be said. And to name the word wife for Thomas Rowsley, Earl of +Ormont, put up the porcupine quills she bristled with at the survey of +a sex thirsting, and likely to continue thirsting, for such honour. What +woman had she known fit to bear the name? She had assumed the judicial +seat upon the pretensions of several, and dismissed them to their limbo, +after testifying against them. Who is to know the fit one in these mines +of deception? Women of the class offering wives decline to be taken on +trial; they are boxes of puzzles--often dire surprises. Her brother +knew them well enough to shy at the box. Her brother Rowsley had a funny +pride, like a boy at a game, at the never having been caught by one +among the many he made captive. She let him have it all to himself. + +He boasted it to a sister sharing the pride exultant in the cry of +the hawk, scornful of ambitions poultry, a passed finger-post to the +plucked, and really regretful that no woman had been created fit +for him. When she was not aiding with her brother, women, however +contemptible for their weakness, appeared to her as better than +barn-door fowl, or vermin in their multitudes gnawing to get at the +cheese-trap. She could be humane, even sisterly, with women whose +conduct or prattle did not outrage plain sense, just as the stickler +for the privileges of her class was large-heartedly charitable to the +classes flowing in oily orderliness round about below it--if they did so +flow. Unable to read woman's character, except upon the broadest lines +as it were the spider's main threads of its web, she read men minutely, +from the fact that they were neither mysteries nor terrors to her; but +creatures of importunate appetites, humorous objects; very manageable, +if we leave the road to their muscles, dress their wounds, smoothe their +creases, plume their vanity; and she had an unerring eye for the man +to be used when a blow was needed, methods for setting him in action +likewise. She knew how much stronger than ordinary men the woman who can +put them in motion. They can be set to serve as pieces of cannon, under +compliments on their superior powers, which were not all undervalued by +her on their own merits, for she worshipped strength. But the said, +with a certain amount of truth, that the women unaware of the advantage +Society gave them (as to mastering men) were fools. + +Tender, is not a word coming near to Lady Charlotte. Thoughtful on +behalf of the poor foolish victims of men she was. She had saved some, +avenged others. It should be stated, that her notion of saving was the +saving of them from the public: she had thrown up a screen. The saving +of them from themselves was another matter--hopeless, to her thinking. +How preach at a creature on the bend of passion's rapids! One might as +well read a chapter from the Bible to delirious patients. When once a +woman is taken with the love-passion, we must treat her as bitten; +hide her antics from the public: that is the principal business. If she +recovers, she resumes her place, and horrid old Nature, who drove her +to the frenzy, is unlikely to bother or, at least, overthrow her +again, unless she is one of the detestable wantons, past compassion or +consideration. In the case reviewed, the woman has gone through fire, +and is none the worse for her experiences: worth ten times what she was, +to an honest man, if men could be got to see it. Some do. Of those men +who do not, Lady Charlotte spoke with the old family-nurse humour, which +is familiar with the tricks and frailties of the infants; and it is +a knife to probe the male, while seemingly it does the part of the +napkin--pities and pats. They expect a return of much for the little +that is next to nothing. They are fall of expectations: and of what +else? They are hard bargainers. + +She thought this of men; and she liked men by choice. She had old +nurse's preference for the lustier male child. The others are puling +things, easier to rear, because they bend better; and less esteemed, +though they give less trouble, rouse less care. But when it came to the +duel between the man and the woman, her sense of justice was moved to +join her with the party of her unfairly handled sisters--a strong party, +if it were not so cowardly, she had to think. + +Mr. Eglett, her husband, accepted her--accepted the position into which +he naturally fell beside her, and the ideas she imposed on him; for she +never went counter to his principles. These were the fixed principles of +a very wealthy man, who abhorred debt, and was punctilious in veracity, +scrupulous in cleanliness of mind and body, devoted to the honour of +his country, the interests of his class. She respected the high landmark +possessing such principles; and she was therefore enabled to lead +without the wish to rule. As it had been between them at the beginning, +so it was now, when they were grandparents running on three lines of +progeny from two daughters and a son: they were excellent friends. +Few couples can say more. The union was good English grey--that of a +prolonged November, to which we are reconciled by occasions for the hunt +and the gun. She was, nevertheless, an impassioned woman. The feeling +for her brother helped to satisfy her heart's fires, though as little +with her brother as with her husband was she demonstrative. Lord Ormont +disrelished the caresses of relatives. + +She, for her part, had so strong a sympathy on behalf of poor gentlemen +reduced to submit to any but a young woman's hug, that when, bronzed +from India, he quitted the carriage and mounted her steps at Olmer, the +desire to fling herself on his neck and breast took form in the words: +“Here you are home again, Rowsley; glad to have you.” They shook hands +firmly. + +He remained three days at Olmer. His temper was mild, his frame of mind +bad as could be. Angry evaporations had left a residuum of solid scorn +for these “English,” who rewarded soldierly services as though it were a +question of damaged packages of calico. He threatened to take the +first offer of a foreign State “not in insurrection.” But clear sky was +overhead. He was the Rowsley of the old boyish delight in field sports, +reminiscences of prowlings and trappings in the woods, gropings along +water-banks, enjoyment of racy gossip. He spoke wrathfully of “one +of their newspapers” which steadily persisted in withholding from +publication every letter he wrote to it, after printing the first. And +if it printed one, why not the others? + +Lady Charlotte put it on the quaintness of editors. + +He had found in London, perhaps, reason for saying that he should +do well to be “out of this country” as early as he could; adding, +presently, that he meant to go, though “it broke his heart to keep away +from a six months' rest at Steignton,” his Wiltshire estate. + +No woman was in the field. Lady Charlotte could have submitted to the +intrusion of one of those at times wholesome victims, for the sake of +the mollification the unhappy proud thing might bring to a hero smarting +under injustice at the hands of chiefs and authorities. + +He passed on to Steignton, returned to London, and left England for +Spain, as he wrote word, saying he hoped to settle at Steignton neat +year. He was absent the next year, and longer. Lady Charlotte had the +surprising news that Steignton was let, shooting and all, for five +years; and he had no appointment out of England or at home. When he +came to Olmer again he was under one of his fits of reserve, best +undisturbed. Her sympathy with a great soldier snubbed, an active man +rusting, kept her from remonstrance. + +Three years later she was made meditative by the discovery of a woman's +being absolutely in the field, mistress of the field; and having been +there for a considerable period, dating from about the time when he +turned his back on England to visit a comrade-in-arms condemned by the +doctors to pass the winter in Malaga; and it was a young woman, a girl +in her teens, a handsome girl. Handsome was to be expected; Ormont +bargained for beauty. But report said the girl was very handsome, and +showed breeding: she seemed a foreigner, walked like a Goddess, sat her +horse the perfect Amazon. Rumour called her a Spaniard. + +“Not if she rides!” Lady Charlotte cut that short. + +Rumour had subsequently more to say. The reporter in her ear did not +confirm it, and she was resolutely deaf to a story incredible of her +brother--the man, of all men living, proudest of his name, blood, +station. So proud was he by nature, too, that he disdained to complain +of rank injustice; he maintained a cheerful front against adversity and +obloquy. And this man of complete self-command, who has every form of +noble pride, gets cajoled like a twenty-year-old yahoo at college! Do +you imagine it? To suppose of a man cherishing the name of Ormont, that +he would bestow it legally on a woman, a stranger, and imperil his race +by mixing blood with a creature of unknown lineage, was--why, of course, +it was to suppose him struck mad, and there never had been madness among +the Ormonts: they were too careful of the purity of the strain. Lady +Charlotte talked. She was excited, and ran her sentences to blanks, +a cunning way for ministering consolation to her hearing, where the +sentence intended a question, and the blank ending caught up the query +tone and carried it dwindling away to the most distant of throttled +interrogatives. She had, in this manner, only to ask,--her hearing +received the comforting answer it desired; for she could take that thin +far sound as a travelling laughter of incredulity, triumphant derision. + +This meant to her--though she scarcely knew it, though the most wilful +of women declined to know it--a state of alarm. She had said of her +brother in past days that he would have his time of danger after +striking sixty. The dangerous person was to be young. + +But, then, Ormont had high principles with regard to the dues to his +family. His principles could always be trusted. The dangerous young +person would have to be a person of lineage, of a certain station at +least: no need for a titled woman, only for warranted good blood. Is +that to be found certificated out of the rolls of Society? It may +just possibly be found, without certificate, however, in those muddled +caverns where the excluded intermingle. Here and there, in a peasant +family, or a small country tradesman's just raised above a peasant, +honest regenerating blood will be found. Nobles wanting refreshment from +the soil might do worse than try a slip of one of those juicy weeds; +ill-fated, sickly Royalties would be set-up striding through another +half-century with such invigoration, if it could be done for them! +There are tales. The tales are honourably discredited by the crazy +constitutions of the heirs to the diadem. + +Yes, but we are speculating on the matter seriously, as though it were +one of intimate concern to the family. What is there to make us think +that Ormont would marry? Impossible to imagine him intimidated. Unlikely +that he, a practised reader of women, having so little of the woman in +him, would be melted by a wily girl; as women in the twilight situation +have often played the trick to come into the bright beams. How? They do +a desperate thing, and call it generosity, and then they appeal from +it to my lord's generosity; and so the two generosities drive off in +a close carriage with a friend and a professional landlady for the +blessing of the parson, and are legitimately united. Women have won +round fools to give way in that way. And quite right too! thought Lady +Charlotte, siding with nature and justice, as she reflected that no +woman created would win round her brother to give way in that way. He +was too acute. The moment the woman showed sign of becoming an actress, +her doom was written. “Poor idiot!” was not uncharitably inscribed by +the sisterly lady on the tombstone of hopes aimed with scarce pardonable +ambition at her brother. + +She blew away the rumour. Ormont, she vowed, had not entitled any woman +to share and bear his title. And this was her interpretation of the +report: he permitted (if he did permit) the woman to take his name, that +he might have a scornful fling at the world maltreating him. Besides, +the name was not published, it was not to be seen in the papers; it +passed merely among male friends, tradesmen, servants: no great harm in +that. + +Listen further. Here is an unknown girl: why should he marry her? A girl +consenting to the place beside a man of his handsome ripe age, is either +bought, or she is madly enamoured; she does not dictate terms. Ormont +is not of the brute buyers in that market. One sees it is the girl who +leads the dance. A girl is rarely so madly enamoured as when she falls +in love with her grandfather; she pitches herself at his head. This +had not happened for the first time in Ormont's case; and he had never +proposed marriage. Why should he do it now? + +But again, if the girl has breeding to some extent, he might think it +her due that she should pass under the safeguard of his name, out of +sight. + +Then, so far the report is trustworthy. We blow the rumour out of +belief. A young woman there is: she is not a wife. Lady Charlotte +allowed her the fairly respectable post of Hecate of the Shades, as long +as the girl was no pretender to the place and name in the upper sphere. +Her deductions were plausible, convincing to friends shaken by her +vehement manner of coming at them. She convinced herself by means of her +multitude of reasons for not pursuing inquiry. Her brother said nothing. +There was no need for him to speak. He seemed on one or two occasions in +the act of getting himself together for the communication of a secret; +and she made ready to listen hard, with ears, eyebrows, shut month, and +a gleam at the back of her eyes, for a signification of something she +would refer him to after he had spoken. He looked at her and held his +peace, or virtually held it,--that is, he said not one word on the +subject she was to have told him she had anticipated. Lady Charlotte +ascribed it to his recollection of the quick blusher, the pained +blusher, she was in her girlhood at mention or print of the story of men +and women. Who, not having known her, could conceive it! But who could +conceive that, behind the positive, plain-dealing, downright woman +of the world, there was at times, when a nerve was touched or an old +blocked path of imagination thrown open, a sensitive youthfulness; still +quick to blush as far as the skin of a grandmother matron might show it! + + + + +CHAPTER III. THE TUTOR + +There was no counting now on Lord Ormont's presence in the British +gathering seasons, when wheatears wing across our fields or swallows +return to their eaves. He forsook the hunt to roam the Continent, one +of the vulgar band of tourists, honouring town only when Mayflies had +flown, and London's indiscriminate people went about without their +volatile heads. + +Lady Charlotte put these changed conditions upon the behaviour of the +military authorities to her brother, saying that the wonder was he did +not shake the dust of his country from his feet. In her wise head she +rejoiced to think he was not the donkey she sketched for admiration; and +she was partly consoled, or played at the taking of a comfort needed in +her perpetual struggle with a phantom of a fact, by the reflection that +a young woman on his arm would tense him to feel himself more at home +abroad. Her mind's habit of living warmly beside him in separation was +vexed by the fixed intrusion of a female third person, who checked the +run of intimate chatter, especially damped the fancied talk over early +days--of which the creature was ignorant; and her propinquity to him +arrested or broke the dialogue Lady Charlotte invented and pressed to +renew. But a wife, while letting him be seen, would have insisted on +appropriating the thought of him--all his days, past as well as present. +An impassioned sister's jealousy preferred that it should not be a wife +reigning to dispute her share of her brother in imagination. + +Then came a rumour, telling of him as engaged upon the composition of +his Memoirs. + +Lady Charlotte's impulsive outcry: “Writing them?” signified her grounds +for alarm. + +Happily, Memoirs are not among the silly deeds done in a moment; they +were somewhere ahead and over the hills: a band of brigands rather than +a homely shining mansion, it was true; but distant; and a principal +question shrieked to know whether he was composing them for publication. +She could look forward with a girl's pleasure to the perusal of them +in manuscript, in a woody nook, in a fervour of partizanship, easily +avoiding sight of errors, grammatical or moral. She chafed at the +possible printing and publishing of them. That would be equivalent to an +exhibition of him clean-stripped for a run across London--brilliant in +himself, spotty in the offence. Published Memoirs indicate the end of +a man's activity, and that he acknowledges the end; and at a period of +Lord Ormont's life when the denial of it should thunder. They are his +final chapter, making mummy of the grand figure they wrap in the printed +stuff. They are virtually his apology. Can those knowing Lord Ormont +hear him apologize? But it is a craven apology if we stoop to expound: +we are seen as pleading our case before the public. Call it by any +name you please, and under any attitude, it is that. And set aside the +writing: it may be perfect; the act is the degradation. It is a rousing +of swarms. His friends and the public will see the proudest nobleman +of his day, pleading his case in mangled English, in the headlong of an +out-poured, undrilled, rabble vocabulary, doubling the ridicule by +his imperturbability over the ridicule he excites: he who is no more +ridiculous, cried the partizan sister, conjuring up the scene, not an +ace more ridiculous, than a judge of assize calling himself miserable +sinner on Sunday before the parson, after he has very properly condemned +half a score of weekday miserable sinners to penal servitude or the +rope. Nobody laughs at the judge. Everybody will be laughing at the +scornful man down half-way to his knee-cape with a stutter of an apology +for having done his duty to his country, after stigmatizing numbers for +inability or ill-will to do it. But Ormont's weapon is the sword, not a +pen! Lady Charlotte hunted her simile till the dogs had it or it ran to +earth. + +She struck at the conclusion, that the young woman had been persuading +him. An adoring young woman is the person to imagine and induce to the +commission of such folly. “What do you think? You have seen her, you +say?” she asked of a man she welcomed for his flavour of the worldling's +fine bile. + +Lord Adderwood made answer: “She may be having a hand in it. She +worships, and that is your way of pulling gods to the ground.” + +“Does she understand good English?” + +“Speaks it.” + +“Can she write?” + +“I have never had a letter from her.” + +“You tell me Morsfield admires the woman--would marry her to-morrow, if +he could get her.” + +“He would go through the ceremony Ormont has performed, I do not doubt.” + +“I don't doubt all of you are ready. She doesn't encourage one?” + +“On the contrary, all.” + +“She's clever. This has been going on for now seven years, and, as far +as I know, she has my brother fast.” + +“She may have done the clever trick of having him fast from the +beginning.” + +“She'd like people to think it.” + +“She has an aunt to advertise it.” + +“Ormont can't swallow the woman, I'm told.” + +“Trying, if one is bound to get her down!” + +“Boasts of the connection everywhere she's admitted, Randeller says.” + +“Randeller procures the admission to various parti-coloured places.” + +“She must be a blinking moll-owl! And I ask any sane Christian or +Pagan--proof enough!--would my brother Rowsley let his wife visit those +places, those people? Monstrous to have the suspicion that he would, you +know him! Mrs. Lawrence Finchley, for example. I say nothing to hurt the +poor woman; I back her against her imbecile of a husband. He brings a +charge he can't support; she punishes him by taking three years' lease +of independence and kicks up the grass all over the paddock, and then +comes cuckoo, barking his name abroad to have her home again. You can +win the shyest filly to corn at last. She goes, and he digests ruefully +the hotch-potch of a dish the woman brings him. Only the world spies a +side-head at her, husbanded or not, though the main fault was his, and +she had a right to insist that he should be sure of his charge before +he smacked her in the face with it before the world. In dealing with +a woman, a man commonly prudent--put aside chivalry, justice, and the +rest--should bind himself to disbelieve what he can't prove. Otherwise, +let him expect his whipping, with or without ornament. My opinion is, +Lawrence Finchley had no solid foundation for his charge, except his +being an imbecile. She wasn't one of the adventurous women to jump the +bars,--the gate had to be pushed open, and he did it. There she is; and +I ask you, would my brother Rowsley let his wife be intimate with her? +And there are others. And, sauf votre respect, the men--Morsfield for +one, Randeller another!” + +“They have a wholesome dread of the lion.” + +“If they smell a chance with the lion's bone--it's the sweeter for being +the lion's. These metaphors carry us off our ground. I must let these +Ormont Memoirs run and upset him, if they get to print. I've only to +oppose, printed they'll be. The same if I say a word of this woman, he +marries her to-morrow morning. You speak of my driving men. Why can't I +drive Ormont? Because I'm too fond of him. There you have the secret of +the subjection of women: they can hold their own, and a bit more, when +they've no enemy beating inside.” + +“Hearts!--ah, well, it's possible. I don't say no; I've not discovered +them,” Lord Adderwood observed. + +They are rarely discovered in the haunts he frequented. + +Her allusion to Mrs. Lawrence Finchley rapped him smartly, and she +admired his impassiveness under the stroke. Such a spectacle was one of +her pleasures. + +Lady Charlotte mentioned incidentally her want of a tutor for her +grandson Leo during the winter holidays. He suggested an application +to the clergyman of her parish. She was at feud with the Rev. Stephen +Hampton-Evey, and would not take, she said, a man to be a bootblack +in her backyard or a woman a scullery-wench in her kitchen upon his +recommendation. She described the person of Mr. Hampton-Evey, his manner +of speech, general opinions, professional doctrines; rolled him into a +ball and bowled him, with a shrug for lamentation, over the decay of the +good old order of manly English Protestant clergymen, who drank their +port, bothered nobody about belief, abstained from preaching their +sermon, if requested; were capital fellows in the hunting-field, too; +for if they came, they had the spur to hunt in the devil's despite. +Now we are going to have a kind of bitter, clawed, forked female, in +vestments over breeches. “How do you like that bundling of the sexes?” + +Lord Adderwood liked the lines of division to be strictly and invitingly +definite. He was thinking, as he reviewed the frittered appearance +of the Rev. Stephen Hampton-Evey in Lady Charlotte's hinds, of the +possibility that Lord Ormont, who was reputed to fear nobody, feared +her. In which case, the handsome young woman passing among his +associates as the pseudo Lady Ormont might be the real one after all, +and Isabella Lawrence Finchley prove right in the warning she gave to +dogs of chase. + +The tutor required by Lady Charlotte was found for her by Mr. Abner. +Their correspondence on the subject filled the space of a week, and then +the gentleman hired to drive a creaky wheel came down from London to +Olmer, arriving late in the evening. + +Lady Charlotte's blunt “Oh!” when he entered her room and bowed upon the +announcement of his name, was caused by an instantaneous perception and +refection that it would be prudent to keep her grand-daughter Philippa, +aged between seventeen and eighteen, out of his way. + +“You are friend of Mr. Abner's, are you?” + +He was not disconcerted. He replied, in an assured and pleasant voice, +“I have hardly the pretension to be called a friend, madam.” + +“Are you a Jew?” + +Her abruptness knocked something like a laugh almost out of him, but he +restrained the signs of it. + +“I am not.” + +“You wouldn't be ashamed to tell me you were one if you were?” + +“Not at all.” + +“You like the Jews?” + +“Those I know I like.” + +“Not many Christians have the good sense and the good heart of Arthur +Abner. Now go and eat. Come back to me when you've done. I hope you are +hungry. Ask the butler for the wine you prefer.” + +She had not anticipated the enrolment in her household of a man so young +and good-looking. These were qualifications for Cupid's business, which +his unstrained self-possession accentuated to a note of danger to her +chicks, because she liked the taste of him. Her grand-daughter Philippa +was in the girl's waxen age; another, Beatrice, was coming to it. Both +were under her care; and she was a vigilant woman, with an intuition +and a knowledge of sex. She did not blame Arthur Abner for sending her +a good-looking young man; she had only a general idea that tutors in a +house, and even visiting tutors, should smell of dust and wear a snuffy +appearance. The conditions will not always insure the tutors from +foolishness, as her girl's experience reminded her, but they protect the +girl. + +“Your name is Weyburn; your father was an officer in the army, killed +on the battle-field, Arthur Abner tells me,” was her somewhat +severely-toned greeting to the young tutor on his presenting himself the +second time. + +It had the sound of the preliminary of an indictment read in a Court of +Law. + +“My father died of his wounds in hospital,” he said. + +“Why did you not enter the service?” + +“Want of an income, my lady.” + +“Bad look-out. Army or Navy for gentlemen, if they stick to the school +of honour. The sedentary professions corrupt men: bad for the blood. +Those monastery monks found that out. They had to birch the devil out of +them three times a day and half the night, howling like full-moon dogs +all through their lives, till the flesh was off them. That was their +exercise, if they were for holiness. My brother, Lord Ormont, has never +been still in his youth or his manhood. See him now. He counts his years +by scores; and he has about as many wrinkles as you when you're smiling. +His cheeks are as red as yours now you're blushing. You ought to have +left off that trick by this time. It's well enough in a boy.” + +Against her will she was drawn to the young man, and her consciousness +of it plucked her back to caution with occasional jerks--quaint +alternations of the familiar and the harshly formal, in the stranger's +experience. + +“If I have your permission, Lady Charlotte,” said he, “the reason why I +mount red a little--if I do it--is, you mention Lord Ormont, and I have +followed his career since I was the youngest of boys.” + +“Good to begin with the worship of a hero. He can't sham, can't +deceive--not even a woman; and you're old enough to understand the +temptation: they're so silly. All the more, it's a point of honour with +a man of honour to shield her from herself. When it's a girl--” + +The young man's eyebrows bent. + +“Chapters of stories, if you want to hear them,” she resumed; “and I can +vouch some of them true. Lord Ormont was never one of the wolves in a +hood. Whatever you hear of him; you may be sure he laid no trap. He's +just the opposite to the hypocrite; so hypocrites date him. I've heard +them called high-priests of decency. Then we choose to be indecent +and honest, if there's a God to worship. Fear, they're in the habit of +saying--we are to fear God. A man here, a Rev. Hampton-Evey, you'll hear +him harp on 'fear God.' Hypocrites may: honest sinners have no fear. And +see the cause: they don't deceive themselves--that is why. Do you think +we call love what we fear? They love God, or they disbelieve. And if +they believe in Him, they know they can't conceal anything from Him. +Honesty means piety: we can't be one without the other. And here are +people--parsons--who talk of dying as going into the presence of our +Maker, as if He had been all the while outside the world He created. +Those parsons, I told the Rev. Hampton-Evey here, make infidels--they +make a puzzle of their God. I'm for a rational Deity. They preach up a +supernatural eccentric. I don't say all: I've heard good sermons, and +met sound-headed clergymen--not like that gaping Hampton-Evey, when +a woman tells him she thinks for herself. We have him sitting on our +pariah. A free-thinker startles him as a kind of demon; but a female +free-thinker is one of Satan's concubines. He took it upon himself to +reproach me--flung his glove at my feet, because I sent a cheque to a +poor man punished for blasphemy. The man had the right to his opinions, +and he had the courage of his opinions. I doubt whether the Rev. +Hampton-Evey would go with a willing heart to prison for his. All the +better for him if he comes head-up out of a trial. But now see: all +these parsons and judges and mobcaps insist upon conformity. A man with +common manly courage comes before them, and he's cast in penalties. +Yet we know from history, in England, France, Germany, that the time +of nonconformity brought out the manhood of the nation. Now, I say, a +nation, to be a nation, must have men--I mean brave men. That's what +those hosts of female men combine to try to stifle. They won't succeed, +but we shall want a war to teach the country the value of courage. You +catch what I am driving at? They accuse my brother of immorality because +he makes no pretence to be better than the men of his class.” + +Weyburn's eyelids fluttered. Her kite-like ascent into the general, with +the sudden drop on her choice morsel, switched his humour at the moment +when he was respectfully considering that her dartings and gyrations had +motive as mach as the flight of the swallow for food. They had meaning; +and here was one of the great ladies of the land who thought for +herself, and was thoughtful for the country. If she came down like a +bird winged, it was her love of her brother that did it. His look at +Lady Charlotte glistened. + +She raised her defences against the basilisk fascinating Philippa; +and with a vow to keep them apart and deprive him of his chance, she +relapsed upon the stiff frigidity which was not natural to her. It +lasted long enough to put him on his guard under the seductions of a +noble dame's condescension to a familiar tone. But, as he was too well +bred to show the change in his mind for her change of manner, and as she +was the sister of his boyhood's hero, and could be full of flavour, his +eyes retained something of their sparkle. They were ready to lighten +again, in the way peculiar to him, when she, quite forgetting her +defence of Philippa, disburdened herself of her antagonisms and +enthusiasms, her hates and her loves all round the neighbourhood and +over the world, won to confidential communication by this young man's +face. She confessed as much, had he been guided to perceive it. She +said, “Arthur Abner's a reader of men: I can trust his word about them.” + +Presently, it is true, she added: “No man's to be relied upon where +there's a woman.” She refused her implicit trust to saints--“if ever a +man really was a saint before he was canonized!” + +Her penetrative instinct of sex kindled the scepticism. Sex she saw +at play everywhere, dogging the conduct of affairs, directing them at +times; she saw it as the animation of nature, senselessly stigmatized, +hypocritically concealed, active in our thoughts where not in our deeds; +and the declining of the decorous to see it, or admit the sight, got +them abhorred bad names from her, after a touch at the deadly poison +coming of that blindness, or blindfoldedness, and a grimly melancholy +shrug over the cruelties resulting--cruelties chiefly affecting women. + +“You're too young to have thought upon such matters,” she said, for a +finish to them. + +That was hardly true. + +“I have thought,” said Weyburn, and his head fell to reckoning of the +small sum of his thoughts upon them. + +He was pulled up instantly for close inspection by the judge. “What is +your age?” + +“I am in my twenty-sixth year.” + +“You have been among men: have you studied women?” + +“Not largely, Lady Charlotte. Opportunity has been wanting at French and +German colleges.” + +“It's only a large and a close and a pretty long study of them that can +teach you anything; and you must get rid of the poetry about them, and +be sure you haven't lost it altogether. That's what is called the golden +mean. I'm not for the golden mean in every instance; it's a way of +exhorting to brutal selfishness. I grant it's the right way in those +questions. You'll learn in time.” Her scanning gaze at the young man's +face drove him along an avenue of his very possible chances of learning. +“Certain to. But don't tell me that at your age you have thought about +women. You may say you have felt. A young man's feelings about women are +better reading for him six or a dozen chapters farther on. Then he can +sift and strain. It won't be perfectly clear, but it will do.” + +Mr. Eglett hereupon threw the door open, and ushered in Master Leo. + +Lady Charlotte noticed that the tutor shook the boy's hand offhandedly, +with not a whit of the usual obtrusive geniality, and merely dropped him +a word. Soon after, he was talking to Mr. Eglett of games at home and +games abroad. Poor fun over there! We head the world in field games, at +all events. He drew a picture of a foreigner of his acquaintance looking +on at football. On the other hand, French boys and German, having passed +a year or two at an English school, get the liking for our games, and +do a lot of good when they go home. The things we learn from them are +to dance, to sing, and to study:--they are more in earnest than we about +study. They teach us at fencing too. The tutor praised fencing as an +exercise and an accomplishment. He had large reserves of eulogy for +boxing. He knew the qualities of the famous bruisers of the time, cited +fisty names, whose owners were then to be seen all over an admiring +land in prints; in the glorious defensive-offensive attitude, England's +own--Touch me, if you dare! with bullish, or bull-dog, or oak-bole +fronts for the blow, handsome to pugilistic eyes. + +The young tutor had lighted on a pet theme of Mr. Eglett's--the +excelling virtues of the practice of pugilism in Old England, and the +school of honour that it is to our lower population. “Fifty times better +for them than cock-fighting,” he exclaimed, admitting that he could be +an interested spectator at a ring or the pit cock-fighting or ratting. + +“Ratting seems to have more excuse,” the tutor said, and made no sign of +a liking for either of those popular pastimes. As he disapproved without +squeamishness, the impulsive but sharply critical woman close by nodded; +and she gave him his dues for being no courtier. + +Leo had to be off to bed. The tutor spared him any struggle over +the shaking of hands, and saying, “Goodnight, Leo,” continued the +conversation. The boy went away, visibly relieved of the cramp that +seizes on a youngster at the formalities pertaining to these chilly and +fateful introductions. + +“What do you think of the look of him?” Mr. Eglett asked. + +The tutor had not appeared to inspect the boy. “Big head,” he remarked. +“Yes, Leo won't want pushing at books when he's once in harness. He +will have six weeks of me. It's more than the yeomanry get for drill +per annum, and they're expected to know something of a soldier's duties. +There's a chance of putting him on the right road in certain matters. +We'll walk, or ride, or skate, if the frost holds to-morrow: no lessons +the first day.” + +“Do as you think fit,” said lady Charlotte. + +The one defect she saw in the tutor did not concern his pupil. And a +girl, if hit, would be unable to see that this tutor, judged as a man, +was to some extent despicable for accepting tutorships, and, one might +say, dishonouring the family of a soldier of rank and distinction, +by coming into houses at the back way, with footing enough to air his +graces when once established there. He ought to have knocked at every +door in the kingdom for help, rather than accept tutorships, and disturb +households (or providently-minded mistresses of them) with all sorts of +probably groundless apprehensions, founded naturally enough on the good +looks he intrudes. + +This tutor committed the offence next day of showing he had a firm and +easy seat in the saddle, which increased Lady Charlotte's liking for him +and irritated her watchful forecasts. She rode with the young man after +lunch, “to show him the country,” and gave him a taste of what he took +for her variable moods. He misjudged her. Like a swimmer going +through warm and cold springs of certain lake waters, he thought her a +capricious ladyship, dangerous for intimacy, alluring to the deeps and +gripping with cramps. + +She pushed him to defend his choice of the tutor's profession. + +“Think you understand boys?” she caught up his words; “you can't. You +can humour them, as you humour women. They're just as hard to read. And +don't tell me a young man can read women. Boys and women go on their +instincts. Egyptologists can spell you hieroglyphs; they'd be stumped, +as Leo would say, to read a spider out of an ink-pot over a sheet of +paper.” + +“One gets to interpret by degrees, by observing their habits,” the tutor +said, and vexed her with a towering complacency under provocation that +went some way further to melt the woman she was, while her knowledge of +the softness warned her still more of the duty of playing dragon round +such a young man in her house. The despot is alert at every issue, to +every chance; and she was one, the wakefuller for being benevolent; her +mind had no sleep by day. + +For a month she subjected Mr. Matthew Weyburn to the microscope of +her observation and the probe of her instinct. He proved that he could +manage without cajoling a boy. The practical fact established, by +agreement between herself and the unobservant gentleman who was her +husband, Lady Charlotte allowed her meditations to drop an indifferent +glance at the speculative views upon education entertained by this young +tutor. To her mind they were flighty; but she liked him, and as her +feelings dictated to her mind when she had not to think for others, she +spoke of his views toleratingly, almost with an implied approval, after +passing them through the form of burlesque to which she customarily +treated things failing to waft her enthusiasm. In regard to Philippa, +he behaved well: he bestowed more of his attention on Beatrice, nearer +Leo's age, in talk about games and story-books and battles; nothing that +he did when the girls were present betrayed the strutting plumed cock, +bent to attract, or the sickly reptile, thirsty for a prize above him +and meaning to have it, like Satan in Eden. Still, of course, he could +not help his being a handsome fellow, having a vivid face and eyes +transparent, whether blue or green, to flame of the brain exciting them; +and that becomes a picture in the dream of girls--a picture creating the +dream often. And Philippa had asked her grandmother, very ingenuously +indeed, with a most natural candour, why “they saw so little of Leo's +hero.” Simple female child! + +However, there was no harm done, and Lady Charlotte liked him. She liked +few. Forthwith, in the manner of her particular head, a restless head, +she fell to work at combinations. + +Thus:--he is a nice young fellow, well bred, no cringing courtier, +accomplished, good at classics, fairish at mathematics, a scholar in +French, German, Italian, with a shrewd knowledge of the different races, +and with sound English sentiment too, and the capacity for writing good +English, although in those views of his the ideas are unusual, therefore +un-English, profoundly so. But his intentions are patriotic; they would +not displease Lord Ormont. He has a worship of Lord Ormont. All we +can say on behalf of an untried inferior is in that,--only the valiant +admire devotedly. Well, he can write grammatical, readable English. What +if Lord Ormont were to take him as a secretary while the Memoirs are +in hand? He might help to chasten the sentences laughed at by those +newspapers. Or he might, being a terrible critic of writing, and funny +about styles, put it in an absurd light, that would cause the Memoirs +to be tossed into the fire. He was made for the post of secretary! The +young man's good looks would be out of harm's way then. If any sprig of +womankind come across him there, it will, at any rate, not be a girl. +Women must take care of themselves. Only the fools among them run to +mischief in the case of a handsome young fellow. + +Supposing a certain woman to be one of the fools? Lady Charlotte merely +suggested it in the dashing current of her meditations--did not strike +it out interrogatively. The woman would be a fine specimen among her +class; that was all. For the favourite of Lord Ormont to stoop from +her place beside him--ay, but women do; heroes have had the woeful +experience of that fact. First we see them aiming themselves at their +hero; next they are shooting an eye at the handsome man. The thirst of +nature comes after that of their fancy, in conventional women. Sick of +the hero tried, tired of their place in the market, no longer ashamed to +acknowledge it, they begin to consult their own taste for beauty--they +have it quite as much as the men have it; and when their worshipped +figure of manliness, in a romantic sombrero, is a threadbare giant, +showing bruises, they sink on their inherent desire for a dance with the +handsome man. And the really handsome man is the most extraordinary of +the rarities. No wonder that when he appears he slays them, walks over +them like a pestilence! + +This young Weyburn would touch the fancy of a woman of a romantic turn. +Supposing her enthusiastic in her worship of the hero, after a number +of years--for anything may be imagined where a woman is concerned--why, +another enthusiasm for the same object, and on the part of a stranger, +a stranger with effective eyes, rapidly leads to sympathy. Suppose the +reverse--the enthusiasm gone to dust, or become a wheezy old bellows, as +it does where there's disparity of age, or it frequently does--then the +sympathy with a good-looking stranger comes more rapidly still. + +These were Lady Charlotte's glances right and left--idle flights of the +eye of a mounted Amazon across hedges at the canter along the main road +of her scheme; which was to do a service to the young man she liked +and to the brother she loved, for the marked advantage of both equally; +perhaps for the chance of a little gossip to follow about that tenacious +woman by whom her brother was held hard and fast, kept away from friends +and relatives, isolated, insomuch as to have given up living on his +estate--the old home!--because he would not disgrace it or incur odium +by taking her there. + +In consequence of Lord Ormont's resistance to pressure from her on two +or three occasions, she chose to nurse and be governed by the maxim for +herself: Never propose a plan to him, if you want it adopted. That was +her way of harmlessly solacing love's vindictiveness for an injury. + +She sent Arthur Abner a letter, thanking him for his recommendation of +young Mr. Weyburn, stating her benevolent wishes as regarded the young +man and “those hateful Memoirs,” requesting that her name should not be +mentioned in the affair, because she was anxious on all grounds to have +the proposal accepted by her brother. She could have vowed to herself +that she wrote sincerely. + +“He must want a secretary. He would be shy at an offer of one from me. +Do you hint it, if you get a chance. You gave us Mr. Weyburn, and Mr. +Eglett and I like him. Ormont would too, I am certain. You have obliged +him before; this will be better than anything you have done for us. It +will stop the Memoirs, or else give them a polish. Your young friend +has made me laugh over stuff taken for literature until we put on our +spectacles. Leo jogs along in harness now, and may do some work at +school yet.” + +Having posted her letter, she left the issue to chance, as we may when +conscience is easy. An answer came the day before Weyburn's departure. +Arthur Abner had met Lord Ormont in the street, had spoken of the rumour +of Memoirs promised to the world, hinted at the possible need for a +secretary; “Lord Ormont would appoint a day to see Mr. Weyburn.” + +Lady Charlotte considered that to be as good as the engagement. + +“So we keep you in the family,” she said. “And now look here: you ought +to know my brother's ways, if you're going to serve him. You'll have to +guess at half of everything he tells you; he'll expect you to know the +whole. There's no man so secret. Why? He fears nothing; I can't tell +why. And what his mouth shuts on, he exposes as if in his hand. Of +course he's proud, and good reason. You'll see when you mustn't offend. +A lady's in the house--I hear of it. She takes his name, they say. She +may be a respectable woman--I've heard no scandal. We have to hear of a +Lady Ormont out of Society! We have to suppose it means there's not to +be a real one. He can't marry if he has allowed her to go about bearing +his name. She has a fool of an aunt, I'm told; as often in the house +as not. Good proof of his fondness for the woman, if he swallows half +a year of the aunt! Well, you won't, unless you've mere man's eyes, be +able to help seeing him trying to hide what he suffers from that aunt. +He bears it, like the man he is; but woe to another betraying it! She +has a tongue that goes like the reel of a rod, with a pike bolting out +of the shallows to the snag he knows--to wind round it and defy you to +pull. Often my brother Rowsley and I have fished the day long, and in +hard weather, and brought home a basket; and he boasted of it more than +of anything he has ever done since. That woman holds him away from me +now. I say no harm of her. She may be right enough from her point of +view; or it mayn't be owing to her. I wouldn't blame a woman. Well, +but my point with you is, you swallow the woman's aunt--the lady's +aunt--without betraying you suffer at all. Lord Ormont has eyes of an +eagle for a speck above the surface. All the more because the aunt is a +gabbling idiot does he--I say it seeing it--fire up to defend her from +the sneer of the lip or half a sign of it! No, you would be an your +guard; I can trust you. Of course you'd behave like the gentleman you +are where any kind of woman's concerned; but you mustn't let a shadow +be seen, think what you may. The woman--lady--calling herself Lady +Ormont,--poor woman, I should do the same in her place,--she has a hard +game to play; I have to be for my family: she has manners, I'm told; +holds herself properly. She fancies she brings him up to the altar, in +the end, by decent behaviour. That's a delusion. It's creditable to her, +only she can't understand the claims of the family upon a man like +my brother. When you have spare time--'kick-ups,' he need to call it, +writing to me from school--come here; you're welcome, after three days' +notice. I shall be glad to see you again. You've gone some way to make a +man of Leo.” + +He liked her well: he promised to come. She was a sinewy bite of the +gentle sex, but she had much flavour, and she gave nourishment. + +“Let me have three days' notice,” she repeated. + +“Not less, Lady Charlotte,” said he. + +Weyburn received intimation from Arthur Abner of the likely day Lord +Ormont would appoint, and he left Olmer for London to hold himself in +readiness. Lady Charlotte and Leo drove him to meet the coach. Philippa, +so strangely baffled in her natural curiosity, begged for a seat; she +begged to be allowed to ride. Petitions were rejected. She stood at +the window seeing “Grandmama's tutor,” as she named him, carried off by +grandmama. Her nature was avenged on her tyrant grandmama: it brought +up almost to her tongue thoughts which would have remained subterranean, +under control of her habit of mind, or the nursery's modesty, if she +had been less tyrannically treated. They were subterranean thoughts, +Nature's original, such as the sense of injustice will rouse in young +women; and they are better unstirred, for they ripen girls over-rapidly +when they are made to revolve near the surface. It flashed on the girl +why she had been treated tyrannically. + +“Grandmama has good taste in tutors,” was all that she said while the +thoughts rolled over. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. RECOGNITION + +Our applicant for the post of secretary entered the street of Lord +Ormont's London house, to present himself to his boyhood's hero by +appointment. + +He was to see, perhaps to serve, the great soldier. Things had come to +this; and he thought it singular. But for the previous introduction to +Lady Charlotte, he would have thought it passing wonderful. He ascribed +it to the whirligig. + +The young man was not yet of an age to gather knowledge of himself +and of life from his present experience of the fact, that passionate +devotion to an object strikes a vein through circumstances, as a +travelling run of flame darts the seeming haphazard zigzags to catch +at the dry of dead wood amid the damp; and when passion has become +quiescent in the admirer, there is often the unsubsided first impulsion +carrying it on. He will almost sorely embrace his idol with one or other +of the senses. + +Weyburn still read the world as it came to him, by bite, marvelling at +this and that, after the fashion of most of us. He had not deserted his +adolescent's hero, or fallen upon analysis of a past season. But he was +now a young man, stoutly and cognizantly on the climb, with a good aim +overhead, axed green youth's enthusiasms a step below his heels: one +of the lovers of life, beautiful to behold, when we spy into them; +generally their aspect is an enlivenment, whatever may be the carving +of their features. For the sake of holy unity, this lover of life, +whose gaze was to the front in hungry animation, held fast to his young +dreams, perceiving a soul of meaning in them, though the fire might have +gone out; and he confessed to a past pursuit of delusions. Young men of +this kind will have, for the like reason, a similar rational sentiment +on behalf of our world's historic forward march, while admitting that +history has to be taken from far backward if we would gain assurance of +man's advance. It nerves an admonished ambition. + +He was ushered into a London house's library, looking over a niggard +enclosure of gravel and dull grass, against a wall where ivy dribbled. +An armchair was beside the fireplace. To right and left of it a floreate +company of books in high cases paraded shoulder to shoulder, without +a gap; grenadiers on the line. Weyburn read the titles on their +scarlet-and-blue facings. They were approved English classics; honoured +veterans, who have emerged from the conflict with contemporary opinion, +stamped excellent, or have been pushed by the roar of contemporaneous +applauses to wear the leather-and-gilt uniform of our Immortals, until +a more qualmish posterity disgorges them. The books had costly bindings. +Lord Ormont's treatment of Literature appeared to resemble Lady +Charlotte's, in being reverential and uninquiring. The books she bought +to read were Memoirs of her time by dead men and women once known to +her. These did fatigue duty in cloth or undress. It was high drill with +all of Lord Ormont's books, and there was not a modern or a minor name +among the regiments. They smelt strongly of the bookseller's lump lots +by order; but if a show soldiery, they were not a sham, like a certain +row of venerably-titled backs, that Lady Charlotte, without scruple, +left standing to blow an ecclesiastical trumpet of empty contents; any +one might have his battle of brains with them, for the twining of an +absent key. + +The door opened. Weyburn bowed to his old star in human shape: a grey +head on square shoulders, filling the doorway. He had seen at Olmer +Lady Charlotte's treasured miniature portrait of her brother; a perfect +likeness, she said--complaining the neat instant of injustice done to +the fire of his look. + +Fire was low down behind the eyes at present. They were quick to scan +and take summary of their object, as the young man felt while observing +for himself. Height and build of body were such as might be expected in +the brother of Lady Charlotte and from the tales of his prowess. Weyburn +had a glance back at Cuper's boys listening to the tales. + +The soldier-lord's manner was courteously military--that of an +established superior indifferent to the deferential attitude he must +needs enact. His curt nick of the head, for a response to the visitor's +formal salutation, signified the requisite acknowledgment, like a city +creditor's busy stroke of the type-stamp receipt upon payment. + +The ceremony over, he pitched a bugle voice to fit the contracted area: +“I hear from Mr. Abner that you have made acquaintance with Olmer. Good +hunting country there.” + +“Lady Charlotte kindly gave me a mount, my lord.” + +“I knew your father by name--Colonel Sidney Weyburn. You lost him at +Toulouse. We were in the Peninsula; I was at Talavera with him. Bad day +for our cavalry.” + +“Our officers were young at their work then.” + +“They taught the Emperor's troops to respect a charge of English horse. +It was teaching their fox to set traps for them.” + +Lord Ormont indicated a chair. He stood. + +“The French had good cavalry leaders,” Weyburn said, for cover to a +continued study of the face, + +“Montbrun, yes: Murat, Lassalle, Bessieres. Under the Emperor they had.” + +“You think them not at home in the saddle, my lord?” + +“Frenchmen have nerves; horses are nerves. They pile excitement too +high. When cool, they're among the best. None of them had head for +command of all the arms.” + +“One might say the same of Seidlitz and Ziethen?” + +“Of Ziethen. Seidlitz had a wider grasp, I suppose.” He pursed his +month, pondering. “No; and in the Austrian service, too; generals +of cavalry are left to whistle for an independent command. There's a +jealousy of our branch!” The injured warrior frowned and hummed. He +spoke his thought mildly: “Jealousy of the name of soldier in this +country! Out of the service, is the place to recommend. I'd have advised +a son of mine to train for a jockey rather than enter it. We deal with +that to-morrow, in my papers. You come to me? Mr. Abner has arranged +the terms? So I see you at ten in the morning. I am glad to meet a young +man--Englishman--who takes an interest in the service.” + +Weyburn fancied the hearing of a step; he heard the whispering dress. It +passed him; a lady went to the armchair. She took her seat, as she had +moved, with sedateness, the exchange of a toneless word with my lord. +She was a brune. He saw that when he rose to do homage. + +Lord Ormont resumed: “Some are born to it, must be soldiers; and in +peace they are snubbed by the heads; in war they are abused by the +country. They don't understand in England how to treat an army; how to +make one either! + +“The gentleman--Mr. Weyburn: Mr. Arthur Abner's recommendation,” he +added hurriedly, with a light wave of his hand and a murmur, that might +be the lady's title; continuing: “A young man of military tastes should +take service abroad. They're in earnest about it over there. Here +they play at it; and an army's shipped to land without commissariat, +ambulances, medical stores, and march against the odds, as usual--if it +can march! + +“Albuera, my lord?” + +“Our men can spurt, for a flick o' the whip. They're expected to be +constantly ready for doing prodigies--to repair the country's omissions. +All the country cares for is to hope Dick Turpin may get to York. Our +men are good beasts; they give the best in 'em, and drop. More's the +scandal to a country that has grand material and overtasks it. A blazing +disaster ends the chapter!” + +This was talk of an injured veteran. It did not deepen the hue of his +ruddied skin. He spoke in the tone of matter of fact. Weyburn had been +prepared for something of the sort by his friend, Arthur Abner. He noted +the speaker's heightened likeness under excitement to Lady Charlotte. +Excitement came at an early call of their voices to both; and both +had handsome, open features, bluntly cut, nothing of aquiline or the +supercilious; eyes bluish-grey, in arched recesses, horny between +the thick lids, lively to shoot their meaning when the trap-mouth was +active; effectively expressing promptitute for combat, pleasure in +attack, wrestle, tag, whatever pertained to strife; an absolute sense of +their right. + +As there was a third person present at this dissuasion of military +topics, the silence of the lady drew Weyburn to consult her opinion in +her look. + +It was on him. Strange are the woman's eyes which can unoffendingly +assume the privilege to dwell on such a living object as a man without +become gateways for his return look, and can seem in pursuit of thoughts +while they enfold. They were large dark eyes, eyes of southern night. +They sped no shot; they rolled forth an envelopment. A child among toys, +caught to think of other toys, may gaze in that way. But these were a +woman's eyes. + +He gave Lord Ormont his whole face, as an auditor should. He was +interested besides, as he told a ruffled conscience. He fell upon the +study of his old hero determinedly. + +The pain of a memory waking under pillows, unable to do more than strain +for breath, distracted his attention. There was a memory: that was +all he knew. Or else he would have lashed himself for hanging on the +beautiful eyes of a woman. To be seeing and hearing his old hero was +wonder enough. + +Recollections of Lady Charlotte's plain hints regarding the lady present +resolved to the gross retort, that her eyes were beautiful. And he knew +them--there lay the strangeness. They were known beautiful eyes, in a +foreign land of night and mist. + +Lord Ormont was discoursing with racy eloquence of our hold on India: +his views in which respect were those of Cuper's boys. Weyburn ventured +a dot-running description of the famous ride, and out flew an English +soldier's grievance. But was not the unjustly-treated great soldier well +rewarded, whatever the snubs and the bitterness, with these large dark +eyes in his house, for his own? Eyes like these are the beginning of +a young man's world; they nerve, inspire, arm him, colour his life; he +would labour, fight, die for them. It seemed to Weyburn a blessedness +even to behold them. So it had been with him at the early stage; and his +heart went swifter, memory fetched a breath. Memory quivered eyelids, +when the thought returned--of his having known eyes as lustrous. +First lights of his world, they had more volume, warmth, mystery--were +sweeter. Still, these in the room were sisters to them. They quickened +throbs; they seemed a throb of the heart made visible. + +That was their endowment of light and lustre simply, and the mystical +curve of the lids. For so they could look only because the heart was +disengaged from them. They were but heavenly orbs. + +The lady's elbow was on an arm of her chair, her forefinger at her +left temple. Her mind was away, one might guess; she could hardly be +interested in talk of soldiering and of foreign army systems, jealous +English authorities and officials, games, field-sports. She had personal +matters to think of. + +Adieu until to-morrow to the homes she inhabited! The street was a +banishment and a relief when Weyburn's first interview with Lord Ormont +was over. + +He rejoiced to tell his previous anticipations that he had not been +disappointed; and he bade hero-worshippers expect no gilded figure. We +gather heroes as we go, if we are among the growing: our constancy is +shown in the not discarding of our old ones. He held to his earlier +hero, though he had seen him, and though he could fancy he saw round +him. + +Another, too, had been a hero-lover. How did that lady of night's eyes +come to fall into her subjection? + +He put no question as to the name she bore; it hung in a black +suspense--vividly at its blackest illuminated her possessor. A man is +a hero to some effect who wins a woman like this; and, if his glory +bespells her, so that she flings all to the winds for him, burns the +world; if, for solely the desperate rapture of belonging to him, she +consents of her free will to be one of the nameless and discoloured, he +shines in a way to make the marrow of men thrill with a burning envy. +For that must be the idolatrous devotion desired by them all. + +Weyburn struck down upon his man's nature--the bad in us, when beauty +of woman is viewed; or say, the old original revolutionary, best kept +untouched; for a touch or a meditative pause above him, fetches him up +to roam the civilized world devouringly and lawlessly. It is the special +peril of the young lover of life, that an inflammability to beauty in +women is in a breath intense with him. He is, in truth, a thinly-sealed +volcano of our imperishable ancient father; and has it in him to be the +multitudinously-amorous of the mythologic Jove. Give him head, he can be +civilization's devil. Is she fair and under a shade?--then is she doubly +fair. The shadow about her secretes mystery, just as the forest breeds +romance: and mystery is a measureless realm. If we conceive it, we have +a mysterious claim on her who is the heart of it. + +He marched on that road to the music of sonorous brass for some drunken +minutes. + +The question came, What of the man who takes advantage of her +self-sacrifice? + +It soon righted him, and he did Lord Ormont justice, and argued the case +against Lady Charlotte's naked hints. + +This dark-eyed heroine's bearing was assured, beyond an air of +dependency. Her deliberate short nod to him at his leave-taking, and the +toneless few words she threw to my lord, signified sufficiently that she +did not stand defying the world or dreading it. + +She had by miracle the eyes which had once charmed him--could +again--would always charm. She reminded him of Aminta Farrell's very +eyes under the couchant-dove brows--something of her mouth, the dimple +running from a corner. She had, as Aminta had, the self-collected and +self-cancelled look, a realm in a look, that was neither depth nor +fervour, nor a bestowal, nor an allurement; nor was it an exposure, +though there seemed no reserve. One would be near the meaning in +declaring it to bewilder men with the riddle of openhandedness. We read +it--all may read it--as we read inexplicable plain life; in which let +us have a confiding mind, despite the blows at our heart, and some +understanding will enter us. + +He shut the door upon picture and speculations, returning to them by +another door. The lady had not Aminta's freshness: she might be taken +for an elder sister of Aminta. But Weyburn wanted to have her position +defined before he set her beside Aminta. He writhed under Lady +Charlotte's tolerating scorn of “the young woman.” It roused an uneasy +sentiment of semi-hostility in the direction of my lord; and he had no +personal complaint to make. + +Lord Ormont was cordial on the day of the secretary's installation; as +if--if one might dare to guess it--some one had helped him to a friendly +judgement. + +The lady of Aminta's eyes was absent at the luncheon table. She came +into the room a step, to speak to Lord Ormont, dressed for a drive to +pay a visit. + +The secretary was unnoticed. + +Lord Ormont put inquiries to him at table, for the why of his having +avoided the profession of arms; and apparently considered that the +secretary had made a mistake, and that he would have committed a greater +error in becoming a soldier--“in this country.” A man with a grievance +is illogical under his burden. He mentioned the name “Lady Ormont” + distinctly during some remarks on travel. Lady Ormont preferred the +Continent. + +Two days later she came to the armchair, as before, met Weyburn's eyes +when he raised them; gave him no home in hers--not a temporary shelter +from the pelting of interrogations. She hardly spoke. Why did she come? + +But how was it that he was drawn to think of her? Absent or present, +she was round him, like the hills of a valley. She was round his +thoughts--caged them; however high, however far they flew, they were +conscious of her. + +She took her place at the midday meal. She had Aminta's voice in some +tones; a mellower than Aminta's--the voice of one of Aminta's family. +She had the trick of Aminta's upper lip in speaking. Her look on him was +foreign; a civil smile as they conversed. She was very much at home with +my lord, whom she rallied for his addiction to his Club at a particular +hour of the afternoon. She conversed readily. She reminded him, +incidentally that her aunt would arrive early next day. He informed her, +some time after, of an engagement “to tiffin with a brother officer,” + and she nodded. + +They drove away together while the secretary was at his labour of +sorting the heap of autobiographical scraps in a worn dispatch-box, pen +and pencil jottings tossed to swell the mess when they had relieved +an angry reminiscence. He noticed, heedlessly at the moment, feminine +handwriting on some few clear sheets among them. + +Next day he was alone in the library. He sat before the box, opened it +and searched, merely to quiet his annoyance for having left those sheets +of the fair amanuensis unexamined. They were not discoverable. They had +gone. + +He stood up at the stir of the door. It was she, and she acknowledged +his bow; she took her steps to her chair. + +He was informed that Lord Ormont had an engagement, and he remarked, “I +can do the work very well.” She sat quite silent. + +He read first lines of the scraps, laid them in various places, as in +a preparation for conjurer's tricks at cards; refraining from a glance, +lest he should disconcert the eyes he felt to be on him fitfully. + +At last she spoke, and he knew Aminta in his hearing and sight. + +“Is Emile Grenat still anglomane?” + +An instant before her voice was heard he had been persuading himself +that the points of unlikeness between his young Aminta and this tall +and stately lady of the proud reserve in her bearing flouted the +resemblance. + + + + +CHAPTER V. IN WHICH THE SHADES OF BROWNY AND MATEY ADVANCE AND RETIRE + +“Emile is as anglomane as ever, and not a bit less a Frenchman,” Weyburn +said, in a tone of one who muffles a shock at the heart. + +“It would be the poorer compliment to us,” she rejoined. + +They looked at one another; she dropped her eyelids, he looked away. + +She had the grand manner by nature. She was the woman of the girl once +known. + +“A soldier, is he?” + +“Emile's profession and mine are much alike, or will be.” + +“A secretary?” + +Her deadness of accent was not designed to carry her opinion of the post +of secretary. + +It brought the reply: “We hope to be schoolmasters.” + +She drew in a breath; there was a thin short voice, hardly voice, as +when one of the unschooled minor feelings has been bruised. After a +while she said-- + +“Does he think it a career?” + +“Not brilliant.” + +“He was formed for a soldier.” + +“He had to go as the road led.” + +“A young man renouncing ambition!” + +“Considering what we can do best.” + +“It signifies the taste for what he does.” + +“Certainly that.” + +Weyburn had senses to read the word “schoolmaster” in repetition behind +her shut mouth. He was sharply sensible of a fall. + +The task with his papers occupied him. If he had a wish, it was to +sink so low in her esteem as to be spurned. A kick would have been +a refreshment. Yet he was unashamed of the cause invoking it. We are +instruments to the touch of certain women, and made to play strange +tunes. + +“Mr. Cuper flourishes?” + +“The school exists. I have not been down there. I met Mr. Shalders +yesterday. He has left the school.” + +“You come up from Olmer?” + +“I was at Olmer last week, Lady Ormont.” + +An involuntary beam from her eyes thanked him for her title at that +juncture of the dialogue. She grew more spirited. + +“Mr. Shalders has joined the Dragoons, has he?” + +“The worthy man has a happy imagination. He goes through a campaign +daily.” + +“It seems to one to dignify his calling.” + +“I like his enthusiasm.” + +The lady withdrew into her thoughts; Weyburn fell upon his work. + +Mention of the military cloak of enthusiasm covering Shalders, brought +the scarce credible old time to smite at his breast, in the presence of +these eyes. A ringing of her title of Lady Ormont rendered the present +time the incredible. + +“I can hardly understand a young Frenchman's not entering the army,” she +said. + +“The Napoleonic legend is weaker now,” said he. + +“The son of an officer!” + +“Grandson.” + +“It was his choice to be,--he gave it up without reluctance?” + +“Emile obeyed the command of his parents,” Weyburn answered; and he was +obedient to the veiled direction of her remark, in speaking of himself: +“I had a reason, too.” + +“One wonders!” + +“It would have impoverished my mother's income to put aside a small +allowance for me for years. She would not have hesitated. I then set my +mind on the profession of schoolmaster.” + +“Emile Grenat was a brave boy. Has he no regrets?” + +“Neither of us has a regret.” + +“He began ambitiously.” + +“It's the way at the beginning.” + +“It is not usually abjured.” + +“I'm afraid we neither of us 'dignify our calling' by discontent with +it!” + +A dusky flash, worth seeing, came on her cheeks. “I respect +enthusiasms,” she said; and it was as good to him to hear as the begging +pardon, though clearly she could not understand enthusiasm for the +schoolmaster's career. + +Light of evidence was before him, that she had a friendly curiosity to +know what things had led to their new meeting under these conditions. +He sketched them cursorily; there was little to tell--little, that is; +appealing to a romantic mind for interest. Aware of it, by sympathy, +he degraded the narrative to a flatness about as cheering as a suburban +London Sunday's promenade. Sympathy caused the perverseness. He felt her +disillusionment; felt with it and spread a feast of it. She had to hear +of studies at Caen and at a Paris Lycee; French fairly mastered; German, +the same; Italian, the same; after studies at Heidelberg, Asti, and +Florence; between four and five months at Athens (he was needlessly +precise), in tutorship with a young nobleman: no events, nor a spot of +colour. Thus did he wilfully, with pain to himself, put an extinguisher +on the youth painted brilliant and eminent in a maiden's imagination. + +“So there can no longer be thought of the army,” she remarked; and the +remark had a sort of sigh, though her breathing was equable. + +“Unless a big war knocks over all rules and the country comes praying us +to serve,” he said. + +“You would not refuse then?” + +“Not in case of need. One may imagine a crisis when they would give +commissions to men of my age or older for the cavalry--heavy losses of +officers.” + +She spoke, as if urged by a sting to revert to the distasteful: “That +profession--must you not take... enter into orders if you aim at any +distinction?” + +“And a member of the Anglican Church would not be allowed to exchange +his frock for a cavalry sabre,” said he. “That is true. I do not propose +to settle as a schoolmaster in England.” + +“Where?” + +“On the Continent.” + +“Would not America be better?” + +“It would not so well suit the purpose in view for us.” + +“There are others besides?” + +“Besides Emile, there is a German and an Italian and a Swiss.” + +“It is a Company?” + +“A Company of schoolmasters! Companies of all kinds are forming. +Colleges are Companies. And they have their collegians. Our aim is +at pupils; we have no ambition for any title higher than School and +Schoolmaster; it is not a Company.” + +So, like Nature parading her skeleton to youthful adorers of her face, +he insisted on reducing to hideous material wreck the fair illusion, +which had once arrayed him in alluring promise. + +She explained; “I said, America. You would be among Protestants in +America.” + +“Catholics and Protestants are both welcome to us, according to our +scheme. And Germans, French, English, Americans, Italians, if they will +come; Spaniards and Portuguese, and Scandinavians, Russians as well. And +Jews; Mahommedans too, if only they will come! The more mixed, the more +it hits our object.” + +“You have not stated where on the Continent it is to be.” + +“The spot fixed on is in Switzerland.” + +“You will have scenery.” + +“I hold to that, as an influence.” + +A cool vision of the Bernese Alps encircled the young schoolmaster; and +she said, “It would influence girls; I dare say.” + +“A harder matter with boys, of course--at first. We think we may make it +serve.” + +“And where is the spot? Is that fixed on?” + +“Fifteen miles from Berne, on elevated land, neighbouring a water, not +quite to be called a lake, unless in an auctioneer's advertisement.” + +“I am glad of the lake. I could not look on a country home where there +was no swimming. You will be head of the school.” + +“There must be a head.” + +“Is the school likely to be established soon?” + +He fell into her dead tone: “Money is required for establishments. I +have a Reversion coming some day; I don't dabble in post obits.” + +He waited for farther questions. They were at an end. + +“You have your work to do, Mr. Weyburn.” + +Saying that, she bowed an implied apology for having kept him from +it, and rose. She bowed again as she passed through the doorway, in +acknowledgment of his politeness. + +Here; then, was the end of the story of Browny and Matey. Such was his +thought under the truncheon-stroke of their colloquy. Lines of Browny's +letters were fiery waving ribands about him, while the coldly gracious +bow of the Lady wrote Finis. + +The gulf between the two writings remained unsounded. It gave a heave to +the old passion; but stirred no new one; he had himself in hand now, +and he shut himself up when the questions bred of amazement buzzed and +threatened to storm. After all, what is not curious in this world? The +curious thing would be if curious things should fail to happen. Men have +been saying it since they began to count and turn corners. And let +us hold off from speculating when there is or but seems a shadow of +unholiness over that mole-like business. There shall be no questions; +and as to feelings, the same. They, if petted for a moment beneath the +shadow, corrupt our blood. Weyburn was a man to have them by the throat +at the birth. + +Still they thronged; heavy work of strangling had to be done. Her tone +of disappointment with the schoolmaster bit him, and it flattered +him. The feelings leapt alive, equally venomous from the wound and the +caress. They pushed to see, had to be repelled from seeing, the girl +Browny in the splendid woman; they had lightning memories: not the pain +of his grip could check their voice on the theme touching her happiness +or the reverse. And this was an infernal cunning. He paused perforce to +inquire, giving them space for the breeding of their multitudes. Was she +happy? Did she not seem too meditative, enclosed, toneless, at her age? +Vainly the persecuted fellow said to himself: “But what is it to me +now?”--The Browny days were over. The passion for the younger Aminta was +over--buried; and a dream of power belonging to those days was not +yet more than visionary. It had moved her once, when it was a young +soldier's. She treated the schoolmaster's dream as vapour, and the old +days as dead and ghostless. She did rightly. How could they or she or he +be other than they were! + +With that sage exclamation, he headed into the Browny days and breasted +them; and he had about him the living foamy sparkle of the very time, +until the Countess of Ormont breathed the word “Schoolmaster”; when, at +once, it was dusty land where buoyant waters had been, and the armies +of the facts, in uniform drab, with some feathers and laces, and a +significant surpliced figure, decorously covering the wildest of +Cupids, marched the standard of the winking gold-piece, which is their +nourishing sun and eclipser of all suns that foster dreams. + +As you perceive, he was drawing swiftly to the vortex of the fools, and +round and round he went, lucky to float. + +His view of the business of the schoolmaster plucked him from the whirl. +She despised it; he upheld it. He stuck to his view, finding their +antagonism on the subject wholesome for him. All that she succeeded in +doing was to rob it of the aurora colour clothing everything on which +Matey Weyburn set his aim. Her contempt of it, whether as a profession +in itself or as one suitable to the former young enthusiast for arms, +dwarfed it to appear like the starved plants under Greenland skies. But +those are of a sturdy genus; they mean to live; they live, perforce, of +the right to live; they will prove their right in a coming season, +when some one steps near and wonders at them, and from more closely +observing; gets to understand, learning that the significance and the +charm of earth will be as well shown by them as by her tropical fair +flaunters or the tenderly-nurtured exotics. + +An unopened coffer of things to be said in defence of--no, on behalf +of--no, in honour of the Profession of Schoolmaster, perhaps to the +convincing of Aminta, Lady Ormont, was glanced at; a sentence or two +leapt out and stepped forward, and had to retire. He preferred to the +fathering of tricky, windy phrases, the being undervalued--even by her. +He was taught to see again how Rhetoric haunts, and Rhetoric bedevils, +the vindication of the clouded, especially in the case of a disesteemed +Profession requiring one to raise it and impose it upon the antagonistic +senses for the bewildering of the mind. One has to sound it loudly; +there is no treating it, as in the advocacy of the cases of flesh and +blood, with the masterly pathos of designed simplicity. And Weyburn +was Cuper's Matey Weyburn still in his loathing of artifice to +raise emotion, loathing of the affected, the stilted, the trumpet of +speech--always excepting school-exercises in the tongues, the unmasking +of a Catiline, the address of a General, Athenian or other, to troops. + +He kept his coffer shut; and, for a consequence, he saw the contents as +an avenue of blossom leading to vistas of infinite harvest. + +She was Lady Ormont: Aminta shared the title of his old hero! He refused +to speculate upon how it had come to pass, and let the curtain hang, +though dramas and romances, with the miracles involved in them, were +agitated by a transient glimpse at the curtain. + +Well! and he hoped to be a member of the Profession she despised: hoped +it with all his heart. And one good effect of his giving his heart to +the hope was, that he could hold from speculating and from feeling, even +from pausing to wonder at the most wonderful turn of events. Blessed +antagonism drove him to be braced by thoughts upon the hardest of +the schoolmaster's tasks--bright winter thoughts, prescribing to him +satisfaction with a faith in the sowing, which may be his only reaping. +Away fly the boys in sheaves. After his toil with them, to instruct, +restrain, animate, point their minds, they leave him, they plunge into +the world and are gone. Will he see them again? It is a flickering +perhaps. To sustain his belief that he has done serviceable work, he +must be sore of his having charged them with good matter. How can the +man do it, if, during his term of apprenticeship, he has allowed himself +to dally here and there, down to moony dreamings over inscrutable +beautiful eyes of a married lady; for the sole reason that he meets her +unexpectedly, after an exchange of letters with her in long-past days at +school, when she was an inexperienced girl, who knew not what she vowed, +and he a flighty-headed youngster, crying out to be the arrow of any bow +that was handy? Yea, she was once that girl, named Browny by the boys. + +Temptation threw warm light on the memory, and very artfully, by +conjuring up the faces, cries, characters, all the fun of the boys. +There was no possibility of forgetting her image in those days; he had, +therefore, to live with it and to live near the grown woman--Time's +present answer to the old riddle. It seemed to him, that instead +of sorting Lord Ormont's papers, he ought to be at sharp exercise. +According to his prescript, sharp exercise of lungs and limbs is a man's +moral aid against temptation. He knew it as the one trusty antidote for +him, who was otherwise the vessel of a temperament pushing to mutiny. +Certainly it is the best philosophy youth can pretend to practise; and +Lord Ormont kept him from it! Worse than that, the slips and sheets of +paper in the dispatch-box were not an exercise of the mind even; there +was nothing to grapple with--no diversion; criticism passed by them +indulgently, if not benevolently. + +Quite apart from the subject inscribed on them, Weyburn had now and +again a blow at the breast, of untraceable origin. For he was well +enough aware that the old days when Browny imagined him a hero, in +drinking his praises of a brighter, were drowned. They were dead; but +here was she the bride of the proved hero. His praises might have helped +in causing her willingness--devotional readiness, he could fancy--to +yield her hand. Perhaps at the moment when the hero was penning some of +the Indian slips here, the boy at school was preparing Aminta; but he +could not be responsible for a sacrifice of the kind suggested by Lady +Charlotte. And no, there had been no such sacrifice, although Lord +Ormont's inexplicable treatment of his young countess, under cover of +his notorious reputation with women, conduced to the suspicion. + +While the vagrant in Weyburn was thus engaged, his criticism of the +soldier-lord's field-English on paper let the stuff go tolerantly +unexamined, but with a degree of literary contempt at heart for the +writer who had that woman-scented reputation and expressed himself so +poorly. The sentiment was outside of reason. We do, nevertheless, expect +our Don Juans to deliver their minds a trifle elegantly; if not in +classic English, on paper; and when we find one of them inflicting +cruelty, as it appears, and the victim is a young woman, a beautiful +young woman, she pleads to us poetically against the bearish sentences +of his composition. We acknowledge, however, that a mere sentiment, +entertained possibly by us alone, should not be permitted to condemn him +unheard. + +Lady Ormont was not seen again. After luncheon at a solitary table, the +secretary worked till winter's lamps were lit; and then shone freedom, +with assurance to him that he would escape from the miry mental ditch +he had been floundering in since Aminta revealed herself. Sunday was +the glorious day to follow, with a cleansing bath of a walk along the +southern hills; homely English scenery to show to a German friend, +one of his “Company.” Half a dozen good lads were pledged to the walk; +bearing which in view, it could be felt that this nonsensical puzzlement +over his relations to the moods and tenses of a married woman would be +bounced out of recollection before nightfall. The landscape given off +any of the airy hills of Surrey would suffice to do it. + +A lady stood among her boxes below, as he descended the stairs to cross +the hall. He knew her for the person Lady Charlotte called “the woman's +aunt,” whom Lord Ormont could not endure--a forgiven old enemy, Mrs. +Nargett Pagnell. + +He saluted. She stared, and corrected her incivility with “Ah, yes,” and +a formal smile. + +If not accidentally delayed on her journey, she had been needlessly the +cause why Lord Ormont hugged his Club during the morning and afternoon. +Weyburn was pushed to think of the matter by remembrance of his foregone +resentment at her having withdrawn Aminta from Miss Vincent's three days +earlier than the holiday time. The resentment was over; but a germ of +it must have sprang from the dust to prompt the kindling leap his memory +took, out of all due connection; like a lightning among the crags. +It struck Aminta smartly. He called to mind the conversation at table +yesterday. Had she played on Lord Ormont's dislike of the aunt to drive +him forth for some purpose of her own? If so, the little trick had been +done with deplorable spontaneity or adeptness of usage. What was the +purpose?--to converse with an old acquaintance, undisturbed by Lord +Ormont and her aunt? Neatly done, supposing the surmise correct. + +But what was there in the purpose? He sifted rapidly for the gist of the +conversation; reviewed the manner of it, the words, the sound they had, +the feelings they touched; then owned that the question could not +be answered. Owning, further, that the recurrence of these idiotic +speculations, feelings, questions, wrote him down as both dull fellow +and impertinent, he was unabled to restore Aminta to the queenly place +she took above the schoolmaster, who was very soon laughing at his fever +or flash of the afternoon. The day had brought a great surprise, nothing +more. Twenty minutes of fencing in the a salle d'armes of an Italian +captain braced him to health, and shifted scenes of other loves, lighter +loves, following the Browny days--not to be called loves; in fact; +hardly beyond inclinations. Nevertheless, inclinations are an +infidelity. To meet a married woman, and be mooning over her because she +gave him her eyes and her handwriting when a girl, was enough to +rouse an honest fellow's laugh at himself, in the contemplation of +his intermediate amorous vagabondage. Had he ever known the veritable +passion after Browny sank from his ken? Let it be confessed, never. His +first love was his only true love, despite one shuddering episode, oddly +humiliating to recollect, though he had not behaved badly. So, then, +by right of his passion, thus did eternal justice rule it: that Browny +belonged, to Matey Weyburn, Aminta to Lord Ormont. Aminta was a lady +blooming in the flesh, Browny was the past's pale phantom; for which +reason he could call her his own, without harm done to any one, and +with his usual appetite for dinner, breakfast, lunch, whatever the meal +supplied by the hour. + +It would somewhat alarmingly have got to Mr. Weyburn's conscience +through a disturbance of his balance, telling him that he was on a +perilous road, if his relish for food had been blunted. He had his +axiom on the subject, and he was wrong in the general instance, for +the appetites of rogues and ogres are not known to fail. As regarded +himself, he was eminently right; and he could apply it to boys also, +to all young people--the unlaunched, he called them. He counted himself +among the launched, no doubt, and had breasted seas; but the boy was +alive, a trencherman lad, in the coming schoolmaster, and told him +profitable facts concerning his condition; besides throwing a luminous +ray on the arcane of our elusive youthful. If they have no stout zest +for eating, put Query against them. + +His customary enjoyment of dinner convinced Mr. Weyburn that he had +not brooded morbidly over his phantom Browny, and could meet Aminta, +Countess of Ormont, on the next occasion with the sentiments proper to +a common official. Did she not set him a commendable example? He admired +her for not concealing her disdain of the aspirant schoolmaster, quite +comprehending, by sympathy, why the woman should reproach the girl who +had worshipped heroes, if this was a full-grown specimen; and the reply +of the shamed girl, that in her ignorance she could not know better. He +spared the girl, but he laughed at the woman he commended, laughed at +himself. + +Aminta's humour was being stirred about the same time. She and her +aunt were at the dinner-table in the absence of my lord. The dinner had +passed with the stiff dialogue peculiar to couples under supervision of +their inferiors; and, as soon as the room was clear, she had asked her +aunt, touching the secretary: “Have you seen him?” + +Mrs. Nargett Pagnell's answer could have been amusing only to one whose +intimate knowledge of her found it characteristically salt; for she +was a lady of speech addressed ever directly or roundabout to the chief +point of business between herself and her hearer, and the more she was +brief, oblique, far-shooting, the more comically intelligible she was to +her niece. She bent her head to signify that she had seen the secretary, +and struck the table with both hands, exclaiming: + +“Well, to be sure, Lord Ormont!” + +Their discussion, before they descended the stairs to dinner, concerned +his lordship's extraordinary indifference to the thronging of handsome +young men around his young countess. + +Here, the implication ran, is one established in the house. + +Aminta's thoughts could be phrased: “Yes, that is true, for one part of +it.” + +As for the other part, the ascent of a Phoebus Apollo, with his golden +bow and quiver off the fairest of Eastern horizon skies, followed +suddenly by the sight of him toppling over in Mr. Cuper's long-skirted +brown coat, with spectacles and cane, is an image that hardly exceeds +the degradation she conceived. It was past ludicrous; yet admitted of no +woefulness, nothing soothingly pathetic. It smothered and barked at the +dreams of her blooming spring of life, to which her mind had latterly +been turning back, for an escape from sour, one may say cynical, +reflections, the present issue of a beautiful young woman's first savour +of battle with the world. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. IN A MOOD OF LANGUOR + +Up in Aminta's amber dressing-room; Mrs. Nargett Pagnell alluded sadly +to the long month of separation, and begged her niece to let her have in +plain words an exact statement of the present situation; adding, “Items +will do.” Thereupon she slipped into prattle and held the field. + +She was the known, worthy, good, intolerable woman whom the burgess +turns out for his world in regiments, that do and look and all but step +alike; and they mean well, and have conventional worships and material +aspirations, and very peculiar occult refinements, with a blind head and +a haphazard gleam of acuteness, impressive to acquaintances, convincing +themselves that they impersonate sagacity. She had said this, done that; +and it was, by proof, Providence consenting, the right thing. A niece, +written down in her girlhood, because of her eyes and her striking air +and excellent deportment, as mate for a nobleman, marries, him before +she is out of her teens. “I said, She shall be a countess.” A countess +she is. Providence does not comply with our predictions in order +to stultify us. Admitting the position of affairs for the moment as +extraordinary, we are bound by what has happened to expect they will be +conformable in the end. Temporarily warped, we should say of them. + +She could point to the reason: it was Lord Ormont's blunt +misunderstanding of her character. The burgess's daughter was refining +to an appreciation of the exquisite so rapidly that she could criticize +patricians. My lord had never forgiven her for correcting him in his +pronunciation of her name by marriage. Singular indeed; but men, even +great men, men of title, are so, some of them, whom you could least +suspect of their being so. He would speak the “g” in Nargett, and he, +declined--after a remonstrance he declined--to pass Pagnell under the +cedilla. Lord Ormont spoke the name like a man hating it, or an English +rustic: “Nargett Pagnell,” instead, of the soft and elegant “Naryett +Pagnell,” the only true way of speaking it; and she had always taken +that pronunciation of her name for a test of people's breeding. The +expression of his lordship's countenance under correction was memorable. +Naturally, in those honeymoony days, the young Countess of Ormont sided +with her husband the earl; she declared that her aunt had never dreamed +of the cedilla before the expedition to Spain. When, for example, Alfred +Nargett Pagnell had a laughing remark, which Aminta in her childhood +must have heard: “We rhyme with spaniel!” + +That was the secret of Lord Ormont's prepossession against Aminta's +aunt; and who can tell? perhaps of much of his behaviour to the +beautiful young wife he at least admired, sincerely admired, though he +caused her to hang her head--cast a cloud on the head so dear to him! + +Otherwise there was no interpreting his lordship. To think of herself as +personally disliked by a nobleman stupefied Mrs. Pagnell, from her just +expectation of reciprocal dealings in high society; for she confessed +herself a fly to a title. Where is the shame, if titles are created to +attract? Elsewhere than in that upper circle, we may anticipate hard +bargains; the widow of a solicitor had not to learn it. But when a +distinguished member and ornament of the chosen seats above blew cold +upon their gesticulatory devotee, and was besides ungrateful; she was +more than commonly assured of his being, as she called him, “a sphinx.” + His behaviour to his legally wedded wife confirmed the charge. + +She checked her flow to resume the question. “So, then, where are we +now? He allows you liberally for pin-money in addition to your own small +independent income. Satisfaction with that would warrant him to suppose +his whole duty done by you.” + +“We are where we were, aunty; the month has made no change,” said Aminta +in languor. + +“And you as patient as ever?” + +“I am supposed to have everything a woman can require.” + +“Can he possibly think it? And I have to warn you, child, that lawyers +are not so absolving as the world is with some of the ladies Lord Ormont +allows you to call your friends. I have been hearing--it is not mere +airy tales one hears from lawyers about cases in Courts of Law. Tighten +your lips as you like; I say nothing to condemn or reflect on Mrs. +Lawrence Finchley. I have had my eyes a little opened, that is all. +Oh, I know my niece Aminta, when it's a friend to stand by; but our +position--thanks to your inscrutable lord and master--demands of us the +utmost scrupulousness, or it soon becomes a whirl and scandal flying +about, and those lawyers picking up and putting together. I have had a +difficulty to persuade them!... and my own niece! whom I saw married at +the British Embassy in Madrid, as I take good care to tell everybody; +for it was my doing; I am the responsible person! and by an English +Protestant clergyman, to all appearance able to walk erect in and out of +any of these excellent new Life Assurance offices they are starting for +the benefit of widows and orphans, and deceased within six days of the +ceremony--if ceremony one may call the hasty affair in those foreign +places. My dear, the instant I heard it I had a presentiment, 'All has +gone well up to now.' I remember murmuring the words. Then your letter, +received in that smelly Barcelona: Lord Ormont was carrying you off to +Granada--a dream of my infancy! It may not have been his manoeuvre, but +it was the beginning of his manoeuvres.” + +Aminta shuddered. “And tra-la-la, and castanets, and my Cid! my Cid! and +the Alhambra, the Sierra Nevada, and ay di me, Alhama; and Boabdil el +Chico and el Zagal and Fray Antonio Agapida!” She flung out the rattle, +yawning, with her arms up and her head back, in the posture of a woman +wounded. One of her aunt's chance shots had traversed her breast, +flashing at her the time, the scene, the husband, intensest sunniness +on sword-edges of shade,--and now the wedded riddle; illusion dropping +mask, romance in its anatomy, cold English mist. Ah, what a background +is the present when we have the past to the fore! That filmy past is +diaphanous on heaving ribs. + +She smiled at the wide-eyed little gossip. “Don't speak of manaoeuvres, +dear aunt. And we'll leave Granada to the poets. I'm tired. Talk of our +own people, on your side and my father's, and as much as you please of +the Pagnell-Pagnells, they refresh me. Do they go on marrying?” + +“Why, my child, how could they go on without it?” + +Aminta pressed her hands at her eyelids. “Oh, me!” she sighed, feeling +the tear come with a sting from checked laughter. “But there are +marriages, aunty, that don't go on, though Protestant clergymen +officiated. Leave them unnoticed, I have really nothing to tell.” + +“You have not heard anything of Lady Eglett?” + +“Lady Charlotte Eglett? No syllable. Or wait--my lord's secretary was +with her at Olmer; approved by her, I have to suppose.” + +“There, my dear, I say again I do dread that woman, if she can make +a man like Lord Ormont afraid of her. And no doubt she is of our old +aristocracy. And they tell me she is coarse in her conversation--like a +man. Lawyers tell me she is never happy but in litigation. Years back, I +am given to understand, she did not set so particularly good an example. +Lawyers hear next to everything. I am told she lifted her horsewhip on +a gentleman once, and then put her horse at him and rode him down. +You will say, the sister of your husband. No; not to make my niece a +countess, would I, if I had known the kind of family! Then one asks, Is +she half as much afraid of him? In that case, no wonder they have +given up meeting. Was formerly one of the Keepsake Beauties. Well, Lady +Eglett, and Aminta, Countess of Ormont, will be in that Peerage, as +they call it, let her only have her dues. My dear, I would--if I ever +did--swear the woman is jealous.” + +“Of me, aunty!” + +“I say more; I say again, it would be a good thing for somebody if +somebody had his twitch of jealousy. Wives may be too meek. Cases and +cases my poor Alfred read to me, where an ill-behaving man was brought +to his senses by a clever little shuffle of the cards, and by the most +innocent of wives. A kind of poison to him, of course; but there are +poisons that cure. It might come into the courts; and the nearer the +proofs the happier he in withdrawing from his charge and effecting a +reconciliation. Short of guilt, of course. Men are so strange. Imagine +now, if a handsome young woman were known to be admired rather more than +enough by a good-looking gentleman near about her own age. Oh, I've no +patience with, the man for causing us to think and scheme! Only there +are men who won't be set right unless we do. My husband used to say, +change is such a capital thing in life's jogtrot; that men find it +refreshing if we now and then, reverse the order of our pillion-riding +for them. A spiritless woman in a wife is what they bear least of all. +Anything rather. Is Mr. Morsfield haunting Mrs. Lawrence Finchley's +house as usual?” + +Aminta's cheeks unrolled their deep damask rose at the abrupt intrusion +of the name. “I meet him there.” + +“Lord Adderwood, Sir John Randeller; and the rest?” + +“Two or three times a week.” + +“And the lady, wife of the captain, really a Lady Fair--Mrs.... month of +May: so I have to get at it.” + +“She may be seen there.” + +“Really a contrast, when you two are together! As to reputation, there +is an exchange of colours. Those lawyers hold the keys of the great +world, and a naughty world it is, I fear--with exceptions, who are the +salt, but don't taste so much. I can't help enjoying the people at Mrs. +Lawrence Finchley's. I like to feel I can amuse them, as they do me. One +puzzles for what they say--in somebody's absence, I mean. They must take +Lord Ormont for a perfect sphinx; unless they are so silly as to think +they may despise him, or suppose him indifferent. Oh, that upper class! +It's a garden, and we can't help pushing to enter it; and fair flowers, +indeed, but serpents too, like the tropics. It tries us more than +anything else in the world--well, just as good eating tries the +constitution. He ought to know it and feel it, and give his wife all the +protection of his name, instead of--not that he denies: I have brought +him to that point; he cannot deny it with me. But not to present her--to +shun the Court; not to introduce her to his family, to appear ashamed +of her! My darling Aminta, a month of absence for reflection on your +legally-wedded husband's conduct increases my astonishment. For usually +men old enough to be the grandfathers of their wives--” + +“Oh, pray, aunty, pray, pray!” Aminta cried, and her body writhed. “No +more to-night. You mean well, I am sure. Let us wait. I shall sleep, +perhaps, if I go to bed early. I dare say I am spiritless--not worth +more than I get. I gave him the lead altogether; he keeps it. In +everything else he is kind; I have all the luxuries--enough to loathe +them. Kiss me and say good night.” + +Aminta made it imperative by rising. Her aunt stood up, kissed, and +exclaimed, “I tell you you are a queenly creature, not to be treated as +any puny trollop of a handmaid. And although he is a great nobleman, he +is not to presume to behave any longer, my dear, as if your family had +no claim on his consideration. My husband, Alfred Pagnell, would have +laid that before him pretty quick. You are the child of the Farrells and +the Solers, both old families; on your father's side you are linked +with the oldest nobility in Europe. It flushes one to think of it! +Your grandmother, marrying Captain Algernon Farrell, was the legitimate +daughter of a Grandee of Spain; as I have told Lord Ormont often, and +I defy him to equal that for a romantic marriage in the annals of his +house, or boast of bluer blood. Again, the Solers--” + +“We take the Solers for granted, aunty, good night.” + +“Commoners, if you like; but established since the Conquest. That is, we +trace the pedigree. And to be treated, even by a great nobleman, as if +we were stuff picked up out of the ditch! I declare, there are times +when I sit and think and boil. Is it chivalrous, is it generous--is it, +I say, decent--is it what Alfred would have called a fair fulfilment +of a pact, for your wedded husband--? You may close my mouth! But he +pretends to be chivalrous and generous, and he has won a queen any +wealthy gentleman in England--I know of one, if not two--would be proud +to have beside him in equal state; and what is he to her? He is an +extinguisher. Or is it the very meanest miserliness, that he may keep +you all to himself? There we are again! I say he is an unreadable +sphinx.” + +Aminta had rung the bell for her maid. Mrs. Pagnell could be counted on +for drawing in her tongue when the domestics were near. + +A languor past delivery in sighs was on the young woman's breast. She +could have heard without a regret that the heart was to cease beating. +Had it been downright misery she would have looked about her with less +of her exanimate glassiness. The unhappy have a form of life: until they +are worn out, they feel keenly. She felt nothing. The blow to her pride +of station and womanhood struck on numbed sensations. She could complain +that the blow was not heavier. + +A letter lying in her jewel-box called her to read it, for the chance +of some slight stir. The contents were known. The signature of Adolphus +Morsfield had a new meaning for her eyes, and dashed her at her husband +in a spasm of revolt and wrath against the man exposing her to these +letters, which a motion of her hand could turn to blood, and abstention +from any sign maintained in a Satanic whisper, saying, “Here lies one +way of solving the riddle.” It was her husband who drove her to look +that way. + +The look was transient, and the wrath: she could not burn. A small +portion of contempt lodged in her mind to shadow husbands precipitating +women on their armoury for a taste of vengeance. Women can always be +revenged--so speedily, so completely: they have but to dip. Husbands +driving wives to taste their power execrate the creature for her fall +deep downward. They are forgetful of causes. + +Does it matter? Aminta's languor asked. The letter had not won a reply. +Thought of the briefest of replies was a mountain of effort, and she +moaned at her nervelessness in body and mind. To reply, to reproach the +man, to be flame--an image of herself under the form she desired--gave +her a momentary false energy, wherein the daring of the man, whose life +was at a loss for the writing of this letter, hung lighted. She had +therewith a sharp vision of his features, repellent in correctness, +Greek in lines, with close eyes, hollow temples, pressed lips--a face +indicating the man who can fling himself on a die. She had heard tales +of women and the man. Some had loved him, report said. Here were words +to say that he loved her. They might, poor man, be true. Otherwise she +had never been loved. + +Memory had of late been paying visits to a droopy plant in the golden +summer drought on a gorgeous mid-sea island, and had taken her on board +to refresh her with voyages, always bearing down full sail on a couple +of blissful schools, abodes of bloom and briny vigour, sweet merriment, +innocent longings, dreams the shyest, dreams the mightiest. At night +before sleep, at morn before rising, often during day, and when vexed +or when dispirited, she had issued her command for the voyage. Sheer +refreshment followed, as is ever the case if our vessel carries no +freight of hopes. There could be no hopes. It was forgotten that they +had ever been seriously alive. But it carried an admiration. Now, an +admiration may endure, and this one had been justified all round. The +figure heroical, the splendid, active youth, hallowed Aminta's past. The +past of a bitterly humiliated Aminta was a garden in the coming kiss of +sunset, with that godlike figure of young manhood to hallow it. There he +stayed, perpetually assuring her of his triumphs to come. + +She could have no further voyages. Ridicule convulsed her home of +refuge. For the young soldier-hero, to be unhorsed by misfortune, was +one thing; but the meanness of the ambition he had taken in exchange for +the thirst of glory, accused his nature. He so certainly involved her in +the burlesque of the transformation that she had to quench memory. + +She was, therefore, having smothered a good part of herself, accountably +languid--a condition alternating with fire in Aminta; and as Mr. +Morsfield's letter supplied the absent element, her needy instinct +pushed her to read his letter through. She had not yet done that with +attention. + +Whether a woman loves a man or not, he is her lover if he dare tell her +he loves her, and is heard with attention. Aware that the sentences +were poison, she summoned her constitutional antagonism to the mad step +proposed, so far nullifying the virus as to make her shrink from the +madness. Even then her soul cried out to her husband, Who drives me to +read? or rather, to brood upon what she read. The brooding ensued, was +the thirst of her malady. The best antidote she could hit on was the +writer's face. Yet it expressed him, his fire and his courage--gifts she +respected in him, found wanting in herself. Read by Lord Ormont, this +letter would mean a deadly thing. + +Aminta did her lord the justice to feel sure of him, that with her name +bearing the superscription, it might be left on her table, and world not +have him to peruse it. If he manoeuvred, it was never basely. Despite +resentment, her deepest heart denied his being indifferent either to +her honour or his own in relation to it. He would vindicate both at +a stroke, for a sign. Nevertheless, he had been behaving cruelly. She +charged on him the guilt of the small preludes, archeries, anglings, +veilings, evasions, all done with the eyelids and the mute of the lips, +or a skirmisher word or a fan's flourish, and which, intended to pique +the husband rather than incite the lover, had led Mrs. Lawrence Finchley +to murmur at her ear, in close assembly, without a distinct designation +of Mr. Morsfield, “Dangerous man to play little games with!” It had +brought upon her this letter of declaration, proposal, entreaty. + +This letter was the man's life in her hands, and safe, of course. But +surely it was a proof that the man loved her? + +Aminta was in her five-and-twentieth year; when the woman who is +uncertain of the having been loved, and she reputed beautiful, +desirable, is impelled by a sombre necessity to muse on a declaration, +and nibble at an idea of a test. If “a dangerous man to play little +games with,” he could scarcely be dangerous to a woman having no love +for him at all. It meant merely that he would soon fall to writing +letters like this, and he could not expect an answer to it. But her +heart really thanked him, and wished the poor gentleman to take its dumb +response as his reward, for being the one sole one who had loved her. + +Aminta dwelt on “the one sole one.” Lord Ormont's treatment had +detached her from any belief in love on his part; and the schoolboy, now +ambitions to become a schoolmaster, was behind the screen unlikely to +be lifted again by a woman valuing her pride of youth, though he +had--behold our deceptions!--the sympathetic face entirely absent from +that of Mr. Adolphus Morsfield, whom the world would count quite as +handsome--nay, it boasted him. He enjoyed the reputation of a killer +of ladies. Women have odd tastes, Aminta thought, and examined the +gentleman's handwriting. It pleased her better. She studied it till the +conventional phrases took a fiery hue, and came at her with an invasive +rush. + +The letter was cast back into the box, locked up; there an end to it, or +no interdiction of sleep. + +Sleep was a triumph. Aminta's healthy frame rode her over petty +agitations of a blood uninflamed, as lightly as she swam the troubled +sea-waters her body gloried to cleave. She woke in the morning peaceful +and mildly reflective, like one who walks across green meadows. Only by +degrees, by glimpses, was she drawn to remember the trotting, cantering, +galloping, leaping of an active heart during night. We cannot, men +or woman, control the heart in sleep at night. There had been wild +leapings. Night will lead an unsatisfied heart of a woman, by way of +sleep, to scale black mountains, jump jagged chasms. Sleep is a horse +that laughs at precipices and abysses. We bid women, moreover, be +all heart. They are to cultivate their hearts, pay much heed to their +hearts. The vast realm of feeling is open to these appointed keepers of +the sanctuary household, who may be withering virgins, may be childless +matrons, may be unhusbanded wives. Wandering in the vast realm which +they are exhorted to call their own, for the additional attractiveness +it gives them, an unsatisfied heart of woman will somewhat audaciously +cross the borderland a single step into the public road of the vast +realm of thinking. Once there, and but a single step on the road, she is +a rebel against man's law for her sex. Nor is it urgent on her that she +should think defiantly in order to feel herself the rebel. She may think +submissively; with a heart (the enlarged, the scientifically plumped, +the pasture of epicurean man), with her coveted heart in revolt, and +from the mere act of thinking at all. + +Aminta reviewed perforce, dead against her will, certain of the +near-to-happiness ratings over-night. She thinned her lips, and her +cheeks glowed. An arm, on the plea of rescuing, had been round her. The +choice now offered her was, to yield to softness or to think. She took +the latter step, the single step of an unaccustomed foot, which women +educated simply to feet, will, upon extreme impulsion, take; and it held +a candle in a windy darkness. She saw no Justice there. The sensational +immensity touched sublime, short of that spirit of Justice required +for the true sublime. And void of Justice; what a sunless place is any +realm! Infants, the male and the female alike, first begin to know they +feel when it is refused them. When they know they feel, they have begun +to reflect. The void of Justice is a godless region. Women, to whom the +solitary thought has come as a blown candle, illumining the fringes of +their storm, ask themselves whether they are God's creatures or man's. +The question deals a sword-stroke of division between them and their +human masters. Young women, animated by the passions their feeling +bosoms of necessity breed, and under terror discover, do not distinguish +an abstract justice from a concrete. They are of the tribe too long +hereditarily enslaved to conceive an abstract. So it is with them, that +their God is the God of the slave, as it is with all but the bravest of +boys. He is a Thing to cry to, a Punisher, not much of a Supporter--the +Biblical Hebrew's right reading of Nature, favouring man, yet prompt to +confound him, and with woman for the instrument of vengeance. By such +a maze the blindfolded, are brought round to see Justice on earth. If +women can only believe in some soul of justice, they will feel they +belong to God--of the two; and the peril for them then is, that they +will set the one incomprehensible Power in opposition to the other, +urging them unsatisfied natures to make secret appeal away from man and +his laws altogether, at the cost of losing clear sight of the God who +shines in thought. It is a manner whereby the desperately harried +among these creatures of the petted heart arrive upon occasion at an +agreeable, almost reposeful, contemplation of the reverse of God. + +There is little pleasure to be on the lecture-rostrum for a narrator +sensible to the pulses of his audience. Justice compels at times. In +truth, there are times when the foggy obscurities of the preacher are by +comparison broad daylight beside the whirling loose tissues of a woman +unexplained. Aminta was one born to prize rectitude, to walk on the +traced line uprightly; and while the dark rose overflowed the soft +brown of her cheeks, under musings upon her unlicenced heart's doings +overnight, she not only pleaded for woeful creatures of her sex burdened +as she and erring, she weighed them in the scales with men, and put her +heart where Justice pointed, sending men to kick aloft. + +Her husband, the man-riddle: she was unable to rede or read him. Her +will could not turn him; nor her tongue combat; nor was it granted her +to pique the mailed veteran. Every poor innocent little bit of an art +had been exhausted. Her title was Lady Ormont her condition actually +slave. A luxuriously established slave, consorting with a singularly +enfranchised set,--as, for instance, Mrs. Lawrence Finchley and Lord +Adderwood; Sir John Randeller and Lady Staines; Mrs. May, Amy May, +notorious wife of a fighting captain, the loneliest of blondes; and +other ladies, other gentlemen, Mr. Morsfield in the list, paired or not +yet paired: gossip raged. Aminta was of a disposition too generously +cordial to let her be the rigorous critic of people with whom she was +in touch. But her mind knew relief when she recollected that her humble +little school-mate, Selina Collect, who had suffered on her behalf in +old days, was coming up to her from the Suffolk coast on a visit for a +week. However much a slave and an unloved woman, she could be a constant +and protecting friend. Besides, Lord Ormont was gracious to little +Selina. She thought of his remarks about the modest-minded girl after +first seeing her. From that she struck upon a notion of reserves of +humaneness being in him, if she might find the path to them: and +thence, fortified by the repose her picture of little Selina's merit had +bestowed, she sprang to the idea of valiancy, that she would woo him +to listen to her, without inflicting a scene. He had been a listening +lover, seeming lover, once, later than the Granada sunsets. The letter +in her jewel-box urged Aminta to clear her conscience by some means, for +leaving it unburnt. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. EXHIBITS EFFECTS OF A PRATTLER'S DOSES + +The rules in Lord Ormont's household assisted to shelter him for some +hours of the day from the lady who was like a blast of sirocco under his +roof. He had his breakfast alone, as Lady Charlotte had it at Olmer; a +dislike of a common table in the morning was a family trait with both. +At ten o'clock the secretary arrived, and they were shut up together. At +the luncheon table Aminta usually presided. If my lord dined at home, +he had by that time established an equanimity rendering, his constant +civility to Mrs. Pagnell less arduous. The presence of a woman of +tongue, perpetually on the spring to gratify him and win him, was among +the burdens he bore for his Aminta. + +Mrs. Pagnell soon perceived that the secretary was in favour. My lord +and this Mr. Weyburn had their pet themes of conversation, upon which +the wary aunt of her niece did not gaze like the wintry sun with the +distant smile her niece displayed over discussions concerning military +biographies, Hannibal's use of his elephants and his Numidian horse, +the Little St. Bernard, modern artillery, ancient slingers, English and +Genoese bowmen, Napoleon's tactics, his command to the troopers to “give +point,” and English officers' neglect of sword exercise, and the “devil +of a day” Old England is to have on a day to come. My lord connected +our day of trial with India. Mrs. Pagnell assumed an air of studious +interest; she struck in to give her niece a lead, that Lord Ormont might +know his countess capable of joining the driest of subjects occupying +exalted minds. Aminta did not follow her; and she was extricated +gallantly by the gentlemen in turn. + +The secretary behaved with a pretty civility. Aminta shook herself to +think tolerantly of him when he, after listening to the suggestion, put +interrogatively, that we should profit by Hannibal's example and train +elephants to serve as a special army corps for the perfect security of +our priceless Indian Empire, instanced the danger likely to result from +their panic fear of cannon, and forbore to consult Lord Ormont's eye. + +Mrs. Pagnell knew that she had put her foot into it; but women advised +of being fools in what they say, are generally sustained by their sense +of the excellent motive which impelled them. Even to the Countess of +Ormont, she could have replied, “We might have given them a higher idea +of us”--if, that meant, the Countess of Ormont had entered the field +beside her, to the exclusion of a shrinking Aminta. She hinted as much +subsequently, and Aminta's consciousness of the troth was touched. +The young schoolmaster's company sat on her spirits, deadened her +vocabulary. Her aunt spoke of passing the library door and hearing the +two gentlemen loudly laughing. It seemed subserviency on the fallen +young hero's part. His tastes were low. He frequented the haunts of +boxing men; her lord informed her of his having made, or of his making, +matches to run or swim or walk certain distances against competitors or +within a given time. He had also half a dozen boys or more in tow, whom +he raced out of town on Sundays; a nucleus of the school he intended to +form. + +But will not Achilles become by comparison a common rushlight where +was a blazing torch, if we see him clap a clown's cap on the head whose +golden helm was fired by Pallas? + +Nay, and let him look the hero still: all the more does he point finger +on his meanness of nature. + +Turning to another, it is another kind of shame that a woman feels, if +she consents to an exchange of letters--shameful indeed, but not such +a feeling of deadly sickness as comes with the humiliating view of an +object of admiration degraded. Bad she may be; and she may be deceived, +vilely treated, in either case. And what is a woman's pride but the +staff and banner of her soul, beyond all gifts? He who wounds it cannot +be forgiven--never!--he has killed the best of her. Aminta found herself +sliding along into the sentiment, that the splendid idol of a +girl's worship is, if she discover him in the lapse of years as an +infinitesimally small one, responsible for the woman's possible reckless +fit of giddiness. And she could see her nonsense; she could not correct +it. Lines of the letters under signature of Adolphus were phosphorescent +about her: they would recur; and she charged their doing so on the +discovered meanness of the girl's idol. Her wicked memory was caused by +his having plunged her low. + +Mrs. Pagnell performed the offices of attention to Mr. Weyburn in lieu +of the countess, who seemed to find it a task to sit at the luncheon +table with him, when Lady Ormont was absent. “Just peeped in,” she said +as she entered the library, “to see if all was comfortable;” and gossip +ensued, not devoid of object. She extracted an astonishingly smooth +description of Lady Charlotte. Weyburn was brightness in speaking of the +much-misunderstood lady. “She's one of the living women of the world.” + +“You are sure you don't mean one of the worldly women?” Mrs. Pagnell +rejoiced. + +“She has to be known to be liked,” he owned. + +“And you were, one hears, among the favoured?” + +“I can scarcely pretend to that, ma'am.” + +“You were recommended.” + +“Lady Charlotte is devoted to her brother.” + +Mrs. Pagnell's bosom heaved. “How strange Lord Ormont is! One would +suppose, with his indignation at the country for its treatment of him, +admirers would be welcome. Oh dear, no! that is not the way. On board +the packet, on our voyage to Spain, my niece in her cabin, imploring +mercy of Neptune, as they say, I heard of Lord Ormont among the +passengers. I could hardly credit my ears. For I had been hearing of him +from my niece ever since her return from a select establishment for the +education of young ladies, not much more than a morning's drive out of +London, though Dover was my residence. She had got a hero! It was Lord +Ormont! Lord Ormont! all day: and when the behaviour of the country to +him became notorious, Aminta--my niece the countess--she could hardly +contain herself. A secret:--I promised her--it's not known to Lord +Ormont himself:--a printed letter in a metropolitan paper, copied into +the provincial papers, upholding him for one of the greatest of our +patriot soldiers and the saviour of India, was the work of her hands. +You would, I am sure, think it really well written. Meeting him on +deck--the outline of the coast of Portugal for an introductory subject, +our Peninsular battles and so forth--I spoke of her enthusiasm. The +effect was, to cut off all communication between us. I had only to +appear, Lord Ormont vanished. I said to myself, this is a character. +However, the very mention of him to my niece, as one of the passengers +on board--medicine, miraculous! She was up in half an hour, out pacing +the deck before evening, hardly leaning on my arm, and the colour +positively beginning to show on her cheeks again. He fled, of coarse. +I had prepared her for his eccentricities. Next morning she was out +by herself. In the afternoon Lord Ormont strode up to us his--military +step--and most courteously requested the honour of an introduction. I +had broken the ice at last; from that moment he was cordiality itself, +until--I will not say, until he had called her his own--a few little +misunderstandings!--not with his countess. You see, a resident aunt +is translated mother-in-law by husbands; though I spare them pretty +frequently; I go to friends, they travel. Here in London she must have a +duenna. The marriage at Madrid, at the Embassy:--well, perhaps it was a +step for us, for commoners, though we rank with the independent. Has +her own little pin-money--an inheritance. Perhaps Lady Eglett gives the +world her version. She may say, there was aiming at station. I reply, +never was there a more whole-hearted love-match! Absolutely the girl's +heart has been his from the period of her school-days. Oh! a little +affair--she was persecuted by a boy at a neighbouring school. Her +mistress wrote me word--a very determined Romeo young gentleman +indeed--quite alarmed about him. In the bud! I carried her off on the +spot, and snapped it effectually. Warned he meant to be desperate, I +kept her away from my house at Dover four months, place to place; and +I did well. I heard on my return, that a youth, answering to the +schoolmistress's description of him, had been calling several times, +the first two months and longer. You have me alluding to these little +nonsensical nothings, because she seemed born to create violent +attachments, even at that early day; and Lady Eglett--Lady Charlotte +Eglett may hear; for there is no end to them, and impute them to her, +when really!--can she be made responsible for eyes innocent of the +mischief they appear destined to do? But I am disturbing you in your +work.” + +“You are very good, ma'am,” said the ghost of the determined young +gentleman. + +“A slight cold, have you?” Mrs. Pagnell asked solicitously. + +“Dear me, no!” he gave answer with a cleared throat. + +In charging him with more than he wanted to carry, she supplied him with +particulars he had wanted to know; and now he asked himself what could +be the gain of any amount of satisfied curiosity regarding a married +Aminta. She slew my lord on board a packet-boat; she bears the arrows +that slay. My lord married her where the first English chaplain was to +be found; that is not wonderful either. British Embassy, Madrid! Weyburn +believed the ceremony to have been performed there: at the same time, he +could hear Lady Charlotte's voice repeating with her varied intonation +Mrs. Pagnell's impressive utterances; and he could imagine how the +somewhat silly duenna aunt, so penetrable in her transparent artifices, +struck emphasis on the incredulity of people inclined to judge of the +reported ceremony by Lord Ormont's behaviour to his captive. + +How explain that strange matter? But can there be a gain in trying to +sound it? Weyburn shuffled it away. Before the fit of passion seized +him, he could turn his eager mind from anything which had not a +perceptible point of gain, either for bodily strength or mental +acquisition, or for money, too, now that the school was growing palpable +as an infant in arms and agape for the breast. Thought of gain, and the +bent to pursue it, is the shield of Athene over young men in the press +of the seductions. He had to confess his having lost some bits of +himself by reason of his meditations latterly; and that loss, if we let +it continue a space, will show in cramp at the wrist, logs on the legs, +a wheezy wind, for any fellow vowed to physical trials of strength +and skill. It will show likewise in the brain beating broken +wings--inability to shoot a thought up out of the body for half a +minute. And, good Lord! how quickly the tight-strong fellow crumbles, +when once the fragmentary disintegration has begun! Weyburn cried out on +a heart that bounded off at prodigal gallops, and had to be nipped with +reminders of the place of good leader he was for taking among the young. +Hang superexcellence! but we know those moanings over the troubles of +a married woman; we know their sources, know their goal, or else we are +the fiction-puppet or the Bedlamite; and she is a married woman, married +at the British Embassy, Madrid, if you please! after a few weeks' +acquaintance with her husband, who doubtless wrote his name intelligibly +in the registrar's book, but does not prove himself much the hero when +he drives a pen, even for so little as the signing of his name! He +signed his name, apparently not more than partly pledging himself to +the bond. Lord Ormont's autobiographical scraps combined with Lady +Charlotte's hints and Mrs. Pagnell's communications, to provoke the +secretary's literary contempt of his behaviour to his wife. However, the +former might be mended, and he resumed the task. + +It had the restorative effect of touching him to see his old hero in +action; whereby he was brought about to a proper modesty, so that he +really craved no more than for the mistress of this house to breathe the +liberal air of a public acknowledgment of her rightful position. +Things constituted by their buoyancy to float are remarkable for lively +bobbings when they are cast upon the waters; and such was the case with +Weyburn, until the agitation produced by Mrs. Pagnell left him free to +sail away in the society of the steadiest. + +He decided that by not observing, not thinking, not feeling, about the +circumstances of the household into which Fate had thrown him, he would +best be able--probably it was the one way--to keep himself together; and +his resolution being honest all round, he succeeded in it as long as he +abstained from a very wakeful vigilance over simple eyesight. For if +one is nervously on guard to not-see, the matter starts up winged, and +enters us, and kindles the mind, and tingles through the blood; it has +us as a foe. The art of blind vision requires not only practice, but an +intimate knowledge of the arts of the traitor we carry within. Safest +for him, after all, was to lay fast hold of the particularly unimportant +person he was, both there and anywhere else. The Countess of Ormont's +manner toward him was to be read as a standing index of the course he +should follow; and he thanked her. He could not quite so sincerely thank +her aunt. His ingratitude for the sickly dose she had administered to +him sprang a doubt whether Lady Ormont now thanked her aunt on account +of services performed at the British Embassy, Madrid. + +Certain looks of those eyes recently, when in colloquy with my lord, +removed the towering nobleman to a shadowed landscape. + +Was it solely an effect of eyes commanding light, and having every +shaft of the quiver of the rays at her disposal? Or was it a shot from a +powerful individuality issuing out of bondage to some physical oppressor +no longer master of the soul, in peril of the slipping away of the body? +Her look on him was not hate: it was larger, more terribly divine. Those +eyes had elsewhere once looked love: they had planted their object in +a throbbing Eden. The man on whom they had looked shivered over the +thought of it after years of blank division. + +Rather than have those eyes to look on him their displacing +unintentness, the man on whom they had once looked love would have +chosen looks of wrath, the darts that kill--blest darts of the celestial +Huntress, giving sweet sudden cessation of pain, in the one everlasting +last flash of life with thought that the shot was hers. Oh for the +'ayava behea' of the Merciful in splendour! + +These were the outcries of the man deciding simultaneously not to +observe, not to think, not to feel, and husbanding calculations upon +storage of gain for the future. Softness held the song below. It came of +the fact that his enforced resolution, for the sake of sanity, drove his +whole reflective mind backward upon his younger days, when an Evening +and a Morning star in him greeted the bright Goddess Browny or sang +adieu, and adored beyond all golden beams the underworld whither she had +sunk, where she was hidden. + +Meanwhile, the worthy dame who had dosed him was out in her carriage, +busy paying visits to distinguished ladies of the great world, with the +best of excuses for an early call, which was gossip to impart, such as +the Countess of Ormont had not yet thought of mentioning; and two or +three of them were rather amusedly interested to hear that Lord Ormont +had engaged a handsome young secretary, “under the patronage of Lady +Charlotte Eglett, devoted to sports of all kinds, immensely favoured by +both.” Gossip must often have been likened to the winged insect bearing +pollen to the flowers; it fertilizes many a vacuous reverie. Those +flowers of the upper garden are not, indeed, stationary and in need of +the missionary buzzer, but if they have been in one place unmoved for +one hour, they are open to take animation from their visitors. Aminta +was pleasantly surprised next day by the receipt of a note from Mrs. +Lawrence Finchley, begging to be invited to lunch if she came, as she +had a purpose in the wish to meet my lord. + + + + +[NOTE: The remainder of 'Lord Ormont and His Aminta' is taken from an +older edition which uses single rather than double quotation marks. +D.W.] + + +CHAPTER VIII. MRS. LAWRENCE FINCHLEY + +My lord had one of his wilful likings for Isabella Lawrence Finchley, +and he consented to the torture of an hour of Mrs. Nargett Pagnell in +the middle of the day, just to taste the favourite he welcomed at home +as he championed her abroad. The reasons were numerous and intimate why +she pleased him. He liked the woman, enjoyed the cause for battle that +she gave. Weyburn, on coming to the luncheon table, beheld a lady with +the head of a comely boy, the manner, softened in delicate feminine, of +a capital comrade. Her air of candour was her nature in her face; and +it carried a guileless roguery, a placid daring, a supersensual +naughtiness, a simplicity of repose amid the smoky reputation she +created, that led one to think the vapour calumnious or the creature +privileged. That young boy's look opened him at once; he had not to +warm to her,--he flew. Ordinarily the sweetest ladies will make us pass +through cold mist and cross a stile or two, or a broken bridge, before +the formalities are cleared away to grant us rights of citizenship. She +was like those frank lands where we have not to hand out a passport at +the frontier and wait for dubious inspection of it. + +She prevailed with cognizant men and with the frivolous. Women were +capable of appreciating her, too: as Aminta did, despite some hinted +qualifications addressed shyly to her husband. But these were the very +matters exciting his particular esteem. He was of Lady Charlotte's mind, +in her hot zeal against injustice done to the creatures she despised; +and yet more than she applauded a woman who took up her idiot husband's +challenge to defend her good name, and cleared it, right or wrong, and +beat him down on his knees, and then started for her spell of the merry +canter over turf: an example to the English of the punishment they get +for their stupid Puritanic tyranny--sure to be followed by a national +helter-skelter down-hill headlong. And Mrs. Lawrence was not one of the +corrupt, he argued; she concealed what it was decent to conceal, without +pouting hypocritical pretences; she had merely dispensed with idle legal +formalities, in the prettiest curvetting airy wanton way, to divorce the +man who tried to divorce her, and 'whined to be forgiven when he found +he couldn't. Adderwood was ready to marry her to-morrow, if the donkey +husband would but go and bray his last. Half a dozen others were heads +off on the same course to that goal.' + +That was her champion's perusal of a lady candidly asserting her right +to have breeched comrades, and paying for it in the advocacy which +compromises. She was taken to be and she was used as a weapon wherewith +to strike at our Pharisees. Women pushing out into the world for +independence, bleed heavy payments all round. + +The earl's double-edged defence of her was partly a vindication of +another husband, who allowed his wife to call her friend; he was +nevertheless assured of her not being corrupt, both by his personal +knowledge of the lady, and his perception of her image in the bosom of +his wife. She did no harm there, he knew well. Although he was not a man +to put his trust in faces, as his young secretary inclined to do, +Mrs. Lawrence's look of honest boy did count among the pleadings. +And somewhat so might a government cruiser observe the intrusion of a +white-sailed yacht in protected sea-waters, where licenced trawlers are +at the haul. + +Talk over the table coursed as fluently as might be, with Mrs. Pagnell +for a boulder in the stream. Uninformed by malice, she led up to Lord +Adderwood's name, and perhaps more designedly spoke of Mr. Morsfield, on +whom her profound reading into the female heart of the class above her +caused her to harp, as 'a real Antinous,' that the ladies might discuss +him and Lord Ormont wax meditative. + +Mrs. Lawrence pitied the patient gentleman, while asking him in her mind +who was the author of the domestic burden he had to bear. + +'It reminds me I have a mission,' she said. 'There's a fencing match +down at a hall in the West, near the barracks; private and select: +Soldier and Civilian; I forget who challenged--Civilian, one judges; +Soldiers are the peaceful party. They want you to act “umpire,” as they +call it, on the military side, my dear lord; and you will?--I have +given my word you will bring Lady Ormont. You will?--and not let me be +confounded! Yes, and we shall make a party. I see consent. Aminta will +enjoy the switch of steel. I love to see fencing. It rouses all that is +diabolical in me.' + +She sent a skimming look at the opposite. + +'And I,' said he, much freshened. + +'You fence?' + +'Handle the foils.' + +'If you must speak modestly! Are you in practice?' + +'I spend in hour in Captain Chiallo's fencing rooms generally every +evening before dinner. I heard there the first outlines of the match +proposed. You are right; it was the civilian.' + +'Mr. Morsfield, as I suspected.' + +She smiled to herself, like one saying, Not badly managed, Mr. +Morsfield! + +'Italian school?' Lord Ormont inquired, with a screw of the eyelids. + +'French, my lord.' + +'The only school for teaching.' + +'The simplest--has the most rational method. Italians are apt to be +tricky. But they were masters once, and now and then they send out a +fencer the French can't touch.' + +'How would you account for it?' + +'If I had to account for it, I should say, hotter blood, cool nerve, +quick brain.' + +'Hum. Where are we, then?' + +'We don't shine with the small sword.' + +'We had men neatly pinked for their slashings in the Peninsula.' + +'We've had clever Irishmen.' + +'Hot enough blood! This man Morsfield--have you crossed the foils with +him?' + +'Goes at it like a Spaniard; though Spaniards in Paris have been found +wary enough.' + +My lord hummed. 'Fellow looks as if he would easily lose his head over +steel.' + +'He can be dangerous.' + +The word struck on something, and rang. + +Mrs. Lawrence had a further murmur within her lips. Her travelling eye +met Aminta's and passed it. + +'But not dangerous, surely, if the breast is padded?' said Mrs. Pagnell. + +'Oh no, oh no; not in that case!' Mrs. Lawrence ran out her voluble +assent, and her eyelids blinked; her fair boy's face was mischief at +school under shadow of the master. + +She said to Weyburn: 'Are you one in the list--to give our military a +lesson? They want it.' + +His answer was unheard by Aminta. She gathered from Mrs. Lawrence's +pleased sparkle that he had been invited to stand in the list; and the +strange, the absurd spectacle of a young schoolmaster taking the heroic +attitude for attack and defence wrestled behind her eyes with a suddenly +vivid first-of-May cricketing field, a scene of snowballs flying, the +vision of a strenuous lighted figure scaling to noble young manhood. +Isabella Lawrence's look at him spirited the bright past out of the +wretched long-brown-coat shroud of the present, prompting her to grieve +that some woman's hand had not smoothed a small tuft of hair, disorderly +on his head a little above the left parting, because Isabella +Lawrence Finchley could have no recollection of how it used to toss +feathery--wild at his games. + +My lord hummed again. 'I suspect we 're going to get a drubbing. This +fellow here has had his French maitre d'armes. Show me your hand, sir.' + +Weyburn smiled, and extended his right hand, saying: 'The wrist wants +exercise.' + +'Ha! square thumb, flesh full at the nails' ends; you were a bowler at +cricket.' + +'Now examine the palms, my lord; I judge by the lines on the palms,' +Mrs. Pagnell remarked. + +He nodded to her and rose. + +Coffee had not been served, she reminded him; it was coming in, so +down he sat a yard from the table; outwardly equable, inwardly cursing +coffee; though he refused to finish a meal without his cup. + +'I think the palms do betray something,' said Mrs. Lawrence; and Aminta +said: 'Everything betrays.' + +'No, my dear,' Mrs. Pagnell corrected her; 'the extremities betray, and +we cannot read the centre. Is it not so, my lord?' + +'It may be as you say, ma'am.' + +She was disappointed in her scheme to induce a general examination of +palms, and especially his sphinx lordship's. + +Weyburn controlled the tongue she so frequently tickled to an elvish +gavotte, but the humour on his face touched Mrs. Lawrence's to a subdued +good-fellow roguishness, and he felt himself invited to chat with her on +the walk for a reposeful ten minutes in Aminta's drawing-room. + +Mrs. Pagnell, 'quite enjoying the company,' as she told her niece, +was dismayed to hear her niece tell her of a milliner's appointment, +positive for three o'clock; and she had written it in her head 'p.m., +four o'clock,' and she had mislaid or destroyed the milliner's note; and +she still had designs upon his lordship's palms, things to read and hint +around her off the lines. She departed. + +Lord Ormont became genial; and there was no one present who did not +marvel that he should continue to decree a state of circumstances more +or less necessitating the infliction he groaned under. He was too lofty +to be questioned, even by his favourites. Mrs. Lawrence conjured the +ghost of Lady Charlotte for an answer: this being Lord Adderwood's idea. +Weyburn let his thoughts go on fermenting. Pride froze a beginning stir +in the bosom of Aminta. + +Her lord could captivate a reluctant woman's bosom when he was genial. +He melted her and made her call up her bitterest pride to perform its +recent office. That might have failed; but it had support in a second +letter received from the man accounted both by Mrs. Lawrence and by Mr. +Weyburn 'dangerous'; and the thought of who it was that had precipitated +her to 'play little games' for the sole sake of rousing him through +jealousy to a sense of righteous duty, armed her desperately against +him. She could exult in having read the second letter right through +on receipt of it, and in remembering certain phrases; and notably in +a reflection shot across her bewildered brain by one of the dangerous +man's queer mad sentences: 'Be as iron as you like, I will strike you +to heat'; and her thought: Is there assurance of safety in a perpetual +defence?--all while she smiled on her genial lord, and signified +agreement, with a smiting of wonderment at her heart, when he alluded to +a panic shout of the country for defence, and said: 'Much crying of that +kind weakens the power to defend when the real attack comes.' Was it +true? + +'But say what you propose?' she asked. + +Lord Ormont proposed vigilance and drill; a small degree of +self-sacrifice on the part of the population, and a look-out head in +the War Department. He proposed to have a nation of stout-braced men +laughing at the foreign bully or bandit, instead of being a pack of +whimpering women; whom he likened to the randomly protestant geese of +our country roadside, heads out a yard in a gabble of defence while they +go backing. + +So thereupon Aminta's notion of a resemblance in the mutual thought +subsided; she relapsed on the cushioning sentiment that she was a woman. +And--only a woman! he might exclaim, if it pleased him; though he would +never be able to say she was one of the whimpering. She, too, had +the choice to indulge in scorn of the superior man stone blind to +proceedings intimately affecting him--if he cared! One might doubt it. + +Mrs. Lawrence listened to him with a mind more disengaged, and a +flitting disapproval of Aminta's unsympathetic ear, or reluctance to +stimulate the devout attention a bruised warrior should have in his +tent. She did not press on him the post of umpire. He consented--at her +request, he said--to visit the show; but refused any official position +that would, it was clearly enough implied, bring his name in any +capacity whatever before the country which had unpardonably maltreated +him. + +Feminine wits will be set working, when a point has been gained; and as +Mrs. Lawrence could now say she had persuaded Lord Ormont to gratify +her specially, she warmed to fancy she read him, and that she might have +managed the wounded and angry giant. Her minor intelligence, caracoling +unhampered by harassing emotions, rebuked Aminta's for not perceiving +that to win him round to whatever a woman may desire, she must be with +him, outstrip him even, along the line he chooses for himself; abuse +the country, rail at the Government, ridicule the title of English Army, +proscribe the name of India in his hearing. Little stings of jealousy +are small insect bites, and do not pique a wounded giant hardly +sensible of irritation under his huge, and as we assume for our purpose, +justifiable wrath. We have to speculate which way does the giant incline +to go? and turn him according to the indication. + +Mrs. Lawrence was driven by her critic mood to think Aminta +relied--erroneously, after woman's old fashion--on the might of superb +dark eyes after having been captured. It seemed to her worse than a +beautiful woman's vanity, a childishness. But her boy's head held boy's +brains; and Lord Ormont's praise of the splendid creature's nerve when +she had to smell powder in Spain, and at bull-fights, and once at a +wrecking of their carriage down a gully on the road over the Alpujarras, +sent her away subdued, envious, happy to have kissed the cheek of the +woman who could inspire it. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. A FLASH OF THE BRUISED WARRIOR + +The winning of Lord Ormont's consent to look on at the little bout of +arms was counted an achievement; for even in his own rarefied upper +circle, where the fervid sentiments are not allowed to be seen plunging, +he had his troop of enthusiasts; and they were anxious that he should +make an appearance in public, to take what consolation a misunderstood +and injured man could get from evidence of the grateful esteem +entertained for him by a party of his countrymen, who might reasonably +expect at the same time to set eyes, at rather close quarters, on the +wonderful dark beauty, supposed a Spaniard, occasionally beheld riding +beside him. If it is possible to connect a woman with the devoutest of +their anticipations, the sons of leisure up there will do it. But, in +truth, an English world was having cause to ransack the dust-heaps +for neglected men of mettle. Our intermittent ague, known as dread of +invasion, was over the land. Twice down the columns of panic newspaper +correspondence Lord Ormont saw his name cited, with the effect on him +that such signs of national repentance approaching lodged a crabbed +sourness in his consulting-room, whether of head or breast. + +He was assailed by a gusty appeal from Lady Charlotte, bidding him +seize the moment to proclaim his views while the secretary had a private +missive from her, wherein, between insistency and supplication, she +directed him to bring the subject before my lord every day, and be sure +to write out a fair copy of the epistle previous to the transmission of +it. 'Capua' was mentioned; she brought in 'a siren,' too. Her brother +was to be the soldier again--fling off silken bonds. The world might +prate of his morality; now was the hour for showing his patriotism, +casting aside his just anger, and backing his chief's opinion. 'A good +chance to get their names together.' To her brother she declared that +the columns of the leading journal were open to him--'in large type'; he +was to take her word for it; he had only to 'dictate away,' quite at his +ease, just as he talked at Olmer, and leave the bother of the scribe's +business to his aide. 'Lose no time,' she concluded; 'the country wants +your ideas; let us have your plan.' + +The earl raised his shoulders, and kept his aide exclusively at the +Memoirs. Weyburn, however, read out to him, with accentuation, foolish +stuff in the recurrent correspondence of the daily sheets, and a +complacent burgess article, meant to be a summary of the controversy and +a recommendation to the country to bask in the sun of its wealth again. + +'Ay, be the porker sow it's getting liker and liker to every year!' Lord +Ormont exclaimed, and sprang on his feet. 'Take a pen. Shut up that +box. We'll give 'em digestive biscuits for their weak stomachs. Invasion +can't be done, they say! I tell the doddered asses Napoleon would have +been over if Villeneuve had obeyed him to the letter. Villeneuve had +a fit of paralysis, owing to the prestige of Nelson--that 's as it +happened. And they swear at prestige, won't believe in it, because it's +not fat bacon. I tell them, after Napoleon's first battles, prestige did +half his work for him. It saved him at Essling from a plunge into the +Danube; it saved him at Moskowa; it would have marched him half over +England at his first jump on our shingle beach. But that squelch of fat +citizens should be told--to the devil with them! will they ever learn? +short of a second William!--there were eight-and-forty hours when the +liberty of this country hung wavering in the balance with those Boulogne +boats. Now look at Ulm and Austerlitz. Essling, Wagram; put the victors +in those little affairs to front our awkward squads. The French could +boast a regimental system, and chiefs who held them as the whist-player +his hand of cards. Had we a better general than the Archduke Charles? +or cavalry and artillery equal to the Hungarian? or drilled infantry +numbering within eighty thousand of the Boulogne-Wimereux camps? We had +nothing but the raw material of courage--pluck, and no science. Ask +any boxing man what he thinks of the chances. The French might have +sacrificed a fleet to land fifty thousand. Our fleet was our one chance. +Any foreign General at the head of fifty thousand trained, picked troops +would risk it, and cut an 'entrechat' for joy of the chance. We should +have fought and bled and been marched over--a field of Anglo-Saxon +stubble! and Nelson riding the Channel, undisputed lord of the waters. +Heigh! by the Lord, this country would have been like a man free to rub +his skin with his hand and a mortal disease in his blood. Are you ready? +How anticipate a hostile march on the capital, is our business.' + +Striding up and down the library, Lord Ormont dropped his wrath to +dictate the practical measures for defence--detesting the cat's-cry +'defence,' he said; but the foe would bring his old growlers, and we +should have to season our handful of regulars and mob of levies, turn +the mass into troops. With plenty of food, and blows daily, Englishmen +soon get stomachs for the right way to play the game; bowl as well as +bat; and the sooner they give up the idea of shamming sturdy on a stiff +hind leg, the better for their chances. Only, it's a beastly thing to +see that for their favourite attitude;--like some dog of a fellow weak +in the fists, weaker in the midriff, at a fair, who cries, Come on, and +prays his gods you won't. All for peace, the rascal boasts himself, and +he beats his wife and kicks his curs at home. Is there any one to help +him now, he vomits gold and honours on the man he yesterday treated as a +felon. Ha! + +Bull the bumpkin disposed of, my lord drew leisurely back from the +foeman's landing-place, at the head of a body of serious Englishmen; +teaching them to be manageable as chess-pieces, ready as bow-strings to +let fly. Weyburn rejoiced to find himself transcribing crisp sentences, +hard on the matter, without garnish of scorn. Kent, Sussex, Surrey, all +the southern heights about London, round away to the south-western of +the Hampshire heathland, were accurately mapped in the old warrior's +brain. He knew his points of vantage by name; there were no references +to gazetteer or atlas. A chain of forts and earthworks enables us to +choose our ground, not for clinging to them, but for choice of time and +place to give battle. If we have not been playing double-dyed traitor +to ourselves, we have a preponderating field artillery; our yeomanry and +volunteer horsemen are becoming a serviceable cavalry arm; our infantry +prove that their heterogeneous composition can be welded to a handy +mass, and can stand fire and return it, and not be beaten by an +acknowledged defeat. + +'That's English! yes, that's English! when they're at it,' my lord sang +out. + +'To know how to take a licking, that wins in the end,' cried Weyburn; +his former enthusiasm for the hero mounting, enlightened by a +reminiscence of the precept he had hammered on the boys at Cuper's. + +'They fall well. Yes, the English fall like men,' said my lord, +pardoning and embracing the cuffed nation. 'Bodies knocked over, hearts +upright. That's example; we breed Ironsides out of a sight like that. +If it weren't for a cursed feeble Government scraping 'conges' to the +taxpayer--well, so many of our good fellows would not have to fall. That +I say; for this thing is going to happen some day, mind you, sir! And I +don't want to have puncheons and hogsheads of our English blood poured +out merely to water the soil of a conquered country because English +Governments are a craven lot, not daring risk of office by offending the +taxpayer. But, on!' + +Weyburn sent Lady Charlotte glowing words of the composition in +progress. + +They worked through a day, and a second day--talked of nothing else in +the intervals. Explanatory answers were vouchsafed to Aminta's modest +inquiries at Finch, as she pictured scenes of smoke, dust and blood from +the overpowering plain masculine lines they drew, terrible in bluntness. +The third morning Lord Ormont had map and book to verify distances and +attempt a scale of heights, take names of estates, farms, parishes, +commons, patches of woodland. Weyburn wrote his fair copy on folio +paper, seven-and-thirty pages. He read it aloud to the author on the +afternoon of the fourth day, with the satisfaction in his voice that he +felt. My lord listened and nodded. The plan for the defence of England's +heart was a good plan. + +He signed to have the manuscript handed to him. A fortified London +secure of the Thames for abundant supplies, well able to breathe within +earthworks extending along the southern hills, was clearly shown to +stand the loss of two big battles on the Sussex weald or more East to +North-east, if fortune willed it. + +He rose from his chair, paced some steps, with bent head, came back +thoughtfully, lifted the manuscript sheets for another examination. +Then he stooped to the fire, spreading the edges unevenly, so that they +caught flame. Weyburn spied at him. It was to all appearance the +doing of a man who had intended it and brought it to the predetermined +conclusion. + +'About time for you to be off for your turn at Chiallo's,' our country's +defender remarked, after tossing the last half-burnt lump under the +grate and shovelling at it. + +'I will go, my lord,' said Weyburn--and he was glad to go. + +He went, calculated his term of service under Lord Ormont. He was young, +not a philosopher. Waste of anything was abhorrent to a nature pointed +at store of daily gain, if it were only the gain in a new or a freshened +idea; and time lost, work lost, good counsel to the nation lost, +represented horrid vacuity to him, and called up the counter +demonstration of a dance down the halls of madness, for proof that we +should, at least, have jolly motion of limbs there before Perdition +struck the great gong. Ay, and we should be twirling with a fair form on +the arm: woman and man; as it ought to be; twirling downward, true, but +together. Such a companionship has a wisdom to raise it above the title +of madness. Name it, heartily, pleasure; and in contempt of the moralist +burgess, praise the dance of a woman and the man together high over a +curmudgeonly humping solitariness, that won't forgive an injury, nurses +rancour, smacks itself in the face, because it can't--to use the old +schoolboy words--take a licking! + +These were the huddled, drunken sensations and thoughts entertained by +Weyburn, without his reflecting on the detachment from his old hero, of +which they were the sign. He criticized impulsively, and fancied he did +no more, and was not doing much though, in fact, criticism is the end of +worship; the Brutus blow at that Imperial but mortal bosom. + +The person criticized was manifest. Who was the woman he twirled with? +She was unfeatured, undistinguished, one of the sex, or all the sex: +the sex to be shunned as our deadly sapper of gain, unless we find the +chosen one to super-terrestrialize it and us, and trebly outdo our gift +of our whole self for her. + +She was indistinguishable, absolutely unknown; yet she murmured, or +seemed to murmur--for there was no sound--a complaint of Lord Ormont. +And she, or some soundless mouth of woman, said he was a splendid +military hero, a chivalrous man, a man of inflexible honour; but had +no understanding of how to treat a woman, or belief in her having equal +life with him on earth. + +She was put aside rather petulantly, and she took her seat out of the +whirl with submission. Thinking she certainly was not Browny, whom he +would have known among a million, he tried to quit the hall, and he +twirled afresh, necessarily not alone; it is the unpardonable offence +both to the Graces and the Great Mother for man to valse alone. She +twirled on his arm, uninvited; accepted, as in the course of nature; +hugged, under dictate of the nature of the man steeled against her by +the counting of gain, and going now at desperation's pace, by very means +of those defensive locked steam-valves meant to preserve him from this +madness,--for the words of the red-lipped mate, where there were no +words, went through him like a music when the bow is over the viol, +sweeping imagination, and they said her life was wasting. + +Was not she a priceless manuscript cast to the flames? Her lord had been +at some trouble to win her. Or his great fame and his shadowed fortunes +had won her. He took her for his own, and he would not call her his own. +He comported himself with absolute, with kindly deference to the lady +whose more than vital spark he let the gossips puff at and blur. He +praised her courage, visibly admired her person, admitted her in private +to be his equal, degraded her in public. Could anything account for the +behaviour of so manly and noble a gentleman?--Rhetoric made the attempt, +and Weyburn gave up the windy business. + +Discovering that his fair partner of the wasting life was--he struggled +to quench the revelation--Aminta, he stopped the dance. If there was no +gain in whirling fancifully with one of the sex, a spin of a minute with +her was downright bankruptcy. + +He was young, full of blood; his heart led him away from the door Lord +Ormont had exposed; at which a little patient unemotional watchfulness +might have intimated to him something besides the simple source of the +old hero's complex chapter of conduct. As it was, Weyburn did see the +rancour of a raw wound in operation. But he moralized and disapproved; +telling himself, truly enough, that so it would not have been with him; +instead of sounding at my lord's character, and his condition of the +unjustly neglected great soldier, for the purpose of asking how that raw +wound would affect an injured veteran, who compressed, almost repressed, +the roar of Achilles, though his military bright name was to him his +Briseis. + + + + +CHAPTER X. A SHORT PASSAGE IN THE GAME PLAYED BY TWO + +Politest of men in the domestic circle and everywhere among women, Lord +Ormont was annoyed to find himself often gruffish behind the tie of his +cravat. Indeed, the temper of our eminently serene will feel the +strain of a doldrum-dulness that is goaded to activity by a nettle. The +forbearance he carried farther than most could do was tempted to kick, +under pressure of Mrs. Nargett Pagnell. Without much blaming Aminta, on +whose behalf he submitted to it, and whose resolution to fix in England +had brought it to this crisis, he magnanimously proposed to the Fair +Enemy he forced her to be, and liked to picture her as being, a month in +Paris. + +Aminta declined it for herself; after six or more years of travelling, +she wished to settle, and know her country, she said: a repetition +remark, wide of the point, and indicatory to the game of Pull she +was again playing beneath her smooth visage, unaware that she had the +wariest of partners at the game. + +'But go you--do, I beg,' she entreated. 'It will give you new +impressions; and I cannot bear to tie you down here.' + +'How you can consent to be tied down here, is the wonder to me!' said +he. 'When we travelled through the year, just visited England and +were off again, we were driving on our own road. Vienna in April and +May--what do you say? You like the reviews there, and the dances, +concerts, Zigeuner bands, military Bohemian bands. Or Egypt to-morrow, +if you like--though you can't be permitted to swim in the Nile, as +you wanted. Come, Xarifa, speak it. I go to exile without you. Say you +come.' + +She smiled firmly. The name of her honeymoon days was not a cajolery to +her. + +His name had been that of the Christian Romancero Knight Durandarte, and +she gave it to him, to be on the proper level with him, while she still +declined. + +'Well, but just a month in Paris! There's nothing doing here. And we +both like the French theatre.' + +'London will soon be filling.' + +'Well, but--' He stopped; for the filling of London did really concern +her, in the game of Pull she was covertly playing with him. 'You seem +to have caught the fever of this London;... no bands.... no reviews .... +Low comedy acting.' He muttered his objections to London. + +'The society of people speaking one's own tongue, add that,' she +ventured to say. + +'You know you are ten times more Spanish than English. Moorish, if you +like.' + +'The slave of the gallant Christian Knight, converted, baptized, and +blissful. Oh, I know. But now we are settled in England, I have a wish +to study English society.' + +'Disappointing, I assure you;--dinners heavy, dancing boorish, intrigue +a blind-man's-buff. We've been over it all before!' + +'We have.' + +'Admired, I dare say. You won't be understood.' + +'I like my countrymen.' + +'The women have good looks--of the ungarnished kind. The men are louts.' + +'They are brave.' + +'You're to see their fencing. You'll own a little goes a long way.' + +'I think it will amuse me.' + +'So I thought when I gave the nod to Isabella your friend.' + +'You like her?' + +'You, too.' + +'One fancies she would make an encouraging second in a duel.' + +'I will remember... when I call you out.' + +'Oh, my dear lord, you have dozens to choose from leave me my one if we +are to enter the lists.' + +'We are, it seems; unless you consent to take the run to Paris. You are +to say Tom or Rowsley.' + +'The former, I can never feel at home in saying; Rowsley is Lady +Charlotte's name for you.' + +The name of Lady Charlotte was an invitation to the conflict between +them. He passed it, and said 'Durandarte runs a mile on the mouth, and +the Coriolanus of their newspapers helps a stage-player to make lantern +jaws. Neither of them comes well from the lips of my girl. After seven +years she should have hit on a nickname, of none of the Christian suit. +I am not “at home” either with “my lord.” However, you send me off +to Paris alone; and you'll be alone and dull here in this London. +Incomprehensible to me why!' + +'We are both wondering?' said Aminta. + +'You 're handsomer than when I met you first--by heaven you are!' + +She flushed her dark brown-red late-sunset. 'Brunes are exceptional in +England.' + +'Thousands admiring you, of course! I know, my love, I have a jewel.' + +She asked him: 'What are jewels for?' and he replied, 'To excite +cupidity.' + +'When they 're shut in a box?' + +'Ware burglars! But this one is not shut up. She shuts herself up. And +up go her shoulders! Decide to be out of it, and come to Paris for some +life for a month. No? It's positive? When do you expect your little +school friend?' + +'After Easter. Aunt will be away.' + +'Your little friend likes the country. I'll go to my house agents. +If there 's a country house open on the upper Thames, you can have +swimming, boating, botanizing...' + +He saw her throat swallow. But as he was offering agreeable things he +chose to not understand how he was to be compassionate. + +'Steignton?' she said, and did her cause no good by saying it feebly. + +His look of a bygone awake-in-sleep old look, drearily known to her, was +like a strip of sunlight on a fortress wall. It signified, Is the poor +soul pushing me back to that again? + +She compelled herself to say: 'Your tenant there?' + +'Matter of business... me and my tenant,' he remarked. 'The man pays +punctually.' + +'The lease has expired.' + +'Not quite. You are misinformed.' + +'At Easter.' + +'Ah! Question of renewing.' + +'You were fond of the place.' + +'I was fond of the place? Thank Blazes, I'm not what I was!' He paced +about. 'There's not a corner of the place that doesn't screw an eye at +me, because I had a dream there. La gloire!' + +The rest he muttered. 'These English!' was heard. Aminta said: 'Am I +never to see Steignton?' + +Lord Ormont invoked the Powers. He could not really give answer to this +female talk of the eternities. + +'Beaten I can never be,' he said, with instinctive indulgence to the +greater creature. 'But down there at Steignton, I should be haunted by +a young donkey swearing himself the fellow I grew up out of. No doubt +of that. I don't like him the better for it. Steignton grimaces at a +cavalry officer fool enough at his own risks and penalties to help +save India for the English. Maunderers! You can't tell--they don't know +themselves--what they mean. Except that they 're ready to take anything +you hand 'em, and then pipe to your swinging. I served them well--and at +my age, in full activity, they condemn me to sit and gape!' + +He stopped his pacing and gazed on the glass of the window. + +'Would you wish me not to be present at this fencing?' said Aminta. + +'Dear me! by all means, go, my love,' he replied. + +Any step his Fair Enemy won in the secret game Pull between them, she +was undisputedly to keep. + +She suggested: 'It might lead to unpleasantness.' + +'Of what sort?' + +'You ask?' + +He emphasized: 'Have you forgotten? Something happened after that +last ball at Challis's Rooms. Their women as well as their men must be +careful not to cross me.' + +Aminta had confused notions of her being planted in hostile territory, +and torn and knitted, trumpeted to the world as mended, but not +honourably mended in a way to stop corridor scandal. The ball at +Challis's Rooms had been one of her steps won: it had necessitated a +requirement for the lion in her lord to exhibit himself, and she had +gained nothing with Society by the step, owing to her poor performance +of the lion's mate. She had, in other words, shunned the countenance of +some scattered people pityingly ready to support her against the deadly +passive party known to be Lady Charlotte's. + +She let her lord go; thinking that once more had she striven and gained +nothing: which was true of all their direct engagements. And she had +failed because of her being only a woman! Mr. Morsfield was foolishly +wrong in declaring that she, as a woman, had reserves of strength. He +was perhaps of Lady Charlotte's mind with regard to the existence of +a Countess of Ormont, or he would know her to be incredibly cowardly. +Cowardly under the boast of pride, too; well, then, say, if you like, a +woman! + +Yet this mere shallow woman would not hesitate to meet the terrible Lady +Charlotte at any instant, on any terms: and what are we to think of +a soldier, hero, lion, dreading to tell her to her face that the +persecuted woman is his wife! + +'Am I a woman they can be ashamed of?' she asked, and did not seek the +answer at her mirror. She was in her bedroom, and she put out a hand +to her jewel-box, fingered it, found it locked, and abandoned her idle +project. A gentleman was 'dangerous.' She had not found him so. He had +the reputation, perhaps, because he was earnest. Not so very many men +are earnest. She called to recollection how ludicrously practical he was +in the thick of his passion. His third letter (addressed to the Countess +of Ormont--whom he manifestly did not or would not take to be the +veritable Countess--and there was much to plead for his error), or was +it his fourth?--the letters were a tropical hail-storm: third or +fourth, he broke off a streaked thunderpeal, to capitulate his worldly +possessions, give the names and degrees of kinship of his relatives, the +exact amount of the rent-roll of his Yorkshire estates, of his funded +property. + +Silly man! but not contemptible. He proposed everything in honour, from +his view of it. + +Whether in his third, fourth, or fifth letter.... How many had come? +She drew the key from her purse, and opened a drawer. The key of the +jewel-box was applied to the lock. + +Mr. Morsfield had sent her six flaming letters. He not only took no +precautions, he boasted that he hailed the consequences of discovery. +Six! + +She lifted a pen: it had to be done. + +He was briefly informed that he disturbed her peace. She begged he would +abstain from any further writing to her. + +The severity was in the brevity. The contrast of her style and his +appeared harsh. But it belonged to the position. + +Having with one dash of the pen scribbled her three lines, she slipped +the letter into her pocket. That was done, and it had to be done; it +ought to have been done before. How simple it was when one contemplated +it as actually done! Aminta made the motion of a hand along the paper, +just a flourish. Soon after, her head dropped back on the chair, and her +eyes shut, she took in breath through parted lips. The brief lines of +writing had cut away a lump of her vitality. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. THE SECRETARY TAKEN AS AN ANTIDOTE + +Dusty wayfarers along a white high-road who know of a bubbling little +spring across a stile, on the woodland borders of deep grass, are hailed +to sit aside it awhile: and Aminta's feverishness was cooled by now +and then a quiet conversation with the secretary ambitious to become a +school-master. Lady Charlotte liked him, so did her lord; Mrs. Lawrence +had chatted with him freshly, as it was refreshing to recollect; nobody +thought him a stunted growth. + +In Aminta's realized recollections, amid the existing troubles of her +mind, the charge against him grew paler, and she could no longer quite +think that the young hero transformed into a Mr. Cuper had deceived her, +though he had done it--much as if she had assisted at the planting and +watched aforetime the promise of a noble tree, to find it, after an +interval of years, pollarded--a short trunk shooting out a shock of +small, slim, stiff branches; dwarfed and disgraced; serviceable perhaps; +not ludicrous or ugly, certainly, taking it for a pollard. And he was +a cool well-spring to talk with. He, supposed once to be a passionate +nature, scorned passion as a madness; he smiled in his merciful +executioner's way at the high society, of which her aim was to pass for +one among the butterflies or dragonflies; he had lost his patriotism; +he labelled our English classes the skimmers, the gorgers, the grubbers, +and stigmatized them with a friendly air; and uttered words of tolerance +only for farmers and surgeons and schoolmasters. But that was quite +incidental in the humorous run of his talk, diverting to hear while it +lasted. He had, of course, a right to his ideas. + +No longer concerned in contesting them, she drank at the water of this +plain earth-well, and hoped she preferred it to fiery draughts, though +it was flattish, or, say, flavourless. In the other there was excess +of flavour--or, no, spice it had to be called. The young schoolmaster's +world seemed a sunless place, the world of traders bargaining for gain, +without a glimmer of the rich generosity to venture life, give it, dare +all for native land--or for the one beloved. Love pressed its claim on +heroical generosity, and instantly it suffused her, as an earth under +flush of sky. The one beloved! She had not known love; she was in her +five-and-twentieth year, and love was not only unknown to her, it was +shut away from her by the lock of a key that opened on no estimable +worldly advantage in exchange, but opened on a dreary, clouded round, +such as she had used to fancy it must be to the beautiful creamy +circus-horse of the tossing mane and flowing tail and superb step. She +was admired; she was just as much doomed to a round of paces, denied the +glorious fling afield, her nature's food. Hitherto she would have been +shamefaced as a boy in forming the word 'love': now, believing it denied +to her for good and all--for ever and ever--her bosom held and uttered +the word. She saw the word, the nothing but the word that it was, and +she envisaged it, for the purpose of saying adieu to it--good-bye even +to the poor empty word. + +This condition was attributable to a gentleman's wild rageing with the +word, into which he had not infused the mystic spirit. He poured hot +wine and spiced. If not the spirit of love, it was really the passion of +the man. Her tremors now and again in the reading of his later letters +humiliated her, in the knowledge that they came of no response to +him, but from the temporary base acquiescence; which is, with women, a +terrible perception of the gulf of their unsatisfied nature. + +The secretary, cheerful at his work, was found for just the opening of a +door. Sometimes she hesitated--to disturb him, she said to herself,--and +went up-stairs or out visiting. He protested that he could work on and +talk too. She was able to amuse her lord with some of his ideas. He had +a stock of them, all his own. + +Ideas, new-born and naked original ideas, are acceptable at no time to +the humanity they visit to help uplift, it from the state of beast. In +the England of that, period original or unknown ideas were a smoking +brimstone to the nose, dread Arabian afrites, invisible in the air, +jumping out of vases, armed for the slaughter of the venerable and +the cherished, the ivy-clad and celestially haloed. They carried +the dishevelled Maenad's torch. A step with them, and we were on the +Phlegethon waters of the French Revolution. For a publication of simple +ideas men were seized, tried at law, mulcted, imprisoned, and not +pardoned after the term of punishment; their names were branded: the +horned elect butted at them; he who alluded to them offered them +up, wittingly or not, to be damned in the nose of the public for an +execrable brimstone stench. + +Lord Ormont broke through his shouts or grunts at Aminta's report of the +secretary's ideas on various topics, particularly the proposal that the +lords of the land should head the land in a revolutionary effort to make +law of his crazy, top-heavy notions, with a self-satisfied ejaculation: +'He has not favoured me with any of these puffballs of his.' + +The deduction was, that the author sagaciously considered them adapted +for the ear of a woman; they were womanish--i.e. flighty, gossamer. To +the host of males, all ideas are female until they are made facts. + +This idea, proposing it to our aristocracy to take up his other ideas, +or reject them on pain of the forfeiture of their caste and headship +with the generations to follow, and a total displacing of them +in history by certain notorious, frowzy, scrubby pamphleteers and +publishers, Lord Ormont thought amazingly comical. English nobles +heading the weavers, cobblers, and barbers of England! He laughed, but +he said, 'Charlotte would listen to that.' + +The dread, high-sitting Lady Charlotte was, in his lofty thinking, a +woman, and would therefore listen to nonsense, if it happened to +strike a particular set of bells hanging in her cranium. She patronized +blasphemous and traitorous law-breakers, just to keep up the pluck of +the people, not with a notion of maintaining our English aristocracy +eminent in history. + +Lady Charlotte, however, would be the foremost to swoop down on the +secretary's ideas about the education of women. + +On that subject, Aminta said she did not know what to think. + +Now, if a man states the matter he thinks, and a woman does but listen, +whether inclining to agree or not, a perceptible stamp is left on soft +wax. Lord Ormont told her so, with cavalier kindness. + +She confessed 'she did not know what to think,' when the secretary +proposed the education and collocation of boys and girls in one group, +never separated, declaring it the only way for them to learn to know and +to respect one another. They were to learn together, play together, have +matches together, as a scheme for stopping the mischief between them. + +'But, my dear girl, don't you see, the devilry was intended by Nature. +Life would be the coldest of dishes without it.' And as for mixing the +breeched and petticoated in those young days--'I can't enter into it,' +my lord considerately said. 'All I can tell you is, I know boys.' + +Aminta persisted in looking thoughtful. 'Things are bad, as they are +now,' she said. + +'Always were--always will be. They were intended to be, if we are to +call them bad. Botched mendings will only make them worse.' + +'Which side suffers?' + +'Both; and both like it. One side must be beaten at any game. It's off +and on, pretty equal--except in the sets where one side wears thick +boots. Is this fellow for starting a mixed sexes school? Funny mothers!' + +'I suppose--' Aminta said, and checked the supposition. 'The mothers +would not leave their girls unless they were confident...?' + +'There's to be a female head of the female department? He reckons +on finding a woman as big a fool as himself? A fair bit of reckoning +enough. He's clever at the pen. He doesn't bother me with his ideas; now +and then I 've caught a sound of his bee buzzing.' + +The secretary was left undisturbed at his labours for several days. + +He would have been gladdened by a brighter look of her eyes at her next +coming. They were introspective and beamless. She had an odd leaning +to the talk upon Cuper's boys. He was puzzled by what he might have +classed, in any other woman, as a want of delicacy, when she recurred +to incidents which were red patches of the school time, and had clearly +lost their glow for her. + +A letter once written by him, in his early days at Cuper's, addressed +to J. Masner, containing a provocation to fight with any weapons, and +signed, 'Your Antagonist,' had been read out to the whole school, under +strong denunciation of the immorality, the unchristian-like conduct of +the writer, by Mr. Cuper; creating a sensation that had travelled to +Miss Vincent's establishment, where some of the naughtiest of the +girls had taken part with the audacious challenger, dreadful though +the contemplation of a possible duel so close to them was. And then +the girls heard that the anonymous 'Your Antagonist,' on being cited +to proclaim himself in public assembly of school-mates and masters, had +jumped on his legs and into the name of--one who was previously thought +by Miss Vincent's good girls incapable of the 'appalling wickedness,' +as Mr. Cuper called it, of signing 'Your Antagonist' to a Christian +school-fellow, having the design to provoke a breach of the law of the +land and shed Christian blood. Mr. Cuper delivered an impressive sermon +from his desk to the standing up boarders and day-scholars alike, +vilifying the infidel Greek word 'antagonist.' + +'Do you remember the offender's name?' the Countess of Ormont said; and +Weyburn said-- + +'Oh yes, I 've not forgotten the incident.' + +Her eyes, wherein the dead time hung just above the underlids, lingered, +as with the wish for him to name the name. + +She said: 'I am curious to hear how you would treat a case of that sort. +Would you preach to the boys? + +'Ten words at most. The right assumption is that both fellows were to +blame. I fancy the proper way would be to appeal to the naughty girls +for their opinion as to how the dispute should be decided.' + +'You impose too much on them. And you are not speaking seriously.' + +'Pardon me, I am. I should throw myself into the mind of a naughty +girl--supposing none of these at hand--and I should let it be known that +my eyes were shut to proceedings, always provided the weapons were not +such as would cause a shock of alarm in female bosoms.' + +'You would at your school allow it to be fought out?' + +'Judging by the characters of the boys. If they had heads to understand, +I would try them at their heads. Otherwise they are the better, they +come round quicker to good blood, at their age--I speak of English +boys--for a little hostile exercise of their fists. Well, for one thing, +it teaches them the value of sparring.' + +'I must imagine I am not one of the naughty sisterhood,--for I cannot +think I should ever give consent to fighting of any description, unless +for the very best of reasons,' said the countess. + +His eyes were at the trick of the quarter-minute's poising. Her lids +fluttered. 'Oh, I don't mean to say I was one of the good,' she added. + +At the same time her enlivened memory made her conscious of a warning, +that she might, as any woman might, so talk on of past days as to take, +rather more than was required of the antidote she had come for. + +The antidote was excellent; cooling, fortifying; 'quite a chalybeate,' +her aunt would say, and she was thankful. Her heart rose on a quiet wave +of the thanks, and pitched down to a depth of uncounted fathoms. Aminta +was unable to tell herself why. + +Mrs. Lawrence Finchley had been announced. On her way to the drawing +room Aminta's brain fell upon a series of dots, that wound along a track +to the point where she accused herself of a repented coquettry--cause of +the burning letters she was doomed to receive and could not stop without +rousing her lion. She dotted backwards; there was no sign that she +had been guilty of any weakness other than the almost--at least, in +design--innocent first move, which had failed to touch Lord Ormont in +the smallest degree. Never failure more absolute! + +She was about to inquire of her bosom's oracle whether she greatly +cared now. For an answer, her brain went dotting along from Mr. Cuper's +school, and a boy named Abner there, and a boy named Matey Weyburn, who +protected the little Jew-boy, up to Mr. Abner in London, who recommended +him in due season to various acquaintances; among them to Lady Charlotte +Eglett. Hence the introduction to Lord Ormont. How little extraordinary +circumstances are, if only we trace them to the source! + +But if only it had appeared marvellous, the throbbing woman might have +seized on it, as a thing fateful, an intervention distinctly designed +to waken the best in her, which was, after all, the strongest. Yea, she +could hope and pray and believe it was the strongest. + +She was listening to Isabella Lawrence Finchley, wishing she might have +followed to some end the above line of her meditations. + +Mrs. Lawrence was changed, much warmer, pressing to be more than merely +friendly. Aminta twice gave her cheek for kisses. The secretary had +spoken of Mrs. Lawrence as having the look of a handsome boy; and +Aminta's view of her now underwent a change likewise. Compunction, +together with a sisterly taste for the boyish fair one flying her sail +independently, and gallantly braving the winds, induced her to kiss in +return. + +'You do like me a morsel?' said Mrs. Lawrence. 'I fell in love with you +the last time I was here. I came to see Mr. Secretary--it's avowed; and +I have been thinking of you ever since, of no one else. Oh yes, for a +man; but you caught me. I've been hearing of him from Captain May. They +fence at those rooms. And it 's funny, Mr. Morsfield practises there, +you know; and there was a time when the lovely innocent Amy, Queen +of Blondes, held the seat of the Queen of Brunes. Ah, my dear, the +infidelity of men doesn't count. They are affected by the changeing +moons. As long as the captain is civil to him, we may be sure beautiful +Amy has not complained. Her husband is the pistol she carries in her +pocket, and she has fired him twice, with effect. Through love of you I +have learnt the different opinion the world of the good has of her and +of me; I thought we ran under a common brand. There are gradations. I +went to throw myself at the feet of my great-aunt; good old great-aunt +Lady de Culme, who is a power in the land. I let her suppose I came for +myself, and she reproached me with Lord Adder. I confessed to him +and ten others. She is a dear, she's ticklish, and at eighty-four she +laughed! She looked into my eyes and saw a field with never a man in +it--just the shadow of a man. She admitted the ten cancelled the one, +and exactly named to me, by comparison with the erring Amy, the sinner +I am and must be, if I 'm to live. So, dear, the end of it is,' and Mrs. +Lawrence put her fingers to a silken amber bow at Aminta's throat, and +squared it and flattened it with dainty precision, speaking on under +dropped eyelids, intent upon her work, 'Lady de Culme will be happy to +welcome you whenever it shall suit the Countess of Ormont to accompany +her disreputable friend. But what can I do, dear?' She raised her lids +and looked beseechingly. 'I was born with this taste for the ways and +games and style of men. I hope I don't get on badly with women; but if I +'m not allowed to indulge my natural taste, I kick the stable-boards and +bite the manger.' + +Aminta threw her arms round her, and they laughed their mutual peal. + +Caressing her still, Aminta said: 'I don't know whether I embrace a +boy.' + +'That idea comes from a man!' said Mrs. Lawrence. It was admitted. The +secretary was discussed. + +Mrs. Lawrence remarked: 'Yes, I like talking with him; he's bright. You +drove him out of me the day I saw him. Doesn't he give you the idea of a +man who insists on capturing you and lets it be seen he doesn't care two +snaps of a finger?' + +Aminta petitioned on his behalf indifferently: 'He 's well bred.' + +She was inattentive to Mrs. Lawrence's answer. The allusion of the +Queen of Blondes had stung her in the unacknowledged regions where women +discard themselves and are most sensitive. + +'Decide on coming soon to Lady de Culme,' said Mrs. Lawrence. 'Now that +her arms are open to you, she would like to have you in them. She is +old--. You won't be rigorous? no standing on small punctilios? + +She would call, but she does not--h'm, it is M. le Comte that she does +not choose to--h'm. But her arms are open to the countess. It ought to +be a grand step. You may be assured that Lady Charlotte Eglett would not +be taken into them. My great-aunt has a great-aunt's memory. The Ormonts +are the only explanation--if it 's an apology--she can offer for the +behaviour of the husband of the Countess of Ormont. You know I like him. +I can't help liking a man who likes me. Is that the way with a boy, Mr. +Secretary? I must have another talk with the gentleman, my dear. You are +Aminta to me.' + +'Always Aminta to you,' was the reply, tenderly given. + +'But as for comprehending him, I'm as far off that as Lady de Culme, who +hasn't the liking for him I have.' + +'The earl?' said Aminta, showing by her look that she was in the same +position. + +Mrs. Lawrence shrugged: 'I believe men and women marry in order that +they should never be able to understand one another. The riddle's best +read at a moderate distance. It 's what they call the golden mean; too +close, too far, we're strangers. I begin to understand that husband of +mine, now we're on bowing terms. Now, I must meet the earl to-morrow. +You will arrange? His hand wants forcing. Upon my word, I don't believe +it 's more.' + +Mrs. Lawrence contrasted him in her mind with the husband she knew, and +was invigorated by the thought that a placable impenetrable giant may +often be more pliable in a woman's hands than an irascible dwarf--until, +perchance, the latter has been soundly cuffed, and then he is docile to +trot like a squire, as near your heels as he can get. She rejoiced to be +working for the woman she had fallen in love with. + +Aminta promised herself to show the friend a livelier affection at their +next meeting. + +A seventh letter, signed 'Adolphus,' came by post, was read and locked +up in her jewel-box. They were all nigh destruction for a wavering +minute or so. They were placed where they lay because the first of them +had been laid there, the box being a strong one, under a patent key, and +discovery would mean the terrible. They had not been destroyed because +they had, or seemed to her to have, the language of passion. She could +read them unmoved, and appease a wicked craving she owned to having, and +reproached herself with having, for that language. + +Was she not colour in the sight of men? Here was one, a mouthpiece of +numbers, who vowed that homage was her due, and devotion, the pouring +forth of the soul to her. What was the reproach if she read the stuff +unmoved? + +But peruse and reperuse it, and ask impressions to tell our deepest +instinct of truthfulness whether language of this character can have +been written to two women by one hand! Men are cunning. Can they catch a +tone? Not that tone! + +She, too, Mrs. Amy May, was colour in the sight of men. Yet it seemed +that he could not have written so to the Queen of Blondes. And she, by +repute, was as dangerous to slight as he to attract. Her indifference +exonerated him. Besides, a Queen of Blondes would not draw the hearts +out of men in England, as in Italy and in Spain. Aminta had got thus +far when she found 'Queen of Brunes' expunged by a mist: she imagined +hearing the secretary's laugh. She thought he was right to laugh at her. +She retorted simply: 'These are feelings that are poetry.' + +A man may know nothing about them, and be an excellent schoolmaster. + +Suggestions touching the prudence of taking Mrs. Lawrence into her +confidence, as regarded these troublesome letters of the man with the +dart in his breast, were shuffled aside for various reasons: her modesty +shrank; and a sense of honour toward the man forbade it. She would have +found it easier to do if she had conspired against her heart in doing +it. And yet, cold-bloodedly to expose him and pluck the clothing from a +passion--dear to think of only when it is profoundly secret--struck +her as an extreme baseness, of which not even the woman who perused and +reperused his letters could be guilty. + +Her head rang with some of the lines, and she accused her head of the +crime of childishness, seeing that her heart was not an accomplice. At +the same time, her heart cried out violently against the business of +a visit to Lady de Culme, and all the steps it involved. Justly she +accused her heart of treason. Heart and head were severed. This, as +she partly apprehended, is the state of the woman who is already on the +slope of her nature's mine-shaft, dreading the rush downwards, powerless +to break away from the light. + +Letters perused and reperused, coming from a man never fervently noticed +in person, conjure features one would wish to put beside the actual, +to make sure that the fiery lines he writes are not practising a +beguilement. Aminta had lost grasp of the semblance of the impassioned +man. She just remembered enough of his eyes to think there might be +healing in a sight of him. + +Latterly she had refused to be exhibited to a tattling world as the +great nobleman's conquest:--The 'Beautiful Lady Doubtful' of a report +that had scorched her cars. Theatres, rides, pleasure-drives, even such +houses as she saw standing open to her had been shunned. Now she asked +the earl to ride in the park. + +He complied, and sent to the stables immediately, just noted another +of her veerings. The whimsy creatures we are matched to contrast with, +shift as the very winds or feather-grasses in the wind. Possibly a fine +day did it. Possibly, too, her not being requested to do it. + +He was proud of her bearing on horseback. She rode well and looked well. +A finer weapon wherewith to strike at a churlish world was never given +into the hands of man. These English may see in her, if they like, that +they and their laws and customs are defied. It does her no hurt, and it +hits them a ringing buffet. + +Among the cavaliers they passed was Mr. Morsfield. He rode by slowly. +The earl stiffened his back in returning the salute. Both that and the +gentleman were observed by Aminta. + +'He sees to having good blood under him,' said the earl. 'I admired his +mount,' she replied. + +Interpreted by the fire of his writing, his features expressed +character: insomuch that a woman could say of another woman, that she +admired him and might reasonably do so. His gaze at her in the presence +of her lord was audacious. + +He had the defect of his virtue of courage. Yet a man indisputably +possessing courage cannot but have an interesting face--though one may +continue saying, Pity that the eyes are not a little wider apart! He +dresses tastefully; the best English style. A portrait by a master hand +might hand him down to generations as an ancestor to be proud of. But +with passion and with courage, and a bent for snatching at the lion's +own, does he not look foredoomed to an early close? Her imagination +called up a portrait of Elizabeth's Earl of Essex to set beside him; +and without thinking that the two were fraternally alike, she sent him +riding away with the face of the Earl of Essex and the shadow of the +unhappy nobleman's grievous fortunes over his head. + +But it is inexcuseable to let the mind be occupied recurrently by a man +who has not moved the feelings, wicked though it be to have the feelings +moved by him. Aminta rebuked her silly wits, and proceeded to speculate +from an altitude, seeing the man's projects in a singularly definite +minuteness, as if the crisis he invoked, the perils he braved, the mute +participation he implored of her for the short space until their fate +should be decided, were a story sharply cut on metal. Several times she +surprised herself in an interesting pursuit of the story; abominably +cold, abominably interested. She fell upon a review of small duties of +the day, to get relief; and among them a device for spiriting away her +aunt from the table where Mrs. Lawrence wished to meet Lord Ormont. +It sprang up to her call like an imp of the burning pit. She saw it +ingenious and of natural aspect. I must be a born intriguer! she said in +her breast. That was hateful; but it seemed worse when she thought of a +woman commanding the faculty and consenting to be duped and foiled. That +might be termed despicable; but what if she had not any longer the wish +to gain her way with her lord? + +Those letters are acting like a kind of poison in me! her heart cried: +and it was only her head that dwelt on the antidote. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. MORE OF CUPER'S BOYS + +Entering the dining-room at the appointed minute in a punctual +household, Mrs. Lawrence informed the company that she had seen a Horse +Guards orderly at the trot up the street. Weyburn said he was directing +a boy to ring the bell of the house for him. Lord Ormont went to the +window. + +'Amends and honours?' Mrs. Lawrence hummed and added an operatic +flourish of an arm. Something like it might really be imagined. A large +square missive was handed to the footman. Thereupon the orderly trotted +off. + +My lord took seat at table, telling the footman to lay 'that parcel' +beside the clock on the mantelpiece. Aminta and Mrs. Lawrence gave out a +little cry of bird or mouse, pitiable to hear: they could not wait, they +must know, they pished at sight of plates. His look deferred to their +good pleasure, like the dead hand of a clock under key; and Weyburn +placed the missive before him, seeing by the superscription that it was +not official. + +It was addressed, in the Roman hand of a boy's copybook writing, to + + General the Earl of Ormont, I.C.B., etc., + Horse Guards, + London.' + +The earl's eyebrows creased up over the address; they came down low on +the contents. + +He resumed his daily countenance. 'Nothing of importance,' he said to +the ladies. + +Mrs. Lawrence knocked the table with her knuckles. Aminta put out a +hand, in sign of her wish. + +'Pray let me see it.' + +'After lunch will do.' + +'No, no, no! We are women--we are women,' cried Mrs. Lawrence. + +'How can it concern women?' + +'As well ask how a battle-field concerns them!' + +'Yes, the shots hit us behind you,' said Aminta; and she, too, struck +the table. + +He did not prolong their torture. Weyburn received the folio sheet and +passed it on. Aminta read. Mrs. Lawrence jumped from her chair and ran +to the countess's shoulder; her red lips formed the petitioning word to +the earl for the liberty she was bent to take. + +'Peep? if you like,' my lord said, jesting at the blank she would find, +and soft to the pretty play of her mouth. + +When the ladies had run to the end of it, he asked them: 'Well; now +then?' + +'But it's capital--the dear laddies!' Mrs. Lawrence exclaimed. + +Aminta's eyes met Weyburn's. + +She handed him the sheet of paper; upon the transmission of which empty +thing from the Horse Guards my lord commented: 'An orderly!' + +Weyburn scanned it rapidly, for the table had been served. + +The contents were these: + + 'HIGH BRENT NEAR ARTSWELL. + 'April 7th. + + 'To GENERAL THE EARL OF ORMONT + 'Cavalry. + + 'May it please your Lordship, we, the boys of Mr. Cuper's school, + are desirous to bring to the notice of the bravest officer England + possesses now living, a Deed of Heroism by a little boy and girl, + children of our school laundress, aged respectively eight and six, + who, seeing a little fellow in the water out of depth, and sinking + twice, before the third time jumped in to save him, though unable to + swim themselves; the girl aged six first, we are sorry to say; but + the brother, Robert Coop, followed her example, and together they + made a line, and she caught hold of the drowning boy, and he held + her petycoats, and so they pulled. We have seen the place: it is + not a nice one. They got him ashore at last. The park-keeper here + going along found them dripping, rubbing his hands, and blowing into + his nostrils. Name, T. Shellen, son of a small cobbler here, and + recovered. + + 'May it please your Lordship, we make bold to apply, because you + have been for a number of years, as far as the oldest can recollect, + the Hero of our school, and we are so bold as to ask the favour of + General Lord Ormont's name to head a subscription we are making to + circulate for the support of their sick mother, who has fallen ill. + We think her a good woman. Gentlemen and ladies of the + neighbourhood are willing to subscribe. If we have a great name to + head the list, we think we shall make a good subscription. Names:-- + + 'Martha Mary Coop, mother. + 'Robert Coop. + 'Jane Coop, the girl, aged six. + + 'If we are not taking too great a liberty, a subscription paper will + follow. We are sure General the Earl of Ormont's name will help to + make them comfortable. + 'We are obediently and respectfully, + 'DAVID GOWEN, + 'WALTER BENCH, + 'JAMES PANNERS PARSONS, + 'And seven others.' + +Weyburn spared Aminta an answering look, that would have been a begging +of Browny to remember Matey. + +'It 's genuine,' he said to Mrs. Lawrence, as he attacked his plate with +the gusto for the repast previously and benignly observed by her. 'It +ought to be the work of some of the younger fellows.' + +'They spell correctly, on the whole.' + +'Excepting,' said my lord, 'an article they don't know much about yet.' + +Weyburn had noticed the word, and he smiled. 'Said to be the happy +state! The three signing their names are probably what we called bellman +and beemen, collector, and heads of the swarm-enthusiasts. If it is +not the work of some of the younger hands, the school has levelled on +minors. In any case it shows the school is healthy.' + +'I subscribe,' said Mrs. Lawrence. + +'The little girl aged six shall have something done for her,' said +Aminta, and turned her eyes on the earl. + +He was familiar with her thrilled voice at a story of bravery. He said-- + +'The boys don't say the girl's brother turned tail.' + +'Only that the girl's brother aged eight followed the lead of the little +girl aged six,' Mrs. Lawrence remarked. 'Well, I like the schoolboys, +too--“we are sorry to say!” But they 're good lads. Boys who can +appreciate brave deeds are capable of doing them.' + +'Speak to me about it on Monday,' the earl said to Weyburn. + +He bowed, and replied-- + +'I shall have the day to-morrow. I 'll walk it and call on Messrs.' (he +glanced at the paper) 'Gowen, Bench, and Parsons. I have a German friend +in London anxious to wear his legs down stumpier.' + +'The name of the school?' + +'It is called Cuper's.' + +Aminta, on hearing the name of Cuper a second time, congratulated +herself on the happy invention of her pretext to keep Mrs. Pagnell from +the table at midday. Her aunt had a memory for names: what might she not +have exclaimed! There would have been little in it, but it was as well +that the 'boy of the name of Weyburn' at Cuper's should be unmentioned. +By an exaggeration peculiar to a disgust in fancy, she could hear +her aunt vociferating 'Weyburn!' and then staring at Mr. Weyburn +opposite--perhaps not satisfied with staring. + +He withdrew after his usual hearty meal, during which his talk of +boys and their monkey tricks, and what we can train them to, had been +pleasant generally, especially to Mrs. Lawrence. Aminta was carried +back to the minute early years at High Brent. A line or two of a smile +touched her cheek. + +'Yes, my dear countess, that is the face I want for Lady de Culme +to-day,' said Mrs. Lawrence.' She likes a smiling face. Aunty--aunty has +always been good; she has never been prim. I was too much for her, until +I reflected that she was very old, and deserved to know the truth before +she left us; and so I went to her; and then she said she wished to see +the Countess of Ormont, because of her being my dearest friend. I fancy +she entertains an 'arriere' idea of proposing her flawless niece Gracey, +Marchioness of Fencaster, to present you. She 's quite equal to the +fatigue herself. You 'll rejoice in her anecdotes. People were virtuous +in past days: they counted their sinners. In those days, too, as I have +to understand, the men chivalrously bore the blame, though the women +were rightly punished. Now, alas! the initiative is with the women, and +men are not asked for chivalry. Hence it languishes. Lady de Culme won't +hear of the Queen of Blondes; has forbidden her these many years!' + +Lord Ormont, to whom the lady's prattle was addressed, kept his visage +moveless, except in slight jerks of the brows. + +'What queen?' + +'You insist upon renewing my old, old pangs of jealousy, my dear lord! +The Queen of Cyprus, they called her, in the last generation; she fights +our great duellist handsomely.' + +'My dear Mrs. Lawrence!' + +'He triumphs finally, we know, but she beats him every round.' + +'It 's only tattle that says the duel has begun.' + +'May is the month of everlasting beauty! There 's a widower marquis now +who claims the right to cast the glove to any who dispute it.' + +'Mrs. May is too good-looking to escape from scandal.' + +'Amy May has the good looks of the Immortals.' + +'She can't be thirty.' + +'In the calendar of women she counts thirty-four.' + +'Malignity! Her husband's a lucky man.' + +'The shots have proved it.' + +Lord Ormont nodded his head over the hopeless task of defending a woman +from a woman, and their sharp interchange ceased. But the sight of +his complacency in defeat told Aminta that he did not respect his fair +client: it drew a sketch of the position he allotted his wife before the +world side by side with this Mrs. Amy May, though a Lady de Culme was +persuaded to draw distinctions. + +He had, however, quite complacently taken the dose intended for him by +Mrs. Lawrence, who believed that the system of gently forcing him was +the good one. + +The ladies drove away in the afternoon. The earl turned his back on +manuscript. He sent for a couple of walking sticks, and commanded +Weyburn to go through his parades. He was no tyro, merely out of +practice, and unacquainted with the later, simpler form of the great +master of the French school, by which, at serious issues, the guarding +of the line can be more quickly done: as, for instance, the 'parade +de septime' supplanting the slower 'parade de prime;' the 'parade de +quarte' having advantage over the 'parade de quince;' the 'parade de +tierce' being readier and stronger than the 'parade de sixte;' the same +said for the 'parade de seconde' instead of the weak 'parade d'octave.' + +These were then new points of instruction. Weyburn demonstrated them as +neatly as he could do with his weapon. + +'Yes, the French think,' Lord Ormont said, grasping the stick to get +conviction of thumb-strength and finger-strength from the parades +advocated; 'their steel would thread the ribs of our louts before: +they could raise a cry of parry; so here they 're pleased to sneer +at fencing, as if it served no purpose but the duel. Fencing, for one +thing, means, that with a good stick in his hand, a clever fencer can +double up a giant or two, grant him choice of ground. Some of our men +box; but the sword's the weapon for an officer, and precious few of 'em +are fit for more than to kick the scabbard. Slashing comes easier to +them: a plaguey cut, if it does cut--say, one in six. Navy too. Their +cutlass-drill is like a woman's fling of the arm to fetch a slap from +behind her shoulder. Pinking beats chopping. These English 'll have +their lesson. It 's like what you call good writing: the simple way does +the business, and that's the most difficult to learn, because you must +give your head to it, as those French fellows do. 'Trop de finesse' is +rather their fault. Anything's better than loutishness. Well! the lesson +'ll come.' + +He continued. He spoke as he thought: he was not speaking what he was +thinking. His mind was directed on the visit of Aminta to Lady de Culme, +and the tolerably wonderful twist whereby Mrs. Lawrence Finchley had +vowed herself to his girl's interests. And he blamed neither of them; +only he could not understand how it had been effected, for Aminta and +Mrs. Lawrence had not been on such particularly intimate terms last +week or yesterday. His ejaculation, 'Women!' was, as he knew, merely +ignorance roaring behind a mask of sarcasm. But it allied him with all +previous generations on the male side, and that was its virtue. His view +of the shifty turns of women got no further, for the reason that he took +small account of the operations of the feelings, to the sole exercise of +which he by system condemned the sex. + +He was also insensibly half a grain more soured by the homage of those +poor schoolboys, who called to him to take it for his reward in a +country whose authorities had snubbed, whose Parliament had ignored, +whose Press had abused him. The ridiculous balance made him wilfully +oblivious that he had seen his name of late eulogized in articles and +in books for the right martial qualities. Can a country treating a good +soldier--not serving it for pay--in so scurvy a fashion, be struck too +hard with our disdain? One cannot tell it in too plain a language how +one despises its laws, its moralities, its sham of society. The Club, +some choice anecdotists, two or three listeners to his dolences clothed +as diatribes; a rubber, and the sight of his girl at home, composed, +with a week's shooting now and then, his round of life now that she +refused to travel. What a life for a soldier in his vigour. Weyburn was +honoured by the earl's company on the walk to Chiallo's. In the street +of elegant shops they met Lord Adderwood, and he, as usual, appeared +in the act of strangling one of his flock of yawns, with gentlemanly +consideration for the public. Exercise was ever his temporary specific +for these incurables. Flinging off his coat, he cast away the cynic +style engendering or engendered by them. He and Weyburn were for a bout. +Sir John Randeller and Mr. Morsfield were at it, like Bull in training +and desperado foiled. A French 'maitre d'armes,' famed in 'escrime,' +standing near Captain Chiallo, looked amused in the eyes, behind a mask +of professional correctness. He had come on an excursion for the display +of his art. Sir John's very sturdy defence was pierced. Weyburn saluted +the Frenchman as an acquaintance, and they shook hands, chatted, +criticized, nodded. Presently he and his adversary engaged, vizored and +in their buckram, and he soon proved to be too strong for Adderwood, as +the latter expected and had notified to Lord Ormont before they crossed +the steel. My lord had a pleasant pricking excitement in the sound. +There was a pretty display between Weyburn and the 'escrimeur,' who +neatly and kindly trifled, took a point and returned one, and at +the finish complimented him. The earl could see that he had to be +sufficiently alert. + +Age mouthed an ugly word to the veteran insensible of it in his body, +when a desire to be one with these pairs of nimble wrists and legs was +like an old gamecock shown the pit and put back into the basket. He left +the place, carrying away an image of the coxcombical attitudinizing of +the man Morsfield at the salut, upon which he brought down his powers of +burlesque. + +My lord sketched the scene he had just quitted to a lady who had stopped +her carriage. She was the still beautiful Mrs. Amy May, wife of the +famous fighting captain. Her hair was radiant in a shady street; her +eyelids tenderly toned round the almond enclosure of blue pebbles, +bright as if shining from the seawash. The lips of the fair woman could +be seen to say that they were sweet when, laughing or discoursing, they +gave sight of teeth proudly her own, rivalling the regularity of the +grin of dentistry. A Venus of nature was melting into a Venus of art, +and there was a decorous concealment of the contest and the anguish +in the process, for which Lord Ormont liked her well enough to wink +benevolently at her efforts to cheat the world at various issues, and +maintain her duel with Time. The world deserved that she should beat it, +even if she had been all deception. + +She let the subject of Mr. Morsfield pass without remark from her, until +the exhaustion of open-air topics hinted an end of their conversation, +and she said-- + +'We shall learn next week what to think if the civilians. I have heard +Mr. Morsfield tell that he is 'de premiere force.' Be on your guard. +You are to know that I never forget a service, and you did me one once.' +'You have reason...?' said the earl. + +'If anybody is the dragon to the treasure he covets he is a spadassin +who won't hesitate at provocations. Adieu.' + +Lord Ormont's eye had been on Mr. Morsfield. He had seen what Mrs. +Pagnell counselled her niece to let him see. He thanked Mr. Morsfield +for a tonic that made him young with anticipations of bracing; and he +set his head to work upon an advance half-way to meet the gentleman, and +safely exclude his wife's name. + +Monday brought an account of Cuper's boys. Aminta received it while the +earl was at his papers for the morning's news of the weightier deeds of +men. + +They were the right boys, Weyburn said; his interview with Gowen, Bench, +Parsons, and the others assured him that the school was breathing big +lungs. Mr. Cuper, too, had spoken well of them. + +'You walked the twenty miles?' Aminta interrupted him. + +'With my German friend: out and home: plenty of time in the day. He +has taken to English boys, but asks why enthusiasm and worship of great +deeds don't grow upward from them to their elders. And I, in turn, ask +why Germans insist on that point more even than the French do.' + +'Germans are sentimental. But the English boys he saw belonged to +a school with traditions of enthusiasm sown by some one. The school +remembered?' + +'Curiously, Mr. Cuper tells me, the hero of the school has dropped +and sprung up, stout as ever, twice--it tells me what I wish to +believe--since Lord Ormont led their young heads to glory. He can't say +how it comes. The tradition's there, and it 's kindled by some flying +spark.' + +'They remember who taught the school to think of Lord Ormont?' + +'I 'm a minor personage. I certainly did some good, and that 's a push +forward.' + +'They speak of you?' + +It was Aminta more than the Countess of Ormont speaking to him. + +'You take an interest in the boys,' he said, glowing. 'Yes, well, they +have their talks. I happened to be a cricketer, counting wickets and +scores. I don't fancy it's remembered that it was I preached my lord. A +day of nine wickets and one catch doesn't die out of a school. The +boy Gowen was the prime spirit in getting up the subscription for the +laundress. But Bench and Parsons are good boys, too.' + +He described them, dwelt on them. The enthusiast, when not lyrical, is +perilously near to boring. Aminta was glad of Mrs. Lawrence's absence. +She had that feeling because Matthew Weyburn would shun talk of himself +to her, not from a personal sense of tedium in hearing of the boys; and +she was quaintly reminded by suggestions, coming she knew not whence, of +a dim likeness between her and these boys of the school when their hero +dropped to nothing and sprang up again brilliantly--a kind of distant +cousinship, in her susceptibility to be kindled by so small a flying +spark as this one on its travels out of High Brent. Moreover, the dear +boys tied her to her girlhood, and netted her fleeting youth for +the moth-box. She pressed to hear more and more of them, and of the +school-laundress Weyburn had called to see, and particularly of the +child, little Jane, aged six. Weyburn went to look at the sheet of water +to which little Jane had given celebrity over the county. The girl stood +up to her shoulders when she slid off the bank and made the line for her +brother to hold, he in the water as well. Altogether, Cuper's boys were +justified in promoting a subscription, the mother being helpless. + +'Modest little woman,' he said of Jane. 'We'll hope people won't spoil +her. Don't forget, Lady Ormont, that the brother did his part; he had +more knowledge of the danger than she.' + +'You will undertake to convey our subscriptions? Lord Ormont spoke of +the little ones and the schoolboys yesterday.' + +'I'll be down again among them next Sunday, Lady Ormont. On the Monday I +go to Olmer.' + +'The girls of High Brent subscribe?' + +There was a ripple under Weyburn's gravity. + +'Messrs. Gowen, Bench, and Parsons thought proper to stop Miss Vincent +at the head of her detachment in the park.' + +'On the Sunday?' + +'And one of them handed her a paper containing a report of their +interview with Mrs. Coop and a neat eulogy of little Jane. But don't +suspect them, I beg. I believe them to be good, honest fellows. Bench, +they say, is religious; Gowen has written verses; Parsons generally +harum-scarum. They're boyish in one way or another, and that'll do. The +cricket of the school has been low: seems to be reviving.' + +'Mr. Weyburn,' said the countess, after a short delay--and Aminta +broke through--'it pleases me to hear of them, and think they have not +forgotten you, or, at least, they follow the lead you gave. I should +like to know whether an idea I have is true: Is much, I mean constant, +looking down on young people likely to pull one's mind down to their +level?' + +'Likely enough to betray our level, if there 's danger,' he murmured. +'Society offers an example that your conjecture is not unfounded, Lady +Ormont. But if we have great literature and an interest in the world's +affairs, can there be any fear of it? The schoolmaster ploughs to make +a richer world, I hope. He must live with them, join with them in their +games, accustom them to have their heads knocked with what he wants to +get into them, leading them all the while, as the bigger schoolfellow +does, if he is a good fellow. He has to be careful not to smell of his +office. Doing positive good is the business of his every day--on a small +scale, but it 's positive, if he likes his boys. 'Avaunt favouritism!' +he must like all boys. And it 's human nature not so far removed from +the dog; only it's a supple human nature: there 's the beauty of it. We +train it. Nothing is more certain than that it will grow upward. I have +the belief that I shall succeed, because I like boys, and they like me. +It always was the case.' + +'I know,' said Aminta. + +Their eyes met. She looked moved at heart behind that deep forest of her +chestnut eyes. + +'And I think I can inspire confidence in fathers and mothers,' he +resumed.' I have my boys already waiting for me to found the school. +I was pleased the other day: an English friend brought an Italian +gentleman to see me and discuss my system, up at Norwood, at my +mother's--a Signor Calliani. He has a nephew; the parents dote on +him. The uncle confesses that the boy wants--he has got hold of our +word--“pluck.” We had a talk. He has promised to send me the lad when I +am established in Switzerland.' + +'When?' said Aminta. + +'A relative from whom a Reversion comes is near the end. It won't be +later than September that I shall go. My Swiss friend has the school, +and would take me at once before he retires.' + +'You make friends wherever you go,' said Aminta. + +'Why shouldn't everybody? I'm convinced it's because I show people I +mean well, and I never nurse an injury, great or small. And besides, +they see I look forward. I do hope good for the world. If at my school +we have all nationalities--French boys and German, Italian, Russian, +Spaniard--without distinction of race and religion and station, and +with English intermixing--English games, English sense of honour and +conception of gentleman--we shall help to nationalize Europe. Emile +Grenat, Adolf Fleischer, and an Italian, Vincentino Chiuse, are prepared +to start with me: and they are men of attainments; they will throw up +their positions; they will do me the honour to trust to my leadership. +It's not scaling Alps or commanding armies, true.' + +'It may be better,' said Aminta, and thought as she spoke. + +'Slow work, if we have a taste for the work, doesn't dispirit. +Otherwise, one may say that an African or South American traveller has a +more exciting time. I shall manage to keep my head on its travels.' + +'You have ideas about the education of girls?' + +'They can't be carried out unaided.' + +'Aid will come.' + +Weyburn's confidence, high though it was, had not mounted to that pitch. + +'One may find a mate,' he said. The woman to share and practically +to aid in developing such ideas is not easily found: that he left as +implied. + +Aminta was in need of poetry; but the young schoolmaster's plain, +well-directed prose of the view of a business in life was welcome to +her. + +Lord Ormont entered the room. She reminded him of the boys of High Brent +and the heroine Jane. He was ready to subscribe his five-and-twenty +guineas, he said. The amount of the sum gratified Weyburn, she could +see. She was proud of her lord, and of the boys and the little girl; and +she would have been happy to make the ardent young schoolmaster aware of +her growing interest in the young. + +The night before the earl's departure on the solitary expedition to +which she condemned him, he surprised her with a visit of farewell, +so that he need not disturb her in the early morning, he said. She was +reading beside her open jewel-box, and she closed it with the delicate +touch of a hand turned backward while listening to him, with no sign of +nervousness. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. WAR AT OLMER + +Lively doings were on the leap to animate Weyburn at Olmer during Easter +week. The Rev. Mr. Hampton-Evey, rector of Barborough, on hearing that +Lady Charlotte Eglett was engaged in knocking at the doors of litigation +with certain acts that constituted distinct breaches of the law and the +peace, and were a violation of the rights of her neighbour, Mr. Gilbert +Addicote, might hope that the troublesome parishioner whom he did not +often number among his congregation would grant him a term of repose. +Therein he was deceived. Alterations and enlargements of the church, +much required, had necessitated the bricking up of a door regarded by +the lady as the private entrance to the Olmer pew. She sent him notice +of her intention to batter at the new brickwork; so there was the +prospect of a pew-fight before him. But now she came to sit under him +every Sunday; and he could have wished her absent; for she diverted his +thoughts from piety to the selections of texts applicable in the case +of a woman who sat with arms knotted, and the frown of an intemperate +schoolgirl forbidden speech; while her pew's firelight startlingly +at intervals danced her sinister person into view, as from below. The +lady's inaccessible and unconquerable obtuseness to exhortation informed +the picture with an evil spirit that cried for wrestlings. + +Regularly every week-day she headed the war now rageing between Olmer +and Addicotes, on the borders of the estates. It was open war, and +herself to head the cavalry. Weyburn, driving up a lane in the gig she +had sent to meet the coach, beheld a thicket of countrymen and boys +along a ridge; and it swayed and broke, and through it burst the figure +of a mounted warrior woman at the gallop, followed by what bore an +appearance of horse and gun, minus carriage, drivers at the flanks +cracking whips on foot. Off went the train, across a small gorse common, +through a gate. + +'That's another down,' said his whip. 'Sound good wood it is, not made +to fall. Her ladyship's at it hard to-day. She 'll teach Mr. Addicote a +thing or two about things females can do. That is, when they stand for +their rights.' + +He explained to Weyburn that Mr. Addicote, a yeoman farmer and a good +hunting man, but a rare obstinate one, now learning his lesson from her +ladyship, was in dispute with her over rights of property on a stretch +of fir-trees lining the ridge where the estates of Olmer and Addicotes +met. Her ladyship had sworn that if he did not yield to her claim she +would cut down every tree of the ridge and sell the lot for timber under +his nose. She acted according to her oath, in the teeth of his men two +feet across the border. All the world knew the roots of those trees were +for the most part in Olmer soil, though Addicote shared the shade. All +the people about mourned for the felling of those trees. All blamed Mr. +Gilbert Addicote for provoking her ladyship, good hunting man though he +was. But as to the merits of the question, under the magnifier of the +gentlemen of the law, there were as many different opinions as wigs in +the land. + +'And your opinion?' said Weyburn. + +To which the young groom answered: 'Oh, I don't form an opinion, sir. I +'m of my mistress's opinion; and if she says, Do it, think as we like, +done it has to be.' + +Lady Charlotte came at a trot through the gate, to supervise the +limbering-up of another felled tree. She headed it as before. The log +dragged bounding and twirling, rattling its chains; the crowd along the +ridge, forbidden to cheer, watching it with intense repression of the +roar. We have not often in England sight of a great lady challengeing +an unpopular man to battle and smacking him in the face like this to +provoke him. Weyburn was driven on a half-circle of the lane to the +gate, where he jumped out to greet Lady Charlotte trotting back for +another smack in the face of her enemy,--a third rounding of her +Troy with the vanquished dead at her heels, as Weyburn let a flimsy +suggestion beguile his fancy, until the Homeric was overwhelming even to +a playful mind, and he put her in a mediaeval frame. She really had +the heroical aspect in a grandiose-grotesque, fitted to some lines of +Ariosto. Her head wore a close hood, disclosing a fringe of grey locks, +owlish to see about features hooked for action. + +'Ah, you! there you are: good--I'll join you in three minutes,' she sang +out to him, and cantered to the ridge. + +Hardly beyond the stated number she was beside him again, ranging her +steed for the victim log to dance a gyration on its branches across the +lane and enter a field among the fallen compeers. One of her men had run +behind her. She slid from her saddle and tossed him the reins, catching +up her skirts. + +'That means war, as much as they'll have it in England,' she said, +seeing his glance at the logs. 'My husband's wise enough to leave it +to me, so I save him trouble with neighbours. An ass of a Mr. Gilbert +Addicote dares us to make good our claim on our property, our timber, +because half a score of fir-tree roots go stretching on to his ground.' + +She swished her whip. Mr. Gilbert Addicote received the stroke and +retired, a buried subject. They walked on at an even pace. 'You 'll see +Leo to-morrow. He worships you. You may as well give him a couple of +hours' coaching a day for the week. He'll be hanging about you, and you +won't escape him. Well, and my brother Rowsley: how is Lord Ormont? He +never comes to me now, since--Well, it 's nothing to me; but I like to +see my brother. She can't make any change here. Olmer and Lady Charlotte +'s bosom were both implied. 'What do you think?--you 've noticed: is he +in good health? It 's the last thing he 'll be got to speak of.' + +Weyburn gave the proper assurances. + +'Not he!' said she. 'He's never ill. Men beat women in the long race, if +they haven't overdone it when young. My doctor wants me to renounce the +saddle. He says it 's time. Not if I 've got work for horseback!' she +nicked her head emphatically: 'I hate old age. They sha'nt dismount +me till a blow comes. Hate it! But I should despise myself if I showed +signs, like a worm under heel. Let Nature do her worst; she can't +conquer us as long as we keep up heart. You won't have to think of that +for a good time yet. Now tell me why Lord Ormont didn't publish the +“Plan for the Defence” you said he was writing; and he was, I know. He +wrote it and he finished it; you made the fair copy. Well, and he read +it,--there! see!' She took the invisible sheets in her hands and tore +them. 'That's my brother. He's so proud. It would have looked like +asking the country, that injured him, to forgive him. I wish it had been +printed. But whatever he does I admire. That--she might have advised, +if she 'd been a woman of public spirit or cared for his reputation. He +never comes near me. Did she read your copy?' + +The question was meant for an answer. + +Weyburn replied: 'Lady Ormont had no sight of it.' + +'Ah! she's Lady Ormont to the servants, I know. She has an aunt living +in the house. If my brother's a sinner, and there's punishment for him, +he has it from that aunt. Pag... something. He bears with her. He 's a +Spartan. She 's his pack on his back, for what she covers and the game +he plays. It looks just tolerably decent with her in the house. She goes +gabbling a story about our Embassy at Madrid. To preserve propriety, as +they call it. Her niece doesn't stoop to any of those tricks, I 'm told. +I like her for that.' + +Weyburn was roused: 'I think you would like Lady Ormont, if you knew +her, my lady.' + +'The chances of my liking the young woman are not in the dice-box. You +call her Lady Ormont: you are not one of the servants. Don't call her +Lady Ormont to me.' + +'It is her title, Lady Charlotte.' She let fly a broadside at him. + +'You are one of the woman's dupes. I thought you had brains. How can +you be the donkey not to see that my brother Rowsley, Lord Ormont, would +never let a woman, lawfully bearing his name, go running the quadrille +over London in couples with a Lady Staines and a Mrs. Lawrence Finchley, +Lord Adderwood, and that man Morsfield, who boasts of your Lady Ormont, +and does it unwhipped--tell me why? Pooh, you must be the poorest fool +born to suppose it possible my brother would allow a man like that man +Morsfield to take his wife's name in his mouth a second time. Have you +talked much with this young person?' + +'With Lady Ormont? I have had the honour occasionally.' + +'Stick to the title and write yourself plush-breech. Can't you be more +than a footman? Try to be a man of the world; you're old enough for that +by now. I know she 's good-looking; the whole tale hangs on that. You +needn't be singing me mooncalf hymn tunes of “Lady Ormont, Lady Ormont,” + solemn as a parson's clerk; the young woman brought good looks to +market; and she got the exchange she had a right to expect. But it +'s not my brother Rowsley's title she has got--except for footmen and +tradesmen. When there's a true Countess of Ormont!... Unless my brother +has cut himself from his family. Not he. He's not mad.' + +They passed through Olmer park-gates. Lady Charlotte preceded him, and +she turned, waiting for him to rejoin her. He had taken his flagellation +in the right style, neither abashed nor at sham crow: he was easy, ready +to converse on any topic; he kept the line between supple courtier and +sturdy independent; and he was a pleasant figure of a young fellow. +Thinking which, a reminder that she liked him drew her by the road of +personal feeling, as usual with her, to reflect upon another, and a +younger, woman's observing and necessarily liking him too. + +'You say you fancy I should like the person you call Lady Ormont?' + +'I believe you would, my lady.' + +'Are her manners agreeable?' + +'Perfect; no pretension.' + +'Ah! she sings, plays--all that? + +'She plays the harp and sings.' + +'You have heard her?' + +'Twice.' + +'She didn't set you mewing?' + +'I don't remember the impulse; at all events, it was restrained.' + +'She would me; but I'm an old woman. I detest their squalling and +strumming. I can stand it with Italians on the boards: they don't, stop +conversation. She was present at that fencing match where you plucked a +laurel? I had an account of it. I can't see the use of fencing in this +country. Younger women can, I dare say. Now, look. If we're to speak of +her, I can't call her Lady Ormont, and I don't want to hear you. Give me +her Christian name.' + +'It is'--Weyburn found himself on a slope without a stay--'Aminta.' + +Lady Charlotte's eye was on him. He felt intolerably hot; his vexation +at the betrayal of the senseless feeling made it worse, a conscious +crimson. + +'Aminta,' said she, rather in the style of Cuper's boys, when the name +was a strange one to them. 'I remember my Italian master reading out a +poem when I was a girl. I read poetry then. You wouldn't have imagined +that. I did, and liked it. I hate old age. It changes you so. None of my +children know me as I was when I had life in me and was myself, and my +brother Rowsley called me Cooey. They think me a hard old woman. I was +Cooey through the woods and over the meadows and down stream to Rowsley. +Old age is a prison wall between us and young people. They see a +miniature head and bust, and think it a flattery--won't believe it. +After I married I came to understand that the world we are in is a +world to fight in, or under we go. But I pity the young who have to cast +themselves off and take up arms. Young women above all.' + +Why had she no pity for Aminta? Weyburn asked it of his feelings, and he +had the customary insurgent reply from them. + +'You haven't seen Steignton yet,' she continued. 'No place on earth +is equal to Steignton for me. It 's got the charm. Here at Olmer I'm a +mother and a grandmother--the “devil of an old-woman” my neighbours take +me to be. She hasn't been to Steignton, either. No, and won't go there, +though she's working her way round, she supposes. He'll do everything +for his “Aminta,” but he won't take her to Steignton. I'm told now she's +won Lady de Culme. That Mrs. Lawrence Finchley has dropped the curtsey +to her great-aunt and sworn to be a good girl, for a change, if Lady +de Culme will do the chaperon, and force Lord Ormont's hand. My brother +shrugs. There'll be a nice explosion one day soon. Presented? The Court +won't have her. That I know for positive. If she's pushed forward, she +'ll be bitterly snubbed. It 's on the heads of those women--silly women! +I can't see the game Mrs. Lawrence Finchley's playing. She'd play for +fun. If they'd come to me, I 'd tell them I 've proof she 's not +the Countess of Ormont: positive proof. You look? I have it. I hold +something; and not before,--(he may take his Aminta to Steignton, he +may let her be presented, she may wear his name publicly, I say he's +laughing at them, snapping his fingers at them louder and louder the +more they seem to be pushing him into a corner, until--I know my brother +Rowsley!--and, poor dear fellow! a man like that, the best cavalry +general England ever had:--they'll remember it when there comes a cry +for a general from India: that's the way with the English; only +their necessities teach them to be just!)--he to be reduced to be +out-manoeuvring a swarm of women,--I tell them, not before my brother +Rowsley comes to me for what he handed to my care and I keep safe for +him, will I believe he has made or means to make his Aminta Countess of +Ormont.' + +They were at the steps of the house. Turning to Weyburn there, the +inexhaustible Lady Charlotte remarked that their conversation had given +her pleasure. Leo was hanging on to one of his hands the next minute. A +small girl took the other. Philippa and Beatrice were banished damsels. + +Lady Charlotte's breath had withered the aspect of Aminta's fortunes. +Weyburn could forgive her, for he was beginning to understand her. +He could not pardon 'her brother Rowsley,' who loomed in his mind +incomprehensible, and therefore black. Once he had thought the great +General a great man. He now regarded him as a mere soldier, a soured +veteran; socially as a masker and a trifler, virtually a callous angler +playing his cleverly-hooked fish for pastime. + +What could be the meaning of Lady Charlotte's 'that, man Morsfield, who +boasts of your Lady Ormont, and does it unwhipped'? + +Weyburn stopped his questioning, with the reflection that he had no +right to recollect her words thus accurately. The words, however, +stamped Morsfield's doings and sayings and postures in the presence +of Aminta with significance. When the ladies were looking on at the +fencers, Morsfield's perfect coxcombry had been noticeable. He knew the +art of airing a fine figure. Mrs. Lawrence Finchley had spoken of it, +and Aminta had acquiesced; in the gravely simple manner of women who may +be thinking of it much more intently than the vivacious prattler. Aminta +confessed to an admiration of masculine physical beauty; the picador, +matador, of the Spanish ring called up an undisguised glow that English +ladies show coldly when they condescend to let it be seen; as it were, +a line or two of colour on the wintriest of skies. She might, after all, +at heart be one of the leisured, jewelled, pretty-winged; the spending, +never harvesting, world she claimed and sought to enter. And what a +primitive world it was!--world of the glittering beast and the not too +swiftly flying prey, the savage passions clothed in silk. Surely desire +to belong to it writes us poor creatures. Mentally, she could hardly +be maturer than the hero-worshipping girl in the procession of Miss +Vincent's young seminarists. Probably so, but she carried magic. She was +of the order of women who walk as the goddesses of old, bearing the +gift divine. And, by the way, she had the step of the goddess. Weyburn +repeated to himself the favourite familiar line expressive of the +glorious walk, and accused Lord Ormont of being in cacophonous +accordance with the perpetual wrong of circumstance, he her possessor, +the sole person of her sphere insensible to the magic she bore! So ran +his thought. + +The young man chose to conceive that he thought abstractedly. He was, +in truth, often casting about for the chances of his meeting on some +fortunate day the predestined schoolmaster's wife: a lady altogether +praiseworthy for carrying principles of sound government instead of +magic. Consequently, susceptible to woman's graces though he knew +himself to be, Lady Ormont's share of them hung in the abstract for him. +His hopes were bent on an early escape to Switzerland and his life's +work. + +Lady Charlotte mounted to ride to the battle daily. She talked of +her brother Rowsley, and of 'Aminta,' and provoked an advocacy of the +Countess of Ormont, and trampled the pleas and defences to dust, much +in the same tone as on the first day; sometimes showing a peep of sweet +humaneness, like the ripe berry of a bramble, and at others rattling +thunder at the wretch of a woman audacious enough to pretend to a part +in her brother's title. + +Not that she had veneration for titles. She considered them a tinsel, +and the devotee on his knee-caps to them a lump for a kick. Adding: 'Of +course I stand for my class; and if we can't have a manlier people--and +it 's not likely in a country treating my brother so badly--well, then, +let things go on as they are.' But it was the pretension to a part +in the name of Ormont which so violently offended the democratic +aristocrat, and caused her to resent it as an assault on the family +honour, by 'a woman springing up out of nothing'--a woman of no +distinctive birth. + +She was rational in her fashion; or Weyburn could at least see where and +how the reason in her took a twist. The Rev. Mr. Hampton-Evey would +not see it; he was, in charity to her ladyship, of a totally contrary +opinion, he informed Weyburn. The laborious pastor and much-enduring +Churchman met my lady's apologist as he was having a swing of the +legs down the lanes before breakfast, and he fell upon a series of +complaints, which were introduced by a declaration that 'he much feared' +her ladyship would have a heavy legal bill to pay for taking the law +into her hands up at Addicotes. + +Her ladyship might, if she pleased, he said, encourage her domestics and +her husband's tenants and farm-labourers to abandon the church for the +chapel, and go, as she had done and threatened to do habitually, to the +chapel herself; but to denounce the ritual of the Orthodox Church under +the denomination of 'barbarous,' to say of the invoking supplications of +the service, that they were--she had been heard to state it more or less +publicly and repeatedly--suitable to abject ministers and throngs at +the court of an Indian rajah, that he did not hesitate to term highly +unbecoming in a lady of her station, subversive and unchristian. The +personal burdens inflicted on him by her ladyship he prayed for patience +to endure. He surprised Weyburn in speaking of Lady Charlotte as +'educated and accomplished.' She was rather more so than Weyburn knew, +and more so than was common among the great ladies of her time. + +Weyburn strongly advised the reverend gentleman on having it out with +Lady Charlotte in a personal interview. He sketched the great lady's +combative character on a foundation of benevolence, and stressed +her tolerance for open dealing, and the advantage gained by personal +dealings with her--after a mauling or two. His language and his +illustrations touched an old-school chord in the Rev. Mr. Hampton-Evey, +who hummed over the project, profoundly disrelishing the introductory +portion. + +'Do me the honour to call and see me to-morrow, after breakfast, before +her ladyship starts for the fray on Addicote heights,' Weyburn said; +'and I will ask your permission to stand by you. Her bark is terrific, +we know; and she can bite, but there's no venom.' + +Finally, on a heave of his chest, Mr. Hampton-Evey consented to call, in +the interests of peace. + +Weyburn had said it must be 'man to man with her, facing her and taking +steps'; and, although the prospect was unpleasant to repulsiveness, it +was a cheerful alternative beside Mr. Hampton-Evey's experiences and +anticipations of the malignant black power her ladyship could be when +she was not faced. + +'Let the man come,' said Lady Charlotte. Her shoulders intimated +readiness for him. + +She told Weyburn he might be present--insisted to have him present. +During the day Weyburn managed to slide in observations on the +favourable reports of Mr. Hampton-Evey's work among the poor--emollient +doses that irritated her to fret and paw, as at a checking of her onset. + +In the afternoon the last disputed tree on the Addicotes' ridge was +felled and laid on Olmer ground. Riding with Weyburn and the joyful Leo, +she encountered Mr. Eglett and called out the news. He remarked, in the +tone of philosophy proper to a placable country gentleman obedient +to government on foreign affairs: 'Now for the next act. But no more +horseback now, mind!' + +She muttered of not recollecting a promise. He repeated the interdict. +Weyburn could fancy seeing her lips form words of how she hated old age. + +He had been four days at Olmer, always facing her, 'man to man,' in +the matter of Lady Ormont, not making way at all, but holding firm, and +winning respectful treatment. They sat alone in her private room, where, +without prelude, she discharged a fiery squib at impudent hussies caught +up to the saddle-bow of a hero for just a canter, and pretending to a +permanent seat beside him. + +'You have only to see Lady Ormont; you will admit the justice of her +claim, my lady,' said he; and as evidently he wanted a fight, she let +him have it. + +'You try to provoke me; you take liberties. You may call the woman +Aminta, I've told you; you insult me when you call the woman by my +family name.' + +'Pardon me, my lady: I have no right to call Lady Ormont Aminta.' + +'You've never done so, eh? Say!' + +She had him at the edge of the precipice. He escaped by saying, 'Her +Christian name was asked the other day, and I mentioned it. She is +addressed by me as Lady Ormont.' + +'And by her groom and her footman. They all do; it 's the indemnity to +that class of young woman. Her linendraper is Lady-Ormonting as you do. +I took you for a gentleman. Let me hear you give her that title again, +you shall hear her true one, that the world fits her with, from me.' + +The time was near the half-hour bell before dinner, the situation +between them that of the fall of the breath to fetch words electrical. +She left it to him to begin the fight, and was not sorry that she had +pricked him for it. + +A footman entered the room, bearer of a missive for Mr. Weyburn. Lord +Ormont's groom had brought it from London. + +'Send in the man,' said Lady Charlotte. + +Weyburn read + +'The Countess of Ormont begs Mr. Weyburn to return instantly. There +has been an accident in his home. It may not be very serious. An arm--a +shock to the system from a fall. Messenger informs her, fear of internal +hemorrhage. Best doctors in attendance.' + +He handed Lady Charlotte the letter. She humped at the first line, +flashed across the remainder, and in a lowered voice asked-- + +'Sister in the house?' + +'My mother,' Weyburn said. + +The groom appeared. He knew nothing. The Countess had given him orders +to spare no expense on the road to Olmer, without a minute's delay. He +had ridden and driven. + +He looked worn. Lady Charlotte rang the bell for her butler. To him she +said-- + +'See that this man has a good feed of meat, any pastry you have, and a +bottle of port wine. He has earned a pipe of tobacco; make up a bed +for him. Despatch at once any one of the stable-boys to Loughton--the +Dolphin. Mr. Leeman there will have a chariot, fly, gig, anything, +ready-horsed in three hours from now. See Empson yourself; he will put +my stepper Mab to the light trap; no delay. Have his feed at Loughton. +Tell Mrs. Maples to send up now, here, a tray, whatever she has, within +five minutes--not later. A bottle of the Peace of Amiens Chambertin--Mr. +Eglett's. You understand. Mrs. Maples will pack a basket for the +journey; she will judge. Add a bottle of the Waterloo Bordeaux. Wait: a +dozen of Mr. Eglett's cigars. Brisk with all the orders. Go.' + +She turned to Weyburn. 'You pack your portmanteau faster than a servant +will do it.' + +He ran up-stairs. + +She was beside the tray to welcome and inspirit his eating, and she +performed the busy butler's duty in pouring out wine for him. It was +a toned old Burgundy, happy in the year of its birth, the grandest of +instruments to roll the gambol-march of the Dionysiaca through the blood +of this frame and sound it to the spirit. She spoke no word of his cause +for departure. He drank, and he felt what earth can do to cheer one of +her stricken children and strengthen the beat of a heart with a dread +like a shot in it. + +She, while he flew supporting the body of his most beloved to the sun of +Life in brighter hope, reckoned the stages of his journey. + +'Leeman at Loughton will post you through the night to Mersley. Wherever +you bait, it is made known that you come from Olmer, and are one of us. +That passes you on up to London. Where can Lord Ormont be now?' + +'In Paris.' + +'Still in Paris? He leaves her. She did well to send as she did. You +will not pay for the posting along the road.' + +'I will pay for myself--I have a 'purse,' Weyburn said; and continued, +'Oh, my lady; there is Mr. Hampton-Evey to-morrow morning: I promised to +stand by him.' + +'I'll explain,' said Lady Charlotte. 'He shall not miss you. If he +strips the parson and comes as a man and a servant of the poor, he has +nothing to fear. You've done? The night before my brother Rowsley's +first duel I sat with him at supper and poured his wine out, and knew +what was going to happen, didn't say a word. No use in talking about +feelings. Besides, death is only the other side of the ditch, and one +or other of us must go foremost. Now then, good-bye. Empson's waiting by +this time. Mr. Eglett and Leo shall hear the excuses from me. Think of +anything you may want, while I count ten.' + +She held his hand. He wanted her to be friendly to Lady Ormont, but +could not vex her at the last moment, touched as he was by her practical +kindness. + +She pressed his hand and let it go. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. OLD LOVERS NEW FRIENDS + +The cottage inhabited by Weyburn's mother was on the southern hills over +London. He reached it late in the afternoon. His mother's old servant, +Martha, spied the roadway at the gate of the small square of garden. Her +steady look without welcome told him the scene he would meet beyond the +door, and was the dead in her eyes. He dropped from no height; he stood +on a level with the blow. His apprehensions on the road had lowered him +to meet it. + +'Too late, Martha?' + +'She's in heaven, my dear.' + +'She is lying alone?' + +'The London doctor left half an hour back. She's gone. Slipped, and +fell, coming from her room, all the way down. She prayed for grace to +see her son. She 'll watch over him, be sure. You 'll not find it lone +and cold. A lady sits with it--Lady Ormont, they call her--a very kind +lady. My mistress liked her voice. Ever since news of the accident, up +to ten at night; and never eats or drinks more than a poor tiny bit of +bread-and-butter, with a teacup.' + +'Weyburn went up-stairs. + +Aminta sat close to the bedside in a darkened room. They greeted +silently. He saw the white shell of the life that had flown; he took his +mother's hand and kissed it, and knelt, clasping it. + +Fear of disturbing his prayer kept Aminta seated. Death was a stranger +to him. The still warm, half-cold, nerveless hand smote the fact of +things as they were through the prayer for things as we would have +them. The vitality of his prayer was the sole light he had. It drew +sustainment from the dead hand in his grasp, and cowered down to the +earth claiming all we touch. He tried to summon vision of a soaring +spirituality; he could not; his understanding and senses were too +stricken. He prayed on. His prayer was as a little fountain, not rising +high out of earth, and in the clutch of death; but its being it had from +death, his love gave it food. + +Prayer is power within us to communicate with the desired beyond our +thirsts. The goodness of the dear good mother gone was in him for +assurance of a breast of goodness to receive her, whatever the nature of +the eternal secret may be. The good life gone lives on in the mind; +the bad has but a life in the body, and that not lasting,--it extends, +dispreads, it worms away, it perishes. Need we more to bid the +mind perceive through obstructive flesh the God who reigns, a devil +vanquished? Be certain that it is the pure mind we set to perceive. The +God discerned in thought is another than he of the senses. And let the +prayer be as a little fountain. Rising on a spout, from dread of the +hollow below, the prayer may be prolonged in words begetting words, and +have a pulse of fervour: the spirit of it has fallen after the first +jet. That is the delirious energy of our craving, which has no life +in our souls. We do not get to any heaven by renouncing the Mother we +spring from; and when there is an eternal secret for us, it is befit +to believe that Earth knows, to keep near her, even in our utmost +aspirations. + +Weyburn still knelt. He was warned to quit the formal posture of an +exhausted act by the thought, that he had come to reflect upon how he +might be useful to his boys in a like calamity. + +Having risen, he became aware, that for some time of his kneeling +Aminta's hand had been on his head, and they had raised their souls +in unison. It was a soul's link. They gazed together on the calm, rapt +features. They passed from the room. + +'I cannot thank you,' he said. + +'Oh no; I have the reason for gratitude,' said she. 'I have learnt to +know and love her, and hope I may imitate when my time is near.' + +“She.... at the last?' + +'Peacefully; no pain. The breath had not left her very long before you +came.' + +'I said I cannot; but I must-- + +'Do not.' + +'Not in speech, then.' + +They went into the tasteful little sitting-room below, where the +stillness closed upon them as a consciousness of loss. + +'You have comforted her each day,' he said. + +'It has been my one happiness.' + +'I could not wish for better than for her to have known you.' + +'Say that for me. I have gained. She left her last words for you with +me. They were love, love... pride in her son: thanks to God for having +been thought worthy to give him birth.' + +'She was one of the noble women of earth.' + +'She was your mother. Let me not speak any more. I think I will now go. +I am rarely given to these--' + +The big drops were falling. + +'You have not ordered your carriage?' + +'It brings me here. I find my way home.' + +'Alone?' + +'I like the independence.' + +'At night, too!' + +'Nothing harmed me. Now it is daylight. A letter arrived for you from +High Brent this morning. I forgot to bring it. Yesterday two of your +pupils called here. Martha saw them.' + +Her naming of the old servant familiarly melted him. 'You will not bear +to hear praise or thanks.' + +'If I deserved them. I should like you to call on Dr. Buxton; he will +tell you more than we can. He drove with me the first day, after I had +sent you the local doctor's report. I had it from the messenger, his +assistant.' + +Weyburn knew Dr. Buxton's address. He begged her to stay and take some +nourishment; ventured a remark on her wasted look. + +'It is poor fare in cottages.' + +'I have been feeding on better than bread and meat,' she said.' I should +have eaten if I had felt appetite. My looks will recover, such as they +are. I hope I have grown out of them; they are a large part of the +bondage of women. You would like to see me safe into some conveyance. Go +up-stairs for a few minutes; I will wait here.' + +He obeyed her. Passing from the living to the dead, from the dead to the +living, they were united in his heart. + +Her brevity of tone, and her speech, so practical upon a point of need, +under a crisis of distress, reminded him of Lady Charlotte at the time +of the groom's arrival with her letter. + +Aminta was in no hurry to drive. She liked walking and looking down on +London, she said. + +'My friend and schoolmate, Selina Collett, comes to me at Whitsuntide. +We have taken a house on the Upper Thames, above Marlow. You will +come and see us, if you can be persuaded to leave your boys. We have +a boathouse, and a bathing-plank for divers. The stream is quiet there +between rich meadows. It seems to flow as if it thought. I am not +poetical; I tell you only my impression. You shall be a great deal by +yourself, as men prefer to be.' + +'As men are forced to be--I beg!' said he. 'Division is against my +theories.' + +'We might help, if we understood one another, I have often fancied. I +know something of your theories. I should much like to hear you some +day on the scheme of the school in Switzerland, and also on the +schoolmaster's profession. She whom we have lost was full of it, and +spoke of it to me as much as her weakness would permit. The subject +seemed to give her strength.' + +'She has always encouraged me,' said Weyburn.' I have lost her, but I +shall feel that she is not absent. She had ideas of her own about men +and women.' + +'Some she mentioned.' + +'And about marriage?' + +'That too.' + +Aminta shook herself out of a sudden stupor. + +'Her mind was very clear up to the last hour upon all the subjects +interesting her son. She at one time regretted his not being a soldier, +for the sake of his father's memory. Then she learned to think he could +do more for the world as the schoolmaster. She said you can persuade.' + +'We had our talks. She would have the reason, if she was to be won. I +like no other kind of persuasion.' + +'I long to talk over the future school with you. That is, to hear your +plans.' + +They were at the foot of the hill, in view of an inn announcing livery +stables. She wished to walk the whole distance. He shook his head. + +The fly was ready for her soon, and he begged to see her safe home. She +refused, after taking her seat, but said: 'At any other time. We are old +friends. You will really go through the ceremony of consulting me about +the school?' + +He replied: 'I am honoured.' + +'Ah, not to me,' said Aminta. 'We will be the friends we--You will not +be formal with me?--not from this day?' + +She put out her hand. He took it gently. The dead who had drawn them +together withheld a pressure. Holding the hand, he said: 'I shall crave +leave of absence for some days.' + +'I shall see you on the day,' said she. 'If it is your desire: I will +send word.' + +'We both mourn at heart. We should be in company. Adieu.' + +Their hands fell apart. They looked. The old school time was in each +mind. They saw it as a shore-bank in grey outline across morning mist. +Years were between; and there was a division of circumstance, more +repelling than an abyss or the rush of deep wild waters. + +Neither of them had regrets. Under their cloud, and with the grief they +shared, they were as happy as two could be in recovering one another as +friends. + +On the day of the funeral Aminta drove to the spot where they had +parted--she walked to the churchyard. + +She followed the coffin to its gravel-heap, wishing neither to see nor +be seen, only that she might be so far attached to the remains of the +dead; and the sense of blessedness she had in her bowed simplicity of +feeling was as if the sainted dead had cleansed and anointed her. + +When the sods had been cast on, the last word spoken, she walked her +way back, happy in being alone, unnoticed. She was grateful to the chief +mourner for letting her go as she had come. That helped her to her sense +of purification, the haven out of the passions, hardly less quiet than +the repose into which the dear dead woman, his mother, had entered. + +London lay beneath her. The might of the great hive hummed at the verge +of her haven of peace without disturbing. There she had been what +none had known of her: an ambitious girl, modest merely for lack of +intrepidity; paralyzed by her masterful lord; aiming her highest at +a gilt weathercock; and a disappointed creature, her breast a home of +serpents; never herself. She thought and hoped she was herself now. +Alarm lest this might be another of her moods, victim of moods as she +had latterly been, was a shadow armed with a dart playing round her to +find the weak spot. It sprang from her acknowledged weakness of nature; +and she cast about for how to keep it outside her and lean on a true +though a small internal support. She struck at her desires, to sound +them. + +They were yesterday for love; partly for distinction, for a woman having +beauty to shine in the sphere of beauty; but chiefly to love and be +loved, therefore to live. She had yesterday read letters of a man +who broke a music from the word--about as much music as there is in +a tuning--fork, yet it rang and lingered; and he was not the magical +musician. Now those letters were as dust of the road. The sphere of +beauty was a glass lamp-globe for delirious moths. She had changed. +Belief in the real change gave her full view of the compliant coward she +had been. + +Her heart assured her she had natural courage. She felt that it could be +stubborn to resist a softness. Now she cared no more for the hackneyed +musical word; friendship was her desire. If it is not life's poetry, it +is a credible prose; a land of low undulations instead of Alps; beyond +the terrors and the deceptions. And she could trust her friend: he who +was a singular constancy. His mother had told her of his preserving +letters of a girl he loved when at school; and of his journeys to an +empty house at Dover. That was past; but, as the boy, so the man would +be in sincerity of feeling trustworthy to the uttermost. + +She mused on the friend. He was brave. She had seen how he took his +blow, and sorrow as a sister, conquering emotion. It was not to be +expected of him by one who knew him when at school. Had he faults? He +must have faults. She, curiously, could see none. After consenting to +his career as a schoolmaster, and seeing nothing ludicrous in it, she +endowed him with the young school-hero's reputation, beheld him with the +eyes of the girl who had loved him--and burnt his old letters!--bitterly +regretted that she burnt his letters!--and who had applauded his +contempt of ushers and master opposing his individual will and the thing +he thought it right to do. + +Musing thus, she turned a corner, on a sudden, in her mind, and ran +against a mirror, wherein a small figure running up to meet her, grew +large and nodded, with the laugh and eyes of Browny. So little had she +changed! The stedfast experienced woman rebuked that volatile, and some +might say, faithless girl. But the girl had her answer: she declared +they were one and the same, affirmed that the years between were a bad +night's dream, that her heart had been faithful, that he who conjures +visions of romance in a young girl's bosom must always have her heart, +as a crisis will reveal it to her. She had the volubility of the mettled +Browny of old, and was lectured. When she insisted on shouting 'Matey! +Matey!' she was angrily spurned and silenced. + +Aminta ceased to recline in her carriage. An idea that an indolent +posture fostered vapourish meditations, counselled her sitting +rigidly upright and interestedly observing the cottages and merry +gutter-children along the squat straight streets of a London suburb. Her +dominant ultimate thought was, 'I, too, can work!' Like her courage, the +plea of a capacity to work appealed for confirmation to the belief which +exists without demonstrated example; and as she refrained from probing +to the inner sources of that mental outcry, it was allowed to stand and +remain among the convictions we store--wherewith to shape our destinies. + +Childishly indeed, quite witlessly, she fell into a trick of repeating +the name of Matthew Weyburn in her breast and on her lips, after the +manner of Isabella Lawrence Finchley, when she had inquired for his +Christian name, and went on murmuring it, as if sucking a new bonbon, +with the remark: 'It sounds nice, it suits the mouth.' Little Selina +Collett had told, Aminta remembered, how those funny boys at Cuper's +could not at first get the name 'Aminta' to suit the mouth, but +went about making hideous faces in uttering it. She smiled at the +recollection, and thought, up to a movement of her lips, one is not +tempted to do that in saying Matthew Weyburn! + + + + +CHAPTER XV. SHOWING A SECRET FISHED WITHOUT ANGLING + +That great couchant dragon of the devouring jaws and the withering +breath, known as our London world, was in expectation of an excitement +above yawns on the subject of a beautiful Lady Doubtful proposing +herself, through a group of infatuated influential friends, to a +decorous Court, as one among the ladies acceptable. The popular version +of it sharpened the sauce by mingling romance and cynicism very happily; +for the numerous cooks, when out of the kitchen, will furnish a piquant +dish. Thus, a jewel-eyed girl of half English origin (a wounded +British officer is amiably nursed in a castle near the famous Peninsula +battlefield, etc.), running wild down the streets of Seville, is picked +up by Lord Ormont, made to discard her tambourine, brought over to our +shores, and allowed the decoration of his name, without the legitimate +adornment of his title. Discontented with her position after a time, +she now pushes boldly to claim the place which will be most effective +in serving her as a bath. She has, by general consent, beauty; she must, +seeing that she counts influential friends, have witchery. Those who +have seen her riding and driving beside her lord, speak of Andalusian +grace, Oriental lustre, fit qualification for the fair slave of a +notoriously susceptible old warrior. + +She won a party in the widening gossip world; and enough of a party in +the regent world to make a stream. Pretending to be the actual Countess +of Ormont, though not publicly acknowledged as his countess by the earl, +she had on her side the strenuous few who knew and liked her, some +who were pleased compassionately to patronize, all idle admirers of a +shadowed beautiful woman at bay, the devotees of any beauty in distress, +and such as had seen, such as imagined they had seen, such as could +paint a mental picture of a lady of imposing stature, persuasive +appearance, pathetic history, and pronounce her to be unjustly treated, +with a general belief that she was visible and breathing. She had the +ready enthusiasts, the responsive sentimentalists, and an honest +active minor number, of whom not every one could be declared perfectly +unspotted in public estimation, however innocent under verdict of the +courts of law. + +Against her was the livid cloud-bank over a flowery field, that has +not yet spoken audible thunder: the terrible aggregate social woman, +of man's creation, hated by him, dreaded, scorned, satirized, and +nevertheless, upheld, esteemed, applauded: a mark of civilization, on +to which our human society must hold as long as we have nothing humaner. +She exhibits virtue, with face of waxen angel, with paw of desert +beast, and blood of victims on it. Her fold is a genial climate and +the material pleasures for the world's sheepy: worshipping herself, she +claims the sanctification of a performed religion. She is gentle when +unassailed, going her way serenely, with her malady in the blood. When +the skin bears witness to it, she swallows an apothecary, and there is +a short convulsion. She is refreshed by cutting off diseased inferior +members: the superior betraying foul symptoms, she covers up and +retains; rationally, too, for they minister to her present existence, +and she lives all in the present. Her subjects are the mixed +Subservient; among her rebellious are earth's advanced, who have cold a +morning on their foreheads, and these would not dethrone her, they +would but shame and purify by other methods than the druggist. She +loves nothing. Undoubtedly, she dislikes the vicious. On that merit she +subsists. + +The vexatious thing in speaking of her is, that she compels to the +use of the rhetorician's brass instrument. As she is one of the Powers +giving life and death, one may be excused. This tremendous queen of the +congregation has brought discredit on her sex for the scourge laid +on quivering female flesh, and for the flippant indifference shown to +misery and to fine distinctions between right and wrong, good and bad; +and particularly for the undiscriminating hardness upon the starved of +women. We forget her having been conceived in the fear of men, shaped to +gratify them. She is their fiction of the state they would fain beguile +themselves to suppose her sex has reached, for their benefit; where she +may be queen of it in a corner, certain of a loyal support, if she +will only give men her half-the-world's assistance to uplift the fabric +comfortable to them; together with assurance of paternity, case of mind +in absence, exclusive possession, enormous and minutest, etc.; not +by any means omitting a regimental orderliness, from which men are +privately exempt, because they are men, or because they are grown +boys--the brisker at lessons after a vacation or a truancy, says the +fiction. + +In those days the world had oscillated, under higher leading than its +royal laxity, to rigidity. Tiny peccadilloes were no longer matter +of jest, and the sinner exposed stood 'sola' to receive the brand. A +beautiful Lady Doubtful needed her husband's countenance if she was +to take one of the permanent steps in public places. The party of Lady +Charlotte Eglett called on the livid cloud-bank aforesaid to discharge +celestial bolts and sulphur oil on the head of an impudent, underbred, +ambitious young slut, whose arts had bewitched a distinguished nobleman +not young in years at least, and ensnared the remainder wits of some +principal ancient ladies of the land. Professional Puritans, born +conservatives, malicious tattlers, made up a goodly tail to Lady +Charlotte's party. The epithet 'unbred' was accredited upon the quoted +sayings and doings of the pretentious young person's aunt, repeated +abroad by noblemen and gentlemen present when she committed herself; +and the same were absurd. They carried a laugh, and so they lived and +circulated. Lord Ormont submitted to the infliction of that horrid +female in his household! It was no wonder he stopped short of allying +himself with the family. + +Nor was it a wonder that the naturally enamoured old warrior or +invalided Mars (for she had the gift of beauty) should deem it prudent +to be out of England when she and her crazy friends determined on the +audacious move. Or put it the other way--for it is just as confounding +right side or left--she and her friends take advantage of his absence +to make the clever push for an establishment, and socially force him to +legalize their union on his return. The deeds of the preceding reign +had bequeathed a sort of legendary credence to the wildest tales gossip +could invent under a demurrer. + +But there was the fact, the earl was away. Lady Charlotte's party buzzed +everywhere. Her ladyship had come to town to head it. Her ladyship laid +trains of powder from dinner-parties, balls, routs, park-processions, +into the Lord Chamberlain's ear, and fired and exploded them, deafening +the grand official. Do you consider that virulent Pagan Goddesses +and the flying torch-furies are extinct? Error of Christians! We have +relinquished the old names and have no new ones for them; but they are +here, inextinguishable, threading the day and night air with their dire +squib-trail, if we would but see. Hissing they go, and we do not hear. +We feel the effects. + +Upon the counsel of Mrs. Lawrence, Aminta sent a letter to Lord Ormont +at his hotel in Paris, informing him of the position of affairs. He had +delayed his return, and there had been none of his brief communications. + +She wrote, as she knew, as she felt, coldly. She was guided by others, +and her name was up before the world, owing to some half-remembered +impulsion of past wishes, but her heart was numbed; she was not a woman +to have a wish without a beat of the heart in it. For her name she had a +feeling, to be likened rather to the losing gambler's contemplation of a +big stake he has flung, and sees it gone while fortune is undecided; and +he catches at a philosophy nothing other than his hug of a modest little +background pleasure, that he has always preferred to this accursed bad +habit of gambling with the luck against him. Reckless in the cast, she +was reckless of success. + +Her letter was unanswered. + +Then, and day by day more strongly, she felt for her name. She put a +false heart into it. She called herself to her hearing the Countess of +Ormont, and deigned to consult the most foolish friend she could have +chosen--her aunt; and even listened to her advice, that she should run +about knocking at all the doors open to her, and state her case against +the earl. It seemed the course to take, the moment for taking it. Was +she not asked if she could now at last show she had pride? Her pride ran +stinging through her veins, like a band of freed prisoners who head the +rout to fire a city. She charged her lord with having designedly--oh! +cunningly indeed left her to be the prey of her enemies at the hour +when he knew it behoved him to be her great defender. There had been no +disguise of the things in progress: they had been spoken of allusively, +quite comprehensibly, after the fashion common with two entertaining +a secret semi-hostility on a particular subject; one of them being the +creature that blushes and is educated to be delicate, reserved, and +timorous. He was not ignorant, and he had left her, and he would not +reply to her letter! + +So fell was her mood, that an endeavour to conjure up the scene of her +sitting beside the death-bed of Matthew Weyburn's mother, failed to +sober and smooth it, holy though that time was. The false heart she had +put into the pride of her name was powerfuller than the heart in her +bosom. But to what end had the true heart counselled her of late? It had +been a home of humours and languors, an impotent insurgent, the sapper +of her character; and as we see in certain disorderly States a curative +incendiarism usurp the functions of the sluggish citizen, and the work +of re-establishment done by destruction, in peril of a total extinction, +Aminta's feverish anger on behalf of her name went a stretch to vivify +and give her dulled character a novel edge. She said good-bye to +cowardice. 'I have no husband to defend me--I must do it for myself.' +The peril of a too complete exercise of independence was just intimated +to her perceptions. On whom the blame? And let the motively guilty go +mourn over consequences! That Institution of Marriage was eyed. Is it +not a halting step to happiness? It is the step of a cripple,--and one +leg or the other poses for the feebler sex,--small is the matter +which! And is happiness our cry? Our cry is rather for circumstance and +occasion to use our functions, and the conditions are denied to women +by Marriage--denied to the luckless of women, who are many, very many: +denied to Aminta, calling herself Countess of Ormont, for one, denied +to Mrs. Lawrence Finchley for another, and in a base bad manner. She had +defended her good name triumphantly, only to enslave herself for life or +snatch at the liberty which besmirches. + +Reviewing Mrs. Lawrence, Aminta's real heart pressed forward at the +beat, in tender pity of the woman for whom a yielding to love was to +sin; and unwomanly is the woman who does not love: men will say +it. Aminta found herself phrasing. 'Why was she unable to love her +husband?--he is not old.' She hurried in flight from the remark to +confidences imparted by other ladies, showing strange veins in an earthy +world; after which, her mind was bent to rebuke Mrs. Pagnell for the +silly soul's perpetual allusions to Lord Ormont's age. She did not think +of his age. But she was vividly thinking that she was young. Young, +married, loveless, cramped in her energies, publicly dishonoured--a Lady +Doubtful, courting one friend whom she liked among women, one friend +whom she respected among men; that was the sketch of her. + +That was in truth the outline, as much as Aminta dared sketch of herself +without dragging her down lower than her trained instinct would bear +to look. Our civilization shuns nature; and most shuns it in the most +artificially civilized, to suit the market. They, however, are always +close to their mother nature, beneath their second nature's mask of +custom; and Aminta's unconscious concluding touch to the sketch: 'My +husband might have helped me to a footing in Society,' would complete it +as a coloured picture, if writ in tones. + +She said it, and for the footing in Society she had lost her taste. + +Mrs. Lawrence brought the final word from high quarters: that the +application must be deferred until Lord Ormont returned to town. It +was known before, that such would be the decision. She had it from the +eminent official himself, and she kicked about the room, setting her +pretty mouth and nose to pout and sniff, exactly like a boy whose chum +has been mishandled by a bully. + +'Your dear good man is too much for us. I thought we should drive him. +'C'est un ruse homme de guerre.' I like him, but I could slap him. +He stops the way. Upon my word, he seems tolerably careless of his +treasure. Does he suppose Mrs. Paggy is a protection? Do you know she's +devoted to that man Morsfield? He listens to her stories. To judge by +what he shouts aloud, he intends carrying you off the first opportunity, +divorcing, and installing you in Cobeck Hall. All he fears is, that your +lord won't divorce. You should have seen him the other day; he marched +up and down the room, smacking his head and crying out: “Legal measures +or any weapons her husband pleases!” For he has come to believe that the +lady would have been off with him long before, if her lord had no +claim to the marital title. “It 's that husband I can't get over! that +husband!” He reminded me, to the life, of Lawrence Finchley with a +headache the morning after a supper, striding, with his hand on the +shining middle of his head: “It's that Welsh rabbit! that Welsh rabbit!” + He has a poor digestion, and he will eat cheese. The Welsh rabbit chased +him into his bed. But listen to me, dear, about your Morsfield. I told +you he was dangerous.' + +'He is not my Morsfield,' said Aminta. + +'Beware of his having a tool in Paggy. He boasts of letters.' + +'Mine? Two: and written to request him to cease writing to me.' + +'He stops at nothing. And, oh, my Simplicity! don't you see you gave him +a step in begging him to retire? Morsfield has lived a good deal among +our neighbours, who expound the physiology of women. He anatomizes us; +pulls us to pieces, puts us together, and then animates us with a breath +of his “passion”--sincere upon every occasion, I don't doubt. He spared +me, although he saw I was engaged. Perhaps it was because I 'm of no +definite colour. Or he thought I was not a receptacle for “passion.” And +quite true,--Adder, the dear good fellow, has none. Or where should +we be? On a Swiss Alp, in a chalet, he shooting chamois, and I milking +cows, with 'ah-ahio, ah-ahio,' all day long, and a quarrel at night over +curds and whey. Well, and that 's a better old pensioner's limp to his +end for “passion” than the foreign hotel bell rung mightily, and one +of the two discovered with a dagger in the breast, and the other a +don't-look lying on the pavement under the window. Yes, and that's +better than “passion” splitting and dispersing upon new adventures, from +habit, with two sparks remaining of the fire.' + +Aminta took Mrs. Lawrence's hands. 'Is it a lecture?' + +She was kissed. 'Frothy gabble. I'm really near to “passion” when I +embrace you. You're the only one I could run away with; live with all +alone, I believe. I wonder men can see you while that silly lord of +yours is absent, and not begin Morsfielding. They're virtuous if they +resist. Paggy tells the world... well?' Aminta had reddened. + +'What does my aunt tell the world?' + +Mrs. Lawrence laid her smoothing hand absently on a frill of lace fichu +above a sternly disciplined bosom at half-heave. 'I think I can +judge now that you're not much hurt by this wretched business of the +presentation. The little service I could do was a moral lesson to me +on the subject of deuce-may-care antecedents. My brother Tom, too, was +always playing truant, as a boy. It 's in the blood.' + +She seemed to be teasing, and Aminta cried: 'My aunt! Let me hear. She +tells the world--?' + +'Paggy? ah, yes. Only that she says the countess has an exalted opinion +of Mr. Secretary's handwriting--as witnessed by his fair copy of the +Memoirs, of course.' + +'Poor woman! How can she talk such foolishness! I guessed it.' + +'You wear a dark red rose when you're guessing, 'ma mie,'--French for, +my Aminta.' + +'But consider, Isabella, Mr. Weyburn has just had the heaviest of +losses. My aunt should spare mention of him.' + +'Matthew Weyburn! we both like the name.' Mrs. Lawrence touched at her +friend and gazed. 'I've seen it on certain evenings--crimson over an +olive sky. What it forebodes, I can't imagine; but it's the end of +a lovely day. They say it threatens rain, if it begins one. It 's an +ominous herald.' + +'You make me,' said Aminta. 'I must redden if you keep looking at me so +closely.' + +'Now frown one little bit, please. I love to see you. I love to see a +secret disclose itself ingenuously.' + +'But what secret, my dear?' cried Aminta's defence of her innocence; and +she gave a short frown. + +'Have no fear. Mr. Secretary is not the man to be Morsfielding. And he +can enjoy his repast; a very good sign. But is he remaining long?' + +'He is going soon, I hear.' + +'He's a good boy. I could have taken to him myself, and not dreaded +a worrying. There 's this difference between you and me, +though, my Aminta; one of us has the fireplace prepared for +what's-his-name--“passion.” Kiss me. How could you fancy you were going +to have a woman for your friend and keep hidden from her any one of +the secrets that blush! and with Paggy to aid! I am sure it means +very little. Admiration for good handwriting is--' a smile broke the +sentence. + +'You're astray, Isabella.' + +'Not I, dear, I'm too fond of you.' + +'You read what is not.' + +'What is not yet written, you mean.' + +'What never could be written.' + +'I read what is in the blood, and comes out to me when I look. That lord +of yours should take to study you as I have done ever since I fell in +love with you. He 's not counselling himself well in keeping away.' + +'Now you speak wisely,' said Aminta. + +'Not a particle more wisely. And the reason is close at hand--see. +You are young, you attract--how could it be otherwise?--and you have +“passion” sleeping, and likely to wake with a spring whether roused or +not. In my observation good-man t'other fellow--the poet's friend--is +never long absent when the time is ripe--at least, not in places where +we gather together. Well, one is a buckler against the other: I don't +say with lovely Amy May,--with an honourable woman. But Aminta can smell +powder and grow more mettlesome. Who can look at you and be blind to +passion sleeping! The sight of you makes me dream of it--me, a woman, +cool as a wine-cellar or a well. So there's to help you to know yourself +and be on your guard. I know I'm not deceived, because I've fallen in +love with you, and no love can be without jealousy, so I have the needle +in my breast, that points at any one who holds a bit of you. Kind of +sympathetic needle to the magnet behind anything. You'll know it, if you +don't now. I should have felt the thing without the aid of Paggy. So, +then, imagine all my nonsense unsaid, and squeeze a drop or two +of 'sirop de bon conseil' out of it, as if it were your own wise +meditations.' The rest of Mrs. Lawrence's discourse was a swallow's wing +skimming the city stream. She departed, and Aminta was left to beat at +her heart and ask whether it had a secret. + +But if there was one, the secret was out, and must have another name. +It had been a secret for her until she heard her friend speak those +pin-points that pricked her heart, and sent the blood coursing over her +face, like a betrayal, so like as to resemble a burning confession. + +But if this confessed the truth, she was the insanest of women. No +woman could be surer that she had her wits. She had come to see things, +previously mysteries, with surprising clearness. As, for example, that +passion was part of her nature; therefore her very life, lying tranced. +She certainly could not love without passion such an abandonment was the +sole justification of love in a woman standing where she stood. And now +for the first time she saw her exact position before the world; and she +saw some way into her lord: saw that he nursed a wound, extracted balm +from anything enabling him to show the world how he despised it, and +undesigningly immolated her for the petty gratification. + +It could not, in consequence, be the truth. To bear what she had borne +she must be a passionless woman; and she was glad of her present safety +in thinking it. Once it was absolutely true. She swam away to the +golden-circled Island of Once; landed, and dwelt there solitarily and +blissfully, looking forward to Sunday's walk round the park, looking +back on it. Proudly she could tell herself that her dreams of the Prince +of the island had not been illusions as far as he was concerned; for he +had a great soul. He did not aim at a tawdry glory. He was a loss to +our army--no loss to his country or the world. A woman might clasp her +feeling of pride in having foreseen distinction for him; and a little, +too, in distinguishing now the true individual distinction from the +feathered uniform vulgar. Where the girl's dreams had proved illusions, +she beheld in a title and luxuries, in a loveless marriage. + +That was perilous ground. Still it taught her to see that the +substantial is the dust; and passion not being active, she could +reflect. After a series of penetrative flashes, flattering to her +intelligence the more startling they were, reflection was exhausted. +She sank on her nature's desire to join or witness agonistic incidents, +shocks, wrestlings, the adventures which are brilliant air to sanguine +energies. Imagination shot tap, and whirled the circle of a succession +of them; and she had a companion and leader, unfeatured, reverently +obeyed, accepted as not to be known, not to be guessed at, in the +deepest hooded inmost of her being speechlessly divined. + +The sudden result of Aminta's turmoil was a determination that she must +look on Steignton. And what was to be gained by that? She had no idea. +And how had she stopped her imaginative flight with the thought of +looking on Steignton? All she could tell was, that it would close a +volume. She could not say why the volume must be closed. + +Her orders for the journey down to Steignton were prompt. Mrs. Pagnell +had an engagement at the house of Lady Staines for the next day to +meet titles and celebrities, and it precluded her comprehension of the +project. She begged to have the journey postponed. She had pledged her +word, she said. + +'To Mr. Morsfield?' said Aminta. + +Her aunt was astounded. + +'I did tell him we should be there, my dear.' 'He appears to have a +pleasure in meeting you.' 'He is one of the real gentlemen of the land.' + +'You correspond with him?' + +'I may not be the only one.' + +'Foolish aunty! How can you speak to me in that senseless way?' cried +Aminta. 'You know the schemer he is, and that I have no protection from +his advances unless I run the risk of bloodshed.' + +'My dear Aminta, whenever I go into society, and he is present, I know +I shall not be laughed at, or fall into that pit of one of their dead +silences, worse for me to bear than titters and faces. It is their way +of letting one feel they are of birth above us. Mr. Morsfield--purer +blood than many of their highest titles--is always polite, always +deferential; he helps me to feel I am not quite out of my element in the +sphere I prefer. We shall be travelling alone?' + +'Have you any fear?' + +'Not if nothing happens. Might we not ask that Mr. Weyburn?' + +'He has much work to do. He will not long be here. He is absent to-day.' + +Mrs. Pagnell remarked: 'I must say he earns his money easily.' + +Aminta had softened herself with the allusion to the shortness of his +time with them. Her aunt's coarse hint, and the thought of his loss, and +the banishment it would be to her all the way to Steignton, checked a +sharp retort she could have uttered, but made it necessary to hide her +eyes from sight. She went to her bedroom, and flung herself on the bed. +Even so little as an unspoken defence of him shook her to floods of +tears. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. ALONG TWO ROADS TO STEIGNTON + +Unaccountable resolutions, if impromptu and springing from the female +breast, are popularly taken for caprices; and even when they divert the +current of a history, and all the more when they are very small matters +producing a memorable crisis. In this way does a lazy world consign +discussion to silence with the cynical closure. Man's hoary shrug at a +whimsy sex is the reading of his enigma still. + +But ask if she has the ordinary pumping heart in that riddle of a +breast: and then, as the organ cannot avoid pursuit, we may get hold of +it, and succeed in spelling out that she is consequent, in her fashion. +She is a creature of the apparent moods and shifts and tempers only +because she is kept in narrow confines, resembling, if you like, a wild +cat caged. Aminta's journey down to Steignton turned the course of other +fortunes besides her own; and she disdained the minor adventure it +was, while dreaming it important; and she determined eagerly on going, +without wanting to go; and it was neither from a sense of duty nor in +a spirit of contrariety that she went. Nevertheless, with her heart in +hand, her movements are traceably as rational as a soldier's before the +enemy or a trader's matching his customer. + +The wish to look on Steignton had been spoken or sighed for during +long years between Aminta and her aunt, until finally shame and anger +clinched the subject. To look on Steignton for once was now Aminta's +phrasing of her sudden resolve; it appeared as a holiday relief from +recent worries, and it was an expedition with an aim, though she had but +the coldest curiosity to see the place, and felt alien to it. Yet the +thought, never to have seen Steignton! roused phantoms of dead wishes +to drive the strange engine she was, faster than the living would have +done. Her reason for haste was rationally founded on the suddenness of +her resolve, which, seeing that she could not say she desired to go, +seemed to come of an external admonition; and it counselled quick +movements, lest her inspired obedience to the prompting should as +abruptly breathe itself out. 'And in that case I shall never have seen +Steignton at all,' she said, with perfect calmness, and did not attempt +to sound her meaning. + +She did know that she was a magazine of a great storage of powder. It +banked inoffensively dry. She had forgiven her lord, owning the real +nobleman he was in courtesy to women, whom his inherited ideas of them +so quaintly minimized and reduced to pretty insect or tricky reptile. +They, too, had the choice of being ultimately the one or the other in +fact; the latter most likely. + +If, however, she had forgiven her lord, the shattering of their union +was the cost of forgiveness. In letting him stand high, as the lofty man +she had originally worshipped, she separated herself from him, to feel +that the humble she was of a different element, as a running water at a +mountain's base. They are one in the landscape; they are far from one in +reality. Aminta's pride of being chafed at the yoke of marriage. + +Her aunt was directed to prepare for a start at an early hour the next +morning. Mrs. Pagnell wrote at her desk, and fussed, and ordered the +posting chariot, and bewailed herself submissively; for it was the +Countess of Ormont speaking when Aminta delivered commands, and the +only grievance she dared to mutter was 'the unexpectedness.' Her letters +having been despatched, she was amazed in the late evening to hear +Aminta give the footman orders for the chariot to be ready at the door +an hour earlier than the hour previously appointed. She remonstrated. +Aminta simply observed that it would cause less inconvenience to all +parties. A suspicion of her aunt's proceedings was confirmed by the good +woman's flustered state. She refrained from smiling. + +She would have mustered courage to invite Matthew Weyburn as her +escort, if he had been at hand. He was attending to his affairs with +lawyers--mainly with his friend Mr. Abner. She studied map and gazetteer +till late into the night. Giving her orders to the postillion on the +pavement in the morning, she named a South-westerly direction out of +London, and after entering the chariot, she received a case from one of +the footmen. + +'What is that, my dear?' said Mrs. Pagnell. + +Aminta unlocked and laid it open. A pair of pistols met Mrs. Pagnell's +gaze. + +'We shan't be in need of those things?' the lady said anxiously. + +'One never knows, on the road, aunt.' + +'Loaded? You wouldn't hesitate to fire; I'm sure.' + +'At Mr. Morsfield himself, if he attempted to stop me.' + +Mrs. Pagnell withdrew into her astonishment, and presently asked, in a +tone of some indignation: 'Why did you mention Mr. Morsfield, Aminta?' + +'Did you not write to him yesterday afternoon, aunt?' + +'You read the addresses on my letters!' + +'Did you not supply him with our proposed route and the time for +starting?' + +'Pistols!' exclaimed Mrs. Pagnell. 'One would fancy you think we are +in the middle of the last century. Mr. Morsfield is a gentleman, not a +highwayman.' + +'He gives the impression of his being a madman.' + +'The real madman is your wedded husband, Aminta, if wedding it was!' + +It was too surely so, in Aminta's mind. She tried, by looking out of the +window, to forget her companion. The dullness of the roads and streets +opening away to flat fields combined with the postillion's unvarying jog +to sicken her thoughts over the exile from London she was undergoing, +and the chance that Matthew Weyburn might call at a vacant house next +day, to announce his term of service to the earl, whom he had said +he much wanted to see. He said it in his sharp manner when there was +decision behind it. Several times after contemplating the end of her +journey, and not perceiving any spot of pleasure ahead, an emotion urged +her to turn back; for the young are acutely reasoning when their breasts +advise them to quit a road where no pleasure beckons. + +Unlike Matthew Weyburn, the tiptoe sparkle of a happy mind did not leap +from her at wayside scenes, a sweep of grass, distant hills, clouds +in flight. She required, since she suffered, the positive of events or +blessings to kindle her glow. + +Matthew Weyburn might call at the house. Would he be disappointed? He +had preserved her letters of the old school-days. She had burnt his. But +she had not burnt the letters of Mr. Morsfield; and she cared nothing +for that man. Assuredly she merited the stigma branding women as +crack-brained. Yet she was not one of the fools; she could govern a +household, and she liked work, she had the capacity for devotedness. So, +therefore, she was a woman perverted by her position, and she shook her +bonds in revolt from marriage. Imagining a fall down some suddenly spied +chasm of her nature, she had a sisterly feeling for the women named +sinful. At the same time, reflecting that they are sinful only with the +sinful, she knelt thankfully at the feet of the man who had saved her +from such danger. Tears threatened. They were a poor atonement for the +burning of his younger letters. But not he--she was the sufferer, and +she whipped up a sensation of wincing at the flames they fell to, and +at their void of existence, committing sentimental idiocies worthy of +a lovesick girl, consciously to escape the ominous thought, which her +woman's perception had sown in her, that he too chafed at a marriage no +marriage: was true in fidelity, not true through infidelity, as she had +come to be. The thought implied misery for both. She entered a black +desolation, with the prayer that he might not be involved, for his +own sake: partly also on behalf of the sustaining picture the young +schoolmaster at his task, merry among his dear boys, to trim and point +them body and mind for their business in the world, painted for her a +weariful prospect of the life she must henceforth drag along. + +Is a woman of the plain wits common to numbers ever deceived in her +perception of a man's feelings for her? Let her first question herself +whether she respects him. If she does not, her judgement will go easily +astray, intuition and observation are equally at fault, she has no key; +he has charmed her blood, that is all. But if she respects him, she +cannot be deceived; respect is her embrace of a man's character. +Aminta's vision was clear. She had therefore to juggle with the fact +revealed, that she might keep her heart from rushing out; and the +process was a disintegration of her feminine principle of docility under +the world's decrees. At each pause of her mental activity she was hurled +against the state of marriage. Compassion for her blameless fellow in +misery brought a deluge to sweep away institutions and landmarks. + +But supposing the blest worst to happen, what exchange had she to +bestow? Her beauty? She was reputed beautiful. It had made a madman +of one man; and in her poverty of endowments to be generous with, she +hovered over Mr. Morsfield like a cruel vampire, for the certification +that she had a much-prized gift to bestow upon his rival. + +But supposing it: she would then be no longer in the shiny garden of +the flowers of wealth; and how little does beauty weigh as all aid to +an active worker in the serious fighting world! She would be a kind of +potted rose-tree under his arm, of which he must eventually tire. + +A very cold moment came, when it seemed that even the above supposition, +in the case of a woman who has been married, is shameful to her, a sin +against her lover, and should be obliterated under floods of scarlet. +For, if she has pride, she withers to think of pushing the most noble +of men upon his generosity. And, further, if he is not delicately +scrupulous, is there not something wanting in him? The very cold wave +passed, leaving the sentence: better dream of being plain friends. + +Mrs. Pagnell had been quietly chewing her cud of the sullens, as was +the way with her after a snub. She now resumed her gossip of the naughty +world she knelt to and expected to see some day stricken by a bolt from +overhead; containing, as it did, such wicked members as that really +indefensible brazen Mrs. Amy May, who was only the daughter of a +half-pay naval captain, and that Marquis of Collestou, who would, they +say, decorate her with his title to-morrow, if her husband were but +somewhere else. She spread all sorts of report, about Mr. Morsfield, +and he was honour itself in his reserve about her. 'Depend upon it, +Aminta--he was not more than a boy then, and they say she aimed at her +enfranchisement by plotting the collision, for his Yorkshire revenues +are immense, and he is, you know, skilful in the use of arms, and +Captain May has no resources whatever: penury! no one cares to speculate +how they contrive!--but while that dreadful duelling--and my lord as bad +as any in his day-exists, depend upon it, an unscrupulous good-looking +woman has as many lives for her look of an eye or lift of a finger as a +throned Ottoman Turk on his divan.' + +Aminta wished to dream. She gave her aunt a second dose, and the lady +relapsed again. + +Power to dream had gone. She set herself to look at roadside things, +cottage gardens, old housewives in doorways, gaffer goodman meeting his +crony on the path, groups of boys and girls. She would take the girls, +Matthew Weyburn the boys. She had lessons to give to girls, she had +sympathy, pity, anticipation. That would be a life of happy service. It +might be a fruitful trial of the system he proposed, to keep the boys +and girls in company as much as possible, both at lessons and at games. +His was the larger view. Her lord's view appeared similar to that of her +aunt's 'throned Ottoman Turk on his divan.' Matthew Weyburn believed in +the bettering of the world; Lord Ormont had no belief like it. + +Presently Mrs. Pagnell returned to the charge, and once more she was +nipped, and irritated to declare she had never known her niece's temper +so provoking. Aminta was launching a dream of a lass she had seen in a +field, near a white hawthorn, standing upright, her left arm aloft round +the pole of a rake, the rim of her bonnet tipped on her forehead; an +attitude of a rustic. + +Britannia with helmet heeling at dignity. The girl's eyes hung to the +passing chariot, without movement of her head. It was Aminta who looked +back, and she saw the girl looking away. Among the superior dames and +damsels she had seen, there was not one to match that figure for stately +air, gallant ease, and splendour of pose. Matthew Weyburn would have +admired the girl. Aminta did better than envy, she cast off the last +vestiges of her bitter ambition to be a fine lady, and winged into the +bosom of the girl, and not shyly said 'yes' to Matthew Weyburn, and +to herself, deep in herself: 'A maid has no need to be shy.' Hardly +blushing, she walks on into the new life beside him, and hears him +say: 'I in my way, you in yours; we are equals, the stronger for being +equals,' and she quite agrees, and she gives him the fuller heart for +his not requiring her to be absorbed--she is the braver mate for him. +Does not that read his meaning? Happiest of the girls of earth, she has +divined it at once, from never having had the bitter ambition to be a +slave, that she might wear rich tissues; and let herself be fettered, +that she might loll in idleness; lose a soul to win a title; escape +commonplace to discover it ghastlier under cloth of gold, and the +animal crowned, adored, fattened, utterly served, in the class called by +consent of human society the Upper. + +Reason whispered a reminder of facts to her. + +'But I am not the Countess of Ormont!' she said. She felt herself the +girl, her sensations were so intensely simple. + +Proceeding to an argument, that the earl did not regard her as the +Countess of Ormont, or the ceremony at the British Embassy as one +serious and binding, she pushed her reason too far: sweet delusion +waned. She waited for some fresh scene to revive it. + +Aminta sat unwittingly weaving her destiny. + +While she was thus engaged, a carriage was rolling on the more westerly +road down to Steignton. Seated in it were Lady Charlotte Eglett and +Matthew Weyburn. They had met at Arthur Abner's office the previous day. +She went there straight from Lord Ormont's house-agent and upholsterer, +to have a queer bit of thunderous news confirmed, that her brother was +down at Steignton, refurnishing the house, and not for letting. She +was excited: she treated Arthur Abner's closed-volume reticence as a +corroboration of the house-agent's report, and hearing Weyburn speak of +his anxiety to see the earl immediately, in order to get release from +his duties, proposed a seat in her carriage; for down Steignton way she +meant to go, if only as excuse for a view of the old place. She kept +asking what Lord Ormont wanted down at Steignton refurnishing the house, +and not to let it! Her evasions of answers that, plain speculation would +supply were quaint. 'He hasn't my feeling for Steignton. He could let +it--I couldn't. Sacrilege to me to have a tenant in my old home where I +was born. He's furnishing to raise his rent. His country won't give him +anything to do, so he turns miser. That's my brother Rowsley's way of +taking on old age.' + +Her brother Rowsley might also be showing another sign of his calamitous +condition. She said to Weyburn, in the carriage, that her brother +Rowsley might like having his hair clipped by the Philistine woman; +which is one of the ways of strong men to confess themselves ageing. +'Not,' said she, with her usual keen justness 'not that I've, a word +against Delilah. I look upon her as a patriot; she dallied and she used +the scissors on behalf of her people. She wasn't bound to Samson in +honour,--liked a strong man, probably enough. She proved she liked her +country better. The Jews wrote the story of it, so there she stands for +posterity to pelt her, poor wretch.' + +'A tolerably good analogy for the story of men and women generally,' +said Weyburn. + +'Ah, well, you've a right to talk; you don't run miauling about women. +It 's easy to be squashy on that subject. As for the Jews, I don't go by +their history, but now they 're down I don't side with the Philistines, +or Christians. They 're good citizens, and they 've got Samson in the +brain, too. That comes of persecution, a hard education. They beat the +world by counting in the head. That 's because they 've learnt the value +of fractions. Napoleon knew it in war, when he looked to the boots and +great-coats of his men; those were his fractions. Lord Ormont thinks he +had too hard-and-fast a system for the battle-field.' + +'A greater strategist than tactician, my lady? It may be,' said Weyburn, +smiling at her skips. + +'Massing his cannon to make a big hole for his cavalry, my brother says; +and weeding his infantry for the Imperial Guard he postponed the moment +to use.' + +'At Moskowa?' + +'Waterloo. I believe Lord Ormont would--there! his country 's lost him, +and chose it. They 'll have their day for repentance yet. What a rapture +to have a thousand horsemen following you! I suppose there never was +a man worthy of the name who roared to be a woman. I know I could have +shrieked half my life through to have been born male. It 's no matter +now. When we come to this hateful old age, we meet: no, we 're no sex +then--we 're dry sticks. I 'll tell you: my Olmer doctor--that 's an +impudent fellow who rode by staring into my carriage. The window's down. +He could see without pushing his hat in.' + +Weyburn looked out after a man cantering on. + +'A Mr. Morsfield,' he said. 'I thought it was he when I saw him go by. +I've met him at the fencing-rooms. He 's one of the violent fencers, +good for making his point, if one funks an attack.' + +'That man Morsfield, is it? I wonder what he's doing on the road here. +He goes over London boasting--hum, nothing to me. But he 'll find Lord +Ormont's arm can protect a poor woman, whatever she is. He'd have had +it before, only Lord Ormont shuns a scandal. I was telling you, my Olmer +doctor forbade horse-riding, and my husband raised a noise like one of +my turkeycocks on the wing; so I 've given up the saddle, to quiet him. +I guessed. I went yesterday morning to my London physician. He sounded +me, pushed out his mouth and pulled down his nose, recommended avoidance +of excitement. “Is it heart?” I said. He said it was heart. That was +the best thing an old woman could hear. He said, when he saw I wasn't +afraid, it was likely to be quick; no doctors, no nurses and daily +bulletins for inquirers, but just the whites of the eyes, the +laying-out, the undertaker, and the family-vault. That's one reason why +I want to see Steignton before the blow that may fall any day, whether +my brother Rowsley's there or no. But that Olmer doctor of mine, +Causitt, Peter Causitt, shall pay me for being a liar or else an +ignoramus when I told him he was to tell me bluntly the nature of my +disease.' + +A horseman, in whom they recognized Mr. Morsfield, passed, clattering on +the road behind them. + +'Some woman here about,' Lady Charlotte muttered. Weyburn saw him joined +by a cavalier, and the two consulted and pointed whips right and left. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. LADY CHARLOTTE'S TRIUMPH + +One of the days of sovereign splendour in England was riding down the +heavens, and drawing the royal mantle of the gold-fringed shadows +over plain and wavy turf, blue water and woods of the country round +Steignton. A white mansion shone to a length of oblong lake that held +the sun-ball suffused in mild yellow. + +'There's the place,' Lady Charlotte said to Weyburn, as they had view +of it at a turn of the park. She said to herself--where I was born and +bred! and her sight gloated momentarily on the house and side avenues, a +great plane standing to the right of the house, the sparkle of a little +river running near; all the scenes she knew, all young and lively. +She sprang on her seat for a horse beneath her, and said, 'But this +is healthy excitement,' as in reply to her London physician's +remonstrances. 'And there's my brother Rowsley, talking to one of the +keepers,' she cried. 'You see Lord Ormont? I can see a mile. Sight +doesn't fail with me. He 's insisting. 'Ware poachers when Rowsley's on +his ground! You smell the air here? Nobody dies round about Steignton. +Their legs wear out and they lie down to rest them. It 's the finest air +in the world. Now look, the third window left of the porch, first floor. +That was my room before I married. Strangers have been here and called +the place home. It can never be home to any but me and Rowsley. He sees +the carriage. He little thinks! He's dressed in his white corduroy and +knee-breeches. Age! he won't know age till he's ninety. Here he comes +marching. He can't bear surprises. I'll wave my hand and call.' + +She called his name. + +In a few strides he was at the carriage window. 'You, Charlotte?' + +'Home again, Rowsley! Bring down your eyebrows, and let me hear you're +glad I 've come.' + +'What made you expect you would find me here?' + +'Anything-cats on the tiles at night. You can't keep a secret from me. +Here's Mr. Weyburn, good enough to be my escort. I 'll get out.' + +She alighted, scorning help; Weyburn at her heels. The earl nodded to +him politely and not cordially. He was hardly cordial to Lady Charlotte. + +That had no effect on her. 'A glorious day for Steignton,' she said. +'Ah, there's the Buridon group of beeches; grander trees than grow at +Buridon. Old timber now. I knew them slim as demoiselles. Where 's the +ash? We had a splendid ash on the west side.' + +'Dead and cut down long since,' replied the earl. + +'So we go!' + +She bent her steps to the spot: a grass-covered heave of the soil. + +'Dear old tree!' she said, in a music of elegy: and to Weyburn: 'Looks +like a stump of an arm lopped off a shoulder in bandages. Nature does it +so. All the tenants doing well, Rowsley?' + +'About the same amount of trouble with them.' + +'Ours at Olmer get worse.' + +'It's a process for the extirpation of the landlords.' + +'Then down goes the country.' + +'They 've got their case, their papers tell us.' + +'I know they have; but we've got the soil, and we'll make a fight of +it.' + +'They can fight too, they say.' + +'I should be sorry to think they couldn't if they're Englishmen.' + +She spoke so like his old Charlotte of the younger days that her brother +partly laughed. + +'Parliamentary fighting 's not much to your taste or mine. They 've lost +their stomach for any other. The battle they enjoy is the battle that +goes for the majority. Gauge their valour by that.' + +'To be sure,' said his responsive sister. She changed her note. 'But +what I say is, let the nobles keep together and stick to their class. +There's nothing to fear then. They must marry among themselves, think +of the blood: it's their first duty. Or better a peasant girl! Middle +courses dilute it to the stuff in a publican's tankard. It 's an +adulterous beast who thinks of mixing old wine with anything.' + +'Hulloa!' said the earl; and she drew up. + +'You'll have me here till over to-morrow, Rowsley, so that I may have +one clear day at Steignton?' + +He bowed. 'You will choose your room. Mr. Weyburn is welcome.' + +Weyburn stated the purport of his visit, and was allowed to name an +early day for the end of his term of service. + +Entering the house, Lady Charlotte glanced at the armour and stag +branches decorating corners of the hall, and straightway laid her head +forward, pushing after it in the direction of the drawing room. She went +in, stood for a minute, and came out. Her mouth was hard shut. + +At dinner she had tales of uxorious men, of men who married mistresses, +of the fearful incubus the vulgar family of a woman of the inferior +classes ever must be; and her animadversions were strong in the matter +of gew-gaw modern furniture. The earl submitted to hear. + +She was, however, keenly attentive whenever he proffered any item of +information touching Steignton. After dinner Weyburn strolled to the +points of view she cited as excellent for different aspects of her old +home. + +He found her waiting to hear his laudation when he came back; and in the +early morning she was on the terrace, impatient to lead him down to the +lake. There, at the boat-house, she commanded him to loosen a skiff and +give her a paddle. Between exclamations, designed to waken louder +from him, and not so successful as her cormorant hunger for praise of +Steignton required, she plied him to confirm with his opinion an opinion +that her reasoning mind had almost formed in the close neighbourhood of +the beloved and honoured person providing it; for abstract ideas were +unknown to her. She put it, however, as in the abstract:-- + +'How is it we meet people brave as lions before an enemy, and rank +cowards where there's a botheration among their friends at home? And +tell me, too, if you've thought the thing over, what's the meaning of +this? I 've met men in high places, and they've risen to distinction by +their own efforts, and they head the nation. Right enough, you'd say. +Well, I talk with them, and I find they've left their brains on the +ladder that led them up; they've only the ideas of their grandfather on +general subjects. I come across a common peasant or craftsman, and he +down there has a mind more open--he's wiser in his intelligence than +his rulers and lawgivers up above him. He understands what I say, and I +learn from him. I don't learn much from our senators, or great lawyers, +great doctors, professors, members of governing bodies--that lot. Policy +seems to petrify their minds when they 've got on an eminence. Now +explain it, if you can.' + +'Responsibility has a certain effect on them, no doubt,' said Weyburn. +'Eminent station among men doesn't give a larger outlook. Most of them +confine their observation to their supports. It happens to be one of the +questions I have thought over. Here in England, and particularly on a +fortnight's run in the lowlands of Scotland once, I have, like you, my +lady, come now and then across the people we call common, men and women, +old wayside men especially; slow-minded, but hard in their grasp of +facts, and ready to learn, and logical, large in their ideas, though +going a roundabout way to express them. They were at the bottom of +wisdom, for they had in their heads the delicate sense of justice, upon +which wisdom is founded. That is what their rulers lack. Unless we have +the sense of justice abroad like a common air, there 's no peace, and no +steady advance. But these humble people had it. They reasoned from it, +and came to sound conclusions. I felt them to be my superiors. On the +other hand, I have not felt the same with “our senators, rulers, and +lawgivers.” They are for the most part deficient in the liberal mind.' + +'Ha! good, so far. How do you account for it?' said Lady Charlotte. + +'I read it in this way: that the world being such as it is at present, +demanding and rewarding with honours and pay special services, the men +called great, who have risen to distinction, are not men of brains, but +the men of aptitudes. These men of aptitudes have a poor conception of +the facts of life to meet the necessities of modern expansion. They are +serviceable in departments. They go as they are driven, or they resist. +In either case, they explain how it is that we have a world moving +so sluggishly. They are not the men of brains, the men of insight and +outlook. Often enough they are foes of the men of brains.' + +'Aptitudes; yes, that flashes a light into me,' said Lady Charlotte. 'I +see it better. It helps to some comprehension of their muddle. A man +may be a first-rate soldier, doctor, banker--as we call the usurer +now-a-days--or brewer, orator, anything that leads up to a figure-head, +and prove a foolish fellow if you sound him. I 've thought something +like it, but wanted the word. They say themselves, “Get to know, and you +see with what little wisdom the world is governed!” You explain how it +is. I shall carry “aptitudes” away.' + +She looked straight at Weyburn. 'If I were a younger woman I could kiss +you for it.' + +He bowed to her very gratefully. + +'Remember, my lady, there's a good deal of the Reformer in that +definition.' + +'I stick to my class. But they shall hear a true word when there's one +abroad, I can tell them. That reminds me--you ought to have asked; +let me tell you I'm friendly with the Rev. Mr. Hampton-Evey. We had +a wrestle for half an hour, and I threw him and helped him up, and he +apologized for tumbling, and I subscribed to one of his charities, +and gave up about the pew, but had an excuse for not sitting under the +sermon. A poor good creature. He 's got the aptitudes for his office. +He won't do much to save his Church. I knew another who had his aptitude +for the classics, and he has mounted. He was my tutor when I was a girl. +He was fond of declaiming passages from Lucian and Longus and Ovid. One +day he was at it with a piece out of Daphnis and Chloe, and I said, “Now +translate.” He fetched a gurgle to say he couldn't, and I slapped his +check. Will you believe it? the man was indignant. I told him, if he +would like to know why I behaved in “that unmaidenly way,” he had better +apply at home. I had no further intimations of his classical aptitudes; +but he took me for a cleverer pupil than I was. I hadn't a notion of the +stuff he recited. I read by his face. That was my aptitude--always has +been. But think of the donkeys parents are when they let a man have a +chance of pouring his barley-sugar and sulphur into the ears of a +girl. Lots of girls have no latent heckles and prickles to match his +villany.--There's my brother come back to breakfast from a round. You +and I 'll have a drive before lunch, and a ride or a stroll in the +afternoon. There's a lot to see. I mean you to get the whole place into +your head. I 've ordered the phaeton, and you shall take the whip, with +me beside you. That's how my husband and I spent three-quarters of our +honeymoon.' + +Each of the three breakfasted alone. + +They met on the terrace. It was easily perceived that Lord Ormont stood +expecting an assault at any instant; prepared also to encounter and +do battle with his redoubtable sister. Only he wished to defer the +engagement. And he was magnanimous: he was in the right, she in the +wrong; he had no desire to grapple with her, fling and humiliate. The +Sphinx of Mrs. Pagnell had been communing with himself unwontedly during +the recent weeks. + +What was the riddle of him? That, he did not read. But, expecting an +assault, and relieved by his sister Charlotte's departure with Weyburn, +he went to the drawing-room, where he had seen her sniff her strong +suspicions of a lady coming to throne it. Charlotte could believe that +he flouted the world with a beautiful young woman on his arm; she would +not believe him capable of doing that in his family home and native +county; so, then, her shrewd wits had nothing or little to learn. +But her vehement fighting against facts; her obstinate aristocratic +prejudices, which he shared; her stinger of a tongue: these in +ebullition formed a discomforting prospect. The battle might as well be +conducted through the post. Come it must! + +Even her writing of the pointed truths she would deliver was an +unpleasant anticipation. His ears heated. Undoubtedly he could crush +her. Yet, supposing her to speak to his ears, she would say: 'You +married a young woman, and have been foiling and fooling her ever +since, giving her half a title to the name of wife, and allowing her +in consequence to be wholly disfigured before the world--your family +naturally her chief enemies, who would otherwise (Charlotte would +proclaim it) have been her friends. What! your intention was (one could +hear Charlotte's voice) to smack the world in the face, and you smacked +your young wife's instead!' + +His intention had been nothing of the sort. He had married, in a +foreign city, a young woman who adored him, whose features, manners, and +carriage of her person satisfied his exacting taste in the sex; and he +had intended to cast gossipy England over the rail and be a traveller +for the remainder of his days. And at the first she had acquiesced, +tacitly accepted it as part of the contract. He bore with the burden +of an intolerable aunt of hers for her sake. The two fell to work to +conspire. Aminta 'tired of travelling,' Aminta must have a London +house. She continually expressed a hope that 'she might set her eyes on +Steignton some early day.' In fact, she as good as confessed her scheme +to plot for the acknowledged position of Countess of Ormont in the +English social world. That was a distinct breach of the contract. + +As to the babble of the London world about a 'very young wife,' he +scorned it completely, but it belonged to the calculation. 'A very +handsome young wife,' would lay commands on a sexagenarian vigilance +while adding to his physical glory. The latter he could forego among +a people he despised. It would, however, be an annoyance to stand +constantly hand upon sword-hilt. There was, besides, the conflict with +his redoubtable sister. He had no dread of it, in contemplation of the +necessity; he could crush his Charlotte. The objection was, that +his Aminta should be pressing him to do it. Examine the situation at +present. Aminta has all she needs--every luxury. Her title as Countess +of Ormont is not denied. Her husband justly refuses to put foot +into English society. She, choosing to go where she may be received, +dissociates herself from him, and he does not complain. She does +complain. There is a difference between the two. + +He had always shunned the closer yoke with a woman because of these +vexatious dissensions. For not only are women incapable of practising, +they cannot comprehend magnanimity. + +Lord Ormont's argumentative reverie to the above effect had been pursued +over and over. He knew that the country which broke his military career +and ridiculed his newspaper controversy was unforgiven by him. He did +not reflect on the consequences of such an unpardoning spirit in its +operation on his mind. + +If he could but have passed the injury, he would ultimately--for his +claims of service were admitted--have had employment of some kind. +Inoccupation was poison to him; travel juggled with his malady of +restlessness; really, a compression of the warrior's natural forces. +His Aminta, pushed to it by the woman Pagnell, declined to help him in +softening the virulence of the disease. She would not travel; she would +fix in this London of theirs, and scheme to be hailed the accepted +Countess of Ormont. She manoeuvred; she threw him on the veteran +soldier's instinct, and it resulted spontaneously that he manoeuvred. + +Hence their game of Pull, which occupied him a little, tickled him and +amused. The watching of her pretty infantile tactics amused him too much +to permit of a sidethought on the cruelty of the part he played. She +had every luxury, more than her station by right of birth would have +supplied. + +But he was astonished to find that his Aminta proved herself clever, +though she had now and then said something pointed. She was in awe of +him: notwithstanding which, clearly she meant to win and pull him over. +He did not dislike her for it; she might use her weapons to play her +game; and that she should bewitch men--a man like Morsfield--was not +wonderful. On the other hand, her conquest of Mrs. Lawrence Finchley +scored tellingly: that was unaccountably queer. What did Mrs. Lawrence +expect to gain? the sage lord asked. He had not known women devoid of a +positive practical object of their own when they bestirred themselves to +do a friendly deed. + +Thanks to her conquest of Mrs. Lawrence, his Aminta was gaining +ground--daily she made an advance; insomuch that he had heard of himself +as harshly blamed in London for not having countenanced her recent and +rather imprudent move. In other words, whenever she gave a violent tug +at their game of Pull, he was expected to second it. But the world of +these English is too monstrously stupid in what it expects, for any of +its extravagances to be followed by interjections. + +All the while he was trimming and rolling a field of armistice at +Steignton, where they could discuss the terms he had a right to dictate, +having yielded so far. Would she be satisfied with the rule of his +ancestral hall, and the dispensing of hospitalities to the county? +No, one may guess: no woman is ever satisfied. But she would have +to relinquish her game, counting her good round half of the honours. +Somewhat more, on the whole. Without beating, she certainly had +accomplished the miracle of bending him. To time and a wife it is no +disgrace for a man to bend. It is the form of submission of the bulrush +to the wind, of courtesy in the cavalier to a lady. + +'Oh, here you are, Rowsley,' Lady Charlotte exclaimed at the drawing +room door. 'Well, and I don't like those Louis Quinze cabinets; and +that modern French mantelpiece clock is hideous. You seem to furnish in +downright contempt of the women you invite to sit in the room. Lord help +the wretched woman playing hostess in such a pinchbeck bric-a-brac shop, +if there were one! She 's spared, at all events.' + +He stepped at slow march to one of the five windows. Lady Charlotte went +to another near by. She called to Weyburn-- + +'We had a regatta on that water when Lord Ormont came of age. I took an +oar in one of the boats, and we won a prize; and when I was landing I +didn't stride enough to the spring-plank, and plumped in.' + +Some labourers of the estate passed in front. + +Lord Ormont gave out a broken laugh. 'See those fellows walk! That 's +the raw material of the famous English infantry. They bend their knees +five-and-forty degrees for every stride; and when you drill them out of +that, they 're stiff as ramrods. I gymnasticized them in my regiment. +I'd have challenged any French regiment to out-walk or out-jump us, or +any crack Tyrolese Jagers to out-climb, though we were cavalry.' + +'Yes, my lord, and exercised crack corps are wanted with us,' Weyburn +replied. 'The English authorities are adverse to it, but it 's against +nature--on the supposition that all Englishmen might enrol untrained in +Caesar's pet legion. Virgil shows knowledge of men when he says of the +row-boat straining in emulation, 'Possunt quia posse videntur.'' + +He talked on rapidly; he wondered that he did not hear Lady Charlotte +exclaim at what she must be seeing. From the nearest avenue a lady had +issued. She stood gazing at the house, erect--a gallant figure of a +woman--one hand holding her parasol, the other at her hip. He knew +her. She was a few paces ahead of Mrs. Pagnell, beside whom a gentleman +walked. + +The cry came: 'It's that man Morsfield! Who brings that man Morsfield +here? He hunted me on the road; he seemed to be on the wrong scent. Who +are those women? Rowsley, are your grounds open every day of the week? +She threatens to come in!' + +Lady Charlotte had noted that the foremost and younger of 'those women' +understood how to walk and how to dress to her shape and colour. She +inclined to think she was having to do with an intrepid foreign-bred +minx. + +Aminta had been addressed by one of her companions, and had hastened +forward. It looked like the beginning of a run to enter the house. + +Mrs. Pagnell ran after her. She ran cow-like. + +The earl's gorge rose at the spectacle Charlotte was observing. + +With Morsfield he could have settled accounts at any moment, despatching +Aminta to her chamber for an hour. He had, though he was offended, an +honourable guess that she had not of her free will travelled with +the man and brought him into the grounds. It was the presence of the +intolerable Pagnell under Charlotte's eyes which irritated him +beyond the common anger he felt at Aminta's pursuit of him right into +Steignton. His mouth locked. Lady Charlotte needed no speech from him +for sign of the boiling; she was too wary to speak while that went on. + +He said to Weyburn, loud enough for his Charlotte to heir. 'Do me the +favour to go to the Countess of Ormont. Conduct her back to London. You +will say it is my command. Inform Mr. Morsfield, with my compliments, I +regret I have no weapons here. I understand him to complain of having to +wait. I shall be in town three days from this date.' + +'My lord,' said Mr. Weyburn; and actually he did mean to supplicate. He +could imagine seeing Lord Ormont's eyebrows rising to alpine heights. + +Lady Charlotte seized his arm. + +'Go at once. Do as you are told. I'll have your portmanteau packed and +sent after you--the phaeton's out in the yard--to Rowsley, or Ashead, or +Dornton, wherever they put up. Now go, or we shall have hot work. Keep +your head on, and go.' + +He went, without bowing. + +Lady Charlotte rang for the footman. + +The earl and she watched the scene on the sward below the terrace. + +Aminta listened to Weyburn. Evidently there was no expostulation. + +But it was otherwise with Mrs. Pagnell. She flung wild arms of a +semaphore signalling national events. She sprang before Aminta to stop +her retreat, and stamped and gibbed, for sign that she would not be +driven. She fell away to Mr. Morsfield, for simple hearing of her +plaint. He appeared emphatic. There was a passage between him and +Weyburn. + +'I suspect you've more than your match in young Weyburn, Mr. Morsfield,' +Lady Charlotte said, measuring them as they stood together. They turned +at last. + +'You shall drive back to town with me, Rowsley,' said the fighting dame. + +She breathed no hint of her triumph. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. A SCENE ON THE ROAD BACK + +After refusing to quit the grounds of Steignton, in spite of the +proprietor, Mrs. Pagnell burst into an agitation to have them be at +speed, that they might 'shake the dust of the place from the soles of +their feet'; and she hurried past Aminta and Lord Ormont's insolent +emissary, carrying Mr. Morsfield beside her, perforce of a series of +imperiously-toned vacuous questions, to which he listened in rigid +politeness, with the ejaculation steaming off from time to time, 'A +scandal!' + +He shot glances behind him. + +Mrs. Pagnell was going too fast. She, however, world not hear of a halt, +and she was his main apology for being present; he was excruciatingly +attached to the horrid woman. + +Weyburn spoke the commonplaces about regrets to Aminta. + +'Believe me, it's long since I have been so happy,' she said. + +She had come out of her stupefaction, and she wore no theatrical looks +of cheerfulness. + +'I regret that you should be dragged away. But, if you say you do not +mind, it will be pleasant to me. I can excuse Lord Ormont's anger. I was +ignorant of his presence here. I thought him in Paris. I supposed the +place empty. I wished to see it once. I travelled as the niece of Mrs. +Pagnell. She is a little infatuated.... Mr. Morsfield heard of our +expedition through her. I changed the route. I was not in want of a +defender. I could have defended myself in case of need. We slept at +Ashead, two hours from Steignton. He and a friend accompanied us, not +with my consent. Lord Ormont could not have been aware of that. These +accidental circumstances happen. There may be pardonable intentions on +all sides.' + +She smiled. Her looks were open, and her voice light and spirited; +though the natural dark rose-glow was absent from her olive cheeks. + +Weyburn puzzled over the mystery of so volatile a treatment of a serious +matter, on the part of a woman whose feelings he had reason to know were +quick and deep. She might be acting, as women so cleverly do. + +It could hardly be acting when she pointed to peeps of scenery, with a +just eye for landscape. + +'You leave us for Switzerland very soon?' she said. + +'The Reversion I have been expecting has fallen in, besides my +inheritance. My mother was not to see the school. But I shall not forget +her counsels. I can now make my purchase of the house and buildings, and +buy out my partner at the end of a year. My boys are jumping to start. I +had last week a letter from Emile.' + +'Dear little Emile!' + +'You like him?' + +'I could use a warmer word. He knew me when I was a girl.' + +She wound the strings of his heart suddenly tense, and they sang to +their quivering. + +'You will let me hear of you, Mr. Weyburn?' + +'I will write. Oh! certainly I will write, if I am told you are +interested in our doings, Lady Ormont.' + +'I will let you know that I am.' + +'I shall be happy in writing full reports.' + +'Every detail, I beg. All concerning the school. Help me to feel I am a +boarder. I catch up an old sympathy I had for girls and boys. For boys! +any boys! the dear monkey boys! cherub monkeys! They are so funny. I am +sure I never have laughed as I did at Selina Collett's report, through +her brother, of the way the boys tried to take to my name; and their +sneezing at it, like a cat at a deceitful dish. “Aminta”--was that their +way?' + +'Something--the young rascals!' + +'But please repeat it as you heard them.' + +'“Aminta.”' + +He subdued the mouthing. + +'It didn't, offend me at all. It is one of my amusements to think of it. +But after a time they liked the name; and then how did they say it?' + +He had the beloved Aminta on his lips. + +He checked it, or the power to speak it failed. She drew in a sharp +breath. + +'I hope your boys will have plenty of fun in them. They will have you +for a providence and a friend. I should wish to propose to visit your +school some day. You will keep me informed whether the school has +vacancies. You will, please, keep me regularly informed?' + +She broke into sobs. + +Weyburn talked on of the school, for a cover to the resuming of her +fallen mask, as he fancied it. + +She soon recovered, all save a steady voice for converse, and begged him +to proceed, and spoke in the flow of the subject; but the quaver of her +tones was a cause of further melting. The tears poured, she could not +explain why, beyond assuring him that they were no sign of unhappiness. +Winds on the great waters against a strong tidal current beat up the +wave and shear and wing the spray, as in Aminta's bosom. Only she could +know that it was not her heart weeping, though she had grounds for a +woman's weeping. But she alone could be aware of her heart's running +counter to the tears. + +Her agitation was untimely. Both Mrs. Pagnell and Mr. Morsfield observed +emotion at work. And who could wonder? A wife denied the admittance to +her husband's house by her husband! The most beautiful woman of her time +relentlessly humiliated, ordered to journey back the way she had come. + +They had reached the gate of the park, and had turned. + +'A scandal!' + +Mr. Morsfield renewed his interjection vehemently, for an apology to his +politeness in breaking from Mrs. Pagnell. + +Joining the lady, whose tears were of the nerves, he made offer of +his devotion in any shape; and she was again in the plight to which +a desperado can push a woman of the gentle kind. She had the fear of +provoking a collision if she reminded him, that despite her entreaties, +he had compelled her, seconded by her aunt as he had been, to submit to +his absurd protection on the walk across the park. + +He seemed quite regardless of the mischief he had created; and, +reflecting upon how it served his purpose, he might well be. Intemperate +lover, of the ancient pattern, that he was, his aim to win the woman +acknowledged no obstacle in the means. Her pitiable position appealed to +the best of him; his inordinate desire of her aroused the worst. It +was, besides, an element of his coxcombry, that he should, in apeing the +utterly inconsiderate, rush swiftly to impersonate it when his passions +were cast on a die. + +Weyburn he ignored as a stranger, an intruder, an inferior. + +Aminta's chariot was at the gate. + +She had to resign herself to the chances of a clash of men, and, as +there were two to one, she requested help of Weyburn's hand, that he +might be near her. + +A mounted gentleman, smelling parasite in his bearing, held the bridle +of Morsfield's horse. + +The ladies having entered the chariot, Morsfield sprang to the saddle, +and said: 'You, sir, had better stretch your legs to the inn.' + +'There is room for you, Mr. Weyburn,' said Aminta. + +Mrs. Pagnell puffed. + +'I can't think we've room, my dear. I want that bit of seat in front for +my feet.' + +Morsfield kicked at his horse's flanks, and between Weyburn and the +chariot step, cried: 'Back, sir!' + +His reins were seized; the horse reared, the unexpected occurred. + +Weyburn shouted 'Off!' to the postillion, and jumped in. + +Morsfield was left to the shaking of a dusty coat, while the chariot +rolled its gentle course down the leafy lane into the high-road. + +His friend had seized the horse's bridle-reins; and he remarked: 'I say, +Dolf, we don't prosper to-day.' + +'He pays for it!' said Morsfield, foot in stirrup. 'You'll take him and +trounce him at the inn. I don't fight with servants. Better game. One +thing, Cumnock: the fellow's clever at the foils.' + +'Foils to the devil! If I tackle the fellow, it won't be with the +buttons. But how has he pushed in?' + +Morsfield reported 'the scandal!' in sharp headings. + +'Turned her away. Won't have her enter his house--grandest woman in all +England! Sent his dog to guard. Think of it for an insult! It's insult +upon insult. I 've done my utmost to fire his marrow. I did myself a +good turn by following her up and entering that park with her. I shall +succeed; there 's a look of it. All I have--my life--is that woman's. I +never knew what this devil's torture was before I saw her.' + +His friend was concerned for his veracity. 'Amy!' + +'A common spotted snake. She caught me young, and she didn't carry me +off, as I mean to carry off this glory of her sex--she is: you've seen +her!--and free her, and devote every minute of the rest of my days to +her. I say I must win the woman if I stop at nothing, or I perish; +and if it 's a failure, exit 's my road. I 've watched every atom +she touched in a room, and would have heaped gold to have the chairs, +tables, cups, carpets, mine. I have two short letters written with her +hand. I 'd give two of my estates for two more. If I were a beggar, and +kept them, I should be rich. Relieve me of that dog, and I toss you a +thousand-pound note, and thank you from my soul, Cumnock. You know what +hangs on it. Spur, you dolt, or she'll be out of sight.' + +They cantered upon application of the spur. Captain Cumnock was an +impecunious fearless rascal, therefore a parasite and a bully duellist; +a thick-built north-countryman; a burly ape of the ultra-elegant; +hunter, gamester, hard-drinker, man of pleasure. His known readiness to +fight was his trump-card at a period when the declining custom of +the duel taxed men's courage to brave the law and the Puritan in the +interests of a privileged and menaced aristocracy. An incident like the +present was the passion in the dice-box to Cumnock. Morsfield was of +the order of men who can be generous up to the pitch of their desires. +Consequently, the world accounted him open-handed and devoted when +enamoured. Few men liked him; he was a hero with some women. The women +he trampled on; the men he despised. To the lady of his choice he +sincerely offered his fortune and his life for the enjoyment of +her favour. His ostentation and his offensive daring combined the +characteristics of the peacock and the hawk. Always near upon madness, +there were occasions when he could eclipse the insane. He had a ringing +renown in his class. + +Chariot and horsemen arrived at the Roebuck Arms, at the centre of the +small town of Ashead, on the line from Steignton through Rowsley. The +pair of cavaliers dismounted and hustled Weyburn in assisting the ladies +to descend. + +The ladies entered the inn; they declined refection of any sort. They +had biscuits and sweetmeats, and looked forward to tea at a farther +stage. Captain Cumnock stooped to their verdict on themselves, with +marvel at the quantity of flesh they managed to put on their bones from +such dieting. + +'By your courtesy, sir, a word with you in the inn yard, if you please,' +he said to Weyburn in the inn-porch. + +Weyburn answered, 'Half a minute,' and was informed that it was exactly +the amount of time the captain could afford to wait. + +Weyburn had seen the Steignton phaeton and coachman in the earl's +light-blue livery. It was at his orders, he heard. He told the coachman +to expect hire shortly, and he followed the captain, with a heavy +trifle of suspicion that some brew was at work. He said to Aminta in the +passage-- + +'You have your settlement with the innkeeper. Don't, I beg, step into +the chariot till you see me.' + +'Anything?' said she. + +'Only prudence.' + +'Our posting horses will be harnessed soon, I hope. I burn to get away.' + +Mrs. Pagnell paid the bill at the bar of the inn. Morsfield poured out +for the injured countess or no-countess a dram of the brandy of passion, +under the breath. + +'Deny that you singled me once for your esteem. Hardest-hearted of the +women of earth and dearest! deny that you gave me reason to hope--and +now! I have ridden in your track all this way for the sight of you, as +you know, and you kill me with frost. Yes, I rejoice that we were seen +together. Look on me. I swear I perish for one look of kindness. You +have been shamefully used, madam.' + +'It seems to me I am being so,' said Aminta, cutting herself loose from +the man of the close eyes that wavered as they shot the dart. + +Her action was too decided for him to follow her up under the +observation of the inn windows and a staring street. + +Mrs. Pagnell came out. She went boldly to Morsfield and they conferred. +He was led by her to the chariot, where she pointed to a small padded +slab of a seat back to the horses. Turning to the bar, he said:--My +friend will look to my horse. Both want watering and a bucketful. +There!'--he threw silver--'I have to protect the ladies.' + +Aminta was at the chariot door talking to her aunt inside. + +'But I say I have been insulted--is the word--more than enough by Lord +Ormont to-day!' Mrs. Pagnell exclaimed; 'and I won't, I positively +refuse to ride up to London with any servant of his. It's quite +sufficient that it's his servant. I'm not titled, but I 'in not quite +dirt. Mr. Morsfield kindly offers his protection, and I accept. He is +company.' + +Nodding and smirking at Morsfield's approach, she entreated Aminta to +step up and in, for the horses were coming out of the yard. + +Aminta looked round. Weyburn was perceived; and Morsfield's features +cramped at thought of a hitch in the plot. + +'Possession,' Mrs. Pagnell murmured significantly. She patted the seat. +Morsfield sprang to Weyburn's place. + +That was witnessed by Aminta and Weyburn. She stepped to consult him. +He said to the earl's coachman--a young fellow with a bright eye for +orders-- + +'Drive as fast as you can pelt for Dornton. I'm doing my lord's +commands.' + +'Trust yourself to me, madam.' His hand stretched for Aminta to mount. +She took it without a word and climbed to the seat. A clatter of hoofs +rang out with the crack of the whip. They were away behind a pair of +steppers that could go the pace. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. THE PURSUERS + +For promptitude, the lady, the gentleman, and the coachman were in such +unison as to make it a reasonable deduction that the flight had been +concerted. + +Never did any departure from the Roebuck leave so wide-mouthed a body of +spectators. Mrs. Pagnell's shrieks of 'Stop, oh! stop!' to the backs +of the coachman and Aminta were continued until they were far down +the street. She called to the innkeeper, called to the landlady and to +invisible constables for help. But her pangs were childish compared with +Morsfield's, who, with the rage of a conceited schemer tricked and the +fury of a lover beholding the rape of his beautiful, bellowed impotently +at Weyburn and the coachman out of hearing, 'Stop! you!' He was in the +state of men who believe that there is a virtue in imprecations, and he +shot loud oaths after them, shook his fist, cursed his friend Cumnock, +whose name he vociferated as a summons to him,--generally the baffled +plotter misconducted himself to an extreme degree, that might have +apprised Mrs. Pagnell of a more than legitimate disappointment on his +part. + +Pursuit was one of the immediate ideas which rush forward to look +back woefully on impediments and fret to fever over the tardiness of +operations. A glance at the thing of wrinkles receiving orders to +buckle at his horses and pursue convinced them of the hopelessness; and +Morsfield was pricked to intensest hatred of the woman by hearing the +dire exclamation, 'One night, and her character's gone!' + +'Be quiet, ma'am, if you please, or nothing can be done,' he cried. + +'I tell you, Mr. Morsfield--don't you see?--he has thrown them +together. It is Lord Ormont's wicked conspiracy to rid himself of her. A +secretary! He'll beat any one alive in plots. She can't show her face +in London after this, if you don't overtake her. And she might have seen +Lord Ormont's plot to ruin her. He tired of her, and was ashamed of +her inferior birth to his own, after the first year, except on the +Continent, where she had her rights. Me he never forgave for helping +make him the happy man he might have been in spite of his age. For she +is lovely! But it's worse for a lovely woman with a damaged reputation. +And that 's his cunning. How she could be so silly as to play into it! +She can't have demeaned herself to look on that secretary! I said from +the first he seemed as if thrown into her way for a purpose. But she +has pride: my niece Aminta has pride. She might well have listened to +flatterers--she had every temptation--if it hadn't been for her pride. +It may save her yet. However good-looking, she will remember her +dignity--unless he's a villain. Runnings away! drivings together! inns +oh! the story over London! I do believe she has a true friend in you, +Mr. Morsfield; and I say, as I have said before, the sight of a devoted +admirer would have brought any husband of more than sixty to his senses, +if he hadn't hoped a catastrophe and determined on it. Catch them we +can't, unless she repents and relents; and prayers for that are our only +resource. Now, start, man, do!' + +The postillion had his foot in position to spring. Morsfield bawled +Cumnock's name, and bestrode his horse. Captain Cumnock emerged from the +inn-yard with a dubitative step, pressing a handkerchief to his nose, +blinking, and scrutinizing the persistent fresh stains on it. + +Stable-boys were at the rear. These, ducking and springing, surcharged +and copious exponents of the play they had seen, related, for the +benefit of the town, how that the two gentlemen had exchanged words in +the yard, which were about beastly pistols, which the slim gentleman +would have none of; and then the big one trips up, like dancing, to the +other one and flicks him a soft clap on the check--quite friendly, you +may say; and before he can square to it, the slim one he steps his hind +leg half a foot back, and he drives a straight left like lightning off +the shoulder slick on to t' other one's nob, and over he rolls, like a +cart with the shafts up down a bank; and he' a been washing his 'chops' +and threatening bullets ever since. + +The exact account of the captain's framework in the process of the fall +was graphically portrayed in our blunt and racy vernacular, which a +society nourished upon Norman-English and English-Latin banishes from +print, largely to its impoverishment, some think. + +By the time the primary narrative of the encounter in the inn yard had +given ground for fancy and ornament to present it in yet more luscious +dress, Lord Ormont's phaeton was a good mile on the road. Morsfield +and Captain Cumnock--the latter inquisitive of the handkerchief +pressed occasionally at his nose--trotted on tired steeds along dusty +wheel-tracks. Mrs. Pagnell was the solitary of the chariot, having a +horrid couple of loaded pistols to intimidate her for her protection, +and the provoking back view of a regularly jogging mannikin under a big +white hat with blue riband, who played the part of Time in dragging her +along, with worse than no countenance for her anxieties. + +News of the fugitives was obtained at the rampant Red Lion in Dudsworth, +nine miles on along the London road, to the extent that the Earl of +Ormont's phaeton, containing a lady and a gentleman, had stopped there a +minute to send back word to Steignton of their comfortable progress, +and expectations of crossing the borders into Hampshire before sunset. +Morsfield and Cumnock shrugged at the bumpkin artifice. They left +their line of route to be communicated to the chariot, and chose, +with practised acumen, that very course, which was the main road, and +rewarded them at the end of half an hour with sight of the Steignton +phaeton. + +But it was returning. A nearer view showed it empty of the couple. + +Morsfield bade the coachman pull up, and he was readily obeyed. Answers +came briskly. + +Although provincial acting is not of the high class which conceals +the art, this man's look beside him and behind him at vacant seats had +incontestable evidence in support of his declaration, that the lady +and gentleman had gone on by themselves: the phaeton was a box of flown +birds. + +'Where did you say they got out, you dog?' said Cumnock. + +The coachman stood up to spy a point below. 'Down there at the bottom of +the road, to the right, where there's a stile across the meadows, +making a short cut by way of a bridge over the river to Busley and +North Tothill, on the high-road to Hocklebourne. The lady and gentleman +thought they 'd walk for a bit of exercise the remains of the journey.' + +'Can't prove the rascal's a liar,' Cumnock said to Morsfield, who +rallied him savagely on his lucky escape from another knock-down blow, +and tossed silver on the seat, and said-- + +'We 'll see if there is a stile.' + +'You'll see the stile, sir,' rejoined the man, and winked at their +backs. + +Both cavaliers, being famished besides baffled, were in sour tempers, +expecting to see just the dead wooden stile, and see it as a grin at +them. Cumnock called on Jove to witness that they had been donkeys +enough to forget to ask the driver how far round on the road it was to +the other end of the cross-cut. + +Morsfield, entirely objecting to asinine harness with him, mocked at his +invocation and intonation of the name of Jove. + +Cumnock was thereupon stung to a keen recollection of the allusion to +his knock-down blow, and he retorted that there were some men whose wit +was the parrot's. + +Morsfield complimented him over the exhibition of a vastly superior and +more serviceable wit, in losing sight of his antagonist after one trial +of him. + +Cumnock protested that the loss of time was caused by his friend's +dalliance with the Venus in the chariot. + +Morsfield's gall seethed at a flying picture of Mrs. Pagnell, coupled +with the retarding reddened handkerchief business, and he recommended +Cumnock to pay court to the old woman, as the only chance he would have +of acquaintanceship with the mother of Love. + +Upon that Cumnock confessed in humility to his not being wealthy. +Morsfield looked a willingness to do the deed he might have to pay for +in tenderer places than the pocket, and named the head as a seat of +poverty with him. + +Cumnock then yawned a town fop's advice to a hustling street passenger +to apologize for his rudeness before it was too late. Whereat Morsfield, +certain that his parasitic thrasyleon apeing coxcomb would avoid +extremities, mimicked him execrably. + +Now this was a second breach of the implied convention existing among +the exquisitely fine-bred silken-slender on the summits of our mundane +sphere, which demands of them all, that they respect one another's +affectations. It is commonly done, and so the costly people of a single +pattern contrive to push forth, flatteringly to themselves, luxuriant +shoots of individuality in their orchidean glass-house. A violation +of the rule is a really deadly personal attack. Captain Cumnock was +particularly sensitive regarding it, inasmuch as he knew himself not +the natural performer he strove to be, and a mimicry affected him as a +haunting check. + +He burst out: 'Damned if I don't understand why you're hated by men and +women both!' + +Morsfield took a shock. 'Infernal hornet!' he muttered; for his +conquests had their secret history. + +'May and his wife have a balance to pay will trip you yet, you 'll +find.' + +'Reserve your wrath, sir, for the man who stretched you on your back.' + +The batteries of the two continued exchangeing redhot shots, with the +effect, that they had to call to mind they were looking at the stile. A +path across a buttercup meadow was beyond it. They were damped to some +coolness by the sight. + +'Upon my word, the trick seems neat!' said Cumnock staring at the +pastoral curtain. + +'Whose trick?' he was asked sternly. + +'Here or there 's not much matter; they 're off, unless they 're under a +hedge laughing.' + +An ache of jealousy and spite was driven through the lover, who groaned, +and presently said-- + +'I ride on. That old woman can follow. I don't want to hear her +gibberish. We've lost the game--there 's no reckoning the luck. If +there's a chance, it's this way. It smells a trick. He and she--by all +the devils! It has been done in my family--might have been done again. +Tell the men on the plain they can drive home. There's a hundred-pound +weight on your tongue for silence.' + +Cumnock cried: 'But we needn't be parting, Dolf! Stick together. Bad +luck's not repeated every day. Keep heart for the good.' + +'My heart's shattered, Cumnock. I say it's impossible she can love a +husband twice her age, who treats her--you 've seen. Contempt of that +lady! + +By heaven! once in my power, I swear she would have been sacred to me. +But she would have been compelled to face the public and take my hand. +I swear she would have been congratulated on the end of her sufferings. +Worship!--that's what I feel. No woman ever alive had eyes in her head +like that lady's. I repeat her name ten times every night before I go to +sleep. If I had her hand, no, not one kiss would I press on it without +her sanction. I could be in love with her cruelty, if only I had her +near me. I 've lost her--by the Lord, I 've lost her!' + +'Pro tem.,' said the captain. 'A plate of red beef and a glass of port +wine alters the view. Too much in the breast, too little in the belly, +capsizes lovers. Old story. Horses that ought to be having a mash +between their ribs make riders despond. Say, shall we back to the town +behind us, or on? Back's the safest, if the chase is up.' + +Morsfield declared himself incapable of turning and meeting that +chariot. He sighed heavily. Cumnock offered to cheer him with a song +of Captain Chanter's famous collection, if he liked; but Morsfield +gesticulated abhorrence, and set out at a trot. Song in defeat was a +hiss of derision to him. + +He had failed. Having failed, he for the first time perceived the +wildness of a plot that had previously appeared to him as one of the +Yorkshire Morsfields' moves to win an object. Traditionally they stopped +at nothing. There would have been a sunburst of notoriety in the capture +and carrying off of the beautiful Countess of Ormont. + +She had eluded him during the downward journey to Steignton. He came on +her track at the village at the junction of the roads above Ashead, and +thence, confiding in the half-connivance or utter stupidity of the +fair one's duenna, despatched a mounted man-servant to his coachman and +footmen, stationed ten miles behind, with orders that they should drive +forthwith to the great plain, and be ready at a point there for two +succeeding days. That was the plot, promptly devised upon receipt of +Mrs. Pagnell's communication; for the wealthy man of pleasure was a +strategist fit to be a soldier, in dexterity not far from rivalling the +man by whom he had been outdone. + +An ascetic on the road to success, he dedicated himself to a term of +hard drinking under a reverse; and the question addressed to the chief +towns in the sketch counties his head contained was, which one near +would be likely to supply the port wine for floating him through +garlanding dreams of possession most tastily to blest oblivion. + +He was a lover, nevertheless, honest in his fashion, and meant not worse +than to pull his lady through a mire, and wash her with Morsfield soap, +and crown her, and worship. She was in his blood, about him, above +him; he had plunged into her image, as into deeps that broke away in +phosphorescent waves on all sides, reflecting every remembered, +every imagined, aspect of the adored beautiful woman piercing him to +extinction with that last look of her at the moment of flight. + +Had he been just a trifle more sincere in the respect he professed for +his lady's duenna, he would have turned on the road to Dornton and a +better fortune. Mrs. Pagnell had now become the ridiculous Paggy of Mrs. +Lawrence Finchley and her circle for the hypocritical gentleman; and +he remarked to Captain Cumnock, when their mutual trot was established: +'Paggy enough for me for a month--good Lord! I can't stand another dose +of her by herself.' + +'It's a bird that won't roast or boil or stew,' said the captain. + +They were observed trotting along below by Lord Ormont's groom of the +stables on promotion, as he surveyed the country from the chalk-hill +rise and brought the phaeton to a stand, Jonathan Boon, a sharp lad, +whose comprehension was a little muddled by 'the rights of it' in this +adventure. He knew, however, that he did well to follow the directions +of one who was in his lordship's pay, and stretched out the fee with +the air of a shake of the hand, and had a look of the winning side, +moreover. A born countryman could see that. + +Boon watched the pair of horsemen trotting to confusion, and clicked in +his cheek. The provincial of the period when coaches were beginning to +be threatened by talk of new-fangled rails was proud to boast of his +outwitting Londoners on material points; and Boon had numerous tales of +how it had been done, to have the laugh of fellows thinking themselves +such razors. They compensated him for the slavish abasement of his whole +neighbourhood under the hectoring of the grand new manufacture of wit in +London:--the inimitable Metropolitan PUN, which came down to the country +by four-in-hand, and stopped all other conversation wherever it was +reported, and would have the roar--there was no resisting it. Indeed, +to be able to see the thing smartly was an entry into community with +the elect of the district; and when the roaring ceased and the thing +was examined, astonishment at the cleverness of it, and the wonderful +shallowness of the seeming deep hole, and the unexhausted bang it had to +go off like a patent cracker, fetched it out for telling over again; and +up went the roar, and up it went at home and in stable-yards, and at the +net puffing of churchwardens on a summer's bench, or in a cricket-booth +after a feast, or round the old inn's taproom fine. The pun, the +wonderful bo-peep of double meanings darting out to surprise and smack +one another from behind words of the same sound, sometimes the same +spelling, overwhelmed the provincial mind with awe of London's occult +and prolific genius. + +Yet down yonder you may behold a pair of London gentlemen trotting along +on as fine a fool's errand as ever was undertaken by nincompoops bearing +a scaled letter, marked urgent, to a castle, and the request in it that +the steward would immediately upon perusal down with their you-know-what +and hoist them and birch them a jolly two dozen without parley. + +Boon smacked his leg, and then drove ahead merrily. + +For this had happened to his knowledge: the gentleman accompanying the +lady had refused to make anything of a halt at the Red Lion, and had +said he was sure there would be a small public-house at the outskirts +of the town, for there always was one; and he proved right, and the lady +and he had descended at the sign of the Jolly Cricketers, and Boon had +driven on for half an hour by order. + +This, too, had happened, external to Boon's knowledge: the lady and the +gentleman had witnessed, through the small diamond window-panes of the +Jolly Cricketers' parlour, the passing-by of the two horsemen in pursuit +of them; and the gentleman had stopped the chariot coming on some +fifteen minutes later, but he did not do it at the instigation of the +lady. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. AT THE SIGN OF THE JOLLY CRICKETERS + +The passing by of the pair of horsemen, who so little suspected the +treasure existing behind the small inn's narrow window did homage in +Aminta's mind to her protector's adroitness. Their eyes met without a +smile, though they perceived the grisly comic of the incident. Their +thoughts were on the chariot to follow. + +Aminta had barely uttered a syllable since the start of the flight from +Ashead. She had rocked in a swing between sensation and imagination, +exultant, rich with the broad valley of the plain and the high green +waves of the downs at their giant's bound in the flow of curves and +sunny creases to the final fling-off of the dip on sky. Here was a +twisted hawthorn carved clean to the way of the wind; a sheltered +clump of chestnuts holding their blossoms up, as with a thousand +cresset-clasping hands; here were grasses that nodded swept from green +to grey; flowers yellow, white, and blue, significant of a marvellous +unknown through the gates of colour; and gorse-covers giving out the +bird, squares of young wheat, a single fallow threaded by a hare, and +cottage gardens, shadowy garths, wayside flint-heap, woods of the mounds +and the dells, fluttering leaves, clouds: all were swallowed, all were +the one unworried significance. Scenery flew, shifted, returned; again +the line of the downs raced and the hollows reposed simultaneously. They +were the same in change to an eye grown older; they promised, as at +the first, happiness for recklessness. The whole woman was urged to +delirious recklessness in happiness, and she drank the flying scenery as +an indication, a likeness, an encouragement. + +When her wild music of the blood had fallen to stillness with the +stopped wheels, she was in the musky, small, low room of the diamond +window-panes, at her companion's disposal for what he might deem the +best: he was her fate. But the more she leaned on a man of self-control, +the more she admired; and an admiration that may not speak itself to +the object present drops inward, stirs the founts; and if these are +repressed, the tenderness which is not allowed to weep will drown +self-pity, hardening the woman to summon scruples in relation to her +unworthiness. He might choose to forget, but the more she admired, +the less could her feminine conscience permit of an utter or of +any forgetfulness that she was not the girl Browny, whom he once +loved--perhaps loved now, under some illusion of his old passion for +her--does love now, ill-omened as he is in that! She read him by her +startled reading of her own heart, and she constrained her will to keep +from doing, saying, looking aught that would burden without gracing +his fortunes. For, as she felt, a look, a word, a touch would do the +mischief; she had no resistance behind her cold face, only the physical +scruple, which would become the moral unworthiness if in any way she +induced him to break his guard and blow hers to shreds. An honourable +conscience before the world has not the same certificate in love's pure +realm. They are different kingdoms. A girl may be of both; a married +woman, peering outside the narrow circle of her wedding-ring, should let +her eyelids fall and the unseen fires consume her. + +Their common thought was now, Will the chariot follow? + +What will he do if it comes? was an unformed question with Aminta. + +He had formed and not answered it, holding himself, sincerely at the +moment, bound to her wishes. Near the end of Ashead main street she had +turned to him in her seat beside the driver, and conveyed silently, with +the dental play of her tongue and pouted lips, 'No title.' + +Upon that sign, waxen to those lips, he had said to the driver, 'You +took your orders from Lady Charlotte? + +And the reply, 'Her ladyship directed me sir, exonerated Lord Ormont so +far. + +Weyburn remembered then a passage of one of her steady looks, wherein +an oracle was mute. He tried several of the diviner's shots to interpret +it: she was beyond his reach. She was in her blissful delirium of +the flight, and reproached him with giving her the little bit less to +resent--she who had no sense of resentment, except the claim on it to +excuse. + +Their landlady entered the room to lay the cloth for tea and eggs. She +made offer of bacon as well, homecured. She was a Hampshire woman, and +understood the rearing of pigs. Her husband had been a cricketer, and +played for his county. He didn't often beat Hampshire! They had a good +garden of vegetables, and grass-land enough for two cows. They made +their own bread, their own butter, but did not brew. + +Weyburn pronounced for a plate of her home-cured. She had children, the +woman told him--two boys and a girl. Her husband wished for a girl. Her +eldest boy wished to be a sailor, and would walk miles to a pond to sail +bits of wood on it, though there had never been a sea-faring man in her +husband's family or her own. She agreed with the lady and gentleman that +it might be unwise to go contrary to the boy's bent. Going to school or +coming home, a trickle of water would stop him. + +Aminta said to her companion in French, 'Have you money?' + +She chased his blood. 'Some: sufficient. I think.' It stamped their +partnership. + +'I have but a small amount. Aunt was our paymaster. We will buy the +little boy a boat to sail. You are pale.' + +'I 've no notion of it.' + +'Something happened it Ashead.' + +'It would not have damaged my complexion.' + +He counted his money. Aminta covertly handed him her purse. Their +fingers touched. The very minor circumstance of their landlady being in +the room dammed a flood. + +Her money and his amounted to seventeen pounds. The sum-total was a +symbol of days that were a fiery wheel. + +Honour and blest adventure might travel together two days or three, he +thought. If the chariot did not pass:--Lord Ormont had willed it. A +man could not be said to swerve in his duty when acting to fulfil the +master's orders, and Mrs. Pagnell was proved a hoodwinked duenna, and +Morsfield was in the air. The breathing Aminta had now a common purse +with her first lover. For three days or more they were, it would seem, +to journey together, alone together: the prosecution of his duty imposed +it on him. Sooth to say, Weyburn knew that a spice of passion added to +a bowl of reason makes a sophist's mess; but he fancied an absolute +reliance on Aminta's dignity, and his respect for her was another +barrier. He begged the landlady's acceptance of two shillings for her +boy's purchase of a boat, advising her to have him taught early to swim. +Both he and Aminta had a feeling that they could be helpful in some +little things on the road if the chariot did not pass. + +Justification began to speak loudly against the stopping of the chariot +if it did pass. The fact that sweet wishes come second, and not so +loudly, assured him they were quite secondary; for the lover sunk to +sophist may be self-beguiled by the arts which render him the potent +beguiler. + +'We are safe here,' he said, and thrilled her with the 'we' behind the +curtaining leaded window-panes. + +'What is it you propose?' Her voice was lower than she intended. To that +she ascribed his vivid flush. It kindled the deeper of her dark hue. + +He mentioned her want of luggage, and the purchase of a kit. + +She said, 'Have we the means?' + +'We can adjust the means to the ends.' + +'We must be sparing of expenses.' + +'Will you walk part of the way?' + +'I should like it.' + +'We shall be longer on the journey.' + +'We shall not find it tiresome, I hope.' + +'We can say so, if we do.' + +'We are not strangers.' + +The recurrence of the 'we' had an effect of wedding: it was fatalistic, +it would come; but, in truth, there was pleasure in it, and the pleasure +was close to consciousness of some guilt when vowing itself innocent. + +And, no, they were not strangers; hardly a word could they utter without +cutting memory to the quick; their present breath was out of the far +past. + +Love told them both that they were trembling into one another's arms, +not voluntarily, against the will with each of them; they knew it +would be for life; and Aminta's shamed reserves were matched to make an +obstacle by his consideration for her good name and her station, for his +own claim to honest citizenship also. + +Weyburn acted on his instinct at sight of the postillion and the +chariot; he flung the window wide and shouted. Then he said, 'It is +decided,' and he felt the rightness of the decision, like a man who has +given a condemned limb to the surgeon. + +Aminta was passive as a water-weed in the sway of the tide. Hearing it +to be decided, she was relieved. What her secret heart desired, she kept +secret, almost a secret from herself. He was not to leave her; so she +had her permitted wish, she had her companion plus her exclamatory +aunt, who was a protection, and she had learnt her need of the smallest +protection. + +'I can scarcely believe I see you, my dear, dear child!' Mrs. Pagnell +cried, upon entering the small inn parlour; and so genuine was her +satisfaction that for a time she paid no heed to the stuffiness of the +room, the meanness of the place, the unfitness of such a hostelry to +entertain ladies--the Countess of Ormont! + +'Eat here?' Mrs. Pagnell asked, observing the preparations for the meal. +Her pride quailed, her stomach abjured appetite. But she forbore from +asking how it was that the Countess of Ormont had come to the place. + +At a symptom of her intention to indulge in disgust; Aminta brought up +Mr. Morsfield by name; whereupon Mrs. Pagnell showed she had reflected +on her conduct in relation to the gentleman, and with the fear of the +earl if she were questioned. + +Home-made bread and butter, fresh eggs and sparkling fat of bacon +invited her to satisfy her hunger. Aminta let her sniff at the teapot +unpunished; the tea had a rustic aroma of ground-ivy, reminding Weyburn +of his mother's curiosity to know the object of an old man's plucking of +hedgeside leaves in the environs of Bruges one day, and the simple reply +to her French, 'Tea for the English.' A hint of an anecdote interested +and enriched the stores of Mrs. Pagnell, so she capped it and partook of +the infusion ruefully. + +'But the bread is really good,' she said, 'and we are unlikely to be +seen leaving the place by any person of importance.' + +'Unless Mr. Morsfield should be advised to return this way,' said +Aminta. + +Her aunt proposed for a second cup. She was a manageable woman; the same +scourge had its instant wholesome effect on her when she snubbed the +secretary. + +So she complimented his trencherman's knife, of which the remarkably +fine edge was proof enough that he had come heart-whole out of the trial +of an hour or so's intimate companionship with a beautiful woman, who +had never been loved, never could be loved by man, as poor Mr. Morsfield +loved her! He had sworn to having fasted three whole days and nights +after his first sight of Aminta. Once, he said, her eyes pierced him so +that he dreamed of a dagger in his bosom, and woke himself plucking at +it. That was love, as a born gentleman connected with a baronetcy and +richer than many lords took the dreadful passion. A secretary would have +no conception of such devoted extravagance. At the most he might have +attempted to insinuate a few absurd, sheepish soft nothings, and the +Countess of Ormont would know right well how to shrivel him with one +of her looks. No lady of the land could convey so much either way, to +attract or to repel, as Aminta, Countess of Ormont! And the man, the +only man, insensible to her charm or her scorn, was her own wedded lord +and husband. Old, to be sure, and haughty, his pride might not allow him +to overlook poor Mr. Morsfield's unintentional offence. But the presence +of the countess's aunt was a reply to any charge he might seek to +establish. Unhappily, the case is one between men on their touchiest +point, when women are pushed aside, and justice and religion as well. We +might be living in a heathen land, for aught that morality has to say. + +Mrs. Pagnell fussed about being seen on her emergence from the Jolly +Cricketers. Aminta sent Weyburn to spy for the possible reappearance +of Mr. Morsfield. He reported a horseman; a butcher-boy clattered by. +Aminta took the landlady's hand, under her aunt's astonished gaze, and +said: 'I shall not forget your house and your attention to us.' She +spoke with a shake of her voice. The landlady curtseyed and smiled, +curtseyed and almost whimpered. The house was a poor one, she begged to +say; they didn't often have such guests, but whoever came to it they did +their best to give good food and drink. + +Hearing from Weyburn that the chariot was bound to go through +Winchester, she spoke of a brother, a baker there, the last surviving +member of her family and, after some talk, Weyburn offered to deliver a +message of health and greeting at the baker's shop. There was a waving +of hands, much nodding and curtseying, as the postillion resumed his +demi-volts--all to the stupefaction of Mrs. Pagnell; but she dared not +speak, she had Morsfield on the mouth. Nor could she deny the excellent +quality of the bread and butter, and milk, too, at the sign of the Jolly +Cricketers. She admitted, moreover, that the food and service of the +little inn belonged in their unpretentious honesty to the kind we +call old English: the dear old simple country English of the brotherly +interchange in sight of heaven--good stuff for good money, a matter with +a blessing on it. + +'But,' said she, 'my dear Aminta, I do not and I cannot understand looks +of grateful affection at a small innkeeper's wife paid, and I don't +doubt handsomely paid, for her entertainment of you.' + +'I feel it,' said Aminta; tears rushed to her eyelids, overflowing, and +her features were steady. + +'Ah, poor dear! that I do understand,' her aunt observed. 'Any little +kindness moves you to-day; and well it may.' + +'Yes, aunty,' said Aminta, and in relation to the cause of her tears she +was the less candid of the two. + +So far did she carry her thanks for a kindness as to glance back through +her dropping tears at the sign-board of the Jolly Cricketers; where two +brave batsmen cross for the second of a certain three runs, if only the +fellow wheeling legs, face up after the ball in the clouds, does but +miss his catch: a grand suspensory moment of the game, admirably chosen +by the artist to arrest the wayfarer and promote speculation. For will +he let her slip through his fingers when she comes down? or will he have +her fast and tight? And in the former case, the bats are tearing their +legs off for just number nought. And in the latter, there 's a wicket +down, and what you may call a widower walking it bat on shoulder, parted +from his mate for that mortal innings, and likely to get more chaff than +consolation when he joins the booth. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. UNDER-CURRENTS IN THE MINDS OF LADY CHARLOTTE AND LORD +ORMONT + +Another journey of travellers to London, in the rear of the chariot, was +not diversified by a single incident or refreshed by scraps of dialogue. +Lady Charlotte had her brother Rowsley with her, and he might be +taciturn,--she drove her flocks of thoughts, she was busily and +contentedly occupied. Although separation from him stirred her mind +more excitedly over their days and deeds of boy and girl, her having him +near, and having now won him to herself, struck her as that old time's +harvest, about as much as can be hoped for us from life, when we have +tasted it. + +The scene of the invasion of Steignton by the woman and her aunt, and +that man Morsfield, was a steel engraving among her many rapid and +featureless cogitations. She magnified the rakishness of the woman's +hand on hip in view of the house, and she magnified the woman's +insolence in bringing that man Morsfield--to share probably the +hospitality of Steignton during the master's absence! Her trick of +caricature, whenever she dealt with adversaries, was active upon +the three persons under observation of the windows. It was potent to +convince her that her brother Rowsley had cast the woman to her native +obscurity. However, Lady Charlotte could be just: the woman's figure, +and as far as could be seen of her face, accounted for Rowsley's +entanglement. + +Why chastize that man Morsfield at all? Calling him out would give a +further dip to the name of Ormont. A pretty idea, to be punishing a roan +for what you thank him for! He did a service; and if he's as mad about +her as he boasts, he can take her and marry her now Rowsley 's free of +her. + +Morsfield says he wants to marry her--wants nothing better. Then let +him. Rowsley has shown him there 's no legal impediment. Pity that young +Weyburn had to be sent to do watch-dog duty. But Rowsley would not have +turned her back to travel alone: that is, without a man to guard. He 's +too chivalrous. + +The sending of Weyburn, she now fancied, was her own doing, and Lady +Charlotte attributed it to her interpretation of her brother's heart of +chivalry; though it would have been the wiser course, tending straight +and swift to the natural end, if the two women and their Morsfield had +received the dismissal to travel as they came. + +One sees it after the event. Yes, only Rowsley would not have dismissed +her without surety that she would be protected. So it was the right +thing prompted on the impulse of the moment. And young Weyburn would +meet some difficulty in protecting his 'Lady Ormont,' if she had no +inclination for it. + +Analyzing her impulse of the moment, Lady Charlotte credited +herself, not unjustly, with a certain considerateness for the woman, +notwithstanding the woman's violent intrusion between brother and +sister. Knowing the world, and knowing the upper or Beanstalk world +intimately, she winked at nature's passions. But when the legitimate +affection of a brother and sister finds them interposing, they are, as +little parsonically as possible, reproved. If persistently intrusive, +they are handed to the constable. + +How, supposing the case of a wife? Well, then comes the contest; and it +is with an inferior, because not a born, legitimacy of union; which +may be, which here and there is, affection; is generally the habit of +partnership. It is inferior, from not being the union of the blood; it +is a matter merely of the laws and the tastes. No love, she reasoned, +is equal to the love of brother and sister: not even the love of parents +for offspring, or of children for mother and father. Brother and sister +have the holy young days in common; they have lastingly the recollection +of their youth, the golden time when they were themselves, or the +best of themselves. A wife is a stranger from the beginning; she is +necessarily three parts a stranger up to the finish of the history. +She thinks she can absorb the husband. Not if her husband has a sister +living! She may cry and tear for what she calls her own: she will act +prudently in bowing her head to the stronger tie. Is there a wife in +Europe who broods on her husband's merits and his injuries as the sister +of Thomas Rowsley, Earl of Ormont does? or one to defend his good name, +one to work for his fortunes, as devotedly? + +Over and over Lady Charlotte drove her flocks, of much the same pattern, +like billows before a piping gale. They might be similar--a puffed +iteration, and might be meaningless and wearisome; the gale was a power +in earnest. + +Her brother sat locked-up. She did as a wife would not have done, and +held her peace. He spoke; she replied in a few words--blunt, to the +point, as no wife would have done. + +Her dear, warm-hearted Rowsley was shaken by the blow he had been +obliged to deal to the woman--poor woman!--if she felt it. He was always +the principal sufferer where the feelings were concerned. He was never +for hurting any but the enemy. + +His 'Ha, here we dine!' an exclamation of a man of imprisoned yawns at +the apparition of the turnkey, was delightful to her, for a proof of +health and sanity and enjoyment of the journey. + +'Yes, and I've one bottle left, in the hamper, of the hock you like,' +she said. 'That Mr. Weyburn likes it too. He drank a couple coming +down.' + +She did not press for talk; his ready appetite was the flower of +conversation to her. And he slept well, he said. Her personal experience +on that head was reserved. + +London enfolded them in the late evening of a day brewing storm. My lord +heard at the door of his house that Lady Ormont had not arrived. Yet +she had started a day in advance of him. He looked down, up and round at +Charlotte. He looked into an empty hall. Pagnell was not there. A sight +of Pagnell would, strange to say, have been agreeable. + +Storm was in the air, and Aminta was on the road. Lightning has, before +now, frightened carriage-horses. She would not misconduct herself; she +would sit firm. No woman in England had stouter nerve--few men. + +But the carriage might be smashed. He was ignorant of the road she +had chosen for her return. Out of Wiltshire there would be no cliffs, +quarries, river-banks, presenting dangers. Those dangers, however, +spring up when horses have the frenzy. + +Charlotte was nodded at, for a signal to depart; and she drove off, +speculating on the bullet of a grey eye, which was her brother's adieu +to her. + +The earl had apparently a curiosity to inspect vacant rooms. His +Aminta's drawing-room, her boudoir, her bed-chamber, were submissive in +showing bed, knickknacks, furniture. They told the tale of a corpse. + +He washed and dressed, and went out to his club to dine, hating +the faces of the servants of the house, just able to bear with the +attentions of his valet. + +Thunder was rattling at ten at night. The house was again the tomb. + +She had high courage, that girl. She might be in a bed, with her +window-blind up, calmly waiting for the flashes: lightning excited her. +He had seen her lying at her length quietly, her black hair scattered +on the pillow, like shadow of twigs and sprays on moonlit grass, +illuminated intermittently; smiling to him, but her heart out and +abroad, wild as any witch's. If on the road, she would not quail. But it +was necessary to be certain of her having a trusty postillion. + +He walked through the drench and scream of a burst cloud to the +posting-office. There, after some trouble, he obtained information +directing him to the neighbouring mews. He had thence to find his way to +the neighbouring pot-house. + +The report of the postillion was, on the whole, favourable. The man +understood horses--was middle-aged--no sot; he was also a man with an +eye for weather, proverbially in the stables a cautious hand--slow 'Old +Slow-and-sure,' he was called; by name, Joshua Abnett. + +'Oh, Joshua Abnett?' said the earl, and imprinted it on his memory, for +the service it was to do during the night. + +Slow-and-sure Joshua Abnett would conduct her safely, barring accidents. +For accidents we must all be prepared. She was a heroine in an accident. +The earl recalled one and more: her calm face, brightened eyes, easy +laughter. Hysterics were not in her family. + +She did wrong to let that fellow Morsfield accompany her. Possibly +he had come across her on the road, and she could not shake him off. +Judging by all he knew of her, the earl believed she would not have +brought the fellow into the grounds of Steignton of her free will. She +had always a particular regard for decency. + +According to the rumour, Morsfield and the woman Pagnell were very thick +together. He barked over London of his being a bitten dog. He was near +to the mad dog's fate, as soon as a convenient apology for stopping his +career could be invented. + +The thinking of the lesson to Morsfield on the one hand, and of the +slow-and-sure postillion Joshua Abriett on the other, lulled Lord Ormont +to a short repose in his desolate house. Of Weyburn he had a glancing +thought, that the young man would be a good dog to guard the countess +from a mad dog, as he had reckoned in commissioning him. + +Next day was the day of sunlight Aminta loved. + +It happens with the men who can strike, supposing them of the order +of civilized creatures, that when they have struck heavily, however +deserved the blow, a liking for the victim will assail them, if they +discover no support in hatred; and no sooner is the spot of softness +touched than they are invaded by hosts of the stricken person's +qualities, which plead to be taken as virtues, and are persuasive. The +executioner did rightly. But it is the turn for the victim to declare +the blow excessive. + +Now, a just man, who has overdone the stroke, will indemnify and console +in every way, short of humiliating himself. + +He had an unusually clear vision of the scene at Steignton. Surprise and +wrath obscured it at the moment, for reflection to bring it out in sharp +outline; and he was able now to read and translate into inoffensive +English the inherited Spanish of it, which violated nothing of Aminta's +native 'donayre,' though it might look on English soil outlandish or +stagey. + +Aminta stood in sunlight on the greensward. She stood hand on hip, +gazing at the house she had so long desired to see, without a notion +that she committed an offence. Implicitly upon all occasions she took +her husband's word for anything he stated, and she did not consequently +imagine him to be at Steignton. So, then, she had no thought of running +down from London to hunt and confound him, as at first it appeared. The +presence of that white-faced Morsfield vindicated her sufficiently so +far. And let that fellow hang till the time for cutting him down! Not +she, but Pagnell, seems to have been the responsible party. And, by the +way, one might prick the affair with Morsfield by telling him publicly +that his visit to inspect Steignton was waste of pains, for he would not +be accepted as a tenant in the kennels, et caetera. + +Well, poor girl, she satisfied her curiosity, not aware that a few weeks +farther on would have done it to the full. + +As to Morsfield, never once, either in Vienna or in Paris, had she, +warmly admired though she was, all eyes telescoping and sun-glassing +on her, given her husband an hour or half an hour or two minutes of +anxiety. Letters came. The place getting hot, she proposed to leave it. + +She had been rather hardly tried. There are flowers we cannot keep +growing in pots. Her fault was, that instead of flinging down her glove +and fighting it out openly, she listened to Pagnell, and began the +game of Pull. If he had a zest for the game, it was to stump the woman +Pagnell. So the veteran fancied in his amended mind. + +This intrusive sunlight chased him from the breakfast-table and out of +the house. She would be enjoying it somewhere; but the house empty of +a person it was used to contain had an atmosphere of the vaults, +and inside it the sunlight she loved had an effect of taunting him +singularly. + +He called on his upholsterer and heard news to please her. The house +hired for a month above Great Marlow was ready; her ladyship could enter +it to-morrow. It pleased my lord to think that she might do so, and not +bother him any more about the presentation at Court during the current +year. In spite of certain overtures from the military authorities, and +roused eulogistic citations of his name in the newspapers and magazines, +he was not on friendly terms with his country yet, having contracted the +fatal habit of irony, which, whether hitting or musing its object, stirs +old venom in our wound, twitches the feelings. Unfortunately for him, +they had not adequate expression unless he raged within; so he had to +shake up wrath over his grievances, that he might be satisfactorily +delivered; and he was judged irreconcilable when he had subsided into +the quietest contempt, from the prospective seat of a country estate, in +the society of a young wife who adored him. + +An exile from the sepulchre of that house void of the consecration of +ashes, he walked the streets and became reconciled to street sunlight. +There were no carriage accidents to disturb him with apprehensions. +Besides, the slowness of the postillion Joshua Abnett, which probably +helped to the delay, was warrant of his sureness. And in an accident the +stringy fellow, young Weyburn, could be trusted for giving his attention +to the ladies--especially to the younger of the two, taking him for the +man his elders were at his age. As for Pagnell, a Providence watches +over the Pagnells! Mortals have no business to interfere. + +An accident on water would be a frolic to his girl. Swimming was a gift +she had from nature. Pagnell vowed she swam out a mile at Dover when she +was twelve. He had seen her in blue water: he had seen her readiness to +jump to the rescue once when a market-woman, stepping out of a boat +to his yacht on the Tabus, plumped in. She had the two kinds of +courage--the impulsive and the reasoned. What is life to man or woman if +we are not to live it honourably? Men worthy of the name say this. The +woman who says and acts on it is--well, she is fit company for them. But +only the woman of natural courage can say it and act on it. + +Would she come by Winchester, or choose the lower road by Salisbury and +Southampton, to smell the sea? perhaps-like her!--dismissing the chariot +and hiring a yacht for a voyage round the coast and up the Thames. She +had an extraordinary love of the sea, yet she preferred soldiers to +sailors. A woman? Never one of them more a woman! But it came of her +quickness to take the colour and share the tastes of the man to whom she +gave herself. + +My lord was beginning to distinguish qualities in a character. + +He was informed at the mews that Joshua Abnett was on the road still. +Joshua seemed to be a roadster of uncommon unprogressiveness, proper to +a framed picture. + +While debating whether to lunch at his loathed club or at a home loathed +more, but open to bright enlivenment any instant, Lord Ormont beheld +a hat lifted and Captain May saluting him. They were near a famous +gambling-house in St. James's Street. + +'Good! I am glad to see you,' he said. 'Tell me you know Mr. Morsfield +pretty well. I'm speaking of my affair. He has been trespassing down on +my grounds at Steignton, and I think of taking the prosecution of him +into my own hands. Is he in town?' + +'I 've just left his lame devil Cumnock, my lord,' said May, after a +slight grimace. 'They generally run in tandem.' + +'Will you let me know?' + +'At once, when I hear.' + +'You will call on me? Before noon?' + +'Any service required?' + +'My respects to your wife.' + +'Your lordship is very good.' + +Captain May bloomed at a civility paid to his wife. He was a smallish, +springy, firm-faced man, devotee of the lady bearing his name and +wielding him. In the days when duelling flourished on our land, frail +women could be powerful. + +The earl turned from him to greet Lord Adderwood and a superior officer +of his Profession, on whom he dropped a frigid nod. He held that all but +the rank and file, and a few subalterns, of the service had abandoned +him to do homage to the authorities. The Club he frequented was not his +military Club. Indeed, lunching at any Club in solitariness that day, +with Aminta away from home, was bitter penance. He was rejoiced by Lord +Adderwood's invitation, and hung to him after the lunch; for a horrible +prospect of a bachelor dinner intimated astonishingly that he must have +become unawares a domesticated man. + +The solitary later meal of a bachelor was consumed, if the word will +suit a rabbit's form of feeding. He fatigued his body by walking the +streets and the bridge of the Houses of Parliament, and he had some +sleep under a roof where a life like death, or death apeing life, would +have seemed to him the Joshua Abnett, if he had been one to take up +images. + +Next day he was under the obligation to wait at home till noon. Shortly +before noon a noise of wheels drew him to the window. A young lady, in +whom he recognized Aminta's little school friend, of some name, stepped +out of a fly. He met her in the hall. + +She had expected to be welcomed by Aminta, and she was very timid on +finding herself alone with the earl. He, however, treated her as the +harbinger bird, wryneck of the nightingale, sure that Aminta would keep +her appointment unless an accident delayed. He had forgotten her name, +but not her favourite pursuit of botany; and upon that he discoursed, +and he was interested, not quite independently of the sentiment of her +being there as a guarantee of Aminta's return. Still he knew his English +earth, and the counties and soil for particular wild-flowers, grasses, +mosses; and he could instruct her and inspire a receptive pupil on the +theme of birds, beasts, fishes, insects, in England and other lands. + +He remained discoursing without much weariness till four of the +afternoon. Then he had his reward. The chariot was at the door, and +the mounted figure of Joshua Abnett, on which he cast not a look or a +thought. Aminta was alone. She embraced Selina Collett warmly, and said, +in friendly tones, 'Ah! my lord, you are in advance of me.' + +She had dropped Mrs. Pagnell and Mr. Weyburn at two suburban houses; +working upon her aunt's dread of the earl's interrogations as regarded +Mr. Morsfield. She had, she said, chosen to take the journey easily on +her return, and enjoyed it greatly. + +My lord studied her manner more than her speech. He would have +interpreted a man's accurately enough. He read hers to signify that +she had really enjoyed her journey, 'made the best of it,' and did not +intend to be humble about her visit to Steignton without his permission; +but that, if hurt at the time, she had recovered her spirits, and was +ready for a shot or two--to be nothing like a pitched battle. And she +might fire away to her heart's content: wordy retorts would not come +from him; he had material surprises in reserve for her. His question +concerning Morsfield knew its answer, and would only be put under +pressure. + +Comparison of the friends Aminta and Selina was forced by their standing +together, and the representation in little Selina of the inferiority of +the world of women to his Aminta; he thought of several, and splendid +women, foreign and English. The comparison rose sharply now, with +Aminta's novel, airy, homely, unchallengeing assumption of an equal +footing beside her lord, in looks and in tones that had cast off +constraint of the adoring handmaid, to show the full-blown woman, +rightful queen of her half of the dominion. Between the Aminta of then +and now, the difference was marked as between Northern and Southern +women: the frozen-mouthed Northerner and the pearl and rose-nipped +Southerner; those who smirk in dropping congealed monosyllables, and +those who radiantly laugh out the voluble chatter. + +Conceiving this to the full in a mind destitute of imagery, but +indicative of the thing as clearly as the planed, unpolished woodwork +of a cabinet in a carpenter's shop, Lord Ormont liked her the better for +the change, though she was not the woman whose absence from his house +had caused him to go mooning half a night through the streets, and +though it forewarned him of a tougher bit of battle, if battle there was +to be. + +He was a close reader of surfaces. But in truth, the change so notable +came of the circumstance, that some little way down below the surface he +perused, where heart weds mind, or nature joins intellect, for the two +to beget a resolution, the battle of the man and the woman had been +fought, and the man beaten. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. TREATS OF THE FIRST DAY OF THE CONTENTION OF BROTHER AND +SISTER + +In the contest rageing at mid-sea still between the man and the woman, +it is the one who is hard to the attractions of the other that will make +choice of the spot and have the advantages. A short time earlier Lord +Ormont could have marked it out at his leisure. He would have been +unable to comprehend why it was denied him to do so now; for he was +master of himself, untroubled by conscience, unaware, since he was +assured of his Aminta's perfect safety and his restored sense of +possession, that any taint of softness in him had reversed the condition +of their alliance. He felt benevolently the much he had to bestow, and +was about to bestow. Meanwhile, without complicity on his part, without +his knowledge, yet absolutely involving his fate, the battle had gone +against him in Aminta's breast. + +Like many of his class and kind, he was thoroughly acquainted with the +physical woman, and he took that first and very engrossing volume of +the great Book of Mulier for all the history. A powerful wing of +imagination, strong as the flappers of the great Roc of Arabian story, +is needed to lift the known physical woman even a very little way up +into azure heavens. It is far easier to take a snap-shot at the psychic, +and tumble her down from her fictitious heights to earth. The mixing of +the two make nonsense of her. She was created to attract the man, for an +excellent purpose in the main. We behold her at work incessantly. One is +a fish to her hook; another a moth to her light. By the various arts +at her disposal she will have us, unless early in life we tear away +the creature's coloured gauzes and penetrate to her absurdly simple +mechanism. That done, we may, if we please, dominate her. High priests +of every religion have successively denounced her as the chief enemy. +To subdue and bid her minister to our satisfaction is therefore a right +employment of man's unperverted superior strength. Of course, we keep +to ourselves the woman we prefer; but we have to beware of an uxorious +preference, or we are likely to resemble the Irishman with his wolf, and +dance imprisoned in the hug of our captive. + +For it is the creature's characteristic to be lastingly awake, in her +moments of utmost slavishness most keenly awake to the chances of the +snaring of the stronger. Be on guard, then. Lord Ormont had been on +guard then and always: his instinct of commandership kept him on guard. +He was on guard now when his Aminta played, not the indignant and the +frozen, but the genially indifferent. She did it well, he admitted. + +Had it been the indignant she played, he might have stooped to cajole +the handsome queen of gypsies she was, without acknowledgement of +her right to complain. Feeling that he was about to be generous, he +shrugged. He meant to speak in deeds. + +Lady Charlotte's house was at the distance of a stroller's half-hour +across Hyde Park westward from his own. Thither he walked, a few +minutes after noon, prepared for cattishness. He could fancy that he had +hitherto postponed the visit rather on her account, considering that +he would have to crush her if she humped and spat, and he hoped to be +allowed to do it gently. There would certainly be a scene. + +Lady Charlotte was at home. + +'Always at home to you, Rowsley, at any hour. Mr. Eglett has driven down +to the City. There 's a doctor in a square there's got a reputation for +treating weak children, and he has taken down your grand-nephew Bobby to +be inspected. Poor boy comes of a poor stock on the father's side. Mr. +Eglett would have that marriage. Now he sees wealth isn't everything. +Those Benlews are rushlights. However, Elizabeth stood with her father +to have Robert Benlew, and this poor child 's the result. I wonder +whether they have consciences!' + +My lord prolonged the sibilation of his 'Yes,' in the way of +absent-minded men. He liked little Bobby, but had to class the boy +second for the present. + +'You have our family jewels in your keeping, Charlotte?' + +'No, I haven't,--and you know I haven't, Rowsley.' She sprang to arms, +the perfect porcupine, at his opening words, as he had anticipated. + +'Where are the jewels?' + +'They're in the cellars of my bankers, and safe there, you may rely on +it.' + +'I want them.' + +'I want to have them safe; and there they stop.' + +'You must get them and hand them over.' + +'To whom?' + +'To me.' + +'What for?' + +'They will be worn by the Countess of Ormont' + +'Who 's she?' + +'The lady who bears the title.' + +'The only Countess of Ormont I know of is your mother and mine, Rowsley; +and she's dead.' + +'The Countess of Ormont I speak of is alive.' + +Lady Charlotte squared to him. 'Who gives her the title?' + +'She bears it by right.' + +'Do you mean to say, Rowsley, you have gone and married the woman since +we came up from Steignton?' + +'She is my wife.' + +'Anyhow, she won't have our family jewels.' + +'If you had swallowed them, you'd have to disgorge.' + +'I don't give up our family jewels to such people.' + +'Do you decline to call on her?' + +'I do: I respect our name and blood.' + +'You will send the order to your bankers for them to deliver the jewels +over to me at my house this day.' + +'Look here, Rowsley; you're gone cracked or senile. You 're in the hands +of one of those clever wenches who catch men of your age. She may catch +you; she shan't lay hold of our family jewels: they stand for the honour +of our name and blood.' + +'They are to be at my house-door at four o'clock this afternoon.' + +'They'll not stir.' + +'Then I go down to order your bankers and give them the order.' + +'My bankers won't attend to it without the order from me.' + +'You will submit to the summons of my lawyers.' + +'You're bent on a public scandal, are you?' + +'I am bent on having the jewels.' + +'They are not yours; you 've no claim to them; they are heirlooms in our +family. Things most sacred to us are attached to them. They belong to +our history. There 's the tiara worn by the first Countess of Ormont. +There 's the big emerald of the necklace-pendant--you know the story of +it. Two rubies not counted second to any in England. All those diamonds! +I wore the cross and the two pins the day I was presented after my +marriage.' + +'The present Lady Ormont will wear them the day she is presented.' + +'She won't wear them at Court.' + +'She will.' + +'Don't expect the Lady Ormont of tradesmen and footmen to pass the Lord +Chamberlain.' + +'That matter will be arranged for next season. Now I 've done.' + +'So have I; and you have my answer, Rowsley.' They quitted their chairs. + +'You decline to call on my wife?' said the earl. + +Lady Charlotte replied: 'Understand me, now. If the woman has won you +round to legitimize the connection, first, I've a proper claim to see +her marriage lines. I must have a certificate of her birth. I must have +a testified account of her life before you met her and got the worst of +it. Then, as the case may be, I 'll call on her. + +'You will behave yourself when you call.' + +'But she won't have our family jewels.' + +'That affair has been settled by me.' + +'I should be expecting to hear of them as decorating the person of one +of that man Morsfield's mistresses.' + +The earl's brow thickened. 'Charlotte, I smacked your cheek when you +were a girl.' + +'I know you did. You might again, and I wouldn't cry out. She travels +with that Morsfield; you 've seen it. He goes boasting of her. Gypsy or +not, she 's got queer ways.' + +'I advise you, you had better learn at once to speak of her +respectfully.' + +'I shall have enough to go through, if what you say's true, with +questions of the woman's antecedents and her people, and the date of the +day of this marriage. When was the day you did it? I shall have to give +an answer. You know cousins of ours, and the way they 'll be pressing, +and comparing ages and bawling rumours. None of them imagined my brother +such a fool as to be wheedled into marrying her. You say it's done, +Rowsley. Was it done yesterday or the day before?' + +Lord Ormont found unexpectedly that she struck on a weak point. Married +from the first? Why not tell me of it? He could hear her voice as if she +had spoken the words. And how communicate the pell-mell of reasons? + +'You're running vixen. The demand I make is for the jewels,' he said. + +'You won't have them, Rowsley--not for her.' + +'You think of compelling me to use force?' + +'Try it.' + +'You swear the jewels are with your bankers?' + +'I left them in charge of my bankers, and they've not been moved by me.' + +'Well, it must be force.' + +'Nothing short of it when the honour of our family's concerned.' + +It was rather worse than the anticipated struggle with this Charlotte, +though he had kept his temper. The error was in supposing that an hour's +sharp conflict would settle it, as he saw. The jewels required a siege. + +'When does Eglett return?' he asked. + +'Back to lunch. You stay and lunch here, Rowsley we don't often have +you.' + +The earl contemplated her, measuring her powers of resistance for a +prolonged engagement. Odd that the pride which had withdrawn him from +the service of an offending country should pitch him into a series of +tussles with women, for its own confusion! He saw that, too, in his dim +reflectiveness, and held the country answerable for it. + +Mr. Eglett was taken into confidence by him privately after lunch. +Mr. Eglett's position between the brother and sister was perplexing; +habitually he thought his wife had strong good sense, in spite of the +costliness of certain actions at law not invariably confirming his +opinion; he thought also that the earl's demand must needs be considered +obediently. At the same time, his wife's objections to the new Countess +of Ormont, unmasked upon the world, seemed very legitimate; though it +might be asked why the earl should not marry, marrying the lady who +pleased him. But if, in the words of his wife, the lady had no claim to +be called a lady, the marriage was deplorable. On the other hand, Lord +Ormont spoke of her in terms of esteem, and he was no fondling dotard. + +How to compromise the matter for the sake of peace? The man perpetually +plunged into strife by his combative spouse, cried the familiar question +again; and at every suggestion of his on behalf of concord he heard from +Lady Charlotte that he had no principles, or else from Lord Ormont that +his head must be off his shoulders. + +The man for peace had the smallest supply of language, and so, unless he +took a side and fought, his active part was football between them. + +It went on through the afternoon up to five o'clock. No impression was +betrayed by Lady Charlotte. + +She congratulated her brother on the recruit he had enlisted. He +smiled his grimmest of the lips drawn in. A combat, perceptibly of some +extension, would soon give him command of the man of peace; and energy +to continue attacks will break down the energies of any dogged defensive +stand. + +He deferred the discussion with his unreasonable sister until the +next day at half-past twelve o'clock. Lady Charlotte nodded to the +appointment. She would have congratulated herself without irony on the +result of the first day's altercation but for her brother Rowsley's +unusual and ominous display of patience. Twice during the wrangle she +had to conceal a difficult breathing. She felt a numbness in one arm +now it was over, and mentally complimented her London physician on the +unerringness of his diagnosis. Her heart, however, complained of +the cruelty of having in the end, perhaps, if the wrangle should be +protracted, to yield, for sheer weakness, without ceasing to beat. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. THE ORMONT JEWELS + +At half-past twelve of the noon next day Lord Ormont was at Lady +Charlotte's house door. She welcomed him affectionately, as if nothing +were in dispute; he nodded an acceptance of her greetings, with a blunt +intimation of the business to be settled; she put on her hump of the +feline defensive; then his batteries opened fire and hers barked back +on him. Each won admiration of the other's tenacity, all the more +determined to sap or split it. They had known one another's character, +but they had never seen it in such strong light. Never had their mutual +and similar, though opposed, resources been drawn out so copiously and +unreservedly. This was the shining scrawl of all that each could do +to gain a fight. They admired one another's contemptibly justifiable +evasions, changes of front, statements bordering the lie, even to +meanness in the withdrawal of admissions and the denial of the same ever +having been made. That was Charlotte! That was Rowsley! Anything to beat +down the adversary. + +As to will, the woman's will, of these two, equalled the man's. They +were matched in obstinacy and unscrupulousness. + +Her ingenuitics of the defence eluded his attacks, and compelled him +to fall on heavy iteration of his demand for the jewels, an immediate +restitution of the jewels. 'Why immediate?' cried she. + +He repeated it without replying to her. + +'But, you tell me, Rowsley, why immediate? If you're in want of money +for her, you come to me, tell me, you shall have thousands. I'll drive +down to the City to-morrow and sell out stock. Mr. Eglett won't mind +when he hears the purpose. I shall call five thousand cheap, and don't +ask to see the money again.' + +'Ah! double the sum to have your own way!' said he. + +She protested that she valued her money. She furnished instances of her +carefulness of her money all along up to the present period of brutal +old age. Yet she would willingly part with five thousand or more to save +the family honour. Mr. Eglett would not only approve, he would probably +advance a good part of the money himself. + +'Money! Who wants money?' thundered the earl, and jumped out of her trap +of the further diversion from the plain request. 'To-morrow, when I am +here, I shall expect to have the jewels delivered to me.' + +'That you may hand them over to her. Where are they likely to be this +time next year? And what do you know about jewels? You may look at them +when you ask to see them, and not know imitation paste--like the stuff +Lady Beltus showed her old husband. Our mother wore them, and she prized +them. I'm not sure I wouldn't rather hear they were exhibited in a Bond +Street jeweller's shop or a Piccadilly pawnbroker's than have them on +that woman.' + +'You speak of my wife.' + +'For a season, perhaps; and off they're likely to go, to pay bills, if +her Adderwoods and her Morsfields are out of funds, as they call it.' + +'You are aware you are speaking of my wife, Charlotte?' + +'You daren't say my sister-in-law.' + +He did not choose to say it; and once more she dared him. She could +imagine she scored a point. + +They were summoned to lunch by Mr. Eglett; and there was an hour's +armistice; following which the earl demanded the restitution of the +jewels, and heard the singular question, childishly accentuated, 'What +for?' + +Patience was his weapon and support, so he named his object with an air +of inveteracy in tranquillity they were for his wife to wear. + +Lady Charlotte dared him to say they were for her sister-in-law. + +He despised the transparent artifice of the challenge. + +'But you have to own the difference,' she said. 'You haven't lost +respect for your family, thank God! No. It 's one thing to say she 's a +wife: you hang fire when it 's to say she 's my sister-in-law.' + +'You'll have to admit the fact, Charlotte.' + +'How long is it since I should have had to admit the fact?' + +'From the date of my marriage.' + +'Tell me the date.' + +'No, you don't wear a wig, Charlotte; but you are fit to practise in the +Law-courts!' he said, exasperatedly jocular. + +She had started a fresh diversion, and she pressed him for the date. 'I +'m supposed to have had a sister-in-law-how many weeks?--months?' + +'Years.' + +'Married years! And if you've been married years, where were you +married? Not in a church. That woman's no church-bride.' + +'There are some clever women made idiots of by their trullish tempers.' + +'Abuse away. I've asked you where you were married, Rowsley.' + +'Go to Madrid. Go to the Embassy. Apply to the chaplain.' + +'Married in Madrid! Who's ever married in Madrid! You flung her a yellow +handkerchief, and she tied it round her neck--that 's your ceremony! +Now you tell me you've been married years; and she's a young woman; you +fetch her over from Madrid, set her in a place where those Morsfields +and other fungi-fellows grow, and she has to think herself lucky to be +received by a Lady Staines and a Mrs. Lawrence Finchley, and she the +talk of the town, refused at Court, for all an honourable-enough old +woman countenanced her in pity; and I 'm asked to believe she was my +brother's wife, sister-in-law of mine, all the while! I won't.' + +Lady Charlotte dilated on it for a length of time, merely to show she +declined to believe it; pouring Morsfield over him and the talk of +the town, the gypsy caught in Spain--now to be foisted on her as her +sister-in-law! She could fancy she produced an effect. + +She did indeed unveil to him a portion of the sufferings his Aminta +had undergone; as visibly, too, the good argumentative reasons for his +previous avoidance of the deadly, dismal wrangle here forced on him. +A truly dismal, profitless wrangle! But the finish of it would be the +beginning of some solace to his Aminta. + +The finish of it must be to-morrow. He refrained from saying so, and +simply appointed to-morrow for the resumption of the wrestle, departing +in his invincible coat of patience: which one has to wear when dealing +with a woman like Charlotte, he informed Mr. Eglett, on his way out at a +later hour than on the foregone day. Mr. Eglett was of his opinion, +that an introduction of lawyers into a family dispute was 'rats in +the pantry'; and he would have joined him in his gloomy laugh, if the +thought of Charlotte in a contention had not been so serious a matter. +She might be beaten; she could not be brought to yield. + +She retired to her bedroom, and laid herself flat on her bed, +immoveable, till her maid undressed her for the night. A cup of broth +and strip of toast formed her sole nourishment. As for her doctor's +possible reproaches, the symptoms might crowd and do their worst; she +fought for the honour of her family. + +At midday of the third day Lady Charlotte was reduced to the condition +of those fortresses which wave defiantly the flag, but deliver no +further shot, awaiting the assault. Her body, affected by hideous +old age, succumbed. Her will was unshaken. She would not write to her +bankers. Mr. Eglett might go to them, if he thought fit. Rowsley was +to understand that he might call himself married; she would have no +flower-basket bunch of a sister-in-law thrust upon her. + +Lord Ormont and Mr. Eglett walked down to her bankers in the afternoon. +As a consequence of express injunctions given by my lady five years +previously, the assistant-manager sought an interview with her. + +The jewels were lodged at her house the day ensuing. They were examined, +verified by the list in Lady Charlotte's family record-book, and then +taken away--forcibly, of course--by her brother. + +He laughed in his dry manner; but the reminiscent glimpses, helping him +to see the humour of it, stirred sensations of the tug it had been with +that combative Charlotte, and excused him for having shrunk from the +encounter until he conceived it to be necessary. + +Settlement of the affair with Morsfield now claimed his attention. The +ironical tolerance he practised in relation to Morsfield when Aminta had +no definite station before the world changed to an angry irritability +at the man's behaviour now that she had stepped forth under his +acknowledgement of her as the Countess of Ormont. He had come round to a +rather healthier mind regarding his country, and his introduction of the +Countess of Ormont to the world was his peace-offering. + +As he returned home earlier on the third day, he found his diligent +secretary at work. The calling on Captain May and the writing to the +sort of man were acts obnoxious to his dignity; so he despatched Weyburn +to the captain's house, one in a small street of three narrow tenements +abutting on aristocracy and terminating in mews. Weyburn's mission was +to give the earl's address at Great Marlow for the succeeding days, and +to see Captain May, if the captain was at home. During his absence the +precious family jewel-box was locked in safety. Aminta and her friend, +little Miss Collett, were out driving, by the secretary's report. The +earl considered it a wholesome feature of Aminta's character that she +should have held to her modest schoolmate the fact spoke well for both +of them. + +A look at the papers to serve for Memoirs was discomposing, and led him +to think the secretary could be parted with as soon as he pleased to go: +say, a week hence. + +The Memoirs were no longer designed for issue. He had the impulse to +treat them on the spot as the Plan for the Defence of the Country had +been treated; and for absolutely obverse reasons. The secretary and the +Memoirs were associated: one had sprung out of the other. Moreover, the +secretary had witnessed a scene at Steignton. The young man had done his +duty, and would be thanked for that, and dismissed, with a touch of his +employer's hand. The young man would have made a good soldier--a better +soldier, good as he might be as a scribe. He ought to have been in his +father's footsteps, and he would then have disciplined or quashed his +fantastical ideas. Perhaps he was right on the point of toning the +Memoirs here and there. Since the scene at Steignton Lord Ormont's +views had changed markedly in relation to everybody about him, and most +things. + +Weyburn came back at the end of an hour to say that he had left the +address with Mrs. May, whom he had seen. + +'A handsome person,' the earl observed. + +'She must have been very handsome,' said Weyburn. + +'Ah! we fall into their fictions, or life would be a bald business, upon +my word!' + +Lord Ormont had not uttered it before the sentiment of his greater luck +with one of that queer world of the female lottery went through him on a +swell of satisfaction, just a wave. + +An old-world eye upon women, it seemed to Weyburn. But the man who could +crown a long term of cruel injustice with the harshness to his wife at +Steignton would naturally behold women with that eye. + +However, he was allowed only to generalize; he could not trust himself +to dwell on Lady Ormont and the Aminta inside the shell. Aminta and Lady +Ormont might think as one or diversely of the executioner's blow she +had undergone. She was a married woman, and she probably regarded the +wedding by law as the end a woman has to aim at, and is annihilated by +hitting; one flash of success, and then extinction, like a boy's cracker +on the pavement. Not an elevated image, but closely resembling that +which her alliance with Lord Ormont had been! + +At the same time, no true lover of a woman advises her--imploring +is horrible treason--to slip the symbolic circle of the law from her +finger, and have in an instant the world for her enemy. She must consent +to be annihilated, and must have no feelings; particularly no mind. The +mind is the danger for her. If she has a mind alive, she will certainly +push for the position to exercise it, and run the risk of a classing +with Nature's created mates for reptile men. + +Besides, Lady Ormont appeared, in the company of her friend Selina +Collett, not worse than rather too thoughtful; not distinctly unhappy. +And she was conversable, smiling. She might have had an explanation +with my lord, accepting excuses--or, who knows? taking the blame, and +offering them. Weakness is pliable. So pliable is it, that it has been +known for a crack of the masterly whip to fling off the victim and put +on the culprit! Ay, but let it be as it may with Lady Ormont, Aminta +is of a different composition. Aminta's eyes of the return journey to +London were haunting lights, and lured him to speculate; and for her +sake he rejected the thought that for him they meant anything warmer +than the passing thankfulness, though they were a novel assurance to him +of her possession beneath her smothering cloud of the power to resolve, +and show forth a brilliant individuality. + +The departure of the ladies and my lord in the travelling carriage for +the house on the Upper Thames was passably sweetened to Weyburn by the +command to him to follow in a day or two, and continue his work there +until he left England. Aminta would not hear of an abandonment of the +Memoirs. She spoke on the subject to my lord as to a husband pardoned. + +She was not less affable and pleasant with him out of Weyburn's hearing. +My lord earned her gratitude for his behaviour to Selina Collett, to +whom he talked interestedly of her favourite pursuit, as he had done on +the day when, as he was not the man to forget, her arrival relieved him +of anxiety. Aminta, noticed the box on the seat beside him. + +They drove up to their country house in time to dress leisurely for +dinner. Nevertheless, the dinner-hour had struck several minutes before +she descended; and the earl, as if not expecting her, was out on the +garden path beside the river bank with Selina. She beckoned from the +step of the open French window. + +He came to her at little Selina's shuffling pace, conversing upon +water-plants. + +'No jewelry to-day?' he said. + +And Aminta replied: 'Carstairs has shown me the box and given the key. I +have not opened it.' + +'Time in the evening, or to-morrow. You guess the contents?' + +'I presume I do.' + +She looked feverish and shadowed. + +He murmured kindly: 'Anything?' + +'Not now: we will dine.' + +She had missed, had lost, she feared, her own jewelbox; a casket of no +great treasure to others, but of a largely estimable importance to her. + +After the heavy ceremonial entrance and exit of dishes, she begged the +earl to accompany her for an examination of the contents of the box. + +As soon as her chamber-door was shut, she said, in accents of alarm: +'Mine has disappeared. Carstairs, I know, is to be trusted. She +remembers carrying the box out of my room; she believes she can remember +putting it into the fly. She had to confess that it had vanished, +without her knowing how, when my boxes were unpacked.' + +'Is she very much upset?' said the earl. + +'Carstairs? Why, yes, poor creature! you can imagine. I have no doubt +she feels for me; and her own reputation is concerned. What do you think +is best to be done?' + +'To be done! Overhaul the baggage again in all the rooms.' + +'We've not failed to do that.' + +'Control yourself, my dear. If, by bad luck, they're lost, we can +replace them. The contents of this box, now, we could not replace. Open +it, and judge.' + +'I have no curiosity--forgive me, I beg. And the servant's fly has been +visited, ransacked inside and out, footmen questioned; we have not left +anything we can conceive of undone. My lord, will you suggest?' + +'The intrinsic value of the gems would not be worth--not worth Aminta's +one beat of the heart. Upon my word--not one!' + +An amatory knightly compliment breasting her perturbation roused +an unwonted spite; and a swift reflection on it startled her with a +suspicion. She cast it behind her. He could be angler and fish, he would +not be cat and mouse. + +She said, however, more temperately: 'It is not the value of the gems. +We are losing precious minutes!' + +'Association of them with the giver? Is it that? If that has a value for +you, he is flattered.' + +This betrayed him to the woman waxing as intensely susceptible in all +her being as powder to sparks. + +'There is to be no misunderstanding, my lord,' she said. 'I like--I +value my jewels; but--I am alarmed lest the box should fall into +hands--into strange hands.' + +'The box!' he exclaimed with an outline of a comic grimace; and, if +proved a voluptuary in torturing, he could instance half a dozen points +for extenuation: her charm of person, withheld from him, and to be +embraced; her innocent naughtiness; compensation coming to her in excess +for a transient infliction of pain. 'Your anxiety is about the box?' + +'Yes, the box,' Aminta said firmly. 'It contains--' + +'No false jewels? A thief might complain.' + +'It contains letters, my lord.' 'Blackmail?' + +'You would be at liberty to read them. I would rather they were burnt.' + +'Ah!' The earl heaved his chest prodigiously. 'Blackmail letters are +better in a husband's hands, if they can be laid there.' + +'If there is a necessity for him to read them--yes.' + +'There may be a necessity, there can't be a gratification,--though there +are dogs of thick blood that like to scratch their sores,' he murmured +to himself. 'You used to show me these declaration epistles.' + +'Not the names.' + +'Not the names--no!' + +'When we had left the country, I showed you why it had been my wish to +go.' + +'Xarifa was and is female honour. Take the key, open that box; I will +make inquiries. But, my dear, you guess everything. Your little box was +removed for the bigger impression to be produced by this one.' + +A flash came out of her dark eyes. + +'No, you guess wrong this time, you clever shrew! I wormed nothing from +you,' said he. 'I knew you kept particular letters in that receptacle of +things of price: Aminta can't conceal. The man has worried you. Why not +have come to me?' + +'Oblige me, my lord, by restoring me my box.' + +'This is your box.' + +Her bosom lifted with the words Oh, no! unspoken. He took the key and +opened the box. A dazzling tray of stones was revealed; underneath it +the constellations in cases, very heavens for the worldly Eve; and he +doubted that Eve could have gone completely out of her. But she had, as +observation instructed him, set her woman's mind on something else, and +must have it before letting her eyes fall on objects impossible for any +of her sex to see without coveting them. + +He bowed. 'I will fetch it,' he said magnanimously. Her own box was +brought from his room. She then consented to look womanly at the Ormont +jewels, over which the battle; whereof she knew nothing, and nothing +could be told her, had been fought in her interests, for her sovereign +pleasure. + +She looked and admired. They were beautiful jewels the great emerald was +wonderful, and there were two rubies to praise. She excused herself +for declining to put the circlet for the pendant round her neck, or a +glittering ring on her finger. Her remarks were encomiums, not quite +so cold as those of a provincial spinster of an ascetic turn at an +exhibition of the world's flycatcher gewgaws. He had divided Aminta from +the Countess of Ormont, and it was the wary Aminta who set a guard on +looks and tones before the spectacle of his noble bounty, lest any, +the smallest, payment of the dues of the countess should be demanded. +Rightly interpreting him to be by nature incapable of asking pardon, or +acknowledging a wrong done by him, however much he might crave exemption +from blame and seek for peace, she kept to her mask of injury, though +she hated unforgivingness; and she felt it little, she did it easily, +because her heart was dead to the man. My lord's hand touched her on her +shoulder, propitiatingly in some degree, in his dumb way. + +Offended women can be emotional to a towering pride, that bends while +it assumes unbendingness: it must come to their sensations, as it were +a sign of humanity in the majestic, speechless king of beasts; and they +are pathetically melted, abjectly hypocritical; a nice confusion of +sentiments, traceable to a tender bosom's appreciation of strength and +the perceptive compassion for its mortality. + +In a case of the alienated wife, whose blood is running another way, no +foul snake's bite is more poisonous than that indicatory touch, however +simple and slight. My lord's hand, lightly laid on Aminta's shoulder, +became sensible of soft warm flesh stiffening to the skeleton. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. LOVERS MATED + +He was benevolently martial, to the extent of paternal, in thinking +his girl, of whom he deigned to think now as his countess, pardonably +foolish. Woman for woman, she was of a pattern superior to the world's +ordinary, and might run the world's elect a race. But she was pitifully +woman-like in her increase of dissatisfaction with the more she got. +Women are happier enslaved. Men, too, if their despot is an Ormont. +Colonel of his regiment, he proved that: his men would follow him +anywhere, do anything. Grand old days, before he was condemned by one +knows not what extraordinary round of circumstances to cogitate on women +as fluids, and how to cut channels for them, that they may course along +in the direction good for them, imagining it their pretty wanton will +to go that way! Napoleon's treatment of women is excellent example. +Peterborough's can be defended. + +His Aminta could not reason. She nursed a rancour on account of the blow +she drew on herself at Steignton, and she declined consolation in her +being pardoned. The reconcilement evidently was proposed as a finale of +one of the detestable feminine storms enveloping men weak enough to +let themselves be dragged through a scene for the sake of domestic +tranquillity. + +A remarkable exhibition of Aminta the woman was, her entire change of +front since he had taken her spousal chill. Formerly she was passive, +merely stately, the chiselled grande dame, deferential in her bearing +and speech, even when argumentative and having an opinion to plant. She +had always the independent eye and step; she now had the tongue of the +graceful and native great lady, fitted to rule her circle and hold +her place beside the proudest of the Ormonts. She bore well the small +shuffle with her jewel-box--held herself gallantly. There had been no +female feignings either, affected misapprehensions, gapy ignorances, +and snaky subterfuges, and the like, familiar to men who have the gentle +twister in grip. Straight on the line of the thing to be seen she flew, +and struck on it; and that is a woman's martial action. He would right +heartily have called her comrade, if he had been active himself. A +warrior pulled off his horse, to sit in a chair and contemplate +the minute evolutions of the sex is pettish with his part in such +battle-fields at the stage beyond amusement. + +Seen swimming, she charmed him. Abstract views of a woman summon +opposite advocates: one can never say positively, That is she! But the +visible fair form of a woman is hereditary queen of us. We have none of +your pleadings and counter-pleadings and judicial summaries to obstruct +a ravenous loyalty. My lord beheld Aminta take her three quick steps on +the plank, and spring and dive and ascend, shaking the ends of her bound +black locks; and away she went with shut mouth and broad stroke of her +arms into the sunny early morning river; brave to see, although he had +to flick a bee of a question, why he enjoyed the privilege of seeing, +and was not beside her. The only answer confessed to a distaste for all +exercise once pleasurable. + +She and her little friend boated or strolled through the meadows during +the day; he fished. When he and Aminta rode out for the hour before +dinner, she seemed pleased. She was amicable, conversable, all that +was agreeable as a woman, and she was the chillest of wives. My lord's +observations and reflections came to one conclusion: she pricked and +challenged him to lead up to her desired stormy scene. He met her and +meant to vanquish her with the dominating patience Charlotte had found +too much for her: women cannot stand against it. + +To be patient in contention with women, however, one must have a +continuous and an exclusive occupation; and the tax it lays on us +conduces usually to impatience with men. My lord did not directly +connect Aminta's chillness and Morsfield's impudence; yet the sensation +roused by his Aminta participated in the desire to punish Morsfield +speedily. Without wishing for a duel, he was moved by the social +sanction it had to consider whether green youths and women might not +think a grey head had delayed it too long. The practice of the duel +begot the peculiar animal logic of the nobler savage, which tends to +magnify an offence in the ratio of our vanity, and hunger for a blood +that is not demanded by the appetite. Moreover, a waning practice, in +disfavour with the new generation, will be commended to the conservative +barbarian, as partaking of the wisdom of his fathers. Further, too, we +may have grown slothful, fallen to moodiness, done excess of service to +Omphale, our tyrant lady of the glow and the chill; and then undoubtedly +the duel braces. + +He left Aminta for London, submissive to the terms of intimacy dictated +by her demeanour, his unacknowledged seniority rendering their harshness +less hard to endure. She had not gratified him with a display of her +person in the glitter of the Ormont jewels; and since he was, under +common conditions, a speechless man, his ineptitude for amorous +remonstrances precipitated him upon deeds, that he might offer +additional proofs of his esteem and the assurance of her established +position as his countess. He proposed to engage Lady Charlotte in a +conflict severer than the foregoing, until he brought her to pay the +ceremonial visit to her sister-in-law. The count of time for this final +trial of his masterfulness he calculated at a week. It would be an +occupation, miserable occupation though it was. He hailed the prospect +of chastising Morsfield, for a proof that his tussels with women, +prolonged study of their tricks, manoeuvrings and outwittings of them, +had not emasculated him. + +Aminta willingly promised to write from day to day. Her senses had his +absence insured to them by her anticipation of the task. She did not +conceive it would be so ponderous a task. What to write to him when +nothing occurred! Nothing did occur, unless the arrival of Mr. Weyburn +was to be named an event. She alluded to it: 'Mr. Weyburn has come, +expecting to find you here. The dispatch-box is here. Is he to await +you?' + +That innocent little question was a day gained. + +One day of boating on the upper reaches of the pastoral river, and walks +in woods and golden meadows, was felicity fallen on earth, the ripe +fruit of dreams. A dread surrounded it, as a belt, not shadowing the +horizon; and she clasped it to her heart the more passionately, like a +mother her rosy infant, which a dark world threatens and the universal +fate. + +Love, as it will be at her June of life, was teaching her to know the +good and bad of herself. Women, educated to embrace principles through +their timidity and their pudency, discover, amazed, that these are not +lasting qualities under love's influence. The blushes and the fears take +flight. The principles depend much on the beloved. Is he a man whose +contact with the world has given him understanding of life's laws, and +can hold him firm to the right course in the strain and whirling of a +torrent, they cling to him, deeply they worship. And if they tempt him, +it is not advisedly done. Nature and love are busy in conjunction. +The timidities and pudencies have flown; they may hover, they are not +present. You deplore it, you must not blame; you have educated them so. +Muscular principles are sown only out in the world; and, on the whole, +with all their errors, the worldly men are the truest as well as the +bravest of men. Her faith in his guidance was equal to her dependence. +The retrospect of a recent journey told her how he had been tried. + +She could gaze tenderly, betray her heart, and be certain of safety. Can +wine match that for joy? She had no schemes, no hopes, but simply the +desire to bestow, the capacity to believe. Any wish to be enfolded by +him was shapeless and unlighted, unborn; though now and again for some +chance word or undefined thought she surprised the strange tenant of her +breast at an incomprehensibly faster beat, and knew it for her own and +not her own, the familiar the stranger--an utter stranger, as one who +had snared her in a wreath and was pulling her off her feet. + +She was not so guileless at the thought of little Selina Collett here, +and of Selina as the letter-bearer of old; and the marvel that Matey and +Browny and Selina were together after all! Was it not a kind of summons +to her to call him Matey just once, only once, in play? She burned +and ached to do it. She might have taxed her ingenuity successfully to +induce little Selina to the boldness of calling him Matey--and she +then repeating it, as the woman who revived with a meditative effort +recollections of the girl. Ah, frightful hypocrite! Thoughts of the +pleasure of his name aloud on her lips in his hearing dissolved through +her veins, and were met by Matthew Weyburn's open face, before which +hypocrisy stood rent and stripped. She preferred the calmer, the truer +pleasure of seeing him modestly take lessons in the nomenclature of +weeds, herbs, grasses, by hedge and ditch. Selina could instruct him as +well in entomology, but he knew better the Swiss, Tyrolese, and Italian +valley-homes of beetle and butterfly species. Their simple talk was a +cool zephyr fanning Aminta. + +The suggestion to unite the two came to her, of course, but their +physical disparity denied her that chance to settle her own difficulty, +and a whisper of one physically the match for him punished her. In +stature, in healthfulness, they were equals, perhaps: not morally or +intellectually. And she could claim headship of him on one little point +confided to her by his mother, who was bearing him, and startled by +the boom of guns under her pillow, when her husband fronted the enemy: +Matthew Weyburn, the fencer, boxer, cricketer, hunter, all things manly, +rather shrank from firearms--at least, one saw him put on a screw +to manipulate them. In danger--among brigands or mutineers, +for example--she could stand by him and prove herself his mate. +Intellectually, morally, she had to bow humbly. Nor had she, nor could +she do more than lean on and catch example from his prompt spiritual +valiancy. It shone out from him, and a crisis fulfilled the promise. Who +could be his mate for cheerful courage, for skill, the ready mind, easy +adroitness, and for self-command? To imitate was a woman's utmost. + +Matthew Weyburn appeared the very Matey of the first of May cricketing +day among Cuper's boys the next morning, when seen pacing down the +garden-walk. He wore his white trousers of that happiest of old +days--the 'white ducks' Aminta and Selina remembered. Selina beamed. +'Yes, he did; he always wore them; but now it's a frock-coat instead of +a jacket.' + +'But now he will be a master instead of a schoolboy,' said Aminta. 'Let +us hope he will prosper.' + +'He gives me the idea of a man who must succeed,' Selina said; and she +was patted, rallied, asked how she had the idea, and kissed; Aminta +saying she fancied it might be thought, for he looked so confident. + +'Only not what the boys used to call “cocky,”' said Selina. 'He won't be +contemptuous of those he outstrips.' + +'His choice of the schoolmaster's profession points to a modesty in him, +does it not, little woman?' + +'He made me tell him, while you were writing your letters yesterday, all +about my brother and his prospects.' + +'Yes, that is like him. And I must hear of your brother, “little +Collett.” Don't forget, Sely, little Collett was our postman.' + +The Countess of Ormont's humorous reference to the circumstance passed +with Selina for a sign of a poetic love of the past, and a present +social elevation that allowed her to review it impassively. She admired +the great lady and good friend who could really be interested in +the fortunes of a mere schoolmaster and a merchant's clerk. To her +astonishment, by some agency beyond her fathoming, she found herself, +and hardly for her own pleasure, pushing the young schoolmaster +animatedly to have an account of his aims in the establishment of the +foreign school. + +Weyburn smiled. He set a short look at Aminta; and she, conscious of her +detected diplomacy, had an inward shiver, mixed of the fascination +and repugnance felt by a woman who knows that under one man's eyes her +character is naked and anatomized. Her character?--her soul. He held it +in hand and probed it mercifully. She had felt the sweet sting again and +again, and had shrunk from him, and had crawled to him. The love of him +made it all fascination. How did he learn to read at any moment right to +the soul of a woman? Did experience teach him, or sentimental sympathy? +He was too young, he was too manly. It must be because of his being in +heart and mind the brother to the sister with women. + +Thames played round them on his pastoral pipes. Bee-note and woodside +blackbird and meadow cow, and the fish of the silver rolling rings, +composed the leap of the music. + +She gave her mind to his voice, following whither it went; half was in +air, higher than the swallow's, exalting him. + +How is it he is the brother of women? They are sisters for him because +he is neither sentimentalist nor devourer. He will not flatter to feed +on them. The one he chooses, she will know love. There are women who go +through life not knowing love. They are inanimate automatic machines, +who lay them down at last, inquiring wherefore they were caused to move. +She is not of that sad flock. She will be mated; she will have the right +to call him Matey. A certain Browny called him Matey. She lived and +died. A certain woman apes Browny's features and inherits her passion, +but has forfeited her rights. Were she, under happiest conditions, +to put her hand in his, shame would burn her. For he is just--he is +Justice; and a woman bringing him less than his due, she must be a +creature of the slime! + +This was the shadowy sentiment that made the wall of division between +them. There was no other. Lord Ormont had struck to fragments that +barrier of the conventional oath and ceremonial union. He was unjust--he +was Injustice. The weak may be wedded, they cannot be married; to +Injustice. And if we have the world for the buttress of injustice, then +is Nature the flaring rebel; there is no fixed order possible. Laws +are necessary instruments of the majority; but when they grind the sane +human being to dust for their maintenance, their enthronement is the +rule of the savage's old deity, sniffing blood-sacrifice. There cannot +be a based society upon such conditions. An immolation of the naturally +constituted individual arrests the general expansion to which we step, +decivilizes more, and is more impious to the God in man, than temporary +revelries of a licence that Nature soon checks. + +Arrows of thoughts resembling these shot over the half of Aminta's mind +not listening. Her lover's head was active on the same theme while he +spoke. They converged to it from looks crossing or catching profiles, or +from tones, from a motion of hand, from a chance word. Insomuch that +the third person present was kept unobservant only by her studious and +humble speculations on the young schoolmaster's grand project to bring +the nationalities together, and teach Old England to the Continent--the +Continent to Old England: our healthy games, our scorn of the lie, +manliness; their intellectual valour, diligence, considerate manners. + +'Just to name a few of the things for interchange,' said Weyburn. 'As to +method, we shall be their disciples. But I look forward to our fellows +getting the lead. No hurry. Why will they? you ask in petto. Well, they +'re emulous, and they take a thrashing kindly. That 's the way to learn +a lesson. I 've seen our fellows beaten and beaten--never the courage +beaten out of them. In the end, they won and kept the field. They have a +lot to learn--principally not to be afraid of ideas. They lose heaps +of time before they can feel at home with ideas. They call themselves +practical for having an addiction to the palpable. It is a pretty wreath +they clap on their deficiencies. Practical dogs are for bones, horses +for corn. I want the practical Englishman to settle his muzzle in a +nosebag of ideas. When he has once got hold of them, he makes good stuff +of them. On the Continent ideas have wings and pay visits. Here, they're +stay-at-home. Then I want our fellows to have the habit of speaking from +the chest. They shall return to England with the whoop of the mountains +in them and ready to jump out. They shall have an Achillean roar; and +they shall sing by second nature. Don't fear: they'll give double for +anything they take. I've known Italians, to whom an Englishman's honesty +of mind and dealing was one of the dreams of a better humanity they +had put in a box. Frenchmen, too, who, when they came to know us, were +astonished at their epithet of perfide, and loved us.' + +'Emile,' said Aminta. 'You remember Emile, Selina: the dear little +French boy at Mr. Cuper's?' + +'Oh, I do,' Selina responded. + +'He will work with Mr. Weyburn in Switzerland.' + +'Oh, that will be nice!' the girl exclaimed. + +Aminta squeezed Selina's hand. A shower of tears clouded her eyes. She +chose to fancy it was because of her envy of the modest, busy, peaceful +girl, who envied none. Conquers also sincerity in the sincerest. She was +vexed with her full breast, and had as little command of her thoughts as +of her feelings. + +'Mr. Weyburn has ideas for the education of girls too,' she said. + +'There's the task,' said he. 'It's to separate them as little as +possible. All the--passez-moi le mot--devilry between the sexes begins +at their separation. They 're foreigners when they meet; and their +alliances are not always binding. The chief object in life, if happiness +be the aim, and the growing better than we are, is to teach men and +women how to be one; for, if they 're not, then each is a morsel for +the other to prey on. Lady Charlotte Eglett's view is, that the greater +number of them on both sides hate one another.' + +'Hate!' exclaimed Selina; and Aminta said: 'Is Lady Charlotte Eglett an +authority?' + +'She has observed, and she thinks. She has in the abstract the justest +of minds: and that is the curious point about her. But one may say they +are trained at present to be hostile. Some of them fall in love and +strike a truce, and still they are foreigners. They have not the same +standard of honour. They might have it from an education in common.' + +'But there must be also a lady to govern the girls?' Selina interposed. + +'Ah, yes; she is not yet found!' + +'Would it increase their mutual respect?--or show of respect, if you +like?' said Aminta, with his last remark at work as the shattering bell +of a city's insurrection in her breast. + +'In time, under management; catching and grouping them young. A boy who +sees a girl do what he can't, and would like to do, won't take refuge in +his muscular superiority--which, by the way, would be lessened.' + +'You suppose their capacities are equal?' + +'Things are not equal. I suppose their excellencies to make a pretty +nearly equal sum in the end. But we 're not weighing them each. The +question concerns the advantage of both.' + +'That seems just!' + +Aminta threw no voice into the word 'just.' It was the word of the +heavens assuaging earth's thirst, and she was earth to him. Her soul +yearned to the man whose mind conceived it. + +She said to Selina: 'We must plan an expedition next year or the year +after, and see how the school progresses.' + +All three smiled; and Selina touched and held Aminta's hand shyly. +Visions of the unseen Switzerland awed her. + +Weyburn named the Spring holiday time, the season of the flowering +Alpine robes. He promised welcome, pressed for a promise of the visit. +Warmly it was given. 'We will; we will indeed!' + +'I shall look forward,' he said. + +There was nothing else for him or for her, except to doat on the passing +minute that slipped when seized. The looking forward turned them to the +looking back at the point they had flown from, and yielded a momentary +pleasure, enough to stamp some section of a picture on their memories, +which was not the burning now Love lives for, in the clasp, if but of +hands. Desire of it destroyed it. They swung to the future, swung to the +present it made the past, sensible to the quick of the now they could +not hold. They were lovers. Divided lovers in presence, they thought and +they felt in pieces. Feelings and thoughts were forbidden to speech. +She dared look the very little of her heart's fulness, without the +disloyalty it would have been in him to let a small peep of his heart +be seen. While her hand was not clasped she could look tenderly, and her +fettered state, her sense of unworthiness muffled in the deeps, would +keep her from the loosening to passion. + +He who read through her lustrous, transiently dwelling eyes had not that +security. His part, besides the watch over the spring of his hot blood, +was to combat a host, insidious among which was unreason calling her +Browny, urging him to take his own, to snatch her from a possessor who +forfeited by undervaluing her. This was the truth in a better-ordered +world: she belonged to the man who could help her to grow and to do her +work. But in the world we have around us, it was the distorted truth: +and keeping passion down, he was able to wish her such happiness as +pertained to safety from shipwreck, and for himself, that he might +continue to walk in the ranks of the sober citizens. + +Oh, true and right, but she was gloriously beautiful! Day by day she +surpassed the wondrous Browny of old days. All women were eclipsed by +her. She was that fire in the night which lights the night and draws the +night to look at it. And more: this queen of women was beginning to have +a mind at work. One saw already the sprouting of a mind repressed. She +had a distinct ability; the good ambition to use her qualities. She +needed life and air--that is, comprehension of her, encouragement, the +companion mate. With what strength would she now endow him! The pride +in the sharp imagination of possessing her whispered a boast of the +strength her mate would have from her. His need and her need rushed +together somewhere down the skies. They could not, he argued, be +separated eternally. + +He had to leave her. Selina, shocked at a boldness she could not +understand in herself, begged him to stay and tell her of Switzerland +and Alpine flowers and herbs, and the valleys for the gold beetle and +the Apollo butterfly. Aminta hinted that Lord Ormont might expect to +find him there, if he came the next morning; but she would not try to +persuade, and left the decision with him, loving him for the pain he +inflicted by going. + +Why, indeed, should he stay? Both could ask; they were one in asking. +Anguish balanced pleasure in them both. The day of the pleasure was +heaven to remember, heaven to hope for; not so heavenly to pray for. +The praying for it, each knew, implored their joint will to decree the +perilous blessing. A shadowy sentiment of duty and rectitude, born of +what they had suffered, hung between them and the prayer for a renewal, +that would renew the tempting they were conscious of when the sweet, the +strained, throbbing day was over. They could hope for chance to renew +it, and then they would be irresponsible. Then they would think and wish +discreetly, so as to have it a happiness untainted. In refusing now to +take another day or pray for it, they deserved that chance should grant +it. + +Aminta had said through Selina the utmost her self-defences could allow. +But the idea of a final parting cut too cruelly into her life, and she +murmured: 'I shall see you before you go for good?' + +'I will come, here or in London.' + +'I can trust?' + +'Quite certain.' + +A meeting of a few hasty minutes involved none of the dangers of a +sunny, long summer day; and if it did, the heart had its claims, the +heart had its powers of resistance. Otherwise we should be base verily. + +He turned on a bow to leave her before there was a motion for the offer +of her hand. + +After many musings and frettings, she reached the wisdom of that. +Wisdom was her only nourishment now. A cold, lean dietary it is; but +he dispensed it, and it fed her, or kept her alive. It became a proud +feeling that she had been his fellow in the achievement of a piece of +wisdom; though the other feeling, that his hand's kind formal touching, +without pressure of hers, would have warmed her to go through the next +interview with her lord, mocked at pure satisfaction. Did he distrust +himself? Or was it to spare her? But if so, her heart was quite bare to +him! But she knew it was. + +Aminta drove her questioning heart as a vessel across blank circles +of sea, where there was nothing save the solitary heart for answer. It +answered intelligibly and comfortingly at last, telling her of proof +given that she could repose under his guidance with absolute faith. Was +ever loved woman more blest than she in such belief? She had it firmly; +and a blessedness, too, in this surety wavering beneath shadows of the +uncertainty. Her eyes knew it, her ears were empty of the words. Her +heart knew it, and it was unconfirmed by reason. As for his venturing to +love her, he feared none. And no sooner did that reflection surge +than she stood up beside him in revolt against her lion and lord. Her +instinct judged it impossible she could ever have yielded her heart to +a man lacking courage. Hence--what? when cowardice appeared as the sole +impediment to happiness now! + +He had gone, and the day lived again for both of them--a day of sheer +gold in the translation from troubled earth to the mind. One another's +beauty through the visage into the character was newly perceived and +worshipped; and the beauties of pastoral Thames, the temple of peace, +hardly noticed in the passing of the day--taken as air to the breather; +until some chip of the scene, round which an emotion had curled, was +vivid foreground and gateway to shrouded romance: it might be the +stream's white face browning into willow-droopers, or a wagtail on a +water-lily leaf, or the fore-horse of an up-river barge at strain of +legs, a red-finned perch hung a foot above the pebbles in sun-veined +depths, a kingfisher on the scud under alders, the forest of the +bankside weeds. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. PREPARATIONS FOR A RESOLVE + +That day receded like a spent billow, and lapsed among the others +advancing, but it left a print deeper than events would have stamped. +Aminta's pen declined to run to her lord; and the dipping it in ink +was no acceleration of the process. A sentence, bearing likeness to an +artless infant's trot of the half-dozen steps to mother's lap, stumbled +upon the full stop midway. Desperate determination pushed it along, and +there was in consequence a dead stop at the head of the next sentence. +A woman whose nature is insurgent against the majesty of the man to whom +she must, among the singular injunctions binding her, regularly write, +sees no way between hypocrisy and rebellion. For rebellion, she, with +the pen in her hand, is avowedly not yet ripe, hypocrisy is abominable. + +If she abstained from writing, he might travel down to learn the cause; +a similar danger, or worse, haunted the writing frigidly. She had to be +the hypocrite or else--leap. + +But an honest woman who is a feeling woman, when she consents to play +hypocrite, cannot do it by halves. From writing a short cold letter, +Aminta wrote a short warm one, or very friendly. Length she could avoid, +because she was unable to fill a page. It seemed that she could not +compose a friendly few lines without letting her sex be felt in them. +What she had put away from her, so as not to feel it herself, the +simulation of ever so small a bit of feeling brought prominently back; +and where she had made a cast for flowing independent simplicity, she +was feminine, ultra-feminine to her reading of it. + +Better take the leap than be guilty of double-dealing even on paper! The +nature of the leap she did not examine. + +Her keen apprehension of the price payable for his benevolent intentions +caught scent of them in the air. Those Ormont jewels shone as emblems of +a detested subjection, the penalty for being the beautiful woman rageing +men proclaimed. Was there no scheme of some other sort, and far less +agreeable, to make amends for Steignton? She was shrewd at divination; +she guessed her lord's design. Rather than meet Lady Charlotte, she +proposed to herself the 'leap' immediately; knowing it must be a leap +in the dark, hoping it might be into a swimmer's water. She had her own +pin-money income, and she loathed the chain of her title. So the leap +would at least be honourable, as it assuredly would be unregretted, +whatever ensued. + +While Aminta's heart held on to this debate, and in her bed, in her +boat, across the golden valley meadows beside her peaceful little +friend, she gathered a gradual resolution without sight of agencies or +consequences, Lord Ormont was kept from her by the struggle to +master his Charlotte a second time--compared with which the first was +insignificant. And this time it was curious: he could not subdue her +physique, as he did before; she was ready for him each day, and she was +animated, much more voluble, she was ready to jest. The reason being, +that she fought now on plausibly good grounds: on behalf of her +independent action. + +Previously, her intelligence of the ultimate defeat hanging over the +more stubborn defence of a weak position had harassed her to death's +door. She had no right to retain the family jewels; she had the most +perfect of established rights to refuse doing an ignominious thing. She +refused to visit the so-called Countess of Ormont, or leave her card, +or take one step to warrant the woman in speaking of her as her +sister-in-law. And no,--it did not signify that her brother Rowsley was +prohibited by her from marrying whom he pleased. It meant, that to judge +of his acts as those of a reasoning man, he would have introduced +his wife to his relatives--the relatives he had not quarrelled +with--immediately upon his marriage unless he was ashamed of the woman; +and a wife he was ashamed of was no sister-in-law for her nor aunt for +her daughters. Nor should she come playing the Black Venus among +her daughters' husbands, Lady Charlotte had it in her bosom to say +additionally. + +Lord Ormont was disconcerted by her manifest pleasure in receiving him +every day. Evidently she consented to the recurrence of a vexatious +dissension for the enjoyment of having him with her hourly. Her +dialectic, too, was cunning. Impetuous with meaning, she forced her +way to get her meaning out, in a manner effective to strike her blow. +Anything for a diversion or a triumph of the moment! He made no way. She +was the better fencer at the tongue. + +Yet there was not any abatement of her deference to her brother; and +this little misunderstanding put aside, he was the Rowsley esteemed by +her as the chief of men. She foiled him, it might seem, to exalt him +the more. After he had left the house, visibly annoyed and somewhat +stupefied, she talked of him to her husband, of the soul of chivalry +Rowsley was, the loss to his country. Mr. Eglett was a witness to one of +the altercations, when she, having as usual the dialectical advantage, +praised her brother, to his face, for his magnanimous nature; regretting +only that it could be said he was weak on the woman side of him--which +was, she affirmed, a side proper to every man worth the name; but in his +case his country might complain. Of what?--Well, of a woman.--What +had she done, for the country to complain of her?--Why, then, arts +or graces, she had bewitched and weaned him from his public duty, his +military service, his patriotic ambition. + +Lord Ormont's interrogations, heightening the effect of Charlotte's +charge, appeared to Mr. Eglett as a giving of himself over into her +hands; but the earl, after a minute of silence, proved he was a tricky +combatant. It was he who had drawn on Charlotte, that he might have +his opportunity to eulogize--'this lady, whom you continue to call the +woman, after I have told you she is my wife.' According to him, her +appeals, her entreaties, that he should not abandon his profession or +let his ambition rust, had been at one period constant. + +He spoke fervently, for him eloquently; and he gained his point; he +silenced Lady Charlotte's tongue, and impressed Mr. Eglett. + +When the latter and his wife were alone, he let her see that the +Countess of Ormont was becoming a personage in his consideration. + +Lady Charlotte cried out: 'Hear these men where it's a good-looking +woman between the winds! Do you take anything Rowsley says for earnest? +You ought to know he stops at no trifle to get his advantage over you in +a dispute. That 's the soldier in him. It 's victory at any cost!--and I +like him for it. Do you tell me you think it possible my brother Rowsley +would keep smothered years under a bushel the woman he can sit here +magnifying because he wants to lime you and me: you to take his part, +and me to go and call the noble creature decked out in his fine fiction +my sister-in-law. Nothing 'll tempt me to believe my brother could +behave in such a way to the woman he respected!' + +So Mr. Eglett opined. But he had been impressed. + +He relieved his mind on the subject in a communication to Lord +Adderwood; who habitually shook out the contents of his to Mrs. Lawrence +Finchley, and she, deeming it good for Aminta to have information of +the war waging for her behoof, obtained her country address, with the +resolve to drive down, a bearer of good news to the dear woman she liked +to think of, look at, and occasionally caress; besides rather tenderly +pitying her, now that a change of fortune rendered her former trials +conspicuous. + +An incident, considered grave even in the days of the duel and the kicks +against a swelling public reprehension of the practice, occurred to +postpone her drive for four-and-twenty hours. London was shaken by +rumours of a tragic mishap to a socially well-known gentleman at the +Chiallo fencing rooms. The rumours passing from mouth to mouth acquired, +in the nature of them, sinister colours as they circulated. Lord +Ormont sent Aminta word of what he called 'a bad sort of accident at +Chiallo's,' without mentioning names or alluding to suspicions. + +He treated it lightly. He could not have written of it with such +unconcern if it involved the secretary! Yet Aminta did seriously ask +herself whether he could; and she flew rapidly over the field of +his character, seizing points adverse, points favourably advocative, +balancing dubiously--most unjustly: she felt she was unjust. But in her +condition, the heart of a woman is instantly planted in jungle when the +spirits of the two men closest to her are made to stand opposed by +a sudden excitement of her fears for the beloved one. She cannot see +widely, and is one of the wild while the fit lasts; and, after it, that +savage narrow vision she had of the unbeloved retains its vivid print +in permanence. Was she unjust? Aminta cited corroboration of her being +accurate: such was Lord Ormont! and although his qualities of gallantry, +courtesy, integrity, honourable gentleman, presented a fair low-level +account on the other side, she had so stamped his massive selfishness +and icy inaccessibility to emotion on her conception of him that the +repulsive figure formed by it continued towering when her mood was +kinder. + +Love played on love in the woman's breast. Her love had taken a fever +from her lord's communication of the accident at Chiallo's, and she +pushed her alarm to imagine the deadliest, and plead for the right of +confession to herself of her unrepented regrets. She and Matey Weyburn +had parted without any pressure of hands, without a touch. They were, +then, unplighted if now the grave divided them! No touch: mere glances! +And she sighed not, as she pleaded, for the touch, but for the plighting +it would have been. If now she had lost him, he could never tell herself +that since the dear old buried and night-walking schooldays she had said +once Matey to him, named him once to his face Matey Weyburn. A sigh like +the roll of a great wave breaking against a wall of rock came from her +for the possibly lost chance of naming him to his face Matey,--oh, and +seeing his look as she said it! + +The boldness might be fancied: it could not be done. Agreeing with +the remote inner voice of her reason so far, she toned her exclamatory +foolishness to question, in Reason's plain, deep, basso-profundo +accompaniment tone, how much the most blessed of mortal women could do +to be of acceptable service to a young schoolmaster? + +There was no reply to the question. But it became a nestling centre for +the skiey flock of dreams, and for really temperate soundings of her +capacities, tending to the depreciatory. She could do little. She +entertained the wish to work, not only 'for the sake of Somebody,' +as her favourite poet sang, but for the sake of working and +serving--proving that she was helpfuller than a Countess of Ormont, +ranged with all the other countesses in china and Dresden on a +drawing-room mantelpiece for show. She could organize, manage a +household, manage people too, she thought: manage a husband? The word +offends. Perhaps invigorate him, here and there perhaps inspire him, +if he would let her breathe. Husbands exist who refuse the right of +breathing to their puppet wives. Above all, as it struck her, she could +assist, and be more than an echo of one nobler, in breathing manliness, +high spirit, into boys. With that idea she grazed the shallows of +reality, and her dreams whirred from the nest and left it hungrily +empty. + +Selina Collett was writing under the verandah letters to her people in +Suffolk, performing the task with marvellous ease. Aminta noted it as +a mark of superior ability, and she had the envy of the complex nature +observing the simple. It accused her of some guiltiness, uncommitted +and indefensible. She had pushed her anxiety about 'the accident +at Chiallo's' to an extreme that made her the creature of her +sensibilities. In the midst of this quiet country life and landscape; +these motionless garden flowers headed by the smooth white river, and +her gentle little friend so homely here, the contemplation of herself +was like a shriek in music. Worse than discordant, she pronounced +herself inferior, unfit mentally as well as bodily for the dreams of +companionship with any noble soul who might have the dream of turning +her into something better. There are couples in the world, not coupled +by priestly circumstance, who are close to the true; union, by reason of +generosity on the one part, grateful devotion, as for the gift of life, +on the other. For instance, Mrs. Lawrence Finchley and Lord Adderwood, +which was an instance without resemblance; but Aminta's heart beat thick +for what it wanted, and they were the instance of two that did not +have to snap false bonds of a marriage-tie in order to walk together +composedly outside it--in honour? Oh yes, yes! She insisted on believing +it was in honour. + +She saw the couple issue from the boathouse. She had stepped into the +garden full of a presentiment; so she fancied, the moment they were +seen. She had, in fact, heard a noise in the boathouse while thinking +of them, and the effect on her was to spring an idea of mysterious +interventions at the sight. + +Mrs. Lawrence rushed to her, and was embraced. 'You 're not astonished +to see me? Adder drove me down, and stopped his coach at the inn, and +rowed me the half-mile up. We will lunch, if you propose; but presently. +My dear, I have to tell you things. You have heard?' + +'The accident?' + +Aminta tried to read in Mrs. Lawrence's eyes whether it closely +concerned her. + +Those pretty eyes, their cut of lids hinting at delicate affinities +with the rice-paper lady of the court of China, were trying to peer +seriously. + +'Poor man! One must be sorry for him: he--' + +'Who?' + +'You 've not heard, then?' Mrs. Lawrence dropped her voice: 'Morsfield.' + +Aminta shivered. 'All I have heard-half a line from my lord this +morning: no name. It was at the fencing-rooms, he said.' + +'Yes, he wouldn't write more;' said Mrs. Lawrence, nodding. 'You know, +he would have had to do it himself if it had not been done for him. +Adder saw him some days back in a brown consultation near his club with +Captain May. Oh, but of course it was accident! Did he call it so in his +letter to you?' + +'One word of Mr. Morsfield: he is wounded?' + +'Past cure: he has the thing he cried for, spoilt boy as he was from his +birth. I tell you truth, m' Aminta, I grieve to lose him. What with his +airs of the foreign-tinted, punctilious courtly gentleman covering a +survival of the ancient British forest boar or bear, he was a picture +in our modern set, and piquant. And he was devoted to our sex, we must +admit, after the style of the bears. They are for honey, and they have a +hug. If he hadn't been so much of a madman, I should have liked him for +his courage. He had plenty of that, nothing to steer it. A second cousin +comes in for his estates.' + +'He is dead?' Aminta cried. + +'Yes, dear, he is gone. What the women think of it I can't say. The +general feeling among the men is that some one of them would have had to +send him sooner or later. The curious point, Adder says, is his letting +it be done by steel. He was a dead shot, dangerous with the small sword, +as your Mr. Weyburn said, only soon off his head. But I used to be +anxious about the earl's meeting him with pistols. He did his best to +provoke it. Here, Adder,'--she spoke over her shoulder,--'tell Lady +Ormont all you know of the Morsfield-May affair.' + +Lord Adderwood bowed compliance. His coolness was the masculine of Mrs. +Lawrence's hardly feminine in treating of a terrible matter, so that +the dull red facts had to be disengaged from his manner of speech before +they sank into Aminta's acceptance; of them as credible. + +'They fought with foils, buttons off, preliminary ceremonies perfect; +salute in due order; guard, and at it. + +Odd thing was, nobody at Chiallo's had a notion of the business till +Morsfield was pinked. He wouldn't be denied; went to work like a fellow +meaning to be skewered, if he couldn't do the trick: and he tried it. +May had been practising some weeks. He's well on the Continent by this +time. It'll blow over. Button off sheer accident. I wasn't lucky enough +to see the encounter: came in just when Chiallo was lashing his poll +over Morsfield flat on the ground. He had it up to the hilt. We put a +buttoned foil by the side of Morsfield, and all swore to secrecy. As +it is, it 'll go badly against poor Chiallo. Taste for fencing won't be +much improved by the affair. They quarrelled in the dressing room, and +fetched the foils and knocked off the buttons there. A big rascal +toady squire of Morsfield's did it for him. Morsfield was just up from +Yorkshire. He said he was expecting a summons elsewhere, bound to +await it, declined provocation for the present. May filliped him on the +cheek.' + +'Adder conveyed the information of her husband's flight to the +consolable Amy,' said Mrs. Lawrence. + +'He had to catch the coach for Dover,' Adderwood explained. 'His wife +was at a dinner-party. I saw her at midnight.' + +'Fair Amy was not so very greatly surprised?' + +'Quite the soldier's wife!' + +'She said she was used to these little catastrophes. But, Adder, what +did she say of her husband?' + +'Said she was never anxious about him, for nothing would kill him.' + +Mrs. Lawrence shook a doleful head at Aminta. + +'You see, my dear Aminta, here's another, and probably her last, chance +of sharing the marquisate gone. Who can fail to pity her, except old +Time! And I 'm sure she likes her husband well enough. She ought: no +woman ever had such a servant. But the captain has not been known to +fight without her sanction, and the inference is--'Alas! woe! Fair Amy +is doomed to be the fighting captain's bride to the end of the chapter. +Adder says she looked handsome. A dinner-party suits her cosmetic +complexion better than a ball. The account of the inquest is in the +day's papers, and we were tolerably rejoiced we could drive out of +London without having to reply to coroner's questions.' + +'He died-soon?' Aminta's voice was shaken. + +Mrs. Lawrence touched at her breast, it might be for heart or lungs. +Judging by Aminta's voice and face, one could suppose she was harking +back, in woman's way, to her original sentiment for the man, now that he +lay prostrate. + +Aminta read the unreproachful irony in the smile addressed to her. She +was too convulsed by her many emotions and shouting thoughts to think of +defending herself. + +Selina, in the drawing-room, diligently fingered and classed brown-black +pressed weeds of her neophyte's botany-folios. The sight of her and her +occupation struck Aminta as that of a person in another world beyond +this world of blood, strangely substantial to view; and one heard her +speak. + +Guilty?--no. But she had wished to pique her lord. After the term of a +length of months, could it be that the unhappy man and she were punished +for the half-minute's acting of some interest in him? And Lord Ormont +had been seen consulting Captain May; or was it giving him directions? + +Her head burned. All the barren interrogations were up, running and +knocking for hollow responses; and, saving a paleness of face, she +cloaked any small show of the riot. She was an amiable hostess. She had +ceased to comprehend Mrs. Lawrence, even to the degree of thinking her +unfeminine. She should have known that the 'angelical chimpanzee,' as +a friend, once told of his being a favourite with the lady, had called +her, could not simulate a feeling, and had not the slightest power of +pretence to compassion for an ill-fated person who failed to quicken her +enthusiasm. In that, too, she was a downright boy. Morsfield was a +kind of Bedlamite to her; amusing in his antics, and requiring to be +manoeuvred and eluded while he lived: once dead, just a tombstone, of +interest only to his family. + +She beckoned Aminta to follow her; and, with a smirk of indulgent fun, +commended Lord Adderwood to a study of Selina Collett's botany-folios, +which the urbanest of indifferent gentlemen had slid his eyes over his +nose to inspect before the lunch. + +'You ought to know what is going on in town, my dear Aminta. You have +won the earl to a sense of his duty, and he 's at work on the harder +task of winning Lady Charlotte Eglett to a sense of hers. It 's +tremendous. Has been forward some days, and no sign of yielding on +either side. Mr. Eglett, good man, is between them, catching it right +and left; and he deserves his luck for marrying her. Vows she makes him +the best of wives. If he 's content, I 've nothing to complain of. You +must be ready to receive her; my lord is sure to carry the day. +You gulp. You won't be seeing much of her. I 'm glad to say he is +condescending to terms of peace with the Horse Guards. We hear so. You +may be throning it officially somewhere next year. And all 's well that +ends well! Say that to me!' + +'It is, when the end comes,' Aminta replied. + +Mrs. Lawrence's cool lips were pressed to her cheek. The couple +and their waterman rowed away to the party they had left with the +four-in-hand at their inn. + +A wind was rising. The trees gave their swish of leaves, the river +darkened the patch of wrinkles, the bordering flags amid the reed-blades +dipped and streamed. + +Surcharged with unassimilated news of events, that made a thunder in her +head, Aminta walked down the garden path, meeting Selina and bearing +her on. She had a witch's will to rouse gales. Hers was not the woman's +nature to be driven cowering by stories of men's bloody deeds. She took +the field, revolted, dissevering herself from the class which tolerated +them--actuated by a reflective moralty, she believed; and loathed +herself for having aspired, schemed, to be a member of the class. But +it was not the class, it was against her lord as representative of the +class, that she was now the rebel, neither naming him nor imaging +him. Her enveloping mind was black on him. Such as one of those hard +slaughtering men could call her his own? She breathed short and breathed +deep. Her bitter reason had but the common pity for a madman despatched +to his rest. Yet she knew hatred of her lord in his being suspected as +instigator or accomplice of the hand that dealt the blow. He became to +her thought a python whose coils were about her person, insufferable to +the gaze backward. + +Moments like these are the mothers in travail of a resolve joylessly +conceived, undesired to clasp, Necessity's offspring. Thunderclouds have +as little love of the lightnings they fling. + +Aminta was aware only of her torment. The trees were bending, the water +hissing, the grasses all this way and that, like hands of a delirious +people in surges of wreck. She scorned the meaningless shake of the +garments of earth, and exclaimed: 'If we were by the sea to-night!' + +'I shall be to-morrow night,' said Selina. 'I shall think of you. Oh! +would you come with me?' + +'Would you have me?' + +'My mother will indeed be honoured by your consenting to come.' + +'Write to her before the post is out.' + +'We shall travel down together?' + +Aminta nodded and smiled, and Selina kissed her hand in joy, saying, +that down home she would not be so shy of calling her Aminta. She was +bidden to haste. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. VISITS OF FAREWELL + +The noise in London over Adolphus Morsfield's tragical end disturbed +Lord Ormont much less than the cessation of letters from his Aminta; +and that likewise, considering his present business on her behalf, he +patiently shrugged at and pardoned, foreseeing her penitent air. +He could do it lightly after going some way to pardon his offending +country. For Aminta had not offended, his robust observation of her was +moved to the kindly humorous by a reflective view here and there of the +downright woman her clever little shuffles exposed her to be, not worse. +It was her sex that made her one of the gliders in grasses, some of +whom are venomous; but she belonged to the order only as an innocuous +blindworm. He could pronounce her small by-play with Morsfield innocent, +her efforts to climb the stairs into Society quite innocent; judging +her, of course, by her title of woman. A woman's innocence has a rainbow +skin. Set this one beside other women, she comes out well, fairly well, +well enough. + +Now that the engagement with Charlotte assumed proportions of a +series of battle, properly to be entitled a campaign, he had, in his +loneliness, fallen into the habit of reflecting at the close of his +day's work; and the rubbing of that unused opaque mirror hanging +inside a man of action had helped him piecemeal to perceive bits of +his conduct, entirely approved by him, which were intimately connected, +nevertheless, with a train of circumstances that he disliked and could +not charge justly upon any other shoulders than his own. What was to +be thought of it? He would not be undergoing this botheration of the +prolonged attempt to bring a stubborn woman to a sense of her duty, if +he had declared his marriage in the ordinary style, and given his young +countess her legitimate place before the world. What impeded it? The +shameful ingratitude of his countrymen to the soldier who did it eminent +service at a crisis of the destinies of our Indian Empire! He could not +condone the injury done to him by entering among them again. Too like +the kicked cur, that! He retired--call it 'sulked in his tent,' if +you like. His wife had to share his fortunes. He being slighted, she +necessarily was shadowed. For a while she bore it contentedly enough; +then began her mousy scratches to get into the room off the wainscot, +without blame from him; she behaved according to her female nature. + +Yes, but the battles with Charlotte forced on his recognition once +more, and violently, the singular consequences of his retirement and +Coriolanus quarrel with his countrymen. He had doomed himself ever since +to a contest with women. First it was his Queen of Amazons, who, if +vanquished, was not so easily vanquished, and, in fact, doubtfully,--for +now, to propitiate her, he had challenged, and must overcome or be +disgraced, the toughest Amazonian warrior man could stand against at +cast of dart or lock of arms. No day scored an advantage; and she did +not apparently suffer fatigue. He did: that is to say, he was worried +and hurried to have the wrangle settled and Charlotte at Aminta's feet. +He gained not an inch of ground. His principle in a contention of the +sort was to leave the woman to the practice of her obvious artifices, +and himself simply hammer, incessantly hammer. But Charlotte hammered +as well. The modest position of the defensive negative was not to +her taste. The moment he presented himself she flew out upon some +yesterday's part of the argument and carried the war across the borders, +in attacks on his character and qualities--his weakness regarding women, +his incapacity to forgive, and the rest. She hammered on that head. As +for any prospect of a termination of the strife, he could see none in +her joyful welcome to him and regretful parting and pleased appointment +of the next meeting day after day. + +The absurdest of her devices for winding him off his aim was to harp on +some new word she had got hold of as, for example, to point out to him +his aptitudes, compliment him on his aptitudes, recommend him to study +and learn the limitations of his aptitudes! She revelled in something +the word unfolded to her. + +However, here was the point: she had to be beaten. So, if she, too, +persisted in hammering, he must employ her female weapon of artifice +with her. One would gladly avoid the stooping to it in a civil dispute, +in which one is not so gloriously absolved for lying and entrapping as +in splendid war. + +Weyburn's name was announced to him at an early hour on Thursday +morning. My lord nodded to the footman; he nodded to himself over a +suggestion started in a tactical intelligence by the name. + +'Ah! you 're off?' he accosted the young man. + +'I have come to take my leave, my lord.' + +'Nothing new in the morning papers?' + +'A report that Captain May intends to return and surrender.' + +'Not before a month has passed, if he follows my counsel.' + +'To defend his character.' + +'He has none.' + +'His reputation.' + +'He has too much.' + +'These charges against him must be intolerable.' + +'Was he not a bit of a pupil of yours?' + +'We practised two or three times-nothing more.' + +'Morsfield was a wasp at a feast. Somebody had to crush him. I 've seen +the kind of man twice in my life and exactly the kind of man. If their +law puts down duelling, he rules the kingdom!' + +'My lord, I should venture to say the kind of man can be a common +annoyance because the breach of the law is countenanced.' + +'Bad laws are best broken. A society that can't get a scouring now and +then will be a dirty set.' + +With a bend of the head, in apology for speaking of himself, Weyburn +said: 'I have acted on my view. I declined a challenge from a sort of +henchman of his.' + +'Oh! a poacher's lurcher? You did right. Fight such fellows with +constables. You have seen Lady Charlotte?' + +'I am on my way to her ladyship.' + +'Do me this favour. Fourteen doors up the street of her residence, my +physician lives. I have to consult him at once. Dr. Rewkes.' + +Weyburn bowed. Lady Charlotte could not receive him later than half-past +ten of the morning, he said. 'This morning she can,' said my lord. 'You +will tell Dr. Rewkes that it is immediate. I rather regret your going. +I shall be in a controversy with the Horse Guards about our cavalry +saddles. It would be regiments of raw backs the first fortnight of a +campaign.' + +The earl discoursed on saddles; and passed to high eulogy of our +Hanoverian auxiliary troopers in the Peninsula; 'good husbands,' he +named them quaintly, speaking of their management of their beasts. +Thence he diverged to Frederic's cavalry, rarely matched for shrewdness +and endurance; to the deeds of the Liechtenstein Hussars; to the great +things Blucher did with his horsemen. + +The subject was interesting; but Weyburn saw the clock at past the half +after ten. He gave a slight sign of restiveness, and was allowed to go +when the earl had finished his pro and con upon Arab horses and Mameluke +saddles. Lord Ormont nicked his head, just as at their first interview: +he was known to have an objection to the English shaking of hands. +'Good-morning,' he said; adding a remark or two, of which et cetera +may stand for an explicit rendering. It concerned the young man's +prosperity: my lord's conservative plain sense was in doubt of the +prospering of a giddy pate, however good a worker. His last look at +the young man, who had not served him badly, held an anticipation +of possibly some day seeing a tatterdemalion of shipwreck, a rueful +exhibition of ideas put to the business of life. + +Weyburn left the message with Dr. Rewkes in person. It had not seemed +to him that Lord Ormont was one requiring the immediate attendance of +a physician. By way of accounting to Lady Charlotte for the lateness of +his call, he mentioned the summons he had delivered. + +'Oh, that's why he hasn't come yet,' said she. 'We'll sit and talk till +he does come. I don't wonder if his bile has been stirred. He can't oil +me to credit what he pumps into others. His Lady Ormont! I believe in it +less than ever I did. Morsfield or no Morsfield--and now the poor +wretch has got himself pinned to the plank, like my grandson Bobby's +dragonflies, I don't want to say anything further of him--she doesn't +have much of a welcome at Steignton! If I were a woman to wager as men +do, I 'd stake a thousand pounds to five on her never stepping across +the threshold of Steignton. All very well in London, and that place he +hires up at Marlow. He respects our home. That 's how I know my brother +Rowsley still keeps a sane man. A fortune on it!--and so says Mr. +Eglett. Any reasonable person must think it. He made a fool of some +Hampton-Evey at Madrid, if he went through any ceremony--and that I +doubt. But she and old (what do they call her?) may have insisted upon +the title, as much as they could. He sixty; she under twenty, I'm told. +Pagnell 's the name. That aunt of a good-looking young woman sees a +noble man of sixty admiring her five feet seven or so--she's tall--of +marketable merchandise, and she doesn't need telling that at sixty he'll +give the world to possess the girl. But not his family honour! He stops +at that. Why? Lord Ormont 's made of pride! He'll be kind to her, he'll +be generous, he won't forsake her; she'll have her portion in his will, +and by the course of things in nature, she'll outlive him and marry, and +be happy, I hope. Only she won't enter Steignton. You remember what I +say. You 'll live when I 'm gone. It 's the thirst of her life to be +mistress of Steignton. Not she!--though Lord Ormont would have us all +open our doors to her; mine too, now he 's about it. He sets his mind on +his plan, and he forgets rights and dues--everything; he must have it as +his will dictates. That 's how he made such a capital soldier. You know +the cavalry leader he was. If they'd given him a field in Europe! His +enemies admit that. Twelve! and my clock's five minutes or more slow. +What can Rowsley be doing?' + +She rattled backward on the scene at Steignton, and her brother's +handsome preservation of his dignity 'stood it like the king he is!' and +to the Morsfield-May encounter, which had prevented another; and Mrs. +May was rolled along in the tide, with a hint of her good reason for +liking Lord Ormont; also the change of opinion shown by the Press as to +Lord Ormont's grand exploit. Referring to it, she flushed and jigged on +her chair for a saddle beneath her. And that glorious Indian adventure +warmed her to the man who had celebrated it among his comrades when a +boy at school. + +'You 're to teach Latin and Greek, you said. For you 're right: we +English can't understand the words we 're speaking, if we don't know a +good deal of Latin and some Greek. “Conversing in tokens, not standard +coin,” you said, I remember; and there'll be a “general rabble tongue,” + unless we English are drilled in the languages we filched from. Lots of +lords and ladies want the drilling, then! I'll send some over to you +for Swiss air and roots of the English tongue. Oh, and you told me you +supported Lord Ormont on his pet argument for corps d'elite; and you +quoted Virgil to back it. Let me have that line again--in case of his +condescending to write to the papers on the subject.' + +Weyburn repeated the half-line. + +'Good: I won't forget now. And you said the French act on that because +they follow human nature, and the English don't. We “bully it,” you +said. That was on our drive down to Steignton. I hope you 'll succeed. +You 'll be visiting England. Call on me in London or at Olmer--only mind +and give me warning. I shall be glad to see you. I 've got some ideas +from you. If I meet a man who helps me to read the world and men as they +are, I 'm grateful to him; and most people are not, you 'll find. They +want you to show them what they 'd like the world to be. We don't agree +about a lady. You 're in the lists, lance in rest, all for chivalry. You +'re a man, and a young man. Have you taken your leave of her yet? She'll +expect it, as a proper compliment.' + +'I propose running down to take my leave of Lady Ormont to-morrow,' +replied Weyburn. + +'She is handsome?' + +She is very handsome.' + +'Beautiful, do you mean?' + +'Oh, my lady, it would only be a man's notion!' + +'Now, that 's as good an answer as could be made! You 're sure to +succeed. I 'm not the woman's enemy. But let her keep her place. Why, +Rowsley can't be coming to-day! Did Lord Ormont look ill?' + +'It did not strike me so.' + +'He 's between two fires. A man gets fretted. But I shan't move a step. +I dare say she won't. Especially with that Morsfield out of the way. You +do mean you think her a beauty. Well, then, there'll soon be a successor +to Morsfield. Beauties will have their weapons, and they can hit on +plenty; and it 's nothing to me, as long as I save my brother from their +arts.' + +Weyburn felt he had done his penance in return for kindness. He bowed +and rose, Lady Charlotte stretched out her hand. + +'We shall be sending you a pupil some day,' she said, and smiled. + +'Forward your address as soon as you 're settled.' Her face gave a +glimpse of its youth in a cordial farewell smile. + +Lord Ormont had no capacity to do the like, although they were strictly +brother and sister in appearance. The smallest difference in character +rendered her complex and kept him simple. She had a thirsting mind. + +Weyburn fancied that a close intimacy of a few months would have enabled +him to lift her out of her smirching and depraving mean jealousies. He +speculated, as he trod the street, on little plots and surprises, which +would bring Lady Charlotte and Lady Ormont into presence, and end by +making friends of them. Supposing that could be done, Lady Ormont might +be righted by the intervention of Lady Charlotte after all. + +Weyburn sent his dream flying with as dreamy an after-thought: 'Funny +it will be then for Lady Charlotte to revert to the stuff she has been +droning in my ear half an hour ago!--Look well behind, and we see spots +where we buzzed, lowed, bit and tore; and not until we have cast that +look and seen the brute are we human creatures.' + +A crumb of reflection such as this could brace him, adding its modest +maravedi to his prized storehouse of gain, fortifying with assurances of +his having a concrete basis for his business in life. His great youthful +ambition had descended to it, but had sunk to climb on a firmer footing. + +Arthur Abner had his next adieu. They talked of Lady Ormont, as to whose +position of rightful Countess of Ormont Mr. Abner had no doubt. He said +of Lady Charlotte: 'She has a clear head; but she loves her “brother +Rowsley” excessively; and any excess pushes to craziness.' + +He spoke to Weyburn of his prospects in the usually, perhaps +necessarily, cheerless tone of men who recognize by contrast the one +mouse's nibbling at a mountain of evil. 'To harmonize the nationalities, +my dear boy! teach Christians to look fraternally on Jews! David was a +harper, but the setting of him down to roll off a fugue on one of +your cathedral organs would not impose a heavier task than you are +undertaking. You have my best wishes, whatever aid I can supply. But we +'re nearer to King John's time than to your ideal, as far as the Jews +go.' + +'Not in England.' + +'Less in England,' Abner shrugged. + +'You have beaten the Christians on the field they challenged you to +enter for a try. They feel the pinch in their interests and their +vanity. That will pass. I 'm for the two sides, under the name of +Justice; and I give the palm to whichever of the two first gets hold of +the idea of Justice. My old schoolmate's well?' + +'Always asking after Matey Weyburn!' + +'He shall have my address in Switzerland. You and I will be +corresponding.' + +Now rose to view the visit to the lady who was Lady Ormont on the +tongue, Aminta at heart; never to be named Aminta even to himself. His +heart broke loose at a thought of it. + +He might say Browny. For that was not serious with the intense +present signification the name Aminta had. Browny was queen of the old +school-time-enclosed it in her name; and that sphere enclosed her, not +excluding him. And the dear name of Browny played gently, humorously, +fervently, too, with life: not, pathetically, as that of Aminta did +when came a whisper of her situation, her isolation, her friendlessness; +hardly dissimilar to what could be imagined of a gazelle in the streets +of London city. The Morsfields were not all slain. The Weyburns would be +absent. + +At the gate of his cottage garden Weyburn beheld a short unfamiliar +figure of a man with dimly remembered features. Little Collett he +still was in height. The schoolmates had not met since the old days of +Cuper's. + +Little Collett delivered a message of invitation from Selina, begging +Mr. Weyburn to accompany her brother on the coach to Harwich next day, +and spend two or three days by the sea. But Weyburn's mind had been set +in the opposite direction--up Thames instead of down. + +He was about to refuse, but he checked his voice and hummed. Words of +Selina's letter jumped in italics. He perceived Lady Ormont's hand. +For one thing, would she be at Great Marlow alone? And he knew that +hand--how deftly it moved and moved others. Selina Collett would not +have invited him with underlinings merely to see a shoreside house and +garden. Her silence regarding a particular name showed her to be under +injunction, one might guess. At worst, it would be the loss of a couple +of days; worth the venture. They agreed to journey by coach next day. + +Facing eastward in the morning, on a seat behind the coachman, Weyburn +had a seafaring man beside him, bound for the good port of Harwich, +where his family lived, and thence by his own boat to Flushing. Weyburn +set him talking of himself, as the best way of making him happy; for it +is the theme which pricks to speech, and so liberates an uncomfortably +locked-up stranger; who, if sympathetic to human proximity, is thankful. +They exchanged names, delighted to find they were both Matthews; +whereupon Matthew of the sea demanded the paw of Matthew of the land, +and there was a squeeze. The same with little Collett, after hearing of +him as the old schoolmate of the established new friend. Then there was +talk. Little Collett named Felixstowe as the village of his mother's +house and garden sloping to the sands. 'That 's it-you have it,' said +the salted Matthew: 'peace is in that spot, and there I 've sworn to +pitch my tent when I 'm incapacitated for further exercise--profitable, +so to speak. My eldest girl has a bar of amber she picked up one wash of +the tide at Felixstowe, and there it had been lying sparkling, unseen, +hours, the shore is that solitary. What I like!--a quiet shore and a +peopled sea. Ever been to Brighton? There it 's t' other way.' + +Not long after he had mentioned the time of early evening for their +entry into his port of Harwich, the coach turned quietly over on a +bank of the roadside, depositing outside passengers quite safely, in +so matter-of-course a way, that only the screams of an uninjured lady +inside repressed their roars of laughter. One of the wheels had come +loose, half a mile off the nearest town. Their entry into Harwich was +thereby delayed until half-past nine at night. Full of consideration for +the new mates now fast wedded to his heart by an accident. Matthew Shale +proposed to Matthew Weyburn, instead of the bother of crossing the ferry +with a portmanteau and a bag at that late hour, to sup at his house, try +the neighbouring inn for a short sleep, and ship on board his yawl, the +honest Susan, to be rowed ashore off the Swin to Felixstowe sands no +later than six o'clock of a summer's morning, in time for a bath and +a swim before breakfast. It sounded well--it sounded sweetly. Weyburn +suggested the counter proposal of supper for the three at the inn. But +the other Matthew said: 'I married a cook. She expects a big appetite, +and she always keeps warm when I 'm held away, no matter how late. Sure +to be enough.' + +Beds were secured at the inn; after which came the introduction to +Mrs. Shale, the exhibition of Susan Shale's bar of amber, the dish of +fresh-fried whiting, the steak pudding, a grog, tobacco, rest at the +inn, and a rousing bang at the sleepers' doors when the unwonted supper +in them withheld an answer to the intimating knock. Young Matthew Shale, +who had slept on board the Susan, conducted them to her boat. His glance +was much drawn to the very white duck trousers Weyburn had put on, for a +souvenir of the approbation they had won at Marlow. They were on, and so +it was of no use for young Matthew to say they were likely to bear away +a token from the Susan. She was one among the damsels of colour, and +free of her tokens, especially to the spotless. + +How it occurred, nobody saw; though everybody saw how naturally it must +occur for the white ducks to 'have it in the eye' by the time they had +been on board a quarter of an hour. Weyburn got some fun out of +them, for a counterbalance to a twitch of sentimental regret scarcely +decipherable, as that the last view of him should bear a likeness of +Browny's recollection of her first. + +A glorious morning of flushed open sky and sun on sea chased all small +thoughts out of it. The breeze was from the west, and the Susan, lightly +laden, took the heave of smooth rollers with a flowing current-curtsey +in the motion of her speed. Fore-sail and aft were at their gentle +strain; her shadow rippled fragmentarily along to the silver rivulet and +boat of her wake. Straight she flew to the ball of fire now at spring +above the waters, and raining red gold on the line of her bows. By +comparison she was an ugly yawl, and as the creature of wind and wave +beautiful. + +They passed an English defensive fort, and spared its walls, in +obedience to Matthew Shale's good counsel that they should forbear +from sneezing. Little Collett pointed to the roof of his mother's house +twenty paces rearward of a belt of tamarisks, green amid the hollowed +yellows of shorebanks yet in shade, crumbling to the sands. Weyburn was +attracted by a diminutive white tent, of sentry-box shape, evidently a +bather's, quite as evidently a fair bather's. He would have to walk on +some way for his dip. He remarked to little Collett that ladies going +into the water half-dressed never have more than half a bath. His arms +and legs flung out contempt of that style of bathing, exactly in old +Matey's well-remembered way. Half a mile off shore, the Susan was +put about to flap her sails, and her boat rocked with the passengers. +Turning from a final cheer to friendly Matthew, Weyburn at the rudder +espied one of those unenfranchised ladies in marine uniform issuing +through the tent-slit. She stepped firmly, as into her element. A plain +look at her, and a curious look, and an intent look fixed her fast, and +ran the shock on his heart before he knew of a guess. She waded, she +dipped; a head across the breast of the waters was observed: this one +of them could swim. She was making for sea, a stone's throw off the +direction of the boat. Before his wits had grasped the certainty +possessing them, fiery envy and desire to be alongside her set his +fingers fretting at buttons. A grand smooth swell of the waters lifted +her, and her head rose to see her world. She sank down the valley, +where another wave was mounding for its onward roll: a gentle scene of +Weyburn's favourite Sophoclean chorus. Now she was given to him--it +was she. How could it ever have been any other! He handed his watch to +little Collett, and gave him the ropes, pitched coat and waistcoat on +his knees, stood free of boots and socks, and singing out, truly enough, +the words of a popular cry, 'White ducks want washing,' went over and +in. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. A MARINE DUET + +She soon had to know she was chased. She had seen the dive from the +boat, and received all illumination. With a chuckle of delighted +surprise, like a blackbird startled, she pushed seaward for joy of the +effort, thinking she could exult in imagination of an escape up to the +moment of capture, yielding then only to his greater will; and she meant +to try it. + +The swim was a holiday; all was new--nothing came to her as the same +old thing since she took her plunge; she had a sea-mind--had left her +earth-mind ashore. The swim, and Matey Weyburn pursuing her passed up, +out of happiness, through the spheres of delirium, into the region +where our life is as we would have it be a home holding the quiet of the +heavens, if but midway thither, and a home of delicious animation of the +whole frame, equal to wings. + +He drew on her, but he was distant, and she waved an arm. The shout of +her glee sprang from her: 'Matey!' He waved; she heard his voice. Was it +her name? He was not so drunken of the sea as she: he had not leapt out +of bondage into buoyant waters, into a youth without a blot, without an +aim, satisfied in tasting; the dream of the long felicity. + +A thought brushed by her: How if he were absent? It relaxed her stroke +of arms and legs. He had doubled the salt sea's rapture, and he had +shackled its gift of freedom. She turned to float, gathering her knees +for the funny sullen kick, until she heard him near. At once her stroke +was renewed vigorously; she had the foot of her pursuer, and she called, +'Adieu, Matey Weyburn!' + +Her bravado deserved a swifter humiliation than he was able to bring +down on her: she swam bravely, and she was divine to see ahead as well +as overtake. + +Darting to the close parallel, he said: 'What sea nymph sang me my +name?' + +She smote a pang of her ecstasy into him: 'Ask mine!' + +'Browny!' + +They swam; neither of them panted; their heads were water-flowers that +spoke at ease. + +'We 've run from school; we won't go back.' + +'We 've a kingdom.' + +'Here's a big wave going to be a wall.' + +'Off he rolls.' + +'He's like the High Brent broad meadow under Elling Wood.' + +'Don't let Miss Vincent hear you.' + +'They 're not waves; they 're sighs of the deep.' + +'A poet I swim with! He fell into the deep in his first of May morning +ducks. We used to expect him.' + +'I never expected to owe them so much.' + +Pride of the swimmer and the energy of her joy embraced Aminta, that she +might nerve all her powers to gain the half-minute for speaking at her +ease. + +'Who 'd have thought of a morning like this? You were looked for last +night.' + +'A lucky accident to our coach. I made friends with the skipper of the +yawl.' + +'I saw the boat. Who could have dreamed--? Anything may happen now.' + +For nothing further would astonish her, as he rightly understood her; +but he said: 'You 're prepared for the rites? Old Triton is ready.' + +'Float, and tell me.' + +They spun about to lie on their backs. Her right hand, at piano-work of +the octave-shake, was touched and taken, and she did not pull it away. +Her eyelids fell. + +'Old Triton waits.' + +'Why?' + +'We 're going to him.' + +'Yes?' + +'Customs of the sea.' + +'Tell me.' + +'He joins hands. We say, “Browny-Matey,” and it 's done.' + +She splashed, crying 'Swim,' and after two strokes, 'You want to beat +me, Matey Weyburn.' + +'How?' + +'Not fair!' + +'Say what.' + +'Take my breath. But, yes! we'll be happy in our own way. We 're +sea-birds. We 've said adieu to land. Not to one another. We shall be +friends?' + +'Always.' + +'This is going to last?' + +'Ever so long.' + +They had a spell of steady swimming, companionship to inspirit it. +Browny was allowed place a little foremost, and she guessed not +wherefore, in her flattered emulation. + +'I 'm bound for France.' + +'Slew a point to the right: South-east by South. We shall hit +Dunkerque.' + +'I don't mean to be picked up by boats.' + +'We'll decline.' + +'You see I can swim.' + +'I was sure of it.' + +They stopped their talk--for the pleasure of the body to be savoured +in the mind, they thought; and so took Nature's counsel to rest their +voices awhile. + +Considering that she had not been used of late to long immersions, and +had not broken her fast, and had talked much, for a sea-nymph, Weyburn +spied behind him on a shore seeming flat down, far removed. + +'France next time,' he said: 'we'll face to the rear.' + +'Now?' said she, big with blissful conceit of her powers and incredulous +of such a command from him. + +'You may be feeling tired presently.' + +The musical sincerity of her 'Oh no, not I!' sped through his limbs; he +had a willingness to go onward still some way. + +But his words fastened the heavy land on her spirit, knocked at the +habit of obedience. Her stroke of the arms paused. She inclined to his +example, and he set it shoreward. + +They swam silently, high, low, creatures of the smooth green roller. He +heard the water-song of her swimming. She, though breathing equably at +the nostrils, lay deep. The water shocked at her chin, and curled round +the under lip. He had a faint anxiety; and, not so sensible of a weight +in the sight of land as she was, he chattered, by snatches, rallied her, +encouraged her to continue sportive for this once, letting her feel it +was but a once and had its respected limit with him. So it was not out +of the world. + +Ah, friend Matey! And that was right and good on land; but rightness and +goodness flung earth's shadow across her brilliancy here, and any stress +on 'this once' withdrew her liberty to revel in it, putting an end to +perfect holiday; and silence, too, might hint at fatigue. She began to +think her muteness lost her the bloom of the enchantment, robbing her of +her heavenly frolic lead, since friend Matey resolved to be as eminently +good in salt water as on land. Was he unaware that they were boy and +girl again?--she washed pure of the intervening years, new born, by +blessing of the sea; worthy of him here!--that is, a swimmer worthy of +him, his comrade in salt water. + +'You're satisfied I swim well?' she said. + +'It would go hard with me if we raced a long race.' + +'I really was out for France.' + +'I was ordered to keep you for England.' She gave him Browny's eyes. + +'We've turned our backs on Triton.' + +'The ceremony was performed.' + +'When?' + +'The minute I spoke of it and you splashed.' + +'Matey! Matey Weyburn!' + +'Browny Farrell!' + +'Oh, Matey! she's gone!' + +'She's here.' + +'Try to beguile me, then, that our holiday's not over. You won't forget +this hour?' + +'No time of mine on earth will live so brightly for me.' + +'I have never had one like it. I could go under and be happy; go to old +Triton, and wait for you; teach him to speak your proper Christian +name. He hasn't heard it yet,--heard “Matey,”--never yet has been taught +“Matthew.”' + +'Aminta!' + +'Oh, my friend! my dear!' she cried, in the voice of the wounded, like +a welling of her blood: 'my strength will leave me. I may play--not you: +you play with a weak vessel. Swim, and be quiet. How far do you count +it?' + +'Under a quarter of a mile.' + +'Don't imagine me tired.' + +'If you are, hold on to me.' + +'Matey, I'm for a dive.' + +He went after the ball of silver and bubbles, and they came up together. +There is no history of events below the surface. + +She shook off her briny blindness, and settled to the full sweep of the +arms, quite silent now. Some emotion, or exhaustion from the strain of +the swimmer's breath in speech, stopped her playfulness. The pleasure +she still knew was a recollection of the outward swim, when she had been +privileged to cast away sex with the push from earth, as few men will +believe that women, beautiful women, ever wish to do; and often and +ardently during the run ahead they yearn for Nature to grant them their +one short holiday truce. + +But Aminta forgave him for bringing earth so close to her when there +was yet a space of salt water between her and shore; and she smiled at +times, that he might not think she was looking grave. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. THE PLIGHTING + +They touched sand at the first draw of the ebb, and this being +earth, Matey addressed himself to the guardian and absolving genii of +matter-of-fact, by saying; 'Did you inquire about the tides?' + +Her head shook, stunned with what had passed. She waded to shore, after +motioning for him to swim on. Men, in comparison beside their fair +fellows, are so little sensationally complex, that his one feeling now, +as to what had passed, was relief at the idea of his presence having +been a warrantable protectorship. + +Aminta's return from the sea-nymph to the state of woman crossed +annihiliation on the way back to sentience, and picked up meaningless +pebbles and shells of life, between the sea's verge and her tent's +shelter; hardly her own life to her understanding yet, except for the +hammer Memory became, to strike her insensible, at here and there a +recollected word or nakedness of her soul. + +He swam along by the shore to where the boat was paddled, spying at her +bare feet on the sand, her woman's form. He waved, and the figure in +the striped tunic and trousers waved her response, apparently the same +person he had quitted. + +Dry and clad, and decently formal under the transformation, they met at +Mrs. Collett's breakfast-table, and in each hung the doubt whether land +was the dream or sea. Both owned to a swim; both omitted mention of +the tale of white ducks. Little Collett had brought Matey's and his +portmanteau into the house, by favour of the cook, through the scullery. +He, who could have been a pictorial and suggestive narrator, carried a +spinning head off his shoulders from this wonderful Countess of Ormont +to Matey Weyburn's dark-eyed Browny at High Brent, and the Sunday walk +in Sir Peter Wensell's park. Away and back his head went. Browny was not +to be thought of as Browny; she was this grand Countess of Ormont; she +had married Matey Weyburn's hero: she would never admit she had been +Browny. Only she was handsome then, and she is handsome now; and she +looks on Matey Weyburn now just as she did then. How strange is the +world! Or how if we are the particular person destined to encounter the +strange things of the world? And fancy J. Masner, and Pinnett major, +and young Oakes (liked nothing better than a pretty girl, he strutted +boasting at thirteen), and the Frenchy, and the lot, all popping down at +the table, and asked the name of the lady sitting like Queen Esther--how +they would roar out! Boys, of course--but men, too!--very few men have +a notion of the extraordinary complications and coincidences and +cracker-surprises life contains. Here 's an instance; Matey Weyburn +positively will wear white ducks to play before Aminta Farrell on the +first of May cricketing-day. He happens to have his white ducks on when +he sees the Countess of Ormont swimming in the sea; and so he can go in +just as if they were all-right bathing-drawers. In he goes, has a good +long swim with her, and when he comes out, says, of his dripping ducks, +'tabula votiva... avida vestimenta,' to remind an old schoolmate of his +hopping to the booth at the end of a showery May day, and dedicating +them to the laundry in these words. It seems marvellous. It was a quaint +revival, an hour after breakfast, for little Collett to be acting +as intermediary with Selina to request Lady Ormont's grant of a +five-minutes' interview before the church-bell summoned her. She was +writing letters, and sent the message: 'Tell Mr. Weyburn I obey.' Selina +delivered it, uttering 'obey' in a demurely comical way, as a word of +which the humour might be comprehensible to him. + +Aminta stood at the drawing-room window. She was asking herself whether +her recent conduct shrieked coquette to him, or any of the abominable +titles showered on the women who take free breath of air one day after +long imprisonment. + +She said: 'Does it mean you are leaving us?' the moment he was near. + +'Not till evening or to-morrow, as it may happen,' he answered: 'I have +one or two things to say, if you will spare the time.' + +'All my time,' said she, smiling to make less of the heart's reply; and +he stepped into the room. + +They had not long back been Matey and Browny, and though that was in +another element, it would not sanction the Lady Ormont and Mr. Weyburn +now. As little could it be Aminta and Matthew. Brother and sister they +were in the spirit's world, but in this world the titles had a sound of +imposture. And with a great longing to call her by some allying name, he +rejected 'friend' for its insufficiency and commonness, notwithstanding +the entirely friendly nature of the burden to be spoken. Friend, was +a title that ran on quicksands: an excuse that tried for an excuse. He +distinguished in himself simultaneously, that the hesitation and beating +about for a name had its origin in an imperfect frankness when he sent +his message: the fretful desire to be with her, close to her, hearing +her, seeing her, besides the true wish to serve her. He sent it after +swinging round abruptly from an outlook over the bordering garden +tamarisks on a sea now featureless, desolately empty. + +However, perceptibly silence was doing the work of a scourge, and he +said: 'I have been thinking I may have--and I don't mind fighting hard +to try it before I leave England on Tuesday or Wednesday--some influence +with Lady Charlotte Eglett. She is really one of the true women living, +and the heartiest of backers, if she can be taught to see her course. I +fancy I can do that. She 's narrow, but she is not one of the class who +look on the working world below them as, we'll say, the scavenger dogs +on the plains of Ilium were seen by the Achaeans. And my failure would +be no loss to you! Your name shall not be alluded to as empowering me +to plead for her help. But I want your consent, or I may be haunted and +weakened by the idea of playing the busy-body. One has to feel strong +in a delicate position. Well, you know what my position with her has +been--one among the humble; and she has taken contradictions, accepted +views from me, shown me she has warmth of heart to an extreme degree.' + +Aminta slightly raised her hand. 'I will save you trouble. I have +written to Lord Ormont. I have left him.' + +Their eyes engaged on the thunder of this. 'The letter has gone?' + +'It was posted before my swim: posted yesterday.' + +'You have fully and clearly thought it out to a determination?' + +'Bit by bit--I might say, blow by blow.' + +'It is no small matter to break a marriage-tie.' + +'I have conversed with your mother.' + +'Yes, she! and the woman happiest in marriage!' + +'I know. It was hatred of injustice, noble sympathy. And she took me for +one of the blest among wives.' + +'She loved God. She saw the difference between men's decrees for their +convenience, and God's laws. She felt for women. You have had a hard +trial Aminta.' + +'Oh, my name! You mean it?' + +'You heard it from me this morning.' + +'Yes, there! I try to forget. I lost my senses. You may judge me +harshly, on reflection.' + +'Judge myself worse, then. You had a thousand excuses. I had only my +love of you. There's no judgement against either of us, for us to see, +if I read rightly. We elect to be tried in the courts of the sea-god. +Now we 'll sit and talk it over. The next ten minutes will decide our +destinies.' + +His eyes glittered, otherwise he showed the coolness of the man +discussing business; and his blunt soberness refreshed and upheld her, +as a wild burst of passion would not have done. + +Side by side, partly facing, they began their interchange. + +'You have weighed what you abandon?' + +'It weighs little.' + +'That may be error. You have to think into the future.' + +'My sufferings and experiences are not bad guides.' + +'They count. How can you be sure you have all the estimates?' + +'Was I ever a wife?' + +'You were and are the Countess of Ormont.' + +'Not to the world. An unacknowledged wife is a slave, surely.' + +'You step down, if you take the step.' + +'From what? Once I did desire that station--had an idea it was glorious. +I despise it: or rather the woman who had the desire.' + +'But the step down is into the working world.' + +'I have means to live humbly. I want no more, except to be taught to +work.' + +'So says the minute. Years are before you. You have weighed well, that +you attract?' + +She reddened and murmured: 'How small!' Her pout of spite at her +attractions was little simulated. + +'Beauty and charm are not small matters. You have the gift, called +fatal. Then--looking right forward--you have faith in the power of +resistance of the woman living alone?' + +He had struck at her breast. From her breast she replied. + +'Hear this of me. I was persecuted with letters. I read them and did +not destroy them. Perhaps you saved me. Looking back, I see weakness, +nothing worse; but it is a confession.' + +'Yes, you have courage. And that comes of a great heart. And therein +lies the danger.' + +'Advise me of what is possible to a lonely woman.' + +'You have resolved on the loneliness?' + +'It means breathing to me.' + +'You are able to see that Lord Ormont is a gentleman?' + +'A chivalrous gentleman, up to the bounds of his intelligence.' + +The bounds of his intelligence closed their four walls in a rapid +narrowing slide on Aminta's mind, and she exclaimed: + +'If only to pluck flowers in fields and know their names, I must be +free! I say what one can laugh at, and you are good and don't. Is the +interrogatory exhausted?' + +'Aminta, my beloved, if you are free, I claim you.' + +'Have you thought--?' + +The sense of a dissolving to a fountain quivered through her veins. + +'Turn the tables and examine me.' + +'But have you thought--oh! I am not the girl you loved. I would go +through death to feel I was, and give you one worthy of you.' + +'That means what I won't ask you to speak at present but I must have +proof.' + +He held out a hand, and hers was laid in his. + +There was more for her to say, she knew. It came and fled, lightened +and darkened. She had yielded her hand to him here on land, not with +the licence and protection of the great holiday salt water; and she +was trembling from the run of his blood through hers at the pressure of +hands, when she said in undertones: 'Could we--we might be friends.' + +'Meet and part as friends, you and I,' he replied. + +His voice carried the answer for her, his intimate look had in it the +unfolding of the full flower of the woman to him, as she could not +conceal from such eyes; and feeling that, she was all avowal. + +'It is for life, Matthew.' + +'My own words to myself when I first thought of the chance.' + +'But the school?' + +'I shall not consider that we are malefactors. We have the world against +us. It will not keep us from trying to serve it. And there are hints of +humaner opinions; it's not all a huge rolling block of a Juggernaut. Our +case could be pleaded before it. I don't think the just would condemn us +heavily. I shall have to ask you to strengthen me, complete me. If you +love me, it is your leap out of prison, and without you, I am from +this time no better than one-third of a man. I trust you to weigh the +position you lose, and the place we choose to take in the world. It 's +this--I think this describes it. You know the man who builds his house +below the sea's level has a sleepless enemy always threatening. His +house must be firm and he must look to the dykes. We commit this +indiscretion. With a world against us, our love and labour are +constantly on trial; we must have great hearts, and if the world is +hostile we are not to blame it. In the nature of things it could not be +otherwise. My own soul, we have to see that we do--though not publicly, +not insolently, offend good citizenship. But we believe--I with my whole +faith, and I may say it of you--that we are not offending Divine law. +You are the woman I can help and join with; think whether you can tell +yourself that I am the man. So, then, our union gives us powers to make +amends to the world, if the world should grant us a term of peace for +the effort. That is our risk; consider it, Aminta, between now and +tomorrow; deliberate. We don't go together into a garden of roses.' + +'I know. I should feel shame. I wish it to look dark,' said Aminta, +her hand in his, and yet with a fair-sailing mind on the stream of the +blood. + +Rationally and irrationally, the mixed passion and reason in two clear +heads and urgent hearts discussed the stand they made before a world +defied, neither of them quite perceiving what it was which coloured +reason to beauty, or what so convinced their intellects when passion +spoke the louder. + +'I am to have a mate.' + +'She will pray she may be one.' + +'She is my first love.' + +Aminta's lips formed 'mine,' without utterance. + +Meanwhile his hand or a wizardry subdued her will, allured her body. +She felt herself being drawn to the sign and seal of their plighting for +life. She said, 'Matthew,' softly in protest; and he said, 'Never once +yet!' She was owing to his tenderness. Her deepened voice murmured: 'Is +this to deliberate?' Colour flooded the beautiful dark face, as of the +funeral hues of a sun suffusing all the heavens; firing earth. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. AMINTA TO HER LORD + +On Friday, on Saturday, on Sunday, Lady Charlotte waited for her brother +Rowsley, until it was a diminished satisfaction that she had held her +ground and baffled his mighty will to subdue her. She did not sleep +for thinking of him on the Sunday night. Toward morning a fit of hazy +horrors, which others would have deemed imaginings, drove her from her +bed to sit and brood over Rowsley in a chair. What if it was a case of +heart with him too? Heart disease had been in the family. A man like +Rowsley, still feeling the world before him, as a man of his energies +and aptitudes, her humour added in the tide of his anxieties, had a +right to feel, would not fall upon resignation like a woman. + +She was at the physician's door at eight o'clock. Dr. Rewkes reported +reassuringly; it was a simple disturbance in Lord Ormont's condition of +health, and he conveyed just enough of disturbance to send the impetuous +lady knocking and ringing at her brother's door upon the hour of nine. + +The announcement of Lady Charlotte's early visit informed my lord that +Dr. Rewkes had done the spiriting required of him. He descended to the +library and passed under scrutiny. + +'You don't look ill, Rowsley,' she said, reluctantly in the sound. + +'I am the better for seeing you here, Charlotte. Shall I order breakfast +for you? I am alone.' + +'I know you are. I've eaten. Rewkes tells me you've not lost appetite.' + +'Have I the appearance of a man who has lost anything?' Prouder man, and +heartier and ruddier, could not be seen, she thought. + +'You're winning the country to right you; that I know.' + +'I don't ask it.' + +'The country wants your services.' + +'I have heard some talk of it. That lout comes to a knowledge of his +wants too late. If they promoted and offered me the command in India +to-morrow--'My lord struck the arm of his chair. 'I live at Steignton +henceforth; my wife is at a seaside place eastward. She left the +jewel-case when on her journey through London for safety; she is +a particularly careful person, forethoughtful. I take her down to +Steignton two days after her return. We entertain there in the autumn. +You come?' + +'I don't. I prefer decent society.' + +'You are in her house now, ma'am.' + +'If I have to meet the person, you mean, I shall be civil. The society +you've given her, I won't meet.' + +'You will have to greet the Countess of Ormont if you care to meet your +brother.' + +'Part, then, on the best terms we can. I say this, the woman who keeps +you from serving your country, she 's your country's enemy.' + +'Hear my answer. The lady who is my wife has had to suffer for what you +call my country's treatment of me. It 's a choice between my country and +her. I give her the rest of my time.' + +'That's dotage.' + +'Fire away your epithets.' + +'Sheer dotage. I don't deny she's a handsome young woman.' + +'You'll have to admit that Lady Ormont takes her place in our family +with the best we can name.' + +'You insult my ears, Rowsley.' + +'The world will say it when it has the honour of her acquaintance.' + +'An honour suspiciously deferred.' + +'That's between the world and me.' + +'Set your head to work, you'll screw the world to any pitch you +like--that I don't need telling.' + +Lord Ormont's head approved the remark. + +'Now,' said Lady Charlotte, 'you won't get the Danmores, the Dukerlys, +the Carminters, the Oxbridges any more than you get me.' + +'You are wrong, ma'am. I had yesterday a reply from Lady Danmore to a +communication of mine.' + +'It 's thickening. But while I stand, I stand for the family; and I 'm +not in it, and while I stand out of it, there 's a doubt either of your +honesty or your sanity.' + +'There's a perfect comprehension of my sister!' + +'I put my character in the scales against your conduct, and your +Countess of Ormont's reputation into the bargain.' + +'You have called at her house; it 's a step. You 'll be running at her +heels next. She 's not obdurate.' + +'When you see me running at her heels, it'll be with my head off. Stir +your hardest, and let it thicken. That man Morsfield's name mixed up +with a sham Countess of Ormont, in the stories flying abroad, can't hurt +anybody. A true Countess of Ormont--we 're cut to the quick.' + +'We 're cut! Your quick, Charlotte, is known to court the knife.' + +Letters of the morning's post were brought in. + +The earl turned over a couple and took up a third, saying: 'I 'll attend +to you in two minutes'; and thinking once more: Queer world it is, +where, when you sheath the sword, you have to be at play with bodkins! + +Lady Charlotte gazed on the carpet, effervescent with retorts to his +last observation, rightly conjecturing that the letter he selected to +read was from 'his Aminta.' + +The letter apparently was interesting, or it was of inordinate length. +He seemed still to be reading. He reverted to the first page. + +At the sound of the paper, she discarded her cogitations and glanced +up. His countenance had become stony. He read on some way, with a sudden +drop on the signature, a recommencement, a sound in the throat, as when +men grasp a comprehensible sentence of a muddled rigmarole and begin +to have hopes of the remainder. But the eye on the page is not the eye +which reads. + +'No bad news, Rowsley?' + +The earl's breath fell heavily. + +Lady Charlotte left her chair, and walked about the room. + +'Rowsley, I 'd like to hear if I can be of use.' + +'Ma'am?' he said; and pondered on the word 'use,' staring at her. + +'I don't intend to pry. I can't see my brother look like that, and not +ask.' + +The letter was tossed on the table to her. She read these lines, dated +from Felixstowe: + + 'MY DEAR LORD, + + 'The courage I have long been wanting in has come at last, to break + a tie that I have seen too clearly was a burden on you from the + beginning. I will believe that I am chiefly responsible for + inducing you to contract it. The alliance with an inexperienced + girl of inferior birth, and a perhaps immoderate ambition, has taxed + your generosity; and though the store may be inexhaustible, it is + not truly the married state when a wife subjects the husband to such + a trial. The release is yours, the sadness is for me. I have + latterly seen or suspected a design on your part to meet my former + wishes for a public recognition of the wife of Lord Ormont. Let me + now say that these foolish wishes no longer exist. I rejoice to + think that my staying or going will be alike unknown to the world. + I have the means of a livelihood, in a modest way, and shall trouble + no one. + + 'I have said, the sadness is for me. That is truth. But I have to + add, that I, too, am sensible of the release. My confession of a + change of feeling to you as a wife, writes the close of all + relations between us. I am among the dead for you; and it is a + relief to me to reflect on the little pain I give...' + +'Has she something on her conscience about that man Morsfield?' Lady +Charlotte cried. + +Lord Ormont's prolonged Ah! of execration rolled her to a bundle. + +Nevertheless her human nature and her knowledge of woman's, would out +with the words: 'There's a man!' + +She allowed her brother to be correct in repudiating the name of the +dead Morsfield--chivalrous as he was on this Aminta's behalf to +the last!--and struck along several heads, Adderwood's, Weyburn's, +Randeller's, for the response to her suspicion. A man there certainly +was. He would be probably a young man. He would not necessarily be a +handsome man.... or a titled or a wealthy man. She might have set eyes +on a gypsy somewhere round Great Marlow--blood to blood; such things +have been. Imagining a wildish man for her, rather than a handsome one +and one devoted staidly to the founding of a school, she overlooked +Weyburn, or reserved him with others for subsequent speculation. + +The remainder of Aminta's letter referred to her delivery of the Ormont +jewel-case at Lord Ormont's London house, under charge of her maid +Carstairs. The affairs of the household were stated very succinctly, +the drawer for labelled keys, whatever pertained to her management, in +London or at Great Marlow. + +'She 's cool,' Lady Charlotte said, after reading out the orderly array +of items, in a tone of rasping irony, to convince her brother he was +well rid of a heartless wench. + +Aminta's written statement of those items were stabs at the home she had +given him, a flashed picture of his loss. Nothing written by her touched +him to pierce him so shrewdly; nothing could have brought him so closely +the breathing image in the flesh of the woman now a phantom for him. + +'Will she be expecting you to answer, Rowsley?' + +'Will that forked tongue cease hissing!' he shouted, in the agony of a +strong man convulsed both to render and conceal the terrible, shameful, +unexampled gush of tears. + +Lady Charlotte beheld her bleeding giant. She would rather have seen +the brother of her love grimace in woman's manner than let loose those +rolling big drops down the face of a rock. The big sob shook him, and +she was shaken to the dust by the sight. Now she was advised by her deep +affection for her brother to sit patient and dumb, behind shaded eyes: +praising in her heart the incomparable force of the man's love of the +woman contrasted with the puling inclinations of the woman for the man. + +Neither opened mouth when they separated. She pressed and kissed a large +nerveless hand. Lord Ormont stood up to bow her forth. His ruddied skin +had gone to pallor resembling the berg of ice on the edge of Arctic +seas, when sunlight has fallen away from it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. CONCLUSION + +The peaceful little home on the solitary sandy shore was assailed, +unwarned, beneath a quiet sky, some hours later, by a whirlwind, a +dust-storm, and rattling volleys. Miss Vincent's discovery, in the past +school-days, of Selina Collett's 'wicked complicity in a clandestine +correspondence' had memorably chastened the girl, who vowed at the time +when her schoolmistress, using the rod of Johnsonian English for the +purpose, exposed the depravity of her sinfulness, that she would never +again be guilty of a like offence. Her dear and lovely Countess of +Ormont, for whom she then uncomplainingly suffered, who deigned now to +call her friend, had spoken the kind good-bye, and left the house +after Mr. Weyburn's departure that same day; she, of course, to post +by Harwich to London; he to sail by packet from the port of Harwich for +Flushing. The card of an unknown lady, a great lady, the Lady Charlotte +Eglett, was handed to her mother at eight o'clock in the evening. + +Lady Charlotte was introduced to the innocent country couple; the mother +knitting, the daughter studying a book of the botany of the Swiss Alps, +dreaming a distant day's journey over historic lands of various hues to +the unimaginable spectacle of earth's grandeur. Her visit lasted fifteen +minutes. From the moment of her entry, the room was in such turmoil as +may be seen where a water-mill wheel's paddles are suddenly set rounding +to pour streams of foam on the smooth pool below. A relentless catechism +bewildered their hearing. Mrs. Collett attempted an opposition of +dignity to those vehement attacks for answers. It was flooded and +rolled over. She was put upon her honour to reply positively to positive +questions: whether the Countess of Ormont was in this house at present; +whether the Countess of Ormont left the house alone or in company; +whether a gentleman had come to the house during the stay of the +Countess of Ormont; whether Lady Ormont had left the neighbourhood; the +exact time of the day when she quitted the house, and the stated point +of her destination. + +Ultimately, protesting that they were incapable of telling what they +did not know--which Lady Charlotte heard with an incredulous shrug--they +related piecemeal what they did know, and Weyburn's name gave her scent. +She paid small heed to the tale of Mr. Weyburn's having come there in +the character of young Mr. Collett's old schoolmate. Mr. Weyburn had +started for the port of Harwich. This day, and not long subsequently, +Lady Ormont had started for the port of Harwich, on her way to London, +if we like to think it. Further corroboration was quite superfluous. + +'Is there a night packet-boat from this port of yours?' Lady Charlotte +asked. + +The household servants had to be consulted; and she, hurriedly craving +the excuse of their tedious mistress, elicited, as far as she could +understand them, that there might be and very nearly was, a night +packet-boat starting for Flushing. The cook, a native of Harwich, sent +up word of a night packet-boat starting at about eleven o'clock last +year. + +Lady Charlotte saw the chance as a wind-blown beacon-fire under press +of shades. Changeing her hawkish manner toward the simple pair, she gave +them view of a smile magical by contrast, really beautiful--the smile +she had in reserve for serviceable persons whom she trusted--while +thanking them and saying, that her anxiety concerned Lady Ormont's +welfare. + +Her brother had prophesied she would soon be 'running at his wife's +heels,' and so she was, but not 'with her head off,' as she had +rejoined. She might prove, by intercepting his Aminta, that her head was +on. The windy beacon-fire of a chance blazed at the rapid rolling of her +carriage-wheels, and sank to stifling smoke at any petty obstruction. +Let her but come to an interview with his Aminta, she would stop all +that nonsense of the woman's letter; carry her off--and her Weyburn +plucking at her other hand to keep her. Why, naturally, treated as she +was by Rowsley, she dropped soft eyes on a good-looking secretary. Any +woman would--confound the young fellow! But all 's right yet if we get +to Harwich in time; unless... as a certain coldfish finale tone of the +letter playing on the old string, the irrevocable, peculiar to women who +are novices in situations of the kind, appeared to indicate; they see in +their conscience-blasted minds a barrier to a return home, high as the +Archangelical gate behind Mother Eve, and they are down on their knees +blubbering gratitude and repentance if the gate swings open to them. It +is just the instant, granting the catastrophe, to have a woman back to +her duty. She has only to learn she has a magnanimous husband. If she +learns into the bargain how he suffers, how he loves her,--well, +she despises a man like that Lawrence Finchley all the more for the +'magnanimity' she has the profit of, and perceives to be feebleness. But +there 's woman in her good and her bad; she'll trick a man of age, and +if he forgives her, owning his own faults in the case, she won't scorn +him for it; the likelihood is, she 'll feel bound in honour to serve him +faithfully for the rest of their wedded days. + +A sketch to her of Rowsley's deep love.... Lady Charlotte wandered into +an amazement at it. A sentence of her brother's recent speaking danced +in her recollection. He said of his country: That Lout comes to a +knowledge of his wants too late. True, Old England is always louting +to the rear, and has to be pricked in the rear and pulled by the neck +before she 's equal to the circumstances around her. But what if his +words were flung at him in turn! Short of 'Lout,' it rang correctly. +'Too late,' we hope to clip from the end of the sentence likewise. We +have then, if you stress it--'comes to a knowledge of his wants;--a fair +example of the creatures men are; the greatest of men; who have to learn +from the loss of the woman--or a fear of the loss--how much they really +do love her. + +Well, and she may learn the same or something sufficiently like it, +if she 's caught in time, called to her face, Countess of Ormont, +sister-in-law, and smoothed, petted, made believe she 's now understood +and won't be questioned on a single particular--in fact, she marches +back in a sort of triumph; and all the past in a cupboard, locked up, +without further inquiry. + +Her brother Rowsley's revealed human appearance of the stricken +man--stricken right into his big heart--precipitated Lady Charlotte's +reflections and urged her to an unavailing fever of haste during the +circuitous drive in moonlight to the port. She alighted at the principal +inn, and was there informed that the packetboat, with a favouring breeze +and tide, had started ten minutes earlier. She summoned the landlord, +and described a lady, as probably one of the passengers: 'Dark, holds +herself up high. Some such lady had dined at the inn on tea, and gone +aboard the boat soon after. + +Lady Charlotte burned with the question: Alone? She repressed her +feminine hunger and asked to see the book of visitors. But the lady had +not slept at the inn, so had not been requested to write her name. + +The track of the vessel could be seen from the pier, on the line of a +bar of moonlight; and thinking, that the abominable woman, if aboard she +was, had coolly provided herself with a continental passport--or had +it done for two by her accomplice, that Weyburn, before she left +London--Lady Charlotte sent a loathing gaze at the black figure of +the boat on the water, untroubled by any reminder of her share in the +conspiracy of events, which was to be her brother's chastisement to his +end. + +Years are the teachers of the great rocky natures, whom they round and +sap and pierce in caverns, having them on all sides, and striking deep +inward at moments. There is no resisting the years, if we have a heart, +and a common understanding. They constitute, in the sum of them, +the self-examination, whence issues, acknowledged or not, a belated +self-knowledge, to direct our final actions. She had the heart. Sight +of the high-minded, proud, speechless man suffering for the absence of +a runaway woman, not ceasing to suffer, never blaming the woman, and +consequently, it could be fancied, blaming himself, broke down Lady +Charlotte's defences and moved her to review her part in her brother +Rowsley's unhappiness. For supposing him to blame himself, her power +to cast a shadow of blame on him went from her, and therewith her +vindication of her conduct. He lived at Olmer. She read him by degrees, +as those who have become absolutely tongueless have to be read; and so +she gathered that this mortally (or lastingly) wounded brother of hers +was pleased by an allusion to his Aminta. He ran his finger on the lines +of a map of Spain, from Barcelona over to Granada; and impressed his +nail at a point appearing to be mountainous or woody. Lady Charlotte +suggested that he and his Aminta had passed by there. He told a story of +a carriage accident: added, 'She was very brave.' One day, when he had +taken a keepsake book of England's Beauties off the drawing-room table, +his eyes dwelt on a face awhile, and he handed it, with a nod, followed +by a slight depreciatory shrug. 'Like her, not so handsome,' Lady +Charlotte said. + +He nodded again. She came to a knowledge of Aminta's favourite colours +through the dwelling of his look on orange and black, deepest rose, +light yellow, light blue. Her grand-daughters won the satisfied look +if they wore a combination touching his memory. The rocky are not +imaginative, and have to be struck from without for a kindling of them. +Submissive though she was to court and soothe her brother Rowsley, a +spur of jealousy burned in the composition of her sentiments, to set +her going. He liked visiting Mrs. Lawrence Finchley at her effaced good +man's country seat, Brockholm in Berkshire, and would stay there a month +at a time. Lady Charlotte learnt why. The enthusiast for Aminta, without +upholding her to her late lord, whom she liked well, talked of her +openly with him, confessed to a fondness for her. How much Mrs. Lawrence +ventured to say, Lady Charlotte could not know. But rivalry pushed her +to the extreme of making Aminta partially a topic; and so ready was +he to follow her lead in the veriest trifles recalling the handsome +runaway; that she had to excite his racy diatribes against the burgess +English and the pulp they have made of a glorious nation, in order not +to think him inclining upon dotage. + +Philippa's occasional scoff in fun concerning 'grandmama's tutor,' +hurt Lady Charlotte for more reasons than one, notwithstanding the +justification of her fore-thoughtfulness. The girl, however, was +privileged; she was Bobby Benlew's dearest friend, and my lord loved +the boy; with whom nothing could be done at school, nor could a tutor +at Olmer control him. In fine, Bobby saddened the family and gained the +earl's anxious affection by giving daily proofs of his being an Ormont +in a weak frame; patently an Ormont, recurrently an invalid. His moral +qualities hurled him on his physical deficiencies. The local doctor and +Dr. Rewkes banished him twice to the seashore, where he began to bloom +the first week and sickened the next, for want of playfellows, jolly +fights and friendships. Ultimately they prescribed mountain air, Swiss +air, easy travelling to Switzerland, and several weeks of excursions at +the foot of the Alps. Bobby might possibly get an aged tutor, or find an +English clergyman taking pupils, on the way. + +Thus it happened, that seven years after his bereavement, Lord Ormont +and Philippa and Bobby were on the famous Bernese Terrace, grandest of +terrestrial theatres where soul of man has fronting him earth's utmost +majesty. Sublime: but five minutes of it fetched sounds as of a plug in +an empty phial from Bobby's bosom, and his heels became electrical. + +He was observed at play with a gentleman of Italian complexion. Past +guessing how it had come about, for the gentleman was an utter stranger. +He had at any rate the tongue of an Englishman. He had the style, too, +the slang and cries and tricks of an English schoolboy, though visibly +a foreigner. And he had the art of throwing his heart into that bit of +improvised game, or he would never have got hold of Bobby, shrewd to +read a masker. + +Lugged-up by the boy to my lord and the young lady, he doffed and bowed. +'Forgive me, pray,' he said; 'I can't see an English boy without having +a spin with him; and I make so bold as to speak to English people +wherever I meet them, if they give me the chance. Bad manners? Better +than that. You are of the military profession, sir, I see. I am a +soldier, fresh from Monte Video. Italian, it is evident, under an +Italian chief there. A clerk on a stool, and hey presto plunged into the +war a month after, shouldering a gun and marching. Fifteen battles in +eighteen months; and Death a lady at a balcony we kiss hands to on the +march below. Not a bit more terrible! Ah, but your pardon, sir,' he +hastened to say, observing rigidity on the features of the English +gentleman; 'would I boast? Not I. Accept it as my preface for why I am +moved to speak the English wherever I meet them:--Uruguay, Buenos Ayres, +La Plata, or Europe. I cannot resist it. At least, he bent gracefully, +'I do not. We come to the grounds of my misbehaviour. I have shown at +every call I fear nothing, kiss hand of welcome or adieu to Death. +And I, a boy of the age of this youngster--he 's not like me, I can +declare!--I was a sneak and a coward. It follows, I was a liar and +a traitor. Who cured me of that vileness, that scandal? I will tell +you--an Englishman and an Englishwoman: my schoolmaster and his wife. My +schoolmaster--my friend! He is the comrade of his boys: English, French, +Germans, Italians, a Spaniard in my time--a South American I have sent +him--two from Boston, Massachusetts--and clever!--all emulous to excel, +none boasting. But, to myself; I was that mean fellow. I did--I could +let you know: before this young lady--she would wither me with her +scorn, Enough, I sneaked, I lied. I let the blame fall on a schoolfellow +and a housemaid. Oh! a small thing, but I coveted it--a scarf. It +reminded me of Rome. Enough, there at the bottom of that pit, behold me. +It was not discovered, but my schoolfellow was unpunished, the housemaid +remained in service; I thought, I thought, and I thought until I could +not look in my dear friend Matthew's face. He said to me one day: “Have +you nothing to tell me, Giulio?” as if to ask the road to right or left. +Out it all came. And no sermon, no! He set me the hardest task I could +have. That was a penance!--to go to his wife, and tell it all to her. +Then I did think it an easier thing to go and face death--and death had +been my nightmare. I went, she listened, she took my hand she said: “You +will never do this again, I know, Giulio.” She told me no English girl +would ever look on a man who was a coward and lied. From that day I have +made Truth my bride. And what the consequence? I know not fear! I could +laugh, knowing I was to lie down in my six-foot measure to-morrow. If I +have done my duty and look in the face of my dear Matthew and his wife! +Ah, those two! They are loved. They will be loved all over Europe. He +works for Europe and America--all civilized people--to be one country. +He is the comrade of his boys. Out of school hours, it is Christian +names all round--Matthew, Emile, Adolf, Emilio, Giulio, Robert, Marcel, +Franz, et caetera. Games or lessons, a boy can't help learning with him. +He makes happy fellows and brave soldiers of them without drill. Sir, do +I presume when I say I have your excuse for addressing you because you +are his countryman? I drive to the old school in half an hour, and next +week he and his dear wife and a good half of the boys will be on the +tramp over the Simplon, by Lago Maggiore, to my uncle's house in Milan +for a halt. I go to Matthew before I see my own people.' + +He swept another bow of apology, chiefly to Philippa, as representative +of the sex claiming homage. + +Lord Ormont had not greatly relished certain of the flowery phrases +employed by this young foreigner. 'Truth his bride,' was damnable: +and if a story had to be told, he liked it plain, without jerks +and evolutions. Many offences to our taste have to be overlooked in +foreigners--Italians! considered, before they were proved in fire, a +people classed by nature as operatic declaimers. Bobby had shown himself +on the road out to Bern a difficult boy, and stupefyingly ignorant. My +lord had two or three ideas working to cloudy combination in his head +when he put a question, referring to the management of the dormitories +at the school. Whereupon the young Italian introduced himself as Giulio +Calliani, and proposed a drive to inspect the old school, with its +cricket and football fields, lake for rowing and swimming, gymnastic +fixtures, carpenter's shed, bowling alley, and four European languages +in the air by turns daily; and the boys, too, all the boys rosy and +jolly, according to the last report received of them from his friend +Matthew. Enthusiasm struck and tightened the loose chord of scepticism +in Lord Ormont; somewhat as if a dancing beggar had entered a +kennel-dog's yard, designing to fascinate the faithful beast. It is a +chord of one note, that is tightened to sound by the violent summons +to accept, which is a provocation to deny. At the same time, the +enthusiast's dance is rather funny; he is not an ordinary beggar; to see +him trip himself in his dance would be rather funnier. This is to say, +inspect the trumpeted school and retire politely. My lord knew the Bern +of frequent visits: the woman was needed beside him to inspire a +feeling for scenic mountains. Philippa's admiration of them was like a +new-pressed grape-juice after a draught of the ripe vintage. Moreover, +Bobby was difficult: the rejected of his English schools was a stiff +Ormont at lessons, a wheezy Benlew in the playground: exactly the +reverse of what should have been. A school of four languages in bracing +air, if a school with healthy dormitories, and a school of the trained +instincts we call gentlemanly, might suit Master Bobby for a trial. An +eye on the boys of the school would see in a minute what stuff they were +made of. Supposing this young Italianissimo with the English tongue +to be tolerably near the mark, with a deduction of two-thirds of the +enthusiasm, Bobby might stop at the school as long as his health held +out, or the master would keep him. Supposing half a dozen things and +more, the meeting with this Mr. Calliand was a lucky accident. But lucky +accidents are anticipated only by fools. + +Lord Ormont consented to visit the school. He handed his card and +invited his guest; he had a carriage in waiting for the day, he said; +and obedient to Lady Charlotte's injunctions, he withheld Philippa from +the party. She and her maid were to pass the five hours of his absence +in efforts to keep their monkey Bobby out of the well of the solicitious +bears. + +My lord left his carriage at the inn of the village lying below the +school-house on a green height. The young enthusiast was dancing him +into the condition of livid taciturnity, which could, if it would, flash +out pungent epigrams of the actual world at Operatic recitative. + +'There's the old school-clock! Just in time for the half-hour before +dinner,' said Calliani, chattering two hundred to the minute, of the +habits and usages of the school, and how all had meals together, +the master, his wife, the teachers, the boys. 'And she--as for +her!' Calliani kissed finger up to the furthest skies: into which a +self-respecting sober Northener of the Isles could imagine himself to +kick enthusiastic gesticulators, if it were polite to do so. + +The school-house faced the master's dwelling house, and these, with a +block of building, formed a three-sided enclosure, like barracks! Forth +from the school-house door burst a dozen shouting lads, as wasps +from the hole of their nest from a charge of powder. Out they poured +whizzing; and the frog he leaped, and pussy ran and doubled before the +hounds, and hockey-sticks waved, and away went a ball. Cracks at the +ball anyhow, was the game for the twenty-five minutes breather before +dinner. + +'French day!' said Calliani, hearing their cries. Then he bellowed +'Matthew!--Giulio!' + +A lusty inversion of the order of the names and an Oberland jodel +returned his hail. The school retreating caught up the Alpine cry in the +distance. Here were lungs! Here were sprites! + +Lord Ormont bethought him of the name of the master. 'Mr. Matthew, I +think you said, sir,' he was observing to Calliani, as the master came +nearer; and Calliani replied: 'His Christian name. But if the boys are +naughty boys, it is not the privilege. Mr. Weyburn.' + +There was not any necessity to pronounce that name Calliani spoke it on +the rush to his friend. + +Lord Ormont and Weyburn advanced the steps to the meeting. Neither of +them flinched in eye or limb. + +At a corridor window of the dwelling-house a lady stood. Her colour was +the last of a summer day over western seas; her thought: 'It has come!' +Her mind was in her sight; her other powers were frozen. + +The two men conversed. There was no gesture. + +This is one of the lightning moments of life for the woman, at the +meeting of the two men between whom her person has been in dispute, may +still be; her soul being with one. And that one, dearer than the blood +of her body, imperilled by her. + +She could ask why she exists, if a question were in her grasp. She +would ask for the meaning of the gift of beauty to the woman, making her +desireable to those two men, making her a cause of strife, a thing of +doom. An incessant clamour dinned about her: 'It has come!' + +The two men walked conversing into the school-house. She was unconscious +of the seeing of a third, though she saw and at the back of her +mind believed she knew a friend in him. The two disappeared. She was +insensible stone, except for the bell-clang: 'It has come'; until they +were in view again, still conversing: and the first of her thought to +stir from petrifaction was: 'Life holds no secret.' + +She tried, in shame of the inanimate creature she had become, to +force herself to think: and had, for a chastising result, a series of +geometrical figures shooting across her brain, mystically expressive +of the situation, not communicably. The most vivid and persistent was +a triangle. Interpret who may. The one beheld the two pass from view +again, still conversing. + +They are on the gravel; they bow; they separate. He of the grey head +poised high has gone. + +Her arm was pressed by a hand. Weyburn longed to enfold her, and she +desired it, and her soul praised him for refraining. Both had that +delicacy. + +'You have seen, my darling,' Weyburn said. 'It has come, and we take our +chance. He spoke not one word, beyond the affairs of the school. He has +a grandnephew in want of a school: visited the dormitories, refectory, +and sheds: tasted the well-water, addressed me as Mr. Matthew. He had +it from Giulio. Came to look at the school of Giulio's “friend +Matthew,”:--you hear him. Giulio little imagines!--Well, dear love, we +stand with a squad in front, and wait the word. It mayn't be spoken. We +have counted long before that something like it was bound to happen. And +you are brave. Ruin's an empty word for us two.' + +'Yes, dear, it is: we will pay what is asked of us,' Aminta said. 'It +will be heavy, if the school... and I love our boys. I am fit to be the +school-housekeeper; for nothing else.' + +'I will go to the boys' parents. At the worst, we can march into new +territory. Emile will stick to us. Adolf, too. The fresh flock will +come.' + +Aminta cried in the voice of tears: 'I love the old so!' + +'The likelihood is, we shall hear nothing further.' + +'You had to bear the shock, Matthew.' + +'Whatever I bore, and you saw, you shared.' + +'Yes,' she said. + +'Mais, n'oublions pas que c'est aujourd'hui jour francais; si, madame, +vous avez assez d'appetit pour diner avec nous? + +'Je suis, comme toujours, aux ordres de Monsieur.' She was among the +bravest of women. She had a full ounce of lead in her breast when +she sat with the boys at their midday meal, showing them her familiar +pleasant face. + +Shortly after the hour of the evening meal, a messenger from Bern +delivered a letter addressed to the Headmaster. Weyburn and Aminta were +strolling to the playground, thinking in common, as they usually did. +They read the letter together. These were the lines: + +'Lord Ormont desires to repeat his sense of obligation to Mr. Matthew +for the inspection of the school under his charge, and will be thankful +to Mr. Calliani, if that gentleman will do him the favour to call at his +hotel at Bern to-morrow, at as early an hour as is convenient to him, +for the purpose of making arrangements, agreeable to the Head-master's +rules, for receiving his grandnephew Robert Benlew as a pupil at the +school.' + +The two raised eyes on one another, pained in their deep joy by the +religion of the restraint upon their hearts, to keep down the passion to +embrace. + +'I thank heaven we know him to be one of the true noble men,' said +Aminta, now breathing, and thanking Lord Ormont for the free breath she +drew. + +Weyburn spoke of an idea he had gathered from the earl's manner. But he +had not imagined the proud lord's great-heartedness would go so far +as to trust him with the guardianship of the boy. That moved, and that +humbled him, though it was far from humiliating. + +Six months later, the brief communication arrived from Lady Charlotte + +'She is a widow. + +'Unlikely you will hear from me again. Death is always next door, you +said once. I look on the back of life. + +'Tell Bobby, capital for him to write he has no longing for home +holidays. If any one can make a man of him, you will. That I know. + + 'CHARLOTTE EGLETT.' + + ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS + + A bird that won't roast or boil or stew + A woman, and would therefore listen to nonsense + A free-thinker startles him as a kind of demon + A female free-thinker is one of Satan's concubines + Acting is not of the high class which conceals the art + Affected misapprehensions + Ah! we fall into their fictions + All that Matey and Browny were forbidden to write they looked + And not be beaten by an acknowledged defeat + Any excess pushes to craziness + As well ask (women) how a battle-field concerns them! + Bad luck's not repeated every day Keep heart for the good + Bad laws are best broken + Began the game of Pull + Being in heart and mind the brother to the sister with women + Botched mendings will only make them worse + Bounds of his intelligence closed their four walls + Boys who can appreciate brave deeds are capable of doing them + Boys, of course--but men, too! + But had sunk to climb on a firmer footing + By nature incapable of asking pardon + Cajoled like a twenty-year-old yahoo at college + Careful not to smell of his office + Challenged him to lead up to her desired stormy scene + Chose to conceive that he thought abstractedly + Consciousness of some guilt when vowing itself innocent + Consign discussion to silence with the cynical closure + Convictions we store--wherewith to shape our destinies + Convincing themselves that they impersonate sagacity + Could not understand enthusiasm for the schoolmaster's career + Could we--we might be friends + Curious thing would be if curious things should fail to happen + Death is only the other side of the ditch + Death is always next door + Desire of it destroyed it + Detestable feminine storms enveloping men weak enough + Didn't say a word No use in talking about feelings + Distaste for all exercise once pleasurable + Divided lovers in presence + Enthusiasm struck and tightened the loose chord of scepticism + Enthusiast, when not lyrical, is perilously near to boring + Exult in imagination of an escape up to the moment of capture + Few men can forbear to tell a spicy story of their friends + Greatest of men; who have to learn from the loss of the woman + Having contracted the fatal habit of irony + He had to shake up wrath over his grievances + He had gone, and the day lived again for both of them + He gave a slight sign of restiveness, and was allowed to go + He loathed a skulker + He took small account of the operations of the feelings + He began ambitiously--It's the way at the beginning + Her vehement fighting against facts + Her duel with Time + His aim to win the woman acknowledged no obstacle in the means + His restored sense of possession + Hopeless task of defending a woman from a woman + How to compromise the matter for the sake of peace? + I have all the luxuries--enough to loathe them + I hate old age It changes you so + I could be in love with her cruelty, if only I had her near me + I look on the back of life + I want no more, except to be taught to work + I married a cook She expects a big appetite + I'm for a rational Deity + If the world is hostile we are not to blame it + Ignorance roaring behind a mask of sarcasm + Increase of dissatisfaction with the more she got + Lawyers hold the keys of the great world + Learn--principally not to be afraid of ideas + Loathing of artifice to raise emotion + Look well behind + Lucky accidents are anticipated only by fools + Magnify an offence in the ratio of our vanity + Man who helps me to read the world and men as they are + Meant to vanquish her with the dominating patience + Men bore the blame, though the women were rightly punished + Men who believe that there is a virtue in imprecations + Naked original ideas, are acceptable at no time + Napoleon's treatment of women is excellent example + Necessity's offspring + Never nurse an injury, great or small + Nevertheless, inclinations are an infidelity + No love can be without jealousy + Not daring risk of office by offending the taxpayer + Not the indignant and the frozen, but the genially indifferent + Not men of brains, but the men of aptitudes + Old age is a prison wall between us and young people + One has to feel strong in a delicate position + One night, and her character's gone + One is a fish to her hook; another a moth to her light + Orderliness, from which men are privately exempt + Our love and labour are constantly on trial + Passion added to a bowl of reason makes a sophist's mess + People were virtuous in past days: they counted their sinners + Perhaps inspire him, if he would let her breathe + Person in another world beyond this world of blood + Policy seems to petrify their minds + Practical for having an addiction to the palpable + Professional Puritans + Published Memoirs indicate the end of a man's activity + Rage of a conceited schemer tricked + Regularity of the grin of dentistry + Respect one another's affectations + Screams of an uninjured lady + Selfishness and icy inaccessibility to emotion + She had to be the hypocrite or else--leap + She had a thirsting mind + Silence was doing the work of a scourge + Smile she had in reserve for serviceable persons + Snatch her from a possessor who forfeited by undervaluing her + So says the minute Years are before you + That pit of one of their dead silences + The despot is alert at every issue, to every chance + The spending, never harvesting, world + The shots hit us behind you + The terrible aggregate social woman + The next ten minutes will decide our destinies + The woman side of him + The good life gone lives on in the mind + The beat of a heart with a dread like a shot in it + There is no history of events below the surface + There are women who go through life not knowing love + They want you to show them what they 'd like the world to be + Things are not equal + Things were lumpish and gloomy that day of the week + This female talk of the eternities + Titles showered on the women who take free breath of air + To males, all ideas are female until they are made facts + To time and a wife it is no disgrace for a man to bend + To know how to take a licking, that wins in the end + Uncommon unprogressiveness + Venus of nature was melting into a Venus of art + Violent summons to accept, which is a provocation to deny + We cannot, men or woman, control the heart in sleep at night + We shall want a war to teach the country the value of courage + We don't go together into a garden of roses + When duelling flourished on our land, frail women powerful + Where heart weds mind, or nature joins intellect + Who cries, Come on, and prays his gods you won't + Why he enjoyed the privilege of seeing, and was not beside her + With what little wisdom the world is governed + Women are happier enslaved + World against us It will not keep us from trying to serve + Years are the teachers of the great rocky natures + You'll have to guess at half of everything he tells you + You're going to be men, meaning something better than women + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lord Ormont and his Aminta, Complete +by George Meredith + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LORD ORMONT AND HIS AMINTA, *** + +***** This file should be named 4482-0.txt or 4482-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/8/4482/ + +Produced by Pat Castevans and David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Lord Ormont and his Aminta, Complete + +Author: George Meredith + +Release Date: October 13, 2006 [EBook #4482] +Last Updated: February 26, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LORD ORMONT AND HIS AMINTA, *** + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + +</pre> + + <h1> + LORD ORMONT AND HIS AMINTA, COMPLETE + </h1> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + By George Meredith + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a> LOVE AT A + SCHOOL <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a> LADY + CHARLOTTE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a> THE + TUTOR <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a> RECOGNITION + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. </a> IN WHICH + THE SHADES OF BROWNY AND MATEY ADVANCE AND RETIRE <br /><br /> <a + href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. </a> IN A MOOD OF LANGUOR + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a> EXHIBITS + EFFECTS OF A PRATTLER'S DOSES <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0008"> + CHAPTER VIII. </a> MRS. LAWRENCE FINCHLEY <br /><br /> <a + href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX. </a> A FLASH OF THE BRUISED + WARRIOR <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X. </a> A + SHORT PASSAGE IN THE GAME PLAYED BY TWO <br /><br /> <a + href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI. </a> THE SECRETARY TAKEN AS + AN ANTIDOTE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII. </a> MORE + OF CUPER'S BOYS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII. </a> WAR + AT OLMER <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV. </a> OLD + LOVERS NEW FRIENDS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XV. </a> SHOWING + A SECRET FISHED WITHOUT ANGLING <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0016"> + CHAPTER XVI. </a> ALONG TWO ROADS TO STEIGNTON <br /><br /> <a + href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER XVII. </a> LADY CHARLOTTE'S + TRIUMPH <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER XVIII. </a> A + SCENE ON THE ROAD BACK <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER XIX. + </a> THE PURSUERS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER + XX. </a> AT THE SIGN OF THE JOLLY CRICKETERS <br /><br /> <a + href="#link2HCH0021"> CHAPTER XXI. </a> UNDER-CURRENTS IN THE + MINDS OF LADY CHARLOTTE AND LORD ORMONT <br /><br /> <a + href="#link2HCH0022"> CHAPTER XXII. </a> TREATS OF THE FIRST + DAY OF THE CONTENTION OF BROTHER AND SISTER <br /><br /> <a + href="#link2HCH0023"> CHAPTER XXIII. </a> THE ORMONT JEWELS + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0024"> CHAPTER XXIV. </a> LOVERS + MATED <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0025"> CHAPTER XXV. </a> PREPARATIONS + FOR A RESOLVE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0026"> CHAPTER XXVI. </a> VISITS + OF FAREWELL <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0027"> CHAPTER XXVII. </a> A + MARINE DUET <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0028"> CHAPTER XXVIII. </a> THE + PLIGHTING <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0029"> CHAPTER XXIX. </a> AMINTA + TO HER LORD <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0030"> CHAPTER XXX. </a> CONCLUSION + <br /><br /> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + CHAPTER I. LOVE AT A SCHOOL + </h2> + <p> + A procession of schoolboys having to meet a procession of schoolgirls on + the Sunday's dead march, called a walk, round the park, could hardly go by + without dropping to a hum in its chatter, and the shot of incurious + half-eyes the petticoated creatures—all so much of a swarm unless + you stare at them like lanterns. The boys cast glance because it relieved + their heaviness; things were lumpish and gloomy that day of the week. The + girls, who sped their peep of inquisition before the moment of transit, + let it be seen that they had minds occupied with thoughts of their own. + </p> + <p> + Our gallant fellows forgot the intrusion of the foreign as soon as it had + passed. A sarcastic discharge was jerked by chance at the usher and the + governess—at the old game, it seemed; or why did they keep steering + columns to meet? There was no fun in meeting; it would never be happening + every other Sunday, and oftener, by sheer toss-penny accident. They were + moved like pieces for the pleasure of these two. + </p> + <p> + Sometimes the meeting occurred twice during the stupid march-out, when it + became so nearly vexatious to boys almost biliously oppressed by the + tedium of a day merely allowing them to shove the legs along, ironically + naming it animal excise, that some among them pronounced the sham + variation of monotony to be a bothering nuisance if it was going to happen + every Sunday, though Sunday required diversions. They hated the absurdity + in this meeting and meeting; for they were obliged to anticipate it, as a + part of their ignominious weekly performance; and they could not avoid + reflecting on it, as a thing done over again: it had them in front and in + rear; and it was a kind of broadside mirror, flashing at them the exact + opposite of themselves in an identically similar situation, that forced a + resemblance. + </p> + <p> + Touching the old game, Cuper's fold was a healthy school, owing to the + good lead of the head boy, Matey Weyburn, a lad with a heart for games to + bring renown, and no thought about girls. His emulation, the fellows + fancied, was for getting the school into a journal of the Sports. He used + to read one sent him by a sporting officer of his name, and talk enviously + of public schools, printed whatever they did—a privilege and dignity + of which, they had unrivalled enjoyment in the past, days, when wealth was + more jealously exclusive; and he was always prompting for challenges and + saving up to pay expenses; and the fellows were to laugh at kicks and + learn the art of self-defence—train to rejoice in whipcord muscles. + The son of a tradesman, if a boy fell under the imputation, was worthy of + honour with him, let the fellow but show grip and toughness. He loathed a + skulker, and his face was known for any boy who would own to fatigue or + confess himself beaten. “Go to bed,” was one of his terrible stings. Matey + was good at lessons, too—liked them; liked Latin and Greek; would + help a poor stumbler. + </p> + <p> + Where he did such good work was in sharpening the fellows to excel. He + kept them to the grindstone, so that they had no time for rusty brooding; + and it was fit done by exhortations off a pedestal, like St. Paul at the + Athenians, it breathed out of him every day of the week. He carried a + light for followers. Whatever he demanded of them, he himself did it + easily. He would say to boys, “You're going to be men,” meaning something + better than women. There was a notion that Matey despised girls. + Consequently, never much esteemed, they were in disfavour. The old game + was mentioned only because of a tradition of an usher and governess + leering sick eyes until they slunk away round a corner and married, and + set up a school for themselves—an emasculate ending. Comment on it + came of a design to show that the whole game had been examined dismissed + as uninteresting and profitless. + </p> + <p> + One of the boys alluded in Matey's presence to their general view upon the + part played by womankind on the stage, confident of a backing; and he had + it, in a way: their noble chief whisked the subject, as not worth a + discussion; but he turned to a younger chap, who said he detested girls, + and asked him how about a sister at home; and the youngster coloured, and + Matey took him and spun him round, with a friendly tap on the shoulder. + </p> + <p> + Odd remarks at intervals caused it to be suspected that he had ideas + concerning girls. They were high as his head above the school; and there + they were left, with Algebra and Homer, for they were not of a sort to + inflame; until the boys noticed how he gave up speaking, and fell to hard + looking, though she was dark enough to get herself named Browny. In the + absence of a fair girl of equal height to set beside her, Browny shone. + </p> + <p> + She had a nice mouth, ready for a smile at the corners, or so it was + before Matey let her see that she was his mark. Now she kept her mouth + asleep and her eyes half down, up to the moment of her nearing to pass, + when the girl opened on him, as if lifting her eyelids from sleep to the + window, a full side—look, like a throb, and no disguise—no + slyness or boldness either, not a bit of languishing. You might think her + heart came quietly out. + </p> + <p> + The look was like the fall of light on the hills from the first of + morning. It lasted half a minute, and left a ruffle for a good half-hour. + Even the younger fellows, without knowing what affected them, were moved + by the new picture of a girl, as if it had been a frontispiece of a + romantic story some day to be read. She looked compelled to look, but + consenting and unashamed; at home in submission; just the look that wins + observant boys, shrewd as dogs to read by signs, if they are interested in + the persons. They read Browny's meaning: that Matey had only to come and + snatch her; he was her master, and she was a brave girl, ready to go all + over the world with him; had taken to him as he to her, shot for shot. Her + taking to the pick of the school was a capital proof that she was of the + right sort. To be sure, she could not much help herself. + </p> + <p> + Some of the boys regretted her not being fair. But, as they felt, and + sought to explain, in the manner of the wag of a tail, with elbows and + eyebrows to one another's understanding, fair girls could never have let + fly such look; fair girls are softer, woollier, and when they mean to look + serious, overdo it by craping solemn; or they pinafore a jigging + eagerness, or hoist propriety on a chubby flaxen grin; or else they dart + an eye, or they mince and prim and pout, and are sigh-away and + dying-ducky, given to girls' tricks. Browny, after all, was the girl for + Matey. + </p> + <p> + She won a victory right away and out of hand, on behalf of her + cloud-and-moon sisters, as against the sunny-meadowy; for slanting + intermediates are not espied of boys in anything: conquered by Browny; + they went over to her colour, equal to arguing, that Venus at her + mightiest must have been dark, or she would not have stood a comparison + with the forest Goddess of the Crescent, swanning it through a lake—on + the leap for run of the chase—watching the dart, with her humming + bow at breast. The fair are simple sugary thing's, prone to fat, like + broad-sops in milk; but the others are milky nuts, good to bite, + Lacedaemonian virgins, hard to beat, putting us on our mettle; and they + are for heroes, and they can be brave. So these boys felt, conquered by + Browny. A sneaking native taste for the forsaken side, known to renegades, + hauled at them if her image waned during the week; and it waned a little, + but Sunday restored and stamped it. + </p> + <p> + By a sudden turn the whole upper-school had fallen to thinking of girls, + and the meeting on the Sunday was a prospect. One of the day-boarders had + a sister in the seminary of Miss Vincent. He was plied to obtain + information concerning Browny's name and her parents. He had it pat to + hand in answer. No parents came to see her; an aunt came now and then. Her + aunt's name was not wanted. Browny's name was Aminta Farrell. + </p> + <p> + Farrell might pass; Aminta was debated. This female Christian name had a + foreign twang; it gave dissatisfaction. Boy after boy had a try at it, + with the same effect: you could not speak the name without a pursing of + the month and a puckering of the nose, beastly to see, as one little + fellow reminded them on a day when Matey was in more than common favour, + topping a pitch of rapture, for clean bowling, first ball, middle stump on + the kick, the best bat of the other eleven in a match; and, says this + youngster, drawling, soon after the cheers and claps had subsided to + business, “Aminta.” + </p> + <p> + He made it funny by saying it as if to himself and the ground, in a + subdued way, while he swung his leg on a half-circle, like a skater, hands + in pockets. He was a sly young rascal, innocently precocious enough, and + he meant no disrespect either to Browny or to Matey; but he had to run for + it, his delivery of the name being so like what was in the breasts of the + senior fellows, as to the inferiority of any Aminta to old Matey, that he + set them laughing; and Browny was on the field, to reprove them, left of + the tea-booth, with her school-mates, part of her head under a scarlet + parasol. + </p> + <p> + A girl with such a name as Aminta might not be exactly up to the standard + of old Matey, still, if he thought her so and she had spirit, the school + was bound to subscribe; and that look of hers warranted her for taking her + share in the story, like the brigand's wife loading gnus for him while he + knocks over the foremost carabineer on the mountain-ledge below, who drops + on his back with a hellish expression. + </p> + <p> + Browny was then clearly seen all round, instead of only front-face, as on + the Sunday in the park, when fellows could not spy backward after passing. + The pleasure they had in seeing her all round involved no fresh stores of + observation, for none could tell how she tied her back-hair, which was the + question put to them by a cynic of a boy, said to be queasy with excess of + sisters. They could tell that she was tall for a girl, or tallish—not + a maypole. She drank a cup of tea, and ate a slice of bread-and-butter; no + cake. + </p> + <p> + She appeared undisturbed when Matey, wearing his holiday white ducks, and + all aglow, entered the booth. She was not expected to faint, only she + stood for the foreign Aminta more than for their familiar Browny in his + presence. Not a sign of the look which had fired the school did she throw + at him. Change the colour and you might compare her to a lobster fixed on + end, with a chin and no eyes. Matey talked to Miss Vincent up to the + instant of his running to bat. She would have liked to guess how he knew + she had a brother on the medical staff of one of the regiments in India: + she asked him twice, and his cheeks were redder than cricket in the sun. + He said he read all the reports from India, and asked her whether she did + not admire Lord Ormont, our general of cavalry, whose charge at the head + of fifteen hundred horse in the last great battle shattered the enemy's + right wing, and gave us the victory—rolled him up and stretched him + out like a carpet for dusting. Miss Vincent exclaimed that it was really + strange, now, he should speak of Lord Ormont, for she had been speaking of + him herself in morning to one of her young ladies, whose mind was bent on + his heroic deeds. Matey turned his face to the group of young ladies, + quite pleased that one of them loved his hero; and he met a smile here and + there—not from Miss Aminta Farrell. She was a complete + disappointment to the boys that day. “Aminta” was mouthed at any allusions + to her. + </p> + <p> + So, she not being a match for Matey, they let her drop. The flush that had + swept across the school withered to a dry recollection, except when on one + of their Sunday afternoons she fanned the desert. Lord Ormont became the + subject of inquiry and conversation; and for his own sake—not + altogether to gratify Matey. The Saturday autumn evening's walk home, + after the race out to tea at a distant village, too late in the year for + cricket, too early for regular football, suited Matey, going at long + strides, for the story of his hero's adventures; and it was nicer than + talk about girls, and puzzling. Here lay a clear field; for he had the + right to speak of a cavalry officer: his father died of wounds in the + service, and Matey naturally intended to join the Dragoons; if he could + get enough money to pay for mess, he said, laughing. Lord Ormont was his + pattern of a warrior. We had in him a lord who cast off luxury to live + like a Spartan when under arms, with a passion to serve his country and + sustain the glory of our military annals. He revived respect for the noble + class in the hearts of Englishmen. He was as good an authority on + horseflesh as any Englishman alive; the best for the management of + cavalry: there never was a better cavalry leader. The boys had come to + know that Browny admired Lord Ormont, so they saw a double reason why + Matey should; and walking home at his grand swing in the October dusk, + their school hero drew their national hero closer to them. + </p> + <p> + Every fellow present was dead against the usher, Mr. Shalders, when he + took advantage of a pause to strike in with his “Murat!” + </p> + <p> + He harped on Murat whenever he had a chance. Now he did it for the purpose + of casting eclipse upon Major-General Lord Ormont, the son and grandson of + English earls; for he was an earl by his title, and Murat was the son of + an innkeeper. Shalders had to admit that Murat might have served in the + stables when a boy. Honour to Murat, of course, for climbing the peaks! + Shalders, too, might interest him in military affairs and Murat; he did no + harm, and could be amusing. It rather added to his amount of dignity. It + was rather absurd, at the same time, for an English usher to be spouting + and glowing about a French general, who had been a stable-boy and became a + king, with his Murat this, Murat that, and hurrah Murat in red and white + and green uniform, tunic and breeches, and a chimney-afire of feathers; + and how the giant he was charged at the head of ten thousand horse, all + going like a cataract under a rainbow over the rocks, right into the + middle of the enemy and through; and he a spark ahead, and the enemy + streaming on all sides flat away, as you see puffed smoke and flame of a + bonfire. That was fun to set boys jigging. No wonder how in Russia the + Cossacks feared him, and scampered from the shadow of his plumes—were + clouds flying off his breath! That was a fine warm picture for the boys on + late autumn or early winter evenings, Shalders warming his back at the + grate, describing bivouacs in the snow. They liked well enough to hear him + when he was not opposing Matey and Lord Ormont. He perked on his toes, and + fetched his hand from behind him to flourish it when his Murat came out. + The speaking of his name clapped him on horseback—the only horseback + he ever knew. He was as fond of giving out the name Murat as you see in + old engravings of tobacco-shops men enjoying the emission of their whiff + of smoke. + </p> + <p> + Matey was not inclined to class Lord Ormont alongside Murat, a first-rate + horseman and an eagle-eye, as Shalders rightly said; and Matey agreed that + forty thousand cavalry under your orders is a toss above fifteen hundred; + but the claim for a Frenchman of a superlative merit to swallow and make + nothing of the mention of our best cavalry generals irritated him to call + Murat a mountebank. + </p> + <p> + Shalders retorted, that Lord Ormont was a reprobate. + </p> + <p> + Matey hoped he would some day write us an essay on the morale of + illustrious generals of cavalry; and Shalders told him he did not advance + his case by talking nonsense. + </p> + <p> + Each then repeated to the boys a famous exploit of his hero. Their verdict + was favourable to Lord Ormont. Our English General learnt riding before he + was ten years old, on the Pampas, where you ride all day, and cook your + steak for your dinner between your seat and your saddle. He rode with his + father and his uncle, Muncastle, the famous traveller, into Paraguay. He + saw fighting before he was twelve. Before he was twenty he was learning + outpost duty in the Austrian frontier cavalry. He served in the Peninsula, + served in Canada, served in India, volunteered for any chance of + distinction. No need to say much of his mastering the picked Indian + swordsmen in single combat: he knew their trick, and was quick to save his + reins when they made a dash threatening the headstroke—about the + same as disabling sails in old naval engagements. + </p> + <p> + That was the part for the officer; we are speaking of the General. For + that matter, he had as keen an eye for the field and the moment for his + arm to strike as any Murat. One world have liked to see Murat matched + against the sabre of a wily Rajpoot! As to campaigns and strategy, Lord + Ormont's head was a map. What of Murat and Lord Ormont horse to horse and + sword to sword? Come, imagine that, if you are for comparisons. And if + Lord Ormont never headed a lot of thousands, it does not prove he was + unable. Lord Ormont was as big as Murat. More, he was a Christian to his + horses. How about Murat in that respect? Lord Ormont cared for his men: + did Murat so particularly much? And he was as cunning fronting odds, and a + thunderbolt at the charge. Why speak of him in the past? He is an English + lord, a lord by birth, and he is alive; things may be expected of him + to-morrow or next day. + </p> + <p> + Shalders here cut Matey short by meanly objecting to that. + </p> + <p> + “Men are mortal,” he said, with a lot of pretended stuff, deploring our + human condition in the elegy strain; and he fell to reckoning the English + hero's age—as that he, Lord Ormont, had been a name in the world for + the last twenty-five years or more. The noble lord could be no chicken. We + are justified in calculating, by the course of nature, that his term of + activity is approaching, or has approached, or, in fact, has drawn to its + close. + </p> + <p> + “If your estimate, sir, approaches to correctness,” rejoined Matey—tellingly, + his comrades thought. + </p> + <p> + “Sixty, as you may learn some day, is a serious age, Matthew Weyburn.” + </p> + <p> + Matey said he should be happy to reach it with half the honours Lord + Ormont had won. + </p> + <p> + “Excepting the duels,” Shalders had the impudence to say. + </p> + <p> + “If the cause is a good one!” cried Matey. + </p> + <p> + “The cause, or Lord Ormont has been maligned, was reprehensible in the + extremest degree.” Shalders cockhorsed on his heels to his toes and back + with a bang. + </p> + <p> + “What was the cause, if you please, sir?” a boy, probably naughty, + inquired; and as Shalders did not vouchsafe a reply, the bigger boys knew. + </p> + <p> + They revelled in the devilish halo of skirts on the whirl encircling Lord + Ormont's laurelled head. + </p> + <p> + That was a spark in their blood struck from a dislike of the tone assumed + by Mr. Shalders to sustain his argument; with his “men are mortal,” and + talk of a true living champion as “no chicken,” and the wordy drawl over + “justification for calculating the approach of a close to a term of + activity”—in the case of a proved hero! + </p> + <p> + Guardians of boys should make sure that the boys are on their side before + they raise the standard of virtue. Nor ought they to summon morality for + support of a polemic. Matey Weyburn's object of worship rode superior to a + morality puffing its phrasy trumpet. And, somehow, the sacrifice of an + enormous number of women to Lord Ormont's glory seemed natural; the very + thing that should be, in the case of a first-rate military hero and + commander—Scipio notwithstanding. It brightens his flame, and it is + agreeable to them. That is how they come to distinction: they have no + other chance; they are only women; they are mad to be singed, and they + rush pelf-mall, all for the honour of the candle. + </p> + <p> + Shortly after this discussion Matey was heard informing some of the bigger + fellows he could tell them positively that Lord Ormont's age was under + fifty-four—the prime of manhood, and a jolly long way off death! The + greater credit to him, therefore, if he had been a name in the world for + anything like the period Shalders insinuated, “to get himself out of a sad + quandary.” Matey sounded the queer word so as to fix it sticking to the + usher, calling him Mr. Peter Bell Shalders, at which the boys roared, and + there was a question or two about names, which belonged to verses, for + people caring to read poems. + </p> + <p> + To the joy of the school he displayed a greater knowledge of Murat than + Shalders had: named the different places in Europe where Lord Ormont and + Murat were both springing to the saddle at the same time—one a + Marshal, the other a lieutenant; one a king, to be off his throne any day, + the other a born English nobleman, seated firm as fate. And he accused + Murat of carelessness of his horses, ingratitude to his benefactor, + circussy style. Shalders went so far as to defend Murat for attending to + the affairs of his kingdom, instead of galloping over hedges and ditches + to swell Napoleon's ranks in distress. Matey listened to him there; he + became grave; he nodded like a man saying, “I suppose we must examine it + in earnest.” The school was damped to hear him calling it a nice question. + Still, he said he thought he should have gone; and that settled it. + </p> + <p> + The boys inclined to speak contemptuously of Shalders. Matey world not let + them; he contrasted Shalders with the other ushers, who had no + enthusiasms. He said enthusiasms were salt to a man; and he liked Shalders + for spelling at his battles and thinking he understood them, and admiring + Murat, and leading Virgil and parts of Lucan for his recreation. He said + he liked the French because they could be splendidly enthusiastic. He + almost lost his English flavour when he spoke in downright approval of a + small French fellow, coming from Orthez, near the Pyrenees, for + senselessly dashing and kicking at a couple of English who jeered to hear + Orthez named—a place trampled under Wellington's heels, on his march + across conquered France. The foreign little cockerel was a clever lad, + learning English fast, and anxious to show he had got hold of the English + trick of not knowing when he was beaten. His French vanity insisted on his + engaging the two, though one of them stood aside, and the other let him + drive his nose all the compass round at a poker fist. What was worse, + Matey examined these two, in the interests of fair play, as if he doubted. + </p> + <p> + Little Emile Grenat set matters right with his boast to vindicate his + country against double the number, and Matey praised him, though he knew + Emile had been floored without effort by the extension of a single fist. + He would not hear the French abused; he said they were chivalrous, they + were fine fellows, topping the world in some things; his father had fought + them and learnt to respect them. Perhaps his father had learnt to respect + Jews, for there was a boy named Abner, he protected, who smelt Jewish; he + said they ran us Gentiles hard, and carried big guns. + </p> + <p> + Only a reputation like Matey's could have kept his leadership from a + challenge. Joseph Masner, formerly a rival, went about hinting and + shrugging; all to no purpose, you find boys born to be chiefs. On the day + of the snow-fight Matey won the toss, and chose J. Masner first pick; and + Masner, aged seventeen and some months, big as a navvy, lumbered across to + him and took his directions, proud to stand in the front centre, at the + head of the attack, and bear the brunt—just what he was fit for, + Matey gave no offence by choosing, half-way down the list, his little + French friend, whom he stationed beside himself, rather off his + battle-front, as at point at cricket, not quite so far removed. Two boys + at his heels piled ammunition. The sides met midway of a marshy ground, + where a couple of flat and shelving banks, formed for a broad new road, + good for ten abreast—counting a step of the slopes—ran + transverse; and the order of the game was to clear the bank and drive the + enemy on to the frozen ditch-water. Miss Vincent heard in the morning from + the sister of little Collett of the great engagement coming off; she was + moved by curiosity, and so the young ladies of her establishment beheld + the young gentlemen of Mr. Cuper's in furious division, and Matey's sore + aim and hard fling, equal to a slinger's, relieving J. Masner of a + foremost assailant with a spanker on the nob. They may have fancied him + clever for selecting a position rather comfortable, as things went, until + they had sight of him with his little French ally and two others, + ammunition boys to rear, descending one bank and scaling another right + into the flank of the enemy, when his old tower of a Masner was being + heavily pressed by numbers. Then came a fight hand to hand, but the enemy + stood in a clamp; not to split like a nut between crackers, they gave way + and rolled, backing in lumps from bank to ditch. + </p> + <p> + The battle was over before the young ladies knew. They wondered to see + Matey shuffling on his coat and hopping along at easy bounds to pay his + respects to Miss Vincent, near whom was Browny; and this time he and + Browny talked together. He then introduced little Emile to her. She spoke + of Napoleon at Brienne, and complimented Matey. He said he was cavalry, + not artillery, that day. They talked to hear one another's voices. By + constantly appealing to Miss Vincent he made their conversation together + seem as under her conduct; and she took a slide on some French phrases + with little Emile. Her young ladies looked shrinking and envious to see + the fellows wet to the skin, laughing, wrestling, linking arms; and some, + who were clown-faced with a wipe of scarlet, getting friends to rub their + cheeks with snow, all of them happy as larks in air, a big tea steaming + for them at the school. Those girls had a leap and a fail of the heart, + glad to hug themselves in their dry clothes, and not so warm as the + dripping boys were, nor so madly fond of their dress-circle seats to look + on at a play they were not allowed even to desire to share. They looked on + at blows given and taken in good temper, hardship sharpening jollity. The + thought of the difference between themselves and the boys must have been + something like the tight band—call it corset—over the chest, + trying to lift and stretch for draughts of air. But Browny's feeling + naturally was, that all this advantage for the boys came of Matey + Weyburn's lead. + </p> + <p> + Miss Vincent with her young ladies walked off in couples, orderly chicks, + the usual Sunday march of their every day. The school was coolish to them; + one of the fellows hummed bars of some hymn tune, rather faster than + church. And next day there was a murmur of letters passing between Matey + and Browny regularly, little Collett for postman. Anybody might have + guessed it, but the report spread a feeling that girls are not the + entirely artificial beings or flat targets we suppose. The school began to + brood, like air deadening on oven-heat. Winter is hen-mother to the idea + of love in schools, if the idea has fairly entered. Various girls of + different colours were selected by boys for animated correspondence, that + never existed and was vigorously prosecuted, with efforts to repress + contempt of them in courtship for their affections. They found their part + of it by no means difficult when they imagined the lines without the + words, or, better still, the letter without the lines. A holy satisfaction + belonged to the sealed thing; the breaking of the seal and inspection of + the contents imposed perplexity on that sentiment. They thought of certain + possible sentences Matey and Browny would exchange; but the plain, + conceivable, almost visible, outside of the letter had a stronger spell + for them than the visionary inside. This fancied contemplation of the + love-letter was reversed in them at once by the startling news of Miss + Vincent's discovery and seizure of the sealed thing, and her examination + of the burden it contained. Then their thirst was for drama—to see, + to drink every wonderful syllable those lovers had written. + </p> + <p> + Miss Vincent's hand was upon one of Matey's letters. She had come across + the sister of little Collett, Selina her name was, carrying it. She saw + nothing of the others. Aminta was not the girl to let her. Nor did Mr. + Cuper dare demand from Matey a sight or restitution of the young lady's + half of the correspondence. He preached heavily at Matey; deplored that + the boy he most trusted, etc.—the school could have repeated it + without hearing. We know the master's lecture in tones—it sings up + to sing down, and touches nobody. As soon as he dropped to natural talk, + and spoke of his responsibility and Miss Vincent's, Matey gave the word of + a man of honour that he would not seek to communicate farther with Miss + Farrell at the school. + </p> + <p> + Now there was a regular thunder-hash among the boys on the rare occasions + when they met the girls. All that Matey and Browny were forbidden to write + they looked—much like what it had been before the discovery; and + they dragged the boys back from promised instant events. It was, + nevertheless, a heaving picture, like the sea in the background of a + marine piece at the theatre, which rouses anticipations of storm, and + shows readiness. Browny's full eyebrow sat on her dark eye like a cloud of + winter noons over the vanishing sun. Matey was the prisoner gazing at + light of a barred window and measuring the strength of the bars. She + looked unhappy, but looked unbeaten more. Her look at him fed the school + on thoughts of what love really is, when it is not fished out of books and + poetry. For though she was pale, starved and pale, they could see she was + never the one to be sighing; and as for him, he looked ground dower all to + edge. However much they puzzled over things, she made them feel they were + sure, as to her, that she drove straight and meant blood, the life or + death of it: all her own, if need be, and confidence in the captain she + had chosen. She could have been imagined saying, There is a storm, but I + am ready to embark with you this minute. + </p> + <p> + That sign of courage in real danger ennobled her among girls. The name + Browny was put aside for a respectful Aminta. Big and bright events to + come out in the world were hinted, from the love of such a couple. The + boys were not ashamed to speak the very word love. How he does love that + girl! Well, and how she loves him! She did, but the boys had to be seeing + her look at Matey if they were to put the girl on some balanced equality + with a fellow she was compelled to love. It seemed to them that he gave, + and that she was a creature carried to him, like driftwood along the + current of the flood, given, in spite of herself. When they saw those eyes + of hers they were impressed with an idea of her as a voluntary giver too; + pretty well the half to the bargain; and it confused their notion of + feminine inferiority. They resolved to think her an exceptional girl, + which, in truth, they could easily do, for none but an exceptional girl + could win Matey to love her. + </p> + <p> + Since nothing appeared likely to happen at the school, they speculated + upon what would occur out in the world, and were assisted to conjecture, + by a rumour, telling of Aminta Farrell's aunt as a resident at Dover. + Those were days when the benevolently international M. de Porquet had + begun to act as interpreter to English schools in the portico of the + French language; and under his guidance it was asked, in contempt of the + answer, Combien de postes d'ici a Douvres? But, accepting the rumour as a + piece of information, the answer became important. Ici was twenty miles to + the north-west of London. How long would it take Matey to reach Donvres? + Or at which of the combien did he intend to waylay and away with Aminta? + The boys went about pounding at the interrogative French phrase in due + sincerity, behind the burlesque of traveller bothering coachman. Matey's + designs could be finessed only by a knowledge of his character: that he + was not the fellow to give up the girl he had taken to; and impediments + might multiply, but he would bear them down. Three days before the + break-up of the school another rumour came tearing through it: Aminta's + aunt had withdrawn her from Miss Vincent's. And now rose the question, + two-dozen-mouthed, Did Matey know her address at Douvres? His face grew + stringy and his voice harder, and his eyes ready to burst from a smother + of fire. All the same, he did his work: he was the good old fellow at + games, considerate in school affairs, kind to the youngsters; he was heard + to laugh. He liked best the company of his little French friend from + Orthez, over whose shoulder his hand was laid sometimes as they strolled + and chatted in two languages. He really went a long way to make French + fellows popular, and the boys were sorry that little Emile was off to + finish his foreign education in Germany. His English was pretty good, + thanks to Matey. He went away, promising to remember Old England, saying + he was French first, and a Briton next. He had lots of plunk; which + accounted for Matey's choice of him as a friend among the juniors. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER II. LADY CHARLOTTE + </h2> + <p> + Love-passages at a school must produce a ringing crisis if they are to + leave the rosy impression which spans the gap of holidays. Neither Matey + nor Browny returned to their yoke, and Cuper's boys recollected the couple + chiefly on Sundays. They remembered several of Matey's doings and sayings: + his running and high leaping, his bowling, a maxim or two of his, and the + tight strong fellow he was; also that the damsel's colour distinctly + counted for dark. She became nearly black in their minds. Well, and + Englishmen have been known to marry Indian princesses: some have a liking + for negresses. There are Nubians rather pretty in pictures, if you can + stand thick lips. Her colour does not matter, provided the girl is of the + right sort. The exchange of letters between the lovers was mentioned. The + discovery by Miss Vincent of their cool habit of corresponding passed for + an incident; and there it remained, stiff as a poet, not being heated by a + story to run. So the foregone excitement lost warmth, and went out like a + winter sun at noon or a match lighted before the candle is handy. + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont continued to be a subject of discussion from time to time, for + he was a name in the newspapers; and Mr. Shalders had been worked by Matey + Weyburn into a state of raw antagonism at the mention of the gallant + General; he could not avoid sitting in judgement on him. + </p> + <p> + According to Mr. Shalders, the opinion of all thoughtful people in England + was with John Company and the better part of the Press to condemn Lord + Ormont in his quarrel with the Commissioner of one of the Indian + provinces, who had the support of the Governor of his Presidency and of + the Viceroy; the latter not unreservedly, yet ostensibly inclined to + condemn a too prompt military hand. The Gordian knot of a difficulty cut + is agreeable in the contemplation of an official chief hesitating to use + the sword and benefiting by having it done for him. Lord Ormont certainly + cut the knot. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Shalders was cornered by the boys, coming at him one after another + without a stop, vowing it was the exercise of a military judgement upon a + military question at a period of urgency, which had brought about the + quarrel with the Commissioner and the reproof of the Governor. He betrayed + the man completely cornered by generalizing. He said— + </p> + <p> + “We are a civilian people; we pride ourselves on having civilian methods.” + </p> + <p> + “How can that be if we have won India with guns and swords?” + </p> + <p> + “But that splendid jewel for England's tiara won,” said he (and he might + as well have said crown), “we are bound to sheathe the sword and govern by + the Book of the Law.” + </p> + <p> + “But if they won't have the Book of the Law!” + </p> + <p> + “They knew the power behind it.” + </p> + <p> + “Not if we knock nothing harder than the Book of the Law upon their + skulls.” + </p> + <p> + “Happily for the country, England's councils are not directed by boys!” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, but we're speaking of India, Mr. Shalders.” + </p> + <p> + “You are presuming to speak of an act of insubordination committed by a + military officer under civilian command.” + </p> + <p> + “What if we find an influential prince engaged in conspiracy?” + </p> + <p> + “We look for proof.” + </p> + <p> + “Suppose we have good proof?” + </p> + <p> + “We summon him to exonerate himself.” + </p> + <p> + “No; we mount and ride straight away into his territory, spot the treason, + deport him, and rule in his place!” + </p> + <p> + It was all very well for Mr. Shalders to say he talked to boys; he was + cornered again, as his shrug confessed. + </p> + <p> + The boys asked among themselves whether he would have taken the same view + if his Murat had done it! + </p> + <p> + These illogical boys fought for Matey Weyburn in their defence of Lord + Ormont. Somewhere, they wee sure, old Matey was hammering to the same end—they + could hear him. Thought of him inspired them to unwonted argumentative + energy, that they might support his cause; and scatter the gloomy + prediction of the school, as going to the dogs now Matey had left. + </p> + <p> + The subject provoked everywhere in Great Britain a division similar to + that between master and boys at Cuper's establishment: one party for our + modern English magisterial methods with Indians, the other for the + decisive Oriental at the early time, to suit their native tastes; and the + Book of the Law is to be conciliatingly addressed to their sentiments by a + benign civilizing Power, or the sword is out smartly at the hint of a + warning to protect the sword's conquests. Under one aspect we appear + potteringly European; under another, drunk of the East. + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont's ride at the head of two hundred horsemen across a stretch of + country including hill and forest, to fall like a bolt from the blue on + the suspected Prince in the midst of his gathering warriors, was a + handsome piece of daring, and the high-handed treatment of the Prince was + held by his advocates to be justified by the provocation, and the result. + He scattered an unprepared body of many hundreds, who might have enveloped + him, and who would presumptively have stood their ground, had they not + taken his handful to be the advance of regiments. These are the deeds that + win empires! the argument in his favour ran. Are they of a character to + maintain empires? the counter-question was urged. Men of a deliberative + aspect were not wanting in approval of the sharp and summary of the sword + in air when we have to deal with Indians. They chose to regard it as a + matter of the dealing with Indians, and put aside the question of the + contempt of civil authority. + </p> + <p> + Counting the cries, Lord Ormont won his case. Festival aldermen, smoking + clubmen, buckskin squires, obsequious yet privately excitable tradesmen, + sedentary coachmen and cabmen, of Viking descent, were set to think like + boys about him: and the boys, the women, and the poets formed a tipsy + chorea. Journalists, on the whole, were fairly halved, as regarded + numbers. In relation to weight, they were with the burgess and the + presbyter; they preponderated heavily in the direction of England's + burgess view of all cases disputed between civilian and soldier. But that + was when the peril was over. + </p> + <p> + Admirers of Lord Ormont enjoyed a perusal of a letter addressed by him to + the burgess's journal; and so did his detractors. The printing of it was + an act of editorial ruthlessness. The noble soldier had no mould in his + intellectual or educational foundry for the casting of sentences; and the + editor's leading type to the letter, without further notice of the writer—who + was given a prominent place or scaffolding for the execution of himself + publicly, if it pleased him to do that thing—tickled the critical + mind. Lord Ormont wrote intemperately. + </p> + <p> + His Titanic hurling of blocks against critics did no harm to an enemy + skilled in the use of trimmer weapons, notably the fine one of letting big + missiles rebound. He wrote from India, with Indian heat—“curry and + capsicums,” it was remarked. He dared to claim the countenance of the + Commander-in-chief of the Army of India for an act disapproved by the + India House. Other letters might be on their way, curryer than the + preceding, his friends feared; and might also be malevolently printed, + similarly commissioning the reverberation of them to belabour his name + before the public. Admirers were still prepared to admire; but aldermen + not at the feast, squire-archs not in the saddle or at the bottle, some + few of the juvenile and female fervent, were becoming susceptible to a + frosty critical tone in the public pronunciation of Lord Ormont's name + since the printing of his letter and the letters it called forth. None of + them doubted that his case was good. The doubt concerned the effect on it + of his manner of pleading it. And if he damaged his case, he compromised + his admirers. Why, the case of a man who has cleverly won a bold stroke + for his country must be good, as long as he holds his tongue. A grateful + country will right him in the end: he has only to wait, and not so very + long. “This I did: now examine it.” Nothing more needed to be said by him, + if that. + </p> + <p> + True, he has a temper. It is owned that he is a hero. We take him with his + qualities, impetuosity being one, and not unsuited to his arm of the + service, as he has shown. If his temper is high, it is an element of a + character proved heroical. So has the sun his blotches, and we believe + that they go to nourish the luminary, rather than that they are a disease + of the photosphere. + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont's apologists had to contend with anecdotes and dicta now + pouring in from offended Britons, for illustration of an impetuosity fit + to make another Charley XII. of Sweden—a gratuitous Coriolanus + haughtiness as well, new among a people accustomed socially to bow the + head to their nobles, and not, of late, expecting a kick for their pains. + Newspapers wrote of him that, “a martinet to subordinates, he was known + for the most unruly of lieutenants.” They alluded to current sayings, as + that he “habitually took counsel of his horse on the field when a movement + was entrusted to his discretion.” Numerous were the journalistic sentences + running under an air of eulogy of the lordly warrior purposely to be + tripped, and producing their damnable effect, despite the obvious + artifice. The writer of the letter from Bombay, signed Ormont, was a born + subject for the antithetical craftsmen's tricky springes. + </p> + <p> + He was, additionally, of infamous repute for morale in burgess estimation, + from his having a keen appreciation of female beauty and a prickly sense + of masculine honour. The stir to his name roused pestilential domestic + stories. In those days the aristocrat still claimed licence, and eminent + soldier-nobles, comporting themselves as imitative servants of their god + Mars, on the fields of love and war, stood necessarily prepared to + vindicate their conduct as the field of the measured paces, without + deeming themselves bounden to defend the course they took. Our burgess, + who bowed head to his aristocrat, and hired the soldier to fight for him, + could not see that such mis-behaviour necessarily ensued. Lord Ormont had + fought duels at home and abroad. His readiness to fight again, and against + odds, and with a totally unused weapon, was exhibited by his attack on the + Press in the columns of the Press. It wore the comical face to the friends + deploring it, which belongs to things we do that are so very like us. They + agreed with his devoted sister, Lady Charlotte Eglett, as to the prudence + of keeping him out of England for a time, if possible. + </p> + <p> + At the first perusal of the letter, Lady Charlotte quitted her place in + Leicestershire, husband, horses, guests, the hunt, to scour across a + vacant London and pick up acquaintances under stress to be spots there in + the hunting season, with them to gossip for counsel on the subject of + “Ormont's hand-grenade,” and how to stop and extinguish a second. She was + a person given to plain speech. “Stinkpot” she called it, when + acknowledging foul elements in the composition and the harm it did to the + unskilful balist. Her view of the burgess English imaged a mighty monster + behind bars, to whom we offer anything but our hand. As soon as he gets + held of that he has you; he won't let it loose with flesh on the bones. We + must offend him—we can't be man or woman without offending his + tastes and his worships; but while we keep from contact (i.e. + intercommunication) he may growl, he is harmless. Witness the many + occasions when her brother offended worse, and had been unworried, only + growled at, and distantly, not in a way to rouse concern; and at the neat + review, or procession into the City, or public display of any sort, Ormont + had but to show himself, he was the popular favourite immediately. He had + not committed the folly of writing a letter to a newspaper then. + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte paid an early visit to the office of the great London + solicitor, Arthur Abner, who wielded the law as an instrument of + protection for countless illustrious people afflicted by what they stir or + attract in a wealthy metropolis. She went simply to gossip of her + brother's affairs with a refreshing man of the world, not given to + circumlocutions, and not afraid of her: she had no deeper object; but + fancying she heard the clerk, on his jump from the stool, inform her that + Mr. Abner was out, “Out?” she cried, and rattled the room, thumping, under + knitted brows. “Out of town?” For a man of business taking holidays, when + a lady craves for gossip, disappointed her faith in him as cruelly as the + shut-up, empty inn the broken hunter knocking at a hollow door miles off + home. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Abner, hatted and gloved and smiling, came forth. “Going out, the man + meant, Lady Charlotte. At your service for five minutes.” + </p> + <p> + She complimented his acuteness, in the remark, “You see I've only come to + chat,” and entered his room. + </p> + <p> + He led her to her theme: “The excitement is pretty well over.” + </p> + <p> + “My brother's my chief care—always was. I'm afraid he'll be + pitchforking at it again, and we shall have another blast. That letter + ought never to have been printed. That editor deserves the horsewhip for + letting it appear. If he prints a second one I shall treat him as a + personal enemy.” + </p> + <p> + “Better make a friend of him.” + </p> + <p> + “How?” + </p> + <p> + “Meet him at my table.” + </p> + <p> + She jumped an illumined half-about on her chair. “So I will, then. What + are the creature's tastes?” + </p> + <p> + “Hunts, does he?” The editor rose in her mind from the state of neuter to + something of a man. “I recollect an article in that paper on the Ormont + duel. I hate duelling, but I side with my brother. I had to laugh, though. + Luckily, there's no woman on hand at present, as far as I know. Ormont's + not likely to be hooked by garrison women or blacks. Those coloured women—some + of ours too—send the nose to the clouds; not a bad sign for health. + And there are men like that old Cardinal Guicciardini tells of... hum! + Ormont's not one of them. I hope he'll stay in India till this blows over, + or I shall be hearing of provocations.” + </p> + <p> + “You have seen the Duke?” + </p> + <p> + She nodded. Her reserve was a summary of the interview. “Kind, as he + always is,” she said. “Ormont has no chance of employment unless there's a + European war. They can't overlook him in case of war. He'll have to pray + for that.” + </p> + <p> + “Let us hope we shan't get it.” + </p> + <p> + “My wish; but I have to think of my brother. If he's in England with no + employment, he's in a mess with women and men both. He kicks if he's laid + aside to rust. He has a big heart. That's what I said: all he wants is to + serve his country. If you won't have war, give him Gibraltar or Malta, or + command of one of our military districts. The South-eastern 'll be vacant + soon. He'd like to be Constable of the Castle, and have an eye on France.” + </p> + <p> + “I think he's fond of the French?” + </p> + <p> + “Loves the French. Expects to have to fight them all the same. He loves + his country best. Here's the man everybody's abusing!” + </p> + <p> + “I demur, my lady. I was dining the other day with a client of mine, and a + youngster was present who spoke of Lord Ormont in a way I should like you + to have heard. He seemed to know the whole of Lord Ormont's career, from + the time of the ride to Paraguay up to the capture of the plotting Rajah. + He carried the table.” + </p> + <p> + “Good boy! We must turn to the boys for justice, then. Name your day for + this man, this editor.” + </p> + <p> + “I will see him. You shall have the day to-night.” + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte and the editor met. She was racy, he anecdotal. Stag, fox, + and hare ran before them, over fields and through drawing-rooms: the scent + was rich. They found that they could talk to one another as they thought; + that he was not the Isle-bound burgess, nor she the postured English great + lady; and they exchanged salt, without which your current scandal is of + exhausted savour. They enjoyed the peculiar novel relish of it, coming + from a social pressman and a dame of high society. The different + hemispheres became known as one sphere to these birds of broad wing + convening in the upper blue above a quartered carcase earth. + </p> + <p> + A week later a letter, the envelope of a bulky letter in Lord Ormont's + handwriting, reached Lady Charlotte. There was a line from the editor: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Would it please your ladyship to have this printed?” + </pre> + <p> + She read the letter, and replied: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Come to me for six days; you shall have the best mount in the + county.” + </pre> + <p> + An editor devoid of malice might probably have forborne to print a letter + that appealed to Lady Charlotte, or touched her sensations, as if a + glimpse of the moon, on the homeward ride in winter on a nodding horse, + had suddenly bared to view a precipitous quarry within two steps. There is + no knowing: few men can forbear to tell a spicy story of their friends; + and an editor, to whom an exhibition of the immensely preposterous on the + part of one writing arrogantly must be provocative, would feel the + interests of his Journal, not to speak of the claims of readers, pluck at + him when he meditated the consignment of such a precious composition to + extinction. Lady Charlotte withheld a sight of the letter from Mr. Eglett. + She laid it in her desk, understanding well that it was a laugh lost to + the world. Poets could reasonably feign it to shake the desk inclosing it. + She had a strong sense of humour; her mind reverted to the desk in a way + to make her lips shut grimly. She sided with her brother. + </p> + <p> + Only pen in hand did he lay himself open to the enemy. In his personal + intercourse he was the last of men to be taken at a disadvantage. Lady + Charlotte was brought round to the distasteful idea of some help coming + from a legitimate adjunct at his elbow: a restraining woman—wife, it + had to be said. And to name the word wife for Thomas Rowsley, Earl of + Ormont, put up the porcupine quills she bristled with at the survey of a + sex thirsting, and likely to continue thirsting, for such honour. What + woman had she known fit to bear the name? She had assumed the judicial + seat upon the pretensions of several, and dismissed them to their limbo, + after testifying against them. Who is to know the fit one in these mines + of deception? Women of the class offering wives decline to be taken on + trial; they are boxes of puzzles—often dire surprises. Her brother + knew them well enough to shy at the box. Her brother Rowsley had a funny + pride, like a boy at a game, at the never having been caught by one among + the many he made captive. She let him have it all to himself. + </p> + <p> + He boasted it to a sister sharing the pride exultant in the cry of the + hawk, scornful of ambitions poultry, a passed finger-post to the plucked, + and really regretful that no woman had been created fit for him. When she + was not aiding with her brother, women, however contemptible for their + weakness, appeared to her as better than barn-door fowl, or vermin in + their multitudes gnawing to get at the cheese-trap. She could be humane, + even sisterly, with women whose conduct or prattle did not outrage plain + sense, just as the stickler for the privileges of her class was + large-heartedly charitable to the classes flowing in oily orderliness + round about below it—if they did so flow. Unable to read woman's + character, except upon the broadest lines as it were the spider's main + threads of its web, she read men minutely, from the fact that they were + neither mysteries nor terrors to her; but creatures of importunate + appetites, humorous objects; very manageable, if we leave the road to + their muscles, dress their wounds, smoothe their creases, plume their + vanity; and she had an unerring eye for the man to be used when a blow was + needed, methods for setting him in action likewise. She knew how much + stronger than ordinary men the woman who can put them in motion. They can + be set to serve as pieces of cannon, under compliments on their superior + powers, which were not all undervalued by her on their own merits, for she + worshipped strength. But the said, with a certain amount of truth, that + the women unaware of the advantage Society gave them (as to mastering men) + were fools. + </p> + <p> + Tender, is not a word coming near to Lady Charlotte. Thoughtful on behalf + of the poor foolish victims of men she was. She had saved some, avenged + others. It should be stated, that her notion of saving was the saving of + them from the public: she had thrown up a screen. The saving of them from + themselves was another matter—hopeless, to her thinking. How preach + at a creature on the bend of passion's rapids! One might as well read a + chapter from the Bible to delirious patients. When once a woman is taken + with the love-passion, we must treat her as bitten; hide her antics from + the public: that is the principal business. If she recovers, she resumes + her place, and horrid old Nature, who drove her to the frenzy, is unlikely + to bother or, at least, overthrow her again, unless she is one of the + detestable wantons, past compassion or consideration. In the case + reviewed, the woman has gone through fire, and is none the worse for her + experiences: worth ten times what she was, to an honest man, if men could + be got to see it. Some do. Of those men who do not, Lady Charlotte spoke + with the old family-nurse humour, which is familiar with the tricks and + frailties of the infants; and it is a knife to probe the male, while + seemingly it does the part of the napkin—pities and pats. They + expect a return of much for the little that is next to nothing. They are + fall of expectations: and of what else? They are hard bargainers. + </p> + <p> + She thought this of men; and she liked men by choice. She had old nurse's + preference for the lustier male child. The others are puling things, + easier to rear, because they bend better; and less esteemed, though they + give less trouble, rouse less care. But when it came to the duel between + the man and the woman, her sense of justice was moved to join her with the + party of her unfairly handled sisters—a strong party, if it were not + so cowardly, she had to think. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Eglett, her husband, accepted her—accepted the position into + which he naturally fell beside her, and the ideas she imposed on him; for + she never went counter to his principles. These were the fixed principles + of a very wealthy man, who abhorred debt, and was punctilious in veracity, + scrupulous in cleanliness of mind and body, devoted to the honour of his + country, the interests of his class. She respected the high landmark + possessing such principles; and she was therefore enabled to lead without + the wish to rule. As it had been between them at the beginning, so it was + now, when they were grandparents running on three lines of progeny from + two daughters and a son: they were excellent friends. Few couples can say + more. The union was good English grey—that of a prolonged November, + to which we are reconciled by occasions for the hunt and the gun. She was, + nevertheless, an impassioned woman. The feeling for her brother helped to + satisfy her heart's fires, though as little with her brother as with her + husband was she demonstrative. Lord Ormont disrelished the caresses of + relatives. + </p> + <p> + She, for her part, had so strong a sympathy on behalf of poor gentlemen + reduced to submit to any but a young woman's hug, that when, bronzed from + India, he quitted the carriage and mounted her steps at Olmer, the desire + to fling herself on his neck and breast took form in the words: “Here you + are home again, Rowsley; glad to have you.” They shook hands firmly. + </p> + <p> + He remained three days at Olmer. His temper was mild, his frame of mind + bad as could be. Angry evaporations had left a residuum of solid scorn for + these “English,” who rewarded soldierly services as though it were a + question of damaged packages of calico. He threatened to take the first + offer of a foreign State “not in insurrection.” But clear sky was + overhead. He was the Rowsley of the old boyish delight in field sports, + reminiscences of prowlings and trappings in the woods, gropings along + water-banks, enjoyment of racy gossip. He spoke wrathfully of “one of + their newspapers” which steadily persisted in withholding from publication + every letter he wrote to it, after printing the first. And if it printed + one, why not the others? + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte put it on the quaintness of editors. + </p> + <p> + He had found in London, perhaps, reason for saying that he should do well + to be “out of this country” as early as he could; adding, presently, that + he meant to go, though “it broke his heart to keep away from a six months' + rest at Steignton,” his Wiltshire estate. + </p> + <p> + No woman was in the field. Lady Charlotte could have submitted to the + intrusion of one of those at times wholesome victims, for the sake of the + mollification the unhappy proud thing might bring to a hero smarting under + injustice at the hands of chiefs and authorities. + </p> + <p> + He passed on to Steignton, returned to London, and left England for Spain, + as he wrote word, saying he hoped to settle at Steignton neat year. He was + absent the next year, and longer. Lady Charlotte had the surprising news + that Steignton was let, shooting and all, for five years; and he had no + appointment out of England or at home. When he came to Olmer again he was + under one of his fits of reserve, best undisturbed. Her sympathy with a + great soldier snubbed, an active man rusting, kept her from remonstrance. + </p> + <p> + Three years later she was made meditative by the discovery of a woman's + being absolutely in the field, mistress of the field; and having been + there for a considerable period, dating from about the time when he turned + his back on England to visit a comrade-in-arms condemned by the doctors to + pass the winter in Malaga; and it was a young woman, a girl in her teens, + a handsome girl. Handsome was to be expected; Ormont bargained for beauty. + But report said the girl was very handsome, and showed breeding: she + seemed a foreigner, walked like a Goddess, sat her horse the perfect + Amazon. Rumour called her a Spaniard. + </p> + <p> + “Not if she rides!” Lady Charlotte cut that short. + </p> + <p> + Rumour had subsequently more to say. The reporter in her ear did not + confirm it, and she was resolutely deaf to a story incredible of her + brother—the man, of all men living, proudest of his name, blood, + station. So proud was he by nature, too, that he disdained to complain of + rank injustice; he maintained a cheerful front against adversity and + obloquy. And this man of complete self-command, who has every form of + noble pride, gets cajoled like a twenty-year-old yahoo at college! Do you + imagine it? To suppose of a man cherishing the name of Ormont, that he + would bestow it legally on a woman, a stranger, and imperil his race by + mixing blood with a creature of unknown lineage, was—why, of course, + it was to suppose him struck mad, and there never had been madness among + the Ormonts: they were too careful of the purity of the strain. Lady + Charlotte talked. She was excited, and ran her sentences to blanks, a + cunning way for ministering consolation to her hearing, where the sentence + intended a question, and the blank ending caught up the query tone and + carried it dwindling away to the most distant of throttled interrogatives. + She had, in this manner, only to ask,—her hearing received the + comforting answer it desired; for she could take that thin far sound as a + travelling laughter of incredulity, triumphant derision. + </p> + <p> + This meant to her—though she scarcely knew it, though the most + wilful of women declined to know it—a state of alarm. She had said + of her brother in past days that he would have his time of danger after + striking sixty. The dangerous person was to be young. + </p> + <p> + But, then, Ormont had high principles with regard to the dues to his + family. His principles could always be trusted. The dangerous young person + would have to be a person of lineage, of a certain station at least: no + need for a titled woman, only for warranted good blood. Is that to be + found certificated out of the rolls of Society? It may just possibly be + found, without certificate, however, in those muddled caverns where the + excluded intermingle. Here and there, in a peasant family, or a small + country tradesman's just raised above a peasant, honest regenerating blood + will be found. Nobles wanting refreshment from the soil might do worse + than try a slip of one of those juicy weeds; ill-fated, sickly Royalties + would be set-up striding through another half-century with such + invigoration, if it could be done for them! There are tales. The tales are + honourably discredited by the crazy constitutions of the heirs to the + diadem. + </p> + <p> + Yes, but we are speculating on the matter seriously, as though it were one + of intimate concern to the family. What is there to make us think that + Ormont would marry? Impossible to imagine him intimidated. Unlikely that + he, a practised reader of women, having so little of the woman in him, + would be melted by a wily girl; as women in the twilight situation have + often played the trick to come into the bright beams. How? They do a + desperate thing, and call it generosity, and then they appeal from it to + my lord's generosity; and so the two generosities drive off in a close + carriage with a friend and a professional landlady for the blessing of the + parson, and are legitimately united. Women have won round fools to give + way in that way. And quite right too! thought Lady Charlotte, siding with + nature and justice, as she reflected that no woman created would win round + her brother to give way in that way. He was too acute. The moment the + woman showed sign of becoming an actress, her doom was written. “Poor + idiot!” was not uncharitably inscribed by the sisterly lady on the + tombstone of hopes aimed with scarce pardonable ambition at her brother. + </p> + <p> + She blew away the rumour. Ormont, she vowed, had not entitled any woman to + share and bear his title. And this was her interpretation of the report: + he permitted (if he did permit) the woman to take his name, that he might + have a scornful fling at the world maltreating him. Besides, the name was + not published, it was not to be seen in the papers; it passed merely among + male friends, tradesmen, servants: no great harm in that. + </p> + <p> + Listen further. Here is an unknown girl: why should he marry her? A girl + consenting to the place beside a man of his handsome ripe age, is either + bought, or she is madly enamoured; she does not dictate terms. Ormont is + not of the brute buyers in that market. One sees it is the girl who leads + the dance. A girl is rarely so madly enamoured as when she falls in love + with her grandfather; she pitches herself at his head. This had not + happened for the first time in Ormont's case; and he had never proposed + marriage. Why should he do it now? + </p> + <p> + But again, if the girl has breeding to some extent, he might think it her + due that she should pass under the safeguard of his name, out of sight. + </p> + <p> + Then, so far the report is trustworthy. We blow the rumour out of belief. + A young woman there is: she is not a wife. Lady Charlotte allowed her the + fairly respectable post of Hecate of the Shades, as long as the girl was + no pretender to the place and name in the upper sphere. Her deductions + were plausible, convincing to friends shaken by her vehement manner of + coming at them. She convinced herself by means of her multitude of reasons + for not pursuing inquiry. Her brother said nothing. There was no need for + him to speak. He seemed on one or two occasions in the act of getting + himself together for the communication of a secret; and she made ready to + listen hard, with ears, eyebrows, shut month, and a gleam at the back of + her eyes, for a signification of something she would refer him to after he + had spoken. He looked at her and held his peace, or virtually held it,—that + is, he said not one word on the subject she was to have told him she had + anticipated. Lady Charlotte ascribed it to his recollection of the quick + blusher, the pained blusher, she was in her girlhood at mention or print + of the story of men and women. Who, not having known her, could conceive + it! But who could conceive that, behind the positive, plain-dealing, + downright woman of the world, there was at times, when a nerve was touched + or an old blocked path of imagination thrown open, a sensitive + youthfulness; still quick to blush as far as the skin of a grandmother + matron might show it! + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER III. THE TUTOR + </h2> + <p> + There was no counting now on Lord Ormont's presence in the British + gathering seasons, when wheatears wing across our fields or swallows + return to their eaves. He forsook the hunt to roam the Continent, one of + the vulgar band of tourists, honouring town only when Mayflies had flown, + and London's indiscriminate people went about without their volatile + heads. + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte put these changed conditions upon the behaviour of the + military authorities to her brother, saying that the wonder was he did not + shake the dust of his country from his feet. In her wise head she rejoiced + to think he was not the donkey she sketched for admiration; and she was + partly consoled, or played at the taking of a comfort needed in her + perpetual struggle with a phantom of a fact, by the reflection that a + young woman on his arm would tense him to feel himself more at home + abroad. Her mind's habit of living warmly beside him in separation was + vexed by the fixed intrusion of a female third person, who checked the run + of intimate chatter, especially damped the fancied talk over early days—of + which the creature was ignorant; and her propinquity to him arrested or + broke the dialogue Lady Charlotte invented and pressed to renew. But a + wife, while letting him be seen, would have insisted on appropriating the + thought of him—all his days, past as well as present. An impassioned + sister's jealousy preferred that it should not be a wife reigning to + dispute her share of her brother in imagination. + </p> + <p> + Then came a rumour, telling of him as engaged upon the composition of his + Memoirs. + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte's impulsive outcry: “Writing them?” signified her grounds + for alarm. + </p> + <p> + Happily, Memoirs are not among the silly deeds done in a moment; they were + somewhere ahead and over the hills: a band of brigands rather than a + homely shining mansion, it was true; but distant; and a principal question + shrieked to know whether he was composing them for publication. She could + look forward with a girl's pleasure to the perusal of them in manuscript, + in a woody nook, in a fervour of partizanship, easily avoiding sight of + errors, grammatical or moral. She chafed at the possible printing and + publishing of them. That would be equivalent to an exhibition of him + clean-stripped for a run across London—brilliant in himself, spotty + in the offence. Published Memoirs indicate the end of a man's activity, + and that he acknowledges the end; and at a period of Lord Ormont's life + when the denial of it should thunder. They are his final chapter, making + mummy of the grand figure they wrap in the printed stuff. They are + virtually his apology. Can those knowing Lord Ormont hear him apologize? + But it is a craven apology if we stoop to expound: we are seen as pleading + our case before the public. Call it by any name you please, and under any + attitude, it is that. And set aside the writing: it may be perfect; the + act is the degradation. It is a rousing of swarms. His friends and the + public will see the proudest nobleman of his day, pleading his case in + mangled English, in the headlong of an out-poured, undrilled, rabble + vocabulary, doubling the ridicule by his imperturbability over the + ridicule he excites: he who is no more ridiculous, cried the partizan + sister, conjuring up the scene, not an ace more ridiculous, than a judge + of assize calling himself miserable sinner on Sunday before the parson, + after he has very properly condemned half a score of weekday miserable + sinners to penal servitude or the rope. Nobody laughs at the judge. + Everybody will be laughing at the scornful man down half-way to his + knee-cape with a stutter of an apology for having done his duty to his + country, after stigmatizing numbers for inability or ill-will to do it. + But Ormont's weapon is the sword, not a pen! Lady Charlotte hunted her + simile till the dogs had it or it ran to earth. + </p> + <p> + She struck at the conclusion, that the young woman had been persuading + him. An adoring young woman is the person to imagine and induce to the + commission of such folly. “What do you think? You have seen her, you say?” + she asked of a man she welcomed for his flavour of the worldling's fine + bile. + </p> + <p> + Lord Adderwood made answer: “She may be having a hand in it. She worships, + and that is your way of pulling gods to the ground.” + </p> + <p> + “Does she understand good English?” + </p> + <p> + “Speaks it.” + </p> + <p> + “Can she write?” + </p> + <p> + “I have never had a letter from her.” + </p> + <p> + “You tell me Morsfield admires the woman—would marry her to-morrow, + if he could get her.” + </p> + <p> + “He would go through the ceremony Ormont has performed, I do not doubt.” + </p> + <p> + “I don't doubt all of you are ready. She doesn't encourage one?” + </p> + <p> + “On the contrary, all.” + </p> + <p> + “She's clever. This has been going on for now seven years, and, as far as + I know, she has my brother fast.” + </p> + <p> + “She may have done the clever trick of having him fast from the + beginning.” + </p> + <p> + “She'd like people to think it.” + </p> + <p> + “She has an aunt to advertise it.” + </p> + <p> + “Ormont can't swallow the woman, I'm told.” + </p> + <p> + “Trying, if one is bound to get her down!” + </p> + <p> + “Boasts of the connection everywhere she's admitted, Randeller says.” + </p> + <p> + “Randeller procures the admission to various parti-coloured places.” + </p> + <p> + “She must be a blinking moll-owl! And I ask any sane Christian or Pagan—proof + enough!—would my brother Rowsley let his wife visit those places, + those people? Monstrous to have the suspicion that he would, you know him! + Mrs. Lawrence Finchley, for example. I say nothing to hurt the poor woman; + I back her against her imbecile of a husband. He brings a charge he can't + support; she punishes him by taking three years' lease of independence and + kicks up the grass all over the paddock, and then comes cuckoo, barking + his name abroad to have her home again. You can win the shyest filly to + corn at last. She goes, and he digests ruefully the hotch-potch of a dish + the woman brings him. Only the world spies a side-head at her, husbanded + or not, though the main fault was his, and she had a right to insist that + he should be sure of his charge before he smacked her in the face with it + before the world. In dealing with a woman, a man commonly prudent—put + aside chivalry, justice, and the rest—should bind himself to + disbelieve what he can't prove. Otherwise, let him expect his whipping, + with or without ornament. My opinion is, Lawrence Finchley had no solid + foundation for his charge, except his being an imbecile. She wasn't one of + the adventurous women to jump the bars,—the gate had to be pushed + open, and he did it. There she is; and I ask you, would my brother Rowsley + let his wife be intimate with her? And there are others. And, sauf votre + respect, the men—Morsfield for one, Randeller another!” + </p> + <p> + “They have a wholesome dread of the lion.” + </p> + <p> + “If they smell a chance with the lion's bone—it's the sweeter for + being the lion's. These metaphors carry us off our ground. I must let + these Ormont Memoirs run and upset him, if they get to print. I've only to + oppose, printed they'll be. The same if I say a word of this woman, he + marries her to-morrow morning. You speak of my driving men. Why can't I + drive Ormont? Because I'm too fond of him. There you have the secret of + the subjection of women: they can hold their own, and a bit more, when + they've no enemy beating inside.” + </p> + <p> + “Hearts!—ah, well, it's possible. I don't say no; I've not + discovered them,” Lord Adderwood observed. + </p> + <p> + They are rarely discovered in the haunts he frequented. + </p> + <p> + Her allusion to Mrs. Lawrence Finchley rapped him smartly, and she admired + his impassiveness under the stroke. Such a spectacle was one of her + pleasures. + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte mentioned incidentally her want of a tutor for her grandson + Leo during the winter holidays. He suggested an application to the + clergyman of her parish. She was at feud with the Rev. Stephen + Hampton-Evey, and would not take, she said, a man to be a bootblack in her + backyard or a woman a scullery-wench in her kitchen upon his + recommendation. She described the person of Mr. Hampton-Evey, his manner + of speech, general opinions, professional doctrines; rolled him into a + ball and bowled him, with a shrug for lamentation, over the decay of the + good old order of manly English Protestant clergymen, who drank their + port, bothered nobody about belief, abstained from preaching their sermon, + if requested; were capital fellows in the hunting-field, too; for if they + came, they had the spur to hunt in the devil's despite. Now we are going + to have a kind of bitter, clawed, forked female, in vestments over + breeches. “How do you like that bundling of the sexes?” + </p> + <p> + Lord Adderwood liked the lines of division to be strictly and invitingly + definite. He was thinking, as he reviewed the frittered appearance of the + Rev. Stephen Hampton-Evey in Lady Charlotte's hinds, of the possibility + that Lord Ormont, who was reputed to fear nobody, feared her. In which + case, the handsome young woman passing among his associates as the pseudo + Lady Ormont might be the real one after all, and Isabella Lawrence + Finchley prove right in the warning she gave to dogs of chase. + </p> + <p> + The tutor required by Lady Charlotte was found for her by Mr. Abner. Their + correspondence on the subject filled the space of a week, and then the + gentleman hired to drive a creaky wheel came down from London to Olmer, + arriving late in the evening. + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte's blunt “Oh!” when he entered her room and bowed upon the + announcement of his name, was caused by an instantaneous perception and + refection that it would be prudent to keep her grand-daughter Philippa, + aged between seventeen and eighteen, out of his way. + </p> + <p> + “You are friend of Mr. Abner's, are you?” + </p> + <p> + He was not disconcerted. He replied, in an assured and pleasant voice, “I + have hardly the pretension to be called a friend, madam.” + </p> + <p> + “Are you a Jew?” + </p> + <p> + Her abruptness knocked something like a laugh almost out of him, but he + restrained the signs of it. + </p> + <p> + “I am not.” + </p> + <p> + “You wouldn't be ashamed to tell me you were one if you were?” + </p> + <p> + “Not at all.” + </p> + <p> + “You like the Jews?” + </p> + <p> + “Those I know I like.” + </p> + <p> + “Not many Christians have the good sense and the good heart of Arthur + Abner. Now go and eat. Come back to me when you've done. I hope you are + hungry. Ask the butler for the wine you prefer.” + </p> + <p> + She had not anticipated the enrolment in her household of a man so young + and good-looking. These were qualifications for Cupid's business, which + his unstrained self-possession accentuated to a note of danger to her + chicks, because she liked the taste of him. Her grand-daughter Philippa + was in the girl's waxen age; another, Beatrice, was coming to it. Both + were under her care; and she was a vigilant woman, with an intuition and a + knowledge of sex. She did not blame Arthur Abner for sending her a + good-looking young man; she had only a general idea that tutors in a + house, and even visiting tutors, should smell of dust and wear a snuffy + appearance. The conditions will not always insure the tutors from + foolishness, as her girl's experience reminded her, but they protect the + girl. + </p> + <p> + “Your name is Weyburn; your father was an officer in the army, killed on + the battle-field, Arthur Abner tells me,” was her somewhat severely-toned + greeting to the young tutor on his presenting himself the second time. + </p> + <p> + It had the sound of the preliminary of an indictment read in a Court of + Law. + </p> + <p> + “My father died of his wounds in hospital,” he said. + </p> + <p> + “Why did you not enter the service?” + </p> + <p> + “Want of an income, my lady.” + </p> + <p> + “Bad look-out. Army or Navy for gentlemen, if they stick to the school of + honour. The sedentary professions corrupt men: bad for the blood. Those + monastery monks found that out. They had to birch the devil out of them + three times a day and half the night, howling like full-moon dogs all + through their lives, till the flesh was off them. That was their exercise, + if they were for holiness. My brother, Lord Ormont, has never been still + in his youth or his manhood. See him now. He counts his years by scores; + and he has about as many wrinkles as you when you're smiling. His cheeks + are as red as yours now you're blushing. You ought to have left off that + trick by this time. It's well enough in a boy.” + </p> + <p> + Against her will she was drawn to the young man, and her consciousness of + it plucked her back to caution with occasional jerks—quaint + alternations of the familiar and the harshly formal, in the stranger's + experience. + </p> + <p> + “If I have your permission, Lady Charlotte,” said he, “the reason why I + mount red a little—if I do it—is, you mention Lord Ormont, and + I have followed his career since I was the youngest of boys.” + </p> + <p> + “Good to begin with the worship of a hero. He can't sham, can't deceive—not + even a woman; and you're old enough to understand the temptation: they're + so silly. All the more, it's a point of honour with a man of honour to + shield her from herself. When it's a girl—” + </p> + <p> + The young man's eyebrows bent. + </p> + <p> + “Chapters of stories, if you want to hear them,” she resumed; “and I can + vouch some of them true. Lord Ormont was never one of the wolves in a + hood. Whatever you hear of him; you may be sure he laid no trap. He's just + the opposite to the hypocrite; so hypocrites date him. I've heard them + called high-priests of decency. Then we choose to be indecent and honest, + if there's a God to worship. Fear, they're in the habit of saying—we + are to fear God. A man here, a Rev. Hampton-Evey, you'll hear him harp on + 'fear God.' Hypocrites may: honest sinners have no fear. And see the + cause: they don't deceive themselves—that is why. Do you think we + call love what we fear? They love God, or they disbelieve. And if they + believe in Him, they know they can't conceal anything from Him. Honesty + means piety: we can't be one without the other. And here are people—parsons—who + talk of dying as going into the presence of our Maker, as if He had been + all the while outside the world He created. Those parsons, I told the Rev. + Hampton-Evey here, make infidels—they make a puzzle of their God. + I'm for a rational Deity. They preach up a supernatural eccentric. I don't + say all: I've heard good sermons, and met sound-headed clergymen—not + like that gaping Hampton-Evey, when a woman tells him she thinks for + herself. We have him sitting on our pariah. A free-thinker startles him as + a kind of demon; but a female free-thinker is one of Satan's concubines. + He took it upon himself to reproach me—flung his glove at my feet, + because I sent a cheque to a poor man punished for blasphemy. The man had + the right to his opinions, and he had the courage of his opinions. I doubt + whether the Rev. Hampton-Evey would go with a willing heart to prison for + his. All the better for him if he comes head-up out of a trial. But now + see: all these parsons and judges and mobcaps insist upon conformity. A + man with common manly courage comes before them, and he's cast in + penalties. Yet we know from history, in England, France, Germany, that the + time of nonconformity brought out the manhood of the nation. Now, I say, a + nation, to be a nation, must have men—I mean brave men. That's what + those hosts of female men combine to try to stifle. They won't succeed, + but we shall want a war to teach the country the value of courage. You + catch what I am driving at? They accuse my brother of immorality because + he makes no pretence to be better than the men of his class.” + </p> + <p> + Weyburn's eyelids fluttered. Her kite-like ascent into the general, with + the sudden drop on her choice morsel, switched his humour at the moment + when he was respectfully considering that her dartings and gyrations had + motive as mach as the flight of the swallow for food. They had meaning; + and here was one of the great ladies of the land who thought for herself, + and was thoughtful for the country. If she came down like a bird winged, + it was her love of her brother that did it. His look at Lady Charlotte + glistened. + </p> + <p> + She raised her defences against the basilisk fascinating Philippa; and + with a vow to keep them apart and deprive him of his chance, she relapsed + upon the stiff frigidity which was not natural to her. It lasted long + enough to put him on his guard under the seductions of a noble dame's + condescension to a familiar tone. But, as he was too well bred to show the + change in his mind for her change of manner, and as she was the sister of + his boyhood's hero, and could be full of flavour, his eyes retained + something of their sparkle. They were ready to lighten again, in the way + peculiar to him, when she, quite forgetting her defence of Philippa, + disburdened herself of her antagonisms and enthusiasms, her hates and her + loves all round the neighbourhood and over the world, won to confidential + communication by this young man's face. She confessed as much, had he been + guided to perceive it. She said, “Arthur Abner's a reader of men: I can + trust his word about them.” + </p> + <p> + Presently, it is true, she added: “No man's to be relied upon where + there's a woman.” She refused her implicit trust to saints—“if ever + a man really was a saint before he was canonized!” + </p> + <p> + Her penetrative instinct of sex kindled the scepticism. Sex she saw at + play everywhere, dogging the conduct of affairs, directing them at times; + she saw it as the animation of nature, senselessly stigmatized, + hypocritically concealed, active in our thoughts where not in our deeds; + and the declining of the decorous to see it, or admit the sight, got them + abhorred bad names from her, after a touch at the deadly poison coming of + that blindness, or blindfoldedness, and a grimly melancholy shrug over the + cruelties resulting—cruelties chiefly affecting women. + </p> + <p> + “You're too young to have thought upon such matters,” she said, for a + finish to them. + </p> + <p> + That was hardly true. + </p> + <p> + “I have thought,” said Weyburn, and his head fell to reckoning of the + small sum of his thoughts upon them. + </p> + <p> + He was pulled up instantly for close inspection by the judge. “What is + your age?” + </p> + <p> + “I am in my twenty-sixth year.” + </p> + <p> + “You have been among men: have you studied women?” + </p> + <p> + “Not largely, Lady Charlotte. Opportunity has been wanting at French and + German colleges.” + </p> + <p> + “It's only a large and a close and a pretty long study of them that can + teach you anything; and you must get rid of the poetry about them, and be + sure you haven't lost it altogether. That's what is called the golden + mean. I'm not for the golden mean in every instance; it's a way of + exhorting to brutal selfishness. I grant it's the right way in those + questions. You'll learn in time.” Her scanning gaze at the young man's + face drove him along an avenue of his very possible chances of learning. + “Certain to. But don't tell me that at your age you have thought about + women. You may say you have felt. A young man's feelings about women are + better reading for him six or a dozen chapters farther on. Then he can + sift and strain. It won't be perfectly clear, but it will do.” + </p> + <p> + Mr. Eglett hereupon threw the door open, and ushered in Master Leo. + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte noticed that the tutor shook the boy's hand offhandedly, + with not a whit of the usual obtrusive geniality, and merely dropped him a + word. Soon after, he was talking to Mr. Eglett of games at home and games + abroad. Poor fun over there! We head the world in field games, at all + events. He drew a picture of a foreigner of his acquaintance looking on at + football. On the other hand, French boys and German, having passed a year + or two at an English school, get the liking for our games, and do a lot of + good when they go home. The things we learn from them are to dance, to + sing, and to study:—they are more in earnest than we about study. + They teach us at fencing too. The tutor praised fencing as an exercise and + an accomplishment. He had large reserves of eulogy for boxing. He knew the + qualities of the famous bruisers of the time, cited fisty names, whose + owners were then to be seen all over an admiring land in prints; in the + glorious defensive-offensive attitude, England's own—Touch me, if + you dare! with bullish, or bull-dog, or oak-bole fronts for the blow, + handsome to pugilistic eyes. + </p> + <p> + The young tutor had lighted on a pet theme of Mr. Eglett's—the + excelling virtues of the practice of pugilism in Old England, and the + school of honour that it is to our lower population. “Fifty times better + for them than cock-fighting,” he exclaimed, admitting that he could be an + interested spectator at a ring or the pit cock-fighting or ratting. + </p> + <p> + “Ratting seems to have more excuse,” the tutor said, and made no sign of a + liking for either of those popular pastimes. As he disapproved without + squeamishness, the impulsive but sharply critical woman close by nodded; + and she gave him his dues for being no courtier. + </p> + <p> + Leo had to be off to bed. The tutor spared him any struggle over the + shaking of hands, and saying, “Goodnight, Leo,” continued the + conversation. The boy went away, visibly relieved of the cramp that seizes + on a youngster at the formalities pertaining to these chilly and fateful + introductions. + </p> + <p> + “What do you think of the look of him?” Mr. Eglett asked. + </p> + <p> + The tutor had not appeared to inspect the boy. “Big head,” he remarked. + “Yes, Leo won't want pushing at books when he's once in harness. He will + have six weeks of me. It's more than the yeomanry get for drill per annum, + and they're expected to know something of a soldier's duties. There's a + chance of putting him on the right road in certain matters. We'll walk, or + ride, or skate, if the frost holds to-morrow: no lessons the first day.” + </p> + <p> + “Do as you think fit,” said lady Charlotte. + </p> + <p> + The one defect she saw in the tutor did not concern his pupil. And a girl, + if hit, would be unable to see that this tutor, judged as a man, was to + some extent despicable for accepting tutorships, and, one might say, + dishonouring the family of a soldier of rank and distinction, by coming + into houses at the back way, with footing enough to air his graces when + once established there. He ought to have knocked at every door in the + kingdom for help, rather than accept tutorships, and disturb households + (or providently-minded mistresses of them) with all sorts of probably + groundless apprehensions, founded naturally enough on the good looks he + intrudes. + </p> + <p> + This tutor committed the offence next day of showing he had a firm and + easy seat in the saddle, which increased Lady Charlotte's liking for him + and irritated her watchful forecasts. She rode with the young man after + lunch, “to show him the country,” and gave him a taste of what he took for + her variable moods. He misjudged her. Like a swimmer going through warm + and cold springs of certain lake waters, he thought her a capricious + ladyship, dangerous for intimacy, alluring to the deeps and gripping with + cramps. + </p> + <p> + She pushed him to defend his choice of the tutor's profession. + </p> + <p> + “Think you understand boys?” she caught up his words; “you can't. You can + humour them, as you humour women. They're just as hard to read. And don't + tell me a young man can read women. Boys and women go on their instincts. + Egyptologists can spell you hieroglyphs; they'd be stumped, as Leo would + say, to read a spider out of an ink-pot over a sheet of paper.” + </p> + <p> + “One gets to interpret by degrees, by observing their habits,” the tutor + said, and vexed her with a towering complacency under provocation that + went some way further to melt the woman she was, while her knowledge of + the softness warned her still more of the duty of playing dragon round + such a young man in her house. The despot is alert at every issue, to + every chance; and she was one, the wakefuller for being benevolent; her + mind had no sleep by day. + </p> + <p> + For a month she subjected Mr. Matthew Weyburn to the microscope of her + observation and the probe of her instinct. He proved that he could manage + without cajoling a boy. The practical fact established, by agreement + between herself and the unobservant gentleman who was her husband, Lady + Charlotte allowed her meditations to drop an indifferent glance at the + speculative views upon education entertained by this young tutor. To her + mind they were flighty; but she liked him, and as her feelings dictated to + her mind when she had not to think for others, she spoke of his views + toleratingly, almost with an implied approval, after passing them through + the form of burlesque to which she customarily treated things failing to + waft her enthusiasm. In regard to Philippa, he behaved well: he bestowed + more of his attention on Beatrice, nearer Leo's age, in talk about games + and story-books and battles; nothing that he did when the girls were + present betrayed the strutting plumed cock, bent to attract, or the sickly + reptile, thirsty for a prize above him and meaning to have it, like Satan + in Eden. Still, of course, he could not help his being a handsome fellow, + having a vivid face and eyes transparent, whether blue or green, to flame + of the brain exciting them; and that becomes a picture in the dream of + girls—a picture creating the dream often. And Philippa had asked her + grandmother, very ingenuously indeed, with a most natural candour, why + “they saw so little of Leo's hero.” Simple female child! + </p> + <p> + However, there was no harm done, and Lady Charlotte liked him. She liked + few. Forthwith, in the manner of her particular head, a restless head, she + fell to work at combinations. + </p> + <p> + Thus:—he is a nice young fellow, well bred, no cringing courtier, + accomplished, good at classics, fairish at mathematics, a scholar in + French, German, Italian, with a shrewd knowledge of the different races, + and with sound English sentiment too, and the capacity for writing good + English, although in those views of his the ideas are unusual, therefore + un-English, profoundly so. But his intentions are patriotic; they would + not displease Lord Ormont. He has a worship of Lord Ormont. All we can say + on behalf of an untried inferior is in that,—only the valiant admire + devotedly. Well, he can write grammatical, readable English. What if Lord + Ormont were to take him as a secretary while the Memoirs are in hand? He + might help to chasten the sentences laughed at by those newspapers. Or he + might, being a terrible critic of writing, and funny about styles, put it + in an absurd light, that would cause the Memoirs to be tossed into the + fire. He was made for the post of secretary! The young man's good looks + would be out of harm's way then. If any sprig of womankind come across him + there, it will, at any rate, not be a girl. Women must take care of + themselves. Only the fools among them run to mischief in the case of a + handsome young fellow. + </p> + <p> + Supposing a certain woman to be one of the fools? Lady Charlotte merely + suggested it in the dashing current of her meditations—did not + strike it out interrogatively. The woman would be a fine specimen among + her class; that was all. For the favourite of Lord Ormont to stoop from + her place beside him—ay, but women do; heroes have had the woeful + experience of that fact. First we see them aiming themselves at their + hero; next they are shooting an eye at the handsome man. The thirst of + nature comes after that of their fancy, in conventional women. Sick of the + hero tried, tired of their place in the market, no longer ashamed to + acknowledge it, they begin to consult their own taste for beauty—they + have it quite as much as the men have it; and when their worshipped figure + of manliness, in a romantic sombrero, is a threadbare giant, showing + bruises, they sink on their inherent desire for a dance with the handsome + man. And the really handsome man is the most extraordinary of the + rarities. No wonder that when he appears he slays them, walks over them + like a pestilence! + </p> + <p> + This young Weyburn would touch the fancy of a woman of a romantic turn. + Supposing her enthusiastic in her worship of the hero, after a number of + years—for anything may be imagined where a woman is concerned—why, + another enthusiasm for the same object, and on the part of a stranger, a + stranger with effective eyes, rapidly leads to sympathy. Suppose the + reverse—the enthusiasm gone to dust, or become a wheezy old bellows, + as it does where there's disparity of age, or it frequently does—then + the sympathy with a good-looking stranger comes more rapidly still. + </p> + <p> + These were Lady Charlotte's glances right and left—idle flights of + the eye of a mounted Amazon across hedges at the canter along the main + road of her scheme; which was to do a service to the young man she liked + and to the brother she loved, for the marked advantage of both equally; + perhaps for the chance of a little gossip to follow about that tenacious + woman by whom her brother was held hard and fast, kept away from friends + and relatives, isolated, insomuch as to have given up living on his estate—the + old home!—because he would not disgrace it or incur odium by taking + her there. + </p> + <p> + In consequence of Lord Ormont's resistance to pressure from her on two or + three occasions, she chose to nurse and be governed by the maxim for + herself: Never propose a plan to him, if you want it adopted. That was her + way of harmlessly solacing love's vindictiveness for an injury. + </p> + <p> + She sent Arthur Abner a letter, thanking him for his recommendation of + young Mr. Weyburn, stating her benevolent wishes as regarded the young man + and “those hateful Memoirs,” requesting that her name should not be + mentioned in the affair, because she was anxious on all grounds to have + the proposal accepted by her brother. She could have vowed to herself that + she wrote sincerely. + </p> + <p> + “He must want a secretary. He would be shy at an offer of one from me. Do + you hint it, if you get a chance. You gave us Mr. Weyburn, and Mr. Eglett + and I like him. Ormont would too, I am certain. You have obliged him + before; this will be better than anything you have done for us. It will + stop the Memoirs, or else give them a polish. Your young friend has made + me laugh over stuff taken for literature until we put on our spectacles. + Leo jogs along in harness now, and may do some work at school yet.” + </p> + <p> + Having posted her letter, she left the issue to chance, as we may when + conscience is easy. An answer came the day before Weyburn's departure. + Arthur Abner had met Lord Ormont in the street, had spoken of the rumour + of Memoirs promised to the world, hinted at the possible need for a + secretary; “Lord Ormont would appoint a day to see Mr. Weyburn.” + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte considered that to be as good as the engagement. + </p> + <p> + “So we keep you in the family,” she said. “And now look here: you ought to + know my brother's ways, if you're going to serve him. You'll have to guess + at half of everything he tells you; he'll expect you to know the whole. + There's no man so secret. Why? He fears nothing; I can't tell why. And + what his mouth shuts on, he exposes as if in his hand. Of course he's + proud, and good reason. You'll see when you mustn't offend. A lady's in + the house—I hear of it. She takes his name, they say. She may be a + respectable woman—I've heard no scandal. We have to hear of a Lady + Ormont out of Society! We have to suppose it means there's not to be a + real one. He can't marry if he has allowed her to go about bearing his + name. She has a fool of an aunt, I'm told; as often in the house as not. + Good proof of his fondness for the woman, if he swallows half a year of + the aunt! Well, you won't, unless you've mere man's eyes, be able to help + seeing him trying to hide what he suffers from that aunt. He bears it, + like the man he is; but woe to another betraying it! She has a tongue that + goes like the reel of a rod, with a pike bolting out of the shallows to + the snag he knows—to wind round it and defy you to pull. Often my + brother Rowsley and I have fished the day long, and in hard weather, and + brought home a basket; and he boasted of it more than of anything he has + ever done since. That woman holds him away from me now. I say no harm of + her. She may be right enough from her point of view; or it mayn't be owing + to her. I wouldn't blame a woman. Well, but my point with you is, you + swallow the woman's aunt—the lady's aunt—without betraying you + suffer at all. Lord Ormont has eyes of an eagle for a speck above the + surface. All the more because the aunt is a gabbling idiot does he—I + say it seeing it—fire up to defend her from the sneer of the lip or + half a sign of it! No, you would be an your guard; I can trust you. Of + course you'd behave like the gentleman you are where any kind of woman's + concerned; but you mustn't let a shadow be seen, think what you may. The + woman—lady—calling herself Lady Ormont,—poor woman, I + should do the same in her place,—she has a hard game to play; I have + to be for my family: she has manners, I'm told; holds herself properly. + She fancies she brings him up to the altar, in the end, by decent + behaviour. That's a delusion. It's creditable to her, only she can't + understand the claims of the family upon a man like my brother. When you + have spare time—'kick-ups,' he need to call it, writing to me from + school—come here; you're welcome, after three days' notice. I shall + be glad to see you again. You've gone some way to make a man of Leo.” + </p> + <p> + He liked her well: he promised to come. She was a sinewy bite of the + gentle sex, but she had much flavour, and she gave nourishment. + </p> + <p> + “Let me have three days' notice,” she repeated. + </p> + <p> + “Not less, Lady Charlotte,” said he. + </p> + <p> + Weyburn received intimation from Arthur Abner of the likely day Lord + Ormont would appoint, and he left Olmer for London to hold himself in + readiness. Lady Charlotte and Leo drove him to meet the coach. Philippa, + so strangely baffled in her natural curiosity, begged for a seat; she + begged to be allowed to ride. Petitions were rejected. She stood at the + window seeing “Grandmama's tutor,” as she named him, carried off by + grandmama. Her nature was avenged on her tyrant grandmama: it brought up + almost to her tongue thoughts which would have remained subterranean, + under control of her habit of mind, or the nursery's modesty, if she had + been less tyrannically treated. They were subterranean thoughts, Nature's + original, such as the sense of injustice will rouse in young women; and + they are better unstirred, for they ripen girls over-rapidly when they are + made to revolve near the surface. It flashed on the girl why she had been + treated tyrannically. + </p> + <p> + “Grandmama has good taste in tutors,” was all that she said while the + thoughts rolled over. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IV. RECOGNITION + </h2> + <p> + Our applicant for the post of secretary entered the street of Lord + Ormont's London house, to present himself to his boyhood's hero by + appointment. + </p> + <p> + He was to see, perhaps to serve, the great soldier. Things had come to + this; and he thought it singular. But for the previous introduction to + Lady Charlotte, he would have thought it passing wonderful. He ascribed it + to the whirligig. + </p> + <p> + The young man was not yet of an age to gather knowledge of himself and of + life from his present experience of the fact, that passionate devotion to + an object strikes a vein through circumstances, as a travelling run of + flame darts the seeming haphazard zigzags to catch at the dry of dead wood + amid the damp; and when passion has become quiescent in the admirer, there + is often the unsubsided first impulsion carrying it on. He will almost + sorely embrace his idol with one or other of the senses. + </p> + <p> + Weyburn still read the world as it came to him, by bite, marvelling at + this and that, after the fashion of most of us. He had not deserted his + adolescent's hero, or fallen upon analysis of a past season. But he was + now a young man, stoutly and cognizantly on the climb, with a good aim + overhead, axed green youth's enthusiasms a step below his heels: one of + the lovers of life, beautiful to behold, when we spy into them; generally + their aspect is an enlivenment, whatever may be the carving of their + features. For the sake of holy unity, this lover of life, whose gaze was + to the front in hungry animation, held fast to his young dreams, + perceiving a soul of meaning in them, though the fire might have gone out; + and he confessed to a past pursuit of delusions. Young men of this kind + will have, for the like reason, a similar rational sentiment on behalf of + our world's historic forward march, while admitting that history has to be + taken from far backward if we would gain assurance of man's advance. It + nerves an admonished ambition. + </p> + <p> + He was ushered into a London house's library, looking over a niggard + enclosure of gravel and dull grass, against a wall where ivy dribbled. An + armchair was beside the fireplace. To right and left of it a floreate + company of books in high cases paraded shoulder to shoulder, without a + gap; grenadiers on the line. Weyburn read the titles on their + scarlet-and-blue facings. They were approved English classics; honoured + veterans, who have emerged from the conflict with contemporary opinion, + stamped excellent, or have been pushed by the roar of contemporaneous + applauses to wear the leather-and-gilt uniform of our Immortals, until a + more qualmish posterity disgorges them. The books had costly bindings. + Lord Ormont's treatment of Literature appeared to resemble Lady + Charlotte's, in being reverential and uninquiring. The books she bought to + read were Memoirs of her time by dead men and women once known to her. + These did fatigue duty in cloth or undress. It was high drill with all of + Lord Ormont's books, and there was not a modern or a minor name among the + regiments. They smelt strongly of the bookseller's lump lots by order; but + if a show soldiery, they were not a sham, like a certain row of + venerably-titled backs, that Lady Charlotte, without scruple, left + standing to blow an ecclesiastical trumpet of empty contents; any one + might have his battle of brains with them, for the twining of an absent + key. + </p> + <p> + The door opened. Weyburn bowed to his old star in human shape: a grey head + on square shoulders, filling the doorway. He had seen at Olmer Lady + Charlotte's treasured miniature portrait of her brother; a perfect + likeness, she said—complaining the neat instant of injustice done to + the fire of his look. + </p> + <p> + Fire was low down behind the eyes at present. They were quick to scan and + take summary of their object, as the young man felt while observing for + himself. Height and build of body were such as might be expected in the + brother of Lady Charlotte and from the tales of his prowess. Weyburn had a + glance back at Cuper's boys listening to the tales. + </p> + <p> + The soldier-lord's manner was courteously military—that of an + established superior indifferent to the deferential attitude he must needs + enact. His curt nick of the head, for a response to the visitor's formal + salutation, signified the requisite acknowledgment, like a city creditor's + busy stroke of the type-stamp receipt upon payment. + </p> + <p> + The ceremony over, he pitched a bugle voice to fit the contracted area: “I + hear from Mr. Abner that you have made acquaintance with Olmer. Good + hunting country there.” + </p> + <p> + “Lady Charlotte kindly gave me a mount, my lord.” + </p> + <p> + “I knew your father by name—Colonel Sidney Weyburn. You lost him at + Toulouse. We were in the Peninsula; I was at Talavera with him. Bad day + for our cavalry.” + </p> + <p> + “Our officers were young at their work then.” + </p> + <p> + “They taught the Emperor's troops to respect a charge of English horse. It + was teaching their fox to set traps for them.” + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont indicated a chair. He stood. + </p> + <p> + “The French had good cavalry leaders,” Weyburn said, for cover to a + continued study of the face, + </p> + <p> + “Montbrun, yes: Murat, Lassalle, Bessieres. Under the Emperor they had.” + </p> + <p> + “You think them not at home in the saddle, my lord?” + </p> + <p> + “Frenchmen have nerves; horses are nerves. They pile excitement too high. + When cool, they're among the best. None of them had head for command of + all the arms.” + </p> + <p> + “One might say the same of Seidlitz and Ziethen?” + </p> + <p> + “Of Ziethen. Seidlitz had a wider grasp, I suppose.” He pursed his month, + pondering. “No; and in the Austrian service, too; generals of cavalry are + left to whistle for an independent command. There's a jealousy of our + branch!” The injured warrior frowned and hummed. He spoke his thought + mildly: “Jealousy of the name of soldier in this country! Out of the + service, is the place to recommend. I'd have advised a son of mine to + train for a jockey rather than enter it. We deal with that to-morrow, in + my papers. You come to me? Mr. Abner has arranged the terms? So I see you + at ten in the morning. I am glad to meet a young man—Englishman—who + takes an interest in the service.” + </p> + <p> + Weyburn fancied the hearing of a step; he heard the whispering dress. It + passed him; a lady went to the armchair. She took her seat, as she had + moved, with sedateness, the exchange of a toneless word with my lord. She + was a brune. He saw that when he rose to do homage. + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont resumed: “Some are born to it, must be soldiers; and in peace + they are snubbed by the heads; in war they are abused by the country. They + don't understand in England how to treat an army; how to make one either! + </p> + <p> + “The gentleman—Mr. Weyburn: Mr. Arthur Abner's recommendation,” he + added hurriedly, with a light wave of his hand and a murmur, that might be + the lady's title; continuing: “A young man of military tastes should take + service abroad. They're in earnest about it over there. Here they play at + it; and an army's shipped to land without commissariat, ambulances, + medical stores, and march against the odds, as usual—if it can + march! + </p> + <p> + “Albuera, my lord?” + </p> + <p> + “Our men can spurt, for a flick o' the whip. They're expected to be + constantly ready for doing prodigies—to repair the country's + omissions. All the country cares for is to hope Dick Turpin may get to + York. Our men are good beasts; they give the best in 'em, and drop. More's + the scandal to a country that has grand material and overtasks it. A + blazing disaster ends the chapter!” + </p> + <p> + This was talk of an injured veteran. It did not deepen the hue of his + ruddied skin. He spoke in the tone of matter of fact. Weyburn had been + prepared for something of the sort by his friend, Arthur Abner. He noted + the speaker's heightened likeness under excitement to Lady Charlotte. + Excitement came at an early call of their voices to both; and both had + handsome, open features, bluntly cut, nothing of aquiline or the + supercilious; eyes bluish-grey, in arched recesses, horny between the + thick lids, lively to shoot their meaning when the trap-mouth was active; + effectively expressing promptitute for combat, pleasure in attack, + wrestle, tag, whatever pertained to strife; an absolute sense of their + right. + </p> + <p> + As there was a third person present at this dissuasion of military topics, + the silence of the lady drew Weyburn to consult her opinion in her look. + </p> + <p> + It was on him. Strange are the woman's eyes which can unoffendingly assume + the privilege to dwell on such a living object as a man without become + gateways for his return look, and can seem in pursuit of thoughts while + they enfold. They were large dark eyes, eyes of southern night. They sped + no shot; they rolled forth an envelopment. A child among toys, caught to + think of other toys, may gaze in that way. But these were a woman's eyes. + </p> + <p> + He gave Lord Ormont his whole face, as an auditor should. He was + interested besides, as he told a ruffled conscience. He fell upon the + study of his old hero determinedly. + </p> + <p> + The pain of a memory waking under pillows, unable to do more than strain + for breath, distracted his attention. There was a memory: that was all he + knew. Or else he would have lashed himself for hanging on the beautiful + eyes of a woman. To be seeing and hearing his old hero was wonder enough. + </p> + <p> + Recollections of Lady Charlotte's plain hints regarding the lady present + resolved to the gross retort, that her eyes were beautiful. And he knew + them—there lay the strangeness. They were known beautiful eyes, in a + foreign land of night and mist. + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont was discoursing with racy eloquence of our hold on India: his + views in which respect were those of Cuper's boys. Weyburn ventured a + dot-running description of the famous ride, and out flew an English + soldier's grievance. But was not the unjustly-treated great soldier well + rewarded, whatever the snubs and the bitterness, with these large dark + eyes in his house, for his own? Eyes like these are the beginning of a + young man's world; they nerve, inspire, arm him, colour his life; he would + labour, fight, die for them. It seemed to Weyburn a blessedness even to + behold them. So it had been with him at the early stage; and his heart + went swifter, memory fetched a breath. Memory quivered eyelids, when the + thought returned—of his having known eyes as lustrous. First lights + of his world, they had more volume, warmth, mystery—were sweeter. + Still, these in the room were sisters to them. They quickened throbs; they + seemed a throb of the heart made visible. + </p> + <p> + That was their endowment of light and lustre simply, and the mystical + curve of the lids. For so they could look only because the heart was + disengaged from them. They were but heavenly orbs. + </p> + <p> + The lady's elbow was on an arm of her chair, her forefinger at her left + temple. Her mind was away, one might guess; she could hardly be interested + in talk of soldiering and of foreign army systems, jealous English + authorities and officials, games, field-sports. She had personal matters + to think of. + </p> + <p> + Adieu until to-morrow to the homes she inhabited! The street was a + banishment and a relief when Weyburn's first interview with Lord Ormont + was over. + </p> + <p> + He rejoiced to tell his previous anticipations that he had not been + disappointed; and he bade hero-worshippers expect no gilded figure. We + gather heroes as we go, if we are among the growing: our constancy is + shown in the not discarding of our old ones. He held to his earlier hero, + though he had seen him, and though he could fancy he saw round him. + </p> + <p> + Another, too, had been a hero-lover. How did that lady of night's eyes + come to fall into her subjection? + </p> + <p> + He put no question as to the name she bore; it hung in a black suspense—vividly + at its blackest illuminated her possessor. A man is a hero to some effect + who wins a woman like this; and, if his glory bespells her, so that she + flings all to the winds for him, burns the world; if, for solely the + desperate rapture of belonging to him, she consents of her free will to be + one of the nameless and discoloured, he shines in a way to make the marrow + of men thrill with a burning envy. For that must be the idolatrous + devotion desired by them all. + </p> + <p> + Weyburn struck down upon his man's nature—the bad in us, when beauty + of woman is viewed; or say, the old original revolutionary, best kept + untouched; for a touch or a meditative pause above him, fetches him up to + roam the civilized world devouringly and lawlessly. It is the special + peril of the young lover of life, that an inflammability to beauty in + women is in a breath intense with him. He is, in truth, a thinly-sealed + volcano of our imperishable ancient father; and has it in him to be the + multitudinously-amorous of the mythologic Jove. Give him head, he can be + civilization's devil. Is she fair and under a shade?—then is she + doubly fair. The shadow about her secretes mystery, just as the forest + breeds romance: and mystery is a measureless realm. If we conceive it, we + have a mysterious claim on her who is the heart of it. + </p> + <p> + He marched on that road to the music of sonorous brass for some drunken + minutes. + </p> + <p> + The question came, What of the man who takes advantage of her + self-sacrifice? + </p> + <p> + It soon righted him, and he did Lord Ormont justice, and argued the case + against Lady Charlotte's naked hints. + </p> + <p> + This dark-eyed heroine's bearing was assured, beyond an air of dependency. + Her deliberate short nod to him at his leave-taking, and the toneless few + words she threw to my lord, signified sufficiently that she did not stand + defying the world or dreading it. + </p> + <p> + She had by miracle the eyes which had once charmed him—could again—would + always charm. She reminded him of Aminta Farrell's very eyes under the + couchant-dove brows—something of her mouth, the dimple running from + a corner. She had, as Aminta had, the self-collected and self-cancelled + look, a realm in a look, that was neither depth nor fervour, nor a + bestowal, nor an allurement; nor was it an exposure, though there seemed + no reserve. One would be near the meaning in declaring it to bewilder men + with the riddle of openhandedness. We read it—all may read it—as + we read inexplicable plain life; in which let us have a confiding mind, + despite the blows at our heart, and some understanding will enter us. + </p> + <p> + He shut the door upon picture and speculations, returning to them by + another door. The lady had not Aminta's freshness: she might be taken for + an elder sister of Aminta. But Weyburn wanted to have her position defined + before he set her beside Aminta. He writhed under Lady Charlotte's + tolerating scorn of “the young woman.” It roused an uneasy sentiment of + semi-hostility in the direction of my lord; and he had no personal + complaint to make. + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont was cordial on the day of the secretary's installation; as if—if + one might dare to guess it—some one had helped him to a friendly + judgement. + </p> + <p> + The lady of Aminta's eyes was absent at the luncheon table. She came into + the room a step, to speak to Lord Ormont, dressed for a drive to pay a + visit. + </p> + <p> + The secretary was unnoticed. + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont put inquiries to him at table, for the why of his having + avoided the profession of arms; and apparently considered that the + secretary had made a mistake, and that he would have committed a greater + error in becoming a soldier—“in this country.” A man with a + grievance is illogical under his burden. He mentioned the name “Lady + Ormont” distinctly during some remarks on travel. Lady Ormont preferred + the Continent. + </p> + <p> + Two days later she came to the armchair, as before, met Weyburn's eyes + when he raised them; gave him no home in hers—not a temporary + shelter from the pelting of interrogations. She hardly spoke. Why did she + come? + </p> + <p> + But how was it that he was drawn to think of her? Absent or present, she + was round him, like the hills of a valley. She was round his thoughts—caged + them; however high, however far they flew, they were conscious of her. + </p> + <p> + She took her place at the midday meal. She had Aminta's voice in some + tones; a mellower than Aminta's—the voice of one of Aminta's family. + She had the trick of Aminta's upper lip in speaking. Her look on him was + foreign; a civil smile as they conversed. She was very much at home with + my lord, whom she rallied for his addiction to his Club at a particular + hour of the afternoon. She conversed readily. She reminded him, + incidentally that her aunt would arrive early next day. He informed her, + some time after, of an engagement “to tiffin with a brother officer,” and + she nodded. + </p> + <p> + They drove away together while the secretary was at his labour of sorting + the heap of autobiographical scraps in a worn dispatch-box, pen and pencil + jottings tossed to swell the mess when they had relieved an angry + reminiscence. He noticed, heedlessly at the moment, feminine handwriting + on some few clear sheets among them. + </p> + <p> + Next day he was alone in the library. He sat before the box, opened it and + searched, merely to quiet his annoyance for having left those sheets of + the fair amanuensis unexamined. They were not discoverable. They had gone. + </p> + <p> + He stood up at the stir of the door. It was she, and she acknowledged his + bow; she took her steps to her chair. + </p> + <p> + He was informed that Lord Ormont had an engagement, and he remarked, “I + can do the work very well.” She sat quite silent. + </p> + <p> + He read first lines of the scraps, laid them in various places, as in a + preparation for conjurer's tricks at cards; refraining from a glance, lest + he should disconcert the eyes he felt to be on him fitfully. + </p> + <p> + At last she spoke, and he knew Aminta in his hearing and sight. + </p> + <p> + “Is Emile Grenat still anglomane?” + </p> + <p> + An instant before her voice was heard he had been persuading himself that + the points of unlikeness between his young Aminta and this tall and + stately lady of the proud reserve in her bearing flouted the resemblance. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER V. IN WHICH THE SHADES OF BROWNY AND MATEY ADVANCE AND RETIRE + </h2> + <p> + “Emile is as anglomane as ever, and not a bit less a Frenchman,” Weyburn + said, in a tone of one who muffles a shock at the heart. + </p> + <p> + “It would be the poorer compliment to us,” she rejoined. + </p> + <p> + They looked at one another; she dropped her eyelids, he looked away. + </p> + <p> + She had the grand manner by nature. She was the woman of the girl once + known. + </p> + <p> + “A soldier, is he?” + </p> + <p> + “Emile's profession and mine are much alike, or will be.” + </p> + <p> + “A secretary?” + </p> + <p> + Her deadness of accent was not designed to carry her opinion of the post + of secretary. + </p> + <p> + It brought the reply: “We hope to be schoolmasters.” + </p> + <p> + She drew in a breath; there was a thin short voice, hardly voice, as when + one of the unschooled minor feelings has been bruised. After a while she + said— + </p> + <p> + “Does he think it a career?” + </p> + <p> + “Not brilliant.” + </p> + <p> + “He was formed for a soldier.” + </p> + <p> + “He had to go as the road led.” + </p> + <p> + “A young man renouncing ambition!” + </p> + <p> + “Considering what we can do best.” + </p> + <p> + “It signifies the taste for what he does.” + </p> + <p> + “Certainly that.” + </p> + <p> + Weyburn had senses to read the word “schoolmaster” in repetition behind + her shut mouth. He was sharply sensible of a fall. + </p> + <p> + The task with his papers occupied him. If he had a wish, it was to sink so + low in her esteem as to be spurned. A kick would have been a refreshment. + Yet he was unashamed of the cause invoking it. We are instruments to the + touch of certain women, and made to play strange tunes. + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Cuper flourishes?” + </p> + <p> + “The school exists. I have not been down there. I met Mr. Shalders + yesterday. He has left the school.” + </p> + <p> + “You come up from Olmer?” + </p> + <p> + “I was at Olmer last week, Lady Ormont.” + </p> + <p> + An involuntary beam from her eyes thanked him for her title at that + juncture of the dialogue. She grew more spirited. + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Shalders has joined the Dragoons, has he?” + </p> + <p> + “The worthy man has a happy imagination. He goes through a campaign + daily.” + </p> + <p> + “It seems to one to dignify his calling.” + </p> + <p> + “I like his enthusiasm.” + </p> + <p> + The lady withdrew into her thoughts; Weyburn fell upon his work. + </p> + <p> + Mention of the military cloak of enthusiasm covering Shalders, brought the + scarce credible old time to smite at his breast, in the presence of these + eyes. A ringing of her title of Lady Ormont rendered the present time the + incredible. + </p> + <p> + “I can hardly understand a young Frenchman's not entering the army,” she + said. + </p> + <p> + “The Napoleonic legend is weaker now,” said he. + </p> + <p> + “The son of an officer!” + </p> + <p> + “Grandson.” + </p> + <p> + “It was his choice to be,—he gave it up without reluctance?” + </p> + <p> + “Emile obeyed the command of his parents,” Weyburn answered; and he was + obedient to the veiled direction of her remark, in speaking of himself: “I + had a reason, too.” + </p> + <p> + “One wonders!” + </p> + <p> + “It would have impoverished my mother's income to put aside a small + allowance for me for years. She would not have hesitated. I then set my + mind on the profession of schoolmaster.” + </p> + <p> + “Emile Grenat was a brave boy. Has he no regrets?” + </p> + <p> + “Neither of us has a regret.” + </p> + <p> + “He began ambitiously.” + </p> + <p> + “It's the way at the beginning.” + </p> + <p> + “It is not usually abjured.” + </p> + <p> + “I'm afraid we neither of us 'dignify our calling' by discontent with it!” + </p> + <p> + A dusky flash, worth seeing, came on her cheeks. “I respect enthusiasms,” + she said; and it was as good to him to hear as the begging pardon, though + clearly she could not understand enthusiasm for the schoolmaster's career. + </p> + <p> + Light of evidence was before him, that she had a friendly curiosity to + know what things had led to their new meeting under these conditions. He + sketched them cursorily; there was little to tell—little, that is; + appealing to a romantic mind for interest. Aware of it, by sympathy, he + degraded the narrative to a flatness about as cheering as a suburban + London Sunday's promenade. Sympathy caused the perverseness. He felt her + disillusionment; felt with it and spread a feast of it. She had to hear of + studies at Caen and at a Paris Lycee; French fairly mastered; German, the + same; Italian, the same; after studies at Heidelberg, Asti, and Florence; + between four and five months at Athens (he was needlessly precise), in + tutorship with a young nobleman: no events, nor a spot of colour. Thus did + he wilfully, with pain to himself, put an extinguisher on the youth + painted brilliant and eminent in a maiden's imagination. + </p> + <p> + “So there can no longer be thought of the army,” she remarked; and the + remark had a sort of sigh, though her breathing was equable. + </p> + <p> + “Unless a big war knocks over all rules and the country comes praying us + to serve,” he said. + </p> + <p> + “You would not refuse then?” + </p> + <p> + “Not in case of need. One may imagine a crisis when they would give + commissions to men of my age or older for the cavalry—heavy losses + of officers.” + </p> + <p> + She spoke, as if urged by a sting to revert to the distasteful: “That + profession—must you not take... enter into orders if you aim at any + distinction?” + </p> + <p> + “And a member of the Anglican Church would not be allowed to exchange his + frock for a cavalry sabre,” said he. “That is true. I do not propose to + settle as a schoolmaster in England.” + </p> + <p> + “Where?” + </p> + <p> + “On the Continent.” + </p> + <p> + “Would not America be better?” + </p> + <p> + “It would not so well suit the purpose in view for us.” + </p> + <p> + “There are others besides?” + </p> + <p> + “Besides Emile, there is a German and an Italian and a Swiss.” + </p> + <p> + “It is a Company?” + </p> + <p> + “A Company of schoolmasters! Companies of all kinds are forming. Colleges + are Companies. And they have their collegians. Our aim is at pupils; we + have no ambition for any title higher than School and Schoolmaster; it is + not a Company.” + </p> + <p> + So, like Nature parading her skeleton to youthful adorers of her face, he + insisted on reducing to hideous material wreck the fair illusion, which + had once arrayed him in alluring promise. + </p> + <p> + She explained; “I said, America. You would be among Protestants in + America.” + </p> + <p> + “Catholics and Protestants are both welcome to us, according to our + scheme. And Germans, French, English, Americans, Italians, if they will + come; Spaniards and Portuguese, and Scandinavians, Russians as well. And + Jews; Mahommedans too, if only they will come! The more mixed, the more it + hits our object.” + </p> + <p> + “You have not stated where on the Continent it is to be.” + </p> + <p> + “The spot fixed on is in Switzerland.” + </p> + <p> + “You will have scenery.” + </p> + <p> + “I hold to that, as an influence.” + </p> + <p> + A cool vision of the Bernese Alps encircled the young schoolmaster; and + she said, “It would influence girls; I dare say.” + </p> + <p> + “A harder matter with boys, of course—at first. We think we may make + it serve.” + </p> + <p> + “And where is the spot? Is that fixed on?” + </p> + <p> + “Fifteen miles from Berne, on elevated land, neighbouring a water, not + quite to be called a lake, unless in an auctioneer's advertisement.” + </p> + <p> + “I am glad of the lake. I could not look on a country home where there was + no swimming. You will be head of the school.” + </p> + <p> + “There must be a head.” + </p> + <p> + “Is the school likely to be established soon?” + </p> + <p> + He fell into her dead tone: “Money is required for establishments. I have + a Reversion coming some day; I don't dabble in post obits.” + </p> + <p> + He waited for farther questions. They were at an end. + </p> + <p> + “You have your work to do, Mr. Weyburn.” + </p> + <p> + Saying that, she bowed an implied apology for having kept him from it, and + rose. She bowed again as she passed through the doorway, in acknowledgment + of his politeness. + </p> + <p> + Here; then, was the end of the story of Browny and Matey. Such was his + thought under the truncheon-stroke of their colloquy. Lines of Browny's + letters were fiery waving ribands about him, while the coldly gracious bow + of the Lady wrote Finis. + </p> + <p> + The gulf between the two writings remained unsounded. It gave a heave to + the old passion; but stirred no new one; he had himself in hand now, and + he shut himself up when the questions bred of amazement buzzed and + threatened to storm. After all, what is not curious in this world? The + curious thing would be if curious things should fail to happen. Men have + been saying it since they began to count and turn corners. And let us hold + off from speculating when there is or but seems a shadow of unholiness + over that mole-like business. There shall be no questions; and as to + feelings, the same. They, if petted for a moment beneath the shadow, + corrupt our blood. Weyburn was a man to have them by the throat at the + birth. + </p> + <p> + Still they thronged; heavy work of strangling had to be done. Her tone of + disappointment with the schoolmaster bit him, and it flattered him. The + feelings leapt alive, equally venomous from the wound and the caress. They + pushed to see, had to be repelled from seeing, the girl Browny in the + splendid woman; they had lightning memories: not the pain of his grip + could check their voice on the theme touching her happiness or the + reverse. And this was an infernal cunning. He paused perforce to inquire, + giving them space for the breeding of their multitudes. Was she happy? Did + she not seem too meditative, enclosed, toneless, at her age? Vainly the + persecuted fellow said to himself: “But what is it to me now?”—The + Browny days were over. The passion for the younger Aminta was over—buried; + and a dream of power belonging to those days was not yet more than + visionary. It had moved her once, when it was a young soldier's. She + treated the schoolmaster's dream as vapour, and the old days as dead and + ghostless. She did rightly. How could they or she or he be other than they + were! + </p> + <p> + With that sage exclamation, he headed into the Browny days and breasted + them; and he had about him the living foamy sparkle of the very time, + until the Countess of Ormont breathed the word “Schoolmaster”; when, at + once, it was dusty land where buoyant waters had been, and the armies of + the facts, in uniform drab, with some feathers and laces, and a + significant surpliced figure, decorously covering the wildest of Cupids, + marched the standard of the winking gold-piece, which is their nourishing + sun and eclipser of all suns that foster dreams. + </p> + <p> + As you perceive, he was drawing swiftly to the vortex of the fools, and + round and round he went, lucky to float. + </p> + <p> + His view of the business of the schoolmaster plucked him from the whirl. + She despised it; he upheld it. He stuck to his view, finding their + antagonism on the subject wholesome for him. All that she succeeded in + doing was to rob it of the aurora colour clothing everything on which + Matey Weyburn set his aim. Her contempt of it, whether as a profession in + itself or as one suitable to the former young enthusiast for arms, dwarfed + it to appear like the starved plants under Greenland skies. But those are + of a sturdy genus; they mean to live; they live, perforce, of the right to + live; they will prove their right in a coming season, when some one steps + near and wonders at them, and from more closely observing; gets to + understand, learning that the significance and the charm of earth will be + as well shown by them as by her tropical fair flaunters or the + tenderly-nurtured exotics. + </p> + <p> + An unopened coffer of things to be said in defence of—no, on behalf + of—no, in honour of the Profession of Schoolmaster, perhaps to the + convincing of Aminta, Lady Ormont, was glanced at; a sentence or two leapt + out and stepped forward, and had to retire. He preferred to the fathering + of tricky, windy phrases, the being undervalued—even by her. He was + taught to see again how Rhetoric haunts, and Rhetoric bedevils, the + vindication of the clouded, especially in the case of a disesteemed + Profession requiring one to raise it and impose it upon the antagonistic + senses for the bewildering of the mind. One has to sound it loudly; there + is no treating it, as in the advocacy of the cases of flesh and blood, + with the masterly pathos of designed simplicity. And Weyburn was Cuper's + Matey Weyburn still in his loathing of artifice to raise emotion, loathing + of the affected, the stilted, the trumpet of speech—always excepting + school-exercises in the tongues, the unmasking of a Catiline, the address + of a General, Athenian or other, to troops. + </p> + <p> + He kept his coffer shut; and, for a consequence, he saw the contents as an + avenue of blossom leading to vistas of infinite harvest. + </p> + <p> + She was Lady Ormont: Aminta shared the title of his old hero! He refused + to speculate upon how it had come to pass, and let the curtain hang, + though dramas and romances, with the miracles involved in them, were + agitated by a transient glimpse at the curtain. + </p> + <p> + Well! and he hoped to be a member of the Profession she despised: hoped it + with all his heart. And one good effect of his giving his heart to the + hope was, that he could hold from speculating and from feeling, even from + pausing to wonder at the most wonderful turn of events. Blessed antagonism + drove him to be braced by thoughts upon the hardest of the schoolmaster's + tasks—bright winter thoughts, prescribing to him satisfaction with a + faith in the sowing, which may be his only reaping. Away fly the boys in + sheaves. After his toil with them, to instruct, restrain, animate, point + their minds, they leave him, they plunge into the world and are gone. Will + he see them again? It is a flickering perhaps. To sustain his belief that + he has done serviceable work, he must be sore of his having charged them + with good matter. How can the man do it, if, during his term of + apprenticeship, he has allowed himself to dally here and there, down to + moony dreamings over inscrutable beautiful eyes of a married lady; for the + sole reason that he meets her unexpectedly, after an exchange of letters + with her in long-past days at school, when she was an inexperienced girl, + who knew not what she vowed, and he a flighty-headed youngster, crying out + to be the arrow of any bow that was handy? Yea, she was once that girl, + named Browny by the boys. + </p> + <p> + Temptation threw warm light on the memory, and very artfully, by conjuring + up the faces, cries, characters, all the fun of the boys. There was no + possibility of forgetting her image in those days; he had, therefore, to + live with it and to live near the grown woman—Time's present answer + to the old riddle. It seemed to him, that instead of sorting Lord Ormont's + papers, he ought to be at sharp exercise. According to his prescript, + sharp exercise of lungs and limbs is a man's moral aid against temptation. + He knew it as the one trusty antidote for him, who was otherwise the + vessel of a temperament pushing to mutiny. Certainly it is the best + philosophy youth can pretend to practise; and Lord Ormont kept him from + it! Worse than that, the slips and sheets of paper in the dispatch-box + were not an exercise of the mind even; there was nothing to grapple with—no + diversion; criticism passed by them indulgently, if not benevolently. + </p> + <p> + Quite apart from the subject inscribed on them, Weyburn had now and again + a blow at the breast, of untraceable origin. For he was well enough aware + that the old days when Browny imagined him a hero, in drinking his praises + of a brighter, were drowned. They were dead; but here was she the bride of + the proved hero. His praises might have helped in causing her willingness—devotional + readiness, he could fancy—to yield her hand. Perhaps at the moment + when the hero was penning some of the Indian slips here, the boy at school + was preparing Aminta; but he could not be responsible for a sacrifice of + the kind suggested by Lady Charlotte. And no, there had been no such + sacrifice, although Lord Ormont's inexplicable treatment of his young + countess, under cover of his notorious reputation with women, conduced to + the suspicion. + </p> + <p> + While the vagrant in Weyburn was thus engaged, his criticism of the + soldier-lord's field-English on paper let the stuff go tolerantly + unexamined, but with a degree of literary contempt at heart for the writer + who had that woman-scented reputation and expressed himself so poorly. The + sentiment was outside of reason. We do, nevertheless, expect our Don Juans + to deliver their minds a trifle elegantly; if not in classic English, on + paper; and when we find one of them inflicting cruelty, as it appears, and + the victim is a young woman, a beautiful young woman, she pleads to us + poetically against the bearish sentences of his composition. We + acknowledge, however, that a mere sentiment, entertained possibly by us + alone, should not be permitted to condemn him unheard. + </p> + <p> + Lady Ormont was not seen again. After luncheon at a solitary table, the + secretary worked till winter's lamps were lit; and then shone freedom, + with assurance to him that he would escape from the miry mental ditch he + had been floundering in since Aminta revealed herself. Sunday was the + glorious day to follow, with a cleansing bath of a walk along the southern + hills; homely English scenery to show to a German friend, one of his + “Company.” Half a dozen good lads were pledged to the walk; bearing which + in view, it could be felt that this nonsensical puzzlement over his + relations to the moods and tenses of a married woman would be bounced out + of recollection before nightfall. The landscape given off any of the airy + hills of Surrey would suffice to do it. + </p> + <p> + A lady stood among her boxes below, as he descended the stairs to cross + the hall. He knew her for the person Lady Charlotte called “the woman's + aunt,” whom Lord Ormont could not endure—a forgiven old enemy, Mrs. + Nargett Pagnell. + </p> + <p> + He saluted. She stared, and corrected her incivility with “Ah, yes,” and a + formal smile. + </p> + <p> + If not accidentally delayed on her journey, she had been needlessly the + cause why Lord Ormont hugged his Club during the morning and afternoon. + Weyburn was pushed to think of the matter by remembrance of his foregone + resentment at her having withdrawn Aminta from Miss Vincent's three days + earlier than the holiday time. The resentment was over; but a germ of it + must have sprang from the dust to prompt the kindling leap his memory + took, out of all due connection; like a lightning among the crags. It + struck Aminta smartly. He called to mind the conversation at table + yesterday. Had she played on Lord Ormont's dislike of the aunt to drive + him forth for some purpose of her own? If so, the little trick had been + done with deplorable spontaneity or adeptness of usage. What was the + purpose?—to converse with an old acquaintance, undisturbed by Lord + Ormont and her aunt? Neatly done, supposing the surmise correct. + </p> + <p> + But what was there in the purpose? He sifted rapidly for the gist of the + conversation; reviewed the manner of it, the words, the sound they had, + the feelings they touched; then owned that the question could not be + answered. Owning, further, that the recurrence of these idiotic + speculations, feelings, questions, wrote him down as both dull fellow and + impertinent, he was unabled to restore Aminta to the queenly place she + took above the schoolmaster, who was very soon laughing at his fever or + flash of the afternoon. The day had brought a great surprise, nothing + more. Twenty minutes of fencing in the a salle d'armes of an Italian + captain braced him to health, and shifted scenes of other loves, lighter + loves, following the Browny days—not to be called loves; in fact; + hardly beyond inclinations. Nevertheless, inclinations are an infidelity. + To meet a married woman, and be mooning over her because she gave him her + eyes and her handwriting when a girl, was enough to rouse an honest + fellow's laugh at himself, in the contemplation of his intermediate + amorous vagabondage. Had he ever known the veritable passion after Browny + sank from his ken? Let it be confessed, never. His first love was his only + true love, despite one shuddering episode, oddly humiliating to recollect, + though he had not behaved badly. So, then, by right of his passion, thus + did eternal justice rule it: that Browny belonged, to Matey Weyburn, + Aminta to Lord Ormont. Aminta was a lady blooming in the flesh, Browny was + the past's pale phantom; for which reason he could call her his own, + without harm done to any one, and with his usual appetite for dinner, + breakfast, lunch, whatever the meal supplied by the hour. + </p> + <p> + It would somewhat alarmingly have got to Mr. Weyburn's conscience through + a disturbance of his balance, telling him that he was on a perilous road, + if his relish for food had been blunted. He had his axiom on the subject, + and he was wrong in the general instance, for the appetites of rogues and + ogres are not known to fail. As regarded himself, he was eminently right; + and he could apply it to boys also, to all young people—the + unlaunched, he called them. He counted himself among the launched, no + doubt, and had breasted seas; but the boy was alive, a trencherman lad, in + the coming schoolmaster, and told him profitable facts concerning his + condition; besides throwing a luminous ray on the arcane of our elusive + youthful. If they have no stout zest for eating, put Query against them. + </p> + <p> + His customary enjoyment of dinner convinced Mr. Weyburn that he had not + brooded morbidly over his phantom Browny, and could meet Aminta, Countess + of Ormont, on the next occasion with the sentiments proper to a common + official. Did she not set him a commendable example? He admired her for + not concealing her disdain of the aspirant schoolmaster, quite + comprehending, by sympathy, why the woman should reproach the girl who had + worshipped heroes, if this was a full-grown specimen; and the reply of the + shamed girl, that in her ignorance she could not know better. He spared + the girl, but he laughed at the woman he commended, laughed at himself. + </p> + <p> + Aminta's humour was being stirred about the same time. She and her aunt + were at the dinner-table in the absence of my lord. The dinner had passed + with the stiff dialogue peculiar to couples under supervision of their + inferiors; and, as soon as the room was clear, she had asked her aunt, + touching the secretary: “Have you seen him?” + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Nargett Pagnell's answer could have been amusing only to one whose + intimate knowledge of her found it characteristically salt; for she was a + lady of speech addressed ever directly or roundabout to the chief point of + business between herself and her hearer, and the more she was brief, + oblique, far-shooting, the more comically intelligible she was to her + niece. She bent her head to signify that she had seen the secretary, and + struck the table with both hands, exclaiming: + </p> + <p> + “Well, to be sure, Lord Ormont!” + </p> + <p> + Their discussion, before they descended the stairs to dinner, concerned + his lordship's extraordinary indifference to the thronging of handsome + young men around his young countess. + </p> + <p> + Here, the implication ran, is one established in the house. + </p> + <p> + Aminta's thoughts could be phrased: “Yes, that is true, for one part of + it.” + </p> + <p> + As for the other part, the ascent of a Phoebus Apollo, with his golden bow + and quiver off the fairest of Eastern horizon skies, followed suddenly by + the sight of him toppling over in Mr. Cuper's long-skirted brown coat, + with spectacles and cane, is an image that hardly exceeds the degradation + she conceived. It was past ludicrous; yet admitted of no woefulness, + nothing soothingly pathetic. It smothered and barked at the dreams of her + blooming spring of life, to which her mind had latterly been turning back, + for an escape from sour, one may say cynical, reflections, the present + issue of a beautiful young woman's first savour of battle with the world. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VI. IN A MOOD OF LANGUOR + </h2> + <p> + Up in Aminta's amber dressing-room; Mrs. Nargett Pagnell alluded sadly to + the long month of separation, and begged her niece to let her have in + plain words an exact statement of the present situation; adding, “Items + will do.” Thereupon she slipped into prattle and held the field. + </p> + <p> + She was the known, worthy, good, intolerable woman whom the burgess turns + out for his world in regiments, that do and look and all but step alike; + and they mean well, and have conventional worships and material + aspirations, and very peculiar occult refinements, with a blind head and a + haphazard gleam of acuteness, impressive to acquaintances, convincing + themselves that they impersonate sagacity. She had said this, done that; + and it was, by proof, Providence consenting, the right thing. A niece, + written down in her girlhood, because of her eyes and her striking air and + excellent deportment, as mate for a nobleman, marries, him before she is + out of her teens. “I said, She shall be a countess.” A countess she is. + Providence does not comply with our predictions in order to stultify us. + Admitting the position of affairs for the moment as extraordinary, we are + bound by what has happened to expect they will be conformable in the end. + Temporarily warped, we should say of them. + </p> + <p> + She could point to the reason: it was Lord Ormont's blunt misunderstanding + of her character. The burgess's daughter was refining to an appreciation + of the exquisite so rapidly that she could criticize patricians. My lord + had never forgiven her for correcting him in his pronunciation of her name + by marriage. Singular indeed; but men, even great men, men of title, are + so, some of them, whom you could least suspect of their being so. He would + speak the “g” in Nargett, and he, declined—after a remonstrance he + declined—to pass Pagnell under the cedilla. Lord Ormont spoke the + name like a man hating it, or an English rustic: “Nargett Pagnell,” + instead, of the soft and elegant “Naryett Pagnell,” the only true way of + speaking it; and she had always taken that pronunciation of her name for a + test of people's breeding. The expression of his lordship's countenance + under correction was memorable. Naturally, in those honeymoony days, the + young Countess of Ormont sided with her husband the earl; she declared + that her aunt had never dreamed of the cedilla before the expedition to + Spain. When, for example, Alfred Nargett Pagnell had a laughing remark, + which Aminta in her childhood must have heard: “We rhyme with spaniel!” + </p> + <p> + That was the secret of Lord Ormont's prepossession against Aminta's aunt; + and who can tell? perhaps of much of his behaviour to the beautiful young + wife he at least admired, sincerely admired, though he caused her to hang + her head—cast a cloud on the head so dear to him! + </p> + <p> + Otherwise there was no interpreting his lordship. To think of herself as + personally disliked by a nobleman stupefied Mrs. Pagnell, from her just + expectation of reciprocal dealings in high society; for she confessed + herself a fly to a title. Where is the shame, if titles are created to + attract? Elsewhere than in that upper circle, we may anticipate hard + bargains; the widow of a solicitor had not to learn it. But when a + distinguished member and ornament of the chosen seats above blew cold upon + their gesticulatory devotee, and was besides ungrateful; she was more than + commonly assured of his being, as she called him, “a sphinx.” His + behaviour to his legally wedded wife confirmed the charge. + </p> + <p> + She checked her flow to resume the question. “So, then, where are we now? + He allows you liberally for pin-money in addition to your own small + independent income. Satisfaction with that would warrant him to suppose + his whole duty done by you.” + </p> + <p> + “We are where we were, aunty; the month has made no change,” said Aminta + in languor. + </p> + <p> + “And you as patient as ever?” + </p> + <p> + “I am supposed to have everything a woman can require.” + </p> + <p> + “Can he possibly think it? And I have to warn you, child, that lawyers are + not so absolving as the world is with some of the ladies Lord Ormont + allows you to call your friends. I have been hearing—it is not mere + airy tales one hears from lawyers about cases in Courts of Law. Tighten + your lips as you like; I say nothing to condemn or reflect on Mrs. + Lawrence Finchley. I have had my eyes a little opened, that is all. Oh, I + know my niece Aminta, when it's a friend to stand by; but our position—thanks + to your inscrutable lord and master—demands of us the utmost + scrupulousness, or it soon becomes a whirl and scandal flying about, and + those lawyers picking up and putting together. I have had a difficulty to + persuade them!... and my own niece! whom I saw married at the British + Embassy in Madrid, as I take good care to tell everybody; for it was my + doing; I am the responsible person! and by an English Protestant + clergyman, to all appearance able to walk erect in and out of any of these + excellent new Life Assurance offices they are starting for the benefit of + widows and orphans, and deceased within six days of the ceremony—if + ceremony one may call the hasty affair in those foreign places. My dear, + the instant I heard it I had a presentiment, 'All has gone well up to + now.' I remember murmuring the words. Then your letter, received in that + smelly Barcelona: Lord Ormont was carrying you off to Granada—a + dream of my infancy! It may not have been his manoeuvre, but it was the + beginning of his manoeuvres.” + </p> + <p> + Aminta shuddered. “And tra-la-la, and castanets, and my Cid! my Cid! and + the Alhambra, the Sierra Nevada, and ay di me, Alhama; and Boabdil el + Chico and el Zagal and Fray Antonio Agapida!” She flung out the rattle, + yawning, with her arms up and her head back, in the posture of a woman + wounded. One of her aunt's chance shots had traversed her breast, flashing + at her the time, the scene, the husband, intensest sunniness on + sword-edges of shade,—and now the wedded riddle; illusion dropping + mask, romance in its anatomy, cold English mist. Ah, what a background is + the present when we have the past to the fore! That filmy past is + diaphanous on heaving ribs. + </p> + <p> + She smiled at the wide-eyed little gossip. “Don't speak of manaoeuvres, + dear aunt. And we'll leave Granada to the poets. I'm tired. Talk of our + own people, on your side and my father's, and as much as you please of the + Pagnell-Pagnells, they refresh me. Do they go on marrying?” + </p> + <p> + “Why, my child, how could they go on without it?” + </p> + <p> + Aminta pressed her hands at her eyelids. “Oh, me!” she sighed, feeling the + tear come with a sting from checked laughter. “But there are marriages, + aunty, that don't go on, though Protestant clergymen officiated. Leave + them unnoticed, I have really nothing to tell.” + </p> + <p> + “You have not heard anything of Lady Eglett?” + </p> + <p> + “Lady Charlotte Eglett? No syllable. Or wait—my lord's secretary was + with her at Olmer; approved by her, I have to suppose.” + </p> + <p> + “There, my dear, I say again I do dread that woman, if she can make a man + like Lord Ormont afraid of her. And no doubt she is of our old + aristocracy. And they tell me she is coarse in her conversation—like + a man. Lawyers tell me she is never happy but in litigation. Years back, I + am given to understand, she did not set so particularly good an example. + Lawyers hear next to everything. I am told she lifted her horsewhip on a + gentleman once, and then put her horse at him and rode him down. You will + say, the sister of your husband. No; not to make my niece a countess, + would I, if I had known the kind of family! Then one asks, Is she half as + much afraid of him? In that case, no wonder they have given up meeting. + Was formerly one of the Keepsake Beauties. Well, Lady Eglett, and Aminta, + Countess of Ormont, will be in that Peerage, as they call it, let her only + have her dues. My dear, I would—if I ever did—swear the woman + is jealous.” + </p> + <p> + “Of me, aunty!” + </p> + <p> + “I say more; I say again, it would be a good thing for somebody if + somebody had his twitch of jealousy. Wives may be too meek. Cases and + cases my poor Alfred read to me, where an ill-behaving man was brought to + his senses by a clever little shuffle of the cards, and by the most + innocent of wives. A kind of poison to him, of course; but there are + poisons that cure. It might come into the courts; and the nearer the + proofs the happier he in withdrawing from his charge and effecting a + reconciliation. Short of guilt, of course. Men are so strange. Imagine + now, if a handsome young woman were known to be admired rather more than + enough by a good-looking gentleman near about her own age. Oh, I've no + patience with, the man for causing us to think and scheme! Only there are + men who won't be set right unless we do. My husband used to say, change is + such a capital thing in life's jogtrot; that men find it refreshing if we + now and then, reverse the order of our pillion-riding for them. A + spiritless woman in a wife is what they bear least of all. Anything + rather. Is Mr. Morsfield haunting Mrs. Lawrence Finchley's house as + usual?” + </p> + <p> + Aminta's cheeks unrolled their deep damask rose at the abrupt intrusion of + the name. “I meet him there.” + </p> + <p> + “Lord Adderwood, Sir John Randeller; and the rest?” + </p> + <p> + “Two or three times a week.” + </p> + <p> + “And the lady, wife of the captain, really a Lady Fair—Mrs.... month + of May: so I have to get at it.” + </p> + <p> + “She may be seen there.” + </p> + <p> + “Really a contrast, when you two are together! As to reputation, there is + an exchange of colours. Those lawyers hold the keys of the great world, + and a naughty world it is, I fear—with exceptions, who are the salt, + but don't taste so much. I can't help enjoying the people at Mrs. Lawrence + Finchley's. I like to feel I can amuse them, as they do me. One puzzles + for what they say—in somebody's absence, I mean. They must take Lord + Ormont for a perfect sphinx; unless they are so silly as to think they may + despise him, or suppose him indifferent. Oh, that upper class! It's a + garden, and we can't help pushing to enter it; and fair flowers, indeed, + but serpents too, like the tropics. It tries us more than anything else in + the world—well, just as good eating tries the constitution. He ought + to know it and feel it, and give his wife all the protection of his name, + instead of—not that he denies: I have brought him to that point; he + cannot deny it with me. But not to present her—to shun the Court; + not to introduce her to his family, to appear ashamed of her! My darling + Aminta, a month of absence for reflection on your legally-wedded husband's + conduct increases my astonishment. For usually men old enough to be the + grandfathers of their wives—” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, pray, aunty, pray, pray!” Aminta cried, and her body writhed. “No + more to-night. You mean well, I am sure. Let us wait. I shall sleep, + perhaps, if I go to bed early. I dare say I am spiritless—not worth + more than I get. I gave him the lead altogether; he keeps it. In + everything else he is kind; I have all the luxuries—enough to loathe + them. Kiss me and say good night.” + </p> + <p> + Aminta made it imperative by rising. Her aunt stood up, kissed, and + exclaimed, “I tell you you are a queenly creature, not to be treated as + any puny trollop of a handmaid. And although he is a great nobleman, he is + not to presume to behave any longer, my dear, as if your family had no + claim on his consideration. My husband, Alfred Pagnell, would have laid + that before him pretty quick. You are the child of the Farrells and the + Solers, both old families; on your father's side you are linked with the + oldest nobility in Europe. It flushes one to think of it! Your + grandmother, marrying Captain Algernon Farrell, was the legitimate + daughter of a Grandee of Spain; as I have told Lord Ormont often, and I + defy him to equal that for a romantic marriage in the annals of his house, + or boast of bluer blood. Again, the Solers—” + </p> + <p> + “We take the Solers for granted, aunty, good night.” + </p> + <p> + “Commoners, if you like; but established since the Conquest. That is, we + trace the pedigree. And to be treated, even by a great nobleman, as if we + were stuff picked up out of the ditch! I declare, there are times when I + sit and think and boil. Is it chivalrous, is it generous—is it, I + say, decent—is it what Alfred would have called a fair fulfilment of + a pact, for your wedded husband—? You may close my mouth! But he + pretends to be chivalrous and generous, and he has won a queen any wealthy + gentleman in England—I know of one, if not two—would be proud + to have beside him in equal state; and what is he to her? He is an + extinguisher. Or is it the very meanest miserliness, that he may keep you + all to himself? There we are again! I say he is an unreadable sphinx.” + </p> + <p> + Aminta had rung the bell for her maid. Mrs. Pagnell could be counted on + for drawing in her tongue when the domestics were near. + </p> + <p> + A languor past delivery in sighs was on the young woman's breast. She + could have heard without a regret that the heart was to cease beating. Had + it been downright misery she would have looked about her with less of her + exanimate glassiness. The unhappy have a form of life: until they are worn + out, they feel keenly. She felt nothing. The blow to her pride of station + and womanhood struck on numbed sensations. She could complain that the + blow was not heavier. + </p> + <p> + A letter lying in her jewel-box called her to read it, for the chance of + some slight stir. The contents were known. The signature of Adolphus + Morsfield had a new meaning for her eyes, and dashed her at her husband in + a spasm of revolt and wrath against the man exposing her to these letters, + which a motion of her hand could turn to blood, and abstention from any + sign maintained in a Satanic whisper, saying, “Here lies one way of + solving the riddle.” It was her husband who drove her to look that way. + </p> + <p> + The look was transient, and the wrath: she could not burn. A small portion + of contempt lodged in her mind to shadow husbands precipitating women on + their armoury for a taste of vengeance. Women can always be revenged—so + speedily, so completely: they have but to dip. Husbands driving wives to + taste their power execrate the creature for her fall deep downward. They + are forgetful of causes. + </p> + <p> + Does it matter? Aminta's languor asked. The letter had not won a reply. + Thought of the briefest of replies was a mountain of effort, and she + moaned at her nervelessness in body and mind. To reply, to reproach the + man, to be flame—an image of herself under the form she desired—gave + her a momentary false energy, wherein the daring of the man, whose life + was at a loss for the writing of this letter, hung lighted. She had + therewith a sharp vision of his features, repellent in correctness, Greek + in lines, with close eyes, hollow temples, pressed lips—a face + indicating the man who can fling himself on a die. She had heard tales of + women and the man. Some had loved him, report said. Here were words to say + that he loved her. They might, poor man, be true. Otherwise she had never + been loved. + </p> + <p> + Memory had of late been paying visits to a droopy plant in the golden + summer drought on a gorgeous mid-sea island, and had taken her on board to + refresh her with voyages, always bearing down full sail on a couple of + blissful schools, abodes of bloom and briny vigour, sweet merriment, + innocent longings, dreams the shyest, dreams the mightiest. At night + before sleep, at morn before rising, often during day, and when vexed or + when dispirited, she had issued her command for the voyage. Sheer + refreshment followed, as is ever the case if our vessel carries no freight + of hopes. There could be no hopes. It was forgotten that they had ever + been seriously alive. But it carried an admiration. Now, an admiration may + endure, and this one had been justified all round. The figure heroical, + the splendid, active youth, hallowed Aminta's past. The past of a bitterly + humiliated Aminta was a garden in the coming kiss of sunset, with that + godlike figure of young manhood to hallow it. There he stayed, perpetually + assuring her of his triumphs to come. + </p> + <p> + She could have no further voyages. Ridicule convulsed her home of refuge. + For the young soldier-hero, to be unhorsed by misfortune, was one thing; + but the meanness of the ambition he had taken in exchange for the thirst + of glory, accused his nature. He so certainly involved her in the + burlesque of the transformation that she had to quench memory. + </p> + <p> + She was, therefore, having smothered a good part of herself, accountably + languid—a condition alternating with fire in Aminta; and as Mr. + Morsfield's letter supplied the absent element, her needy instinct pushed + her to read his letter through. She had not yet done that with attention. + </p> + <p> + Whether a woman loves a man or not, he is her lover if he dare tell her he + loves her, and is heard with attention. Aware that the sentences were + poison, she summoned her constitutional antagonism to the mad step + proposed, so far nullifying the virus as to make her shrink from the + madness. Even then her soul cried out to her husband, Who drives me to + read? or rather, to brood upon what she read. The brooding ensued, was the + thirst of her malady. The best antidote she could hit on was the writer's + face. Yet it expressed him, his fire and his courage—gifts she + respected in him, found wanting in herself. Read by Lord Ormont, this + letter would mean a deadly thing. + </p> + <p> + Aminta did her lord the justice to feel sure of him, that with her name + bearing the superscription, it might be left on her table, and world not + have him to peruse it. If he manoeuvred, it was never basely. Despite + resentment, her deepest heart denied his being indifferent either to her + honour or his own in relation to it. He would vindicate both at a stroke, + for a sign. Nevertheless, he had been behaving cruelly. She charged on him + the guilt of the small preludes, archeries, anglings, veilings, evasions, + all done with the eyelids and the mute of the lips, or a skirmisher word + or a fan's flourish, and which, intended to pique the husband rather than + incite the lover, had led Mrs. Lawrence Finchley to murmur at her ear, in + close assembly, without a distinct designation of Mr. Morsfield, + “Dangerous man to play little games with!” It had brought upon her this + letter of declaration, proposal, entreaty. + </p> + <p> + This letter was the man's life in her hands, and safe, of course. But + surely it was a proof that the man loved her? + </p> + <p> + Aminta was in her five-and-twentieth year; when the woman who is uncertain + of the having been loved, and she reputed beautiful, desirable, is + impelled by a sombre necessity to muse on a declaration, and nibble at an + idea of a test. If “a dangerous man to play little games with,” he could + scarcely be dangerous to a woman having no love for him at all. It meant + merely that he would soon fall to writing letters like this, and he could + not expect an answer to it. But her heart really thanked him, and wished + the poor gentleman to take its dumb response as his reward, for being the + one sole one who had loved her. + </p> + <p> + Aminta dwelt on “the one sole one.” Lord Ormont's treatment had detached + her from any belief in love on his part; and the schoolboy, now ambitions + to become a schoolmaster, was behind the screen unlikely to be lifted + again by a woman valuing her pride of youth, though he had—behold + our deceptions!—the sympathetic face entirely absent from that of + Mr. Adolphus Morsfield, whom the world would count quite as handsome—nay, + it boasted him. He enjoyed the reputation of a killer of ladies. Women + have odd tastes, Aminta thought, and examined the gentleman's handwriting. + It pleased her better. She studied it till the conventional phrases took a + fiery hue, and came at her with an invasive rush. + </p> + <p> + The letter was cast back into the box, locked up; there an end to it, or + no interdiction of sleep. + </p> + <p> + Sleep was a triumph. Aminta's healthy frame rode her over petty agitations + of a blood uninflamed, as lightly as she swam the troubled sea-waters her + body gloried to cleave. She woke in the morning peaceful and mildly + reflective, like one who walks across green meadows. Only by degrees, by + glimpses, was she drawn to remember the trotting, cantering, galloping, + leaping of an active heart during night. We cannot, men or woman, control + the heart in sleep at night. There had been wild leapings. Night will lead + an unsatisfied heart of a woman, by way of sleep, to scale black + mountains, jump jagged chasms. Sleep is a horse that laughs at precipices + and abysses. We bid women, moreover, be all heart. They are to cultivate + their hearts, pay much heed to their hearts. The vast realm of feeling is + open to these appointed keepers of the sanctuary household, who may be + withering virgins, may be childless matrons, may be unhusbanded wives. + Wandering in the vast realm which they are exhorted to call their own, for + the additional attractiveness it gives them, an unsatisfied heart of woman + will somewhat audaciously cross the borderland a single step into the + public road of the vast realm of thinking. Once there, and but a single + step on the road, she is a rebel against man's law for her sex. Nor is it + urgent on her that she should think defiantly in order to feel herself the + rebel. She may think submissively; with a heart (the enlarged, the + scientifically plumped, the pasture of epicurean man), with her coveted + heart in revolt, and from the mere act of thinking at all. + </p> + <p> + Aminta reviewed perforce, dead against her will, certain of the + near-to-happiness ratings over-night. She thinned her lips, and her cheeks + glowed. An arm, on the plea of rescuing, had been round her. The choice + now offered her was, to yield to softness or to think. She took the latter + step, the single step of an unaccustomed foot, which women educated simply + to feet, will, upon extreme impulsion, take; and it held a candle in a + windy darkness. She saw no Justice there. The sensational immensity + touched sublime, short of that spirit of Justice required for the true + sublime. And void of Justice; what a sunless place is any realm! Infants, + the male and the female alike, first begin to know they feel when it is + refused them. When they know they feel, they have begun to reflect. The + void of Justice is a godless region. Women, to whom the solitary thought + has come as a blown candle, illumining the fringes of their storm, ask + themselves whether they are God's creatures or man's. The question deals a + sword-stroke of division between them and their human masters. Young + women, animated by the passions their feeling bosoms of necessity breed, + and under terror discover, do not distinguish an abstract justice from a + concrete. They are of the tribe too long hereditarily enslaved to conceive + an abstract. So it is with them, that their God is the God of the slave, + as it is with all but the bravest of boys. He is a Thing to cry to, a + Punisher, not much of a Supporter—the Biblical Hebrew's right + reading of Nature, favouring man, yet prompt to confound him, and with + woman for the instrument of vengeance. By such a maze the blindfolded, are + brought round to see Justice on earth. If women can only believe in some + soul of justice, they will feel they belong to God—of the two; and + the peril for them then is, that they will set the one incomprehensible + Power in opposition to the other, urging them unsatisfied natures to make + secret appeal away from man and his laws altogether, at the cost of losing + clear sight of the God who shines in thought. It is a manner whereby the + desperately harried among these creatures of the petted heart arrive upon + occasion at an agreeable, almost reposeful, contemplation of the reverse + of God. + </p> + <p> + There is little pleasure to be on the lecture-rostrum for a narrator + sensible to the pulses of his audience. Justice compels at times. In + truth, there are times when the foggy obscurities of the preacher are by + comparison broad daylight beside the whirling loose tissues of a woman + unexplained. Aminta was one born to prize rectitude, to walk on the traced + line uprightly; and while the dark rose overflowed the soft brown of her + cheeks, under musings upon her unlicenced heart's doings overnight, she + not only pleaded for woeful creatures of her sex burdened as she and + erring, she weighed them in the scales with men, and put her heart where + Justice pointed, sending men to kick aloft. + </p> + <p> + Her husband, the man-riddle: she was unable to rede or read him. Her will + could not turn him; nor her tongue combat; nor was it granted her to pique + the mailed veteran. Every poor innocent little bit of an art had been + exhausted. Her title was Lady Ormont her condition actually slave. A + luxuriously established slave, consorting with a singularly enfranchised + set,—as, for instance, Mrs. Lawrence Finchley and Lord Adderwood; + Sir John Randeller and Lady Staines; Mrs. May, Amy May, notorious wife of + a fighting captain, the loneliest of blondes; and other ladies, other + gentlemen, Mr. Morsfield in the list, paired or not yet paired: gossip + raged. Aminta was of a disposition too generously cordial to let her be + the rigorous critic of people with whom she was in touch. But her mind + knew relief when she recollected that her humble little school-mate, + Selina Collect, who had suffered on her behalf in old days, was coming up + to her from the Suffolk coast on a visit for a week. However much a slave + and an unloved woman, she could be a constant and protecting friend. + Besides, Lord Ormont was gracious to little Selina. She thought of his + remarks about the modest-minded girl after first seeing her. From that she + struck upon a notion of reserves of humaneness being in him, if she might + find the path to them: and thence, fortified by the repose her picture of + little Selina's merit had bestowed, she sprang to the idea of valiancy, + that she would woo him to listen to her, without inflicting a scene. He + had been a listening lover, seeming lover, once, later than the Granada + sunsets. The letter in her jewel-box urged Aminta to clear her conscience + by some means, for leaving it unburnt. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VII. EXHIBITS EFFECTS OF A PRATTLER'S DOSES + </h2> + <p> + The rules in Lord Ormont's household assisted to shelter him for some + hours of the day from the lady who was like a blast of sirocco under his + roof. He had his breakfast alone, as Lady Charlotte had it at Olmer; a + dislike of a common table in the morning was a family trait with both. At + ten o'clock the secretary arrived, and they were shut up together. At the + luncheon table Aminta usually presided. If my lord dined at home, he had + by that time established an equanimity rendering, his constant civility to + Mrs. Pagnell less arduous. The presence of a woman of tongue, perpetually + on the spring to gratify him and win him, was among the burdens he bore + for his Aminta. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Pagnell soon perceived that the secretary was in favour. My lord and + this Mr. Weyburn had their pet themes of conversation, upon which the wary + aunt of her niece did not gaze like the wintry sun with the distant smile + her niece displayed over discussions concerning military biographies, + Hannibal's use of his elephants and his Numidian horse, the Little St. + Bernard, modern artillery, ancient slingers, English and Genoese bowmen, + Napoleon's tactics, his command to the troopers to “give point,” and + English officers' neglect of sword exercise, and the “devil of a day” Old + England is to have on a day to come. My lord connected our day of trial + with India. Mrs. Pagnell assumed an air of studious interest; she struck + in to give her niece a lead, that Lord Ormont might know his countess + capable of joining the driest of subjects occupying exalted minds. Aminta + did not follow her; and she was extricated gallantly by the gentlemen in + turn. + </p> + <p> + The secretary behaved with a pretty civility. Aminta shook herself to + think tolerantly of him when he, after listening to the suggestion, put + interrogatively, that we should profit by Hannibal's example and train + elephants to serve as a special army corps for the perfect security of our + priceless Indian Empire, instanced the danger likely to result from their + panic fear of cannon, and forbore to consult Lord Ormont's eye. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Pagnell knew that she had put her foot into it; but women advised of + being fools in what they say, are generally sustained by their sense of + the excellent motive which impelled them. Even to the Countess of Ormont, + she could have replied, “We might have given them a higher idea of us”—if, + that meant, the Countess of Ormont had entered the field beside her, to + the exclusion of a shrinking Aminta. She hinted as much subsequently, and + Aminta's consciousness of the troth was touched. The young schoolmaster's + company sat on her spirits, deadened her vocabulary. Her aunt spoke of + passing the library door and hearing the two gentlemen loudly laughing. It + seemed subserviency on the fallen young hero's part. His tastes were low. + He frequented the haunts of boxing men; her lord informed her of his + having made, or of his making, matches to run or swim or walk certain + distances against competitors or within a given time. He had also half a + dozen boys or more in tow, whom he raced out of town on Sundays; a nucleus + of the school he intended to form. + </p> + <p> + But will not Achilles become by comparison a common rushlight where was a + blazing torch, if we see him clap a clown's cap on the head whose golden + helm was fired by Pallas? + </p> + <p> + Nay, and let him look the hero still: all the more does he point finger on + his meanness of nature. + </p> + <p> + Turning to another, it is another kind of shame that a woman feels, if she + consents to an exchange of letters—shameful indeed, but not such a + feeling of deadly sickness as comes with the humiliating view of an object + of admiration degraded. Bad she may be; and she may be deceived, vilely + treated, in either case. And what is a woman's pride but the staff and + banner of her soul, beyond all gifts? He who wounds it cannot be forgiven—never!—he + has killed the best of her. Aminta found herself sliding along into the + sentiment, that the splendid idol of a girl's worship is, if she discover + him in the lapse of years as an infinitesimally small one, responsible for + the woman's possible reckless fit of giddiness. And she could see her + nonsense; she could not correct it. Lines of the letters under signature + of Adolphus were phosphorescent about her: they would recur; and she + charged their doing so on the discovered meanness of the girl's idol. Her + wicked memory was caused by his having plunged her low. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Pagnell performed the offices of attention to Mr. Weyburn in lieu of + the countess, who seemed to find it a task to sit at the luncheon table + with him, when Lady Ormont was absent. “Just peeped in,” she said as she + entered the library, “to see if all was comfortable;” and gossip ensued, + not devoid of object. She extracted an astonishingly smooth description of + Lady Charlotte. Weyburn was brightness in speaking of the + much-misunderstood lady. “She's one of the living women of the world.” + </p> + <p> + “You are sure you don't mean one of the worldly women?” Mrs. Pagnell + rejoiced. + </p> + <p> + “She has to be known to be liked,” he owned. + </p> + <p> + “And you were, one hears, among the favoured?” + </p> + <p> + “I can scarcely pretend to that, ma'am.” + </p> + <p> + “You were recommended.” + </p> + <p> + “Lady Charlotte is devoted to her brother.” + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Pagnell's bosom heaved. “How strange Lord Ormont is! One would + suppose, with his indignation at the country for its treatment of him, + admirers would be welcome. Oh dear, no! that is not the way. On board the + packet, on our voyage to Spain, my niece in her cabin, imploring mercy of + Neptune, as they say, I heard of Lord Ormont among the passengers. I could + hardly credit my ears. For I had been hearing of him from my niece ever + since her return from a select establishment for the education of young + ladies, not much more than a morning's drive out of London, though Dover + was my residence. She had got a hero! It was Lord Ormont! Lord Ormont! all + day: and when the behaviour of the country to him became notorious, Aminta—my + niece the countess—she could hardly contain herself. A secret:—I + promised her—it's not known to Lord Ormont himself:—a printed + letter in a metropolitan paper, copied into the provincial papers, + upholding him for one of the greatest of our patriot soldiers and the + saviour of India, was the work of her hands. You would, I am sure, think + it really well written. Meeting him on deck—the outline of the coast + of Portugal for an introductory subject, our Peninsular battles and so + forth—I spoke of her enthusiasm. The effect was, to cut off all + communication between us. I had only to appear, Lord Ormont vanished. I + said to myself, this is a character. However, the very mention of him to + my niece, as one of the passengers on board—medicine, miraculous! + She was up in half an hour, out pacing the deck before evening, hardly + leaning on my arm, and the colour positively beginning to show on her + cheeks again. He fled, of coarse. I had prepared her for his + eccentricities. Next morning she was out by herself. In the afternoon Lord + Ormont strode up to us his—military step—and most courteously + requested the honour of an introduction. I had broken the ice at last; + from that moment he was cordiality itself, until—I will not say, + until he had called her his own—a few little misunderstandings!—not + with his countess. You see, a resident aunt is translated mother-in-law by + husbands; though I spare them pretty frequently; I go to friends, they + travel. Here in London she must have a duenna. The marriage at Madrid, at + the Embassy:—well, perhaps it was a step for us, for commoners, + though we rank with the independent. Has her own little pin-money—an + inheritance. Perhaps Lady Eglett gives the world her version. She may say, + there was aiming at station. I reply, never was there a more whole-hearted + love-match! Absolutely the girl's heart has been his from the period of + her school-days. Oh! a little affair—she was persecuted by a boy at + a neighbouring school. Her mistress wrote me word—a very determined + Romeo young gentleman indeed—quite alarmed about him. In the bud! I + carried her off on the spot, and snapped it effectually. Warned he meant + to be desperate, I kept her away from my house at Dover four months, place + to place; and I did well. I heard on my return, that a youth, answering to + the schoolmistress's description of him, had been calling several times, + the first two months and longer. You have me alluding to these little + nonsensical nothings, because she seemed born to create violent + attachments, even at that early day; and Lady Eglett—Lady Charlotte + Eglett may hear; for there is no end to them, and impute them to her, when + really!—can she be made responsible for eyes innocent of the + mischief they appear destined to do? But I am disturbing you in your + work.” + </p> + <p> + “You are very good, ma'am,” said the ghost of the determined young + gentleman. + </p> + <p> + “A slight cold, have you?” Mrs. Pagnell asked solicitously. + </p> + <p> + “Dear me, no!” he gave answer with a cleared throat. + </p> + <p> + In charging him with more than he wanted to carry, she supplied him with + particulars he had wanted to know; and now he asked himself what could be + the gain of any amount of satisfied curiosity regarding a married Aminta. + She slew my lord on board a packet-boat; she bears the arrows that slay. + My lord married her where the first English chaplain was to be found; that + is not wonderful either. British Embassy, Madrid! Weyburn believed the + ceremony to have been performed there: at the same time, he could hear + Lady Charlotte's voice repeating with her varied intonation Mrs. Pagnell's + impressive utterances; and he could imagine how the somewhat silly duenna + aunt, so penetrable in her transparent artifices, struck emphasis on the + incredulity of people inclined to judge of the reported ceremony by Lord + Ormont's behaviour to his captive. + </p> + <p> + How explain that strange matter? But can there be a gain in trying to + sound it? Weyburn shuffled it away. Before the fit of passion seized him, + he could turn his eager mind from anything which had not a perceptible + point of gain, either for bodily strength or mental acquisition, or for + money, too, now that the school was growing palpable as an infant in arms + and agape for the breast. Thought of gain, and the bent to pursue it, is + the shield of Athene over young men in the press of the seductions. He had + to confess his having lost some bits of himself by reason of his + meditations latterly; and that loss, if we let it continue a space, will + show in cramp at the wrist, logs on the legs, a wheezy wind, for any + fellow vowed to physical trials of strength and skill. It will show + likewise in the brain beating broken wings—inability to shoot a + thought up out of the body for half a minute. And, good Lord! how quickly + the tight-strong fellow crumbles, when once the fragmentary disintegration + has begun! Weyburn cried out on a heart that bounded off at prodigal + gallops, and had to be nipped with reminders of the place of good leader + he was for taking among the young. Hang superexcellence! but we know those + moanings over the troubles of a married woman; we know their sources, know + their goal, or else we are the fiction-puppet or the Bedlamite; and she is + a married woman, married at the British Embassy, Madrid, if you please! + after a few weeks' acquaintance with her husband, who doubtless wrote his + name intelligibly in the registrar's book, but does not prove himself much + the hero when he drives a pen, even for so little as the signing of his + name! He signed his name, apparently not more than partly pledging himself + to the bond. Lord Ormont's autobiographical scraps combined with Lady + Charlotte's hints and Mrs. Pagnell's communications, to provoke the + secretary's literary contempt of his behaviour to his wife. However, the + former might be mended, and he resumed the task. + </p> + <p> + It had the restorative effect of touching him to see his old hero in + action; whereby he was brought about to a proper modesty, so that he + really craved no more than for the mistress of this house to breathe the + liberal air of a public acknowledgment of her rightful position. Things + constituted by their buoyancy to float are remarkable for lively bobbings + when they are cast upon the waters; and such was the case with Weyburn, + until the agitation produced by Mrs. Pagnell left him free to sail away in + the society of the steadiest. + </p> + <p> + He decided that by not observing, not thinking, not feeling, about the + circumstances of the household into which Fate had thrown him, he would + best be able—probably it was the one way—to keep himself + together; and his resolution being honest all round, he succeeded in it as + long as he abstained from a very wakeful vigilance over simple eyesight. + For if one is nervously on guard to not-see, the matter starts up winged, + and enters us, and kindles the mind, and tingles through the blood; it has + us as a foe. The art of blind vision requires not only practice, but an + intimate knowledge of the arts of the traitor we carry within. Safest for + him, after all, was to lay fast hold of the particularly unimportant + person he was, both there and anywhere else. The Countess of Ormont's + manner toward him was to be read as a standing index of the course he + should follow; and he thanked her. He could not quite so sincerely thank + her aunt. His ingratitude for the sickly dose she had administered to him + sprang a doubt whether Lady Ormont now thanked her aunt on account of + services performed at the British Embassy, Madrid. + </p> + <p> + Certain looks of those eyes recently, when in colloquy with my lord, + removed the towering nobleman to a shadowed landscape. + </p> + <p> + Was it solely an effect of eyes commanding light, and having every shaft + of the quiver of the rays at her disposal? Or was it a shot from a + powerful individuality issuing out of bondage to some physical oppressor + no longer master of the soul, in peril of the slipping away of the body? + Her look on him was not hate: it was larger, more terribly divine. Those + eyes had elsewhere once looked love: they had planted their object in a + throbbing Eden. The man on whom they had looked shivered over the thought + of it after years of blank division. + </p> + <p> + Rather than have those eyes to look on him their displacing unintentness, + the man on whom they had once looked love would have chosen looks of + wrath, the darts that kill—blest darts of the celestial Huntress, + giving sweet sudden cessation of pain, in the one everlasting last flash + of life with thought that the shot was hers. Oh for the 'ayava behea' of + the Merciful in splendour! + </p> + <p> + These were the outcries of the man deciding simultaneously not to observe, + not to think, not to feel, and husbanding calculations upon storage of + gain for the future. Softness held the song below. It came of the fact + that his enforced resolution, for the sake of sanity, drove his whole + reflective mind backward upon his younger days, when an Evening and a + Morning star in him greeted the bright Goddess Browny or sang adieu, and + adored beyond all golden beams the underworld whither she had sunk, where + she was hidden. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, the worthy dame who had dosed him was out in her carriage, busy + paying visits to distinguished ladies of the great world, with the best of + excuses for an early call, which was gossip to impart, such as the + Countess of Ormont had not yet thought of mentioning; and two or three of + them were rather amusedly interested to hear that Lord Ormont had engaged + a handsome young secretary, “under the patronage of Lady Charlotte Eglett, + devoted to sports of all kinds, immensely favoured by both.” Gossip must + often have been likened to the winged insect bearing pollen to the + flowers; it fertilizes many a vacuous reverie. Those flowers of the upper + garden are not, indeed, stationary and in need of the missionary buzzer, + but if they have been in one place unmoved for one hour, they are open to + take animation from their visitors. Aminta was pleasantly surprised next + day by the receipt of a note from Mrs. Lawrence Finchley, begging to be + invited to lunch if she came, as she had a purpose in the wish to meet my + lord. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + [NOTE: The remainder of 'Lord Ormont and His Aminta' is taken from an + older edition which + </h2> + <p> + uses single rather than double quotation marks. D.W.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VIII. MRS. LAWRENCE FINCHLEY + </h2> + <p> + My lord had one of his wilful likings for Isabella Lawrence Finchley, and + he consented to the torture of an hour of Mrs. Nargett Pagnell in the + middle of the day, just to taste the favourite he welcomed at home as he + championed her abroad. The reasons were numerous and intimate why she + pleased him. He liked the woman, enjoyed the cause for battle that she + gave. Weyburn, on coming to the luncheon table, beheld a lady with the + head of a comely boy, the manner, softened in delicate feminine, of a + capital comrade. Her air of candour was her nature in her face; and it + carried a guileless roguery, a placid daring, a supersensual naughtiness, + a simplicity of repose amid the smoky reputation she created, that led one + to think the vapour calumnious or the creature privileged. That young + boy's look opened him at once; he had not to warm to her,—he flew. + Ordinarily the sweetest ladies will make us pass through cold mist and + cross a stile or two, or a broken bridge, before the formalities are + cleared away to grant us rights of citizenship. She was like those frank + lands where we have not to hand out a passport at the frontier and wait + for dubious inspection of it. + </p> + <p> + She prevailed with cognizant men and with the frivolous. Women were + capable of appreciating her, too: as Aminta did, despite some hinted + qualifications addressed shyly to her husband. But these were the very + matters exciting his particular esteem. He was of Lady Charlotte's mind, + in her hot zeal against injustice done to the creatures she despised; and + yet more than she applauded a woman who took up her idiot husband's + challenge to defend her good name, and cleared it, right or wrong, and + beat him down on his knees, and then started for her spell of the merry + canter over turf: an example to the English of the punishment they get for + their stupid Puritanic tyranny—sure to be followed by a national + helter-skelter down-hill headlong. And Mrs. Lawrence was not one of the + corrupt, he argued; she concealed what it was decent to conceal, without + pouting hypocritical pretences; she had merely dispensed with idle legal + formalities, in the prettiest curvetting airy wanton way, to divorce the + man who tried to divorce her, and 'whined to be forgiven when he found he + couldn't. Adderwood was ready to marry her to-morrow, if the donkey + husband would but go and bray his last. Half a dozen others were heads off + on the same course to that goal.' + </p> + <p> + That was her champion's perusal of a lady candidly asserting her right to + have breeched comrades, and paying for it in the advocacy which + compromises. She was taken to be and she was used as a weapon wherewith to + strike at our Pharisees. Women pushing out into the world for + independence, bleed heavy payments all round. + </p> + <p> + The earl's double-edged defence of her was partly a vindication of another + husband, who allowed his wife to call her friend; he was nevertheless + assured of her not being corrupt, both by his personal knowledge of the + lady, and his perception of her image in the bosom of his wife. She did no + harm there, he knew well. Although he was not a man to put his trust in + faces, as his young secretary inclined to do, Mrs. Lawrence's look of + honest boy did count among the pleadings. And somewhat so might a + government cruiser observe the intrusion of a white-sailed yacht in + protected sea-waters, where licenced trawlers are at the haul. + </p> + <p> + Talk over the table coursed as fluently as might be, with Mrs. Pagnell for + a boulder in the stream. Uninformed by malice, she led up to Lord + Adderwood's name, and perhaps more designedly spoke of Mr. Morsfield, on + whom her profound reading into the female heart of the class above her + caused her to harp, as 'a real Antinous,' that the ladies might discuss + him and Lord Ormont wax meditative. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Lawrence pitied the patient gentleman, while asking him in her mind + who was the author of the domestic burden he had to bear. + </p> + <p> + 'It reminds me I have a mission,' she said. 'There's a fencing match down + at a hall in the West, near the barracks; private and select: Soldier and + Civilian; I forget who challenged—Civilian, one judges; Soldiers are + the peaceful party. They want you to act “umpire,” as they call it, on the + military side, my dear lord; and you will?—I have given my word you + will bring Lady Ormont. You will?—and not let me be confounded! Yes, + and we shall make a party. I see consent. Aminta will enjoy the switch of + steel. I love to see fencing. It rouses all that is diabolical in me.' + </p> + <p> + She sent a skimming look at the opposite. + </p> + <p> + 'And I,' said he, much freshened. + </p> + <p> + 'You fence?' + </p> + <p> + 'Handle the foils.' + </p> + <p> + 'If you must speak modestly! Are you in practice?' + </p> + <p> + 'I spend in hour in Captain Chiallo's fencing rooms generally every + evening before dinner. I heard there the first outlines of the match + proposed. You are right; it was the civilian.' + </p> + <p> + 'Mr. Morsfield, as I suspected.' + </p> + <p> + She smiled to herself, like one saying, Not badly managed, Mr. Morsfield! + </p> + <p> + 'Italian school?' Lord Ormont inquired, with a screw of the eyelids. + </p> + <p> + 'French, my lord.' + </p> + <p> + 'The only school for teaching.' + </p> + <p> + 'The simplest—has the most rational method. Italians are apt to be + tricky. But they were masters once, and now and then they send out a + fencer the French can't touch.' + </p> + <p> + 'How would you account for it?' + </p> + <p> + 'If I had to account for it, I should say, hotter blood, cool nerve, quick + brain.' + </p> + <p> + 'Hum. Where are we, then?' + </p> + <p> + 'We don't shine with the small sword.' + </p> + <p> + 'We had men neatly pinked for their slashings in the Peninsula.' + </p> + <p> + 'We've had clever Irishmen.' + </p> + <p> + 'Hot enough blood! This man Morsfield—have you crossed the foils + with him?' + </p> + <p> + 'Goes at it like a Spaniard; though Spaniards in Paris have been found + wary enough.' + </p> + <p> + My lord hummed. 'Fellow looks as if he would easily lose his head over + steel.' + </p> + <p> + 'He can be dangerous.' + </p> + <p> + The word struck on something, and rang. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Lawrence had a further murmur within her lips. Her travelling eye met + Aminta's and passed it. + </p> + <p> + 'But not dangerous, surely, if the breast is padded?' said Mrs. Pagnell. + </p> + <p> + 'Oh no, oh no; not in that case!' Mrs. Lawrence ran out her voluble + assent, and her eyelids blinked; her fair boy's face was mischief at + school under shadow of the master. + </p> + <p> + She said to Weyburn: 'Are you one in the list—to give our military a + lesson? They want it.' + </p> + <p> + His answer was unheard by Aminta. She gathered from Mrs. Lawrence's + pleased sparkle that he had been invited to stand in the list; and the + strange, the absurd spectacle of a young schoolmaster taking the heroic + attitude for attack and defence wrestled behind her eyes with a suddenly + vivid first-of-May cricketing field, a scene of snowballs flying, the + vision of a strenuous lighted figure scaling to noble young manhood. + Isabella Lawrence's look at him spirited the bright past out of the + wretched long-brown-coat shroud of the present, prompting her to grieve + that some woman's hand had not smoothed a small tuft of hair, disorderly + on his head a little above the left parting, because Isabella Lawrence + Finchley could have no recollection of how it used to toss feathery—wild + at his games. + </p> + <p> + My lord hummed again. 'I suspect we 're going to get a drubbing. This + fellow here has had his French maitre d'armes. Show me your hand, sir.' + </p> + <p> + Weyburn smiled, and extended his right hand, saying: 'The wrist wants + exercise.' + </p> + <p> + 'Ha! square thumb, flesh full at the nails' ends; you were a bowler at + cricket.' + </p> + <p> + 'Now examine the palms, my lord; I judge by the lines on the palms,' Mrs. + Pagnell remarked. + </p> + <p> + He nodded to her and rose. + </p> + <p> + Coffee had not been served, she reminded him; it was coming in, so down he + sat a yard from the table; outwardly equable, inwardly cursing coffee; + though he refused to finish a meal without his cup. + </p> + <p> + 'I think the palms do betray something,' said Mrs. Lawrence; and Aminta + said: 'Everything betrays.' + </p> + <p> + 'No, my dear,' Mrs. Pagnell corrected her; 'the extremities betray, and we + cannot read the centre. Is it not so, my lord?' + </p> + <p> + 'It may be as you say, ma'am.' + </p> + <p> + She was disappointed in her scheme to induce a general examination of + palms, and especially his sphinx lordship's. + </p> + <p> + Weyburn controlled the tongue she so frequently tickled to an elvish + gavotte, but the humour on his face touched Mrs. Lawrence's to a subdued + good-fellow roguishness, and he felt himself invited to chat with her on + the walk for a reposeful ten minutes in Aminta's drawing-room. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Pagnell, 'quite enjoying the company,' as she told her niece, was + dismayed to hear her niece tell her of a milliner's appointment, positive + for three o'clock; and she had written it in her head 'p.m., four + o'clock,' and she had mislaid or destroyed the milliner's note; and she + still had designs upon his lordship's palms, things to read and hint + around her off the lines. She departed. + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont became genial; and there was no one present who did not marvel + that he should continue to decree a state of circumstances more or less + necessitating the infliction he groaned under. He was too lofty to be + questioned, even by his favourites. Mrs. Lawrence conjured the ghost of + Lady Charlotte for an answer: this being Lord Adderwood's idea. Weyburn + let his thoughts go on fermenting. Pride froze a beginning stir in the + bosom of Aminta. + </p> + <p> + Her lord could captivate a reluctant woman's bosom when he was genial. He + melted her and made her call up her bitterest pride to perform its recent + office. That might have failed; but it had support in a second letter + received from the man accounted both by Mrs. Lawrence and by Mr. Weyburn + 'dangerous'; and the thought of who it was that had precipitated her to + 'play little games' for the sole sake of rousing him through jealousy to a + sense of righteous duty, armed her desperately against him. She could + exult in having read the second letter right through on receipt of it, and + in remembering certain phrases; and notably in a reflection shot across + her bewildered brain by one of the dangerous man's queer mad sentences: + 'Be as iron as you like, I will strike you to heat'; and her thought: Is + there assurance of safety in a perpetual defence?—all while she + smiled on her genial lord, and signified agreement, with a smiting of + wonderment at her heart, when he alluded to a panic shout of the country + for defence, and said: 'Much crying of that kind weakens the power to + defend when the real attack comes.' Was it true? + </p> + <p> + 'But say what you propose?' she asked. + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont proposed vigilance and drill; a small degree of self-sacrifice + on the part of the population, and a look-out head in the War Department. + He proposed to have a nation of stout-braced men laughing at the foreign + bully or bandit, instead of being a pack of whimpering women; whom he + likened to the randomly protestant geese of our country roadside, heads + out a yard in a gabble of defence while they go backing. + </p> + <p> + So thereupon Aminta's notion of a resemblance in the mutual thought + subsided; she relapsed on the cushioning sentiment that she was a woman. + And—only a woman! he might exclaim, if it pleased him; though he + would never be able to say she was one of the whimpering. She, too, had + the choice to indulge in scorn of the superior man stone blind to + proceedings intimately affecting him—if he cared! One might doubt + it. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Lawrence listened to him with a mind more disengaged, and a flitting + disapproval of Aminta's unsympathetic ear, or reluctance to stimulate the + devout attention a bruised warrior should have in his tent. She did not + press on him the post of umpire. He consented—at her request, he + said—to visit the show; but refused any official position that + would, it was clearly enough implied, bring his name in any capacity + whatever before the country which had unpardonably maltreated him. + </p> + <p> + Feminine wits will be set working, when a point has been gained; and as + Mrs. Lawrence could now say she had persuaded Lord Ormont to gratify her + specially, she warmed to fancy she read him, and that she might have + managed the wounded and angry giant. Her minor intelligence, caracoling + unhampered by harassing emotions, rebuked Aminta's for not perceiving that + to win him round to whatever a woman may desire, she must be with him, + outstrip him even, along the line he chooses for himself; abuse the + country, rail at the Government, ridicule the title of English Army, + proscribe the name of India in his hearing. Little stings of jealousy are + small insect bites, and do not pique a wounded giant hardly sensible of + irritation under his huge, and as we assume for our purpose, justifiable + wrath. We have to speculate which way does the giant incline to go? and + turn him according to the indication. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Lawrence was driven by her critic mood to think Aminta relied—erroneously, + after woman's old fashion—on the might of superb dark eyes after + having been captured. It seemed to her worse than a beautiful woman's + vanity, a childishness. But her boy's head held boy's brains; and Lord + Ormont's praise of the splendid creature's nerve when she had to smell + powder in Spain, and at bull-fights, and once at a wrecking of their + carriage down a gully on the road over the Alpujarras, sent her away + subdued, envious, happy to have kissed the cheek of the woman who could + inspire it. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IX. A FLASH OF THE BRUISED WARRIOR + </h2> + <p> + The winning of Lord Ormont's consent to look on at the little bout of arms + was counted an achievement; for even in his own rarefied upper circle, + where the fervid sentiments are not allowed to be seen plunging, he had + his troop of enthusiasts; and they were anxious that he should make an + appearance in public, to take what consolation a misunderstood and injured + man could get from evidence of the grateful esteem entertained for him by + a party of his countrymen, who might reasonably expect at the same time to + set eyes, at rather close quarters, on the wonderful dark beauty, supposed + a Spaniard, occasionally beheld riding beside him. If it is possible to + connect a woman with the devoutest of their anticipations, the sons of + leisure up there will do it. But, in truth, an English world was having + cause to ransack the dust-heaps for neglected men of mettle. Our + intermittent ague, known as dread of invasion, was over the land. Twice + down the columns of panic newspaper correspondence Lord Ormont saw his + name cited, with the effect on him that such signs of national repentance + approaching lodged a crabbed sourness in his consulting-room, whether of + head or breast. + </p> + <p> + He was assailed by a gusty appeal from Lady Charlotte, bidding him seize + the moment to proclaim his views while the secretary had a private missive + from her, wherein, between insistency and supplication, she directed him + to bring the subject before my lord every day, and be sure to write out a + fair copy of the epistle previous to the transmission of it. 'Capua' was + mentioned; she brought in 'a siren,' too. Her brother was to be the + soldier again—fling off silken bonds. The world might prate of his + morality; now was the hour for showing his patriotism, casting aside his + just anger, and backing his chief's opinion. 'A good chance to get their + names together.' To her brother she declared that the columns of the + leading journal were open to him—'in large type'; he was to take her + word for it; he had only to 'dictate away,' quite at his ease, just as he + talked at Olmer, and leave the bother of the scribe's business to his + aide. 'Lose no time,' she concluded; 'the country wants your ideas; let us + have your plan.' + </p> + <p> + The earl raised his shoulders, and kept his aide exclusively at the + Memoirs. Weyburn, however, read out to him, with accentuation, foolish + stuff in the recurrent correspondence of the daily sheets, and a + complacent burgess article, meant to be a summary of the controversy and a + recommendation to the country to bask in the sun of its wealth again. + </p> + <p> + 'Ay, be the porker sow it's getting liker and liker to every year!' Lord + Ormont exclaimed, and sprang on his feet. 'Take a pen. Shut up that box. + We'll give 'em digestive biscuits for their weak stomachs. Invasion can't + be done, they say! I tell the doddered asses Napoleon would have been over + if Villeneuve had obeyed him to the letter. Villeneuve had a fit of + paralysis, owing to the prestige of Nelson—that 's as it happened. + And they swear at prestige, won't believe in it, because it's not fat + bacon. I tell them, after Napoleon's first battles, prestige did half his + work for him. It saved him at Essling from a plunge into the Danube; it + saved him at Moskowa; it would have marched him half over England at his + first jump on our shingle beach. But that squelch of fat citizens should + be told—to the devil with them! will they ever learn? short of a + second William!—there were eight-and-forty hours when the liberty of + this country hung wavering in the balance with those Boulogne boats. Now + look at Ulm and Austerlitz. Essling, Wagram; put the victors in those + little affairs to front our awkward squads. The French could boast a + regimental system, and chiefs who held them as the whist-player his hand + of cards. Had we a better general than the Archduke Charles? or cavalry + and artillery equal to the Hungarian? or drilled infantry numbering within + eighty thousand of the Boulogne-Wimereux camps? We had nothing but the raw + material of courage—pluck, and no science. Ask any boxing man what + he thinks of the chances. The French might have sacrificed a fleet to land + fifty thousand. Our fleet was our one chance. Any foreign General at the + head of fifty thousand trained, picked troops would risk it, and cut an + 'entrechat' for joy of the chance. We should have fought and bled and been + marched over—a field of Anglo-Saxon stubble! and Nelson riding the + Channel, undisputed lord of the waters. Heigh! by the Lord, this country + would have been like a man free to rub his skin with his hand and a mortal + disease in his blood. Are you ready? How anticipate a hostile march on the + capital, is our business.' + </p> + <p> + Striding up and down the library, Lord Ormont dropped his wrath to dictate + the practical measures for defence—detesting the cat's-cry + 'defence,' he said; but the foe would bring his old growlers, and we + should have to season our handful of regulars and mob of levies, turn the + mass into troops. With plenty of food, and blows daily, Englishmen soon + get stomachs for the right way to play the game; bowl as well as bat; and + the sooner they give up the idea of shamming sturdy on a stiff hind leg, + the better for their chances. Only, it's a beastly thing to see that for + their favourite attitude;—like some dog of a fellow weak in the + fists, weaker in the midriff, at a fair, who cries, Come on, and prays his + gods you won't. All for peace, the rascal boasts himself, and he beats his + wife and kicks his curs at home. Is there any one to help him now, he + vomits gold and honours on the man he yesterday treated as a felon. Ha! + </p> + <p> + Bull the bumpkin disposed of, my lord drew leisurely back from the + foeman's landing-place, at the head of a body of serious Englishmen; + teaching them to be manageable as chess-pieces, ready as bow-strings to + let fly. Weyburn rejoiced to find himself transcribing crisp sentences, + hard on the matter, without garnish of scorn. Kent, Sussex, Surrey, all + the southern heights about London, round away to the south-western of the + Hampshire heathland, were accurately mapped in the old warrior's brain. He + knew his points of vantage by name; there were no references to gazetteer + or atlas. A chain of forts and earthworks enables us to choose our ground, + not for clinging to them, but for choice of time and place to give battle. + If we have not been playing double-dyed traitor to ourselves, we have a + preponderating field artillery; our yeomanry and volunteer horsemen are + becoming a serviceable cavalry arm; our infantry prove that their + heterogeneous composition can be welded to a handy mass, and can stand + fire and return it, and not be beaten by an acknowledged defeat. + </p> + <p> + 'That's English! yes, that's English! when they're at it,' my lord sang + out. + </p> + <p> + 'To know how to take a licking, that wins in the end,' cried Weyburn; his + former enthusiasm for the hero mounting, enlightened by a reminiscence of + the precept he had hammered on the boys at Cuper's. + </p> + <p> + 'They fall well. Yes, the English fall like men,' said my lord, pardoning + and embracing the cuffed nation. 'Bodies knocked over, hearts upright. + That's example; we breed Ironsides out of a sight like that. If it weren't + for a cursed feeble Government scraping 'conges' to the taxpayer—well, + so many of our good fellows would not have to fall. That I say; for this + thing is going to happen some day, mind you, sir! And I don't want to have + puncheons and hogsheads of our English blood poured out merely to water + the soil of a conquered country because English Governments are a craven + lot, not daring risk of office by offending the taxpayer. But, on!' + </p> + <p> + Weyburn sent Lady Charlotte glowing words of the composition in progress. + </p> + <p> + They worked through a day, and a second day—talked of nothing else + in the intervals. Explanatory answers were vouchsafed to Aminta's modest + inquiries at Finch, as she pictured scenes of smoke, dust and blood from + the overpowering plain masculine lines they drew, terrible in bluntness. + The third morning Lord Ormont had map and book to verify distances and + attempt a scale of heights, take names of estates, farms, parishes, + commons, patches of woodland. Weyburn wrote his fair copy on folio paper, + seven-and-thirty pages. He read it aloud to the author on the afternoon of + the fourth day, with the satisfaction in his voice that he felt. My lord + listened and nodded. The plan for the defence of England's heart was a + good plan. + </p> + <p> + He signed to have the manuscript handed to him. A fortified London secure + of the Thames for abundant supplies, well able to breathe within + earthworks extending along the southern hills, was clearly shown to stand + the loss of two big battles on the Sussex weald or more East to + North-east, if fortune willed it. + </p> + <p> + He rose from his chair, paced some steps, with bent head, came back + thoughtfully, lifted the manuscript sheets for another examination. Then + he stooped to the fire, spreading the edges unevenly, so that they caught + flame. Weyburn spied at him. It was to all appearance the doing of a man + who had intended it and brought it to the predetermined conclusion. + </p> + <p> + 'About time for you to be off for your turn at Chiallo's,' our country's + defender remarked, after tossing the last half-burnt lump under the grate + and shovelling at it. + </p> + <p> + 'I will go, my lord,' said Weyburn—and he was glad to go. + </p> + <p> + He went, calculated his term of service under Lord Ormont. He was young, + not a philosopher. Waste of anything was abhorrent to a nature pointed at + store of daily gain, if it were only the gain in a new or a freshened + idea; and time lost, work lost, good counsel to the nation lost, + represented horrid vacuity to him, and called up the counter demonstration + of a dance down the halls of madness, for proof that we should, at least, + have jolly motion of limbs there before Perdition struck the great gong. + Ay, and we should be twirling with a fair form on the arm: woman and man; + as it ought to be; twirling downward, true, but together. Such a + companionship has a wisdom to raise it above the title of madness. Name + it, heartily, pleasure; and in contempt of the moralist burgess, praise + the dance of a woman and the man together high over a curmudgeonly humping + solitariness, that won't forgive an injury, nurses rancour, smacks itself + in the face, because it can't—to use the old schoolboy words—take + a licking! + </p> + <p> + These were the huddled, drunken sensations and thoughts entertained by + Weyburn, without his reflecting on the detachment from his old hero, of + which they were the sign. He criticized impulsively, and fancied he did no + more, and was not doing much though, in fact, criticism is the end of + worship; the Brutus blow at that Imperial but mortal bosom. + </p> + <p> + The person criticized was manifest. Who was the woman he twirled with? She + was unfeatured, undistinguished, one of the sex, or all the sex: the sex + to be shunned as our deadly sapper of gain, unless we find the chosen one + to super-terrestrialize it and us, and trebly outdo our gift of our whole + self for her. + </p> + <p> + She was indistinguishable, absolutely unknown; yet she murmured, or seemed + to murmur—for there was no sound—a complaint of Lord Ormont. + And she, or some soundless mouth of woman, said he was a splendid military + hero, a chivalrous man, a man of inflexible honour; but had no + understanding of how to treat a woman, or belief in her having equal life + with him on earth. + </p> + <p> + She was put aside rather petulantly, and she took her seat out of the + whirl with submission. Thinking she certainly was not Browny, whom he + would have known among a million, he tried to quit the hall, and he + twirled afresh, necessarily not alone; it is the unpardonable offence both + to the Graces and the Great Mother for man to valse alone. She twirled on + his arm, uninvited; accepted, as in the course of nature; hugged, under + dictate of the nature of the man steeled against her by the counting of + gain, and going now at desperation's pace, by very means of those + defensive locked steam-valves meant to preserve him from this madness,—for + the words of the red-lipped mate, where there were no words, went through + him like a music when the bow is over the viol, sweeping imagination, and + they said her life was wasting. + </p> + <p> + Was not she a priceless manuscript cast to the flames? Her lord had been + at some trouble to win her. Or his great fame and his shadowed fortunes + had won her. He took her for his own, and he would not call her his own. + He comported himself with absolute, with kindly deference to the lady + whose more than vital spark he let the gossips puff at and blur. He + praised her courage, visibly admired her person, admitted her in private + to be his equal, degraded her in public. Could anything account for the + behaviour of so manly and noble a gentleman?—Rhetoric made the + attempt, and Weyburn gave up the windy business. + </p> + <p> + Discovering that his fair partner of the wasting life was—he + struggled to quench the revelation—Aminta, he stopped the dance. If + there was no gain in whirling fancifully with one of the sex, a spin of a + minute with her was downright bankruptcy. + </p> + <p> + He was young, full of blood; his heart led him away from the door Lord + Ormont had exposed; at which a little patient unemotional watchfulness + might have intimated to him something besides the simple source of the old + hero's complex chapter of conduct. As it was, Weyburn did see the rancour + of a raw wound in operation. But he moralized and disapproved; telling + himself, truly enough, that so it would not have been with him; instead of + sounding at my lord's character, and his condition of the unjustly + neglected great soldier, for the purpose of asking how that raw wound + would affect an injured veteran, who compressed, almost repressed, the + roar of Achilles, though his military bright name was to him his Briseis. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER X. A SHORT PASSAGE IN THE GAME PLAYED BY TWO + </h2> + <p> + Politest of men in the domestic circle and everywhere among women, Lord + Ormont was annoyed to find himself often gruffish behind the tie of his + cravat. Indeed, the temper of our eminently serene will feel the strain of + a doldrum-dulness that is goaded to activity by a nettle. The forbearance + he carried farther than most could do was tempted to kick, under pressure + of Mrs. Nargett Pagnell. Without much blaming Aminta, on whose behalf he + submitted to it, and whose resolution to fix in England had brought it to + this crisis, he magnanimously proposed to the Fair Enemy he forced her to + be, and liked to picture her as being, a month in Paris. + </p> + <p> + Aminta declined it for herself; after six or more years of travelling, she + wished to settle, and know her country, she said: a repetition remark, + wide of the point, and indicatory to the game of Pull she was again + playing beneath her smooth visage, unaware that she had the wariest of + partners at the game. + </p> + <p> + 'But go you—do, I beg,' she entreated. 'It will give you new + impressions; and I cannot bear to tie you down here.' + </p> + <p> + 'How you can consent to be tied down here, is the wonder to me!' said he. + 'When we travelled through the year, just visited England and were off + again, we were driving on our own road. Vienna in April and May—what + do you say? You like the reviews there, and the dances, concerts, Zigeuner + bands, military Bohemian bands. Or Egypt to-morrow, if you like—though + you can't be permitted to swim in the Nile, as you wanted. Come, Xarifa, + speak it. I go to exile without you. Say you come.' + </p> + <p> + She smiled firmly. The name of her honeymoon days was not a cajolery to + her. + </p> + <p> + His name had been that of the Christian Romancero Knight Durandarte, and + she gave it to him, to be on the proper level with him, while she still + declined. + </p> + <p> + 'Well, but just a month in Paris! There's nothing doing here. And we both + like the French theatre.' + </p> + <p> + 'London will soon be filling.' + </p> + <p> + 'Well, but—' He stopped; for the filling of London did really + concern her, in the game of Pull she was covertly playing with him. 'You + seem to have caught the fever of this London;... no bands.... no reviews + .... Low comedy acting.' He muttered his objections to London. + </p> + <p> + 'The society of people speaking one's own tongue, add that,' she ventured + to say. + </p> + <p> + 'You know you are ten times more Spanish than English. Moorish, if you + like.' + </p> + <p> + 'The slave of the gallant Christian Knight, converted, baptized, and + blissful. Oh, I know. But now we are settled in England, I have a wish to + study English society.' + </p> + <p> + 'Disappointing, I assure you;—dinners heavy, dancing boorish, + intrigue a blind-man's-buff. We've been over it all before!' + </p> + <p> + 'We have.' + </p> + <p> + 'Admired, I dare say. You won't be understood.' + </p> + <p> + 'I like my countrymen.' + </p> + <p> + 'The women have good looks—of the ungarnished kind. The men are + louts.' + </p> + <p> + 'They are brave.' + </p> + <p> + 'You're to see their fencing. You'll own a little goes a long way.' + </p> + <p> + 'I think it will amuse me.' + </p> + <p> + 'So I thought when I gave the nod to Isabella your friend.' + </p> + <p> + 'You like her?' + </p> + <p> + 'You, too.' + </p> + <p> + 'One fancies she would make an encouraging second in a duel.' + </p> + <p> + 'I will remember... when I call you out.' + </p> + <p> + 'Oh, my dear lord, you have dozens to choose from leave me my one if we + are to enter the lists.' + </p> + <p> + 'We are, it seems; unless you consent to take the run to Paris. You are to + say Tom or Rowsley.' + </p> + <p> + 'The former, I can never feel at home in saying; Rowsley is Lady + Charlotte's name for you.' + </p> + <p> + The name of Lady Charlotte was an invitation to the conflict between them. + He passed it, and said 'Durandarte runs a mile on the mouth, and the + Coriolanus of their newspapers helps a stage-player to make lantern jaws. + Neither of them comes well from the lips of my girl. After seven years she + should have hit on a nickname, of none of the Christian suit. I am not “at + home” either with “my lord.” However, you send me off to Paris alone; and + you'll be alone and dull here in this London. Incomprehensible to me why!' + </p> + <p> + 'We are both wondering?' said Aminta. + </p> + <p> + 'You 're handsomer than when I met you first—by heaven you are!' + </p> + <p> + She flushed her dark brown-red late-sunset. 'Brunes are exceptional in + England.' + </p> + <p> + 'Thousands admiring you, of course! I know, my love, I have a jewel.' + </p> + <p> + She asked him: 'What are jewels for?' and he replied, 'To excite + cupidity.' + </p> + <p> + 'When they 're shut in a box?' + </p> + <p> + 'Ware burglars! But this one is not shut up. She shuts herself up. And up + go her shoulders! Decide to be out of it, and come to Paris for some life + for a month. No? It's positive? When do you expect your little school + friend?' + </p> + <p> + 'After Easter. Aunt will be away.' + </p> + <p> + 'Your little friend likes the country. I'll go to my house agents. If + there 's a country house open on the upper Thames, you can have swimming, + boating, botanizing...' + </p> + <p> + He saw her throat swallow. But as he was offering agreeable things he + chose to not understand how he was to be compassionate. + </p> + <p> + 'Steignton?' she said, and did her cause no good by saying it feebly. + </p> + <p> + His look of a bygone awake-in-sleep old look, drearily known to her, was + like a strip of sunlight on a fortress wall. It signified, Is the poor + soul pushing me back to that again? + </p> + <p> + She compelled herself to say: 'Your tenant there?' + </p> + <p> + 'Matter of business... me and my tenant,' he remarked. 'The man pays + punctually.' + </p> + <p> + 'The lease has expired.' + </p> + <p> + 'Not quite. You are misinformed.' + </p> + <p> + 'At Easter.' + </p> + <p> + 'Ah! Question of renewing.' + </p> + <p> + 'You were fond of the place.' + </p> + <p> + 'I was fond of the place? Thank Blazes, I'm not what I was!' He paced + about. 'There's not a corner of the place that doesn't screw an eye at me, + because I had a dream there. La gloire!' + </p> + <p> + The rest he muttered. 'These English!' was heard. Aminta said: 'Am I never + to see Steignton?' + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont invoked the Powers. He could not really give answer to this + female talk of the eternities. + </p> + <p> + 'Beaten I can never be,' he said, with instinctive indulgence to the + greater creature. 'But down there at Steignton, I should be haunted by a + young donkey swearing himself the fellow I grew up out of. No doubt of + that. I don't like him the better for it. Steignton grimaces at a cavalry + officer fool enough at his own risks and penalties to help save India for + the English. Maunderers! You can't tell—they don't know themselves—what + they mean. Except that they 're ready to take anything you hand 'em, and + then pipe to your swinging. I served them well—and at my age, in + full activity, they condemn me to sit and gape!' + </p> + <p> + He stopped his pacing and gazed on the glass of the window. + </p> + <p> + 'Would you wish me not to be present at this fencing?' said Aminta. + </p> + <p> + 'Dear me! by all means, go, my love,' he replied. + </p> + <p> + Any step his Fair Enemy won in the secret game Pull between them, she was + undisputedly to keep. + </p> + <p> + She suggested: 'It might lead to unpleasantness.' + </p> + <p> + 'Of what sort?' + </p> + <p> + 'You ask?' + </p> + <p> + He emphasized: 'Have you forgotten? Something happened after that last + ball at Challis's Rooms. Their women as well as their men must be careful + not to cross me.' + </p> + <p> + Aminta had confused notions of her being planted in hostile territory, and + torn and knitted, trumpeted to the world as mended, but not honourably + mended in a way to stop corridor scandal. The ball at Challis's Rooms had + been one of her steps won: it had necessitated a requirement for the lion + in her lord to exhibit himself, and she had gained nothing with Society by + the step, owing to her poor performance of the lion's mate. She had, in + other words, shunned the countenance of some scattered people pityingly + ready to support her against the deadly passive party known to be Lady + Charlotte's. + </p> + <p> + She let her lord go; thinking that once more had she striven and gained + nothing: which was true of all their direct engagements. And she had + failed because of her being only a woman! Mr. Morsfield was foolishly + wrong in declaring that she, as a woman, had reserves of strength. He was + perhaps of Lady Charlotte's mind with regard to the existence of a + Countess of Ormont, or he would know her to be incredibly cowardly. + Cowardly under the boast of pride, too; well, then, say, if you like, a + woman! + </p> + <p> + Yet this mere shallow woman would not hesitate to meet the terrible Lady + Charlotte at any instant, on any terms: and what are we to think of a + soldier, hero, lion, dreading to tell her to her face that the persecuted + woman is his wife! + </p> + <p> + 'Am I a woman they can be ashamed of?' she asked, and did not seek the + answer at her mirror. She was in her bedroom, and she put out a hand to + her jewel-box, fingered it, found it locked, and abandoned her idle + project. A gentleman was 'dangerous.' She had not found him so. He had the + reputation, perhaps, because he was earnest. Not so very many men are + earnest. She called to recollection how ludicrously practical he was in + the thick of his passion. His third letter (addressed to the Countess of + Ormont—whom he manifestly did not or would not take to be the + veritable Countess—and there was much to plead for his error), or + was it his fourth?—the letters were a tropical hail-storm: third or + fourth, he broke off a streaked thunderpeal, to capitulate his worldly + possessions, give the names and degrees of kinship of his relatives, the + exact amount of the rent-roll of his Yorkshire estates, of his funded + property. + </p> + <p> + Silly man! but not contemptible. He proposed everything in honour, from + his view of it. + </p> + <p> + Whether in his third, fourth, or fifth letter.... How many had come? She + drew the key from her purse, and opened a drawer. The key of the jewel-box + was applied to the lock. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Morsfield had sent her six flaming letters. He not only took no + precautions, he boasted that he hailed the consequences of discovery. Six! + </p> + <p> + She lifted a pen: it had to be done. + </p> + <p> + He was briefly informed that he disturbed her peace. She begged he would + abstain from any further writing to her. + </p> + <p> + The severity was in the brevity. The contrast of her style and his + appeared harsh. But it belonged to the position. + </p> + <p> + Having with one dash of the pen scribbled her three lines, she slipped the + letter into her pocket. That was done, and it had to be done; it ought to + have been done before. How simple it was when one contemplated it as + actually done! Aminta made the motion of a hand along the paper, just a + flourish. Soon after, her head dropped back on the chair, and her eyes + shut, she took in breath through parted lips. The brief lines of writing + had cut away a lump of her vitality. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XI. THE SECRETARY TAKEN AS AN ANTIDOTE + </h2> + <p> + Dusty wayfarers along a white high-road who know of a bubbling little + spring across a stile, on the woodland borders of deep grass, are hailed + to sit aside it awhile: and Aminta's feverishness was cooled by now and + then a quiet conversation with the secretary ambitious to become a + school-master. Lady Charlotte liked him, so did her lord; Mrs. Lawrence + had chatted with him freshly, as it was refreshing to recollect; nobody + thought him a stunted growth. + </p> + <p> + In Aminta's realized recollections, amid the existing troubles of her + mind, the charge against him grew paler, and she could no longer quite + think that the young hero transformed into a Mr. Cuper had deceived her, + though he had done it—much as if she had assisted at the planting + and watched aforetime the promise of a noble tree, to find it, after an + interval of years, pollarded—a short trunk shooting out a shock of + small, slim, stiff branches; dwarfed and disgraced; serviceable perhaps; + not ludicrous or ugly, certainly, taking it for a pollard. And he was a + cool well-spring to talk with. He, supposed once to be a passionate + nature, scorned passion as a madness; he smiled in his merciful + executioner's way at the high society, of which her aim was to pass for + one among the butterflies or dragonflies; he had lost his patriotism; he + labelled our English classes the skimmers, the gorgers, the grubbers, and + stigmatized them with a friendly air; and uttered words of tolerance only + for farmers and surgeons and schoolmasters. But that was quite incidental + in the humorous run of his talk, diverting to hear while it lasted. He + had, of course, a right to his ideas. + </p> + <p> + No longer concerned in contesting them, she drank at the water of this + plain earth-well, and hoped she preferred it to fiery draughts, though it + was flattish, or, say, flavourless. In the other there was excess of + flavour—or, no, spice it had to be called. The young schoolmaster's + world seemed a sunless place, the world of traders bargaining for gain, + without a glimmer of the rich generosity to venture life, give it, dare + all for native land—or for the one beloved. Love pressed its claim + on heroical generosity, and instantly it suffused her, as an earth under + flush of sky. The one beloved! She had not known love; she was in her + five-and-twentieth year, and love was not only unknown to her, it was shut + away from her by the lock of a key that opened on no estimable worldly + advantage in exchange, but opened on a dreary, clouded round, such as she + had used to fancy it must be to the beautiful creamy circus-horse of the + tossing mane and flowing tail and superb step. She was admired; she was + just as much doomed to a round of paces, denied the glorious fling afield, + her nature's food. Hitherto she would have been shamefaced as a boy in + forming the word 'love': now, believing it denied to her for good and all—for + ever and ever—her bosom held and uttered the word. She saw the word, + the nothing but the word that it was, and she envisaged it, for the + purpose of saying adieu to it—good-bye even to the poor empty word. + </p> + <p> + This condition was attributable to a gentleman's wild rageing with the + word, into which he had not infused the mystic spirit. He poured hot wine + and spiced. If not the spirit of love, it was really the passion of the + man. Her tremors now and again in the reading of his later letters + humiliated her, in the knowledge that they came of no response to him, but + from the temporary base acquiescence; which is, with women, a terrible + perception of the gulf of their unsatisfied nature. + </p> + <p> + The secretary, cheerful at his work, was found for just the opening of a + door. Sometimes she hesitated—to disturb him, she said to herself,—and + went up-stairs or out visiting. He protested that he could work on and + talk too. She was able to amuse her lord with some of his ideas. He had a + stock of them, all his own. + </p> + <p> + Ideas, new-born and naked original ideas, are acceptable at no time to the + humanity they visit to help uplift, it from the state of beast. In the + England of that, period original or unknown ideas were a smoking brimstone + to the nose, dread Arabian afrites, invisible in the air, jumping out of + vases, armed for the slaughter of the venerable and the cherished, the + ivy-clad and celestially haloed. They carried the dishevelled Maenad's + torch. A step with them, and we were on the Phlegethon waters of the + French Revolution. For a publication of simple ideas men were seized, + tried at law, mulcted, imprisoned, and not pardoned after the term of + punishment; their names were branded: the horned elect butted at them; he + who alluded to them offered them up, wittingly or not, to be damned in the + nose of the public for an execrable brimstone stench. + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont broke through his shouts or grunts at Aminta's report of the + secretary's ideas on various topics, particularly the proposal that the + lords of the land should head the land in a revolutionary effort to make + law of his crazy, top-heavy notions, with a self-satisfied ejaculation: + 'He has not favoured me with any of these puffballs of his.' + </p> + <p> + The deduction was, that the author sagaciously considered them adapted for + the ear of a woman; they were womanish—i.e. flighty, gossamer. To + the host of males, all ideas are female until they are made facts. + </p> + <p> + This idea, proposing it to our aristocracy to take up his other ideas, or + reject them on pain of the forfeiture of their caste and headship with the + generations to follow, and a total displacing of them in history by + certain notorious, frowzy, scrubby pamphleteers and publishers, Lord + Ormont thought amazingly comical. English nobles heading the weavers, + cobblers, and barbers of England! He laughed, but he said, 'Charlotte + would listen to that.' + </p> + <p> + The dread, high-sitting Lady Charlotte was, in his lofty thinking, a + woman, and would therefore listen to nonsense, if it happened to strike a + particular set of bells hanging in her cranium. She patronized blasphemous + and traitorous law-breakers, just to keep up the pluck of the people, not + with a notion of maintaining our English aristocracy eminent in history. + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte, however, would be the foremost to swoop down on the + secretary's ideas about the education of women. + </p> + <p> + On that subject, Aminta said she did not know what to think. + </p> + <p> + Now, if a man states the matter he thinks, and a woman does but listen, + whether inclining to agree or not, a perceptible stamp is left on soft + wax. Lord Ormont told her so, with cavalier kindness. + </p> + <p> + She confessed 'she did not know what to think,' when the secretary + proposed the education and collocation of boys and girls in one group, + never separated, declaring it the only way for them to learn to know and + to respect one another. They were to learn together, play together, have + matches together, as a scheme for stopping the mischief between them. + </p> + <p> + 'But, my dear girl, don't you see, the devilry was intended by Nature. + Life would be the coldest of dishes without it.' And as for mixing the + breeched and petticoated in those young days—'I can't enter into + it,' my lord considerately said. 'All I can tell you is, I know boys.' + </p> + <p> + Aminta persisted in looking thoughtful. 'Things are bad, as they are now,' + she said. + </p> + <p> + 'Always were—always will be. They were intended to be, if we are to + call them bad. Botched mendings will only make them worse.' + </p> + <p> + 'Which side suffers?' + </p> + <p> + 'Both; and both like it. One side must be beaten at any game. It's off and + on, pretty equal—except in the sets where one side wears thick + boots. Is this fellow for starting a mixed sexes school? Funny mothers!' + </p> + <p> + 'I suppose—' Aminta said, and checked the supposition. 'The mothers + would not leave their girls unless they were confident...?' + </p> + <p> + 'There's to be a female head of the female department? He reckons on + finding a woman as big a fool as himself? A fair bit of reckoning enough. + He's clever at the pen. He doesn't bother me with his ideas; now and then + I 've caught a sound of his bee buzzing.' + </p> + <p> + The secretary was left undisturbed at his labours for several days. + </p> + <p> + He would have been gladdened by a brighter look of her eyes at her next + coming. They were introspective and beamless. She had an odd leaning to + the talk upon Cuper's boys. He was puzzled by what he might have classed, + in any other woman, as a want of delicacy, when she recurred to incidents + which were red patches of the school time, and had clearly lost their glow + for her. + </p> + <p> + A letter once written by him, in his early days at Cuper's, addressed to + J. Masner, containing a provocation to fight with any weapons, and signed, + 'Your Antagonist,' had been read out to the whole school, under strong + denunciation of the immorality, the unchristian-like conduct of the + writer, by Mr. Cuper; creating a sensation that had travelled to Miss + Vincent's establishment, where some of the naughtiest of the girls had + taken part with the audacious challenger, dreadful though the + contemplation of a possible duel so close to them was. And then the girls + heard that the anonymous 'Your Antagonist,' on being cited to proclaim + himself in public assembly of school-mates and masters, had jumped on his + legs and into the name of—one who was previously thought by Miss + Vincent's good girls incapable of the 'appalling wickedness,' as Mr. Cuper + called it, of signing 'Your Antagonist' to a Christian school-fellow, + having the design to provoke a breach of the law of the land and shed + Christian blood. Mr. Cuper delivered an impressive sermon from his desk to + the standing up boarders and day-scholars alike, vilifying the infidel + Greek word 'antagonist.' + </p> + <p> + 'Do you remember the offender's name?' the Countess of Ormont said; and + Weyburn said— + </p> + <p> + 'Oh yes, I 've not forgotten the incident.' + </p> + <p> + Her eyes, wherein the dead time hung just above the underlids, lingered, + as with the wish for him to name the name. + </p> + <p> + She said: 'I am curious to hear how you would treat a case of that sort. + Would you preach to the boys? + </p> + <p> + 'Ten words at most. The right assumption is that both fellows were to + blame. I fancy the proper way would be to appeal to the naughty girls for + their opinion as to how the dispute should be decided.' + </p> + <p> + 'You impose too much on them. And you are not speaking seriously.' + </p> + <p> + 'Pardon me, I am. I should throw myself into the mind of a naughty girl—supposing + none of these at hand—and I should let it be known that my eyes were + shut to proceedings, always provided the weapons were not such as would + cause a shock of alarm in female bosoms.' + </p> + <p> + 'You would at your school allow it to be fought out?' + </p> + <p> + 'Judging by the characters of the boys. If they had heads to understand, I + would try them at their heads. Otherwise they are the better, they come + round quicker to good blood, at their age—I speak of English boys—for + a little hostile exercise of their fists. Well, for one thing, it teaches + them the value of sparring.' + </p> + <p> + 'I must imagine I am not one of the naughty sisterhood,—for I cannot + think I should ever give consent to fighting of any description, unless + for the very best of reasons,' said the countess. + </p> + <p> + His eyes were at the trick of the quarter-minute's poising. Her lids + fluttered. 'Oh, I don't mean to say I was one of the good,' she added. + </p> + <p> + At the same time her enlivened memory made her conscious of a warning, + that she might, as any woman might, so talk on of past days as to take, + rather more than was required of the antidote she had come for. + </p> + <p> + The antidote was excellent; cooling, fortifying; 'quite a chalybeate,' her + aunt would say, and she was thankful. Her heart rose on a quiet wave of + the thanks, and pitched down to a depth of uncounted fathoms. Aminta was + unable to tell herself why. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Lawrence Finchley had been announced. On her way to the drawing room + Aminta's brain fell upon a series of dots, that wound along a track to the + point where she accused herself of a repented coquettry—cause of the + burning letters she was doomed to receive and could not stop without + rousing her lion. She dotted backwards; there was no sign that she had + been guilty of any weakness other than the almost—at least, in + design—innocent first move, which had failed to touch Lord Ormont in + the smallest degree. Never failure more absolute! + </p> + <p> + She was about to inquire of her bosom's oracle whether she greatly cared + now. For an answer, her brain went dotting along from Mr. Cuper's school, + and a boy named Abner there, and a boy named Matey Weyburn, who protected + the little Jew-boy, up to Mr. Abner in London, who recommended him in due + season to various acquaintances; among them to Lady Charlotte Eglett. + Hence the introduction to Lord Ormont. How little extraordinary + circumstances are, if only we trace them to the source! + </p> + <p> + But if only it had appeared marvellous, the throbbing woman might have + seized on it, as a thing fateful, an intervention distinctly designed to + waken the best in her, which was, after all, the strongest. Yea, she could + hope and pray and believe it was the strongest. + </p> + <p> + She was listening to Isabella Lawrence Finchley, wishing she might have + followed to some end the above line of her meditations. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Lawrence was changed, much warmer, pressing to be more than merely + friendly. Aminta twice gave her cheek for kisses. The secretary had spoken + of Mrs. Lawrence as having the look of a handsome boy; and Aminta's view + of her now underwent a change likewise. Compunction, together with a + sisterly taste for the boyish fair one flying her sail independently, and + gallantly braving the winds, induced her to kiss in return. + </p> + <p> + 'You do like me a morsel?' said Mrs. Lawrence. 'I fell in love with you + the last time I was here. I came to see Mr. Secretary—it's avowed; + and I have been thinking of you ever since, of no one else. Oh yes, for a + man; but you caught me. I've been hearing of him from Captain May. They + fence at those rooms. And it 's funny, Mr. Morsfield practises there, you + know; and there was a time when the lovely innocent Amy, Queen of Blondes, + held the seat of the Queen of Brunes. Ah, my dear, the infidelity of men + doesn't count. They are affected by the changeing moons. As long as the + captain is civil to him, we may be sure beautiful Amy has not complained. + Her husband is the pistol she carries in her pocket, and she has fired him + twice, with effect. Through love of you I have learnt the different + opinion the world of the good has of her and of me; I thought we ran under + a common brand. There are gradations. I went to throw myself at the feet + of my great-aunt; good old great-aunt Lady de Culme, who is a power in the + land. I let her suppose I came for myself, and she reproached me with Lord + Adder. I confessed to him and ten others. She is a dear, she's ticklish, + and at eighty-four she laughed! She looked into my eyes and saw a field + with never a man in it—just the shadow of a man. She admitted the + ten cancelled the one, and exactly named to me, by comparison with the + erring Amy, the sinner I am and must be, if I 'm to live. So, dear, the + end of it is,' and Mrs. Lawrence put her fingers to a silken amber bow at + Aminta's throat, and squared it and flattened it with dainty precision, + speaking on under dropped eyelids, intent upon her work, 'Lady de Culme + will be happy to welcome you whenever it shall suit the Countess of Ormont + to accompany her disreputable friend. But what can I do, dear?' She raised + her lids and looked beseechingly. 'I was born with this taste for the ways + and games and style of men. I hope I don't get on badly with women; but if + I 'm not allowed to indulge my natural taste, I kick the stable-boards and + bite the manger.' + </p> + <p> + Aminta threw her arms round her, and they laughed their mutual peal. + </p> + <p> + Caressing her still, Aminta said: 'I don't know whether I embrace a boy.' + </p> + <p> + 'That idea comes from a man!' said Mrs. Lawrence. It was admitted. The + secretary was discussed. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Lawrence remarked: 'Yes, I like talking with him; he's bright. You + drove him out of me the day I saw him. Doesn't he give you the idea of a + man who insists on capturing you and lets it be seen he doesn't care two + snaps of a finger?' + </p> + <p> + Aminta petitioned on his behalf indifferently: 'He 's well bred.' + </p> + <p> + She was inattentive to Mrs. Lawrence's answer. The allusion of the Queen + of Blondes had stung her in the unacknowledged regions where women discard + themselves and are most sensitive. + </p> + <p> + 'Decide on coming soon to Lady de Culme,' said Mrs. Lawrence. 'Now that + her arms are open to you, she would like to have you in them. She is old—. + You won't be rigorous? no standing on small punctilios? + </p> + <p> + She would call, but she does not—h'm, it is M. le Comte that she + does not choose to—h'm. But her arms are open to the countess. It + ought to be a grand step. You may be assured that Lady Charlotte Eglett + would not be taken into them. My great-aunt has a great-aunt's memory. The + Ormonts are the only explanation—if it 's an apology—she can + offer for the behaviour of the husband of the Countess of Ormont. You know + I like him. I can't help liking a man who likes me. Is that the way with a + boy, Mr. Secretary? I must have another talk with the gentleman, my dear. + You are Aminta to me.' + </p> + <p> + 'Always Aminta to you,' was the reply, tenderly given. + </p> + <p> + 'But as for comprehending him, I'm as far off that as Lady de Culme, who + hasn't the liking for him I have.' + </p> + <p> + 'The earl?' said Aminta, showing by her look that she was in the same + position. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Lawrence shrugged: 'I believe men and women marry in order that they + should never be able to understand one another. The riddle's best read at + a moderate distance. It 's what they call the golden mean; too close, too + far, we're strangers. I begin to understand that husband of mine, now + we're on bowing terms. Now, I must meet the earl to-morrow. You will + arrange? His hand wants forcing. Upon my word, I don't believe it 's + more.' + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Lawrence contrasted him in her mind with the husband she knew, and + was invigorated by the thought that a placable impenetrable giant may + often be more pliable in a woman's hands than an irascible dwarf—until, + perchance, the latter has been soundly cuffed, and then he is docile to + trot like a squire, as near your heels as he can get. She rejoiced to be + working for the woman she had fallen in love with. + </p> + <p> + Aminta promised herself to show the friend a livelier affection at their + next meeting. + </p> + <p> + A seventh letter, signed 'Adolphus,' came by post, was read and locked up + in her jewel-box. They were all nigh destruction for a wavering minute or + so. They were placed where they lay because the first of them had been + laid there, the box being a strong one, under a patent key, and discovery + would mean the terrible. They had not been destroyed because they had, or + seemed to her to have, the language of passion. She could read them + unmoved, and appease a wicked craving she owned to having, and reproached + herself with having, for that language. + </p> + <p> + Was she not colour in the sight of men? Here was one, a mouthpiece of + numbers, who vowed that homage was her due, and devotion, the pouring + forth of the soul to her. What was the reproach if she read the stuff + unmoved? + </p> + <p> + But peruse and reperuse it, and ask impressions to tell our deepest + instinct of truthfulness whether language of this character can have been + written to two women by one hand! Men are cunning. Can they catch a tone? + Not that tone! + </p> + <p> + She, too, Mrs. Amy May, was colour in the sight of men. Yet it seemed that + he could not have written so to the Queen of Blondes. And she, by repute, + was as dangerous to slight as he to attract. Her indifference exonerated + him. Besides, a Queen of Blondes would not draw the hearts out of men in + England, as in Italy and in Spain. Aminta had got thus far when she found + 'Queen of Brunes' expunged by a mist: she imagined hearing the secretary's + laugh. She thought he was right to laugh at her. She retorted simply: + 'These are feelings that are poetry.' + </p> + <p> + A man may know nothing about them, and be an excellent schoolmaster. + </p> + <p> + Suggestions touching the prudence of taking Mrs. Lawrence into her + confidence, as regarded these troublesome letters of the man with the dart + in his breast, were shuffled aside for various reasons: her modesty + shrank; and a sense of honour toward the man forbade it. She would have + found it easier to do if she had conspired against her heart in doing it. + And yet, cold-bloodedly to expose him and pluck the clothing from a + passion—dear to think of only when it is profoundly secret—struck + her as an extreme baseness, of which not even the woman who perused and + reperused his letters could be guilty. + </p> + <p> + Her head rang with some of the lines, and she accused her head of the + crime of childishness, seeing that her heart was not an accomplice. At the + same time, her heart cried out violently against the business of a visit + to Lady de Culme, and all the steps it involved. Justly she accused her + heart of treason. Heart and head were severed. This, as she partly + apprehended, is the state of the woman who is already on the slope of her + nature's mine-shaft, dreading the rush downwards, powerless to break away + from the light. + </p> + <p> + Letters perused and reperused, coming from a man never fervently noticed + in person, conjure features one would wish to put beside the actual, to + make sure that the fiery lines he writes are not practising a beguilement. + Aminta had lost grasp of the semblance of the impassioned man. She just + remembered enough of his eyes to think there might be healing in a sight + of him. + </p> + <p> + Latterly she had refused to be exhibited to a tattling world as the great + nobleman's conquest:—The 'Beautiful Lady Doubtful' of a report that + had scorched her cars. Theatres, rides, pleasure-drives, even such houses + as she saw standing open to her had been shunned. Now she asked the earl + to ride in the park. + </p> + <p> + He complied, and sent to the stables immediately, just noted another of + her veerings. The whimsy creatures we are matched to contrast with, shift + as the very winds or feather-grasses in the wind. Possibly a fine day did + it. Possibly, too, her not being requested to do it. + </p> + <p> + He was proud of her bearing on horseback. She rode well and looked well. A + finer weapon wherewith to strike at a churlish world was never given into + the hands of man. These English may see in her, if they like, that they + and their laws and customs are defied. It does her no hurt, and it hits + them a ringing buffet. + </p> + <p> + Among the cavaliers they passed was Mr. Morsfield. He rode by slowly. The + earl stiffened his back in returning the salute. Both that and the + gentleman were observed by Aminta. + </p> + <p> + 'He sees to having good blood under him,' said the earl. 'I admired his + mount,' she replied. + </p> + <p> + Interpreted by the fire of his writing, his features expressed character: + insomuch that a woman could say of another woman, that she admired him and + might reasonably do so. His gaze at her in the presence of her lord was + audacious. + </p> + <p> + He had the defect of his virtue of courage. Yet a man indisputably + possessing courage cannot but have an interesting face—though one + may continue saying, Pity that the eyes are not a little wider apart! He + dresses tastefully; the best English style. A portrait by a master hand + might hand him down to generations as an ancestor to be proud of. But with + passion and with courage, and a bent for snatching at the lion's own, does + he not look foredoomed to an early close? Her imagination called up a + portrait of Elizabeth's Earl of Essex to set beside him; and without + thinking that the two were fraternally alike, she sent him riding away + with the face of the Earl of Essex and the shadow of the unhappy + nobleman's grievous fortunes over his head. + </p> + <p> + But it is inexcuseable to let the mind be occupied recurrently by a man + who has not moved the feelings, wicked though it be to have the feelings + moved by him. Aminta rebuked her silly wits, and proceeded to speculate + from an altitude, seeing the man's projects in a singularly definite + minuteness, as if the crisis he invoked, the perils he braved, the mute + participation he implored of her for the short space until their fate + should be decided, were a story sharply cut on metal. Several times she + surprised herself in an interesting pursuit of the story; abominably cold, + abominably interested. She fell upon a review of small duties of the day, + to get relief; and among them a device for spiriting away her aunt from + the table where Mrs. Lawrence wished to meet Lord Ormont. It sprang up to + her call like an imp of the burning pit. She saw it ingenious and of + natural aspect. I must be a born intriguer! she said in her breast. That + was hateful; but it seemed worse when she thought of a woman commanding + the faculty and consenting to be duped and foiled. That might be termed + despicable; but what if she had not any longer the wish to gain her way + with her lord? + </p> + <p> + Those letters are acting like a kind of poison in me! her heart cried: and + it was only her head that dwelt on the antidote. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XII. MORE OF CUPER'S BOYS + </h2> + <p> + Entering the dining-room at the appointed minute in a punctual household, + Mrs. Lawrence informed the company that she had seen a Horse Guards + orderly at the trot up the street. Weyburn said he was directing a boy to + ring the bell of the house for him. Lord Ormont went to the window. + </p> + <p> + 'Amends and honours?' Mrs. Lawrence hummed and added an operatic flourish + of an arm. Something like it might really be imagined. A large square + missive was handed to the footman. Thereupon the orderly trotted off. + </p> + <p> + My lord took seat at table, telling the footman to lay 'that parcel' + beside the clock on the mantelpiece. Aminta and Mrs. Lawrence gave out a + little cry of bird or mouse, pitiable to hear: they could not wait, they + must know, they pished at sight of plates. His look deferred to their good + pleasure, like the dead hand of a clock under key; and Weyburn placed the + missive before him, seeing by the superscription that it was not official. + </p> + <p> + It was addressed, in the Roman hand of a boy's copybook writing, to + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + General the Earl of Ormont, I.C.B., etc., + Horse Guards, + London.' +</pre> + <p> + The earl's eyebrows creased up over the address; they came down low on the + contents. + </p> + <p> + He resumed his daily countenance. 'Nothing of importance,' he said to the + ladies. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Lawrence knocked the table with her knuckles. Aminta put out a hand, + in sign of her wish. + </p> + <p> + 'Pray let me see it.' + </p> + <p> + 'After lunch will do.' + </p> + <p> + 'No, no, no! We are women—we are women,' cried Mrs. Lawrence. + </p> + <p> + 'How can it concern women?' + </p> + <p> + 'As well ask how a battle-field concerns them!' + </p> + <p> + 'Yes, the shots hit us behind you,' said Aminta; and she, too, struck the + table. + </p> + <p> + He did not prolong their torture. Weyburn received the folio sheet and + passed it on. Aminta read. Mrs. Lawrence jumped from her chair and ran to + the countess's shoulder; her red lips formed the petitioning word to the + earl for the liberty she was bent to take. + </p> + <p> + 'Peep? if you like,' my lord said, jesting at the blank she would find, + and soft to the pretty play of her mouth. + </p> + <p> + When the ladies had run to the end of it, he asked them: 'Well; now then?' + </p> + <p> + 'But it's capital—the dear laddies!' Mrs. Lawrence exclaimed. + </p> + <p> + Aminta's eyes met Weyburn's. + </p> + <p> + She handed him the sheet of paper; upon the transmission of which empty + thing from the Horse Guards my lord commented: 'An orderly!' + </p> + <p> + Weyburn scanned it rapidly, for the table had been served. + </p> + <p> + The contents were these: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 'HIGH BRENT NEAR ARTSWELL. + 'April 7th. + + 'To GENERAL THE EARL OF ORMONT + 'Cavalry. + + 'May it please your Lordship, we, the boys of Mr. Cuper's school, + are desirous to bring to the notice of the bravest officer England + possesses now living, a Deed of Heroism by a little boy and girl, + children of our school laundress, aged respectively eight and six, + who, seeing a little fellow in the water out of depth, and sinking + twice, before the third time jumped in to save him, though unable to + swim themselves; the girl aged six first, we are sorry to say; but + the brother, Robert Coop, followed her example, and together they + made a line, and she caught hold of the drowning boy, and he held + her petycoats, and so they pulled. We have seen the place: it is + not a nice one. They got him ashore at last. The park-keeper here + going along found them dripping, rubbing his hands, and blowing into + his nostrils. Name, T. Shellen, son of a small cobbler here, and + recovered. + + 'May it please your Lordship, we make bold to apply, because you + have been for a number of years, as far as the oldest can recollect, + the Hero of our school, and we are so bold as to ask the favour of + General Lord Ormont's name to head a subscription we are making to + circulate for the support of their sick mother, who has fallen ill. + We think her a good woman. Gentlemen and ladies of the + neighbourhood are willing to subscribe. If we have a great name to + head the list, we think we shall make a good subscription. Names:— + + 'Martha Mary Coop, mother. + 'Robert Coop. + 'Jane Coop, the girl, aged six. + + 'If we are not taking too great a liberty, a subscription paper will + follow. We are sure General the Earl of Ormont's name will help to + make them comfortable. + 'We are obediently and respectfully, + 'DAVID GOWEN, + 'WALTER BENCH, + 'JAMES PANNERS PARSONS, + 'And seven others.' +</pre> + <p> + Weyburn spared Aminta an answering look, that would have been a begging of + Browny to remember Matey. + </p> + <p> + 'It 's genuine,' he said to Mrs. Lawrence, as he attacked his plate with + the gusto for the repast previously and benignly observed by her. 'It + ought to be the work of some of the younger fellows.' + </p> + <p> + 'They spell correctly, on the whole.' + </p> + <p> + 'Excepting,' said my lord, 'an article they don't know much about yet.' + </p> + <p> + Weyburn had noticed the word, and he smiled. 'Said to be the happy state! + The three signing their names are probably what we called bellman and + beemen, collector, and heads of the swarm-enthusiasts. If it is not the + work of some of the younger hands, the school has levelled on minors. In + any case it shows the school is healthy.' + </p> + <p> + 'I subscribe,' said Mrs. Lawrence. + </p> + <p> + 'The little girl aged six shall have something done for her,' said Aminta, + and turned her eyes on the earl. + </p> + <p> + He was familiar with her thrilled voice at a story of bravery. He said— + </p> + <p> + 'The boys don't say the girl's brother turned tail.' + </p> + <p> + 'Only that the girl's brother aged eight followed the lead of the little + girl aged six,' Mrs. Lawrence remarked. 'Well, I like the schoolboys, too—“we + are sorry to say!” But they 're good lads. Boys who can appreciate brave + deeds are capable of doing them.' + </p> + <p> + 'Speak to me about it on Monday,' the earl said to Weyburn. + </p> + <p> + He bowed, and replied— + </p> + <p> + 'I shall have the day to-morrow. I 'll walk it and call on Messrs.' (he + glanced at the paper) 'Gowen, Bench, and Parsons. I have a German friend + in London anxious to wear his legs down stumpier.' + </p> + <p> + 'The name of the school?' + </p> + <p> + 'It is called Cuper's.' + </p> + <p> + Aminta, on hearing the name of Cuper a second time, congratulated herself + on the happy invention of her pretext to keep Mrs. Pagnell from the table + at midday. Her aunt had a memory for names: what might she not have + exclaimed! There would have been little in it, but it was as well that the + 'boy of the name of Weyburn' at Cuper's should be unmentioned. By an + exaggeration peculiar to a disgust in fancy, she could hear her aunt + vociferating 'Weyburn!' and then staring at Mr. Weyburn opposite—perhaps + not satisfied with staring. + </p> + <p> + He withdrew after his usual hearty meal, during which his talk of boys and + their monkey tricks, and what we can train them to, had been pleasant + generally, especially to Mrs. Lawrence. Aminta was carried back to the + minute early years at High Brent. A line or two of a smile touched her + cheek. + </p> + <p> + 'Yes, my dear countess, that is the face I want for Lady de Culme to-day,' + said Mrs. Lawrence.' She likes a smiling face. Aunty—aunty has + always been good; she has never been prim. I was too much for her, until I + reflected that she was very old, and deserved to know the truth before she + left us; and so I went to her; and then she said she wished to see the + Countess of Ormont, because of her being my dearest friend. I fancy she + entertains an 'arriere' idea of proposing her flawless niece Gracey, + Marchioness of Fencaster, to present you. She 's quite equal to the + fatigue herself. You 'll rejoice in her anecdotes. People were virtuous in + past days: they counted their sinners. In those days, too, as I have to + understand, the men chivalrously bore the blame, though the women were + rightly punished. Now, alas! the initiative is with the women, and men are + not asked for chivalry. Hence it languishes. Lady de Culme won't hear of + the Queen of Blondes; has forbidden her these many years!' + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont, to whom the lady's prattle was addressed, kept his visage + moveless, except in slight jerks of the brows. + </p> + <p> + 'What queen?' + </p> + <p> + 'You insist upon renewing my old, old pangs of jealousy, my dear lord! The + Queen of Cyprus, they called her, in the last generation; she fights our + great duellist handsomely.' + </p> + <p> + 'My dear Mrs. Lawrence!' + </p> + <p> + 'He triumphs finally, we know, but she beats him every round.' + </p> + <p> + 'It 's only tattle that says the duel has begun.' + </p> + <p> + 'May is the month of everlasting beauty! There 's a widower marquis now + who claims the right to cast the glove to any who dispute it.' + </p> + <p> + 'Mrs. May is too good-looking to escape from scandal.' + </p> + <p> + 'Amy May has the good looks of the Immortals.' + </p> + <p> + 'She can't be thirty.' + </p> + <p> + 'In the calendar of women she counts thirty-four.' + </p> + <p> + 'Malignity! Her husband's a lucky man.' + </p> + <p> + 'The shots have proved it.' + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont nodded his head over the hopeless task of defending a woman + from a woman, and their sharp interchange ceased. But the sight of his + complacency in defeat told Aminta that he did not respect his fair client: + it drew a sketch of the position he allotted his wife before the world + side by side with this Mrs. Amy May, though a Lady de Culme was persuaded + to draw distinctions. + </p> + <p> + He had, however, quite complacently taken the dose intended for him by + Mrs. Lawrence, who believed that the system of gently forcing him was the + good one. + </p> + <p> + The ladies drove away in the afternoon. The earl turned his back on + manuscript. He sent for a couple of walking sticks, and commanded Weyburn + to go through his parades. He was no tyro, merely out of practice, and + unacquainted with the later, simpler form of the great master of the + French school, by which, at serious issues, the guarding of the line can + be more quickly done: as, for instance, the 'parade de septime' + supplanting the slower 'parade de prime;' the 'parade de quarte' having + advantage over the 'parade de quince;' the 'parade de tierce' being + readier and stronger than the 'parade de sixte;' the same said for the + 'parade de seconde' instead of the weak 'parade d'octave.' + </p> + <p> + These were then new points of instruction. Weyburn demonstrated them as + neatly as he could do with his weapon. + </p> + <p> + 'Yes, the French think,' Lord Ormont said, grasping the stick to get + conviction of thumb-strength and finger-strength from the parades + advocated; 'their steel would thread the ribs of our louts before: they + could raise a cry of parry; so here they 're pleased to sneer at fencing, + as if it served no purpose but the duel. Fencing, for one thing, means, + that with a good stick in his hand, a clever fencer can double up a giant + or two, grant him choice of ground. Some of our men box; but the sword's + the weapon for an officer, and precious few of 'em are fit for more than + to kick the scabbard. Slashing comes easier to them: a plaguey cut, if it + does cut—say, one in six. Navy too. Their cutlass-drill is like a + woman's fling of the arm to fetch a slap from behind her shoulder. Pinking + beats chopping. These English 'll have their lesson. It 's like what you + call good writing: the simple way does the business, and that's the most + difficult to learn, because you must give your head to it, as those French + fellows do. 'Trop de finesse' is rather their fault. Anything's better + than loutishness. Well! the lesson 'll come.' + </p> + <p> + He continued. He spoke as he thought: he was not speaking what he was + thinking. His mind was directed on the visit of Aminta to Lady de Culme, + and the tolerably wonderful twist whereby Mrs. Lawrence Finchley had vowed + herself to his girl's interests. And he blamed neither of them; only he + could not understand how it had been effected, for Aminta and Mrs. + Lawrence had not been on such particularly intimate terms last week or + yesterday. His ejaculation, 'Women!' was, as he knew, merely ignorance + roaring behind a mask of sarcasm. But it allied him with all previous + generations on the male side, and that was its virtue. His view of the + shifty turns of women got no further, for the reason that he took small + account of the operations of the feelings, to the sole exercise of which + he by system condemned the sex. + </p> + <p> + He was also insensibly half a grain more soured by the homage of those + poor schoolboys, who called to him to take it for his reward in a country + whose authorities had snubbed, whose Parliament had ignored, whose Press + had abused him. The ridiculous balance made him wilfully oblivious that he + had seen his name of late eulogized in articles and in books for the right + martial qualities. Can a country treating a good soldier—not serving + it for pay—in so scurvy a fashion, be struck too hard with our + disdain? One cannot tell it in too plain a language how one despises its + laws, its moralities, its sham of society. The Club, some choice + anecdotists, two or three listeners to his dolences clothed as diatribes; + a rubber, and the sight of his girl at home, composed, with a week's + shooting now and then, his round of life now that she refused to travel. + What a life for a soldier in his vigour. Weyburn was honoured by the + earl's company on the walk to Chiallo's. In the street of elegant shops + they met Lord Adderwood, and he, as usual, appeared in the act of + strangling one of his flock of yawns, with gentlemanly consideration for + the public. Exercise was ever his temporary specific for these incurables. + Flinging off his coat, he cast away the cynic style engendering or + engendered by them. He and Weyburn were for a bout. Sir John Randeller and + Mr. Morsfield were at it, like Bull in training and desperado foiled. A + French 'maitre d'armes,' famed in 'escrime,' standing near Captain + Chiallo, looked amused in the eyes, behind a mask of professional + correctness. He had come on an excursion for the display of his art. Sir + John's very sturdy defence was pierced. Weyburn saluted the Frenchman as + an acquaintance, and they shook hands, chatted, criticized, nodded. + Presently he and his adversary engaged, vizored and in their buckram, and + he soon proved to be too strong for Adderwood, as the latter expected and + had notified to Lord Ormont before they crossed the steel. My lord had a + pleasant pricking excitement in the sound. There was a pretty display + between Weyburn and the 'escrimeur,' who neatly and kindly trifled, took a + point and returned one, and at the finish complimented him. The earl could + see that he had to be sufficiently alert. + </p> + <p> + Age mouthed an ugly word to the veteran insensible of it in his body, when + a desire to be one with these pairs of nimble wrists and legs was like an + old gamecock shown the pit and put back into the basket. He left the + place, carrying away an image of the coxcombical attitudinizing of the man + Morsfield at the salut, upon which he brought down his powers of + burlesque. + </p> + <p> + My lord sketched the scene he had just quitted to a lady who had stopped + her carriage. She was the still beautiful Mrs. Amy May, wife of the famous + fighting captain. Her hair was radiant in a shady street; her eyelids + tenderly toned round the almond enclosure of blue pebbles, bright as if + shining from the seawash. The lips of the fair woman could be seen to say + that they were sweet when, laughing or discoursing, they gave sight of + teeth proudly her own, rivalling the regularity of the grin of dentistry. + A Venus of nature was melting into a Venus of art, and there was a + decorous concealment of the contest and the anguish in the process, for + which Lord Ormont liked her well enough to wink benevolently at her + efforts to cheat the world at various issues, and maintain her duel with + Time. The world deserved that she should beat it, even if she had been all + deception. + </p> + <p> + She let the subject of Mr. Morsfield pass without remark from her, until + the exhaustion of open-air topics hinted an end of their conversation, and + she said— + </p> + <p> + 'We shall learn next week what to think if the civilians. I have heard Mr. + Morsfield tell that he is 'de premiere force.' Be on your guard. You are + to know that I never forget a service, and you did me one once.' 'You have + reason...?' said the earl. + </p> + <p> + 'If anybody is the dragon to the treasure he covets he is a spadassin who + won't hesitate at provocations. Adieu.' + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont's eye had been on Mr. Morsfield. He had seen what Mrs. Pagnell + counselled her niece to let him see. He thanked Mr. Morsfield for a tonic + that made him young with anticipations of bracing; and he set his head to + work upon an advance half-way to meet the gentleman, and safely exclude + his wife's name. + </p> + <p> + Monday brought an account of Cuper's boys. Aminta received it while the + earl was at his papers for the morning's news of the weightier deeds of + men. + </p> + <p> + They were the right boys, Weyburn said; his interview with Gowen, Bench, + Parsons, and the others assured him that the school was breathing big + lungs. Mr. Cuper, too, had spoken well of them. + </p> + <p> + 'You walked the twenty miles?' Aminta interrupted him. + </p> + <p> + 'With my German friend: out and home: plenty of time in the day. He has + taken to English boys, but asks why enthusiasm and worship of great deeds + don't grow upward from them to their elders. And I, in turn, ask why + Germans insist on that point more even than the French do.' + </p> + <p> + 'Germans are sentimental. But the English boys he saw belonged to a school + with traditions of enthusiasm sown by some one. The school remembered?' + </p> + <p> + 'Curiously, Mr. Cuper tells me, the hero of the school has dropped and + sprung up, stout as ever, twice—it tells me what I wish to believe—since + Lord Ormont led their young heads to glory. He can't say how it comes. The + tradition's there, and it 's kindled by some flying spark.' + </p> + <p> + 'They remember who taught the school to think of Lord Ormont?' + </p> + <p> + 'I 'm a minor personage. I certainly did some good, and that 's a push + forward.' + </p> + <p> + 'They speak of you?' + </p> + <p> + It was Aminta more than the Countess of Ormont speaking to him. + </p> + <p> + 'You take an interest in the boys,' he said, glowing. 'Yes, well, they + have their talks. I happened to be a cricketer, counting wickets and + scores. I don't fancy it's remembered that it was I preached my lord. A + day of nine wickets and one catch doesn't die out of a school. The boy + Gowen was the prime spirit in getting up the subscription for the + laundress. But Bench and Parsons are good boys, too.' + </p> + <p> + He described them, dwelt on them. The enthusiast, when not lyrical, is + perilously near to boring. Aminta was glad of Mrs. Lawrence's absence. She + had that feeling because Matthew Weyburn would shun talk of himself to + her, not from a personal sense of tedium in hearing of the boys; and she + was quaintly reminded by suggestions, coming she knew not whence, of a dim + likeness between her and these boys of the school when their hero dropped + to nothing and sprang up again brilliantly—a kind of distant + cousinship, in her susceptibility to be kindled by so small a flying spark + as this one on its travels out of High Brent. Moreover, the dear boys tied + her to her girlhood, and netted her fleeting youth for the moth-box. She + pressed to hear more and more of them, and of the school-laundress Weyburn + had called to see, and particularly of the child, little Jane, aged six. + Weyburn went to look at the sheet of water to which little Jane had given + celebrity over the county. The girl stood up to her shoulders when she + slid off the bank and made the line for her brother to hold, he in the + water as well. Altogether, Cuper's boys were justified in promoting a + subscription, the mother being helpless. + </p> + <p> + 'Modest little woman,' he said of Jane. 'We'll hope people won't spoil + her. Don't forget, Lady Ormont, that the brother did his part; he had more + knowledge of the danger than she.' + </p> + <p> + 'You will undertake to convey our subscriptions? Lord Ormont spoke of the + little ones and the schoolboys yesterday.' + </p> + <p> + 'I'll be down again among them next Sunday, Lady Ormont. On the Monday I + go to Olmer.' + </p> + <p> + 'The girls of High Brent subscribe?' + </p> + <p> + There was a ripple under Weyburn's gravity. + </p> + <p> + 'Messrs. Gowen, Bench, and Parsons thought proper to stop Miss Vincent at + the head of her detachment in the park.' + </p> + <p> + 'On the Sunday?' + </p> + <p> + 'And one of them handed her a paper containing a report of their interview + with Mrs. Coop and a neat eulogy of little Jane. But don't suspect them, I + beg. I believe them to be good, honest fellows. Bench, they say, is + religious; Gowen has written verses; Parsons generally harum-scarum. + They're boyish in one way or another, and that'll do. The cricket of the + school has been low: seems to be reviving.' + </p> + <p> + 'Mr. Weyburn,' said the countess, after a short delay—and Aminta + broke through—'it pleases me to hear of them, and think they have + not forgotten you, or, at least, they follow the lead you gave. I should + like to know whether an idea I have is true: Is much, I mean constant, + looking down on young people likely to pull one's mind down to their + level?' + </p> + <p> + 'Likely enough to betray our level, if there 's danger,' he murmured. + 'Society offers an example that your conjecture is not unfounded, Lady + Ormont. But if we have great literature and an interest in the world's + affairs, can there be any fear of it? The schoolmaster ploughs to make a + richer world, I hope. He must live with them, join with them in their + games, accustom them to have their heads knocked with what he wants to get + into them, leading them all the while, as the bigger schoolfellow does, if + he is a good fellow. He has to be careful not to smell of his office. + Doing positive good is the business of his every day—on a small + scale, but it 's positive, if he likes his boys. 'Avaunt favouritism!' he + must like all boys. And it 's human nature not so far removed from the + dog; only it's a supple human nature: there 's the beauty of it. We train + it. Nothing is more certain than that it will grow upward. I have the + belief that I shall succeed, because I like boys, and they like me. It + always was the case.' + </p> + <p> + 'I know,' said Aminta. + </p> + <p> + Their eyes met. She looked moved at heart behind that deep forest of her + chestnut eyes. + </p> + <p> + 'And I think I can inspire confidence in fathers and mothers,' he + resumed.' I have my boys already waiting for me to found the school. I was + pleased the other day: an English friend brought an Italian gentleman to + see me and discuss my system, up at Norwood, at my mother's—a Signor + Calliani. He has a nephew; the parents dote on him. The uncle confesses + that the boy wants—he has got hold of our word—“pluck.” We had + a talk. He has promised to send me the lad when I am established in + Switzerland.' + </p> + <p> + 'When?' said Aminta. + </p> + <p> + 'A relative from whom a Reversion comes is near the end. It won't be later + than September that I shall go. My Swiss friend has the school, and would + take me at once before he retires.' + </p> + <p> + 'You make friends wherever you go,' said Aminta. + </p> + <p> + 'Why shouldn't everybody? I'm convinced it's because I show people I mean + well, and I never nurse an injury, great or small. And besides, they see I + look forward. I do hope good for the world. If at my school we have all + nationalities—French boys and German, Italian, Russian, Spaniard—without + distinction of race and religion and station, and with English intermixing—English + games, English sense of honour and conception of gentleman—we shall + help to nationalize Europe. Emile Grenat, Adolf Fleischer, and an Italian, + Vincentino Chiuse, are prepared to start with me: and they are men of + attainments; they will throw up their positions; they will do me the + honour to trust to my leadership. It's not scaling Alps or commanding + armies, true.' + </p> + <p> + 'It may be better,' said Aminta, and thought as she spoke. + </p> + <p> + 'Slow work, if we have a taste for the work, doesn't dispirit. Otherwise, + one may say that an African or South American traveller has a more + exciting time. I shall manage to keep my head on its travels.' + </p> + <p> + 'You have ideas about the education of girls?' + </p> + <p> + 'They can't be carried out unaided.' + </p> + <p> + 'Aid will come.' + </p> + <p> + Weyburn's confidence, high though it was, had not mounted to that pitch. + </p> + <p> + 'One may find a mate,' he said. The woman to share and practically to aid + in developing such ideas is not easily found: that he left as implied. + </p> + <p> + Aminta was in need of poetry; but the young schoolmaster's plain, + well-directed prose of the view of a business in life was welcome to her. + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont entered the room. She reminded him of the boys of High Brent + and the heroine Jane. He was ready to subscribe his five-and-twenty + guineas, he said. The amount of the sum gratified Weyburn, she could see. + She was proud of her lord, and of the boys and the little girl; and she + would have been happy to make the ardent young schoolmaster aware of her + growing interest in the young. + </p> + <p> + The night before the earl's departure on the solitary expedition to which + she condemned him, he surprised her with a visit of farewell, so that he + need not disturb her in the early morning, he said. She was reading beside + her open jewel-box, and she closed it with the delicate touch of a hand + turned backward while listening to him, with no sign of nervousness. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIII. WAR AT OLMER + </h2> + <p> + Lively doings were on the leap to animate Weyburn at Olmer during Easter + week. The Rev. Mr. Hampton-Evey, rector of Barborough, on hearing that + Lady Charlotte Eglett was engaged in knocking at the doors of litigation + with certain acts that constituted distinct breaches of the law and the + peace, and were a violation of the rights of her neighbour, Mr. Gilbert + Addicote, might hope that the troublesome parishioner whom he did not + often number among his congregation would grant him a term of repose. + Therein he was deceived. Alterations and enlargements of the church, much + required, had necessitated the bricking up of a door regarded by the lady + as the private entrance to the Olmer pew. She sent him notice of her + intention to batter at the new brickwork; so there was the prospect of a + pew-fight before him. But now she came to sit under him every Sunday; and + he could have wished her absent; for she diverted his thoughts from piety + to the selections of texts applicable in the case of a woman who sat with + arms knotted, and the frown of an intemperate schoolgirl forbidden speech; + while her pew's firelight startlingly at intervals danced her sinister + person into view, as from below. The lady's inaccessible and unconquerable + obtuseness to exhortation informed the picture with an evil spirit that + cried for wrestlings. + </p> + <p> + Regularly every week-day she headed the war now rageing between Olmer and + Addicotes, on the borders of the estates. It was open war, and herself to + head the cavalry. Weyburn, driving up a lane in the gig she had sent to + meet the coach, beheld a thicket of countrymen and boys along a ridge; and + it swayed and broke, and through it burst the figure of a mounted warrior + woman at the gallop, followed by what bore an appearance of horse and gun, + minus carriage, drivers at the flanks cracking whips on foot. Off went the + train, across a small gorse common, through a gate. + </p> + <p> + 'That's another down,' said his whip. 'Sound good wood it is, not made to + fall. Her ladyship's at it hard to-day. She 'll teach Mr. Addicote a thing + or two about things females can do. That is, when they stand for their + rights.' + </p> + <p> + He explained to Weyburn that Mr. Addicote, a yeoman farmer and a good + hunting man, but a rare obstinate one, now learning his lesson from her + ladyship, was in dispute with her over rights of property on a stretch of + fir-trees lining the ridge where the estates of Olmer and Addicotes met. + Her ladyship had sworn that if he did not yield to her claim she would cut + down every tree of the ridge and sell the lot for timber under his nose. + She acted according to her oath, in the teeth of his men two feet across + the border. All the world knew the roots of those trees were for the most + part in Olmer soil, though Addicote shared the shade. All the people about + mourned for the felling of those trees. All blamed Mr. Gilbert Addicote + for provoking her ladyship, good hunting man though he was. But as to the + merits of the question, under the magnifier of the gentlemen of the law, + there were as many different opinions as wigs in the land. + </p> + <p> + 'And your opinion?' said Weyburn. + </p> + <p> + To which the young groom answered: 'Oh, I don't form an opinion, sir. I 'm + of my mistress's opinion; and if she says, Do it, think as we like, done + it has to be.' + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte came at a trot through the gate, to supervise the + limbering-up of another felled tree. She headed it as before. The log + dragged bounding and twirling, rattling its chains; the crowd along the + ridge, forbidden to cheer, watching it with intense repression of the + roar. We have not often in England sight of a great lady challengeing an + unpopular man to battle and smacking him in the face like this to provoke + him. Weyburn was driven on a half-circle of the lane to the gate, where he + jumped out to greet Lady Charlotte trotting back for another smack in the + face of her enemy,—a third rounding of her Troy with the vanquished + dead at her heels, as Weyburn let a flimsy suggestion beguile his fancy, + until the Homeric was overwhelming even to a playful mind, and he put her + in a mediaeval frame. She really had the heroical aspect in a + grandiose-grotesque, fitted to some lines of Ariosto. Her head wore a + close hood, disclosing a fringe of grey locks, owlish to see about + features hooked for action. + </p> + <p> + 'Ah, you! there you are: good—I'll join you in three minutes,' she + sang out to him, and cantered to the ridge. + </p> + <p> + Hardly beyond the stated number she was beside him again, ranging her + steed for the victim log to dance a gyration on its branches across the + lane and enter a field among the fallen compeers. One of her men had run + behind her. She slid from her saddle and tossed him the reins, catching up + her skirts. + </p> + <p> + 'That means war, as much as they'll have it in England,' she said, seeing + his glance at the logs. 'My husband's wise enough to leave it to me, so I + save him trouble with neighbours. An ass of a Mr. Gilbert Addicote dares + us to make good our claim on our property, our timber, because half a + score of fir-tree roots go stretching on to his ground.' + </p> + <p> + She swished her whip. Mr. Gilbert Addicote received the stroke and + retired, a buried subject. They walked on at an even pace. 'You 'll see + Leo to-morrow. He worships you. You may as well give him a couple of + hours' coaching a day for the week. He'll be hanging about you, and you + won't escape him. Well, and my brother Rowsley: how is Lord Ormont? He + never comes to me now, since—Well, it 's nothing to me; but I like + to see my brother. She can't make any change here. Olmer and Lady + Charlotte 's bosom were both implied. 'What do you think?—you 've + noticed: is he in good health? It 's the last thing he 'll be got to speak + of.' + </p> + <p> + Weyburn gave the proper assurances. + </p> + <p> + 'Not he!' said she. 'He's never ill. Men beat women in the long race, if + they haven't overdone it when young. My doctor wants me to renounce the + saddle. He says it 's time. Not if I 've got work for horseback!' she + nicked her head emphatically: 'I hate old age. They sha'nt dismount me + till a blow comes. Hate it! But I should despise myself if I showed signs, + like a worm under heel. Let Nature do her worst; she can't conquer us as + long as we keep up heart. You won't have to think of that for a good time + yet. Now tell me why Lord Ormont didn't publish the “Plan for the Defence” + you said he was writing; and he was, I know. He wrote it and he finished + it; you made the fair copy. Well, and he read it,—there! see!' She + took the invisible sheets in her hands and tore them. 'That's my brother. + He's so proud. It would have looked like asking the country, that injured + him, to forgive him. I wish it had been printed. But whatever he does I + admire. That—she might have advised, if she 'd been a woman of + public spirit or cared for his reputation. He never comes near me. Did she + read your copy?' + </p> + <p> + The question was meant for an answer. + </p> + <p> + Weyburn replied: 'Lady Ormont had no sight of it.' + </p> + <p> + 'Ah! she's Lady Ormont to the servants, I know. She has an aunt living in + the house. If my brother's a sinner, and there's punishment for him, he + has it from that aunt. Pag... something. He bears with her. He 's a + Spartan. She 's his pack on his back, for what she covers and the game he + plays. It looks just tolerably decent with her in the house. She goes + gabbling a story about our Embassy at Madrid. To preserve propriety, as + they call it. Her niece doesn't stoop to any of those tricks, I 'm told. I + like her for that.' + </p> + <p> + Weyburn was roused: 'I think you would like Lady Ormont, if you knew her, + my lady.' + </p> + <p> + 'The chances of my liking the young woman are not in the dice-box. You + call her Lady Ormont: you are not one of the servants. Don't call her Lady + Ormont to me.' + </p> + <p> + 'It is her title, Lady Charlotte.' She let fly a broadside at him. + </p> + <p> + 'You are one of the woman's dupes. I thought you had brains. How can you + be the donkey not to see that my brother Rowsley, Lord Ormont, would never + let a woman, lawfully bearing his name, go running the quadrille over + London in couples with a Lady Staines and a Mrs. Lawrence Finchley, Lord + Adderwood, and that man Morsfield, who boasts of your Lady Ormont, and + does it unwhipped—tell me why? Pooh, you must be the poorest fool + born to suppose it possible my brother would allow a man like that man + Morsfield to take his wife's name in his mouth a second time. Have you + talked much with this young person?' + </p> + <p> + 'With Lady Ormont? I have had the honour occasionally.' + </p> + <p> + 'Stick to the title and write yourself plush-breech. Can't you be more + than a footman? Try to be a man of the world; you're old enough for that + by now. I know she 's good-looking; the whole tale hangs on that. You + needn't be singing me mooncalf hymn tunes of “Lady Ormont, Lady Ormont,” + solemn as a parson's clerk; the young woman brought good looks to market; + and she got the exchange she had a right to expect. But it 's not my + brother Rowsley's title she has got—except for footmen and + tradesmen. When there's a true Countess of Ormont!... Unless my brother + has cut himself from his family. Not he. He's not mad.' + </p> + <p> + They passed through Olmer park-gates. Lady Charlotte preceded him, and she + turned, waiting for him to rejoin her. He had taken his flagellation in + the right style, neither abashed nor at sham crow: he was easy, ready to + converse on any topic; he kept the line between supple courtier and sturdy + independent; and he was a pleasant figure of a young fellow. Thinking + which, a reminder that she liked him drew her by the road of personal + feeling, as usual with her, to reflect upon another, and a younger, + woman's observing and necessarily liking him too. + </p> + <p> + 'You say you fancy I should like the person you call Lady Ormont?' + </p> + <p> + 'I believe you would, my lady.' + </p> + <p> + 'Are her manners agreeable?' + </p> + <p> + 'Perfect; no pretension.' + </p> + <p> + 'Ah! she sings, plays—all that? + </p> + <p> + 'She plays the harp and sings.' + </p> + <p> + 'You have heard her?' + </p> + <p> + 'Twice.' + </p> + <p> + 'She didn't set you mewing?' + </p> + <p> + 'I don't remember the impulse; at all events, it was restrained.' + </p> + <p> + 'She would me; but I'm an old woman. I detest their squalling and + strumming. I can stand it with Italians on the boards: they don't, stop + conversation. She was present at that fencing match where you plucked a + laurel? I had an account of it. I can't see the use of fencing in this + country. Younger women can, I dare say. Now, look. If we're to speak of + her, I can't call her Lady Ormont, and I don't want to hear you. Give me + her Christian name.' + </p> + <p> + 'It is'—Weyburn found himself on a slope without a stay—'Aminta.' + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte's eye was on him. He felt intolerably hot; his vexation at + the betrayal of the senseless feeling made it worse, a conscious crimson. + </p> + <p> + 'Aminta,' said she, rather in the style of Cuper's boys, when the name was + a strange one to them. 'I remember my Italian master reading out a poem + when I was a girl. I read poetry then. You wouldn't have imagined that. I + did, and liked it. I hate old age. It changes you so. None of my children + know me as I was when I had life in me and was myself, and my brother + Rowsley called me Cooey. They think me a hard old woman. I was Cooey + through the woods and over the meadows and down stream to Rowsley. Old age + is a prison wall between us and young people. They see a miniature head + and bust, and think it a flattery—won't believe it. After I married + I came to understand that the world we are in is a world to fight in, or + under we go. But I pity the young who have to cast themselves off and take + up arms. Young women above all.' + </p> + <p> + Why had she no pity for Aminta? Weyburn asked it of his feelings, and he + had the customary insurgent reply from them. + </p> + <p> + 'You haven't seen Steignton yet,' she continued. 'No place on earth is + equal to Steignton for me. It 's got the charm. Here at Olmer I'm a mother + and a grandmother—the “devil of an old-woman” my neighbours take me + to be. She hasn't been to Steignton, either. No, and won't go there, + though she's working her way round, she supposes. He'll do everything for + his “Aminta,” but he won't take her to Steignton. I'm told now she's won + Lady de Culme. That Mrs. Lawrence Finchley has dropped the curtsey to her + great-aunt and sworn to be a good girl, for a change, if Lady de Culme + will do the chaperon, and force Lord Ormont's hand. My brother shrugs. + There'll be a nice explosion one day soon. Presented? The Court won't have + her. That I know for positive. If she's pushed forward, she 'll be + bitterly snubbed. It 's on the heads of those women—silly women! I + can't see the game Mrs. Lawrence Finchley's playing. She'd play for fun. + If they'd come to me, I 'd tell them I 've proof she 's not the Countess + of Ormont: positive proof. You look? I have it. I hold something; and not + before,—(he may take his Aminta to Steignton, he may let her be + presented, she may wear his name publicly, I say he's laughing at them, + snapping his fingers at them louder and louder the more they seem to be + pushing him into a corner, until—I know my brother Rowsley!—and, + poor dear fellow! a man like that, the best cavalry general England ever + had:—they'll remember it when there comes a cry for a general from + India: that's the way with the English; only their necessities teach them + to be just!)—he to be reduced to be out-manoeuvring a swarm of + women,—I tell them, not before my brother Rowsley comes to me for + what he handed to my care and I keep safe for him, will I believe he has + made or means to make his Aminta Countess of Ormont.' + </p> + <p> + They were at the steps of the house. Turning to Weyburn there, the + inexhaustible Lady Charlotte remarked that their conversation had given + her pleasure. Leo was hanging on to one of his hands the next minute. A + small girl took the other. Philippa and Beatrice were banished damsels. + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte's breath had withered the aspect of Aminta's fortunes. + Weyburn could forgive her, for he was beginning to understand her. He + could not pardon 'her brother Rowsley,' who loomed in his mind + incomprehensible, and therefore black. Once he had thought the great + General a great man. He now regarded him as a mere soldier, a soured + veteran; socially as a masker and a trifler, virtually a callous angler + playing his cleverly-hooked fish for pastime. + </p> + <p> + What could be the meaning of Lady Charlotte's 'that, man Morsfield, who + boasts of your Lady Ormont, and does it unwhipped'? + </p> + <p> + Weyburn stopped his questioning, with the reflection that he had no right + to recollect her words thus accurately. The words, however, stamped + Morsfield's doings and sayings and postures in the presence of Aminta with + significance. When the ladies were looking on at the fencers, Morsfield's + perfect coxcombry had been noticeable. He knew the art of airing a fine + figure. Mrs. Lawrence Finchley had spoken of it, and Aminta had + acquiesced; in the gravely simple manner of women who may be thinking of + it much more intently than the vivacious prattler. Aminta confessed to an + admiration of masculine physical beauty; the picador, matador, of the + Spanish ring called up an undisguised glow that English ladies show coldly + when they condescend to let it be seen; as it were, a line or two of + colour on the wintriest of skies. She might, after all, at heart be one of + the leisured, jewelled, pretty-winged; the spending, never harvesting, + world she claimed and sought to enter. And what a primitive world it was!—world + of the glittering beast and the not too swiftly flying prey, the savage + passions clothed in silk. Surely desire to belong to it writes us poor + creatures. Mentally, she could hardly be maturer than the hero-worshipping + girl in the procession of Miss Vincent's young seminarists. Probably so, + but she carried magic. She was of the order of women who walk as the + goddesses of old, bearing the gift divine. And, by the way, she had the + step of the goddess. Weyburn repeated to himself the favourite familiar + line expressive of the glorious walk, and accused Lord Ormont of being in + cacophonous accordance with the perpetual wrong of circumstance, he her + possessor, the sole person of her sphere insensible to the magic she bore! + So ran his thought. + </p> + <p> + The young man chose to conceive that he thought abstractedly. He was, in + truth, often casting about for the chances of his meeting on some + fortunate day the predestined schoolmaster's wife: a lady altogether + praiseworthy for carrying principles of sound government instead of magic. + Consequently, susceptible to woman's graces though he knew himself to be, + Lady Ormont's share of them hung in the abstract for him. His hopes were + bent on an early escape to Switzerland and his life's work. + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte mounted to ride to the battle daily. She talked of her + brother Rowsley, and of 'Aminta,' and provoked an advocacy of the Countess + of Ormont, and trampled the pleas and defences to dust, much in the same + tone as on the first day; sometimes showing a peep of sweet humaneness, + like the ripe berry of a bramble, and at others rattling thunder at the + wretch of a woman audacious enough to pretend to a part in her brother's + title. + </p> + <p> + Not that she had veneration for titles. She considered them a tinsel, and + the devotee on his knee-caps to them a lump for a kick. Adding: 'Of course + I stand for my class; and if we can't have a manlier people—and it + 's not likely in a country treating my brother so badly—well, then, + let things go on as they are.' But it was the pretension to a part in the + name of Ormont which so violently offended the democratic aristocrat, and + caused her to resent it as an assault on the family honour, by 'a woman + springing up out of nothing'—a woman of no distinctive birth. + </p> + <p> + She was rational in her fashion; or Weyburn could at least see where and + how the reason in her took a twist. The Rev. Mr. Hampton-Evey would not + see it; he was, in charity to her ladyship, of a totally contrary opinion, + he informed Weyburn. The laborious pastor and much-enduring Churchman met + my lady's apologist as he was having a swing of the legs down the lanes + before breakfast, and he fell upon a series of complaints, which were + introduced by a declaration that 'he much feared' her ladyship would have + a heavy legal bill to pay for taking the law into her hands up at + Addicotes. + </p> + <p> + Her ladyship might, if she pleased, he said, encourage her domestics and + her husband's tenants and farm-labourers to abandon the church for the + chapel, and go, as she had done and threatened to do habitually, to the + chapel herself; but to denounce the ritual of the Orthodox Church under + the denomination of 'barbarous,' to say of the invoking supplications of + the service, that they were—she had been heard to state it more or + less publicly and repeatedly—suitable to abject ministers and + throngs at the court of an Indian rajah, that he did not hesitate to term + highly unbecoming in a lady of her station, subversive and unchristian. + The personal burdens inflicted on him by her ladyship he prayed for + patience to endure. He surprised Weyburn in speaking of Lady Charlotte as + 'educated and accomplished.' She was rather more so than Weyburn knew, and + more so than was common among the great ladies of her time. + </p> + <p> + Weyburn strongly advised the reverend gentleman on having it out with Lady + Charlotte in a personal interview. He sketched the great lady's combative + character on a foundation of benevolence, and stressed her tolerance for + open dealing, and the advantage gained by personal dealings with her—after + a mauling or two. His language and his illustrations touched an old-school + chord in the Rev. Mr. Hampton-Evey, who hummed over the project, + profoundly disrelishing the introductory portion. + </p> + <p> + 'Do me the honour to call and see me to-morrow, after breakfast, before + her ladyship starts for the fray on Addicote heights,' Weyburn said; 'and + I will ask your permission to stand by you. Her bark is terrific, we know; + and she can bite, but there's no venom.' + </p> + <p> + Finally, on a heave of his chest, Mr. Hampton-Evey consented to call, in + the interests of peace. + </p> + <p> + Weyburn had said it must be 'man to man with her, facing her and taking + steps'; and, although the prospect was unpleasant to repulsiveness, it was + a cheerful alternative beside Mr. Hampton-Evey's experiences and + anticipations of the malignant black power her ladyship could be when she + was not faced. + </p> + <p> + 'Let the man come,' said Lady Charlotte. Her shoulders intimated readiness + for him. + </p> + <p> + She told Weyburn he might be present—insisted to have him present. + During the day Weyburn managed to slide in observations on the favourable + reports of Mr. Hampton-Evey's work among the poor—emollient doses + that irritated her to fret and paw, as at a checking of her onset. + </p> + <p> + In the afternoon the last disputed tree on the Addicotes' ridge was felled + and laid on Olmer ground. Riding with Weyburn and the joyful Leo, she + encountered Mr. Eglett and called out the news. He remarked, in the tone + of philosophy proper to a placable country gentleman obedient to + government on foreign affairs: 'Now for the next act. But no more + horseback now, mind!' + </p> + <p> + She muttered of not recollecting a promise. He repeated the interdict. + Weyburn could fancy seeing her lips form words of how she hated old age. + </p> + <p> + He had been four days at Olmer, always facing her, 'man to man,' in the + matter of Lady Ormont, not making way at all, but holding firm, and + winning respectful treatment. They sat alone in her private room, where, + without prelude, she discharged a fiery squib at impudent hussies caught + up to the saddle-bow of a hero for just a canter, and pretending to a + permanent seat beside him. + </p> + <p> + 'You have only to see Lady Ormont; you will admit the justice of her + claim, my lady,' said he; and as evidently he wanted a fight, she let him + have it. + </p> + <p> + 'You try to provoke me; you take liberties. You may call the woman Aminta, + I've told you; you insult me when you call the woman by my family name.' + </p> + <p> + 'Pardon me, my lady: I have no right to call Lady Ormont Aminta.' + </p> + <p> + 'You've never done so, eh? Say!' + </p> + <p> + She had him at the edge of the precipice. He escaped by saying, 'Her + Christian name was asked the other day, and I mentioned it. She is + addressed by me as Lady Ormont.' + </p> + <p> + 'And by her groom and her footman. They all do; it 's the indemnity to + that class of young woman. Her linendraper is Lady-Ormonting as you do. I + took you for a gentleman. Let me hear you give her that title again, you + shall hear her true one, that the world fits her with, from me.' + </p> + <p> + The time was near the half-hour bell before dinner, the situation between + them that of the fall of the breath to fetch words electrical. She left it + to him to begin the fight, and was not sorry that she had pricked him for + it. + </p> + <p> + A footman entered the room, bearer of a missive for Mr. Weyburn. Lord + Ormont's groom had brought it from London. + </p> + <p> + 'Send in the man,' said Lady Charlotte. + </p> + <p> + Weyburn read + </p> + <p> + 'The Countess of Ormont begs Mr. Weyburn to return instantly. There has + been an accident in his home. It may not be very serious. An arm—a + shock to the system from a fall. Messenger informs her, fear of internal + hemorrhage. Best doctors in attendance.' + </p> + <p> + He handed Lady Charlotte the letter. She humped at the first line, flashed + across the remainder, and in a lowered voice asked— + </p> + <p> + 'Sister in the house?' + </p> + <p> + 'My mother,' Weyburn said. + </p> + <p> + The groom appeared. He knew nothing. The Countess had given him orders to + spare no expense on the road to Olmer, without a minute's delay. He had + ridden and driven. + </p> + <p> + He looked worn. Lady Charlotte rang the bell for her butler. To him she + said— + </p> + <p> + 'See that this man has a good feed of meat, any pastry you have, and a + bottle of port wine. He has earned a pipe of tobacco; make up a bed for + him. Despatch at once any one of the stable-boys to Loughton—the + Dolphin. Mr. Leeman there will have a chariot, fly, gig, anything, + ready-horsed in three hours from now. See Empson yourself; he will put my + stepper Mab to the light trap; no delay. Have his feed at Loughton. Tell + Mrs. Maples to send up now, here, a tray, whatever she has, within five + minutes—not later. A bottle of the Peace of Amiens Chambertin—Mr. + Eglett's. You understand. Mrs. Maples will pack a basket for the journey; + she will judge. Add a bottle of the Waterloo Bordeaux. Wait: a dozen of + Mr. Eglett's cigars. Brisk with all the orders. Go.' + </p> + <p> + She turned to Weyburn. 'You pack your portmanteau faster than a servant + will do it.' + </p> + <p> + He ran up-stairs. + </p> + <p> + She was beside the tray to welcome and inspirit his eating, and she + performed the busy butler's duty in pouring out wine for him. It was a + toned old Burgundy, happy in the year of its birth, the grandest of + instruments to roll the gambol-march of the Dionysiaca through the blood + of this frame and sound it to the spirit. She spoke no word of his cause + for departure. He drank, and he felt what earth can do to cheer one of her + stricken children and strengthen the beat of a heart with a dread like a + shot in it. + </p> + <p> + She, while he flew supporting the body of his most beloved to the sun of + Life in brighter hope, reckoned the stages of his journey. + </p> + <p> + 'Leeman at Loughton will post you through the night to Mersley. Wherever + you bait, it is made known that you come from Olmer, and are one of us. + That passes you on up to London. Where can Lord Ormont be now?' + </p> + <p> + 'In Paris.' + </p> + <p> + 'Still in Paris? He leaves her. She did well to send as she did. You will + not pay for the posting along the road.' + </p> + <p> + 'I will pay for myself—I have a 'purse,' Weyburn said; and + continued, 'Oh, my lady; there is Mr. Hampton-Evey to-morrow morning: I + promised to stand by him.' + </p> + <p> + 'I'll explain,' said Lady Charlotte. 'He shall not miss you. If he strips + the parson and comes as a man and a servant of the poor, he has nothing to + fear. You've done? The night before my brother Rowsley's first duel I sat + with him at supper and poured his wine out, and knew what was going to + happen, didn't say a word. No use in talking about feelings. Besides, + death is only the other side of the ditch, and one or other of us must go + foremost. Now then, good-bye. Empson's waiting by this time. Mr. Eglett + and Leo shall hear the excuses from me. Think of anything you may want, + while I count ten.' + </p> + <p> + She held his hand. He wanted her to be friendly to Lady Ormont, but could + not vex her at the last moment, touched as he was by her practical + kindness. + </p> + <p> + She pressed his hand and let it go. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIV. OLD LOVERS NEW FRIENDS + </h2> + <p> + The cottage inhabited by Weyburn's mother was on the southern hills over + London. He reached it late in the afternoon. His mother's old servant, + Martha, spied the roadway at the gate of the small square of garden. Her + steady look without welcome told him the scene he would meet beyond the + door, and was the dead in her eyes. He dropped from no height; he stood on + a level with the blow. His apprehensions on the road had lowered him to + meet it. + </p> + <p> + 'Too late, Martha?' + </p> + <p> + 'She's in heaven, my dear.' + </p> + <p> + 'She is lying alone?' + </p> + <p> + 'The London doctor left half an hour back. She's gone. Slipped, and fell, + coming from her room, all the way down. She prayed for grace to see her + son. She 'll watch over him, be sure. You 'll not find it lone and cold. A + lady sits with it—Lady Ormont, they call her—a very kind lady. + My mistress liked her voice. Ever since news of the accident, up to ten at + night; and never eats or drinks more than a poor tiny bit of + bread-and-butter, with a teacup.' + </p> + <p> + 'Weyburn went up-stairs. + </p> + <p> + Aminta sat close to the bedside in a darkened room. They greeted silently. + He saw the white shell of the life that had flown; he took his mother's + hand and kissed it, and knelt, clasping it. + </p> + <p> + Fear of disturbing his prayer kept Aminta seated. Death was a stranger to + him. The still warm, half-cold, nerveless hand smote the fact of things as + they were through the prayer for things as we would have them. The + vitality of his prayer was the sole light he had. It drew sustainment from + the dead hand in his grasp, and cowered down to the earth claiming all we + touch. He tried to summon vision of a soaring spirituality; he could not; + his understanding and senses were too stricken. He prayed on. His prayer + was as a little fountain, not rising high out of earth, and in the clutch + of death; but its being it had from death, his love gave it food. + </p> + <p> + Prayer is power within us to communicate with the desired beyond our + thirsts. The goodness of the dear good mother gone was in him for + assurance of a breast of goodness to receive her, whatever the nature of + the eternal secret may be. The good life gone lives on in the mind; the + bad has but a life in the body, and that not lasting,—it extends, + dispreads, it worms away, it perishes. Need we more to bid the mind + perceive through obstructive flesh the God who reigns, a devil vanquished? + Be certain that it is the pure mind we set to perceive. The God discerned + in thought is another than he of the senses. And let the prayer be as a + little fountain. Rising on a spout, from dread of the hollow below, the + prayer may be prolonged in words begetting words, and have a pulse of + fervour: the spirit of it has fallen after the first jet. That is the + delirious energy of our craving, which has no life in our souls. We do not + get to any heaven by renouncing the Mother we spring from; and when there + is an eternal secret for us, it is befit to believe that Earth knows, to + keep near her, even in our utmost aspirations. + </p> + <p> + Weyburn still knelt. He was warned to quit the formal posture of an + exhausted act by the thought, that he had come to reflect upon how he + might be useful to his boys in a like calamity. + </p> + <p> + Having risen, he became aware, that for some time of his kneeling Aminta's + hand had been on his head, and they had raised their souls in unison. It + was a soul's link. They gazed together on the calm, rapt features. They + passed from the room. + </p> + <p> + 'I cannot thank you,' he said. + </p> + <p> + 'Oh no; I have the reason for gratitude,' said she. 'I have learnt to know + and love her, and hope I may imitate when my time is near.' + </p> + <p> + “She.... at the last?' + </p> + <p> + 'Peacefully; no pain. The breath had not left her very long before you + came.' + </p> + <p> + 'I said I cannot; but I must— + </p> + <p> + 'Do not.' + </p> + <p> + 'Not in speech, then.' + </p> + <p> + They went into the tasteful little sitting-room below, where the stillness + closed upon them as a consciousness of loss. + </p> + <p> + 'You have comforted her each day,' he said. + </p> + <p> + 'It has been my one happiness.' + </p> + <p> + 'I could not wish for better than for her to have known you.' + </p> + <p> + 'Say that for me. I have gained. She left her last words for you with me. + They were love, love... pride in her son: thanks to God for having been + thought worthy to give him birth.' + </p> + <p> + 'She was one of the noble women of earth.' + </p> + <p> + 'She was your mother. Let me not speak any more. I think I will now go. I + am rarely given to these—' + </p> + <p> + The big drops were falling. + </p> + <p> + 'You have not ordered your carriage?' + </p> + <p> + 'It brings me here. I find my way home.' + </p> + <p> + 'Alone?' + </p> + <p> + 'I like the independence.' + </p> + <p> + 'At night, too!' + </p> + <p> + 'Nothing harmed me. Now it is daylight. A letter arrived for you from High + Brent this morning. I forgot to bring it. Yesterday two of your pupils + called here. Martha saw them.' + </p> + <p> + Her naming of the old servant familiarly melted him. 'You will not bear to + hear praise or thanks.' + </p> + <p> + 'If I deserved them. I should like you to call on Dr. Buxton; he will tell + you more than we can. He drove with me the first day, after I had sent you + the local doctor's report. I had it from the messenger, his assistant.' + </p> + <p> + Weyburn knew Dr. Buxton's address. He begged her to stay and take some + nourishment; ventured a remark on her wasted look. + </p> + <p> + 'It is poor fare in cottages.' + </p> + <p> + 'I have been feeding on better than bread and meat,' she said.' I should + have eaten if I had felt appetite. My looks will recover, such as they + are. I hope I have grown out of them; they are a large part of the bondage + of women. You would like to see me safe into some conveyance. Go up-stairs + for a few minutes; I will wait here.' + </p> + <p> + He obeyed her. Passing from the living to the dead, from the dead to the + living, they were united in his heart. + </p> + <p> + Her brevity of tone, and her speech, so practical upon a point of need, + under a crisis of distress, reminded him of Lady Charlotte at the time of + the groom's arrival with her letter. + </p> + <p> + Aminta was in no hurry to drive. She liked walking and looking down on + London, she said. + </p> + <p> + 'My friend and schoolmate, Selina Collett, comes to me at Whitsuntide. We + have taken a house on the Upper Thames, above Marlow. You will come and + see us, if you can be persuaded to leave your boys. We have a boathouse, + and a bathing-plank for divers. The stream is quiet there between rich + meadows. It seems to flow as if it thought. I am not poetical; I tell you + only my impression. You shall be a great deal by yourself, as men prefer + to be.' + </p> + <p> + 'As men are forced to be—I beg!' said he. 'Division is against my + theories.' + </p> + <p> + 'We might help, if we understood one another, I have often fancied. I know + something of your theories. I should much like to hear you some day on the + scheme of the school in Switzerland, and also on the schoolmaster's + profession. She whom we have lost was full of it, and spoke of it to me as + much as her weakness would permit. The subject seemed to give her + strength.' + </p> + <p> + 'She has always encouraged me,' said Weyburn.' I have lost her, but I + shall feel that she is not absent. She had ideas of her own about men and + women.' + </p> + <p> + 'Some she mentioned.' + </p> + <p> + 'And about marriage?' + </p> + <p> + 'That too.' + </p> + <p> + Aminta shook herself out of a sudden stupor. + </p> + <p> + 'Her mind was very clear up to the last hour upon all the subjects + interesting her son. She at one time regretted his not being a soldier, + for the sake of his father's memory. Then she learned to think he could do + more for the world as the schoolmaster. She said you can persuade.' + </p> + <p> + 'We had our talks. She would have the reason, if she was to be won. I like + no other kind of persuasion.' + </p> + <p> + 'I long to talk over the future school with you. That is, to hear your + plans.' + </p> + <p> + They were at the foot of the hill, in view of an inn announcing livery + stables. She wished to walk the whole distance. He shook his head. + </p> + <p> + The fly was ready for her soon, and he begged to see her safe home. She + refused, after taking her seat, but said: 'At any other time. We are old + friends. You will really go through the ceremony of consulting me about + the school?' + </p> + <p> + He replied: 'I am honoured.' + </p> + <p> + 'Ah, not to me,' said Aminta. 'We will be the friends we—You will + not be formal with me?—not from this day?' + </p> + <p> + She put out her hand. He took it gently. The dead who had drawn them + together withheld a pressure. Holding the hand, he said: 'I shall crave + leave of absence for some days.' + </p> + <p> + 'I shall see you on the day,' said she. 'If it is your desire: I will send + word.' + </p> + <p> + 'We both mourn at heart. We should be in company. Adieu.' + </p> + <p> + Their hands fell apart. They looked. The old school time was in each mind. + They saw it as a shore-bank in grey outline across morning mist. Years + were between; and there was a division of circumstance, more repelling + than an abyss or the rush of deep wild waters. + </p> + <p> + Neither of them had regrets. Under their cloud, and with the grief they + shared, they were as happy as two could be in recovering one another as + friends. + </p> + <p> + On the day of the funeral Aminta drove to the spot where they had parted—she + walked to the churchyard. + </p> + <p> + She followed the coffin to its gravel-heap, wishing neither to see nor be + seen, only that she might be so far attached to the remains of the dead; + and the sense of blessedness she had in her bowed simplicity of feeling + was as if the sainted dead had cleansed and anointed her. + </p> + <p> + When the sods had been cast on, the last word spoken, she walked her way + back, happy in being alone, unnoticed. She was grateful to the chief + mourner for letting her go as she had come. That helped her to her sense + of purification, the haven out of the passions, hardly less quiet than the + repose into which the dear dead woman, his mother, had entered. + </p> + <p> + London lay beneath her. The might of the great hive hummed at the verge of + her haven of peace without disturbing. There she had been what none had + known of her: an ambitious girl, modest merely for lack of intrepidity; + paralyzed by her masterful lord; aiming her highest at a gilt weathercock; + and a disappointed creature, her breast a home of serpents; never herself. + She thought and hoped she was herself now. Alarm lest this might be + another of her moods, victim of moods as she had latterly been, was a + shadow armed with a dart playing round her to find the weak spot. It + sprang from her acknowledged weakness of nature; and she cast about for + how to keep it outside her and lean on a true though a small internal + support. She struck at her desires, to sound them. + </p> + <p> + They were yesterday for love; partly for distinction, for a woman having + beauty to shine in the sphere of beauty; but chiefly to love and be loved, + therefore to live. She had yesterday read letters of a man who broke a + music from the word—about as much music as there is in a tuning—fork, + yet it rang and lingered; and he was not the magical musician. Now those + letters were as dust of the road. The sphere of beauty was a glass + lamp-globe for delirious moths. She had changed. Belief in the real change + gave her full view of the compliant coward she had been. + </p> + <p> + Her heart assured her she had natural courage. She felt that it could be + stubborn to resist a softness. Now she cared no more for the hackneyed + musical word; friendship was her desire. If it is not life's poetry, it is + a credible prose; a land of low undulations instead of Alps; beyond the + terrors and the deceptions. And she could trust her friend: he who was a + singular constancy. His mother had told her of his preserving letters of a + girl he loved when at school; and of his journeys to an empty house at + Dover. That was past; but, as the boy, so the man would be in sincerity of + feeling trustworthy to the uttermost. + </p> + <p> + She mused on the friend. He was brave. She had seen how he took his blow, + and sorrow as a sister, conquering emotion. It was not to be expected of + him by one who knew him when at school. Had he faults? He must have + faults. She, curiously, could see none. After consenting to his career as + a schoolmaster, and seeing nothing ludicrous in it, she endowed him with + the young school-hero's reputation, beheld him with the eyes of the girl + who had loved him—and burnt his old letters!—bitterly + regretted that she burnt his letters!—and who had applauded his + contempt of ushers and master opposing his individual will and the thing + he thought it right to do. + </p> + <p> + Musing thus, she turned a corner, on a sudden, in her mind, and ran + against a mirror, wherein a small figure running up to meet her, grew + large and nodded, with the laugh and eyes of Browny. So little had she + changed! The stedfast experienced woman rebuked that volatile, and some + might say, faithless girl. But the girl had her answer: she declared they + were one and the same, affirmed that the years between were a bad night's + dream, that her heart had been faithful, that he who conjures visions of + romance in a young girl's bosom must always have her heart, as a crisis + will reveal it to her. She had the volubility of the mettled Browny of + old, and was lectured. When she insisted on shouting 'Matey! Matey!' she + was angrily spurned and silenced. + </p> + <p> + Aminta ceased to recline in her carriage. An idea that an indolent posture + fostered vapourish meditations, counselled her sitting rigidly upright and + interestedly observing the cottages and merry gutter-children along the + squat straight streets of a London suburb. Her dominant ultimate thought + was, 'I, too, can work!' Like her courage, the plea of a capacity to work + appealed for confirmation to the belief which exists without demonstrated + example; and as she refrained from probing to the inner sources of that + mental outcry, it was allowed to stand and remain among the convictions we + store—wherewith to shape our destinies. + </p> + <p> + Childishly indeed, quite witlessly, she fell into a trick of repeating the + name of Matthew Weyburn in her breast and on her lips, after the manner of + Isabella Lawrence Finchley, when she had inquired for his Christian name, + and went on murmuring it, as if sucking a new bonbon, with the remark: 'It + sounds nice, it suits the mouth.' Little Selina Collett had told, Aminta + remembered, how those funny boys at Cuper's could not at first get the + name 'Aminta' to suit the mouth, but went about making hideous faces in + uttering it. She smiled at the recollection, and thought, up to a movement + of her lips, one is not tempted to do that in saying Matthew Weyburn! + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XV. SHOWING A SECRET FISHED WITHOUT ANGLING + </h2> + <p> + That great couchant dragon of the devouring jaws and the withering breath, + known as our London world, was in expectation of an excitement above yawns + on the subject of a beautiful Lady Doubtful proposing herself, through a + group of infatuated influential friends, to a decorous Court, as one among + the ladies acceptable. The popular version of it sharpened the sauce by + mingling romance and cynicism very happily; for the numerous cooks, when + out of the kitchen, will furnish a piquant dish. Thus, a jewel-eyed girl + of half English origin (a wounded British officer is amiably nursed in a + castle near the famous Peninsula battlefield, etc.), running wild down the + streets of Seville, is picked up by Lord Ormont, made to discard her + tambourine, brought over to our shores, and allowed the decoration of his + name, without the legitimate adornment of his title. Discontented with her + position after a time, she now pushes boldly to claim the place which will + be most effective in serving her as a bath. She has, by general consent, + beauty; she must, seeing that she counts influential friends, have + witchery. Those who have seen her riding and driving beside her lord, + speak of Andalusian grace, Oriental lustre, fit qualification for the fair + slave of a notoriously susceptible old warrior. + </p> + <p> + She won a party in the widening gossip world; and enough of a party in the + regent world to make a stream. Pretending to be the actual Countess of + Ormont, though not publicly acknowledged as his countess by the earl, she + had on her side the strenuous few who knew and liked her, some who were + pleased compassionately to patronize, all idle admirers of a shadowed + beautiful woman at bay, the devotees of any beauty in distress, and such + as had seen, such as imagined they had seen, such as could paint a mental + picture of a lady of imposing stature, persuasive appearance, pathetic + history, and pronounce her to be unjustly treated, with a general belief + that she was visible and breathing. She had the ready enthusiasts, the + responsive sentimentalists, and an honest active minor number, of whom not + every one could be declared perfectly unspotted in public estimation, + however innocent under verdict of the courts of law. + </p> + <p> + Against her was the livid cloud-bank over a flowery field, that has not + yet spoken audible thunder: the terrible aggregate social woman, of man's + creation, hated by him, dreaded, scorned, satirized, and nevertheless, + upheld, esteemed, applauded: a mark of civilization, on to which our human + society must hold as long as we have nothing humaner. She exhibits virtue, + with face of waxen angel, with paw of desert beast, and blood of victims + on it. Her fold is a genial climate and the material pleasures for the + world's sheepy: worshipping herself, she claims the sanctification of a + performed religion. She is gentle when unassailed, going her way serenely, + with her malady in the blood. When the skin bears witness to it, she + swallows an apothecary, and there is a short convulsion. She is refreshed + by cutting off diseased inferior members: the superior betraying foul + symptoms, she covers up and retains; rationally, too, for they minister to + her present existence, and she lives all in the present. Her subjects are + the mixed Subservient; among her rebellious are earth's advanced, who have + cold a morning on their foreheads, and these would not dethrone her, they + would but shame and purify by other methods than the druggist. She loves + nothing. Undoubtedly, she dislikes the vicious. On that merit she + subsists. + </p> + <p> + The vexatious thing in speaking of her is, that she compels to the use of + the rhetorician's brass instrument. As she is one of the Powers giving + life and death, one may be excused. This tremendous queen of the + congregation has brought discredit on her sex for the scourge laid on + quivering female flesh, and for the flippant indifference shown to misery + and to fine distinctions between right and wrong, good and bad; and + particularly for the undiscriminating hardness upon the starved of women. + We forget her having been conceived in the fear of men, shaped to gratify + them. She is their fiction of the state they would fain beguile themselves + to suppose her sex has reached, for their benefit; where she may be queen + of it in a corner, certain of a loyal support, if she will only give men + her half-the-world's assistance to uplift the fabric comfortable to them; + together with assurance of paternity, case of mind in absence, exclusive + possession, enormous and minutest, etc.; not by any means omitting a + regimental orderliness, from which men are privately exempt, because they + are men, or because they are grown boys—the brisker at lessons after + a vacation or a truancy, says the fiction. + </p> + <p> + In those days the world had oscillated, under higher leading than its + royal laxity, to rigidity. Tiny peccadilloes were no longer matter of + jest, and the sinner exposed stood 'sola' to receive the brand. A + beautiful Lady Doubtful needed her husband's countenance if she was to + take one of the permanent steps in public places. The party of Lady + Charlotte Eglett called on the livid cloud-bank aforesaid to discharge + celestial bolts and sulphur oil on the head of an impudent, underbred, + ambitious young slut, whose arts had bewitched a distinguished nobleman + not young in years at least, and ensnared the remainder wits of some + principal ancient ladies of the land. Professional Puritans, born + conservatives, malicious tattlers, made up a goodly tail to Lady + Charlotte's party. The epithet 'unbred' was accredited upon the quoted + sayings and doings of the pretentious young person's aunt, repeated abroad + by noblemen and gentlemen present when she committed herself; and the same + were absurd. They carried a laugh, and so they lived and circulated. Lord + Ormont submitted to the infliction of that horrid female in his household! + It was no wonder he stopped short of allying himself with the family. + </p> + <p> + Nor was it a wonder that the naturally enamoured old warrior or invalided + Mars (for she had the gift of beauty) should deem it prudent to be out of + England when she and her crazy friends determined on the audacious move. + Or put it the other way—for it is just as confounding right side or + left—she and her friends take advantage of his absence to make the + clever push for an establishment, and socially force him to legalize their + union on his return. The deeds of the preceding reign had bequeathed a + sort of legendary credence to the wildest tales gossip could invent under + a demurrer. + </p> + <p> + But there was the fact, the earl was away. Lady Charlotte's party buzzed + everywhere. Her ladyship had come to town to head it. Her ladyship laid + trains of powder from dinner-parties, balls, routs, park-processions, into + the Lord Chamberlain's ear, and fired and exploded them, deafening the + grand official. Do you consider that virulent Pagan Goddesses and the + flying torch-furies are extinct? Error of Christians! We have relinquished + the old names and have no new ones for them; but they are here, + inextinguishable, threading the day and night air with their dire + squib-trail, if we would but see. Hissing they go, and we do not hear. We + feel the effects. + </p> + <p> + Upon the counsel of Mrs. Lawrence, Aminta sent a letter to Lord Ormont at + his hotel in Paris, informing him of the position of affairs. He had + delayed his return, and there had been none of his brief communications. + </p> + <p> + She wrote, as she knew, as she felt, coldly. She was guided by others, and + her name was up before the world, owing to some half-remembered impulsion + of past wishes, but her heart was numbed; she was not a woman to have a + wish without a beat of the heart in it. For her name she had a feeling, to + be likened rather to the losing gambler's contemplation of a big stake he + has flung, and sees it gone while fortune is undecided; and he catches at + a philosophy nothing other than his hug of a modest little background + pleasure, that he has always preferred to this accursed bad habit of + gambling with the luck against him. Reckless in the cast, she was reckless + of success. + </p> + <p> + Her letter was unanswered. + </p> + <p> + Then, and day by day more strongly, she felt for her name. She put a false + heart into it. She called herself to her hearing the Countess of Ormont, + and deigned to consult the most foolish friend she could have chosen—her + aunt; and even listened to her advice, that she should run about knocking + at all the doors open to her, and state her case against the earl. It + seemed the course to take, the moment for taking it. Was she not asked if + she could now at last show she had pride? Her pride ran stinging through + her veins, like a band of freed prisoners who head the rout to fire a + city. She charged her lord with having designedly—oh! cunningly + indeed left her to be the prey of her enemies at the hour when he knew it + behoved him to be her great defender. There had been no disguise of the + things in progress: they had been spoken of allusively, quite + comprehensibly, after the fashion common with two entertaining a secret + semi-hostility on a particular subject; one of them being the creature + that blushes and is educated to be delicate, reserved, and timorous. He + was not ignorant, and he had left her, and he would not reply to her + letter! + </p> + <p> + So fell was her mood, that an endeavour to conjure up the scene of her + sitting beside the death-bed of Matthew Weyburn's mother, failed to sober + and smooth it, holy though that time was. The false heart she had put into + the pride of her name was powerfuller than the heart in her bosom. But to + what end had the true heart counselled her of late? It had been a home of + humours and languors, an impotent insurgent, the sapper of her character; + and as we see in certain disorderly States a curative incendiarism usurp + the functions of the sluggish citizen, and the work of re-establishment + done by destruction, in peril of a total extinction, Aminta's feverish + anger on behalf of her name went a stretch to vivify and give her dulled + character a novel edge. She said good-bye to cowardice. 'I have no husband + to defend me—I must do it for myself.' The peril of a too complete + exercise of independence was just intimated to her perceptions. On whom + the blame? And let the motively guilty go mourn over consequences! That + Institution of Marriage was eyed. Is it not a halting step to happiness? + It is the step of a cripple,—and one leg or the other poses for the + feebler sex,—small is the matter which! And is happiness our cry? + Our cry is rather for circumstance and occasion to use our functions, and + the conditions are denied to women by Marriage—denied to the + luckless of women, who are many, very many: denied to Aminta, calling + herself Countess of Ormont, for one, denied to Mrs. Lawrence Finchley for + another, and in a base bad manner. She had defended her good name + triumphantly, only to enslave herself for life or snatch at the liberty + which besmirches. + </p> + <p> + Reviewing Mrs. Lawrence, Aminta's real heart pressed forward at the beat, + in tender pity of the woman for whom a yielding to love was to sin; and + unwomanly is the woman who does not love: men will say it. Aminta found + herself phrasing. 'Why was she unable to love her husband?—he is not + old.' She hurried in flight from the remark to confidences imparted by + other ladies, showing strange veins in an earthy world; after which, her + mind was bent to rebuke Mrs. Pagnell for the silly soul's perpetual + allusions to Lord Ormont's age. She did not think of his age. But she was + vividly thinking that she was young. Young, married, loveless, cramped in + her energies, publicly dishonoured—a Lady Doubtful, courting one + friend whom she liked among women, one friend whom she respected among + men; that was the sketch of her. + </p> + <p> + That was in truth the outline, as much as Aminta dared sketch of herself + without dragging her down lower than her trained instinct would bear to + look. Our civilization shuns nature; and most shuns it in the most + artificially civilized, to suit the market. They, however, are always + close to their mother nature, beneath their second nature's mask of + custom; and Aminta's unconscious concluding touch to the sketch: 'My + husband might have helped me to a footing in Society,' would complete it + as a coloured picture, if writ in tones. + </p> + <p> + She said it, and for the footing in Society she had lost her taste. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Lawrence brought the final word from high quarters: that the + application must be deferred until Lord Ormont returned to town. It was + known before, that such would be the decision. She had it from the eminent + official himself, and she kicked about the room, setting her pretty mouth + and nose to pout and sniff, exactly like a boy whose chum has been + mishandled by a bully. + </p> + <p> + 'Your dear good man is too much for us. I thought we should drive him. + 'C'est un ruse homme de guerre.' I like him, but I could slap him. He + stops the way. Upon my word, he seems tolerably careless of his treasure. + Does he suppose Mrs. Paggy is a protection? Do you know she's devoted to + that man Morsfield? He listens to her stories. To judge by what he shouts + aloud, he intends carrying you off the first opportunity, divorcing, and + installing you in Cobeck Hall. All he fears is, that your lord won't + divorce. You should have seen him the other day; he marched up and down + the room, smacking his head and crying out: “Legal measures or any weapons + her husband pleases!” For he has come to believe that the lady would have + been off with him long before, if her lord had no claim to the marital + title. “It 's that husband I can't get over! that husband!” He reminded + me, to the life, of Lawrence Finchley with a headache the morning after a + supper, striding, with his hand on the shining middle of his head: “It's + that Welsh rabbit! that Welsh rabbit!” He has a poor digestion, and he + will eat cheese. The Welsh rabbit chased him into his bed. But listen to + me, dear, about your Morsfield. I told you he was dangerous.' + </p> + <p> + 'He is not my Morsfield,' said Aminta. + </p> + <p> + 'Beware of his having a tool in Paggy. He boasts of letters.' + </p> + <p> + 'Mine? Two: and written to request him to cease writing to me.' + </p> + <p> + 'He stops at nothing. And, oh, my Simplicity! don't you see you gave him a + step in begging him to retire? Morsfield has lived a good deal among our + neighbours, who expound the physiology of women. He anatomizes us; pulls + us to pieces, puts us together, and then animates us with a breath of his + “passion”—sincere upon every occasion, I don't doubt. He spared me, + although he saw I was engaged. Perhaps it was because I 'm of no definite + colour. Or he thought I was not a receptacle for “passion.” And quite + true,—Adder, the dear good fellow, has none. Or where should we be? + On a Swiss Alp, in a chalet, he shooting chamois, and I milking cows, with + 'ah-ahio, ah-ahio,' all day long, and a quarrel at night over curds and + whey. Well, and that 's a better old pensioner's limp to his end for + “passion” than the foreign hotel bell rung mightily, and one of the two + discovered with a dagger in the breast, and the other a don't-look lying + on the pavement under the window. Yes, and that's better than “passion” + splitting and dispersing upon new adventures, from habit, with two sparks + remaining of the fire.' + </p> + <p> + Aminta took Mrs. Lawrence's hands. 'Is it a lecture?' + </p> + <p> + She was kissed. 'Frothy gabble. I'm really near to “passion” when I + embrace you. You're the only one I could run away with; live with all + alone, I believe. I wonder men can see you while that silly lord of yours + is absent, and not begin Morsfielding. They're virtuous if they resist. + Paggy tells the world... well?' Aminta had reddened. + </p> + <p> + 'What does my aunt tell the world?' + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Lawrence laid her smoothing hand absently on a frill of lace fichu + above a sternly disciplined bosom at half-heave. 'I think I can judge now + that you're not much hurt by this wretched business of the presentation. + The little service I could do was a moral lesson to me on the subject of + deuce-may-care antecedents. My brother Tom, too, was always playing + truant, as a boy. It 's in the blood.' + </p> + <p> + She seemed to be teasing, and Aminta cried: 'My aunt! Let me hear. She + tells the world—?' + </p> + <p> + 'Paggy? ah, yes. Only that she says the countess has an exalted opinion of + Mr. Secretary's handwriting—as witnessed by his fair copy of the + Memoirs, of course.' + </p> + <p> + 'Poor woman! How can she talk such foolishness! I guessed it.' + </p> + <p> + 'You wear a dark red rose when you're guessing, 'ma mie,'—French + for, my Aminta.' + </p> + <p> + 'But consider, Isabella, Mr. Weyburn has just had the heaviest of losses. + My aunt should spare mention of him.' + </p> + <p> + 'Matthew Weyburn! we both like the name.' Mrs. Lawrence touched at her + friend and gazed. 'I've seen it on certain evenings—crimson over an + olive sky. What it forebodes, I can't imagine; but it's the end of a + lovely day. They say it threatens rain, if it begins one. It 's an ominous + herald.' + </p> + <p> + 'You make me,' said Aminta. 'I must redden if you keep looking at me so + closely.' + </p> + <p> + 'Now frown one little bit, please. I love to see you. I love to see a + secret disclose itself ingenuously.' + </p> + <p> + 'But what secret, my dear?' cried Aminta's defence of her innocence; and + she gave a short frown. + </p> + <p> + 'Have no fear. Mr. Secretary is not the man to be Morsfielding. And he can + enjoy his repast; a very good sign. But is he remaining long?' + </p> + <p> + 'He is going soon, I hear.' + </p> + <p> + 'He's a good boy. I could have taken to him myself, and not dreaded a + worrying. There 's this difference between you and me, though, my Aminta; + one of us has the fireplace prepared for what's-his-name—“passion.” + Kiss me. How could you fancy you were going to have a woman for your + friend and keep hidden from her any one of the secrets that blush! and + with Paggy to aid! I am sure it means very little. Admiration for good + handwriting is—' a smile broke the sentence. + </p> + <p> + 'You're astray, Isabella.' + </p> + <p> + 'Not I, dear, I'm too fond of you.' + </p> + <p> + 'You read what is not.' + </p> + <p> + 'What is not yet written, you mean.' + </p> + <p> + 'What never could be written.' + </p> + <p> + 'I read what is in the blood, and comes out to me when I look. That lord + of yours should take to study you as I have done ever since I fell in love + with you. He 's not counselling himself well in keeping away.' + </p> + <p> + 'Now you speak wisely,' said Aminta. + </p> + <p> + 'Not a particle more wisely. And the reason is close at hand—see. + You are young, you attract—how could it be otherwise?—and you + have “passion” sleeping, and likely to wake with a spring whether roused + or not. In my observation good-man t'other fellow—the poet's friend—is + never long absent when the time is ripe—at least, not in places + where we gather together. Well, one is a buckler against the other: I + don't say with lovely Amy May,—with an honourable woman. But Aminta + can smell powder and grow more mettlesome. Who can look at you and be + blind to passion sleeping! The sight of you makes me dream of it—me, + a woman, cool as a wine-cellar or a well. So there's to help you to know + yourself and be on your guard. I know I'm not deceived, because I've + fallen in love with you, and no love can be without jealousy, so I have + the needle in my breast, that points at any one who holds a bit of you. + Kind of sympathetic needle to the magnet behind anything. You'll know it, + if you don't now. I should have felt the thing without the aid of Paggy. + So, then, imagine all my nonsense unsaid, and squeeze a drop or two of + 'sirop de bon conseil' out of it, as if it were your own wise + meditations.' The rest of Mrs. Lawrence's discourse was a swallow's wing + skimming the city stream. She departed, and Aminta was left to beat at her + heart and ask whether it had a secret. + </p> + <p> + But if there was one, the secret was out, and must have another name. It + had been a secret for her until she heard her friend speak those + pin-points that pricked her heart, and sent the blood coursing over her + face, like a betrayal, so like as to resemble a burning confession. + </p> + <p> + But if this confessed the truth, she was the insanest of women. No woman + could be surer that she had her wits. She had come to see things, + previously mysteries, with surprising clearness. As, for example, that + passion was part of her nature; therefore her very life, lying tranced. + She certainly could not love without passion such an abandonment was the + sole justification of love in a woman standing where she stood. And now + for the first time she saw her exact position before the world; and she + saw some way into her lord: saw that he nursed a wound, extracted balm + from anything enabling him to show the world how he despised it, and + undesigningly immolated her for the petty gratification. + </p> + <p> + It could not, in consequence, be the truth. To bear what she had borne she + must be a passionless woman; and she was glad of her present safety in + thinking it. Once it was absolutely true. She swam away to the + golden-circled Island of Once; landed, and dwelt there solitarily and + blissfully, looking forward to Sunday's walk round the park, looking back + on it. Proudly she could tell herself that her dreams of the Prince of the + island had not been illusions as far as he was concerned; for he had a + great soul. He did not aim at a tawdry glory. He was a loss to our army—no + loss to his country or the world. A woman might clasp her feeling of pride + in having foreseen distinction for him; and a little, too, in + distinguishing now the true individual distinction from the feathered + uniform vulgar. Where the girl's dreams had proved illusions, she beheld + in a title and luxuries, in a loveless marriage. + </p> + <p> + That was perilous ground. Still it taught her to see that the substantial + is the dust; and passion not being active, she could reflect. After a + series of penetrative flashes, flattering to her intelligence the more + startling they were, reflection was exhausted. She sank on her nature's + desire to join or witness agonistic incidents, shocks, wrestlings, the + adventures which are brilliant air to sanguine energies. Imagination shot + tap, and whirled the circle of a succession of them; and she had a + companion and leader, unfeatured, reverently obeyed, accepted as not to be + known, not to be guessed at, in the deepest hooded inmost of her being + speechlessly divined. + </p> + <p> + The sudden result of Aminta's turmoil was a determination that she must + look on Steignton. And what was to be gained by that? She had no idea. And + how had she stopped her imaginative flight with the thought of looking on + Steignton? All she could tell was, that it would close a volume. She could + not say why the volume must be closed. + </p> + <p> + Her orders for the journey down to Steignton were prompt. Mrs. Pagnell had + an engagement at the house of Lady Staines for the next day to meet titles + and celebrities, and it precluded her comprehension of the project. She + begged to have the journey postponed. She had pledged her word, she said. + </p> + <p> + 'To Mr. Morsfield?' said Aminta. + </p> + <p> + Her aunt was astounded. + </p> + <p> + 'I did tell him we should be there, my dear.' 'He appears to have a + pleasure in meeting you.' 'He is one of the real gentlemen of the land.' + </p> + <p> + 'You correspond with him?' + </p> + <p> + 'I may not be the only one.' + </p> + <p> + 'Foolish aunty! How can you speak to me in that senseless way?' cried + Aminta. 'You know the schemer he is, and that I have no protection from + his advances unless I run the risk of bloodshed.' + </p> + <p> + 'My dear Aminta, whenever I go into society, and he is present, I know I + shall not be laughed at, or fall into that pit of one of their dead + silences, worse for me to bear than titters and faces. It is their way of + letting one feel they are of birth above us. Mr. Morsfield—purer + blood than many of their highest titles—is always polite, always + deferential; he helps me to feel I am not quite out of my element in the + sphere I prefer. We shall be travelling alone?' + </p> + <p> + 'Have you any fear?' + </p> + <p> + 'Not if nothing happens. Might we not ask that Mr. Weyburn?' + </p> + <p> + 'He has much work to do. He will not long be here. He is absent to-day.' + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Pagnell remarked: 'I must say he earns his money easily.' + </p> + <p> + Aminta had softened herself with the allusion to the shortness of his time + with them. Her aunt's coarse hint, and the thought of his loss, and the + banishment it would be to her all the way to Steignton, checked a sharp + retort she could have uttered, but made it necessary to hide her eyes from + sight. She went to her bedroom, and flung herself on the bed. Even so + little as an unspoken defence of him shook her to floods of tears. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVI. ALONG TWO ROADS TO STEIGNTON + </h2> + <p> + Unaccountable resolutions, if impromptu and springing from the female + breast, are popularly taken for caprices; and even when they divert the + current of a history, and all the more when they are very small matters + producing a memorable crisis. In this way does a lazy world consign + discussion to silence with the cynical closure. Man's hoary shrug at a + whimsy sex is the reading of his enigma still. + </p> + <p> + But ask if she has the ordinary pumping heart in that riddle of a breast: + and then, as the organ cannot avoid pursuit, we may get hold of it, and + succeed in spelling out that she is consequent, in her fashion. She is a + creature of the apparent moods and shifts and tempers only because she is + kept in narrow confines, resembling, if you like, a wild cat caged. + Aminta's journey down to Steignton turned the course of other fortunes + besides her own; and she disdained the minor adventure it was, while + dreaming it important; and she determined eagerly on going, without + wanting to go; and it was neither from a sense of duty nor in a spirit of + contrariety that she went. Nevertheless, with her heart in hand, her + movements are traceably as rational as a soldier's before the enemy or a + trader's matching his customer. + </p> + <p> + The wish to look on Steignton had been spoken or sighed for during long + years between Aminta and her aunt, until finally shame and anger clinched + the subject. To look on Steignton for once was now Aminta's phrasing of + her sudden resolve; it appeared as a holiday relief from recent worries, + and it was an expedition with an aim, though she had but the coldest + curiosity to see the place, and felt alien to it. Yet the thought, never + to have seen Steignton! roused phantoms of dead wishes to drive the + strange engine she was, faster than the living would have done. Her reason + for haste was rationally founded on the suddenness of her resolve, which, + seeing that she could not say she desired to go, seemed to come of an + external admonition; and it counselled quick movements, lest her inspired + obedience to the prompting should as abruptly breathe itself out. 'And in + that case I shall never have seen Steignton at all,' she said, with + perfect calmness, and did not attempt to sound her meaning. + </p> + <p> + She did know that she was a magazine of a great storage of powder. It + banked inoffensively dry. She had forgiven her lord, owning the real + nobleman he was in courtesy to women, whom his inherited ideas of them so + quaintly minimized and reduced to pretty insect or tricky reptile. They, + too, had the choice of being ultimately the one or the other in fact; the + latter most likely. + </p> + <p> + If, however, she had forgiven her lord, the shattering of their union was + the cost of forgiveness. In letting him stand high, as the lofty man she + had originally worshipped, she separated herself from him, to feel that + the humble she was of a different element, as a running water at a + mountain's base. They are one in the landscape; they are far from one in + reality. Aminta's pride of being chafed at the yoke of marriage. + </p> + <p> + Her aunt was directed to prepare for a start at an early hour the next + morning. Mrs. Pagnell wrote at her desk, and fussed, and ordered the + posting chariot, and bewailed herself submissively; for it was the + Countess of Ormont speaking when Aminta delivered commands, and the only + grievance she dared to mutter was 'the unexpectedness.' Her letters having + been despatched, she was amazed in the late evening to hear Aminta give + the footman orders for the chariot to be ready at the door an hour earlier + than the hour previously appointed. She remonstrated. Aminta simply + observed that it would cause less inconvenience to all parties. A + suspicion of her aunt's proceedings was confirmed by the good woman's + flustered state. She refrained from smiling. + </p> + <p> + She would have mustered courage to invite Matthew Weyburn as her escort, + if he had been at hand. He was attending to his affairs with lawyers—mainly + with his friend Mr. Abner. She studied map and gazetteer till late into + the night. Giving her orders to the postillion on the pavement in the + morning, she named a South-westerly direction out of London, and after + entering the chariot, she received a case from one of the footmen. + </p> + <p> + 'What is that, my dear?' said Mrs. Pagnell. + </p> + <p> + Aminta unlocked and laid it open. A pair of pistols met Mrs. Pagnell's + gaze. + </p> + <p> + 'We shan't be in need of those things?' the lady said anxiously. + </p> + <p> + 'One never knows, on the road, aunt.' + </p> + <p> + 'Loaded? You wouldn't hesitate to fire; I'm sure.' + </p> + <p> + 'At Mr. Morsfield himself, if he attempted to stop me.' + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Pagnell withdrew into her astonishment, and presently asked, in a + tone of some indignation: 'Why did you mention Mr. Morsfield, Aminta?' + </p> + <p> + 'Did you not write to him yesterday afternoon, aunt?' + </p> + <p> + 'You read the addresses on my letters!' + </p> + <p> + 'Did you not supply him with our proposed route and the time for + starting?' + </p> + <p> + 'Pistols!' exclaimed Mrs. Pagnell. 'One would fancy you think we are in + the middle of the last century. Mr. Morsfield is a gentleman, not a + highwayman.' + </p> + <p> + 'He gives the impression of his being a madman.' + </p> + <p> + 'The real madman is your wedded husband, Aminta, if wedding it was!' + </p> + <p> + It was too surely so, in Aminta's mind. She tried, by looking out of the + window, to forget her companion. The dullness of the roads and streets + opening away to flat fields combined with the postillion's unvarying jog + to sicken her thoughts over the exile from London she was undergoing, and + the chance that Matthew Weyburn might call at a vacant house next day, to + announce his term of service to the earl, whom he had said he much wanted + to see. He said it in his sharp manner when there was decision behind it. + Several times after contemplating the end of her journey, and not + perceiving any spot of pleasure ahead, an emotion urged her to turn back; + for the young are acutely reasoning when their breasts advise them to quit + a road where no pleasure beckons. + </p> + <p> + Unlike Matthew Weyburn, the tiptoe sparkle of a happy mind did not leap + from her at wayside scenes, a sweep of grass, distant hills, clouds in + flight. She required, since she suffered, the positive of events or + blessings to kindle her glow. + </p> + <p> + Matthew Weyburn might call at the house. Would he be disappointed? He had + preserved her letters of the old school-days. She had burnt his. But she + had not burnt the letters of Mr. Morsfield; and she cared nothing for that + man. Assuredly she merited the stigma branding women as crack-brained. Yet + she was not one of the fools; she could govern a household, and she liked + work, she had the capacity for devotedness. So, therefore, she was a woman + perverted by her position, and she shook her bonds in revolt from + marriage. Imagining a fall down some suddenly spied chasm of her nature, + she had a sisterly feeling for the women named sinful. At the same time, + reflecting that they are sinful only with the sinful, she knelt thankfully + at the feet of the man who had saved her from such danger. Tears + threatened. They were a poor atonement for the burning of his younger + letters. But not he—she was the sufferer, and she whipped up a + sensation of wincing at the flames they fell to, and at their void of + existence, committing sentimental idiocies worthy of a lovesick girl, + consciously to escape the ominous thought, which her woman's perception + had sown in her, that he too chafed at a marriage no marriage: was true in + fidelity, not true through infidelity, as she had come to be. The thought + implied misery for both. She entered a black desolation, with the prayer + that he might not be involved, for his own sake: partly also on behalf of + the sustaining picture the young schoolmaster at his task, merry among his + dear boys, to trim and point them body and mind for their business in the + world, painted for her a weariful prospect of the life she must henceforth + drag along. + </p> + <p> + Is a woman of the plain wits common to numbers ever deceived in her + perception of a man's feelings for her? Let her first question herself + whether she respects him. If she does not, her judgement will go easily + astray, intuition and observation are equally at fault, she has no key; he + has charmed her blood, that is all. But if she respects him, she cannot be + deceived; respect is her embrace of a man's character. Aminta's vision was + clear. She had therefore to juggle with the fact revealed, that she might + keep her heart from rushing out; and the process was a disintegration of + her feminine principle of docility under the world's decrees. At each + pause of her mental activity she was hurled against the state of marriage. + Compassion for her blameless fellow in misery brought a deluge to sweep + away institutions and landmarks. + </p> + <p> + But supposing the blest worst to happen, what exchange had she to bestow? + Her beauty? She was reputed beautiful. It had made a madman of one man; + and in her poverty of endowments to be generous with, she hovered over Mr. + Morsfield like a cruel vampire, for the certification that she had a + much-prized gift to bestow upon his rival. + </p> + <p> + But supposing it: she would then be no longer in the shiny garden of the + flowers of wealth; and how little does beauty weigh as all aid to an + active worker in the serious fighting world! She would be a kind of potted + rose-tree under his arm, of which he must eventually tire. + </p> + <p> + A very cold moment came, when it seemed that even the above supposition, + in the case of a woman who has been married, is shameful to her, a sin + against her lover, and should be obliterated under floods of scarlet. For, + if she has pride, she withers to think of pushing the most noble of men + upon his generosity. And, further, if he is not delicately scrupulous, is + there not something wanting in him? The very cold wave passed, leaving the + sentence: better dream of being plain friends. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Pagnell had been quietly chewing her cud of the sullens, as was the + way with her after a snub. She now resumed her gossip of the naughty world + she knelt to and expected to see some day stricken by a bolt from + overhead; containing, as it did, such wicked members as that really + indefensible brazen Mrs. Amy May, who was only the daughter of a half-pay + naval captain, and that Marquis of Collestou, who would, they say, + decorate her with his title to-morrow, if her husband were but somewhere + else. She spread all sorts of report, about Mr. Morsfield, and he was + honour itself in his reserve about her. 'Depend upon it, Aminta—he + was not more than a boy then, and they say she aimed at her + enfranchisement by plotting the collision, for his Yorkshire revenues are + immense, and he is, you know, skilful in the use of arms, and Captain May + has no resources whatever: penury! no one cares to speculate how they + contrive!—but while that dreadful duelling—and my lord as bad + as any in his day-exists, depend upon it, an unscrupulous good-looking + woman has as many lives for her look of an eye or lift of a finger as a + throned Ottoman Turk on his divan.' + </p> + <p> + Aminta wished to dream. She gave her aunt a second dose, and the lady + relapsed again. + </p> + <p> + Power to dream had gone. She set herself to look at roadside things, + cottage gardens, old housewives in doorways, gaffer goodman meeting his + crony on the path, groups of boys and girls. She would take the girls, + Matthew Weyburn the boys. She had lessons to give to girls, she had + sympathy, pity, anticipation. That would be a life of happy service. It + might be a fruitful trial of the system he proposed, to keep the boys and + girls in company as much as possible, both at lessons and at games. His + was the larger view. Her lord's view appeared similar to that of her + aunt's 'throned Ottoman Turk on his divan.' Matthew Weyburn believed in + the bettering of the world; Lord Ormont had no belief like it. + </p> + <p> + Presently Mrs. Pagnell returned to the charge, and once more she was + nipped, and irritated to declare she had never known her niece's temper so + provoking. Aminta was launching a dream of a lass she had seen in a field, + near a white hawthorn, standing upright, her left arm aloft round the pole + of a rake, the rim of her bonnet tipped on her forehead; an attitude of a + rustic. + </p> + <p> + Britannia with helmet heeling at dignity. The girl's eyes hung to the + passing chariot, without movement of her head. It was Aminta who looked + back, and she saw the girl looking away. Among the superior dames and + damsels she had seen, there was not one to match that figure for stately + air, gallant ease, and splendour of pose. Matthew Weyburn would have + admired the girl. Aminta did better than envy, she cast off the last + vestiges of her bitter ambition to be a fine lady, and winged into the + bosom of the girl, and not shyly said 'yes' to Matthew Weyburn, and to + herself, deep in herself: 'A maid has no need to be shy.' Hardly blushing, + she walks on into the new life beside him, and hears him say: 'I in my + way, you in yours; we are equals, the stronger for being equals,' and she + quite agrees, and she gives him the fuller heart for his not requiring her + to be absorbed—she is the braver mate for him. Does not that read + his meaning? Happiest of the girls of earth, she has divined it at once, + from never having had the bitter ambition to be a slave, that she might + wear rich tissues; and let herself be fettered, that she might loll in + idleness; lose a soul to win a title; escape commonplace to discover it + ghastlier under cloth of gold, and the animal crowned, adored, fattened, + utterly served, in the class called by consent of human society the Upper. + </p> + <p> + Reason whispered a reminder of facts to her. + </p> + <p> + 'But I am not the Countess of Ormont!' she said. She felt herself the + girl, her sensations were so intensely simple. + </p> + <p> + Proceeding to an argument, that the earl did not regard her as the + Countess of Ormont, or the ceremony at the British Embassy as one serious + and binding, she pushed her reason too far: sweet delusion waned. She + waited for some fresh scene to revive it. + </p> + <p> + Aminta sat unwittingly weaving her destiny. + </p> + <p> + While she was thus engaged, a carriage was rolling on the more westerly + road down to Steignton. Seated in it were Lady Charlotte Eglett and + Matthew Weyburn. They had met at Arthur Abner's office the previous day. + She went there straight from Lord Ormont's house-agent and upholsterer, to + have a queer bit of thunderous news confirmed, that her brother was down + at Steignton, refurnishing the house, and not for letting. She was + excited: she treated Arthur Abner's closed-volume reticence as a + corroboration of the house-agent's report, and hearing Weyburn speak of + his anxiety to see the earl immediately, in order to get release from his + duties, proposed a seat in her carriage; for down Steignton way she meant + to go, if only as excuse for a view of the old place. She kept asking what + Lord Ormont wanted down at Steignton refurnishing the house, and not to + let it! Her evasions of answers that, plain speculation would supply were + quaint. 'He hasn't my feeling for Steignton. He could let it—I + couldn't. Sacrilege to me to have a tenant in my old home where I was + born. He's furnishing to raise his rent. His country won't give him + anything to do, so he turns miser. That's my brother Rowsley's way of + taking on old age.' + </p> + <p> + Her brother Rowsley might also be showing another sign of his calamitous + condition. She said to Weyburn, in the carriage, that her brother Rowsley + might like having his hair clipped by the Philistine woman; which is one + of the ways of strong men to confess themselves ageing. 'Not,' said she, + with her usual keen justness 'not that I've, a word against Delilah. I + look upon her as a patriot; she dallied and she used the scissors on + behalf of her people. She wasn't bound to Samson in honour,—liked a + strong man, probably enough. She proved she liked her country better. The + Jews wrote the story of it, so there she stands for posterity to pelt her, + poor wretch.' + </p> + <p> + 'A tolerably good analogy for the story of men and women generally,' said + Weyburn. + </p> + <p> + 'Ah, well, you've a right to talk; you don't run miauling about women. It + 's easy to be squashy on that subject. As for the Jews, I don't go by + their history, but now they 're down I don't side with the Philistines, or + Christians. They 're good citizens, and they 've got Samson in the brain, + too. That comes of persecution, a hard education. They beat the world by + counting in the head. That 's because they 've learnt the value of + fractions. Napoleon knew it in war, when he looked to the boots and + great-coats of his men; those were his fractions. Lord Ormont thinks he + had too hard-and-fast a system for the battle-field.' + </p> + <p> + 'A greater strategist than tactician, my lady? It may be,' said Weyburn, + smiling at her skips. + </p> + <p> + 'Massing his cannon to make a big hole for his cavalry, my brother says; + and weeding his infantry for the Imperial Guard he postponed the moment to + use.' + </p> + <p> + 'At Moskowa?' + </p> + <p> + 'Waterloo. I believe Lord Ormont would—there! his country 's lost + him, and chose it. They 'll have their day for repentance yet. What a + rapture to have a thousand horsemen following you! I suppose there never + was a man worthy of the name who roared to be a woman. I know I could have + shrieked half my life through to have been born male. It 's no matter now. + When we come to this hateful old age, we meet: no, we 're no sex then—we + 're dry sticks. I 'll tell you: my Olmer doctor—that 's an impudent + fellow who rode by staring into my carriage. The window's down. He could + see without pushing his hat in.' + </p> + <p> + Weyburn looked out after a man cantering on. + </p> + <p> + 'A Mr. Morsfield,' he said. 'I thought it was he when I saw him go by. + I've met him at the fencing-rooms. He 's one of the violent fencers, good + for making his point, if one funks an attack.' + </p> + <p> + 'That man Morsfield, is it? I wonder what he's doing on the road here. He + goes over London boasting—hum, nothing to me. But he 'll find Lord + Ormont's arm can protect a poor woman, whatever she is. He'd have had it + before, only Lord Ormont shuns a scandal. I was telling you, my Olmer + doctor forbade horse-riding, and my husband raised a noise like one of my + turkeycocks on the wing; so I 've given up the saddle, to quiet him. I + guessed. I went yesterday morning to my London physician. He sounded me, + pushed out his mouth and pulled down his nose, recommended avoidance of + excitement. “Is it heart?” I said. He said it was heart. That was the best + thing an old woman could hear. He said, when he saw I wasn't afraid, it + was likely to be quick; no doctors, no nurses and daily bulletins for + inquirers, but just the whites of the eyes, the laying-out, the + undertaker, and the family-vault. That's one reason why I want to see + Steignton before the blow that may fall any day, whether my brother + Rowsley's there or no. But that Olmer doctor of mine, Causitt, Peter + Causitt, shall pay me for being a liar or else an ignoramus when I told + him he was to tell me bluntly the nature of my disease.' + </p> + <p> + A horseman, in whom they recognized Mr. Morsfield, passed, clattering on + the road behind them. + </p> + <p> + 'Some woman here about,' Lady Charlotte muttered. Weyburn saw him joined + by a cavalier, and the two consulted and pointed whips right and left. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVII. LADY CHARLOTTE'S TRIUMPH + </h2> + <p> + One of the days of sovereign splendour in England was riding down the + heavens, and drawing the royal mantle of the gold-fringed shadows over + plain and wavy turf, blue water and woods of the country round Steignton. + A white mansion shone to a length of oblong lake that held the sun-ball + suffused in mild yellow. + </p> + <p> + 'There's the place,' Lady Charlotte said to Weyburn, as they had view of + it at a turn of the park. She said to herself—where I was born and + bred! and her sight gloated momentarily on the house and side avenues, a + great plane standing to the right of the house, the sparkle of a little + river running near; all the scenes she knew, all young and lively. She + sprang on her seat for a horse beneath her, and said, 'But this is healthy + excitement,' as in reply to her London physician's remonstrances. 'And + there's my brother Rowsley, talking to one of the keepers,' she cried. + 'You see Lord Ormont? I can see a mile. Sight doesn't fail with me. He 's + insisting. 'Ware poachers when Rowsley's on his ground! You smell the air + here? Nobody dies round about Steignton. Their legs wear out and they lie + down to rest them. It 's the finest air in the world. Now look, the third + window left of the porch, first floor. That was my room before I married. + Strangers have been here and called the place home. It can never be home + to any but me and Rowsley. He sees the carriage. He little thinks! He's + dressed in his white corduroy and knee-breeches. Age! he won't know age + till he's ninety. Here he comes marching. He can't bear surprises. I'll + wave my hand and call.' + </p> + <p> + She called his name. + </p> + <p> + In a few strides he was at the carriage window. 'You, Charlotte?' + </p> + <p> + 'Home again, Rowsley! Bring down your eyebrows, and let me hear you're + glad I 've come.' + </p> + <p> + 'What made you expect you would find me here?' + </p> + <p> + 'Anything-cats on the tiles at night. You can't keep a secret from me. + Here's Mr. Weyburn, good enough to be my escort. I 'll get out.' + </p> + <p> + She alighted, scorning help; Weyburn at her heels. The earl nodded to him + politely and not cordially. He was hardly cordial to Lady Charlotte. + </p> + <p> + That had no effect on her. 'A glorious day for Steignton,' she said. 'Ah, + there's the Buridon group of beeches; grander trees than grow at Buridon. + Old timber now. I knew them slim as demoiselles. Where 's the ash? We had + a splendid ash on the west side.' + </p> + <p> + 'Dead and cut down long since,' replied the earl. + </p> + <p> + 'So we go!' + </p> + <p> + She bent her steps to the spot: a grass-covered heave of the soil. + </p> + <p> + 'Dear old tree!' she said, in a music of elegy: and to Weyburn: 'Looks + like a stump of an arm lopped off a shoulder in bandages. Nature does it + so. All the tenants doing well, Rowsley?' + </p> + <p> + 'About the same amount of trouble with them.' + </p> + <p> + 'Ours at Olmer get worse.' + </p> + <p> + 'It's a process for the extirpation of the landlords.' + </p> + <p> + 'Then down goes the country.' + </p> + <p> + 'They 've got their case, their papers tell us.' + </p> + <p> + 'I know they have; but we've got the soil, and we'll make a fight of it.' + </p> + <p> + 'They can fight too, they say.' + </p> + <p> + 'I should be sorry to think they couldn't if they're Englishmen.' + </p> + <p> + She spoke so like his old Charlotte of the younger days that her brother + partly laughed. + </p> + <p> + 'Parliamentary fighting 's not much to your taste or mine. They 've lost + their stomach for any other. The battle they enjoy is the battle that goes + for the majority. Gauge their valour by that.' + </p> + <p> + 'To be sure,' said his responsive sister. She changed her note. 'But what + I say is, let the nobles keep together and stick to their class. There's + nothing to fear then. They must marry among themselves, think of the + blood: it's their first duty. Or better a peasant girl! Middle courses + dilute it to the stuff in a publican's tankard. It 's an adulterous beast + who thinks of mixing old wine with anything.' + </p> + <p> + 'Hulloa!' said the earl; and she drew up. + </p> + <p> + 'You'll have me here till over to-morrow, Rowsley, so that I may have one + clear day at Steignton?' + </p> + <p> + He bowed. 'You will choose your room. Mr. Weyburn is welcome.' + </p> + <p> + Weyburn stated the purport of his visit, and was allowed to name an early + day for the end of his term of service. + </p> + <p> + Entering the house, Lady Charlotte glanced at the armour and stag branches + decorating corners of the hall, and straightway laid her head forward, + pushing after it in the direction of the drawing room. She went in, stood + for a minute, and came out. Her mouth was hard shut. + </p> + <p> + At dinner she had tales of uxorious men, of men who married mistresses, of + the fearful incubus the vulgar family of a woman of the inferior classes + ever must be; and her animadversions were strong in the matter of gew-gaw + modern furniture. The earl submitted to hear. + </p> + <p> + She was, however, keenly attentive whenever he proffered any item of + information touching Steignton. After dinner Weyburn strolled to the + points of view she cited as excellent for different aspects of her old + home. + </p> + <p> + He found her waiting to hear his laudation when he came back; and in the + early morning she was on the terrace, impatient to lead him down to the + lake. There, at the boat-house, she commanded him to loosen a skiff and + give her a paddle. Between exclamations, designed to waken louder from + him, and not so successful as her cormorant hunger for praise of Steignton + required, she plied him to confirm with his opinion an opinion that her + reasoning mind had almost formed in the close neighbourhood of the beloved + and honoured person providing it; for abstract ideas were unknown to her. + She put it, however, as in the abstract:— + </p> + <p> + 'How is it we meet people brave as lions before an enemy, and rank cowards + where there's a botheration among their friends at home? And tell me, too, + if you've thought the thing over, what's the meaning of this? I 've met + men in high places, and they've risen to distinction by their own efforts, + and they head the nation. Right enough, you'd say. Well, I talk with them, + and I find they've left their brains on the ladder that led them up; + they've only the ideas of their grandfather on general subjects. I come + across a common peasant or craftsman, and he down there has a mind more + open—he's wiser in his intelligence than his rulers and lawgivers up + above him. He understands what I say, and I learn from him. I don't learn + much from our senators, or great lawyers, great doctors, professors, + members of governing bodies—that lot. Policy seems to petrify their + minds when they 've got on an eminence. Now explain it, if you can.' + </p> + <p> + 'Responsibility has a certain effect on them, no doubt,' said Weyburn. + 'Eminent station among men doesn't give a larger outlook. Most of them + confine their observation to their supports. It happens to be one of the + questions I have thought over. Here in England, and particularly on a + fortnight's run in the lowlands of Scotland once, I have, like you, my + lady, come now and then across the people we call common, men and women, + old wayside men especially; slow-minded, but hard in their grasp of facts, + and ready to learn, and logical, large in their ideas, though going a + roundabout way to express them. They were at the bottom of wisdom, for + they had in their heads the delicate sense of justice, upon which wisdom + is founded. That is what their rulers lack. Unless we have the sense of + justice abroad like a common air, there 's no peace, and no steady + advance. But these humble people had it. They reasoned from it, and came + to sound conclusions. I felt them to be my superiors. On the other hand, I + have not felt the same with “our senators, rulers, and lawgivers.” They + are for the most part deficient in the liberal mind.' + </p> + <p> + 'Ha! good, so far. How do you account for it?' said Lady Charlotte. + </p> + <p> + 'I read it in this way: that the world being such as it is at present, + demanding and rewarding with honours and pay special services, the men + called great, who have risen to distinction, are not men of brains, but + the men of aptitudes. These men of aptitudes have a poor conception of the + facts of life to meet the necessities of modern expansion. They are + serviceable in departments. They go as they are driven, or they resist. In + either case, they explain how it is that we have a world moving so + sluggishly. They are not the men of brains, the men of insight and + outlook. Often enough they are foes of the men of brains.' + </p> + <p> + 'Aptitudes; yes, that flashes a light into me,' said Lady Charlotte. 'I + see it better. It helps to some comprehension of their muddle. A man may + be a first-rate soldier, doctor, banker—as we call the usurer + now-a-days—or brewer, orator, anything that leads up to a + figure-head, and prove a foolish fellow if you sound him. I 've thought + something like it, but wanted the word. They say themselves, “Get to know, + and you see with what little wisdom the world is governed!” You explain + how it is. I shall carry “aptitudes” away.' + </p> + <p> + She looked straight at Weyburn. 'If I were a younger woman I could kiss + you for it.' + </p> + <p> + He bowed to her very gratefully. + </p> + <p> + 'Remember, my lady, there's a good deal of the Reformer in that + definition.' + </p> + <p> + 'I stick to my class. But they shall hear a true word when there's one + abroad, I can tell them. That reminds me—you ought to have asked; + let me tell you I'm friendly with the Rev. Mr. Hampton-Evey. We had a + wrestle for half an hour, and I threw him and helped him up, and he + apologized for tumbling, and I subscribed to one of his charities, and + gave up about the pew, but had an excuse for not sitting under the sermon. + A poor good creature. He 's got the aptitudes for his office. He won't do + much to save his Church. I knew another who had his aptitude for the + classics, and he has mounted. He was my tutor when I was a girl. He was + fond of declaiming passages from Lucian and Longus and Ovid. One day he + was at it with a piece out of Daphnis and Chloe, and I said, “Now + translate.” He fetched a gurgle to say he couldn't, and I slapped his + check. Will you believe it? the man was indignant. I told him, if he would + like to know why I behaved in “that unmaidenly way,” he had better apply + at home. I had no further intimations of his classical aptitudes; but he + took me for a cleverer pupil than I was. I hadn't a notion of the stuff he + recited. I read by his face. That was my aptitude—always has been. + But think of the donkeys parents are when they let a man have a chance of + pouring his barley-sugar and sulphur into the ears of a girl. Lots of + girls have no latent heckles and prickles to match his villany.—There's + my brother come back to breakfast from a round. You and I 'll have a drive + before lunch, and a ride or a stroll in the afternoon. There's a lot to + see. I mean you to get the whole place into your head. I 've ordered the + phaeton, and you shall take the whip, with me beside you. That's how my + husband and I spent three-quarters of our honeymoon.' + </p> + <p> + Each of the three breakfasted alone. + </p> + <p> + They met on the terrace. It was easily perceived that Lord Ormont stood + expecting an assault at any instant; prepared also to encounter and do + battle with his redoubtable sister. Only he wished to defer the + engagement. And he was magnanimous: he was in the right, she in the wrong; + he had no desire to grapple with her, fling and humiliate. The Sphinx of + Mrs. Pagnell had been communing with himself unwontedly during the recent + weeks. + </p> + <p> + What was the riddle of him? That, he did not read. But, expecting an + assault, and relieved by his sister Charlotte's departure with Weyburn, he + went to the drawing-room, where he had seen her sniff her strong + suspicions of a lady coming to throne it. Charlotte could believe that he + flouted the world with a beautiful young woman on his arm; she would not + believe him capable of doing that in his family home and native county; + so, then, her shrewd wits had nothing or little to learn. But her vehement + fighting against facts; her obstinate aristocratic prejudices, which he + shared; her stinger of a tongue: these in ebullition formed a + discomforting prospect. The battle might as well be conducted through the + post. Come it must! + </p> + <p> + Even her writing of the pointed truths she would deliver was an unpleasant + anticipation. His ears heated. Undoubtedly he could crush her. Yet, + supposing her to speak to his ears, she would say: 'You married a young + woman, and have been foiling and fooling her ever since, giving her half a + title to the name of wife, and allowing her in consequence to be wholly + disfigured before the world—your family naturally her chief enemies, + who would otherwise (Charlotte would proclaim it) have been her friends. + What! your intention was (one could hear Charlotte's voice) to smack the + world in the face, and you smacked your young wife's instead!' + </p> + <p> + His intention had been nothing of the sort. He had married, in a foreign + city, a young woman who adored him, whose features, manners, and carriage + of her person satisfied his exacting taste in the sex; and he had intended + to cast gossipy England over the rail and be a traveller for the remainder + of his days. And at the first she had acquiesced, tacitly accepted it as + part of the contract. He bore with the burden of an intolerable aunt of + hers for her sake. The two fell to work to conspire. Aminta 'tired of + travelling,' Aminta must have a London house. She continually expressed a + hope that 'she might set her eyes on Steignton some early day.' In fact, + she as good as confessed her scheme to plot for the acknowledged position + of Countess of Ormont in the English social world. That was a distinct + breach of the contract. + </p> + <p> + As to the babble of the London world about a 'very young wife,' he scorned + it completely, but it belonged to the calculation. 'A very handsome young + wife,' would lay commands on a sexagenarian vigilance while adding to his + physical glory. The latter he could forego among a people he despised. It + would, however, be an annoyance to stand constantly hand upon sword-hilt. + There was, besides, the conflict with his redoubtable sister. He had no + dread of it, in contemplation of the necessity; he could crush his + Charlotte. The objection was, that his Aminta should be pressing him to do + it. Examine the situation at present. Aminta has all she needs—every + luxury. Her title as Countess of Ormont is not denied. Her husband justly + refuses to put foot into English society. She, choosing to go where she + may be received, dissociates herself from him, and he does not complain. + She does complain. There is a difference between the two. + </p> + <p> + He had always shunned the closer yoke with a woman because of these + vexatious dissensions. For not only are women incapable of practising, + they cannot comprehend magnanimity. + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont's argumentative reverie to the above effect had been pursued + over and over. He knew that the country which broke his military career + and ridiculed his newspaper controversy was unforgiven by him. He did not + reflect on the consequences of such an unpardoning spirit in its operation + on his mind. + </p> + <p> + If he could but have passed the injury, he would ultimately—for his + claims of service were admitted—have had employment of some kind. + Inoccupation was poison to him; travel juggled with his malady of + restlessness; really, a compression of the warrior's natural forces. His + Aminta, pushed to it by the woman Pagnell, declined to help him in + softening the virulence of the disease. She would not travel; she would + fix in this London of theirs, and scheme to be hailed the accepted + Countess of Ormont. She manoeuvred; she threw him on the veteran soldier's + instinct, and it resulted spontaneously that he manoeuvred. + </p> + <p> + Hence their game of Pull, which occupied him a little, tickled him and + amused. The watching of her pretty infantile tactics amused him too much + to permit of a sidethought on the cruelty of the part he played. She had + every luxury, more than her station by right of birth would have supplied. + </p> + <p> + But he was astonished to find that his Aminta proved herself clever, + though she had now and then said something pointed. She was in awe of him: + notwithstanding which, clearly she meant to win and pull him over. He did + not dislike her for it; she might use her weapons to play her game; and + that she should bewitch men—a man like Morsfield—was not + wonderful. On the other hand, her conquest of Mrs. Lawrence Finchley + scored tellingly: that was unaccountably queer. What did Mrs. Lawrence + expect to gain? the sage lord asked. He had not known women devoid of a + positive practical object of their own when they bestirred themselves to + do a friendly deed. + </p> + <p> + Thanks to her conquest of Mrs. Lawrence, his Aminta was gaining ground—daily + she made an advance; insomuch that he had heard of himself as harshly + blamed in London for not having countenanced her recent and rather + imprudent move. In other words, whenever she gave a violent tug at their + game of Pull, he was expected to second it. But the world of these English + is too monstrously stupid in what it expects, for any of its extravagances + to be followed by interjections. + </p> + <p> + All the while he was trimming and rolling a field of armistice at + Steignton, where they could discuss the terms he had a right to dictate, + having yielded so far. Would she be satisfied with the rule of his + ancestral hall, and the dispensing of hospitalities to the county? No, one + may guess: no woman is ever satisfied. But she would have to relinquish + her game, counting her good round half of the honours. Somewhat more, on + the whole. Without beating, she certainly had accomplished the miracle of + bending him. To time and a wife it is no disgrace for a man to bend. It is + the form of submission of the bulrush to the wind, of courtesy in the + cavalier to a lady. + </p> + <p> + 'Oh, here you are, Rowsley,' Lady Charlotte exclaimed at the drawing room + door. 'Well, and I don't like those Louis Quinze cabinets; and that modern + French mantelpiece clock is hideous. You seem to furnish in downright + contempt of the women you invite to sit in the room. Lord help the + wretched woman playing hostess in such a pinchbeck bric-a-brac shop, if + there were one! She 's spared, at all events.' + </p> + <p> + He stepped at slow march to one of the five windows. Lady Charlotte went + to another near by. She called to Weyburn— + </p> + <p> + 'We had a regatta on that water when Lord Ormont came of age. I took an + oar in one of the boats, and we won a prize; and when I was landing I + didn't stride enough to the spring-plank, and plumped in.' + </p> + <p> + Some labourers of the estate passed in front. + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont gave out a broken laugh. 'See those fellows walk! That 's the + raw material of the famous English infantry. They bend their knees + five-and-forty degrees for every stride; and when you drill them out of + that, they 're stiff as ramrods. I gymnasticized them in my regiment. I'd + have challenged any French regiment to out-walk or out-jump us, or any + crack Tyrolese Jagers to out-climb, though we were cavalry.' + </p> + <p> + 'Yes, my lord, and exercised crack corps are wanted with us,' Weyburn + replied. 'The English authorities are adverse to it, but it 's against + nature—on the supposition that all Englishmen might enrol untrained + in Caesar's pet legion. Virgil shows knowledge of men when he says of the + row-boat straining in emulation, 'Possunt quia posse videntur.'' + </p> + <p> + He talked on rapidly; he wondered that he did not hear Lady Charlotte + exclaim at what she must be seeing. From the nearest avenue a lady had + issued. She stood gazing at the house, erect—a gallant figure of a + woman—one hand holding her parasol, the other at her hip. He knew + her. She was a few paces ahead of Mrs. Pagnell, beside whom a gentleman + walked. + </p> + <p> + The cry came: 'It's that man Morsfield! Who brings that man Morsfield + here? He hunted me on the road; he seemed to be on the wrong scent. Who + are those women? Rowsley, are your grounds open every day of the week? She + threatens to come in!' + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte had noted that the foremost and younger of 'those women' + understood how to walk and how to dress to her shape and colour. She + inclined to think she was having to do with an intrepid foreign-bred minx. + </p> + <p> + Aminta had been addressed by one of her companions, and had hastened + forward. It looked like the beginning of a run to enter the house. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Pagnell ran after her. She ran cow-like. + </p> + <p> + The earl's gorge rose at the spectacle Charlotte was observing. + </p> + <p> + With Morsfield he could have settled accounts at any moment, despatching + Aminta to her chamber for an hour. He had, though he was offended, an + honourable guess that she had not of her free will travelled with the man + and brought him into the grounds. It was the presence of the intolerable + Pagnell under Charlotte's eyes which irritated him beyond the common anger + he felt at Aminta's pursuit of him right into Steignton. His mouth locked. + Lady Charlotte needed no speech from him for sign of the boiling; she was + too wary to speak while that went on. + </p> + <p> + He said to Weyburn, loud enough for his Charlotte to heir. 'Do me the + favour to go to the Countess of Ormont. Conduct her back to London. You + will say it is my command. Inform Mr. Morsfield, with my compliments, I + regret I have no weapons here. I understand him to complain of having to + wait. I shall be in town three days from this date.' + </p> + <p> + 'My lord,' said Mr. Weyburn; and actually he did mean to supplicate. He + could imagine seeing Lord Ormont's eyebrows rising to alpine heights. + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte seized his arm. + </p> + <p> + 'Go at once. Do as you are told. I'll have your portmanteau packed and + sent after you—the phaeton's out in the yard—to Rowsley, or + Ashead, or Dornton, wherever they put up. Now go, or we shall have hot + work. Keep your head on, and go.' + </p> + <p> + He went, without bowing. + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte rang for the footman. + </p> + <p> + The earl and she watched the scene on the sward below the terrace. + </p> + <p> + Aminta listened to Weyburn. Evidently there was no expostulation. + </p> + <p> + But it was otherwise with Mrs. Pagnell. She flung wild arms of a semaphore + signalling national events. She sprang before Aminta to stop her retreat, + and stamped and gibbed, for sign that she would not be driven. She fell + away to Mr. Morsfield, for simple hearing of her plaint. He appeared + emphatic. There was a passage between him and Weyburn. + </p> + <p> + 'I suspect you've more than your match in young Weyburn, Mr. Morsfield,' + Lady Charlotte said, measuring them as they stood together. They turned at + last. + </p> + <p> + 'You shall drive back to town with me, Rowsley,' said the fighting dame. + </p> + <p> + She breathed no hint of her triumph. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVIII. A SCENE ON THE ROAD BACK + </h2> + <p> + After refusing to quit the grounds of Steignton, in spite of the + proprietor, Mrs. Pagnell burst into an agitation to have them be at speed, + that they might 'shake the dust of the place from the soles of their + feet'; and she hurried past Aminta and Lord Ormont's insolent emissary, + carrying Mr. Morsfield beside her, perforce of a series of + imperiously-toned vacuous questions, to which he listened in rigid + politeness, with the ejaculation steaming off from time to time, 'A + scandal!' + </p> + <p> + He shot glances behind him. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Pagnell was going too fast. She, however, world not hear of a halt, + and she was his main apology for being present; he was excruciatingly + attached to the horrid woman. + </p> + <p> + Weyburn spoke the commonplaces about regrets to Aminta. + </p> + <p> + 'Believe me, it's long since I have been so happy,' she said. + </p> + <p> + She had come out of her stupefaction, and she wore no theatrical looks of + cheerfulness. + </p> + <p> + 'I regret that you should be dragged away. But, if you say you do not + mind, it will be pleasant to me. I can excuse Lord Ormont's anger. I was + ignorant of his presence here. I thought him in Paris. I supposed the + place empty. I wished to see it once. I travelled as the niece of Mrs. + Pagnell. She is a little infatuated.... Mr. Morsfield heard of our + expedition through her. I changed the route. I was not in want of a + defender. I could have defended myself in case of need. We slept at + Ashead, two hours from Steignton. He and a friend accompanied us, not with + my consent. Lord Ormont could not have been aware of that. These + accidental circumstances happen. There may be pardonable intentions on all + sides.' + </p> + <p> + She smiled. Her looks were open, and her voice light and spirited; though + the natural dark rose-glow was absent from her olive cheeks. + </p> + <p> + Weyburn puzzled over the mystery of so volatile a treatment of a serious + matter, on the part of a woman whose feelings he had reason to know were + quick and deep. She might be acting, as women so cleverly do. + </p> + <p> + It could hardly be acting when she pointed to peeps of scenery, with a + just eye for landscape. + </p> + <p> + 'You leave us for Switzerland very soon?' she said. + </p> + <p> + 'The Reversion I have been expecting has fallen in, besides my + inheritance. My mother was not to see the school. But I shall not forget + her counsels. I can now make my purchase of the house and buildings, and + buy out my partner at the end of a year. My boys are jumping to start. I + had last week a letter from Emile.' + </p> + <p> + 'Dear little Emile!' + </p> + <p> + 'You like him?' + </p> + <p> + 'I could use a warmer word. He knew me when I was a girl.' + </p> + <p> + She wound the strings of his heart suddenly tense, and they sang to their + quivering. + </p> + <p> + 'You will let me hear of you, Mr. Weyburn?' + </p> + <p> + 'I will write. Oh! certainly I will write, if I am told you are interested + in our doings, Lady Ormont.' + </p> + <p> + 'I will let you know that I am.' + </p> + <p> + 'I shall be happy in writing full reports.' + </p> + <p> + 'Every detail, I beg. All concerning the school. Help me to feel I am a + boarder. I catch up an old sympathy I had for girls and boys. For boys! + any boys! the dear monkey boys! cherub monkeys! They are so funny. I am + sure I never have laughed as I did at Selina Collett's report, through her + brother, of the way the boys tried to take to my name; and their sneezing + at it, like a cat at a deceitful dish. “Aminta”—was that their way?' + </p> + <p> + 'Something—the young rascals!' + </p> + <p> + 'But please repeat it as you heard them.' + </p> + <p> + '“Aminta.”' + </p> + <p> + He subdued the mouthing. + </p> + <p> + 'It didn't, offend me at all. It is one of my amusements to think of it. + But after a time they liked the name; and then how did they say it?' + </p> + <p> + He had the beloved Aminta on his lips. + </p> + <p> + He checked it, or the power to speak it failed. She drew in a sharp + breath. + </p> + <p> + 'I hope your boys will have plenty of fun in them. They will have you for + a providence and a friend. I should wish to propose to visit your school + some day. You will keep me informed whether the school has vacancies. You + will, please, keep me regularly informed?' + </p> + <p> + She broke into sobs. + </p> + <p> + Weyburn talked on of the school, for a cover to the resuming of her fallen + mask, as he fancied it. + </p> + <p> + She soon recovered, all save a steady voice for converse, and begged him + to proceed, and spoke in the flow of the subject; but the quaver of her + tones was a cause of further melting. The tears poured, she could not + explain why, beyond assuring him that they were no sign of unhappiness. + Winds on the great waters against a strong tidal current beat up the wave + and shear and wing the spray, as in Aminta's bosom. Only she could know + that it was not her heart weeping, though she had grounds for a woman's + weeping. But she alone could be aware of her heart's running counter to + the tears. + </p> + <p> + Her agitation was untimely. Both Mrs. Pagnell and Mr. Morsfield observed + emotion at work. And who could wonder? A wife denied the admittance to her + husband's house by her husband! The most beautiful woman of her time + relentlessly humiliated, ordered to journey back the way she had come. + </p> + <p> + They had reached the gate of the park, and had turned. + </p> + <p> + 'A scandal!' + </p> + <p> + Mr. Morsfield renewed his interjection vehemently, for an apology to his + politeness in breaking from Mrs. Pagnell. + </p> + <p> + Joining the lady, whose tears were of the nerves, he made offer of his + devotion in any shape; and she was again in the plight to which a + desperado can push a woman of the gentle kind. She had the fear of + provoking a collision if she reminded him, that despite her entreaties, he + had compelled her, seconded by her aunt as he had been, to submit to his + absurd protection on the walk across the park. + </p> + <p> + He seemed quite regardless of the mischief he had created; and, reflecting + upon how it served his purpose, he might well be. Intemperate lover, of + the ancient pattern, that he was, his aim to win the woman acknowledged no + obstacle in the means. Her pitiable position appealed to the best of him; + his inordinate desire of her aroused the worst. It was, besides, an + element of his coxcombry, that he should, in apeing the utterly + inconsiderate, rush swiftly to impersonate it when his passions were cast + on a die. + </p> + <p> + Weyburn he ignored as a stranger, an intruder, an inferior. + </p> + <p> + Aminta's chariot was at the gate. + </p> + <p> + She had to resign herself to the chances of a clash of men, and, as there + were two to one, she requested help of Weyburn's hand, that he might be + near her. + </p> + <p> + A mounted gentleman, smelling parasite in his bearing, held the bridle of + Morsfield's horse. + </p> + <p> + The ladies having entered the chariot, Morsfield sprang to the saddle, and + said: 'You, sir, had better stretch your legs to the inn.' + </p> + <p> + 'There is room for you, Mr. Weyburn,' said Aminta. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Pagnell puffed. + </p> + <p> + 'I can't think we've room, my dear. I want that bit of seat in front for + my feet.' + </p> + <p> + Morsfield kicked at his horse's flanks, and between Weyburn and the + chariot step, cried: 'Back, sir!' + </p> + <p> + His reins were seized; the horse reared, the unexpected occurred. + </p> + <p> + Weyburn shouted 'Off!' to the postillion, and jumped in. + </p> + <p> + Morsfield was left to the shaking of a dusty coat, while the chariot + rolled its gentle course down the leafy lane into the high-road. + </p> + <p> + His friend had seized the horse's bridle-reins; and he remarked: 'I say, + Dolf, we don't prosper to-day.' + </p> + <p> + 'He pays for it!' said Morsfield, foot in stirrup. 'You'll take him and + trounce him at the inn. I don't fight with servants. Better game. One + thing, Cumnock: the fellow's clever at the foils.' + </p> + <p> + 'Foils to the devil! If I tackle the fellow, it won't be with the buttons. + But how has he pushed in?' + </p> + <p> + Morsfield reported 'the scandal!' in sharp headings. + </p> + <p> + 'Turned her away. Won't have her enter his house—grandest woman in + all England! Sent his dog to guard. Think of it for an insult! It's insult + upon insult. I 've done my utmost to fire his marrow. I did myself a good + turn by following her up and entering that park with her. I shall succeed; + there 's a look of it. All I have—my life—is that woman's. I + never knew what this devil's torture was before I saw her.' + </p> + <p> + His friend was concerned for his veracity. 'Amy!' + </p> + <p> + 'A common spotted snake. She caught me young, and she didn't carry me off, + as I mean to carry off this glory of her sex—she is: you've seen + her!—and free her, and devote every minute of the rest of my days to + her. I say I must win the woman if I stop at nothing, or I perish; and if + it 's a failure, exit 's my road. I 've watched every atom she touched in + a room, and would have heaped gold to have the chairs, tables, cups, + carpets, mine. I have two short letters written with her hand. I 'd give + two of my estates for two more. If I were a beggar, and kept them, I + should be rich. Relieve me of that dog, and I toss you a thousand-pound + note, and thank you from my soul, Cumnock. You know what hangs on it. + Spur, you dolt, or she'll be out of sight.' + </p> + <p> + They cantered upon application of the spur. Captain Cumnock was an + impecunious fearless rascal, therefore a parasite and a bully duellist; a + thick-built north-countryman; a burly ape of the ultra-elegant; hunter, + gamester, hard-drinker, man of pleasure. His known readiness to fight was + his trump-card at a period when the declining custom of the duel taxed + men's courage to brave the law and the Puritan in the interests of a + privileged and menaced aristocracy. An incident like the present was the + passion in the dice-box to Cumnock. Morsfield was of the order of men who + can be generous up to the pitch of their desires. Consequently, the world + accounted him open-handed and devoted when enamoured. Few men liked him; + he was a hero with some women. The women he trampled on; the men he + despised. To the lady of his choice he sincerely offered his fortune and + his life for the enjoyment of her favour. His ostentation and his + offensive daring combined the characteristics of the peacock and the hawk. + Always near upon madness, there were occasions when he could eclipse the + insane. He had a ringing renown in his class. + </p> + <p> + Chariot and horsemen arrived at the Roebuck Arms, at the centre of the + small town of Ashead, on the line from Steignton through Rowsley. The pair + of cavaliers dismounted and hustled Weyburn in assisting the ladies to + descend. + </p> + <p> + The ladies entered the inn; they declined refection of any sort. They had + biscuits and sweetmeats, and looked forward to tea at a farther stage. + Captain Cumnock stooped to their verdict on themselves, with marvel at the + quantity of flesh they managed to put on their bones from such dieting. + </p> + <p> + 'By your courtesy, sir, a word with you in the inn yard, if you please,' + he said to Weyburn in the inn-porch. + </p> + <p> + Weyburn answered, 'Half a minute,' and was informed that it was exactly + the amount of time the captain could afford to wait. + </p> + <p> + Weyburn had seen the Steignton phaeton and coachman in the earl's + light-blue livery. It was at his orders, he heard. He told the coachman to + expect hire shortly, and he followed the captain, with a heavy trifle of + suspicion that some brew was at work. He said to Aminta in the passage— + </p> + <p> + 'You have your settlement with the innkeeper. Don't, I beg, step into the + chariot till you see me.' + </p> + <p> + 'Anything?' said she. + </p> + <p> + 'Only prudence.' + </p> + <p> + 'Our posting horses will be harnessed soon, I hope. I burn to get away.' + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Pagnell paid the bill at the bar of the inn. Morsfield poured out for + the injured countess or no-countess a dram of the brandy of passion, under + the breath. + </p> + <p> + 'Deny that you singled me once for your esteem. Hardest-hearted of the + women of earth and dearest! deny that you gave me reason to hope—and + now! I have ridden in your track all this way for the sight of you, as you + know, and you kill me with frost. Yes, I rejoice that we were seen + together. Look on me. I swear I perish for one look of kindness. You have + been shamefully used, madam.' + </p> + <p> + 'It seems to me I am being so,' said Aminta, cutting herself loose from + the man of the close eyes that wavered as they shot the dart. + </p> + <p> + Her action was too decided for him to follow her up under the observation + of the inn windows and a staring street. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Pagnell came out. She went boldly to Morsfield and they conferred. He + was led by her to the chariot, where she pointed to a small padded slab of + a seat back to the horses. Turning to the bar, he said:—My friend + will look to my horse. Both want watering and a bucketful. There!'—he + threw silver—'I have to protect the ladies.' + </p> + <p> + Aminta was at the chariot door talking to her aunt inside. + </p> + <p> + 'But I say I have been insulted—is the word—more than enough + by Lord Ormont to-day!' Mrs. Pagnell exclaimed; 'and I won't, I positively + refuse to ride up to London with any servant of his. It's quite sufficient + that it's his servant. I'm not titled, but I 'in not quite dirt. Mr. + Morsfield kindly offers his protection, and I accept. He is company.' + </p> + <p> + Nodding and smirking at Morsfield's approach, she entreated Aminta to step + up and in, for the horses were coming out of the yard. + </p> + <p> + Aminta looked round. Weyburn was perceived; and Morsfield's features + cramped at thought of a hitch in the plot. + </p> + <p> + 'Possession,' Mrs. Pagnell murmured significantly. She patted the seat. + Morsfield sprang to Weyburn's place. + </p> + <p> + That was witnessed by Aminta and Weyburn. She stepped to consult him. He + said to the earl's coachman—a young fellow with a bright eye for + orders— + </p> + <p> + 'Drive as fast as you can pelt for Dornton. I'm doing my lord's commands.' + </p> + <p> + 'Trust yourself to me, madam.' His hand stretched for Aminta to mount. She + took it without a word and climbed to the seat. A clatter of hoofs rang + out with the crack of the whip. They were away behind a pair of steppers + that could go the pace. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIX. THE PURSUERS + </h2> + <p> + For promptitude, the lady, the gentleman, and the coachman were in such + unison as to make it a reasonable deduction that the flight had been + concerted. + </p> + <p> + Never did any departure from the Roebuck leave so wide-mouthed a body of + spectators. Mrs. Pagnell's shrieks of 'Stop, oh! stop!' to the backs of + the coachman and Aminta were continued until they were far down the + street. She called to the innkeeper, called to the landlady and to + invisible constables for help. But her pangs were childish compared with + Morsfield's, who, with the rage of a conceited schemer tricked and the + fury of a lover beholding the rape of his beautiful, bellowed impotently + at Weyburn and the coachman out of hearing, 'Stop! you!' He was in the + state of men who believe that there is a virtue in imprecations, and he + shot loud oaths after them, shook his fist, cursed his friend Cumnock, + whose name he vociferated as a summons to him,—generally the baffled + plotter misconducted himself to an extreme degree, that might have + apprised Mrs. Pagnell of a more than legitimate disappointment on his + part. + </p> + <p> + Pursuit was one of the immediate ideas which rush forward to look back + woefully on impediments and fret to fever over the tardiness of + operations. A glance at the thing of wrinkles receiving orders to buckle + at his horses and pursue convinced them of the hopelessness; and Morsfield + was pricked to intensest hatred of the woman by hearing the dire + exclamation, 'One night, and her character's gone!' + </p> + <p> + 'Be quiet, ma'am, if you please, or nothing can be done,' he cried. + </p> + <p> + 'I tell you, Mr. Morsfield—don't you see?—he has thrown them + together. It is Lord Ormont's wicked conspiracy to rid himself of her. A + secretary! He'll beat any one alive in plots. She can't show her face in + London after this, if you don't overtake her. And she might have seen Lord + Ormont's plot to ruin her. He tired of her, and was ashamed of her + inferior birth to his own, after the first year, except on the Continent, + where she had her rights. Me he never forgave for helping make him the + happy man he might have been in spite of his age. For she is lovely! But + it's worse for a lovely woman with a damaged reputation. And that 's his + cunning. How she could be so silly as to play into it! She can't have + demeaned herself to look on that secretary! I said from the first he + seemed as if thrown into her way for a purpose. But she has pride: my + niece Aminta has pride. She might well have listened to flatterers—she + had every temptation—if it hadn't been for her pride. It may save + her yet. However good-looking, she will remember her dignity—unless + he's a villain. Runnings away! drivings together! inns oh! the story over + London! I do believe she has a true friend in you, Mr. Morsfield; and I + say, as I have said before, the sight of a devoted admirer would have + brought any husband of more than sixty to his senses, if he hadn't hoped a + catastrophe and determined on it. Catch them we can't, unless she repents + and relents; and prayers for that are our only resource. Now, start, man, + do!' + </p> + <p> + The postillion had his foot in position to spring. Morsfield bawled + Cumnock's name, and bestrode his horse. Captain Cumnock emerged from the + inn-yard with a dubitative step, pressing a handkerchief to his nose, + blinking, and scrutinizing the persistent fresh stains on it. + </p> + <p> + Stable-boys were at the rear. These, ducking and springing, surcharged and + copious exponents of the play they had seen, related, for the benefit of + the town, how that the two gentlemen had exchanged words in the yard, + which were about beastly pistols, which the slim gentleman would have none + of; and then the big one trips up, like dancing, to the other one and + flicks him a soft clap on the check—quite friendly, you may say; and + before he can square to it, the slim one he steps his hind leg half a foot + back, and he drives a straight left like lightning off the shoulder slick + on to t' other one's nob, and over he rolls, like a cart with the shafts + up down a bank; and he' a been washing his 'chops' and threatening bullets + ever since. + </p> + <p> + The exact account of the captain's framework in the process of the fall + was graphically portrayed in our blunt and racy vernacular, which a + society nourished upon Norman-English and English-Latin banishes from + print, largely to its impoverishment, some think. + </p> + <p> + By the time the primary narrative of the encounter in the inn yard had + given ground for fancy and ornament to present it in yet more luscious + dress, Lord Ormont's phaeton was a good mile on the road. Morsfield and + Captain Cumnock—the latter inquisitive of the handkerchief pressed + occasionally at his nose—trotted on tired steeds along dusty + wheel-tracks. Mrs. Pagnell was the solitary of the chariot, having a + horrid couple of loaded pistols to intimidate her for her protection, and + the provoking back view of a regularly jogging mannikin under a big white + hat with blue riband, who played the part of Time in dragging her along, + with worse than no countenance for her anxieties. + </p> + <p> + News of the fugitives was obtained at the rampant Red Lion in Dudsworth, + nine miles on along the London road, to the extent that the Earl of + Ormont's phaeton, containing a lady and a gentleman, had stopped there a + minute to send back word to Steignton of their comfortable progress, and + expectations of crossing the borders into Hampshire before sunset. + Morsfield and Cumnock shrugged at the bumpkin artifice. They left their + line of route to be communicated to the chariot, and chose, with practised + acumen, that very course, which was the main road, and rewarded them at + the end of half an hour with sight of the Steignton phaeton. + </p> + <p> + But it was returning. A nearer view showed it empty of the couple. + </p> + <p> + Morsfield bade the coachman pull up, and he was readily obeyed. Answers + came briskly. + </p> + <p> + Although provincial acting is not of the high class which conceals the + art, this man's look beside him and behind him at vacant seats had + incontestable evidence in support of his declaration, that the lady and + gentleman had gone on by themselves: the phaeton was a box of flown birds. + </p> + <p> + 'Where did you say they got out, you dog?' said Cumnock. + </p> + <p> + The coachman stood up to spy a point below. 'Down there at the bottom of + the road, to the right, where there's a stile across the meadows, making a + short cut by way of a bridge over the river to Busley and North Tothill, + on the high-road to Hocklebourne. The lady and gentleman thought they 'd + walk for a bit of exercise the remains of the journey.' + </p> + <p> + 'Can't prove the rascal's a liar,' Cumnock said to Morsfield, who rallied + him savagely on his lucky escape from another knock-down blow, and tossed + silver on the seat, and said— + </p> + <p> + 'We 'll see if there is a stile.' + </p> + <p> + 'You'll see the stile, sir,' rejoined the man, and winked at their backs. + </p> + <p> + Both cavaliers, being famished besides baffled, were in sour tempers, + expecting to see just the dead wooden stile, and see it as a grin at them. + Cumnock called on Jove to witness that they had been donkeys enough to + forget to ask the driver how far round on the road it was to the other end + of the cross-cut. + </p> + <p> + Morsfield, entirely objecting to asinine harness with him, mocked at his + invocation and intonation of the name of Jove. + </p> + <p> + Cumnock was thereupon stung to a keen recollection of the allusion to his + knock-down blow, and he retorted that there were some men whose wit was + the parrot's. + </p> + <p> + Morsfield complimented him over the exhibition of a vastly superior and + more serviceable wit, in losing sight of his antagonist after one trial of + him. + </p> + <p> + Cumnock protested that the loss of time was caused by his friend's + dalliance with the Venus in the chariot. + </p> + <p> + Morsfield's gall seethed at a flying picture of Mrs. Pagnell, coupled with + the retarding reddened handkerchief business, and he recommended Cumnock + to pay court to the old woman, as the only chance he would have of + acquaintanceship with the mother of Love. + </p> + <p> + Upon that Cumnock confessed in humility to his not being wealthy. + Morsfield looked a willingness to do the deed he might have to pay for in + tenderer places than the pocket, and named the head as a seat of poverty + with him. + </p> + <p> + Cumnock then yawned a town fop's advice to a hustling street passenger to + apologize for his rudeness before it was too late. Whereat Morsfield, + certain that his parasitic thrasyleon apeing coxcomb would avoid + extremities, mimicked him execrably. + </p> + <p> + Now this was a second breach of the implied convention existing among the + exquisitely fine-bred silken-slender on the summits of our mundane sphere, + which demands of them all, that they respect one another's affectations. + It is commonly done, and so the costly people of a single pattern contrive + to push forth, flatteringly to themselves, luxuriant shoots of + individuality in their orchidean glass-house. A violation of the rule is a + really deadly personal attack. Captain Cumnock was particularly sensitive + regarding it, inasmuch as he knew himself not the natural performer he + strove to be, and a mimicry affected him as a haunting check. + </p> + <p> + He burst out: 'Damned if I don't understand why you're hated by men and + women both!' + </p> + <p> + Morsfield took a shock. 'Infernal hornet!' he muttered; for his conquests + had their secret history. + </p> + <p> + 'May and his wife have a balance to pay will trip you yet, you 'll find.' + </p> + <p> + 'Reserve your wrath, sir, for the man who stretched you on your back.' + </p> + <p> + The batteries of the two continued exchangeing redhot shots, with the + effect, that they had to call to mind they were looking at the stile. A + path across a buttercup meadow was beyond it. They were damped to some + coolness by the sight. + </p> + <p> + 'Upon my word, the trick seems neat!' said Cumnock staring at the pastoral + curtain. + </p> + <p> + 'Whose trick?' he was asked sternly. + </p> + <p> + 'Here or there 's not much matter; they 're off, unless they 're under a + hedge laughing.' + </p> + <p> + An ache of jealousy and spite was driven through the lover, who groaned, + and presently said— + </p> + <p> + 'I ride on. That old woman can follow. I don't want to hear her gibberish. + We've lost the game—there 's no reckoning the luck. If there's a + chance, it's this way. It smells a trick. He and she—by all the + devils! It has been done in my family—might have been done again. + Tell the men on the plain they can drive home. There's a hundred-pound + weight on your tongue for silence.' + </p> + <p> + Cumnock cried: 'But we needn't be parting, Dolf! Stick together. Bad + luck's not repeated every day. Keep heart for the good.' + </p> + <p> + 'My heart's shattered, Cumnock. I say it's impossible she can love a + husband twice her age, who treats her—you 've seen. Contempt of that + lady! + </p> + <p> + By heaven! once in my power, I swear she would have been sacred to me. But + she would have been compelled to face the public and take my hand. I swear + she would have been congratulated on the end of her sufferings. Worship!—that's + what I feel. No woman ever alive had eyes in her head like that lady's. I + repeat her name ten times every night before I go to sleep. If I had her + hand, no, not one kiss would I press on it without her sanction. I could + be in love with her cruelty, if only I had her near me. I 've lost her—by + the Lord, I 've lost her!' + </p> + <p> + 'Pro tem.,' said the captain. 'A plate of red beef and a glass of port + wine alters the view. Too much in the breast, too little in the belly, + capsizes lovers. Old story. Horses that ought to be having a mash between + their ribs make riders despond. Say, shall we back to the town behind us, + or on? Back's the safest, if the chase is up.' + </p> + <p> + Morsfield declared himself incapable of turning and meeting that chariot. + He sighed heavily. Cumnock offered to cheer him with a song of Captain + Chanter's famous collection, if he liked; but Morsfield gesticulated + abhorrence, and set out at a trot. Song in defeat was a hiss of derision + to him. + </p> + <p> + He had failed. Having failed, he for the first time perceived the wildness + of a plot that had previously appeared to him as one of the Yorkshire + Morsfields' moves to win an object. Traditionally they stopped at nothing. + There would have been a sunburst of notoriety in the capture and carrying + off of the beautiful Countess of Ormont. + </p> + <p> + She had eluded him during the downward journey to Steignton. He came on + her track at the village at the junction of the roads above Ashead, and + thence, confiding in the half-connivance or utter stupidity of the fair + one's duenna, despatched a mounted man-servant to his coachman and + footmen, stationed ten miles behind, with orders that they should drive + forthwith to the great plain, and be ready at a point there for two + succeeding days. That was the plot, promptly devised upon receipt of Mrs. + Pagnell's communication; for the wealthy man of pleasure was a strategist + fit to be a soldier, in dexterity not far from rivalling the man by whom + he had been outdone. + </p> + <p> + An ascetic on the road to success, he dedicated himself to a term of hard + drinking under a reverse; and the question addressed to the chief towns in + the sketch counties his head contained was, which one near would be likely + to supply the port wine for floating him through garlanding dreams of + possession most tastily to blest oblivion. + </p> + <p> + He was a lover, nevertheless, honest in his fashion, and meant not worse + than to pull his lady through a mire, and wash her with Morsfield soap, + and crown her, and worship. She was in his blood, about him, above him; he + had plunged into her image, as into deeps that broke away in + phosphorescent waves on all sides, reflecting every remembered, every + imagined, aspect of the adored beautiful woman piercing him to extinction + with that last look of her at the moment of flight. + </p> + <p> + Had he been just a trifle more sincere in the respect he professed for his + lady's duenna, he would have turned on the road to Dornton and a better + fortune. Mrs. Pagnell had now become the ridiculous Paggy of Mrs. Lawrence + Finchley and her circle for the hypocritical gentleman; and he remarked to + Captain Cumnock, when their mutual trot was established: 'Paggy enough for + me for a month—good Lord! I can't stand another dose of her by + herself.' + </p> + <p> + 'It's a bird that won't roast or boil or stew,' said the captain. + </p> + <p> + They were observed trotting along below by Lord Ormont's groom of the + stables on promotion, as he surveyed the country from the chalk-hill rise + and brought the phaeton to a stand, Jonathan Boon, a sharp lad, whose + comprehension was a little muddled by 'the rights of it' in this + adventure. He knew, however, that he did well to follow the directions of + one who was in his lordship's pay, and stretched out the fee with the air + of a shake of the hand, and had a look of the winning side, moreover. A + born countryman could see that. + </p> + <p> + Boon watched the pair of horsemen trotting to confusion, and clicked in + his cheek. The provincial of the period when coaches were beginning to be + threatened by talk of new-fangled rails was proud to boast of his + outwitting Londoners on material points; and Boon had numerous tales of + how it had been done, to have the laugh of fellows thinking themselves + such razors. They compensated him for the slavish abasement of his whole + neighbourhood under the hectoring of the grand new manufacture of wit in + London:—the inimitable Metropolitan PUN, which came down to the + country by four-in-hand, and stopped all other conversation wherever it + was reported, and would have the roar—there was no resisting it. + Indeed, to be able to see the thing smartly was an entry into community + with the elect of the district; and when the roaring ceased and the thing + was examined, astonishment at the cleverness of it, and the wonderful + shallowness of the seeming deep hole, and the unexhausted bang it had to + go off like a patent cracker, fetched it out for telling over again; and + up went the roar, and up it went at home and in stable-yards, and at the + net puffing of churchwardens on a summer's bench, or in a cricket-booth + after a feast, or round the old inn's taproom fine. The pun, the wonderful + bo-peep of double meanings darting out to surprise and smack one another + from behind words of the same sound, sometimes the same spelling, + overwhelmed the provincial mind with awe of London's occult and prolific + genius. + </p> + <p> + Yet down yonder you may behold a pair of London gentlemen trotting along + on as fine a fool's errand as ever was undertaken by nincompoops bearing a + scaled letter, marked urgent, to a castle, and the request in it that the + steward would immediately upon perusal down with their you-know-what and + hoist them and birch them a jolly two dozen without parley. + </p> + <p> + Boon smacked his leg, and then drove ahead merrily. + </p> + <p> + For this had happened to his knowledge: the gentleman accompanying the + lady had refused to make anything of a halt at the Red Lion, and had said + he was sure there would be a small public-house at the outskirts of the + town, for there always was one; and he proved right, and the lady and he + had descended at the sign of the Jolly Cricketers, and Boon had driven on + for half an hour by order. + </p> + <p> + This, too, had happened, external to Boon's knowledge: the lady and the + gentleman had witnessed, through the small diamond window-panes of the + Jolly Cricketers' parlour, the passing-by of the two horsemen in pursuit + of them; and the gentleman had stopped the chariot coming on some fifteen + minutes later, but he did not do it at the instigation of the lady. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XX. AT THE SIGN OF THE JOLLY CRICKETERS + </h2> + <p> + The passing by of the pair of horsemen, who so little suspected the + treasure existing behind the small inn's narrow window did homage in + Aminta's mind to her protector's adroitness. Their eyes met without a + smile, though they perceived the grisly comic of the incident. Their + thoughts were on the chariot to follow. + </p> + <p> + Aminta had barely uttered a syllable since the start of the flight from + Ashead. She had rocked in a swing between sensation and imagination, + exultant, rich with the broad valley of the plain and the high green waves + of the downs at their giant's bound in the flow of curves and sunny + creases to the final fling-off of the dip on sky. Here was a twisted + hawthorn carved clean to the way of the wind; a sheltered clump of + chestnuts holding their blossoms up, as with a thousand cresset-clasping + hands; here were grasses that nodded swept from green to grey; flowers + yellow, white, and blue, significant of a marvellous unknown through the + gates of colour; and gorse-covers giving out the bird, squares of young + wheat, a single fallow threaded by a hare, and cottage gardens, shadowy + garths, wayside flint-heap, woods of the mounds and the dells, fluttering + leaves, clouds: all were swallowed, all were the one unworried + significance. Scenery flew, shifted, returned; again the line of the downs + raced and the hollows reposed simultaneously. They were the same in change + to an eye grown older; they promised, as at the first, happiness for + recklessness. The whole woman was urged to delirious recklessness in + happiness, and she drank the flying scenery as an indication, a likeness, + an encouragement. + </p> + <p> + When her wild music of the blood had fallen to stillness with the stopped + wheels, she was in the musky, small, low room of the diamond window-panes, + at her companion's disposal for what he might deem the best: he was her + fate. But the more she leaned on a man of self-control, the more she + admired; and an admiration that may not speak itself to the object present + drops inward, stirs the founts; and if these are repressed, the tenderness + which is not allowed to weep will drown self-pity, hardening the woman to + summon scruples in relation to her unworthiness. He might choose to + forget, but the more she admired, the less could her feminine conscience + permit of an utter or of any forgetfulness that she was not the girl + Browny, whom he once loved—perhaps loved now, under some illusion of + his old passion for her—does love now, ill-omened as he is in that! + She read him by her startled reading of her own heart, and she constrained + her will to keep from doing, saying, looking aught that would burden + without gracing his fortunes. For, as she felt, a look, a word, a touch + would do the mischief; she had no resistance behind her cold face, only + the physical scruple, which would become the moral unworthiness if in any + way she induced him to break his guard and blow hers to shreds. An + honourable conscience before the world has not the same certificate in + love's pure realm. They are different kingdoms. A girl may be of both; a + married woman, peering outside the narrow circle of her wedding-ring, + should let her eyelids fall and the unseen fires consume her. + </p> + <p> + Their common thought was now, Will the chariot follow? + </p> + <p> + What will he do if it comes? was an unformed question with Aminta. + </p> + <p> + He had formed and not answered it, holding himself, sincerely at the + moment, bound to her wishes. Near the end of Ashead main street she had + turned to him in her seat beside the driver, and conveyed silently, with + the dental play of her tongue and pouted lips, 'No title.' + </p> + <p> + Upon that sign, waxen to those lips, he had said to the driver, 'You took + your orders from Lady Charlotte? + </p> + <p> + And the reply, 'Her ladyship directed me sir, exonerated Lord Ormont so + far. + </p> + <p> + Weyburn remembered then a passage of one of her steady looks, wherein an + oracle was mute. He tried several of the diviner's shots to interpret it: + she was beyond his reach. She was in her blissful delirium of the flight, + and reproached him with giving her the little bit less to resent—she + who had no sense of resentment, except the claim on it to excuse. + </p> + <p> + Their landlady entered the room to lay the cloth for tea and eggs. She + made offer of bacon as well, homecured. She was a Hampshire woman, and + understood the rearing of pigs. Her husband had been a cricketer, and + played for his county. He didn't often beat Hampshire! They had a good + garden of vegetables, and grass-land enough for two cows. They made their + own bread, their own butter, but did not brew. + </p> + <p> + Weyburn pronounced for a plate of her home-cured. She had children, the + woman told him—two boys and a girl. Her husband wished for a girl. + Her eldest boy wished to be a sailor, and would walk miles to a pond to + sail bits of wood on it, though there had never been a sea-faring man in + her husband's family or her own. She agreed with the lady and gentleman + that it might be unwise to go contrary to the boy's bent. Going to school + or coming home, a trickle of water would stop him. + </p> + <p> + Aminta said to her companion in French, 'Have you money?' + </p> + <p> + She chased his blood. 'Some: sufficient. I think.' It stamped their + partnership. + </p> + <p> + 'I have but a small amount. Aunt was our paymaster. We will buy the little + boy a boat to sail. You are pale.' + </p> + <p> + 'I 've no notion of it.' + </p> + <p> + 'Something happened it Ashead.' + </p> + <p> + 'It would not have damaged my complexion.' + </p> + <p> + He counted his money. Aminta covertly handed him her purse. Their fingers + touched. The very minor circumstance of their landlady being in the room + dammed a flood. + </p> + <p> + Her money and his amounted to seventeen pounds. The sum-total was a symbol + of days that were a fiery wheel. + </p> + <p> + Honour and blest adventure might travel together two days or three, he + thought. If the chariot did not pass:—Lord Ormont had willed it. A + man could not be said to swerve in his duty when acting to fulfil the + master's orders, and Mrs. Pagnell was proved a hoodwinked duenna, and + Morsfield was in the air. The breathing Aminta had now a common purse with + her first lover. For three days or more they were, it would seem, to + journey together, alone together: the prosecution of his duty imposed it + on him. Sooth to say, Weyburn knew that a spice of passion added to a bowl + of reason makes a sophist's mess; but he fancied an absolute reliance on + Aminta's dignity, and his respect for her was another barrier. He begged + the landlady's acceptance of two shillings for her boy's purchase of a + boat, advising her to have him taught early to swim. Both he and Aminta + had a feeling that they could be helpful in some little things on the road + if the chariot did not pass. + </p> + <p> + Justification began to speak loudly against the stopping of the chariot if + it did pass. The fact that sweet wishes come second, and not so loudly, + assured him they were quite secondary; for the lover sunk to sophist may + be self-beguiled by the arts which render him the potent beguiler. + </p> + <p> + 'We are safe here,' he said, and thrilled her with the 'we' behind the + curtaining leaded window-panes. + </p> + <p> + 'What is it you propose?' Her voice was lower than she intended. To that + she ascribed his vivid flush. It kindled the deeper of her dark hue. + </p> + <p> + He mentioned her want of luggage, and the purchase of a kit. + </p> + <p> + She said, 'Have we the means?' + </p> + <p> + 'We can adjust the means to the ends.' + </p> + <p> + 'We must be sparing of expenses.' + </p> + <p> + 'Will you walk part of the way?' + </p> + <p> + 'I should like it.' + </p> + <p> + 'We shall be longer on the journey.' + </p> + <p> + 'We shall not find it tiresome, I hope.' + </p> + <p> + 'We can say so, if we do.' + </p> + <p> + 'We are not strangers.' + </p> + <p> + The recurrence of the 'we' had an effect of wedding: it was fatalistic, it + would come; but, in truth, there was pleasure in it, and the pleasure was + close to consciousness of some guilt when vowing itself innocent. + </p> + <p> + And, no, they were not strangers; hardly a word could they utter without + cutting memory to the quick; their present breath was out of the far past. + </p> + <p> + Love told them both that they were trembling into one another's arms, not + voluntarily, against the will with each of them; they knew it would be for + life; and Aminta's shamed reserves were matched to make an obstacle by his + consideration for her good name and her station, for his own claim to + honest citizenship also. + </p> + <p> + Weyburn acted on his instinct at sight of the postillion and the chariot; + he flung the window wide and shouted. Then he said, 'It is decided,' and + he felt the rightness of the decision, like a man who has given a + condemned limb to the surgeon. + </p> + <p> + Aminta was passive as a water-weed in the sway of the tide. Hearing it to + be decided, she was relieved. What her secret heart desired, she kept + secret, almost a secret from herself. He was not to leave her; so she had + her permitted wish, she had her companion plus her exclamatory aunt, who + was a protection, and she had learnt her need of the smallest protection. + </p> + <p> + 'I can scarcely believe I see you, my dear, dear child!' Mrs. Pagnell + cried, upon entering the small inn parlour; and so genuine was her + satisfaction that for a time she paid no heed to the stuffiness of the + room, the meanness of the place, the unfitness of such a hostelry to + entertain ladies—the Countess of Ormont! + </p> + <p> + 'Eat here?' Mrs. Pagnell asked, observing the preparations for the meal. + Her pride quailed, her stomach abjured appetite. But she forbore from + asking how it was that the Countess of Ormont had come to the place. + </p> + <p> + At a symptom of her intention to indulge in disgust; Aminta brought up Mr. + Morsfield by name; whereupon Mrs. Pagnell showed she had reflected on her + conduct in relation to the gentleman, and with the fear of the earl if she + were questioned. + </p> + <p> + Home-made bread and butter, fresh eggs and sparkling fat of bacon invited + her to satisfy her hunger. Aminta let her sniff at the teapot unpunished; + the tea had a rustic aroma of ground-ivy, reminding Weyburn of his + mother's curiosity to know the object of an old man's plucking of + hedgeside leaves in the environs of Bruges one day, and the simple reply + to her French, 'Tea for the English.' A hint of an anecdote interested and + enriched the stores of Mrs. Pagnell, so she capped it and partook of the + infusion ruefully. + </p> + <p> + 'But the bread is really good,' she said, 'and we are unlikely to be seen + leaving the place by any person of importance.' + </p> + <p> + 'Unless Mr. Morsfield should be advised to return this way,' said Aminta. + </p> + <p> + Her aunt proposed for a second cup. She was a manageable woman; the same + scourge had its instant wholesome effect on her when she snubbed the + secretary. + </p> + <p> + So she complimented his trencherman's knife, of which the remarkably fine + edge was proof enough that he had come heart-whole out of the trial of an + hour or so's intimate companionship with a beautiful woman, who had never + been loved, never could be loved by man, as poor Mr. Morsfield loved her! + He had sworn to having fasted three whole days and nights after his first + sight of Aminta. Once, he said, her eyes pierced him so that he dreamed of + a dagger in his bosom, and woke himself plucking at it. That was love, as + a born gentleman connected with a baronetcy and richer than many lords + took the dreadful passion. A secretary would have no conception of such + devoted extravagance. At the most he might have attempted to insinuate a + few absurd, sheepish soft nothings, and the Countess of Ormont would know + right well how to shrivel him with one of her looks. No lady of the land + could convey so much either way, to attract or to repel, as Aminta, + Countess of Ormont! And the man, the only man, insensible to her charm or + her scorn, was her own wedded lord and husband. Old, to be sure, and + haughty, his pride might not allow him to overlook poor Mr. Morsfield's + unintentional offence. But the presence of the countess's aunt was a reply + to any charge he might seek to establish. Unhappily, the case is one + between men on their touchiest point, when women are pushed aside, and + justice and religion as well. We might be living in a heathen land, for + aught that morality has to say. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Pagnell fussed about being seen on her emergence from the Jolly + Cricketers. Aminta sent Weyburn to spy for the possible reappearance of + Mr. Morsfield. He reported a horseman; a butcher-boy clattered by. Aminta + took the landlady's hand, under her aunt's astonished gaze, and said: 'I + shall not forget your house and your attention to us.' She spoke with a + shake of her voice. The landlady curtseyed and smiled, curtseyed and + almost whimpered. The house was a poor one, she begged to say; they didn't + often have such guests, but whoever came to it they did their best to give + good food and drink. + </p> + <p> + Hearing from Weyburn that the chariot was bound to go through Winchester, + she spoke of a brother, a baker there, the last surviving member of her + family and, after some talk, Weyburn offered to deliver a message of + health and greeting at the baker's shop. There was a waving of hands, much + nodding and curtseying, as the postillion resumed his demi-volts—all + to the stupefaction of Mrs. Pagnell; but she dared not speak, she had + Morsfield on the mouth. Nor could she deny the excellent quality of the + bread and butter, and milk, too, at the sign of the Jolly Cricketers. She + admitted, moreover, that the food and service of the little inn belonged + in their unpretentious honesty to the kind we call old English: the dear + old simple country English of the brotherly interchange in sight of heaven—good + stuff for good money, a matter with a blessing on it. + </p> + <p> + 'But,' said she, 'my dear Aminta, I do not and I cannot understand looks + of grateful affection at a small innkeeper's wife paid, and I don't doubt + handsomely paid, for her entertainment of you.' + </p> + <p> + 'I feel it,' said Aminta; tears rushed to her eyelids, overflowing, and + her features were steady. + </p> + <p> + 'Ah, poor dear! that I do understand,' her aunt observed. 'Any little + kindness moves you to-day; and well it may.' + </p> + <p> + 'Yes, aunty,' said Aminta, and in relation to the cause of her tears she + was the less candid of the two. + </p> + <p> + So far did she carry her thanks for a kindness as to glance back through + her dropping tears at the sign-board of the Jolly Cricketers; where two + brave batsmen cross for the second of a certain three runs, if only the + fellow wheeling legs, face up after the ball in the clouds, does but miss + his catch: a grand suspensory moment of the game, admirably chosen by the + artist to arrest the wayfarer and promote speculation. For will he let her + slip through his fingers when she comes down? or will he have her fast and + tight? And in the former case, the bats are tearing their legs off for + just number nought. And in the latter, there 's a wicket down, and what + you may call a widower walking it bat on shoulder, parted from his mate + for that mortal innings, and likely to get more chaff than consolation + when he joins the booth. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXI. UNDER-CURRENTS IN THE MINDS OF LADY CHARLOTTE AND LORD ORMONT + </h2> + <p> + Another journey of travellers to London, in the rear of the chariot, was + not diversified by a single incident or refreshed by scraps of dialogue. + Lady Charlotte had her brother Rowsley with her, and he might be taciturn,—she + drove her flocks of thoughts, she was busily and contentedly occupied. + Although separation from him stirred her mind more excitedly over their + days and deeds of boy and girl, her having him near, and having now won + him to herself, struck her as that old time's harvest, about as much as + can be hoped for us from life, when we have tasted it. + </p> + <p> + The scene of the invasion of Steignton by the woman and her aunt, and that + man Morsfield, was a steel engraving among her many rapid and featureless + cogitations. She magnified the rakishness of the woman's hand on hip in + view of the house, and she magnified the woman's insolence in bringing + that man Morsfield—to share probably the hospitality of Steignton + during the master's absence! Her trick of caricature, whenever she dealt + with adversaries, was active upon the three persons under observation of + the windows. It was potent to convince her that her brother Rowsley had + cast the woman to her native obscurity. However, Lady Charlotte could be + just: the woman's figure, and as far as could be seen of her face, + accounted for Rowsley's entanglement. + </p> + <p> + Why chastize that man Morsfield at all? Calling him out would give a + further dip to the name of Ormont. A pretty idea, to be punishing a roan + for what you thank him for! He did a service; and if he's as mad about her + as he boasts, he can take her and marry her now Rowsley 's free of her. + </p> + <p> + Morsfield says he wants to marry her—wants nothing better. Then let + him. Rowsley has shown him there 's no legal impediment. Pity that young + Weyburn had to be sent to do watch-dog duty. But Rowsley would not have + turned her back to travel alone: that is, without a man to guard. He 's + too chivalrous. + </p> + <p> + The sending of Weyburn, she now fancied, was her own doing, and Lady + Charlotte attributed it to her interpretation of her brother's heart of + chivalry; though it would have been the wiser course, tending straight and + swift to the natural end, if the two women and their Morsfield had + received the dismissal to travel as they came. + </p> + <p> + One sees it after the event. Yes, only Rowsley would not have dismissed + her without surety that she would be protected. So it was the right thing + prompted on the impulse of the moment. And young Weyburn would meet some + difficulty in protecting his 'Lady Ormont,' if she had no inclination for + it. + </p> + <p> + Analyzing her impulse of the moment, Lady Charlotte credited herself, not + unjustly, with a certain considerateness for the woman, notwithstanding + the woman's violent intrusion between brother and sister. Knowing the + world, and knowing the upper or Beanstalk world intimately, she winked at + nature's passions. But when the legitimate affection of a brother and + sister finds them interposing, they are, as little parsonically as + possible, reproved. If persistently intrusive, they are handed to the + constable. + </p> + <p> + How, supposing the case of a wife? Well, then comes the contest; and it is + with an inferior, because not a born, legitimacy of union; which may be, + which here and there is, affection; is generally the habit of partnership. + It is inferior, from not being the union of the blood; it is a matter + merely of the laws and the tastes. No love, she reasoned, is equal to the + love of brother and sister: not even the love of parents for offspring, or + of children for mother and father. Brother and sister have the holy young + days in common; they have lastingly the recollection of their youth, the + golden time when they were themselves, or the best of themselves. A wife + is a stranger from the beginning; she is necessarily three parts a + stranger up to the finish of the history. She thinks she can absorb the + husband. Not if her husband has a sister living! She may cry and tear for + what she calls her own: she will act prudently in bowing her head to the + stronger tie. Is there a wife in Europe who broods on her husband's merits + and his injuries as the sister of Thomas Rowsley, Earl of Ormont does? or + one to defend his good name, one to work for his fortunes, as devotedly? + </p> + <p> + Over and over Lady Charlotte drove her flocks, of much the same pattern, + like billows before a piping gale. They might be similar—a puffed + iteration, and might be meaningless and wearisome; the gale was a power in + earnest. + </p> + <p> + Her brother sat locked-up. She did as a wife would not have done, and held + her peace. He spoke; she replied in a few words—blunt, to the point, + as no wife would have done. + </p> + <p> + Her dear, warm-hearted Rowsley was shaken by the blow he had been obliged + to deal to the woman—poor woman!—if she felt it. He was always + the principal sufferer where the feelings were concerned. He was never for + hurting any but the enemy. + </p> + <p> + His 'Ha, here we dine!' an exclamation of a man of imprisoned yawns at the + apparition of the turnkey, was delightful to her, for a proof of health + and sanity and enjoyment of the journey. + </p> + <p> + 'Yes, and I've one bottle left, in the hamper, of the hock you like,' she + said. 'That Mr. Weyburn likes it too. He drank a couple coming down.' + </p> + <p> + She did not press for talk; his ready appetite was the flower of + conversation to her. And he slept well, he said. Her personal experience + on that head was reserved. + </p> + <p> + London enfolded them in the late evening of a day brewing storm. My lord + heard at the door of his house that Lady Ormont had not arrived. Yet she + had started a day in advance of him. He looked down, up and round at + Charlotte. He looked into an empty hall. Pagnell was not there. A sight of + Pagnell would, strange to say, have been agreeable. + </p> + <p> + Storm was in the air, and Aminta was on the road. Lightning has, before + now, frightened carriage-horses. She would not misconduct herself; she + would sit firm. No woman in England had stouter nerve—few men. + </p> + <p> + But the carriage might be smashed. He was ignorant of the road she had + chosen for her return. Out of Wiltshire there would be no cliffs, + quarries, river-banks, presenting dangers. Those dangers, however, spring + up when horses have the frenzy. + </p> + <p> + Charlotte was nodded at, for a signal to depart; and she drove off, + speculating on the bullet of a grey eye, which was her brother's adieu to + her. + </p> + <p> + The earl had apparently a curiosity to inspect vacant rooms. His Aminta's + drawing-room, her boudoir, her bed-chamber, were submissive in showing + bed, knickknacks, furniture. They told the tale of a corpse. + </p> + <p> + He washed and dressed, and went out to his club to dine, hating the faces + of the servants of the house, just able to bear with the attentions of his + valet. + </p> + <p> + Thunder was rattling at ten at night. The house was again the tomb. + </p> + <p> + She had high courage, that girl. She might be in a bed, with her + window-blind up, calmly waiting for the flashes: lightning excited her. He + had seen her lying at her length quietly, her black hair scattered on the + pillow, like shadow of twigs and sprays on moonlit grass, illuminated + intermittently; smiling to him, but her heart out and abroad, wild as any + witch's. If on the road, she would not quail. But it was necessary to be + certain of her having a trusty postillion. + </p> + <p> + He walked through the drench and scream of a burst cloud to the + posting-office. There, after some trouble, he obtained information + directing him to the neighbouring mews. He had thence to find his way to + the neighbouring pot-house. + </p> + <p> + The report of the postillion was, on the whole, favourable. The man + understood horses—was middle-aged—no sot; he was also a man + with an eye for weather, proverbially in the stables a cautious hand—slow + 'Old Slow-and-sure,' he was called; by name, Joshua Abnett. + </p> + <p> + 'Oh, Joshua Abnett?' said the earl, and imprinted it on his memory, for + the service it was to do during the night. + </p> + <p> + Slow-and-sure Joshua Abnett would conduct her safely, barring accidents. + For accidents we must all be prepared. She was a heroine in an accident. + The earl recalled one and more: her calm face, brightened eyes, easy + laughter. Hysterics were not in her family. + </p> + <p> + She did wrong to let that fellow Morsfield accompany her. Possibly he had + come across her on the road, and she could not shake him off. Judging by + all he knew of her, the earl believed she would not have brought the + fellow into the grounds of Steignton of her free will. She had always a + particular regard for decency. + </p> + <p> + According to the rumour, Morsfield and the woman Pagnell were very thick + together. He barked over London of his being a bitten dog. He was near to + the mad dog's fate, as soon as a convenient apology for stopping his + career could be invented. + </p> + <p> + The thinking of the lesson to Morsfield on the one hand, and of the + slow-and-sure postillion Joshua Abriett on the other, lulled Lord Ormont + to a short repose in his desolate house. Of Weyburn he had a glancing + thought, that the young man would be a good dog to guard the countess from + a mad dog, as he had reckoned in commissioning him. + </p> + <p> + Next day was the day of sunlight Aminta loved. + </p> + <p> + It happens with the men who can strike, supposing them of the order of + civilized creatures, that when they have struck heavily, however deserved + the blow, a liking for the victim will assail them, if they discover no + support in hatred; and no sooner is the spot of softness touched than they + are invaded by hosts of the stricken person's qualities, which plead to be + taken as virtues, and are persuasive. The executioner did rightly. But it + is the turn for the victim to declare the blow excessive. + </p> + <p> + Now, a just man, who has overdone the stroke, will indemnify and console + in every way, short of humiliating himself. + </p> + <p> + He had an unusually clear vision of the scene at Steignton. Surprise and + wrath obscured it at the moment, for reflection to bring it out in sharp + outline; and he was able now to read and translate into inoffensive + English the inherited Spanish of it, which violated nothing of Aminta's + native 'donayre,' though it might look on English soil outlandish or + stagey. + </p> + <p> + Aminta stood in sunlight on the greensward. She stood hand on hip, gazing + at the house she had so long desired to see, without a notion that she + committed an offence. Implicitly upon all occasions she took her husband's + word for anything he stated, and she did not consequently imagine him to + be at Steignton. So, then, she had no thought of running down from London + to hunt and confound him, as at first it appeared. The presence of that + white-faced Morsfield vindicated her sufficiently so far. And let that + fellow hang till the time for cutting him down! Not she, but Pagnell, + seems to have been the responsible party. And, by the way, one might prick + the affair with Morsfield by telling him publicly that his visit to + inspect Steignton was waste of pains, for he would not be accepted as a + tenant in the kennels, et caetera. + </p> + <p> + Well, poor girl, she satisfied her curiosity, not aware that a few weeks + farther on would have done it to the full. + </p> + <p> + As to Morsfield, never once, either in Vienna or in Paris, had she, warmly + admired though she was, all eyes telescoping and sun-glassing on her, + given her husband an hour or half an hour or two minutes of anxiety. + Letters came. The place getting hot, she proposed to leave it. + </p> + <p> + She had been rather hardly tried. There are flowers we cannot keep growing + in pots. Her fault was, that instead of flinging down her glove and + fighting it out openly, she listened to Pagnell, and began the game of + Pull. If he had a zest for the game, it was to stump the woman Pagnell. So + the veteran fancied in his amended mind. + </p> + <p> + This intrusive sunlight chased him from the breakfast-table and out of the + house. She would be enjoying it somewhere; but the house empty of a person + it was used to contain had an atmosphere of the vaults, and inside it the + sunlight she loved had an effect of taunting him singularly. + </p> + <p> + He called on his upholsterer and heard news to please her. The house hired + for a month above Great Marlow was ready; her ladyship could enter it + to-morrow. It pleased my lord to think that she might do so, and not + bother him any more about the presentation at Court during the current + year. In spite of certain overtures from the military authorities, and + roused eulogistic citations of his name in the newspapers and magazines, + he was not on friendly terms with his country yet, having contracted the + fatal habit of irony, which, whether hitting or musing its object, stirs + old venom in our wound, twitches the feelings. Unfortunately for him, they + had not adequate expression unless he raged within; so he had to shake up + wrath over his grievances, that he might be satisfactorily delivered; and + he was judged irreconcilable when he had subsided into the quietest + contempt, from the prospective seat of a country estate, in the society of + a young wife who adored him. + </p> + <p> + An exile from the sepulchre of that house void of the consecration of + ashes, he walked the streets and became reconciled to street sunlight. + There were no carriage accidents to disturb him with apprehensions. + Besides, the slowness of the postillion Joshua Abnett, which probably + helped to the delay, was warrant of his sureness. And in an accident the + stringy fellow, young Weyburn, could be trusted for giving his attention + to the ladies—especially to the younger of the two, taking him for + the man his elders were at his age. As for Pagnell, a Providence watches + over the Pagnells! Mortals have no business to interfere. + </p> + <p> + An accident on water would be a frolic to his girl. Swimming was a gift + she had from nature. Pagnell vowed she swam out a mile at Dover when she + was twelve. He had seen her in blue water: he had seen her readiness to + jump to the rescue once when a market-woman, stepping out of a boat to his + yacht on the Tabus, plumped in. She had the two kinds of courage—the + impulsive and the reasoned. What is life to man or woman if we are not to + live it honourably? Men worthy of the name say this. The woman who says + and acts on it is—well, she is fit company for them. But only the + woman of natural courage can say it and act on it. + </p> + <p> + Would she come by Winchester, or choose the lower road by Salisbury and + Southampton, to smell the sea? perhaps-like her!—dismissing the + chariot and hiring a yacht for a voyage round the coast and up the Thames. + She had an extraordinary love of the sea, yet she preferred soldiers to + sailors. A woman? Never one of them more a woman! But it came of her + quickness to take the colour and share the tastes of the man to whom she + gave herself. + </p> + <p> + My lord was beginning to distinguish qualities in a character. + </p> + <p> + He was informed at the mews that Joshua Abnett was on the road still. + Joshua seemed to be a roadster of uncommon unprogressiveness, proper to a + framed picture. + </p> + <p> + While debating whether to lunch at his loathed club or at a home loathed + more, but open to bright enlivenment any instant, Lord Ormont beheld a hat + lifted and Captain May saluting him. They were near a famous + gambling-house in St. James's Street. + </p> + <p> + 'Good! I am glad to see you,' he said. 'Tell me you know Mr. Morsfield + pretty well. I'm speaking of my affair. He has been trespassing down on my + grounds at Steignton, and I think of taking the prosecution of him into my + own hands. Is he in town?' + </p> + <p> + 'I 've just left his lame devil Cumnock, my lord,' said May, after a + slight grimace. 'They generally run in tandem.' + </p> + <p> + 'Will you let me know?' + </p> + <p> + 'At once, when I hear.' + </p> + <p> + 'You will call on me? Before noon?' + </p> + <p> + 'Any service required?' + </p> + <p> + 'My respects to your wife.' + </p> + <p> + 'Your lordship is very good.' + </p> + <p> + Captain May bloomed at a civility paid to his wife. He was a smallish, + springy, firm-faced man, devotee of the lady bearing his name and wielding + him. In the days when duelling flourished on our land, frail women could + be powerful. + </p> + <p> + The earl turned from him to greet Lord Adderwood and a superior officer of + his Profession, on whom he dropped a frigid nod. He held that all but the + rank and file, and a few subalterns, of the service had abandoned him to + do homage to the authorities. The Club he frequented was not his military + Club. Indeed, lunching at any Club in solitariness that day, with Aminta + away from home, was bitter penance. He was rejoiced by Lord Adderwood's + invitation, and hung to him after the lunch; for a horrible prospect of a + bachelor dinner intimated astonishingly that he must have become unawares + a domesticated man. + </p> + <p> + The solitary later meal of a bachelor was consumed, if the word will suit + a rabbit's form of feeding. He fatigued his body by walking the streets + and the bridge of the Houses of Parliament, and he had some sleep under a + roof where a life like death, or death apeing life, would have seemed to + him the Joshua Abnett, if he had been one to take up images. + </p> + <p> + Next day he was under the obligation to wait at home till noon. Shortly + before noon a noise of wheels drew him to the window. A young lady, in + whom he recognized Aminta's little school friend, of some name, stepped + out of a fly. He met her in the hall. + </p> + <p> + She had expected to be welcomed by Aminta, and she was very timid on + finding herself alone with the earl. He, however, treated her as the + harbinger bird, wryneck of the nightingale, sure that Aminta would keep + her appointment unless an accident delayed. He had forgotten her name, but + not her favourite pursuit of botany; and upon that he discoursed, and he + was interested, not quite independently of the sentiment of her being + there as a guarantee of Aminta's return. Still he knew his English earth, + and the counties and soil for particular wild-flowers, grasses, mosses; + and he could instruct her and inspire a receptive pupil on the theme of + birds, beasts, fishes, insects, in England and other lands. + </p> + <p> + He remained discoursing without much weariness till four of the afternoon. + Then he had his reward. The chariot was at the door, and the mounted + figure of Joshua Abnett, on which he cast not a look or a thought. Aminta + was alone. She embraced Selina Collett warmly, and said, in friendly + tones, 'Ah! my lord, you are in advance of me.' + </p> + <p> + She had dropped Mrs. Pagnell and Mr. Weyburn at two suburban houses; + working upon her aunt's dread of the earl's interrogations as regarded Mr. + Morsfield. She had, she said, chosen to take the journey easily on her + return, and enjoyed it greatly. + </p> + <p> + My lord studied her manner more than her speech. He would have interpreted + a man's accurately enough. He read hers to signify that she had really + enjoyed her journey, 'made the best of it,' and did not intend to be + humble about her visit to Steignton without his permission; but that, if + hurt at the time, she had recovered her spirits, and was ready for a shot + or two—to be nothing like a pitched battle. And she might fire away + to her heart's content: wordy retorts would not come from him; he had + material surprises in reserve for her. His question concerning Morsfield + knew its answer, and would only be put under pressure. + </p> + <p> + Comparison of the friends Aminta and Selina was forced by their standing + together, and the representation in little Selina of the inferiority of + the world of women to his Aminta; he thought of several, and splendid + women, foreign and English. The comparison rose sharply now, with Aminta's + novel, airy, homely, unchallengeing assumption of an equal footing beside + her lord, in looks and in tones that had cast off constraint of the + adoring handmaid, to show the full-blown woman, rightful queen of her half + of the dominion. Between the Aminta of then and now, the difference was + marked as between Northern and Southern women: the frozen-mouthed + Northerner and the pearl and rose-nipped Southerner; those who smirk in + dropping congealed monosyllables, and those who radiantly laugh out the + voluble chatter. + </p> + <p> + Conceiving this to the full in a mind destitute of imagery, but indicative + of the thing as clearly as the planed, unpolished woodwork of a cabinet in + a carpenter's shop, Lord Ormont liked her the better for the change, + though she was not the woman whose absence from his house had caused him + to go mooning half a night through the streets, and though it forewarned + him of a tougher bit of battle, if battle there was to be. + </p> + <p> + He was a close reader of surfaces. But in truth, the change so notable + came of the circumstance, that some little way down below the surface he + perused, where heart weds mind, or nature joins intellect, for the two to + beget a resolution, the battle of the man and the woman had been fought, + and the man beaten. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXII. TREATS OF THE FIRST DAY OF THE CONTENTION OF BROTHER AND + SISTER + </h2> + <p> + In the contest rageing at mid-sea still between the man and the woman, it + is the one who is hard to the attractions of the other that will make + choice of the spot and have the advantages. A short time earlier Lord + Ormont could have marked it out at his leisure. He would have been unable + to comprehend why it was denied him to do so now; for he was master of + himself, untroubled by conscience, unaware, since he was assured of his + Aminta's perfect safety and his restored sense of possession, that any + taint of softness in him had reversed the condition of their alliance. He + felt benevolently the much he had to bestow, and was about to bestow. + Meanwhile, without complicity on his part, without his knowledge, yet + absolutely involving his fate, the battle had gone against him in Aminta's + breast. + </p> + <p> + Like many of his class and kind, he was thoroughly acquainted with the + physical woman, and he took that first and very engrossing volume of the + great Book of Mulier for all the history. A powerful wing of imagination, + strong as the flappers of the great Roc of Arabian story, is needed to + lift the known physical woman even a very little way up into azure + heavens. It is far easier to take a snap-shot at the psychic, and tumble + her down from her fictitious heights to earth. The mixing of the two make + nonsense of her. She was created to attract the man, for an excellent + purpose in the main. We behold her at work incessantly. One is a fish to + her hook; another a moth to her light. By the various arts at her disposal + she will have us, unless early in life we tear away the creature's + coloured gauzes and penetrate to her absurdly simple mechanism. That done, + we may, if we please, dominate her. High priests of every religion have + successively denounced her as the chief enemy. To subdue and bid her + minister to our satisfaction is therefore a right employment of man's + unperverted superior strength. Of course, we keep to ourselves the woman + we prefer; but we have to beware of an uxorious preference, or we are + likely to resemble the Irishman with his wolf, and dance imprisoned in the + hug of our captive. + </p> + <p> + For it is the creature's characteristic to be lastingly awake, in her + moments of utmost slavishness most keenly awake to the chances of the + snaring of the stronger. Be on guard, then. Lord Ormont had been on guard + then and always: his instinct of commandership kept him on guard. He was + on guard now when his Aminta played, not the indignant and the frozen, but + the genially indifferent. She did it well, he admitted. + </p> + <p> + Had it been the indignant she played, he might have stooped to cajole the + handsome queen of gypsies she was, without acknowledgement of her right to + complain. Feeling that he was about to be generous, he shrugged. He meant + to speak in deeds. + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte's house was at the distance of a stroller's half-hour + across Hyde Park westward from his own. Thither he walked, a few minutes + after noon, prepared for cattishness. He could fancy that he had hitherto + postponed the visit rather on her account, considering that he would have + to crush her if she humped and spat, and he hoped to be allowed to do it + gently. There would certainly be a scene. + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte was at home. + </p> + <p> + 'Always at home to you, Rowsley, at any hour. Mr. Eglett has driven down + to the City. There 's a doctor in a square there's got a reputation for + treating weak children, and he has taken down your grand-nephew Bobby to + be inspected. Poor boy comes of a poor stock on the father's side. Mr. + Eglett would have that marriage. Now he sees wealth isn't everything. + Those Benlews are rushlights. However, Elizabeth stood with her father to + have Robert Benlew, and this poor child 's the result. I wonder whether + they have consciences!' + </p> + <p> + My lord prolonged the sibilation of his 'Yes,' in the way of absent-minded + men. He liked little Bobby, but had to class the boy second for the + present. + </p> + <p> + 'You have our family jewels in your keeping, Charlotte?' + </p> + <p> + 'No, I haven't,—and you know I haven't, Rowsley.' She sprang to + arms, the perfect porcupine, at his opening words, as he had anticipated. + </p> + <p> + 'Where are the jewels?' + </p> + <p> + 'They're in the cellars of my bankers, and safe there, you may rely on + it.' + </p> + <p> + 'I want them.' + </p> + <p> + 'I want to have them safe; and there they stop.' + </p> + <p> + 'You must get them and hand them over.' + </p> + <p> + 'To whom?' + </p> + <p> + 'To me.' + </p> + <p> + 'What for?' + </p> + <p> + 'They will be worn by the Countess of Ormont' + </p> + <p> + 'Who 's she?' + </p> + <p> + 'The lady who bears the title.' + </p> + <p> + 'The only Countess of Ormont I know of is your mother and mine, Rowsley; + and she's dead.' + </p> + <p> + 'The Countess of Ormont I speak of is alive.' + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte squared to him. 'Who gives her the title?' + </p> + <p> + 'She bears it by right.' + </p> + <p> + 'Do you mean to say, Rowsley, you have gone and married the woman since we + came up from Steignton?' + </p> + <p> + 'She is my wife.' + </p> + <p> + 'Anyhow, she won't have our family jewels.' + </p> + <p> + 'If you had swallowed them, you'd have to disgorge.' + </p> + <p> + 'I don't give up our family jewels to such people.' + </p> + <p> + 'Do you decline to call on her?' + </p> + <p> + 'I do: I respect our name and blood.' + </p> + <p> + 'You will send the order to your bankers for them to deliver the jewels + over to me at my house this day.' + </p> + <p> + 'Look here, Rowsley; you're gone cracked or senile. You 're in the hands + of one of those clever wenches who catch men of your age. She may catch + you; she shan't lay hold of our family jewels: they stand for the honour + of our name and blood.' + </p> + <p> + 'They are to be at my house-door at four o'clock this afternoon.' + </p> + <p> + 'They'll not stir.' + </p> + <p> + 'Then I go down to order your bankers and give them the order.' + </p> + <p> + 'My bankers won't attend to it without the order from me.' + </p> + <p> + 'You will submit to the summons of my lawyers.' + </p> + <p> + 'You're bent on a public scandal, are you?' + </p> + <p> + 'I am bent on having the jewels.' + </p> + <p> + 'They are not yours; you 've no claim to them; they are heirlooms in our + family. Things most sacred to us are attached to them. They belong to our + history. There 's the tiara worn by the first Countess of Ormont. There 's + the big emerald of the necklace-pendant—you know the story of it. + Two rubies not counted second to any in England. All those diamonds! I + wore the cross and the two pins the day I was presented after my + marriage.' + </p> + <p> + 'The present Lady Ormont will wear them the day she is presented.' + </p> + <p> + 'She won't wear them at Court.' + </p> + <p> + 'She will.' + </p> + <p> + 'Don't expect the Lady Ormont of tradesmen and footmen to pass the Lord + Chamberlain.' + </p> + <p> + 'That matter will be arranged for next season. Now I 've done.' + </p> + <p> + 'So have I; and you have my answer, Rowsley.' They quitted their chairs. + </p> + <p> + 'You decline to call on my wife?' said the earl. + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte replied: 'Understand me, now. If the woman has won you + round to legitimize the connection, first, I've a proper claim to see her + marriage lines. I must have a certificate of her birth. I must have a + testified account of her life before you met her and got the worst of it. + Then, as the case may be, I 'll call on her. + </p> + <p> + 'You will behave yourself when you call.' + </p> + <p> + 'But she won't have our family jewels.' + </p> + <p> + 'That affair has been settled by me.' + </p> + <p> + 'I should be expecting to hear of them as decorating the person of one of + that man Morsfield's mistresses.' + </p> + <p> + The earl's brow thickened. 'Charlotte, I smacked your cheek when you were + a girl.' + </p> + <p> + 'I know you did. You might again, and I wouldn't cry out. She travels with + that Morsfield; you 've seen it. He goes boasting of her. Gypsy or not, + she 's got queer ways.' + </p> + <p> + 'I advise you, you had better learn at once to speak of her respectfully.' + </p> + <p> + 'I shall have enough to go through, if what you say's true, with questions + of the woman's antecedents and her people, and the date of the day of this + marriage. When was the day you did it? I shall have to give an answer. You + know cousins of ours, and the way they 'll be pressing, and comparing ages + and bawling rumours. None of them imagined my brother such a fool as to be + wheedled into marrying her. You say it's done, Rowsley. Was it done + yesterday or the day before?' + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont found unexpectedly that she struck on a weak point. Married + from the first? Why not tell me of it? He could hear her voice as if she + had spoken the words. And how communicate the pell-mell of reasons? + </p> + <p> + 'You're running vixen. The demand I make is for the jewels,' he said. + </p> + <p> + 'You won't have them, Rowsley—not for her.' + </p> + <p> + 'You think of compelling me to use force?' + </p> + <p> + 'Try it.' + </p> + <p> + 'You swear the jewels are with your bankers?' + </p> + <p> + 'I left them in charge of my bankers, and they've not been moved by me.' + </p> + <p> + 'Well, it must be force.' + </p> + <p> + 'Nothing short of it when the honour of our family's concerned.' + </p> + <p> + It was rather worse than the anticipated struggle with this Charlotte, + though he had kept his temper. The error was in supposing that an hour's + sharp conflict would settle it, as he saw. The jewels required a siege. + </p> + <p> + 'When does Eglett return?' he asked. + </p> + <p> + 'Back to lunch. You stay and lunch here, Rowsley we don't often have you.' + </p> + <p> + The earl contemplated her, measuring her powers of resistance for a + prolonged engagement. Odd that the pride which had withdrawn him from the + service of an offending country should pitch him into a series of tussles + with women, for its own confusion! He saw that, too, in his dim + reflectiveness, and held the country answerable for it. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Eglett was taken into confidence by him privately after lunch. Mr. + Eglett's position between the brother and sister was perplexing; + habitually he thought his wife had strong good sense, in spite of the + costliness of certain actions at law not invariably confirming his + opinion; he thought also that the earl's demand must needs be considered + obediently. At the same time, his wife's objections to the new Countess of + Ormont, unmasked upon the world, seemed very legitimate; though it might + be asked why the earl should not marry, marrying the lady who pleased him. + But if, in the words of his wife, the lady had no claim to be called a + lady, the marriage was deplorable. On the other hand, Lord Ormont spoke of + her in terms of esteem, and he was no fondling dotard. + </p> + <p> + How to compromise the matter for the sake of peace? The man perpetually + plunged into strife by his combative spouse, cried the familiar question + again; and at every suggestion of his on behalf of concord he heard from + Lady Charlotte that he had no principles, or else from Lord Ormont that + his head must be off his shoulders. + </p> + <p> + The man for peace had the smallest supply of language, and so, unless he + took a side and fought, his active part was football between them. + </p> + <p> + It went on through the afternoon up to five o'clock. No impression was + betrayed by Lady Charlotte. + </p> + <p> + She congratulated her brother on the recruit he had enlisted. He smiled + his grimmest of the lips drawn in. A combat, perceptibly of some + extension, would soon give him command of the man of peace; and energy to + continue attacks will break down the energies of any dogged defensive + stand. + </p> + <p> + He deferred the discussion with his unreasonable sister until the next day + at half-past twelve o'clock. Lady Charlotte nodded to the appointment. She + would have congratulated herself without irony on the result of the first + day's altercation but for her brother Rowsley's unusual and ominous + display of patience. Twice during the wrangle she had to conceal a + difficult breathing. She felt a numbness in one arm now it was over, and + mentally complimented her London physician on the unerringness of his + diagnosis. Her heart, however, complained of the cruelty of having in the + end, perhaps, if the wrangle should be protracted, to yield, for sheer + weakness, without ceasing to beat. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXIII. THE ORMONT JEWELS + </h2> + <p> + At half-past twelve of the noon next day Lord Ormont was at Lady + Charlotte's house door. She welcomed him affectionately, as if nothing + were in dispute; he nodded an acceptance of her greetings, with a blunt + intimation of the business to be settled; she put on her hump of the + feline defensive; then his batteries opened fire and hers barked back on + him. Each won admiration of the other's tenacity, all the more determined + to sap or split it. They had known one another's character, but they had + never seen it in such strong light. Never had their mutual and similar, + though opposed, resources been drawn out so copiously and unreservedly. + This was the shining scrawl of all that each could do to gain a fight. + They admired one another's contemptibly justifiable evasions, changes of + front, statements bordering the lie, even to meanness in the withdrawal of + admissions and the denial of the same ever having been made. That was + Charlotte! That was Rowsley! Anything to beat down the adversary. + </p> + <p> + As to will, the woman's will, of these two, equalled the man's. They were + matched in obstinacy and unscrupulousness. + </p> + <p> + Her ingenuitics of the defence eluded his attacks, and compelled him to + fall on heavy iteration of his demand for the jewels, an immediate + restitution of the jewels. 'Why immediate?' cried she. + </p> + <p> + He repeated it without replying to her. + </p> + <p> + 'But, you tell me, Rowsley, why immediate? If you're in want of money for + her, you come to me, tell me, you shall have thousands. I'll drive down to + the City to-morrow and sell out stock. Mr. Eglett won't mind when he hears + the purpose. I shall call five thousand cheap, and don't ask to see the + money again.' + </p> + <p> + 'Ah! double the sum to have your own way!' said he. + </p> + <p> + She protested that she valued her money. She furnished instances of her + carefulness of her money all along up to the present period of brutal old + age. Yet she would willingly part with five thousand or more to save the + family honour. Mr. Eglett would not only approve, he would probably + advance a good part of the money himself. + </p> + <p> + 'Money! Who wants money?' thundered the earl, and jumped out of her trap + of the further diversion from the plain request. 'To-morrow, when I am + here, I shall expect to have the jewels delivered to me.' + </p> + <p> + 'That you may hand them over to her. Where are they likely to be this time + next year? And what do you know about jewels? You may look at them when + you ask to see them, and not know imitation paste—like the stuff + Lady Beltus showed her old husband. Our mother wore them, and she prized + them. I'm not sure I wouldn't rather hear they were exhibited in a Bond + Street jeweller's shop or a Piccadilly pawnbroker's than have them on that + woman.' + </p> + <p> + 'You speak of my wife.' + </p> + <p> + 'For a season, perhaps; and off they're likely to go, to pay bills, if her + Adderwoods and her Morsfields are out of funds, as they call it.' + </p> + <p> + 'You are aware you are speaking of my wife, Charlotte?' + </p> + <p> + 'You daren't say my sister-in-law.' + </p> + <p> + He did not choose to say it; and once more she dared him. She could + imagine she scored a point. + </p> + <p> + They were summoned to lunch by Mr. Eglett; and there was an hour's + armistice; following which the earl demanded the restitution of the + jewels, and heard the singular question, childishly accentuated, 'What + for?' + </p> + <p> + Patience was his weapon and support, so he named his object with an air of + inveteracy in tranquillity they were for his wife to wear. + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte dared him to say they were for her sister-in-law. + </p> + <p> + He despised the transparent artifice of the challenge. + </p> + <p> + 'But you have to own the difference,' she said. 'You haven't lost respect + for your family, thank God! No. It 's one thing to say she 's a wife: you + hang fire when it 's to say she 's my sister-in-law.' + </p> + <p> + 'You'll have to admit the fact, Charlotte.' + </p> + <p> + 'How long is it since I should have had to admit the fact?' + </p> + <p> + 'From the date of my marriage.' + </p> + <p> + 'Tell me the date.' + </p> + <p> + 'No, you don't wear a wig, Charlotte; but you are fit to practise in the + Law-courts!' he said, exasperatedly jocular. + </p> + <p> + She had started a fresh diversion, and she pressed him for the date. 'I 'm + supposed to have had a sister-in-law-how many weeks?—months?' + </p> + <p> + 'Years.' + </p> + <p> + 'Married years! And if you've been married years, where were you married? + Not in a church. That woman's no church-bride.' + </p> + <p> + 'There are some clever women made idiots of by their trullish tempers.' + </p> + <p> + 'Abuse away. I've asked you where you were married, Rowsley.' + </p> + <p> + 'Go to Madrid. Go to the Embassy. Apply to the chaplain.' + </p> + <p> + 'Married in Madrid! Who's ever married in Madrid! You flung her a yellow + handkerchief, and she tied it round her neck—that 's your ceremony! + Now you tell me you've been married years; and she's a young woman; you + fetch her over from Madrid, set her in a place where those Morsfields and + other fungi-fellows grow, and she has to think herself lucky to be + received by a Lady Staines and a Mrs. Lawrence Finchley, and she the talk + of the town, refused at Court, for all an honourable-enough old woman + countenanced her in pity; and I 'm asked to believe she was my brother's + wife, sister-in-law of mine, all the while! I won't.' + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte dilated on it for a length of time, merely to show she + declined to believe it; pouring Morsfield over him and the talk of the + town, the gypsy caught in Spain—now to be foisted on her as her + sister-in-law! She could fancy she produced an effect. + </p> + <p> + She did indeed unveil to him a portion of the sufferings his Aminta had + undergone; as visibly, too, the good argumentative reasons for his + previous avoidance of the deadly, dismal wrangle here forced on him. A + truly dismal, profitless wrangle! But the finish of it would be the + beginning of some solace to his Aminta. + </p> + <p> + The finish of it must be to-morrow. He refrained from saying so, and + simply appointed to-morrow for the resumption of the wrestle, departing in + his invincible coat of patience: which one has to wear when dealing with a + woman like Charlotte, he informed Mr. Eglett, on his way out at a later + hour than on the foregone day. Mr. Eglett was of his opinion, that an + introduction of lawyers into a family dispute was 'rats in the pantry'; + and he would have joined him in his gloomy laugh, if the thought of + Charlotte in a contention had not been so serious a matter. She might be + beaten; she could not be brought to yield. + </p> + <p> + She retired to her bedroom, and laid herself flat on her bed, immoveable, + till her maid undressed her for the night. A cup of broth and strip of + toast formed her sole nourishment. As for her doctor's possible + reproaches, the symptoms might crowd and do their worst; she fought for + the honour of her family. + </p> + <p> + At midday of the third day Lady Charlotte was reduced to the condition of + those fortresses which wave defiantly the flag, but deliver no further + shot, awaiting the assault. Her body, affected by hideous old age, + succumbed. Her will was unshaken. She would not write to her bankers. Mr. + Eglett might go to them, if he thought fit. Rowsley was to understand that + he might call himself married; she would have no flower-basket bunch of a + sister-in-law thrust upon her. + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont and Mr. Eglett walked down to her bankers in the afternoon. As + a consequence of express injunctions given by my lady five years + previously, the assistant-manager sought an interview with her. + </p> + <p> + The jewels were lodged at her house the day ensuing. They were examined, + verified by the list in Lady Charlotte's family record-book, and then + taken away—forcibly, of course—by her brother. + </p> + <p> + He laughed in his dry manner; but the reminiscent glimpses, helping him to + see the humour of it, stirred sensations of the tug it had been with that + combative Charlotte, and excused him for having shrunk from the encounter + until he conceived it to be necessary. + </p> + <p> + Settlement of the affair with Morsfield now claimed his attention. The + ironical tolerance he practised in relation to Morsfield when Aminta had + no definite station before the world changed to an angry irritability at + the man's behaviour now that she had stepped forth under his + acknowledgement of her as the Countess of Ormont. He had come round to a + rather healthier mind regarding his country, and his introduction of the + Countess of Ormont to the world was his peace-offering. + </p> + <p> + As he returned home earlier on the third day, he found his diligent + secretary at work. The calling on Captain May and the writing to the sort + of man were acts obnoxious to his dignity; so he despatched Weyburn to the + captain's house, one in a small street of three narrow tenements abutting + on aristocracy and terminating in mews. Weyburn's mission was to give the + earl's address at Great Marlow for the succeeding days, and to see Captain + May, if the captain was at home. During his absence the precious family + jewel-box was locked in safety. Aminta and her friend, little Miss + Collett, were out driving, by the secretary's report. The earl considered + it a wholesome feature of Aminta's character that she should have held to + her modest schoolmate the fact spoke well for both of them. + </p> + <p> + A look at the papers to serve for Memoirs was discomposing, and led him to + think the secretary could be parted with as soon as he pleased to go: say, + a week hence. + </p> + <p> + The Memoirs were no longer designed for issue. He had the impulse to treat + them on the spot as the Plan for the Defence of the Country had been + treated; and for absolutely obverse reasons. The secretary and the Memoirs + were associated: one had sprung out of the other. Moreover, the secretary + had witnessed a scene at Steignton. The young man had done his duty, and + would be thanked for that, and dismissed, with a touch of his employer's + hand. The young man would have made a good soldier—a better soldier, + good as he might be as a scribe. He ought to have been in his father's + footsteps, and he would then have disciplined or quashed his fantastical + ideas. Perhaps he was right on the point of toning the Memoirs here and + there. Since the scene at Steignton Lord Ormont's views had changed + markedly in relation to everybody about him, and most things. + </p> + <p> + Weyburn came back at the end of an hour to say that he had left the + address with Mrs. May, whom he had seen. + </p> + <p> + 'A handsome person,' the earl observed. + </p> + <p> + 'She must have been very handsome,' said Weyburn. + </p> + <p> + 'Ah! we fall into their fictions, or life would be a bald business, upon + my word!' + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont had not uttered it before the sentiment of his greater luck + with one of that queer world of the female lottery went through him on a + swell of satisfaction, just a wave. + </p> + <p> + An old-world eye upon women, it seemed to Weyburn. But the man who could + crown a long term of cruel injustice with the harshness to his wife at + Steignton would naturally behold women with that eye. + </p> + <p> + However, he was allowed only to generalize; he could not trust himself to + dwell on Lady Ormont and the Aminta inside the shell. Aminta and Lady + Ormont might think as one or diversely of the executioner's blow she had + undergone. She was a married woman, and she probably regarded the wedding + by law as the end a woman has to aim at, and is annihilated by hitting; + one flash of success, and then extinction, like a boy's cracker on the + pavement. Not an elevated image, but closely resembling that which her + alliance with Lord Ormont had been! + </p> + <p> + At the same time, no true lover of a woman advises her—imploring is + horrible treason—to slip the symbolic circle of the law from her + finger, and have in an instant the world for her enemy. She must consent + to be annihilated, and must have no feelings; particularly no mind. The + mind is the danger for her. If she has a mind alive, she will certainly + push for the position to exercise it, and run the risk of a classing with + Nature's created mates for reptile men. + </p> + <p> + Besides, Lady Ormont appeared, in the company of her friend Selina + Collett, not worse than rather too thoughtful; not distinctly unhappy. And + she was conversable, smiling. She might have had an explanation with my + lord, accepting excuses—or, who knows? taking the blame, and + offering them. Weakness is pliable. So pliable is it, that it has been + known for a crack of the masterly whip to fling off the victim and put on + the culprit! Ay, but let it be as it may with Lady Ormont, Aminta is of a + different composition. Aminta's eyes of the return journey to London were + haunting lights, and lured him to speculate; and for her sake he rejected + the thought that for him they meant anything warmer than the passing + thankfulness, though they were a novel assurance to him of her possession + beneath her smothering cloud of the power to resolve, and show forth a + brilliant individuality. + </p> + <p> + The departure of the ladies and my lord in the travelling carriage for the + house on the Upper Thames was passably sweetened to Weyburn by the command + to him to follow in a day or two, and continue his work there until he + left England. Aminta would not hear of an abandonment of the Memoirs. She + spoke on the subject to my lord as to a husband pardoned. + </p> + <p> + She was not less affable and pleasant with him out of Weyburn's hearing. + My lord earned her gratitude for his behaviour to Selina Collett, to whom + he talked interestedly of her favourite pursuit, as he had done on the day + when, as he was not the man to forget, her arrival relieved him of + anxiety. Aminta, noticed the box on the seat beside him. + </p> + <p> + They drove up to their country house in time to dress leisurely for + dinner. Nevertheless, the dinner-hour had struck several minutes before + she descended; and the earl, as if not expecting her, was out on the + garden path beside the river bank with Selina. She beckoned from the step + of the open French window. + </p> + <p> + He came to her at little Selina's shuffling pace, conversing upon + water-plants. + </p> + <p> + 'No jewelry to-day?' he said. + </p> + <p> + And Aminta replied: 'Carstairs has shown me the box and given the key. I + have not opened it.' + </p> + <p> + 'Time in the evening, or to-morrow. You guess the contents?' + </p> + <p> + 'I presume I do.' + </p> + <p> + She looked feverish and shadowed. + </p> + <p> + He murmured kindly: 'Anything?' + </p> + <p> + 'Not now: we will dine.' + </p> + <p> + She had missed, had lost, she feared, her own jewelbox; a casket of no + great treasure to others, but of a largely estimable importance to her. + </p> + <p> + After the heavy ceremonial entrance and exit of dishes, she begged the + earl to accompany her for an examination of the contents of the box. + </p> + <p> + As soon as her chamber-door was shut, she said, in accents of alarm: 'Mine + has disappeared. Carstairs, I know, is to be trusted. She remembers + carrying the box out of my room; she believes she can remember putting it + into the fly. She had to confess that it had vanished, without her knowing + how, when my boxes were unpacked.' + </p> + <p> + 'Is she very much upset?' said the earl. + </p> + <p> + 'Carstairs? Why, yes, poor creature! you can imagine. I have no doubt she + feels for me; and her own reputation is concerned. What do you think is + best to be done?' + </p> + <p> + 'To be done! Overhaul the baggage again in all the rooms.' + </p> + <p> + 'We've not failed to do that.' + </p> + <p> + 'Control yourself, my dear. If, by bad luck, they're lost, we can replace + them. The contents of this box, now, we could not replace. Open it, and + judge.' + </p> + <p> + 'I have no curiosity—forgive me, I beg. And the servant's fly has + been visited, ransacked inside and out, footmen questioned; we have not + left anything we can conceive of undone. My lord, will you suggest?' + </p> + <p> + 'The intrinsic value of the gems would not be worth—not worth + Aminta's one beat of the heart. Upon my word—not one!' + </p> + <p> + An amatory knightly compliment breasting her perturbation roused an + unwonted spite; and a swift reflection on it startled her with a + suspicion. She cast it behind her. He could be angler and fish, he would + not be cat and mouse. + </p> + <p> + She said, however, more temperately: 'It is not the value of the gems. We + are losing precious minutes!' + </p> + <p> + 'Association of them with the giver? Is it that? If that has a value for + you, he is flattered.' + </p> + <p> + This betrayed him to the woman waxing as intensely susceptible in all her + being as powder to sparks. + </p> + <p> + 'There is to be no misunderstanding, my lord,' she said. 'I like—I + value my jewels; but—I am alarmed lest the box should fall into + hands—into strange hands.' + </p> + <p> + 'The box!' he exclaimed with an outline of a comic grimace; and, if proved + a voluptuary in torturing, he could instance half a dozen points for + extenuation: her charm of person, withheld from him, and to be embraced; + her innocent naughtiness; compensation coming to her in excess for a + transient infliction of pain. 'Your anxiety is about the box?' + </p> + <p> + 'Yes, the box,' Aminta said firmly. 'It contains—' + </p> + <p> + 'No false jewels? A thief might complain.' + </p> + <p> + 'It contains letters, my lord.' 'Blackmail?' + </p> + <p> + 'You would be at liberty to read them. I would rather they were burnt.' + </p> + <p> + 'Ah!' The earl heaved his chest prodigiously. 'Blackmail letters are + better in a husband's hands, if they can be laid there.' + </p> + <p> + 'If there is a necessity for him to read them—yes.' + </p> + <p> + 'There may be a necessity, there can't be a gratification,—though + there are dogs of thick blood that like to scratch their sores,' he + murmured to himself. 'You used to show me these declaration epistles.' + </p> + <p> + 'Not the names.' + </p> + <p> + 'Not the names—no!' + </p> + <p> + 'When we had left the country, I showed you why it had been my wish to + go.' + </p> + <p> + 'Xarifa was and is female honour. Take the key, open that box; I will make + inquiries. But, my dear, you guess everything. Your little box was removed + for the bigger impression to be produced by this one.' + </p> + <p> + A flash came out of her dark eyes. + </p> + <p> + 'No, you guess wrong this time, you clever shrew! I wormed nothing from + you,' said he. 'I knew you kept particular letters in that receptacle of + things of price: Aminta can't conceal. The man has worried you. Why not + have come to me?' + </p> + <p> + 'Oblige me, my lord, by restoring me my box.' + </p> + <p> + 'This is your box.' + </p> + <p> + Her bosom lifted with the words Oh, no! unspoken. He took the key and + opened the box. A dazzling tray of stones was revealed; underneath it the + constellations in cases, very heavens for the worldly Eve; and he doubted + that Eve could have gone completely out of her. But she had, as + observation instructed him, set her woman's mind on something else, and + must have it before letting her eyes fall on objects impossible for any of + her sex to see without coveting them. + </p> + <p> + He bowed. 'I will fetch it,' he said magnanimously. Her own box was + brought from his room. She then consented to look womanly at the Ormont + jewels, over which the battle; whereof she knew nothing, and nothing could + be told her, had been fought in her interests, for her sovereign pleasure. + </p> + <p> + She looked and admired. They were beautiful jewels the great emerald was + wonderful, and there were two rubies to praise. She excused herself for + declining to put the circlet for the pendant round her neck, or a + glittering ring on her finger. Her remarks were encomiums, not quite so + cold as those of a provincial spinster of an ascetic turn at an exhibition + of the world's flycatcher gewgaws. He had divided Aminta from the Countess + of Ormont, and it was the wary Aminta who set a guard on looks and tones + before the spectacle of his noble bounty, lest any, the smallest, payment + of the dues of the countess should be demanded. Rightly interpreting him + to be by nature incapable of asking pardon, or acknowledging a wrong done + by him, however much he might crave exemption from blame and seek for + peace, she kept to her mask of injury, though she hated unforgivingness; + and she felt it little, she did it easily, because her heart was dead to + the man. My lord's hand touched her on her shoulder, propitiatingly in + some degree, in his dumb way. + </p> + <p> + Offended women can be emotional to a towering pride, that bends while it + assumes unbendingness: it must come to their sensations, as it were a sign + of humanity in the majestic, speechless king of beasts; and they are + pathetically melted, abjectly hypocritical; a nice confusion of + sentiments, traceable to a tender bosom's appreciation of strength and the + perceptive compassion for its mortality. + </p> + <p> + In a case of the alienated wife, whose blood is running another way, no + foul snake's bite is more poisonous than that indicatory touch, however + simple and slight. My lord's hand, lightly laid on Aminta's shoulder, + became sensible of soft warm flesh stiffening to the skeleton. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXIV. LOVERS MATED + </h2> + <p> + He was benevolently martial, to the extent of paternal, in thinking his + girl, of whom he deigned to think now as his countess, pardonably foolish. + Woman for woman, she was of a pattern superior to the world's ordinary, + and might run the world's elect a race. But she was pitifully woman-like + in her increase of dissatisfaction with the more she got. Women are + happier enslaved. Men, too, if their despot is an Ormont. Colonel of his + regiment, he proved that: his men would follow him anywhere, do anything. + Grand old days, before he was condemned by one knows not what + extraordinary round of circumstances to cogitate on women as fluids, and + how to cut channels for them, that they may course along in the direction + good for them, imagining it their pretty wanton will to go that way! + Napoleon's treatment of women is excellent example. Peterborough's can be + defended. + </p> + <p> + His Aminta could not reason. She nursed a rancour on account of the blow + she drew on herself at Steignton, and she declined consolation in her + being pardoned. The reconcilement evidently was proposed as a finale of + one of the detestable feminine storms enveloping men weak enough to let + themselves be dragged through a scene for the sake of domestic + tranquillity. + </p> + <p> + A remarkable exhibition of Aminta the woman was, her entire change of + front since he had taken her spousal chill. Formerly she was passive, + merely stately, the chiselled grande dame, deferential in her bearing and + speech, even when argumentative and having an opinion to plant. She had + always the independent eye and step; she now had the tongue of the + graceful and native great lady, fitted to rule her circle and hold her + place beside the proudest of the Ormonts. She bore well the small shuffle + with her jewel-box—held herself gallantly. There had been no female + feignings either, affected misapprehensions, gapy ignorances, and snaky + subterfuges, and the like, familiar to men who have the gentle twister in + grip. Straight on the line of the thing to be seen she flew, and struck on + it; and that is a woman's martial action. He would right heartily have + called her comrade, if he had been active himself. A warrior pulled off + his horse, to sit in a chair and contemplate the minute evolutions of the + sex is pettish with his part in such battle-fields at the stage beyond + amusement. + </p> + <p> + Seen swimming, she charmed him. Abstract views of a woman summon opposite + advocates: one can never say positively, That is she! But the visible fair + form of a woman is hereditary queen of us. We have none of your pleadings + and counter-pleadings and judicial summaries to obstruct a ravenous + loyalty. My lord beheld Aminta take her three quick steps on the plank, + and spring and dive and ascend, shaking the ends of her bound black locks; + and away she went with shut mouth and broad stroke of her arms into the + sunny early morning river; brave to see, although he had to flick a bee of + a question, why he enjoyed the privilege of seeing, and was not beside + her. The only answer confessed to a distaste for all exercise once + pleasurable. + </p> + <p> + She and her little friend boated or strolled through the meadows during + the day; he fished. When he and Aminta rode out for the hour before + dinner, she seemed pleased. She was amicable, conversable, all that was + agreeable as a woman, and she was the chillest of wives. My lord's + observations and reflections came to one conclusion: she pricked and + challenged him to lead up to her desired stormy scene. He met her and + meant to vanquish her with the dominating patience Charlotte had found too + much for her: women cannot stand against it. + </p> + <p> + To be patient in contention with women, however, one must have a + continuous and an exclusive occupation; and the tax it lays on us conduces + usually to impatience with men. My lord did not directly connect Aminta's + chillness and Morsfield's impudence; yet the sensation roused by his + Aminta participated in the desire to punish Morsfield speedily. Without + wishing for a duel, he was moved by the social sanction it had to consider + whether green youths and women might not think a grey head had delayed it + too long. The practice of the duel begot the peculiar animal logic of the + nobler savage, which tends to magnify an offence in the ratio of our + vanity, and hunger for a blood that is not demanded by the appetite. + Moreover, a waning practice, in disfavour with the new generation, will be + commended to the conservative barbarian, as partaking of the wisdom of his + fathers. Further, too, we may have grown slothful, fallen to moodiness, + done excess of service to Omphale, our tyrant lady of the glow and the + chill; and then undoubtedly the duel braces. + </p> + <p> + He left Aminta for London, submissive to the terms of intimacy dictated by + her demeanour, his unacknowledged seniority rendering their harshness less + hard to endure. She had not gratified him with a display of her person in + the glitter of the Ormont jewels; and since he was, under common + conditions, a speechless man, his ineptitude for amorous remonstrances + precipitated him upon deeds, that he might offer additional proofs of his + esteem and the assurance of her established position as his countess. He + proposed to engage Lady Charlotte in a conflict severer than the + foregoing, until he brought her to pay the ceremonial visit to her + sister-in-law. The count of time for this final trial of his masterfulness + he calculated at a week. It would be an occupation, miserable occupation + though it was. He hailed the prospect of chastising Morsfield, for a proof + that his tussels with women, prolonged study of their tricks, manoeuvrings + and outwittings of them, had not emasculated him. + </p> + <p> + Aminta willingly promised to write from day to day. Her senses had his + absence insured to them by her anticipation of the task. She did not + conceive it would be so ponderous a task. What to write to him when + nothing occurred! Nothing did occur, unless the arrival of Mr. Weyburn was + to be named an event. She alluded to it: 'Mr. Weyburn has come, expecting + to find you here. The dispatch-box is here. Is he to await you?' + </p> + <p> + That innocent little question was a day gained. + </p> + <p> + One day of boating on the upper reaches of the pastoral river, and walks + in woods and golden meadows, was felicity fallen on earth, the ripe fruit + of dreams. A dread surrounded it, as a belt, not shadowing the horizon; + and she clasped it to her heart the more passionately, like a mother her + rosy infant, which a dark world threatens and the universal fate. + </p> + <p> + Love, as it will be at her June of life, was teaching her to know the good + and bad of herself. Women, educated to embrace principles through their + timidity and their pudency, discover, amazed, that these are not lasting + qualities under love's influence. The blushes and the fears take flight. + The principles depend much on the beloved. Is he a man whose contact with + the world has given him understanding of life's laws, and can hold him + firm to the right course in the strain and whirling of a torrent, they + cling to him, deeply they worship. And if they tempt him, it is not + advisedly done. Nature and love are busy in conjunction. The timidities + and pudencies have flown; they may hover, they are not present. You + deplore it, you must not blame; you have educated them so. Muscular + principles are sown only out in the world; and, on the whole, with all + their errors, the worldly men are the truest as well as the bravest of + men. Her faith in his guidance was equal to her dependence. The retrospect + of a recent journey told her how he had been tried. + </p> + <p> + She could gaze tenderly, betray her heart, and be certain of safety. Can + wine match that for joy? She had no schemes, no hopes, but simply the + desire to bestow, the capacity to believe. Any wish to be enfolded by him + was shapeless and unlighted, unborn; though now and again for some chance + word or undefined thought she surprised the strange tenant of her breast + at an incomprehensibly faster beat, and knew it for her own and not her + own, the familiar the stranger—an utter stranger, as one who had + snared her in a wreath and was pulling her off her feet. + </p> + <p> + She was not so guileless at the thought of little Selina Collett here, and + of Selina as the letter-bearer of old; and the marvel that Matey and + Browny and Selina were together after all! Was it not a kind of summons to + her to call him Matey just once, only once, in play? She burned and ached + to do it. She might have taxed her ingenuity successfully to induce little + Selina to the boldness of calling him Matey—and she then repeating + it, as the woman who revived with a meditative effort recollections of the + girl. Ah, frightful hypocrite! Thoughts of the pleasure of his name aloud + on her lips in his hearing dissolved through her veins, and were met by + Matthew Weyburn's open face, before which hypocrisy stood rent and + stripped. She preferred the calmer, the truer pleasure of seeing him + modestly take lessons in the nomenclature of weeds, herbs, grasses, by + hedge and ditch. Selina could instruct him as well in entomology, but he + knew better the Swiss, Tyrolese, and Italian valley-homes of beetle and + butterfly species. Their simple talk was a cool zephyr fanning Aminta. + </p> + <p> + The suggestion to unite the two came to her, of course, but their physical + disparity denied her that chance to settle her own difficulty, and a + whisper of one physically the match for him punished her. In stature, in + healthfulness, they were equals, perhaps: not morally or intellectually. + And she could claim headship of him on one little point confided to her by + his mother, who was bearing him, and startled by the boom of guns under + her pillow, when her husband fronted the enemy: Matthew Weyburn, the + fencer, boxer, cricketer, hunter, all things manly, rather shrank from + firearms—at least, one saw him put on a screw to manipulate them. In + danger—among brigands or mutineers, for example—she could + stand by him and prove herself his mate. Intellectually, morally, she had + to bow humbly. Nor had she, nor could she do more than lean on and catch + example from his prompt spiritual valiancy. It shone out from him, and a + crisis fulfilled the promise. Who could be his mate for cheerful courage, + for skill, the ready mind, easy adroitness, and for self-command? To + imitate was a woman's utmost. + </p> + <p> + Matthew Weyburn appeared the very Matey of the first of May cricketing day + among Cuper's boys the next morning, when seen pacing down the + garden-walk. He wore his white trousers of that happiest of old days—the + 'white ducks' Aminta and Selina remembered. Selina beamed. 'Yes, he did; + he always wore them; but now it's a frock-coat instead of a jacket.' + </p> + <p> + 'But now he will be a master instead of a schoolboy,' said Aminta. 'Let us + hope he will prosper.' + </p> + <p> + 'He gives me the idea of a man who must succeed,' Selina said; and she was + patted, rallied, asked how she had the idea, and kissed; Aminta saying she + fancied it might be thought, for he looked so confident. + </p> + <p> + 'Only not what the boys used to call “cocky,”' said Selina. 'He won't be + contemptuous of those he outstrips.' + </p> + <p> + 'His choice of the schoolmaster's profession points to a modesty in him, + does it not, little woman?' + </p> + <p> + 'He made me tell him, while you were writing your letters yesterday, all + about my brother and his prospects.' + </p> + <p> + 'Yes, that is like him. And I must hear of your brother, “little Collett.” + Don't forget, Sely, little Collett was our postman.' + </p> + <p> + The Countess of Ormont's humorous reference to the circumstance passed + with Selina for a sign of a poetic love of the past, and a present social + elevation that allowed her to review it impassively. She admired the great + lady and good friend who could really be interested in the fortunes of a + mere schoolmaster and a merchant's clerk. To her astonishment, by some + agency beyond her fathoming, she found herself, and hardly for her own + pleasure, pushing the young schoolmaster animatedly to have an account of + his aims in the establishment of the foreign school. + </p> + <p> + Weyburn smiled. He set a short look at Aminta; and she, conscious of her + detected diplomacy, had an inward shiver, mixed of the fascination and + repugnance felt by a woman who knows that under one man's eyes her + character is naked and anatomized. Her character?—her soul. He held + it in hand and probed it mercifully. She had felt the sweet sting again + and again, and had shrunk from him, and had crawled to him. The love of + him made it all fascination. How did he learn to read at any moment right + to the soul of a woman? Did experience teach him, or sentimental sympathy? + He was too young, he was too manly. It must be because of his being in + heart and mind the brother to the sister with women. + </p> + <p> + Thames played round them on his pastoral pipes. Bee-note and woodside + blackbird and meadow cow, and the fish of the silver rolling rings, + composed the leap of the music. + </p> + <p> + She gave her mind to his voice, following whither it went; half was in + air, higher than the swallow's, exalting him. + </p> + <p> + How is it he is the brother of women? They are sisters for him because he + is neither sentimentalist nor devourer. He will not flatter to feed on + them. The one he chooses, she will know love. There are women who go + through life not knowing love. They are inanimate automatic machines, who + lay them down at last, inquiring wherefore they were caused to move. She + is not of that sad flock. She will be mated; she will have the right to + call him Matey. A certain Browny called him Matey. She lived and died. A + certain woman apes Browny's features and inherits her passion, but has + forfeited her rights. Were she, under happiest conditions, to put her hand + in his, shame would burn her. For he is just—he is Justice; and a + woman bringing him less than his due, she must be a creature of the slime! + </p> + <p> + This was the shadowy sentiment that made the wall of division between + them. There was no other. Lord Ormont had struck to fragments that barrier + of the conventional oath and ceremonial union. He was unjust—he was + Injustice. The weak may be wedded, they cannot be married; to Injustice. + And if we have the world for the buttress of injustice, then is Nature the + flaring rebel; there is no fixed order possible. Laws are necessary + instruments of the majority; but when they grind the sane human being to + dust for their maintenance, their enthronement is the rule of the savage's + old deity, sniffing blood-sacrifice. There cannot be a based society upon + such conditions. An immolation of the naturally constituted individual + arrests the general expansion to which we step, decivilizes more, and is + more impious to the God in man, than temporary revelries of a licence that + Nature soon checks. + </p> + <p> + Arrows of thoughts resembling these shot over the half of Aminta's mind + not listening. Her lover's head was active on the same theme while he + spoke. They converged to it from looks crossing or catching profiles, or + from tones, from a motion of hand, from a chance word. Insomuch that the + third person present was kept unobservant only by her studious and humble + speculations on the young schoolmaster's grand project to bring the + nationalities together, and teach Old England to the Continent—the + Continent to Old England: our healthy games, our scorn of the lie, + manliness; their intellectual valour, diligence, considerate manners. + </p> + <p> + 'Just to name a few of the things for interchange,' said Weyburn. 'As to + method, we shall be their disciples. But I look forward to our fellows + getting the lead. No hurry. Why will they? you ask in petto. Well, they + 're emulous, and they take a thrashing kindly. That 's the way to learn a + lesson. I 've seen our fellows beaten and beaten—never the courage + beaten out of them. In the end, they won and kept the field. They have a + lot to learn—principally not to be afraid of ideas. They lose heaps + of time before they can feel at home with ideas. They call themselves + practical for having an addiction to the palpable. It is a pretty wreath + they clap on their deficiencies. Practical dogs are for bones, horses for + corn. I want the practical Englishman to settle his muzzle in a nosebag of + ideas. When he has once got hold of them, he makes good stuff of them. On + the Continent ideas have wings and pay visits. Here, they're stay-at-home. + Then I want our fellows to have the habit of speaking from the chest. They + shall return to England with the whoop of the mountains in them and ready + to jump out. They shall have an Achillean roar; and they shall sing by + second nature. Don't fear: they'll give double for anything they take. + I've known Italians, to whom an Englishman's honesty of mind and dealing + was one of the dreams of a better humanity they had put in a box. + Frenchmen, too, who, when they came to know us, were astonished at their + epithet of perfide, and loved us.' + </p> + <p> + 'Emile,' said Aminta. 'You remember Emile, Selina: the dear little French + boy at Mr. Cuper's?' + </p> + <p> + 'Oh, I do,' Selina responded. + </p> + <p> + 'He will work with Mr. Weyburn in Switzerland.' + </p> + <p> + 'Oh, that will be nice!' the girl exclaimed. + </p> + <p> + Aminta squeezed Selina's hand. A shower of tears clouded her eyes. She + chose to fancy it was because of her envy of the modest, busy, peaceful + girl, who envied none. Conquers also sincerity in the sincerest. She was + vexed with her full breast, and had as little command of her thoughts as + of her feelings. + </p> + <p> + 'Mr. Weyburn has ideas for the education of girls too,' she said. + </p> + <p> + 'There's the task,' said he. 'It's to separate them as little as possible. + All the—passez-moi le mot—devilry between the sexes begins at + their separation. They 're foreigners when they meet; and their alliances + are not always binding. The chief object in life, if happiness be the aim, + and the growing better than we are, is to teach men and women how to be + one; for, if they 're not, then each is a morsel for the other to prey on. + Lady Charlotte Eglett's view is, that the greater number of them on both + sides hate one another.' + </p> + <p> + 'Hate!' exclaimed Selina; and Aminta said: 'Is Lady Charlotte Eglett an + authority?' + </p> + <p> + 'She has observed, and she thinks. She has in the abstract the justest of + minds: and that is the curious point about her. But one may say they are + trained at present to be hostile. Some of them fall in love and strike a + truce, and still they are foreigners. They have not the same standard of + honour. They might have it from an education in common.' + </p> + <p> + 'But there must be also a lady to govern the girls?' Selina interposed. + </p> + <p> + 'Ah, yes; she is not yet found!' + </p> + <p> + 'Would it increase their mutual respect?—or show of respect, if you + like?' said Aminta, with his last remark at work as the shattering bell of + a city's insurrection in her breast. + </p> + <p> + 'In time, under management; catching and grouping them young. A boy who + sees a girl do what he can't, and would like to do, won't take refuge in + his muscular superiority—which, by the way, would be lessened.' + </p> + <p> + 'You suppose their capacities are equal?' + </p> + <p> + 'Things are not equal. I suppose their excellencies to make a pretty + nearly equal sum in the end. But we 're not weighing them each. The + question concerns the advantage of both.' + </p> + <p> + 'That seems just!' + </p> + <p> + Aminta threw no voice into the word 'just.' It was the word of the heavens + assuaging earth's thirst, and she was earth to him. Her soul yearned to + the man whose mind conceived it. + </p> + <p> + She said to Selina: 'We must plan an expedition next year or the year + after, and see how the school progresses.' + </p> + <p> + All three smiled; and Selina touched and held Aminta's hand shyly. Visions + of the unseen Switzerland awed her. + </p> + <p> + Weyburn named the Spring holiday time, the season of the flowering Alpine + robes. He promised welcome, pressed for a promise of the visit. Warmly it + was given. 'We will; we will indeed!' + </p> + <p> + 'I shall look forward,' he said. + </p> + <p> + There was nothing else for him or for her, except to doat on the passing + minute that slipped when seized. The looking forward turned them to the + looking back at the point they had flown from, and yielded a momentary + pleasure, enough to stamp some section of a picture on their memories, + which was not the burning now Love lives for, in the clasp, if but of + hands. Desire of it destroyed it. They swung to the future, swung to the + present it made the past, sensible to the quick of the now they could not + hold. They were lovers. Divided lovers in presence, they thought and they + felt in pieces. Feelings and thoughts were forbidden to speech. She dared + look the very little of her heart's fulness, without the disloyalty it + would have been in him to let a small peep of his heart be seen. While her + hand was not clasped she could look tenderly, and her fettered state, her + sense of unworthiness muffled in the deeps, would keep her from the + loosening to passion. + </p> + <p> + He who read through her lustrous, transiently dwelling eyes had not that + security. His part, besides the watch over the spring of his hot blood, + was to combat a host, insidious among which was unreason calling her + Browny, urging him to take his own, to snatch her from a possessor who + forfeited by undervaluing her. This was the truth in a better-ordered + world: she belonged to the man who could help her to grow and to do her + work. But in the world we have around us, it was the distorted truth: and + keeping passion down, he was able to wish her such happiness as pertained + to safety from shipwreck, and for himself, that he might continue to walk + in the ranks of the sober citizens. + </p> + <p> + Oh, true and right, but she was gloriously beautiful! Day by day she + surpassed the wondrous Browny of old days. All women were eclipsed by her. + She was that fire in the night which lights the night and draws the night + to look at it. And more: this queen of women was beginning to have a mind + at work. One saw already the sprouting of a mind repressed. She had a + distinct ability; the good ambition to use her qualities. She needed life + and air—that is, comprehension of her, encouragement, the companion + mate. With what strength would she now endow him! The pride in the sharp + imagination of possessing her whispered a boast of the strength her mate + would have from her. His need and her need rushed together somewhere down + the skies. They could not, he argued, be separated eternally. + </p> + <p> + He had to leave her. Selina, shocked at a boldness she could not + understand in herself, begged him to stay and tell her of Switzerland and + Alpine flowers and herbs, and the valleys for the gold beetle and the + Apollo butterfly. Aminta hinted that Lord Ormont might expect to find him + there, if he came the next morning; but she would not try to persuade, and + left the decision with him, loving him for the pain he inflicted by going. + </p> + <p> + Why, indeed, should he stay? Both could ask; they were one in asking. + Anguish balanced pleasure in them both. The day of the pleasure was heaven + to remember, heaven to hope for; not so heavenly to pray for. The praying + for it, each knew, implored their joint will to decree the perilous + blessing. A shadowy sentiment of duty and rectitude, born of what they had + suffered, hung between them and the prayer for a renewal, that would renew + the tempting they were conscious of when the sweet, the strained, + throbbing day was over. They could hope for chance to renew it, and then + they would be irresponsible. Then they would think and wish discreetly, so + as to have it a happiness untainted. In refusing now to take another day + or pray for it, they deserved that chance should grant it. + </p> + <p> + Aminta had said through Selina the utmost her self-defences could allow. + But the idea of a final parting cut too cruelly into her life, and she + murmured: 'I shall see you before you go for good?' + </p> + <p> + 'I will come, here or in London.' + </p> + <p> + 'I can trust?' + </p> + <p> + 'Quite certain.' + </p> + <p> + A meeting of a few hasty minutes involved none of the dangers of a sunny, + long summer day; and if it did, the heart had its claims, the heart had + its powers of resistance. Otherwise we should be base verily. + </p> + <p> + He turned on a bow to leave her before there was a motion for the offer of + her hand. + </p> + <p> + After many musings and frettings, she reached the wisdom of that. Wisdom + was her only nourishment now. A cold, lean dietary it is; but he dispensed + it, and it fed her, or kept her alive. It became a proud feeling that she + had been his fellow in the achievement of a piece of wisdom; though the + other feeling, that his hand's kind formal touching, without pressure of + hers, would have warmed her to go through the next interview with her + lord, mocked at pure satisfaction. Did he distrust himself? Or was it to + spare her? But if so, her heart was quite bare to him! But she knew it + was. + </p> + <p> + Aminta drove her questioning heart as a vessel across blank circles of + sea, where there was nothing save the solitary heart for answer. It + answered intelligibly and comfortingly at last, telling her of proof given + that she could repose under his guidance with absolute faith. Was ever + loved woman more blest than she in such belief? She had it firmly; and a + blessedness, too, in this surety wavering beneath shadows of the + uncertainty. Her eyes knew it, her ears were empty of the words. Her heart + knew it, and it was unconfirmed by reason. As for his venturing to love + her, he feared none. And no sooner did that reflection surge than she + stood up beside him in revolt against her lion and lord. Her instinct + judged it impossible she could ever have yielded her heart to a man + lacking courage. Hence—what? when cowardice appeared as the sole + impediment to happiness now! + </p> + <p> + He had gone, and the day lived again for both of them—a day of sheer + gold in the translation from troubled earth to the mind. One another's + beauty through the visage into the character was newly perceived and + worshipped; and the beauties of pastoral Thames, the temple of peace, + hardly noticed in the passing of the day—taken as air to the + breather; until some chip of the scene, round which an emotion had curled, + was vivid foreground and gateway to shrouded romance: it might be the + stream's white face browning into willow-droopers, or a wagtail on a + water-lily leaf, or the fore-horse of an up-river barge at strain of legs, + a red-finned perch hung a foot above the pebbles in sun-veined depths, a + kingfisher on the scud under alders, the forest of the bankside weeds. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXV. PREPARATIONS FOR A RESOLVE + </h2> + <p> + That day receded like a spent billow, and lapsed among the others + advancing, but it left a print deeper than events would have stamped. + Aminta's pen declined to run to her lord; and the dipping it in ink was no + acceleration of the process. A sentence, bearing likeness to an artless + infant's trot of the half-dozen steps to mother's lap, stumbled upon the + full stop midway. Desperate determination pushed it along, and there was + in consequence a dead stop at the head of the next sentence. A woman whose + nature is insurgent against the majesty of the man to whom she must, among + the singular injunctions binding her, regularly write, sees no way between + hypocrisy and rebellion. For rebellion, she, with the pen in her hand, is + avowedly not yet ripe, hypocrisy is abominable. + </p> + <p> + If she abstained from writing, he might travel down to learn the cause; a + similar danger, or worse, haunted the writing frigidly. She had to be the + hypocrite or else—leap. + </p> + <p> + But an honest woman who is a feeling woman, when she consents to play + hypocrite, cannot do it by halves. From writing a short cold letter, + Aminta wrote a short warm one, or very friendly. Length she could avoid, + because she was unable to fill a page. It seemed that she could not + compose a friendly few lines without letting her sex be felt in them. What + she had put away from her, so as not to feel it herself, the simulation of + ever so small a bit of feeling brought prominently back; and where she had + made a cast for flowing independent simplicity, she was feminine, + ultra-feminine to her reading of it. + </p> + <p> + Better take the leap than be guilty of double-dealing even on paper! The + nature of the leap she did not examine. + </p> + <p> + Her keen apprehension of the price payable for his benevolent intentions + caught scent of them in the air. Those Ormont jewels shone as emblems of a + detested subjection, the penalty for being the beautiful woman rageing men + proclaimed. Was there no scheme of some other sort, and far less + agreeable, to make amends for Steignton? She was shrewd at divination; she + guessed her lord's design. Rather than meet Lady Charlotte, she proposed + to herself the 'leap' immediately; knowing it must be a leap in the dark, + hoping it might be into a swimmer's water. She had her own pin-money + income, and she loathed the chain of her title. So the leap would at least + be honourable, as it assuredly would be unregretted, whatever ensued. + </p> + <p> + While Aminta's heart held on to this debate, and in her bed, in her boat, + across the golden valley meadows beside her peaceful little friend, she + gathered a gradual resolution without sight of agencies or consequences, + Lord Ormont was kept from her by the struggle to master his Charlotte a + second time—compared with which the first was insignificant. And + this time it was curious: he could not subdue her physique, as he did + before; she was ready for him each day, and she was animated, much more + voluble, she was ready to jest. The reason being, that she fought now on + plausibly good grounds: on behalf of her independent action. + </p> + <p> + Previously, her intelligence of the ultimate defeat hanging over the more + stubborn defence of a weak position had harassed her to death's door. She + had no right to retain the family jewels; she had the most perfect of + established rights to refuse doing an ignominious thing. She refused to + visit the so-called Countess of Ormont, or leave her card, or take one + step to warrant the woman in speaking of her as her sister-in-law. And no,—it + did not signify that her brother Rowsley was prohibited by her from + marrying whom he pleased. It meant, that to judge of his acts as those of + a reasoning man, he would have introduced his wife to his relatives—the + relatives he had not quarrelled with—immediately upon his marriage + unless he was ashamed of the woman; and a wife he was ashamed of was no + sister-in-law for her nor aunt for her daughters. Nor should she come + playing the Black Venus among her daughters' husbands, Lady Charlotte had + it in her bosom to say additionally. + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont was disconcerted by her manifest pleasure in receiving him + every day. Evidently she consented to the recurrence of a vexatious + dissension for the enjoyment of having him with her hourly. Her dialectic, + too, was cunning. Impetuous with meaning, she forced her way to get her + meaning out, in a manner effective to strike her blow. Anything for a + diversion or a triumph of the moment! He made no way. She was the better + fencer at the tongue. + </p> + <p> + Yet there was not any abatement of her deference to her brother; and this + little misunderstanding put aside, he was the Rowsley esteemed by her as + the chief of men. She foiled him, it might seem, to exalt him the more. + After he had left the house, visibly annoyed and somewhat stupefied, she + talked of him to her husband, of the soul of chivalry Rowsley was, the + loss to his country. Mr. Eglett was a witness to one of the altercations, + when she, having as usual the dialectical advantage, praised her brother, + to his face, for his magnanimous nature; regretting only that it could be + said he was weak on the woman side of him—which was, she affirmed, a + side proper to every man worth the name; but in his case his country might + complain. Of what?—Well, of a woman.—What had she done, for + the country to complain of her?—Why, then, arts or graces, she had + bewitched and weaned him from his public duty, his military service, his + patriotic ambition. + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont's interrogations, heightening the effect of Charlotte's + charge, appeared to Mr. Eglett as a giving of himself over into her hands; + but the earl, after a minute of silence, proved he was a tricky combatant. + It was he who had drawn on Charlotte, that he might have his opportunity + to eulogize—'this lady, whom you continue to call the woman, after I + have told you she is my wife.' According to him, her appeals, her + entreaties, that he should not abandon his profession or let his ambition + rust, had been at one period constant. + </p> + <p> + He spoke fervently, for him eloquently; and he gained his point; he + silenced Lady Charlotte's tongue, and impressed Mr. Eglett. + </p> + <p> + When the latter and his wife were alone, he let her see that the Countess + of Ormont was becoming a personage in his consideration. + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte cried out: 'Hear these men where it's a good-looking woman + between the winds! Do you take anything Rowsley says for earnest? You + ought to know he stops at no trifle to get his advantage over you in a + dispute. That 's the soldier in him. It 's victory at any cost!—and + I like him for it. Do you tell me you think it possible my brother Rowsley + would keep smothered years under a bushel the woman he can sit here + magnifying because he wants to lime you and me: you to take his part, and + me to go and call the noble creature decked out in his fine fiction my + sister-in-law. Nothing 'll tempt me to believe my brother could behave in + such a way to the woman he respected!' + </p> + <p> + So Mr. Eglett opined. But he had been impressed. + </p> + <p> + He relieved his mind on the subject in a communication to Lord Adderwood; + who habitually shook out the contents of his to Mrs. Lawrence Finchley, + and she, deeming it good for Aminta to have information of the war waging + for her behoof, obtained her country address, with the resolve to drive + down, a bearer of good news to the dear woman she liked to think of, look + at, and occasionally caress; besides rather tenderly pitying her, now that + a change of fortune rendered her former trials conspicuous. + </p> + <p> + An incident, considered grave even in the days of the duel and the kicks + against a swelling public reprehension of the practice, occurred to + postpone her drive for four-and-twenty hours. London was shaken by rumours + of a tragic mishap to a socially well-known gentleman at the Chiallo + fencing rooms. The rumours passing from mouth to mouth acquired, in the + nature of them, sinister colours as they circulated. Lord Ormont sent + Aminta word of what he called 'a bad sort of accident at Chiallo's,' + without mentioning names or alluding to suspicions. + </p> + <p> + He treated it lightly. He could not have written of it with such unconcern + if it involved the secretary! Yet Aminta did seriously ask herself whether + he could; and she flew rapidly over the field of his character, seizing + points adverse, points favourably advocative, balancing dubiously—most + unjustly: she felt she was unjust. But in her condition, the heart of a + woman is instantly planted in jungle when the spirits of the two men + closest to her are made to stand opposed by a sudden excitement of her + fears for the beloved one. She cannot see widely, and is one of the wild + while the fit lasts; and, after it, that savage narrow vision she had of + the unbeloved retains its vivid print in permanence. Was she unjust? + Aminta cited corroboration of her being accurate: such was Lord Ormont! + and although his qualities of gallantry, courtesy, integrity, honourable + gentleman, presented a fair low-level account on the other side, she had + so stamped his massive selfishness and icy inaccessibility to emotion on + her conception of him that the repulsive figure formed by it continued + towering when her mood was kinder. + </p> + <p> + Love played on love in the woman's breast. Her love had taken a fever from + her lord's communication of the accident at Chiallo's, and she pushed her + alarm to imagine the deadliest, and plead for the right of confession to + herself of her unrepented regrets. She and Matey Weyburn had parted + without any pressure of hands, without a touch. They were, then, + unplighted if now the grave divided them! No touch: mere glances! And she + sighed not, as she pleaded, for the touch, but for the plighting it would + have been. If now she had lost him, he could never tell herself that since + the dear old buried and night-walking schooldays she had said once Matey + to him, named him once to his face Matey Weyburn. A sigh like the roll of + a great wave breaking against a wall of rock came from her for the + possibly lost chance of naming him to his face Matey,—oh, and seeing + his look as she said it! + </p> + <p> + The boldness might be fancied: it could not be done. Agreeing with the + remote inner voice of her reason so far, she toned her exclamatory + foolishness to question, in Reason's plain, deep, basso-profundo + accompaniment tone, how much the most blessed of mortal women could do to + be of acceptable service to a young schoolmaster? + </p> + <p> + There was no reply to the question. But it became a nestling centre for + the skiey flock of dreams, and for really temperate soundings of her + capacities, tending to the depreciatory. She could do little. She + entertained the wish to work, not only 'for the sake of Somebody,' as her + favourite poet sang, but for the sake of working and serving—proving + that she was helpfuller than a Countess of Ormont, ranged with all the + other countesses in china and Dresden on a drawing-room mantelpiece for + show. She could organize, manage a household, manage people too, she + thought: manage a husband? The word offends. Perhaps invigorate him, here + and there perhaps inspire him, if he would let her breathe. Husbands exist + who refuse the right of breathing to their puppet wives. Above all, as it + struck her, she could assist, and be more than an echo of one nobler, in + breathing manliness, high spirit, into boys. With that idea she grazed the + shallows of reality, and her dreams whirred from the nest and left it + hungrily empty. + </p> + <p> + Selina Collett was writing under the verandah letters to her people in + Suffolk, performing the task with marvellous ease. Aminta noted it as a + mark of superior ability, and she had the envy of the complex nature + observing the simple. It accused her of some guiltiness, uncommitted and + indefensible. She had pushed her anxiety about 'the accident at Chiallo's' + to an extreme that made her the creature of her sensibilities. In the + midst of this quiet country life and landscape; these motionless garden + flowers headed by the smooth white river, and her gentle little friend so + homely here, the contemplation of herself was like a shriek in music. + Worse than discordant, she pronounced herself inferior, unfit mentally as + well as bodily for the dreams of companionship with any noble soul who + might have the dream of turning her into something better. There are + couples in the world, not coupled by priestly circumstance, who are close + to the true; union, by reason of generosity on the one part, grateful + devotion, as for the gift of life, on the other. For instance, Mrs. + Lawrence Finchley and Lord Adderwood, which was an instance without + resemblance; but Aminta's heart beat thick for what it wanted, and they + were the instance of two that did not have to snap false bonds of a + marriage-tie in order to walk together composedly outside it—in + honour? Oh yes, yes! She insisted on believing it was in honour. + </p> + <p> + She saw the couple issue from the boathouse. She had stepped into the + garden full of a presentiment; so she fancied, the moment they were seen. + She had, in fact, heard a noise in the boathouse while thinking of them, + and the effect on her was to spring an idea of mysterious interventions at + the sight. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Lawrence rushed to her, and was embraced. 'You 're not astonished to + see me? Adder drove me down, and stopped his coach at the inn, and rowed + me the half-mile up. We will lunch, if you propose; but presently. My + dear, I have to tell you things. You have heard?' + </p> + <p> + 'The accident?' + </p> + <p> + Aminta tried to read in Mrs. Lawrence's eyes whether it closely concerned + her. + </p> + <p> + Those pretty eyes, their cut of lids hinting at delicate affinities with + the rice-paper lady of the court of China, were trying to peer seriously. + </p> + <p> + 'Poor man! One must be sorry for him: he—' + </p> + <p> + 'Who?' + </p> + <p> + 'You 've not heard, then?' Mrs. Lawrence dropped her voice: 'Morsfield.' + </p> + <p> + Aminta shivered. 'All I have heard-half a line from my lord this morning: + no name. It was at the fencing-rooms, he said.' + </p> + <p> + 'Yes, he wouldn't write more;' said Mrs. Lawrence, nodding. 'You know, he + would have had to do it himself if it had not been done for him. Adder saw + him some days back in a brown consultation near his club with Captain May. + Oh, but of course it was accident! Did he call it so in his letter to + you?' + </p> + <p> + 'One word of Mr. Morsfield: he is wounded?' + </p> + <p> + 'Past cure: he has the thing he cried for, spoilt boy as he was from his + birth. I tell you truth, m' Aminta, I grieve to lose him. What with his + airs of the foreign-tinted, punctilious courtly gentleman covering a + survival of the ancient British forest boar or bear, he was a picture in + our modern set, and piquant. And he was devoted to our sex, we must admit, + after the style of the bears. They are for honey, and they have a hug. If + he hadn't been so much of a madman, I should have liked him for his + courage. He had plenty of that, nothing to steer it. A second cousin comes + in for his estates.' + </p> + <p> + 'He is dead?' Aminta cried. + </p> + <p> + 'Yes, dear, he is gone. What the women think of it I can't say. The + general feeling among the men is that some one of them would have had to + send him sooner or later. The curious point, Adder says, is his letting it + be done by steel. He was a dead shot, dangerous with the small sword, as + your Mr. Weyburn said, only soon off his head. But I used to be anxious + about the earl's meeting him with pistols. He did his best to provoke it. + Here, Adder,'—she spoke over her shoulder,—'tell Lady Ormont + all you know of the Morsfield-May affair.' + </p> + <p> + Lord Adderwood bowed compliance. His coolness was the masculine of Mrs. + Lawrence's hardly feminine in treating of a terrible matter, so that the + dull red facts had to be disengaged from his manner of speech before they + sank into Aminta's acceptance; of them as credible. + </p> + <p> + 'They fought with foils, buttons off, preliminary ceremonies perfect; + salute in due order; guard, and at it. + </p> + <p> + Odd thing was, nobody at Chiallo's had a notion of the business till + Morsfield was pinked. He wouldn't be denied; went to work like a fellow + meaning to be skewered, if he couldn't do the trick: and he tried it. May + had been practising some weeks. He's well on the Continent by this time. + It'll blow over. Button off sheer accident. I wasn't lucky enough to see + the encounter: came in just when Chiallo was lashing his poll over + Morsfield flat on the ground. He had it up to the hilt. We put a buttoned + foil by the side of Morsfield, and all swore to secrecy. As it is, it 'll + go badly against poor Chiallo. Taste for fencing won't be much improved by + the affair. They quarrelled in the dressing room, and fetched the foils + and knocked off the buttons there. A big rascal toady squire of + Morsfield's did it for him. Morsfield was just up from Yorkshire. He said + he was expecting a summons elsewhere, bound to await it, declined + provocation for the present. May filliped him on the cheek.' + </p> + <p> + 'Adder conveyed the information of her husband's flight to the consolable + Amy,' said Mrs. Lawrence. + </p> + <p> + 'He had to catch the coach for Dover,' Adderwood explained. 'His wife was + at a dinner-party. I saw her at midnight.' + </p> + <p> + 'Fair Amy was not so very greatly surprised?' + </p> + <p> + 'Quite the soldier's wife!' + </p> + <p> + 'She said she was used to these little catastrophes. But, Adder, what did + she say of her husband?' + </p> + <p> + 'Said she was never anxious about him, for nothing would kill him.' + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Lawrence shook a doleful head at Aminta. + </p> + <p> + 'You see, my dear Aminta, here's another, and probably her last, chance of + sharing the marquisate gone. Who can fail to pity her, except old Time! + And I 'm sure she likes her husband well enough. She ought: no woman ever + had such a servant. But the captain has not been known to fight without + her sanction, and the inference is—'Alas! woe! Fair Amy is doomed to + be the fighting captain's bride to the end of the chapter. Adder says she + looked handsome. A dinner-party suits her cosmetic complexion better than + a ball. The account of the inquest is in the day's papers, and we were + tolerably rejoiced we could drive out of London without having to reply to + coroner's questions.' + </p> + <p> + 'He died-soon?' Aminta's voice was shaken. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Lawrence touched at her breast, it might be for heart or lungs. + Judging by Aminta's voice and face, one could suppose she was harking + back, in woman's way, to her original sentiment for the man, now that he + lay prostrate. + </p> + <p> + Aminta read the unreproachful irony in the smile addressed to her. She was + too convulsed by her many emotions and shouting thoughts to think of + defending herself. + </p> + <p> + Selina, in the drawing-room, diligently fingered and classed brown-black + pressed weeds of her neophyte's botany-folios. The sight of her and her + occupation struck Aminta as that of a person in another world beyond this + world of blood, strangely substantial to view; and one heard her speak. + </p> + <p> + Guilty?—no. But she had wished to pique her lord. After the term of + a length of months, could it be that the unhappy man and she were punished + for the half-minute's acting of some interest in him? And Lord Ormont had + been seen consulting Captain May; or was it giving him directions? + </p> + <p> + Her head burned. All the barren interrogations were up, running and + knocking for hollow responses; and, saving a paleness of face, she cloaked + any small show of the riot. She was an amiable hostess. She had ceased to + comprehend Mrs. Lawrence, even to the degree of thinking her unfeminine. + She should have known that the 'angelical chimpanzee,' as a friend, once + told of his being a favourite with the lady, had called her, could not + simulate a feeling, and had not the slightest power of pretence to + compassion for an ill-fated person who failed to quicken her enthusiasm. + In that, too, she was a downright boy. Morsfield was a kind of Bedlamite + to her; amusing in his antics, and requiring to be manoeuvred and eluded + while he lived: once dead, just a tombstone, of interest only to his + family. + </p> + <p> + She beckoned Aminta to follow her; and, with a smirk of indulgent fun, + commended Lord Adderwood to a study of Selina Collett's botany-folios, + which the urbanest of indifferent gentlemen had slid his eyes over his + nose to inspect before the lunch. + </p> + <p> + 'You ought to know what is going on in town, my dear Aminta. You have won + the earl to a sense of his duty, and he 's at work on the harder task of + winning Lady Charlotte Eglett to a sense of hers. It 's tremendous. Has + been forward some days, and no sign of yielding on either side. Mr. + Eglett, good man, is between them, catching it right and left; and he + deserves his luck for marrying her. Vows she makes him the best of wives. + If he 's content, I 've nothing to complain of. You must be ready to + receive her; my lord is sure to carry the day. You gulp. You won't be + seeing much of her. I 'm glad to say he is condescending to terms of peace + with the Horse Guards. We hear so. You may be throning it officially + somewhere next year. And all 's well that ends well! Say that to me!' + </p> + <p> + 'It is, when the end comes,' Aminta replied. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Lawrence's cool lips were pressed to her cheek. The couple and their + waterman rowed away to the party they had left with the four-in-hand at + their inn. + </p> + <p> + A wind was rising. The trees gave their swish of leaves, the river + darkened the patch of wrinkles, the bordering flags amid the reed-blades + dipped and streamed. + </p> + <p> + Surcharged with unassimilated news of events, that made a thunder in her + head, Aminta walked down the garden path, meeting Selina and bearing her + on. She had a witch's will to rouse gales. Hers was not the woman's nature + to be driven cowering by stories of men's bloody deeds. She took the + field, revolted, dissevering herself from the class which tolerated them—actuated + by a reflective moralty, she believed; and loathed herself for having + aspired, schemed, to be a member of the class. But it was not the class, + it was against her lord as representative of the class, that she was now + the rebel, neither naming him nor imaging him. Her enveloping mind was + black on him. Such as one of those hard slaughtering men could call her + his own? She breathed short and breathed deep. Her bitter reason had but + the common pity for a madman despatched to his rest. Yet she knew hatred + of her lord in his being suspected as instigator or accomplice of the hand + that dealt the blow. He became to her thought a python whose coils were + about her person, insufferable to the gaze backward. + </p> + <p> + Moments like these are the mothers in travail of a resolve joylessly + conceived, undesired to clasp, Necessity's offspring. Thunderclouds have + as little love of the lightnings they fling. + </p> + <p> + Aminta was aware only of her torment. The trees were bending, the water + hissing, the grasses all this way and that, like hands of a delirious + people in surges of wreck. She scorned the meaningless shake of the + garments of earth, and exclaimed: 'If we were by the sea to-night!' + </p> + <p> + 'I shall be to-morrow night,' said Selina. 'I shall think of you. Oh! + would you come with me?' + </p> + <p> + 'Would you have me?' + </p> + <p> + 'My mother will indeed be honoured by your consenting to come.' + </p> + <p> + 'Write to her before the post is out.' + </p> + <p> + 'We shall travel down together?' + </p> + <p> + Aminta nodded and smiled, and Selina kissed her hand in joy, saying, that + down home she would not be so shy of calling her Aminta. She was bidden to + haste. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0026" id="link2HCH0026"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXVI. VISITS OF FAREWELL + </h2> + <p> + The noise in London over Adolphus Morsfield's tragical end disturbed Lord + Ormont much less than the cessation of letters from his Aminta; and that + likewise, considering his present business on her behalf, he patiently + shrugged at and pardoned, foreseeing her penitent air. He could do it + lightly after going some way to pardon his offending country. For Aminta + had not offended, his robust observation of her was moved to the kindly + humorous by a reflective view here and there of the downright woman her + clever little shuffles exposed her to be, not worse. It was her sex that + made her one of the gliders in grasses, some of whom are venomous; but she + belonged to the order only as an innocuous blindworm. He could pronounce + her small by-play with Morsfield innocent, her efforts to climb the stairs + into Society quite innocent; judging her, of course, by her title of + woman. A woman's innocence has a rainbow skin. Set this one beside other + women, she comes out well, fairly well, well enough. + </p> + <p> + Now that the engagement with Charlotte assumed proportions of a series of + battle, properly to be entitled a campaign, he had, in his loneliness, + fallen into the habit of reflecting at the close of his day's work; and + the rubbing of that unused opaque mirror hanging inside a man of action + had helped him piecemeal to perceive bits of his conduct, entirely + approved by him, which were intimately connected, nevertheless, with a + train of circumstances that he disliked and could not charge justly upon + any other shoulders than his own. What was to be thought of it? He would + not be undergoing this botheration of the prolonged attempt to bring a + stubborn woman to a sense of her duty, if he had declared his marriage in + the ordinary style, and given his young countess her legitimate place + before the world. What impeded it? The shameful ingratitude of his + countrymen to the soldier who did it eminent service at a crisis of the + destinies of our Indian Empire! He could not condone the injury done to + him by entering among them again. Too like the kicked cur, that! He + retired—call it 'sulked in his tent,' if you like. His wife had to + share his fortunes. He being slighted, she necessarily was shadowed. For a + while she bore it contentedly enough; then began her mousy scratches to + get into the room off the wainscot, without blame from him; she behaved + according to her female nature. + </p> + <p> + Yes, but the battles with Charlotte forced on his recognition once more, + and violently, the singular consequences of his retirement and Coriolanus + quarrel with his countrymen. He had doomed himself ever since to a contest + with women. First it was his Queen of Amazons, who, if vanquished, was not + so easily vanquished, and, in fact, doubtfully,—for now, to + propitiate her, he had challenged, and must overcome or be disgraced, the + toughest Amazonian warrior man could stand against at cast of dart or lock + of arms. No day scored an advantage; and she did not apparently suffer + fatigue. He did: that is to say, he was worried and hurried to have the + wrangle settled and Charlotte at Aminta's feet. He gained not an inch of + ground. His principle in a contention of the sort was to leave the woman + to the practice of her obvious artifices, and himself simply hammer, + incessantly hammer. But Charlotte hammered as well. The modest position of + the defensive negative was not to her taste. The moment he presented + himself she flew out upon some yesterday's part of the argument and + carried the war across the borders, in attacks on his character and + qualities—his weakness regarding women, his incapacity to forgive, + and the rest. She hammered on that head. As for any prospect of a + termination of the strife, he could see none in her joyful welcome to him + and regretful parting and pleased appointment of the next meeting day + after day. + </p> + <p> + The absurdest of her devices for winding him off his aim was to harp on + some new word she had got hold of as, for example, to point out to him his + aptitudes, compliment him on his aptitudes, recommend him to study and + learn the limitations of his aptitudes! She revelled in something the word + unfolded to her. + </p> + <p> + However, here was the point: she had to be beaten. So, if she, too, + persisted in hammering, he must employ her female weapon of artifice with + her. One would gladly avoid the stooping to it in a civil dispute, in + which one is not so gloriously absolved for lying and entrapping as in + splendid war. + </p> + <p> + Weyburn's name was announced to him at an early hour on Thursday morning. + My lord nodded to the footman; he nodded to himself over a suggestion + started in a tactical intelligence by the name. + </p> + <p> + 'Ah! you 're off?' he accosted the young man. + </p> + <p> + 'I have come to take my leave, my lord.' + </p> + <p> + 'Nothing new in the morning papers?' + </p> + <p> + 'A report that Captain May intends to return and surrender.' + </p> + <p> + 'Not before a month has passed, if he follows my counsel.' + </p> + <p> + 'To defend his character.' + </p> + <p> + 'He has none.' + </p> + <p> + 'His reputation.' + </p> + <p> + 'He has too much.' + </p> + <p> + 'These charges against him must be intolerable.' + </p> + <p> + 'Was he not a bit of a pupil of yours?' + </p> + <p> + 'We practised two or three times-nothing more.' + </p> + <p> + 'Morsfield was a wasp at a feast. Somebody had to crush him. I 've seen + the kind of man twice in my life and exactly the kind of man. If their law + puts down duelling, he rules the kingdom!' + </p> + <p> + 'My lord, I should venture to say the kind of man can be a common + annoyance because the breach of the law is countenanced.' + </p> + <p> + 'Bad laws are best broken. A society that can't get a scouring now and + then will be a dirty set.' + </p> + <p> + With a bend of the head, in apology for speaking of himself, Weyburn said: + 'I have acted on my view. I declined a challenge from a sort of henchman + of his.' + </p> + <p> + 'Oh! a poacher's lurcher? You did right. Fight such fellows with + constables. You have seen Lady Charlotte?' + </p> + <p> + 'I am on my way to her ladyship.' + </p> + <p> + 'Do me this favour. Fourteen doors up the street of her residence, my + physician lives. I have to consult him at once. Dr. Rewkes.' + </p> + <p> + Weyburn bowed. Lady Charlotte could not receive him later than half-past + ten of the morning, he said. 'This morning she can,' said my lord. 'You + will tell Dr. Rewkes that it is immediate. I rather regret your going. I + shall be in a controversy with the Horse Guards about our cavalry saddles. + It would be regiments of raw backs the first fortnight of a campaign.' + </p> + <p> + The earl discoursed on saddles; and passed to high eulogy of our + Hanoverian auxiliary troopers in the Peninsula; 'good husbands,' he named + them quaintly, speaking of their management of their beasts. Thence he + diverged to Frederic's cavalry, rarely matched for shrewdness and + endurance; to the deeds of the Liechtenstein Hussars; to the great things + Blucher did with his horsemen. + </p> + <p> + The subject was interesting; but Weyburn saw the clock at past the half + after ten. He gave a slight sign of restiveness, and was allowed to go + when the earl had finished his pro and con upon Arab horses and Mameluke + saddles. Lord Ormont nicked his head, just as at their first interview: he + was known to have an objection to the English shaking of hands. + 'Good-morning,' he said; adding a remark or two, of which et cetera may + stand for an explicit rendering. It concerned the young man's prosperity: + my lord's conservative plain sense was in doubt of the prospering of a + giddy pate, however good a worker. His last look at the young man, who had + not served him badly, held an anticipation of possibly some day seeing a + tatterdemalion of shipwreck, a rueful exhibition of ideas put to the + business of life. + </p> + <p> + Weyburn left the message with Dr. Rewkes in person. It had not seemed to + him that Lord Ormont was one requiring the immediate attendance of a + physician. By way of accounting to Lady Charlotte for the lateness of his + call, he mentioned the summons he had delivered. + </p> + <p> + 'Oh, that's why he hasn't come yet,' said she. 'We'll sit and talk till he + does come. I don't wonder if his bile has been stirred. He can't oil me to + credit what he pumps into others. His Lady Ormont! I believe in it less + than ever I did. Morsfield or no Morsfield—and now the poor wretch + has got himself pinned to the plank, like my grandson Bobby's dragonflies, + I don't want to say anything further of him—she doesn't have much of + a welcome at Steignton! If I were a woman to wager as men do, I 'd stake a + thousand pounds to five on her never stepping across the threshold of + Steignton. All very well in London, and that place he hires up at Marlow. + He respects our home. That 's how I know my brother Rowsley still keeps a + sane man. A fortune on it!—and so says Mr. Eglett. Any reasonable + person must think it. He made a fool of some Hampton-Evey at Madrid, if he + went through any ceremony—and that I doubt. But she and old (what do + they call her?) may have insisted upon the title, as much as they could. + He sixty; she under twenty, I'm told. Pagnell 's the name. That aunt of a + good-looking young woman sees a noble man of sixty admiring her five feet + seven or so—she's tall—of marketable merchandise, and she + doesn't need telling that at sixty he'll give the world to possess the + girl. But not his family honour! He stops at that. Why? Lord Ormont 's + made of pride! He'll be kind to her, he'll be generous, he won't forsake + her; she'll have her portion in his will, and by the course of things in + nature, she'll outlive him and marry, and be happy, I hope. Only she won't + enter Steignton. You remember what I say. You 'll live when I 'm gone. It + 's the thirst of her life to be mistress of Steignton. Not she!—though + Lord Ormont would have us all open our doors to her; mine too, now he 's + about it. He sets his mind on his plan, and he forgets rights and dues—everything; + he must have it as his will dictates. That 's how he made such a capital + soldier. You know the cavalry leader he was. If they'd given him a field + in Europe! His enemies admit that. Twelve! and my clock's five minutes or + more slow. What can Rowsley be doing?' + </p> + <p> + She rattled backward on the scene at Steignton, and her brother's handsome + preservation of his dignity 'stood it like the king he is!' and to the + Morsfield-May encounter, which had prevented another; and Mrs. May was + rolled along in the tide, with a hint of her good reason for liking Lord + Ormont; also the change of opinion shown by the Press as to Lord Ormont's + grand exploit. Referring to it, she flushed and jigged on her chair for a + saddle beneath her. And that glorious Indian adventure warmed her to the + man who had celebrated it among his comrades when a boy at school. + </p> + <p> + 'You 're to teach Latin and Greek, you said. For you 're right: we English + can't understand the words we 're speaking, if we don't know a good deal + of Latin and some Greek. “Conversing in tokens, not standard coin,” you + said, I remember; and there'll be a “general rabble tongue,” unless we + English are drilled in the languages we filched from. Lots of lords and + ladies want the drilling, then! I'll send some over to you for Swiss air + and roots of the English tongue. Oh, and you told me you supported Lord + Ormont on his pet argument for corps d'elite; and you quoted Virgil to + back it. Let me have that line again—in case of his condescending to + write to the papers on the subject.' + </p> + <p> + Weyburn repeated the half-line. + </p> + <p> + 'Good: I won't forget now. And you said the French act on that because + they follow human nature, and the English don't. We “bully it,” you said. + That was on our drive down to Steignton. I hope you 'll succeed. You 'll + be visiting England. Call on me in London or at Olmer—only mind and + give me warning. I shall be glad to see you. I 've got some ideas from + you. If I meet a man who helps me to read the world and men as they are, I + 'm grateful to him; and most people are not, you 'll find. They want you + to show them what they 'd like the world to be. We don't agree about a + lady. You 're in the lists, lance in rest, all for chivalry. You 're a + man, and a young man. Have you taken your leave of her yet? She'll expect + it, as a proper compliment.' + </p> + <p> + 'I propose running down to take my leave of Lady Ormont to-morrow,' + replied Weyburn. + </p> + <p> + 'She is handsome?' + </p> + <p> + She is very handsome.' + </p> + <p> + 'Beautiful, do you mean?' + </p> + <p> + 'Oh, my lady, it would only be a man's notion!' + </p> + <p> + 'Now, that 's as good an answer as could be made! You 're sure to succeed. + I 'm not the woman's enemy. But let her keep her place. Why, Rowsley can't + be coming to-day! Did Lord Ormont look ill?' + </p> + <p> + 'It did not strike me so.' + </p> + <p> + 'He 's between two fires. A man gets fretted. But I shan't move a step. I + dare say she won't. Especially with that Morsfield out of the way. You do + mean you think her a beauty. Well, then, there'll soon be a successor to + Morsfield. Beauties will have their weapons, and they can hit on plenty; + and it 's nothing to me, as long as I save my brother from their arts.' + </p> + <p> + Weyburn felt he had done his penance in return for kindness. He bowed and + rose, Lady Charlotte stretched out her hand. + </p> + <p> + 'We shall be sending you a pupil some day,' she said, and smiled. + </p> + <p> + 'Forward your address as soon as you 're settled.' Her face gave a glimpse + of its youth in a cordial farewell smile. + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont had no capacity to do the like, although they were strictly + brother and sister in appearance. The smallest difference in character + rendered her complex and kept him simple. She had a thirsting mind. + </p> + <p> + Weyburn fancied that a close intimacy of a few months would have enabled + him to lift her out of her smirching and depraving mean jealousies. He + speculated, as he trod the street, on little plots and surprises, which + would bring Lady Charlotte and Lady Ormont into presence, and end by + making friends of them. Supposing that could be done, Lady Ormont might be + righted by the intervention of Lady Charlotte after all. + </p> + <p> + Weyburn sent his dream flying with as dreamy an after-thought: 'Funny it + will be then for Lady Charlotte to revert to the stuff she has been + droning in my ear half an hour ago!—Look well behind, and we see + spots where we buzzed, lowed, bit and tore; and not until we have cast + that look and seen the brute are we human creatures.' + </p> + <p> + A crumb of reflection such as this could brace him, adding its modest + maravedi to his prized storehouse of gain, fortifying with assurances of + his having a concrete basis for his business in life. His great youthful + ambition had descended to it, but had sunk to climb on a firmer footing. + </p> + <p> + Arthur Abner had his next adieu. They talked of Lady Ormont, as to whose + position of rightful Countess of Ormont Mr. Abner had no doubt. He said of + Lady Charlotte: 'She has a clear head; but she loves her “brother Rowsley” + excessively; and any excess pushes to craziness.' + </p> + <p> + He spoke to Weyburn of his prospects in the usually, perhaps necessarily, + cheerless tone of men who recognize by contrast the one mouse's nibbling + at a mountain of evil. 'To harmonize the nationalities, my dear boy! teach + Christians to look fraternally on Jews! David was a harper, but the + setting of him down to roll off a fugue on one of your cathedral organs + would not impose a heavier task than you are undertaking. You have my best + wishes, whatever aid I can supply. But we 're nearer to King John's time + than to your ideal, as far as the Jews go.' + </p> + <p> + 'Not in England.' + </p> + <p> + 'Less in England,' Abner shrugged. + </p> + <p> + 'You have beaten the Christians on the field they challenged you to enter + for a try. They feel the pinch in their interests and their vanity. That + will pass. I 'm for the two sides, under the name of Justice; and I give + the palm to whichever of the two first gets hold of the idea of Justice. + My old schoolmate's well?' + </p> + <p> + 'Always asking after Matey Weyburn!' + </p> + <p> + 'He shall have my address in Switzerland. You and I will be + corresponding.' + </p> + <p> + Now rose to view the visit to the lady who was Lady Ormont on the tongue, + Aminta at heart; never to be named Aminta even to himself. His heart broke + loose at a thought of it. + </p> + <p> + He might say Browny. For that was not serious with the intense present + signification the name Aminta had. Browny was queen of the old + school-time-enclosed it in her name; and that sphere enclosed her, not + excluding him. And the dear name of Browny played gently, humorously, + fervently, too, with life: not, pathetically, as that of Aminta did when + came a whisper of her situation, her isolation, her friendlessness; hardly + dissimilar to what could be imagined of a gazelle in the streets of London + city. The Morsfields were not all slain. The Weyburns would be absent. + </p> + <p> + At the gate of his cottage garden Weyburn beheld a short unfamiliar figure + of a man with dimly remembered features. Little Collett he still was in + height. The schoolmates had not met since the old days of Cuper's. + </p> + <p> + Little Collett delivered a message of invitation from Selina, begging Mr. + Weyburn to accompany her brother on the coach to Harwich next day, and + spend two or three days by the sea. But Weyburn's mind had been set in the + opposite direction—up Thames instead of down. + </p> + <p> + He was about to refuse, but he checked his voice and hummed. Words of + Selina's letter jumped in italics. He perceived Lady Ormont's hand. For + one thing, would she be at Great Marlow alone? And he knew that hand—how + deftly it moved and moved others. Selina Collett would not have invited + him with underlinings merely to see a shoreside house and garden. Her + silence regarding a particular name showed her to be under injunction, one + might guess. At worst, it would be the loss of a couple of days; worth the + venture. They agreed to journey by coach next day. + </p> + <p> + Facing eastward in the morning, on a seat behind the coachman, Weyburn had + a seafaring man beside him, bound for the good port of Harwich, where his + family lived, and thence by his own boat to Flushing. Weyburn set him + talking of himself, as the best way of making him happy; for it is the + theme which pricks to speech, and so liberates an uncomfortably locked-up + stranger; who, if sympathetic to human proximity, is thankful. They + exchanged names, delighted to find they were both Matthews; whereupon + Matthew of the sea demanded the paw of Matthew of the land, and there was + a squeeze. The same with little Collett, after hearing of him as the old + schoolmate of the established new friend. Then there was talk. Little + Collett named Felixstowe as the village of his mother's house and garden + sloping to the sands. 'That 's it-you have it,' said the salted Matthew: + 'peace is in that spot, and there I 've sworn to pitch my tent when I 'm + incapacitated for further exercise—profitable, so to speak. My + eldest girl has a bar of amber she picked up one wash of the tide at + Felixstowe, and there it had been lying sparkling, unseen, hours, the + shore is that solitary. What I like!—a quiet shore and a peopled + sea. Ever been to Brighton? There it 's t' other way.' + </p> + <p> + Not long after he had mentioned the time of early evening for their entry + into his port of Harwich, the coach turned quietly over on a bank of the + roadside, depositing outside passengers quite safely, in so + matter-of-course a way, that only the screams of an uninjured lady inside + repressed their roars of laughter. One of the wheels had come loose, half + a mile off the nearest town. Their entry into Harwich was thereby delayed + until half-past nine at night. Full of consideration for the new mates now + fast wedded to his heart by an accident. Matthew Shale proposed to Matthew + Weyburn, instead of the bother of crossing the ferry with a portmanteau + and a bag at that late hour, to sup at his house, try the neighbouring inn + for a short sleep, and ship on board his yawl, the honest Susan, to be + rowed ashore off the Swin to Felixstowe sands no later than six o'clock of + a summer's morning, in time for a bath and a swim before breakfast. It + sounded well—it sounded sweetly. Weyburn suggested the counter + proposal of supper for the three at the inn. But the other Matthew said: + 'I married a cook. She expects a big appetite, and she always keeps warm + when I 'm held away, no matter how late. Sure to be enough.' + </p> + <p> + Beds were secured at the inn; after which came the introduction to Mrs. + Shale, the exhibition of Susan Shale's bar of amber, the dish of + fresh-fried whiting, the steak pudding, a grog, tobacco, rest at the inn, + and a rousing bang at the sleepers' doors when the unwonted supper in them + withheld an answer to the intimating knock. Young Matthew Shale, who had + slept on board the Susan, conducted them to her boat. His glance was much + drawn to the very white duck trousers Weyburn had put on, for a souvenir + of the approbation they had won at Marlow. They were on, and so it was of + no use for young Matthew to say they were likely to bear away a token from + the Susan. She was one among the damsels of colour, and free of her + tokens, especially to the spotless. + </p> + <p> + How it occurred, nobody saw; though everybody saw how naturally it must + occur for the white ducks to 'have it in the eye' by the time they had + been on board a quarter of an hour. Weyburn got some fun out of them, for + a counterbalance to a twitch of sentimental regret scarcely decipherable, + as that the last view of him should bear a likeness of Browny's + recollection of her first. + </p> + <p> + A glorious morning of flushed open sky and sun on sea chased all small + thoughts out of it. The breeze was from the west, and the Susan, lightly + laden, took the heave of smooth rollers with a flowing current-curtsey in + the motion of her speed. Fore-sail and aft were at their gentle strain; + her shadow rippled fragmentarily along to the silver rivulet and boat of + her wake. Straight she flew to the ball of fire now at spring above the + waters, and raining red gold on the line of her bows. By comparison she + was an ugly yawl, and as the creature of wind and wave beautiful. + </p> + <p> + They passed an English defensive fort, and spared its walls, in obedience + to Matthew Shale's good counsel that they should forbear from sneezing. + Little Collett pointed to the roof of his mother's house twenty paces + rearward of a belt of tamarisks, green amid the hollowed yellows of + shorebanks yet in shade, crumbling to the sands. Weyburn was attracted by + a diminutive white tent, of sentry-box shape, evidently a bather's, quite + as evidently a fair bather's. He would have to walk on some way for his + dip. He remarked to little Collett that ladies going into the water + half-dressed never have more than half a bath. His arms and legs flung out + contempt of that style of bathing, exactly in old Matey's well-remembered + way. Half a mile off shore, the Susan was put about to flap her sails, and + her boat rocked with the passengers. Turning from a final cheer to + friendly Matthew, Weyburn at the rudder espied one of those unenfranchised + ladies in marine uniform issuing through the tent-slit. She stepped + firmly, as into her element. A plain look at her, and a curious look, and + an intent look fixed her fast, and ran the shock on his heart before he + knew of a guess. She waded, she dipped; a head across the breast of the + waters was observed: this one of them could swim. She was making for sea, + a stone's throw off the direction of the boat. Before his wits had grasped + the certainty possessing them, fiery envy and desire to be alongside her + set his fingers fretting at buttons. A grand smooth swell of the waters + lifted her, and her head rose to see her world. She sank down the valley, + where another wave was mounding for its onward roll: a gentle scene of + Weyburn's favourite Sophoclean chorus. Now she was given to him—it + was she. How could it ever have been any other! He handed his watch to + little Collett, and gave him the ropes, pitched coat and waistcoat on his + knees, stood free of boots and socks, and singing out, truly enough, the + words of a popular cry, 'White ducks want washing,' went over and in. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0027" id="link2HCH0027"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXVII. A MARINE DUET + </h2> + <p> + She soon had to know she was chased. She had seen the dive from the boat, + and received all illumination. With a chuckle of delighted surprise, like + a blackbird startled, she pushed seaward for joy of the effort, thinking + she could exult in imagination of an escape up to the moment of capture, + yielding then only to his greater will; and she meant to try it. + </p> + <p> + The swim was a holiday; all was new—nothing came to her as the same + old thing since she took her plunge; she had a sea-mind—had left her + earth-mind ashore. The swim, and Matey Weyburn pursuing her passed up, out + of happiness, through the spheres of delirium, into the region where our + life is as we would have it be a home holding the quiet of the heavens, if + but midway thither, and a home of delicious animation of the whole frame, + equal to wings. + </p> + <p> + He drew on her, but he was distant, and she waved an arm. The shout of her + glee sprang from her: 'Matey!' He waved; she heard his voice. Was it her + name? He was not so drunken of the sea as she: he had not leapt out of + bondage into buoyant waters, into a youth without a blot, without an aim, + satisfied in tasting; the dream of the long felicity. + </p> + <p> + A thought brushed by her: How if he were absent? It relaxed her stroke of + arms and legs. He had doubled the salt sea's rapture, and he had shackled + its gift of freedom. She turned to float, gathering her knees for the + funny sullen kick, until she heard him near. At once her stroke was + renewed vigorously; she had the foot of her pursuer, and she called, + 'Adieu, Matey Weyburn!' + </p> + <p> + Her bravado deserved a swifter humiliation than he was able to bring down + on her: she swam bravely, and she was divine to see ahead as well as + overtake. + </p> + <p> + Darting to the close parallel, he said: 'What sea nymph sang me my name?' + </p> + <p> + She smote a pang of her ecstasy into him: 'Ask mine!' + </p> + <p> + 'Browny!' + </p> + <p> + They swam; neither of them panted; their heads were water-flowers that + spoke at ease. + </p> + <p> + 'We 've run from school; we won't go back.' + </p> + <p> + 'We 've a kingdom.' + </p> + <p> + 'Here's a big wave going to be a wall.' + </p> + <p> + 'Off he rolls.' + </p> + <p> + 'He's like the High Brent broad meadow under Elling Wood.' + </p> + <p> + 'Don't let Miss Vincent hear you.' + </p> + <p> + 'They 're not waves; they 're sighs of the deep.' + </p> + <p> + 'A poet I swim with! He fell into the deep in his first of May morning + ducks. We used to expect him.' + </p> + <p> + 'I never expected to owe them so much.' + </p> + <p> + Pride of the swimmer and the energy of her joy embraced Aminta, that she + might nerve all her powers to gain the half-minute for speaking at her + ease. + </p> + <p> + 'Who 'd have thought of a morning like this? You were looked for last + night.' + </p> + <p> + 'A lucky accident to our coach. I made friends with the skipper of the + yawl.' + </p> + <p> + 'I saw the boat. Who could have dreamed—? Anything may happen now.' + </p> + <p> + For nothing further would astonish her, as he rightly understood her; but + he said: 'You 're prepared for the rites? Old Triton is ready.' + </p> + <p> + 'Float, and tell me.' + </p> + <p> + They spun about to lie on their backs. Her right hand, at piano-work of + the octave-shake, was touched and taken, and she did not pull it away. Her + eyelids fell. + </p> + <p> + 'Old Triton waits.' + </p> + <p> + 'Why?' + </p> + <p> + 'We 're going to him.' + </p> + <p> + 'Yes?' + </p> + <p> + 'Customs of the sea.' + </p> + <p> + 'Tell me.' + </p> + <p> + 'He joins hands. We say, “Browny-Matey,” and it 's done.' + </p> + <p> + She splashed, crying 'Swim,' and after two strokes, 'You want to beat me, + Matey Weyburn.' + </p> + <p> + 'How?' + </p> + <p> + 'Not fair!' + </p> + <p> + 'Say what.' + </p> + <p> + 'Take my breath. But, yes! we'll be happy in our own way. We 're + sea-birds. We 've said adieu to land. Not to one another. We shall be + friends?' + </p> + <p> + 'Always.' + </p> + <p> + 'This is going to last?' + </p> + <p> + 'Ever so long.' + </p> + <p> + They had a spell of steady swimming, companionship to inspirit it. Browny + was allowed place a little foremost, and she guessed not wherefore, in her + flattered emulation. + </p> + <p> + 'I 'm bound for France.' + </p> + <p> + 'Slew a point to the right: South-east by South. We shall hit Dunkerque.' + </p> + <p> + 'I don't mean to be picked up by boats.' + </p> + <p> + 'We'll decline.' + </p> + <p> + 'You see I can swim.' + </p> + <p> + 'I was sure of it.' + </p> + <p> + They stopped their talk—for the pleasure of the body to be savoured + in the mind, they thought; and so took Nature's counsel to rest their + voices awhile. + </p> + <p> + Considering that she had not been used of late to long immersions, and had + not broken her fast, and had talked much, for a sea-nymph, Weyburn spied + behind him on a shore seeming flat down, far removed. + </p> + <p> + 'France next time,' he said: 'we'll face to the rear.' + </p> + <p> + 'Now?' said she, big with blissful conceit of her powers and incredulous + of such a command from him. + </p> + <p> + 'You may be feeling tired presently.' + </p> + <p> + The musical sincerity of her 'Oh no, not I!' sped through his limbs; he + had a willingness to go onward still some way. + </p> + <p> + But his words fastened the heavy land on her spirit, knocked at the habit + of obedience. Her stroke of the arms paused. She inclined to his example, + and he set it shoreward. + </p> + <p> + They swam silently, high, low, creatures of the smooth green roller. He + heard the water-song of her swimming. She, though breathing equably at the + nostrils, lay deep. The water shocked at her chin, and curled round the + under lip. He had a faint anxiety; and, not so sensible of a weight in the + sight of land as she was, he chattered, by snatches, rallied her, + encouraged her to continue sportive for this once, letting her feel it was + but a once and had its respected limit with him. So it was not out of the + world. + </p> + <p> + Ah, friend Matey! And that was right and good on land; but rightness and + goodness flung earth's shadow across her brilliancy here, and any stress + on 'this once' withdrew her liberty to revel in it, putting an end to + perfect holiday; and silence, too, might hint at fatigue. She began to + think her muteness lost her the bloom of the enchantment, robbing her of + her heavenly frolic lead, since friend Matey resolved to be as eminently + good in salt water as on land. Was he unaware that they were boy and girl + again?—she washed pure of the intervening years, new born, by + blessing of the sea; worthy of him here!—that is, a swimmer worthy + of him, his comrade in salt water. + </p> + <p> + 'You're satisfied I swim well?' she said. + </p> + <p> + 'It would go hard with me if we raced a long race.' + </p> + <p> + 'I really was out for France.' + </p> + <p> + 'I was ordered to keep you for England.' She gave him Browny's eyes. + </p> + <p> + 'We've turned our backs on Triton.' + </p> + <p> + 'The ceremony was performed.' + </p> + <p> + 'When?' + </p> + <p> + 'The minute I spoke of it and you splashed.' + </p> + <p> + 'Matey! Matey Weyburn!' + </p> + <p> + 'Browny Farrell!' + </p> + <p> + 'Oh, Matey! she's gone!' + </p> + <p> + 'She's here.' + </p> + <p> + 'Try to beguile me, then, that our holiday's not over. You won't forget + this hour?' + </p> + <p> + 'No time of mine on earth will live so brightly for me.' + </p> + <p> + 'I have never had one like it. I could go under and be happy; go to old + Triton, and wait for you; teach him to speak your proper Christian name. + He hasn't heard it yet,—heard “Matey,”—never yet has been + taught “Matthew.”' + </p> + <p> + 'Aminta!' + </p> + <p> + 'Oh, my friend! my dear!' she cried, in the voice of the wounded, like a + welling of her blood: 'my strength will leave me. I may play—not + you: you play with a weak vessel. Swim, and be quiet. How far do you count + it?' + </p> + <p> + 'Under a quarter of a mile.' + </p> + <p> + 'Don't imagine me tired.' + </p> + <p> + 'If you are, hold on to me.' + </p> + <p> + 'Matey, I'm for a dive.' + </p> + <p> + He went after the ball of silver and bubbles, and they came up together. + There is no history of events below the surface. + </p> + <p> + She shook off her briny blindness, and settled to the full sweep of the + arms, quite silent now. Some emotion, or exhaustion from the strain of the + swimmer's breath in speech, stopped her playfulness. The pleasure she + still knew was a recollection of the outward swim, when she had been + privileged to cast away sex with the push from earth, as few men will + believe that women, beautiful women, ever wish to do; and often and + ardently during the run ahead they yearn for Nature to grant them their + one short holiday truce. + </p> + <p> + But Aminta forgave him for bringing earth so close to her when there was + yet a space of salt water between her and shore; and she smiled at times, + that he might not think she was looking grave. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0028" id="link2HCH0028"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXVIII. THE PLIGHTING + </h2> + <p> + They touched sand at the first draw of the ebb, and this being earth, + Matey addressed himself to the guardian and absolving genii of matter-of-fact, + by saying; 'Did you inquire about the tides?' + </p> + <p> + Her head shook, stunned with what had passed. She waded to shore, after + motioning for him to swim on. Men, in comparison beside their fair + fellows, are so little sensationally complex, that his one feeling now, as + to what had passed, was relief at the idea of his presence having been a + warrantable protectorship. + </p> + <p> + Aminta's return from the sea-nymph to the state of woman crossed + annihiliation on the way back to sentience, and picked up meaningless + pebbles and shells of life, between the sea's verge and her tent's + shelter; hardly her own life to her understanding yet, except for the + hammer Memory became, to strike her insensible, at here and there a + recollected word or nakedness of her soul. + </p> + <p> + He swam along by the shore to where the boat was paddled, spying at her + bare feet on the sand, her woman's form. He waved, and the figure in the + striped tunic and trousers waved her response, apparently the same person + he had quitted. + </p> + <p> + Dry and clad, and decently formal under the transformation, they met at + Mrs. Collett's breakfast-table, and in each hung the doubt whether land + was the dream or sea. Both owned to a swim; both omitted mention of the + tale of white ducks. Little Collett had brought Matey's and his + portmanteau into the house, by favour of the cook, through the scullery. + He, who could have been a pictorial and suggestive narrator, carried a + spinning head off his shoulders from this wonderful Countess of Ormont to + Matey Weyburn's dark-eyed Browny at High Brent, and the Sunday walk in Sir + Peter Wensell's park. Away and back his head went. Browny was not to be + thought of as Browny; she was this grand Countess of Ormont; she had + married Matey Weyburn's hero: she would never admit she had been Browny. + Only she was handsome then, and she is handsome now; and she looks on + Matey Weyburn now just as she did then. How strange is the world! Or how + if we are the particular person destined to encounter the strange things + of the world? And fancy J. Masner, and Pinnett major, and young Oakes + (liked nothing better than a pretty girl, he strutted boasting at + thirteen), and the Frenchy, and the lot, all popping down at the table, + and asked the name of the lady sitting like Queen Esther—how they + would roar out! Boys, of course—but men, too!—very few men + have a notion of the extraordinary complications and coincidences and + cracker-surprises life contains. Here 's an instance; Matey Weyburn + positively will wear white ducks to play before Aminta Farrell on the + first of May cricketing-day. He happens to have his white ducks on when he + sees the Countess of Ormont swimming in the sea; and so he can go in just + as if they were all-right bathing-drawers. In he goes, has a good long + swim with her, and when he comes out, says, of his dripping ducks, 'tabula + votiva... avida vestimenta,' to remind an old schoolmate of his hopping to + the booth at the end of a showery May day, and dedicating them to the + laundry in these words. It seems marvellous. It was a quaint revival, an + hour after breakfast, for little Collett to be acting as intermediary with + Selina to request Lady Ormont's grant of a five-minutes' interview before + the church-bell summoned her. She was writing letters, and sent the + message: 'Tell Mr. Weyburn I obey.' Selina delivered it, uttering 'obey' + in a demurely comical way, as a word of which the humour might be + comprehensible to him. + </p> + <p> + Aminta stood at the drawing-room window. She was asking herself whether + her recent conduct shrieked coquette to him, or any of the abominable + titles showered on the women who take free breath of air one day after + long imprisonment. + </p> + <p> + She said: 'Does it mean you are leaving us?' the moment he was near. + </p> + <p> + 'Not till evening or to-morrow, as it may happen,' he answered: 'I have + one or two things to say, if you will spare the time.' + </p> + <p> + 'All my time,' said she, smiling to make less of the heart's reply; and he + stepped into the room. + </p> + <p> + They had not long back been Matey and Browny, and though that was in + another element, it would not sanction the Lady Ormont and Mr. Weyburn + now. As little could it be Aminta and Matthew. Brother and sister they + were in the spirit's world, but in this world the titles had a sound of + imposture. And with a great longing to call her by some allying name, he + rejected 'friend' for its insufficiency and commonness, notwithstanding + the entirely friendly nature of the burden to be spoken. Friend, was a + title that ran on quicksands: an excuse that tried for an excuse. He + distinguished in himself simultaneously, that the hesitation and beating + about for a name had its origin in an imperfect frankness when he sent his + message: the fretful desire to be with her, close to her, hearing her, + seeing her, besides the true wish to serve her. He sent it after swinging + round abruptly from an outlook over the bordering garden tamarisks on a + sea now featureless, desolately empty. + </p> + <p> + However, perceptibly silence was doing the work of a scourge, and he said: + 'I have been thinking I may have—and I don't mind fighting hard to + try it before I leave England on Tuesday or Wednesday—some influence + with Lady Charlotte Eglett. She is really one of the true women living, + and the heartiest of backers, if she can be taught to see her course. I + fancy I can do that. She 's narrow, but she is not one of the class who + look on the working world below them as, we'll say, the scavenger dogs on + the plains of Ilium were seen by the Achaeans. And my failure would be no + loss to you! Your name shall not be alluded to as empowering me to plead + for her help. But I want your consent, or I may be haunted and weakened by + the idea of playing the busy-body. One has to feel strong in a delicate + position. Well, you know what my position with her has been—one + among the humble; and she has taken contradictions, accepted views from + me, shown me she has warmth of heart to an extreme degree.' + </p> + <p> + Aminta slightly raised her hand. 'I will save you trouble. I have written + to Lord Ormont. I have left him.' + </p> + <p> + Their eyes engaged on the thunder of this. 'The letter has gone?' + </p> + <p> + 'It was posted before my swim: posted yesterday.' + </p> + <p> + 'You have fully and clearly thought it out to a determination?' + </p> + <p> + 'Bit by bit—I might say, blow by blow.' + </p> + <p> + 'It is no small matter to break a marriage-tie.' + </p> + <p> + 'I have conversed with your mother.' + </p> + <p> + 'Yes, she! and the woman happiest in marriage!' + </p> + <p> + 'I know. It was hatred of injustice, noble sympathy. And she took me for + one of the blest among wives.' + </p> + <p> + 'She loved God. She saw the difference between men's decrees for their + convenience, and God's laws. She felt for women. You have had a hard trial + Aminta.' + </p> + <p> + 'Oh, my name! You mean it?' + </p> + <p> + 'You heard it from me this morning.' + </p> + <p> + 'Yes, there! I try to forget. I lost my senses. You may judge me harshly, + on reflection.' + </p> + <p> + 'Judge myself worse, then. You had a thousand excuses. I had only my love + of you. There's no judgement against either of us, for us to see, if I + read rightly. We elect to be tried in the courts of the sea-god. Now we + 'll sit and talk it over. The next ten minutes will decide our destinies.' + </p> + <p> + His eyes glittered, otherwise he showed the coolness of the man discussing + business; and his blunt soberness refreshed and upheld her, as a wild + burst of passion would not have done. + </p> + <p> + Side by side, partly facing, they began their interchange. + </p> + <p> + 'You have weighed what you abandon?' + </p> + <p> + 'It weighs little.' + </p> + <p> + 'That may be error. You have to think into the future.' + </p> + <p> + 'My sufferings and experiences are not bad guides.' + </p> + <p> + 'They count. How can you be sure you have all the estimates?' + </p> + <p> + 'Was I ever a wife?' + </p> + <p> + 'You were and are the Countess of Ormont.' + </p> + <p> + 'Not to the world. An unacknowledged wife is a slave, surely.' + </p> + <p> + 'You step down, if you take the step.' + </p> + <p> + 'From what? Once I did desire that station—had an idea it was + glorious. I despise it: or rather the woman who had the desire.' + </p> + <p> + 'But the step down is into the working world.' + </p> + <p> + 'I have means to live humbly. I want no more, except to be taught to + work.' + </p> + <p> + 'So says the minute. Years are before you. You have weighed well, that you + attract?' + </p> + <p> + She reddened and murmured: 'How small!' Her pout of spite at her + attractions was little simulated. + </p> + <p> + 'Beauty and charm are not small matters. You have the gift, called fatal. + Then—looking right forward—you have faith in the power of + resistance of the woman living alone?' + </p> + <p> + He had struck at her breast. From her breast she replied. + </p> + <p> + 'Hear this of me. I was persecuted with letters. I read them and did not + destroy them. Perhaps you saved me. Looking back, I see weakness, nothing + worse; but it is a confession.' + </p> + <p> + 'Yes, you have courage. And that comes of a great heart. And therein lies + the danger.' + </p> + <p> + 'Advise me of what is possible to a lonely woman.' + </p> + <p> + 'You have resolved on the loneliness?' + </p> + <p> + 'It means breathing to me.' + </p> + <p> + 'You are able to see that Lord Ormont is a gentleman?' + </p> + <p> + 'A chivalrous gentleman, up to the bounds of his intelligence.' + </p> + <p> + The bounds of his intelligence closed their four walls in a rapid + narrowing slide on Aminta's mind, and she exclaimed: + </p> + <p> + 'If only to pluck flowers in fields and know their names, I must be free! + I say what one can laugh at, and you are good and don't. Is the + interrogatory exhausted?' + </p> + <p> + 'Aminta, my beloved, if you are free, I claim you.' + </p> + <p> + 'Have you thought—?' + </p> + <p> + The sense of a dissolving to a fountain quivered through her veins. + </p> + <p> + 'Turn the tables and examine me.' + </p> + <p> + 'But have you thought—oh! I am not the girl you loved. I would go + through death to feel I was, and give you one worthy of you.' + </p> + <p> + 'That means what I won't ask you to speak at present but I must have + proof.' + </p> + <p> + He held out a hand, and hers was laid in his. + </p> + <p> + There was more for her to say, she knew. It came and fled, lightened and + darkened. She had yielded her hand to him here on land, not with the + licence and protection of the great holiday salt water; and she was + trembling from the run of his blood through hers at the pressure of hands, + when she said in undertones: 'Could we—we might be friends.' + </p> + <p> + 'Meet and part as friends, you and I,' he replied. + </p> + <p> + His voice carried the answer for her, his intimate look had in it the + unfolding of the full flower of the woman to him, as she could not conceal + from such eyes; and feeling that, she was all avowal. + </p> + <p> + 'It is for life, Matthew.' + </p> + <p> + 'My own words to myself when I first thought of the chance.' + </p> + <p> + 'But the school?' + </p> + <p> + 'I shall not consider that we are malefactors. We have the world against + us. It will not keep us from trying to serve it. And there are hints of + humaner opinions; it's not all a huge rolling block of a Juggernaut. Our + case could be pleaded before it. I don't think the just would condemn us + heavily. I shall have to ask you to strengthen me, complete me. If you + love me, it is your leap out of prison, and without you, I am from this + time no better than one-third of a man. I trust you to weigh the position + you lose, and the place we choose to take in the world. It 's this—I + think this describes it. You know the man who builds his house below the + sea's level has a sleepless enemy always threatening. His house must be + firm and he must look to the dykes. We commit this indiscretion. With a + world against us, our love and labour are constantly on trial; we must + have great hearts, and if the world is hostile we are not to blame it. In + the nature of things it could not be otherwise. My own soul, we have to + see that we do—though not publicly, not insolently, offend good + citizenship. But we believe—I with my whole faith, and I may say it + of you—that we are not offending Divine law. You are the woman I can + help and join with; think whether you can tell yourself that I am the man. + So, then, our union gives us powers to make amends to the world, if the + world should grant us a term of peace for the effort. That is our risk; + consider it, Aminta, between now and tomorrow; deliberate. We don't go + together into a garden of roses.' + </p> + <p> + 'I know. I should feel shame. I wish it to look dark,' said Aminta, her + hand in his, and yet with a fair-sailing mind on the stream of the blood. + </p> + <p> + Rationally and irrationally, the mixed passion and reason in two clear + heads and urgent hearts discussed the stand they made before a world + defied, neither of them quite perceiving what it was which coloured reason + to beauty, or what so convinced their intellects when passion spoke the + louder. + </p> + <p> + 'I am to have a mate.' + </p> + <p> + 'She will pray she may be one.' + </p> + <p> + 'She is my first love.' + </p> + <p> + Aminta's lips formed 'mine,' without utterance. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile his hand or a wizardry subdued her will, allured her body. She + felt herself being drawn to the sign and seal of their plighting for life. + She said, 'Matthew,' softly in protest; and he said, 'Never once yet!' She + was owing to his tenderness. Her deepened voice murmured: 'Is this to + deliberate?' Colour flooded the beautiful dark face, as of the funeral + hues of a sun suffusing all the heavens; firing earth. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0029" id="link2HCH0029"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXIX. AMINTA TO HER LORD + </h2> + <p> + On Friday, on Saturday, on Sunday, Lady Charlotte waited for her brother + Rowsley, until it was a diminished satisfaction that she had held her + ground and baffled his mighty will to subdue her. She did not sleep for + thinking of him on the Sunday night. Toward morning a fit of hazy horrors, + which others would have deemed imaginings, drove her from her bed to sit + and brood over Rowsley in a chair. What if it was a case of heart with him + too? Heart disease had been in the family. A man like Rowsley, still + feeling the world before him, as a man of his energies and aptitudes, her + humour added in the tide of his anxieties, had a right to feel, would not + fall upon resignation like a woman. + </p> + <p> + She was at the physician's door at eight o'clock. Dr. Rewkes reported + reassuringly; it was a simple disturbance in Lord Ormont's condition of + health, and he conveyed just enough of disturbance to send the impetuous + lady knocking and ringing at her brother's door upon the hour of nine. + </p> + <p> + The announcement of Lady Charlotte's early visit informed my lord that Dr. + Rewkes had done the spiriting required of him. He descended to the library + and passed under scrutiny. + </p> + <p> + 'You don't look ill, Rowsley,' she said, reluctantly in the sound. + </p> + <p> + 'I am the better for seeing you here, Charlotte. Shall I order breakfast + for you? I am alone.' + </p> + <p> + 'I know you are. I've eaten. Rewkes tells me you've not lost appetite.' + </p> + <p> + 'Have I the appearance of a man who has lost anything?' Prouder man, and + heartier and ruddier, could not be seen, she thought. + </p> + <p> + 'You're winning the country to right you; that I know.' + </p> + <p> + 'I don't ask it.' + </p> + <p> + 'The country wants your services.' + </p> + <p> + 'I have heard some talk of it. That lout comes to a knowledge of his wants + too late. If they promoted and offered me the command in India to-morrow—'My + lord struck the arm of his chair. 'I live at Steignton henceforth; my wife + is at a seaside place eastward. She left the jewel-case when on her + journey through London for safety; she is a particularly careful person, + forethoughtful. I take her down to Steignton two days after her return. We + entertain there in the autumn. You come?' + </p> + <p> + 'I don't. I prefer decent society.' + </p> + <p> + 'You are in her house now, ma'am.' + </p> + <p> + 'If I have to meet the person, you mean, I shall be civil. The society + you've given her, I won't meet.' + </p> + <p> + 'You will have to greet the Countess of Ormont if you care to meet your + brother.' + </p> + <p> + 'Part, then, on the best terms we can. I say this, the woman who keeps you + from serving your country, she 's your country's enemy.' + </p> + <p> + 'Hear my answer. The lady who is my wife has had to suffer for what you + call my country's treatment of me. It 's a choice between my country and + her. I give her the rest of my time.' + </p> + <p> + 'That's dotage.' + </p> + <p> + 'Fire away your epithets.' + </p> + <p> + 'Sheer dotage. I don't deny she's a handsome young woman.' + </p> + <p> + 'You'll have to admit that Lady Ormont takes her place in our family with + the best we can name.' + </p> + <p> + 'You insult my ears, Rowsley.' + </p> + <p> + 'The world will say it when it has the honour of her acquaintance.' + </p> + <p> + 'An honour suspiciously deferred.' + </p> + <p> + 'That's between the world and me.' + </p> + <p> + 'Set your head to work, you'll screw the world to any pitch you like—that + I don't need telling.' + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont's head approved the remark. + </p> + <p> + 'Now,' said Lady Charlotte, 'you won't get the Danmores, the Dukerlys, the + Carminters, the Oxbridges any more than you get me.' + </p> + <p> + 'You are wrong, ma'am. I had yesterday a reply from Lady Danmore to a + communication of mine.' + </p> + <p> + 'It 's thickening. But while I stand, I stand for the family; and I 'm not + in it, and while I stand out of it, there 's a doubt either of your + honesty or your sanity.' + </p> + <p> + 'There's a perfect comprehension of my sister!' + </p> + <p> + 'I put my character in the scales against your conduct, and your Countess + of Ormont's reputation into the bargain.' + </p> + <p> + 'You have called at her house; it 's a step. You 'll be running at her + heels next. She 's not obdurate.' + </p> + <p> + 'When you see me running at her heels, it'll be with my head off. Stir + your hardest, and let it thicken. That man Morsfield's name mixed up with + a sham Countess of Ormont, in the stories flying abroad, can't hurt + anybody. A true Countess of Ormont—we 're cut to the quick.' + </p> + <p> + 'We 're cut! Your quick, Charlotte, is known to court the knife.' + </p> + <p> + Letters of the morning's post were brought in. + </p> + <p> + The earl turned over a couple and took up a third, saying: 'I 'll attend + to you in two minutes'; and thinking once more: Queer world it is, where, + when you sheath the sword, you have to be at play with bodkins! + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte gazed on the carpet, effervescent with retorts to his last + observation, rightly conjecturing that the letter he selected to read was + from 'his Aminta.' + </p> + <p> + The letter apparently was interesting, or it was of inordinate length. He + seemed still to be reading. He reverted to the first page. + </p> + <p> + At the sound of the paper, she discarded her cogitations and glanced up. + His countenance had become stony. He read on some way, with a sudden drop + on the signature, a recommencement, a sound in the throat, as when men + grasp a comprehensible sentence of a muddled rigmarole and begin to have + hopes of the remainder. But the eye on the page is not the eye which + reads. + </p> + <p> + 'No bad news, Rowsley?' + </p> + <p> + The earl's breath fell heavily. + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte left her chair, and walked about the room. + </p> + <p> + 'Rowsley, I 'd like to hear if I can be of use.' + </p> + <p> + 'Ma'am?' he said; and pondered on the word 'use,' staring at her. + </p> + <p> + 'I don't intend to pry. I can't see my brother look like that, and not + ask.' + </p> + <p> + The letter was tossed on the table to her. She read these lines, dated + from Felixstowe: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 'MY DEAR LORD, + + 'The courage I have long been wanting in has come at last, to break + a tie that I have seen too clearly was a burden on you from the + beginning. I will believe that I am chiefly responsible for + inducing you to contract it. The alliance with an inexperienced + girl of inferior birth, and a perhaps immoderate ambition, has taxed + your generosity; and though the store may be inexhaustible, it is + not truly the married state when a wife subjects the husband to such + a trial. The release is yours, the sadness is for me. I have + latterly seen or suspected a design on your part to meet my former + wishes for a public recognition of the wife of Lord Ormont. Let me + now say that these foolish wishes no longer exist. I rejoice to + think that my staying or going will be alike unknown to the world. + I have the means of a livelihood, in a modest way, and shall trouble + no one. + + 'I have said, the sadness is for me. That is truth. But I have to + add, that I, too, am sensible of the release. My confession of a + change of feeling to you as a wife, writes the close of all + relations between us. I am among the dead for you; and it is a + relief to me to reflect on the little pain I give...' +</pre> + <p> + 'Has she something on her conscience about that man Morsfield?' Lady + Charlotte cried. + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont's prolonged Ah! of execration rolled her to a bundle. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless her human nature and her knowledge of woman's, would out with + the words: 'There's a man!' + </p> + <p> + She allowed her brother to be correct in repudiating the name of the dead + Morsfield—chivalrous as he was on this Aminta's behalf to the last!—and + struck along several heads, Adderwood's, Weyburn's, Randeller's, for the + response to her suspicion. A man there certainly was. He would be probably + a young man. He would not necessarily be a handsome man.... or a titled or + a wealthy man. She might have set eyes on a gypsy somewhere round Great + Marlow—blood to blood; such things have been. Imagining a wildish + man for her, rather than a handsome one and one devoted staidly to the + founding of a school, she overlooked Weyburn, or reserved him with others + for subsequent speculation. + </p> + <p> + The remainder of Aminta's letter referred to her delivery of the Ormont + jewel-case at Lord Ormont's London house, under charge of her maid + Carstairs. The affairs of the household were stated very succinctly, the + drawer for labelled keys, whatever pertained to her management, in London + or at Great Marlow. + </p> + <p> + 'She 's cool,' Lady Charlotte said, after reading out the orderly array of + items, in a tone of rasping irony, to convince her brother he was well rid + of a heartless wench. + </p> + <p> + Aminta's written statement of those items were stabs at the home she had + given him, a flashed picture of his loss. Nothing written by her touched + him to pierce him so shrewdly; nothing could have brought him so closely + the breathing image in the flesh of the woman now a phantom for him. + </p> + <p> + 'Will she be expecting you to answer, Rowsley?' + </p> + <p> + 'Will that forked tongue cease hissing!' he shouted, in the agony of a + strong man convulsed both to render and conceal the terrible, shameful, + unexampled gush of tears. + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte beheld her bleeding giant. She would rather have seen the + brother of her love grimace in woman's manner than let loose those rolling + big drops down the face of a rock. The big sob shook him, and she was + shaken to the dust by the sight. Now she was advised by her deep affection + for her brother to sit patient and dumb, behind shaded eyes: praising in + her heart the incomparable force of the man's love of the woman contrasted + with the puling inclinations of the woman for the man. + </p> + <p> + Neither opened mouth when they separated. She pressed and kissed a large + nerveless hand. Lord Ormont stood up to bow her forth. His ruddied skin + had gone to pallor resembling the berg of ice on the edge of Arctic seas, + when sunlight has fallen away from it. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0030" id="link2HCH0030"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXX. CONCLUSION + </h2> + <p> + The peaceful little home on the solitary sandy shore was assailed, + unwarned, beneath a quiet sky, some hours later, by a whirlwind, a + dust-storm, and rattling volleys. Miss Vincent's discovery, in the past + school-days, of Selina Collett's 'wicked complicity in a clandestine + correspondence' had memorably chastened the girl, who vowed at the time + when her schoolmistress, using the rod of Johnsonian English for the + purpose, exposed the depravity of her sinfulness, that she would never + again be guilty of a like offence. Her dear and lovely Countess of Ormont, + for whom she then uncomplainingly suffered, who deigned now to call her + friend, had spoken the kind good-bye, and left the house after Mr. + Weyburn's departure that same day; she, of course, to post by Harwich to + London; he to sail by packet from the port of Harwich for Flushing. The + card of an unknown lady, a great lady, the Lady Charlotte Eglett, was + handed to her mother at eight o'clock in the evening. + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte was introduced to the innocent country couple; the mother + knitting, the daughter studying a book of the botany of the Swiss Alps, + dreaming a distant day's journey over historic lands of various hues to + the unimaginable spectacle of earth's grandeur. Her visit lasted fifteen + minutes. From the moment of her entry, the room was in such turmoil as may + be seen where a water-mill wheel's paddles are suddenly set rounding to + pour streams of foam on the smooth pool below. A relentless catechism + bewildered their hearing. Mrs. Collett attempted an opposition of dignity + to those vehement attacks for answers. It was flooded and rolled over. She + was put upon her honour to reply positively to positive questions: whether + the Countess of Ormont was in this house at present; whether the Countess + of Ormont left the house alone or in company; whether a gentleman had come + to the house during the stay of the Countess of Ormont; whether Lady + Ormont had left the neighbourhood; the exact time of the day when she + quitted the house, and the stated point of her destination. + </p> + <p> + Ultimately, protesting that they were incapable of telling what they did + not know—which Lady Charlotte heard with an incredulous shrug—they + related piecemeal what they did know, and Weyburn's name gave her scent. + She paid small heed to the tale of Mr. Weyburn's having come there in the + character of young Mr. Collett's old schoolmate. Mr. Weyburn had started + for the port of Harwich. This day, and not long subsequently, Lady Ormont + had started for the port of Harwich, on her way to London, if we like to + think it. Further corroboration was quite superfluous. + </p> + <p> + 'Is there a night packet-boat from this port of yours?' Lady Charlotte + asked. + </p> + <p> + The household servants had to be consulted; and she, hurriedly craving the + excuse of their tedious mistress, elicited, as far as she could understand + them, that there might be and very nearly was, a night packet-boat + starting for Flushing. The cook, a native of Harwich, sent up word of a + night packet-boat starting at about eleven o'clock last year. + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte saw the chance as a wind-blown beacon-fire under press of + shades. Changeing her hawkish manner toward the simple pair, she gave them + view of a smile magical by contrast, really beautiful—the smile she + had in reserve for serviceable persons whom she trusted—while + thanking them and saying, that her anxiety concerned Lady Ormont's + welfare. + </p> + <p> + Her brother had prophesied she would soon be 'running at his wife's + heels,' and so she was, but not 'with her head off,' as she had rejoined. + She might prove, by intercepting his Aminta, that her head was on. The + windy beacon-fire of a chance blazed at the rapid rolling of her + carriage-wheels, and sank to stifling smoke at any petty obstruction. Let + her but come to an interview with his Aminta, she would stop all that + nonsense of the woman's letter; carry her off—and her Weyburn + plucking at her other hand to keep her. Why, naturally, treated as she was + by Rowsley, she dropped soft eyes on a good-looking secretary. Any woman + would—confound the young fellow! But all 's right yet if we get to + Harwich in time; unless... as a certain coldfish finale tone of the letter + playing on the old string, the irrevocable, peculiar to women who are + novices in situations of the kind, appeared to indicate; they see in their + conscience-blasted minds a barrier to a return home, high as the + Archangelical gate behind Mother Eve, and they are down on their knees + blubbering gratitude and repentance if the gate swings open to them. It is + just the instant, granting the catastrophe, to have a woman back to her + duty. She has only to learn she has a magnanimous husband. If she learns + into the bargain how he suffers, how he loves her,—well, she + despises a man like that Lawrence Finchley all the more for the + 'magnanimity' she has the profit of, and perceives to be feebleness. But + there 's woman in her good and her bad; she'll trick a man of age, and if + he forgives her, owning his own faults in the case, she won't scorn him + for it; the likelihood is, she 'll feel bound in honour to serve him + faithfully for the rest of their wedded days. + </p> + <p> + A sketch to her of Rowsley's deep love.... Lady Charlotte wandered into an + amazement at it. A sentence of her brother's recent speaking danced in her + recollection. He said of his country: That Lout comes to a knowledge of + his wants too late. True, Old England is always louting to the rear, and + has to be pricked in the rear and pulled by the neck before she 's equal + to the circumstances around her. But what if his words were flung at him + in turn! Short of 'Lout,' it rang correctly. 'Too late,' we hope to clip + from the end of the sentence likewise. We have then, if you stress it—'comes + to a knowledge of his wants;—a fair example of the creatures men + are; the greatest of men; who have to learn from the loss of the woman—or + a fear of the loss—how much they really do love her. + </p> + <p> + Well, and she may learn the same or something sufficiently like it, if she + 's caught in time, called to her face, Countess of Ormont, sister-in-law, + and smoothed, petted, made believe she 's now understood and won't be + questioned on a single particular—in fact, she marches back in a + sort of triumph; and all the past in a cupboard, locked up, without + further inquiry. + </p> + <p> + Her brother Rowsley's revealed human appearance of the stricken man—stricken + right into his big heart—precipitated Lady Charlotte's reflections + and urged her to an unavailing fever of haste during the circuitous drive + in moonlight to the port. She alighted at the principal inn, and was there + informed that the packetboat, with a favouring breeze and tide, had + started ten minutes earlier. She summoned the landlord, and described a + lady, as probably one of the passengers: 'Dark, holds herself up high. + Some such lady had dined at the inn on tea, and gone aboard the boat soon + after. + </p> + <p> + Lady Charlotte burned with the question: Alone? She repressed her feminine + hunger and asked to see the book of visitors. But the lady had not slept + at the inn, so had not been requested to write her name. + </p> + <p> + The track of the vessel could be seen from the pier, on the line of a bar + of moonlight; and thinking, that the abominable woman, if aboard she was, + had coolly provided herself with a continental passport—or had it + done for two by her accomplice, that Weyburn, before she left London—Lady + Charlotte sent a loathing gaze at the black figure of the boat on the + water, untroubled by any reminder of her share in the conspiracy of + events, which was to be her brother's chastisement to his end. + </p> + <p> + Years are the teachers of the great rocky natures, whom they round and sap + and pierce in caverns, having them on all sides, and striking deep inward + at moments. There is no resisting the years, if we have a heart, and a + common understanding. They constitute, in the sum of them, the + self-examination, whence issues, acknowledged or not, a belated + self-knowledge, to direct our final actions. She had the heart. Sight of + the high-minded, proud, speechless man suffering for the absence of a + runaway woman, not ceasing to suffer, never blaming the woman, and + consequently, it could be fancied, blaming himself, broke down Lady + Charlotte's defences and moved her to review her part in her brother + Rowsley's unhappiness. For supposing him to blame himself, her power to + cast a shadow of blame on him went from her, and therewith her vindication + of her conduct. He lived at Olmer. She read him by degrees, as those who + have become absolutely tongueless have to be read; and so she gathered + that this mortally (or lastingly) wounded brother of hers was pleased by + an allusion to his Aminta. He ran his finger on the lines of a map of + Spain, from Barcelona over to Granada; and impressed his nail at a point + appearing to be mountainous or woody. Lady Charlotte suggested that he and + his Aminta had passed by there. He told a story of a carriage accident: + added, 'She was very brave.' One day, when he had taken a keepsake book of + England's Beauties off the drawing-room table, his eyes dwelt on a face + awhile, and he handed it, with a nod, followed by a slight depreciatory + shrug. 'Like her, not so handsome,' Lady Charlotte said. + </p> + <p> + He nodded again. She came to a knowledge of Aminta's favourite colours + through the dwelling of his look on orange and black, deepest rose, light + yellow, light blue. Her grand-daughters won the satisfied look if they + wore a combination touching his memory. The rocky are not imaginative, and + have to be struck from without for a kindling of them. Submissive though + she was to court and soothe her brother Rowsley, a spur of jealousy burned + in the composition of her sentiments, to set her going. He liked visiting + Mrs. Lawrence Finchley at her effaced good man's country seat, Brockholm + in Berkshire, and would stay there a month at a time. Lady Charlotte + learnt why. The enthusiast for Aminta, without upholding her to her late + lord, whom she liked well, talked of her openly with him, confessed to a + fondness for her. How much Mrs. Lawrence ventured to say, Lady Charlotte + could not know. But rivalry pushed her to the extreme of making Aminta + partially a topic; and so ready was he to follow her lead in the veriest + trifles recalling the handsome runaway; that she had to excite his racy + diatribes against the burgess English and the pulp they have made of a + glorious nation, in order not to think him inclining upon dotage. + </p> + <p> + Philippa's occasional scoff in fun concerning 'grandmama's tutor,' hurt + Lady Charlotte for more reasons than one, notwithstanding the + justification of her fore-thoughtfulness. The girl, however, was + privileged; she was Bobby Benlew's dearest friend, and my lord loved the + boy; with whom nothing could be done at school, nor could a tutor at Olmer + control him. In fine, Bobby saddened the family and gained the earl's + anxious affection by giving daily proofs of his being an Ormont in a weak + frame; patently an Ormont, recurrently an invalid. His moral qualities + hurled him on his physical deficiencies. The local doctor and Dr. Rewkes + banished him twice to the seashore, where he began to bloom the first week + and sickened the next, for want of playfellows, jolly fights and + friendships. Ultimately they prescribed mountain air, Swiss air, easy + travelling to Switzerland, and several weeks of excursions at the foot of + the Alps. Bobby might possibly get an aged tutor, or find an English + clergyman taking pupils, on the way. + </p> + <p> + Thus it happened, that seven years after his bereavement, Lord Ormont and + Philippa and Bobby were on the famous Bernese Terrace, grandest of + terrestrial theatres where soul of man has fronting him earth's utmost + majesty. Sublime: but five minutes of it fetched sounds as of a plug in an + empty phial from Bobby's bosom, and his heels became electrical. + </p> + <p> + He was observed at play with a gentleman of Italian complexion. Past + guessing how it had come about, for the gentleman was an utter stranger. + He had at any rate the tongue of an Englishman. He had the style, too, the + slang and cries and tricks of an English schoolboy, though visibly a + foreigner. And he had the art of throwing his heart into that bit of + improvised game, or he would never have got hold of Bobby, shrewd to read + a masker. + </p> + <p> + Lugged-up by the boy to my lord and the young lady, he doffed and bowed. + 'Forgive me, pray,' he said; 'I can't see an English boy without having a + spin with him; and I make so bold as to speak to English people wherever I + meet them, if they give me the chance. Bad manners? Better than that. You + are of the military profession, sir, I see. I am a soldier, fresh from + Monte Video. Italian, it is evident, under an Italian chief there. A clerk + on a stool, and hey presto plunged into the war a month after, shouldering + a gun and marching. Fifteen battles in eighteen months; and Death a lady + at a balcony we kiss hands to on the march below. Not a bit more terrible! + Ah, but your pardon, sir,' he hastened to say, observing rigidity on the + features of the English gentleman; 'would I boast? Not I. Accept it as my + preface for why I am moved to speak the English wherever I meet them:—Uruguay, + Buenos Ayres, La Plata, or Europe. I cannot resist it. At least, he bent + gracefully, 'I do not. We come to the grounds of my misbehaviour. I have + shown at every call I fear nothing, kiss hand of welcome or adieu to + Death. And I, a boy of the age of this youngster—he 's not like me, + I can declare!—I was a sneak and a coward. It follows, I was a liar + and a traitor. Who cured me of that vileness, that scandal? I will tell + you—an Englishman and an Englishwoman: my schoolmaster and his wife. + My schoolmaster—my friend! He is the comrade of his boys: English, + French, Germans, Italians, a Spaniard in my time—a South American I + have sent him—two from Boston, Massachusetts—and clever!—all + emulous to excel, none boasting. But, to myself; I was that mean fellow. I + did—I could let you know: before this young lady—she would + wither me with her scorn, Enough, I sneaked, I lied. I let the blame fall + on a schoolfellow and a housemaid. Oh! a small thing, but I coveted it—a + scarf. It reminded me of Rome. Enough, there at the bottom of that pit, + behold me. It was not discovered, but my schoolfellow was unpunished, the + housemaid remained in service; I thought, I thought, and I thought until I + could not look in my dear friend Matthew's face. He said to me one day: + “Have you nothing to tell me, Giulio?” as if to ask the road to right or + left. Out it all came. And no sermon, no! He set me the hardest task I + could have. That was a penance!—to go to his wife, and tell it all + to her. Then I did think it an easier thing to go and face death—and + death had been my nightmare. I went, she listened, she took my hand she + said: “You will never do this again, I know, Giulio.” She told me no + English girl would ever look on a man who was a coward and lied. From that + day I have made Truth my bride. And what the consequence? I know not fear! + I could laugh, knowing I was to lie down in my six-foot measure to-morrow. + If I have done my duty and look in the face of my dear Matthew and his + wife! Ah, those two! They are loved. They will be loved all over Europe. + He works for Europe and America—all civilized people—to be one + country. He is the comrade of his boys. Out of school hours, it is + Christian names all round—Matthew, Emile, Adolf, Emilio, Giulio, + Robert, Marcel, Franz, et caetera. Games or lessons, a boy can't help + learning with him. He makes happy fellows and brave soldiers of them + without drill. Sir, do I presume when I say I have your excuse for + addressing you because you are his countryman? I drive to the old school + in half an hour, and next week he and his dear wife and a good half of the + boys will be on the tramp over the Simplon, by Lago Maggiore, to my + uncle's house in Milan for a halt. I go to Matthew before I see my own + people.' + </p> + <p> + He swept another bow of apology, chiefly to Philippa, as representative of + the sex claiming homage. + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont had not greatly relished certain of the flowery phrases + employed by this young foreigner. 'Truth his bride,' was damnable: and if + a story had to be told, he liked it plain, without jerks and evolutions. + Many offences to our taste have to be overlooked in foreigners—Italians! + considered, before they were proved in fire, a people classed by nature as + operatic declaimers. Bobby had shown himself on the road out to Bern a + difficult boy, and stupefyingly ignorant. My lord had two or three ideas + working to cloudy combination in his head when he put a question, + referring to the management of the dormitories at the school. Whereupon + the young Italian introduced himself as Giulio Calliani, and proposed a + drive to inspect the old school, with its cricket and football fields, + lake for rowing and swimming, gymnastic fixtures, carpenter's shed, + bowling alley, and four European languages in the air by turns daily; and + the boys, too, all the boys rosy and jolly, according to the last report + received of them from his friend Matthew. Enthusiasm struck and tightened + the loose chord of scepticism in Lord Ormont; somewhat as if a dancing + beggar had entered a kennel-dog's yard, designing to fascinate the + faithful beast. It is a chord of one note, that is tightened to sound by + the violent summons to accept, which is a provocation to deny. At the same + time, the enthusiast's dance is rather funny; he is not an ordinary + beggar; to see him trip himself in his dance would be rather funnier. This + is to say, inspect the trumpeted school and retire politely. My lord knew + the Bern of frequent visits: the woman was needed beside him to inspire a + feeling for scenic mountains. Philippa's admiration of them was like a + new-pressed grape-juice after a draught of the ripe vintage. Moreover, + Bobby was difficult: the rejected of his English schools was a stiff + Ormont at lessons, a wheezy Benlew in the playground: exactly the reverse + of what should have been. A school of four languages in bracing air, if a + school with healthy dormitories, and a school of the trained instincts we + call gentlemanly, might suit Master Bobby for a trial. An eye on the boys + of the school would see in a minute what stuff they were made of. + Supposing this young Italianissimo with the English tongue to be tolerably + near the mark, with a deduction of two-thirds of the enthusiasm, Bobby + might stop at the school as long as his health held out, or the master + would keep him. Supposing half a dozen things and more, the meeting with + this Mr. Calliand was a lucky accident. But lucky accidents are + anticipated only by fools. + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont consented to visit the school. He handed his card and invited + his guest; he had a carriage in waiting for the day, he said; and obedient + to Lady Charlotte's injunctions, he withheld Philippa from the party. She + and her maid were to pass the five hours of his absence in efforts to keep + their monkey Bobby out of the well of the solicitious bears. + </p> + <p> + My lord left his carriage at the inn of the village lying below the + school-house on a green height. The young enthusiast was dancing him into + the condition of livid taciturnity, which could, if it would, flash out + pungent epigrams of the actual world at Operatic recitative. + </p> + <p> + 'There's the old school-clock! Just in time for the half-hour before + dinner,' said Calliani, chattering two hundred to the minute, of the + habits and usages of the school, and how all had meals together, the + master, his wife, the teachers, the boys. 'And she—as for her!' + Calliani kissed finger up to the furthest skies: into which a + self-respecting sober Northener of the Isles could imagine himself to kick + enthusiastic gesticulators, if it were polite to do so. + </p> + <p> + The school-house faced the master's dwelling house, and these, with a + block of building, formed a three-sided enclosure, like barracks! Forth + from the school-house door burst a dozen shouting lads, as wasps from the + hole of their nest from a charge of powder. Out they poured whizzing; and + the frog he leaped, and pussy ran and doubled before the hounds, and + hockey-sticks waved, and away went a ball. Cracks at the ball anyhow, was + the game for the twenty-five minutes breather before dinner. + </p> + <p> + 'French day!' said Calliani, hearing their cries. Then he bellowed + 'Matthew!—Giulio!' + </p> + <p> + A lusty inversion of the order of the names and an Oberland jodel returned + his hail. The school retreating caught up the Alpine cry in the distance. + Here were lungs! Here were sprites! + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont bethought him of the name of the master. 'Mr. Matthew, I think + you said, sir,' he was observing to Calliani, as the master came nearer; + and Calliani replied: 'His Christian name. But if the boys are naughty + boys, it is not the privilege. Mr. Weyburn.' + </p> + <p> + There was not any necessity to pronounce that name Calliani spoke it on + the rush to his friend. + </p> + <p> + Lord Ormont and Weyburn advanced the steps to the meeting. Neither of them + flinched in eye or limb. + </p> + <p> + At a corridor window of the dwelling-house a lady stood. Her colour was + the last of a summer day over western seas; her thought: 'It has come!' + Her mind was in her sight; her other powers were frozen. + </p> + <p> + The two men conversed. There was no gesture. + </p> + <p> + This is one of the lightning moments of life for the woman, at the meeting + of the two men between whom her person has been in dispute, may still be; + her soul being with one. And that one, dearer than the blood of her body, + imperilled by her. + </p> + <p> + She could ask why she exists, if a question were in her grasp. She would + ask for the meaning of the gift of beauty to the woman, making her + desireable to those two men, making her a cause of strife, a thing of + doom. An incessant clamour dinned about her: 'It has come!' + </p> + <p> + The two men walked conversing into the school-house. She was unconscious + of the seeing of a third, though she saw and at the back of her mind + believed she knew a friend in him. The two disappeared. She was insensible + stone, except for the bell-clang: 'It has come'; until they were in view + again, still conversing: and the first of her thought to stir from + petrifaction was: 'Life holds no secret.' + </p> + <p> + She tried, in shame of the inanimate creature she had become, to force + herself to think: and had, for a chastising result, a series of + geometrical figures shooting across her brain, mystically expressive of + the situation, not communicably. The most vivid and persistent was a + triangle. Interpret who may. The one beheld the two pass from view again, + still conversing. + </p> + <p> + They are on the gravel; they bow; they separate. He of the grey head + poised high has gone. + </p> + <p> + Her arm was pressed by a hand. Weyburn longed to enfold her, and she + desired it, and her soul praised him for refraining. Both had that + delicacy. + </p> + <p> + 'You have seen, my darling,' Weyburn said. 'It has come, and we take our + chance. He spoke not one word, beyond the affairs of the school. He has a + grandnephew in want of a school: visited the dormitories, refectory, and + sheds: tasted the well-water, addressed me as Mr. Matthew. He had it from + Giulio. Came to look at the school of Giulio's “friend Matthew,”:—you + hear him. Giulio little imagines!—Well, dear love, we stand with a + squad in front, and wait the word. It mayn't be spoken. We have counted + long before that something like it was bound to happen. And you are brave. + Ruin's an empty word for us two.' + </p> + <p> + 'Yes, dear, it is: we will pay what is asked of us,' Aminta said. 'It will + be heavy, if the school... and I love our boys. I am fit to be the + school-housekeeper; for nothing else.' + </p> + <p> + 'I will go to the boys' parents. At the worst, we can march into new + territory. Emile will stick to us. Adolf, too. The fresh flock will come.' + </p> + <p> + Aminta cried in the voice of tears: 'I love the old so!' + </p> + <p> + 'The likelihood is, we shall hear nothing further.' + </p> + <p> + 'You had to bear the shock, Matthew.' + </p> + <p> + 'Whatever I bore, and you saw, you shared.' + </p> + <p> + 'Yes,' she said. + </p> + <p> + 'Mais, n'oublions pas que c'est aujourd'hui jour francais; si, madame, + vous avez assez d'appetit pour diner avec nous? + </p> + <p> + 'Je suis, comme toujours, aux ordres de Monsieur.' She was among the + bravest of women. She had a full ounce of lead in her breast when she sat + with the boys at their midday meal, showing them her familiar pleasant + face. + </p> + <p> + Shortly after the hour of the evening meal, a messenger from Bern + delivered a letter addressed to the Headmaster. Weyburn and Aminta were + strolling to the playground, thinking in common, as they usually did. They + read the letter together. These were the lines: + </p> + <p> + 'Lord Ormont desires to repeat his sense of obligation to Mr. Matthew for + the inspection of the school under his charge, and will be thankful to Mr. + Calliani, if that gentleman will do him the favour to call at his hotel at + Bern to-morrow, at as early an hour as is convenient to him, for the + purpose of making arrangements, agreeable to the Head-master's rules, for + receiving his grandnephew Robert Benlew as a pupil at the school.' + </p> + <p> + The two raised eyes on one another, pained in their deep joy by the + religion of the restraint upon their hearts, to keep down the passion to + embrace. + </p> + <p> + 'I thank heaven we know him to be one of the true noble men,' said Aminta, + now breathing, and thanking Lord Ormont for the free breath she drew. + </p> + <p> + Weyburn spoke of an idea he had gathered from the earl's manner. But he + had not imagined the proud lord's great-heartedness would go so far as to + trust him with the guardianship of the boy. That moved, and that humbled + him, though it was far from humiliating. + </p> + <p> + Six months later, the brief communication arrived from Lady Charlotte + </p> + <p> + 'She is a widow. + </p> + <p> + 'Unlikely you will hear from me again. Death is always next door, you said + once. I look on the back of life. + </p> + <p> + 'Tell Bobby, capital for him to write he has no longing for home holidays. + If any one can make a man of him, you will. That I know. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 'CHARLOTTE EGLETT.' +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS + + A bird that won't roast or boil or stew + A woman, and would therefore listen to nonsense + A free-thinker startles him as a kind of demon + A female free-thinker is one of Satan's concubines + Acting is not of the high class which conceals the art + Affected misapprehensions + Ah! we fall into their fictions + All that Matey and Browny were forbidden to write they looked + And not be beaten by an acknowledged defeat + Any excess pushes to craziness + As well ask (women) how a battle-field concerns them! + Bad luck's not repeated every day Keep heart for the good + Bad laws are best broken + Began the game of Pull + Being in heart and mind the brother to the sister with women + Botched mendings will only make them worse + Bounds of his intelligence closed their four walls + Boys who can appreciate brave deeds are capable of doing them + Boys, of course—but men, too! + But had sunk to climb on a firmer footing + By nature incapable of asking pardon + Cajoled like a twenty-year-old yahoo at college + Careful not to smell of his office + Challenged him to lead up to her desired stormy scene + Chose to conceive that he thought abstractedly + Consciousness of some guilt when vowing itself innocent + Consign discussion to silence with the cynical closure + Convictions we store—wherewith to shape our destinies + Convincing themselves that they impersonate sagacity + Could not understand enthusiasm for the schoolmaster's career + Could we—we might be friends + Curious thing would be if curious things should fail to happen + Death is only the other side of the ditch + Death is always next door + Desire of it destroyed it + Detestable feminine storms enveloping men weak enough + Didn't say a word No use in talking about feelings + Distaste for all exercise once pleasurable + Divided lovers in presence + Enthusiasm struck and tightened the loose chord of scepticism + Enthusiast, when not lyrical, is perilously near to boring + Exult in imagination of an escape up to the moment of capture + Few men can forbear to tell a spicy story of their friends + Greatest of men; who have to learn from the loss of the woman + Having contracted the fatal habit of irony + He had to shake up wrath over his grievances + He had gone, and the day lived again for both of them + He gave a slight sign of restiveness, and was allowed to go + He loathed a skulker + He took small account of the operations of the feelings + He began ambitiously—It's the way at the beginning + Her vehement fighting against facts + Her duel with Time + His aim to win the woman acknowledged no obstacle in the means + His restored sense of possession + Hopeless task of defending a woman from a woman + How to compromise the matter for the sake of peace? + I have all the luxuries—enough to loathe them + I hate old age It changes you so + I could be in love with her cruelty, if only I had her near me + I look on the back of life + I want no more, except to be taught to work + I married a cook She expects a big appetite + I'm for a rational Deity + If the world is hostile we are not to blame it + Ignorance roaring behind a mask of sarcasm + Increase of dissatisfaction with the more she got + Lawyers hold the keys of the great world + Learn—principally not to be afraid of ideas + Loathing of artifice to raise emotion + Look well behind + Lucky accidents are anticipated only by fools + Magnify an offence in the ratio of our vanity + Man who helps me to read the world and men as they are + Meant to vanquish her with the dominating patience + Men bore the blame, though the women were rightly punished + Men who believe that there is a virtue in imprecations + Naked original ideas, are acceptable at no time + Napoleon's treatment of women is excellent example + Necessity's offspring + Never nurse an injury, great or small + Nevertheless, inclinations are an infidelity + No love can be without jealousy + Not daring risk of office by offending the taxpayer + Not the indignant and the frozen, but the genially indifferent + Not men of brains, but the men of aptitudes + Old age is a prison wall between us and young people + One has to feel strong in a delicate position + One night, and her character's gone + One is a fish to her hook; another a moth to her light + Orderliness, from which men are privately exempt + Our love and labour are constantly on trial + Passion added to a bowl of reason makes a sophist's mess + People were virtuous in past days: they counted their sinners + Perhaps inspire him, if he would let her breathe + Person in another world beyond this world of blood + Policy seems to petrify their minds + Practical for having an addiction to the palpable + Professional Puritans + Published Memoirs indicate the end of a man's activity + Rage of a conceited schemer tricked + Regularity of the grin of dentistry + Respect one another's affectations + Screams of an uninjured lady + Selfishness and icy inaccessibility to emotion + She had to be the hypocrite or else—leap + She had a thirsting mind + Silence was doing the work of a scourge + Smile she had in reserve for serviceable persons + Snatch her from a possessor who forfeited by undervaluing her + So says the minute Years are before you + That pit of one of their dead silences + The despot is alert at every issue, to every chance + The spending, never harvesting, world + The shots hit us behind you + The terrible aggregate social woman + The next ten minutes will decide our destinies + The woman side of him + The good life gone lives on in the mind + The beat of a heart with a dread like a shot in it + There is no history of events below the surface + There are women who go through life not knowing love + They want you to show them what they 'd like the world to be + Things are not equal + Things were lumpish and gloomy that day of the week + This female talk of the eternities + Titles showered on the women who take free breath of air + To males, all ideas are female until they are made facts + To time and a wife it is no disgrace for a man to bend + To know how to take a licking, that wins in the end + Uncommon unprogressiveness + Venus of nature was melting into a Venus of art + Violent summons to accept, which is a provocation to deny + We cannot, men or woman, control the heart in sleep at night + We shall want a war to teach the country the value of courage + We don't go together into a garden of roses + When duelling flourished on our land, frail women powerful + Where heart weds mind, or nature joins intellect + Who cries, Come on, and prays his gods you won't + Why he enjoyed the privilege of seeing, and was not beside her + With what little wisdom the world is governed + Women are happier enslaved + World against us It will not keep us from trying to serve + Years are the teachers of the great rocky natures + You'll have to guess at half of everything he tells you + You're going to be men, meaning something better than women +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lord Ormont and his Aminta, Complete +by George Meredith + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LORD ORMONT AND HIS AMINTA, *** + +***** This file should be named 4482-h.htm or 4482-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/8/4482/ + +Produced by David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Lord Ormont and his Aminta, Complete + +Author: George Meredith + +Last Updated: March 7, 2009 +Release Date: October 13, 2006 [EBook #4482] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LORD ORMONT AND HIS AMINTA, *** + + + +Produced by Pat Castevans and David Widger + + + + + +LORD ORMONT AND HIS AMINTA, COMPLETE + + +By George Meredith + + + + +CONTENTS. + + BOOK 1. + I. LOVE AT A SCHOOL + II. LADY CHARLOTTE + III. THE TUTOR + IV. RECOGNITION + V. IN WHICH THE SHADES OF BROWNY AND MATEY ADVANCE AND RETIRE + + BOOK 2. + VI. IN A MOOD OF LANGUOR + VII. EXHIBITS EFFECTS OF A PRATTLER'S DOSES + VIII. MRS. LAWRENCE FINCHLEY + IX. A FLASH OF THE BRUISED WARRIOR + X. A SHORT PASSAGE IN THE GAME PLAYED BY TWO + XI. THE SECRETARY TAKEN AS AN ANTIDOTE + + BOOK 3. + XII. MORE OF CUPER'S BOYS + XIII. WAR AT OLMER + XIV. OLD LOVERS NEW FRIENDS + XV. SHOWING A SECRET FISHED WITHOUT ANGLING + XVI. ALONG TWO ROADS TO STEIGNTON + + BOOK 4. + XVII. LADY CHARLOTTE'S TRIUMPH + XVIII. A SCENE ON THE ROAD BACK + XIX. THE PURSUERS + XX. AT THE SIGN OF THE JOLLY CRICKETERS + XXI. UNDER-CURRENTS IN THE MINDS OF LADY CHARLOTTE AND LORD ORMONT + XXII. TREATS OF THE FIRST DAY OF THE CONTENTION OF BROTHER AND SISTER + XXIII. THE ORMONT JEWELS + + BOOK 5. + XXIV. LOVERS MATED + XXXV. PREPARATIONS FOR A RESOLVE + XXVI. VISITS OF FAREWELL + XXVII. A MARINE DUET + XXVIII. THE PLIGHTING + XXIX. AMINTA TO HER LORD + XXX. CONCLUSION + + + + +CHAPTER I. LOVE AT A SCHOOL + +A procession of schoolboys having to meet a procession of schoolgirls on +the Sunday's dead march, called a walk, round the park, could hardly go +by without dropping to a hum in its chatter, and the shot of incurious +half-eyes the petticoated creatures--all so much of a swarm unless you +stare at them like lanterns. The boys cast glance because it relieved +their heaviness; things were lumpish and gloomy that day of the week. +The girls, who sped their peep of inquisition before the moment of +transit, let it be seen that they had minds occupied with thoughts of +their own. + +Our gallant fellows forgot the intrusion of the foreign as soon as it +had passed. A sarcastic discharge was jerked by chance at the usher and +the governess--at the old game, it seemed; or why did they keep +steering columns to meet? There was no fun in meeting; it would never be +happening every other Sunday, and oftener, by sheer toss-penny accident. +They were moved like pieces for the pleasure of these two. + +Sometimes the meeting occurred twice during the stupid march-out, when +it became so nearly vexatious to boys almost biliously oppressed by the +tedium of a day merely allowing them to shove the legs along, ironically +naming it animal excise, that some among them pronounced the sham +variation of monotony to be a bothering nuisance if it was going to +happen every Sunday, though Sunday required diversions. They hated +the absurdity in this meeting and meeting; for they were obliged to +anticipate it, as a part of their ignominious weekly performance; and +they could not avoid reflecting on it, as a thing done over again: it +had them in front and in rear; and it was a kind of broadside mirror, +flashing at them the exact opposite of themselves in an identically +similar situation, that forced a resemblance. + +Touching the old game, Cuper's fold was a healthy school, owing to the +good lead of the head boy, Matey Weyburn, a lad with a heart for games +to bring renown, and no thought about girls. His emulation, the fellows +fancied, was for getting the school into a journal of the Sports. He +used to read one sent him by a sporting officer of his name, and talk +enviously of public schools, printed whatever they did--a privilege and +dignity of which, they had unrivalled enjoyment in the past, days, when +wealth was more jealously exclusive; and he was always prompting for +challenges and saving up to pay expenses; and the fellows were to laugh +at kicks and learn the art of self-defence--train to rejoice in whipcord +muscles. The son of a tradesman, if a boy fell under the imputation, was +worthy of honour with him, let the fellow but show grip and toughness. +He loathed a skulker, and his face was known for any boy who would +own to fatigue or confess himself beaten. "Go to bed," was one of his +terrible stings. Matey was good at lessons, too--liked them; liked Latin +and Greek; would help a poor stumbler. + +Where he did such good work was in sharpening the fellows to excel. +He kept them to the grindstone, so that they had no time for rusty +brooding; and it was fit done by exhortations off a pedestal, like St. +Paul at the Athenians, it breathed out of him every day of the week. He +carried a light for followers. Whatever he demanded of them, he himself +did it easily. He would say to boys, "You're going to be men," meaning +something better than women. There was a notion that Matey despised +girls. Consequently, never much esteemed, they were in disfavour. The +old game was mentioned only because of a tradition of an usher and +governess leering sick eyes until they slunk away round a corner and +married, and set up a school for themselves--an emasculate ending. +Comment on it came of a design to show that the whole game had been +examined dismissed as uninteresting and profitless. + +One of the boys alluded in Matey's presence to their general view upon +the part played by womankind on the stage, confident of a backing; and +he had it, in a way: their noble chief whisked the subject, as not worth +a discussion; but he turned to a younger chap, who said he detested +girls, and asked him how about a sister at home; and the youngster +coloured, and Matey took him and spun him round, with a friendly tap on +the shoulder. + +Odd remarks at intervals caused it to be suspected that he had ideas +concerning girls. They were high as his head above the school; and there +they were left, with Algebra and Homer, for they were not of a sort to +inflame; until the boys noticed how he gave up speaking, and fell to +hard looking, though she was dark enough to get herself named Browny. +In the absence of a fair girl of equal height to set beside her, Browny +shone. + +She had a nice mouth, ready for a smile at the corners, or so it was +before Matey let her see that she was his mark. Now she kept her mouth +asleep and her eyes half down, up to the moment of her nearing to pass, +when the girl opened on him, as if lifting her eyelids from sleep to the +window, a full side--look, like a throb, and no disguise--no slyness +or boldness either, not a bit of languishing. You might think her heart +came quietly out. + +The look was like the fall of light on the hills from the first +of morning. It lasted half a minute, and left a ruffle for a good +half-hour. Even the younger fellows, without knowing what affected +them, were moved by the new picture of a girl, as if it had been +a frontispiece of a romantic story some day to be read. She looked +compelled to look, but consenting and unashamed; at home in submission; +just the look that wins observant boys, shrewd as dogs to read by signs, +if they are interested in the persons. They read Browny's meaning: that +Matey had only to come and snatch her; he was her master, and she was a +brave girl, ready to go all over the world with him; had taken to him +as he to her, shot for shot. Her taking to the pick of the school was a +capital proof that she was of the right sort. To be sure, she could not +much help herself. + +Some of the boys regretted her not being fair. But, as they felt, and +sought to explain, in the manner of the wag of a tail, with elbows and +eyebrows to one another's understanding, fair girls could never have let +fly such look; fair girls are softer, woollier, and when they mean to +look serious, overdo it by craping solemn; or they pinafore a jigging +eagerness, or hoist propriety on a chubby flaxen grin; or else they +dart an eye, or they mince and prim and pout, and are sigh-away and +dying-ducky, given to girls' tricks. Browny, after all, was the girl for +Matey. + +She won a victory right away and out of hand, on behalf of her +cloud-and-moon sisters, as against the sunny-meadowy; for slanting +intermediates are not espied of boys in anything: conquered by Browny; +they went over to her colour, equal to arguing, that Venus at her +mightiest must have been dark, or she would not have stood a comparison +with the forest Goddess of the Crescent, swanning it through a lake--on +the leap for run of the chase--watching the dart, with her humming +bow at breast. The fair are simple sugary thing's, prone to fat, +like broad-sops in milk; but the others are milky nuts, good to bite, +Lacedaemonian virgins, hard to beat, putting us on our mettle; and they +are for heroes, and they can be brave. So these boys felt, conquered +by Browny. A sneaking native taste for the forsaken side, known to +renegades, hauled at them if her image waned during the week; and it +waned a little, but Sunday restored and stamped it. + +By a sudden turn the whole upper-school had fallen to thinking of girls, +and the meeting on the Sunday was a prospect. One of the day-boarders +had a sister in the seminary of Miss Vincent. He was plied to obtain +information concerning Browny's name and her parents. He had it pat to +hand in answer. No parents came to see her; an aunt came now and then. +Her aunt's name was not wanted. Browny's name was Aminta Farrell. + +Farrell might pass; Aminta was debated. This female Christian name had +a foreign twang; it gave dissatisfaction. Boy after boy had a try at it, +with the same effect: you could not speak the name without a pursing +of the month and a puckering of the nose, beastly to see, as one little +fellow reminded them on a day when Matey was in more than common favour, +topping a pitch of rapture, for clean bowling, first ball, middle stump +on the kick, the best bat of the other eleven in a match; and, says this +youngster, drawling, soon after the cheers and claps had subsided to +business, "Aminta." + +He made it funny by saying it as if to himself and the ground, in a +subdued way, while he swung his leg on a half-circle, like a skater, +hands in pockets. He was a sly young rascal, innocently precocious +enough, and he meant no disrespect either to Browny or to Matey; but he +had to run for it, his delivery of the name being so like what was in +the breasts of the senior fellows, as to the inferiority of any Aminta +to old Matey, that he set them laughing; and Browny was on the field, to +reprove them, left of the tea-booth, with her school-mates, part of her +head under a scarlet parasol. + +A girl with such a name as Aminta might not be exactly up to the +standard of old Matey, still, if he thought her so and she had spirit, +the school was bound to subscribe; and that look of hers warranted her +for taking her share in the story, like the brigand's wife loading +gnus for him while he knocks over the foremost carabineer on the +mountain-ledge below, who drops on his back with a hellish expression. + +Browny was then clearly seen all round, instead of only front-face, as +on the Sunday in the park, when fellows could not spy backward after +passing. The pleasure they had in seeing her all round involved no fresh +stores of observation, for none could tell how she tied her back-hair, +which was the question put to them by a cynic of a boy, said to be +queasy with excess of sisters. They could tell that she was tall for a +girl, or tallish--not a maypole. She drank a cup of tea, and ate a slice +of bread-and-butter; no cake. + +She appeared undisturbed when Matey, wearing his holiday white ducks, +and all aglow, entered the booth. She was not expected to faint, only +she stood for the foreign Aminta more than for their familiar Browny in +his presence. Not a sign of the look which had fired the school did she +throw at him. Change the colour and you might compare her to a lobster +fixed on end, with a chin and no eyes. Matey talked to Miss Vincent up +to the instant of his running to bat. She would have liked to guess how +he knew she had a brother on the medical staff of one of the regiments +in India: she asked him twice, and his cheeks were redder than cricket +in the sun. He said he read all the reports from India, and asked her +whether she did not admire Lord Ormont, our general of cavalry, whose +charge at the head of fifteen hundred horse in the last great battle +shattered the enemy's right wing, and gave us the victory--rolled him up +and stretched him out like a carpet for dusting. Miss Vincent exclaimed +that it was really strange, now, he should speak of Lord Ormont, for she +had been speaking of him herself in morning to one of her young ladies, +whose mind was bent on his heroic deeds. Matey turned his face to the +group of young ladies, quite pleased that one of them loved his hero; +and he met a smile here and there--not from Miss Aminta Farrell. She was +a complete disappointment to the boys that day. "Aminta" was mouthed at +any allusions to her. + +So, she not being a match for Matey, they let her drop. The flush that +had swept across the school withered to a dry recollection, except when +on one of their Sunday afternoons she fanned the desert. Lord Ormont +became the subject of inquiry and conversation; and for his own +sake--not altogether to gratify Matey. The Saturday autumn evening's +walk home, after the race out to tea at a distant village, too late +in the year for cricket, too early for regular football, suited Matey, +going at long strides, for the story of his hero's adventures; and it +was nicer than talk about girls, and puzzling. Here lay a clear field; +for he had the right to speak of a cavalry officer: his father died +of wounds in the service, and Matey naturally intended to join the +Dragoons; if he could get enough money to pay for mess, he said, +laughing. Lord Ormont was his pattern of a warrior. We had in him a +lord who cast off luxury to live like a Spartan when under arms, with +a passion to serve his country and sustain the glory of our military +annals. He revived respect for the noble class in the hearts of +Englishmen. He was as good an authority on horseflesh as any Englishman +alive; the best for the management of cavalry: there never was a better +cavalry leader. The boys had come to know that Browny admired Lord +Ormont, so they saw a double reason why Matey should; and walking home +at his grand swing in the October dusk, their school hero drew their +national hero closer to them. + +Every fellow present was dead against the usher, Mr. Shalders, when he +took advantage of a pause to strike in with his "Murat!" + +He harped on Murat whenever he had a chance. Now he did it for the +purpose of casting eclipse upon Major-General Lord Ormont, the son and +grandson of English earls; for he was an earl by his title, and Murat +was the son of an innkeeper. Shalders had to admit that Murat might +have served in the stables when a boy. Honour to Murat, of course, +for climbing the peaks! Shalders, too, might interest him in military +affairs and Murat; he did no harm, and could be amusing. It rather added +to his amount of dignity. It was rather absurd, at the same time, for an +English usher to be spouting and glowing about a French general, who had +been a stable-boy and became a king, with his Murat this, Murat that, +and hurrah Murat in red and white and green uniform, tunic and breeches, +and a chimney-afire of feathers; and how the giant he was charged at the +head of ten thousand horse, all going like a cataract under a rainbow +over the rocks, right into the middle of the enemy and through; and he a +spark ahead, and the enemy streaming on all sides flat away, as you see +puffed smoke and flame of a bonfire. That was fun to set boys jigging. +No wonder how in Russia the Cossacks feared him, and scampered from the +shadow of his plumes--were clouds flying off his breath! That was a +fine warm picture for the boys on late autumn or early winter evenings, +Shalders warming his back at the grate, describing bivouacs in the snow. +They liked well enough to hear him when he was not opposing Matey and +Lord Ormont. He perked on his toes, and fetched his hand from behind him +to flourish it when his Murat came out. The speaking of his name clapped +him on horseback--the only horseback he ever knew. He was as fond of +giving out the name Murat as you see in old engravings of tobacco-shops +men enjoying the emission of their whiff of smoke. + +Matey was not inclined to class Lord Ormont alongside Murat, a +first-rate horseman and an eagle-eye, as Shalders rightly said; and +Matey agreed that forty thousand cavalry under your orders is a toss +above fifteen hundred; but the claim for a Frenchman of a superlative +merit to swallow and make nothing of the mention of our best cavalry +generals irritated him to call Murat a mountebank. + +Shalders retorted, that Lord Ormont was a reprobate. + +Matey hoped he would some day write us an essay on the morale of +illustrious generals of cavalry; and Shalders told him he did not +advance his case by talking nonsense. + +Each then repeated to the boys a famous exploit of his hero. Their +verdict was favourable to Lord Ormont. Our English General learnt riding +before he was ten years old, on the Pampas, where you ride all day, and +cook your steak for your dinner between your seat and your saddle. He +rode with his father and his uncle, Muncastle, the famous traveller, +into Paraguay. He saw fighting before he was twelve. Before he was +twenty he was learning outpost duty in the Austrian frontier cavalry. He +served in the Peninsula, served in Canada, served in India, volunteered +for any chance of distinction. No need to say much of his mastering the +picked Indian swordsmen in single combat: he knew their trick, and +was quick to save his reins when they made a dash threatening the +headstroke--about the same as disabling sails in old naval engagements. + +That was the part for the officer; we are speaking of the General. For +that matter, he had as keen an eye for the field and the moment for his +arm to strike as any Murat. One world have liked to see Murat matched +against the sabre of a wily Rajpoot! As to campaigns and strategy, Lord +Ormont's head was a map. What of Murat and Lord Ormont horse to horse +and sword to sword? Come, imagine that, if you are for comparisons. And +if Lord Ormont never headed a lot of thousands, it does not prove he was +unable. Lord Ormont was as big as Murat. More, he was a Christian to his +horses. How about Murat in that respect? Lord Ormont cared for his men: +did Murat so particularly much? And he was as cunning fronting odds, +and a thunderbolt at the charge. Why speak of him in the past? He is an +English lord, a lord by birth, and he is alive; things may be expected +of him to-morrow or next day. + +Shalders here cut Matey short by meanly objecting to that. + +"Men are mortal," he said, with a lot of pretended stuff, deploring +our human condition in the elegy strain; and he fell to reckoning the +English hero's age--as that he, Lord Ormont, had been a name in the +world for the last twenty-five years or more. The noble lord could be no +chicken. We are justified in calculating, by the course of nature, that +his term of activity is approaching, or has approached, or, in fact, has +drawn to its close. + +"If your estimate, sir, approaches to correctness," rejoined +Matey--tellingly, his comrades thought. + +"Sixty, as you may learn some day, is a serious age, Matthew Weyburn." + +Matey said he should be happy to reach it with half the honours Lord +Ormont had won. + +"Excepting the duels," Shalders had the impudence to say. + +"If the cause is a good one!" cried Matey. + +"The cause, or Lord Ormont has been maligned, was reprehensible in the +extremest degree." Shalders cockhorsed on his heels to his toes and back +with a bang. + +"What was the cause, if you please, sir?" a boy, probably naughty, +inquired; and as Shalders did not vouchsafe a reply, the bigger boys +knew. + +They revelled in the devilish halo of skirts on the whirl encircling +Lord Ormont's laurelled head. + +That was a spark in their blood struck from a dislike of the tone +assumed by Mr. Shalders to sustain his argument; with his "men are +mortal," and talk of a true living champion as "no chicken," and the +wordy drawl over "justification for calculating the approach of a close +to a term of activity"--in the case of a proved hero! + +Guardians of boys should make sure that the boys are on their side +before they raise the standard of virtue. Nor ought they to summon +morality for support of a polemic. Matey Weyburn's object of worship +rode superior to a morality puffing its phrasy trumpet. And, somehow, +the sacrifice of an enormous number of women to Lord Ormont's glory +seemed natural; the very thing that should be, in the case of a +first-rate military hero and commander--Scipio notwithstanding. It +brightens his flame, and it is agreeable to them. That is how they come +to distinction: they have no other chance; they are only women; they +are mad to be singed, and they rush pelf-mall, all for the honour of the +candle. + +Shortly after this discussion Matey was heard informing some of the +bigger fellows he could tell them positively that Lord Ormont's age was +under fifty-four--the prime of manhood, and a jolly long way off death! +The greater credit to him, therefore, if he had been a name in the world +for anything like the period Shalders insinuated, "to get himself out of +a sad quandary." Matey sounded the queer word so as to fix it sticking +to the usher, calling him Mr. Peter Bell Shalders, at which the boys +roared, and there was a question or two about names, which belonged to +verses, for people caring to read poems. + +To the joy of the school he displayed a greater knowledge of Murat than +Shalders had: named the different places in Europe where Lord Ormont and +Murat were both springing to the saddle at the same time--one a Marshal, +the other a lieutenant; one a king, to be off his throne any day, the +other a born English nobleman, seated firm as fate. And he accused Murat +of carelessness of his horses, ingratitude to his benefactor, circussy +style. Shalders went so far as to defend Murat for attending to the +affairs of his kingdom, instead of galloping over hedges and ditches +to swell Napoleon's ranks in distress. Matey listened to him there; he +became grave; he nodded like a man saying, "I suppose we must examine +it in earnest." The school was damped to hear him calling it a nice +question. Still, he said he thought he should have gone; and that +settled it. + +The boys inclined to speak contemptuously of Shalders. Matey world +not let them; he contrasted Shalders with the other ushers, who had +no enthusiasms. He said enthusiasms were salt to a man; and he liked +Shalders for spelling at his battles and thinking he understood them, +and admiring Murat, and leading Virgil and parts of Lucan for his +recreation. He said he liked the French because they could be splendidly +enthusiastic. He almost lost his English flavour when he spoke in +downright approval of a small French fellow, coming from Orthez, near +the Pyrenees, for senselessly dashing and kicking at a couple of English +who jeered to hear Orthez named--a place trampled under Wellington's +heels, on his march across conquered France. The foreign little cockerel +was a clever lad, learning English fast, and anxious to show he had got +hold of the English trick of not knowing when he was beaten. His French +vanity insisted on his engaging the two, though one of them stood aside, +and the other let him drive his nose all the compass round at a poker +fist. What was worse, Matey examined these two, in the interests of fair +play, as if he doubted. + +Little Emile Grenat set matters right with his boast to vindicate his +country against double the number, and Matey praised him, though he knew +Emile had been floored without effort by the extension of a single fist. +He would not hear the French abused; he said they were chivalrous, they +were fine fellows, topping the world in some things; his father had +fought them and learnt to respect them. Perhaps his father had learnt to +respect Jews, for there was a boy named Abner, he protected, who smelt +Jewish; he said they ran us Gentiles hard, and carried big guns. + +Only a reputation like Matey's could have kept his leadership from +a challenge. Joseph Masner, formerly a rival, went about hinting and +shrugging; all to no purpose, you find boys born to be chiefs. On the +day of the snow-fight Matey won the toss, and chose J. Masner first +pick; and Masner, aged seventeen and some months, big as a navvy, +lumbered across to him and took his directions, proud to stand in the +front centre, at the head of the attack, and bear the brunt--just what +he was fit for, Matey gave no offence by choosing, half-way down the +list, his little French friend, whom he stationed beside himself, rather +off his battle-front, as at point at cricket, not quite so far removed. +Two boys at his heels piled ammunition. The sides met midway of a marshy +ground, where a couple of flat and shelving banks, formed for a broad +new road, good for ten abreast--counting a step of the slopes--ran +transverse; and the order of the game was to clear the bank and drive +the enemy on to the frozen ditch-water. Miss Vincent heard in the +morning from the sister of little Collett of the great engagement +coming off; she was moved by curiosity, and so the young ladies of +her establishment beheld the young gentlemen of Mr. Cuper's in furious +division, and Matey's sore aim and hard fling, equal to a slinger's, +relieving J. Masner of a foremost assailant with a spanker on the +nob. They may have fancied him clever for selecting a position rather +comfortable, as things went, until they had sight of him with his little +French ally and two others, ammunition boys to rear, descending one +bank and scaling another right into the flank of the enemy, when his +old tower of a Masner was being heavily pressed by numbers. Then came a +fight hand to hand, but the enemy stood in a clamp; not to split like +a nut between crackers, they gave way and rolled, backing in lumps from +bank to ditch. + +The battle was over before the young ladies knew. They wondered to see +Matey shuffling on his coat and hopping along at easy bounds to pay his +respects to Miss Vincent, near whom was Browny; and this time he and +Browny talked together. He then introduced little Emile to her. She +spoke of Napoleon at Brienne, and complimented Matey. He said he was +cavalry, not artillery, that day. They talked to hear one another's +voices. By constantly appealing to Miss Vincent he made their +conversation together seem as under her conduct; and she took a slide on +some French phrases with little Emile. Her young ladies looked shrinking +and envious to see the fellows wet to the skin, laughing, wrestling, +linking arms; and some, who were clown-faced with a wipe of scarlet, +getting friends to rub their cheeks with snow, all of them happy as +larks in air, a big tea steaming for them at the school. Those girls +had a leap and a fail of the heart, glad to hug themselves in their dry +clothes, and not so warm as the dripping boys were, nor so madly fond of +their dress-circle seats to look on at a play they were not allowed +even to desire to share. They looked on at blows given and taken in +good temper, hardship sharpening jollity. The thought of the difference +between themselves and the boys must have been something like the tight +band--call it corset--over the chest, trying to lift and stretch for +draughts of air. But Browny's feeling naturally was, that all this +advantage for the boys came of Matey Weyburn's lead. + +Miss Vincent with her young ladies walked off in couples, orderly +chicks, the usual Sunday march of their every day. The school was +coolish to them; one of the fellows hummed bars of some hymn tune, +rather faster than church. And next day there was a murmur of letters +passing between Matey and Browny regularly, little Collett for postman. +Anybody might have guessed it, but the report spread a feeling that +girls are not the entirely artificial beings or flat targets we suppose. +The school began to brood, like air deadening on oven-heat. Winter +is hen-mother to the idea of love in schools, if the idea has fairly +entered. Various girls of different colours were selected by boys +for animated correspondence, that never existed and was vigorously +prosecuted, with efforts to repress contempt of them in courtship for +their affections. They found their part of it by no means difficult when +they imagined the lines without the words, or, better still, the letter +without the lines. A holy satisfaction belonged to the sealed thing; the +breaking of the seal and inspection of the contents imposed perplexity +on that sentiment. They thought of certain possible sentences Matey +and Browny would exchange; but the plain, conceivable, almost visible, +outside of the letter had a stronger spell for them than the visionary +inside. This fancied contemplation of the love-letter was reversed +in them at once by the startling news of Miss Vincent's discovery +and seizure of the sealed thing, and her examination of the burden +it contained. Then their thirst was for drama--to see, to drink every +wonderful syllable those lovers had written. + +Miss Vincent's hand was upon one of Matey's letters. She had come across +the sister of little Collett, Selina her name was, carrying it. She saw +nothing of the others. Aminta was not the girl to let her. Nor did Mr. +Cuper dare demand from Matey a sight or restitution of the young lady's +half of the correspondence. He preached heavily at Matey; deplored that +the boy he most trusted, etc.--the school could have repeated it without +hearing. We know the master's lecture in tones--it sings up to sing +down, and touches nobody. As soon as he dropped to natural talk, and +spoke of his responsibility and Miss Vincent's, Matey gave the word of +a man of honour that he would not seek to communicate farther with Miss +Farrell at the school. + +Now there was a regular thunder-hash among the boys on the rare +occasions when they met the girls. All that Matey and Browny were +forbidden to write they looked--much like what it had been before the +discovery; and they dragged the boys back from promised instant events. +It was, nevertheless, a heaving picture, like the sea in the background +of a marine piece at the theatre, which rouses anticipations of storm, +and shows readiness. Browny's full eyebrow sat on her dark eye like a +cloud of winter noons over the vanishing sun. Matey was the prisoner +gazing at light of a barred window and measuring the strength of the +bars. She looked unhappy, but looked unbeaten more. Her look at him fed +the school on thoughts of what love really is, when it is not fished +out of books and poetry. For though she was pale, starved and pale, they +could see she was never the one to be sighing; and as for him, he looked +ground dower all to edge. However much they puzzled over things, she +made them feel they were sure, as to her, that she drove straight and +meant blood, the life or death of it: all her own, if need be, and +confidence in the captain she had chosen. She could have been imagined +saying, There is a storm, but I am ready to embark with you this minute. + +That sign of courage in real danger ennobled her among girls. The name +Browny was put aside for a respectful Aminta. Big and bright events to +come out in the world were hinted, from the love of such a couple. The +boys were not ashamed to speak the very word love. How he does love +that girl! Well, and how she loves him! She did, but the boys had to be +seeing her look at Matey if they were to put the girl on some balanced +equality with a fellow she was compelled to love. It seemed to them +that he gave, and that she was a creature carried to him, like driftwood +along the current of the flood, given, in spite of herself. When they +saw those eyes of hers they were impressed with an idea of her as +a voluntary giver too; pretty well the half to the bargain; and it +confused their notion of feminine inferiority. They resolved to think +her an exceptional girl, which, in truth, they could easily do, for none +but an exceptional girl could win Matey to love her. + +Since nothing appeared likely to happen at the school, they speculated +upon what would occur out in the world, and were assisted to conjecture, +by a rumour, telling of Aminta Farrell's aunt as a resident at Dover. +Those were days when the benevolently international M. de Porquet had +begun to act as interpreter to English schools in the portico of the +French language; and under his guidance it was asked, in contempt of the +answer, Combien de postes d'ici a Douvres? But, accepting the rumour +as a piece of information, the answer became important. Ici was twenty +miles to the north-west of London. How long would it take Matey to reach +Donvres? Or at which of the combien did he intend to waylay and away +with Aminta? The boys went about pounding at the interrogative French +phrase in due sincerity, behind the burlesque of traveller bothering +coachman. Matey's designs could be finessed only by a knowledge of his +character: that he was not the fellow to give up the girl he had taken +to; and impediments might multiply, but he would bear them down. Three +days before the break-up of the school another rumour came tearing +through it: Aminta's aunt had withdrawn her from Miss Vincent's. And +now rose the question, two-dozen-mouthed, Did Matey know her address at +Douvres? His face grew stringy and his voice harder, and his eyes ready +to burst from a smother of fire. All the same, he did his work: he was +the good old fellow at games, considerate in school affairs, kind to +the youngsters; he was heard to laugh. He liked best the company of his +little French friend from Orthez, over whose shoulder his hand was laid +sometimes as they strolled and chatted in two languages. He really went +a long way to make French fellows popular, and the boys were sorry that +little Emile was off to finish his foreign education in Germany. His +English was pretty good, thanks to Matey. He went away, promising to +remember Old England, saying he was French first, and a Briton next. He +had lots of plunk; which accounted for Matey's choice of him as a friend +among the juniors. + + + + +CHAPTER II. LADY CHARLOTTE + +Love-passages at a school must produce a ringing crisis if they are to +leave the rosy impression which spans the gap of holidays. Neither Matey +nor Browny returned to their yoke, and Cuper's boys recollected the +couple chiefly on Sundays. They remembered several of Matey's doings and +sayings: his running and high leaping, his bowling, a maxim or two of +his, and the tight strong fellow he was; also that the damsel's colour +distinctly counted for dark. She became nearly black in their minds. +Well, and Englishmen have been known to marry Indian princesses: +some have a liking for negresses. There are Nubians rather pretty in +pictures, if you can stand thick lips. Her colour does not matter, +provided the girl is of the right sort. The exchange of letters between +the lovers was mentioned. The discovery by Miss Vincent of their cool +habit of corresponding passed for an incident; and there it remained, +stiff as a poet, not being heated by a story to run. So the foregone +excitement lost warmth, and went out like a winter sun at noon or a +match lighted before the candle is handy. + +Lord Ormont continued to be a subject of discussion from time to time, +for he was a name in the newspapers; and Mr. Shalders had been worked +by Matey Weyburn into a state of raw antagonism at the mention of the +gallant General; he could not avoid sitting in judgement on him. + +According to Mr. Shalders, the opinion of all thoughtful people in +England was with John Company and the better part of the Press to +condemn Lord Ormont in his quarrel with the Commissioner of one of the +Indian provinces, who had the support of the Governor of his Presidency +and of the Viceroy; the latter not unreservedly, yet ostensibly inclined +to condemn a too prompt military hand. The Gordian knot of a difficulty +cut is agreeable in the contemplation of an official chief hesitating +to use the sword and benefiting by having it done for him. Lord Ormont +certainly cut the knot. + +Mr. Shalders was cornered by the boys, coming at him one after another +without a stop, vowing it was the exercise of a military judgement upon +a military question at a period of urgency, which had brought about +the quarrel with the Commissioner and the reproof of the Governor. He +betrayed the man completely cornered by generalizing. He said-- + +"We are a civilian people; we pride ourselves on having civilian +methods." + +"How can that be if we have won India with guns and swords?" + +"But that splendid jewel for England's tiara won," said he (and he might +as well have said crown), "we are bound to sheathe the sword and govern +by the Book of the Law." + +"But if they won't have the Book of the Law!" + +"They knew the power behind it." + +"Not if we knock nothing harder than the Book of the Law upon their +skulls." + +"Happily for the country, England's councils are not directed by boys!" + +"Ah, but we're speaking of India, Mr. Shalders." + +"You are presuming to speak of an act of insubordination committed by a +military officer under civilian command." + +"What if we find an influential prince engaged in conspiracy?" + +"We look for proof." + +"Suppose we have good proof?" + +"We summon him to exonerate himself." + +"No; we mount and ride straight away into his territory, spot the +treason, deport him, and rule in his place!" + +It was all very well for Mr. Shalders to say he talked to boys; he was +cornered again, as his shrug confessed. + +The boys asked among themselves whether he would have taken the same +view if his Murat had done it! + +These illogical boys fought for Matey Weyburn in their defence of Lord +Ormont. Somewhere, they wee sure, old Matey was hammering to the same +end--they could hear him. Thought of him inspired them to unwonted +argumentative energy, that they might support his cause; and scatter +the gloomy prediction of the school, as going to the dogs now Matey had +left. + +The subject provoked everywhere in Great Britain a division similar to +that between master and boys at Cuper's establishment: one party for +our modern English magisterial methods with Indians, the other for the +decisive Oriental at the early time, to suit their native tastes; +and the Book of the Law is to be conciliatingly addressed to their +sentiments by a benign civilizing Power, or the sword is out smartly at +the hint of a warning to protect the sword's conquests. Under one aspect +we appear potteringly European; under another, drunk of the East. + +Lord Ormont's ride at the head of two hundred horsemen across a stretch +of country including hill and forest, to fall like a bolt from the blue +on the suspected Prince in the midst of his gathering warriors, was a +handsome piece of daring, and the high-handed treatment of the Prince +was held by his advocates to be justified by the provocation, and the +result. He scattered an unprepared body of many hundreds, who might have +enveloped him, and who would presumptively have stood their ground, had +they not taken his handful to be the advance of regiments. These are the +deeds that win empires! the argument in his favour ran. Are they of a +character to maintain empires? the counter-question was urged. Men of +a deliberative aspect were not wanting in approval of the sharp and +summary of the sword in air when we have to deal with Indians. They +chose to regard it as a matter of the dealing with Indians, and put +aside the question of the contempt of civil authority. + +Counting the cries, Lord Ormont won his case. Festival aldermen, smoking +clubmen, buckskin squires, obsequious yet privately excitable tradesmen, +sedentary coachmen and cabmen, of Viking descent, were set to think like +boys about him: and the boys, the women, and the poets formed a tipsy +chorea. Journalists, on the whole, were fairly halved, as regarded +numbers. In relation to weight, they were with the burgess and the +presbyter; they preponderated heavily in the direction of England's +burgess view of all cases disputed between civilian and soldier. But +that was when the peril was over. + +Admirers of Lord Ormont enjoyed a perusal of a letter addressed by him +to the burgess's journal; and so did his detractors. The printing of it +was an act of editorial ruthlessness. The noble soldier had no mould in +his intellectual or educational foundry for the casting of sentences; +and the editor's leading type to the letter, without further notice +of the writer--who was given a prominent place or scaffolding for +the execution of himself publicly, if it pleased him to do that +thing--tickled the critical mind. Lord Ormont wrote intemperately. + +His Titanic hurling of blocks against critics did no harm to an enemy +skilled in the use of trimmer weapons, notably the fine one of letting +big missiles rebound. He wrote from India, with Indian heat--"curry and +capsicums," it was remarked. He dared to claim the countenance of the +Commander-in-chief of the Army of India for an act disapproved by the +India House. Other letters might be on their way, curryer than the +preceding, his friends feared; and might also be malevolently printed, +similarly commissioning the reverberation of them to belabour his name +before the public. Admirers were still prepared to admire; but aldermen +not at the feast, squire-archs not in the saddle or at the bottle, some +few of the juvenile and female fervent, were becoming susceptible to a +frosty critical tone in the public pronunciation of Lord Ormont's name +since the printing of his letter and the letters it called forth. None +of them doubted that his case was good. The doubt concerned the effect +on it of his manner of pleading it. And if he damaged his case, he +compromised his admirers. Why, the case of a man who has cleverly won +a bold stroke for his country must be good, as long as he holds his +tongue. A grateful country will right him in the end: he has only to +wait, and not so very long. "This I did: now examine it." Nothing more +needed to be said by him, if that. + +True, he has a temper. It is owned that he is a hero. We take him with +his qualities, impetuosity being one, and not unsuited to his arm of the +service, as he has shown. If his temper is high, it is an element of a +character proved heroical. So has the sun his blotches, and we believe +that they go to nourish the luminary, rather than that they are a +disease of the photosphere. + +Lord Ormont's apologists had to contend with anecdotes and dicta now +pouring in from offended Britons, for illustration of an impetuosity +fit to make another Charley XII. of Sweden--a gratuitous Coriolanus +haughtiness as well, new among a people accustomed socially to bow +the head to their nobles, and not, of late, expecting a kick for their +pains. Newspapers wrote of him that, "a martinet to subordinates, he +was known for the most unruly of lieutenants." They alluded to current +sayings, as that he "habitually took counsel of his horse on the field +when a movement was entrusted to his discretion." Numerous were the +journalistic sentences running under an air of eulogy of the lordly +warrior purposely to be tripped, and producing their damnable effect, +despite the obvious artifice. The writer of the letter from Bombay, +signed Ormont, was a born subject for the antithetical craftsmen's +tricky springes. + +He was, additionally, of infamous repute for morale in burgess +estimation, from his having a keen appreciation of female beauty and +a prickly sense of masculine honour. The stir to his name roused +pestilential domestic stories. In those days the aristocrat still +claimed licence, and eminent soldier-nobles, comporting themselves as +imitative servants of their god Mars, on the fields of love and war, +stood necessarily prepared to vindicate their conduct as the field of +the measured paces, without deeming themselves bounden to defend the +course they took. Our burgess, who bowed head to his aristocrat, +and hired the soldier to fight for him, could not see that such +mis-behaviour necessarily ensued. Lord Ormont had fought duels at home +and abroad. His readiness to fight again, and against odds, and with a +totally unused weapon, was exhibited by his attack on the Press in the +columns of the Press. It wore the comical face to the friends deploring +it, which belongs to things we do that are so very like us. They agreed +with his devoted sister, Lady Charlotte Eglett, as to the prudence of +keeping him out of England for a time, if possible. + +At the first perusal of the letter, Lady Charlotte quitted her place +in Leicestershire, husband, horses, guests, the hunt, to scour across a +vacant London and pick up acquaintances under stress to be spots there +in the hunting season, with them to gossip for counsel on the subject +of "Ormont's hand-grenade," and how to stop and extinguish a second. +She was a person given to plain speech. "Stinkpot" she called it, when +acknowledging foul elements in the composition and the harm it did to +the unskilful balist. Her view of the burgess English imaged a mighty +monster behind bars, to whom we offer anything but our hand. As soon as +he gets held of that he has you; he won't let it loose with flesh on the +bones. We must offend him--we can't be man or woman without offending +his tastes and his worships; but while we keep from contact (i.e. +intercommunication) he may growl, he is harmless. Witness the many +occasions when her brother offended worse, and had been unworried, only +growled at, and distantly, not in a way to rouse concern; and at the +neat review, or procession into the City, or public display of any +sort, Ormont had but to show himself, he was the popular favourite +immediately. He had not committed the folly of writing a letter to a +newspaper then. + +Lady Charlotte paid an early visit to the office of the great London +solicitor, Arthur Abner, who wielded the law as an instrument of +protection for countless illustrious people afflicted by what they stir +or attract in a wealthy metropolis. She went simply to gossip of her +brother's affairs with a refreshing man of the world, not given to +circumlocutions, and not afraid of her: she had no deeper object; but +fancying she heard the clerk, on his jump from the stool, inform +her that Mr. Abner was out, "Out?" she cried, and rattled the room, +thumping, under knitted brows. "Out of town?" For a man of business +taking holidays, when a lady craves for gossip, disappointed her faith +in him as cruelly as the shut-up, empty inn the broken hunter knocking +at a hollow door miles off home. + +Mr. Abner, hatted and gloved and smiling, came forth. "Going out, the +man meant, Lady Charlotte. At your service for five minutes." + +She complimented his acuteness, in the remark, "You see I've only come +to chat," and entered his room. + +He led her to her theme: "The excitement is pretty well over." + +"My brother's my chief care--always was. I'm afraid he'll be +pitchforking at it again, and we shall have another blast. That letter +ought never to have been printed. That editor deserves the horsewhip +for letting it appear. If he prints a second one I shall treat him as a +personal enemy." + +"Better make a friend of him." + +"How?" + +"Meet him at my table." + +She jumped an illumined half-about on her chair. "So I will, then. What +are the creature's tastes?" + +"Hunts, does he?" The editor rose in her mind from the state of neuter +to something of a man. "I recollect an article in that paper on the +Ormont duel. I hate duelling, but I side with my brother. I had to +laugh, though. Luckily, there's no woman on hand at present, as far as +I know. Ormont's not likely to be hooked by garrison women or blacks. +Those coloured women--some of ours too--send the nose to the clouds; +not a bad sign for health. And there are men like that old Cardinal +Guicciardini tells of... hum! Ormont's not one of them. I hope +he'll stay in India till this blows over, or I shall be hearing of +provocations." + +"You have seen the Duke?" + +She nodded. Her reserve was a summary of the interview. "Kind, as he +always is," she said. "Ormont has no chance of employment unless there's +a European war. They can't overlook him in case of war. He'll have to +pray for that." + +"Let us hope we shan't get it." + +"My wish; but I have to think of my brother. If he's in England with +no employment, he's in a mess with women and men both. He kicks if he's +laid aside to rust. He has a big heart. That's what I said: all he wants +is to serve his country. If you won't have war, give him Gibraltar or +Malta, or command of one of our military districts. The South-eastern +'ll be vacant soon. He'd like to be Constable of the Castle, and have an +eye on France." + +"I think he's fond of the French?" + +"Loves the French. Expects to have to fight them all the same. He loves +his country best. Here's the man everybody's abusing!" + +"I demur, my lady. I was dining the other day with a client of mine, and +a youngster was present who spoke of Lord Ormont in a way I should like +you to have heard. He seemed to know the whole of Lord Ormont's career, +from the time of the ride to Paraguay up to the capture of the plotting +Rajah. He carried the table." + +"Good boy! We must turn to the boys for justice, then. Name your day for +this man, this editor." + +"I will see him. You shall have the day to-night." + +Lady Charlotte and the editor met. She was racy, he anecdotal. Stag, +fox, and hare ran before them, over fields and through drawing-rooms: +the scent was rich. They found that they could talk to one another +as they thought; that he was not the Isle-bound burgess, nor she the +postured English great lady; and they exchanged salt, without which your +current scandal is of exhausted savour. They enjoyed the peculiar novel +relish of it, coming from a social pressman and a dame of high society. +The different hemispheres became known as one sphere to these birds of +broad wing convening in the upper blue above a quartered carcase earth. + +A week later a letter, the envelope of a bulky letter in Lord Ormont's +handwriting, reached Lady Charlotte. There was a line from the editor: + + "Would it please your ladyship to have this printed?" + +She read the letter, and replied: + + "Come to me for six days; you shall have the best mount in the + county." + +An editor devoid of malice might probably have forborne to print a +letter that appealed to Lady Charlotte, or touched her sensations, as +if a glimpse of the moon, on the homeward ride in winter on a nodding +horse, had suddenly bared to view a precipitous quarry within two steps. +There is no knowing: few men can forbear to tell a spicy story of +their friends; and an editor, to whom an exhibition of the immensely +preposterous on the part of one writing arrogantly must be provocative, +would feel the interests of his Journal, not to speak of the claims +of readers, pluck at him when he meditated the consignment of such a +precious composition to extinction. Lady Charlotte withheld a sight of +the letter from Mr. Eglett. She laid it in her desk, understanding well +that it was a laugh lost to the world. Poets could reasonably feign it +to shake the desk inclosing it. She had a strong sense of humour; her +mind reverted to the desk in a way to make her lips shut grimly. She +sided with her brother. + +Only pen in hand did he lay himself open to the enemy. In his personal +intercourse he was the last of men to be taken at a disadvantage. Lady +Charlotte was brought round to the distasteful idea of some help coming +from a legitimate adjunct at his elbow: a restraining woman--wife, it +had to be said. And to name the word wife for Thomas Rowsley, Earl of +Ormont, put up the porcupine quills she bristled with at the survey of +a sex thirsting, and likely to continue thirsting, for such honour. What +woman had she known fit to bear the name? She had assumed the judicial +seat upon the pretensions of several, and dismissed them to their limbo, +after testifying against them. Who is to know the fit one in these mines +of deception? Women of the class offering wives decline to be taken on +trial; they are boxes of puzzles--often dire surprises. Her brother +knew them well enough to shy at the box. Her brother Rowsley had a funny +pride, like a boy at a game, at the never having been caught by one +among the many he made captive. She let him have it all to himself. + +He boasted it to a sister sharing the pride exultant in the cry of +the hawk, scornful of ambitions poultry, a passed finger-post to the +plucked, and really regretful that no woman had been created fit +for him. When she was not aiding with her brother, women, however +contemptible for their weakness, appeared to her as better than +barn-door fowl, or vermin in their multitudes gnawing to get at the +cheese-trap. She could be humane, even sisterly, with women whose +conduct or prattle did not outrage plain sense, just as the stickler +for the privileges of her class was large-heartedly charitable to the +classes flowing in oily orderliness round about below it--if they did so +flow. Unable to read woman's character, except upon the broadest lines +as it were the spider's main threads of its web, she read men minutely, +from the fact that they were neither mysteries nor terrors to her; but +creatures of importunate appetites, humorous objects; very manageable, +if we leave the road to their muscles, dress their wounds, smoothe their +creases, plume their vanity; and she had an unerring eye for the man +to be used when a blow was needed, methods for setting him in action +likewise. She knew how much stronger than ordinary men the woman who can +put them in motion. They can be set to serve as pieces of cannon, under +compliments on their superior powers, which were not all undervalued by +her on their own merits, for she worshipped strength. But the said, +with a certain amount of truth, that the women unaware of the advantage +Society gave them (as to mastering men) were fools. + +Tender, is not a word coming near to Lady Charlotte. Thoughtful on +behalf of the poor foolish victims of men she was. She had saved some, +avenged others. It should be stated, that her notion of saving was the +saving of them from the public: she had thrown up a screen. The saving +of them from themselves was another matter--hopeless, to her thinking. +How preach at a creature on the bend of passion's rapids! One might as +well read a chapter from the Bible to delirious patients. When once a +woman is taken with the love-passion, we must treat her as bitten; +hide her antics from the public: that is the principal business. If she +recovers, she resumes her place, and horrid old Nature, who drove her +to the frenzy, is unlikely to bother or, at least, overthrow her +again, unless she is one of the detestable wantons, past compassion or +consideration. In the case reviewed, the woman has gone through fire, +and is none the worse for her experiences: worth ten times what she was, +to an honest man, if men could be got to see it. Some do. Of those men +who do not, Lady Charlotte spoke with the old family-nurse humour, which +is familiar with the tricks and frailties of the infants; and it is +a knife to probe the male, while seemingly it does the part of the +napkin--pities and pats. They expect a return of much for the little +that is next to nothing. They are fall of expectations: and of what +else? They are hard bargainers. + +She thought this of men; and she liked men by choice. She had old +nurse's preference for the lustier male child. The others are puling +things, easier to rear, because they bend better; and less esteemed, +though they give less trouble, rouse less care. But when it came to the +duel between the man and the woman, her sense of justice was moved to +join her with the party of her unfairly handled sisters--a strong party, +if it were not so cowardly, she had to think. + +Mr. Eglett, her husband, accepted her--accepted the position into which +he naturally fell beside her, and the ideas she imposed on him; for she +never went counter to his principles. These were the fixed principles of +a very wealthy man, who abhorred debt, and was punctilious in veracity, +scrupulous in cleanliness of mind and body, devoted to the honour of +his country, the interests of his class. She respected the high landmark +possessing such principles; and she was therefore enabled to lead +without the wish to rule. As it had been between them at the beginning, +so it was now, when they were grandparents running on three lines of +progeny from two daughters and a son: they were excellent friends. +Few couples can say more. The union was good English grey--that of a +prolonged November, to which we are reconciled by occasions for the hunt +and the gun. She was, nevertheless, an impassioned woman. The feeling +for her brother helped to satisfy her heart's fires, though as little +with her brother as with her husband was she demonstrative. Lord Ormont +disrelished the caresses of relatives. + +She, for her part, had so strong a sympathy on behalf of poor gentlemen +reduced to submit to any but a young woman's hug, that when, bronzed +from India, he quitted the carriage and mounted her steps at Olmer, the +desire to fling herself on his neck and breast took form in the words: +"Here you are home again, Rowsley; glad to have you." They shook hands +firmly. + +He remained three days at Olmer. His temper was mild, his frame of mind +bad as could be. Angry evaporations had left a residuum of solid scorn +for these "English," who rewarded soldierly services as though it were a +question of damaged packages of calico. He threatened to take the +first offer of a foreign State "not in insurrection." But clear sky was +overhead. He was the Rowsley of the old boyish delight in field sports, +reminiscences of prowlings and trappings in the woods, gropings along +water-banks, enjoyment of racy gossip. He spoke wrathfully of "one +of their newspapers" which steadily persisted in withholding from +publication every letter he wrote to it, after printing the first. And +if it printed one, why not the others? + +Lady Charlotte put it on the quaintness of editors. + +He had found in London, perhaps, reason for saying that he should +do well to be "out of this country" as early as he could; adding, +presently, that he meant to go, though "it broke his heart to keep away +from a six months' rest at Steignton," his Wiltshire estate. + +No woman was in the field. Lady Charlotte could have submitted to the +intrusion of one of those at times wholesome victims, for the sake of +the mollification the unhappy proud thing might bring to a hero smarting +under injustice at the hands of chiefs and authorities. + +He passed on to Steignton, returned to London, and left England for +Spain, as he wrote word, saying he hoped to settle at Steignton neat +year. He was absent the next year, and longer. Lady Charlotte had the +surprising news that Steignton was let, shooting and all, for five +years; and he had no appointment out of England or at home. When he +came to Olmer again he was under one of his fits of reserve, best +undisturbed. Her sympathy with a great soldier snubbed, an active man +rusting, kept her from remonstrance. + +Three years later she was made meditative by the discovery of a woman's +being absolutely in the field, mistress of the field; and having been +there for a considerable period, dating from about the time when he +turned his back on England to visit a comrade-in-arms condemned by the +doctors to pass the winter in Malaga; and it was a young woman, a girl +in her teens, a handsome girl. Handsome was to be expected; Ormont +bargained for beauty. But report said the girl was very handsome, and +showed breeding: she seemed a foreigner, walked like a Goddess, sat her +horse the perfect Amazon. Rumour called her a Spaniard. + +"Not if she rides!" Lady Charlotte cut that short. + +Rumour had subsequently more to say. The reporter in her ear did not +confirm it, and she was resolutely deaf to a story incredible of her +brother--the man, of all men living, proudest of his name, blood, +station. So proud was he by nature, too, that he disdained to complain +of rank injustice; he maintained a cheerful front against adversity and +obloquy. And this man of complete self-command, who has every form of +noble pride, gets cajoled like a twenty-year-old yahoo at college! Do +you imagine it? To suppose of a man cherishing the name of Ormont, that +he would bestow it legally on a woman, a stranger, and imperil his race +by mixing blood with a creature of unknown lineage, was--why, of course, +it was to suppose him struck mad, and there never had been madness among +the Ormonts: they were too careful of the purity of the strain. Lady +Charlotte talked. She was excited, and ran her sentences to blanks, +a cunning way for ministering consolation to her hearing, where the +sentence intended a question, and the blank ending caught up the query +tone and carried it dwindling away to the most distant of throttled +interrogatives. She had, in this manner, only to ask,--her hearing +received the comforting answer it desired; for she could take that thin +far sound as a travelling laughter of incredulity, triumphant derision. + +This meant to her--though she scarcely knew it, though the most wilful +of women declined to know it--a state of alarm. She had said of her +brother in past days that he would have his time of danger after +striking sixty. The dangerous person was to be young. + +But, then, Ormont had high principles with regard to the dues to his +family. His principles could always be trusted. The dangerous young +person would have to be a person of lineage, of a certain station at +least: no need for a titled woman, only for warranted good blood. Is +that to be found certificated out of the rolls of Society? It may +just possibly be found, without certificate, however, in those muddled +caverns where the excluded intermingle. Here and there, in a peasant +family, or a small country tradesman's just raised above a peasant, +honest regenerating blood will be found. Nobles wanting refreshment from +the soil might do worse than try a slip of one of those juicy weeds; +ill-fated, sickly Royalties would be set-up striding through another +half-century with such invigoration, if it could be done for them! +There are tales. The tales are honourably discredited by the crazy +constitutions of the heirs to the diadem. + +Yes, but we are speculating on the matter seriously, as though it were +one of intimate concern to the family. What is there to make us think +that Ormont would marry? Impossible to imagine him intimidated. Unlikely +that he, a practised reader of women, having so little of the woman in +him, would be melted by a wily girl; as women in the twilight situation +have often played the trick to come into the bright beams. How? They do +a desperate thing, and call it generosity, and then they appeal from +it to my lord's generosity; and so the two generosities drive off in +a close carriage with a friend and a professional landlady for the +blessing of the parson, and are legitimately united. Women have won +round fools to give way in that way. And quite right too! thought Lady +Charlotte, siding with nature and justice, as she reflected that no +woman created would win round her brother to give way in that way. He +was too acute. The moment the woman showed sign of becoming an actress, +her doom was written. "Poor idiot!" was not uncharitably inscribed by +the sisterly lady on the tombstone of hopes aimed with scarce pardonable +ambition at her brother. + +She blew away the rumour. Ormont, she vowed, had not entitled any woman +to share and bear his title. And this was her interpretation of the +report: he permitted (if he did permit) the woman to take his name, that +he might have a scornful fling at the world maltreating him. Besides, +the name was not published, it was not to be seen in the papers; it +passed merely among male friends, tradesmen, servants: no great harm in +that. + +Listen further. Here is an unknown girl: why should he marry her? A girl +consenting to the place beside a man of his handsome ripe age, is either +bought, or she is madly enamoured; she does not dictate terms. Ormont +is not of the brute buyers in that market. One sees it is the girl who +leads the dance. A girl is rarely so madly enamoured as when she falls +in love with her grandfather; she pitches herself at his head. This +had not happened for the first time in Ormont's case; and he had never +proposed marriage. Why should he do it now? + +But again, if the girl has breeding to some extent, he might think it +her due that she should pass under the safeguard of his name, out of +sight. + +Then, so far the report is trustworthy. We blow the rumour out of +belief. A young woman there is: she is not a wife. Lady Charlotte +allowed her the fairly respectable post of Hecate of the Shades, as long +as the girl was no pretender to the place and name in the upper sphere. +Her deductions were plausible, convincing to friends shaken by her +vehement manner of coming at them. She convinced herself by means of her +multitude of reasons for not pursuing inquiry. Her brother said nothing. +There was no need for him to speak. He seemed on one or two occasions in +the act of getting himself together for the communication of a secret; +and she made ready to listen hard, with ears, eyebrows, shut month, and +a gleam at the back of her eyes, for a signification of something she +would refer him to after he had spoken. He looked at her and held his +peace, or virtually held it,--that is, he said not one word on the +subject she was to have told him she had anticipated. Lady Charlotte +ascribed it to his recollection of the quick blusher, the pained +blusher, she was in her girlhood at mention or print of the story of men +and women. Who, not having known her, could conceive it! But who could +conceive that, behind the positive, plain-dealing, downright woman +of the world, there was at times, when a nerve was touched or an old +blocked path of imagination thrown open, a sensitive youthfulness; still +quick to blush as far as the skin of a grandmother matron might show it! + + + + +CHAPTER III. THE TUTOR + +There was no counting now on Lord Ormont's presence in the British +gathering seasons, when wheatears wing across our fields or swallows +return to their eaves. He forsook the hunt to roam the Continent, one +of the vulgar band of tourists, honouring town only when Mayflies had +flown, and London's indiscriminate people went about without their +volatile heads. + +Lady Charlotte put these changed conditions upon the behaviour of the +military authorities to her brother, saying that the wonder was he did +not shake the dust of his country from his feet. In her wise head she +rejoiced to think he was not the donkey she sketched for admiration; and +she was partly consoled, or played at the taking of a comfort needed in +her perpetual struggle with a phantom of a fact, by the reflection that +a young woman on his arm would tense him to feel himself more at home +abroad. Her mind's habit of living warmly beside him in separation was +vexed by the fixed intrusion of a female third person, who checked the +run of intimate chatter, especially damped the fancied talk over early +days--of which the creature was ignorant; and her propinquity to him +arrested or broke the dialogue Lady Charlotte invented and pressed to +renew. But a wife, while letting him be seen, would have insisted on +appropriating the thought of him--all his days, past as well as present. +An impassioned sister's jealousy preferred that it should not be a wife +reigning to dispute her share of her brother in imagination. + +Then came a rumour, telling of him as engaged upon the composition of +his Memoirs. + +Lady Charlotte's impulsive outcry: "Writing them?" signified her grounds +for alarm. + +Happily, Memoirs are not among the silly deeds done in a moment; they +were somewhere ahead and over the hills: a band of brigands rather than +a homely shining mansion, it was true; but distant; and a principal +question shrieked to know whether he was composing them for publication. +She could look forward with a girl's pleasure to the perusal of them +in manuscript, in a woody nook, in a fervour of partizanship, easily +avoiding sight of errors, grammatical or moral. She chafed at the +possible printing and publishing of them. That would be equivalent to an +exhibition of him clean-stripped for a run across London--brilliant in +himself, spotty in the offence. Published Memoirs indicate the end of +a man's activity, and that he acknowledges the end; and at a period of +Lord Ormont's life when the denial of it should thunder. They are his +final chapter, making mummy of the grand figure they wrap in the printed +stuff. They are virtually his apology. Can those knowing Lord Ormont +hear him apologize? But it is a craven apology if we stoop to expound: +we are seen as pleading our case before the public. Call it by any +name you please, and under any attitude, it is that. And set aside the +writing: it may be perfect; the act is the degradation. It is a rousing +of swarms. His friends and the public will see the proudest nobleman +of his day, pleading his case in mangled English, in the headlong of an +out-poured, undrilled, rabble vocabulary, doubling the ridicule by +his imperturbability over the ridicule he excites: he who is no more +ridiculous, cried the partizan sister, conjuring up the scene, not an +ace more ridiculous, than a judge of assize calling himself miserable +sinner on Sunday before the parson, after he has very properly condemned +half a score of weekday miserable sinners to penal servitude or the +rope. Nobody laughs at the judge. Everybody will be laughing at the +scornful man down half-way to his knee-cape with a stutter of an apology +for having done his duty to his country, after stigmatizing numbers for +inability or ill-will to do it. But Ormont's weapon is the sword, not a +pen! Lady Charlotte hunted her simile till the dogs had it or it ran to +earth. + +She struck at the conclusion, that the young woman had been persuading +him. An adoring young woman is the person to imagine and induce to the +commission of such folly. "What do you think? You have seen her, you +say?" she asked of a man she welcomed for his flavour of the worldling's +fine bile. + +Lord Adderwood made answer: "She may be having a hand in it. She +worships, and that is your way of pulling gods to the ground." + +"Does she understand good English?" + +"Speaks it." + +"Can she write?" + +"I have never had a letter from her." + +"You tell me Morsfield admires the woman--would marry her to-morrow, if +he could get her." + +"He would go through the ceremony Ormont has performed, I do not doubt." + +"I don't doubt all of you are ready. She doesn't encourage one?" + +"On the contrary, all." + +"She's clever. This has been going on for now seven years, and, as far +as I know, she has my brother fast." + +"She may have done the clever trick of having him fast from the +beginning." + +"She'd like people to think it." + +"She has an aunt to advertise it." + +"Ormont can't swallow the woman, I'm told." + +"Trying, if one is bound to get her down!" + +"Boasts of the connection everywhere she's admitted, Randeller says." + +"Randeller procures the admission to various parti-coloured places." + +"She must be a blinking moll-owl! And I ask any sane Christian or +Pagan--proof enough!--would my brother Rowsley let his wife visit those +places, those people? Monstrous to have the suspicion that he would, you +know him! Mrs. Lawrence Finchley, for example. I say nothing to hurt the +poor woman; I back her against her imbecile of a husband. He brings a +charge he can't support; she punishes him by taking three years' lease +of independence and kicks up the grass all over the paddock, and then +comes cuckoo, barking his name abroad to have her home again. You can +win the shyest filly to corn at last. She goes, and he digests ruefully +the hotch-potch of a dish the woman brings him. Only the world spies a +side-head at her, husbanded or not, though the main fault was his, and +she had a right to insist that he should be sure of his charge before +he smacked her in the face with it before the world. In dealing with +a woman, a man commonly prudent--put aside chivalry, justice, and the +rest--should bind himself to disbelieve what he can't prove. Otherwise, +let him expect his whipping, with or without ornament. My opinion is, +Lawrence Finchley had no solid foundation for his charge, except his +being an imbecile. She wasn't one of the adventurous women to jump the +bars,--the gate had to be pushed open, and he did it. There she is; and +I ask you, would my brother Rowsley let his wife be intimate with her? +And there are others. And, sauf votre respect, the men--Morsfield for +one, Randeller another!" + +"They have a wholesome dread of the lion." + +"If they smell a chance with the lion's bone--it's the sweeter for being +the lion's. These metaphors carry us off our ground. I must let these +Ormont Memoirs run and upset him, if they get to print. I've only to +oppose, printed they'll be. The same if I say a word of this woman, he +marries her to-morrow morning. You speak of my driving men. Why can't I +drive Ormont? Because I'm too fond of him. There you have the secret of +the subjection of women: they can hold their own, and a bit more, when +they've no enemy beating inside." + +"Hearts!--ah, well, it's possible. I don't say no; I've not discovered +them," Lord Adderwood observed. + +They are rarely discovered in the haunts he frequented. + +Her allusion to Mrs. Lawrence Finchley rapped him smartly, and she +admired his impassiveness under the stroke. Such a spectacle was one of +her pleasures. + +Lady Charlotte mentioned incidentally her want of a tutor for her +grandson Leo during the winter holidays. He suggested an application +to the clergyman of her parish. She was at feud with the Rev. Stephen +Hampton-Evey, and would not take, she said, a man to be a bootblack +in her backyard or a woman a scullery-wench in her kitchen upon his +recommendation. She described the person of Mr. Hampton-Evey, his manner +of speech, general opinions, professional doctrines; rolled him into a +ball and bowled him, with a shrug for lamentation, over the decay of the +good old order of manly English Protestant clergymen, who drank their +port, bothered nobody about belief, abstained from preaching their +sermon, if requested; were capital fellows in the hunting-field, too; +for if they came, they had the spur to hunt in the devil's despite. +Now we are going to have a kind of bitter, clawed, forked female, in +vestments over breeches. "How do you like that bundling of the sexes?" + +Lord Adderwood liked the lines of division to be strictly and invitingly +definite. He was thinking, as he reviewed the frittered appearance +of the Rev. Stephen Hampton-Evey in Lady Charlotte's hinds, of the +possibility that Lord Ormont, who was reputed to fear nobody, feared +her. In which case, the handsome young woman passing among his +associates as the pseudo Lady Ormont might be the real one after all, +and Isabella Lawrence Finchley prove right in the warning she gave to +dogs of chase. + +The tutor required by Lady Charlotte was found for her by Mr. Abner. +Their correspondence on the subject filled the space of a week, and then +the gentleman hired to drive a creaky wheel came down from London to +Olmer, arriving late in the evening. + +Lady Charlotte's blunt "Oh!" when he entered her room and bowed upon the +announcement of his name, was caused by an instantaneous perception and +refection that it would be prudent to keep her grand-daughter Philippa, +aged between seventeen and eighteen, out of his way. + +"You are friend of Mr. Abner's, are you?" + +He was not disconcerted. He replied, in an assured and pleasant voice, +"I have hardly the pretension to be called a friend, madam." + +"Are you a Jew?" + +Her abruptness knocked something like a laugh almost out of him, but he +restrained the signs of it. + +"I am not." + +"You wouldn't be ashamed to tell me you were one if you were?" + +"Not at all." + +"You like the Jews?" + +"Those I know I like." + +"Not many Christians have the good sense and the good heart of Arthur +Abner. Now go and eat. Come back to me when you've done. I hope you are +hungry. Ask the butler for the wine you prefer." + +She had not anticipated the enrolment in her household of a man so young +and good-looking. These were qualifications for Cupid's business, which +his unstrained self-possession accentuated to a note of danger to her +chicks, because she liked the taste of him. Her grand-daughter Philippa +was in the girl's waxen age; another, Beatrice, was coming to it. Both +were under her care; and she was a vigilant woman, with an intuition +and a knowledge of sex. She did not blame Arthur Abner for sending her +a good-looking young man; she had only a general idea that tutors in a +house, and even visiting tutors, should smell of dust and wear a snuffy +appearance. The conditions will not always insure the tutors from +foolishness, as her girl's experience reminded her, but they protect the +girl. + +"Your name is Weyburn; your father was an officer in the army, killed +on the battle-field, Arthur Abner tells me," was her somewhat +severely-toned greeting to the young tutor on his presenting himself the +second time. + +It had the sound of the preliminary of an indictment read in a Court of +Law. + +"My father died of his wounds in hospital," he said. + +"Why did you not enter the service?" + +"Want of an income, my lady." + +"Bad look-out. Army or Navy for gentlemen, if they stick to the school +of honour. The sedentary professions corrupt men: bad for the blood. +Those monastery monks found that out. They had to birch the devil out of +them three times a day and half the night, howling like full-moon dogs +all through their lives, till the flesh was off them. That was their +exercise, if they were for holiness. My brother, Lord Ormont, has never +been still in his youth or his manhood. See him now. He counts his years +by scores; and he has about as many wrinkles as you when you're smiling. +His cheeks are as red as yours now you're blushing. You ought to have +left off that trick by this time. It's well enough in a boy." + +Against her will she was drawn to the young man, and her consciousness +of it plucked her back to caution with occasional jerks--quaint +alternations of the familiar and the harshly formal, in the stranger's +experience. + +"If I have your permission, Lady Charlotte," said he, "the reason why I +mount red a little--if I do it--is, you mention Lord Ormont, and I have +followed his career since I was the youngest of boys." + +"Good to begin with the worship of a hero. He can't sham, can't +deceive--not even a woman; and you're old enough to understand the +temptation: they're so silly. All the more, it's a point of honour with +a man of honour to shield her from herself. When it's a girl--" + +The young man's eyebrows bent. + +"Chapters of stories, if you want to hear them," she resumed; "and I can +vouch some of them true. Lord Ormont was never one of the wolves in a +hood. Whatever you hear of him; you may be sure he laid no trap. He's +just the opposite to the hypocrite; so hypocrites date him. I've heard +them called high-priests of decency. Then we choose to be indecent +and honest, if there's a God to worship. Fear, they're in the habit of +saying--we are to fear God. A man here, a Rev. Hampton-Evey, you'll hear +him harp on 'fear God.' Hypocrites may: honest sinners have no fear. And +see the cause: they don't deceive themselves--that is why. Do you think +we call love what we fear? They love God, or they disbelieve. And if +they believe in Him, they know they can't conceal anything from Him. +Honesty means piety: we can't be one without the other. And here are +people--parsons--who talk of dying as going into the presence of our +Maker, as if He had been all the while outside the world He created. +Those parsons, I told the Rev. Hampton-Evey here, make infidels--they +make a puzzle of their God. I'm for a rational Deity. They preach up a +supernatural eccentric. I don't say all: I've heard good sermons, and +met sound-headed clergymen--not like that gaping Hampton-Evey, when +a woman tells him she thinks for herself. We have him sitting on our +pariah. A free-thinker startles him as a kind of demon; but a female +free-thinker is one of Satan's concubines. He took it upon himself to +reproach me--flung his glove at my feet, because I sent a cheque to a +poor man punished for blasphemy. The man had the right to his opinions, +and he had the courage of his opinions. I doubt whether the Rev. +Hampton-Evey would go with a willing heart to prison for his. All the +better for him if he comes head-up out of a trial. But now see: all +these parsons and judges and mobcaps insist upon conformity. A man with +common manly courage comes before them, and he's cast in penalties. +Yet we know from history, in England, France, Germany, that the time +of nonconformity brought out the manhood of the nation. Now, I say, a +nation, to be a nation, must have men--I mean brave men. That's what +those hosts of female men combine to try to stifle. They won't succeed, +but we shall want a war to teach the country the value of courage. You +catch what I am driving at? They accuse my brother of immorality because +he makes no pretence to be better than the men of his class." + +Weyburn's eyelids fluttered. Her kite-like ascent into the general, with +the sudden drop on her choice morsel, switched his humour at the moment +when he was respectfully considering that her dartings and gyrations had +motive as mach as the flight of the swallow for food. They had meaning; +and here was one of the great ladies of the land who thought for +herself, and was thoughtful for the country. If she came down like a +bird winged, it was her love of her brother that did it. His look at +Lady Charlotte glistened. + +She raised her defences against the basilisk fascinating Philippa; +and with a vow to keep them apart and deprive him of his chance, she +relapsed upon the stiff frigidity which was not natural to her. It +lasted long enough to put him on his guard under the seductions of a +noble dame's condescension to a familiar tone. But, as he was too well +bred to show the change in his mind for her change of manner, and as she +was the sister of his boyhood's hero, and could be full of flavour, his +eyes retained something of their sparkle. They were ready to lighten +again, in the way peculiar to him, when she, quite forgetting her +defence of Philippa, disburdened herself of her antagonisms and +enthusiasms, her hates and her loves all round the neighbourhood and +over the world, won to confidential communication by this young man's +face. She confessed as much, had he been guided to perceive it. She +said, "Arthur Abner's a reader of men: I can trust his word about them." + +Presently, it is true, she added: "No man's to be relied upon where +there's a woman." She refused her implicit trust to saints--"if ever a +man really was a saint before he was canonized!" + +Her penetrative instinct of sex kindled the scepticism. Sex she saw +at play everywhere, dogging the conduct of affairs, directing them at +times; she saw it as the animation of nature, senselessly stigmatized, +hypocritically concealed, active in our thoughts where not in our deeds; +and the declining of the decorous to see it, or admit the sight, got +them abhorred bad names from her, after a touch at the deadly poison +coming of that blindness, or blindfoldedness, and a grimly melancholy +shrug over the cruelties resulting--cruelties chiefly affecting women. + +"You're too young to have thought upon such matters," she said, for a +finish to them. + +That was hardly true. + +"I have thought," said Weyburn, and his head fell to reckoning of the +small sum of his thoughts upon them. + +He was pulled up instantly for close inspection by the judge. "What is +your age?" + +"I am in my twenty-sixth year." + +"You have been among men: have you studied women?" + +"Not largely, Lady Charlotte. Opportunity has been wanting at French and +German colleges." + +"It's only a large and a close and a pretty long study of them that can +teach you anything; and you must get rid of the poetry about them, and +be sure you haven't lost it altogether. That's what is called the golden +mean. I'm not for the golden mean in every instance; it's a way of +exhorting to brutal selfishness. I grant it's the right way in those +questions. You'll learn in time." Her scanning gaze at the young man's +face drove him along an avenue of his very possible chances of learning. +"Certain to. But don't tell me that at your age you have thought about +women. You may say you have felt. A young man's feelings about women are +better reading for him six or a dozen chapters farther on. Then he can +sift and strain. It won't be perfectly clear, but it will do." + +Mr. Eglett hereupon threw the door open, and ushered in Master Leo. + +Lady Charlotte noticed that the tutor shook the boy's hand offhandedly, +with not a whit of the usual obtrusive geniality, and merely dropped him +a word. Soon after, he was talking to Mr. Eglett of games at home and +games abroad. Poor fun over there! We head the world in field games, at +all events. He drew a picture of a foreigner of his acquaintance looking +on at football. On the other hand, French boys and German, having passed +a year or two at an English school, get the liking for our games, and +do a lot of good when they go home. The things we learn from them are +to dance, to sing, and to study:--they are more in earnest than we about +study. They teach us at fencing too. The tutor praised fencing as an +exercise and an accomplishment. He had large reserves of eulogy for +boxing. He knew the qualities of the famous bruisers of the time, cited +fisty names, whose owners were then to be seen all over an admiring +land in prints; in the glorious defensive-offensive attitude, England's +own--Touch me, if you dare! with bullish, or bull-dog, or oak-bole +fronts for the blow, handsome to pugilistic eyes. + +The young tutor had lighted on a pet theme of Mr. Eglett's--the +excelling virtues of the practice of pugilism in Old England, and the +school of honour that it is to our lower population. "Fifty times better +for them than cock-fighting," he exclaimed, admitting that he could be +an interested spectator at a ring or the pit cock-fighting or ratting. + +"Ratting seems to have more excuse," the tutor said, and made no sign of +a liking for either of those popular pastimes. As he disapproved without +squeamishness, the impulsive but sharply critical woman close by nodded; +and she gave him his dues for being no courtier. + +Leo had to be off to bed. The tutor spared him any struggle over +the shaking of hands, and saying, "Goodnight, Leo," continued the +conversation. The boy went away, visibly relieved of the cramp that +seizes on a youngster at the formalities pertaining to these chilly and +fateful introductions. + +"What do you think of the look of him?" Mr. Eglett asked. + +The tutor had not appeared to inspect the boy. "Big head," he remarked. +"Yes, Leo won't want pushing at books when he's once in harness. He +will have six weeks of me. It's more than the yeomanry get for drill +per annum, and they're expected to know something of a soldier's duties. +There's a chance of putting him on the right road in certain matters. +We'll walk, or ride, or skate, if the frost holds to-morrow: no lessons +the first day." + +"Do as you think fit," said lady Charlotte. + +The one defect she saw in the tutor did not concern his pupil. And a +girl, if hit, would be unable to see that this tutor, judged as a man, +was to some extent despicable for accepting tutorships, and, one might +say, dishonouring the family of a soldier of rank and distinction, +by coming into houses at the back way, with footing enough to air his +graces when once established there. He ought to have knocked at every +door in the kingdom for help, rather than accept tutorships, and disturb +households (or providently-minded mistresses of them) with all sorts of +probably groundless apprehensions, founded naturally enough on the good +looks he intrudes. + +This tutor committed the offence next day of showing he had a firm and +easy seat in the saddle, which increased Lady Charlotte's liking for him +and irritated her watchful forecasts. She rode with the young man after +lunch, "to show him the country," and gave him a taste of what he took +for her variable moods. He misjudged her. Like a swimmer going +through warm and cold springs of certain lake waters, he thought her a +capricious ladyship, dangerous for intimacy, alluring to the deeps and +gripping with cramps. + +She pushed him to defend his choice of the tutor's profession. + +"Think you understand boys?" she caught up his words; "you can't. You +can humour them, as you humour women. They're just as hard to read. And +don't tell me a young man can read women. Boys and women go on their +instincts. Egyptologists can spell you hieroglyphs; they'd be stumped, +as Leo would say, to read a spider out of an ink-pot over a sheet of +paper." + +"One gets to interpret by degrees, by observing their habits," the tutor +said, and vexed her with a towering complacency under provocation that +went some way further to melt the woman she was, while her knowledge of +the softness warned her still more of the duty of playing dragon round +such a young man in her house. The despot is alert at every issue, to +every chance; and she was one, the wakefuller for being benevolent; her +mind had no sleep by day. + +For a month she subjected Mr. Matthew Weyburn to the microscope of +her observation and the probe of her instinct. He proved that he could +manage without cajoling a boy. The practical fact established, by +agreement between herself and the unobservant gentleman who was her +husband, Lady Charlotte allowed her meditations to drop an indifferent +glance at the speculative views upon education entertained by this young +tutor. To her mind they were flighty; but she liked him, and as her +feelings dictated to her mind when she had not to think for others, she +spoke of his views toleratingly, almost with an implied approval, after +passing them through the form of burlesque to which she customarily +treated things failing to waft her enthusiasm. In regard to Philippa, +he behaved well: he bestowed more of his attention on Beatrice, nearer +Leo's age, in talk about games and story-books and battles; nothing that +he did when the girls were present betrayed the strutting plumed cock, +bent to attract, or the sickly reptile, thirsty for a prize above him +and meaning to have it, like Satan in Eden. Still, of course, he could +not help his being a handsome fellow, having a vivid face and eyes +transparent, whether blue or green, to flame of the brain exciting them; +and that becomes a picture in the dream of girls--a picture creating the +dream often. And Philippa had asked her grandmother, very ingenuously +indeed, with a most natural candour, why "they saw so little of Leo's +hero." Simple female child! + +However, there was no harm done, and Lady Charlotte liked him. She liked +few. Forthwith, in the manner of her particular head, a restless head, +she fell to work at combinations. + +Thus:--he is a nice young fellow, well bred, no cringing courtier, +accomplished, good at classics, fairish at mathematics, a scholar in +French, German, Italian, with a shrewd knowledge of the different races, +and with sound English sentiment too, and the capacity for writing good +English, although in those views of his the ideas are unusual, therefore +un-English, profoundly so. But his intentions are patriotic; they would +not displease Lord Ormont. He has a worship of Lord Ormont. All we +can say on behalf of an untried inferior is in that,--only the valiant +admire devotedly. Well, he can write grammatical, readable English. What +if Lord Ormont were to take him as a secretary while the Memoirs are +in hand? He might help to chasten the sentences laughed at by those +newspapers. Or he might, being a terrible critic of writing, and funny +about styles, put it in an absurd light, that would cause the Memoirs +to be tossed into the fire. He was made for the post of secretary! The +young man's good looks would be out of harm's way then. If any sprig of +womankind come across him there, it will, at any rate, not be a girl. +Women must take care of themselves. Only the fools among them run to +mischief in the case of a handsome young fellow. + +Supposing a certain woman to be one of the fools? Lady Charlotte merely +suggested it in the dashing current of her meditations--did not strike +it out interrogatively. The woman would be a fine specimen among her +class; that was all. For the favourite of Lord Ormont to stoop from +her place beside him--ay, but women do; heroes have had the woeful +experience of that fact. First we see them aiming themselves at their +hero; next they are shooting an eye at the handsome man. The thirst of +nature comes after that of their fancy, in conventional women. Sick of +the hero tried, tired of their place in the market, no longer ashamed to +acknowledge it, they begin to consult their own taste for beauty--they +have it quite as much as the men have it; and when their worshipped +figure of manliness, in a romantic sombrero, is a threadbare giant, +showing bruises, they sink on their inherent desire for a dance with the +handsome man. And the really handsome man is the most extraordinary of +the rarities. No wonder that when he appears he slays them, walks over +them like a pestilence! + +This young Weyburn would touch the fancy of a woman of a romantic turn. +Supposing her enthusiastic in her worship of the hero, after a number +of years--for anything may be imagined where a woman is concerned--why, +another enthusiasm for the same object, and on the part of a stranger, +a stranger with effective eyes, rapidly leads to sympathy. Suppose the +reverse--the enthusiasm gone to dust, or become a wheezy old bellows, as +it does where there's disparity of age, or it frequently does--then the +sympathy with a good-looking stranger comes more rapidly still. + +These were Lady Charlotte's glances right and left--idle flights of the +eye of a mounted Amazon across hedges at the canter along the main road +of her scheme; which was to do a service to the young man she liked +and to the brother she loved, for the marked advantage of both equally; +perhaps for the chance of a little gossip to follow about that tenacious +woman by whom her brother was held hard and fast, kept away from friends +and relatives, isolated, insomuch as to have given up living on his +estate--the old home!--because he would not disgrace it or incur odium +by taking her there. + +In consequence of Lord Ormont's resistance to pressure from her on two +or three occasions, she chose to nurse and be governed by the maxim for +herself: Never propose a plan to him, if you want it adopted. That was +her way of harmlessly solacing love's vindictiveness for an injury. + +She sent Arthur Abner a letter, thanking him for his recommendation of +young Mr. Weyburn, stating her benevolent wishes as regarded the young +man and "those hateful Memoirs," requesting that her name should not be +mentioned in the affair, because she was anxious on all grounds to have +the proposal accepted by her brother. She could have vowed to herself +that she wrote sincerely. + +"He must want a secretary. He would be shy at an offer of one from me. +Do you hint it, if you get a chance. You gave us Mr. Weyburn, and Mr. +Eglett and I like him. Ormont would too, I am certain. You have obliged +him before; this will be better than anything you have done for us. It +will stop the Memoirs, or else give them a polish. Your young friend +has made me laugh over stuff taken for literature until we put on our +spectacles. Leo jogs along in harness now, and may do some work at +school yet." + +Having posted her letter, she left the issue to chance, as we may when +conscience is easy. An answer came the day before Weyburn's departure. +Arthur Abner had met Lord Ormont in the street, had spoken of the rumour +of Memoirs promised to the world, hinted at the possible need for a +secretary; "Lord Ormont would appoint a day to see Mr. Weyburn." + +Lady Charlotte considered that to be as good as the engagement. + +"So we keep you in the family," she said. "And now look here: you ought +to know my brother's ways, if you're going to serve him. You'll have to +guess at half of everything he tells you; he'll expect you to know the +whole. There's no man so secret. Why? He fears nothing; I can't tell +why. And what his mouth shuts on, he exposes as if in his hand. Of +course he's proud, and good reason. You'll see when you mustn't offend. +A lady's in the house--I hear of it. She takes his name, they say. She +may be a respectable woman--I've heard no scandal. We have to hear of a +Lady Ormont out of Society! We have to suppose it means there's not to +be a real one. He can't marry if he has allowed her to go about bearing +his name. She has a fool of an aunt, I'm told; as often in the house +as not. Good proof of his fondness for the woman, if he swallows half +a year of the aunt! Well, you won't, unless you've mere man's eyes, be +able to help seeing him trying to hide what he suffers from that aunt. +He bears it, like the man he is; but woe to another betraying it! She +has a tongue that goes like the reel of a rod, with a pike bolting out +of the shallows to the snag he knows--to wind round it and defy you to +pull. Often my brother Rowsley and I have fished the day long, and in +hard weather, and brought home a basket; and he boasted of it more than +of anything he has ever done since. That woman holds him away from me +now. I say no harm of her. She may be right enough from her point of +view; or it mayn't be owing to her. I wouldn't blame a woman. Well, +but my point with you is, you swallow the woman's aunt--the lady's +aunt--without betraying you suffer at all. Lord Ormont has eyes of an +eagle for a speck above the surface. All the more because the aunt is a +gabbling idiot does he--I say it seeing it--fire up to defend her from +the sneer of the lip or half a sign of it! No, you would be an your +guard; I can trust you. Of course you'd behave like the gentleman you +are where any kind of woman's concerned; but you mustn't let a shadow +be seen, think what you may. The woman--lady--calling herself Lady +Ormont,--poor woman, I should do the same in her place,--she has a hard +game to play; I have to be for my family: she has manners, I'm told; +holds herself properly. She fancies she brings him up to the altar, in +the end, by decent behaviour. That's a delusion. It's creditable to her, +only she can't understand the claims of the family upon a man like +my brother. When you have spare time--'kick-ups,' he need to call it, +writing to me from school--come here; you're welcome, after three days' +notice. I shall be glad to see you again. You've gone some way to make a +man of Leo." + +He liked her well: he promised to come. She was a sinewy bite of the +gentle sex, but she had much flavour, and she gave nourishment. + +"Let me have three days' notice," she repeated. + +"Not less, Lady Charlotte," said he. + +Weyburn received intimation from Arthur Abner of the likely day Lord +Ormont would appoint, and he left Olmer for London to hold himself in +readiness. Lady Charlotte and Leo drove him to meet the coach. Philippa, +so strangely baffled in her natural curiosity, begged for a seat; she +begged to be allowed to ride. Petitions were rejected. She stood at +the window seeing "Grandmama's tutor," as she named him, carried off by +grandmama. Her nature was avenged on her tyrant grandmama: it brought +up almost to her tongue thoughts which would have remained subterranean, +under control of her habit of mind, or the nursery's modesty, if she +had been less tyrannically treated. They were subterranean thoughts, +Nature's original, such as the sense of injustice will rouse in young +women; and they are better unstirred, for they ripen girls over-rapidly +when they are made to revolve near the surface. It flashed on the girl +why she had been treated tyrannically. + +"Grandmama has good taste in tutors," was all that she said while the +thoughts rolled over. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. RECOGNITION + +Our applicant for the post of secretary entered the street of Lord +Ormont's London house, to present himself to his boyhood's hero by +appointment. + +He was to see, perhaps to serve, the great soldier. Things had come to +this; and he thought it singular. But for the previous introduction to +Lady Charlotte, he would have thought it passing wonderful. He ascribed +it to the whirligig. + +The young man was not yet of an age to gather knowledge of himself +and of life from his present experience of the fact, that passionate +devotion to an object strikes a vein through circumstances, as a +travelling run of flame darts the seeming haphazard zigzags to catch +at the dry of dead wood amid the damp; and when passion has become +quiescent in the admirer, there is often the unsubsided first impulsion +carrying it on. He will almost sorely embrace his idol with one or other +of the senses. + +Weyburn still read the world as it came to him, by bite, marvelling at +this and that, after the fashion of most of us. He had not deserted his +adolescent's hero, or fallen upon analysis of a past season. But he was +now a young man, stoutly and cognizantly on the climb, with a good aim +overhead, axed green youth's enthusiasms a step below his heels: one +of the lovers of life, beautiful to behold, when we spy into them; +generally their aspect is an enlivenment, whatever may be the carving +of their features. For the sake of holy unity, this lover of life, +whose gaze was to the front in hungry animation, held fast to his young +dreams, perceiving a soul of meaning in them, though the fire might have +gone out; and he confessed to a past pursuit of delusions. Young men of +this kind will have, for the like reason, a similar rational sentiment +on behalf of our world's historic forward march, while admitting that +history has to be taken from far backward if we would gain assurance of +man's advance. It nerves an admonished ambition. + +He was ushered into a London house's library, looking over a niggard +enclosure of gravel and dull grass, against a wall where ivy dribbled. +An armchair was beside the fireplace. To right and left of it a floreate +company of books in high cases paraded shoulder to shoulder, without +a gap; grenadiers on the line. Weyburn read the titles on their +scarlet-and-blue facings. They were approved English classics; honoured +veterans, who have emerged from the conflict with contemporary opinion, +stamped excellent, or have been pushed by the roar of contemporaneous +applauses to wear the leather-and-gilt uniform of our Immortals, until +a more qualmish posterity disgorges them. The books had costly bindings. +Lord Ormont's treatment of Literature appeared to resemble Lady +Charlotte's, in being reverential and uninquiring. The books she bought +to read were Memoirs of her time by dead men and women once known to +her. These did fatigue duty in cloth or undress. It was high drill with +all of Lord Ormont's books, and there was not a modern or a minor name +among the regiments. They smelt strongly of the bookseller's lump lots +by order; but if a show soldiery, they were not a sham, like a certain +row of venerably-titled backs, that Lady Charlotte, without scruple, +left standing to blow an ecclesiastical trumpet of empty contents; any +one might have his battle of brains with them, for the twining of an +absent key. + +The door opened. Weyburn bowed to his old star in human shape: a grey +head on square shoulders, filling the doorway. He had seen at Olmer +Lady Charlotte's treasured miniature portrait of her brother; a perfect +likeness, she said--complaining the neat instant of injustice done to +the fire of his look. + +Fire was low down behind the eyes at present. They were quick to scan +and take summary of their object, as the young man felt while observing +for himself. Height and build of body were such as might be expected in +the brother of Lady Charlotte and from the tales of his prowess. Weyburn +had a glance back at Cuper's boys listening to the tales. + +The soldier-lord's manner was courteously military--that of an +established superior indifferent to the deferential attitude he must +needs enact. His curt nick of the head, for a response to the visitor's +formal salutation, signified the requisite acknowledgment, like a city +creditor's busy stroke of the type-stamp receipt upon payment. + +The ceremony over, he pitched a bugle voice to fit the contracted area: +"I hear from Mr. Abner that you have made acquaintance with Olmer. Good +hunting country there." + +"Lady Charlotte kindly gave me a mount, my lord." + +"I knew your father by name--Colonel Sidney Weyburn. You lost him at +Toulouse. We were in the Peninsula; I was at Talavera with him. Bad day +for our cavalry." + +"Our officers were young at their work then." + +"They taught the Emperor's troops to respect a charge of English horse. +It was teaching their fox to set traps for them." + +Lord Ormont indicated a chair. He stood. + +"The French had good cavalry leaders," Weyburn said, for cover to a +continued study of the face, + +"Montbrun, yes: Murat, Lassalle, Bessieres. Under the Emperor they had." + +"You think them not at home in the saddle, my lord?" + +"Frenchmen have nerves; horses are nerves. They pile excitement too +high. When cool, they're among the best. None of them had head for +command of all the arms." + +"One might say the same of Seidlitz and Ziethen?" + +"Of Ziethen. Seidlitz had a wider grasp, I suppose." He pursed his +month, pondering. "No; and in the Austrian service, too; generals +of cavalry are left to whistle for an independent command. There's a +jealousy of our branch!" The injured warrior frowned and hummed. He +spoke his thought mildly: "Jealousy of the name of soldier in this +country! Out of the service, is the place to recommend. I'd have advised +a son of mine to train for a jockey rather than enter it. We deal with +that to-morrow, in my papers. You come to me? Mr. Abner has arranged +the terms? So I see you at ten in the morning. I am glad to meet a young +man--Englishman--who takes an interest in the service." + +Weyburn fancied the hearing of a step; he heard the whispering dress. It +passed him; a lady went to the armchair. She took her seat, as she had +moved, with sedateness, the exchange of a toneless word with my lord. +She was a brune. He saw that when he rose to do homage. + +Lord Ormont resumed: "Some are born to it, must be soldiers; and in +peace they are snubbed by the heads; in war they are abused by the +country. They don't understand in England how to treat an army; how to +make one either! + +"The gentleman--Mr. Weyburn: Mr. Arthur Abner's recommendation," he +added hurriedly, with a light wave of his hand and a murmur, that might +be the lady's title; continuing: "A young man of military tastes should +take service abroad. They're in earnest about it over there. Here +they play at it; and an army's shipped to land without commissariat, +ambulances, medical stores, and march against the odds, as usual--if it +can march! + +"Albuera, my lord?" + +"Our men can spurt, for a flick o' the whip. They're expected to be +constantly ready for doing prodigies--to repair the country's omissions. +All the country cares for is to hope Dick Turpin may get to York. Our +men are good beasts; they give the best in 'em, and drop. More's the +scandal to a country that has grand material and overtasks it. A blazing +disaster ends the chapter!" + +This was talk of an injured veteran. It did not deepen the hue of his +ruddied skin. He spoke in the tone of matter of fact. Weyburn had been +prepared for something of the sort by his friend, Arthur Abner. He noted +the speaker's heightened likeness under excitement to Lady Charlotte. +Excitement came at an early call of their voices to both; and both +had handsome, open features, bluntly cut, nothing of aquiline or the +supercilious; eyes bluish-grey, in arched recesses, horny between +the thick lids, lively to shoot their meaning when the trap-mouth was +active; effectively expressing promptitute for combat, pleasure in +attack, wrestle, tag, whatever pertained to strife; an absolute sense of +their right. + +As there was a third person present at this dissuasion of military +topics, the silence of the lady drew Weyburn to consult her opinion in +her look. + +It was on him. Strange are the woman's eyes which can unoffendingly +assume the privilege to dwell on such a living object as a man without +become gateways for his return look, and can seem in pursuit of thoughts +while they enfold. They were large dark eyes, eyes of southern night. +They sped no shot; they rolled forth an envelopment. A child among toys, +caught to think of other toys, may gaze in that way. But these were a +woman's eyes. + +He gave Lord Ormont his whole face, as an auditor should. He was +interested besides, as he told a ruffled conscience. He fell upon the +study of his old hero determinedly. + +The pain of a memory waking under pillows, unable to do more than strain +for breath, distracted his attention. There was a memory: that was +all he knew. Or else he would have lashed himself for hanging on the +beautiful eyes of a woman. To be seeing and hearing his old hero was +wonder enough. + +Recollections of Lady Charlotte's plain hints regarding the lady present +resolved to the gross retort, that her eyes were beautiful. And he knew +them--there lay the strangeness. They were known beautiful eyes, in a +foreign land of night and mist. + +Lord Ormont was discoursing with racy eloquence of our hold on India: +his views in which respect were those of Cuper's boys. Weyburn ventured +a dot-running description of the famous ride, and out flew an English +soldier's grievance. But was not the unjustly-treated great soldier well +rewarded, whatever the snubs and the bitterness, with these large dark +eyes in his house, for his own? Eyes like these are the beginning of +a young man's world; they nerve, inspire, arm him, colour his life; he +would labour, fight, die for them. It seemed to Weyburn a blessedness +even to behold them. So it had been with him at the early stage; and his +heart went swifter, memory fetched a breath. Memory quivered eyelids, +when the thought returned--of his having known eyes as lustrous. +First lights of his world, they had more volume, warmth, mystery--were +sweeter. Still, these in the room were sisters to them. They quickened +throbs; they seemed a throb of the heart made visible. + +That was their endowment of light and lustre simply, and the mystical +curve of the lids. For so they could look only because the heart was +disengaged from them. They were but heavenly orbs. + +The lady's elbow was on an arm of her chair, her forefinger at her +left temple. Her mind was away, one might guess; she could hardly be +interested in talk of soldiering and of foreign army systems, jealous +English authorities and officials, games, field-sports. She had personal +matters to think of. + +Adieu until to-morrow to the homes she inhabited! The street was a +banishment and a relief when Weyburn's first interview with Lord Ormont +was over. + +He rejoiced to tell his previous anticipations that he had not been +disappointed; and he bade hero-worshippers expect no gilded figure. We +gather heroes as we go, if we are among the growing: our constancy is +shown in the not discarding of our old ones. He held to his earlier +hero, though he had seen him, and though he could fancy he saw round +him. + +Another, too, had been a hero-lover. How did that lady of night's eyes +come to fall into her subjection? + +He put no question as to the name she bore; it hung in a black +suspense--vividly at its blackest illuminated her possessor. A man is +a hero to some effect who wins a woman like this; and, if his glory +bespells her, so that she flings all to the winds for him, burns the +world; if, for solely the desperate rapture of belonging to him, she +consents of her free will to be one of the nameless and discoloured, he +shines in a way to make the marrow of men thrill with a burning envy. +For that must be the idolatrous devotion desired by them all. + +Weyburn struck down upon his man's nature--the bad in us, when beauty +of woman is viewed; or say, the old original revolutionary, best kept +untouched; for a touch or a meditative pause above him, fetches him up +to roam the civilized world devouringly and lawlessly. It is the special +peril of the young lover of life, that an inflammability to beauty in +women is in a breath intense with him. He is, in truth, a thinly-sealed +volcano of our imperishable ancient father; and has it in him to be the +multitudinously-amorous of the mythologic Jove. Give him head, he can be +civilization's devil. Is she fair and under a shade?--then is she doubly +fair. The shadow about her secretes mystery, just as the forest breeds +romance: and mystery is a measureless realm. If we conceive it, we have +a mysterious claim on her who is the heart of it. + +He marched on that road to the music of sonorous brass for some drunken +minutes. + +The question came, What of the man who takes advantage of her +self-sacrifice? + +It soon righted him, and he did Lord Ormont justice, and argued the case +against Lady Charlotte's naked hints. + +This dark-eyed heroine's bearing was assured, beyond an air of +dependency. Her deliberate short nod to him at his leave-taking, and the +toneless few words she threw to my lord, signified sufficiently that she +did not stand defying the world or dreading it. + +She had by miracle the eyes which had once charmed him--could +again--would always charm. She reminded him of Aminta Farrell's very +eyes under the couchant-dove brows--something of her mouth, the dimple +running from a corner. She had, as Aminta had, the self-collected and +self-cancelled look, a realm in a look, that was neither depth nor +fervour, nor a bestowal, nor an allurement; nor was it an exposure, +though there seemed no reserve. One would be near the meaning in +declaring it to bewilder men with the riddle of openhandedness. We read +it--all may read it--as we read inexplicable plain life; in which let +us have a confiding mind, despite the blows at our heart, and some +understanding will enter us. + +He shut the door upon picture and speculations, returning to them by +another door. The lady had not Aminta's freshness: she might be taken +for an elder sister of Aminta. But Weyburn wanted to have her position +defined before he set her beside Aminta. He writhed under Lady +Charlotte's tolerating scorn of "the young woman." It roused an uneasy +sentiment of semi-hostility in the direction of my lord; and he had no +personal complaint to make. + +Lord Ormont was cordial on the day of the secretary's installation; as +if--if one might dare to guess it--some one had helped him to a friendly +judgement. + +The lady of Aminta's eyes was absent at the luncheon table. She came +into the room a step, to speak to Lord Ormont, dressed for a drive to +pay a visit. + +The secretary was unnoticed. + +Lord Ormont put inquiries to him at table, for the why of his having +avoided the profession of arms; and apparently considered that the +secretary had made a mistake, and that he would have committed a greater +error in becoming a soldier--"in this country." A man with a grievance +is illogical under his burden. He mentioned the name "Lady Ormont" +distinctly during some remarks on travel. Lady Ormont preferred the +Continent. + +Two days later she came to the armchair, as before, met Weyburn's eyes +when he raised them; gave him no home in hers--not a temporary shelter +from the pelting of interrogations. She hardly spoke. Why did she come? + +But how was it that he was drawn to think of her? Absent or present, +she was round him, like the hills of a valley. She was round his +thoughts--caged them; however high, however far they flew, they were +conscious of her. + +She took her place at the midday meal. She had Aminta's voice in some +tones; a mellower than Aminta's--the voice of one of Aminta's family. +She had the trick of Aminta's upper lip in speaking. Her look on him was +foreign; a civil smile as they conversed. She was very much at home with +my lord, whom she rallied for his addiction to his Club at a particular +hour of the afternoon. She conversed readily. She reminded him, +incidentally that her aunt would arrive early next day. He informed her, +some time after, of an engagement "to tiffin with a brother officer," +and she nodded. + +They drove away together while the secretary was at his labour of +sorting the heap of autobiographical scraps in a worn dispatch-box, pen +and pencil jottings tossed to swell the mess when they had relieved +an angry reminiscence. He noticed, heedlessly at the moment, feminine +handwriting on some few clear sheets among them. + +Next day he was alone in the library. He sat before the box, opened it +and searched, merely to quiet his annoyance for having left those sheets +of the fair amanuensis unexamined. They were not discoverable. They had +gone. + +He stood up at the stir of the door. It was she, and she acknowledged +his bow; she took her steps to her chair. + +He was informed that Lord Ormont had an engagement, and he remarked, "I +can do the work very well." She sat quite silent. + +He read first lines of the scraps, laid them in various places, as in +a preparation for conjurer's tricks at cards; refraining from a glance, +lest he should disconcert the eyes he felt to be on him fitfully. + +At last she spoke, and he knew Aminta in his hearing and sight. + +"Is Emile Grenat still anglomane?" + +An instant before her voice was heard he had been persuading himself +that the points of unlikeness between his young Aminta and this tall +and stately lady of the proud reserve in her bearing flouted the +resemblance. + + + + +CHAPTER V. IN WHICH THE SHADES OF BROWNY AND MATEY ADVANCE AND RETIRE + +"Emile is as anglomane as ever, and not a bit less a Frenchman," Weyburn +said, in a tone of one who muffles a shock at the heart. + +"It would be the poorer compliment to us," she rejoined. + +They looked at one another; she dropped her eyelids, he looked away. + +She had the grand manner by nature. She was the woman of the girl once +known. + +"A soldier, is he?" + +"Emile's profession and mine are much alike, or will be." + +"A secretary?" + +Her deadness of accent was not designed to carry her opinion of the post +of secretary. + +It brought the reply: "We hope to be schoolmasters." + +She drew in a breath; there was a thin short voice, hardly voice, as +when one of the unschooled minor feelings has been bruised. After a +while she said-- + +"Does he think it a career?" + +"Not brilliant." + +"He was formed for a soldier." + +"He had to go as the road led." + +"A young man renouncing ambition!" + +"Considering what we can do best." + +"It signifies the taste for what he does." + +"Certainly that." + +Weyburn had senses to read the word "schoolmaster" in repetition behind +her shut mouth. He was sharply sensible of a fall. + +The task with his papers occupied him. If he had a wish, it was to +sink so low in her esteem as to be spurned. A kick would have been +a refreshment. Yet he was unashamed of the cause invoking it. We are +instruments to the touch of certain women, and made to play strange +tunes. + +"Mr. Cuper flourishes?" + +"The school exists. I have not been down there. I met Mr. Shalders +yesterday. He has left the school." + +"You come up from Olmer?" + +"I was at Olmer last week, Lady Ormont." + +An involuntary beam from her eyes thanked him for her title at that +juncture of the dialogue. She grew more spirited. + +"Mr. Shalders has joined the Dragoons, has he?" + +"The worthy man has a happy imagination. He goes through a campaign +daily." + +"It seems to one to dignify his calling." + +"I like his enthusiasm." + +The lady withdrew into her thoughts; Weyburn fell upon his work. + +Mention of the military cloak of enthusiasm covering Shalders, brought +the scarce credible old time to smite at his breast, in the presence of +these eyes. A ringing of her title of Lady Ormont rendered the present +time the incredible. + +"I can hardly understand a young Frenchman's not entering the army," she +said. + +"The Napoleonic legend is weaker now," said he. + +"The son of an officer!" + +"Grandson." + +"It was his choice to be,--he gave it up without reluctance?" + +"Emile obeyed the command of his parents," Weyburn answered; and he was +obedient to the veiled direction of her remark, in speaking of himself: +"I had a reason, too." + +"One wonders!" + +"It would have impoverished my mother's income to put aside a small +allowance for me for years. She would not have hesitated. I then set my +mind on the profession of schoolmaster." + +"Emile Grenat was a brave boy. Has he no regrets?" + +"Neither of us has a regret." + +"He began ambitiously." + +"It's the way at the beginning." + +"It is not usually abjured." + +"I'm afraid we neither of us 'dignify our calling' by discontent with +it!" + +A dusky flash, worth seeing, came on her cheeks. "I respect +enthusiasms," she said; and it was as good to him to hear as the begging +pardon, though clearly she could not understand enthusiasm for the +schoolmaster's career. + +Light of evidence was before him, that she had a friendly curiosity to +know what things had led to their new meeting under these conditions. +He sketched them cursorily; there was little to tell--little, that is; +appealing to a romantic mind for interest. Aware of it, by sympathy, +he degraded the narrative to a flatness about as cheering as a suburban +London Sunday's promenade. Sympathy caused the perverseness. He felt her +disillusionment; felt with it and spread a feast of it. She had to hear +of studies at Caen and at a Paris Lycee; French fairly mastered; German, +the same; Italian, the same; after studies at Heidelberg, Asti, and +Florence; between four and five months at Athens (he was needlessly +precise), in tutorship with a young nobleman: no events, nor a spot of +colour. Thus did he wilfully, with pain to himself, put an extinguisher +on the youth painted brilliant and eminent in a maiden's imagination. + +"So there can no longer be thought of the army," she remarked; and the +remark had a sort of sigh, though her breathing was equable. + +"Unless a big war knocks over all rules and the country comes praying us +to serve," he said. + +"You would not refuse then?" + +"Not in case of need. One may imagine a crisis when they would give +commissions to men of my age or older for the cavalry--heavy losses of +officers." + +She spoke, as if urged by a sting to revert to the distasteful: "That +profession--must you not take... enter into orders if you aim at any +distinction?" + +"And a member of the Anglican Church would not be allowed to exchange +his frock for a cavalry sabre," said he. "That is true. I do not propose +to settle as a schoolmaster in England." + +"Where?" + +"On the Continent." + +"Would not America be better?" + +"It would not so well suit the purpose in view for us." + +"There are others besides?" + +"Besides Emile, there is a German and an Italian and a Swiss." + +"It is a Company?" + +"A Company of schoolmasters! Companies of all kinds are forming. +Colleges are Companies. And they have their collegians. Our aim is +at pupils; we have no ambition for any title higher than School and +Schoolmaster; it is not a Company." + +So, like Nature parading her skeleton to youthful adorers of her face, +he insisted on reducing to hideous material wreck the fair illusion, +which had once arrayed him in alluring promise. + +She explained; "I said, America. You would be among Protestants in +America." + +"Catholics and Protestants are both welcome to us, according to our +scheme. And Germans, French, English, Americans, Italians, if they will +come; Spaniards and Portuguese, and Scandinavians, Russians as well. And +Jews; Mahommedans too, if only they will come! The more mixed, the more +it hits our object." + +"You have not stated where on the Continent it is to be." + +"The spot fixed on is in Switzerland." + +"You will have scenery." + +"I hold to that, as an influence." + +A cool vision of the Bernese Alps encircled the young schoolmaster; and +she said, "It would influence girls; I dare say." + +"A harder matter with boys, of course--at first. We think we may make it +serve." + +"And where is the spot? Is that fixed on?" + +"Fifteen miles from Berne, on elevated land, neighbouring a water, not +quite to be called a lake, unless in an auctioneer's advertisement." + +"I am glad of the lake. I could not look on a country home where there +was no swimming. You will be head of the school." + +"There must be a head." + +"Is the school likely to be established soon?" + +He fell into her dead tone: "Money is required for establishments. I +have a Reversion coming some day; I don't dabble in post obits." + +He waited for farther questions. They were at an end. + +"You have your work to do, Mr. Weyburn." + +Saying that, she bowed an implied apology for having kept him from +it, and rose. She bowed again as she passed through the doorway, in +acknowledgment of his politeness. + +Here; then, was the end of the story of Browny and Matey. Such was his +thought under the truncheon-stroke of their colloquy. Lines of Browny's +letters were fiery waving ribands about him, while the coldly gracious +bow of the Lady wrote Finis. + +The gulf between the two writings remained unsounded. It gave a heave to +the old passion; but stirred no new one; he had himself in hand now, +and he shut himself up when the questions bred of amazement buzzed and +threatened to storm. After all, what is not curious in this world? The +curious thing would be if curious things should fail to happen. Men have +been saying it since they began to count and turn corners. And let +us hold off from speculating when there is or but seems a shadow of +unholiness over that mole-like business. There shall be no questions; +and as to feelings, the same. They, if petted for a moment beneath the +shadow, corrupt our blood. Weyburn was a man to have them by the throat +at the birth. + +Still they thronged; heavy work of strangling had to be done. Her tone +of disappointment with the schoolmaster bit him, and it flattered +him. The feelings leapt alive, equally venomous from the wound and the +caress. They pushed to see, had to be repelled from seeing, the girl +Browny in the splendid woman; they had lightning memories: not the pain +of his grip could check their voice on the theme touching her happiness +or the reverse. And this was an infernal cunning. He paused perforce to +inquire, giving them space for the breeding of their multitudes. Was she +happy? Did she not seem too meditative, enclosed, toneless, at her age? +Vainly the persecuted fellow said to himself: "But what is it to me +now?"--The Browny days were over. The passion for the younger Aminta was +over--buried; and a dream of power belonging to those days was not +yet more than visionary. It had moved her once, when it was a young +soldier's. She treated the schoolmaster's dream as vapour, and the old +days as dead and ghostless. She did rightly. How could they or she or he +be other than they were! + +With that sage exclamation, he headed into the Browny days and breasted +them; and he had about him the living foamy sparkle of the very time, +until the Countess of Ormont breathed the word "Schoolmaster"; when, at +once, it was dusty land where buoyant waters had been, and the armies +of the facts, in uniform drab, with some feathers and laces, and a +significant surpliced figure, decorously covering the wildest of +Cupids, marched the standard of the winking gold-piece, which is their +nourishing sun and eclipser of all suns that foster dreams. + +As you perceive, he was drawing swiftly to the vortex of the fools, and +round and round he went, lucky to float. + +His view of the business of the schoolmaster plucked him from the whirl. +She despised it; he upheld it. He stuck to his view, finding their +antagonism on the subject wholesome for him. All that she succeeded in +doing was to rob it of the aurora colour clothing everything on which +Matey Weyburn set his aim. Her contempt of it, whether as a profession +in itself or as one suitable to the former young enthusiast for arms, +dwarfed it to appear like the starved plants under Greenland skies. But +those are of a sturdy genus; they mean to live; they live, perforce, of +the right to live; they will prove their right in a coming season, +when some one steps near and wonders at them, and from more closely +observing; gets to understand, learning that the significance and the +charm of earth will be as well shown by them as by her tropical fair +flaunters or the tenderly-nurtured exotics. + +An unopened coffer of things to be said in defence of--no, on behalf +of--no, in honour of the Profession of Schoolmaster, perhaps to the +convincing of Aminta, Lady Ormont, was glanced at; a sentence or two +leapt out and stepped forward, and had to retire. He preferred to the +fathering of tricky, windy phrases, the being undervalued--even by her. +He was taught to see again how Rhetoric haunts, and Rhetoric bedevils, +the vindication of the clouded, especially in the case of a disesteemed +Profession requiring one to raise it and impose it upon the antagonistic +senses for the bewildering of the mind. One has to sound it loudly; +there is no treating it, as in the advocacy of the cases of flesh and +blood, with the masterly pathos of designed simplicity. And Weyburn +was Cuper's Matey Weyburn still in his loathing of artifice to +raise emotion, loathing of the affected, the stilted, the trumpet of +speech--always excepting school-exercises in the tongues, the unmasking +of a Catiline, the address of a General, Athenian or other, to troops. + +He kept his coffer shut; and, for a consequence, he saw the contents as +an avenue of blossom leading to vistas of infinite harvest. + +She was Lady Ormont: Aminta shared the title of his old hero! He refused +to speculate upon how it had come to pass, and let the curtain hang, +though dramas and romances, with the miracles involved in them, were +agitated by a transient glimpse at the curtain. + +Well! and he hoped to be a member of the Profession she despised: hoped +it with all his heart. And one good effect of his giving his heart to +the hope was, that he could hold from speculating and from feeling, even +from pausing to wonder at the most wonderful turn of events. Blessed +antagonism drove him to be braced by thoughts upon the hardest of +the schoolmaster's tasks--bright winter thoughts, prescribing to him +satisfaction with a faith in the sowing, which may be his only reaping. +Away fly the boys in sheaves. After his toil with them, to instruct, +restrain, animate, point their minds, they leave him, they plunge into +the world and are gone. Will he see them again? It is a flickering +perhaps. To sustain his belief that he has done serviceable work, he +must be sore of his having charged them with good matter. How can the +man do it, if, during his term of apprenticeship, he has allowed himself +to dally here and there, down to moony dreamings over inscrutable +beautiful eyes of a married lady; for the sole reason that he meets her +unexpectedly, after an exchange of letters with her in long-past days at +school, when she was an inexperienced girl, who knew not what she vowed, +and he a flighty-headed youngster, crying out to be the arrow of any bow +that was handy? Yea, she was once that girl, named Browny by the boys. + +Temptation threw warm light on the memory, and very artfully, by +conjuring up the faces, cries, characters, all the fun of the boys. +There was no possibility of forgetting her image in those days; he had, +therefore, to live with it and to live near the grown woman--Time's +present answer to the old riddle. It seemed to him, that instead +of sorting Lord Ormont's papers, he ought to be at sharp exercise. +According to his prescript, sharp exercise of lungs and limbs is a man's +moral aid against temptation. He knew it as the one trusty antidote for +him, who was otherwise the vessel of a temperament pushing to mutiny. +Certainly it is the best philosophy youth can pretend to practise; and +Lord Ormont kept him from it! Worse than that, the slips and sheets of +paper in the dispatch-box were not an exercise of the mind even; there +was nothing to grapple with--no diversion; criticism passed by them +indulgently, if not benevolently. + +Quite apart from the subject inscribed on them, Weyburn had now and +again a blow at the breast, of untraceable origin. For he was well +enough aware that the old days when Browny imagined him a hero, in +drinking his praises of a brighter, were drowned. They were dead; but +here was she the bride of the proved hero. His praises might have helped +in causing her willingness--devotional readiness, he could fancy--to +yield her hand. Perhaps at the moment when the hero was penning some of +the Indian slips here, the boy at school was preparing Aminta; but he +could not be responsible for a sacrifice of the kind suggested by Lady +Charlotte. And no, there had been no such sacrifice, although Lord +Ormont's inexplicable treatment of his young countess, under cover of +his notorious reputation with women, conduced to the suspicion. + +While the vagrant in Weyburn was thus engaged, his criticism of the +soldier-lord's field-English on paper let the stuff go tolerantly +unexamined, but with a degree of literary contempt at heart for the +writer who had that woman-scented reputation and expressed himself so +poorly. The sentiment was outside of reason. We do, nevertheless, expect +our Don Juans to deliver their minds a trifle elegantly; if not in +classic English, on paper; and when we find one of them inflicting +cruelty, as it appears, and the victim is a young woman, a beautiful +young woman, she pleads to us poetically against the bearish sentences +of his composition. We acknowledge, however, that a mere sentiment, +entertained possibly by us alone, should not be permitted to condemn him +unheard. + +Lady Ormont was not seen again. After luncheon at a solitary table, the +secretary worked till winter's lamps were lit; and then shone freedom, +with assurance to him that he would escape from the miry mental ditch +he had been floundering in since Aminta revealed herself. Sunday was +the glorious day to follow, with a cleansing bath of a walk along the +southern hills; homely English scenery to show to a German friend, +one of his "Company." Half a dozen good lads were pledged to the walk; +bearing which in view, it could be felt that this nonsensical puzzlement +over his relations to the moods and tenses of a married woman would be +bounced out of recollection before nightfall. The landscape given off +any of the airy hills of Surrey would suffice to do it. + +A lady stood among her boxes below, as he descended the stairs to cross +the hall. He knew her for the person Lady Charlotte called "the woman's +aunt," whom Lord Ormont could not endure--a forgiven old enemy, Mrs. +Nargett Pagnell. + +He saluted. She stared, and corrected her incivility with "Ah, yes," and +a formal smile. + +If not accidentally delayed on her journey, she had been needlessly the +cause why Lord Ormont hugged his Club during the morning and afternoon. +Weyburn was pushed to think of the matter by remembrance of his foregone +resentment at her having withdrawn Aminta from Miss Vincent's three days +earlier than the holiday time. The resentment was over; but a germ of +it must have sprang from the dust to prompt the kindling leap his memory +took, out of all due connection; like a lightning among the crags. +It struck Aminta smartly. He called to mind the conversation at table +yesterday. Had she played on Lord Ormont's dislike of the aunt to drive +him forth for some purpose of her own? If so, the little trick had been +done with deplorable spontaneity or adeptness of usage. What was the +purpose?--to converse with an old acquaintance, undisturbed by Lord +Ormont and her aunt? Neatly done, supposing the surmise correct. + +But what was there in the purpose? He sifted rapidly for the gist of the +conversation; reviewed the manner of it, the words, the sound they had, +the feelings they touched; then owned that the question could not +be answered. Owning, further, that the recurrence of these idiotic +speculations, feelings, questions, wrote him down as both dull fellow +and impertinent, he was unabled to restore Aminta to the queenly place +she took above the schoolmaster, who was very soon laughing at his fever +or flash of the afternoon. The day had brought a great surprise, nothing +more. Twenty minutes of fencing in the a salle d'armes of an Italian +captain braced him to health, and shifted scenes of other loves, lighter +loves, following the Browny days--not to be called loves; in fact; +hardly beyond inclinations. Nevertheless, inclinations are an +infidelity. To meet a married woman, and be mooning over her because she +gave him her eyes and her handwriting when a girl, was enough to +rouse an honest fellow's laugh at himself, in the contemplation of +his intermediate amorous vagabondage. Had he ever known the veritable +passion after Browny sank from his ken? Let it be confessed, never. His +first love was his only true love, despite one shuddering episode, oddly +humiliating to recollect, though he had not behaved badly. So, then, +by right of his passion, thus did eternal justice rule it: that Browny +belonged, to Matey Weyburn, Aminta to Lord Ormont. Aminta was a lady +blooming in the flesh, Browny was the past's pale phantom; for which +reason he could call her his own, without harm done to any one, and +with his usual appetite for dinner, breakfast, lunch, whatever the meal +supplied by the hour. + +It would somewhat alarmingly have got to Mr. Weyburn's conscience +through a disturbance of his balance, telling him that he was on a +perilous road, if his relish for food had been blunted. He had his +axiom on the subject, and he was wrong in the general instance, for +the appetites of rogues and ogres are not known to fail. As regarded +himself, he was eminently right; and he could apply it to boys also, +to all young people--the unlaunched, he called them. He counted himself +among the launched, no doubt, and had breasted seas; but the boy was +alive, a trencherman lad, in the coming schoolmaster, and told him +profitable facts concerning his condition; besides throwing a luminous +ray on the arcane of our elusive youthful. If they have no stout zest +for eating, put Query against them. + +His customary enjoyment of dinner convinced Mr. Weyburn that he had +not brooded morbidly over his phantom Browny, and could meet Aminta, +Countess of Ormont, on the next occasion with the sentiments proper to +a common official. Did she not set him a commendable example? He admired +her for not concealing her disdain of the aspirant schoolmaster, quite +comprehending, by sympathy, why the woman should reproach the girl who +had worshipped heroes, if this was a full-grown specimen; and the reply +of the shamed girl, that in her ignorance she could not know better. He +spared the girl, but he laughed at the woman he commended, laughed at +himself. + +Aminta's humour was being stirred about the same time. She and her +aunt were at the dinner-table in the absence of my lord. The dinner had +passed with the stiff dialogue peculiar to couples under supervision of +their inferiors; and, as soon as the room was clear, she had asked her +aunt, touching the secretary: "Have you seen him?" + +Mrs. Nargett Pagnell's answer could have been amusing only to one whose +intimate knowledge of her found it characteristically salt; for she +was a lady of speech addressed ever directly or roundabout to the chief +point of business between herself and her hearer, and the more she was +brief, oblique, far-shooting, the more comically intelligible she was to +her niece. She bent her head to signify that she had seen the secretary, +and struck the table with both hands, exclaiming: + +"Well, to be sure, Lord Ormont!" + +Their discussion, before they descended the stairs to dinner, concerned +his lordship's extraordinary indifference to the thronging of handsome +young men around his young countess. + +Here, the implication ran, is one established in the house. + +Aminta's thoughts could be phrased: "Yes, that is true, for one part of +it." + +As for the other part, the ascent of a Phoebus Apollo, with his golden +bow and quiver off the fairest of Eastern horizon skies, followed +suddenly by the sight of him toppling over in Mr. Cuper's long-skirted +brown coat, with spectacles and cane, is an image that hardly exceeds +the degradation she conceived. It was past ludicrous; yet admitted of no +woefulness, nothing soothingly pathetic. It smothered and barked at the +dreams of her blooming spring of life, to which her mind had latterly +been turning back, for an escape from sour, one may say cynical, +reflections, the present issue of a beautiful young woman's first savour +of battle with the world. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. IN A MOOD OF LANGUOR + +Up in Aminta's amber dressing-room; Mrs. Nargett Pagnell alluded sadly +to the long month of separation, and begged her niece to let her have in +plain words an exact statement of the present situation; adding, "Items +will do." Thereupon she slipped into prattle and held the field. + +She was the known, worthy, good, intolerable woman whom the burgess +turns out for his world in regiments, that do and look and all but step +alike; and they mean well, and have conventional worships and material +aspirations, and very peculiar occult refinements, with a blind head and +a haphazard gleam of acuteness, impressive to acquaintances, convincing +themselves that they impersonate sagacity. She had said this, done that; +and it was, by proof, Providence consenting, the right thing. A niece, +written down in her girlhood, because of her eyes and her striking air +and excellent deportment, as mate for a nobleman, marries, him before +she is out of her teens. "I said, She shall be a countess." A countess +she is. Providence does not comply with our predictions in order +to stultify us. Admitting the position of affairs for the moment as +extraordinary, we are bound by what has happened to expect they will be +conformable in the end. Temporarily warped, we should say of them. + +She could point to the reason: it was Lord Ormont's blunt +misunderstanding of her character. The burgess's daughter was refining +to an appreciation of the exquisite so rapidly that she could criticize +patricians. My lord had never forgiven her for correcting him in his +pronunciation of her name by marriage. Singular indeed; but men, even +great men, men of title, are so, some of them, whom you could least +suspect of their being so. He would speak the "g" in Nargett, and he, +declined--after a remonstrance he declined--to pass Pagnell under the +cedilla. Lord Ormont spoke the name like a man hating it, or an English +rustic: "Nargett Pagnell," instead, of the soft and elegant "Naryett +Pagnell," the only true way of speaking it; and she had always taken +that pronunciation of her name for a test of people's breeding. The +expression of his lordship's countenance under correction was memorable. +Naturally, in those honeymoony days, the young Countess of Ormont sided +with her husband the earl; she declared that her aunt had never dreamed +of the cedilla before the expedition to Spain. When, for example, Alfred +Nargett Pagnell had a laughing remark, which Aminta in her childhood +must have heard: "We rhyme with spaniel!" + +That was the secret of Lord Ormont's prepossession against Aminta's +aunt; and who can tell? perhaps of much of his behaviour to the +beautiful young wife he at least admired, sincerely admired, though he +caused her to hang her head--cast a cloud on the head so dear to him! + +Otherwise there was no interpreting his lordship. To think of herself as +personally disliked by a nobleman stupefied Mrs. Pagnell, from her just +expectation of reciprocal dealings in high society; for she confessed +herself a fly to a title. Where is the shame, if titles are created to +attract? Elsewhere than in that upper circle, we may anticipate hard +bargains; the widow of a solicitor had not to learn it. But when a +distinguished member and ornament of the chosen seats above blew cold +upon their gesticulatory devotee, and was besides ungrateful; she was +more than commonly assured of his being, as she called him, "a sphinx." +His behaviour to his legally wedded wife confirmed the charge. + +She checked her flow to resume the question. "So, then, where are we +now? He allows you liberally for pin-money in addition to your own small +independent income. Satisfaction with that would warrant him to suppose +his whole duty done by you." + +"We are where we were, aunty; the month has made no change," said Aminta +in languor. + +"And you as patient as ever?" + +"I am supposed to have everything a woman can require." + +"Can he possibly think it? And I have to warn you, child, that lawyers +are not so absolving as the world is with some of the ladies Lord Ormont +allows you to call your friends. I have been hearing--it is not mere +airy tales one hears from lawyers about cases in Courts of Law. Tighten +your lips as you like; I say nothing to condemn or reflect on Mrs. +Lawrence Finchley. I have had my eyes a little opened, that is all. +Oh, I know my niece Aminta, when it's a friend to stand by; but our +position--thanks to your inscrutable lord and master--demands of us the +utmost scrupulousness, or it soon becomes a whirl and scandal flying +about, and those lawyers picking up and putting together. I have had a +difficulty to persuade them!... and my own niece! whom I saw married at +the British Embassy in Madrid, as I take good care to tell everybody; +for it was my doing; I am the responsible person! and by an English +Protestant clergyman, to all appearance able to walk erect in and out of +any of these excellent new Life Assurance offices they are starting for +the benefit of widows and orphans, and deceased within six days of the +ceremony--if ceremony one may call the hasty affair in those foreign +places. My dear, the instant I heard it I had a presentiment, 'All has +gone well up to now.' I remember murmuring the words. Then your letter, +received in that smelly Barcelona: Lord Ormont was carrying you off to +Granada--a dream of my infancy! It may not have been his manoeuvre, but +it was the beginning of his manoeuvres." + +Aminta shuddered. "And tra-la-la, and castanets, and my Cid! my Cid! and +the Alhambra, the Sierra Nevada, and ay di me, Alhama; and Boabdil el +Chico and el Zagal and Fray Antonio Agapida!" She flung out the rattle, +yawning, with her arms up and her head back, in the posture of a woman +wounded. One of her aunt's chance shots had traversed her breast, +flashing at her the time, the scene, the husband, intensest sunniness +on sword-edges of shade,--and now the wedded riddle; illusion dropping +mask, romance in its anatomy, cold English mist. Ah, what a background +is the present when we have the past to the fore! That filmy past is +diaphanous on heaving ribs. + +She smiled at the wide-eyed little gossip. "Don't speak of manaoeuvres, +dear aunt. And we'll leave Granada to the poets. I'm tired. Talk of our +own people, on your side and my father's, and as much as you please of +the Pagnell-Pagnells, they refresh me. Do they go on marrying?" + +"Why, my child, how could they go on without it?" + +Aminta pressed her hands at her eyelids. "Oh, me!" she sighed, feeling +the tear come with a sting from checked laughter. "But there are +marriages, aunty, that don't go on, though Protestant clergymen +officiated. Leave them unnoticed, I have really nothing to tell." + +"You have not heard anything of Lady Eglett?" + +"Lady Charlotte Eglett? No syllable. Or wait--my lord's secretary was +with her at Olmer; approved by her, I have to suppose." + +"There, my dear, I say again I do dread that woman, if she can make +a man like Lord Ormont afraid of her. And no doubt she is of our old +aristocracy. And they tell me she is coarse in her conversation--like a +man. Lawyers tell me she is never happy but in litigation. Years back, I +am given to understand, she did not set so particularly good an example. +Lawyers hear next to everything. I am told she lifted her horsewhip on +a gentleman once, and then put her horse at him and rode him down. +You will say, the sister of your husband. No; not to make my niece a +countess, would I, if I had known the kind of family! Then one asks, Is +she half as much afraid of him? In that case, no wonder they have +given up meeting. Was formerly one of the Keepsake Beauties. Well, Lady +Eglett, and Aminta, Countess of Ormont, will be in that Peerage, as +they call it, let her only have her dues. My dear, I would--if I ever +did--swear the woman is jealous." + +"Of me, aunty!" + +"I say more; I say again, it would be a good thing for somebody if +somebody had his twitch of jealousy. Wives may be too meek. Cases and +cases my poor Alfred read to me, where an ill-behaving man was brought +to his senses by a clever little shuffle of the cards, and by the most +innocent of wives. A kind of poison to him, of course; but there are +poisons that cure. It might come into the courts; and the nearer the +proofs the happier he in withdrawing from his charge and effecting a +reconciliation. Short of guilt, of course. Men are so strange. Imagine +now, if a handsome young woman were known to be admired rather more than +enough by a good-looking gentleman near about her own age. Oh, I've no +patience with, the man for causing us to think and scheme! Only there +are men who won't be set right unless we do. My husband used to say, +change is such a capital thing in life's jogtrot; that men find it +refreshing if we now and then, reverse the order of our pillion-riding +for them. A spiritless woman in a wife is what they bear least of all. +Anything rather. Is Mr. Morsfield haunting Mrs. Lawrence Finchley's +house as usual?" + +Aminta's cheeks unrolled their deep damask rose at the abrupt intrusion +of the name. "I meet him there." + +"Lord Adderwood, Sir John Randeller; and the rest?" + +"Two or three times a week." + +"And the lady, wife of the captain, really a Lady Fair--Mrs.... month of +May: so I have to get at it." + +"She may be seen there." + +"Really a contrast, when you two are together! As to reputation, there +is an exchange of colours. Those lawyers hold the keys of the great +world, and a naughty world it is, I fear--with exceptions, who are the +salt, but don't taste so much. I can't help enjoying the people at Mrs. +Lawrence Finchley's. I like to feel I can amuse them, as they do me. One +puzzles for what they say--in somebody's absence, I mean. They must take +Lord Ormont for a perfect sphinx; unless they are so silly as to think +they may despise him, or suppose him indifferent. Oh, that upper class! +It's a garden, and we can't help pushing to enter it; and fair flowers, +indeed, but serpents too, like the tropics. It tries us more than +anything else in the world--well, just as good eating tries the +constitution. He ought to know it and feel it, and give his wife all the +protection of his name, instead of--not that he denies: I have brought +him to that point; he cannot deny it with me. But not to present her--to +shun the Court; not to introduce her to his family, to appear ashamed +of her! My darling Aminta, a month of absence for reflection on your +legally-wedded husband's conduct increases my astonishment. For usually +men old enough to be the grandfathers of their wives--" + +"Oh, pray, aunty, pray, pray!" Aminta cried, and her body writhed. "No +more to-night. You mean well, I am sure. Let us wait. I shall sleep, +perhaps, if I go to bed early. I dare say I am spiritless--not worth +more than I get. I gave him the lead altogether; he keeps it. In +everything else he is kind; I have all the luxuries--enough to loathe +them. Kiss me and say good night." + +Aminta made it imperative by rising. Her aunt stood up, kissed, and +exclaimed, "I tell you you are a queenly creature, not to be treated as +any puny trollop of a handmaid. And although he is a great nobleman, he +is not to presume to behave any longer, my dear, as if your family had +no claim on his consideration. My husband, Alfred Pagnell, would have +laid that before him pretty quick. You are the child of the Farrells and +the Solers, both old families; on your father's side you are linked +with the oldest nobility in Europe. It flushes one to think of it! +Your grandmother, marrying Captain Algernon Farrell, was the legitimate +daughter of a Grandee of Spain; as I have told Lord Ormont often, and +I defy him to equal that for a romantic marriage in the annals of his +house, or boast of bluer blood. Again, the Solers--" + +"We take the Solers for granted, aunty, good night." + +"Commoners, if you like; but established since the Conquest. That is, we +trace the pedigree. And to be treated, even by a great nobleman, as if +we were stuff picked up out of the ditch! I declare, there are times +when I sit and think and boil. Is it chivalrous, is it generous--is it, +I say, decent--is it what Alfred would have called a fair fulfilment +of a pact, for your wedded husband--? You may close my mouth! But he +pretends to be chivalrous and generous, and he has won a queen any +wealthy gentleman in England--I know of one, if not two--would be proud +to have beside him in equal state; and what is he to her? He is an +extinguisher. Or is it the very meanest miserliness, that he may keep +you all to himself? There we are again! I say he is an unreadable +sphinx." + +Aminta had rung the bell for her maid. Mrs. Pagnell could be counted on +for drawing in her tongue when the domestics were near. + +A languor past delivery in sighs was on the young woman's breast. She +could have heard without a regret that the heart was to cease beating. +Had it been downright misery she would have looked about her with less +of her exanimate glassiness. The unhappy have a form of life: until they +are worn out, they feel keenly. She felt nothing. The blow to her pride +of station and womanhood struck on numbed sensations. She could complain +that the blow was not heavier. + +A letter lying in her jewel-box called her to read it, for the chance +of some slight stir. The contents were known. The signature of Adolphus +Morsfield had a new meaning for her eyes, and dashed her at her husband +in a spasm of revolt and wrath against the man exposing her to these +letters, which a motion of her hand could turn to blood, and abstention +from any sign maintained in a Satanic whisper, saying, "Here lies one +way of solving the riddle." It was her husband who drove her to look +that way. + +The look was transient, and the wrath: she could not burn. A small +portion of contempt lodged in her mind to shadow husbands precipitating +women on their armoury for a taste of vengeance. Women can always be +revenged--so speedily, so completely: they have but to dip. Husbands +driving wives to taste their power execrate the creature for her fall +deep downward. They are forgetful of causes. + +Does it matter? Aminta's languor asked. The letter had not won a reply. +Thought of the briefest of replies was a mountain of effort, and she +moaned at her nervelessness in body and mind. To reply, to reproach the +man, to be flame--an image of herself under the form she desired--gave +her a momentary false energy, wherein the daring of the man, whose life +was at a loss for the writing of this letter, hung lighted. She had +therewith a sharp vision of his features, repellent in correctness, +Greek in lines, with close eyes, hollow temples, pressed lips--a face +indicating the man who can fling himself on a die. She had heard tales +of women and the man. Some had loved him, report said. Here were words +to say that he loved her. They might, poor man, be true. Otherwise she +had never been loved. + +Memory had of late been paying visits to a droopy plant in the golden +summer drought on a gorgeous mid-sea island, and had taken her on board +to refresh her with voyages, always bearing down full sail on a couple +of blissful schools, abodes of bloom and briny vigour, sweet merriment, +innocent longings, dreams the shyest, dreams the mightiest. At night +before sleep, at morn before rising, often during day, and when vexed +or when dispirited, she had issued her command for the voyage. Sheer +refreshment followed, as is ever the case if our vessel carries no +freight of hopes. There could be no hopes. It was forgotten that they +had ever been seriously alive. But it carried an admiration. Now, an +admiration may endure, and this one had been justified all round. The +figure heroical, the splendid, active youth, hallowed Aminta's past. The +past of a bitterly humiliated Aminta was a garden in the coming kiss of +sunset, with that godlike figure of young manhood to hallow it. There he +stayed, perpetually assuring her of his triumphs to come. + +She could have no further voyages. Ridicule convulsed her home of +refuge. For the young soldier-hero, to be unhorsed by misfortune, was +one thing; but the meanness of the ambition he had taken in exchange for +the thirst of glory, accused his nature. He so certainly involved her in +the burlesque of the transformation that she had to quench memory. + +She was, therefore, having smothered a good part of herself, accountably +languid--a condition alternating with fire in Aminta; and as Mr. +Morsfield's letter supplied the absent element, her needy instinct +pushed her to read his letter through. She had not yet done that with +attention. + +Whether a woman loves a man or not, he is her lover if he dare tell her +he loves her, and is heard with attention. Aware that the sentences +were poison, she summoned her constitutional antagonism to the mad step +proposed, so far nullifying the virus as to make her shrink from the +madness. Even then her soul cried out to her husband, Who drives me to +read? or rather, to brood upon what she read. The brooding ensued, was +the thirst of her malady. The best antidote she could hit on was the +writer's face. Yet it expressed him, his fire and his courage--gifts she +respected in him, found wanting in herself. Read by Lord Ormont, this +letter would mean a deadly thing. + +Aminta did her lord the justice to feel sure of him, that with her name +bearing the superscription, it might be left on her table, and world not +have him to peruse it. If he manoeuvred, it was never basely. Despite +resentment, her deepest heart denied his being indifferent either to +her honour or his own in relation to it. He would vindicate both at +a stroke, for a sign. Nevertheless, he had been behaving cruelly. She +charged on him the guilt of the small preludes, archeries, anglings, +veilings, evasions, all done with the eyelids and the mute of the lips, +or a skirmisher word or a fan's flourish, and which, intended to pique +the husband rather than incite the lover, had led Mrs. Lawrence Finchley +to murmur at her ear, in close assembly, without a distinct designation +of Mr. Morsfield, "Dangerous man to play little games with!" It had +brought upon her this letter of declaration, proposal, entreaty. + +This letter was the man's life in her hands, and safe, of course. But +surely it was a proof that the man loved her? + +Aminta was in her five-and-twentieth year; when the woman who is +uncertain of the having been loved, and she reputed beautiful, +desirable, is impelled by a sombre necessity to muse on a declaration, +and nibble at an idea of a test. If "a dangerous man to play little +games with," he could scarcely be dangerous to a woman having no love +for him at all. It meant merely that he would soon fall to writing +letters like this, and he could not expect an answer to it. But her +heart really thanked him, and wished the poor gentleman to take its dumb +response as his reward, for being the one sole one who had loved her. + +Aminta dwelt on "the one sole one." Lord Ormont's treatment had +detached her from any belief in love on his part; and the schoolboy, now +ambitions to become a schoolmaster, was behind the screen unlikely to +be lifted again by a woman valuing her pride of youth, though he +had--behold our deceptions!--the sympathetic face entirely absent from +that of Mr. Adolphus Morsfield, whom the world would count quite as +handsome--nay, it boasted him. He enjoyed the reputation of a killer +of ladies. Women have odd tastes, Aminta thought, and examined the +gentleman's handwriting. It pleased her better. She studied it till the +conventional phrases took a fiery hue, and came at her with an invasive +rush. + +The letter was cast back into the box, locked up; there an end to it, or +no interdiction of sleep. + +Sleep was a triumph. Aminta's healthy frame rode her over petty +agitations of a blood uninflamed, as lightly as she swam the troubled +sea-waters her body gloried to cleave. She woke in the morning peaceful +and mildly reflective, like one who walks across green meadows. Only by +degrees, by glimpses, was she drawn to remember the trotting, cantering, +galloping, leaping of an active heart during night. We cannot, men +or woman, control the heart in sleep at night. There had been wild +leapings. Night will lead an unsatisfied heart of a woman, by way of +sleep, to scale black mountains, jump jagged chasms. Sleep is a horse +that laughs at precipices and abysses. We bid women, moreover, be +all heart. They are to cultivate their hearts, pay much heed to their +hearts. The vast realm of feeling is open to these appointed keepers of +the sanctuary household, who may be withering virgins, may be childless +matrons, may be unhusbanded wives. Wandering in the vast realm which +they are exhorted to call their own, for the additional attractiveness +it gives them, an unsatisfied heart of woman will somewhat audaciously +cross the borderland a single step into the public road of the vast +realm of thinking. Once there, and but a single step on the road, she is +a rebel against man's law for her sex. Nor is it urgent on her that she +should think defiantly in order to feel herself the rebel. She may think +submissively; with a heart (the enlarged, the scientifically plumped, +the pasture of epicurean man), with her coveted heart in revolt, and +from the mere act of thinking at all. + +Aminta reviewed perforce, dead against her will, certain of the +near-to-happiness ratings over-night. She thinned her lips, and her +cheeks glowed. An arm, on the plea of rescuing, had been round her. The +choice now offered her was, to yield to softness or to think. She took +the latter step, the single step of an unaccustomed foot, which women +educated simply to feet, will, upon extreme impulsion, take; and it held +a candle in a windy darkness. She saw no Justice there. The sensational +immensity touched sublime, short of that spirit of Justice required +for the true sublime. And void of Justice; what a sunless place is any +realm! Infants, the male and the female alike, first begin to know they +feel when it is refused them. When they know they feel, they have begun +to reflect. The void of Justice is a godless region. Women, to whom the +solitary thought has come as a blown candle, illumining the fringes of +their storm, ask themselves whether they are God's creatures or man's. +The question deals a sword-stroke of division between them and their +human masters. Young women, animated by the passions their feeling +bosoms of necessity breed, and under terror discover, do not distinguish +an abstract justice from a concrete. They are of the tribe too long +hereditarily enslaved to conceive an abstract. So it is with them, that +their God is the God of the slave, as it is with all but the bravest of +boys. He is a Thing to cry to, a Punisher, not much of a Supporter--the +Biblical Hebrew's right reading of Nature, favouring man, yet prompt to +confound him, and with woman for the instrument of vengeance. By such +a maze the blindfolded, are brought round to see Justice on earth. If +women can only believe in some soul of justice, they will feel they +belong to God--of the two; and the peril for them then is, that they +will set the one incomprehensible Power in opposition to the other, +urging them unsatisfied natures to make secret appeal away from man and +his laws altogether, at the cost of losing clear sight of the God who +shines in thought. It is a manner whereby the desperately harried +among these creatures of the petted heart arrive upon occasion at an +agreeable, almost reposeful, contemplation of the reverse of God. + +There is little pleasure to be on the lecture-rostrum for a narrator +sensible to the pulses of his audience. Justice compels at times. In +truth, there are times when the foggy obscurities of the preacher are by +comparison broad daylight beside the whirling loose tissues of a woman +unexplained. Aminta was one born to prize rectitude, to walk on the +traced line uprightly; and while the dark rose overflowed the soft +brown of her cheeks, under musings upon her unlicenced heart's doings +overnight, she not only pleaded for woeful creatures of her sex burdened +as she and erring, she weighed them in the scales with men, and put her +heart where Justice pointed, sending men to kick aloft. + +Her husband, the man-riddle: she was unable to rede or read him. Her +will could not turn him; nor her tongue combat; nor was it granted her +to pique the mailed veteran. Every poor innocent little bit of an art +had been exhausted. Her title was Lady Ormont her condition actually +slave. A luxuriously established slave, consorting with a singularly +enfranchised set,--as, for instance, Mrs. Lawrence Finchley and Lord +Adderwood; Sir John Randeller and Lady Staines; Mrs. May, Amy May, +notorious wife of a fighting captain, the loneliest of blondes; and +other ladies, other gentlemen, Mr. Morsfield in the list, paired or not +yet paired: gossip raged. Aminta was of a disposition too generously +cordial to let her be the rigorous critic of people with whom she was +in touch. But her mind knew relief when she recollected that her humble +little school-mate, Selina Collect, who had suffered on her behalf in +old days, was coming up to her from the Suffolk coast on a visit for a +week. However much a slave and an unloved woman, she could be a constant +and protecting friend. Besides, Lord Ormont was gracious to little +Selina. She thought of his remarks about the modest-minded girl after +first seeing her. From that she struck upon a notion of reserves of +humaneness being in him, if she might find the path to them: and +thence, fortified by the repose her picture of little Selina's merit had +bestowed, she sprang to the idea of valiancy, that she would woo him +to listen to her, without inflicting a scene. He had been a listening +lover, seeming lover, once, later than the Granada sunsets. The letter +in her jewel-box urged Aminta to clear her conscience by some means, for +leaving it unburnt. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. EXHIBITS EFFECTS OF A PRATTLER'S DOSES + +The rules in Lord Ormont's household assisted to shelter him for some +hours of the day from the lady who was like a blast of sirocco under his +roof. He had his breakfast alone, as Lady Charlotte had it at Olmer; a +dislike of a common table in the morning was a family trait with both. +At ten o'clock the secretary arrived, and they were shut up together. At +the luncheon table Aminta usually presided. If my lord dined at home, +he had by that time established an equanimity rendering, his constant +civility to Mrs. Pagnell less arduous. The presence of a woman of +tongue, perpetually on the spring to gratify him and win him, was among +the burdens he bore for his Aminta. + +Mrs. Pagnell soon perceived that the secretary was in favour. My lord +and this Mr. Weyburn had their pet themes of conversation, upon which +the wary aunt of her niece did not gaze like the wintry sun with the +distant smile her niece displayed over discussions concerning military +biographies, Hannibal's use of his elephants and his Numidian horse, +the Little St. Bernard, modern artillery, ancient slingers, English and +Genoese bowmen, Napoleon's tactics, his command to the troopers to "give +point," and English officers' neglect of sword exercise, and the "devil +of a day" Old England is to have on a day to come. My lord connected +our day of trial with India. Mrs. Pagnell assumed an air of studious +interest; she struck in to give her niece a lead, that Lord Ormont might +know his countess capable of joining the driest of subjects occupying +exalted minds. Aminta did not follow her; and she was extricated +gallantly by the gentlemen in turn. + +The secretary behaved with a pretty civility. Aminta shook herself to +think tolerantly of him when he, after listening to the suggestion, put +interrogatively, that we should profit by Hannibal's example and train +elephants to serve as a special army corps for the perfect security of +our priceless Indian Empire, instanced the danger likely to result from +their panic fear of cannon, and forbore to consult Lord Ormont's eye. + +Mrs. Pagnell knew that she had put her foot into it; but women advised +of being fools in what they say, are generally sustained by their sense +of the excellent motive which impelled them. Even to the Countess of +Ormont, she could have replied, "We might have given them a higher idea +of us"--if, that meant, the Countess of Ormont had entered the field +beside her, to the exclusion of a shrinking Aminta. She hinted as much +subsequently, and Aminta's consciousness of the troth was touched. +The young schoolmaster's company sat on her spirits, deadened her +vocabulary. Her aunt spoke of passing the library door and hearing the +two gentlemen loudly laughing. It seemed subserviency on the fallen +young hero's part. His tastes were low. He frequented the haunts of +boxing men; her lord informed her of his having made, or of his making, +matches to run or swim or walk certain distances against competitors or +within a given time. He had also half a dozen boys or more in tow, whom +he raced out of town on Sundays; a nucleus of the school he intended to +form. + +But will not Achilles become by comparison a common rushlight where +was a blazing torch, if we see him clap a clown's cap on the head whose +golden helm was fired by Pallas? + +Nay, and let him look the hero still: all the more does he point finger +on his meanness of nature. + +Turning to another, it is another kind of shame that a woman feels, if +she consents to an exchange of letters--shameful indeed, but not such +a feeling of deadly sickness as comes with the humiliating view of an +object of admiration degraded. Bad she may be; and she may be deceived, +vilely treated, in either case. And what is a woman's pride but the +staff and banner of her soul, beyond all gifts? He who wounds it cannot +be forgiven--never!--he has killed the best of her. Aminta found herself +sliding along into the sentiment, that the splendid idol of a +girl's worship is, if she discover him in the lapse of years as an +infinitesimally small one, responsible for the woman's possible reckless +fit of giddiness. And she could see her nonsense; she could not correct +it. Lines of the letters under signature of Adolphus were phosphorescent +about her: they would recur; and she charged their doing so on the +discovered meanness of the girl's idol. Her wicked memory was caused by +his having plunged her low. + +Mrs. Pagnell performed the offices of attention to Mr. Weyburn in lieu +of the countess, who seemed to find it a task to sit at the luncheon +table with him, when Lady Ormont was absent. "Just peeped in," she said +as she entered the library, "to see if all was comfortable;" and gossip +ensued, not devoid of object. She extracted an astonishingly smooth +description of Lady Charlotte. Weyburn was brightness in speaking of the +much-misunderstood lady. "She's one of the living women of the world." + +"You are sure you don't mean one of the worldly women?" Mrs. Pagnell +rejoiced. + +"She has to be known to be liked," he owned. + +"And you were, one hears, among the favoured?" + +"I can scarcely pretend to that, ma'am." + +"You were recommended." + +"Lady Charlotte is devoted to her brother." + +Mrs. Pagnell's bosom heaved. "How strange Lord Ormont is! One would +suppose, with his indignation at the country for its treatment of him, +admirers would be welcome. Oh dear, no! that is not the way. On board +the packet, on our voyage to Spain, my niece in her cabin, imploring +mercy of Neptune, as they say, I heard of Lord Ormont among the +passengers. I could hardly credit my ears. For I had been hearing of him +from my niece ever since her return from a select establishment for the +education of young ladies, not much more than a morning's drive out of +London, though Dover was my residence. She had got a hero! It was Lord +Ormont! Lord Ormont! all day: and when the behaviour of the country to +him became notorious, Aminta--my niece the countess--she could hardly +contain herself. A secret:--I promised her--it's not known to Lord +Ormont himself:--a printed letter in a metropolitan paper, copied into +the provincial papers, upholding him for one of the greatest of our +patriot soldiers and the saviour of India, was the work of her hands. +You would, I am sure, think it really well written. Meeting him on +deck--the outline of the coast of Portugal for an introductory subject, +our Peninsular battles and so forth--I spoke of her enthusiasm. The +effect was, to cut off all communication between us. I had only to +appear, Lord Ormont vanished. I said to myself, this is a character. +However, the very mention of him to my niece, as one of the passengers +on board--medicine, miraculous! She was up in half an hour, out pacing +the deck before evening, hardly leaning on my arm, and the colour +positively beginning to show on her cheeks again. He fled, of coarse. +I had prepared her for his eccentricities. Next morning she was out +by herself. In the afternoon Lord Ormont strode up to us his--military +step--and most courteously requested the honour of an introduction. I +had broken the ice at last; from that moment he was cordiality itself, +until--I will not say, until he had called her his own--a few little +misunderstandings!--not with his countess. You see, a resident aunt +is translated mother-in-law by husbands; though I spare them pretty +frequently; I go to friends, they travel. Here in London she must have a +duenna. The marriage at Madrid, at the Embassy:--well, perhaps it was a +step for us, for commoners, though we rank with the independent. Has +her own little pin-money--an inheritance. Perhaps Lady Eglett gives the +world her version. She may say, there was aiming at station. I reply, +never was there a more whole-hearted love-match! Absolutely the girl's +heart has been his from the period of her school-days. Oh! a little +affair--she was persecuted by a boy at a neighbouring school. Her +mistress wrote me word--a very determined Romeo young gentleman +indeed--quite alarmed about him. In the bud! I carried her off on the +spot, and snapped it effectually. Warned he meant to be desperate, I +kept her away from my house at Dover four months, place to place; and +I did well. I heard on my return, that a youth, answering to the +schoolmistress's description of him, had been calling several times, +the first two months and longer. You have me alluding to these little +nonsensical nothings, because she seemed born to create violent +attachments, even at that early day; and Lady Eglett--Lady Charlotte +Eglett may hear; for there is no end to them, and impute them to her, +when really!--can she be made responsible for eyes innocent of the +mischief they appear destined to do? But I am disturbing you in your +work." + +"You are very good, ma'am," said the ghost of the determined young +gentleman. + +"A slight cold, have you?" Mrs. Pagnell asked solicitously. + +"Dear me, no!" he gave answer with a cleared throat. + +In charging him with more than he wanted to carry, she supplied him with +particulars he had wanted to know; and now he asked himself what could +be the gain of any amount of satisfied curiosity regarding a married +Aminta. She slew my lord on board a packet-boat; she bears the arrows +that slay. My lord married her where the first English chaplain was to +be found; that is not wonderful either. British Embassy, Madrid! Weyburn +believed the ceremony to have been performed there: at the same time, he +could hear Lady Charlotte's voice repeating with her varied intonation +Mrs. Pagnell's impressive utterances; and he could imagine how the +somewhat silly duenna aunt, so penetrable in her transparent artifices, +struck emphasis on the incredulity of people inclined to judge of the +reported ceremony by Lord Ormont's behaviour to his captive. + +How explain that strange matter? But can there be a gain in trying to +sound it? Weyburn shuffled it away. Before the fit of passion seized +him, he could turn his eager mind from anything which had not a +perceptible point of gain, either for bodily strength or mental +acquisition, or for money, too, now that the school was growing palpable +as an infant in arms and agape for the breast. Thought of gain, and the +bent to pursue it, is the shield of Athene over young men in the press +of the seductions. He had to confess his having lost some bits of +himself by reason of his meditations latterly; and that loss, if we let +it continue a space, will show in cramp at the wrist, logs on the legs, +a wheezy wind, for any fellow vowed to physical trials of strength +and skill. It will show likewise in the brain beating broken +wings--inability to shoot a thought up out of the body for half a +minute. And, good Lord! how quickly the tight-strong fellow crumbles, +when once the fragmentary disintegration has begun! Weyburn cried out on +a heart that bounded off at prodigal gallops, and had to be nipped with +reminders of the place of good leader he was for taking among the young. +Hang superexcellence! but we know those moanings over the troubles of +a married woman; we know their sources, know their goal, or else we are +the fiction-puppet or the Bedlamite; and she is a married woman, married +at the British Embassy, Madrid, if you please! after a few weeks' +acquaintance with her husband, who doubtless wrote his name intelligibly +in the registrar's book, but does not prove himself much the hero when +he drives a pen, even for so little as the signing of his name! He +signed his name, apparently not more than partly pledging himself to +the bond. Lord Ormont's autobiographical scraps combined with Lady +Charlotte's hints and Mrs. Pagnell's communications, to provoke the +secretary's literary contempt of his behaviour to his wife. However, the +former might be mended, and he resumed the task. + +It had the restorative effect of touching him to see his old hero in +action; whereby he was brought about to a proper modesty, so that he +really craved no more than for the mistress of this house to breathe the +liberal air of a public acknowledgment of her rightful position. +Things constituted by their buoyancy to float are remarkable for lively +bobbings when they are cast upon the waters; and such was the case with +Weyburn, until the agitation produced by Mrs. Pagnell left him free to +sail away in the society of the steadiest. + +He decided that by not observing, not thinking, not feeling, about the +circumstances of the household into which Fate had thrown him, he would +best be able--probably it was the one way--to keep himself together; and +his resolution being honest all round, he succeeded in it as long as he +abstained from a very wakeful vigilance over simple eyesight. For if +one is nervously on guard to not-see, the matter starts up winged, and +enters us, and kindles the mind, and tingles through the blood; it has +us as a foe. The art of blind vision requires not only practice, but an +intimate knowledge of the arts of the traitor we carry within. Safest +for him, after all, was to lay fast hold of the particularly unimportant +person he was, both there and anywhere else. The Countess of Ormont's +manner toward him was to be read as a standing index of the course he +should follow; and he thanked her. He could not quite so sincerely thank +her aunt. His ingratitude for the sickly dose she had administered to +him sprang a doubt whether Lady Ormont now thanked her aunt on account +of services performed at the British Embassy, Madrid. + +Certain looks of those eyes recently, when in colloquy with my lord, +removed the towering nobleman to a shadowed landscape. + +Was it solely an effect of eyes commanding light, and having every +shaft of the quiver of the rays at her disposal? Or was it a shot from a +powerful individuality issuing out of bondage to some physical oppressor +no longer master of the soul, in peril of the slipping away of the body? +Her look on him was not hate: it was larger, more terribly divine. Those +eyes had elsewhere once looked love: they had planted their object in +a throbbing Eden. The man on whom they had looked shivered over the +thought of it after years of blank division. + +Rather than have those eyes to look on him their displacing +unintentness, the man on whom they had once looked love would have +chosen looks of wrath, the darts that kill--blest darts of the celestial +Huntress, giving sweet sudden cessation of pain, in the one everlasting +last flash of life with thought that the shot was hers. Oh for the +'ayava behea' of the Merciful in splendour! + +These were the outcries of the man deciding simultaneously not to +observe, not to think, not to feel, and husbanding calculations upon +storage of gain for the future. Softness held the song below. It came of +the fact that his enforced resolution, for the sake of sanity, drove his +whole reflective mind backward upon his younger days, when an Evening +and a Morning star in him greeted the bright Goddess Browny or sang +adieu, and adored beyond all golden beams the underworld whither she had +sunk, where she was hidden. + +Meanwhile, the worthy dame who had dosed him was out in her carriage, +busy paying visits to distinguished ladies of the great world, with the +best of excuses for an early call, which was gossip to impart, such as +the Countess of Ormont had not yet thought of mentioning; and two or +three of them were rather amusedly interested to hear that Lord Ormont +had engaged a handsome young secretary, "under the patronage of Lady +Charlotte Eglett, devoted to sports of all kinds, immensely favoured by +both." Gossip must often have been likened to the winged insect bearing +pollen to the flowers; it fertilizes many a vacuous reverie. Those +flowers of the upper garden are not, indeed, stationary and in need of +the missionary buzzer, but if they have been in one place unmoved for +one hour, they are open to take animation from their visitors. Aminta +was pleasantly surprised next day by the receipt of a note from Mrs. +Lawrence Finchley, begging to be invited to lunch if she came, as she +had a purpose in the wish to meet my lord. + + + + +[NOTE: The remainder of 'Lord Ormont and His Aminta' is taken from an +older edition which uses single rather than double quotation marks. +D.W.] + + +CHAPTER VIII. MRS. LAWRENCE FINCHLEY + +My lord had one of his wilful likings for Isabella Lawrence Finchley, +and he consented to the torture of an hour of Mrs. Nargett Pagnell in +the middle of the day, just to taste the favourite he welcomed at home +as he championed her abroad. The reasons were numerous and intimate why +she pleased him. He liked the woman, enjoyed the cause for battle that +she gave. Weyburn, on coming to the luncheon table, beheld a lady with +the head of a comely boy, the manner, softened in delicate feminine, of +a capital comrade. Her air of candour was her nature in her face; and +it carried a guileless roguery, a placid daring, a supersensual +naughtiness, a simplicity of repose amid the smoky reputation she +created, that led one to think the vapour calumnious or the creature +privileged. That young boy's look opened him at once; he had not to +warm to her,--he flew. Ordinarily the sweetest ladies will make us pass +through cold mist and cross a stile or two, or a broken bridge, before +the formalities are cleared away to grant us rights of citizenship. She +was like those frank lands where we have not to hand out a passport at +the frontier and wait for dubious inspection of it. + +She prevailed with cognizant men and with the frivolous. Women were +capable of appreciating her, too: as Aminta did, despite some hinted +qualifications addressed shyly to her husband. But these were the very +matters exciting his particular esteem. He was of Lady Charlotte's mind, +in her hot zeal against injustice done to the creatures she despised; +and yet more than she applauded a woman who took up her idiot husband's +challenge to defend her good name, and cleared it, right or wrong, and +beat him down on his knees, and then started for her spell of the merry +canter over turf: an example to the English of the punishment they get +for their stupid Puritanic tyranny--sure to be followed by a national +helter-skelter down-hill headlong. And Mrs. Lawrence was not one of the +corrupt, he argued; she concealed what it was decent to conceal, without +pouting hypocritical pretences; she had merely dispensed with idle legal +formalities, in the prettiest curvetting airy wanton way, to divorce the +man who tried to divorce her, and 'whined to be forgiven when he found +he couldn't. Adderwood was ready to marry her to-morrow, if the donkey +husband would but go and bray his last. Half a dozen others were heads +off on the same course to that goal.' + +That was her champion's perusal of a lady candidly asserting her right +to have breeched comrades, and paying for it in the advocacy which +compromises. She was taken to be and she was used as a weapon wherewith +to strike at our Pharisees. Women pushing out into the world for +independence, bleed heavy payments all round. + +The earl's double-edged defence of her was partly a vindication of +another husband, who allowed his wife to call her friend; he was +nevertheless assured of her not being corrupt, both by his personal +knowledge of the lady, and his perception of her image in the bosom of +his wife. She did no harm there, he knew well. Although he was not a man +to put his trust in faces, as his young secretary inclined to do, +Mrs. Lawrence's look of honest boy did count among the pleadings. +And somewhat so might a government cruiser observe the intrusion of a +white-sailed yacht in protected sea-waters, where licenced trawlers are +at the haul. + +Talk over the table coursed as fluently as might be, with Mrs. Pagnell +for a boulder in the stream. Uninformed by malice, she led up to Lord +Adderwood's name, and perhaps more designedly spoke of Mr. Morsfield, on +whom her profound reading into the female heart of the class above her +caused her to harp, as 'a real Antinous,' that the ladies might discuss +him and Lord Ormont wax meditative. + +Mrs. Lawrence pitied the patient gentleman, while asking him in her mind +who was the author of the domestic burden he had to bear. + +'It reminds me I have a mission,' she said. 'There's a fencing match +down at a hall in the West, near the barracks; private and select: +Soldier and Civilian; I forget who challenged--Civilian, one judges; +Soldiers are the peaceful party. They want you to act "umpire," as they +call it, on the military side, my dear lord; and you will?--I have +given my word you will bring Lady Ormont. You will?--and not let me be +confounded! Yes, and we shall make a party. I see consent. Aminta will +enjoy the switch of steel. I love to see fencing. It rouses all that is +diabolical in me.' + +She sent a skimming look at the opposite. + +'And I,' said he, much freshened. + +'You fence?' + +'Handle the foils.' + +'If you must speak modestly! Are you in practice?' + +'I spend in hour in Captain Chiallo's fencing rooms generally every +evening before dinner. I heard there the first outlines of the match +proposed. You are right; it was the civilian.' + +'Mr. Morsfield, as I suspected.' + +She smiled to herself, like one saying, Not badly managed, Mr. +Morsfield! + +'Italian school?' Lord Ormont inquired, with a screw of the eyelids. + +'French, my lord.' + +'The only school for teaching.' + +'The simplest--has the most rational method. Italians are apt to be +tricky. But they were masters once, and now and then they send out a +fencer the French can't touch.' + +'How would you account for it?' + +'If I had to account for it, I should say, hotter blood, cool nerve, +quick brain.' + +'Hum. Where are we, then?' + +'We don't shine with the small sword.' + +'We had men neatly pinked for their slashings in the Peninsula.' + +'We've had clever Irishmen.' + +'Hot enough blood! This man Morsfield--have you crossed the foils with +him?' + +'Goes at it like a Spaniard; though Spaniards in Paris have been found +wary enough.' + +My lord hummed. 'Fellow looks as if he would easily lose his head over +steel.' + +'He can be dangerous.' + +The word struck on something, and rang. + +Mrs. Lawrence had a further murmur within her lips. Her travelling eye +met Aminta's and passed it. + +'But not dangerous, surely, if the breast is padded?' said Mrs. Pagnell. + +'Oh no, oh no; not in that case!' Mrs. Lawrence ran out her voluble +assent, and her eyelids blinked; her fair boy's face was mischief at +school under shadow of the master. + +She said to Weyburn: 'Are you one in the list--to give our military a +lesson? They want it.' + +His answer was unheard by Aminta. She gathered from Mrs. Lawrence's +pleased sparkle that he had been invited to stand in the list; and the +strange, the absurd spectacle of a young schoolmaster taking the heroic +attitude for attack and defence wrestled behind her eyes with a suddenly +vivid first-of-May cricketing field, a scene of snowballs flying, the +vision of a strenuous lighted figure scaling to noble young manhood. +Isabella Lawrence's look at him spirited the bright past out of the +wretched long-brown-coat shroud of the present, prompting her to grieve +that some woman's hand had not smoothed a small tuft of hair, disorderly +on his head a little above the left parting, because Isabella +Lawrence Finchley could have no recollection of how it used to toss +feathery--wild at his games. + +My lord hummed again. 'I suspect we 're going to get a drubbing. This +fellow here has had his French maitre d'armes. Show me your hand, sir.' + +Weyburn smiled, and extended his right hand, saying: 'The wrist wants +exercise.' + +'Ha! square thumb, flesh full at the nails' ends; you were a bowler at +cricket.' + +'Now examine the palms, my lord; I judge by the lines on the palms,' +Mrs. Pagnell remarked. + +He nodded to her and rose. + +Coffee had not been served, she reminded him; it was coming in, so +down he sat a yard from the table; outwardly equable, inwardly cursing +coffee; though he refused to finish a meal without his cup. + +'I think the palms do betray something,' said Mrs. Lawrence; and Aminta +said: 'Everything betrays.' + +'No, my dear,' Mrs. Pagnell corrected her; 'the extremities betray, and +we cannot read the centre. Is it not so, my lord?' + +'It may be as you say, ma'am.' + +She was disappointed in her scheme to induce a general examination of +palms, and especially his sphinx lordship's. + +Weyburn controlled the tongue she so frequently tickled to an elvish +gavotte, but the humour on his face touched Mrs. Lawrence's to a subdued +good-fellow roguishness, and he felt himself invited to chat with her on +the walk for a reposeful ten minutes in Aminta's drawing-room. + +Mrs. Pagnell, 'quite enjoying the company,' as she told her niece, +was dismayed to hear her niece tell her of a milliner's appointment, +positive for three o'clock; and she had written it in her head 'p.m., +four o'clock,' and she had mislaid or destroyed the milliner's note; and +she still had designs upon his lordship's palms, things to read and hint +around her off the lines. She departed. + +Lord Ormont became genial; and there was no one present who did not +marvel that he should continue to decree a state of circumstances more +or less necessitating the infliction he groaned under. He was too lofty +to be questioned, even by his favourites. Mrs. Lawrence conjured the +ghost of Lady Charlotte for an answer: this being Lord Adderwood's idea. +Weyburn let his thoughts go on fermenting. Pride froze a beginning stir +in the bosom of Aminta. + +Her lord could captivate a reluctant woman's bosom when he was genial. +He melted her and made her call up her bitterest pride to perform its +recent office. That might have failed; but it had support in a second +letter received from the man accounted both by Mrs. Lawrence and by Mr. +Weyburn 'dangerous'; and the thought of who it was that had precipitated +her to 'play little games' for the sole sake of rousing him through +jealousy to a sense of righteous duty, armed her desperately against +him. She could exult in having read the second letter right through +on receipt of it, and in remembering certain phrases; and notably in +a reflection shot across her bewildered brain by one of the dangerous +man's queer mad sentences: 'Be as iron as you like, I will strike you +to heat'; and her thought: Is there assurance of safety in a perpetual +defence?--all while she smiled on her genial lord, and signified +agreement, with a smiting of wonderment at her heart, when he alluded to +a panic shout of the country for defence, and said: 'Much crying of that +kind weakens the power to defend when the real attack comes.' Was it +true? + +'But say what you propose?' she asked. + +Lord Ormont proposed vigilance and drill; a small degree of +self-sacrifice on the part of the population, and a look-out head in +the War Department. He proposed to have a nation of stout-braced men +laughing at the foreign bully or bandit, instead of being a pack of +whimpering women; whom he likened to the randomly protestant geese of +our country roadside, heads out a yard in a gabble of defence while they +go backing. + +So thereupon Aminta's notion of a resemblance in the mutual thought +subsided; she relapsed on the cushioning sentiment that she was a woman. +And--only a woman! he might exclaim, if it pleased him; though he would +never be able to say she was one of the whimpering. She, too, had +the choice to indulge in scorn of the superior man stone blind to +proceedings intimately affecting him--if he cared! One might doubt it. + +Mrs. Lawrence listened to him with a mind more disengaged, and a +flitting disapproval of Aminta's unsympathetic ear, or reluctance to +stimulate the devout attention a bruised warrior should have in his +tent. She did not press on him the post of umpire. He consented--at her +request, he said--to visit the show; but refused any official position +that would, it was clearly enough implied, bring his name in any +capacity whatever before the country which had unpardonably maltreated +him. + +Feminine wits will be set working, when a point has been gained; and as +Mrs. Lawrence could now say she had persuaded Lord Ormont to gratify +her specially, she warmed to fancy she read him, and that she might have +managed the wounded and angry giant. Her minor intelligence, caracoling +unhampered by harassing emotions, rebuked Aminta's for not perceiving +that to win him round to whatever a woman may desire, she must be with +him, outstrip him even, along the line he chooses for himself; abuse +the country, rail at the Government, ridicule the title of English Army, +proscribe the name of India in his hearing. Little stings of jealousy +are small insect bites, and do not pique a wounded giant hardly +sensible of irritation under his huge, and as we assume for our purpose, +justifiable wrath. We have to speculate which way does the giant incline +to go? and turn him according to the indication. + +Mrs. Lawrence was driven by her critic mood to think Aminta +relied--erroneously, after woman's old fashion--on the might of superb +dark eyes after having been captured. It seemed to her worse than a +beautiful woman's vanity, a childishness. But her boy's head held boy's +brains; and Lord Ormont's praise of the splendid creature's nerve when +she had to smell powder in Spain, and at bull-fights, and once at a +wrecking of their carriage down a gully on the road over the Alpujarras, +sent her away subdued, envious, happy to have kissed the cheek of the +woman who could inspire it. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. A FLASH OF THE BRUISED WARRIOR + +The winning of Lord Ormont's consent to look on at the little bout of +arms was counted an achievement; for even in his own rarefied upper +circle, where the fervid sentiments are not allowed to be seen plunging, +he had his troop of enthusiasts; and they were anxious that he should +make an appearance in public, to take what consolation a misunderstood +and injured man could get from evidence of the grateful esteem +entertained for him by a party of his countrymen, who might reasonably +expect at the same time to set eyes, at rather close quarters, on the +wonderful dark beauty, supposed a Spaniard, occasionally beheld riding +beside him. If it is possible to connect a woman with the devoutest of +their anticipations, the sons of leisure up there will do it. But, in +truth, an English world was having cause to ransack the dust-heaps +for neglected men of mettle. Our intermittent ague, known as dread of +invasion, was over the land. Twice down the columns of panic newspaper +correspondence Lord Ormont saw his name cited, with the effect on him +that such signs of national repentance approaching lodged a crabbed +sourness in his consulting-room, whether of head or breast. + +He was assailed by a gusty appeal from Lady Charlotte, bidding him +seize the moment to proclaim his views while the secretary had a private +missive from her, wherein, between insistency and supplication, she +directed him to bring the subject before my lord every day, and be sure +to write out a fair copy of the epistle previous to the transmission of +it. 'Capua' was mentioned; she brought in 'a siren,' too. Her brother +was to be the soldier again--fling off silken bonds. The world might +prate of his morality; now was the hour for showing his patriotism, +casting aside his just anger, and backing his chief's opinion. 'A good +chance to get their names together.' To her brother she declared that +the columns of the leading journal were open to him--'in large type'; he +was to take her word for it; he had only to 'dictate away,' quite at his +ease, just as he talked at Olmer, and leave the bother of the scribe's +business to his aide. 'Lose no time,' she concluded; 'the country wants +your ideas; let us have your plan.' + +The earl raised his shoulders, and kept his aide exclusively at the +Memoirs. Weyburn, however, read out to him, with accentuation, foolish +stuff in the recurrent correspondence of the daily sheets, and a +complacent burgess article, meant to be a summary of the controversy and +a recommendation to the country to bask in the sun of its wealth again. + +'Ay, be the porker sow it's getting liker and liker to every year!' Lord +Ormont exclaimed, and sprang on his feet. 'Take a pen. Shut up that +box. We'll give 'em digestive biscuits for their weak stomachs. Invasion +can't be done, they say! I tell the doddered asses Napoleon would have +been over if Villeneuve had obeyed him to the letter. Villeneuve had +a fit of paralysis, owing to the prestige of Nelson--that 's as it +happened. And they swear at prestige, won't believe in it, because it's +not fat bacon. I tell them, after Napoleon's first battles, prestige did +half his work for him. It saved him at Essling from a plunge into the +Danube; it saved him at Moskowa; it would have marched him half over +England at his first jump on our shingle beach. But that squelch of fat +citizens should be told--to the devil with them! will they ever learn? +short of a second William!--there were eight-and-forty hours when the +liberty of this country hung wavering in the balance with those Boulogne +boats. Now look at Ulm and Austerlitz. Essling, Wagram; put the victors +in those little affairs to front our awkward squads. The French could +boast a regimental system, and chiefs who held them as the whist-player +his hand of cards. Had we a better general than the Archduke Charles? +or cavalry and artillery equal to the Hungarian? or drilled infantry +numbering within eighty thousand of the Boulogne-Wimereux camps? We had +nothing but the raw material of courage--pluck, and no science. Ask +any boxing man what he thinks of the chances. The French might have +sacrificed a fleet to land fifty thousand. Our fleet was our one chance. +Any foreign General at the head of fifty thousand trained, picked troops +would risk it, and cut an 'entrechat' for joy of the chance. We should +have fought and bled and been marched over--a field of Anglo-Saxon +stubble! and Nelson riding the Channel, undisputed lord of the waters. +Heigh! by the Lord, this country would have been like a man free to rub +his skin with his hand and a mortal disease in his blood. Are you ready? +How anticipate a hostile march on the capital, is our business.' + +Striding up and down the library, Lord Ormont dropped his wrath to +dictate the practical measures for defence--detesting the cat's-cry +'defence,' he said; but the foe would bring his old growlers, and we +should have to season our handful of regulars and mob of levies, turn +the mass into troops. With plenty of food, and blows daily, Englishmen +soon get stomachs for the right way to play the game; bowl as well as +bat; and the sooner they give up the idea of shamming sturdy on a stiff +hind leg, the better for their chances. Only, it's a beastly thing to +see that for their favourite attitude;--like some dog of a fellow weak +in the fists, weaker in the midriff, at a fair, who cries, Come on, and +prays his gods you won't. All for peace, the rascal boasts himself, and +he beats his wife and kicks his curs at home. Is there any one to help +him now, he vomits gold and honours on the man he yesterday treated as a +felon. Ha! + +Bull the bumpkin disposed of, my lord drew leisurely back from the +foeman's landing-place, at the head of a body of serious Englishmen; +teaching them to be manageable as chess-pieces, ready as bow-strings to +let fly. Weyburn rejoiced to find himself transcribing crisp sentences, +hard on the matter, without garnish of scorn. Kent, Sussex, Surrey, all +the southern heights about London, round away to the south-western of +the Hampshire heathland, were accurately mapped in the old warrior's +brain. He knew his points of vantage by name; there were no references +to gazetteer or atlas. A chain of forts and earthworks enables us to +choose our ground, not for clinging to them, but for choice of time and +place to give battle. If we have not been playing double-dyed traitor +to ourselves, we have a preponderating field artillery; our yeomanry and +volunteer horsemen are becoming a serviceable cavalry arm; our infantry +prove that their heterogeneous composition can be welded to a handy +mass, and can stand fire and return it, and not be beaten by an +acknowledged defeat. + +'That's English! yes, that's English! when they're at it,' my lord sang +out. + +'To know how to take a licking, that wins in the end,' cried Weyburn; +his former enthusiasm for the hero mounting, enlightened by a +reminiscence of the precept he had hammered on the boys at Cuper's. + +'They fall well. Yes, the English fall like men,' said my lord, +pardoning and embracing the cuffed nation. 'Bodies knocked over, hearts +upright. That's example; we breed Ironsides out of a sight like that. +If it weren't for a cursed feeble Government scraping 'conges' to the +taxpayer--well, so many of our good fellows would not have to fall. That +I say; for this thing is going to happen some day, mind you, sir! And I +don't want to have puncheons and hogsheads of our English blood poured +out merely to water the soil of a conquered country because English +Governments are a craven lot, not daring risk of office by offending the +taxpayer. But, on!' + +Weyburn sent Lady Charlotte glowing words of the composition in +progress. + +They worked through a day, and a second day--talked of nothing else in +the intervals. Explanatory answers were vouchsafed to Aminta's modest +inquiries at Finch, as she pictured scenes of smoke, dust and blood from +the overpowering plain masculine lines they drew, terrible in bluntness. +The third morning Lord Ormont had map and book to verify distances and +attempt a scale of heights, take names of estates, farms, parishes, +commons, patches of woodland. Weyburn wrote his fair copy on folio +paper, seven-and-thirty pages. He read it aloud to the author on the +afternoon of the fourth day, with the satisfaction in his voice that he +felt. My lord listened and nodded. The plan for the defence of England's +heart was a good plan. + +He signed to have the manuscript handed to him. A fortified London +secure of the Thames for abundant supplies, well able to breathe within +earthworks extending along the southern hills, was clearly shown to +stand the loss of two big battles on the Sussex weald or more East to +North-east, if fortune willed it. + +He rose from his chair, paced some steps, with bent head, came back +thoughtfully, lifted the manuscript sheets for another examination. +Then he stooped to the fire, spreading the edges unevenly, so that they +caught flame. Weyburn spied at him. It was to all appearance the +doing of a man who had intended it and brought it to the predetermined +conclusion. + +'About time for you to be off for your turn at Chiallo's,' our country's +defender remarked, after tossing the last half-burnt lump under the +grate and shovelling at it. + +'I will go, my lord,' said Weyburn--and he was glad to go. + +He went, calculated his term of service under Lord Ormont. He was young, +not a philosopher. Waste of anything was abhorrent to a nature pointed +at store of daily gain, if it were only the gain in a new or a freshened +idea; and time lost, work lost, good counsel to the nation lost, +represented horrid vacuity to him, and called up the counter +demonstration of a dance down the halls of madness, for proof that we +should, at least, have jolly motion of limbs there before Perdition +struck the great gong. Ay, and we should be twirling with a fair form on +the arm: woman and man; as it ought to be; twirling downward, true, but +together. Such a companionship has a wisdom to raise it above the title +of madness. Name it, heartily, pleasure; and in contempt of the moralist +burgess, praise the dance of a woman and the man together high over a +curmudgeonly humping solitariness, that won't forgive an injury, nurses +rancour, smacks itself in the face, because it can't--to use the old +schoolboy words--take a licking! + +These were the huddled, drunken sensations and thoughts entertained by +Weyburn, without his reflecting on the detachment from his old hero, of +which they were the sign. He criticized impulsively, and fancied he did +no more, and was not doing much though, in fact, criticism is the end of +worship; the Brutus blow at that Imperial but mortal bosom. + +The person criticized was manifest. Who was the woman he twirled with? +She was unfeatured, undistinguished, one of the sex, or all the sex: +the sex to be shunned as our deadly sapper of gain, unless we find the +chosen one to super-terrestrialize it and us, and trebly outdo our gift +of our whole self for her. + +She was indistinguishable, absolutely unknown; yet she murmured, or +seemed to murmur--for there was no sound--a complaint of Lord Ormont. +And she, or some soundless mouth of woman, said he was a splendid +military hero, a chivalrous man, a man of inflexible honour; but had +no understanding of how to treat a woman, or belief in her having equal +life with him on earth. + +She was put aside rather petulantly, and she took her seat out of the +whirl with submission. Thinking she certainly was not Browny, whom he +would have known among a million, he tried to quit the hall, and he +twirled afresh, necessarily not alone; it is the unpardonable offence +both to the Graces and the Great Mother for man to valse alone. She +twirled on his arm, uninvited; accepted, as in the course of nature; +hugged, under dictate of the nature of the man steeled against her by +the counting of gain, and going now at desperation's pace, by very means +of those defensive locked steam-valves meant to preserve him from this +madness,--for the words of the red-lipped mate, where there were no +words, went through him like a music when the bow is over the viol, +sweeping imagination, and they said her life was wasting. + +Was not she a priceless manuscript cast to the flames? Her lord had been +at some trouble to win her. Or his great fame and his shadowed fortunes +had won her. He took her for his own, and he would not call her his own. +He comported himself with absolute, with kindly deference to the lady +whose more than vital spark he let the gossips puff at and blur. He +praised her courage, visibly admired her person, admitted her in private +to be his equal, degraded her in public. Could anything account for the +behaviour of so manly and noble a gentleman?--Rhetoric made the attempt, +and Weyburn gave up the windy business. + +Discovering that his fair partner of the wasting life was--he struggled +to quench the revelation--Aminta, he stopped the dance. If there was no +gain in whirling fancifully with one of the sex, a spin of a minute with +her was downright bankruptcy. + +He was young, full of blood; his heart led him away from the door Lord +Ormont had exposed; at which a little patient unemotional watchfulness +might have intimated to him something besides the simple source of the +old hero's complex chapter of conduct. As it was, Weyburn did see the +rancour of a raw wound in operation. But he moralized and disapproved; +telling himself, truly enough, that so it would not have been with him; +instead of sounding at my lord's character, and his condition of the +unjustly neglected great soldier, for the purpose of asking how that raw +wound would affect an injured veteran, who compressed, almost repressed, +the roar of Achilles, though his military bright name was to him his +Briseis. + + + + +CHAPTER X. A SHORT PASSAGE IN THE GAME PLAYED BY TWO + +Politest of men in the domestic circle and everywhere among women, Lord +Ormont was annoyed to find himself often gruffish behind the tie of his +cravat. Indeed, the temper of our eminently serene will feel the +strain of a doldrum-dulness that is goaded to activity by a nettle. The +forbearance he carried farther than most could do was tempted to kick, +under pressure of Mrs. Nargett Pagnell. Without much blaming Aminta, on +whose behalf he submitted to it, and whose resolution to fix in England +had brought it to this crisis, he magnanimously proposed to the Fair +Enemy he forced her to be, and liked to picture her as being, a month in +Paris. + +Aminta declined it for herself; after six or more years of travelling, +she wished to settle, and know her country, she said: a repetition +remark, wide of the point, and indicatory to the game of Pull she +was again playing beneath her smooth visage, unaware that she had the +wariest of partners at the game. + +'But go you--do, I beg,' she entreated. 'It will give you new +impressions; and I cannot bear to tie you down here.' + +'How you can consent to be tied down here, is the wonder to me!' said +he. 'When we travelled through the year, just visited England and +were off again, we were driving on our own road. Vienna in April and +May--what do you say? You like the reviews there, and the dances, +concerts, Zigeuner bands, military Bohemian bands. Or Egypt to-morrow, +if you like--though you can't be permitted to swim in the Nile, as +you wanted. Come, Xarifa, speak it. I go to exile without you. Say you +come.' + +She smiled firmly. The name of her honeymoon days was not a cajolery to +her. + +His name had been that of the Christian Romancero Knight Durandarte, and +she gave it to him, to be on the proper level with him, while she still +declined. + +'Well, but just a month in Paris! There's nothing doing here. And we +both like the French theatre.' + +'London will soon be filling.' + +'Well, but--' He stopped; for the filling of London did really concern +her, in the game of Pull she was covertly playing with him. 'You seem +to have caught the fever of this London;... no bands.... no reviews .... +Low comedy acting.' He muttered his objections to London. + +'The society of people speaking one's own tongue, add that,' she +ventured to say. + +'You know you are ten times more Spanish than English. Moorish, if you +like.' + +'The slave of the gallant Christian Knight, converted, baptized, and +blissful. Oh, I know. But now we are settled in England, I have a wish +to study English society.' + +'Disappointing, I assure you;--dinners heavy, dancing boorish, intrigue +a blind-man's-buff. We've been over it all before!' + +'We have.' + +'Admired, I dare say. You won't be understood.' + +'I like my countrymen.' + +'The women have good looks--of the ungarnished kind. The men are louts.' + +'They are brave.' + +'You're to see their fencing. You'll own a little goes a long way.' + +'I think it will amuse me.' + +'So I thought when I gave the nod to Isabella your friend.' + +'You like her?' + +'You, too.' + +'One fancies she would make an encouraging second in a duel.' + +'I will remember... when I call you out.' + +'Oh, my dear lord, you have dozens to choose from leave me my one if we +are to enter the lists.' + +'We are, it seems; unless you consent to take the run to Paris. You are +to say Tom or Rowsley.' + +'The former, I can never feel at home in saying; Rowsley is Lady +Charlotte's name for you.' + +The name of Lady Charlotte was an invitation to the conflict between +them. He passed it, and said 'Durandarte runs a mile on the mouth, and +the Coriolanus of their newspapers helps a stage-player to make lantern +jaws. Neither of them comes well from the lips of my girl. After seven +years she should have hit on a nickname, of none of the Christian suit. +I am not "at home" either with "my lord." However, you send me off +to Paris alone; and you'll be alone and dull here in this London. +Incomprehensible to me why!' + +'We are both wondering?' said Aminta. + +'You 're handsomer than when I met you first--by heaven you are!' + +She flushed her dark brown-red late-sunset. 'Brunes are exceptional in +England.' + +'Thousands admiring you, of course! I know, my love, I have a jewel.' + +She asked him: 'What are jewels for?' and he replied, 'To excite +cupidity.' + +'When they 're shut in a box?' + +'Ware burglars! But this one is not shut up. She shuts herself up. And +up go her shoulders! Decide to be out of it, and come to Paris for some +life for a month. No? It's positive? When do you expect your little +school friend?' + +'After Easter. Aunt will be away.' + +'Your little friend likes the country. I'll go to my house agents. +If there 's a country house open on the upper Thames, you can have +swimming, boating, botanizing...' + +He saw her throat swallow. But as he was offering agreeable things he +chose to not understand how he was to be compassionate. + +'Steignton?' she said, and did her cause no good by saying it feebly. + +His look of a bygone awake-in-sleep old look, drearily known to her, was +like a strip of sunlight on a fortress wall. It signified, Is the poor +soul pushing me back to that again? + +She compelled herself to say: 'Your tenant there?' + +'Matter of business... me and my tenant,' he remarked. 'The man pays +punctually.' + +'The lease has expired.' + +'Not quite. You are misinformed.' + +'At Easter.' + +'Ah! Question of renewing.' + +'You were fond of the place.' + +'I was fond of the place? Thank Blazes, I'm not what I was!' He paced +about. 'There's not a corner of the place that doesn't screw an eye at +me, because I had a dream there. La gloire!' + +The rest he muttered. 'These English!' was heard. Aminta said: 'Am I +never to see Steignton?' + +Lord Ormont invoked the Powers. He could not really give answer to this +female talk of the eternities. + +'Beaten I can never be,' he said, with instinctive indulgence to the +greater creature. 'But down there at Steignton, I should be haunted by +a young donkey swearing himself the fellow I grew up out of. No doubt +of that. I don't like him the better for it. Steignton grimaces at a +cavalry officer fool enough at his own risks and penalties to help +save India for the English. Maunderers! You can't tell--they don't know +themselves--what they mean. Except that they 're ready to take anything +you hand 'em, and then pipe to your swinging. I served them well--and at +my age, in full activity, they condemn me to sit and gape!' + +He stopped his pacing and gazed on the glass of the window. + +'Would you wish me not to be present at this fencing?' said Aminta. + +'Dear me! by all means, go, my love,' he replied. + +Any step his Fair Enemy won in the secret game Pull between them, she +was undisputedly to keep. + +She suggested: 'It might lead to unpleasantness.' + +'Of what sort?' + +'You ask?' + +He emphasized: 'Have you forgotten? Something happened after that +last ball at Challis's Rooms. Their women as well as their men must be +careful not to cross me.' + +Aminta had confused notions of her being planted in hostile territory, +and torn and knitted, trumpeted to the world as mended, but not +honourably mended in a way to stop corridor scandal. The ball at +Challis's Rooms had been one of her steps won: it had necessitated a +requirement for the lion in her lord to exhibit himself, and she had +gained nothing with Society by the step, owing to her poor performance +of the lion's mate. She had, in other words, shunned the countenance of +some scattered people pityingly ready to support her against the deadly +passive party known to be Lady Charlotte's. + +She let her lord go; thinking that once more had she striven and gained +nothing: which was true of all their direct engagements. And she had +failed because of her being only a woman! Mr. Morsfield was foolishly +wrong in declaring that she, as a woman, had reserves of strength. He +was perhaps of Lady Charlotte's mind with regard to the existence of +a Countess of Ormont, or he would know her to be incredibly cowardly. +Cowardly under the boast of pride, too; well, then, say, if you like, a +woman! + +Yet this mere shallow woman would not hesitate to meet the terrible Lady +Charlotte at any instant, on any terms: and what are we to think of +a soldier, hero, lion, dreading to tell her to her face that the +persecuted woman is his wife! + +'Am I a woman they can be ashamed of?' she asked, and did not seek the +answer at her mirror. She was in her bedroom, and she put out a hand +to her jewel-box, fingered it, found it locked, and abandoned her idle +project. A gentleman was 'dangerous.' She had not found him so. He had +the reputation, perhaps, because he was earnest. Not so very many men +are earnest. She called to recollection how ludicrously practical he was +in the thick of his passion. His third letter (addressed to the Countess +of Ormont--whom he manifestly did not or would not take to be the +veritable Countess--and there was much to plead for his error), or was +it his fourth?--the letters were a tropical hail-storm: third or +fourth, he broke off a streaked thunderpeal, to capitulate his worldly +possessions, give the names and degrees of kinship of his relatives, the +exact amount of the rent-roll of his Yorkshire estates, of his funded +property. + +Silly man! but not contemptible. He proposed everything in honour, from +his view of it. + +Whether in his third, fourth, or fifth letter.... How many had come? +She drew the key from her purse, and opened a drawer. The key of the +jewel-box was applied to the lock. + +Mr. Morsfield had sent her six flaming letters. He not only took no +precautions, he boasted that he hailed the consequences of discovery. +Six! + +She lifted a pen: it had to be done. + +He was briefly informed that he disturbed her peace. She begged he would +abstain from any further writing to her. + +The severity was in the brevity. The contrast of her style and his +appeared harsh. But it belonged to the position. + +Having with one dash of the pen scribbled her three lines, she slipped +the letter into her pocket. That was done, and it had to be done; it +ought to have been done before. How simple it was when one contemplated +it as actually done! Aminta made the motion of a hand along the paper, +just a flourish. Soon after, her head dropped back on the chair, and her +eyes shut, she took in breath through parted lips. The brief lines of +writing had cut away a lump of her vitality. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. THE SECRETARY TAKEN AS AN ANTIDOTE + +Dusty wayfarers along a white high-road who know of a bubbling little +spring across a stile, on the woodland borders of deep grass, are hailed +to sit aside it awhile: and Aminta's feverishness was cooled by now +and then a quiet conversation with the secretary ambitious to become a +school-master. Lady Charlotte liked him, so did her lord; Mrs. Lawrence +had chatted with him freshly, as it was refreshing to recollect; nobody +thought him a stunted growth. + +In Aminta's realized recollections, amid the existing troubles of her +mind, the charge against him grew paler, and she could no longer quite +think that the young hero transformed into a Mr. Cuper had deceived her, +though he had done it--much as if she had assisted at the planting and +watched aforetime the promise of a noble tree, to find it, after an +interval of years, pollarded--a short trunk shooting out a shock of +small, slim, stiff branches; dwarfed and disgraced; serviceable perhaps; +not ludicrous or ugly, certainly, taking it for a pollard. And he was +a cool well-spring to talk with. He, supposed once to be a passionate +nature, scorned passion as a madness; he smiled in his merciful +executioner's way at the high society, of which her aim was to pass for +one among the butterflies or dragonflies; he had lost his patriotism; +he labelled our English classes the skimmers, the gorgers, the grubbers, +and stigmatized them with a friendly air; and uttered words of tolerance +only for farmers and surgeons and schoolmasters. But that was quite +incidental in the humorous run of his talk, diverting to hear while it +lasted. He had, of course, a right to his ideas. + +No longer concerned in contesting them, she drank at the water of this +plain earth-well, and hoped she preferred it to fiery draughts, though +it was flattish, or, say, flavourless. In the other there was excess +of flavour--or, no, spice it had to be called. The young schoolmaster's +world seemed a sunless place, the world of traders bargaining for gain, +without a glimmer of the rich generosity to venture life, give it, dare +all for native land--or for the one beloved. Love pressed its claim on +heroical generosity, and instantly it suffused her, as an earth under +flush of sky. The one beloved! She had not known love; she was in her +five-and-twentieth year, and love was not only unknown to her, it was +shut away from her by the lock of a key that opened on no estimable +worldly advantage in exchange, but opened on a dreary, clouded round, +such as she had used to fancy it must be to the beautiful creamy +circus-horse of the tossing mane and flowing tail and superb step. She +was admired; she was just as much doomed to a round of paces, denied the +glorious fling afield, her nature's food. Hitherto she would have been +shamefaced as a boy in forming the word 'love': now, believing it denied +to her for good and all--for ever and ever--her bosom held and uttered +the word. She saw the word, the nothing but the word that it was, and +she envisaged it, for the purpose of saying adieu to it--good-bye even +to the poor empty word. + +This condition was attributable to a gentleman's wild rageing with the +word, into which he had not infused the mystic spirit. He poured hot +wine and spiced. If not the spirit of love, it was really the passion of +the man. Her tremors now and again in the reading of his later letters +humiliated her, in the knowledge that they came of no response to +him, but from the temporary base acquiescence; which is, with women, a +terrible perception of the gulf of their unsatisfied nature. + +The secretary, cheerful at his work, was found for just the opening of a +door. Sometimes she hesitated--to disturb him, she said to herself,--and +went up-stairs or out visiting. He protested that he could work on and +talk too. She was able to amuse her lord with some of his ideas. He had +a stock of them, all his own. + +Ideas, new-born and naked original ideas, are acceptable at no time to +the humanity they visit to help uplift, it from the state of beast. In +the England of that, period original or unknown ideas were a smoking +brimstone to the nose, dread Arabian afrites, invisible in the air, +jumping out of vases, armed for the slaughter of the venerable and +the cherished, the ivy-clad and celestially haloed. They carried +the dishevelled Maenad's torch. A step with them, and we were on the +Phlegethon waters of the French Revolution. For a publication of simple +ideas men were seized, tried at law, mulcted, imprisoned, and not +pardoned after the term of punishment; their names were branded: the +horned elect butted at them; he who alluded to them offered them +up, wittingly or not, to be damned in the nose of the public for an +execrable brimstone stench. + +Lord Ormont broke through his shouts or grunts at Aminta's report of the +secretary's ideas on various topics, particularly the proposal that the +lords of the land should head the land in a revolutionary effort to make +law of his crazy, top-heavy notions, with a self-satisfied ejaculation: +'He has not favoured me with any of these puffballs of his.' + +The deduction was, that the author sagaciously considered them adapted +for the ear of a woman; they were womanish--i.e. flighty, gossamer. To +the host of males, all ideas are female until they are made facts. + +This idea, proposing it to our aristocracy to take up his other ideas, +or reject them on pain of the forfeiture of their caste and headship +with the generations to follow, and a total displacing of them +in history by certain notorious, frowzy, scrubby pamphleteers and +publishers, Lord Ormont thought amazingly comical. English nobles +heading the weavers, cobblers, and barbers of England! He laughed, but +he said, 'Charlotte would listen to that.' + +The dread, high-sitting Lady Charlotte was, in his lofty thinking, a +woman, and would therefore listen to nonsense, if it happened to +strike a particular set of bells hanging in her cranium. She patronized +blasphemous and traitorous law-breakers, just to keep up the pluck of +the people, not with a notion of maintaining our English aristocracy +eminent in history. + +Lady Charlotte, however, would be the foremost to swoop down on the +secretary's ideas about the education of women. + +On that subject, Aminta said she did not know what to think. + +Now, if a man states the matter he thinks, and a woman does but listen, +whether inclining to agree or not, a perceptible stamp is left on soft +wax. Lord Ormont told her so, with cavalier kindness. + +She confessed 'she did not know what to think,' when the secretary +proposed the education and collocation of boys and girls in one group, +never separated, declaring it the only way for them to learn to know and +to respect one another. They were to learn together, play together, have +matches together, as a scheme for stopping the mischief between them. + +'But, my dear girl, don't you see, the devilry was intended by Nature. +Life would be the coldest of dishes without it.' And as for mixing the +breeched and petticoated in those young days--'I can't enter into it,' +my lord considerately said. 'All I can tell you is, I know boys.' + +Aminta persisted in looking thoughtful. 'Things are bad, as they are +now,' she said. + +'Always were--always will be. They were intended to be, if we are to +call them bad. Botched mendings will only make them worse.' + +'Which side suffers?' + +'Both; and both like it. One side must be beaten at any game. It's off +and on, pretty equal--except in the sets where one side wears thick +boots. Is this fellow for starting a mixed sexes school? Funny mothers!' + +'I suppose--' Aminta said, and checked the supposition. 'The mothers +would not leave their girls unless they were confident...?' + +'There's to be a female head of the female department? He reckons +on finding a woman as big a fool as himself? A fair bit of reckoning +enough. He's clever at the pen. He doesn't bother me with his ideas; now +and then I 've caught a sound of his bee buzzing.' + +The secretary was left undisturbed at his labours for several days. + +He would have been gladdened by a brighter look of her eyes at her next +coming. They were introspective and beamless. She had an odd leaning +to the talk upon Cuper's boys. He was puzzled by what he might have +classed, in any other woman, as a want of delicacy, when she recurred +to incidents which were red patches of the school time, and had clearly +lost their glow for her. + +A letter once written by him, in his early days at Cuper's, addressed +to J. Masner, containing a provocation to fight with any weapons, and +signed, 'Your Antagonist,' had been read out to the whole school, under +strong denunciation of the immorality, the unchristian-like conduct of +the writer, by Mr. Cuper; creating a sensation that had travelled to +Miss Vincent's establishment, where some of the naughtiest of the +girls had taken part with the audacious challenger, dreadful though +the contemplation of a possible duel so close to them was. And then +the girls heard that the anonymous 'Your Antagonist,' on being cited +to proclaim himself in public assembly of school-mates and masters, had +jumped on his legs and into the name of--one who was previously thought +by Miss Vincent's good girls incapable of the 'appalling wickedness,' +as Mr. Cuper called it, of signing 'Your Antagonist' to a Christian +school-fellow, having the design to provoke a breach of the law of the +land and shed Christian blood. Mr. Cuper delivered an impressive sermon +from his desk to the standing up boarders and day-scholars alike, +vilifying the infidel Greek word 'antagonist.' + +'Do you remember the offender's name?' the Countess of Ormont said; and +Weyburn said-- + +'Oh yes, I 've not forgotten the incident.' + +Her eyes, wherein the dead time hung just above the underlids, lingered, +as with the wish for him to name the name. + +She said: 'I am curious to hear how you would treat a case of that sort. +Would you preach to the boys? + +'Ten words at most. The right assumption is that both fellows were to +blame. I fancy the proper way would be to appeal to the naughty girls +for their opinion as to how the dispute should be decided.' + +'You impose too much on them. And you are not speaking seriously.' + +'Pardon me, I am. I should throw myself into the mind of a naughty +girl--supposing none of these at hand--and I should let it be known that +my eyes were shut to proceedings, always provided the weapons were not +such as would cause a shock of alarm in female bosoms.' + +'You would at your school allow it to be fought out?' + +'Judging by the characters of the boys. If they had heads to understand, +I would try them at their heads. Otherwise they are the better, they +come round quicker to good blood, at their age--I speak of English +boys--for a little hostile exercise of their fists. Well, for one thing, +it teaches them the value of sparring.' + +'I must imagine I am not one of the naughty sisterhood,--for I cannot +think I should ever give consent to fighting of any description, unless +for the very best of reasons,' said the countess. + +His eyes were at the trick of the quarter-minute's poising. Her lids +fluttered. 'Oh, I don't mean to say I was one of the good,' she added. + +At the same time her enlivened memory made her conscious of a warning, +that she might, as any woman might, so talk on of past days as to take, +rather more than was required of the antidote she had come for. + +The antidote was excellent; cooling, fortifying; 'quite a chalybeate,' +her aunt would say, and she was thankful. Her heart rose on a quiet wave +of the thanks, and pitched down to a depth of uncounted fathoms. Aminta +was unable to tell herself why. + +Mrs. Lawrence Finchley had been announced. On her way to the drawing +room Aminta's brain fell upon a series of dots, that wound along a track +to the point where she accused herself of a repented coquettry--cause of +the burning letters she was doomed to receive and could not stop without +rousing her lion. She dotted backwards; there was no sign that she +had been guilty of any weakness other than the almost--at least, in +design--innocent first move, which had failed to touch Lord Ormont in +the smallest degree. Never failure more absolute! + +She was about to inquire of her bosom's oracle whether she greatly +cared now. For an answer, her brain went dotting along from Mr. Cuper's +school, and a boy named Abner there, and a boy named Matey Weyburn, who +protected the little Jew-boy, up to Mr. Abner in London, who recommended +him in due season to various acquaintances; among them to Lady Charlotte +Eglett. Hence the introduction to Lord Ormont. How little extraordinary +circumstances are, if only we trace them to the source! + +But if only it had appeared marvellous, the throbbing woman might have +seized on it, as a thing fateful, an intervention distinctly designed +to waken the best in her, which was, after all, the strongest. Yea, she +could hope and pray and believe it was the strongest. + +She was listening to Isabella Lawrence Finchley, wishing she might have +followed to some end the above line of her meditations. + +Mrs. Lawrence was changed, much warmer, pressing to be more than merely +friendly. Aminta twice gave her cheek for kisses. The secretary had +spoken of Mrs. Lawrence as having the look of a handsome boy; and +Aminta's view of her now underwent a change likewise. Compunction, +together with a sisterly taste for the boyish fair one flying her sail +independently, and gallantly braving the winds, induced her to kiss in +return. + +'You do like me a morsel?' said Mrs. Lawrence. 'I fell in love with you +the last time I was here. I came to see Mr. Secretary--it's avowed; and +I have been thinking of you ever since, of no one else. Oh yes, for a +man; but you caught me. I've been hearing of him from Captain May. They +fence at those rooms. And it 's funny, Mr. Morsfield practises there, +you know; and there was a time when the lovely innocent Amy, Queen +of Blondes, held the seat of the Queen of Brunes. Ah, my dear, the +infidelity of men doesn't count. They are affected by the changeing +moons. As long as the captain is civil to him, we may be sure beautiful +Amy has not complained. Her husband is the pistol she carries in her +pocket, and she has fired him twice, with effect. Through love of you I +have learnt the different opinion the world of the good has of her and +of me; I thought we ran under a common brand. There are gradations. I +went to throw myself at the feet of my great-aunt; good old great-aunt +Lady de Culme, who is a power in the land. I let her suppose I came for +myself, and she reproached me with Lord Adder. I confessed to him +and ten others. She is a dear, she's ticklish, and at eighty-four she +laughed! She looked into my eyes and saw a field with never a man in +it--just the shadow of a man. She admitted the ten cancelled the one, +and exactly named to me, by comparison with the erring Amy, the sinner +I am and must be, if I 'm to live. So, dear, the end of it is,' and Mrs. +Lawrence put her fingers to a silken amber bow at Aminta's throat, and +squared it and flattened it with dainty precision, speaking on under +dropped eyelids, intent upon her work, 'Lady de Culme will be happy to +welcome you whenever it shall suit the Countess of Ormont to accompany +her disreputable friend. But what can I do, dear?' She raised her lids +and looked beseechingly. 'I was born with this taste for the ways and +games and style of men. I hope I don't get on badly with women; but if I +'m not allowed to indulge my natural taste, I kick the stable-boards and +bite the manger.' + +Aminta threw her arms round her, and they laughed their mutual peal. + +Caressing her still, Aminta said: 'I don't know whether I embrace a +boy.' + +'That idea comes from a man!' said Mrs. Lawrence. It was admitted. The +secretary was discussed. + +Mrs. Lawrence remarked: 'Yes, I like talking with him; he's bright. You +drove him out of me the day I saw him. Doesn't he give you the idea of a +man who insists on capturing you and lets it be seen he doesn't care two +snaps of a finger?' + +Aminta petitioned on his behalf indifferently: 'He 's well bred.' + +She was inattentive to Mrs. Lawrence's answer. The allusion of the +Queen of Blondes had stung her in the unacknowledged regions where women +discard themselves and are most sensitive. + +'Decide on coming soon to Lady de Culme,' said Mrs. Lawrence. 'Now that +her arms are open to you, she would like to have you in them. She is +old--. You won't be rigorous? no standing on small punctilios? + +She would call, but she does not--h'm, it is M. le Comte that she does +not choose to--h'm. But her arms are open to the countess. It ought to +be a grand step. You may be assured that Lady Charlotte Eglett would not +be taken into them. My great-aunt has a great-aunt's memory. The Ormonts +are the only explanation--if it 's an apology--she can offer for the +behaviour of the husband of the Countess of Ormont. You know I like him. +I can't help liking a man who likes me. Is that the way with a boy, Mr. +Secretary? I must have another talk with the gentleman, my dear. You are +Aminta to me.' + +'Always Aminta to you,' was the reply, tenderly given. + +'But as for comprehending him, I'm as far off that as Lady de Culme, who +hasn't the liking for him I have.' + +'The earl?' said Aminta, showing by her look that she was in the same +position. + +Mrs. Lawrence shrugged: 'I believe men and women marry in order that +they should never be able to understand one another. The riddle's best +read at a moderate distance. It 's what they call the golden mean; too +close, too far, we're strangers. I begin to understand that husband of +mine, now we're on bowing terms. Now, I must meet the earl to-morrow. +You will arrange? His hand wants forcing. Upon my word, I don't believe +it 's more.' + +Mrs. Lawrence contrasted him in her mind with the husband she knew, and +was invigorated by the thought that a placable impenetrable giant may +often be more pliable in a woman's hands than an irascible dwarf--until, +perchance, the latter has been soundly cuffed, and then he is docile to +trot like a squire, as near your heels as he can get. She rejoiced to be +working for the woman she had fallen in love with. + +Aminta promised herself to show the friend a livelier affection at their +next meeting. + +A seventh letter, signed 'Adolphus,' came by post, was read and locked +up in her jewel-box. They were all nigh destruction for a wavering +minute or so. They were placed where they lay because the first of them +had been laid there, the box being a strong one, under a patent key, and +discovery would mean the terrible. They had not been destroyed because +they had, or seemed to her to have, the language of passion. She could +read them unmoved, and appease a wicked craving she owned to having, and +reproached herself with having, for that language. + +Was she not colour in the sight of men? Here was one, a mouthpiece of +numbers, who vowed that homage was her due, and devotion, the pouring +forth of the soul to her. What was the reproach if she read the stuff +unmoved? + +But peruse and reperuse it, and ask impressions to tell our deepest +instinct of truthfulness whether language of this character can have +been written to two women by one hand! Men are cunning. Can they catch a +tone? Not that tone! + +She, too, Mrs. Amy May, was colour in the sight of men. Yet it seemed +that he could not have written so to the Queen of Blondes. And she, by +repute, was as dangerous to slight as he to attract. Her indifference +exonerated him. Besides, a Queen of Blondes would not draw the hearts +out of men in England, as in Italy and in Spain. Aminta had got thus +far when she found 'Queen of Brunes' expunged by a mist: she imagined +hearing the secretary's laugh. She thought he was right to laugh at her. +She retorted simply: 'These are feelings that are poetry.' + +A man may know nothing about them, and be an excellent schoolmaster. + +Suggestions touching the prudence of taking Mrs. Lawrence into her +confidence, as regarded these troublesome letters of the man with the +dart in his breast, were shuffled aside for various reasons: her modesty +shrank; and a sense of honour toward the man forbade it. She would have +found it easier to do if she had conspired against her heart in doing +it. And yet, cold-bloodedly to expose him and pluck the clothing from a +passion--dear to think of only when it is profoundly secret--struck +her as an extreme baseness, of which not even the woman who perused and +reperused his letters could be guilty. + +Her head rang with some of the lines, and she accused her head of the +crime of childishness, seeing that her heart was not an accomplice. At +the same time, her heart cried out violently against the business of +a visit to Lady de Culme, and all the steps it involved. Justly she +accused her heart of treason. Heart and head were severed. This, as +she partly apprehended, is the state of the woman who is already on the +slope of her nature's mine-shaft, dreading the rush downwards, powerless +to break away from the light. + +Letters perused and reperused, coming from a man never fervently noticed +in person, conjure features one would wish to put beside the actual, +to make sure that the fiery lines he writes are not practising a +beguilement. Aminta had lost grasp of the semblance of the impassioned +man. She just remembered enough of his eyes to think there might be +healing in a sight of him. + +Latterly she had refused to be exhibited to a tattling world as the +great nobleman's conquest:--The 'Beautiful Lady Doubtful' of a report +that had scorched her cars. Theatres, rides, pleasure-drives, even such +houses as she saw standing open to her had been shunned. Now she asked +the earl to ride in the park. + +He complied, and sent to the stables immediately, just noted another +of her veerings. The whimsy creatures we are matched to contrast with, +shift as the very winds or feather-grasses in the wind. Possibly a fine +day did it. Possibly, too, her not being requested to do it. + +He was proud of her bearing on horseback. She rode well and looked well. +A finer weapon wherewith to strike at a churlish world was never given +into the hands of man. These English may see in her, if they like, that +they and their laws and customs are defied. It does her no hurt, and it +hits them a ringing buffet. + +Among the cavaliers they passed was Mr. Morsfield. He rode by slowly. +The earl stiffened his back in returning the salute. Both that and the +gentleman were observed by Aminta. + +'He sees to having good blood under him,' said the earl. 'I admired his +mount,' she replied. + +Interpreted by the fire of his writing, his features expressed +character: insomuch that a woman could say of another woman, that she +admired him and might reasonably do so. His gaze at her in the presence +of her lord was audacious. + +He had the defect of his virtue of courage. Yet a man indisputably +possessing courage cannot but have an interesting face--though one may +continue saying, Pity that the eyes are not a little wider apart! He +dresses tastefully; the best English style. A portrait by a master hand +might hand him down to generations as an ancestor to be proud of. But +with passion and with courage, and a bent for snatching at the lion's +own, does he not look foredoomed to an early close? Her imagination +called up a portrait of Elizabeth's Earl of Essex to set beside him; +and without thinking that the two were fraternally alike, she sent him +riding away with the face of the Earl of Essex and the shadow of the +unhappy nobleman's grievous fortunes over his head. + +But it is inexcuseable to let the mind be occupied recurrently by a man +who has not moved the feelings, wicked though it be to have the feelings +moved by him. Aminta rebuked her silly wits, and proceeded to speculate +from an altitude, seeing the man's projects in a singularly definite +minuteness, as if the crisis he invoked, the perils he braved, the mute +participation he implored of her for the short space until their fate +should be decided, were a story sharply cut on metal. Several times she +surprised herself in an interesting pursuit of the story; abominably +cold, abominably interested. She fell upon a review of small duties of +the day, to get relief; and among them a device for spiriting away her +aunt from the table where Mrs. Lawrence wished to meet Lord Ormont. +It sprang up to her call like an imp of the burning pit. She saw it +ingenious and of natural aspect. I must be a born intriguer! she said in +her breast. That was hateful; but it seemed worse when she thought of a +woman commanding the faculty and consenting to be duped and foiled. That +might be termed despicable; but what if she had not any longer the wish +to gain her way with her lord? + +Those letters are acting like a kind of poison in me! her heart cried: +and it was only her head that dwelt on the antidote. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. MORE OF CUPER'S BOYS + +Entering the dining-room at the appointed minute in a punctual +household, Mrs. Lawrence informed the company that she had seen a Horse +Guards orderly at the trot up the street. Weyburn said he was directing +a boy to ring the bell of the house for him. Lord Ormont went to the +window. + +'Amends and honours?' Mrs. Lawrence hummed and added an operatic +flourish of an arm. Something like it might really be imagined. A large +square missive was handed to the footman. Thereupon the orderly trotted +off. + +My lord took seat at table, telling the footman to lay 'that parcel' +beside the clock on the mantelpiece. Aminta and Mrs. Lawrence gave out a +little cry of bird or mouse, pitiable to hear: they could not wait, they +must know, they pished at sight of plates. His look deferred to their +good pleasure, like the dead hand of a clock under key; and Weyburn +placed the missive before him, seeing by the superscription that it was +not official. + +It was addressed, in the Roman hand of a boy's copybook writing, to + + General the Earl of Ormont, I.C.B., etc., + Horse Guards, + London.' + +The earl's eyebrows creased up over the address; they came down low on +the contents. + +He resumed his daily countenance. 'Nothing of importance,' he said to +the ladies. + +Mrs. Lawrence knocked the table with her knuckles. Aminta put out a +hand, in sign of her wish. + +'Pray let me see it.' + +'After lunch will do.' + +'No, no, no! We are women--we are women,' cried Mrs. Lawrence. + +'How can it concern women?' + +'As well ask how a battle-field concerns them!' + +'Yes, the shots hit us behind you,' said Aminta; and she, too, struck +the table. + +He did not prolong their torture. Weyburn received the folio sheet and +passed it on. Aminta read. Mrs. Lawrence jumped from her chair and ran +to the countess's shoulder; her red lips formed the petitioning word to +the earl for the liberty she was bent to take. + +'Peep? if you like,' my lord said, jesting at the blank she would find, +and soft to the pretty play of her mouth. + +When the ladies had run to the end of it, he asked them: 'Well; now +then?' + +'But it's capital--the dear laddies!' Mrs. Lawrence exclaimed. + +Aminta's eyes met Weyburn's. + +She handed him the sheet of paper; upon the transmission of which empty +thing from the Horse Guards my lord commented: 'An orderly!' + +Weyburn scanned it rapidly, for the table had been served. + +The contents were these: + + 'HIGH BRENT NEAR ARTSWELL. + 'April 7th. + + 'To GENERAL THE EARL OF ORMONT + 'Cavalry. + + 'May it please your Lordship, we, the boys of Mr. Cuper's school, + are desirous to bring to the notice of the bravest officer England + possesses now living, a Deed of Heroism by a little boy and girl, + children of our school laundress, aged respectively eight and six, + who, seeing a little fellow in the water out of depth, and sinking + twice, before the third time jumped in to save him, though unable to + swim themselves; the girl aged six first, we are sorry to say; but + the brother, Robert Coop, followed her example, and together they + made a line, and she caught hold of the drowning boy, and he held + her petycoats, and so they pulled. We have seen the place: it is + not a nice one. They got him ashore at last. The park-keeper here + going along found them dripping, rubbing his hands, and blowing into + his nostrils. Name, T. Shellen, son of a small cobbler here, and + recovered. + + 'May it please your Lordship, we make bold to apply, because you + have been for a number of years, as far as the oldest can recollect, + the Hero of our school, and we are so bold as to ask the favour of + General Lord Ormont's name to head a subscription we are making to + circulate for the support of their sick mother, who has fallen ill. + We think her a good woman. Gentlemen and ladies of the + neighbourhood are willing to subscribe. If we have a great name to + head the list, we think we shall make a good subscription. Names:-- + + 'Martha Mary Coop, mother. + 'Robert Coop. + 'Jane Coop, the girl, aged six. + + 'If we are not taking too great a liberty, a subscription paper will + follow. We are sure General the Earl of Ormont's name will help to + make them comfortable. + 'We are obediently and respectfully, + 'DAVID GOWEN, + 'WALTER BENCH, + 'JAMES PANNERS PARSONS, + 'And seven others.' + +Weyburn spared Aminta an answering look, that would have been a begging +of Browny to remember Matey. + +'It 's genuine,' he said to Mrs. Lawrence, as he attacked his plate with +the gusto for the repast previously and benignly observed by her. 'It +ought to be the work of some of the younger fellows.' + +'They spell correctly, on the whole.' + +'Excepting,' said my lord, 'an article they don't know much about yet.' + +Weyburn had noticed the word, and he smiled. 'Said to be the happy +state! The three signing their names are probably what we called bellman +and beemen, collector, and heads of the swarm-enthusiasts. If it is +not the work of some of the younger hands, the school has levelled on +minors. In any case it shows the school is healthy.' + +'I subscribe,' said Mrs. Lawrence. + +'The little girl aged six shall have something done for her,' said +Aminta, and turned her eyes on the earl. + +He was familiar with her thrilled voice at a story of bravery. He said-- + +'The boys don't say the girl's brother turned tail.' + +'Only that the girl's brother aged eight followed the lead of the little +girl aged six,' Mrs. Lawrence remarked. 'Well, I like the schoolboys, +too--"we are sorry to say!" But they 're good lads. Boys who can +appreciate brave deeds are capable of doing them.' + +'Speak to me about it on Monday,' the earl said to Weyburn. + +He bowed, and replied-- + +'I shall have the day to-morrow. I 'll walk it and call on Messrs.' (he +glanced at the paper) 'Gowen, Bench, and Parsons. I have a German friend +in London anxious to wear his legs down stumpier.' + +'The name of the school?' + +'It is called Cuper's.' + +Aminta, on hearing the name of Cuper a second time, congratulated +herself on the happy invention of her pretext to keep Mrs. Pagnell from +the table at midday. Her aunt had a memory for names: what might she not +have exclaimed! There would have been little in it, but it was as well +that the 'boy of the name of Weyburn' at Cuper's should be unmentioned. +By an exaggeration peculiar to a disgust in fancy, she could hear +her aunt vociferating 'Weyburn!' and then staring at Mr. Weyburn +opposite--perhaps not satisfied with staring. + +He withdrew after his usual hearty meal, during which his talk of +boys and their monkey tricks, and what we can train them to, had been +pleasant generally, especially to Mrs. Lawrence. Aminta was carried +back to the minute early years at High Brent. A line or two of a smile +touched her cheek. + +'Yes, my dear countess, that is the face I want for Lady de Culme +to-day,' said Mrs. Lawrence.' She likes a smiling face. Aunty--aunty has +always been good; she has never been prim. I was too much for her, until +I reflected that she was very old, and deserved to know the truth before +she left us; and so I went to her; and then she said she wished to see +the Countess of Ormont, because of her being my dearest friend. I fancy +she entertains an 'arriere' idea of proposing her flawless niece Gracey, +Marchioness of Fencaster, to present you. She 's quite equal to the +fatigue herself. You 'll rejoice in her anecdotes. People were virtuous +in past days: they counted their sinners. In those days, too, as I have +to understand, the men chivalrously bore the blame, though the women +were rightly punished. Now, alas! the initiative is with the women, and +men are not asked for chivalry. Hence it languishes. Lady de Culme won't +hear of the Queen of Blondes; has forbidden her these many years!' + +Lord Ormont, to whom the lady's prattle was addressed, kept his visage +moveless, except in slight jerks of the brows. + +'What queen?' + +'You insist upon renewing my old, old pangs of jealousy, my dear lord! +The Queen of Cyprus, they called her, in the last generation; she fights +our great duellist handsomely.' + +'My dear Mrs. Lawrence!' + +'He triumphs finally, we know, but she beats him every round.' + +'It 's only tattle that says the duel has begun.' + +'May is the month of everlasting beauty! There 's a widower marquis now +who claims the right to cast the glove to any who dispute it.' + +'Mrs. May is too good-looking to escape from scandal.' + +'Amy May has the good looks of the Immortals.' + +'She can't be thirty.' + +'In the calendar of women she counts thirty-four.' + +'Malignity! Her husband's a lucky man.' + +'The shots have proved it.' + +Lord Ormont nodded his head over the hopeless task of defending a woman +from a woman, and their sharp interchange ceased. But the sight of +his complacency in defeat told Aminta that he did not respect his fair +client: it drew a sketch of the position he allotted his wife before the +world side by side with this Mrs. Amy May, though a Lady de Culme was +persuaded to draw distinctions. + +He had, however, quite complacently taken the dose intended for him by +Mrs. Lawrence, who believed that the system of gently forcing him was +the good one. + +The ladies drove away in the afternoon. The earl turned his back on +manuscript. He sent for a couple of walking sticks, and commanded +Weyburn to go through his parades. He was no tyro, merely out of +practice, and unacquainted with the later, simpler form of the great +master of the French school, by which, at serious issues, the guarding +of the line can be more quickly done: as, for instance, the 'parade +de septime' supplanting the slower 'parade de prime;' the 'parade de +quarte' having advantage over the 'parade de quince;' the 'parade de +tierce' being readier and stronger than the 'parade de sixte;' the same +said for the 'parade de seconde' instead of the weak 'parade d'octave.' + +These were then new points of instruction. Weyburn demonstrated them as +neatly as he could do with his weapon. + +'Yes, the French think,' Lord Ormont said, grasping the stick to get +conviction of thumb-strength and finger-strength from the parades +advocated; 'their steel would thread the ribs of our louts before: +they could raise a cry of parry; so here they 're pleased to sneer +at fencing, as if it served no purpose but the duel. Fencing, for one +thing, means, that with a good stick in his hand, a clever fencer can +double up a giant or two, grant him choice of ground. Some of our men +box; but the sword's the weapon for an officer, and precious few of 'em +are fit for more than to kick the scabbard. Slashing comes easier to +them: a plaguey cut, if it does cut--say, one in six. Navy too. Their +cutlass-drill is like a woman's fling of the arm to fetch a slap from +behind her shoulder. Pinking beats chopping. These English 'll have +their lesson. It 's like what you call good writing: the simple way does +the business, and that's the most difficult to learn, because you must +give your head to it, as those French fellows do. 'Trop de finesse' is +rather their fault. Anything's better than loutishness. Well! the lesson +'ll come.' + +He continued. He spoke as he thought: he was not speaking what he was +thinking. His mind was directed on the visit of Aminta to Lady de Culme, +and the tolerably wonderful twist whereby Mrs. Lawrence Finchley had +vowed herself to his girl's interests. And he blamed neither of them; +only he could not understand how it had been effected, for Aminta and +Mrs. Lawrence had not been on such particularly intimate terms last +week or yesterday. His ejaculation, 'Women!' was, as he knew, merely +ignorance roaring behind a mask of sarcasm. But it allied him with all +previous generations on the male side, and that was its virtue. His view +of the shifty turns of women got no further, for the reason that he took +small account of the operations of the feelings, to the sole exercise of +which he by system condemned the sex. + +He was also insensibly half a grain more soured by the homage of those +poor schoolboys, who called to him to take it for his reward in a +country whose authorities had snubbed, whose Parliament had ignored, +whose Press had abused him. The ridiculous balance made him wilfully +oblivious that he had seen his name of late eulogized in articles and +in books for the right martial qualities. Can a country treating a good +soldier--not serving it for pay--in so scurvy a fashion, be struck too +hard with our disdain? One cannot tell it in too plain a language how +one despises its laws, its moralities, its sham of society. The Club, +some choice anecdotists, two or three listeners to his dolences clothed +as diatribes; a rubber, and the sight of his girl at home, composed, +with a week's shooting now and then, his round of life now that she +refused to travel. What a life for a soldier in his vigour. Weyburn was +honoured by the earl's company on the walk to Chiallo's. In the street +of elegant shops they met Lord Adderwood, and he, as usual, appeared +in the act of strangling one of his flock of yawns, with gentlemanly +consideration for the public. Exercise was ever his temporary specific +for these incurables. Flinging off his coat, he cast away the cynic +style engendering or engendered by them. He and Weyburn were for a bout. +Sir John Randeller and Mr. Morsfield were at it, like Bull in training +and desperado foiled. A French 'maitre d'armes,' famed in 'escrime,' +standing near Captain Chiallo, looked amused in the eyes, behind a mask +of professional correctness. He had come on an excursion for the display +of his art. Sir John's very sturdy defence was pierced. Weyburn saluted +the Frenchman as an acquaintance, and they shook hands, chatted, +criticized, nodded. Presently he and his adversary engaged, vizored and +in their buckram, and he soon proved to be too strong for Adderwood, as +the latter expected and had notified to Lord Ormont before they crossed +the steel. My lord had a pleasant pricking excitement in the sound. +There was a pretty display between Weyburn and the 'escrimeur,' who +neatly and kindly trifled, took a point and returned one, and at +the finish complimented him. The earl could see that he had to be +sufficiently alert. + +Age mouthed an ugly word to the veteran insensible of it in his body, +when a desire to be one with these pairs of nimble wrists and legs was +like an old gamecock shown the pit and put back into the basket. He left +the place, carrying away an image of the coxcombical attitudinizing of +the man Morsfield at the salut, upon which he brought down his powers of +burlesque. + +My lord sketched the scene he had just quitted to a lady who had stopped +her carriage. She was the still beautiful Mrs. Amy May, wife of the +famous fighting captain. Her hair was radiant in a shady street; her +eyelids tenderly toned round the almond enclosure of blue pebbles, +bright as if shining from the seawash. The lips of the fair woman could +be seen to say that they were sweet when, laughing or discoursing, they +gave sight of teeth proudly her own, rivalling the regularity of the +grin of dentistry. A Venus of nature was melting into a Venus of art, +and there was a decorous concealment of the contest and the anguish +in the process, for which Lord Ormont liked her well enough to wink +benevolently at her efforts to cheat the world at various issues, and +maintain her duel with Time. The world deserved that she should beat it, +even if she had been all deception. + +She let the subject of Mr. Morsfield pass without remark from her, until +the exhaustion of open-air topics hinted an end of their conversation, +and she said-- + +'We shall learn next week what to think if the civilians. I have heard +Mr. Morsfield tell that he is 'de premiere force.' Be on your guard. +You are to know that I never forget a service, and you did me one once.' +'You have reason...?' said the earl. + +'If anybody is the dragon to the treasure he covets he is a spadassin +who won't hesitate at provocations. Adieu.' + +Lord Ormont's eye had been on Mr. Morsfield. He had seen what Mrs. +Pagnell counselled her niece to let him see. He thanked Mr. Morsfield +for a tonic that made him young with anticipations of bracing; and he +set his head to work upon an advance half-way to meet the gentleman, and +safely exclude his wife's name. + +Monday brought an account of Cuper's boys. Aminta received it while the +earl was at his papers for the morning's news of the weightier deeds of +men. + +They were the right boys, Weyburn said; his interview with Gowen, Bench, +Parsons, and the others assured him that the school was breathing big +lungs. Mr. Cuper, too, had spoken well of them. + +'You walked the twenty miles?' Aminta interrupted him. + +'With my German friend: out and home: plenty of time in the day. He +has taken to English boys, but asks why enthusiasm and worship of great +deeds don't grow upward from them to their elders. And I, in turn, ask +why Germans insist on that point more even than the French do.' + +'Germans are sentimental. But the English boys he saw belonged to +a school with traditions of enthusiasm sown by some one. The school +remembered?' + +'Curiously, Mr. Cuper tells me, the hero of the school has dropped +and sprung up, stout as ever, twice--it tells me what I wish to +believe--since Lord Ormont led their young heads to glory. He can't say +how it comes. The tradition's there, and it 's kindled by some flying +spark.' + +'They remember who taught the school to think of Lord Ormont?' + +'I 'm a minor personage. I certainly did some good, and that 's a push +forward.' + +'They speak of you?' + +It was Aminta more than the Countess of Ormont speaking to him. + +'You take an interest in the boys,' he said, glowing. 'Yes, well, they +have their talks. I happened to be a cricketer, counting wickets and +scores. I don't fancy it's remembered that it was I preached my lord. A +day of nine wickets and one catch doesn't die out of a school. The +boy Gowen was the prime spirit in getting up the subscription for the +laundress. But Bench and Parsons are good boys, too.' + +He described them, dwelt on them. The enthusiast, when not lyrical, is +perilously near to boring. Aminta was glad of Mrs. Lawrence's absence. +She had that feeling because Matthew Weyburn would shun talk of himself +to her, not from a personal sense of tedium in hearing of the boys; and +she was quaintly reminded by suggestions, coming she knew not whence, of +a dim likeness between her and these boys of the school when their hero +dropped to nothing and sprang up again brilliantly--a kind of distant +cousinship, in her susceptibility to be kindled by so small a flying +spark as this one on its travels out of High Brent. Moreover, the dear +boys tied her to her girlhood, and netted her fleeting youth for +the moth-box. She pressed to hear more and more of them, and of the +school-laundress Weyburn had called to see, and particularly of the +child, little Jane, aged six. Weyburn went to look at the sheet of water +to which little Jane had given celebrity over the county. The girl stood +up to her shoulders when she slid off the bank and made the line for her +brother to hold, he in the water as well. Altogether, Cuper's boys were +justified in promoting a subscription, the mother being helpless. + +'Modest little woman,' he said of Jane. 'We'll hope people won't spoil +her. Don't forget, Lady Ormont, that the brother did his part; he had +more knowledge of the danger than she.' + +'You will undertake to convey our subscriptions? Lord Ormont spoke of +the little ones and the schoolboys yesterday.' + +'I'll be down again among them next Sunday, Lady Ormont. On the Monday I +go to Olmer.' + +'The girls of High Brent subscribe?' + +There was a ripple under Weyburn's gravity. + +'Messrs. Gowen, Bench, and Parsons thought proper to stop Miss Vincent +at the head of her detachment in the park.' + +'On the Sunday?' + +'And one of them handed her a paper containing a report of their +interview with Mrs. Coop and a neat eulogy of little Jane. But don't +suspect them, I beg. I believe them to be good, honest fellows. Bench, +they say, is religious; Gowen has written verses; Parsons generally +harum-scarum. They're boyish in one way or another, and that'll do. The +cricket of the school has been low: seems to be reviving.' + +'Mr. Weyburn,' said the countess, after a short delay--and Aminta +broke through--'it pleases me to hear of them, and think they have not +forgotten you, or, at least, they follow the lead you gave. I should +like to know whether an idea I have is true: Is much, I mean constant, +looking down on young people likely to pull one's mind down to their +level?' + +'Likely enough to betray our level, if there 's danger,' he murmured. +'Society offers an example that your conjecture is not unfounded, Lady +Ormont. But if we have great literature and an interest in the world's +affairs, can there be any fear of it? The schoolmaster ploughs to make +a richer world, I hope. He must live with them, join with them in their +games, accustom them to have their heads knocked with what he wants to +get into them, leading them all the while, as the bigger schoolfellow +does, if he is a good fellow. He has to be careful not to smell of his +office. Doing positive good is the business of his every day--on a small +scale, but it 's positive, if he likes his boys. 'Avaunt favouritism!' +he must like all boys. And it 's human nature not so far removed from +the dog; only it's a supple human nature: there 's the beauty of it. We +train it. Nothing is more certain than that it will grow upward. I have +the belief that I shall succeed, because I like boys, and they like me. +It always was the case.' + +'I know,' said Aminta. + +Their eyes met. She looked moved at heart behind that deep forest of her +chestnut eyes. + +'And I think I can inspire confidence in fathers and mothers,' he +resumed.' I have my boys already waiting for me to found the school. +I was pleased the other day: an English friend brought an Italian +gentleman to see me and discuss my system, up at Norwood, at my +mother's--a Signor Calliani. He has a nephew; the parents dote on +him. The uncle confesses that the boy wants--he has got hold of our +word--"pluck." We had a talk. He has promised to send me the lad when I +am established in Switzerland.' + +'When?' said Aminta. + +'A relative from whom a Reversion comes is near the end. It won't be +later than September that I shall go. My Swiss friend has the school, +and would take me at once before he retires.' + +'You make friends wherever you go,' said Aminta. + +'Why shouldn't everybody? I'm convinced it's because I show people I +mean well, and I never nurse an injury, great or small. And besides, +they see I look forward. I do hope good for the world. If at my school +we have all nationalities--French boys and German, Italian, Russian, +Spaniard--without distinction of race and religion and station, and +with English intermixing--English games, English sense of honour and +conception of gentleman--we shall help to nationalize Europe. Emile +Grenat, Adolf Fleischer, and an Italian, Vincentino Chiuse, are prepared +to start with me: and they are men of attainments; they will throw up +their positions; they will do me the honour to trust to my leadership. +It's not scaling Alps or commanding armies, true.' + +'It may be better,' said Aminta, and thought as she spoke. + +'Slow work, if we have a taste for the work, doesn't dispirit. +Otherwise, one may say that an African or South American traveller has a +more exciting time. I shall manage to keep my head on its travels.' + +'You have ideas about the education of girls?' + +'They can't be carried out unaided.' + +'Aid will come.' + +Weyburn's confidence, high though it was, had not mounted to that pitch. + +'One may find a mate,' he said. The woman to share and practically +to aid in developing such ideas is not easily found: that he left as +implied. + +Aminta was in need of poetry; but the young schoolmaster's plain, +well-directed prose of the view of a business in life was welcome to +her. + +Lord Ormont entered the room. She reminded him of the boys of High Brent +and the heroine Jane. He was ready to subscribe his five-and-twenty +guineas, he said. The amount of the sum gratified Weyburn, she could +see. She was proud of her lord, and of the boys and the little girl; and +she would have been happy to make the ardent young schoolmaster aware of +her growing interest in the young. + +The night before the earl's departure on the solitary expedition to +which she condemned him, he surprised her with a visit of farewell, +so that he need not disturb her in the early morning, he said. She was +reading beside her open jewel-box, and she closed it with the delicate +touch of a hand turned backward while listening to him, with no sign of +nervousness. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. WAR AT OLMER + +Lively doings were on the leap to animate Weyburn at Olmer during Easter +week. The Rev. Mr. Hampton-Evey, rector of Barborough, on hearing that +Lady Charlotte Eglett was engaged in knocking at the doors of litigation +with certain acts that constituted distinct breaches of the law and the +peace, and were a violation of the rights of her neighbour, Mr. Gilbert +Addicote, might hope that the troublesome parishioner whom he did not +often number among his congregation would grant him a term of repose. +Therein he was deceived. Alterations and enlargements of the church, +much required, had necessitated the bricking up of a door regarded by +the lady as the private entrance to the Olmer pew. She sent him notice +of her intention to batter at the new brickwork; so there was the +prospect of a pew-fight before him. But now she came to sit under him +every Sunday; and he could have wished her absent; for she diverted his +thoughts from piety to the selections of texts applicable in the case +of a woman who sat with arms knotted, and the frown of an intemperate +schoolgirl forbidden speech; while her pew's firelight startlingly +at intervals danced her sinister person into view, as from below. The +lady's inaccessible and unconquerable obtuseness to exhortation informed +the picture with an evil spirit that cried for wrestlings. + +Regularly every week-day she headed the war now rageing between Olmer +and Addicotes, on the borders of the estates. It was open war, and +herself to head the cavalry. Weyburn, driving up a lane in the gig she +had sent to meet the coach, beheld a thicket of countrymen and boys +along a ridge; and it swayed and broke, and through it burst the figure +of a mounted warrior woman at the gallop, followed by what bore an +appearance of horse and gun, minus carriage, drivers at the flanks +cracking whips on foot. Off went the train, across a small gorse common, +through a gate. + +'That's another down,' said his whip. 'Sound good wood it is, not made +to fall. Her ladyship's at it hard to-day. She 'll teach Mr. Addicote a +thing or two about things females can do. That is, when they stand for +their rights.' + +He explained to Weyburn that Mr. Addicote, a yeoman farmer and a good +hunting man, but a rare obstinate one, now learning his lesson from her +ladyship, was in dispute with her over rights of property on a stretch +of fir-trees lining the ridge where the estates of Olmer and Addicotes +met. Her ladyship had sworn that if he did not yield to her claim she +would cut down every tree of the ridge and sell the lot for timber under +his nose. She acted according to her oath, in the teeth of his men two +feet across the border. All the world knew the roots of those trees were +for the most part in Olmer soil, though Addicote shared the shade. All +the people about mourned for the felling of those trees. All blamed Mr. +Gilbert Addicote for provoking her ladyship, good hunting man though he +was. But as to the merits of the question, under the magnifier of the +gentlemen of the law, there were as many different opinions as wigs in +the land. + +'And your opinion?' said Weyburn. + +To which the young groom answered: 'Oh, I don't form an opinion, sir. I +'m of my mistress's opinion; and if she says, Do it, think as we like, +done it has to be.' + +Lady Charlotte came at a trot through the gate, to supervise the +limbering-up of another felled tree. She headed it as before. The log +dragged bounding and twirling, rattling its chains; the crowd along the +ridge, forbidden to cheer, watching it with intense repression of the +roar. We have not often in England sight of a great lady challengeing +an unpopular man to battle and smacking him in the face like this to +provoke him. Weyburn was driven on a half-circle of the lane to the +gate, where he jumped out to greet Lady Charlotte trotting back for +another smack in the face of her enemy,--a third rounding of her +Troy with the vanquished dead at her heels, as Weyburn let a flimsy +suggestion beguile his fancy, until the Homeric was overwhelming even to +a playful mind, and he put her in a mediaeval frame. She really had +the heroical aspect in a grandiose-grotesque, fitted to some lines of +Ariosto. Her head wore a close hood, disclosing a fringe of grey locks, +owlish to see about features hooked for action. + +'Ah, you! there you are: good--I'll join you in three minutes,' she sang +out to him, and cantered to the ridge. + +Hardly beyond the stated number she was beside him again, ranging her +steed for the victim log to dance a gyration on its branches across the +lane and enter a field among the fallen compeers. One of her men had run +behind her. She slid from her saddle and tossed him the reins, catching +up her skirts. + +'That means war, as much as they'll have it in England,' she said, +seeing his glance at the logs. 'My husband's wise enough to leave it +to me, so I save him trouble with neighbours. An ass of a Mr. Gilbert +Addicote dares us to make good our claim on our property, our timber, +because half a score of fir-tree roots go stretching on to his ground.' + +She swished her whip. Mr. Gilbert Addicote received the stroke and +retired, a buried subject. They walked on at an even pace. 'You 'll see +Leo to-morrow. He worships you. You may as well give him a couple of +hours' coaching a day for the week. He'll be hanging about you, and you +won't escape him. Well, and my brother Rowsley: how is Lord Ormont? He +never comes to me now, since--Well, it 's nothing to me; but I like to +see my brother. She can't make any change here. Olmer and Lady Charlotte +'s bosom were both implied. 'What do you think?--you 've noticed: is he +in good health? It 's the last thing he 'll be got to speak of.' + +Weyburn gave the proper assurances. + +'Not he!' said she. 'He's never ill. Men beat women in the long race, if +they haven't overdone it when young. My doctor wants me to renounce the +saddle. He says it 's time. Not if I 've got work for horseback!' she +nicked her head emphatically: 'I hate old age. They sha'nt dismount +me till a blow comes. Hate it! But I should despise myself if I showed +signs, like a worm under heel. Let Nature do her worst; she can't +conquer us as long as we keep up heart. You won't have to think of that +for a good time yet. Now tell me why Lord Ormont didn't publish the +"Plan for the Defence" you said he was writing; and he was, I know. He +wrote it and he finished it; you made the fair copy. Well, and he read +it,--there! see!' She took the invisible sheets in her hands and tore +them. 'That's my brother. He's so proud. It would have looked like +asking the country, that injured him, to forgive him. I wish it had been +printed. But whatever he does I admire. That--she might have advised, +if she 'd been a woman of public spirit or cared for his reputation. He +never comes near me. Did she read your copy?' + +The question was meant for an answer. + +Weyburn replied: 'Lady Ormont had no sight of it.' + +'Ah! she's Lady Ormont to the servants, I know. She has an aunt living +in the house. If my brother's a sinner, and there's punishment for him, +he has it from that aunt. Pag... something. He bears with her. He 's a +Spartan. She 's his pack on his back, for what she covers and the game +he plays. It looks just tolerably decent with her in the house. She goes +gabbling a story about our Embassy at Madrid. To preserve propriety, as +they call it. Her niece doesn't stoop to any of those tricks, I 'm told. +I like her for that.' + +Weyburn was roused: 'I think you would like Lady Ormont, if you knew +her, my lady.' + +'The chances of my liking the young woman are not in the dice-box. You +call her Lady Ormont: you are not one of the servants. Don't call her +Lady Ormont to me.' + +'It is her title, Lady Charlotte.' She let fly a broadside at him. + +'You are one of the woman's dupes. I thought you had brains. How can +you be the donkey not to see that my brother Rowsley, Lord Ormont, would +never let a woman, lawfully bearing his name, go running the quadrille +over London in couples with a Lady Staines and a Mrs. Lawrence Finchley, +Lord Adderwood, and that man Morsfield, who boasts of your Lady Ormont, +and does it unwhipped--tell me why? Pooh, you must be the poorest fool +born to suppose it possible my brother would allow a man like that man +Morsfield to take his wife's name in his mouth a second time. Have you +talked much with this young person?' + +'With Lady Ormont? I have had the honour occasionally.' + +'Stick to the title and write yourself plush-breech. Can't you be more +than a footman? Try to be a man of the world; you're old enough for that +by now. I know she 's good-looking; the whole tale hangs on that. You +needn't be singing me mooncalf hymn tunes of "Lady Ormont, Lady Ormont," +solemn as a parson's clerk; the young woman brought good looks to +market; and she got the exchange she had a right to expect. But it +'s not my brother Rowsley's title she has got--except for footmen and +tradesmen. When there's a true Countess of Ormont!... Unless my brother +has cut himself from his family. Not he. He's not mad.' + +They passed through Olmer park-gates. Lady Charlotte preceded him, and +she turned, waiting for him to rejoin her. He had taken his flagellation +in the right style, neither abashed nor at sham crow: he was easy, ready +to converse on any topic; he kept the line between supple courtier and +sturdy independent; and he was a pleasant figure of a young fellow. +Thinking which, a reminder that she liked him drew her by the road of +personal feeling, as usual with her, to reflect upon another, and a +younger, woman's observing and necessarily liking him too. + +'You say you fancy I should like the person you call Lady Ormont?' + +'I believe you would, my lady.' + +'Are her manners agreeable?' + +'Perfect; no pretension.' + +'Ah! she sings, plays--all that? + +'She plays the harp and sings.' + +'You have heard her?' + +'Twice.' + +'She didn't set you mewing?' + +'I don't remember the impulse; at all events, it was restrained.' + +'She would me; but I'm an old woman. I detest their squalling and +strumming. I can stand it with Italians on the boards: they don't, stop +conversation. She was present at that fencing match where you plucked a +laurel? I had an account of it. I can't see the use of fencing in this +country. Younger women can, I dare say. Now, look. If we're to speak of +her, I can't call her Lady Ormont, and I don't want to hear you. Give me +her Christian name.' + +'It is'--Weyburn found himself on a slope without a stay--'Aminta.' + +Lady Charlotte's eye was on him. He felt intolerably hot; his vexation +at the betrayal of the senseless feeling made it worse, a conscious +crimson. + +'Aminta,' said she, rather in the style of Cuper's boys, when the name +was a strange one to them. 'I remember my Italian master reading out a +poem when I was a girl. I read poetry then. You wouldn't have imagined +that. I did, and liked it. I hate old age. It changes you so. None of my +children know me as I was when I had life in me and was myself, and my +brother Rowsley called me Cooey. They think me a hard old woman. I was +Cooey through the woods and over the meadows and down stream to Rowsley. +Old age is a prison wall between us and young people. They see a +miniature head and bust, and think it a flattery--won't believe it. +After I married I came to understand that the world we are in is a +world to fight in, or under we go. But I pity the young who have to cast +themselves off and take up arms. Young women above all.' + +Why had she no pity for Aminta? Weyburn asked it of his feelings, and he +had the customary insurgent reply from them. + +'You haven't seen Steignton yet,' she continued. 'No place on earth +is equal to Steignton for me. It 's got the charm. Here at Olmer I'm a +mother and a grandmother--the "devil of an old-woman" my neighbours take +me to be. She hasn't been to Steignton, either. No, and won't go there, +though she's working her way round, she supposes. He'll do everything +for his "Aminta," but he won't take her to Steignton. I'm told now she's +won Lady de Culme. That Mrs. Lawrence Finchley has dropped the curtsey +to her great-aunt and sworn to be a good girl, for a change, if Lady +de Culme will do the chaperon, and force Lord Ormont's hand. My brother +shrugs. There'll be a nice explosion one day soon. Presented? The Court +won't have her. That I know for positive. If she's pushed forward, she +'ll be bitterly snubbed. It 's on the heads of those women--silly women! +I can't see the game Mrs. Lawrence Finchley's playing. She'd play for +fun. If they'd come to me, I 'd tell them I 've proof she 's not +the Countess of Ormont: positive proof. You look? I have it. I hold +something; and not before,--(he may take his Aminta to Steignton, he +may let her be presented, she may wear his name publicly, I say he's +laughing at them, snapping his fingers at them louder and louder the +more they seem to be pushing him into a corner, until--I know my brother +Rowsley!--and, poor dear fellow! a man like that, the best cavalry +general England ever had:--they'll remember it when there comes a cry +for a general from India: that's the way with the English; only +their necessities teach them to be just!)--he to be reduced to be +out-manoeuvring a swarm of women,--I tell them, not before my brother +Rowsley comes to me for what he handed to my care and I keep safe for +him, will I believe he has made or means to make his Aminta Countess of +Ormont.' + +They were at the steps of the house. Turning to Weyburn there, the +inexhaustible Lady Charlotte remarked that their conversation had given +her pleasure. Leo was hanging on to one of his hands the next minute. A +small girl took the other. Philippa and Beatrice were banished damsels. + +Lady Charlotte's breath had withered the aspect of Aminta's fortunes. +Weyburn could forgive her, for he was beginning to understand her. +He could not pardon 'her brother Rowsley,' who loomed in his mind +incomprehensible, and therefore black. Once he had thought the great +General a great man. He now regarded him as a mere soldier, a soured +veteran; socially as a masker and a trifler, virtually a callous angler +playing his cleverly-hooked fish for pastime. + +What could be the meaning of Lady Charlotte's 'that, man Morsfield, who +boasts of your Lady Ormont, and does it unwhipped'? + +Weyburn stopped his questioning, with the reflection that he had no +right to recollect her words thus accurately. The words, however, +stamped Morsfield's doings and sayings and postures in the presence +of Aminta with significance. When the ladies were looking on at the +fencers, Morsfield's perfect coxcombry had been noticeable. He knew the +art of airing a fine figure. Mrs. Lawrence Finchley had spoken of it, +and Aminta had acquiesced; in the gravely simple manner of women who may +be thinking of it much more intently than the vivacious prattler. Aminta +confessed to an admiration of masculine physical beauty; the picador, +matador, of the Spanish ring called up an undisguised glow that English +ladies show coldly when they condescend to let it be seen; as it were, +a line or two of colour on the wintriest of skies. She might, after all, +at heart be one of the leisured, jewelled, pretty-winged; the spending, +never harvesting, world she claimed and sought to enter. And what a +primitive world it was!--world of the glittering beast and the not too +swiftly flying prey, the savage passions clothed in silk. Surely desire +to belong to it writes us poor creatures. Mentally, she could hardly +be maturer than the hero-worshipping girl in the procession of Miss +Vincent's young seminarists. Probably so, but she carried magic. She was +of the order of women who walk as the goddesses of old, bearing the +gift divine. And, by the way, she had the step of the goddess. Weyburn +repeated to himself the favourite familiar line expressive of the +glorious walk, and accused Lord Ormont of being in cacophonous +accordance with the perpetual wrong of circumstance, he her possessor, +the sole person of her sphere insensible to the magic she bore! So ran +his thought. + +The young man chose to conceive that he thought abstractedly. He was, +in truth, often casting about for the chances of his meeting on some +fortunate day the predestined schoolmaster's wife: a lady altogether +praiseworthy for carrying principles of sound government instead of +magic. Consequently, susceptible to woman's graces though he knew +himself to be, Lady Ormont's share of them hung in the abstract for him. +His hopes were bent on an early escape to Switzerland and his life's +work. + +Lady Charlotte mounted to ride to the battle daily. She talked of +her brother Rowsley, and of 'Aminta,' and provoked an advocacy of the +Countess of Ormont, and trampled the pleas and defences to dust, much +in the same tone as on the first day; sometimes showing a peep of sweet +humaneness, like the ripe berry of a bramble, and at others rattling +thunder at the wretch of a woman audacious enough to pretend to a part +in her brother's title. + +Not that she had veneration for titles. She considered them a tinsel, +and the devotee on his knee-caps to them a lump for a kick. Adding: 'Of +course I stand for my class; and if we can't have a manlier people--and +it 's not likely in a country treating my brother so badly--well, then, +let things go on as they are.' But it was the pretension to a part +in the name of Ormont which so violently offended the democratic +aristocrat, and caused her to resent it as an assault on the family +honour, by 'a woman springing up out of nothing'--a woman of no +distinctive birth. + +She was rational in her fashion; or Weyburn could at least see where and +how the reason in her took a twist. The Rev. Mr. Hampton-Evey would +not see it; he was, in charity to her ladyship, of a totally contrary +opinion, he informed Weyburn. The laborious pastor and much-enduring +Churchman met my lady's apologist as he was having a swing of the +legs down the lanes before breakfast, and he fell upon a series of +complaints, which were introduced by a declaration that 'he much feared' +her ladyship would have a heavy legal bill to pay for taking the law +into her hands up at Addicotes. + +Her ladyship might, if she pleased, he said, encourage her domestics and +her husband's tenants and farm-labourers to abandon the church for the +chapel, and go, as she had done and threatened to do habitually, to the +chapel herself; but to denounce the ritual of the Orthodox Church under +the denomination of 'barbarous,' to say of the invoking supplications of +the service, that they were--she had been heard to state it more or less +publicly and repeatedly--suitable to abject ministers and throngs at +the court of an Indian rajah, that he did not hesitate to term highly +unbecoming in a lady of her station, subversive and unchristian. The +personal burdens inflicted on him by her ladyship he prayed for patience +to endure. He surprised Weyburn in speaking of Lady Charlotte as +'educated and accomplished.' She was rather more so than Weyburn knew, +and more so than was common among the great ladies of her time. + +Weyburn strongly advised the reverend gentleman on having it out with +Lady Charlotte in a personal interview. He sketched the great lady's +combative character on a foundation of benevolence, and stressed +her tolerance for open dealing, and the advantage gained by personal +dealings with her--after a mauling or two. His language and his +illustrations touched an old-school chord in the Rev. Mr. Hampton-Evey, +who hummed over the project, profoundly disrelishing the introductory +portion. + +'Do me the honour to call and see me to-morrow, after breakfast, before +her ladyship starts for the fray on Addicote heights,' Weyburn said; +'and I will ask your permission to stand by you. Her bark is terrific, +we know; and she can bite, but there's no venom.' + +Finally, on a heave of his chest, Mr. Hampton-Evey consented to call, in +the interests of peace. + +Weyburn had said it must be 'man to man with her, facing her and taking +steps'; and, although the prospect was unpleasant to repulsiveness, it +was a cheerful alternative beside Mr. Hampton-Evey's experiences and +anticipations of the malignant black power her ladyship could be when +she was not faced. + +'Let the man come,' said Lady Charlotte. Her shoulders intimated +readiness for him. + +She told Weyburn he might be present--insisted to have him present. +During the day Weyburn managed to slide in observations on the +favourable reports of Mr. Hampton-Evey's work among the poor--emollient +doses that irritated her to fret and paw, as at a checking of her onset. + +In the afternoon the last disputed tree on the Addicotes' ridge was +felled and laid on Olmer ground. Riding with Weyburn and the joyful Leo, +she encountered Mr. Eglett and called out the news. He remarked, in the +tone of philosophy proper to a placable country gentleman obedient +to government on foreign affairs: 'Now for the next act. But no more +horseback now, mind!' + +She muttered of not recollecting a promise. He repeated the interdict. +Weyburn could fancy seeing her lips form words of how she hated old age. + +He had been four days at Olmer, always facing her, 'man to man,' in +the matter of Lady Ormont, not making way at all, but holding firm, and +winning respectful treatment. They sat alone in her private room, where, +without prelude, she discharged a fiery squib at impudent hussies caught +up to the saddle-bow of a hero for just a canter, and pretending to a +permanent seat beside him. + +'You have only to see Lady Ormont; you will admit the justice of her +claim, my lady,' said he; and as evidently he wanted a fight, she let +him have it. + +'You try to provoke me; you take liberties. You may call the woman +Aminta, I've told you; you insult me when you call the woman by my +family name.' + +'Pardon me, my lady: I have no right to call Lady Ormont Aminta.' + +'You've never done so, eh? Say!' + +She had him at the edge of the precipice. He escaped by saying, 'Her +Christian name was asked the other day, and I mentioned it. She is +addressed by me as Lady Ormont.' + +'And by her groom and her footman. They all do; it 's the indemnity to +that class of young woman. Her linendraper is Lady-Ormonting as you do. +I took you for a gentleman. Let me hear you give her that title again, +you shall hear her true one, that the world fits her with, from me.' + +The time was near the half-hour bell before dinner, the situation +between them that of the fall of the breath to fetch words electrical. +She left it to him to begin the fight, and was not sorry that she had +pricked him for it. + +A footman entered the room, bearer of a missive for Mr. Weyburn. Lord +Ormont's groom had brought it from London. + +'Send in the man,' said Lady Charlotte. + +Weyburn read + +'The Countess of Ormont begs Mr. Weyburn to return instantly. There +has been an accident in his home. It may not be very serious. An arm--a +shock to the system from a fall. Messenger informs her, fear of internal +hemorrhage. Best doctors in attendance.' + +He handed Lady Charlotte the letter. She humped at the first line, +flashed across the remainder, and in a lowered voice asked-- + +'Sister in the house?' + +'My mother,' Weyburn said. + +The groom appeared. He knew nothing. The Countess had given him orders +to spare no expense on the road to Olmer, without a minute's delay. He +had ridden and driven. + +He looked worn. Lady Charlotte rang the bell for her butler. To him she +said-- + +'See that this man has a good feed of meat, any pastry you have, and a +bottle of port wine. He has earned a pipe of tobacco; make up a bed +for him. Despatch at once any one of the stable-boys to Loughton--the +Dolphin. Mr. Leeman there will have a chariot, fly, gig, anything, +ready-horsed in three hours from now. See Empson yourself; he will put +my stepper Mab to the light trap; no delay. Have his feed at Loughton. +Tell Mrs. Maples to send up now, here, a tray, whatever she has, within +five minutes--not later. A bottle of the Peace of Amiens Chambertin--Mr. +Eglett's. You understand. Mrs. Maples will pack a basket for the +journey; she will judge. Add a bottle of the Waterloo Bordeaux. Wait: a +dozen of Mr. Eglett's cigars. Brisk with all the orders. Go.' + +She turned to Weyburn. 'You pack your portmanteau faster than a servant +will do it.' + +He ran up-stairs. + +She was beside the tray to welcome and inspirit his eating, and she +performed the busy butler's duty in pouring out wine for him. It was +a toned old Burgundy, happy in the year of its birth, the grandest of +instruments to roll the gambol-march of the Dionysiaca through the blood +of this frame and sound it to the spirit. She spoke no word of his cause +for departure. He drank, and he felt what earth can do to cheer one of +her stricken children and strengthen the beat of a heart with a dread +like a shot in it. + +She, while he flew supporting the body of his most beloved to the sun of +Life in brighter hope, reckoned the stages of his journey. + +'Leeman at Loughton will post you through the night to Mersley. Wherever +you bait, it is made known that you come from Olmer, and are one of us. +That passes you on up to London. Where can Lord Ormont be now?' + +'In Paris.' + +'Still in Paris? He leaves her. She did well to send as she did. You +will not pay for the posting along the road.' + +'I will pay for myself--I have a 'purse,' Weyburn said; and continued, +'Oh, my lady; there is Mr. Hampton-Evey to-morrow morning: I promised to +stand by him.' + +'I'll explain,' said Lady Charlotte. 'He shall not miss you. If he +strips the parson and comes as a man and a servant of the poor, he has +nothing to fear. You've done? The night before my brother Rowsley's +first duel I sat with him at supper and poured his wine out, and knew +what was going to happen, didn't say a word. No use in talking about +feelings. Besides, death is only the other side of the ditch, and one +or other of us must go foremost. Now then, good-bye. Empson's waiting by +this time. Mr. Eglett and Leo shall hear the excuses from me. Think of +anything you may want, while I count ten.' + +She held his hand. He wanted her to be friendly to Lady Ormont, but +could not vex her at the last moment, touched as he was by her practical +kindness. + +She pressed his hand and let it go. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. OLD LOVERS NEW FRIENDS + +The cottage inhabited by Weyburn's mother was on the southern hills over +London. He reached it late in the afternoon. His mother's old servant, +Martha, spied the roadway at the gate of the small square of garden. Her +steady look without welcome told him the scene he would meet beyond the +door, and was the dead in her eyes. He dropped from no height; he stood +on a level with the blow. His apprehensions on the road had lowered him +to meet it. + +'Too late, Martha?' + +'She's in heaven, my dear.' + +'She is lying alone?' + +'The London doctor left half an hour back. She's gone. Slipped, and +fell, coming from her room, all the way down. She prayed for grace to +see her son. She 'll watch over him, be sure. You 'll not find it lone +and cold. A lady sits with it--Lady Ormont, they call her--a very kind +lady. My mistress liked her voice. Ever since news of the accident, up +to ten at night; and never eats or drinks more than a poor tiny bit of +bread-and-butter, with a teacup.' + +'Weyburn went up-stairs. + +Aminta sat close to the bedside in a darkened room. They greeted +silently. He saw the white shell of the life that had flown; he took his +mother's hand and kissed it, and knelt, clasping it. + +Fear of disturbing his prayer kept Aminta seated. Death was a stranger +to him. The still warm, half-cold, nerveless hand smote the fact of +things as they were through the prayer for things as we would have +them. The vitality of his prayer was the sole light he had. It drew +sustainment from the dead hand in his grasp, and cowered down to the +earth claiming all we touch. He tried to summon vision of a soaring +spirituality; he could not; his understanding and senses were too +stricken. He prayed on. His prayer was as a little fountain, not rising +high out of earth, and in the clutch of death; but its being it had from +death, his love gave it food. + +Prayer is power within us to communicate with the desired beyond our +thirsts. The goodness of the dear good mother gone was in him for +assurance of a breast of goodness to receive her, whatever the nature of +the eternal secret may be. The good life gone lives on in the mind; +the bad has but a life in the body, and that not lasting,--it extends, +dispreads, it worms away, it perishes. Need we more to bid the +mind perceive through obstructive flesh the God who reigns, a devil +vanquished? Be certain that it is the pure mind we set to perceive. The +God discerned in thought is another than he of the senses. And let the +prayer be as a little fountain. Rising on a spout, from dread of the +hollow below, the prayer may be prolonged in words begetting words, and +have a pulse of fervour: the spirit of it has fallen after the first +jet. That is the delirious energy of our craving, which has no life +in our souls. We do not get to any heaven by renouncing the Mother we +spring from; and when there is an eternal secret for us, it is befit +to believe that Earth knows, to keep near her, even in our utmost +aspirations. + +Weyburn still knelt. He was warned to quit the formal posture of an +exhausted act by the thought, that he had come to reflect upon how he +might be useful to his boys in a like calamity. + +Having risen, he became aware, that for some time of his kneeling +Aminta's hand had been on his head, and they had raised their souls +in unison. It was a soul's link. They gazed together on the calm, rapt +features. They passed from the room. + +'I cannot thank you,' he said. + +'Oh no; I have the reason for gratitude,' said she. 'I have learnt to +know and love her, and hope I may imitate when my time is near.' + +"She.... at the last?' + +'Peacefully; no pain. The breath had not left her very long before you +came.' + +'I said I cannot; but I must-- + +'Do not.' + +'Not in speech, then.' + +They went into the tasteful little sitting-room below, where the +stillness closed upon them as a consciousness of loss. + +'You have comforted her each day,' he said. + +'It has been my one happiness.' + +'I could not wish for better than for her to have known you.' + +'Say that for me. I have gained. She left her last words for you with +me. They were love, love... pride in her son: thanks to God for having +been thought worthy to give him birth.' + +'She was one of the noble women of earth.' + +'She was your mother. Let me not speak any more. I think I will now go. +I am rarely given to these--' + +The big drops were falling. + +'You have not ordered your carriage?' + +'It brings me here. I find my way home.' + +'Alone?' + +'I like the independence.' + +'At night, too!' + +'Nothing harmed me. Now it is daylight. A letter arrived for you from +High Brent this morning. I forgot to bring it. Yesterday two of your +pupils called here. Martha saw them.' + +Her naming of the old servant familiarly melted him. 'You will not bear +to hear praise or thanks.' + +'If I deserved them. I should like you to call on Dr. Buxton; he will +tell you more than we can. He drove with me the first day, after I had +sent you the local doctor's report. I had it from the messenger, his +assistant.' + +Weyburn knew Dr. Buxton's address. He begged her to stay and take some +nourishment; ventured a remark on her wasted look. + +'It is poor fare in cottages.' + +'I have been feeding on better than bread and meat,' she said.' I should +have eaten if I had felt appetite. My looks will recover, such as they +are. I hope I have grown out of them; they are a large part of the +bondage of women. You would like to see me safe into some conveyance. Go +up-stairs for a few minutes; I will wait here.' + +He obeyed her. Passing from the living to the dead, from the dead to the +living, they were united in his heart. + +Her brevity of tone, and her speech, so practical upon a point of need, +under a crisis of distress, reminded him of Lady Charlotte at the time +of the groom's arrival with her letter. + +Aminta was in no hurry to drive. She liked walking and looking down on +London, she said. + +'My friend and schoolmate, Selina Collett, comes to me at Whitsuntide. +We have taken a house on the Upper Thames, above Marlow. You will +come and see us, if you can be persuaded to leave your boys. We have +a boathouse, and a bathing-plank for divers. The stream is quiet there +between rich meadows. It seems to flow as if it thought. I am not +poetical; I tell you only my impression. You shall be a great deal by +yourself, as men prefer to be.' + +'As men are forced to be--I beg!' said he. 'Division is against my +theories.' + +'We might help, if we understood one another, I have often fancied. I +know something of your theories. I should much like to hear you some +day on the scheme of the school in Switzerland, and also on the +schoolmaster's profession. She whom we have lost was full of it, and +spoke of it to me as much as her weakness would permit. The subject +seemed to give her strength.' + +'She has always encouraged me,' said Weyburn.' I have lost her, but I +shall feel that she is not absent. She had ideas of her own about men +and women.' + +'Some she mentioned.' + +'And about marriage?' + +'That too.' + +Aminta shook herself out of a sudden stupor. + +'Her mind was very clear up to the last hour upon all the subjects +interesting her son. She at one time regretted his not being a soldier, +for the sake of his father's memory. Then she learned to think he could +do more for the world as the schoolmaster. She said you can persuade.' + +'We had our talks. She would have the reason, if she was to be won. I +like no other kind of persuasion.' + +'I long to talk over the future school with you. That is, to hear your +plans.' + +They were at the foot of the hill, in view of an inn announcing livery +stables. She wished to walk the whole distance. He shook his head. + +The fly was ready for her soon, and he begged to see her safe home. She +refused, after taking her seat, but said: 'At any other time. We are old +friends. You will really go through the ceremony of consulting me about +the school?' + +He replied: 'I am honoured.' + +'Ah, not to me,' said Aminta. 'We will be the friends we--You will not +be formal with me?--not from this day?' + +She put out her hand. He took it gently. The dead who had drawn them +together withheld a pressure. Holding the hand, he said: 'I shall crave +leave of absence for some days.' + +'I shall see you on the day,' said she. 'If it is your desire: I will +send word.' + +'We both mourn at heart. We should be in company. Adieu.' + +Their hands fell apart. They looked. The old school time was in each +mind. They saw it as a shore-bank in grey outline across morning mist. +Years were between; and there was a division of circumstance, more +repelling than an abyss or the rush of deep wild waters. + +Neither of them had regrets. Under their cloud, and with the grief they +shared, they were as happy as two could be in recovering one another as +friends. + +On the day of the funeral Aminta drove to the spot where they had +parted--she walked to the churchyard. + +She followed the coffin to its gravel-heap, wishing neither to see nor +be seen, only that she might be so far attached to the remains of the +dead; and the sense of blessedness she had in her bowed simplicity of +feeling was as if the sainted dead had cleansed and anointed her. + +When the sods had been cast on, the last word spoken, she walked her +way back, happy in being alone, unnoticed. She was grateful to the chief +mourner for letting her go as she had come. That helped her to her sense +of purification, the haven out of the passions, hardly less quiet than +the repose into which the dear dead woman, his mother, had entered. + +London lay beneath her. The might of the great hive hummed at the verge +of her haven of peace without disturbing. There she had been what +none had known of her: an ambitious girl, modest merely for lack of +intrepidity; paralyzed by her masterful lord; aiming her highest at +a gilt weathercock; and a disappointed creature, her breast a home of +serpents; never herself. She thought and hoped she was herself now. +Alarm lest this might be another of her moods, victim of moods as she +had latterly been, was a shadow armed with a dart playing round her to +find the weak spot. It sprang from her acknowledged weakness of nature; +and she cast about for how to keep it outside her and lean on a true +though a small internal support. She struck at her desires, to sound +them. + +They were yesterday for love; partly for distinction, for a woman having +beauty to shine in the sphere of beauty; but chiefly to love and be +loved, therefore to live. She had yesterday read letters of a man +who broke a music from the word--about as much music as there is in +a tuning--fork, yet it rang and lingered; and he was not the magical +musician. Now those letters were as dust of the road. The sphere of +beauty was a glass lamp-globe for delirious moths. She had changed. +Belief in the real change gave her full view of the compliant coward she +had been. + +Her heart assured her she had natural courage. She felt that it could be +stubborn to resist a softness. Now she cared no more for the hackneyed +musical word; friendship was her desire. If it is not life's poetry, it +is a credible prose; a land of low undulations instead of Alps; beyond +the terrors and the deceptions. And she could trust her friend: he who +was a singular constancy. His mother had told her of his preserving +letters of a girl he loved when at school; and of his journeys to an +empty house at Dover. That was past; but, as the boy, so the man would +be in sincerity of feeling trustworthy to the uttermost. + +She mused on the friend. He was brave. She had seen how he took his +blow, and sorrow as a sister, conquering emotion. It was not to be +expected of him by one who knew him when at school. Had he faults? He +must have faults. She, curiously, could see none. After consenting to +his career as a schoolmaster, and seeing nothing ludicrous in it, she +endowed him with the young school-hero's reputation, beheld him with the +eyes of the girl who had loved him--and burnt his old letters!--bitterly +regretted that she burnt his letters!--and who had applauded his +contempt of ushers and master opposing his individual will and the thing +he thought it right to do. + +Musing thus, she turned a corner, on a sudden, in her mind, and ran +against a mirror, wherein a small figure running up to meet her, grew +large and nodded, with the laugh and eyes of Browny. So little had she +changed! The stedfast experienced woman rebuked that volatile, and some +might say, faithless girl. But the girl had her answer: she declared +they were one and the same, affirmed that the years between were a bad +night's dream, that her heart had been faithful, that he who conjures +visions of romance in a young girl's bosom must always have her heart, +as a crisis will reveal it to her. She had the volubility of the mettled +Browny of old, and was lectured. When she insisted on shouting 'Matey! +Matey!' she was angrily spurned and silenced. + +Aminta ceased to recline in her carriage. An idea that an indolent +posture fostered vapourish meditations, counselled her sitting +rigidly upright and interestedly observing the cottages and merry +gutter-children along the squat straight streets of a London suburb. Her +dominant ultimate thought was, 'I, too, can work!' Like her courage, the +plea of a capacity to work appealed for confirmation to the belief which +exists without demonstrated example; and as she refrained from probing +to the inner sources of that mental outcry, it was allowed to stand and +remain among the convictions we store--wherewith to shape our destinies. + +Childishly indeed, quite witlessly, she fell into a trick of repeating +the name of Matthew Weyburn in her breast and on her lips, after the +manner of Isabella Lawrence Finchley, when she had inquired for his +Christian name, and went on murmuring it, as if sucking a new bonbon, +with the remark: 'It sounds nice, it suits the mouth.' Little Selina +Collett had told, Aminta remembered, how those funny boys at Cuper's +could not at first get the name 'Aminta' to suit the mouth, but +went about making hideous faces in uttering it. She smiled at the +recollection, and thought, up to a movement of her lips, one is not +tempted to do that in saying Matthew Weyburn! + + + + +CHAPTER XV. SHOWING A SECRET FISHED WITHOUT ANGLING + +That great couchant dragon of the devouring jaws and the withering +breath, known as our London world, was in expectation of an excitement +above yawns on the subject of a beautiful Lady Doubtful proposing +herself, through a group of infatuated influential friends, to a +decorous Court, as one among the ladies acceptable. The popular version +of it sharpened the sauce by mingling romance and cynicism very happily; +for the numerous cooks, when out of the kitchen, will furnish a piquant +dish. Thus, a jewel-eyed girl of half English origin (a wounded +British officer is amiably nursed in a castle near the famous Peninsula +battlefield, etc.), running wild down the streets of Seville, is picked +up by Lord Ormont, made to discard her tambourine, brought over to our +shores, and allowed the decoration of his name, without the legitimate +adornment of his title. Discontented with her position after a time, +she now pushes boldly to claim the place which will be most effective +in serving her as a bath. She has, by general consent, beauty; she must, +seeing that she counts influential friends, have witchery. Those who +have seen her riding and driving beside her lord, speak of Andalusian +grace, Oriental lustre, fit qualification for the fair slave of a +notoriously susceptible old warrior. + +She won a party in the widening gossip world; and enough of a party in +the regent world to make a stream. Pretending to be the actual Countess +of Ormont, though not publicly acknowledged as his countess by the earl, +she had on her side the strenuous few who knew and liked her, some +who were pleased compassionately to patronize, all idle admirers of a +shadowed beautiful woman at bay, the devotees of any beauty in distress, +and such as had seen, such as imagined they had seen, such as could +paint a mental picture of a lady of imposing stature, persuasive +appearance, pathetic history, and pronounce her to be unjustly treated, +with a general belief that she was visible and breathing. She had the +ready enthusiasts, the responsive sentimentalists, and an honest +active minor number, of whom not every one could be declared perfectly +unspotted in public estimation, however innocent under verdict of the +courts of law. + +Against her was the livid cloud-bank over a flowery field, that has +not yet spoken audible thunder: the terrible aggregate social woman, +of man's creation, hated by him, dreaded, scorned, satirized, and +nevertheless, upheld, esteemed, applauded: a mark of civilization, on +to which our human society must hold as long as we have nothing humaner. +She exhibits virtue, with face of waxen angel, with paw of desert +beast, and blood of victims on it. Her fold is a genial climate and +the material pleasures for the world's sheepy: worshipping herself, she +claims the sanctification of a performed religion. She is gentle when +unassailed, going her way serenely, with her malady in the blood. When +the skin bears witness to it, she swallows an apothecary, and there is +a short convulsion. She is refreshed by cutting off diseased inferior +members: the superior betraying foul symptoms, she covers up and +retains; rationally, too, for they minister to her present existence, +and she lives all in the present. Her subjects are the mixed +Subservient; among her rebellious are earth's advanced, who have cold a +morning on their foreheads, and these would not dethrone her, they +would but shame and purify by other methods than the druggist. She +loves nothing. Undoubtedly, she dislikes the vicious. On that merit she +subsists. + +The vexatious thing in speaking of her is, that she compels to the +use of the rhetorician's brass instrument. As she is one of the Powers +giving life and death, one may be excused. This tremendous queen of the +congregation has brought discredit on her sex for the scourge laid +on quivering female flesh, and for the flippant indifference shown to +misery and to fine distinctions between right and wrong, good and bad; +and particularly for the undiscriminating hardness upon the starved of +women. We forget her having been conceived in the fear of men, shaped to +gratify them. She is their fiction of the state they would fain beguile +themselves to suppose her sex has reached, for their benefit; where she +may be queen of it in a corner, certain of a loyal support, if she +will only give men her half-the-world's assistance to uplift the fabric +comfortable to them; together with assurance of paternity, case of mind +in absence, exclusive possession, enormous and minutest, etc.; not +by any means omitting a regimental orderliness, from which men are +privately exempt, because they are men, or because they are grown +boys--the brisker at lessons after a vacation or a truancy, says the +fiction. + +In those days the world had oscillated, under higher leading than its +royal laxity, to rigidity. Tiny peccadilloes were no longer matter +of jest, and the sinner exposed stood 'sola' to receive the brand. A +beautiful Lady Doubtful needed her husband's countenance if she was +to take one of the permanent steps in public places. The party of Lady +Charlotte Eglett called on the livid cloud-bank aforesaid to discharge +celestial bolts and sulphur oil on the head of an impudent, underbred, +ambitious young slut, whose arts had bewitched a distinguished nobleman +not young in years at least, and ensnared the remainder wits of some +principal ancient ladies of the land. Professional Puritans, born +conservatives, malicious tattlers, made up a goodly tail to Lady +Charlotte's party. The epithet 'unbred' was accredited upon the quoted +sayings and doings of the pretentious young person's aunt, repeated +abroad by noblemen and gentlemen present when she committed herself; +and the same were absurd. They carried a laugh, and so they lived and +circulated. Lord Ormont submitted to the infliction of that horrid +female in his household! It was no wonder he stopped short of allying +himself with the family. + +Nor was it a wonder that the naturally enamoured old warrior or +invalided Mars (for she had the gift of beauty) should deem it prudent +to be out of England when she and her crazy friends determined on the +audacious move. Or put it the other way--for it is just as confounding +right side or left--she and her friends take advantage of his absence +to make the clever push for an establishment, and socially force him to +legalize their union on his return. The deeds of the preceding reign +had bequeathed a sort of legendary credence to the wildest tales gossip +could invent under a demurrer. + +But there was the fact, the earl was away. Lady Charlotte's party buzzed +everywhere. Her ladyship had come to town to head it. Her ladyship laid +trains of powder from dinner-parties, balls, routs, park-processions, +into the Lord Chamberlain's ear, and fired and exploded them, deafening +the grand official. Do you consider that virulent Pagan Goddesses +and the flying torch-furies are extinct? Error of Christians! We have +relinquished the old names and have no new ones for them; but they are +here, inextinguishable, threading the day and night air with their dire +squib-trail, if we would but see. Hissing they go, and we do not hear. +We feel the effects. + +Upon the counsel of Mrs. Lawrence, Aminta sent a letter to Lord Ormont +at his hotel in Paris, informing him of the position of affairs. He had +delayed his return, and there had been none of his brief communications. + +She wrote, as she knew, as she felt, coldly. She was guided by others, +and her name was up before the world, owing to some half-remembered +impulsion of past wishes, but her heart was numbed; she was not a woman +to have a wish without a beat of the heart in it. For her name she had a +feeling, to be likened rather to the losing gambler's contemplation of a +big stake he has flung, and sees it gone while fortune is undecided; and +he catches at a philosophy nothing other than his hug of a modest little +background pleasure, that he has always preferred to this accursed bad +habit of gambling with the luck against him. Reckless in the cast, she +was reckless of success. + +Her letter was unanswered. + +Then, and day by day more strongly, she felt for her name. She put a +false heart into it. She called herself to her hearing the Countess of +Ormont, and deigned to consult the most foolish friend she could have +chosen--her aunt; and even listened to her advice, that she should run +about knocking at all the doors open to her, and state her case against +the earl. It seemed the course to take, the moment for taking it. Was +she not asked if she could now at last show she had pride? Her pride ran +stinging through her veins, like a band of freed prisoners who head the +rout to fire a city. She charged her lord with having designedly--oh! +cunningly indeed left her to be the prey of her enemies at the hour +when he knew it behoved him to be her great defender. There had been no +disguise of the things in progress: they had been spoken of allusively, +quite comprehensibly, after the fashion common with two entertaining +a secret semi-hostility on a particular subject; one of them being the +creature that blushes and is educated to be delicate, reserved, and +timorous. He was not ignorant, and he had left her, and he would not +reply to her letter! + +So fell was her mood, that an endeavour to conjure up the scene of her +sitting beside the death-bed of Matthew Weyburn's mother, failed to +sober and smooth it, holy though that time was. The false heart she had +put into the pride of her name was powerfuller than the heart in her +bosom. But to what end had the true heart counselled her of late? It had +been a home of humours and languors, an impotent insurgent, the sapper +of her character; and as we see in certain disorderly States a curative +incendiarism usurp the functions of the sluggish citizen, and the work +of re-establishment done by destruction, in peril of a total extinction, +Aminta's feverish anger on behalf of her name went a stretch to vivify +and give her dulled character a novel edge. She said good-bye to +cowardice. 'I have no husband to defend me--I must do it for myself.' +The peril of a too complete exercise of independence was just intimated +to her perceptions. On whom the blame? And let the motively guilty go +mourn over consequences! That Institution of Marriage was eyed. Is it +not a halting step to happiness? It is the step of a cripple,--and one +leg or the other poses for the feebler sex,--small is the matter +which! And is happiness our cry? Our cry is rather for circumstance and +occasion to use our functions, and the conditions are denied to women +by Marriage--denied to the luckless of women, who are many, very many: +denied to Aminta, calling herself Countess of Ormont, for one, denied +to Mrs. Lawrence Finchley for another, and in a base bad manner. She had +defended her good name triumphantly, only to enslave herself for life or +snatch at the liberty which besmirches. + +Reviewing Mrs. Lawrence, Aminta's real heart pressed forward at the +beat, in tender pity of the woman for whom a yielding to love was to +sin; and unwomanly is the woman who does not love: men will say +it. Aminta found herself phrasing. 'Why was she unable to love her +husband?--he is not old.' She hurried in flight from the remark to +confidences imparted by other ladies, showing strange veins in an earthy +world; after which, her mind was bent to rebuke Mrs. Pagnell for the +silly soul's perpetual allusions to Lord Ormont's age. She did not think +of his age. But she was vividly thinking that she was young. Young, +married, loveless, cramped in her energies, publicly dishonoured--a Lady +Doubtful, courting one friend whom she liked among women, one friend +whom she respected among men; that was the sketch of her. + +That was in truth the outline, as much as Aminta dared sketch of herself +without dragging her down lower than her trained instinct would bear +to look. Our civilization shuns nature; and most shuns it in the most +artificially civilized, to suit the market. They, however, are always +close to their mother nature, beneath their second nature's mask of +custom; and Aminta's unconscious concluding touch to the sketch: 'My +husband might have helped me to a footing in Society,' would complete it +as a coloured picture, if writ in tones. + +She said it, and for the footing in Society she had lost her taste. + +Mrs. Lawrence brought the final word from high quarters: that the +application must be deferred until Lord Ormont returned to town. It +was known before, that such would be the decision. She had it from the +eminent official himself, and she kicked about the room, setting her +pretty mouth and nose to pout and sniff, exactly like a boy whose chum +has been mishandled by a bully. + +'Your dear good man is too much for us. I thought we should drive him. +'C'est un ruse homme de guerre.' I like him, but I could slap him. +He stops the way. Upon my word, he seems tolerably careless of his +treasure. Does he suppose Mrs. Paggy is a protection? Do you know she's +devoted to that man Morsfield? He listens to her stories. To judge by +what he shouts aloud, he intends carrying you off the first opportunity, +divorcing, and installing you in Cobeck Hall. All he fears is, that your +lord won't divorce. You should have seen him the other day; he marched +up and down the room, smacking his head and crying out: "Legal measures +or any weapons her husband pleases!" For he has come to believe that the +lady would have been off with him long before, if her lord had no +claim to the marital title. "It 's that husband I can't get over! that +husband!" He reminded me, to the life, of Lawrence Finchley with a +headache the morning after a supper, striding, with his hand on the +shining middle of his head: "It's that Welsh rabbit! that Welsh rabbit!" +He has a poor digestion, and he will eat cheese. The Welsh rabbit chased +him into his bed. But listen to me, dear, about your Morsfield. I told +you he was dangerous.' + +'He is not my Morsfield,' said Aminta. + +'Beware of his having a tool in Paggy. He boasts of letters.' + +'Mine? Two: and written to request him to cease writing to me.' + +'He stops at nothing. And, oh, my Simplicity! don't you see you gave him +a step in begging him to retire? Morsfield has lived a good deal among +our neighbours, who expound the physiology of women. He anatomizes us; +pulls us to pieces, puts us together, and then animates us with a breath +of his "passion"--sincere upon every occasion, I don't doubt. He spared +me, although he saw I was engaged. Perhaps it was because I 'm of no +definite colour. Or he thought I was not a receptacle for "passion." And +quite true,--Adder, the dear good fellow, has none. Or where should +we be? On a Swiss Alp, in a chalet, he shooting chamois, and I milking +cows, with 'ah-ahio, ah-ahio,' all day long, and a quarrel at night over +curds and whey. Well, and that 's a better old pensioner's limp to his +end for "passion" than the foreign hotel bell rung mightily, and one +of the two discovered with a dagger in the breast, and the other a +don't-look lying on the pavement under the window. Yes, and that's +better than "passion" splitting and dispersing upon new adventures, from +habit, with two sparks remaining of the fire.' + +Aminta took Mrs. Lawrence's hands. 'Is it a lecture?' + +She was kissed. 'Frothy gabble. I'm really near to "passion" when I +embrace you. You're the only one I could run away with; live with all +alone, I believe. I wonder men can see you while that silly lord of +yours is absent, and not begin Morsfielding. They're virtuous if they +resist. Paggy tells the world... well?' Aminta had reddened. + +'What does my aunt tell the world?' + +Mrs. Lawrence laid her smoothing hand absently on a frill of lace fichu +above a sternly disciplined bosom at half-heave. 'I think I can +judge now that you're not much hurt by this wretched business of the +presentation. The little service I could do was a moral lesson to me +on the subject of deuce-may-care antecedents. My brother Tom, too, was +always playing truant, as a boy. It 's in the blood.' + +She seemed to be teasing, and Aminta cried: 'My aunt! Let me hear. She +tells the world--?' + +'Paggy? ah, yes. Only that she says the countess has an exalted opinion +of Mr. Secretary's handwriting--as witnessed by his fair copy of the +Memoirs, of course.' + +'Poor woman! How can she talk such foolishness! I guessed it.' + +'You wear a dark red rose when you're guessing, 'ma mie,'--French for, +my Aminta.' + +'But consider, Isabella, Mr. Weyburn has just had the heaviest of +losses. My aunt should spare mention of him.' + +'Matthew Weyburn! we both like the name.' Mrs. Lawrence touched at her +friend and gazed. 'I've seen it on certain evenings--crimson over an +olive sky. What it forebodes, I can't imagine; but it's the end of +a lovely day. They say it threatens rain, if it begins one. It 's an +ominous herald.' + +'You make me,' said Aminta. 'I must redden if you keep looking at me so +closely.' + +'Now frown one little bit, please. I love to see you. I love to see a +secret disclose itself ingenuously.' + +'But what secret, my dear?' cried Aminta's defence of her innocence; and +she gave a short frown. + +'Have no fear. Mr. Secretary is not the man to be Morsfielding. And he +can enjoy his repast; a very good sign. But is he remaining long?' + +'He is going soon, I hear.' + +'He's a good boy. I could have taken to him myself, and not dreaded +a worrying. There 's this difference between you and me, +though, my Aminta; one of us has the fireplace prepared for +what's-his-name--"passion." Kiss me. How could you fancy you were going +to have a woman for your friend and keep hidden from her any one of +the secrets that blush! and with Paggy to aid! I am sure it means +very little. Admiration for good handwriting is--' a smile broke the +sentence. + +'You're astray, Isabella.' + +'Not I, dear, I'm too fond of you.' + +'You read what is not.' + +'What is not yet written, you mean.' + +'What never could be written.' + +'I read what is in the blood, and comes out to me when I look. That lord +of yours should take to study you as I have done ever since I fell in +love with you. He 's not counselling himself well in keeping away.' + +'Now you speak wisely,' said Aminta. + +'Not a particle more wisely. And the reason is close at hand--see. +You are young, you attract--how could it be otherwise?--and you have +"passion" sleeping, and likely to wake with a spring whether roused or +not. In my observation good-man t'other fellow--the poet's friend--is +never long absent when the time is ripe--at least, not in places where +we gather together. Well, one is a buckler against the other: I don't +say with lovely Amy May,--with an honourable woman. But Aminta can smell +powder and grow more mettlesome. Who can look at you and be blind to +passion sleeping! The sight of you makes me dream of it--me, a woman, +cool as a wine-cellar or a well. So there's to help you to know yourself +and be on your guard. I know I'm not deceived, because I've fallen in +love with you, and no love can be without jealousy, so I have the needle +in my breast, that points at any one who holds a bit of you. Kind of +sympathetic needle to the magnet behind anything. You'll know it, if you +don't now. I should have felt the thing without the aid of Paggy. So, +then, imagine all my nonsense unsaid, and squeeze a drop or two +of 'sirop de bon conseil' out of it, as if it were your own wise +meditations.' The rest of Mrs. Lawrence's discourse was a swallow's wing +skimming the city stream. She departed, and Aminta was left to beat at +her heart and ask whether it had a secret. + +But if there was one, the secret was out, and must have another name. +It had been a secret for her until she heard her friend speak those +pin-points that pricked her heart, and sent the blood coursing over her +face, like a betrayal, so like as to resemble a burning confession. + +But if this confessed the truth, she was the insanest of women. No +woman could be surer that she had her wits. She had come to see things, +previously mysteries, with surprising clearness. As, for example, that +passion was part of her nature; therefore her very life, lying tranced. +She certainly could not love without passion such an abandonment was the +sole justification of love in a woman standing where she stood. And now +for the first time she saw her exact position before the world; and she +saw some way into her lord: saw that he nursed a wound, extracted balm +from anything enabling him to show the world how he despised it, and +undesigningly immolated her for the petty gratification. + +It could not, in consequence, be the truth. To bear what she had borne +she must be a passionless woman; and she was glad of her present safety +in thinking it. Once it was absolutely true. She swam away to the +golden-circled Island of Once; landed, and dwelt there solitarily and +blissfully, looking forward to Sunday's walk round the park, looking +back on it. Proudly she could tell herself that her dreams of the Prince +of the island had not been illusions as far as he was concerned; for he +had a great soul. He did not aim at a tawdry glory. He was a loss to +our army--no loss to his country or the world. A woman might clasp her +feeling of pride in having foreseen distinction for him; and a little, +too, in distinguishing now the true individual distinction from the +feathered uniform vulgar. Where the girl's dreams had proved illusions, +she beheld in a title and luxuries, in a loveless marriage. + +That was perilous ground. Still it taught her to see that the +substantial is the dust; and passion not being active, she could +reflect. After a series of penetrative flashes, flattering to her +intelligence the more startling they were, reflection was exhausted. +She sank on her nature's desire to join or witness agonistic incidents, +shocks, wrestlings, the adventures which are brilliant air to sanguine +energies. Imagination shot tap, and whirled the circle of a succession +of them; and she had a companion and leader, unfeatured, reverently +obeyed, accepted as not to be known, not to be guessed at, in the +deepest hooded inmost of her being speechlessly divined. + +The sudden result of Aminta's turmoil was a determination that she must +look on Steignton. And what was to be gained by that? She had no idea. +And how had she stopped her imaginative flight with the thought of +looking on Steignton? All she could tell was, that it would close a +volume. She could not say why the volume must be closed. + +Her orders for the journey down to Steignton were prompt. Mrs. Pagnell +had an engagement at the house of Lady Staines for the next day to +meet titles and celebrities, and it precluded her comprehension of the +project. She begged to have the journey postponed. She had pledged her +word, she said. + +'To Mr. Morsfield?' said Aminta. + +Her aunt was astounded. + +'I did tell him we should be there, my dear.' 'He appears to have a +pleasure in meeting you.' 'He is one of the real gentlemen of the land.' + +'You correspond with him?' + +'I may not be the only one.' + +'Foolish aunty! How can you speak to me in that senseless way?' cried +Aminta. 'You know the schemer he is, and that I have no protection from +his advances unless I run the risk of bloodshed.' + +'My dear Aminta, whenever I go into society, and he is present, I know +I shall not be laughed at, or fall into that pit of one of their dead +silences, worse for me to bear than titters and faces. It is their way +of letting one feel they are of birth above us. Mr. Morsfield--purer +blood than many of their highest titles--is always polite, always +deferential; he helps me to feel I am not quite out of my element in the +sphere I prefer. We shall be travelling alone?' + +'Have you any fear?' + +'Not if nothing happens. Might we not ask that Mr. Weyburn?' + +'He has much work to do. He will not long be here. He is absent to-day.' + +Mrs. Pagnell remarked: 'I must say he earns his money easily.' + +Aminta had softened herself with the allusion to the shortness of his +time with them. Her aunt's coarse hint, and the thought of his loss, and +the banishment it would be to her all the way to Steignton, checked a +sharp retort she could have uttered, but made it necessary to hide her +eyes from sight. She went to her bedroom, and flung herself on the bed. +Even so little as an unspoken defence of him shook her to floods of +tears. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. ALONG TWO ROADS TO STEIGNTON + +Unaccountable resolutions, if impromptu and springing from the female +breast, are popularly taken for caprices; and even when they divert the +current of a history, and all the more when they are very small matters +producing a memorable crisis. In this way does a lazy world consign +discussion to silence with the cynical closure. Man's hoary shrug at a +whimsy sex is the reading of his enigma still. + +But ask if she has the ordinary pumping heart in that riddle of a +breast: and then, as the organ cannot avoid pursuit, we may get hold of +it, and succeed in spelling out that she is consequent, in her fashion. +She is a creature of the apparent moods and shifts and tempers only +because she is kept in narrow confines, resembling, if you like, a wild +cat caged. Aminta's journey down to Steignton turned the course of other +fortunes besides her own; and she disdained the minor adventure it +was, while dreaming it important; and she determined eagerly on going, +without wanting to go; and it was neither from a sense of duty nor in +a spirit of contrariety that she went. Nevertheless, with her heart in +hand, her movements are traceably as rational as a soldier's before the +enemy or a trader's matching his customer. + +The wish to look on Steignton had been spoken or sighed for during +long years between Aminta and her aunt, until finally shame and anger +clinched the subject. To look on Steignton for once was now Aminta's +phrasing of her sudden resolve; it appeared as a holiday relief from +recent worries, and it was an expedition with an aim, though she had but +the coldest curiosity to see the place, and felt alien to it. Yet the +thought, never to have seen Steignton! roused phantoms of dead wishes +to drive the strange engine she was, faster than the living would have +done. Her reason for haste was rationally founded on the suddenness of +her resolve, which, seeing that she could not say she desired to go, +seemed to come of an external admonition; and it counselled quick +movements, lest her inspired obedience to the prompting should as +abruptly breathe itself out. 'And in that case I shall never have seen +Steignton at all,' she said, with perfect calmness, and did not attempt +to sound her meaning. + +She did know that she was a magazine of a great storage of powder. It +banked inoffensively dry. She had forgiven her lord, owning the real +nobleman he was in courtesy to women, whom his inherited ideas of them +so quaintly minimized and reduced to pretty insect or tricky reptile. +They, too, had the choice of being ultimately the one or the other in +fact; the latter most likely. + +If, however, she had forgiven her lord, the shattering of their union +was the cost of forgiveness. In letting him stand high, as the lofty man +she had originally worshipped, she separated herself from him, to feel +that the humble she was of a different element, as a running water at a +mountain's base. They are one in the landscape; they are far from one in +reality. Aminta's pride of being chafed at the yoke of marriage. + +Her aunt was directed to prepare for a start at an early hour the next +morning. Mrs. Pagnell wrote at her desk, and fussed, and ordered the +posting chariot, and bewailed herself submissively; for it was the +Countess of Ormont speaking when Aminta delivered commands, and the +only grievance she dared to mutter was 'the unexpectedness.' Her letters +having been despatched, she was amazed in the late evening to hear +Aminta give the footman orders for the chariot to be ready at the door +an hour earlier than the hour previously appointed. She remonstrated. +Aminta simply observed that it would cause less inconvenience to all +parties. A suspicion of her aunt's proceedings was confirmed by the good +woman's flustered state. She refrained from smiling. + +She would have mustered courage to invite Matthew Weyburn as her +escort, if he had been at hand. He was attending to his affairs with +lawyers--mainly with his friend Mr. Abner. She studied map and gazetteer +till late into the night. Giving her orders to the postillion on the +pavement in the morning, she named a South-westerly direction out of +London, and after entering the chariot, she received a case from one of +the footmen. + +'What is that, my dear?' said Mrs. Pagnell. + +Aminta unlocked and laid it open. A pair of pistols met Mrs. Pagnell's +gaze. + +'We shan't be in need of those things?' the lady said anxiously. + +'One never knows, on the road, aunt.' + +'Loaded? You wouldn't hesitate to fire; I'm sure.' + +'At Mr. Morsfield himself, if he attempted to stop me.' + +Mrs. Pagnell withdrew into her astonishment, and presently asked, in a +tone of some indignation: 'Why did you mention Mr. Morsfield, Aminta?' + +'Did you not write to him yesterday afternoon, aunt?' + +'You read the addresses on my letters!' + +'Did you not supply him with our proposed route and the time for +starting?' + +'Pistols!' exclaimed Mrs. Pagnell. 'One would fancy you think we are +in the middle of the last century. Mr. Morsfield is a gentleman, not a +highwayman.' + +'He gives the impression of his being a madman.' + +'The real madman is your wedded husband, Aminta, if wedding it was!' + +It was too surely so, in Aminta's mind. She tried, by looking out of the +window, to forget her companion. The dullness of the roads and streets +opening away to flat fields combined with the postillion's unvarying jog +to sicken her thoughts over the exile from London she was undergoing, +and the chance that Matthew Weyburn might call at a vacant house next +day, to announce his term of service to the earl, whom he had said +he much wanted to see. He said it in his sharp manner when there was +decision behind it. Several times after contemplating the end of her +journey, and not perceiving any spot of pleasure ahead, an emotion urged +her to turn back; for the young are acutely reasoning when their breasts +advise them to quit a road where no pleasure beckons. + +Unlike Matthew Weyburn, the tiptoe sparkle of a happy mind did not leap +from her at wayside scenes, a sweep of grass, distant hills, clouds +in flight. She required, since she suffered, the positive of events or +blessings to kindle her glow. + +Matthew Weyburn might call at the house. Would he be disappointed? He +had preserved her letters of the old school-days. She had burnt his. But +she had not burnt the letters of Mr. Morsfield; and she cared nothing +for that man. Assuredly she merited the stigma branding women as +crack-brained. Yet she was not one of the fools; she could govern a +household, and she liked work, she had the capacity for devotedness. So, +therefore, she was a woman perverted by her position, and she shook her +bonds in revolt from marriage. Imagining a fall down some suddenly spied +chasm of her nature, she had a sisterly feeling for the women named +sinful. At the same time, reflecting that they are sinful only with the +sinful, she knelt thankfully at the feet of the man who had saved her +from such danger. Tears threatened. They were a poor atonement for the +burning of his younger letters. But not he--she was the sufferer, and +she whipped up a sensation of wincing at the flames they fell to, and +at their void of existence, committing sentimental idiocies worthy of +a lovesick girl, consciously to escape the ominous thought, which her +woman's perception had sown in her, that he too chafed at a marriage no +marriage: was true in fidelity, not true through infidelity, as she had +come to be. The thought implied misery for both. She entered a black +desolation, with the prayer that he might not be involved, for his +own sake: partly also on behalf of the sustaining picture the young +schoolmaster at his task, merry among his dear boys, to trim and point +them body and mind for their business in the world, painted for her a +weariful prospect of the life she must henceforth drag along. + +Is a woman of the plain wits common to numbers ever deceived in her +perception of a man's feelings for her? Let her first question herself +whether she respects him. If she does not, her judgement will go easily +astray, intuition and observation are equally at fault, she has no key; +he has charmed her blood, that is all. But if she respects him, she +cannot be deceived; respect is her embrace of a man's character. +Aminta's vision was clear. She had therefore to juggle with the fact +revealed, that she might keep her heart from rushing out; and the +process was a disintegration of her feminine principle of docility under +the world's decrees. At each pause of her mental activity she was hurled +against the state of marriage. Compassion for her blameless fellow in +misery brought a deluge to sweep away institutions and landmarks. + +But supposing the blest worst to happen, what exchange had she to +bestow? Her beauty? She was reputed beautiful. It had made a madman +of one man; and in her poverty of endowments to be generous with, she +hovered over Mr. Morsfield like a cruel vampire, for the certification +that she had a much-prized gift to bestow upon his rival. + +But supposing it: she would then be no longer in the shiny garden of +the flowers of wealth; and how little does beauty weigh as all aid to +an active worker in the serious fighting world! She would be a kind of +potted rose-tree under his arm, of which he must eventually tire. + +A very cold moment came, when it seemed that even the above supposition, +in the case of a woman who has been married, is shameful to her, a sin +against her lover, and should be obliterated under floods of scarlet. +For, if she has pride, she withers to think of pushing the most noble +of men upon his generosity. And, further, if he is not delicately +scrupulous, is there not something wanting in him? The very cold wave +passed, leaving the sentence: better dream of being plain friends. + +Mrs. Pagnell had been quietly chewing her cud of the sullens, as was +the way with her after a snub. She now resumed her gossip of the naughty +world she knelt to and expected to see some day stricken by a bolt from +overhead; containing, as it did, such wicked members as that really +indefensible brazen Mrs. Amy May, who was only the daughter of a +half-pay naval captain, and that Marquis of Collestou, who would, they +say, decorate her with his title to-morrow, if her husband were but +somewhere else. She spread all sorts of report, about Mr. Morsfield, +and he was honour itself in his reserve about her. 'Depend upon it, +Aminta--he was not more than a boy then, and they say she aimed at her +enfranchisement by plotting the collision, for his Yorkshire revenues +are immense, and he is, you know, skilful in the use of arms, and +Captain May has no resources whatever: penury! no one cares to speculate +how they contrive!--but while that dreadful duelling--and my lord as bad +as any in his day-exists, depend upon it, an unscrupulous good-looking +woman has as many lives for her look of an eye or lift of a finger as a +throned Ottoman Turk on his divan.' + +Aminta wished to dream. She gave her aunt a second dose, and the lady +relapsed again. + +Power to dream had gone. She set herself to look at roadside things, +cottage gardens, old housewives in doorways, gaffer goodman meeting his +crony on the path, groups of boys and girls. She would take the girls, +Matthew Weyburn the boys. She had lessons to give to girls, she had +sympathy, pity, anticipation. That would be a life of happy service. It +might be a fruitful trial of the system he proposed, to keep the boys +and girls in company as much as possible, both at lessons and at games. +His was the larger view. Her lord's view appeared similar to that of her +aunt's 'throned Ottoman Turk on his divan.' Matthew Weyburn believed in +the bettering of the world; Lord Ormont had no belief like it. + +Presently Mrs. Pagnell returned to the charge, and once more she was +nipped, and irritated to declare she had never known her niece's temper +so provoking. Aminta was launching a dream of a lass she had seen in a +field, near a white hawthorn, standing upright, her left arm aloft round +the pole of a rake, the rim of her bonnet tipped on her forehead; an +attitude of a rustic. + +Britannia with helmet heeling at dignity. The girl's eyes hung to the +passing chariot, without movement of her head. It was Aminta who looked +back, and she saw the girl looking away. Among the superior dames and +damsels she had seen, there was not one to match that figure for stately +air, gallant ease, and splendour of pose. Matthew Weyburn would have +admired the girl. Aminta did better than envy, she cast off the last +vestiges of her bitter ambition to be a fine lady, and winged into the +bosom of the girl, and not shyly said 'yes' to Matthew Weyburn, and +to herself, deep in herself: 'A maid has no need to be shy.' Hardly +blushing, she walks on into the new life beside him, and hears him +say: 'I in my way, you in yours; we are equals, the stronger for being +equals,' and she quite agrees, and she gives him the fuller heart for +his not requiring her to be absorbed--she is the braver mate for him. +Does not that read his meaning? Happiest of the girls of earth, she has +divined it at once, from never having had the bitter ambition to be a +slave, that she might wear rich tissues; and let herself be fettered, +that she might loll in idleness; lose a soul to win a title; escape +commonplace to discover it ghastlier under cloth of gold, and the +animal crowned, adored, fattened, utterly served, in the class called by +consent of human society the Upper. + +Reason whispered a reminder of facts to her. + +'But I am not the Countess of Ormont!' she said. She felt herself the +girl, her sensations were so intensely simple. + +Proceeding to an argument, that the earl did not regard her as the +Countess of Ormont, or the ceremony at the British Embassy as one +serious and binding, she pushed her reason too far: sweet delusion +waned. She waited for some fresh scene to revive it. + +Aminta sat unwittingly weaving her destiny. + +While she was thus engaged, a carriage was rolling on the more westerly +road down to Steignton. Seated in it were Lady Charlotte Eglett and +Matthew Weyburn. They had met at Arthur Abner's office the previous day. +She went there straight from Lord Ormont's house-agent and upholsterer, +to have a queer bit of thunderous news confirmed, that her brother was +down at Steignton, refurnishing the house, and not for letting. She +was excited: she treated Arthur Abner's closed-volume reticence as a +corroboration of the house-agent's report, and hearing Weyburn speak of +his anxiety to see the earl immediately, in order to get release from +his duties, proposed a seat in her carriage; for down Steignton way she +meant to go, if only as excuse for a view of the old place. She kept +asking what Lord Ormont wanted down at Steignton refurnishing the house, +and not to let it! Her evasions of answers that, plain speculation would +supply were quaint. 'He hasn't my feeling for Steignton. He could let +it--I couldn't. Sacrilege to me to have a tenant in my old home where I +was born. He's furnishing to raise his rent. His country won't give him +anything to do, so he turns miser. That's my brother Rowsley's way of +taking on old age.' + +Her brother Rowsley might also be showing another sign of his calamitous +condition. She said to Weyburn, in the carriage, that her brother +Rowsley might like having his hair clipped by the Philistine woman; +which is one of the ways of strong men to confess themselves ageing. +'Not,' said she, with her usual keen justness 'not that I've, a word +against Delilah. I look upon her as a patriot; she dallied and she used +the scissors on behalf of her people. She wasn't bound to Samson in +honour,--liked a strong man, probably enough. She proved she liked her +country better. The Jews wrote the story of it, so there she stands for +posterity to pelt her, poor wretch.' + +'A tolerably good analogy for the story of men and women generally,' +said Weyburn. + +'Ah, well, you've a right to talk; you don't run miauling about women. +It 's easy to be squashy on that subject. As for the Jews, I don't go by +their history, but now they 're down I don't side with the Philistines, +or Christians. They 're good citizens, and they 've got Samson in the +brain, too. That comes of persecution, a hard education. They beat the +world by counting in the head. That 's because they 've learnt the value +of fractions. Napoleon knew it in war, when he looked to the boots and +great-coats of his men; those were his fractions. Lord Ormont thinks he +had too hard-and-fast a system for the battle-field.' + +'A greater strategist than tactician, my lady? It may be,' said Weyburn, +smiling at her skips. + +'Massing his cannon to make a big hole for his cavalry, my brother says; +and weeding his infantry for the Imperial Guard he postponed the moment +to use.' + +'At Moskowa?' + +'Waterloo. I believe Lord Ormont would--there! his country 's lost him, +and chose it. They 'll have their day for repentance yet. What a rapture +to have a thousand horsemen following you! I suppose there never was +a man worthy of the name who roared to be a woman. I know I could have +shrieked half my life through to have been born male. It 's no matter +now. When we come to this hateful old age, we meet: no, we 're no sex +then--we 're dry sticks. I 'll tell you: my Olmer doctor--that 's an +impudent fellow who rode by staring into my carriage. The window's down. +He could see without pushing his hat in.' + +Weyburn looked out after a man cantering on. + +'A Mr. Morsfield,' he said. 'I thought it was he when I saw him go by. +I've met him at the fencing-rooms. He 's one of the violent fencers, +good for making his point, if one funks an attack.' + +'That man Morsfield, is it? I wonder what he's doing on the road here. +He goes over London boasting--hum, nothing to me. But he 'll find Lord +Ormont's arm can protect a poor woman, whatever she is. He'd have had +it before, only Lord Ormont shuns a scandal. I was telling you, my Olmer +doctor forbade horse-riding, and my husband raised a noise like one of +my turkeycocks on the wing; so I 've given up the saddle, to quiet him. +I guessed. I went yesterday morning to my London physician. He sounded +me, pushed out his mouth and pulled down his nose, recommended avoidance +of excitement. "Is it heart?" I said. He said it was heart. That was +the best thing an old woman could hear. He said, when he saw I wasn't +afraid, it was likely to be quick; no doctors, no nurses and daily +bulletins for inquirers, but just the whites of the eyes, the +laying-out, the undertaker, and the family-vault. That's one reason why +I want to see Steignton before the blow that may fall any day, whether +my brother Rowsley's there or no. But that Olmer doctor of mine, +Causitt, Peter Causitt, shall pay me for being a liar or else an +ignoramus when I told him he was to tell me bluntly the nature of my +disease.' + +A horseman, in whom they recognized Mr. Morsfield, passed, clattering on +the road behind them. + +'Some woman here about,' Lady Charlotte muttered. Weyburn saw him joined +by a cavalier, and the two consulted and pointed whips right and left. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. LADY CHARLOTTE'S TRIUMPH + +One of the days of sovereign splendour in England was riding down the +heavens, and drawing the royal mantle of the gold-fringed shadows +over plain and wavy turf, blue water and woods of the country round +Steignton. A white mansion shone to a length of oblong lake that held +the sun-ball suffused in mild yellow. + +'There's the place,' Lady Charlotte said to Weyburn, as they had view +of it at a turn of the park. She said to herself--where I was born and +bred! and her sight gloated momentarily on the house and side avenues, a +great plane standing to the right of the house, the sparkle of a little +river running near; all the scenes she knew, all young and lively. +She sprang on her seat for a horse beneath her, and said, 'But this +is healthy excitement,' as in reply to her London physician's +remonstrances. 'And there's my brother Rowsley, talking to one of the +keepers,' she cried. 'You see Lord Ormont? I can see a mile. Sight +doesn't fail with me. He 's insisting. 'Ware poachers when Rowsley's on +his ground! You smell the air here? Nobody dies round about Steignton. +Their legs wear out and they lie down to rest them. It 's the finest air +in the world. Now look, the third window left of the porch, first floor. +That was my room before I married. Strangers have been here and called +the place home. It can never be home to any but me and Rowsley. He sees +the carriage. He little thinks! He's dressed in his white corduroy and +knee-breeches. Age! he won't know age till he's ninety. Here he comes +marching. He can't bear surprises. I'll wave my hand and call.' + +She called his name. + +In a few strides he was at the carriage window. 'You, Charlotte?' + +'Home again, Rowsley! Bring down your eyebrows, and let me hear you're +glad I 've come.' + +'What made you expect you would find me here?' + +'Anything-cats on the tiles at night. You can't keep a secret from me. +Here's Mr. Weyburn, good enough to be my escort. I 'll get out.' + +She alighted, scorning help; Weyburn at her heels. The earl nodded to +him politely and not cordially. He was hardly cordial to Lady Charlotte. + +That had no effect on her. 'A glorious day for Steignton,' she said. +'Ah, there's the Buridon group of beeches; grander trees than grow at +Buridon. Old timber now. I knew them slim as demoiselles. Where 's the +ash? We had a splendid ash on the west side.' + +'Dead and cut down long since,' replied the earl. + +'So we go!' + +She bent her steps to the spot: a grass-covered heave of the soil. + +'Dear old tree!' she said, in a music of elegy: and to Weyburn: 'Looks +like a stump of an arm lopped off a shoulder in bandages. Nature does it +so. All the tenants doing well, Rowsley?' + +'About the same amount of trouble with them.' + +'Ours at Olmer get worse.' + +'It's a process for the extirpation of the landlords.' + +'Then down goes the country.' + +'They 've got their case, their papers tell us.' + +'I know they have; but we've got the soil, and we'll make a fight of +it.' + +'They can fight too, they say.' + +'I should be sorry to think they couldn't if they're Englishmen.' + +She spoke so like his old Charlotte of the younger days that her brother +partly laughed. + +'Parliamentary fighting 's not much to your taste or mine. They 've lost +their stomach for any other. The battle they enjoy is the battle that +goes for the majority. Gauge their valour by that.' + +'To be sure,' said his responsive sister. She changed her note. 'But +what I say is, let the nobles keep together and stick to their class. +There's nothing to fear then. They must marry among themselves, think +of the blood: it's their first duty. Or better a peasant girl! Middle +courses dilute it to the stuff in a publican's tankard. It 's an +adulterous beast who thinks of mixing old wine with anything.' + +'Hulloa!' said the earl; and she drew up. + +'You'll have me here till over to-morrow, Rowsley, so that I may have +one clear day at Steignton?' + +He bowed. 'You will choose your room. Mr. Weyburn is welcome.' + +Weyburn stated the purport of his visit, and was allowed to name an +early day for the end of his term of service. + +Entering the house, Lady Charlotte glanced at the armour and stag +branches decorating corners of the hall, and straightway laid her head +forward, pushing after it in the direction of the drawing room. She went +in, stood for a minute, and came out. Her mouth was hard shut. + +At dinner she had tales of uxorious men, of men who married mistresses, +of the fearful incubus the vulgar family of a woman of the inferior +classes ever must be; and her animadversions were strong in the matter +of gew-gaw modern furniture. The earl submitted to hear. + +She was, however, keenly attentive whenever he proffered any item of +information touching Steignton. After dinner Weyburn strolled to the +points of view she cited as excellent for different aspects of her old +home. + +He found her waiting to hear his laudation when he came back; and in the +early morning she was on the terrace, impatient to lead him down to the +lake. There, at the boat-house, she commanded him to loosen a skiff and +give her a paddle. Between exclamations, designed to waken louder +from him, and not so successful as her cormorant hunger for praise of +Steignton required, she plied him to confirm with his opinion an opinion +that her reasoning mind had almost formed in the close neighbourhood of +the beloved and honoured person providing it; for abstract ideas were +unknown to her. She put it, however, as in the abstract:-- + +'How is it we meet people brave as lions before an enemy, and rank +cowards where there's a botheration among their friends at home? And +tell me, too, if you've thought the thing over, what's the meaning of +this? I 've met men in high places, and they've risen to distinction by +their own efforts, and they head the nation. Right enough, you'd say. +Well, I talk with them, and I find they've left their brains on the +ladder that led them up; they've only the ideas of their grandfather on +general subjects. I come across a common peasant or craftsman, and he +down there has a mind more open--he's wiser in his intelligence than +his rulers and lawgivers up above him. He understands what I say, and I +learn from him. I don't learn much from our senators, or great lawyers, +great doctors, professors, members of governing bodies--that lot. Policy +seems to petrify their minds when they 've got on an eminence. Now +explain it, if you can.' + +'Responsibility has a certain effect on them, no doubt,' said Weyburn. +'Eminent station among men doesn't give a larger outlook. Most of them +confine their observation to their supports. It happens to be one of the +questions I have thought over. Here in England, and particularly on a +fortnight's run in the lowlands of Scotland once, I have, like you, my +lady, come now and then across the people we call common, men and women, +old wayside men especially; slow-minded, but hard in their grasp of +facts, and ready to learn, and logical, large in their ideas, though +going a roundabout way to express them. They were at the bottom of +wisdom, for they had in their heads the delicate sense of justice, upon +which wisdom is founded. That is what their rulers lack. Unless we have +the sense of justice abroad like a common air, there 's no peace, and no +steady advance. But these humble people had it. They reasoned from it, +and came to sound conclusions. I felt them to be my superiors. On the +other hand, I have not felt the same with "our senators, rulers, and +lawgivers." They are for the most part deficient in the liberal mind.' + +'Ha! good, so far. How do you account for it?' said Lady Charlotte. + +'I read it in this way: that the world being such as it is at present, +demanding and rewarding with honours and pay special services, the men +called great, who have risen to distinction, are not men of brains, but +the men of aptitudes. These men of aptitudes have a poor conception of +the facts of life to meet the necessities of modern expansion. They are +serviceable in departments. They go as they are driven, or they resist. +In either case, they explain how it is that we have a world moving +so sluggishly. They are not the men of brains, the men of insight and +outlook. Often enough they are foes of the men of brains.' + +'Aptitudes; yes, that flashes a light into me,' said Lady Charlotte. 'I +see it better. It helps to some comprehension of their muddle. A man +may be a first-rate soldier, doctor, banker--as we call the usurer +now-a-days--or brewer, orator, anything that leads up to a figure-head, +and prove a foolish fellow if you sound him. I 've thought something +like it, but wanted the word. They say themselves, "Get to know, and you +see with what little wisdom the world is governed!" You explain how it +is. I shall carry "aptitudes" away.' + +She looked straight at Weyburn. 'If I were a younger woman I could kiss +you for it.' + +He bowed to her very gratefully. + +'Remember, my lady, there's a good deal of the Reformer in that +definition.' + +'I stick to my class. But they shall hear a true word when there's one +abroad, I can tell them. That reminds me--you ought to have asked; +let me tell you I'm friendly with the Rev. Mr. Hampton-Evey. We had +a wrestle for half an hour, and I threw him and helped him up, and he +apologized for tumbling, and I subscribed to one of his charities, +and gave up about the pew, but had an excuse for not sitting under the +sermon. A poor good creature. He 's got the aptitudes for his office. +He won't do much to save his Church. I knew another who had his aptitude +for the classics, and he has mounted. He was my tutor when I was a girl. +He was fond of declaiming passages from Lucian and Longus and Ovid. One +day he was at it with a piece out of Daphnis and Chloe, and I said, "Now +translate." He fetched a gurgle to say he couldn't, and I slapped his +check. Will you believe it? the man was indignant. I told him, if he +would like to know why I behaved in "that unmaidenly way," he had better +apply at home. I had no further intimations of his classical aptitudes; +but he took me for a cleverer pupil than I was. I hadn't a notion of the +stuff he recited. I read by his face. That was my aptitude--always has +been. But think of the donkeys parents are when they let a man have a +chance of pouring his barley-sugar and sulphur into the ears of a +girl. Lots of girls have no latent heckles and prickles to match his +villany.--There's my brother come back to breakfast from a round. You +and I 'll have a drive before lunch, and a ride or a stroll in the +afternoon. There's a lot to see. I mean you to get the whole place into +your head. I 've ordered the phaeton, and you shall take the whip, with +me beside you. That's how my husband and I spent three-quarters of our +honeymoon.' + +Each of the three breakfasted alone. + +They met on the terrace. It was easily perceived that Lord Ormont stood +expecting an assault at any instant; prepared also to encounter and +do battle with his redoubtable sister. Only he wished to defer the +engagement. And he was magnanimous: he was in the right, she in the +wrong; he had no desire to grapple with her, fling and humiliate. The +Sphinx of Mrs. Pagnell had been communing with himself unwontedly during +the recent weeks. + +What was the riddle of him? That, he did not read. But, expecting an +assault, and relieved by his sister Charlotte's departure with Weyburn, +he went to the drawing-room, where he had seen her sniff her strong +suspicions of a lady coming to throne it. Charlotte could believe that +he flouted the world with a beautiful young woman on his arm; she would +not believe him capable of doing that in his family home and native +county; so, then, her shrewd wits had nothing or little to learn. +But her vehement fighting against facts; her obstinate aristocratic +prejudices, which he shared; her stinger of a tongue: these in +ebullition formed a discomforting prospect. The battle might as well be +conducted through the post. Come it must! + +Even her writing of the pointed truths she would deliver was an +unpleasant anticipation. His ears heated. Undoubtedly he could crush +her. Yet, supposing her to speak to his ears, she would say: 'You +married a young woman, and have been foiling and fooling her ever +since, giving her half a title to the name of wife, and allowing her +in consequence to be wholly disfigured before the world--your family +naturally her chief enemies, who would otherwise (Charlotte would +proclaim it) have been her friends. What! your intention was (one could +hear Charlotte's voice) to smack the world in the face, and you smacked +your young wife's instead!' + +His intention had been nothing of the sort. He had married, in a +foreign city, a young woman who adored him, whose features, manners, and +carriage of her person satisfied his exacting taste in the sex; and he +had intended to cast gossipy England over the rail and be a traveller +for the remainder of his days. And at the first she had acquiesced, +tacitly accepted it as part of the contract. He bore with the burden +of an intolerable aunt of hers for her sake. The two fell to work to +conspire. Aminta 'tired of travelling,' Aminta must have a London +house. She continually expressed a hope that 'she might set her eyes on +Steignton some early day.' In fact, she as good as confessed her scheme +to plot for the acknowledged position of Countess of Ormont in the +English social world. That was a distinct breach of the contract. + +As to the babble of the London world about a 'very young wife,' he +scorned it completely, but it belonged to the calculation. 'A very +handsome young wife,' would lay commands on a sexagenarian vigilance +while adding to his physical glory. The latter he could forego among +a people he despised. It would, however, be an annoyance to stand +constantly hand upon sword-hilt. There was, besides, the conflict with +his redoubtable sister. He had no dread of it, in contemplation of the +necessity; he could crush his Charlotte. The objection was, that +his Aminta should be pressing him to do it. Examine the situation at +present. Aminta has all she needs--every luxury. Her title as Countess +of Ormont is not denied. Her husband justly refuses to put foot +into English society. She, choosing to go where she may be received, +dissociates herself from him, and he does not complain. She does +complain. There is a difference between the two. + +He had always shunned the closer yoke with a woman because of these +vexatious dissensions. For not only are women incapable of practising, +they cannot comprehend magnanimity. + +Lord Ormont's argumentative reverie to the above effect had been pursued +over and over. He knew that the country which broke his military career +and ridiculed his newspaper controversy was unforgiven by him. He did +not reflect on the consequences of such an unpardoning spirit in its +operation on his mind. + +If he could but have passed the injury, he would ultimately--for his +claims of service were admitted--have had employment of some kind. +Inoccupation was poison to him; travel juggled with his malady of +restlessness; really, a compression of the warrior's natural forces. +His Aminta, pushed to it by the woman Pagnell, declined to help him in +softening the virulence of the disease. She would not travel; she would +fix in this London of theirs, and scheme to be hailed the accepted +Countess of Ormont. She manoeuvred; she threw him on the veteran +soldier's instinct, and it resulted spontaneously that he manoeuvred. + +Hence their game of Pull, which occupied him a little, tickled him and +amused. The watching of her pretty infantile tactics amused him too much +to permit of a sidethought on the cruelty of the part he played. She +had every luxury, more than her station by right of birth would have +supplied. + +But he was astonished to find that his Aminta proved herself clever, +though she had now and then said something pointed. She was in awe of +him: notwithstanding which, clearly she meant to win and pull him over. +He did not dislike her for it; she might use her weapons to play her +game; and that she should bewitch men--a man like Morsfield--was not +wonderful. On the other hand, her conquest of Mrs. Lawrence Finchley +scored tellingly: that was unaccountably queer. What did Mrs. Lawrence +expect to gain? the sage lord asked. He had not known women devoid of a +positive practical object of their own when they bestirred themselves to +do a friendly deed. + +Thanks to her conquest of Mrs. Lawrence, his Aminta was gaining +ground--daily she made an advance; insomuch that he had heard of himself +as harshly blamed in London for not having countenanced her recent and +rather imprudent move. In other words, whenever she gave a violent tug +at their game of Pull, he was expected to second it. But the world of +these English is too monstrously stupid in what it expects, for any of +its extravagances to be followed by interjections. + +All the while he was trimming and rolling a field of armistice at +Steignton, where they could discuss the terms he had a right to dictate, +having yielded so far. Would she be satisfied with the rule of his +ancestral hall, and the dispensing of hospitalities to the county? +No, one may guess: no woman is ever satisfied. But she would have +to relinquish her game, counting her good round half of the honours. +Somewhat more, on the whole. Without beating, she certainly had +accomplished the miracle of bending him. To time and a wife it is no +disgrace for a man to bend. It is the form of submission of the bulrush +to the wind, of courtesy in the cavalier to a lady. + +'Oh, here you are, Rowsley,' Lady Charlotte exclaimed at the drawing +room door. 'Well, and I don't like those Louis Quinze cabinets; and +that modern French mantelpiece clock is hideous. You seem to furnish in +downright contempt of the women you invite to sit in the room. Lord help +the wretched woman playing hostess in such a pinchbeck bric-a-brac shop, +if there were one! She 's spared, at all events.' + +He stepped at slow march to one of the five windows. Lady Charlotte went +to another near by. She called to Weyburn-- + +'We had a regatta on that water when Lord Ormont came of age. I took an +oar in one of the boats, and we won a prize; and when I was landing I +didn't stride enough to the spring-plank, and plumped in.' + +Some labourers of the estate passed in front. + +Lord Ormont gave out a broken laugh. 'See those fellows walk! That 's +the raw material of the famous English infantry. They bend their knees +five-and-forty degrees for every stride; and when you drill them out of +that, they 're stiff as ramrods. I gymnasticized them in my regiment. +I'd have challenged any French regiment to out-walk or out-jump us, or +any crack Tyrolese Jagers to out-climb, though we were cavalry.' + +'Yes, my lord, and exercised crack corps are wanted with us,' Weyburn +replied. 'The English authorities are adverse to it, but it 's against +nature--on the supposition that all Englishmen might enrol untrained in +Caesar's pet legion. Virgil shows knowledge of men when he says of the +row-boat straining in emulation, 'Possunt quia posse videntur.'' + +He talked on rapidly; he wondered that he did not hear Lady Charlotte +exclaim at what she must be seeing. From the nearest avenue a lady had +issued. She stood gazing at the house, erect--a gallant figure of a +woman--one hand holding her parasol, the other at her hip. He knew +her. She was a few paces ahead of Mrs. Pagnell, beside whom a gentleman +walked. + +The cry came: 'It's that man Morsfield! Who brings that man Morsfield +here? He hunted me on the road; he seemed to be on the wrong scent. Who +are those women? Rowsley, are your grounds open every day of the week? +She threatens to come in!' + +Lady Charlotte had noted that the foremost and younger of 'those women' +understood how to walk and how to dress to her shape and colour. She +inclined to think she was having to do with an intrepid foreign-bred +minx. + +Aminta had been addressed by one of her companions, and had hastened +forward. It looked like the beginning of a run to enter the house. + +Mrs. Pagnell ran after her. She ran cow-like. + +The earl's gorge rose at the spectacle Charlotte was observing. + +With Morsfield he could have settled accounts at any moment, despatching +Aminta to her chamber for an hour. He had, though he was offended, an +honourable guess that she had not of her free will travelled with +the man and brought him into the grounds. It was the presence of the +intolerable Pagnell under Charlotte's eyes which irritated him +beyond the common anger he felt at Aminta's pursuit of him right into +Steignton. His mouth locked. Lady Charlotte needed no speech from him +for sign of the boiling; she was too wary to speak while that went on. + +He said to Weyburn, loud enough for his Charlotte to heir. 'Do me the +favour to go to the Countess of Ormont. Conduct her back to London. You +will say it is my command. Inform Mr. Morsfield, with my compliments, I +regret I have no weapons here. I understand him to complain of having to +wait. I shall be in town three days from this date.' + +'My lord,' said Mr. Weyburn; and actually he did mean to supplicate. He +could imagine seeing Lord Ormont's eyebrows rising to alpine heights. + +Lady Charlotte seized his arm. + +'Go at once. Do as you are told. I'll have your portmanteau packed and +sent after you--the phaeton's out in the yard--to Rowsley, or Ashead, or +Dornton, wherever they put up. Now go, or we shall have hot work. Keep +your head on, and go.' + +He went, without bowing. + +Lady Charlotte rang for the footman. + +The earl and she watched the scene on the sward below the terrace. + +Aminta listened to Weyburn. Evidently there was no expostulation. + +But it was otherwise with Mrs. Pagnell. She flung wild arms of a +semaphore signalling national events. She sprang before Aminta to stop +her retreat, and stamped and gibbed, for sign that she would not be +driven. She fell away to Mr. Morsfield, for simple hearing of her +plaint. He appeared emphatic. There was a passage between him and +Weyburn. + +'I suspect you've more than your match in young Weyburn, Mr. Morsfield,' +Lady Charlotte said, measuring them as they stood together. They turned +at last. + +'You shall drive back to town with me, Rowsley,' said the fighting dame. + +She breathed no hint of her triumph. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. A SCENE ON THE ROAD BACK + +After refusing to quit the grounds of Steignton, in spite of the +proprietor, Mrs. Pagnell burst into an agitation to have them be at +speed, that they might 'shake the dust of the place from the soles of +their feet'; and she hurried past Aminta and Lord Ormont's insolent +emissary, carrying Mr. Morsfield beside her, perforce of a series of +imperiously-toned vacuous questions, to which he listened in rigid +politeness, with the ejaculation steaming off from time to time, 'A +scandal!' + +He shot glances behind him. + +Mrs. Pagnell was going too fast. She, however, world not hear of a halt, +and she was his main apology for being present; he was excruciatingly +attached to the horrid woman. + +Weyburn spoke the commonplaces about regrets to Aminta. + +'Believe me, it's long since I have been so happy,' she said. + +She had come out of her stupefaction, and she wore no theatrical looks +of cheerfulness. + +'I regret that you should be dragged away. But, if you say you do not +mind, it will be pleasant to me. I can excuse Lord Ormont's anger. I was +ignorant of his presence here. I thought him in Paris. I supposed the +place empty. I wished to see it once. I travelled as the niece of Mrs. +Pagnell. She is a little infatuated.... Mr. Morsfield heard of our +expedition through her. I changed the route. I was not in want of a +defender. I could have defended myself in case of need. We slept at +Ashead, two hours from Steignton. He and a friend accompanied us, not +with my consent. Lord Ormont could not have been aware of that. These +accidental circumstances happen. There may be pardonable intentions on +all sides.' + +She smiled. Her looks were open, and her voice light and spirited; +though the natural dark rose-glow was absent from her olive cheeks. + +Weyburn puzzled over the mystery of so volatile a treatment of a serious +matter, on the part of a woman whose feelings he had reason to know were +quick and deep. She might be acting, as women so cleverly do. + +It could hardly be acting when she pointed to peeps of scenery, with a +just eye for landscape. + +'You leave us for Switzerland very soon?' she said. + +'The Reversion I have been expecting has fallen in, besides my +inheritance. My mother was not to see the school. But I shall not forget +her counsels. I can now make my purchase of the house and buildings, and +buy out my partner at the end of a year. My boys are jumping to start. I +had last week a letter from Emile.' + +'Dear little Emile!' + +'You like him?' + +'I could use a warmer word. He knew me when I was a girl.' + +She wound the strings of his heart suddenly tense, and they sang to +their quivering. + +'You will let me hear of you, Mr. Weyburn?' + +'I will write. Oh! certainly I will write, if I am told you are +interested in our doings, Lady Ormont.' + +'I will let you know that I am.' + +'I shall be happy in writing full reports.' + +'Every detail, I beg. All concerning the school. Help me to feel I am a +boarder. I catch up an old sympathy I had for girls and boys. For boys! +any boys! the dear monkey boys! cherub monkeys! They are so funny. I am +sure I never have laughed as I did at Selina Collett's report, through +her brother, of the way the boys tried to take to my name; and their +sneezing at it, like a cat at a deceitful dish. "Aminta"--was that their +way?' + +'Something--the young rascals!' + +'But please repeat it as you heard them.' + +'"Aminta."' + +He subdued the mouthing. + +'It didn't, offend me at all. It is one of my amusements to think of it. +But after a time they liked the name; and then how did they say it?' + +He had the beloved Aminta on his lips. + +He checked it, or the power to speak it failed. She drew in a sharp +breath. + +'I hope your boys will have plenty of fun in them. They will have you +for a providence and a friend. I should wish to propose to visit your +school some day. You will keep me informed whether the school has +vacancies. You will, please, keep me regularly informed?' + +She broke into sobs. + +Weyburn talked on of the school, for a cover to the resuming of her +fallen mask, as he fancied it. + +She soon recovered, all save a steady voice for converse, and begged him +to proceed, and spoke in the flow of the subject; but the quaver of her +tones was a cause of further melting. The tears poured, she could not +explain why, beyond assuring him that they were no sign of unhappiness. +Winds on the great waters against a strong tidal current beat up the +wave and shear and wing the spray, as in Aminta's bosom. Only she could +know that it was not her heart weeping, though she had grounds for a +woman's weeping. But she alone could be aware of her heart's running +counter to the tears. + +Her agitation was untimely. Both Mrs. Pagnell and Mr. Morsfield observed +emotion at work. And who could wonder? A wife denied the admittance to +her husband's house by her husband! The most beautiful woman of her time +relentlessly humiliated, ordered to journey back the way she had come. + +They had reached the gate of the park, and had turned. + +'A scandal!' + +Mr. Morsfield renewed his interjection vehemently, for an apology to his +politeness in breaking from Mrs. Pagnell. + +Joining the lady, whose tears were of the nerves, he made offer of +his devotion in any shape; and she was again in the plight to which +a desperado can push a woman of the gentle kind. She had the fear of +provoking a collision if she reminded him, that despite her entreaties, +he had compelled her, seconded by her aunt as he had been, to submit to +his absurd protection on the walk across the park. + +He seemed quite regardless of the mischief he had created; and, +reflecting upon how it served his purpose, he might well be. Intemperate +lover, of the ancient pattern, that he was, his aim to win the woman +acknowledged no obstacle in the means. Her pitiable position appealed to +the best of him; his inordinate desire of her aroused the worst. It +was, besides, an element of his coxcombry, that he should, in apeing the +utterly inconsiderate, rush swiftly to impersonate it when his passions +were cast on a die. + +Weyburn he ignored as a stranger, an intruder, an inferior. + +Aminta's chariot was at the gate. + +She had to resign herself to the chances of a clash of men, and, as +there were two to one, she requested help of Weyburn's hand, that he +might be near her. + +A mounted gentleman, smelling parasite in his bearing, held the bridle +of Morsfield's horse. + +The ladies having entered the chariot, Morsfield sprang to the saddle, +and said: 'You, sir, had better stretch your legs to the inn.' + +'There is room for you, Mr. Weyburn,' said Aminta. + +Mrs. Pagnell puffed. + +'I can't think we've room, my dear. I want that bit of seat in front for +my feet.' + +Morsfield kicked at his horse's flanks, and between Weyburn and the +chariot step, cried: 'Back, sir!' + +His reins were seized; the horse reared, the unexpected occurred. + +Weyburn shouted 'Off!' to the postillion, and jumped in. + +Morsfield was left to the shaking of a dusty coat, while the chariot +rolled its gentle course down the leafy lane into the high-road. + +His friend had seized the horse's bridle-reins; and he remarked: 'I say, +Dolf, we don't prosper to-day.' + +'He pays for it!' said Morsfield, foot in stirrup. 'You'll take him and +trounce him at the inn. I don't fight with servants. Better game. One +thing, Cumnock: the fellow's clever at the foils.' + +'Foils to the devil! If I tackle the fellow, it won't be with the +buttons. But how has he pushed in?' + +Morsfield reported 'the scandal!' in sharp headings. + +'Turned her away. Won't have her enter his house--grandest woman in all +England! Sent his dog to guard. Think of it for an insult! It's insult +upon insult. I 've done my utmost to fire his marrow. I did myself a +good turn by following her up and entering that park with her. I shall +succeed; there 's a look of it. All I have--my life--is that woman's. I +never knew what this devil's torture was before I saw her.' + +His friend was concerned for his veracity. 'Amy!' + +'A common spotted snake. She caught me young, and she didn't carry me +off, as I mean to carry off this glory of her sex--she is: you've seen +her!--and free her, and devote every minute of the rest of my days to +her. I say I must win the woman if I stop at nothing, or I perish; +and if it 's a failure, exit 's my road. I 've watched every atom +she touched in a room, and would have heaped gold to have the chairs, +tables, cups, carpets, mine. I have two short letters written with her +hand. I 'd give two of my estates for two more. If I were a beggar, and +kept them, I should be rich. Relieve me of that dog, and I toss you a +thousand-pound note, and thank you from my soul, Cumnock. You know what +hangs on it. Spur, you dolt, or she'll be out of sight.' + +They cantered upon application of the spur. Captain Cumnock was an +impecunious fearless rascal, therefore a parasite and a bully duellist; +a thick-built north-countryman; a burly ape of the ultra-elegant; +hunter, gamester, hard-drinker, man of pleasure. His known readiness to +fight was his trump-card at a period when the declining custom of +the duel taxed men's courage to brave the law and the Puritan in the +interests of a privileged and menaced aristocracy. An incident like the +present was the passion in the dice-box to Cumnock. Morsfield was of +the order of men who can be generous up to the pitch of their desires. +Consequently, the world accounted him open-handed and devoted when +enamoured. Few men liked him; he was a hero with some women. The women +he trampled on; the men he despised. To the lady of his choice he +sincerely offered his fortune and his life for the enjoyment of +her favour. His ostentation and his offensive daring combined the +characteristics of the peacock and the hawk. Always near upon madness, +there were occasions when he could eclipse the insane. He had a ringing +renown in his class. + +Chariot and horsemen arrived at the Roebuck Arms, at the centre of the +small town of Ashead, on the line from Steignton through Rowsley. The +pair of cavaliers dismounted and hustled Weyburn in assisting the ladies +to descend. + +The ladies entered the inn; they declined refection of any sort. They +had biscuits and sweetmeats, and looked forward to tea at a farther +stage. Captain Cumnock stooped to their verdict on themselves, with +marvel at the quantity of flesh they managed to put on their bones from +such dieting. + +'By your courtesy, sir, a word with you in the inn yard, if you please,' +he said to Weyburn in the inn-porch. + +Weyburn answered, 'Half a minute,' and was informed that it was exactly +the amount of time the captain could afford to wait. + +Weyburn had seen the Steignton phaeton and coachman in the earl's +light-blue livery. It was at his orders, he heard. He told the coachman +to expect hire shortly, and he followed the captain, with a heavy +trifle of suspicion that some brew was at work. He said to Aminta in the +passage-- + +'You have your settlement with the innkeeper. Don't, I beg, step into +the chariot till you see me.' + +'Anything?' said she. + +'Only prudence.' + +'Our posting horses will be harnessed soon, I hope. I burn to get away.' + +Mrs. Pagnell paid the bill at the bar of the inn. Morsfield poured out +for the injured countess or no-countess a dram of the brandy of passion, +under the breath. + +'Deny that you singled me once for your esteem. Hardest-hearted of the +women of earth and dearest! deny that you gave me reason to hope--and +now! I have ridden in your track all this way for the sight of you, as +you know, and you kill me with frost. Yes, I rejoice that we were seen +together. Look on me. I swear I perish for one look of kindness. You +have been shamefully used, madam.' + +'It seems to me I am being so,' said Aminta, cutting herself loose from +the man of the close eyes that wavered as they shot the dart. + +Her action was too decided for him to follow her up under the +observation of the inn windows and a staring street. + +Mrs. Pagnell came out. She went boldly to Morsfield and they conferred. +He was led by her to the chariot, where she pointed to a small padded +slab of a seat back to the horses. Turning to the bar, he said:--My +friend will look to my horse. Both want watering and a bucketful. +There!'--he threw silver--'I have to protect the ladies.' + +Aminta was at the chariot door talking to her aunt inside. + +'But I say I have been insulted--is the word--more than enough by Lord +Ormont to-day!' Mrs. Pagnell exclaimed; 'and I won't, I positively +refuse to ride up to London with any servant of his. It's quite +sufficient that it's his servant. I'm not titled, but I 'in not quite +dirt. Mr. Morsfield kindly offers his protection, and I accept. He is +company.' + +Nodding and smirking at Morsfield's approach, she entreated Aminta to +step up and in, for the horses were coming out of the yard. + +Aminta looked round. Weyburn was perceived; and Morsfield's features +cramped at thought of a hitch in the plot. + +'Possession,' Mrs. Pagnell murmured significantly. She patted the seat. +Morsfield sprang to Weyburn's place. + +That was witnessed by Aminta and Weyburn. She stepped to consult him. +He said to the earl's coachman--a young fellow with a bright eye for +orders-- + +'Drive as fast as you can pelt for Dornton. I'm doing my lord's +commands.' + +'Trust yourself to me, madam.' His hand stretched for Aminta to mount. +She took it without a word and climbed to the seat. A clatter of hoofs +rang out with the crack of the whip. They were away behind a pair of +steppers that could go the pace. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. THE PURSUERS + +For promptitude, the lady, the gentleman, and the coachman were in such +unison as to make it a reasonable deduction that the flight had been +concerted. + +Never did any departure from the Roebuck leave so wide-mouthed a body of +spectators. Mrs. Pagnell's shrieks of 'Stop, oh! stop!' to the backs +of the coachman and Aminta were continued until they were far down +the street. She called to the innkeeper, called to the landlady and to +invisible constables for help. But her pangs were childish compared with +Morsfield's, who, with the rage of a conceited schemer tricked and the +fury of a lover beholding the rape of his beautiful, bellowed impotently +at Weyburn and the coachman out of hearing, 'Stop! you!' He was in the +state of men who believe that there is a virtue in imprecations, and he +shot loud oaths after them, shook his fist, cursed his friend Cumnock, +whose name he vociferated as a summons to him,--generally the baffled +plotter misconducted himself to an extreme degree, that might have +apprised Mrs. Pagnell of a more than legitimate disappointment on his +part. + +Pursuit was one of the immediate ideas which rush forward to look +back woefully on impediments and fret to fever over the tardiness of +operations. A glance at the thing of wrinkles receiving orders to +buckle at his horses and pursue convinced them of the hopelessness; and +Morsfield was pricked to intensest hatred of the woman by hearing the +dire exclamation, 'One night, and her character's gone!' + +'Be quiet, ma'am, if you please, or nothing can be done,' he cried. + +'I tell you, Mr. Morsfield--don't you see?--he has thrown them +together. It is Lord Ormont's wicked conspiracy to rid himself of her. A +secretary! He'll beat any one alive in plots. She can't show her face +in London after this, if you don't overtake her. And she might have seen +Lord Ormont's plot to ruin her. He tired of her, and was ashamed of +her inferior birth to his own, after the first year, except on the +Continent, where she had her rights. Me he never forgave for helping +make him the happy man he might have been in spite of his age. For she +is lovely! But it's worse for a lovely woman with a damaged reputation. +And that 's his cunning. How she could be so silly as to play into it! +She can't have demeaned herself to look on that secretary! I said from +the first he seemed as if thrown into her way for a purpose. But she +has pride: my niece Aminta has pride. She might well have listened to +flatterers--she had every temptation--if it hadn't been for her pride. +It may save her yet. However good-looking, she will remember her +dignity--unless he's a villain. Runnings away! drivings together! inns +oh! the story over London! I do believe she has a true friend in you, +Mr. Morsfield; and I say, as I have said before, the sight of a devoted +admirer would have brought any husband of more than sixty to his senses, +if he hadn't hoped a catastrophe and determined on it. Catch them we +can't, unless she repents and relents; and prayers for that are our only +resource. Now, start, man, do!' + +The postillion had his foot in position to spring. Morsfield bawled +Cumnock's name, and bestrode his horse. Captain Cumnock emerged from the +inn-yard with a dubitative step, pressing a handkerchief to his nose, +blinking, and scrutinizing the persistent fresh stains on it. + +Stable-boys were at the rear. These, ducking and springing, surcharged +and copious exponents of the play they had seen, related, for the +benefit of the town, how that the two gentlemen had exchanged words in +the yard, which were about beastly pistols, which the slim gentleman +would have none of; and then the big one trips up, like dancing, to the +other one and flicks him a soft clap on the check--quite friendly, you +may say; and before he can square to it, the slim one he steps his hind +leg half a foot back, and he drives a straight left like lightning off +the shoulder slick on to t' other one's nob, and over he rolls, like a +cart with the shafts up down a bank; and he' a been washing his 'chops' +and threatening bullets ever since. + +The exact account of the captain's framework in the process of the fall +was graphically portrayed in our blunt and racy vernacular, which a +society nourished upon Norman-English and English-Latin banishes from +print, largely to its impoverishment, some think. + +By the time the primary narrative of the encounter in the inn yard had +given ground for fancy and ornament to present it in yet more luscious +dress, Lord Ormont's phaeton was a good mile on the road. Morsfield +and Captain Cumnock--the latter inquisitive of the handkerchief +pressed occasionally at his nose--trotted on tired steeds along dusty +wheel-tracks. Mrs. Pagnell was the solitary of the chariot, having a +horrid couple of loaded pistols to intimidate her for her protection, +and the provoking back view of a regularly jogging mannikin under a big +white hat with blue riband, who played the part of Time in dragging her +along, with worse than no countenance for her anxieties. + +News of the fugitives was obtained at the rampant Red Lion in Dudsworth, +nine miles on along the London road, to the extent that the Earl of +Ormont's phaeton, containing a lady and a gentleman, had stopped there a +minute to send back word to Steignton of their comfortable progress, +and expectations of crossing the borders into Hampshire before sunset. +Morsfield and Cumnock shrugged at the bumpkin artifice. They left +their line of route to be communicated to the chariot, and chose, +with practised acumen, that very course, which was the main road, and +rewarded them at the end of half an hour with sight of the Steignton +phaeton. + +But it was returning. A nearer view showed it empty of the couple. + +Morsfield bade the coachman pull up, and he was readily obeyed. Answers +came briskly. + +Although provincial acting is not of the high class which conceals +the art, this man's look beside him and behind him at vacant seats had +incontestable evidence in support of his declaration, that the lady +and gentleman had gone on by themselves: the phaeton was a box of flown +birds. + +'Where did you say they got out, you dog?' said Cumnock. + +The coachman stood up to spy a point below. 'Down there at the bottom of +the road, to the right, where there's a stile across the meadows, +making a short cut by way of a bridge over the river to Busley and +North Tothill, on the high-road to Hocklebourne. The lady and gentleman +thought they 'd walk for a bit of exercise the remains of the journey.' + +'Can't prove the rascal's a liar,' Cumnock said to Morsfield, who +rallied him savagely on his lucky escape from another knock-down blow, +and tossed silver on the seat, and said-- + +'We 'll see if there is a stile.' + +'You'll see the stile, sir,' rejoined the man, and winked at their +backs. + +Both cavaliers, being famished besides baffled, were in sour tempers, +expecting to see just the dead wooden stile, and see it as a grin at +them. Cumnock called on Jove to witness that they had been donkeys +enough to forget to ask the driver how far round on the road it was to +the other end of the cross-cut. + +Morsfield, entirely objecting to asinine harness with him, mocked at his +invocation and intonation of the name of Jove. + +Cumnock was thereupon stung to a keen recollection of the allusion to +his knock-down blow, and he retorted that there were some men whose wit +was the parrot's. + +Morsfield complimented him over the exhibition of a vastly superior and +more serviceable wit, in losing sight of his antagonist after one trial +of him. + +Cumnock protested that the loss of time was caused by his friend's +dalliance with the Venus in the chariot. + +Morsfield's gall seethed at a flying picture of Mrs. Pagnell, coupled +with the retarding reddened handkerchief business, and he recommended +Cumnock to pay court to the old woman, as the only chance he would have +of acquaintanceship with the mother of Love. + +Upon that Cumnock confessed in humility to his not being wealthy. +Morsfield looked a willingness to do the deed he might have to pay for +in tenderer places than the pocket, and named the head as a seat of +poverty with him. + +Cumnock then yawned a town fop's advice to a hustling street passenger +to apologize for his rudeness before it was too late. Whereat Morsfield, +certain that his parasitic thrasyleon apeing coxcomb would avoid +extremities, mimicked him execrably. + +Now this was a second breach of the implied convention existing among +the exquisitely fine-bred silken-slender on the summits of our mundane +sphere, which demands of them all, that they respect one another's +affectations. It is commonly done, and so the costly people of a single +pattern contrive to push forth, flatteringly to themselves, luxuriant +shoots of individuality in their orchidean glass-house. A violation +of the rule is a really deadly personal attack. Captain Cumnock was +particularly sensitive regarding it, inasmuch as he knew himself not +the natural performer he strove to be, and a mimicry affected him as a +haunting check. + +He burst out: 'Damned if I don't understand why you're hated by men and +women both!' + +Morsfield took a shock. 'Infernal hornet!' he muttered; for his +conquests had their secret history. + +'May and his wife have a balance to pay will trip you yet, you 'll +find.' + +'Reserve your wrath, sir, for the man who stretched you on your back.' + +The batteries of the two continued exchangeing redhot shots, with the +effect, that they had to call to mind they were looking at the stile. A +path across a buttercup meadow was beyond it. They were damped to some +coolness by the sight. + +'Upon my word, the trick seems neat!' said Cumnock staring at the +pastoral curtain. + +'Whose trick?' he was asked sternly. + +'Here or there 's not much matter; they 're off, unless they 're under a +hedge laughing.' + +An ache of jealousy and spite was driven through the lover, who groaned, +and presently said-- + +'I ride on. That old woman can follow. I don't want to hear her +gibberish. We've lost the game--there 's no reckoning the luck. If +there's a chance, it's this way. It smells a trick. He and she--by all +the devils! It has been done in my family--might have been done again. +Tell the men on the plain they can drive home. There's a hundred-pound +weight on your tongue for silence.' + +Cumnock cried: 'But we needn't be parting, Dolf! Stick together. Bad +luck's not repeated every day. Keep heart for the good.' + +'My heart's shattered, Cumnock. I say it's impossible she can love a +husband twice her age, who treats her--you 've seen. Contempt of that +lady! + +By heaven! once in my power, I swear she would have been sacred to me. +But she would have been compelled to face the public and take my hand. +I swear she would have been congratulated on the end of her sufferings. +Worship!--that's what I feel. No woman ever alive had eyes in her head +like that lady's. I repeat her name ten times every night before I go to +sleep. If I had her hand, no, not one kiss would I press on it without +her sanction. I could be in love with her cruelty, if only I had her +near me. I 've lost her--by the Lord, I 've lost her!' + +'Pro tem.,' said the captain. 'A plate of red beef and a glass of port +wine alters the view. Too much in the breast, too little in the belly, +capsizes lovers. Old story. Horses that ought to be having a mash +between their ribs make riders despond. Say, shall we back to the town +behind us, or on? Back's the safest, if the chase is up.' + +Morsfield declared himself incapable of turning and meeting that +chariot. He sighed heavily. Cumnock offered to cheer him with a song +of Captain Chanter's famous collection, if he liked; but Morsfield +gesticulated abhorrence, and set out at a trot. Song in defeat was a +hiss of derision to him. + +He had failed. Having failed, he for the first time perceived the +wildness of a plot that had previously appeared to him as one of the +Yorkshire Morsfields' moves to win an object. Traditionally they stopped +at nothing. There would have been a sunburst of notoriety in the capture +and carrying off of the beautiful Countess of Ormont. + +She had eluded him during the downward journey to Steignton. He came on +her track at the village at the junction of the roads above Ashead, and +thence, confiding in the half-connivance or utter stupidity of the +fair one's duenna, despatched a mounted man-servant to his coachman and +footmen, stationed ten miles behind, with orders that they should drive +forthwith to the great plain, and be ready at a point there for two +succeeding days. That was the plot, promptly devised upon receipt of +Mrs. Pagnell's communication; for the wealthy man of pleasure was a +strategist fit to be a soldier, in dexterity not far from rivalling the +man by whom he had been outdone. + +An ascetic on the road to success, he dedicated himself to a term of +hard drinking under a reverse; and the question addressed to the chief +towns in the sketch counties his head contained was, which one near +would be likely to supply the port wine for floating him through +garlanding dreams of possession most tastily to blest oblivion. + +He was a lover, nevertheless, honest in his fashion, and meant not worse +than to pull his lady through a mire, and wash her with Morsfield soap, +and crown her, and worship. She was in his blood, about him, above +him; he had plunged into her image, as into deeps that broke away in +phosphorescent waves on all sides, reflecting every remembered, +every imagined, aspect of the adored beautiful woman piercing him to +extinction with that last look of her at the moment of flight. + +Had he been just a trifle more sincere in the respect he professed for +his lady's duenna, he would have turned on the road to Dornton and a +better fortune. Mrs. Pagnell had now become the ridiculous Paggy of Mrs. +Lawrence Finchley and her circle for the hypocritical gentleman; and +he remarked to Captain Cumnock, when their mutual trot was established: +'Paggy enough for me for a month--good Lord! I can't stand another dose +of her by herself.' + +'It's a bird that won't roast or boil or stew,' said the captain. + +They were observed trotting along below by Lord Ormont's groom of the +stables on promotion, as he surveyed the country from the chalk-hill +rise and brought the phaeton to a stand, Jonathan Boon, a sharp lad, +whose comprehension was a little muddled by 'the rights of it' in this +adventure. He knew, however, that he did well to follow the directions +of one who was in his lordship's pay, and stretched out the fee with +the air of a shake of the hand, and had a look of the winning side, +moreover. A born countryman could see that. + +Boon watched the pair of horsemen trotting to confusion, and clicked in +his cheek. The provincial of the period when coaches were beginning to +be threatened by talk of new-fangled rails was proud to boast of his +outwitting Londoners on material points; and Boon had numerous tales of +how it had been done, to have the laugh of fellows thinking themselves +such razors. They compensated him for the slavish abasement of his whole +neighbourhood under the hectoring of the grand new manufacture of wit in +London:--the inimitable Metropolitan PUN, which came down to the country +by four-in-hand, and stopped all other conversation wherever it was +reported, and would have the roar--there was no resisting it. Indeed, +to be able to see the thing smartly was an entry into community with +the elect of the district; and when the roaring ceased and the thing +was examined, astonishment at the cleverness of it, and the wonderful +shallowness of the seeming deep hole, and the unexhausted bang it had to +go off like a patent cracker, fetched it out for telling over again; and +up went the roar, and up it went at home and in stable-yards, and at the +net puffing of churchwardens on a summer's bench, or in a cricket-booth +after a feast, or round the old inn's taproom fine. The pun, the +wonderful bo-peep of double meanings darting out to surprise and smack +one another from behind words of the same sound, sometimes the same +spelling, overwhelmed the provincial mind with awe of London's occult +and prolific genius. + +Yet down yonder you may behold a pair of London gentlemen trotting along +on as fine a fool's errand as ever was undertaken by nincompoops bearing +a scaled letter, marked urgent, to a castle, and the request in it that +the steward would immediately upon perusal down with their you-know-what +and hoist them and birch them a jolly two dozen without parley. + +Boon smacked his leg, and then drove ahead merrily. + +For this had happened to his knowledge: the gentleman accompanying the +lady had refused to make anything of a halt at the Red Lion, and had +said he was sure there would be a small public-house at the outskirts +of the town, for there always was one; and he proved right, and the lady +and he had descended at the sign of the Jolly Cricketers, and Boon had +driven on for half an hour by order. + +This, too, had happened, external to Boon's knowledge: the lady and the +gentleman had witnessed, through the small diamond window-panes of the +Jolly Cricketers' parlour, the passing-by of the two horsemen in pursuit +of them; and the gentleman had stopped the chariot coming on some +fifteen minutes later, but he did not do it at the instigation of the +lady. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. AT THE SIGN OF THE JOLLY CRICKETERS + +The passing by of the pair of horsemen, who so little suspected the +treasure existing behind the small inn's narrow window did homage in +Aminta's mind to her protector's adroitness. Their eyes met without a +smile, though they perceived the grisly comic of the incident. Their +thoughts were on the chariot to follow. + +Aminta had barely uttered a syllable since the start of the flight from +Ashead. She had rocked in a swing between sensation and imagination, +exultant, rich with the broad valley of the plain and the high green +waves of the downs at their giant's bound in the flow of curves and +sunny creases to the final fling-off of the dip on sky. Here was a +twisted hawthorn carved clean to the way of the wind; a sheltered +clump of chestnuts holding their blossoms up, as with a thousand +cresset-clasping hands; here were grasses that nodded swept from green +to grey; flowers yellow, white, and blue, significant of a marvellous +unknown through the gates of colour; and gorse-covers giving out the +bird, squares of young wheat, a single fallow threaded by a hare, and +cottage gardens, shadowy garths, wayside flint-heap, woods of the mounds +and the dells, fluttering leaves, clouds: all were swallowed, all were +the one unworried significance. Scenery flew, shifted, returned; again +the line of the downs raced and the hollows reposed simultaneously. They +were the same in change to an eye grown older; they promised, as at +the first, happiness for recklessness. The whole woman was urged to +delirious recklessness in happiness, and she drank the flying scenery as +an indication, a likeness, an encouragement. + +When her wild music of the blood had fallen to stillness with the +stopped wheels, she was in the musky, small, low room of the diamond +window-panes, at her companion's disposal for what he might deem the +best: he was her fate. But the more she leaned on a man of self-control, +the more she admired; and an admiration that may not speak itself to +the object present drops inward, stirs the founts; and if these are +repressed, the tenderness which is not allowed to weep will drown +self-pity, hardening the woman to summon scruples in relation to her +unworthiness. He might choose to forget, but the more she admired, +the less could her feminine conscience permit of an utter or of +any forgetfulness that she was not the girl Browny, whom he once +loved--perhaps loved now, under some illusion of his old passion for +her--does love now, ill-omened as he is in that! She read him by her +startled reading of her own heart, and she constrained her will to keep +from doing, saying, looking aught that would burden without gracing +his fortunes. For, as she felt, a look, a word, a touch would do the +mischief; she had no resistance behind her cold face, only the physical +scruple, which would become the moral unworthiness if in any way she +induced him to break his guard and blow hers to shreds. An honourable +conscience before the world has not the same certificate in love's pure +realm. They are different kingdoms. A girl may be of both; a married +woman, peering outside the narrow circle of her wedding-ring, should let +her eyelids fall and the unseen fires consume her. + +Their common thought was now, Will the chariot follow? + +What will he do if it comes? was an unformed question with Aminta. + +He had formed and not answered it, holding himself, sincerely at the +moment, bound to her wishes. Near the end of Ashead main street she had +turned to him in her seat beside the driver, and conveyed silently, with +the dental play of her tongue and pouted lips, 'No title.' + +Upon that sign, waxen to those lips, he had said to the driver, 'You +took your orders from Lady Charlotte? + +And the reply, 'Her ladyship directed me sir, exonerated Lord Ormont so +far. + +Weyburn remembered then a passage of one of her steady looks, wherein +an oracle was mute. He tried several of the diviner's shots to interpret +it: she was beyond his reach. She was in her blissful delirium of +the flight, and reproached him with giving her the little bit less to +resent--she who had no sense of resentment, except the claim on it to +excuse. + +Their landlady entered the room to lay the cloth for tea and eggs. She +made offer of bacon as well, homecured. She was a Hampshire woman, and +understood the rearing of pigs. Her husband had been a cricketer, and +played for his county. He didn't often beat Hampshire! They had a good +garden of vegetables, and grass-land enough for two cows. They made +their own bread, their own butter, but did not brew. + +Weyburn pronounced for a plate of her home-cured. She had children, the +woman told him--two boys and a girl. Her husband wished for a girl. Her +eldest boy wished to be a sailor, and would walk miles to a pond to sail +bits of wood on it, though there had never been a sea-faring man in her +husband's family or her own. She agreed with the lady and gentleman that +it might be unwise to go contrary to the boy's bent. Going to school or +coming home, a trickle of water would stop him. + +Aminta said to her companion in French, 'Have you money?' + +She chased his blood. 'Some: sufficient. I think.' It stamped their +partnership. + +'I have but a small amount. Aunt was our paymaster. We will buy the +little boy a boat to sail. You are pale.' + +'I 've no notion of it.' + +'Something happened it Ashead.' + +'It would not have damaged my complexion.' + +He counted his money. Aminta covertly handed him her purse. Their +fingers touched. The very minor circumstance of their landlady being in +the room dammed a flood. + +Her money and his amounted to seventeen pounds. The sum-total was a +symbol of days that were a fiery wheel. + +Honour and blest adventure might travel together two days or three, he +thought. If the chariot did not pass:--Lord Ormont had willed it. A +man could not be said to swerve in his duty when acting to fulfil the +master's orders, and Mrs. Pagnell was proved a hoodwinked duenna, and +Morsfield was in the air. The breathing Aminta had now a common purse +with her first lover. For three days or more they were, it would seem, +to journey together, alone together: the prosecution of his duty imposed +it on him. Sooth to say, Weyburn knew that a spice of passion added to +a bowl of reason makes a sophist's mess; but he fancied an absolute +reliance on Aminta's dignity, and his respect for her was another +barrier. He begged the landlady's acceptance of two shillings for her +boy's purchase of a boat, advising her to have him taught early to swim. +Both he and Aminta had a feeling that they could be helpful in some +little things on the road if the chariot did not pass. + +Justification began to speak loudly against the stopping of the chariot +if it did pass. The fact that sweet wishes come second, and not so +loudly, assured him they were quite secondary; for the lover sunk to +sophist may be self-beguiled by the arts which render him the potent +beguiler. + +'We are safe here,' he said, and thrilled her with the 'we' behind the +curtaining leaded window-panes. + +'What is it you propose?' Her voice was lower than she intended. To that +she ascribed his vivid flush. It kindled the deeper of her dark hue. + +He mentioned her want of luggage, and the purchase of a kit. + +She said, 'Have we the means?' + +'We can adjust the means to the ends.' + +'We must be sparing of expenses.' + +'Will you walk part of the way?' + +'I should like it.' + +'We shall be longer on the journey.' + +'We shall not find it tiresome, I hope.' + +'We can say so, if we do.' + +'We are not strangers.' + +The recurrence of the 'we' had an effect of wedding: it was fatalistic, +it would come; but, in truth, there was pleasure in it, and the pleasure +was close to consciousness of some guilt when vowing itself innocent. + +And, no, they were not strangers; hardly a word could they utter without +cutting memory to the quick; their present breath was out of the far +past. + +Love told them both that they were trembling into one another's arms, +not voluntarily, against the will with each of them; they knew it +would be for life; and Aminta's shamed reserves were matched to make an +obstacle by his consideration for her good name and her station, for his +own claim to honest citizenship also. + +Weyburn acted on his instinct at sight of the postillion and the +chariot; he flung the window wide and shouted. Then he said, 'It is +decided,' and he felt the rightness of the decision, like a man who has +given a condemned limb to the surgeon. + +Aminta was passive as a water-weed in the sway of the tide. Hearing it +to be decided, she was relieved. What her secret heart desired, she kept +secret, almost a secret from herself. He was not to leave her; so she +had her permitted wish, she had her companion plus her exclamatory +aunt, who was a protection, and she had learnt her need of the smallest +protection. + +'I can scarcely believe I see you, my dear, dear child!' Mrs. Pagnell +cried, upon entering the small inn parlour; and so genuine was her +satisfaction that for a time she paid no heed to the stuffiness of the +room, the meanness of the place, the unfitness of such a hostelry to +entertain ladies--the Countess of Ormont! + +'Eat here?' Mrs. Pagnell asked, observing the preparations for the meal. +Her pride quailed, her stomach abjured appetite. But she forbore from +asking how it was that the Countess of Ormont had come to the place. + +At a symptom of her intention to indulge in disgust; Aminta brought up +Mr. Morsfield by name; whereupon Mrs. Pagnell showed she had reflected +on her conduct in relation to the gentleman, and with the fear of the +earl if she were questioned. + +Home-made bread and butter, fresh eggs and sparkling fat of bacon +invited her to satisfy her hunger. Aminta let her sniff at the teapot +unpunished; the tea had a rustic aroma of ground-ivy, reminding Weyburn +of his mother's curiosity to know the object of an old man's plucking of +hedgeside leaves in the environs of Bruges one day, and the simple reply +to her French, 'Tea for the English.' A hint of an anecdote interested +and enriched the stores of Mrs. Pagnell, so she capped it and partook of +the infusion ruefully. + +'But the bread is really good,' she said, 'and we are unlikely to be +seen leaving the place by any person of importance.' + +'Unless Mr. Morsfield should be advised to return this way,' said +Aminta. + +Her aunt proposed for a second cup. She was a manageable woman; the same +scourge had its instant wholesome effect on her when she snubbed the +secretary. + +So she complimented his trencherman's knife, of which the remarkably +fine edge was proof enough that he had come heart-whole out of the trial +of an hour or so's intimate companionship with a beautiful woman, who +had never been loved, never could be loved by man, as poor Mr. Morsfield +loved her! He had sworn to having fasted three whole days and nights +after his first sight of Aminta. Once, he said, her eyes pierced him so +that he dreamed of a dagger in his bosom, and woke himself plucking at +it. That was love, as a born gentleman connected with a baronetcy and +richer than many lords took the dreadful passion. A secretary would have +no conception of such devoted extravagance. At the most he might have +attempted to insinuate a few absurd, sheepish soft nothings, and the +Countess of Ormont would know right well how to shrivel him with one +of her looks. No lady of the land could convey so much either way, to +attract or to repel, as Aminta, Countess of Ormont! And the man, the +only man, insensible to her charm or her scorn, was her own wedded lord +and husband. Old, to be sure, and haughty, his pride might not allow him +to overlook poor Mr. Morsfield's unintentional offence. But the presence +of the countess's aunt was a reply to any charge he might seek to +establish. Unhappily, the case is one between men on their touchiest +point, when women are pushed aside, and justice and religion as well. We +might be living in a heathen land, for aught that morality has to say. + +Mrs. Pagnell fussed about being seen on her emergence from the Jolly +Cricketers. Aminta sent Weyburn to spy for the possible reappearance +of Mr. Morsfield. He reported a horseman; a butcher-boy clattered by. +Aminta took the landlady's hand, under her aunt's astonished gaze, and +said: 'I shall not forget your house and your attention to us.' She +spoke with a shake of her voice. The landlady curtseyed and smiled, +curtseyed and almost whimpered. The house was a poor one, she begged to +say; they didn't often have such guests, but whoever came to it they did +their best to give good food and drink. + +Hearing from Weyburn that the chariot was bound to go through +Winchester, she spoke of a brother, a baker there, the last surviving +member of her family and, after some talk, Weyburn offered to deliver a +message of health and greeting at the baker's shop. There was a waving +of hands, much nodding and curtseying, as the postillion resumed his +demi-volts--all to the stupefaction of Mrs. Pagnell; but she dared not +speak, she had Morsfield on the mouth. Nor could she deny the excellent +quality of the bread and butter, and milk, too, at the sign of the Jolly +Cricketers. She admitted, moreover, that the food and service of the +little inn belonged in their unpretentious honesty to the kind we +call old English: the dear old simple country English of the brotherly +interchange in sight of heaven--good stuff for good money, a matter with +a blessing on it. + +'But,' said she, 'my dear Aminta, I do not and I cannot understand looks +of grateful affection at a small innkeeper's wife paid, and I don't +doubt handsomely paid, for her entertainment of you.' + +'I feel it,' said Aminta; tears rushed to her eyelids, overflowing, and +her features were steady. + +'Ah, poor dear! that I do understand,' her aunt observed. 'Any little +kindness moves you to-day; and well it may.' + +'Yes, aunty,' said Aminta, and in relation to the cause of her tears she +was the less candid of the two. + +So far did she carry her thanks for a kindness as to glance back through +her dropping tears at the sign-board of the Jolly Cricketers; where two +brave batsmen cross for the second of a certain three runs, if only the +fellow wheeling legs, face up after the ball in the clouds, does but +miss his catch: a grand suspensory moment of the game, admirably chosen +by the artist to arrest the wayfarer and promote speculation. For will +he let her slip through his fingers when she comes down? or will he have +her fast and tight? And in the former case, the bats are tearing their +legs off for just number nought. And in the latter, there 's a wicket +down, and what you may call a widower walking it bat on shoulder, parted +from his mate for that mortal innings, and likely to get more chaff than +consolation when he joins the booth. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. UNDER-CURRENTS IN THE MINDS OF LADY CHARLOTTE AND LORD +ORMONT + +Another journey of travellers to London, in the rear of the chariot, was +not diversified by a single incident or refreshed by scraps of dialogue. +Lady Charlotte had her brother Rowsley with her, and he might be +taciturn,--she drove her flocks of thoughts, she was busily and +contentedly occupied. Although separation from him stirred her mind +more excitedly over their days and deeds of boy and girl, her having him +near, and having now won him to herself, struck her as that old time's +harvest, about as much as can be hoped for us from life, when we have +tasted it. + +The scene of the invasion of Steignton by the woman and her aunt, and +that man Morsfield, was a steel engraving among her many rapid and +featureless cogitations. She magnified the rakishness of the woman's +hand on hip in view of the house, and she magnified the woman's +insolence in bringing that man Morsfield--to share probably the +hospitality of Steignton during the master's absence! Her trick of +caricature, whenever she dealt with adversaries, was active upon +the three persons under observation of the windows. It was potent to +convince her that her brother Rowsley had cast the woman to her native +obscurity. However, Lady Charlotte could be just: the woman's figure, +and as far as could be seen of her face, accounted for Rowsley's +entanglement. + +Why chastize that man Morsfield at all? Calling him out would give a +further dip to the name of Ormont. A pretty idea, to be punishing a roan +for what you thank him for! He did a service; and if he's as mad about +her as he boasts, he can take her and marry her now Rowsley 's free of +her. + +Morsfield says he wants to marry her--wants nothing better. Then let +him. Rowsley has shown him there 's no legal impediment. Pity that young +Weyburn had to be sent to do watch-dog duty. But Rowsley would not have +turned her back to travel alone: that is, without a man to guard. He 's +too chivalrous. + +The sending of Weyburn, she now fancied, was her own doing, and Lady +Charlotte attributed it to her interpretation of her brother's heart of +chivalry; though it would have been the wiser course, tending straight +and swift to the natural end, if the two women and their Morsfield had +received the dismissal to travel as they came. + +One sees it after the event. Yes, only Rowsley would not have dismissed +her without surety that she would be protected. So it was the right +thing prompted on the impulse of the moment. And young Weyburn would +meet some difficulty in protecting his 'Lady Ormont,' if she had no +inclination for it. + +Analyzing her impulse of the moment, Lady Charlotte credited +herself, not unjustly, with a certain considerateness for the woman, +notwithstanding the woman's violent intrusion between brother and +sister. Knowing the world, and knowing the upper or Beanstalk world +intimately, she winked at nature's passions. But when the legitimate +affection of a brother and sister finds them interposing, they are, as +little parsonically as possible, reproved. If persistently intrusive, +they are handed to the constable. + +How, supposing the case of a wife? Well, then comes the contest; and it +is with an inferior, because not a born, legitimacy of union; which +may be, which here and there is, affection; is generally the habit of +partnership. It is inferior, from not being the union of the blood; it +is a matter merely of the laws and the tastes. No love, she reasoned, +is equal to the love of brother and sister: not even the love of parents +for offspring, or of children for mother and father. Brother and sister +have the holy young days in common; they have lastingly the recollection +of their youth, the golden time when they were themselves, or the +best of themselves. A wife is a stranger from the beginning; she is +necessarily three parts a stranger up to the finish of the history. +She thinks she can absorb the husband. Not if her husband has a sister +living! She may cry and tear for what she calls her own: she will act +prudently in bowing her head to the stronger tie. Is there a wife in +Europe who broods on her husband's merits and his injuries as the sister +of Thomas Rowsley, Earl of Ormont does? or one to defend his good name, +one to work for his fortunes, as devotedly? + +Over and over Lady Charlotte drove her flocks, of much the same pattern, +like billows before a piping gale. They might be similar--a puffed +iteration, and might be meaningless and wearisome; the gale was a power +in earnest. + +Her brother sat locked-up. She did as a wife would not have done, and +held her peace. He spoke; she replied in a few words--blunt, to the +point, as no wife would have done. + +Her dear, warm-hearted Rowsley was shaken by the blow he had been +obliged to deal to the woman--poor woman!--if she felt it. He was always +the principal sufferer where the feelings were concerned. He was never +for hurting any but the enemy. + +His 'Ha, here we dine!' an exclamation of a man of imprisoned yawns at +the apparition of the turnkey, was delightful to her, for a proof of +health and sanity and enjoyment of the journey. + +'Yes, and I've one bottle left, in the hamper, of the hock you like,' +she said. 'That Mr. Weyburn likes it too. He drank a couple coming +down.' + +She did not press for talk; his ready appetite was the flower of +conversation to her. And he slept well, he said. Her personal experience +on that head was reserved. + +London enfolded them in the late evening of a day brewing storm. My lord +heard at the door of his house that Lady Ormont had not arrived. Yet +she had started a day in advance of him. He looked down, up and round at +Charlotte. He looked into an empty hall. Pagnell was not there. A sight +of Pagnell would, strange to say, have been agreeable. + +Storm was in the air, and Aminta was on the road. Lightning has, before +now, frightened carriage-horses. She would not misconduct herself; she +would sit firm. No woman in England had stouter nerve--few men. + +But the carriage might be smashed. He was ignorant of the road she +had chosen for her return. Out of Wiltshire there would be no cliffs, +quarries, river-banks, presenting dangers. Those dangers, however, +spring up when horses have the frenzy. + +Charlotte was nodded at, for a signal to depart; and she drove off, +speculating on the bullet of a grey eye, which was her brother's adieu +to her. + +The earl had apparently a curiosity to inspect vacant rooms. His +Aminta's drawing-room, her boudoir, her bed-chamber, were submissive in +showing bed, knickknacks, furniture. They told the tale of a corpse. + +He washed and dressed, and went out to his club to dine, hating +the faces of the servants of the house, just able to bear with the +attentions of his valet. + +Thunder was rattling at ten at night. The house was again the tomb. + +She had high courage, that girl. She might be in a bed, with her +window-blind up, calmly waiting for the flashes: lightning excited her. +He had seen her lying at her length quietly, her black hair scattered +on the pillow, like shadow of twigs and sprays on moonlit grass, +illuminated intermittently; smiling to him, but her heart out and +abroad, wild as any witch's. If on the road, she would not quail. But it +was necessary to be certain of her having a trusty postillion. + +He walked through the drench and scream of a burst cloud to the +posting-office. There, after some trouble, he obtained information +directing him to the neighbouring mews. He had thence to find his way to +the neighbouring pot-house. + +The report of the postillion was, on the whole, favourable. The man +understood horses--was middle-aged--no sot; he was also a man with an +eye for weather, proverbially in the stables a cautious hand--slow 'Old +Slow-and-sure,' he was called; by name, Joshua Abnett. + +'Oh, Joshua Abnett?' said the earl, and imprinted it on his memory, for +the service it was to do during the night. + +Slow-and-sure Joshua Abnett would conduct her safely, barring accidents. +For accidents we must all be prepared. She was a heroine in an accident. +The earl recalled one and more: her calm face, brightened eyes, easy +laughter. Hysterics were not in her family. + +She did wrong to let that fellow Morsfield accompany her. Possibly +he had come across her on the road, and she could not shake him off. +Judging by all he knew of her, the earl believed she would not have +brought the fellow into the grounds of Steignton of her free will. She +had always a particular regard for decency. + +According to the rumour, Morsfield and the woman Pagnell were very thick +together. He barked over London of his being a bitten dog. He was near +to the mad dog's fate, as soon as a convenient apology for stopping his +career could be invented. + +The thinking of the lesson to Morsfield on the one hand, and of the +slow-and-sure postillion Joshua Abriett on the other, lulled Lord Ormont +to a short repose in his desolate house. Of Weyburn he had a glancing +thought, that the young man would be a good dog to guard the countess +from a mad dog, as he had reckoned in commissioning him. + +Next day was the day of sunlight Aminta loved. + +It happens with the men who can strike, supposing them of the order +of civilized creatures, that when they have struck heavily, however +deserved the blow, a liking for the victim will assail them, if they +discover no support in hatred; and no sooner is the spot of softness +touched than they are invaded by hosts of the stricken person's +qualities, which plead to be taken as virtues, and are persuasive. The +executioner did rightly. But it is the turn for the victim to declare +the blow excessive. + +Now, a just man, who has overdone the stroke, will indemnify and console +in every way, short of humiliating himself. + +He had an unusually clear vision of the scene at Steignton. Surprise and +wrath obscured it at the moment, for reflection to bring it out in sharp +outline; and he was able now to read and translate into inoffensive +English the inherited Spanish of it, which violated nothing of Aminta's +native 'donayre,' though it might look on English soil outlandish or +stagey. + +Aminta stood in sunlight on the greensward. She stood hand on hip, +gazing at the house she had so long desired to see, without a notion +that she committed an offence. Implicitly upon all occasions she took +her husband's word for anything he stated, and she did not consequently +imagine him to be at Steignton. So, then, she had no thought of running +down from London to hunt and confound him, as at first it appeared. The +presence of that white-faced Morsfield vindicated her sufficiently so +far. And let that fellow hang till the time for cutting him down! Not +she, but Pagnell, seems to have been the responsible party. And, by the +way, one might prick the affair with Morsfield by telling him publicly +that his visit to inspect Steignton was waste of pains, for he would not +be accepted as a tenant in the kennels, et caetera. + +Well, poor girl, she satisfied her curiosity, not aware that a few weeks +farther on would have done it to the full. + +As to Morsfield, never once, either in Vienna or in Paris, had she, +warmly admired though she was, all eyes telescoping and sun-glassing +on her, given her husband an hour or half an hour or two minutes of +anxiety. Letters came. The place getting hot, she proposed to leave it. + +She had been rather hardly tried. There are flowers we cannot keep +growing in pots. Her fault was, that instead of flinging down her glove +and fighting it out openly, she listened to Pagnell, and began the +game of Pull. If he had a zest for the game, it was to stump the woman +Pagnell. So the veteran fancied in his amended mind. + +This intrusive sunlight chased him from the breakfast-table and out of +the house. She would be enjoying it somewhere; but the house empty of +a person it was used to contain had an atmosphere of the vaults, +and inside it the sunlight she loved had an effect of taunting him +singularly. + +He called on his upholsterer and heard news to please her. The house +hired for a month above Great Marlow was ready; her ladyship could enter +it to-morrow. It pleased my lord to think that she might do so, and not +bother him any more about the presentation at Court during the current +year. In spite of certain overtures from the military authorities, and +roused eulogistic citations of his name in the newspapers and magazines, +he was not on friendly terms with his country yet, having contracted the +fatal habit of irony, which, whether hitting or musing its object, stirs +old venom in our wound, twitches the feelings. Unfortunately for him, +they had not adequate expression unless he raged within; so he had to +shake up wrath over his grievances, that he might be satisfactorily +delivered; and he was judged irreconcilable when he had subsided into +the quietest contempt, from the prospective seat of a country estate, in +the society of a young wife who adored him. + +An exile from the sepulchre of that house void of the consecration of +ashes, he walked the streets and became reconciled to street sunlight. +There were no carriage accidents to disturb him with apprehensions. +Besides, the slowness of the postillion Joshua Abnett, which probably +helped to the delay, was warrant of his sureness. And in an accident the +stringy fellow, young Weyburn, could be trusted for giving his attention +to the ladies--especially to the younger of the two, taking him for the +man his elders were at his age. As for Pagnell, a Providence watches +over the Pagnells! Mortals have no business to interfere. + +An accident on water would be a frolic to his girl. Swimming was a gift +she had from nature. Pagnell vowed she swam out a mile at Dover when she +was twelve. He had seen her in blue water: he had seen her readiness to +jump to the rescue once when a market-woman, stepping out of a boat +to his yacht on the Tabus, plumped in. She had the two kinds of +courage--the impulsive and the reasoned. What is life to man or woman if +we are not to live it honourably? Men worthy of the name say this. The +woman who says and acts on it is--well, she is fit company for them. But +only the woman of natural courage can say it and act on it. + +Would she come by Winchester, or choose the lower road by Salisbury and +Southampton, to smell the sea? perhaps-like her!--dismissing the chariot +and hiring a yacht for a voyage round the coast and up the Thames. She +had an extraordinary love of the sea, yet she preferred soldiers to +sailors. A woman? Never one of them more a woman! But it came of her +quickness to take the colour and share the tastes of the man to whom she +gave herself. + +My lord was beginning to distinguish qualities in a character. + +He was informed at the mews that Joshua Abnett was on the road still. +Joshua seemed to be a roadster of uncommon unprogressiveness, proper to +a framed picture. + +While debating whether to lunch at his loathed club or at a home loathed +more, but open to bright enlivenment any instant, Lord Ormont beheld +a hat lifted and Captain May saluting him. They were near a famous +gambling-house in St. James's Street. + +'Good! I am glad to see you,' he said. 'Tell me you know Mr. Morsfield +pretty well. I'm speaking of my affair. He has been trespassing down on +my grounds at Steignton, and I think of taking the prosecution of him +into my own hands. Is he in town?' + +'I 've just left his lame devil Cumnock, my lord,' said May, after a +slight grimace. 'They generally run in tandem.' + +'Will you let me know?' + +'At once, when I hear.' + +'You will call on me? Before noon?' + +'Any service required?' + +'My respects to your wife.' + +'Your lordship is very good.' + +Captain May bloomed at a civility paid to his wife. He was a smallish, +springy, firm-faced man, devotee of the lady bearing his name and +wielding him. In the days when duelling flourished on our land, frail +women could be powerful. + +The earl turned from him to greet Lord Adderwood and a superior officer +of his Profession, on whom he dropped a frigid nod. He held that all but +the rank and file, and a few subalterns, of the service had abandoned +him to do homage to the authorities. The Club he frequented was not his +military Club. Indeed, lunching at any Club in solitariness that day, +with Aminta away from home, was bitter penance. He was rejoiced by Lord +Adderwood's invitation, and hung to him after the lunch; for a horrible +prospect of a bachelor dinner intimated astonishingly that he must have +become unawares a domesticated man. + +The solitary later meal of a bachelor was consumed, if the word will +suit a rabbit's form of feeding. He fatigued his body by walking the +streets and the bridge of the Houses of Parliament, and he had some +sleep under a roof where a life like death, or death apeing life, would +have seemed to him the Joshua Abnett, if he had been one to take up +images. + +Next day he was under the obligation to wait at home till noon. Shortly +before noon a noise of wheels drew him to the window. A young lady, in +whom he recognized Aminta's little school friend, of some name, stepped +out of a fly. He met her in the hall. + +She had expected to be welcomed by Aminta, and she was very timid on +finding herself alone with the earl. He, however, treated her as the +harbinger bird, wryneck of the nightingale, sure that Aminta would keep +her appointment unless an accident delayed. He had forgotten her name, +but not her favourite pursuit of botany; and upon that he discoursed, +and he was interested, not quite independently of the sentiment of her +being there as a guarantee of Aminta's return. Still he knew his English +earth, and the counties and soil for particular wild-flowers, grasses, +mosses; and he could instruct her and inspire a receptive pupil on the +theme of birds, beasts, fishes, insects, in England and other lands. + +He remained discoursing without much weariness till four of the +afternoon. Then he had his reward. The chariot was at the door, and +the mounted figure of Joshua Abnett, on which he cast not a look or a +thought. Aminta was alone. She embraced Selina Collett warmly, and said, +in friendly tones, 'Ah! my lord, you are in advance of me.' + +She had dropped Mrs. Pagnell and Mr. Weyburn at two suburban houses; +working upon her aunt's dread of the earl's interrogations as regarded +Mr. Morsfield. She had, she said, chosen to take the journey easily on +her return, and enjoyed it greatly. + +My lord studied her manner more than her speech. He would have +interpreted a man's accurately enough. He read hers to signify that +she had really enjoyed her journey, 'made the best of it,' and did not +intend to be humble about her visit to Steignton without his permission; +but that, if hurt at the time, she had recovered her spirits, and was +ready for a shot or two--to be nothing like a pitched battle. And she +might fire away to her heart's content: wordy retorts would not come +from him; he had material surprises in reserve for her. His question +concerning Morsfield knew its answer, and would only be put under +pressure. + +Comparison of the friends Aminta and Selina was forced by their standing +together, and the representation in little Selina of the inferiority of +the world of women to his Aminta; he thought of several, and splendid +women, foreign and English. The comparison rose sharply now, with +Aminta's novel, airy, homely, unchallengeing assumption of an equal +footing beside her lord, in looks and in tones that had cast off +constraint of the adoring handmaid, to show the full-blown woman, +rightful queen of her half of the dominion. Between the Aminta of then +and now, the difference was marked as between Northern and Southern +women: the frozen-mouthed Northerner and the pearl and rose-nipped +Southerner; those who smirk in dropping congealed monosyllables, and +those who radiantly laugh out the voluble chatter. + +Conceiving this to the full in a mind destitute of imagery, but +indicative of the thing as clearly as the planed, unpolished woodwork +of a cabinet in a carpenter's shop, Lord Ormont liked her the better for +the change, though she was not the woman whose absence from his house +had caused him to go mooning half a night through the streets, and +though it forewarned him of a tougher bit of battle, if battle there was +to be. + +He was a close reader of surfaces. But in truth, the change so notable +came of the circumstance, that some little way down below the surface he +perused, where heart weds mind, or nature joins intellect, for the two +to beget a resolution, the battle of the man and the woman had been +fought, and the man beaten. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. TREATS OF THE FIRST DAY OF THE CONTENTION OF BROTHER AND +SISTER + +In the contest rageing at mid-sea still between the man and the woman, +it is the one who is hard to the attractions of the other that will make +choice of the spot and have the advantages. A short time earlier Lord +Ormont could have marked it out at his leisure. He would have been +unable to comprehend why it was denied him to do so now; for he was +master of himself, untroubled by conscience, unaware, since he was +assured of his Aminta's perfect safety and his restored sense of +possession, that any taint of softness in him had reversed the condition +of their alliance. He felt benevolently the much he had to bestow, and +was about to bestow. Meanwhile, without complicity on his part, without +his knowledge, yet absolutely involving his fate, the battle had gone +against him in Aminta's breast. + +Like many of his class and kind, he was thoroughly acquainted with the +physical woman, and he took that first and very engrossing volume of +the great Book of Mulier for all the history. A powerful wing of +imagination, strong as the flappers of the great Roc of Arabian story, +is needed to lift the known physical woman even a very little way up +into azure heavens. It is far easier to take a snap-shot at the psychic, +and tumble her down from her fictitious heights to earth. The mixing of +the two make nonsense of her. She was created to attract the man, for an +excellent purpose in the main. We behold her at work incessantly. One is +a fish to her hook; another a moth to her light. By the various arts +at her disposal she will have us, unless early in life we tear away +the creature's coloured gauzes and penetrate to her absurdly simple +mechanism. That done, we may, if we please, dominate her. High priests +of every religion have successively denounced her as the chief enemy. +To subdue and bid her minister to our satisfaction is therefore a right +employment of man's unperverted superior strength. Of course, we keep +to ourselves the woman we prefer; but we have to beware of an uxorious +preference, or we are likely to resemble the Irishman with his wolf, and +dance imprisoned in the hug of our captive. + +For it is the creature's characteristic to be lastingly awake, in her +moments of utmost slavishness most keenly awake to the chances of the +snaring of the stronger. Be on guard, then. Lord Ormont had been on +guard then and always: his instinct of commandership kept him on guard. +He was on guard now when his Aminta played, not the indignant and the +frozen, but the genially indifferent. She did it well, he admitted. + +Had it been the indignant she played, he might have stooped to cajole +the handsome queen of gypsies she was, without acknowledgement of +her right to complain. Feeling that he was about to be generous, he +shrugged. He meant to speak in deeds. + +Lady Charlotte's house was at the distance of a stroller's half-hour +across Hyde Park westward from his own. Thither he walked, a few +minutes after noon, prepared for cattishness. He could fancy that he had +hitherto postponed the visit rather on her account, considering that +he would have to crush her if she humped and spat, and he hoped to be +allowed to do it gently. There would certainly be a scene. + +Lady Charlotte was at home. + +'Always at home to you, Rowsley, at any hour. Mr. Eglett has driven down +to the City. There 's a doctor in a square there's got a reputation for +treating weak children, and he has taken down your grand-nephew Bobby to +be inspected. Poor boy comes of a poor stock on the father's side. Mr. +Eglett would have that marriage. Now he sees wealth isn't everything. +Those Benlews are rushlights. However, Elizabeth stood with her father +to have Robert Benlew, and this poor child 's the result. I wonder +whether they have consciences!' + +My lord prolonged the sibilation of his 'Yes,' in the way of +absent-minded men. He liked little Bobby, but had to class the boy +second for the present. + +'You have our family jewels in your keeping, Charlotte?' + +'No, I haven't,--and you know I haven't, Rowsley.' She sprang to arms, +the perfect porcupine, at his opening words, as he had anticipated. + +'Where are the jewels?' + +'They're in the cellars of my bankers, and safe there, you may rely on +it.' + +'I want them.' + +'I want to have them safe; and there they stop.' + +'You must get them and hand them over.' + +'To whom?' + +'To me.' + +'What for?' + +'They will be worn by the Countess of Ormont' + +'Who 's she?' + +'The lady who bears the title.' + +'The only Countess of Ormont I know of is your mother and mine, Rowsley; +and she's dead.' + +'The Countess of Ormont I speak of is alive.' + +Lady Charlotte squared to him. 'Who gives her the title?' + +'She bears it by right.' + +'Do you mean to say, Rowsley, you have gone and married the woman since +we came up from Steignton?' + +'She is my wife.' + +'Anyhow, she won't have our family jewels.' + +'If you had swallowed them, you'd have to disgorge.' + +'I don't give up our family jewels to such people.' + +'Do you decline to call on her?' + +'I do: I respect our name and blood.' + +'You will send the order to your bankers for them to deliver the jewels +over to me at my house this day.' + +'Look here, Rowsley; you're gone cracked or senile. You 're in the hands +of one of those clever wenches who catch men of your age. She may catch +you; she shan't lay hold of our family jewels: they stand for the honour +of our name and blood.' + +'They are to be at my house-door at four o'clock this afternoon.' + +'They'll not stir.' + +'Then I go down to order your bankers and give them the order.' + +'My bankers won't attend to it without the order from me.' + +'You will submit to the summons of my lawyers.' + +'You're bent on a public scandal, are you?' + +'I am bent on having the jewels.' + +'They are not yours; you 've no claim to them; they are heirlooms in our +family. Things most sacred to us are attached to them. They belong to +our history. There 's the tiara worn by the first Countess of Ormont. +There 's the big emerald of the necklace-pendant--you know the story of +it. Two rubies not counted second to any in England. All those diamonds! +I wore the cross and the two pins the day I was presented after my +marriage.' + +'The present Lady Ormont will wear them the day she is presented.' + +'She won't wear them at Court.' + +'She will.' + +'Don't expect the Lady Ormont of tradesmen and footmen to pass the Lord +Chamberlain.' + +'That matter will be arranged for next season. Now I 've done.' + +'So have I; and you have my answer, Rowsley.' They quitted their chairs. + +'You decline to call on my wife?' said the earl. + +Lady Charlotte replied: 'Understand me, now. If the woman has won you +round to legitimize the connection, first, I've a proper claim to see +her marriage lines. I must have a certificate of her birth. I must have +a testified account of her life before you met her and got the worst of +it. Then, as the case may be, I 'll call on her. + +'You will behave yourself when you call.' + +'But she won't have our family jewels.' + +'That affair has been settled by me.' + +'I should be expecting to hear of them as decorating the person of one +of that man Morsfield's mistresses.' + +The earl's brow thickened. 'Charlotte, I smacked your cheek when you +were a girl.' + +'I know you did. You might again, and I wouldn't cry out. She travels +with that Morsfield; you 've seen it. He goes boasting of her. Gypsy or +not, she 's got queer ways.' + +'I advise you, you had better learn at once to speak of her +respectfully.' + +'I shall have enough to go through, if what you say's true, with +questions of the woman's antecedents and her people, and the date of the +day of this marriage. When was the day you did it? I shall have to give +an answer. You know cousins of ours, and the way they 'll be pressing, +and comparing ages and bawling rumours. None of them imagined my brother +such a fool as to be wheedled into marrying her. You say it's done, +Rowsley. Was it done yesterday or the day before?' + +Lord Ormont found unexpectedly that she struck on a weak point. Married +from the first? Why not tell me of it? He could hear her voice as if she +had spoken the words. And how communicate the pell-mell of reasons? + +'You're running vixen. The demand I make is for the jewels,' he said. + +'You won't have them, Rowsley--not for her.' + +'You think of compelling me to use force?' + +'Try it.' + +'You swear the jewels are with your bankers?' + +'I left them in charge of my bankers, and they've not been moved by me.' + +'Well, it must be force.' + +'Nothing short of it when the honour of our family's concerned.' + +It was rather worse than the anticipated struggle with this Charlotte, +though he had kept his temper. The error was in supposing that an hour's +sharp conflict would settle it, as he saw. The jewels required a siege. + +'When does Eglett return?' he asked. + +'Back to lunch. You stay and lunch here, Rowsley we don't often have +you.' + +The earl contemplated her, measuring her powers of resistance for a +prolonged engagement. Odd that the pride which had withdrawn him from +the service of an offending country should pitch him into a series of +tussles with women, for its own confusion! He saw that, too, in his dim +reflectiveness, and held the country answerable for it. + +Mr. Eglett was taken into confidence by him privately after lunch. +Mr. Eglett's position between the brother and sister was perplexing; +habitually he thought his wife had strong good sense, in spite of the +costliness of certain actions at law not invariably confirming his +opinion; he thought also that the earl's demand must needs be considered +obediently. At the same time, his wife's objections to the new Countess +of Ormont, unmasked upon the world, seemed very legitimate; though it +might be asked why the earl should not marry, marrying the lady who +pleased him. But if, in the words of his wife, the lady had no claim to +be called a lady, the marriage was deplorable. On the other hand, Lord +Ormont spoke of her in terms of esteem, and he was no fondling dotard. + +How to compromise the matter for the sake of peace? The man perpetually +plunged into strife by his combative spouse, cried the familiar question +again; and at every suggestion of his on behalf of concord he heard from +Lady Charlotte that he had no principles, or else from Lord Ormont that +his head must be off his shoulders. + +The man for peace had the smallest supply of language, and so, unless he +took a side and fought, his active part was football between them. + +It went on through the afternoon up to five o'clock. No impression was +betrayed by Lady Charlotte. + +She congratulated her brother on the recruit he had enlisted. He +smiled his grimmest of the lips drawn in. A combat, perceptibly of some +extension, would soon give him command of the man of peace; and energy +to continue attacks will break down the energies of any dogged defensive +stand. + +He deferred the discussion with his unreasonable sister until the +next day at half-past twelve o'clock. Lady Charlotte nodded to the +appointment. She would have congratulated herself without irony on the +result of the first day's altercation but for her brother Rowsley's +unusual and ominous display of patience. Twice during the wrangle she +had to conceal a difficult breathing. She felt a numbness in one arm +now it was over, and mentally complimented her London physician on the +unerringness of his diagnosis. Her heart, however, complained of +the cruelty of having in the end, perhaps, if the wrangle should be +protracted, to yield, for sheer weakness, without ceasing to beat. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. THE ORMONT JEWELS + +At half-past twelve of the noon next day Lord Ormont was at Lady +Charlotte's house door. She welcomed him affectionately, as if nothing +were in dispute; he nodded an acceptance of her greetings, with a blunt +intimation of the business to be settled; she put on her hump of the +feline defensive; then his batteries opened fire and hers barked back +on him. Each won admiration of the other's tenacity, all the more +determined to sap or split it. They had known one another's character, +but they had never seen it in such strong light. Never had their mutual +and similar, though opposed, resources been drawn out so copiously and +unreservedly. This was the shining scrawl of all that each could do +to gain a fight. They admired one another's contemptibly justifiable +evasions, changes of front, statements bordering the lie, even to +meanness in the withdrawal of admissions and the denial of the same ever +having been made. That was Charlotte! That was Rowsley! Anything to beat +down the adversary. + +As to will, the woman's will, of these two, equalled the man's. They +were matched in obstinacy and unscrupulousness. + +Her ingenuitics of the defence eluded his attacks, and compelled him +to fall on heavy iteration of his demand for the jewels, an immediate +restitution of the jewels. 'Why immediate?' cried she. + +He repeated it without replying to her. + +'But, you tell me, Rowsley, why immediate? If you're in want of money +for her, you come to me, tell me, you shall have thousands. I'll drive +down to the City to-morrow and sell out stock. Mr. Eglett won't mind +when he hears the purpose. I shall call five thousand cheap, and don't +ask to see the money again.' + +'Ah! double the sum to have your own way!' said he. + +She protested that she valued her money. She furnished instances of her +carefulness of her money all along up to the present period of brutal +old age. Yet she would willingly part with five thousand or more to save +the family honour. Mr. Eglett would not only approve, he would probably +advance a good part of the money himself. + +'Money! Who wants money?' thundered the earl, and jumped out of her trap +of the further diversion from the plain request. 'To-morrow, when I am +here, I shall expect to have the jewels delivered to me.' + +'That you may hand them over to her. Where are they likely to be this +time next year? And what do you know about jewels? You may look at them +when you ask to see them, and not know imitation paste--like the stuff +Lady Beltus showed her old husband. Our mother wore them, and she prized +them. I'm not sure I wouldn't rather hear they were exhibited in a Bond +Street jeweller's shop or a Piccadilly pawnbroker's than have them on +that woman.' + +'You speak of my wife.' + +'For a season, perhaps; and off they're likely to go, to pay bills, if +her Adderwoods and her Morsfields are out of funds, as they call it.' + +'You are aware you are speaking of my wife, Charlotte?' + +'You daren't say my sister-in-law.' + +He did not choose to say it; and once more she dared him. She could +imagine she scored a point. + +They were summoned to lunch by Mr. Eglett; and there was an hour's +armistice; following which the earl demanded the restitution of the +jewels, and heard the singular question, childishly accentuated, 'What +for?' + +Patience was his weapon and support, so he named his object with an air +of inveteracy in tranquillity they were for his wife to wear. + +Lady Charlotte dared him to say they were for her sister-in-law. + +He despised the transparent artifice of the challenge. + +'But you have to own the difference,' she said. 'You haven't lost +respect for your family, thank God! No. It 's one thing to say she 's a +wife: you hang fire when it 's to say she 's my sister-in-law.' + +'You'll have to admit the fact, Charlotte.' + +'How long is it since I should have had to admit the fact?' + +'From the date of my marriage.' + +'Tell me the date.' + +'No, you don't wear a wig, Charlotte; but you are fit to practise in the +Law-courts!' he said, exasperatedly jocular. + +She had started a fresh diversion, and she pressed him for the date. 'I +'m supposed to have had a sister-in-law-how many weeks?--months?' + +'Years.' + +'Married years! And if you've been married years, where were you +married? Not in a church. That woman's no church-bride.' + +'There are some clever women made idiots of by their trullish tempers.' + +'Abuse away. I've asked you where you were married, Rowsley.' + +'Go to Madrid. Go to the Embassy. Apply to the chaplain.' + +'Married in Madrid! Who's ever married in Madrid! You flung her a yellow +handkerchief, and she tied it round her neck--that 's your ceremony! +Now you tell me you've been married years; and she's a young woman; you +fetch her over from Madrid, set her in a place where those Morsfields +and other fungi-fellows grow, and she has to think herself lucky to be +received by a Lady Staines and a Mrs. Lawrence Finchley, and she the +talk of the town, refused at Court, for all an honourable-enough old +woman countenanced her in pity; and I 'm asked to believe she was my +brother's wife, sister-in-law of mine, all the while! I won't.' + +Lady Charlotte dilated on it for a length of time, merely to show she +declined to believe it; pouring Morsfield over him and the talk of +the town, the gypsy caught in Spain--now to be foisted on her as her +sister-in-law! She could fancy she produced an effect. + +She did indeed unveil to him a portion of the sufferings his Aminta +had undergone; as visibly, too, the good argumentative reasons for his +previous avoidance of the deadly, dismal wrangle here forced on him. +A truly dismal, profitless wrangle! But the finish of it would be the +beginning of some solace to his Aminta. + +The finish of it must be to-morrow. He refrained from saying so, and +simply appointed to-morrow for the resumption of the wrestle, departing +in his invincible coat of patience: which one has to wear when dealing +with a woman like Charlotte, he informed Mr. Eglett, on his way out at a +later hour than on the foregone day. Mr. Eglett was of his opinion, +that an introduction of lawyers into a family dispute was 'rats in +the pantry'; and he would have joined him in his gloomy laugh, if the +thought of Charlotte in a contention had not been so serious a matter. +She might be beaten; she could not be brought to yield. + +She retired to her bedroom, and laid herself flat on her bed, +immoveable, till her maid undressed her for the night. A cup of broth +and strip of toast formed her sole nourishment. As for her doctor's +possible reproaches, the symptoms might crowd and do their worst; she +fought for the honour of her family. + +At midday of the third day Lady Charlotte was reduced to the condition +of those fortresses which wave defiantly the flag, but deliver no +further shot, awaiting the assault. Her body, affected by hideous +old age, succumbed. Her will was unshaken. She would not write to her +bankers. Mr. Eglett might go to them, if he thought fit. Rowsley was +to understand that he might call himself married; she would have no +flower-basket bunch of a sister-in-law thrust upon her. + +Lord Ormont and Mr. Eglett walked down to her bankers in the afternoon. +As a consequence of express injunctions given by my lady five years +previously, the assistant-manager sought an interview with her. + +The jewels were lodged at her house the day ensuing. They were examined, +verified by the list in Lady Charlotte's family record-book, and then +taken away--forcibly, of course--by her brother. + +He laughed in his dry manner; but the reminiscent glimpses, helping him +to see the humour of it, stirred sensations of the tug it had been with +that combative Charlotte, and excused him for having shrunk from the +encounter until he conceived it to be necessary. + +Settlement of the affair with Morsfield now claimed his attention. The +ironical tolerance he practised in relation to Morsfield when Aminta had +no definite station before the world changed to an angry irritability +at the man's behaviour now that she had stepped forth under his +acknowledgement of her as the Countess of Ormont. He had come round to a +rather healthier mind regarding his country, and his introduction of the +Countess of Ormont to the world was his peace-offering. + +As he returned home earlier on the third day, he found his diligent +secretary at work. The calling on Captain May and the writing to the +sort of man were acts obnoxious to his dignity; so he despatched Weyburn +to the captain's house, one in a small street of three narrow tenements +abutting on aristocracy and terminating in mews. Weyburn's mission was +to give the earl's address at Great Marlow for the succeeding days, and +to see Captain May, if the captain was at home. During his absence the +precious family jewel-box was locked in safety. Aminta and her friend, +little Miss Collett, were out driving, by the secretary's report. The +earl considered it a wholesome feature of Aminta's character that she +should have held to her modest schoolmate the fact spoke well for both +of them. + +A look at the papers to serve for Memoirs was discomposing, and led him +to think the secretary could be parted with as soon as he pleased to go: +say, a week hence. + +The Memoirs were no longer designed for issue. He had the impulse to +treat them on the spot as the Plan for the Defence of the Country had +been treated; and for absolutely obverse reasons. The secretary and the +Memoirs were associated: one had sprung out of the other. Moreover, the +secretary had witnessed a scene at Steignton. The young man had done his +duty, and would be thanked for that, and dismissed, with a touch of his +employer's hand. The young man would have made a good soldier--a better +soldier, good as he might be as a scribe. He ought to have been in his +father's footsteps, and he would then have disciplined or quashed his +fantastical ideas. Perhaps he was right on the point of toning the +Memoirs here and there. Since the scene at Steignton Lord Ormont's +views had changed markedly in relation to everybody about him, and most +things. + +Weyburn came back at the end of an hour to say that he had left the +address with Mrs. May, whom he had seen. + +'A handsome person,' the earl observed. + +'She must have been very handsome,' said Weyburn. + +'Ah! we fall into their fictions, or life would be a bald business, upon +my word!' + +Lord Ormont had not uttered it before the sentiment of his greater luck +with one of that queer world of the female lottery went through him on a +swell of satisfaction, just a wave. + +An old-world eye upon women, it seemed to Weyburn. But the man who could +crown a long term of cruel injustice with the harshness to his wife at +Steignton would naturally behold women with that eye. + +However, he was allowed only to generalize; he could not trust himself +to dwell on Lady Ormont and the Aminta inside the shell. Aminta and Lady +Ormont might think as one or diversely of the executioner's blow she +had undergone. She was a married woman, and she probably regarded the +wedding by law as the end a woman has to aim at, and is annihilated by +hitting; one flash of success, and then extinction, like a boy's cracker +on the pavement. Not an elevated image, but closely resembling that +which her alliance with Lord Ormont had been! + +At the same time, no true lover of a woman advises her--imploring +is horrible treason--to slip the symbolic circle of the law from her +finger, and have in an instant the world for her enemy. She must consent +to be annihilated, and must have no feelings; particularly no mind. The +mind is the danger for her. If she has a mind alive, she will certainly +push for the position to exercise it, and run the risk of a classing +with Nature's created mates for reptile men. + +Besides, Lady Ormont appeared, in the company of her friend Selina +Collett, not worse than rather too thoughtful; not distinctly unhappy. +And she was conversable, smiling. She might have had an explanation +with my lord, accepting excuses--or, who knows? taking the blame, and +offering them. Weakness is pliable. So pliable is it, that it has been +known for a crack of the masterly whip to fling off the victim and put +on the culprit! Ay, but let it be as it may with Lady Ormont, Aminta +is of a different composition. Aminta's eyes of the return journey to +London were haunting lights, and lured him to speculate; and for her +sake he rejected the thought that for him they meant anything warmer +than the passing thankfulness, though they were a novel assurance to him +of her possession beneath her smothering cloud of the power to resolve, +and show forth a brilliant individuality. + +The departure of the ladies and my lord in the travelling carriage for +the house on the Upper Thames was passably sweetened to Weyburn by the +command to him to follow in a day or two, and continue his work there +until he left England. Aminta would not hear of an abandonment of the +Memoirs. She spoke on the subject to my lord as to a husband pardoned. + +She was not less affable and pleasant with him out of Weyburn's hearing. +My lord earned her gratitude for his behaviour to Selina Collett, to +whom he talked interestedly of her favourite pursuit, as he had done on +the day when, as he was not the man to forget, her arrival relieved him +of anxiety. Aminta, noticed the box on the seat beside him. + +They drove up to their country house in time to dress leisurely for +dinner. Nevertheless, the dinner-hour had struck several minutes before +she descended; and the earl, as if not expecting her, was out on the +garden path beside the river bank with Selina. She beckoned from the +step of the open French window. + +He came to her at little Selina's shuffling pace, conversing upon +water-plants. + +'No jewelry to-day?' he said. + +And Aminta replied: 'Carstairs has shown me the box and given the key. I +have not opened it.' + +'Time in the evening, or to-morrow. You guess the contents?' + +'I presume I do.' + +She looked feverish and shadowed. + +He murmured kindly: 'Anything?' + +'Not now: we will dine.' + +She had missed, had lost, she feared, her own jewelbox; a casket of no +great treasure to others, but of a largely estimable importance to her. + +After the heavy ceremonial entrance and exit of dishes, she begged the +earl to accompany her for an examination of the contents of the box. + +As soon as her chamber-door was shut, she said, in accents of alarm: +'Mine has disappeared. Carstairs, I know, is to be trusted. She +remembers carrying the box out of my room; she believes she can remember +putting it into the fly. She had to confess that it had vanished, +without her knowing how, when my boxes were unpacked.' + +'Is she very much upset?' said the earl. + +'Carstairs? Why, yes, poor creature! you can imagine. I have no doubt +she feels for me; and her own reputation is concerned. What do you think +is best to be done?' + +'To be done! Overhaul the baggage again in all the rooms.' + +'We've not failed to do that.' + +'Control yourself, my dear. If, by bad luck, they're lost, we can +replace them. The contents of this box, now, we could not replace. Open +it, and judge.' + +'I have no curiosity--forgive me, I beg. And the servant's fly has been +visited, ransacked inside and out, footmen questioned; we have not left +anything we can conceive of undone. My lord, will you suggest?' + +'The intrinsic value of the gems would not be worth--not worth Aminta's +one beat of the heart. Upon my word--not one!' + +An amatory knightly compliment breasting her perturbation roused +an unwonted spite; and a swift reflection on it startled her with a +suspicion. She cast it behind her. He could be angler and fish, he would +not be cat and mouse. + +She said, however, more temperately: 'It is not the value of the gems. +We are losing precious minutes!' + +'Association of them with the giver? Is it that? If that has a value for +you, he is flattered.' + +This betrayed him to the woman waxing as intensely susceptible in all +her being as powder to sparks. + +'There is to be no misunderstanding, my lord,' she said. 'I like--I +value my jewels; but--I am alarmed lest the box should fall into +hands--into strange hands.' + +'The box!' he exclaimed with an outline of a comic grimace; and, if +proved a voluptuary in torturing, he could instance half a dozen points +for extenuation: her charm of person, withheld from him, and to be +embraced; her innocent naughtiness; compensation coming to her in excess +for a transient infliction of pain. 'Your anxiety is about the box?' + +'Yes, the box,' Aminta said firmly. 'It contains--' + +'No false jewels? A thief might complain.' + +'It contains letters, my lord.' 'Blackmail?' + +'You would be at liberty to read them. I would rather they were burnt.' + +'Ah!' The earl heaved his chest prodigiously. 'Blackmail letters are +better in a husband's hands, if they can be laid there.' + +'If there is a necessity for him to read them--yes.' + +'There may be a necessity, there can't be a gratification,--though there +are dogs of thick blood that like to scratch their sores,' he murmured +to himself. 'You used to show me these declaration epistles.' + +'Not the names.' + +'Not the names--no!' + +'When we had left the country, I showed you why it had been my wish to +go.' + +'Xarifa was and is female honour. Take the key, open that box; I will +make inquiries. But, my dear, you guess everything. Your little box was +removed for the bigger impression to be produced by this one.' + +A flash came out of her dark eyes. + +'No, you guess wrong this time, you clever shrew! I wormed nothing from +you,' said he. 'I knew you kept particular letters in that receptacle of +things of price: Aminta can't conceal. The man has worried you. Why not +have come to me?' + +'Oblige me, my lord, by restoring me my box.' + +'This is your box.' + +Her bosom lifted with the words Oh, no! unspoken. He took the key and +opened the box. A dazzling tray of stones was revealed; underneath it +the constellations in cases, very heavens for the worldly Eve; and he +doubted that Eve could have gone completely out of her. But she had, as +observation instructed him, set her woman's mind on something else, and +must have it before letting her eyes fall on objects impossible for any +of her sex to see without coveting them. + +He bowed. 'I will fetch it,' he said magnanimously. Her own box was +brought from his room. She then consented to look womanly at the Ormont +jewels, over which the battle; whereof she knew nothing, and nothing +could be told her, had been fought in her interests, for her sovereign +pleasure. + +She looked and admired. They were beautiful jewels the great emerald was +wonderful, and there were two rubies to praise. She excused herself +for declining to put the circlet for the pendant round her neck, or a +glittering ring on her finger. Her remarks were encomiums, not quite +so cold as those of a provincial spinster of an ascetic turn at an +exhibition of the world's flycatcher gewgaws. He had divided Aminta from +the Countess of Ormont, and it was the wary Aminta who set a guard on +looks and tones before the spectacle of his noble bounty, lest any, +the smallest, payment of the dues of the countess should be demanded. +Rightly interpreting him to be by nature incapable of asking pardon, or +acknowledging a wrong done by him, however much he might crave exemption +from blame and seek for peace, she kept to her mask of injury, though +she hated unforgivingness; and she felt it little, she did it easily, +because her heart was dead to the man. My lord's hand touched her on her +shoulder, propitiatingly in some degree, in his dumb way. + +Offended women can be emotional to a towering pride, that bends while +it assumes unbendingness: it must come to their sensations, as it were +a sign of humanity in the majestic, speechless king of beasts; and they +are pathetically melted, abjectly hypocritical; a nice confusion of +sentiments, traceable to a tender bosom's appreciation of strength and +the perceptive compassion for its mortality. + +In a case of the alienated wife, whose blood is running another way, no +foul snake's bite is more poisonous than that indicatory touch, however +simple and slight. My lord's hand, lightly laid on Aminta's shoulder, +became sensible of soft warm flesh stiffening to the skeleton. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. LOVERS MATED + +He was benevolently martial, to the extent of paternal, in thinking +his girl, of whom he deigned to think now as his countess, pardonably +foolish. Woman for woman, she was of a pattern superior to the world's +ordinary, and might run the world's elect a race. But she was pitifully +woman-like in her increase of dissatisfaction with the more she got. +Women are happier enslaved. Men, too, if their despot is an Ormont. +Colonel of his regiment, he proved that: his men would follow him +anywhere, do anything. Grand old days, before he was condemned by one +knows not what extraordinary round of circumstances to cogitate on women +as fluids, and how to cut channels for them, that they may course along +in the direction good for them, imagining it their pretty wanton will +to go that way! Napoleon's treatment of women is excellent example. +Peterborough's can be defended. + +His Aminta could not reason. She nursed a rancour on account of the blow +she drew on herself at Steignton, and she declined consolation in her +being pardoned. The reconcilement evidently was proposed as a finale of +one of the detestable feminine storms enveloping men weak enough to +let themselves be dragged through a scene for the sake of domestic +tranquillity. + +A remarkable exhibition of Aminta the woman was, her entire change of +front since he had taken her spousal chill. Formerly she was passive, +merely stately, the chiselled grande dame, deferential in her bearing +and speech, even when argumentative and having an opinion to plant. She +had always the independent eye and step; she now had the tongue of the +graceful and native great lady, fitted to rule her circle and hold +her place beside the proudest of the Ormonts. She bore well the small +shuffle with her jewel-box--held herself gallantly. There had been no +female feignings either, affected misapprehensions, gapy ignorances, +and snaky subterfuges, and the like, familiar to men who have the gentle +twister in grip. Straight on the line of the thing to be seen she flew, +and struck on it; and that is a woman's martial action. He would right +heartily have called her comrade, if he had been active himself. A +warrior pulled off his horse, to sit in a chair and contemplate +the minute evolutions of the sex is pettish with his part in such +battle-fields at the stage beyond amusement. + +Seen swimming, she charmed him. Abstract views of a woman summon +opposite advocates: one can never say positively, That is she! But the +visible fair form of a woman is hereditary queen of us. We have none of +your pleadings and counter-pleadings and judicial summaries to obstruct +a ravenous loyalty. My lord beheld Aminta take her three quick steps on +the plank, and spring and dive and ascend, shaking the ends of her bound +black locks; and away she went with shut mouth and broad stroke of her +arms into the sunny early morning river; brave to see, although he had +to flick a bee of a question, why he enjoyed the privilege of seeing, +and was not beside her. The only answer confessed to a distaste for all +exercise once pleasurable. + +She and her little friend boated or strolled through the meadows during +the day; he fished. When he and Aminta rode out for the hour before +dinner, she seemed pleased. She was amicable, conversable, all that +was agreeable as a woman, and she was the chillest of wives. My lord's +observations and reflections came to one conclusion: she pricked and +challenged him to lead up to her desired stormy scene. He met her and +meant to vanquish her with the dominating patience Charlotte had found +too much for her: women cannot stand against it. + +To be patient in contention with women, however, one must have a +continuous and an exclusive occupation; and the tax it lays on us +conduces usually to impatience with men. My lord did not directly +connect Aminta's chillness and Morsfield's impudence; yet the sensation +roused by his Aminta participated in the desire to punish Morsfield +speedily. Without wishing for a duel, he was moved by the social +sanction it had to consider whether green youths and women might not +think a grey head had delayed it too long. The practice of the duel +begot the peculiar animal logic of the nobler savage, which tends to +magnify an offence in the ratio of our vanity, and hunger for a blood +that is not demanded by the appetite. Moreover, a waning practice, in +disfavour with the new generation, will be commended to the conservative +barbarian, as partaking of the wisdom of his fathers. Further, too, we +may have grown slothful, fallen to moodiness, done excess of service to +Omphale, our tyrant lady of the glow and the chill; and then undoubtedly +the duel braces. + +He left Aminta for London, submissive to the terms of intimacy dictated +by her demeanour, his unacknowledged seniority rendering their harshness +less hard to endure. She had not gratified him with a display of her +person in the glitter of the Ormont jewels; and since he was, under +common conditions, a speechless man, his ineptitude for amorous +remonstrances precipitated him upon deeds, that he might offer +additional proofs of his esteem and the assurance of her established +position as his countess. He proposed to engage Lady Charlotte in a +conflict severer than the foregoing, until he brought her to pay the +ceremonial visit to her sister-in-law. The count of time for this final +trial of his masterfulness he calculated at a week. It would be an +occupation, miserable occupation though it was. He hailed the prospect +of chastising Morsfield, for a proof that his tussels with women, +prolonged study of their tricks, manoeuvrings and outwittings of them, +had not emasculated him. + +Aminta willingly promised to write from day to day. Her senses had his +absence insured to them by her anticipation of the task. She did not +conceive it would be so ponderous a task. What to write to him when +nothing occurred! Nothing did occur, unless the arrival of Mr. Weyburn +was to be named an event. She alluded to it: 'Mr. Weyburn has come, +expecting to find you here. The dispatch-box is here. Is he to await +you?' + +That innocent little question was a day gained. + +One day of boating on the upper reaches of the pastoral river, and walks +in woods and golden meadows, was felicity fallen on earth, the ripe +fruit of dreams. A dread surrounded it, as a belt, not shadowing the +horizon; and she clasped it to her heart the more passionately, like a +mother her rosy infant, which a dark world threatens and the universal +fate. + +Love, as it will be at her June of life, was teaching her to know the +good and bad of herself. Women, educated to embrace principles through +their timidity and their pudency, discover, amazed, that these are not +lasting qualities under love's influence. The blushes and the fears take +flight. The principles depend much on the beloved. Is he a man whose +contact with the world has given him understanding of life's laws, and +can hold him firm to the right course in the strain and whirling of a +torrent, they cling to him, deeply they worship. And if they tempt him, +it is not advisedly done. Nature and love are busy in conjunction. +The timidities and pudencies have flown; they may hover, they are not +present. You deplore it, you must not blame; you have educated them so. +Muscular principles are sown only out in the world; and, on the whole, +with all their errors, the worldly men are the truest as well as the +bravest of men. Her faith in his guidance was equal to her dependence. +The retrospect of a recent journey told her how he had been tried. + +She could gaze tenderly, betray her heart, and be certain of safety. Can +wine match that for joy? She had no schemes, no hopes, but simply the +desire to bestow, the capacity to believe. Any wish to be enfolded by +him was shapeless and unlighted, unborn; though now and again for some +chance word or undefined thought she surprised the strange tenant of her +breast at an incomprehensibly faster beat, and knew it for her own and +not her own, the familiar the stranger--an utter stranger, as one who +had snared her in a wreath and was pulling her off her feet. + +She was not so guileless at the thought of little Selina Collett here, +and of Selina as the letter-bearer of old; and the marvel that Matey and +Browny and Selina were together after all! Was it not a kind of summons +to her to call him Matey just once, only once, in play? She burned +and ached to do it. She might have taxed her ingenuity successfully to +induce little Selina to the boldness of calling him Matey--and she +then repeating it, as the woman who revived with a meditative effort +recollections of the girl. Ah, frightful hypocrite! Thoughts of the +pleasure of his name aloud on her lips in his hearing dissolved through +her veins, and were met by Matthew Weyburn's open face, before which +hypocrisy stood rent and stripped. She preferred the calmer, the truer +pleasure of seeing him modestly take lessons in the nomenclature of +weeds, herbs, grasses, by hedge and ditch. Selina could instruct him as +well in entomology, but he knew better the Swiss, Tyrolese, and Italian +valley-homes of beetle and butterfly species. Their simple talk was a +cool zephyr fanning Aminta. + +The suggestion to unite the two came to her, of course, but their +physical disparity denied her that chance to settle her own difficulty, +and a whisper of one physically the match for him punished her. In +stature, in healthfulness, they were equals, perhaps: not morally or +intellectually. And she could claim headship of him on one little point +confided to her by his mother, who was bearing him, and startled by +the boom of guns under her pillow, when her husband fronted the enemy: +Matthew Weyburn, the fencer, boxer, cricketer, hunter, all things manly, +rather shrank from firearms--at least, one saw him put on a screw +to manipulate them. In danger--among brigands or mutineers, +for example--she could stand by him and prove herself his mate. +Intellectually, morally, she had to bow humbly. Nor had she, nor could +she do more than lean on and catch example from his prompt spiritual +valiancy. It shone out from him, and a crisis fulfilled the promise. Who +could be his mate for cheerful courage, for skill, the ready mind, easy +adroitness, and for self-command? To imitate was a woman's utmost. + +Matthew Weyburn appeared the very Matey of the first of May cricketing +day among Cuper's boys the next morning, when seen pacing down the +garden-walk. He wore his white trousers of that happiest of old +days--the 'white ducks' Aminta and Selina remembered. Selina beamed. +'Yes, he did; he always wore them; but now it's a frock-coat instead of +a jacket.' + +'But now he will be a master instead of a schoolboy,' said Aminta. 'Let +us hope he will prosper.' + +'He gives me the idea of a man who must succeed,' Selina said; and she +was patted, rallied, asked how she had the idea, and kissed; Aminta +saying she fancied it might be thought, for he looked so confident. + +'Only not what the boys used to call "cocky,"' said Selina. 'He won't be +contemptuous of those he outstrips.' + +'His choice of the schoolmaster's profession points to a modesty in him, +does it not, little woman?' + +'He made me tell him, while you were writing your letters yesterday, all +about my brother and his prospects.' + +'Yes, that is like him. And I must hear of your brother, "little +Collett." Don't forget, Sely, little Collett was our postman.' + +The Countess of Ormont's humorous reference to the circumstance passed +with Selina for a sign of a poetic love of the past, and a present +social elevation that allowed her to review it impassively. She admired +the great lady and good friend who could really be interested in +the fortunes of a mere schoolmaster and a merchant's clerk. To her +astonishment, by some agency beyond her fathoming, she found herself, +and hardly for her own pleasure, pushing the young schoolmaster +animatedly to have an account of his aims in the establishment of the +foreign school. + +Weyburn smiled. He set a short look at Aminta; and she, conscious of her +detected diplomacy, had an inward shiver, mixed of the fascination +and repugnance felt by a woman who knows that under one man's eyes her +character is naked and anatomized. Her character?--her soul. He held it +in hand and probed it mercifully. She had felt the sweet sting again and +again, and had shrunk from him, and had crawled to him. The love of him +made it all fascination. How did he learn to read at any moment right to +the soul of a woman? Did experience teach him, or sentimental sympathy? +He was too young, he was too manly. It must be because of his being in +heart and mind the brother to the sister with women. + +Thames played round them on his pastoral pipes. Bee-note and woodside +blackbird and meadow cow, and the fish of the silver rolling rings, +composed the leap of the music. + +She gave her mind to his voice, following whither it went; half was in +air, higher than the swallow's, exalting him. + +How is it he is the brother of women? They are sisters for him because +he is neither sentimentalist nor devourer. He will not flatter to feed +on them. The one he chooses, she will know love. There are women who go +through life not knowing love. They are inanimate automatic machines, +who lay them down at last, inquiring wherefore they were caused to move. +She is not of that sad flock. She will be mated; she will have the right +to call him Matey. A certain Browny called him Matey. She lived and +died. A certain woman apes Browny's features and inherits her passion, +but has forfeited her rights. Were she, under happiest conditions, +to put her hand in his, shame would burn her. For he is just--he is +Justice; and a woman bringing him less than his due, she must be a +creature of the slime! + +This was the shadowy sentiment that made the wall of division between +them. There was no other. Lord Ormont had struck to fragments that +barrier of the conventional oath and ceremonial union. He was unjust--he +was Injustice. The weak may be wedded, they cannot be married; to +Injustice. And if we have the world for the buttress of injustice, then +is Nature the flaring rebel; there is no fixed order possible. Laws +are necessary instruments of the majority; but when they grind the sane +human being to dust for their maintenance, their enthronement is the +rule of the savage's old deity, sniffing blood-sacrifice. There cannot +be a based society upon such conditions. An immolation of the naturally +constituted individual arrests the general expansion to which we step, +decivilizes more, and is more impious to the God in man, than temporary +revelries of a licence that Nature soon checks. + +Arrows of thoughts resembling these shot over the half of Aminta's mind +not listening. Her lover's head was active on the same theme while he +spoke. They converged to it from looks crossing or catching profiles, or +from tones, from a motion of hand, from a chance word. Insomuch that +the third person present was kept unobservant only by her studious and +humble speculations on the young schoolmaster's grand project to bring +the nationalities together, and teach Old England to the Continent--the +Continent to Old England: our healthy games, our scorn of the lie, +manliness; their intellectual valour, diligence, considerate manners. + +'Just to name a few of the things for interchange,' said Weyburn. 'As to +method, we shall be their disciples. But I look forward to our fellows +getting the lead. No hurry. Why will they? you ask in petto. Well, they +'re emulous, and they take a thrashing kindly. That 's the way to learn +a lesson. I 've seen our fellows beaten and beaten--never the courage +beaten out of them. In the end, they won and kept the field. They have a +lot to learn--principally not to be afraid of ideas. They lose heaps +of time before they can feel at home with ideas. They call themselves +practical for having an addiction to the palpable. It is a pretty wreath +they clap on their deficiencies. Practical dogs are for bones, horses +for corn. I want the practical Englishman to settle his muzzle in a +nosebag of ideas. When he has once got hold of them, he makes good stuff +of them. On the Continent ideas have wings and pay visits. Here, they're +stay-at-home. Then I want our fellows to have the habit of speaking from +the chest. They shall return to England with the whoop of the mountains +in them and ready to jump out. They shall have an Achillean roar; and +they shall sing by second nature. Don't fear: they'll give double for +anything they take. I've known Italians, to whom an Englishman's honesty +of mind and dealing was one of the dreams of a better humanity they +had put in a box. Frenchmen, too, who, when they came to know us, were +astonished at their epithet of perfide, and loved us.' + +'Emile,' said Aminta. 'You remember Emile, Selina: the dear little +French boy at Mr. Cuper's?' + +'Oh, I do,' Selina responded. + +'He will work with Mr. Weyburn in Switzerland.' + +'Oh, that will be nice!' the girl exclaimed. + +Aminta squeezed Selina's hand. A shower of tears clouded her eyes. She +chose to fancy it was because of her envy of the modest, busy, peaceful +girl, who envied none. Conquers also sincerity in the sincerest. She was +vexed with her full breast, and had as little command of her thoughts as +of her feelings. + +'Mr. Weyburn has ideas for the education of girls too,' she said. + +'There's the task,' said he. 'It's to separate them as little as +possible. All the--passez-moi le mot--devilry between the sexes begins +at their separation. They 're foreigners when they meet; and their +alliances are not always binding. The chief object in life, if happiness +be the aim, and the growing better than we are, is to teach men and +women how to be one; for, if they 're not, then each is a morsel for +the other to prey on. Lady Charlotte Eglett's view is, that the greater +number of them on both sides hate one another.' + +'Hate!' exclaimed Selina; and Aminta said: 'Is Lady Charlotte Eglett an +authority?' + +'She has observed, and she thinks. She has in the abstract the justest +of minds: and that is the curious point about her. But one may say they +are trained at present to be hostile. Some of them fall in love and +strike a truce, and still they are foreigners. They have not the same +standard of honour. They might have it from an education in common.' + +'But there must be also a lady to govern the girls?' Selina interposed. + +'Ah, yes; she is not yet found!' + +'Would it increase their mutual respect?--or show of respect, if you +like?' said Aminta, with his last remark at work as the shattering bell +of a city's insurrection in her breast. + +'In time, under management; catching and grouping them young. A boy who +sees a girl do what he can't, and would like to do, won't take refuge in +his muscular superiority--which, by the way, would be lessened.' + +'You suppose their capacities are equal?' + +'Things are not equal. I suppose their excellencies to make a pretty +nearly equal sum in the end. But we 're not weighing them each. The +question concerns the advantage of both.' + +'That seems just!' + +Aminta threw no voice into the word 'just.' It was the word of the +heavens assuaging earth's thirst, and she was earth to him. Her soul +yearned to the man whose mind conceived it. + +She said to Selina: 'We must plan an expedition next year or the year +after, and see how the school progresses.' + +All three smiled; and Selina touched and held Aminta's hand shyly. +Visions of the unseen Switzerland awed her. + +Weyburn named the Spring holiday time, the season of the flowering +Alpine robes. He promised welcome, pressed for a promise of the visit. +Warmly it was given. 'We will; we will indeed!' + +'I shall look forward,' he said. + +There was nothing else for him or for her, except to doat on the passing +minute that slipped when seized. The looking forward turned them to the +looking back at the point they had flown from, and yielded a momentary +pleasure, enough to stamp some section of a picture on their memories, +which was not the burning now Love lives for, in the clasp, if but of +hands. Desire of it destroyed it. They swung to the future, swung to the +present it made the past, sensible to the quick of the now they could +not hold. They were lovers. Divided lovers in presence, they thought and +they felt in pieces. Feelings and thoughts were forbidden to speech. +She dared look the very little of her heart's fulness, without the +disloyalty it would have been in him to let a small peep of his heart +be seen. While her hand was not clasped she could look tenderly, and her +fettered state, her sense of unworthiness muffled in the deeps, would +keep her from the loosening to passion. + +He who read through her lustrous, transiently dwelling eyes had not that +security. His part, besides the watch over the spring of his hot blood, +was to combat a host, insidious among which was unreason calling her +Browny, urging him to take his own, to snatch her from a possessor who +forfeited by undervaluing her. This was the truth in a better-ordered +world: she belonged to the man who could help her to grow and to do her +work. But in the world we have around us, it was the distorted truth: +and keeping passion down, he was able to wish her such happiness as +pertained to safety from shipwreck, and for himself, that he might +continue to walk in the ranks of the sober citizens. + +Oh, true and right, but she was gloriously beautiful! Day by day she +surpassed the wondrous Browny of old days. All women were eclipsed by +her. She was that fire in the night which lights the night and draws the +night to look at it. And more: this queen of women was beginning to have +a mind at work. One saw already the sprouting of a mind repressed. She +had a distinct ability; the good ambition to use her qualities. She +needed life and air--that is, comprehension of her, encouragement, the +companion mate. With what strength would she now endow him! The pride +in the sharp imagination of possessing her whispered a boast of the +strength her mate would have from her. His need and her need rushed +together somewhere down the skies. They could not, he argued, be +separated eternally. + +He had to leave her. Selina, shocked at a boldness she could not +understand in herself, begged him to stay and tell her of Switzerland +and Alpine flowers and herbs, and the valleys for the gold beetle and +the Apollo butterfly. Aminta hinted that Lord Ormont might expect to +find him there, if he came the next morning; but she would not try to +persuade, and left the decision with him, loving him for the pain he +inflicted by going. + +Why, indeed, should he stay? Both could ask; they were one in asking. +Anguish balanced pleasure in them both. The day of the pleasure was +heaven to remember, heaven to hope for; not so heavenly to pray for. +The praying for it, each knew, implored their joint will to decree the +perilous blessing. A shadowy sentiment of duty and rectitude, born of +what they had suffered, hung between them and the prayer for a renewal, +that would renew the tempting they were conscious of when the sweet, the +strained, throbbing day was over. They could hope for chance to renew +it, and then they would be irresponsible. Then they would think and wish +discreetly, so as to have it a happiness untainted. In refusing now to +take another day or pray for it, they deserved that chance should grant +it. + +Aminta had said through Selina the utmost her self-defences could allow. +But the idea of a final parting cut too cruelly into her life, and she +murmured: 'I shall see you before you go for good?' + +'I will come, here or in London.' + +'I can trust?' + +'Quite certain.' + +A meeting of a few hasty minutes involved none of the dangers of a +sunny, long summer day; and if it did, the heart had its claims, the +heart had its powers of resistance. Otherwise we should be base verily. + +He turned on a bow to leave her before there was a motion for the offer +of her hand. + +After many musings and frettings, she reached the wisdom of that. +Wisdom was her only nourishment now. A cold, lean dietary it is; but +he dispensed it, and it fed her, or kept her alive. It became a proud +feeling that she had been his fellow in the achievement of a piece of +wisdom; though the other feeling, that his hand's kind formal touching, +without pressure of hers, would have warmed her to go through the next +interview with her lord, mocked at pure satisfaction. Did he distrust +himself? Or was it to spare her? But if so, her heart was quite bare to +him! But she knew it was. + +Aminta drove her questioning heart as a vessel across blank circles +of sea, where there was nothing save the solitary heart for answer. It +answered intelligibly and comfortingly at last, telling her of proof +given that she could repose under his guidance with absolute faith. Was +ever loved woman more blest than she in such belief? She had it firmly; +and a blessedness, too, in this surety wavering beneath shadows of the +uncertainty. Her eyes knew it, her ears were empty of the words. Her +heart knew it, and it was unconfirmed by reason. As for his venturing to +love her, he feared none. And no sooner did that reflection surge +than she stood up beside him in revolt against her lion and lord. Her +instinct judged it impossible she could ever have yielded her heart to +a man lacking courage. Hence--what? when cowardice appeared as the sole +impediment to happiness now! + +He had gone, and the day lived again for both of them--a day of sheer +gold in the translation from troubled earth to the mind. One another's +beauty through the visage into the character was newly perceived and +worshipped; and the beauties of pastoral Thames, the temple of peace, +hardly noticed in the passing of the day--taken as air to the breather; +until some chip of the scene, round which an emotion had curled, was +vivid foreground and gateway to shrouded romance: it might be the +stream's white face browning into willow-droopers, or a wagtail on a +water-lily leaf, or the fore-horse of an up-river barge at strain of +legs, a red-finned perch hung a foot above the pebbles in sun-veined +depths, a kingfisher on the scud under alders, the forest of the +bankside weeds. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. PREPARATIONS FOR A RESOLVE + +That day receded like a spent billow, and lapsed among the others +advancing, but it left a print deeper than events would have stamped. +Aminta's pen declined to run to her lord; and the dipping it in ink +was no acceleration of the process. A sentence, bearing likeness to an +artless infant's trot of the half-dozen steps to mother's lap, stumbled +upon the full stop midway. Desperate determination pushed it along, and +there was in consequence a dead stop at the head of the next sentence. +A woman whose nature is insurgent against the majesty of the man to whom +she must, among the singular injunctions binding her, regularly write, +sees no way between hypocrisy and rebellion. For rebellion, she, with +the pen in her hand, is avowedly not yet ripe, hypocrisy is abominable. + +If she abstained from writing, he might travel down to learn the cause; +a similar danger, or worse, haunted the writing frigidly. She had to be +the hypocrite or else--leap. + +But an honest woman who is a feeling woman, when she consents to play +hypocrite, cannot do it by halves. From writing a short cold letter, +Aminta wrote a short warm one, or very friendly. Length she could avoid, +because she was unable to fill a page. It seemed that she could not +compose a friendly few lines without letting her sex be felt in them. +What she had put away from her, so as not to feel it herself, the +simulation of ever so small a bit of feeling brought prominently back; +and where she had made a cast for flowing independent simplicity, she +was feminine, ultra-feminine to her reading of it. + +Better take the leap than be guilty of double-dealing even on paper! The +nature of the leap she did not examine. + +Her keen apprehension of the price payable for his benevolent intentions +caught scent of them in the air. Those Ormont jewels shone as emblems of +a detested subjection, the penalty for being the beautiful woman rageing +men proclaimed. Was there no scheme of some other sort, and far less +agreeable, to make amends for Steignton? She was shrewd at divination; +she guessed her lord's design. Rather than meet Lady Charlotte, she +proposed to herself the 'leap' immediately; knowing it must be a leap +in the dark, hoping it might be into a swimmer's water. She had her own +pin-money income, and she loathed the chain of her title. So the leap +would at least be honourable, as it assuredly would be unregretted, +whatever ensued. + +While Aminta's heart held on to this debate, and in her bed, in her +boat, across the golden valley meadows beside her peaceful little +friend, she gathered a gradual resolution without sight of agencies or +consequences, Lord Ormont was kept from her by the struggle to +master his Charlotte a second time--compared with which the first was +insignificant. And this time it was curious: he could not subdue her +physique, as he did before; she was ready for him each day, and she was +animated, much more voluble, she was ready to jest. The reason being, +that she fought now on plausibly good grounds: on behalf of her +independent action. + +Previously, her intelligence of the ultimate defeat hanging over the +more stubborn defence of a weak position had harassed her to death's +door. She had no right to retain the family jewels; she had the most +perfect of established rights to refuse doing an ignominious thing. She +refused to visit the so-called Countess of Ormont, or leave her card, +or take one step to warrant the woman in speaking of her as her +sister-in-law. And no,--it did not signify that her brother Rowsley was +prohibited by her from marrying whom he pleased. It meant, that to judge +of his acts as those of a reasoning man, he would have introduced +his wife to his relatives--the relatives he had not quarrelled +with--immediately upon his marriage unless he was ashamed of the woman; +and a wife he was ashamed of was no sister-in-law for her nor aunt for +her daughters. Nor should she come playing the Black Venus among +her daughters' husbands, Lady Charlotte had it in her bosom to say +additionally. + +Lord Ormont was disconcerted by her manifest pleasure in receiving him +every day. Evidently she consented to the recurrence of a vexatious +dissension for the enjoyment of having him with her hourly. Her +dialectic, too, was cunning. Impetuous with meaning, she forced her +way to get her meaning out, in a manner effective to strike her blow. +Anything for a diversion or a triumph of the moment! He made no way. She +was the better fencer at the tongue. + +Yet there was not any abatement of her deference to her brother; and +this little misunderstanding put aside, he was the Rowsley esteemed by +her as the chief of men. She foiled him, it might seem, to exalt him +the more. After he had left the house, visibly annoyed and somewhat +stupefied, she talked of him to her husband, of the soul of chivalry +Rowsley was, the loss to his country. Mr. Eglett was a witness to one of +the altercations, when she, having as usual the dialectical advantage, +praised her brother, to his face, for his magnanimous nature; regretting +only that it could be said he was weak on the woman side of him--which +was, she affirmed, a side proper to every man worth the name; but in his +case his country might complain. Of what?--Well, of a woman.--What +had she done, for the country to complain of her?--Why, then, arts +or graces, she had bewitched and weaned him from his public duty, his +military service, his patriotic ambition. + +Lord Ormont's interrogations, heightening the effect of Charlotte's +charge, appeared to Mr. Eglett as a giving of himself over into her +hands; but the earl, after a minute of silence, proved he was a tricky +combatant. It was he who had drawn on Charlotte, that he might have +his opportunity to eulogize--'this lady, whom you continue to call the +woman, after I have told you she is my wife.' According to him, her +appeals, her entreaties, that he should not abandon his profession or +let his ambition rust, had been at one period constant. + +He spoke fervently, for him eloquently; and he gained his point; he +silenced Lady Charlotte's tongue, and impressed Mr. Eglett. + +When the latter and his wife were alone, he let her see that the +Countess of Ormont was becoming a personage in his consideration. + +Lady Charlotte cried out: 'Hear these men where it's a good-looking +woman between the winds! Do you take anything Rowsley says for earnest? +You ought to know he stops at no trifle to get his advantage over you in +a dispute. That 's the soldier in him. It 's victory at any cost!--and I +like him for it. Do you tell me you think it possible my brother Rowsley +would keep smothered years under a bushel the woman he can sit here +magnifying because he wants to lime you and me: you to take his part, +and me to go and call the noble creature decked out in his fine fiction +my sister-in-law. Nothing 'll tempt me to believe my brother could +behave in such a way to the woman he respected!' + +So Mr. Eglett opined. But he had been impressed. + +He relieved his mind on the subject in a communication to Lord +Adderwood; who habitually shook out the contents of his to Mrs. Lawrence +Finchley, and she, deeming it good for Aminta to have information of +the war waging for her behoof, obtained her country address, with the +resolve to drive down, a bearer of good news to the dear woman she liked +to think of, look at, and occasionally caress; besides rather tenderly +pitying her, now that a change of fortune rendered her former trials +conspicuous. + +An incident, considered grave even in the days of the duel and the kicks +against a swelling public reprehension of the practice, occurred to +postpone her drive for four-and-twenty hours. London was shaken by +rumours of a tragic mishap to a socially well-known gentleman at the +Chiallo fencing rooms. The rumours passing from mouth to mouth acquired, +in the nature of them, sinister colours as they circulated. Lord +Ormont sent Aminta word of what he called 'a bad sort of accident at +Chiallo's,' without mentioning names or alluding to suspicions. + +He treated it lightly. He could not have written of it with such +unconcern if it involved the secretary! Yet Aminta did seriously ask +herself whether he could; and she flew rapidly over the field of +his character, seizing points adverse, points favourably advocative, +balancing dubiously--most unjustly: she felt she was unjust. But in her +condition, the heart of a woman is instantly planted in jungle when the +spirits of the two men closest to her are made to stand opposed by +a sudden excitement of her fears for the beloved one. She cannot see +widely, and is one of the wild while the fit lasts; and, after it, that +savage narrow vision she had of the unbeloved retains its vivid print +in permanence. Was she unjust? Aminta cited corroboration of her being +accurate: such was Lord Ormont! and although his qualities of gallantry, +courtesy, integrity, honourable gentleman, presented a fair low-level +account on the other side, she had so stamped his massive selfishness +and icy inaccessibility to emotion on her conception of him that the +repulsive figure formed by it continued towering when her mood was +kinder. + +Love played on love in the woman's breast. Her love had taken a fever +from her lord's communication of the accident at Chiallo's, and she +pushed her alarm to imagine the deadliest, and plead for the right of +confession to herself of her unrepented regrets. She and Matey Weyburn +had parted without any pressure of hands, without a touch. They were, +then, unplighted if now the grave divided them! No touch: mere glances! +And she sighed not, as she pleaded, for the touch, but for the plighting +it would have been. If now she had lost him, he could never tell herself +that since the dear old buried and night-walking schooldays she had said +once Matey to him, named him once to his face Matey Weyburn. A sigh like +the roll of a great wave breaking against a wall of rock came from her +for the possibly lost chance of naming him to his face Matey,--oh, and +seeing his look as she said it! + +The boldness might be fancied: it could not be done. Agreeing with +the remote inner voice of her reason so far, she toned her exclamatory +foolishness to question, in Reason's plain, deep, basso-profundo +accompaniment tone, how much the most blessed of mortal women could do +to be of acceptable service to a young schoolmaster? + +There was no reply to the question. But it became a nestling centre for +the skiey flock of dreams, and for really temperate soundings of her +capacities, tending to the depreciatory. She could do little. She +entertained the wish to work, not only 'for the sake of Somebody,' +as her favourite poet sang, but for the sake of working and +serving--proving that she was helpfuller than a Countess of Ormont, +ranged with all the other countesses in china and Dresden on a +drawing-room mantelpiece for show. She could organize, manage a +household, manage people too, she thought: manage a husband? The word +offends. Perhaps invigorate him, here and there perhaps inspire him, +if he would let her breathe. Husbands exist who refuse the right of +breathing to their puppet wives. Above all, as it struck her, she could +assist, and be more than an echo of one nobler, in breathing manliness, +high spirit, into boys. With that idea she grazed the shallows of +reality, and her dreams whirred from the nest and left it hungrily +empty. + +Selina Collett was writing under the verandah letters to her people in +Suffolk, performing the task with marvellous ease. Aminta noted it as +a mark of superior ability, and she had the envy of the complex nature +observing the simple. It accused her of some guiltiness, uncommitted +and indefensible. She had pushed her anxiety about 'the accident +at Chiallo's' to an extreme that made her the creature of her +sensibilities. In the midst of this quiet country life and landscape; +these motionless garden flowers headed by the smooth white river, and +her gentle little friend so homely here, the contemplation of herself +was like a shriek in music. Worse than discordant, she pronounced +herself inferior, unfit mentally as well as bodily for the dreams of +companionship with any noble soul who might have the dream of turning +her into something better. There are couples in the world, not coupled +by priestly circumstance, who are close to the true; union, by reason of +generosity on the one part, grateful devotion, as for the gift of life, +on the other. For instance, Mrs. Lawrence Finchley and Lord Adderwood, +which was an instance without resemblance; but Aminta's heart beat thick +for what it wanted, and they were the instance of two that did not +have to snap false bonds of a marriage-tie in order to walk together +composedly outside it--in honour? Oh yes, yes! She insisted on believing +it was in honour. + +She saw the couple issue from the boathouse. She had stepped into the +garden full of a presentiment; so she fancied, the moment they were +seen. She had, in fact, heard a noise in the boathouse while thinking +of them, and the effect on her was to spring an idea of mysterious +interventions at the sight. + +Mrs. Lawrence rushed to her, and was embraced. 'You 're not astonished +to see me? Adder drove me down, and stopped his coach at the inn, and +rowed me the half-mile up. We will lunch, if you propose; but presently. +My dear, I have to tell you things. You have heard?' + +'The accident?' + +Aminta tried to read in Mrs. Lawrence's eyes whether it closely +concerned her. + +Those pretty eyes, their cut of lids hinting at delicate affinities +with the rice-paper lady of the court of China, were trying to peer +seriously. + +'Poor man! One must be sorry for him: he--' + +'Who?' + +'You 've not heard, then?' Mrs. Lawrence dropped her voice: 'Morsfield.' + +Aminta shivered. 'All I have heard-half a line from my lord this +morning: no name. It was at the fencing-rooms, he said.' + +'Yes, he wouldn't write more;' said Mrs. Lawrence, nodding. 'You know, +he would have had to do it himself if it had not been done for him. +Adder saw him some days back in a brown consultation near his club with +Captain May. Oh, but of course it was accident! Did he call it so in his +letter to you?' + +'One word of Mr. Morsfield: he is wounded?' + +'Past cure: he has the thing he cried for, spoilt boy as he was from his +birth. I tell you truth, m' Aminta, I grieve to lose him. What with his +airs of the foreign-tinted, punctilious courtly gentleman covering a +survival of the ancient British forest boar or bear, he was a picture +in our modern set, and piquant. And he was devoted to our sex, we must +admit, after the style of the bears. They are for honey, and they have a +hug. If he hadn't been so much of a madman, I should have liked him for +his courage. He had plenty of that, nothing to steer it. A second cousin +comes in for his estates.' + +'He is dead?' Aminta cried. + +'Yes, dear, he is gone. What the women think of it I can't say. The +general feeling among the men is that some one of them would have had to +send him sooner or later. The curious point, Adder says, is his letting +it be done by steel. He was a dead shot, dangerous with the small sword, +as your Mr. Weyburn said, only soon off his head. But I used to be +anxious about the earl's meeting him with pistols. He did his best to +provoke it. Here, Adder,'--she spoke over her shoulder,--'tell Lady +Ormont all you know of the Morsfield-May affair.' + +Lord Adderwood bowed compliance. His coolness was the masculine of Mrs. +Lawrence's hardly feminine in treating of a terrible matter, so that +the dull red facts had to be disengaged from his manner of speech before +they sank into Aminta's acceptance; of them as credible. + +'They fought with foils, buttons off, preliminary ceremonies perfect; +salute in due order; guard, and at it. + +Odd thing was, nobody at Chiallo's had a notion of the business till +Morsfield was pinked. He wouldn't be denied; went to work like a fellow +meaning to be skewered, if he couldn't do the trick: and he tried it. +May had been practising some weeks. He's well on the Continent by this +time. It'll blow over. Button off sheer accident. I wasn't lucky enough +to see the encounter: came in just when Chiallo was lashing his poll +over Morsfield flat on the ground. He had it up to the hilt. We put a +buttoned foil by the side of Morsfield, and all swore to secrecy. As +it is, it 'll go badly against poor Chiallo. Taste for fencing won't be +much improved by the affair. They quarrelled in the dressing room, and +fetched the foils and knocked off the buttons there. A big rascal +toady squire of Morsfield's did it for him. Morsfield was just up from +Yorkshire. He said he was expecting a summons elsewhere, bound to +await it, declined provocation for the present. May filliped him on the +cheek.' + +'Adder conveyed the information of her husband's flight to the +consolable Amy,' said Mrs. Lawrence. + +'He had to catch the coach for Dover,' Adderwood explained. 'His wife +was at a dinner-party. I saw her at midnight.' + +'Fair Amy was not so very greatly surprised?' + +'Quite the soldier's wife!' + +'She said she was used to these little catastrophes. But, Adder, what +did she say of her husband?' + +'Said she was never anxious about him, for nothing would kill him.' + +Mrs. Lawrence shook a doleful head at Aminta. + +'You see, my dear Aminta, here's another, and probably her last, chance +of sharing the marquisate gone. Who can fail to pity her, except old +Time! And I 'm sure she likes her husband well enough. She ought: no +woman ever had such a servant. But the captain has not been known to +fight without her sanction, and the inference is--'Alas! woe! Fair Amy +is doomed to be the fighting captain's bride to the end of the chapter. +Adder says she looked handsome. A dinner-party suits her cosmetic +complexion better than a ball. The account of the inquest is in the +day's papers, and we were tolerably rejoiced we could drive out of +London without having to reply to coroner's questions.' + +'He died-soon?' Aminta's voice was shaken. + +Mrs. Lawrence touched at her breast, it might be for heart or lungs. +Judging by Aminta's voice and face, one could suppose she was harking +back, in woman's way, to her original sentiment for the man, now that he +lay prostrate. + +Aminta read the unreproachful irony in the smile addressed to her. She +was too convulsed by her many emotions and shouting thoughts to think of +defending herself. + +Selina, in the drawing-room, diligently fingered and classed brown-black +pressed weeds of her neophyte's botany-folios. The sight of her and her +occupation struck Aminta as that of a person in another world beyond +this world of blood, strangely substantial to view; and one heard her +speak. + +Guilty?--no. But she had wished to pique her lord. After the term of a +length of months, could it be that the unhappy man and she were punished +for the half-minute's acting of some interest in him? And Lord Ormont +had been seen consulting Captain May; or was it giving him directions? + +Her head burned. All the barren interrogations were up, running and +knocking for hollow responses; and, saving a paleness of face, she +cloaked any small show of the riot. She was an amiable hostess. She had +ceased to comprehend Mrs. Lawrence, even to the degree of thinking her +unfeminine. She should have known that the 'angelical chimpanzee,' as +a friend, once told of his being a favourite with the lady, had called +her, could not simulate a feeling, and had not the slightest power of +pretence to compassion for an ill-fated person who failed to quicken her +enthusiasm. In that, too, she was a downright boy. Morsfield was a +kind of Bedlamite to her; amusing in his antics, and requiring to be +manoeuvred and eluded while he lived: once dead, just a tombstone, of +interest only to his family. + +She beckoned Aminta to follow her; and, with a smirk of indulgent fun, +commended Lord Adderwood to a study of Selina Collett's botany-folios, +which the urbanest of indifferent gentlemen had slid his eyes over his +nose to inspect before the lunch. + +'You ought to know what is going on in town, my dear Aminta. You have +won the earl to a sense of his duty, and he 's at work on the harder +task of winning Lady Charlotte Eglett to a sense of hers. It 's +tremendous. Has been forward some days, and no sign of yielding on +either side. Mr. Eglett, good man, is between them, catching it right +and left; and he deserves his luck for marrying her. Vows she makes him +the best of wives. If he 's content, I 've nothing to complain of. You +must be ready to receive her; my lord is sure to carry the day. +You gulp. You won't be seeing much of her. I 'm glad to say he is +condescending to terms of peace with the Horse Guards. We hear so. You +may be throning it officially somewhere next year. And all 's well that +ends well! Say that to me!' + +'It is, when the end comes,' Aminta replied. + +Mrs. Lawrence's cool lips were pressed to her cheek. The couple +and their waterman rowed away to the party they had left with the +four-in-hand at their inn. + +A wind was rising. The trees gave their swish of leaves, the river +darkened the patch of wrinkles, the bordering flags amid the reed-blades +dipped and streamed. + +Surcharged with unassimilated news of events, that made a thunder in her +head, Aminta walked down the garden path, meeting Selina and bearing +her on. She had a witch's will to rouse gales. Hers was not the woman's +nature to be driven cowering by stories of men's bloody deeds. She took +the field, revolted, dissevering herself from the class which tolerated +them--actuated by a reflective moralty, she believed; and loathed +herself for having aspired, schemed, to be a member of the class. But +it was not the class, it was against her lord as representative of the +class, that she was now the rebel, neither naming him nor imaging +him. Her enveloping mind was black on him. Such as one of those hard +slaughtering men could call her his own? She breathed short and breathed +deep. Her bitter reason had but the common pity for a madman despatched +to his rest. Yet she knew hatred of her lord in his being suspected as +instigator or accomplice of the hand that dealt the blow. He became to +her thought a python whose coils were about her person, insufferable to +the gaze backward. + +Moments like these are the mothers in travail of a resolve joylessly +conceived, undesired to clasp, Necessity's offspring. Thunderclouds have +as little love of the lightnings they fling. + +Aminta was aware only of her torment. The trees were bending, the water +hissing, the grasses all this way and that, like hands of a delirious +people in surges of wreck. She scorned the meaningless shake of the +garments of earth, and exclaimed: 'If we were by the sea to-night!' + +'I shall be to-morrow night,' said Selina. 'I shall think of you. Oh! +would you come with me?' + +'Would you have me?' + +'My mother will indeed be honoured by your consenting to come.' + +'Write to her before the post is out.' + +'We shall travel down together?' + +Aminta nodded and smiled, and Selina kissed her hand in joy, saying, +that down home she would not be so shy of calling her Aminta. She was +bidden to haste. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. VISITS OF FAREWELL + +The noise in London over Adolphus Morsfield's tragical end disturbed +Lord Ormont much less than the cessation of letters from his Aminta; +and that likewise, considering his present business on her behalf, he +patiently shrugged at and pardoned, foreseeing her penitent air. +He could do it lightly after going some way to pardon his offending +country. For Aminta had not offended, his robust observation of her was +moved to the kindly humorous by a reflective view here and there of the +downright woman her clever little shuffles exposed her to be, not worse. +It was her sex that made her one of the gliders in grasses, some of +whom are venomous; but she belonged to the order only as an innocuous +blindworm. He could pronounce her small by-play with Morsfield innocent, +her efforts to climb the stairs into Society quite innocent; judging +her, of course, by her title of woman. A woman's innocence has a rainbow +skin. Set this one beside other women, she comes out well, fairly well, +well enough. + +Now that the engagement with Charlotte assumed proportions of a +series of battle, properly to be entitled a campaign, he had, in his +loneliness, fallen into the habit of reflecting at the close of his +day's work; and the rubbing of that unused opaque mirror hanging +inside a man of action had helped him piecemeal to perceive bits of +his conduct, entirely approved by him, which were intimately connected, +nevertheless, with a train of circumstances that he disliked and could +not charge justly upon any other shoulders than his own. What was to +be thought of it? He would not be undergoing this botheration of the +prolonged attempt to bring a stubborn woman to a sense of her duty, if +he had declared his marriage in the ordinary style, and given his young +countess her legitimate place before the world. What impeded it? The +shameful ingratitude of his countrymen to the soldier who did it eminent +service at a crisis of the destinies of our Indian Empire! He could not +condone the injury done to him by entering among them again. Too like +the kicked cur, that! He retired--call it 'sulked in his tent,' if +you like. His wife had to share his fortunes. He being slighted, she +necessarily was shadowed. For a while she bore it contentedly enough; +then began her mousy scratches to get into the room off the wainscot, +without blame from him; she behaved according to her female nature. + +Yes, but the battles with Charlotte forced on his recognition once +more, and violently, the singular consequences of his retirement and +Coriolanus quarrel with his countrymen. He had doomed himself ever since +to a contest with women. First it was his Queen of Amazons, who, if +vanquished, was not so easily vanquished, and, in fact, doubtfully,--for +now, to propitiate her, he had challenged, and must overcome or be +disgraced, the toughest Amazonian warrior man could stand against at +cast of dart or lock of arms. No day scored an advantage; and she did +not apparently suffer fatigue. He did: that is to say, he was worried +and hurried to have the wrangle settled and Charlotte at Aminta's feet. +He gained not an inch of ground. His principle in a contention of the +sort was to leave the woman to the practice of her obvious artifices, +and himself simply hammer, incessantly hammer. But Charlotte hammered +as well. The modest position of the defensive negative was not to +her taste. The moment he presented himself she flew out upon some +yesterday's part of the argument and carried the war across the borders, +in attacks on his character and qualities--his weakness regarding women, +his incapacity to forgive, and the rest. She hammered on that head. As +for any prospect of a termination of the strife, he could see none in +her joyful welcome to him and regretful parting and pleased appointment +of the next meeting day after day. + +The absurdest of her devices for winding him off his aim was to harp on +some new word she had got hold of as, for example, to point out to him +his aptitudes, compliment him on his aptitudes, recommend him to study +and learn the limitations of his aptitudes! She revelled in something +the word unfolded to her. + +However, here was the point: she had to be beaten. So, if she, too, +persisted in hammering, he must employ her female weapon of artifice +with her. One would gladly avoid the stooping to it in a civil dispute, +in which one is not so gloriously absolved for lying and entrapping as +in splendid war. + +Weyburn's name was announced to him at an early hour on Thursday +morning. My lord nodded to the footman; he nodded to himself over a +suggestion started in a tactical intelligence by the name. + +'Ah! you 're off?' he accosted the young man. + +'I have come to take my leave, my lord.' + +'Nothing new in the morning papers?' + +'A report that Captain May intends to return and surrender.' + +'Not before a month has passed, if he follows my counsel.' + +'To defend his character.' + +'He has none.' + +'His reputation.' + +'He has too much.' + +'These charges against him must be intolerable.' + +'Was he not a bit of a pupil of yours?' + +'We practised two or three times-nothing more.' + +'Morsfield was a wasp at a feast. Somebody had to crush him. I 've seen +the kind of man twice in my life and exactly the kind of man. If their +law puts down duelling, he rules the kingdom!' + +'My lord, I should venture to say the kind of man can be a common +annoyance because the breach of the law is countenanced.' + +'Bad laws are best broken. A society that can't get a scouring now and +then will be a dirty set.' + +With a bend of the head, in apology for speaking of himself, Weyburn +said: 'I have acted on my view. I declined a challenge from a sort of +henchman of his.' + +'Oh! a poacher's lurcher? You did right. Fight such fellows with +constables. You have seen Lady Charlotte?' + +'I am on my way to her ladyship.' + +'Do me this favour. Fourteen doors up the street of her residence, my +physician lives. I have to consult him at once. Dr. Rewkes.' + +Weyburn bowed. Lady Charlotte could not receive him later than half-past +ten of the morning, he said. 'This morning she can,' said my lord. 'You +will tell Dr. Rewkes that it is immediate. I rather regret your going. +I shall be in a controversy with the Horse Guards about our cavalry +saddles. It would be regiments of raw backs the first fortnight of a +campaign.' + +The earl discoursed on saddles; and passed to high eulogy of our +Hanoverian auxiliary troopers in the Peninsula; 'good husbands,' he +named them quaintly, speaking of their management of their beasts. +Thence he diverged to Frederic's cavalry, rarely matched for shrewdness +and endurance; to the deeds of the Liechtenstein Hussars; to the great +things Blucher did with his horsemen. + +The subject was interesting; but Weyburn saw the clock at past the half +after ten. He gave a slight sign of restiveness, and was allowed to go +when the earl had finished his pro and con upon Arab horses and Mameluke +saddles. Lord Ormont nicked his head, just as at their first interview: +he was known to have an objection to the English shaking of hands. +'Good-morning,' he said; adding a remark or two, of which et cetera +may stand for an explicit rendering. It concerned the young man's +prosperity: my lord's conservative plain sense was in doubt of the +prospering of a giddy pate, however good a worker. His last look at +the young man, who had not served him badly, held an anticipation +of possibly some day seeing a tatterdemalion of shipwreck, a rueful +exhibition of ideas put to the business of life. + +Weyburn left the message with Dr. Rewkes in person. It had not seemed +to him that Lord Ormont was one requiring the immediate attendance of +a physician. By way of accounting to Lady Charlotte for the lateness of +his call, he mentioned the summons he had delivered. + +'Oh, that's why he hasn't come yet,' said she. 'We'll sit and talk till +he does come. I don't wonder if his bile has been stirred. He can't oil +me to credit what he pumps into others. His Lady Ormont! I believe in it +less than ever I did. Morsfield or no Morsfield--and now the poor +wretch has got himself pinned to the plank, like my grandson Bobby's +dragonflies, I don't want to say anything further of him--she doesn't +have much of a welcome at Steignton! If I were a woman to wager as men +do, I 'd stake a thousand pounds to five on her never stepping across +the threshold of Steignton. All very well in London, and that place he +hires up at Marlow. He respects our home. That 's how I know my brother +Rowsley still keeps a sane man. A fortune on it!--and so says Mr. +Eglett. Any reasonable person must think it. He made a fool of some +Hampton-Evey at Madrid, if he went through any ceremony--and that I +doubt. But she and old (what do they call her?) may have insisted upon +the title, as much as they could. He sixty; she under twenty, I'm told. +Pagnell 's the name. That aunt of a good-looking young woman sees a +noble man of sixty admiring her five feet seven or so--she's tall--of +marketable merchandise, and she doesn't need telling that at sixty he'll +give the world to possess the girl. But not his family honour! He stops +at that. Why? Lord Ormont 's made of pride! He'll be kind to her, he'll +be generous, he won't forsake her; she'll have her portion in his will, +and by the course of things in nature, she'll outlive him and marry, and +be happy, I hope. Only she won't enter Steignton. You remember what I +say. You 'll live when I 'm gone. It 's the thirst of her life to be +mistress of Steignton. Not she!--though Lord Ormont would have us all +open our doors to her; mine too, now he 's about it. He sets his mind on +his plan, and he forgets rights and dues--everything; he must have it as +his will dictates. That 's how he made such a capital soldier. You know +the cavalry leader he was. If they'd given him a field in Europe! His +enemies admit that. Twelve! and my clock's five minutes or more slow. +What can Rowsley be doing?' + +She rattled backward on the scene at Steignton, and her brother's +handsome preservation of his dignity 'stood it like the king he is!' and +to the Morsfield-May encounter, which had prevented another; and Mrs. +May was rolled along in the tide, with a hint of her good reason for +liking Lord Ormont; also the change of opinion shown by the Press as to +Lord Ormont's grand exploit. Referring to it, she flushed and jigged on +her chair for a saddle beneath her. And that glorious Indian adventure +warmed her to the man who had celebrated it among his comrades when a +boy at school. + +'You 're to teach Latin and Greek, you said. For you 're right: we +English can't understand the words we 're speaking, if we don't know a +good deal of Latin and some Greek. "Conversing in tokens, not standard +coin," you said, I remember; and there'll be a "general rabble tongue," +unless we English are drilled in the languages we filched from. Lots of +lords and ladies want the drilling, then! I'll send some over to you +for Swiss air and roots of the English tongue. Oh, and you told me you +supported Lord Ormont on his pet argument for corps d'elite; and you +quoted Virgil to back it. Let me have that line again--in case of his +condescending to write to the papers on the subject.' + +Weyburn repeated the half-line. + +'Good: I won't forget now. And you said the French act on that because +they follow human nature, and the English don't. We "bully it," you +said. That was on our drive down to Steignton. I hope you 'll succeed. +You 'll be visiting England. Call on me in London or at Olmer--only mind +and give me warning. I shall be glad to see you. I 've got some ideas +from you. If I meet a man who helps me to read the world and men as they +are, I 'm grateful to him; and most people are not, you 'll find. They +want you to show them what they 'd like the world to be. We don't agree +about a lady. You 're in the lists, lance in rest, all for chivalry. You +'re a man, and a young man. Have you taken your leave of her yet? She'll +expect it, as a proper compliment.' + +'I propose running down to take my leave of Lady Ormont to-morrow,' +replied Weyburn. + +'She is handsome?' + +She is very handsome.' + +'Beautiful, do you mean?' + +'Oh, my lady, it would only be a man's notion!' + +'Now, that 's as good an answer as could be made! You 're sure to +succeed. I 'm not the woman's enemy. But let her keep her place. Why, +Rowsley can't be coming to-day! Did Lord Ormont look ill?' + +'It did not strike me so.' + +'He 's between two fires. A man gets fretted. But I shan't move a step. +I dare say she won't. Especially with that Morsfield out of the way. You +do mean you think her a beauty. Well, then, there'll soon be a successor +to Morsfield. Beauties will have their weapons, and they can hit on +plenty; and it 's nothing to me, as long as I save my brother from their +arts.' + +Weyburn felt he had done his penance in return for kindness. He bowed +and rose, Lady Charlotte stretched out her hand. + +'We shall be sending you a pupil some day,' she said, and smiled. + +'Forward your address as soon as you 're settled.' Her face gave a +glimpse of its youth in a cordial farewell smile. + +Lord Ormont had no capacity to do the like, although they were strictly +brother and sister in appearance. The smallest difference in character +rendered her complex and kept him simple. She had a thirsting mind. + +Weyburn fancied that a close intimacy of a few months would have enabled +him to lift her out of her smirching and depraving mean jealousies. He +speculated, as he trod the street, on little plots and surprises, which +would bring Lady Charlotte and Lady Ormont into presence, and end by +making friends of them. Supposing that could be done, Lady Ormont might +be righted by the intervention of Lady Charlotte after all. + +Weyburn sent his dream flying with as dreamy an after-thought: 'Funny +it will be then for Lady Charlotte to revert to the stuff she has been +droning in my ear half an hour ago!--Look well behind, and we see spots +where we buzzed, lowed, bit and tore; and not until we have cast that +look and seen the brute are we human creatures.' + +A crumb of reflection such as this could brace him, adding its modest +maravedi to his prized storehouse of gain, fortifying with assurances of +his having a concrete basis for his business in life. His great youthful +ambition had descended to it, but had sunk to climb on a firmer footing. + +Arthur Abner had his next adieu. They talked of Lady Ormont, as to whose +position of rightful Countess of Ormont Mr. Abner had no doubt. He said +of Lady Charlotte: 'She has a clear head; but she loves her "brother +Rowsley" excessively; and any excess pushes to craziness.' + +He spoke to Weyburn of his prospects in the usually, perhaps +necessarily, cheerless tone of men who recognize by contrast the one +mouse's nibbling at a mountain of evil. 'To harmonize the nationalities, +my dear boy! teach Christians to look fraternally on Jews! David was a +harper, but the setting of him down to roll off a fugue on one of +your cathedral organs would not impose a heavier task than you are +undertaking. You have my best wishes, whatever aid I can supply. But we +'re nearer to King John's time than to your ideal, as far as the Jews +go.' + +'Not in England.' + +'Less in England,' Abner shrugged. + +'You have beaten the Christians on the field they challenged you to +enter for a try. They feel the pinch in their interests and their +vanity. That will pass. I 'm for the two sides, under the name of +Justice; and I give the palm to whichever of the two first gets hold of +the idea of Justice. My old schoolmate's well?' + +'Always asking after Matey Weyburn!' + +'He shall have my address in Switzerland. You and I will be +corresponding.' + +Now rose to view the visit to the lady who was Lady Ormont on the +tongue, Aminta at heart; never to be named Aminta even to himself. His +heart broke loose at a thought of it. + +He might say Browny. For that was not serious with the intense +present signification the name Aminta had. Browny was queen of the old +school-time-enclosed it in her name; and that sphere enclosed her, not +excluding him. And the dear name of Browny played gently, humorously, +fervently, too, with life: not, pathetically, as that of Aminta did +when came a whisper of her situation, her isolation, her friendlessness; +hardly dissimilar to what could be imagined of a gazelle in the streets +of London city. The Morsfields were not all slain. The Weyburns would be +absent. + +At the gate of his cottage garden Weyburn beheld a short unfamiliar +figure of a man with dimly remembered features. Little Collett he +still was in height. The schoolmates had not met since the old days of +Cuper's. + +Little Collett delivered a message of invitation from Selina, begging +Mr. Weyburn to accompany her brother on the coach to Harwich next day, +and spend two or three days by the sea. But Weyburn's mind had been set +in the opposite direction--up Thames instead of down. + +He was about to refuse, but he checked his voice and hummed. Words of +Selina's letter jumped in italics. He perceived Lady Ormont's hand. +For one thing, would she be at Great Marlow alone? And he knew that +hand--how deftly it moved and moved others. Selina Collett would not +have invited him with underlinings merely to see a shoreside house and +garden. Her silence regarding a particular name showed her to be under +injunction, one might guess. At worst, it would be the loss of a couple +of days; worth the venture. They agreed to journey by coach next day. + +Facing eastward in the morning, on a seat behind the coachman, Weyburn +had a seafaring man beside him, bound for the good port of Harwich, +where his family lived, and thence by his own boat to Flushing. Weyburn +set him talking of himself, as the best way of making him happy; for it +is the theme which pricks to speech, and so liberates an uncomfortably +locked-up stranger; who, if sympathetic to human proximity, is thankful. +They exchanged names, delighted to find they were both Matthews; +whereupon Matthew of the sea demanded the paw of Matthew of the land, +and there was a squeeze. The same with little Collett, after hearing of +him as the old schoolmate of the established new friend. Then there was +talk. Little Collett named Felixstowe as the village of his mother's +house and garden sloping to the sands. 'That 's it-you have it,' said +the salted Matthew: 'peace is in that spot, and there I 've sworn to +pitch my tent when I 'm incapacitated for further exercise--profitable, +so to speak. My eldest girl has a bar of amber she picked up one wash of +the tide at Felixstowe, and there it had been lying sparkling, unseen, +hours, the shore is that solitary. What I like!--a quiet shore and a +peopled sea. Ever been to Brighton? There it 's t' other way.' + +Not long after he had mentioned the time of early evening for their +entry into his port of Harwich, the coach turned quietly over on a +bank of the roadside, depositing outside passengers quite safely, in +so matter-of-course a way, that only the screams of an uninjured lady +inside repressed their roars of laughter. One of the wheels had come +loose, half a mile off the nearest town. Their entry into Harwich was +thereby delayed until half-past nine at night. Full of consideration for +the new mates now fast wedded to his heart by an accident. Matthew Shale +proposed to Matthew Weyburn, instead of the bother of crossing the ferry +with a portmanteau and a bag at that late hour, to sup at his house, try +the neighbouring inn for a short sleep, and ship on board his yawl, the +honest Susan, to be rowed ashore off the Swin to Felixstowe sands no +later than six o'clock of a summer's morning, in time for a bath and +a swim before breakfast. It sounded well--it sounded sweetly. Weyburn +suggested the counter proposal of supper for the three at the inn. But +the other Matthew said: 'I married a cook. She expects a big appetite, +and she always keeps warm when I 'm held away, no matter how late. Sure +to be enough.' + +Beds were secured at the inn; after which came the introduction to +Mrs. Shale, the exhibition of Susan Shale's bar of amber, the dish of +fresh-fried whiting, the steak pudding, a grog, tobacco, rest at the +inn, and a rousing bang at the sleepers' doors when the unwonted supper +in them withheld an answer to the intimating knock. Young Matthew Shale, +who had slept on board the Susan, conducted them to her boat. His glance +was much drawn to the very white duck trousers Weyburn had put on, for a +souvenir of the approbation they had won at Marlow. They were on, and so +it was of no use for young Matthew to say they were likely to bear away +a token from the Susan. She was one among the damsels of colour, and +free of her tokens, especially to the spotless. + +How it occurred, nobody saw; though everybody saw how naturally it must +occur for the white ducks to 'have it in the eye' by the time they had +been on board a quarter of an hour. Weyburn got some fun out of +them, for a counterbalance to a twitch of sentimental regret scarcely +decipherable, as that the last view of him should bear a likeness of +Browny's recollection of her first. + +A glorious morning of flushed open sky and sun on sea chased all small +thoughts out of it. The breeze was from the west, and the Susan, lightly +laden, took the heave of smooth rollers with a flowing current-curtsey +in the motion of her speed. Fore-sail and aft were at their gentle +strain; her shadow rippled fragmentarily along to the silver rivulet and +boat of her wake. Straight she flew to the ball of fire now at spring +above the waters, and raining red gold on the line of her bows. By +comparison she was an ugly yawl, and as the creature of wind and wave +beautiful. + +They passed an English defensive fort, and spared its walls, in +obedience to Matthew Shale's good counsel that they should forbear +from sneezing. Little Collett pointed to the roof of his mother's house +twenty paces rearward of a belt of tamarisks, green amid the hollowed +yellows of shorebanks yet in shade, crumbling to the sands. Weyburn was +attracted by a diminutive white tent, of sentry-box shape, evidently a +bather's, quite as evidently a fair bather's. He would have to walk on +some way for his dip. He remarked to little Collett that ladies going +into the water half-dressed never have more than half a bath. His arms +and legs flung out contempt of that style of bathing, exactly in old +Matey's well-remembered way. Half a mile off shore, the Susan was +put about to flap her sails, and her boat rocked with the passengers. +Turning from a final cheer to friendly Matthew, Weyburn at the rudder +espied one of those unenfranchised ladies in marine uniform issuing +through the tent-slit. She stepped firmly, as into her element. A plain +look at her, and a curious look, and an intent look fixed her fast, and +ran the shock on his heart before he knew of a guess. She waded, she +dipped; a head across the breast of the waters was observed: this one +of them could swim. She was making for sea, a stone's throw off the +direction of the boat. Before his wits had grasped the certainty +possessing them, fiery envy and desire to be alongside her set his +fingers fretting at buttons. A grand smooth swell of the waters lifted +her, and her head rose to see her world. She sank down the valley, +where another wave was mounding for its onward roll: a gentle scene of +Weyburn's favourite Sophoclean chorus. Now she was given to him--it +was she. How could it ever have been any other! He handed his watch to +little Collett, and gave him the ropes, pitched coat and waistcoat on +his knees, stood free of boots and socks, and singing out, truly enough, +the words of a popular cry, 'White ducks want washing,' went over and +in. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. A MARINE DUET + +She soon had to know she was chased. She had seen the dive from the +boat, and received all illumination. With a chuckle of delighted +surprise, like a blackbird startled, she pushed seaward for joy of the +effort, thinking she could exult in imagination of an escape up to the +moment of capture, yielding then only to his greater will; and she meant +to try it. + +The swim was a holiday; all was new--nothing came to her as the same +old thing since she took her plunge; she had a sea-mind--had left her +earth-mind ashore. The swim, and Matey Weyburn pursuing her passed up, +out of happiness, through the spheres of delirium, into the region +where our life is as we would have it be a home holding the quiet of the +heavens, if but midway thither, and a home of delicious animation of the +whole frame, equal to wings. + +He drew on her, but he was distant, and she waved an arm. The shout of +her glee sprang from her: 'Matey!' He waved; she heard his voice. Was it +her name? He was not so drunken of the sea as she: he had not leapt out +of bondage into buoyant waters, into a youth without a blot, without an +aim, satisfied in tasting; the dream of the long felicity. + +A thought brushed by her: How if he were absent? It relaxed her stroke +of arms and legs. He had doubled the salt sea's rapture, and he had +shackled its gift of freedom. She turned to float, gathering her knees +for the funny sullen kick, until she heard him near. At once her stroke +was renewed vigorously; she had the foot of her pursuer, and she called, +'Adieu, Matey Weyburn!' + +Her bravado deserved a swifter humiliation than he was able to bring +down on her: she swam bravely, and she was divine to see ahead as well +as overtake. + +Darting to the close parallel, he said: 'What sea nymph sang me my +name?' + +She smote a pang of her ecstasy into him: 'Ask mine!' + +'Browny!' + +They swam; neither of them panted; their heads were water-flowers that +spoke at ease. + +'We 've run from school; we won't go back.' + +'We 've a kingdom.' + +'Here's a big wave going to be a wall.' + +'Off he rolls.' + +'He's like the High Brent broad meadow under Elling Wood.' + +'Don't let Miss Vincent hear you.' + +'They 're not waves; they 're sighs of the deep.' + +'A poet I swim with! He fell into the deep in his first of May morning +ducks. We used to expect him.' + +'I never expected to owe them so much.' + +Pride of the swimmer and the energy of her joy embraced Aminta, that she +might nerve all her powers to gain the half-minute for speaking at her +ease. + +'Who 'd have thought of a morning like this? You were looked for last +night.' + +'A lucky accident to our coach. I made friends with the skipper of the +yawl.' + +'I saw the boat. Who could have dreamed--? Anything may happen now.' + +For nothing further would astonish her, as he rightly understood her; +but he said: 'You 're prepared for the rites? Old Triton is ready.' + +'Float, and tell me.' + +They spun about to lie on their backs. Her right hand, at piano-work of +the octave-shake, was touched and taken, and she did not pull it away. +Her eyelids fell. + +'Old Triton waits.' + +'Why?' + +'We 're going to him.' + +'Yes?' + +'Customs of the sea.' + +'Tell me.' + +'He joins hands. We say, "Browny-Matey," and it 's done.' + +She splashed, crying 'Swim,' and after two strokes, 'You want to beat +me, Matey Weyburn.' + +'How?' + +'Not fair!' + +'Say what.' + +'Take my breath. But, yes! we'll be happy in our own way. We 're +sea-birds. We 've said adieu to land. Not to one another. We shall be +friends?' + +'Always.' + +'This is going to last?' + +'Ever so long.' + +They had a spell of steady swimming, companionship to inspirit it. +Browny was allowed place a little foremost, and she guessed not +wherefore, in her flattered emulation. + +'I 'm bound for France.' + +'Slew a point to the right: South-east by South. We shall hit +Dunkerque.' + +'I don't mean to be picked up by boats.' + +'We'll decline.' + +'You see I can swim.' + +'I was sure of it.' + +They stopped their talk--for the pleasure of the body to be savoured +in the mind, they thought; and so took Nature's counsel to rest their +voices awhile. + +Considering that she had not been used of late to long immersions, and +had not broken her fast, and had talked much, for a sea-nymph, Weyburn +spied behind him on a shore seeming flat down, far removed. + +'France next time,' he said: 'we'll face to the rear.' + +'Now?' said she, big with blissful conceit of her powers and incredulous +of such a command from him. + +'You may be feeling tired presently.' + +The musical sincerity of her 'Oh no, not I!' sped through his limbs; he +had a willingness to go onward still some way. + +But his words fastened the heavy land on her spirit, knocked at the +habit of obedience. Her stroke of the arms paused. She inclined to his +example, and he set it shoreward. + +They swam silently, high, low, creatures of the smooth green roller. He +heard the water-song of her swimming. She, though breathing equably at +the nostrils, lay deep. The water shocked at her chin, and curled round +the under lip. He had a faint anxiety; and, not so sensible of a weight +in the sight of land as she was, he chattered, by snatches, rallied her, +encouraged her to continue sportive for this once, letting her feel it +was but a once and had its respected limit with him. So it was not out +of the world. + +Ah, friend Matey! And that was right and good on land; but rightness and +goodness flung earth's shadow across her brilliancy here, and any stress +on 'this once' withdrew her liberty to revel in it, putting an end to +perfect holiday; and silence, too, might hint at fatigue. She began to +think her muteness lost her the bloom of the enchantment, robbing her of +her heavenly frolic lead, since friend Matey resolved to be as eminently +good in salt water as on land. Was he unaware that they were boy and +girl again?--she washed pure of the intervening years, new born, by +blessing of the sea; worthy of him here!--that is, a swimmer worthy of +him, his comrade in salt water. + +'You're satisfied I swim well?' she said. + +'It would go hard with me if we raced a long race.' + +'I really was out for France.' + +'I was ordered to keep you for England.' She gave him Browny's eyes. + +'We've turned our backs on Triton.' + +'The ceremony was performed.' + +'When?' + +'The minute I spoke of it and you splashed.' + +'Matey! Matey Weyburn!' + +'Browny Farrell!' + +'Oh, Matey! she's gone!' + +'She's here.' + +'Try to beguile me, then, that our holiday's not over. You won't forget +this hour?' + +'No time of mine on earth will live so brightly for me.' + +'I have never had one like it. I could go under and be happy; go to old +Triton, and wait for you; teach him to speak your proper Christian +name. He hasn't heard it yet,--heard "Matey,"--never yet has been taught +"Matthew."' + +'Aminta!' + +'Oh, my friend! my dear!' she cried, in the voice of the wounded, like +a welling of her blood: 'my strength will leave me. I may play--not you: +you play with a weak vessel. Swim, and be quiet. How far do you count +it?' + +'Under a quarter of a mile.' + +'Don't imagine me tired.' + +'If you are, hold on to me.' + +'Matey, I'm for a dive.' + +He went after the ball of silver and bubbles, and they came up together. +There is no history of events below the surface. + +She shook off her briny blindness, and settled to the full sweep of the +arms, quite silent now. Some emotion, or exhaustion from the strain of +the swimmer's breath in speech, stopped her playfulness. The pleasure +she still knew was a recollection of the outward swim, when she had been +privileged to cast away sex with the push from earth, as few men will +believe that women, beautiful women, ever wish to do; and often and +ardently during the run ahead they yearn for Nature to grant them their +one short holiday truce. + +But Aminta forgave him for bringing earth so close to her when there +was yet a space of salt water between her and shore; and she smiled at +times, that he might not think she was looking grave. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. THE PLIGHTING + +They touched sand at the first draw of the ebb, and this being +earth, Matey addressed himself to the guardian and absolving genii of +matter-of-fact, by saying; 'Did you inquire about the tides?' + +Her head shook, stunned with what had passed. She waded to shore, after +motioning for him to swim on. Men, in comparison beside their fair +fellows, are so little sensationally complex, that his one feeling now, +as to what had passed, was relief at the idea of his presence having +been a warrantable protectorship. + +Aminta's return from the sea-nymph to the state of woman crossed +annihiliation on the way back to sentience, and picked up meaningless +pebbles and shells of life, between the sea's verge and her tent's +shelter; hardly her own life to her understanding yet, except for the +hammer Memory became, to strike her insensible, at here and there a +recollected word or nakedness of her soul. + +He swam along by the shore to where the boat was paddled, spying at her +bare feet on the sand, her woman's form. He waved, and the figure in +the striped tunic and trousers waved her response, apparently the same +person he had quitted. + +Dry and clad, and decently formal under the transformation, they met at +Mrs. Collett's breakfast-table, and in each hung the doubt whether land +was the dream or sea. Both owned to a swim; both omitted mention of +the tale of white ducks. Little Collett had brought Matey's and his +portmanteau into the house, by favour of the cook, through the scullery. +He, who could have been a pictorial and suggestive narrator, carried a +spinning head off his shoulders from this wonderful Countess of Ormont +to Matey Weyburn's dark-eyed Browny at High Brent, and the Sunday walk +in Sir Peter Wensell's park. Away and back his head went. Browny was not +to be thought of as Browny; she was this grand Countess of Ormont; she +had married Matey Weyburn's hero: she would never admit she had been +Browny. Only she was handsome then, and she is handsome now; and she +looks on Matey Weyburn now just as she did then. How strange is the +world! Or how if we are the particular person destined to encounter the +strange things of the world? And fancy J. Masner, and Pinnett major, +and young Oakes (liked nothing better than a pretty girl, he strutted +boasting at thirteen), and the Frenchy, and the lot, all popping down at +the table, and asked the name of the lady sitting like Queen Esther--how +they would roar out! Boys, of course--but men, too!--very few men have +a notion of the extraordinary complications and coincidences and +cracker-surprises life contains. Here 's an instance; Matey Weyburn +positively will wear white ducks to play before Aminta Farrell on the +first of May cricketing-day. He happens to have his white ducks on when +he sees the Countess of Ormont swimming in the sea; and so he can go in +just as if they were all-right bathing-drawers. In he goes, has a good +long swim with her, and when he comes out, says, of his dripping ducks, +'tabula votiva... avida vestimenta,' to remind an old schoolmate of his +hopping to the booth at the end of a showery May day, and dedicating +them to the laundry in these words. It seems marvellous. It was a quaint +revival, an hour after breakfast, for little Collett to be acting +as intermediary with Selina to request Lady Ormont's grant of a +five-minutes' interview before the church-bell summoned her. She was +writing letters, and sent the message: 'Tell Mr. Weyburn I obey.' Selina +delivered it, uttering 'obey' in a demurely comical way, as a word of +which the humour might be comprehensible to him. + +Aminta stood at the drawing-room window. She was asking herself whether +her recent conduct shrieked coquette to him, or any of the abominable +titles showered on the women who take free breath of air one day after +long imprisonment. + +She said: 'Does it mean you are leaving us?' the moment he was near. + +'Not till evening or to-morrow, as it may happen,' he answered: 'I have +one or two things to say, if you will spare the time.' + +'All my time,' said she, smiling to make less of the heart's reply; and +he stepped into the room. + +They had not long back been Matey and Browny, and though that was in +another element, it would not sanction the Lady Ormont and Mr. Weyburn +now. As little could it be Aminta and Matthew. Brother and sister they +were in the spirit's world, but in this world the titles had a sound of +imposture. And with a great longing to call her by some allying name, he +rejected 'friend' for its insufficiency and commonness, notwithstanding +the entirely friendly nature of the burden to be spoken. Friend, was +a title that ran on quicksands: an excuse that tried for an excuse. He +distinguished in himself simultaneously, that the hesitation and beating +about for a name had its origin in an imperfect frankness when he sent +his message: the fretful desire to be with her, close to her, hearing +her, seeing her, besides the true wish to serve her. He sent it after +swinging round abruptly from an outlook over the bordering garden +tamarisks on a sea now featureless, desolately empty. + +However, perceptibly silence was doing the work of a scourge, and he +said: 'I have been thinking I may have--and I don't mind fighting hard +to try it before I leave England on Tuesday or Wednesday--some influence +with Lady Charlotte Eglett. She is really one of the true women living, +and the heartiest of backers, if she can be taught to see her course. I +fancy I can do that. She 's narrow, but she is not one of the class who +look on the working world below them as, we'll say, the scavenger dogs +on the plains of Ilium were seen by the Achaeans. And my failure would +be no loss to you! Your name shall not be alluded to as empowering me +to plead for her help. But I want your consent, or I may be haunted and +weakened by the idea of playing the busy-body. One has to feel strong +in a delicate position. Well, you know what my position with her has +been--one among the humble; and she has taken contradictions, accepted +views from me, shown me she has warmth of heart to an extreme degree.' + +Aminta slightly raised her hand. 'I will save you trouble. I have +written to Lord Ormont. I have left him.' + +Their eyes engaged on the thunder of this. 'The letter has gone?' + +'It was posted before my swim: posted yesterday.' + +'You have fully and clearly thought it out to a determination?' + +'Bit by bit--I might say, blow by blow.' + +'It is no small matter to break a marriage-tie.' + +'I have conversed with your mother.' + +'Yes, she! and the woman happiest in marriage!' + +'I know. It was hatred of injustice, noble sympathy. And she took me for +one of the blest among wives.' + +'She loved God. She saw the difference between men's decrees for their +convenience, and God's laws. She felt for women. You have had a hard +trial Aminta.' + +'Oh, my name! You mean it?' + +'You heard it from me this morning.' + +'Yes, there! I try to forget. I lost my senses. You may judge me +harshly, on reflection.' + +'Judge myself worse, then. You had a thousand excuses. I had only my +love of you. There's no judgement against either of us, for us to see, +if I read rightly. We elect to be tried in the courts of the sea-god. +Now we 'll sit and talk it over. The next ten minutes will decide our +destinies.' + +His eyes glittered, otherwise he showed the coolness of the man +discussing business; and his blunt soberness refreshed and upheld her, +as a wild burst of passion would not have done. + +Side by side, partly facing, they began their interchange. + +'You have weighed what you abandon?' + +'It weighs little.' + +'That may be error. You have to think into the future.' + +'My sufferings and experiences are not bad guides.' + +'They count. How can you be sure you have all the estimates?' + +'Was I ever a wife?' + +'You were and are the Countess of Ormont.' + +'Not to the world. An unacknowledged wife is a slave, surely.' + +'You step down, if you take the step.' + +'From what? Once I did desire that station--had an idea it was glorious. +I despise it: or rather the woman who had the desire.' + +'But the step down is into the working world.' + +'I have means to live humbly. I want no more, except to be taught to +work.' + +'So says the minute. Years are before you. You have weighed well, that +you attract?' + +She reddened and murmured: 'How small!' Her pout of spite at her +attractions was little simulated. + +'Beauty and charm are not small matters. You have the gift, called +fatal. Then--looking right forward--you have faith in the power of +resistance of the woman living alone?' + +He had struck at her breast. From her breast she replied. + +'Hear this of me. I was persecuted with letters. I read them and did +not destroy them. Perhaps you saved me. Looking back, I see weakness, +nothing worse; but it is a confession.' + +'Yes, you have courage. And that comes of a great heart. And therein +lies the danger.' + +'Advise me of what is possible to a lonely woman.' + +'You have resolved on the loneliness?' + +'It means breathing to me.' + +'You are able to see that Lord Ormont is a gentleman?' + +'A chivalrous gentleman, up to the bounds of his intelligence.' + +The bounds of his intelligence closed their four walls in a rapid +narrowing slide on Aminta's mind, and she exclaimed: + +'If only to pluck flowers in fields and know their names, I must be +free! I say what one can laugh at, and you are good and don't. Is the +interrogatory exhausted?' + +'Aminta, my beloved, if you are free, I claim you.' + +'Have you thought--?' + +The sense of a dissolving to a fountain quivered through her veins. + +'Turn the tables and examine me.' + +'But have you thought--oh! I am not the girl you loved. I would go +through death to feel I was, and give you one worthy of you.' + +'That means what I won't ask you to speak at present but I must have +proof.' + +He held out a hand, and hers was laid in his. + +There was more for her to say, she knew. It came and fled, lightened +and darkened. She had yielded her hand to him here on land, not with +the licence and protection of the great holiday salt water; and she +was trembling from the run of his blood through hers at the pressure of +hands, when she said in undertones: 'Could we--we might be friends.' + +'Meet and part as friends, you and I,' he replied. + +His voice carried the answer for her, his intimate look had in it the +unfolding of the full flower of the woman to him, as she could not +conceal from such eyes; and feeling that, she was all avowal. + +'It is for life, Matthew.' + +'My own words to myself when I first thought of the chance.' + +'But the school?' + +'I shall not consider that we are malefactors. We have the world against +us. It will not keep us from trying to serve it. And there are hints of +humaner opinions; it's not all a huge rolling block of a Juggernaut. Our +case could be pleaded before it. I don't think the just would condemn us +heavily. I shall have to ask you to strengthen me, complete me. If you +love me, it is your leap out of prison, and without you, I am from +this time no better than one-third of a man. I trust you to weigh the +position you lose, and the place we choose to take in the world. It 's +this--I think this describes it. You know the man who builds his house +below the sea's level has a sleepless enemy always threatening. His +house must be firm and he must look to the dykes. We commit this +indiscretion. With a world against us, our love and labour are +constantly on trial; we must have great hearts, and if the world is +hostile we are not to blame it. In the nature of things it could not be +otherwise. My own soul, we have to see that we do--though not publicly, +not insolently, offend good citizenship. But we believe--I with my whole +faith, and I may say it of you--that we are not offending Divine law. +You are the woman I can help and join with; think whether you can tell +yourself that I am the man. So, then, our union gives us powers to make +amends to the world, if the world should grant us a term of peace for +the effort. That is our risk; consider it, Aminta, between now and +tomorrow; deliberate. We don't go together into a garden of roses.' + +'I know. I should feel shame. I wish it to look dark,' said Aminta, +her hand in his, and yet with a fair-sailing mind on the stream of the +blood. + +Rationally and irrationally, the mixed passion and reason in two clear +heads and urgent hearts discussed the stand they made before a world +defied, neither of them quite perceiving what it was which coloured +reason to beauty, or what so convinced their intellects when passion +spoke the louder. + +'I am to have a mate.' + +'She will pray she may be one.' + +'She is my first love.' + +Aminta's lips formed 'mine,' without utterance. + +Meanwhile his hand or a wizardry subdued her will, allured her body. +She felt herself being drawn to the sign and seal of their plighting for +life. She said, 'Matthew,' softly in protest; and he said, 'Never once +yet!' She was owing to his tenderness. Her deepened voice murmured: 'Is +this to deliberate?' Colour flooded the beautiful dark face, as of the +funeral hues of a sun suffusing all the heavens; firing earth. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. AMINTA TO HER LORD + +On Friday, on Saturday, on Sunday, Lady Charlotte waited for her brother +Rowsley, until it was a diminished satisfaction that she had held her +ground and baffled his mighty will to subdue her. She did not sleep +for thinking of him on the Sunday night. Toward morning a fit of hazy +horrors, which others would have deemed imaginings, drove her from her +bed to sit and brood over Rowsley in a chair. What if it was a case of +heart with him too? Heart disease had been in the family. A man like +Rowsley, still feeling the world before him, as a man of his energies +and aptitudes, her humour added in the tide of his anxieties, had a +right to feel, would not fall upon resignation like a woman. + +She was at the physician's door at eight o'clock. Dr. Rewkes reported +reassuringly; it was a simple disturbance in Lord Ormont's condition of +health, and he conveyed just enough of disturbance to send the impetuous +lady knocking and ringing at her brother's door upon the hour of nine. + +The announcement of Lady Charlotte's early visit informed my lord that +Dr. Rewkes had done the spiriting required of him. He descended to the +library and passed under scrutiny. + +'You don't look ill, Rowsley,' she said, reluctantly in the sound. + +'I am the better for seeing you here, Charlotte. Shall I order breakfast +for you? I am alone.' + +'I know you are. I've eaten. Rewkes tells me you've not lost appetite.' + +'Have I the appearance of a man who has lost anything?' Prouder man, and +heartier and ruddier, could not be seen, she thought. + +'You're winning the country to right you; that I know.' + +'I don't ask it.' + +'The country wants your services.' + +'I have heard some talk of it. That lout comes to a knowledge of his +wants too late. If they promoted and offered me the command in India +to-morrow--'My lord struck the arm of his chair. 'I live at Steignton +henceforth; my wife is at a seaside place eastward. She left the +jewel-case when on her journey through London for safety; she is +a particularly careful person, forethoughtful. I take her down to +Steignton two days after her return. We entertain there in the autumn. +You come?' + +'I don't. I prefer decent society.' + +'You are in her house now, ma'am.' + +'If I have to meet the person, you mean, I shall be civil. The society +you've given her, I won't meet.' + +'You will have to greet the Countess of Ormont if you care to meet your +brother.' + +'Part, then, on the best terms we can. I say this, the woman who keeps +you from serving your country, she 's your country's enemy.' + +'Hear my answer. The lady who is my wife has had to suffer for what you +call my country's treatment of me. It 's a choice between my country and +her. I give her the rest of my time.' + +'That's dotage.' + +'Fire away your epithets.' + +'Sheer dotage. I don't deny she's a handsome young woman.' + +'You'll have to admit that Lady Ormont takes her place in our family +with the best we can name.' + +'You insult my ears, Rowsley.' + +'The world will say it when it has the honour of her acquaintance.' + +'An honour suspiciously deferred.' + +'That's between the world and me.' + +'Set your head to work, you'll screw the world to any pitch you +like--that I don't need telling.' + +Lord Ormont's head approved the remark. + +'Now,' said Lady Charlotte, 'you won't get the Danmores, the Dukerlys, +the Carminters, the Oxbridges any more than you get me.' + +'You are wrong, ma'am. I had yesterday a reply from Lady Danmore to a +communication of mine.' + +'It 's thickening. But while I stand, I stand for the family; and I 'm +not in it, and while I stand out of it, there 's a doubt either of your +honesty or your sanity.' + +'There's a perfect comprehension of my sister!' + +'I put my character in the scales against your conduct, and your +Countess of Ormont's reputation into the bargain.' + +'You have called at her house; it 's a step. You 'll be running at her +heels next. She 's not obdurate.' + +'When you see me running at her heels, it'll be with my head off. Stir +your hardest, and let it thicken. That man Morsfield's name mixed up +with a sham Countess of Ormont, in the stories flying abroad, can't hurt +anybody. A true Countess of Ormont--we 're cut to the quick.' + +'We 're cut! Your quick, Charlotte, is known to court the knife.' + +Letters of the morning's post were brought in. + +The earl turned over a couple and took up a third, saying: 'I 'll attend +to you in two minutes'; and thinking once more: Queer world it is, +where, when you sheath the sword, you have to be at play with bodkins! + +Lady Charlotte gazed on the carpet, effervescent with retorts to his +last observation, rightly conjecturing that the letter he selected to +read was from 'his Aminta.' + +The letter apparently was interesting, or it was of inordinate length. +He seemed still to be reading. He reverted to the first page. + +At the sound of the paper, she discarded her cogitations and glanced +up. His countenance had become stony. He read on some way, with a sudden +drop on the signature, a recommencement, a sound in the throat, as when +men grasp a comprehensible sentence of a muddled rigmarole and begin +to have hopes of the remainder. But the eye on the page is not the eye +which reads. + +'No bad news, Rowsley?' + +The earl's breath fell heavily. + +Lady Charlotte left her chair, and walked about the room. + +'Rowsley, I 'd like to hear if I can be of use.' + +'Ma'am?' he said; and pondered on the word 'use,' staring at her. + +'I don't intend to pry. I can't see my brother look like that, and not +ask.' + +The letter was tossed on the table to her. She read these lines, dated +from Felixstowe: + + 'MY DEAR LORD, + + 'The courage I have long been wanting in has come at last, to break + a tie that I have seen too clearly was a burden on you from the + beginning. I will believe that I am chiefly responsible for + inducing you to contract it. The alliance with an inexperienced + girl of inferior birth, and a perhaps immoderate ambition, has taxed + your generosity; and though the store may be inexhaustible, it is + not truly the married state when a wife subjects the husband to such + a trial. The release is yours, the sadness is for me. I have + latterly seen or suspected a design on your part to meet my former + wishes for a public recognition of the wife of Lord Ormont. Let me + now say that these foolish wishes no longer exist. I rejoice to + think that my staying or going will be alike unknown to the world. + I have the means of a livelihood, in a modest way, and shall trouble + no one. + + 'I have said, the sadness is for me. That is truth. But I have to + add, that I, too, am sensible of the release. My confession of a + change of feeling to you as a wife, writes the close of all + relations between us. I am among the dead for you; and it is a + relief to me to reflect on the little pain I give...' + +'Has she something on her conscience about that man Morsfield?' Lady +Charlotte cried. + +Lord Ormont's prolonged Ah! of execration rolled her to a bundle. + +Nevertheless her human nature and her knowledge of woman's, would out +with the words: 'There's a man!' + +She allowed her brother to be correct in repudiating the name of the +dead Morsfield--chivalrous as he was on this Aminta's behalf to +the last!--and struck along several heads, Adderwood's, Weyburn's, +Randeller's, for the response to her suspicion. A man there certainly +was. He would be probably a young man. He would not necessarily be a +handsome man.... or a titled or a wealthy man. She might have set eyes +on a gypsy somewhere round Great Marlow--blood to blood; such things +have been. Imagining a wildish man for her, rather than a handsome one +and one devoted staidly to the founding of a school, she overlooked +Weyburn, or reserved him with others for subsequent speculation. + +The remainder of Aminta's letter referred to her delivery of the Ormont +jewel-case at Lord Ormont's London house, under charge of her maid +Carstairs. The affairs of the household were stated very succinctly, +the drawer for labelled keys, whatever pertained to her management, in +London or at Great Marlow. + +'She 's cool,' Lady Charlotte said, after reading out the orderly array +of items, in a tone of rasping irony, to convince her brother he was +well rid of a heartless wench. + +Aminta's written statement of those items were stabs at the home she had +given him, a flashed picture of his loss. Nothing written by her touched +him to pierce him so shrewdly; nothing could have brought him so closely +the breathing image in the flesh of the woman now a phantom for him. + +'Will she be expecting you to answer, Rowsley?' + +'Will that forked tongue cease hissing!' he shouted, in the agony of a +strong man convulsed both to render and conceal the terrible, shameful, +unexampled gush of tears. + +Lady Charlotte beheld her bleeding giant. She would rather have seen +the brother of her love grimace in woman's manner than let loose those +rolling big drops down the face of a rock. The big sob shook him, and +she was shaken to the dust by the sight. Now she was advised by her deep +affection for her brother to sit patient and dumb, behind shaded eyes: +praising in her heart the incomparable force of the man's love of the +woman contrasted with the puling inclinations of the woman for the man. + +Neither opened mouth when they separated. She pressed and kissed a large +nerveless hand. Lord Ormont stood up to bow her forth. His ruddied skin +had gone to pallor resembling the berg of ice on the edge of Arctic +seas, when sunlight has fallen away from it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. CONCLUSION + +The peaceful little home on the solitary sandy shore was assailed, +unwarned, beneath a quiet sky, some hours later, by a whirlwind, a +dust-storm, and rattling volleys. Miss Vincent's discovery, in the past +school-days, of Selina Collett's 'wicked complicity in a clandestine +correspondence' had memorably chastened the girl, who vowed at the time +when her schoolmistress, using the rod of Johnsonian English for the +purpose, exposed the depravity of her sinfulness, that she would never +again be guilty of a like offence. Her dear and lovely Countess of +Ormont, for whom she then uncomplainingly suffered, who deigned now to +call her friend, had spoken the kind good-bye, and left the house +after Mr. Weyburn's departure that same day; she, of course, to post +by Harwich to London; he to sail by packet from the port of Harwich for +Flushing. The card of an unknown lady, a great lady, the Lady Charlotte +Eglett, was handed to her mother at eight o'clock in the evening. + +Lady Charlotte was introduced to the innocent country couple; the mother +knitting, the daughter studying a book of the botany of the Swiss Alps, +dreaming a distant day's journey over historic lands of various hues to +the unimaginable spectacle of earth's grandeur. Her visit lasted fifteen +minutes. From the moment of her entry, the room was in such turmoil as +may be seen where a water-mill wheel's paddles are suddenly set rounding +to pour streams of foam on the smooth pool below. A relentless catechism +bewildered their hearing. Mrs. Collett attempted an opposition of +dignity to those vehement attacks for answers. It was flooded and +rolled over. She was put upon her honour to reply positively to positive +questions: whether the Countess of Ormont was in this house at present; +whether the Countess of Ormont left the house alone or in company; +whether a gentleman had come to the house during the stay of the +Countess of Ormont; whether Lady Ormont had left the neighbourhood; the +exact time of the day when she quitted the house, and the stated point +of her destination. + +Ultimately, protesting that they were incapable of telling what they +did not know--which Lady Charlotte heard with an incredulous shrug--they +related piecemeal what they did know, and Weyburn's name gave her scent. +She paid small heed to the tale of Mr. Weyburn's having come there in +the character of young Mr. Collett's old schoolmate. Mr. Weyburn had +started for the port of Harwich. This day, and not long subsequently, +Lady Ormont had started for the port of Harwich, on her way to London, +if we like to think it. Further corroboration was quite superfluous. + +'Is there a night packet-boat from this port of yours?' Lady Charlotte +asked. + +The household servants had to be consulted; and she, hurriedly craving +the excuse of their tedious mistress, elicited, as far as she could +understand them, that there might be and very nearly was, a night +packet-boat starting for Flushing. The cook, a native of Harwich, sent +up word of a night packet-boat starting at about eleven o'clock last +year. + +Lady Charlotte saw the chance as a wind-blown beacon-fire under press +of shades. Changeing her hawkish manner toward the simple pair, she gave +them view of a smile magical by contrast, really beautiful--the smile +she had in reserve for serviceable persons whom she trusted--while +thanking them and saying, that her anxiety concerned Lady Ormont's +welfare. + +Her brother had prophesied she would soon be 'running at his wife's +heels,' and so she was, but not 'with her head off,' as she had +rejoined. She might prove, by intercepting his Aminta, that her head was +on. The windy beacon-fire of a chance blazed at the rapid rolling of her +carriage-wheels, and sank to stifling smoke at any petty obstruction. +Let her but come to an interview with his Aminta, she would stop all +that nonsense of the woman's letter; carry her off--and her Weyburn +plucking at her other hand to keep her. Why, naturally, treated as she +was by Rowsley, she dropped soft eyes on a good-looking secretary. Any +woman would--confound the young fellow! But all 's right yet if we get +to Harwich in time; unless... as a certain coldfish finale tone of the +letter playing on the old string, the irrevocable, peculiar to women who +are novices in situations of the kind, appeared to indicate; they see in +their conscience-blasted minds a barrier to a return home, high as the +Archangelical gate behind Mother Eve, and they are down on their knees +blubbering gratitude and repentance if the gate swings open to them. It +is just the instant, granting the catastrophe, to have a woman back to +her duty. She has only to learn she has a magnanimous husband. If she +learns into the bargain how he suffers, how he loves her,--well, +she despises a man like that Lawrence Finchley all the more for the +'magnanimity' she has the profit of, and perceives to be feebleness. But +there 's woman in her good and her bad; she'll trick a man of age, and +if he forgives her, owning his own faults in the case, she won't scorn +him for it; the likelihood is, she 'll feel bound in honour to serve him +faithfully for the rest of their wedded days. + +A sketch to her of Rowsley's deep love.... Lady Charlotte wandered into +an amazement at it. A sentence of her brother's recent speaking danced +in her recollection. He said of his country: That Lout comes to a +knowledge of his wants too late. True, Old England is always louting +to the rear, and has to be pricked in the rear and pulled by the neck +before she 's equal to the circumstances around her. But what if his +words were flung at him in turn! Short of 'Lout,' it rang correctly. +'Too late,' we hope to clip from the end of the sentence likewise. We +have then, if you stress it--'comes to a knowledge of his wants;--a fair +example of the creatures men are; the greatest of men; who have to learn +from the loss of the woman--or a fear of the loss--how much they really +do love her. + +Well, and she may learn the same or something sufficiently like it, +if she 's caught in time, called to her face, Countess of Ormont, +sister-in-law, and smoothed, petted, made believe she 's now understood +and won't be questioned on a single particular--in fact, she marches +back in a sort of triumph; and all the past in a cupboard, locked up, +without further inquiry. + +Her brother Rowsley's revealed human appearance of the stricken +man--stricken right into his big heart--precipitated Lady Charlotte's +reflections and urged her to an unavailing fever of haste during the +circuitous drive in moonlight to the port. She alighted at the principal +inn, and was there informed that the packetboat, with a favouring breeze +and tide, had started ten minutes earlier. She summoned the landlord, +and described a lady, as probably one of the passengers: 'Dark, holds +herself up high. Some such lady had dined at the inn on tea, and gone +aboard the boat soon after. + +Lady Charlotte burned with the question: Alone? She repressed her +feminine hunger and asked to see the book of visitors. But the lady had +not slept at the inn, so had not been requested to write her name. + +The track of the vessel could be seen from the pier, on the line of a +bar of moonlight; and thinking, that the abominable woman, if aboard she +was, had coolly provided herself with a continental passport--or had +it done for two by her accomplice, that Weyburn, before she left +London--Lady Charlotte sent a loathing gaze at the black figure of +the boat on the water, untroubled by any reminder of her share in the +conspiracy of events, which was to be her brother's chastisement to his +end. + +Years are the teachers of the great rocky natures, whom they round and +sap and pierce in caverns, having them on all sides, and striking deep +inward at moments. There is no resisting the years, if we have a heart, +and a common understanding. They constitute, in the sum of them, +the self-examination, whence issues, acknowledged or not, a belated +self-knowledge, to direct our final actions. She had the heart. Sight +of the high-minded, proud, speechless man suffering for the absence of +a runaway woman, not ceasing to suffer, never blaming the woman, and +consequently, it could be fancied, blaming himself, broke down Lady +Charlotte's defences and moved her to review her part in her brother +Rowsley's unhappiness. For supposing him to blame himself, her power +to cast a shadow of blame on him went from her, and therewith her +vindication of her conduct. He lived at Olmer. She read him by degrees, +as those who have become absolutely tongueless have to be read; and so +she gathered that this mortally (or lastingly) wounded brother of hers +was pleased by an allusion to his Aminta. He ran his finger on the lines +of a map of Spain, from Barcelona over to Granada; and impressed his +nail at a point appearing to be mountainous or woody. Lady Charlotte +suggested that he and his Aminta had passed by there. He told a story of +a carriage accident: added, 'She was very brave.' One day, when he had +taken a keepsake book of England's Beauties off the drawing-room table, +his eyes dwelt on a face awhile, and he handed it, with a nod, followed +by a slight depreciatory shrug. 'Like her, not so handsome,' Lady +Charlotte said. + +He nodded again. She came to a knowledge of Aminta's favourite colours +through the dwelling of his look on orange and black, deepest rose, +light yellow, light blue. Her grand-daughters won the satisfied look +if they wore a combination touching his memory. The rocky are not +imaginative, and have to be struck from without for a kindling of them. +Submissive though she was to court and soothe her brother Rowsley, a +spur of jealousy burned in the composition of her sentiments, to set +her going. He liked visiting Mrs. Lawrence Finchley at her effaced good +man's country seat, Brockholm in Berkshire, and would stay there a month +at a time. Lady Charlotte learnt why. The enthusiast for Aminta, without +upholding her to her late lord, whom she liked well, talked of her +openly with him, confessed to a fondness for her. How much Mrs. Lawrence +ventured to say, Lady Charlotte could not know. But rivalry pushed her +to the extreme of making Aminta partially a topic; and so ready was +he to follow her lead in the veriest trifles recalling the handsome +runaway; that she had to excite his racy diatribes against the burgess +English and the pulp they have made of a glorious nation, in order not +to think him inclining upon dotage. + +Philippa's occasional scoff in fun concerning 'grandmama's tutor,' +hurt Lady Charlotte for more reasons than one, notwithstanding the +justification of her fore-thoughtfulness. The girl, however, was +privileged; she was Bobby Benlew's dearest friend, and my lord loved +the boy; with whom nothing could be done at school, nor could a tutor +at Olmer control him. In fine, Bobby saddened the family and gained the +earl's anxious affection by giving daily proofs of his being an Ormont +in a weak frame; patently an Ormont, recurrently an invalid. His moral +qualities hurled him on his physical deficiencies. The local doctor and +Dr. Rewkes banished him twice to the seashore, where he began to bloom +the first week and sickened the next, for want of playfellows, jolly +fights and friendships. Ultimately they prescribed mountain air, Swiss +air, easy travelling to Switzerland, and several weeks of excursions at +the foot of the Alps. Bobby might possibly get an aged tutor, or find an +English clergyman taking pupils, on the way. + +Thus it happened, that seven years after his bereavement, Lord Ormont +and Philippa and Bobby were on the famous Bernese Terrace, grandest of +terrestrial theatres where soul of man has fronting him earth's utmost +majesty. Sublime: but five minutes of it fetched sounds as of a plug in +an empty phial from Bobby's bosom, and his heels became electrical. + +He was observed at play with a gentleman of Italian complexion. Past +guessing how it had come about, for the gentleman was an utter stranger. +He had at any rate the tongue of an Englishman. He had the style, too, +the slang and cries and tricks of an English schoolboy, though visibly +a foreigner. And he had the art of throwing his heart into that bit of +improvised game, or he would never have got hold of Bobby, shrewd to +read a masker. + +Lugged-up by the boy to my lord and the young lady, he doffed and bowed. +'Forgive me, pray,' he said; 'I can't see an English boy without having +a spin with him; and I make so bold as to speak to English people +wherever I meet them, if they give me the chance. Bad manners? Better +than that. You are of the military profession, sir, I see. I am a +soldier, fresh from Monte Video. Italian, it is evident, under an +Italian chief there. A clerk on a stool, and hey presto plunged into the +war a month after, shouldering a gun and marching. Fifteen battles in +eighteen months; and Death a lady at a balcony we kiss hands to on the +march below. Not a bit more terrible! Ah, but your pardon, sir,' he +hastened to say, observing rigidity on the features of the English +gentleman; 'would I boast? Not I. Accept it as my preface for why I am +moved to speak the English wherever I meet them:--Uruguay, Buenos Ayres, +La Plata, or Europe. I cannot resist it. At least, he bent gracefully, +'I do not. We come to the grounds of my misbehaviour. I have shown at +every call I fear nothing, kiss hand of welcome or adieu to Death. +And I, a boy of the age of this youngster--he 's not like me, I can +declare!--I was a sneak and a coward. It follows, I was a liar and +a traitor. Who cured me of that vileness, that scandal? I will tell +you--an Englishman and an Englishwoman: my schoolmaster and his wife. My +schoolmaster--my friend! He is the comrade of his boys: English, French, +Germans, Italians, a Spaniard in my time--a South American I have sent +him--two from Boston, Massachusetts--and clever!--all emulous to excel, +none boasting. But, to myself; I was that mean fellow. I did--I could +let you know: before this young lady--she would wither me with her +scorn, Enough, I sneaked, I lied. I let the blame fall on a schoolfellow +and a housemaid. Oh! a small thing, but I coveted it--a scarf. It +reminded me of Rome. Enough, there at the bottom of that pit, behold me. +It was not discovered, but my schoolfellow was unpunished, the housemaid +remained in service; I thought, I thought, and I thought until I could +not look in my dear friend Matthew's face. He said to me one day: "Have +you nothing to tell me, Giulio?" as if to ask the road to right or left. +Out it all came. And no sermon, no! He set me the hardest task I could +have. That was a penance!--to go to his wife, and tell it all to her. +Then I did think it an easier thing to go and face death--and death had +been my nightmare. I went, she listened, she took my hand she said: "You +will never do this again, I know, Giulio." She told me no English girl +would ever look on a man who was a coward and lied. From that day I have +made Truth my bride. And what the consequence? I know not fear! I could +laugh, knowing I was to lie down in my six-foot measure to-morrow. If I +have done my duty and look in the face of my dear Matthew and his wife! +Ah, those two! They are loved. They will be loved all over Europe. He +works for Europe and America--all civilized people--to be one country. +He is the comrade of his boys. Out of school hours, it is Christian +names all round--Matthew, Emile, Adolf, Emilio, Giulio, Robert, Marcel, +Franz, et caetera. Games or lessons, a boy can't help learning with him. +He makes happy fellows and brave soldiers of them without drill. Sir, do +I presume when I say I have your excuse for addressing you because you +are his countryman? I drive to the old school in half an hour, and next +week he and his dear wife and a good half of the boys will be on the +tramp over the Simplon, by Lago Maggiore, to my uncle's house in Milan +for a halt. I go to Matthew before I see my own people.' + +He swept another bow of apology, chiefly to Philippa, as representative +of the sex claiming homage. + +Lord Ormont had not greatly relished certain of the flowery phrases +employed by this young foreigner. 'Truth his bride,' was damnable: +and if a story had to be told, he liked it plain, without jerks +and evolutions. Many offences to our taste have to be overlooked in +foreigners--Italians! considered, before they were proved in fire, a +people classed by nature as operatic declaimers. Bobby had shown himself +on the road out to Bern a difficult boy, and stupefyingly ignorant. My +lord had two or three ideas working to cloudy combination in his head +when he put a question, referring to the management of the dormitories +at the school. Whereupon the young Italian introduced himself as Giulio +Calliani, and proposed a drive to inspect the old school, with its +cricket and football fields, lake for rowing and swimming, gymnastic +fixtures, carpenter's shed, bowling alley, and four European languages +in the air by turns daily; and the boys, too, all the boys rosy and +jolly, according to the last report received of them from his friend +Matthew. Enthusiasm struck and tightened the loose chord of scepticism +in Lord Ormont; somewhat as if a dancing beggar had entered a +kennel-dog's yard, designing to fascinate the faithful beast. It is a +chord of one note, that is tightened to sound by the violent summons +to accept, which is a provocation to deny. At the same time, the +enthusiast's dance is rather funny; he is not an ordinary beggar; to see +him trip himself in his dance would be rather funnier. This is to say, +inspect the trumpeted school and retire politely. My lord knew the Bern +of frequent visits: the woman was needed beside him to inspire a +feeling for scenic mountains. Philippa's admiration of them was like a +new-pressed grape-juice after a draught of the ripe vintage. Moreover, +Bobby was difficult: the rejected of his English schools was a stiff +Ormont at lessons, a wheezy Benlew in the playground: exactly the +reverse of what should have been. A school of four languages in bracing +air, if a school with healthy dormitories, and a school of the trained +instincts we call gentlemanly, might suit Master Bobby for a trial. An +eye on the boys of the school would see in a minute what stuff they were +made of. Supposing this young Italianissimo with the English tongue +to be tolerably near the mark, with a deduction of two-thirds of the +enthusiasm, Bobby might stop at the school as long as his health held +out, or the master would keep him. Supposing half a dozen things and +more, the meeting with this Mr. Calliand was a lucky accident. But lucky +accidents are anticipated only by fools. + +Lord Ormont consented to visit the school. He handed his card and +invited his guest; he had a carriage in waiting for the day, he said; +and obedient to Lady Charlotte's injunctions, he withheld Philippa from +the party. She and her maid were to pass the five hours of his absence +in efforts to keep their monkey Bobby out of the well of the solicitious +bears. + +My lord left his carriage at the inn of the village lying below the +school-house on a green height. The young enthusiast was dancing him +into the condition of livid taciturnity, which could, if it would, flash +out pungent epigrams of the actual world at Operatic recitative. + +'There's the old school-clock! Just in time for the half-hour before +dinner,' said Calliani, chattering two hundred to the minute, of the +habits and usages of the school, and how all had meals together, +the master, his wife, the teachers, the boys. 'And she--as for +her!' Calliani kissed finger up to the furthest skies: into which a +self-respecting sober Northener of the Isles could imagine himself to +kick enthusiastic gesticulators, if it were polite to do so. + +The school-house faced the master's dwelling house, and these, with a +block of building, formed a three-sided enclosure, like barracks! Forth +from the school-house door burst a dozen shouting lads, as wasps +from the hole of their nest from a charge of powder. Out they poured +whizzing; and the frog he leaped, and pussy ran and doubled before the +hounds, and hockey-sticks waved, and away went a ball. Cracks at the +ball anyhow, was the game for the twenty-five minutes breather before +dinner. + +'French day!' said Calliani, hearing their cries. Then he bellowed +'Matthew!--Giulio!' + +A lusty inversion of the order of the names and an Oberland jodel +returned his hail. The school retreating caught up the Alpine cry in the +distance. Here were lungs! Here were sprites! + +Lord Ormont bethought him of the name of the master. 'Mr. Matthew, I +think you said, sir,' he was observing to Calliani, as the master came +nearer; and Calliani replied: 'His Christian name. But if the boys are +naughty boys, it is not the privilege. Mr. Weyburn.' + +There was not any necessity to pronounce that name Calliani spoke it on +the rush to his friend. + +Lord Ormont and Weyburn advanced the steps to the meeting. Neither of +them flinched in eye or limb. + +At a corridor window of the dwelling-house a lady stood. Her colour was +the last of a summer day over western seas; her thought: 'It has come!' +Her mind was in her sight; her other powers were frozen. + +The two men conversed. There was no gesture. + +This is one of the lightning moments of life for the woman, at the +meeting of the two men between whom her person has been in dispute, may +still be; her soul being with one. And that one, dearer than the blood +of her body, imperilled by her. + +She could ask why she exists, if a question were in her grasp. She +would ask for the meaning of the gift of beauty to the woman, making her +desireable to those two men, making her a cause of strife, a thing of +doom. An incessant clamour dinned about her: 'It has come!' + +The two men walked conversing into the school-house. She was unconscious +of the seeing of a third, though she saw and at the back of her +mind believed she knew a friend in him. The two disappeared. She was +insensible stone, except for the bell-clang: 'It has come'; until they +were in view again, still conversing: and the first of her thought to +stir from petrifaction was: 'Life holds no secret.' + +She tried, in shame of the inanimate creature she had become, to +force herself to think: and had, for a chastising result, a series of +geometrical figures shooting across her brain, mystically expressive +of the situation, not communicably. The most vivid and persistent was +a triangle. Interpret who may. The one beheld the two pass from view +again, still conversing. + +They are on the gravel; they bow; they separate. He of the grey head +poised high has gone. + +Her arm was pressed by a hand. Weyburn longed to enfold her, and she +desired it, and her soul praised him for refraining. Both had that +delicacy. + +'You have seen, my darling,' Weyburn said. 'It has come, and we take our +chance. He spoke not one word, beyond the affairs of the school. He has +a grandnephew in want of a school: visited the dormitories, refectory, +and sheds: tasted the well-water, addressed me as Mr. Matthew. He had +it from Giulio. Came to look at the school of Giulio's "friend +Matthew,":--you hear him. Giulio little imagines!--Well, dear love, we +stand with a squad in front, and wait the word. It mayn't be spoken. We +have counted long before that something like it was bound to happen. And +you are brave. Ruin's an empty word for us two.' + +'Yes, dear, it is: we will pay what is asked of us,' Aminta said. 'It +will be heavy, if the school... and I love our boys. I am fit to be the +school-housekeeper; for nothing else.' + +'I will go to the boys' parents. At the worst, we can march into new +territory. Emile will stick to us. Adolf, too. The fresh flock will +come.' + +Aminta cried in the voice of tears: 'I love the old so!' + +'The likelihood is, we shall hear nothing further.' + +'You had to bear the shock, Matthew.' + +'Whatever I bore, and you saw, you shared.' + +'Yes,' she said. + +'Mais, n'oublions pas que c'est aujourd'hui jour francais; si, madame, +vous avez assez d'appetit pour diner avec nous? + +'Je suis, comme toujours, aux ordres de Monsieur.' She was among the +bravest of women. She had a full ounce of lead in her breast when +she sat with the boys at their midday meal, showing them her familiar +pleasant face. + +Shortly after the hour of the evening meal, a messenger from Bern +delivered a letter addressed to the Headmaster. Weyburn and Aminta were +strolling to the playground, thinking in common, as they usually did. +They read the letter together. These were the lines: + +'Lord Ormont desires to repeat his sense of obligation to Mr. Matthew +for the inspection of the school under his charge, and will be thankful +to Mr. Calliani, if that gentleman will do him the favour to call at his +hotel at Bern to-morrow, at as early an hour as is convenient to him, +for the purpose of making arrangements, agreeable to the Head-master's +rules, for receiving his grandnephew Robert Benlew as a pupil at the +school.' + +The two raised eyes on one another, pained in their deep joy by the +religion of the restraint upon their hearts, to keep down the passion to +embrace. + +'I thank heaven we know him to be one of the true noble men,' said +Aminta, now breathing, and thanking Lord Ormont for the free breath she +drew. + +Weyburn spoke of an idea he had gathered from the earl's manner. But he +had not imagined the proud lord's great-heartedness would go so far +as to trust him with the guardianship of the boy. That moved, and that +humbled him, though it was far from humiliating. + +Six months later, the brief communication arrived from Lady Charlotte + +'She is a widow. + +'Unlikely you will hear from me again. Death is always next door, you +said once. I look on the back of life. + +'Tell Bobby, capital for him to write he has no longing for home +holidays. If any one can make a man of him, you will. That I know. + + 'CHARLOTTE EGLETT.' + + ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS + + A bird that won't roast or boil or stew + A woman, and would therefore listen to nonsense + A free-thinker startles him as a kind of demon + A female free-thinker is one of Satan's concubines + Acting is not of the high class which conceals the art + Affected misapprehensions + Ah! we fall into their fictions + All that Matey and Browny were forbidden to write they looked + And not be beaten by an acknowledged defeat + Any excess pushes to craziness + As well ask (women) how a battle-field concerns them! + Bad luck's not repeated every day Keep heart for the good + Bad laws are best broken + Began the game of Pull + Being in heart and mind the brother to the sister with women + Botched mendings will only make them worse + Bounds of his intelligence closed their four walls + Boys who can appreciate brave deeds are capable of doing them + Boys, of course--but men, too! + But had sunk to climb on a firmer footing + By nature incapable of asking pardon + Cajoled like a twenty-year-old yahoo at college + Careful not to smell of his office + Challenged him to lead up to her desired stormy scene + Chose to conceive that he thought abstractedly + Consciousness of some guilt when vowing itself innocent + Consign discussion to silence with the cynical closure + Convictions we store--wherewith to shape our destinies + Convincing themselves that they impersonate sagacity + Could not understand enthusiasm for the schoolmaster's career + Could we--we might be friends + Curious thing would be if curious things should fail to happen + Death is only the other side of the ditch + Death is always next door + Desire of it destroyed it + Detestable feminine storms enveloping men weak enough + Didn't say a word No use in talking about feelings + Distaste for all exercise once pleasurable + Divided lovers in presence + Enthusiasm struck and tightened the loose chord of scepticism + Enthusiast, when not lyrical, is perilously near to boring + Exult in imagination of an escape up to the moment of capture + Few men can forbear to tell a spicy story of their friends + Greatest of men; who have to learn from the loss of the woman + Having contracted the fatal habit of irony + He had to shake up wrath over his grievances + He had gone, and the day lived again for both of them + He gave a slight sign of restiveness, and was allowed to go + He loathed a skulker + He took small account of the operations of the feelings + He began ambitiously--It's the way at the beginning + Her vehement fighting against facts + Her duel with Time + His aim to win the woman acknowledged no obstacle in the means + His restored sense of possession + Hopeless task of defending a woman from a woman + How to compromise the matter for the sake of peace? + I have all the luxuries--enough to loathe them + I hate old age It changes you so + I could be in love with her cruelty, if only I had her near me + I look on the back of life + I want no more, except to be taught to work + I married a cook She expects a big appetite + I'm for a rational Deity + If the world is hostile we are not to blame it + Ignorance roaring behind a mask of sarcasm + Increase of dissatisfaction with the more she got + Lawyers hold the keys of the great world + Learn--principally not to be afraid of ideas + Loathing of artifice to raise emotion + Look well behind + Lucky accidents are anticipated only by fools + Magnify an offence in the ratio of our vanity + Man who helps me to read the world and men as they are + Meant to vanquish her with the dominating patience + Men bore the blame, though the women were rightly punished + Men who believe that there is a virtue in imprecations + Naked original ideas, are acceptable at no time + Napoleon's treatment of women is excellent example + Necessity's offspring + Never nurse an injury, great or small + Nevertheless, inclinations are an infidelity + No love can be without jealousy + Not daring risk of office by offending the taxpayer + Not the indignant and the frozen, but the genially indifferent + Not men of brains, but the men of aptitudes + Old age is a prison wall between us and young people + One has to feel strong in a delicate position + One night, and her character's gone + One is a fish to her hook; another a moth to her light + Orderliness, from which men are privately exempt + Our love and labour are constantly on trial + Passion added to a bowl of reason makes a sophist's mess + People were virtuous in past days: they counted their sinners + Perhaps inspire him, if he would let her breathe + Person in another world beyond this world of blood + Policy seems to petrify their minds + Practical for having an addiction to the palpable + Professional Puritans + Published Memoirs indicate the end of a man's activity + Rage of a conceited schemer tricked + Regularity of the grin of dentistry + Respect one another's affectations + Screams of an uninjured lady + Selfishness and icy inaccessibility to emotion + She had to be the hypocrite or else--leap + She had a thirsting mind + Silence was doing the work of a scourge + Smile she had in reserve for serviceable persons + Snatch her from a possessor who forfeited by undervaluing her + So says the minute Years are before you + That pit of one of their dead silences + The despot is alert at every issue, to every chance + The spending, never harvesting, world + The shots hit us behind you + The terrible aggregate social woman + The next ten minutes will decide our destinies + The woman side of him + The good life gone lives on in the mind + The beat of a heart with a dread like a shot in it + There is no history of events below the surface + There are women who go through life not knowing love + They want you to show them what they 'd like the world to be + Things are not equal + Things were lumpish and gloomy that day of the week + This female talk of the eternities + Titles showered on the women who take free breath of air + To males, all ideas are female until they are made facts + To time and a wife it is no disgrace for a man to bend + To know how to take a licking, that wins in the end + Uncommon unprogressiveness + Venus of nature was melting into a Venus of art + Violent summons to accept, which is a provocation to deny + We cannot, men or woman, control the heart in sleep at night + We shall want a war to teach the country the value of courage + We don't go together into a garden of roses + When duelling flourished on our land, frail women powerful + Where heart weds mind, or nature joins intellect + Who cries, Come on, and prays his gods you won't + Why he enjoyed the privilege of seeing, and was not beside her + With what little wisdom the world is governed + Women are happier enslaved + World against us It will not keep us from trying to serve + Years are the teachers of the great rocky natures + You'll have to guess at half of everything he tells you + You're going to be men, meaning something better than women + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lord Ormont and his Aminta, Complete +by George Meredith + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LORD ORMONT AND HIS AMINTA, *** + +***** This file should be named 4482.txt or 4482.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/8/4482/ + +Produced by Pat Castevans and David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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We need your donations. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) +organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541 +Find out about how to make a donation at the bottom of this file. + + + +Title: Lord Ormont and his Aminta, Complete + +Author: George Meredith + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +Release Date: September, 2003 [Etext #4482] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on February 25, 2002] + + +The Project Gutenberg Etext Lord Ormont and his Aminta, All, by Meredith +**********This file should be named gm88v10.txt or gm88v10.zip********** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, gm88v11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, gm88v10a.txt + + +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. + +The "legal small print" and other information about this book +may now be found at the end of this file. Please read this +important information, as it gives you specific rights and +tells you about restrictions in how the file may be used. + + + + +This etext was produced by Pat Castevans <patcat@ctnet.net> +and David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + +LORD ORMONT AND HIS AMINTA, Complete + +By George Meredith + + + +CONTENTS. + +BOOK 1. +I. LOVE AT A SCHOOL +II. LADY CHARLOTTE +III. THE TUTOR +IV. RECOGNITION +V. IN WHICH THE SHADES OF BROWNY AND MATEY ADVANCE AND RETIRE + +BOOK 2. +VI. IN A MOOD OF LANGUOR +VII. EXHIBITS EFFECTS OF A PRATTLER'S DOSES +VIII. MRS. LAWRENCE FINCHLEY +IX. A FLASH OF THE BRUISED WARRIOR +X. A SHORT PASSAGE IN THE GAME PLAYED BY TWO +XI. THE SECRETARY TAKEN AS AN ANTIDOTE + +BOOK 3. +XII. MORE OF CUPER'S BOYS +XIII. WAR AT OLMER +XIV. OLD LOVERS NEW FRIENDS +XV. SHOWING A SECRET FISHED WITHOUT ANGLING +XVI. ALONG TWO ROADS TO STEIGNTON + +BOOK 4. +XVII. LADY CHARLOTTE'S TRIUMPH +XVIII. A SCENE ON THE ROAD BACK +XIX. THE PURSUERS +XX. AT THE SIGN OF THE JOLLY CRICKETERS +XXI. UNDER-CURRENTS IN THE MINDS OF LADY CHARLOTTE AND LORD ORMONT +XXII. TREATS OF THE FIRST DAY OF THE CONTENTION OF BROTHER AND SISTER +XXIII. THE ORMONT JEWELS + +BOOK 5. +XXIV. LOVERS MATED +XXXV. PREPARATIONS FOR A RESOLVE +XXVI. VISITS OF FAREWELL +XXVII. A MARINE DUET +XXVIII. THE PLIGHTING +XXIX. AMINTA TO HER LORD +XXX. CONCLUSION + + + + +LORD ORMONT AND HIS AMINTA. + +BOOK 1. + +I. LOVE AT A SCHOOL +II. LADY CHARLOTTE +III. THE TUTOR +IV. RECOGNITION + + + +CHAPTER I. + +LOVE AT A SCHOOL + +A procession of schoolboys having to meet a procession of schoolgirls on +the Sunday's dead march, called a walk, round the park, could hardly go +by without dropping to a hum in its chatter, and the shot of incurious +half-eyes the petticoated creatures--all so much of a swarm unless you +stare at them like lanterns. The boys cast glance because it relieved +their heaviness; things were lumpish and gloomy that day of the week. +The girls, who sped their peep of inquisition before the moment of +transit, let it be seen that they had minds occupied with thoughts of +their own. + +Our gallant fellows forgot the intrusion of the foreign as soon as it had +passed. A sarcastic discharge was jerked by chance at the usher and the +governess--at the old game, it seemed; or why did they keep steering +columns to meet? There was no fun in meeting; it would never be +happening every other Sunday, and oftener, by sheer toss-penny accident. +They were moved like pieces for the pleasure of these two. + +Sometimes the meeting occurred twice during the stupid march-out, when it +became so nearly vexatious to boys almost biliously oppressed by the +tedium of a day merely allowing them to shove the legs along, ironically +naming it animal excise, that some among them pronounced the sham +variation of monotony to be a bothering nuisance if it was going to +happen every Sunday, though Sunday required diversions. They hated the +absurdity in this meeting and meeting; for they were obliged to +anticipate it, as a part of their ignominious weekly performance; and +they could not avoid reflecting on it, as a thing done over again: it had +them in front and in rear; and it was a kind of broadside mirror, +flashing at them the exact opposite of themselves in an identically +similar situation, that forced a resemblance. + +Touching the old game, Cuper's fold was a healthy school, owing to the +good lead of the head boy, Matey Weyburn, a lad with a heart for games +to bring renown, and no thought about girls. His emulation, the fellows +fancied, was for getting the school into a journal of the Sports. He +used to read one sent him by a sporting officer of his name, and talk +enviously of public schools, printed whatever they did--a privilege and +dignity of which, they had unrivalled enjoyment in the past, days, when +wealth was more jealously exclusive; and he was always prompting for +challenges and saving up to pay expenses; and the fellows were to laugh +at kicks and learn the art of self-defence--train to rejoice in whipcord +muscles. The son of a tradesman, if a boy fell under the imputation, +was worthy of honour with him, let the fellow but show grip and +toughness. He loathed a skulker, and his face was known for any boy who +would own to fatigue or confess himself beaten. "Go to bed," was one of +his terrible stings. Matey was good at lessons, too--liked them; liked +Latin and Greek; would help a poor stumbler. + +Where he did such good work was in sharpening the fellows to excel. He +kept them to the grindstone, so that they had no time for rusty brooding; +and it was fit done by exhortations off a pedestal, like St. Paul at the +Athenians, it breathed out of him every day of the week. He carried a +light for followers. Whatever he demanded of them, he himself did it +easily. He would say to boys, "You're going to be men," meaning +something better than women. There was a notion that Matey despised +girls. Consequently, never much esteemed, they were in disfavour. The +old game was mentioned only because of a tradition of an usher and +governess leering sick eyes until they slunk away round a corner and +married, and set up a school for themselves--an emasculate ending. +Comment on it came of a design to show that the whole game had been +examined dismissed as uninteresting and profitless. + +One of the boys alluded in Matey's presence to their general view upon +the part played by womankind on the stage, confident of a backing; and he +had it, in a way: their noble chief whisked the subject, as not worth a +discussion; but he turned to a younger chap, who said he detested girls, +and asked him how about a sister at home; and the youngster coloured, and +Matey took him and spun him round, with a friendly tap on the shoulder. + +Odd remarks at intervals caused it to be suspected that he had ideas +concerning girls. They were high as his head above the school; and there +they were left, with Algebra and Homer, for they were not of a sort to +inflame; until the boys noticed how he gave up speaking, and fell to hard +looking, though she was dark enough to get herself named Browny. In the +absence of a fair girl of equal height to set beside her, Browny shone. + +She had a nice mouth, ready for a smile at the corners, or so it was +before Matey let her see that she was his mark. Now she kept her mouth +asleep and her eyes half down, up to the moment of her nearing to pass, +when the girl opened on him, as if lifting her eyelids from sleep to the +window, a full side--look, like a throb, and no disguise--no slyness or +boldness either, not a bit of languishing. You might think her heart +came quietly out. + +The look was like the fall of light on the hills from the first of +morning. It lasted half a minute, and left a ruffle for a good half- +hour. Even the younger fellows, without knowing what affected them, were +moved by the new picture of a girl, as if it had been a frontispiece of a +romantic story some day to be read. She looked compelled to look, but +consenting and unashamed; at home in submission; just the look that wins +observant boys, shrewd as dogs to read by signs, if they are interested +in the persons. They read Browny's meaning: that Matey had only to come +and snatch her; he was her master, and she was a brave girl, ready to go +all over the world with him; had taken to him as he to her, shot for +shot. Her taking to the pick of the school was a capital proof that she +was of the right sort. To be sure, she could not much help herself. + +Some of the boys regretted her not being fair. But, as they felt, and +sought to explain, in the manner of the wag of a tail, with elbows and +eyebrows to one another's understanding, fair girls could never have let +fly such look; fair girls are softer, woollier, and when they mean to +look serious, overdo it by craping solemn; or they pinafore a jigging +eagerness, or hoist propriety on a chubby flaxen grin; or else they dart +an eye, or they mince and prim and pout, and are sigh-away and dying- +ducky, given to girls' tricks. Browny, after all, was the girl for +Matey. + +She won a victory right away and out of hand, on behalf of her cloud-and- +moon sisters, as against the sunny-meadowy; for slanting intermediates +are not espied of boys in anything: conquered by Browny; they went over +to her colour, equal to arguing, that Venus at her mightiest must have +been dark, or she would not have stood a comparison with the forest +Goddess of the Crescent, swanning it through a lake--on the leap for run +of the chase--watching the dart, with her humming bow at breast. The +fair are simple sugary thing's, prone to fat, like broad-sops in milk; +but the others are milky nuts, good to bite, Lacedaemonian virgins, hard +to beat, putting us on our mettle; and they are for heroes, and they can +be brave. So these boys felt, conquered by Browny. A sneaking native +taste for the forsaken side, known to renegades, hauled at them if her +image waned during the week; and it waned a little, but Sunday restored +and stamped it. + +By a sudden turn the whole upper-school had fallen to thinking of girls, +and the meeting on the Sunday was a prospect. One of the day-boarders +had a sister in the seminary of Miss Vincent. He was plied to obtain +information concerning Browny's name and her parents. He had it pat to +hand in answer. No parents came to see her; an aunt came now and then. +Her aunt's name was not wanted. Browny's name was Aminta Farrell. + +Farrell might pass; Aminta was debated. This female Christian name had +a foreign twang; it gave dissatisfaction. Boy after boy had a try at it, +with the same effect: you could not speak the name without a pursing of +the month and a puckering of the nose, beastly to see, as one little +fellow reminded them on a day when Matey was in more than common favour, +topping a pitch of rapture, for clean bowling, first ball, middle stump +on the kick, the best bat of the other eleven in a match; and, says this +youngster, drawling, soon after the cheers and claps had subsided to +business, "Aminta." + +He made it funny by saying it as if to himself and the ground, in a +subdued way, while he swung his leg on a half-circle, like a skater, +hands in pockets. He was a sly young rascal, innocently precocious +enough, and he meant no disrespect either to Browny or to Matey; but he +had to run for it, his delivery of the name being so like what was in the +breasts of the senior fellows, as to the inferiority of any Aminta to old +Matey, that he set them laughing; and Browny was on the field, to reprove +them, left of the tea-booth, with her school-mates, part of her head +under a scarlet parasol. + +A girl with such a name as Aminta might not be exactly up to the standard +of old Matey, still, if he thought her so and she had spirit, the school +was bound to subscribe; and that look of hers warranted her for taking +her share in the story, like the brigand's wife loading gnus for him +while he knocks over the foremost carabineer on the mountain-ledge below, +who drops on his back with a hellish expression. + +Browny was then clearly seen all round, instead of only front-face, +as on the Sunday in the park, when fellows could not spy backward after +passing. The pleasure they had in seeing her all round involved no fresh +stores of observation, for none could tell how she tied her back-hair, +which was the question put to them by a cynic of a boy, said to be queasy +with excess of sisters. They could tell that she was tall for a girl, +or tallish--not a maypole. She drank a cup of tea, and ate a slice of +bread-and-butter; no cake. + +She appeared undisturbed when Matey, wearing his holiday white ducks, +and all aglow, entered the booth. She was not expected to faint, only +she stood for the foreign Aminta more than for their familiar Browny in +his presence. Not a sign of the look which had fired the school did she +throw at him. Change the colour and you might compare her to a lobster +fixed on end, with a chin and no eyes. Matey talked to Miss Vincent up +to the instant of his running to bat. She would have liked to guess how +he knew she had a brother on the medical staff of one of the regiments in +India: she asked him twice, and his cheeks were redder than cricket in +the sun. He said he read all the reports from India, and asked her +whether she did not admire Lord Ormont, our general of cavalry, whose +charge at the head of fifteen hundred horse in the last great battle +shattered the enemy's right wing, and gave us the victory--rolled him up +and stretched him out like a carpet for dusting. Miss Vincent exclaimed +that it was really strange, now, he should speak of Lord Ormont, for she +had been speaking of him herself in morning to one of her young ladies, +whose mind was bent on his heroic deeds. Matey turned his face to the +group of young ladies, quite pleased that one of them loved his hero; and +he met a smile here and there--not from Miss Aminta Farrell. She was a +complete disappointment to the boys that day. "Aminta" was mouthed at +any allusions to her. + +So, she not being a match for Matey, they let her drop. The flush that +had swept across the school withered to a dry recollection, except when +on one of their Sunday afternoons she fanned the desert. Lord Ormont +became the subject of inquiry and conversation; and for his own sake--not +altogether to gratify Matey. The Saturday autumn evening's walk home, +after the race out to tea at a distant village, too late in the year for +cricket, too early for regular football, suited Matey, going at long +strides, for the story of his hero's adventures; and it was nicer than +talk about girls, and puzzling. Here lay a clear field; for he had the +right to speak of a cavalry officer: his father died of wounds in the +service, and Matey naturally intended to join the Dragoons; if he could +get enough money to pay for mess, he said, laughing. Lord Ormont was his +pattern of a warrior. We had in him a lord who cast off luxury to live +like a Spartan when under arms, with a passion to serve his country and +sustain the glory of our military annals. He revived respect for the +noble class in the hearts of Englishmen. He was as good an authority on +horseflesh as any Englishman alive; the best for the management of +cavalry: there never was a better cavalry leader. The boys had come to +know that Browny admired Lord Ormont, so they saw a double reason why +Matey should; and walking home at his grand swing in the October dusk, +their school hero drew their national hero closer to them. + +Every fellow present was dead against the usher, Mr. Shalders, when he +took advantage of a pause to strike in with his "Murat!" + +He harped on Murat whenever he had a chance. Now he did it for the +purpose of casting eclipse upon Major-General Lord Ormont, the son and +grandson of English earls; for he was an earl by his title, and Murat was +the son of an innkeeper. Shalders had to admit that Murat might have +served in the stables when a boy. Honour to Murat, of course, for +climbing the peaks! Shalders, too, might interest him in military +affairs and Murat; he did no harm, and could be amusing. It rather added +to his amount of dignity. It was rather absurd, at the same time, for an +English usher to be spouting and glowing about a French general, who had +been a stable-boy and became a king, with his Murat this, Murat that, and +hurrah Murat in red and white and green uniform, tunic and breeches, and +a chimney-afire of feathers; and how the giant he was charged at the head +of ten thousand horse, all going like a cataract under a rainbow over the +rocks, right into the middle of the enemy and through; and he a spark +ahead, and the enemy streaming on all sides flat away, as you see puffed +smoke and flame of a bonfire. That was fun to set boys jigging. No +wonder how in Russia the Cossacks feared him, and scampered from the +shadow of his plumes--were clouds flying off his breath! That was a +fine warm picture for the boys on late autumn or early winter evenings, +Shalders warming his back at the grate, describing bivouacs in the snow. +They liked well enough to hear him when he was not opposing Matey and +Lord Ormont. He perked on his toes, and fetched his hand from behind him +to flourish it when his Murat came out. The speaking of his name clapped +him on horseback--the only horseback he ever knew. He was as fond of +giving out the name Murat as you see in old engravings of tobacco-shops +men enjoying the emission of their whiff of smoke. + +Matey was not inclined to class Lord Ormont alongside Murat, a first-rate +horseman and an eagle-eye, as Shalders rightly said; and Matey agreed +that forty thousand cavalry under your orders is a toss above fifteen +hundred; but the claim for a Frenchman of a superlative merit to swallow +and make nothing of the mention of our best cavalry generals irritated +him to call Murat a mountebank. + +Shalders retorted, that Lord Ormont was a reprobate. + +Matey hoped he would some day write us an essay on the morale of +illustrious generals of cavalry; and Shalders told him he did not advance +his case by talking nonsense. + +Each then repeated to the boys a famous exploit of his hero. Their +verdict was favourable to Lord Ormont. Our English General learnt riding +before he was ten years old, on the Pampas, where you ride all day, and +cook your steak for your dinner between your seat and your saddle. He +rode with his father and his uncle, Muncastle, the famous traveller, into +Paraguay. He saw fighting before he was twelve. Before he was twenty he +was learning outpost duty in the Austrian frontier cavalry. He served in +the Peninsula, served in Canada, served in India, volunteered for any +chance of distinction. No need to say much of his mastering the picked +Indian swordsmen in single combat: he knew their trick, and was quick to +save his reins when they made a dash threatening the headstroke--about +the same as disabling sails in old naval engagements. + +That was the part for the officer; we are speaking of the General. For +that matter, he had as keen an eye for the field and the moment for his +arm to strike as any Murat. One world have liked to see Murat matched +against the sabre of a wily Rajpoot! As to campaigns and strategy, Lord +Ormont's head was a map. What of Murat and Lord Ormont horse to horse +and sword to sword? Come, imagine that, if you are for comparisons. And +if Lord Ormont never headed a lot of thousands, it does not prove he was +unable. Lord Ormont was as big as Murat. More, he was a Christian to +his horses. How about Murat in that respect? Lord Ormont cared for his +men: did Murat so particularly much? And he was as cunning fronting +odds, and a thunderbolt at the charge. Why speak of him in the past? +He is an English lord, a lord by birth, and he is alive; things may be +expected of him to-morrow or next day. + +Shalders here cut Matey short by meanly objecting to that. + +"Men are mortal," he said, with a lot of pretended stuff, deploring our +human condition in the elegy strain; and he fell to reckoning the English +hero's age--as that he, Lord Ormont, had been a name in the world for the +last twenty-five years or more. The noble lord could be no chicken. We +are justified in calculating, by the course of nature, that his term of +activity is approaching, or has approached, or, in fact, has drawn to its +close. + +"If your estimate, sir, approaches to correctness," rejoined Matey-- +tellingly, his comrades thought. + +"Sixty, as you may learn some day, is a serious age, Matthew Weyburn." + +Matey said he should be happy to reach it with half the honours Lord +Ormont had won. + +"Excepting the duels," Shalders had the impudence to say. + +"If the cause is a good one!" cried Matey. + +"The cause, or Lord Ormont has been maligned, was reprehensible in the +extremest degree." Shalders cockhorsed on his heels to his toes and back +with a bang. + +"What was the cause, if you please, sir?" a boy, probably naughty, +inquired; and as Shalders did not vouchsafe a reply, the bigger boys +knew. + +They revelled in the devilish halo of skirts on the whirl encircling Lord +Ormont's laurelled head. + +That was a spark in their blood struck from a dislike of the tone assumed +by Mr. Shalders to sustain his argument; with his "men are mortal," and +talk of a true living champion as "no chicken," and the wordy drawl over +"justification for calculating the approach of a close to a term of +activity"--in the case of a proved hero! + +Guardians of boys should make sure that the boys are on their side before +they raise the standard of virtue. Nor ought they to summon morality for +support of a polemic. Matey Weyburn's object of worship rode superior to +a morality puffing its phrasy trumpet. And, somehow, the sacrifice of an +enormous number of women to Lord Ormont's glory seemed natural; the very +thing that should be, in the case of a first-rate military hero and +commander--Scipio notwithstanding. It brightens his flame, and it is +agreeable to them. That is how they come to distinction: they have no +other chance; they are only women; they are mad to be singed, and they +rush pelf-mall, all for the honour of the candle. + +Shortly after this discussion Matey was heard informing some of the +bigger fellows he could tell them positively that Lord Ormont's age was +under fifty-four--the prime of manhood, and a jolly long way off death! +The greater credit to him, therefore, if he bad been a name in the world +for anything like the period Shalders insinuated, "to get himself out of +a sad quandary." Matey sounded the queer word so as to fix it sticking +to the usher, calling him Mr. Peter Bell Shalders, at which the boys +roared, and there was a question or two about names, which belonged to +verses, for people caring to read poems. + +To the joy of the school he displayed a greater knowledge of Murat than +Shalders had: named the different places in Europe where Lord Ormont and +Murat were both springing to the saddle at the same time--one a Marshal, +the other a lieutenant; one a king, to be off his throne any day, the +other a born English nobleman, seated firm as fate. And he accused Murat +of carelessness of his horses, ingratitude to his benefactor, circussy +style. Shalders went so far as to defend Murat for attending to the +affairs of his kingdom, instead of galloping over hedges and ditches to +swell Napoleon's ranks in distress. Matey listened to him there; he +became grave; he nodded like a man saying, "I suppose we must examine +it in earnest." The school was damped to hear him calling it a nice +question. Still, he said he thought he should have gone; and that +settled it. + +The boys inclined to speak contemptuously of Shalders. Matey world +not let them; he contrasted Shalders with the other ushers, who had +no enthusiasms. He said enthusiasms were salt to a man; and he liked +Shalders for spelling at his battles and thinking he understood them, and +admiring Murat, and leading Virgil and parts of Lucan for his recreation. +He said he liked the French because they could be splendidly +enthusiastic. He almost lost his English flavour when he spoke in +downright approval of a small French fellow, coming from Orthez, near the +Pyrenees, for senselessly dashing and kicking at a couple of English who +jeered to hear Orthez named--a place trampled under Wellington's heels, +on his march across conquered France. The foreign little cockerel was a +clever lad, learning English fast, and anxious to show he had got hold of +the English trick of not knowing when he was beaten. His French vanity +insisted on his engaging the two, though one of them stood aside, and the +other let him drive his nose all the compass round at a poker fist. What +was worse, Matey examined these two, in the interests of fair play, as if +he doubted. + +Little Emile Grenat set matters right with his boast to vindicate his +country against double the number, and Matey praised him, though he knew +Emile had been floored without effort by the extension of a single fist. +He would not hear the French abused; he said they were chivalrous, they +were fine fellows, topping the world in some things; his father had +fought them and learnt to respect them. Perhaps his father had learnt to +respect Jews, for there was a boy named Abner, he protected, who smelt +Jewish; he said they ran us Gentiles hard, and carried big guns. + +Only a reputation like Matey's could have kept his leadership from a +challenge. Joseph Masner, formerly a rival, went about hinting and +shrugging; all to no purpose, you find boys born to be chiefs. On the +day of the snow-fight Matey won the toss, and chose J. Masner first pick; +and Masner, aged seventeen and some months, big as a navvy, lumbered +across to him and took his directions, proud to stand in the front +centre, at the head of the attack, and bear the brunt--just what he was +fit for, Matey gave no offence by choosing, half-way down the list, his +little French friend, whom he stationed beside himself, rather off his +battle-front, as at point at cricket, not quite so far removed. Two boys +at his heels piled ammunition. The sides met midway of a marshy ground, +where a couple of flat and shelving banks, formed for a broad new road, +good for ten abreast--counting a step of the slopes--ran transverse; and +the order of the game was to clear the bank and drive the enemy on to the +frozen ditch-water. Miss Vincent heard in the morning from the sister +of little Collett of the great engagement coming off; she was moved by +curiosity, and so the young ladies of her establishment beheld the young +gentlemen of Mr. Cuper's in furious division, and Matey's sore aim and +hard fling, equal to a slinger's, relieving J. Masner of a foremost +assailant with a spanker on the nob. They may have fancied him clever +for selecting a position rather comfortable, as things went, until they +had sight of him with his little French ally and two others, ammunition +boys to rear, descending one bank and scaling another right into the +flank of the enemy, when his old tower of a Masner was being heavily +pressed by numbers. Then came a fight hand to hand, but the enemy stood +in a clamp; not to split like a nut between crackers, they gave way and +rolled, backing in lumps from bank to ditch. + +The battle was over before the young ladies knew. They wondered to see +Matey shuffling on his coat and hopping along at easy bounds to pay his +respects to Miss Vincent, near whom was Browny; and this time he and +Browny talked together. He then introduced little Emile to her. She +spoke of Napoleon at Brienne, and complimented Matey. He said he was +cavalry, not artillery, that day. They talked to hear one another's +voices. By constantly appealing to Miss Vincent he made their +conversation together seem as under her conduct; and she took a slide on +some French phrases with little Emile. Her young ladies looked shrinking +and envious to see the fellows wet to the skin, laughing, wrestling, +linking arms; and some, who were clown-faced with a wipe of scarlet, +getting friends to rub their cheeks with snow, all of them happy as +larks in air, a big tea steaming for them at the school. Those girls +had a leap and a fail of the heart, glad to hug themselves in their dry +clothes, and not so warm as the dripping boys were, nor so madly fond of +their dress-circle seats to look on at a play they were not allowed even +to desire to share. They looked on at blows given and taken in good +temper, hardship sharpening jollity. The thought of the difference +between themselves and the boys must have been something like the tight +band--call it corset--over the chest, trying to lift and stretch for +draughts of air. But Browny's feeling naturally was, that all this +advantage for the boys came of Matey Weyburn's lead. + +Miss Vincent with her young ladies walked off in couples, orderly chicks, +the usual Sunday march of their every day. The school was coolish to +them; one of the fellows hummed bars of some hymn tune, rather faster +than church. And next day there was a murmur of letters passing between +Matey and Browny regularly, little Collett for postman. Anybody might +have guessed it, but the report spread a feeling that girls are not the +entirely artificial beings or flat targets we suppose. The school began +to brood, like air deadening on oven-heat. Winter is hen-mother to the +idea of love in schools, if the idea has fairly entered. Various girls of +different colours were selected by boys for animated correspondence, that +never existed and was vigorously prosecuted, with efforts to repress +contempt of them in courtship for their affections. They found their +part of it by no means difficult when they imagined the lines without +the words, or, better still, the letter without the lines. A holy +satisfaction belonged to the sealed thing; the breaking of the seal and +inspection of the contents imposed perplexity on that sentiment. They +thought of certain possible sentences Matey and Browny would exchange; +but the plain, conceivable, almost visible, outside of the letter had a +stronger spell for them than the visionary inside. This fancied +contemplation of the love-letter was reversed in them at once by the +startling news of Miss Vincent's discovery and seizure of the sealed +thing, and her examination of the burden it contained. Then their thirst +was for drama--to see, to drink every wonderful syllable those lovers had +written. + +Miss Vincent's hand was upon one of Matey's letters. She had come across +the sister of little Collett, Selina her name was, carrying it. She saw +nothing of the others. Aminta was not the girl to let her. Nor did Mr. +Cuper dare demand from Matey a sight or restitution of the young lady's +half of the correspondence. He preached heavily at Matey; deplored that +the boy he most trusted, etc.--the school could have repeated it without +hearing. We know the master's lecture in tones--it sings up to sing +down, and touches nobody. As soon as he dropped to natural talk, and +spoke of his responsibility and Miss Vincent's, Matey gave the word of +a man of honour that he would not seek to communicate farther with Miss +Farrell at the school. + +Now there was a regular thunder-hash among the boys on the rare occasions +when they met the girls. All that Matey and Browny were forbidden to +write they looked--much like what it had been before the discovery; +and they dragged the boys back from promised instant events. It was, +nevertheless, a heaving picture, like the sea in the background of a +marine piece at the theatre, which rouses anticipations of storm, and +shows readiness. Browny's full eyebrow sat on her dark eye like a cloud +of winter noons over the vanishing sun. Matey was the prisoner gazing at +light of a barred window and measuring the strength of the bars. She +looked unhappy, but looked unbeaten more. Her look at him fed the school +on thoughts of what love really is, when it is not fished out of books +and poetry. For though she was pale, starved and pale, they could see +she was never the one to be sighing; and as for him, he looked ground +dower all to edge. However much they puzzled over things, she made them +feel they were sure, as to her, that she drove straight and meant blood, +the life or death of it: all her own, if need be, and confidence in the +captain she had chosen. She could have been imagined saying, There is a +storm, but I am ready to embark with you this minute. + +That sign of courage in real danger ennobled her among girls. The name +Browny was put aside for a respectful Aminta. Big and bright events to +come out in the world were hinted, from the love of such a couple. The +boys were not ashamed to speak the very word love. How he does love that +girl! Well, and how she loves him! She did, but the boys had to be +seeing her look at Matey if they were to put the girl on some balanced +equality with a fellow she was compelled to love. It seemed to them that +he gave, and that she was a creature carried to him, like driftwood along +the current of the flood, given, in spite of herself. When they saw +those eyes of hers they were impressed with an idea of her as a voluntary +giver too; pretty well the half to the bargain; and it confused their +notion of feminine inferiority. They resolved to think her an +exceptional girl, which, in truth, they could easily do, for none +but an exceptional girl could win Matey to love her. + +Since nothing appeared likely to happen at the school, they speculated +upon what would occur out in the world, and were assisted to conjecture, +by a rumour, telling of Aminta Farrell's aunt as a resident at Dover. +Those were days when the benevolently international M. de Porquet had +begun to act as interpreter to English schools in the portico of the +French language; and under his guidance it was asked, in contempt of the +answer, Combien de postes d'ici a Douvres? But, accepting the rumour as +a piece of information, the answer became important. Ici was twenty +miles to the north-west of London. How long would it take Matey to reach +Donvres? Or at which of the combien did he intend to waylay and away +with Aminta? The boys went about pounding at the interrogative French +phrase in due sincerity, behind the burlesque of traveller bothering +coachman. Matey's designs could be finessed only by a knowledge of his +character: that he was not the fellow to give up the girl he had taken +to; and impediments might multiply, but he would bear them down. +Three days before the break-up of the school another rumour came tearing +through it: Aminta's aunt had withdrawn her from Miss Vincent's. And now +rose the question, two-dozen-mouthed, Did Matey know her address at +Douvres? His face grew stringy and his voice harder, and his eyes ready +to burst from a smother of fire. All the same, he did his work: he was +the good old fellow at games, considerate in school affairs, kind to the +youngsters; he was heard to laugh. He liked best the company of his +little French friend from Orthez, over whose shoulder his hand was laid +sometimes as they strolled and chatted in two languages. He really went +a long way to make French fellows popular, and the boys were sorry that +little Emile was off to finish his foreign education in Germany. His +English was pretty good, thanks to Matey. He went away, promising to +remember Old England, saying he was French first, and a Briton next. +He had lots of plunk; which accounted for Matey's choice of him as a +friend among the juniors. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +LADY CHARLOTTE + +Love-passages at a school must produce a ringing crisis if they are to +leave the rosy impression which spans the gap of holidays. Neither Matey +nor Browny returned to their yoke, and Cuper's boys recollected the +couple chiefly on Sundays. They remembered several of Matey's doings and +sayings: his running and high leaping, his bowling, a maxim or two of +his, and the tight strong fellow he was; also that the damsel's colour +distinctly counted for dark. She became nearly black in their minds. +Well, and Englishmen have been known to marry Indian princesses: some +have a liking for negresses. There are Nubians rather pretty in +pictures, if you can stand thick lips. Her colour does not matter, +provided the girl is of the right sort. The exchange of letters between +the lovers was mentioned. The discovery by Miss Vincent of their cool +habit of corresponding passed for an incident; and there it remained, +stiff as a poet, not being heated by a story to run. So the foregone +excitement lost warmth, and went out like a winter sun at noon or a match +lighted before the candle is handy. + +Lord Ormont continued to be a subject of discussion from time to time, +for he was a name in the newspapers; and Mr. Shalders had been worked by +Matey Weyburn into a state of raw antagonism at the mention of the +gallant General; he could not avoid sitting in judgement on him. + +According to Mr. Shalders, the opinion of all thoughtful people in +England was with John Company and the better part of the Press to condemn +Lord Ormont in his quarrel with the Commissioner of one of the Indian +provinces, who had the support of the Governor of his Presidency and of +the Viceroy; the latter not unreservedly, yet ostensibly inclined to +condemn a too prompt military hand. The Gordian knot of a difficulty cut +is agreeable in the contemplation of an official chief hesitating to use +the sword and benefiting by having it done for him. Lord Ormont +certainly cut the knot. + +Mr. Shalders was cornered by the boys, coming at him one after another +without a stop, vowing it was the exercise of a military judgement upon +a military question at a period of urgency, which had brought about the +quarrel with the Commissioner and the reproof of the Governor. He +betrayed the man completely cornered by generalizing. He said-- + +"We are a civilian people; we pride ourselves on having civilian +methods." + +"How can that be if we have won India with guns and swords?" + +"But that splendid jewel for England's tiara won," said he (and he might +as well have said crown), "we are bound to sheathe the sword and govern +by the Book of the Law." + +"But if they won't have the Book of the Law!" + +"They knew the power behind it." + +"Not if we knock nothing harder than the Book of the Law upon their +skulls." + +"Happily for the country, England's councils are not directed by boys!" + +"Ah, but we're speaking of India, Mr. Shalders." + +"You are presuming to speak of an act of insubordination committed by a +military officer under civilian command." + +"What if we find an influential prince engaged in conspiracy?" + +"We look for proof." + +"Suppose we have good proof?" + +"We summon him to exonerate himself." + +"No; we mount and ride straight away into his territory, spot the +treason, deport him, and rule in his place!" + +It was all very well for Mr. Shalders to say he talked to boys; he was +cornered again, as his shrug confessed. + +The boys asked among themselves whether he would have taken the same view +if his Murat had done it! + +These illogical boys fought for Matey Weyburn in their defence of Lord +Ormont. Somewhere, they wee sure, old Matey was hammering to the same +end--they could hear him. Thought of him inspired them to unwonted +argumentative energy, that they might support his cause; and scatter the +gloomy prediction of the school, as going to the dogs now Matey had left. + +The subject provoked everywhere in Great Britain a division similar to +that between master and boys at Cuper's establishment: one party for our +modern English magisterial methods with Indians, the other for the +decisive Oriental at the early time, to suit their native tastes; and the +Book of the Law is to be conciliatingly addressed to their sentiments by +a benign civilizing Power, or the sword is out smartly at the hint of a +warning to protect the sword's conquests. Under one aspect we appear +potteringly European; under another, drunk of the East. + +Lord Ormont's ride at the head of two hundred horsemen across a stretch +of country including hill and forest, to fall like a bolt from the blue +on the suspected Prince in the midst of his gathering warriors, was a +handsome piece of daring, and the high-handed treatment of the Prince was +held by his advocates to be justified by the provocation, and the result. +He scattered an unprepared body of many hundreds, who might have +enveloped him, and who would presumptively have stood their ground, had +they not taken his handful to be the advance of regiments. These are the +deeds that win empires! the argument in his favour ran. Are they of a +character to maintain empires? the counter-question was urged. Men of a +deliberative aspect were not wanting in approval of the sharp and summary +of the sword in air when we have to deal with Indians. They chose to +regard it as a matter of the dealing with Indians, and put aside the +question of the contempt of civil authority. + +Counting the cries, Lord Ormont won his case. Festival aldermen, smoking +clubmen, buckskin squires, obsequious yet privately excitable tradesmen, +sedentary coachmen and cabmen, of Viking descent, were set to think like +boys about him: and the boys, the women, and the poets formed a tipsy +chorea. Journalists, on the whole, were fairly halved, as regarded +numbers. In relation to weight, they were with the burgess and the +presbyter; they preponderated heavily in the direction of England's +burgess view of all cases disputed between civilian and soldier. +But that was when the peril was over. + +Admirers of Lord Ormont enjoyed a perusal of a letter addressed by him to +the burgess's journal; and so did his detractors. The printing of it was +an act of editorial ruthlessness. The noble soldier had no mould in his +intellectual or educational foundry for the casting of sentences; and the +editor's leading type to the letter, without further notice of the +writer--who was given a prominent place or scaffolding for the execution +of himself publicly, if it pleased him to do that thing--tickled the +critical mind. Lord Ormont wrote intemperately. + +His Titanic hurling of blocks against critics did no harm to an enemy +skilled in the use of trimmer weapons, notably the fine one of letting +big missiles rebound. He wrote from India, with Indian heat--"curry and +capsicums," it was remarked. He dared to claim the countenance of the +Commander-in-chief of the Army of India for an act disapproved by the +India House. Other letters might be on their way, curryer than the +preceding, his friends feared; and might also be malevolently printed, +similarly commissioning the reverberation of them to belabour his name +before the public. Admirers were still prepared to admire; but aldermen +not at the feast, squire-archs not in the saddle or at the bottle, some +few of the juvenile and female fervent, were becoming susceptible to a +frosty critical tone in the public pronunciation of Lord Ormont's name +since the printing of his letter and the letters it called forth. None +of them doubted that his case was good. The doubt concerned the effect +on it of his manner of pleading it. And if he damaged his case, he +compromised his admirers. Why, the case of a man who has cleverly won a +bold stroke for his country must be good, as long as he holds his tongue. +A grateful country will right him in the end: he has only to wait, and +not so very long. "This I did: now examine it." Nothing more needed to +be said by him, if that. + +True, he has a temper. It is owned that he is a hero. We take him with +his qualities, impetuosity being one, and not unsuited to his arm of the +service, as be has shown. If his temper is high, it is an element of a +character proved heroical. So has the sun his blotches, and we believe +that they go to nourish the luminary, rather than that they are a disease +of the photosphere. + +Lord Ormont's apologists had to contend with anecdotes and dicta now +pouring in from offended Britons, for illustration of an impetuosity +fit to make another Charley XII. of Sweden--a gratuitous Coriolanus +haughtiness as well, new among a people accustomed socially to bow the +head to their nobles, and not, of late, expecting a kick for their pains. +Newspapers wrote of him that, "a martinet to subordinates, he was known +for the most unruly of lieutenants." They alluded to current sayings, +as that he "habitually took counsel of his horse on the field when a +movement was entrusted to his discretion." Numerous were the +journalistic sentences running under an air of eulogy of the lordly +warrior purposely to be tripped, and producing their damnable effect, +despite the obvious artifice. The writer of the letter from Bombay, +signed Ormont, was a born subject for the antithetical craftsmen's +tricky springes. + +He was, additionally, of infamous repute for morale in burgess +estimation, from his having a keen appreciation of female beauty and +a prickly sense of masculine honour. The stir to his name roused +pestilential domestic stories. In those days the aristocrat still +claimed licence, and eminent soldier-nobles, comporting themselves as +imitative servants of their god Mars, on the fields of love and war, +stood necessarily prepared to vindicate their conduct as the field of the +measured paces, without deeming themselves bounden to defend the course +they took. Our burgess, who bowed head to his aristocrat, and hired the +soldier to fight for him, could not see that such mis-behaviour +necessarily ensued. Lord Ormont had fought duels at home and abroad. +His readiness to fight again, and against odds, and with a totally unused +weapon, was exhibited by his attack on the Press in the columns of the +Press. It wore the comical face to the friends deploring it, which +belongs to things we do that are so very like us. They agreed with his +devoted sister, Lady Charlotte Eglett, as to the prudence of keeping him +out of England for a time, if possible. + +At the first perusal of the letter, Lady Charlotte quitted her place in +Leicestershire, husband, horses, guests, the hunt, to scour across a +vacant London and pick up acquaintances under stress to be spots there in +the hunting season, with them to gossip for counsel on the subject of +"Ormont's hand-grenade," and how to stop and extinguish a second. She +was a person given to plain speech. "Stinkpot" she called it, when +acknowledging foul elements in the composition and the harm it did to +the unskilful balist. Her view of the burgess English imaged a mighty +monster behind bars, to whom we offer anything but our hand. As soon as +he gets held of that he has you; he won't let it loose with flesh on the +bones. We must offend him--we can't be man or woman without offending +his tastes and his worships; but while we keep from contact (i.e. +intercommunication) he may growl, he is harmless. Witness the many +occasions when her brother offended worse, and had been unworried, only +growled at, and distantly, not in a way to rouse concern; and at the neat +review, or procession into the City, or public display of any sort, +Ormont had but to show himself, he was the popular favourite immediately. +He had not committed the folly of writing a letter to a newspaper then. + +Lady Charlotte paid an early visit to the office of the great London +solicitor, Arthur Abner, who wielded the law as an instrument of +protection for countless illustrious people afflicted by what they stir +or attract in a wealthy metropolis. She went simply to gossip of her +brother's affairs with a refreshing man of the world, not given to +circumlocutions, and not afraid of her: she had no deeper object; +but fancying she heard the clerk, on his jump from the stool, inform her +that Mr. Abner was out, "Out?" she cried, and rattled the room, thumping, +under knitted brows. "Out of town?" For a man of business taking +holidays, when a lady craves for gossip, disappointed her faith in him as +cruelly as the shut-up, empty inn the broken hunter knocking at a hollow +door miles off home. + +Mr. Abner, hatted and gloved and smiling, came forth. "Going out, the +man meant, Lady Charlotte. At your service for five minutes." + +She complimented his acuteness, in the remark, "You see I've only come to +chat," and entered his room. + +He led her to her theme: "The excitement is pretty well over." + +"My brother's my chief care--always was. I'm afraid he'll be +pitchforking at it again, and we shall have another blast. That letter +ought never to have been printed. That editor deserves the horsewhip for +letting it appear. If he prints a second one I shall treat him as a +personal enemy." + +"Better make a friend of him." + +"How?" + +"Meet him at my table." + +She jumped an illumined half-about on her chair. "So I will, then. What +are the creature's tastes?" + +"Hunts, does he?" The editor rose in her mind from the state of neuter +to something of a man. "I recollect an article in that paper on the +Ormont duel. I hate duelling, but I side with my brother. I had to +laugh, though. Luckily, there's no woman on hand at present, as far as +I know. Ormont's not likely to be hooked by garrison women or blacks. +Those coloured women--some of ours too--send the nose to the clouds; +not a bad sign for health. And there are men like that old Cardinal +Guicciardini tells of...hum! Ormont's not one of them. I hope he'll +stay in India till this blows over, or I shall be hearing of +provocations." + +"You have seen the Duke?" + +She nodded. Her reserve was a summary of the interview. "Kind, as he +always is," she said. "Ormont has no chance of employment unless there's +a European war. They can't overlook him in case of war. He'll have to +pray for that." + +"Let us hope we shan't get it." + +"My wish; but I have to think of my brother. If he's in England with no +employment, he's in a mess with women and men both. He kicks if he's +laid aside to rust. He has a big heart. That's what I said: all he +wants is to serve his country. If you won't have war, give him Gibraltar +or Malta, or command of one of our military districts. The South-eastern +'ll be vacant soon. He'd like to be Constable of the Castle, and have an +eye on France." + +"I think he's fond of the French?" + +"Loves the French. Expects to have to fight them all the same. He loves +his country best. Here's the man everybody's abusing!" + +"I demur, my lady. I was dining the other day with a client of mine, and +a youngster was present who spoke of Lord Ormont in a way I should like +you to have heard. He seemed to know the whole of Lord Ormont's career, +from the time of the ride to Paraguay up to the capture of the plotting +Rajah. He carried the table." + +"Good boy! We must turn to the boys for justice, then. Name your day +for this man, this editor." + +"I will see him. You shall have the day to-night." + +Lady Charlotte and the editor met. She was racy, he anecdotal. Stag, +fox, and hare ran before them, over fields and through drawing-rooms: the +scent was rich. They found that they could talk to one another as they +thought; that he was not the Isle-bound burgess, nor she the postured +English great lady; and they exchanged salt, without which your current +scandal is of exhausted savour. They enjoyed the peculiar novel relish +of it, coming from a social pressman and a dame of high society. The +different hemispheres became known as one sphere to these birds of broad +wing convening in the upper blue above a quartered carcase earth. + +A week later a letter, the envelope of a bulky letter in Lord Ormont's +handwriting, reached Lady Charlotte. There was a line from the editor: + + "Would it please your ladyship to have this printed?" + +She read the letter, and replied: + + "Come to me for six days; you shall have the best mount in the + county." + +An editor devoid of malice might probably have forborne to print a letter +that appealed to Lady Charlotte, or touched her sensations, as if a +glimpse of the moon, on the homeward ride in winter on a nodding horse, +had suddenly bared to view a precipitous quarry within two steps. There +is no knowing: few men can forbear to tell a spicy story of their +friends; and an editor, to whom an exhibition of the immensely +preposterous on the part of one writing arrogantly must be provocative, +would feel the interests of his Journal, not to speak of the claims of +readers, pluck at him when he meditated the consignment of such a +precious composition to extinction. Lady Charlotte withheld a sight of +the letter from Mr. Eglett. She laid it in her desk, understanding well +that it was a laugh lost to the world. Poets could reasonably feign it +to shake the desk inclosing it. She had a strong sense of humour; her +mind reverted to the desk in a way to make her lips shut grimly. She +sided with her brother. + +Only pen in hand did he lay himself open to the enemy. In his personal +intercourse he was the last of men to be taken at a disadvantage. Lady +Charlotte was brought round to the distasteful idea of some help coming +from a legitimate adjunct at his elbow: a restraining woman--wife, it had +to be said. And to name the word wife for Thomas Rowsley, Earl of +Ormont, put up the porcupine quills she bristled with at the survey of a +sex thirsting, and likely to continue thirsting, for such honour. What +woman had she known fit to bear the name? She had assumed the judicial +seat upon the pretensions of several, and dismissed them to their limbo, +after testifying against them. Who is to know the fit one in these mines +of deception? Women of the class offering wives decline to be taken on +trial; they are boxes of puzzles--often dire surprises. Her brother knew +them well enough to shy at the box. Her brother Rowsley had a funny +pride, like a boy at a game, at the never having been caught by one among +the many he made captive. She let him have it all to himself. + +He boasted it to a sister sharing the pride exultant in the cry of the +hawk, scornful of ambitions poultry, a passed finger-post to the plucked, +and really regretful that no woman had been created fit for him. When +she was not aiding with her brother, women, however contemptible for +their weakness, appeared to her as better than barn-door fowl, or vermin +in their multitudes gnawing to get at the cheese-trap. She could be +humane, even sisterly, with women whose conduct or prattle did not +outrage plain sense, just as the stickler for the privileges of her class +was large-heartedly charitable to the classes flowing in oily orderliness +round about below it--if they did so flow. Unable to read woman's +character, except upon the broadest lines as it were the spider's main +threads of its web, she read men minutely, from the fact that they were +neither mysteries nor terrors to her; but creatures of importunate +appetites, humorous objects; very manageable, if we leave the road to +their muscles, dress their wounds, smoothe their creases, plume their +vanity; and she had an unerring eye for the man to be used when a blow +was needed, methods for setting him in action likewise. She knew how +much stronger than ordinary men the woman who can put them in motion. +They can be set to serve as pieces of cannon, under compliments on their +superior powers, which were not all undervalued by her on their own +merits, for she worshipped strength. But the said, with a certain amount +of truth, that the women unaware of the advantage Society gave them (as +to mastering men) were fools. + +Tender, is not a word coming near to Lady Charlotte. Thoughtful on +behalf of the poor foolish victims of men she was. She had saved some, +avenged others. It should be stated, that her notion of saving was the +saving of them from the public: she had thrown up a screen. The saving +of them from themselves was another matter--hopeless, to her thinking. +How preach at a creature on the bend of passion's rapids! One might as +well read a chapter from the Bible to delirious patients. When once a +woman is taken with the love-passion, we must treat her as bitten; hide +her antics from the public: that is the principal business. If she +recovers, she resumes her place, and horrid old Nature, who drove her to +the frenzy, is unlikely to bother or, at least, overthrow her again, +unless she is one of the detestable wantons, past compassion or +consideration. In the case reviewed, the woman has gone through fire, +and is none the worse for her experiences: worth ten times what she was, +to an honest man, if men could be got to see it. Some do. Of those men +who do not, Lady Charlotte spoke with the old family-nurse humour, which +is familiar with the tricks and frailties of the infants; and it is a +knife to probe the male, while seemingly it does the part of the napkin-- +pities and pats. They expect a return of much for the little that is +next to nothing. They are fall of expectations: and of what else? +They are hard bargainers. + +She thought this of men; and she liked men by choice. She had old +nurse's preference for the lustier male child. The others are puling +things, easier to rear, because they bend better; and less esteemed, +though they give less trouble, rouse less care. But when it came to the +duel between the man and the woman, her sense of justice was moved to +join her with the party of her unfairly handled sisters--a strong party, +if it were not so cowardly, she had to think. + +Mr. Eglett, her husband, accepted her--accepted the position into which +he naturally fell beside her, and the ideas she imposed on him; for she +never went counter to his principles. These were the fixed principles of +a very wealthy man, who abhorred debt, and was punctilious in veracity, +scrupulous in cleanliness of mind and body, devoted to the honour of his +country, the interests of his class. She respected the high landmark +possessing such principles; and she was therefore enabled to lead without +the wish to rule. As it had been between them at the beginning, so it +was now, when they were grandparents running on three lines of progeny +from two daughters and a son: they were excellent friends. Few couples +can say more. The union was good English grey--that of a prolonged +November, to which we are reconciled by occasions for the hunt and the +gun. She was, nevertheless, an impassioned woman. The feeling for her +brother helped to satisfy her heart's fires, though as little with her +brother as with her husband was she demonstrative. Lord Ormont +disrelished the caresses of relatives. + +She, for her part, had so strong a sympathy on behalf of poor gentlemen +reduced to submit to any but a young woman's hug, that when, bronzed from +India, he quitted the carriage and mounted her steps at Olmer, the desire +to fling herself on his neck and breast took form in the words: "Here you +are home again, Rowsley; glad to have you." They shook hands firmly. + +He remained three days at Olmer. His temper was mild, his frame of mind +bad as could be. Angry evaporations had left a residuum of solid scorn +for these "English," who rewarded soldierly services as though it were a +question of damaged packages of calico. He threatened to take the first +offer of a foreign State "not in insurrection." But clear sky was +overhead. He was the Rowsley of the old boyish delight in field sports, +reminiscences of prowlings and trappings in the woods, gropings along +water-banks, enjoyment of racy gossip. He spoke wrathfully of "one of +their newspapers" which steadily persisted in withholding from +publication every letter he wrote to it, after printing the first. +And if it printed one, why not the others? + +Lady Charlotte put it on the quaintness of editors. + +He had found in London, perhaps, reason for saying that he should do +well to be "out of this country" as early as he could; adding, presently, +that he meant to go, though "it broke his heart to keep away from a six +months' rest at Steignton," his Wiltshire estate. + +No woman was in the field. Lady Charlotte could have submitted to the +intrusion of one of those at times wholesome victims, for the sake of the +mollification the unhappy proud thing might bring to a hero smarting +under injustice at the hands of chiefs and authorities. + +He passed on to Steignton, returned to London, and left England for +Spain, as he wrote word, saying he hoped to settle at Steignton neat +year. He was absent the next year, and longer. Lady Charlotte had the +surprising news that Steignton was let, shooting and all, for five years; +and he had no appointment out of England or at home. When he came to +Olmer again he was under one of his fits of reserve, best undisturbed. +Her sympathy with a great soldier snubbed, an active man rusting, kept +her from remonstrance. + +Three years later she was made meditative by the discovery of a woman's +being absolutely in the field, mistress of the field; and having been +there for a considerable period, dating from about the time when he +turned his back on England to visit a comrade-in-arms condemned by the +doctors to pass the winter in Malaga; and it was a young woman, a girl +in her teens, a handsome girl. Handsome was to be expected; Ormont +bargained for beauty. But report said the girl was very handsome, and +showed breeding: she seemed a foreigner, walked like a Goddess, sat her +horse the perfect Amazon. Rumour called her a Spaniard. + +"Not if she rides!" Lady Charlotte cut that short. + +Rumour had subsequently more to say. The reporter in her ear did not +confirm it, and she was resolutely deaf to a story incredible of her +brother--the man, of all men living, proudest of his name, blood, +station. So proud was he by nature, too, that he disdained to complain +of rank injustice; he maintained a cheerful front against adversity and +obloquy. And this man of complete self-command, who has every form of +noble pride, gets cajoled like a twenty-year-old yahoo at college! Do +you imagine it? To suppose of a man cherishing the name of Ormont, that +he would bestow it legally on a woman, a stranger, and imperil his race +by mixing blood with a creature of unknown lineage, was--why, of course, +it was to suppose him struck mad, and there never had been madness among +the Ormonts: they were too careful of the purity of the strain. Lady +Charlotte talked. She was excited, and ran her sentences to blanks, a +cunning way for ministering consolation to her hearing, where the +sentence intended a question, and the blank ending caught up the query +tone and carried it dwindling away to the most distant of throttled +interrogatives. She had, in this manner, only to ask,--her hearing +received the comforting answer it desired; for she could take that thin +far sound as a travelling laughter of incredulity, triumphant derision. + +This meant to her--though she scarcely knew it, though the most wilful of +women declined to know it--a state of alarm. She had said of her brother +in past days that he would have his time of danger after striking sixty. +The dangerous person was to be young. + +But, then, Ormont had high principles with regard to the dues to his +family. His principles could always be trusted. The dangerous young +person would have to be a person of lineage, of a certain station at +least: no need for a titled woman, only for warranted good blood. Is +that to be found certificated out of the rolls of Society? It may just +possibly be found, without certificate, however, in those muddled caverns +where the excluded intermingle. Here and there, in a peasant family, +or a small country tradesman's just raised above a peasant, honest +regenerating blood will be found. Nobles wanting refreshment from the +soil might do worse than try a slip of one of those juicy weeds; ill- +fated, sickly Royalties would be set-up striding through another half- +century with such invigoration, if it could be done for them! There are +tales. The tales are honourably discredited by the crazy constitutions +of the heirs to the diadem. + +Yes, but we are speculating on the matter seriously, as though it were +one of intimate concern to the family. What is there to make us think +that Ormont would marry? Impossible to imagine him intimidated. +Unlikely that he, a practised reader of women, having so little of the +woman in him, would be melted by a wily girl; as women in the twilight +situation have often played the trick to come into the bright beams. +How? They do a desperate thing, and call it generosity, and then they +appeal from it to my lord's generosity; and so the two generosities drive +off in a close carriage with a friend and a professional landlady for the +blessing of the parson, and are legitimately united. Women have won +round fools to give way in that way. And quite right too! thought Lady +Charlotte, siding with nature and justice, as she reflected that no woman +created would win round her brother to give way in that way. He was too +acute. The moment the woman showed sign of becoming an actress, her doom +was written. "Poor idiot!" was not uncharitably inscribed by the +sisterly lady on the tombstone of hopes aimed with scarce pardonable +ambition at her brother. + +She blew away the rumour. Ormont, she vowed, had not entitled any woman +to share and bear his title. And this was her interpretation of the +report: he permitted (if he did permit) the woman to take his name, +that he might have a scornful fling at the world maltreating him. +Besides, the name was not published, it was not to be seen in the papers; +it passed merely among male friends, tradesmen, servants: no great harm +in that. + +Listen further. Here is an unknown girl: why should he marry her? +A girl consenting to the place beside a man of his handsome ripe age, +is either bought, or she is madly enamoured; she does not dictate terms. +Ormont is not of the brute buyers in that market. One sees it is the +girl who leads the dance. A girl is rarely so madly enamoured as when +she falls in love with her grandfather; she pitches herself at his head. +This had not happened for the first time in Ormont's case; and he had +never proposed marriage. Why should he do it now? + +But again, if the girl has breeding to some extent, he might think it her +due that she should pass under the safeguard of his name, out of sight. + +Then, so far the report is trustworthy. We blow the rumour out of +belief. A young woman there is: she is not a wife. Lady Charlotte +allowed her the fairly respectable post of Hecate of the Shades, as long +as the girl was no pretender to the place and name in the upper sphere. +Her deductions were plausible, convincing to friends shaken by her +vehement manner of coming at them. She convinced herself by means of her +multitude of reasons for not pursuing inquiry. Her brother said nothing. +There was no need for him to speak. He seemed on one or two occasions in +the act of getting himself together for the communication of a secret; +and she made ready to listen hard, with ears, eyebrows, shut month, and a +gleam at the back of her eyes, for a signification of something she would +refer him to after he had spoken. He looked at her and held his peace, +or virtually held it,--that is, he said not one word on the subject she +was to have told him she had anticipated. Lady Charlotte ascribed it to +his recollection of the quick blusher, the pained blusher, she was in her +girlhood at mention or print of the story of men and women. Who, not +having known her, could conceive it! But who could conceive that, behind +the positive, plain-dealing, downright woman of the world, there was at +times, when a nerve was touched or an old blocked path of imagination +thrown open, a sensitive youthfulness; still quick to blush as far as the +skin of a grandmother matron might show it! + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE TUTOR + +There was no counting now on Lord Ormont's presence in the British +gathering seasons, when wheatears wing across our fields or swallows +return to their eaves. He forsook the hunt to roam the Continent, one of +the vulgar band of tourists, honouring town only when Mayflies had flown, +and London's indiscriminate people went about without their volatile +heads. + +Lady Charlotte put these changed conditions upon the behaviour of the +military authorities to her brother, saying that the wonder was he did +not shake the dust of his country from his feet. In her wise head she +rejoiced to think he was not the donkey she sketched for admiration; and +she was partly consoled, or played at the taking of a comfort needed in +her perpetual struggle with a phantom of a fact, by the reflection that a +young woman on his arm would tense him to feel himself more at home +abroad. Her mind's habit of living warmly beside him in separation was +vexed by the fixed intrusion of a female third person, who checked the +run of intimate chatter, especially damped the fancied talk over early +days--of which the creature was ignorant; and her propinquity to him +arrested or broke the dialogue Lady Charlotte invented and pressed to +renew. But a wife, while letting him be seen, would have insisted on +appropriating the thought of him--all his days, past as well as present. +An impassioned sister's jealousy preferred that it should not be a wife +reigning to dispute her share of her brother in imagination. + +Then came a rumour, telling of him as engaged upon the composition of his +Memoirs. + +Lady Charlotte's impulsive outcry: "Writing them?" signified her grounds +for alarm. + +Happily, Memoirs are not among the silly deeds done in a moment; they +were somewhere ahead and over the hills: a band of brigands rather than a +homely shining mansion, it was true; but distant; and a principal +question shrieked to know whether he was composing them for publication. +She could look forward with a girl's pleasure to the perusal of them in +manuscript, in a woody nook, in a fervour of partizanship, easily +avoiding sight of errors, grammatical or moral. She chafed at the +possible printing and publishing of them. That would be equivalent to an +exhibition of him clean-stripped for a run across London--brilliant in +himself, spotty in the offence. Published Memoirs indicate the end of a +man's activity, and that he acknowledges the end; and at a period of Lord +Ormont's life when the denial of it should thunder. They are his final +chapter, making mummy of the grand figure they wrap in the printed stuff. +They are virtually his apology. Can those knowing Lord Ormont hear him +apologize? But it is a craven apology if we stoop to expound: we are +seen as pleading our case before the public. Call it by any name you +please, and under any attitude, it is that. And set aside the writing: +it may be perfect; the act is the degradation. It is a rousing of +swarms. His friends and the public will see the proudest nobleman of his +day, pleading his case in mangled English, in the headlong of an out- +poured, undrilled, rabble vocabulary, doubling the ridicule by his +imperturbability over the ridicule he excites: he who is no more +ridiculous, cried the partizan sister, conjuring up the scene, not an ace +more ridiculous, than a judge of assize calling himself miserable sinner +on Sunday before the parson, after he has very properly condemned half a +score of weekday miserable sinners to penal servitude or the rope. +Nobody laughs at the judge. Everybody will be laughing at the scornful +man down half-way to his knee-cape with a stutter of an apology for +having done his duty to his country, after stigmatizing numbers for +inability or ill-will to do it. But Ormont's weapon is the sword, not a +pen! Lady Charlotte hunted her simile till the dogs had it or it ran to +earth. + +She struck at the conclusion, that the young woman had been persuading +him. An adoring young woman is the person to imagine and induce to the +commission of such folly. "What do you think? You have seen her, you +say?" she asked of a man she welcomed for his flavour of the worldling's +fine bile. + +Lord Adderwood made answer: "She may be having a hand in it. She +worships, and that is your way of pulling gods to the ground." + +"Does she understand good English?" + +"Speaks it." + +"Can she write?" + +"I have never had a letter from her." + +"You tell me Morsfield admires the woman--would marry her to-morrow, +if he could get her." + +"He would go through the ceremony Ormont has performed, I do not doubt." + +"I don't doubt all of you are ready. She doesn't encourage one?" + +"On the contrary, all." + +"She's clever. This has been going on for now seven years, and, as far +as I know, she has my brother fast." + +"She may have done the clever trick of having him fast from the +beginning." + +"She'd like people to think it." + +"She has an aunt to advertise it." + +"Ormont can't swallow the woman, I'm told." + +"Trying, if one is bound to get her down!" + +"Boasts of the connection everywhere she's admitted, Randeller says." + +"Randeller procures the admission to various parti-coloured places." + +"She must be a blinking moll-owl! And I ask any sane Christian or Pagan- +-proof enough!--would my brother Rowsley let his wife visit those places, +those people? Monstrous to have the suspicion that he would, you know +him! Mrs. Lawrence Finchley, for example. I say nothing to hurt the +poor woman; I back her against her imbecile of a husband. He brings a +charge he can't support; she punishes him by taking three years' lease of +independence and kicks up the grass all over the paddock, and then comes +cuckoo, barking his name abroad to have her home again. You can win the +shyest filly to corn at last. She goes, and he digests ruefully the +hotch-potch of a dish the woman brings him. Only the world spies a side- +head at her, husbanded or not, though the main fault was his, and she had +a right to insist that he should be sure of his charge before he smacked +her in the face with it before the world. In dealing with a woman, a man +commonly prudent--put aside chivalry, justice, and the rest--should bind +himself to disbelieve what he can't prove. Otherwise, let him expect his +whipping, with or without ornament. My opinion is, Lawrence Finchley had +no solid foundation for his charge, except his being an imbecile. She +wasn't one of the adventurous women to jump the bars,--the gate had to be +pushed open, and he did it. There she is; and I ask you, would my +brother Rowsley let his wife be intimate with her? And there are others. +And, sauf votre respect, the men--Morsfield for one, Randeller another!" + +"They have a wholesome dread of the lion." + +"If they smell a chance with the lion's bone--it's the sweeter for being +the lion's. These metaphors carry us off our ground. I must let these +Ormont Memoirs run and upset him, if they get to print. I've only to +oppose, printed they'll be. The same if I say a word of this woman, he +marries her to-morrow morning. You speak of my driving men. Why can't I +drive Ormont? Because I'm too fond of him. There you have the secret of +the subjection of women: they can hold their own, and a bit more, when +they've no enemy beating inside." + +"Hearts!--ah, well, it's possible. I don't say no; I've not discovered +them," Lord Adderwood observed. + +They are rarely discovered in the haunts he frequented. + +Her allusion to Mrs. Lawrence Finchley rapped him smartly, and she +admired his impassiveness under the stroke. Such a spectacle was one of +her pleasures. + +Lady Charlotte mentioned incidentally her want of a tutor for her +grandson Leo during the winter holidays. He suggested an application to +the clergyman of her parish. She was at feud with the Rev. Stephen +Hampton-Evey, and would not take, she said, a man to be a bootblack in +her backyard or a woman a scullery-wench in her kitchen upon his +recommendation. She described the person of Mr. Hampton-Evey, his manner +of speech, general opinions, professional doctrines; rolled him into a +ball and bowled him, with a shrug for lamentation, over the decay of the +good old order of manly English Protestant clergymen, who drank their +port, bothered nobody about belief, abstained from preaching their +sermon, if requested; were capital fellows in the hunting-field, too; for +if they came, they had the spur to hunt in the devil's despite. Now we +are going to have a kind of bitter, clawed, forked female, in vestments +over breeches. "How do you like that bundling of the sexes?" + +Lord Adderwood liked the lines of division to be strictly and invitingly +definite. He was thinking, as he reviewed the frittered appearance of +the Rev. Stephen Hampton-Evey in Lady Charlotte's hinds, of the +possibility that Lord Ormont, who was reputed to fear nobody, feared her. +In which case, the handsome young woman passing among his associates as +the pseudo Lady Ormont might be the real one after all, and Isabella +Lawrence Finchley prove right in the warning she gave to dogs of chase. + +The tutor required by Lady Charlotte was found for her by Mr. Abner. +Their correspondence on the subject filled the space of a week, and then +the gentleman hired to drive a creaky wheel came down from London to +Olmer, arriving late in the evening. + +Lady Charlotte's blunt "Oh!" when he entered her room and bowed upon the +announcement of his name, was caused by an instantaneous perception and +refection that it would be prudent to keep her grand-daughter Philippa, +aged between seventeen and eighteen, out of his way. + +"You are friend of Mr. Abner's, are you?" + +He was not disconcerted. He replied, in an assured and pleasant voice, +"I have hardly the pretension to be called a friend, madam." + +"Are you a Jew?" + +Her abruptness knocked something like a laugh almost out of him, but he +restrained the signs of it. + +"I am not." + +"You wouldn't be ashamed to tell me you were one if you were?" + +"Not at all." + +"You like the Jews?" + +"Those I know I like." + +"Not many Christians have the good sense and the good heart of Arthur +Abner. Now go and eat. Come back to me when you've done. I hope you +are hungry. Ask the butler for the wine you prefer." + +She had not anticipated the enrolment in her household of a man so young +and good-looking. These were qualifications for Cupid's business, which +his unstrained self-possession accentuated to a note of danger to her +chicks, because she liked the taste of him. Her grand-daughter Philippa +was in the girl's waxen age; another, Beatrice, was coming to it. Both +were under her care; and she was a vigilant woman, with an intuition and +a knowledge of sex. She did not blame Arthur Abner for sending her a +good-looking young man; she had only a general idea that tutors in a +house, and even visiting tutors, should smell of dust and wear a snuffy +appearance. The conditions will not always insure the tutors from +foolishness, as her girl's experience reminded her, but they protect the +girl. + +"Your name is Weyburn; your father was an officer in the army, killed on +the battle-field, Arthur Abner tells me," was her somewhat severely-toned +greeting to the young tutor on his presenting himself the second time. + +It had the sound of the preliminary of an indictment read in a Court of +Law. + +"My father died of his wounds in hospital," he said. + +"Why did you not enter the service?" + +"Want of an income, my lady." + +"Bad look-out. Army or Navy for gentlemen, if they stick to the school +of honour. The sedentary professions corrupt men: bad for the blood. +Those monastery monks found that out. They had to birch the devil out of +them three times a day and half the night, howling like full-moon dogs +all through their lives, till the flesh was off them. That was their +exercise, if they were for holiness. My brother, Lord Ormont, has never +been still in his youth or his manhood. See him now. He counts his +years by scores; and be has about as many wrinkles as you when you're +smiling. His cheeks are as red as yours now you're blushing. You ought +to have left off that trick by this time. It's well enough in a boy." + +Against her will she was drawn to the young man, and her consciousness of +it plucked her back to caution with occasional jerks--quaint alternations +of the familiar and the harshly formal, in the stranger's experience. + +"If I have your permission, Lady Charlotte," said he, "the reason why I +mount red a little--if I do it--is, you mention Lord Ormont, and I have +followed his career since I was the youngest of boys." + +"Good to begin with the worship of a hero. He can't sham, can't deceive +--not even a woman; and you're old enough to understand the temptation: +they're so silly. All the more, it's a point of honour with a man of +honour to shield her from herself. When it's a girl--" + +The young man's eyebrows bent. + +"Chapters of stories, if you want to hear them," she resumed; "and I can +vouch some of them true. Lord Ormont was never one of the wolves in a +hood. Whatever you hear of him; you may be sure he laid no trap. He's +just the opposite to the hypocrite; so hypocrites date him. I've heard +them called high-priests of decency. Then we choose to be indecent and +honest, if there's a God to worship. Fear, they're in the habit of +saying--we are to fear God. A man here, a Rev. Hampton-Evey, you'll hear +him harp on 'fear God.' Hypocrites may: honest sinners have no fear. +And see the cause: they don't deceive themselves--that is why. Do you +think we call love what we fear? They love God, or they disbelieve. +And if they believe in Him, they know they can't conceal anything from +Him. Honesty means piety: we can't be one without the other. And here +are people--parsons--who talk of dying as going into the presence of our +Maker, as if He had been all the while outside the world He created. +Those parsons, I told the Rev. Hampton-Evey here, make infidels--they +make a puzzle of their God. I'm for a rational Deity. They preach up +a supernatural eccentric. I don't say all: I've heard good sermons, +and met sound-headed clergymen--not like that gaping Hampton-Evey, +when a woman tells him she thinks for herself. We have him sitting on +our pariah. A free-thinker startles him as a kind of demon; but a female +free-thinker is one of Satan's concubines. He took it upon himself to +reproach me--flung his glove at my feet, because I sent a cheque to a +poor man punished for blasphemy. The man had the right to his opinions, +and he had the courage of his opinions. I doubt whether the Rev. +Hampton-Evey would go with a willing heart to prison for his. All the +better for him if he comes head-up out of a trial. But now see: all +these parsons and judges and mobcaps insist upon conformity. A man with +common manly courage comes before them, and he's cast in penalties. Yet +we know from history, in England, France, Germany, that the time of +nonconformity brought out the manhood of the nation. Now, I say, a +nation, to be a nation, must have men--I mean brave men. That's what +those hosts of female men combine to try to stifle. They won't succeed, +but we shall want a war to teach the country the value of courage. You +catch what I am driving at? They accuse my brother of immorality because +he makes no pretence to be better than the men of his class." + +Weyburn's eyelids fluttered. Her kite-like ascent into the general, with +the sudden drop on her choice morsel, switched his humour at the moment +when he was respectfully considering that her dartings and gyrations had +motive as mach as the flight of the swallow for food. They had meaning; +and here was one of the great ladies of the land who thought for herself, +and was thoughtful for the country. If she came down like a bird winged, +it was her love of her brother that did it. His look at Lady Charlotte +glistened. + +She raised her defences against the basilisk fascinating Philippa; and +with a vow to keep them apart and deprive him of his chance, she relapsed +upon the stiff frigidity which was not natural to her. It lasted long +enough to put him on his guard under the seductions of a noble dame's +condescension to a familiar tone. But, as he was too well bred to show +the change in his mind for her change of manner, and as she was the +sister of his boyhood's hero, and could be full of flavour, his eyes +retained something of their sparkle. They were ready to lighten again, +in the way peculiar to him, when she, quite forgetting her defence of +Philippa, disburdened herself of her antagonisms and enthusiasms, her +hates and her loves all round the neighbourhood and over the world, won +to confidential communication by this young man's face. She confessed as +much, had he been guided to perceive it. She said, "Arthur Abner's a +reader of men: I can trust his word about them." + +Presently, it is true, she added: "No man's to be relied upon where +there's a woman." She refused her implicit trust to saints--"if ever a +man really was a saint before he was canonized!" + +Her penetrative instinct of sex kindled the scepticism. Sex she saw at +play everywhere, dogging the conduct of affairs, directing them at times; +she saw it as the animation of nature, senselessly stigmatized, +hypocritically concealed, active in our thoughts where not in our deeds; +and the declining of the decorous to see it, or admit the sight, got them +abhorred bad names from her, after a touch at the deadly poison coming of +that blindness, or blindfoldedness, and a grimly melancholy shrug over +the cruelties resulting--cruelties chiefly affecting women. + +"You're too young to have thought upon such matters," she said, for a +finish to them. + +That was hardly true. + +"I have thought," said Weyburn, and his head fell to reckoning of the +small sum of his thoughts upon them. + +He was pulled up instantly for close inspection by the judge. "What is +your age?" + +"I am in my twenty-sixth year." + +"You have been among men: have you studied women?" + +"Not largely, Lady Charlotte. Opportunity has been wanting at French and +German colleges." + +"It's only a large and a close and a pretty long study of them that can +teach you anything; and you must get rid of the poetry about them, and be +sure you haven't lost it altogether. That's what is called the golden +mean. I'm not for the golden mean in every instance; it's a way of +exhorting to brutal selfishness. I grant it's the right way in those +questions. You'll learn in time." Her scanning gaze at the young man's +face drove him along an avenue of his very possible chances of learning. +"Certain to. But don't tell me that at your age you have thought about +women. You may say you have felt. A young man's feelings about women +are better reading for him six or a dozen chapters farther on. Then he +can sift and strain. It won't be perfectly clear, but it will do." + +Mr. Eglett hereupon threw the door open, and ushered in Master Leo. + +Lady Charlotte noticed that the tutor shook the boy's hand offhandedly, +with not a whit of the usual obtrusive geniality, and merely dropped him +a word. Soon after, he was talking to Mr. Eglett of games at home and +games abroad. Poor fun over there! We head the world in field games, at +all events. He drew a picture of a foreigner of his acquaintance looking +on at football. On the other hand, French boys and German, having passed +a year or two at an English school, get the liking for our games, and do +a lot of good when they go home. The things we learn from them are to +dance, to sing, and to study:--they are more in earnest than we about +study. They teach us at fencing too. The tutor praised fencing as an +exercise and an accomplishment. He had large reserves of eulogy for +boxing. He knew the qualities of the famous bruisers of the time, cited +fisty names, whose owners were then to be seen all over an admiring land +in prints; in the glorious defensive-offensive attitude, England's own-- +Touch me, if you dare! with bullish, or bull-dog, or oak-bole fronts for +the blow, handsome to pugilistic eyes. + +The young tutor had lighted on a pet theme of Mr. Eglett's--the excelling +virtues of the practice of pugilism in Old England, and the school of +honour that it is to our lower population. "Fifty times better for them +than cock-fighting," he exclaimed, admitting that he could be an +interested spectator at a ring or the pit cock-fighting or ratting. + +"Ratting seems to have more excuse," the tutor said, and made no sign of +a liking for either of those popular pastimes. As he disapproved without +squeamishness, the impulsive but sharply critical woman close by nodded; +and she gave him his dues for being no courtier. + +Leo had to be off to bed. The tutor spared him any struggle over +the shaking of hands, and saying, "Goodnight, Leo," continued the +conversation. The boy went away, visibly relieved of the cramp that +seizes on a youngster at the formalities pertaining to these chilly +and fateful introductions. + +"What do you think of the look of him?" Mr. Eglett asked. + +The tutor had not appeared to inspect the boy. "Big head," he remarked. +"Yes, Leo won't want pushing at books when he's once in harness. He will +have six weeks of me. It's more than the yeomanry get for drill per +annum, and they're expected to know something of a soldier's duties. +There's a chance of putting him on the right road in certain matters. +We'll walk, or ride, or skate, if the frost holds to-morrow: no lessons +the first day." + +"Do as you think fit," said lady Charlotte. + +The one defect she saw in the tutor did not concern his pupil. And a +girl, if hit, would be unable to see that this tutor, judged as a man, +was to some extent despicable for accepting tutorships, and, one might +say, dishonouring the family of a soldier of rank and distinction, by +coming into houses at the back way, with footing enough to air his graces +when once established there. He ought to have knocked at every door in +the kingdom for help, rather than accept tutorships, and disturb +households (or providently-minded mistresses of them) with all sorts of +probably groundless apprehensions, founded naturally enough on the good +looks he intrudes. + +This tutor committed the offence next day of showing he had a firm and +easy seat in the saddle, which increased Lady Charlotte's liking for him +and irritated her watchful forecasts. She rode with the young man after +lunch, "to show him the country," and gave him a taste of what he took +for her variable moods. He misjudged her. Like a swimmer going through +warm and cold springs of certain lake waters, he thought her a capricious +ladyship, dangerous for intimacy, alluring to the deeps and gripping with +cramps. + +She pushed him to defend his choice of the tutor's profession. + +"Think you understand boys?" she caught up his words; "you can't. You +can humour them, as you humour women. They're just as hard to read. And +don't tell me a young man can read women. Boys and women go on their +instincts. Egyptologists can spell you hieroglyphs; they'd be stumped, +as Leo would say, to read a spider out of an ink-pot over a sheet of +paper." + +"One gets to interpret by degrees, by observing their habits," the tutor +said, and vexed her with a towering complacency under provocation that +went some way further to melt the woman she was, while her knowledge of +the softness warned her still more of the duty of playing dragon round +such a young man in her house. The despot is alert at every issue, to +every chance; and she was one, the wakefuller for being benevolent; her +mind had no sleep by day. + +For a month she subjected Mr. Matthew Weyburn to the microscope of her +observation and the probe of her instinct. He proved that he could +manage without cajoling a boy. The practical fact established, by +agreement between herself and the unobservant gentleman who was her +husband, Lady Charlotte allowed her meditations to drop an indifferent +glance at the speculative views upon education entertained by this young +tutor. To her mind they were flighty; but she liked him, and as her +feelings dictated to her mind when she had not to think for others, she +spoke of his views toleratingly, almost with an implied approval, after +passing them through the form of burlesque to which she customarily +treated things failing to waft her enthusiasm. In regard to Philippa, he +behaved well: he bestowed more of his attention on Beatrice, nearer Leo's +age, in talk about games and story-books and battles; nothing that he did +when the girls were present betrayed the strutting plumed cock, bent to +attract, or the sickly reptile, thirsty for a prize above him and meaning +to have it, like Satan in Eden. Still, of course, he could not help his +being a handsome fellow, having a vivid face and eyes transparent, +whether blue or green, to flame of the brain exciting them; and that +becomes a picture in the dream of girls--a picture creating the dream +often. And Philippa had asked her grandmother, very ingenuously indeed, +with a most natural candour, why "they saw so little of Leo's hero." +Simple female child! + +However, there was no harm done, and Lady Charlotte liked him. She liked +few. Forthwith, in the manner of her particular head, a restless head, +she fell to work at combinations. + +Thus:--he is a nice young fellow, well bred, no cringing courtier, +accomplished, good at classics, fairish at mathematics, a scholar in +French, German, Italian, with a shrewd knowledge of the different races, +and with sound English sentiment too, and the capacity for writing good +English, although in those views of his the ideas are unusual, therefore +un-English, profoundly so. But his intentions are patriotic; they would +not displease Lord Ormont. He has a worship of Lord Ormont. All we can +say on behalf of an untried inferior is in that,--only the valiant admire +devotedly. Well, he can write grammatical, readable English. What if +Lord Ormont were to take him as a secretary while the Memoirs are in +hand? He might help to chasten the sentences laughed at by those +newspapers. Or he might, being a terrible critic of writing, and funny +about styles, put it in an absurd light, that would cause the Memoirs to +be tossed into the fire. He was made for the post of secretary! The +young man's good looks would be out of harm's way then. If any sprig of +womankind come across him there, it will, at any rate, not be a girl. +Women must take care of themselves. Only the fools among them run to +mischief in the case of a handsome young fellow. + +Supposing a certain woman to be one of the fools? Lady Charlotte merely +suggested it in the dashing current of her meditations--did not strike it +out interrogatively. The woman would be a fine specimen among her class; +that was all. For the favourite of Lord Ormont to stoop from her place +beside him--ay, but women do; heroes have had the woeful experience of +that fact. First we see them aiming themselves at their hero; next they +are shooting an eye at the handsome man. The thirst of nature comes +after that of their fancy, in conventional women. Sick of the hero +tried, tired of their place in the market, no longer ashamed to +acknowledge it, they begin to consult their own taste for beauty--they +have it quite as much as the men have it; and when their worshipped +figure of manliness, in a romantic sombrero, is a threadbare giant, +showing bruises, they sink on their inherent desire for a dance with the +handsome man. And the really handsome man is the most extraordinary of +the rarities. No wonder that when he appears he slays them, walks over +them like a pestilence! + +This young Weyburn would touch the fancy of a woman of a romantic turn. +Supposing her enthusiastic in her worship of the hero, after a number of +years--for anything may be imagined where a woman is concerned--why, +another enthusiasm for the same object, and on the part of a stranger, a +stranger with effective eyes, rapidly leads to sympathy. Suppose the +reverse--the enthusiasm gone to dust, or become a wheezy old bellows, as +it does where there's disparity of age, or it frequently does--then the +sympathy with a good-looking stranger comes more rapidly still. + +These were Lady Charlotte's glances right and left--idle flights of the +eye of a mounted Amazon across hedges at the canter along the main road +of her scheme; which was to do a service to the young man she liked and +to the brother she loved, for the marked advantage of both equally; +perhaps for the chance of a little gossip to follow about that tenacious +woman by whom her brother was held hard and fast, kept away from friends +and relatives, isolated, insomuch as to have given up living on his +estate--the old home!--because he would not disgrace it or incur odium by +taking her there. + +In consequence of Lord Ormont's resistance to pressure from her on two or +three occasions, she chose to nurse and be governed by the maxim for +herself: Never propose a plan to him, if you want it adopted. That was +her way of harmlessly solacing love's vindictiveness for an injury. + +She sent Arthur Abner a letter, thanking him for his recommendation of +young Mr. Weyburn, stating her benevolent wishes as regarded the young +man and "those hateful Memoirs," requesting that her name should not be +mentioned in the affair, because she was anxious on all grounds to have +the proposal accepted by her brother. She could have vowed to herself +that she wrote sincerely. + +"He must want a secretary. He would be shy at an offer of one from me. +Do you hint it, if you get a chance. You gave us Mr. Weyburn, and Mr. +Eglett and I like him. Ormont would too, I am certain. You have obliged +him before; this will be better than anything you have done for us. It +will stop the Memoirs, or else give them a polish. Your young friend has +made me laugh over stuff taken for literature until we put on our +spectacles. Leo jogs along in harness now, and may do some work at +school yet." + +Having posted her letter, she left the issue to chance, as we may when +conscience is easy. An answer came the day before Weyburn's departure. +Arthur Abner had met Lord Ormont in the street, had spoken of the rumour +of Memoirs promised to the world, hinted at the possible need for a +secretary; "Lord Ormont would appoint a day to see Mr. Weyburn." + +Lady Charlotte considered that to be as good as the engagement. + +"So we keep you in the family," she said. "And now look here: you ought +to know my brother's ways, if you're going to serve him. You'll have to +guess at half of everything he tells you; he'll expect you to know the +whole. There's no man so secret. Why? He fears nothing; I can't tell +why. And what his mouth shuts on, he exposes as if in his hand. Of +course he's proud, and good reason. You'll see when you mustn't offend. +A lady's in the house--I hear of it. She takes his name, they say. She +may be a respectable woman--I've heard no scandal. We have to hear of a +Lady Ormont out of Society! We have to suppose it means there's not to +be a real one. He can't marry if he has allowed her to go about bearing +his name. She has a fool of an aunt, I'm told; as often in the house as +not. Good proof of his fondness for the woman, if he swallows half a +year of the aunt! Well, you won't, unless you've mere man's eyes, be +able to help seeing him trying to hide what he suffers from that aunt. +He bears it, like the man he is; but woe to another betraying it! She +has a tongue that goes like the reel of a rod, with a pike bolting out of +the shallows to the snag he knows--to wind round it and defy you to pull. +Often my brother Rowsley and I have fished the day long, and in hard +weather, and brought home a basket; and he boasted of it more than of +anything he has ever done since. That woman holds him away from me now. +I say no harm of her. She may be right enough from her point of view; or +it mayn't be owing to her. I wouldn't blame a woman. Well, but my point +with you is, you swallow the woman's aunt--the lady's aunt--without +betraying you suffer at all. Lord Ormont has eyes of an eagle for a +speck above the surface. All the more because the aunt is a gabbling +idiot does he--I say it seeing it--fire up to defend her from the sneer +of the lip or half a sign of it! No, you would be an your guard; I can +trust you. Of course you'd behave like the gentleman you are where any +kind of woman's concerned; but you mustn't let a shadow be seen, think +what you may. The woman--lady--calling herself Lady Ormont,--poor woman, +I should do the same in her place,--she has a hard game to play; I have +to be for my family: she has manners, I'm told; holds herself properly. +She fancies she brings him up to the altar, in the end, by decent +behaviour. That's a delusion. It's creditable to her, only she can't +understand the claims of the family upon a man like my brother. When you +have spare time--'kick-ups,' he need to call it, writing to me from +school--come here; you're welcome, after three days' notice. I shall be +glad to see you again. You've gone some way to make a man of Leo." + +He liked her well: he promised to come. She was a sinewy bite of the +gentle sex, but she had much flavour, and she gave nourishment. + +"Let me have three days' notice," she repeated. + +"Not less, Lady Charlotte," said he. + +Weyburn received intimation from Arthur Abner of the likely day Lord +Ormont would appoint, and he left Olmer for London to hold himself in +readiness. Lady Charlotte and Leo drove him to meet the coach. +Philippa, so strangely baffled in her natural curiosity, begged for a +seat; she begged to be allowed to ride. Petitions were rejected. She +stood at the window seeing "Grandmama's tutor," as she named him, carried +off by grandmama. Her nature was avenged on her tyrant grandmama: it +brought up almost to her tongue thoughts which would have remained +subterranean, under control of her habit of mind, or the nursery's +modesty, if she had been less tyrannically treated. They were +subterranean thoughts, Nature's original, such as the sense of injustice +will rouse in young women; and they are better unstirred, for they ripen +girls over-rapidly when they are made to revolve near the surface. It +flashed on the girl why she had been treated tyrannically. + +"Grandmama has good taste in tutors," was all that she said while the +thoughts rolled over. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +RECOGNITION + +Our applicant for the post of secretary entered the street of Lord +Ormont's London house, to present himself to his boyhood's hero by +appointment. + +He was to see, perhaps to serve, the great soldier. Things had come to +this; and he thought it singular. But for the previous introduction to +Lady Charlotte, he would have thought it passing wonderful. He ascribed +it to the whirligig. + +The young man was not yet of an age to gather knowledge of himself and of +life from his present experience of the fact, that passionate devotion to +an object strikes a vein through circumstances, as a travelling run of +flame darts the seeming haphazard zigzags to catch at the dry of dead +wood amid the damp; and when passion has become quiescent in the admirer, +there is often the unsubsided first impulsion carrying it on. He will +almost sorely embrace his idol with one or other of the senses. + +Weyburn still read the world as it came to him, by bite, marvelling at +this and that, after the fashion of most of us. He had not deserted his +adolescent's hero, or fallen upon analysis of a past season. But he was +now a young man, stoutly and cognizantly on the climb, with a good aim +overhead, axed green youth's enthusiasms a step below his heels: one of +the lovers of life, beautiful to behold, when we spy into them; generally +their aspect is an enlivenment, whatever may be the carving of their +features. For the sake of holy unity, this lover of life, whose gaze +was to the front in hungry animation, held fast to his young dreams, +perceiving a soul of meaning in them, though the fire might have gone +out; and he confessed to a past pursuit of delusions. Young men of this +kind will have, for the like reason, a similar rational sentiment on +behalf of our world's historic forward march, while admitting that +history has to be taken from far backward if we would gain assurance +of man's advance. It nerves an admonished ambition. + +He was ushered into a London house's library, looking over a niggard +enclosure of gravel and dull grass, against a wall where ivy dribbled. +An armchair was beside the fireplace. To right and left of it a floreate +company of books in high cases paraded shoulder to shoulder, without a +gap; grenadiers on the line. Weyburn read the titles on their scarlet- +and-blue facings. They were approved English classics; honoured +veterans, who have emerged from the conflict with contemporary opinion, +stamped excellent, or have been pushed by the roar of contemporaneous +applauses to wear the leather-and-gilt uniform of our Immortals, until a +more qualmish posterity disgorges them. The books had costly bindings. +Lord Ormont's treatment of Literature appeared to resemble Lady +Charlotte's, in being reverential and uninquiring. The books she bought +to read were Memoirs of her time by dead men and women once known to her. +These did fatigue duty in cloth or undress. It was high drill with all +of Lord Ormont's books, and there was not a modern or a minor name among +the regiments. They smelt strongly of the bookseller's lump lots by +order; but if a show soldiery, they were not a sham, like a certain row +of venerably-titled backs, that Lady Charlotte, without scruple, left +standing to blow an ecclesiastical trumpet of empty contents; any one +might have his battle of brains with them, for the twining of an absent +key. + +The door opened. Weyburn bowed to his old star in human shape: a grey +head on square shoulders, filling the doorway. He had seen at Olmer Lady +Charlotte's treasured miniature portrait of her brother; a perfect +likeness, she said--complaining the neat instant of injustice done to +the fire of his look. + +Fire was low down behind the eyes at present. They were quick to scan +and take summary of their object, as the young man felt while observing +for himself. Height and build of body were such as might be expected in +the brother of Lady Charlotte and from the tales of his prowess. Weyburn +had a glance back at Cuper's boys listening to the tales. + +The soldier-lord's manner was courteously military--that of an +established superior indifferent to the deferential attitude he must +needs enact. His curt nick of the head, for a response to the visitor's +formal salutation, signified the requisite acknowledgment, like a city +creditor's busy stroke of the type-stamp receipt upon payment. + +The ceremony over, he pitched a bugle voice to fit the contracted area: +"I hear from Mr. Abner that you have made acquaintance with Olmer. Good +hunting country there." + +"Lady Charlotte kindly gave me a mount, my lord." + +"I knew your father by name--Colonel Sidney Weyburn. You lost him at +Toulouse. We were in the Peninsula; I was at Talavera with him. Bad day +for our cavalry." + +"Our officers were young at their work then." + +"They taught the Emperor's troops to respect a charge of English horse. +It was teaching their fox to set traps for them." + +Lord Ormont indicated a chair. He stood. + +"The French had good cavalry leaders," Weyburn said, for cover to a +continued study of the face, + +"Montbrun, yes: Murat, Lassalle, Bessieres. Under the Emperor they had." + +"You think them not at home in the saddle, my lord?" + +"Frenchmen have nerves; horses are nerves. They pile excitement too +high. When cool, they're among the best. None of them had head for +command of all the arms." + +"One might say the same of Seidlitz and Ziethen?" + +"Of Ziethen. Seidlitz had a wider grasp, I suppose." He pursed his +month, pondering. "No; and in the Austrian service, too; generals of +cavalry are left to whistle for an independent command. There's a +jealousy of our branch!" The injured warrior frowned and hummed. +He spoke his thought mildly: "Jealousy of the name of soldier in this +country! Out of the service, is the place to recommend. I'd have +advised a son of mine to train for a jockey rather than enter it. We +deal with that to-morrow, in my papers. You come to me? Mr. Abner has +arranged the terms? So I see you at ten in the morning. I am glad to +meet a young man--Englishman--who takes an interest in the service." + +Weyburn fancied the hearing of a step; he heard the whispering dress. It +passed him; a lady went to the armchair. She took her seat, as she had +moved, with sedateness, the exchange of a toneless word with my lord. +She was a brune. He saw that when he rose to do homage. + +Lord Ormont resumed: "Some are born to it, must be soldiers; and in peace +they are snubbed by the heads; in war they are abused by the country. +They don't understand in England how to treat an army; how to make one +either! + +"The gentleman--Mr. Weyburn: Mr. Arthur Abner's recommendation," he added +hurriedly, with a light wave of his hand and a murmur, that might be the +lady's title; continuing: "A young man of military tastes should take +service abroad. They're in earnest about it over there. Here they play +at it; and an army's shipped to land without commissariat, ambulances, +medical stores, and march against the odds, as usual--if it can march! + +"Albuera, my lord?" + +"Our men can spurt, for a flick o' the whip. They're expected to be +constantly ready for doing prodigies--to repair the country's omissions. +All the country cares for is to hope Dick Turpin may get to York. Our +men are good beasts; they give the best in 'em, and drop. More's the +scandal to a country that has grand material and overtasks it. A blazing +disaster ends the chapter!" + +This was talk of an injured veteran. It did not deepen the hue of his +ruddied skin. He spoke in the tone of matter of fact. Weyburn had been +prepared for something of the sort by his friend, Arthur Abner. He noted +the speaker's heightened likeness under excitement to Lady Charlotte. +Excitement came at an early call of their voices to both; and both had +handsome, open features, bluntly cut, nothing of aquiline or the +supercilious; eyes bluish-grey, in arched recesses, horny between the +thick lids, lively to shoot their meaning when the trap-mouth was active; +effectively expressing promptitute for combat, pleasure in attack, +wrestle, tag, whatever pertained to strife; an absolute sense of their +right. + +As there was a third person present at this dissuasion of military +topics, the silence of the lady drew Weyburn to consult her opinion in +her look. + +It was on him. Strange are the woman's eyes which can unoffendingly +assume the privilege to dwell on such a living object as a man without +become gateways for his return look, and can seem in pursuit of thoughts +while they enfold. They were large dark eyes, eyes of southern night. +They sped no shot; they rolled forth an envelopment. A child among toys, +caught to think of other toys, may gaze in that way. But these were a +woman's eyes. + +He gave Lord Ormont his whole face, as an auditor should. He was +interested besides, as he told a ruffled conscience. He fell upon the +study of his old hero determinedly. + +The pain of a memory waking under pillows, unable to do more than strain +for breath, distracted his attention. There was a memory: that was all +he knew. Or else he would have lashed himself for hanging on the +beautiful eyes of a woman. To be seeing and hearing his old hero was +wonder enough. + +Recollections of Lady Charlotte's plain hints regarding the lady present +resolved to the gross retort, that her eyes were beautiful. And be knew +them--there lay the strangeness. They were known beautiful eyes, in a +foreign land of night and mist. + +Lord Ormont was discoursing with racy eloquence of our hold on India: his +views in which respect were those of Cuper's boys. Weyburn ventured a +dot-running description of the famous ride, and out flew an English +soldier's grievance. But was not the unjustly-treated great soldier +well rewarded, whatever the snubs and the bitterness, with these large +dark eyes in his house, for his own? Eyes like these are the beginning +of a young man's world; they nerve, inspire, arm him, colour his life; he +would labour, fight, die for them. It seemed to Weyburn a blessedness +even to behold them. So it had been with him at the early stage; and his +heart went swifter, memory fetched a breath. Memory quivered eyelids, +when the thought returned--of his having known eyes as lustrous. First +lights of his world, they had more volume, warmth, mystery--were sweeter. +Still, these in the room were sisters to them. They quickened throbs; +they seemed a throb of the heart made visible. + +That was their endowment of light and lustre simply, and the mystical +curve of the lids. For so they could look only because the heart was +disengaged from them. They were but heavenly orbs. + +The lady's elbow was on an arm of her chair, her forefinger at her left +temple. Her mind was away, one might guess; she could hardly be +interested in talk of soldiering and of foreign army systems, jealous +English authorities and officials, games, field-sports. She had personal +matters to think of. + +Adieu until to-morrow to the homes she inhabited! The street was a +banishment and a relief when Weyburn's first interview with Lord Ormont +was over. + +He rejoiced to tell his previous anticipations that he had not been +disappointed; and he bade hero-worshippers expect no gilded figure. We +gather heroes as we go, if we are among the growing: our constancy is +shown in the not discarding of our old ones. He held to his earlier +hero, though he had seen him, and though he could fancy he saw round him. + +Another, too, had been a hero-lover. How did that lady of night's eyes +come to fall into her subjection? + +He put no question as to the name she bore; it hung in a black suspense-- +vividly at its blackest illuminated her possessor. A man is a hero to +some effect who wins a woman like this; and, if his glory bespells her, +so that she flings all to the winds for him, burns the world; if, for +solely the desperate rapture of belonging to him, she consents of her +free will to be one of the nameless and discoloured, he shines in a way +to make the marrow of men thrill with a burning envy. For that must be +the idolatrous devotion desired by them all. + +Weyburn struck down upon his man's nature--the bad in us, when beauty of +woman is viewed; or say, the old original revolutionary, best kept +untouched; for a touch or a meditative pause above him, fetches him up to +roam the civilized world devouringly and lawlessly. It is the special +peril of the young lover of life, that an inflammability to beauty in +women is in a breath intense with him. He is, in truth, a thinly-sealed +volcano of our imperishable ancient father; and has it in him to be the +multitudinously-amorous of the mythologic Jove. Give him head, he can be +civilization's devil. Is she fair and under a shade?--then is she doubly +fair. The shadow about her secretes mystery, just as the forest breeds +romance: and mystery is a measureless realm. If we conceive it, we have +a mysterious claim on her who is the heart of it. + +He marched on that road to the music of sonorous brass for some drunken +minutes. + +The question came, What of the man who takes advantage of her self- +sacrifice? + +It soon righted him, and he did Lord Ormont justice, and argued the case +against Lady Charlotte's naked hints. + +This dark-eyed heroine's bearing was assured, beyond an air of +dependency. Her deliberate short nod to him at his leave-taking, and the +toneless few words she threw to my lord, signified sufficiently that she +did not stand defying the world or dreading it. + +She had by miracle the eyes which had once charmed him--could again-- +would always charm. She reminded him of Aminta Farrell's very eyes under +the couchant-dove brows--something of her mouth, the dimple running from +a corner. She had, as Aminta had, the self-collected and self-cancelled +look, a realm in a look, that was neither depth nor fervour, nor a +bestowal, nor an allurement; nor was it an exposure, though there seemed +no reserve. One would be near the meaning in declaring it to bewilder +men with the riddle of openhandedness. We read it--all may read it--as +we read inexplicable plain life; in which let us have a confiding mind, +despite the blows at our heart, and some understanding will enter us. + +He shut the door upon picture and speculations, returning to them by +another door. The lady had not Aminta's freshness: she might be taken +for an elder sister of Aminta. But Weyburn wanted to have her position +defined before he set her beside Aminta. He writhed under Lady +Charlotte's tolerating scorn of "the young woman." It roused an uneasy +sentiment of semi-hostility in the direction of my lord; and he had no +personal complaint to make. + +Lord Ormont was cordial on the day of the secretary's installation; as +if--if one might dare to guess it--some one had helped him to a friendly +judgement. + +The lady of Aminta's eyes was absent at the luncheon table. She came +into the room a step, to speak to Lord Ormont, dressed for a drive to pay +a visit. + +The secretary was unnoticed. + +Lord Ormont put inquiries to him at table, for the why of his having +avoided the profession of arms; and apparently considered that the +secretary had made a mistake, and that he would have committed a greater +error in becoming a soldier--"in this country." A man with a grievance +is illogical under his burden. He mentioned the name "Lady Ormont" +distinctly during some remarks on travel. Lady Ormont preferred the +Continent. + +Two days later she came to the armchair, as before, met Weyburn's eyes +when he raised them; gave him no home in hers--not a temporary shelter +from the pelting of interrogations. She hardly spoke. Why did she come? + +But how was it that he was drawn to think of her? Absent or present, she +was round him, like the hills of a valley. She was round his thoughts-- +caged them; however high, however far they flew, they were conscious of +her. + +She took her place at the midday meal. She had Aminta's voice in some +tones; a mellower than Aminta's--the voice of one of Aminta's family. +She had the trick of Aminta's upper lip in speaking. Her look on him was +foreign; a civil smile as they conversed. She was very much at home with +my lord, whom she rallied for his addiction to his Club at a particular +hour of the afternoon. She conversed readily. She reminded him, +incidentally that her aunt would arrive early next day. He informed her, +some time after, of an engagement "to tiffin with a brother officer," and +she nodded. + +They drove away together while the secretary was at his labour of sorting +the heap of autobiographical scraps in a worn dispatch-box, pen and +pencil jottings tossed to swell the mess when they had relieved an angry +reminiscence. He noticed, heedlessly at the moment, feminine handwriting +on some few clear sheets among them. + +Next day he was alone in the library. He sat before the box, opened it +and searched, merely to quiet his annoyance for having left those sheets +of the fair amanuensis unexamined. They were not discoverable. They had +gone. + +He stood up at the stir of the door. It was she, and she acknowledged +his bow; she took her steps to her chair. + +He was informed that Lord Ormont had an engagement, and he remarked, +"I can do the work very well." She sat quite silent. + +He read first lines of the scraps, laid them in various places, as in a +preparation for conjurer's tricks at cards; refraining from a glance, +lest he should disconcert the eyes he felt to be on him fitfully. + +At last she spoke, and he knew Aminta in his hearing and sight. + +"Is Emile Grenat still anglomane?" + +An instant before her voice was heard he had been persuading himself +that the points of unlikeness between his young Aminta and this tall and +stately lady of the proud reserve in her bearing flouted the resemblance. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +IN WHICH THE SHADES OF BROWNY AND MATEY ADVANCE AND RETIRE + + +"Emile is as anglomane as ever, and not a bit less a Frenchman," Weyburn +said, in a tone of one who muffles a shock at the heart. + +"It would be the poorer compliment to us," she rejoined. + +They looked at one another; she dropped her eyelids, he looked away. + +She had the grand manner by nature. She was the woman of the girl once +known. + +"A soldier, is he?" + +"Emile's profession and mine are much alike, or will be." + +"A secretary?" + +Her deadness of accent was not designed to carry her opinion of the post +of secretary. + +It brought the reply: "We hope to be schoolmasters." + +She drew in a breath; there was a thin short voice, hardly voice, as when +one of the unschooled minor feelings has been bruised. After a while she +said-- + +"Does he think it a career?" + +"Not brilliant." + +"He was formed for a soldier." + +"He had to go as the road led." + +"A young man renouncing ambition!" + +"Considering what we can do best." + +"It signifies the taste for what he does." + +"Certainly that." + +Weyburn had senses to read the word "schoolmaster" in repetition behind +her shut mouth. He was sharply sensible of a fall. + +The task with his papers occupied him. If he had a wish, it was to sink +so low in her esteem as to be spurned. A kick would have been a +refreshment. Yet he was unashamed of the cause invoking it. We are +instruments to the touch of certain women, and made to play strange +tunes. + +"Mr. Cuper flourishes?" + +"The school exists. I have not been down there. I met Mr. Shalders +yesterday. He has left the school." + +"You come up from Olmer?" + +"I was at Olmer last week, Lady Ormont." + +An involuntary beam from her eyes thanked him for her title at that +juncture of the dialogue. She grew more spirited. + +"Mr. Shalders has joined the Dragoons, has he?" + +"The worthy man has a happy imagination. He goes through a campaign +daily." + +"It seems to one to dignify his calling." + +"I like his enthusiasm." + +The lady withdrew into her thoughts; Weyburn fell upon his work. + +Mention of the military cloak of enthusiasm covering Shalders, brought +the scarce credible old time to smite at his breast, in the presence of +these eyes. A ringing of her title of Lady Ormont rendered the present +time the incredible. + +"I can hardly understand a young Frenchman's not entering the army," she +said. + +"The Napoleonic legend is weaker now," said he. + +"The son of an officer!" + +"Grandson." + +"It was his choice to be,--he gave it up without reluctance?" + +"Emile obeyed the command of his parents," Weyburn answered; and he was +obedient to the veiled direction of her remark, in speaking of himself: +"I had a reason, too." + +"One wonders!" + +"It would have impoverished my mother's income to put aside a small +allowance for me for years. She would not have hesitated. I then set my +mind on the profession of schoolmaster." + +"Emile Grenat was a brave boy. Has he no regrets?" + +"Neither of us has a regret." + +"He began ambitiously." + +"It's the way at the beginning." + +"It is not usually abjured." + +"I'm afraid we neither of us 'dignify our calling' by discontent with +it!" + +A dusky flash, worth seeing, came on her cheeks. "I respect +enthusiasms," she said; and it was as good to him to hear as the begging +pardon, though clearly she could not understand enthusiasm for the +schoolmaster's career. + +Light of evidence was before him, that she had a friendly curiosity to +know what things had led to their new meeting under these conditions. +He sketched them cursorily; there was little to tell--little, that is; +appealing to a romantic mind for interest. Aware of it, by sympathy, +he degraded the narrative to a flatness about as cheering as a suburban +London Sunday's promenade. Sympathy caused the perverseness. He felt +her disillusionment; felt with it and spread a feast of it. She had to +hear of studies at Caen and at a Paris Lycee; French fairly mastered; +German, the same; Italian, the same; after studies at Heidelberg, Asti, +and Florence; between four and five months at Athens (he was needlessly +precise), in tutorship with a young nobleman: no events, nor a spot of +colour. Thus did he wilfully, with pain to himself, put an extinguisher +on the youth painted brilliant and eminent in a maiden's imagination. + +"So there can no longer be thought of the army," she remarked; and the +remark had a sort of sigh, though her breathing was equable. + +"Unless a big war knocks over all rules and the country comes praying us +to serve," he said. + +"You would not refuse then?" + +"Not in case of need. One may imagine a crisis when they would give +commissions to men of my age or older for the cavalry--heavy losses of +officers." + +She spoke, as if urged by a sting to revert to the distasteful: "That +profession--must you not take...enter into orders if you aim at any +distinction?" + +"And a member of the Anglican Church would not be allowed to exchange his +frock for a cavalry sabre," said he. "That is true. I do not propose to +settle as a schoolmaster in England." + +"Where?" + +"On the Continent." + +"Would not America be better?" + +"It would not so well suit the purpose in view for us." + +"There are others besides?" + +"Besides Emile, there is a German and an Italian and a Swiss." + +"It is a Company?" + +"A Company of schoolmasters! Companies of all kinds are forming. +Colleges are Companies. And they have their collegians. Our aim is at +pupils; we have no ambition for any title higher than School and +Schoolmaster; it is not a Company." + +So, like Nature parading her skeleton to youthful adorers of her face, he +insisted on reducing to hideous material wreck the fair illusion, which +had once arrayed him in alluring promise. + +She explained; "I said, America. You would be among Protestants in +America." + +"Catholics and Protestants are both welcome to us, according to our +scheme. And Germans, French, English, Americans, Italians, if they will +come; Spaniards and Portuguese, and Scandinavians, Russians as well. And +Jews; Mahommedans too, if only they will come! The more mixed, the more +it hits our object." + +"You have not stated where on the Continent it is to be." + +"The spot fixed on is in Switzerland." + +"You will have scenery." + +"I hold to that, as an influence." + +A cool vision of the Bernese Alps encircled the young schoolmaster; and +she said, "It would influence girls; I dare say." + +"A harder matter with boys, of course--at first. We think we may make it +serve." + +"And where is the spot? Is that fixed on?" + +"Fifteen miles from Berne, on elevated land, neighbouring a water, not +quite to be called a lake, unless in an auctioneer's advertisement." + +"I am glad of the lake. I could not look on a country home where there +was no swimming. You will be head of the school." + +"There must be a head." + +"Is the school likely to be established soon?" + +He fell into her dead tone: "Money is required for establishments. +I have a Reversion coming some day; I don't dabble in post obits." + +He waited for farther questions. They were at an end. + +"You have your work to do, Mr. Weyburn." + +Saying that, she bowed an implied apology for having kept him from it, +and rose. She bowed again as she passed through the doorway, in +acknowledgment of his politeness. + +Here; then, was the end of the story of Browny and Matey. Such was his +thought under the truncheon-stroke of their colloquy. Lines of Browny's +letters were fiery waving ribands about him, while the coldly gracious +bow of the Lady wrote Finis. + +The gulf between the two writings remained unsounded. It gave a heave to +the old passion; but stirred no new one; he had himself in hand now, and +he shut himself up when the questions bred of amazement buzzed and +threatened to storm. After all, what is not curious in this world? The +curious thing would be if curious things should fail to happen. Men have +been saying it since they began to count and turn corners. And let us +hold off from speculating when there is or but seems a shadow of +unholiness over that mole-like business. There shall be no questions; +and as to feelings, the same. They, if petted for a moment beneath the +shadow, corrupt our blood. Weyburn was a man to have them by the throat +at the birth. + +Still they thronged; heavy work of strangling had to be done. Her tone +of disappointment with the schoolmaster bit him, and it flattered him. +The feelings leapt alive, equally venomous from the wound and the caress. +They pushed to see, had to be repelled from seeing, the girl Browny in +the splendid woman; they had lightning memories: not the pain of his grip +could check their voice on the theme touching her happiness or the +reverse. And this was an infernal cunning. He paused perforce to +inquire, giving them space for the breeding of their multitudes. Was she +happy? Did she not seem too meditative, enclosed, toneless, at her age? +Vainly the persecuted fellow said to himself: "But what is it to me +now?"--The Browny days were over. The passion for the younger Aminta was +over--buried; and a dream of power belonging to those days was not yet +more than visionary. It had moved her once, when it was a young +soldier's. She treated the schoolmaster's dream as vapour, and the old +days as dead and ghostless. She did rightly. How could they or she or +he be other than they were! + +With that sage exclamation, he headed into the Browny days and breasted +them; and he had about him the living foamy sparkle of the very time, +until the Countess of Ormont breathed the word "Schoolmaster"; when, at +once, it was dusty land where buoyant waters had been, and the armies of +the facts, in uniform drab, with some feathers and laces, and a +significant surpliced figure, decorously covering the wildest of Cupids, +marched the standard of the winking gold-piece, which is their nourishing +sun and eclipser of all suns that foster dreams. + +As you perceive, he was drawing swiftly to the vortex of the fools, and +round and round he went, lucky to float. + +His view of the business of the schoolmaster plucked him from the whirl. +She despised it; he upheld it. He stuck to his view, finding their +antagonism on the subject wholesome for him. All that she succeeded in +doing was to rob it of the aurora colour clothing everything on which +Matey Weyburn set his aim. Her contempt of it, whether as a profession +in itself or as one suitable to the former young enthusiast for arms, +dwarfed it to appear like the starved plants under Greenland skies. But +those are of a sturdy genus; they mean to live; they live, perforce, of +the right to live; they will prove their right in a coming season, when +some one steps near and wonders at them, and from more closely observing; +gets to understand, learning that the significance and the charm of earth +will be as well shown by them as by her tropical fair flaunters or the +tenderly-nurtured exotics. + +An unopened coffer of things to be said in defence of--no, on behalf of +--no, in honour of the Profession of Schoolmaster, perhaps to the +convincing of Aminta, Lady Ormont, was glanced at; a sentence or two +leapt out and stepped forward, and had to retire. He preferred to the +fathering of tricky, windy phrases, the being undervalued--even by her. +He was taught to see again how Rhetoric haunts, and Rhetoric bedevils, +the vindication of the clouded, especially in the case of a disesteemed +Profession requiring one to raise it and impose it upon the antagonistic +senses for the bewildering of the mind. One has to sound it loudly; +there is no treating it, as in the advocacy of the cases of flesh and +blood, with the masterly pathos of designed simplicity. And Weyburn was +Cuper's Matey Weyburn still in his loathing of artifice to raise emotion, +loathing of the affected, the stilted, the trumpet of speech--always +excepting school-exercises in the tongues, the unmasking of a Catiline, +the address of a General, Athenian or other, to troops. + +He kept his coffer shut; and, for a consequence, he saw the contents as +an avenue of blossom leading to vistas of infinite harvest. + +She was Lady Ormont: Aminta shared the title of his old hero! He refused +to speculate upon how it had come to pass, and let the curtain hang, +though dramas and romances, with the miracles involved in them, were +agitated by a transient glimpse at the curtain. + +Well! and he hoped to be a member of the Profession she despised: hoped +it with all his heart. And one good effect of his giving his heart to +the hope was, that he could hold from speculating and from feeling, even +from pausing to wonder at the most wonderful turn of events. Blessed +antagonism drove him to be braced by thoughts upon the hardest of the +schoolmaster's tasks--bright winter thoughts, prescribing to him +satisfaction with a faith in the sowing, which may be his only reaping. +Away fly the boys in sheaves. After his toil with them, to instruct, +restrain, animate, point their minds, they leave him, they plunge into +the world and are gone. Will he see them again? It is a flickering +perhaps. To sustain his belief that he has done serviceable work, he +must be sore of his having charged them with good matter. How can the +man do it, if, during his term of apprenticeship, he has allowed himself +to dally here and there, down to moony dreamings over inscrutable +beautiful eyes of a married lady; for the sole reason that he meets her +unexpectedly, after an exchange of letters with her in long-past days at +school, when she was an inexperienced girl, who knew not what she vowed, +and he a flighty-headed youngster, crying out to be the arrow of any bow +that was handy? Yea, she was once that girl, named Browny by the boys. + +Temptation threw warm light on the memory, and very artfully, by +conjuring up the faces, cries, characters, all the fun of the boys. +There was no possibility of forgetting her image in those days; he had, +therefore, to live with it and to live near the grown woman--Time's +present answer to the old riddle. It seemed to him, that instead of +sorting Lord Ormont's papers, he ought to be at sharp exercise. +According to his prescript, sharp exercise of lungs and limbs is a man's +moral aid against temptation. He knew it as the one trusty antidote for +him, who was otherwise the vessel of a temperament pushing to mutiny. +Certainly it is the best philosophy youth can pretend to practise; and +Lord Ormont kept him from it! Worse than that, the slips and sheets of +paper in the dispatch-box were not an exercise of the mind even; there +was nothing to grapple with--no diversion; criticism passed by them +indulgently, if not benevolently. + +Quite apart from the subject inscribed on them, Weyburn had now and again +a blow at the breast, of untraceable origin. For he was well enough +aware that the old days when Browny imagined him a hero, in drinking his +praises of a brighter, were drowned. They were dead; but here was she +the bride of the proved hero. His praises might have helped in causing +her willingness--devotional readiness, he could fancy--to yield her hand. +Perhaps at the moment when the hero was penning some of the Indian slips +here, the boy at school was preparing Aminta; but he could not be +responsible for a sacrifice of the kind suggested by Lady Charlotte. And +no, there had been no such sacrifice, although Lord Ormont's inexplicable +treatment of his young countess, under cover of his notorious reputation +with women, conduced to the suspicion. + +While the vagrant in Weyburn was thus engaged, his criticism of the +soldier-lord's field-English on paper let the stuff go tolerantly +unexamined, but with a degree of literary contempt at heart for the +writer who had that woman-scented reputation and expressed himself so +poorly. The sentiment was outside of reason. We do, nevertheless, +expect our Don Juans to deliver their minds a trifle elegantly; if not in +classic English, on paper; and when we find one of them inflicting +cruelty, as it appears, and the victim is a young woman, a beautiful +young woman, she pleads to us poetically against the bearish sentences of +his composition. We acknowledge, however, that a mere sentiment, +entertained possibly by us alone, should not be permitted to condemn him +unheard. + +Lady Ormont was not seen again. After luncheon at a solitary table, the +secretary worked till winter's lamps were lit; and then shone freedom, +with assurance to him that he would escape from the miry mental ditch he +had been floundering in since Aminta revealed herself. Sunday was the +glorious day to follow, with a cleansing bath of a walk along the +southern hills; homely English scenery to show to a German friend, one of +his "Company." Half a dozen good lads were pledged to the walk; bearing +which in view, it could be felt that this nonsensical puzzlement over his +relations to the moods and tenses of a married woman would be bounced out +of recollection before nightfall. The landscape given off any of the +airy hills of Surrey would suffice to do it. + +A lady stood among her boxes below, as he descended the stairs to cross +the hall. He knew her for the person Lady Charlotte called "the woman's +aunt," whom Lord Ormont could not endure--a forgiven old enemy, Mrs. +Nargett Pagnell. + +He saluted. She stared, and corrected her incivility with "Ah, yes," and +a formal smile. + +If not accidentally delayed on her journey, she had been needlessly the +cause why Lord Ormont hugged his Club during the morning and afternoon. +Weyburn was pushed to think of the matter by remembrance of his foregone +resentment at her having withdrawn Aminta from Miss Vincent's three days +earlier than the holiday time. The resentment was over; but a germ of it +must have sprang from the dust to prompt the kindling leap his memory +took, out of all due connection; like a lightning among the crags. It +struck Aminta smartly. He called to mind the conversation at table +yesterday. Had she played on Lord Ormont's dislike of the aunt to drive +him forth for some purpose of her own? If so, the little trick had been +done with deplorable spontaneity or adeptness of usage. What was the +purpose?--to converse with an old acquaintance, undisturbed by Lord +Ormont and her aunt? Neatly done, supposing the surmise correct. + +But what was there in the purpose? He sifted rapidly for the gist of the +conversation; reviewed the manner of it, the words, the sound they had, +the feelings they touched; then owned that the question could not be +answered. Owning, further, that the recurrence of these idiotic +speculations, feelings, questions, wrote him down as both dull fellow and +impertinent, he was unabled to restore Aminta to the queenly place she +took above the schoolmaster, who was very soon laughing at his fever or +flash of the afternoon. The day had brought a great surprise, nothing +more. Twenty minutes of fencing in the a salle d'armes of an Italian +captain braced him to health, and shifted scenes of other loves, lighter +loves, following the Browny days--not to be called loves; in fact; hardly +beyond inclinations. Nevertheless, inclinations are an infidelity. To +meet a married woman, and be mooning over her because she gave him her +eyes and her handwriting when a girl, was enough to rouse an honest +fellow's laugh at himself, in the contemplation of his intermediate +amorous vagabondage. Had he ever known the veritable passion after +Browny sank from his ken? Let it be confessed, never. His first love +was his only true love, despite one shuddering episode, oddly humiliating +to recollect, though he had not behaved badly. So, then, by right of his +passion, thus did eternal justice rule it: that Browny belonged, to Matey +Weyburn, Aminta to Lord Ormont. Aminta was a lady blooming in the flesh, +Browny was the past's pale phantom; for which reason he could call her +his own, without harm done to any one, and with his usual appetite for +dinner, breakfast, lunch, whatever the meal supplied by the hour. + +It would somewhat alarmingly have got to Mr. Weyburn's conscience through +a disturbance of his balance, telling him that he was on a perilous road, +if his relish for food had been blunted. He had his axiom on the +subject, and he was wrong in the general instance, for the appetites of +rogues and ogres are not known to fail. As regarded himself, he was +eminently right; and he could apply it to boys also, to all young people +--the unlaunched, he called them. He counted himself among the launched, +no doubt, and had breasted seas; but the boy was alive, a trencherman +lad, in the coming schoolmaster, and told him profitable facts concerning +his condition; besides throwing a luminous ray on the arcane of our +elusive youthful. If they have no stout zest for eating, put Query +against them. + +His customary enjoyment of dinner convinced Mr. Weyburn that he had not +brooded morbidly over his phantom Browny, and could meet Aminta, Countess +of Ormont, on the next occasion with the sentiments proper to a common +official. Did she not set him a commendable example? He admired her for +not concealing her disdain of the aspirant schoolmaster, quite +comprehending, by sympathy, why the woman should reproach the girl who +had worshipped heroes, if this was a full-grown specimen; and the reply +of the shamed girl, that in her ignorance she could not know better. He +spared the girl, but he laughed at the woman he commended, laughed at +himself. + +Aminta's humour was being stirred about the same time. She and her aunt +were at the dinner-table in the absence of my lord. The dinner had +passed with the stiff dialogue peculiar to couples under supervision of +their inferiors; and, as soon as the room was clear, she had asked her +aunt, touching the secretary: "Have you seen him?" + +Mrs. Nargett Pagnell's answer could have been amusing only to one whose +intimate knowledge of her found it characteristically salt; for she was a +lady of speech addressed ever directly or roundabout to the chief point +of business between herself and her hearer, and the more she was brief, +oblique, far-shooting, the more comically intelligible she was to her +niece. She bent her head to signify that she had seen the secretary, and +struck the table with both hands, exclaiming: + +"Well, to be sure, Lord Ormont!" + +Their discussion, before they descended the stairs to dinner, concerned +his lordship's extraordinary indifference to the thronging of handsome +young men around his young countess. + +Here, the implication ran, is one established in the house. + +Aminta's thoughts could be phrased: "Yes, that is true, for one part of +it." + +As for the other part, the ascent of a Phoebus Apollo, with his golden +bow and quiver off the fairest of Eastern horizon skies, followed +suddenly by the sight of him toppling over in Mr. Cuper's long-skirted +brown coat, with spectacles and cane, is an image that hardly exceeds the +degradation she conceived. It was past ludicrous; yet admitted of no +woefulness, nothing soothingly pathetic. It smothered and barked at the +dreams of her blooming spring of life, to which her mind had latterly +been turning back, for an escape from sour, one may say cynical, +reflections, the present issue of a beautiful young woman's first savour +of battle with the world. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A female free-thinker is one of Satan's concubines +A free-thinker startles him as a kind of demon +All that Matey and Browny were forbidden to write they looked +Cajoled like a twenty-year-old yahoo at college +Could not understand enthusiasm for the schoolmaster's career +Curious thing would be if curious things should fail to happen +Few men can forbear to tell a spicy story of their friends +He began ambitiously--It's the way at the beginning +He loathed a skulker +I'm for a rational Deity +Loathing of artifice to raise emotion +Nevertheless, inclinations are an infidelity +Published Memoirs indicate the end of a man's activity +The despot is alert at every issue, to every chance +Things were lumpish and gloomy that day of the week +We shall want a war to teach the country the value of courage +You'll have to guess at half of everything he tells you +You're going to be men, meaning something better than women + + + + + + +BOOK 2. + +VI. IN A MOOD OF LANGUOR +VII. EXHIBITS EFFECTS OF A PRATTLER'S DOSES +VIII. MRS. LAWRENCE FINCHLEY +IX. A FLASH OF THE BRUISED WARRIOR +X. A SHORT PASSAGE IN THE GAME PLAYED BY TWO +XI. THE SECRETARY TAKEN AS AN ANTIDOTE + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +IN A MOOD OF LANGUOR + +Up in Aminta's amber dressing-room; Mrs. Nargett Pagnell alluded sadly to +the long month of separation, and begged her niece to let her have in +plain words an exact statement of the present situation; adding, "Items +will do." Thereupon she slipped into prattle and held the field. + +She was the known, worthy, good, intolerable woman whom the burgess turns +out for his world in regiments, that do and look and all but step alike; +and they mean well, and have conventional worships and material +aspirations, and very peculiar occult refinements, with a blind head and +a haphazard gleam of acuteness, impressive to acquaintances, convincing +themselves that they impersonate sagacity. She had said this, done that; +and it was, by proof, Providence consenting, the right thing. A niece, +written down in her girlhood, because of her eyes and her striking air +and excellent deportment, as mate for a nobleman, marries, him before she +is out of her teens. "I said, She shall be a countess." A countess she +is. Providence does not comply with our predictions in order to stultify +us. Admitting the position of affairs for the moment as extraordinary, +we are bound by what has happened to expect they will be conformable in +the end. Temporarily warped, we should say of them. + +She could point to the reason: it was Lord Ormont's blunt +misunderstanding of her character. The burgess's daughter was refining +to an appreciation of the exquisite so rapidly that she could criticize +patricians. My lord had never forgiven her for correcting him in his +pronunciation of her name by marriage. Singular indeed; but men, even +great men, men of title, are so, some of them, whom you could least +suspect of their being so. He would speak the "g" in Nargett, and he, +declined--after a remonstrance he declined--to pass Pagnell under the +cedilla. Lord Ormont spoke the name like a man hating it, or an English +rustic: "Nargett Pagnell," instead, of the soft and elegant "Naryett +Pagnell," the only true way of speaking it; and she had always taken that +pronunciation of her name for a test of people's breeding. The +expression of his lordship's countenance under correction was memorable. +Naturally, in those honeymoony days, the young Countess of Ormont sided +with her husband the earl; she declared that her aunt had never dreamed +of the cedilla before the expedition to Spain. When, for example, Alfred +Nargett Pagnell had a laughing remark, which Aminta in her childhood must +have heard: "We rhyme with spaniel!" + +That was the secret of Lord Ormont's prepossession against Aminta's aunt; +and who can tell? perhaps of much of his behaviour to the beautiful young +wife he at least admired, sincerely admired, though he caused her to hang +her head--cast a cloud on the head so dear to him! + +Otherwise there was no interpreting his lordship. To think of herself as +personally disliked by a nobleman stupefied Mrs. Pagnell, from her just +expectation of reciprocal dealings in high society; for she confessed +herself a fly to a title. Where is the shame, if titles are created to +attract? Elsewhere than in that upper circle, we may anticipate hard +bargains; the widow of a solicitor had not to learn it. But when a +distinguished member and ornament of the chosen seats above blew cold +upon their gesticulatory devotee, and was besides ungrateful; she was +more than commonly assured of his being, as she called him, "a sphinx." +His behaviour to his legally wedded wife confirmed the charge. + +She checked her flow to resume the question. "So, then, where are we +now? He allows you liberally for pin-money in addition to your own small +independent income. Satisfaction with that would warrant him to suppose +his whole duty done by you." + +"We are where we were, aunty; the month has made no change," said Aminta +in languor. + +"And you as patient as ever?" + +"I am supposed to have everything a woman can require." + +"Can he possibly think it? And I have to warn you, child, that lawyers +are not so absolving as the world is with some of the ladies Lord Ormont +allows you to call your friends. I have been hearing--it is not mere +airy tales one hears from lawyers about cases in Courts of Law. Tighten +your lips as you like; I say nothing to condemn or reflect on Mrs. +Lawrence Finchley. I have had my eyes a little opened, that is all. Oh, +I know my niece Aminta, when it's a friend to stand by; but our position +--thanks to your inscrutable lord and master--demands of us the utmost +scrupulousness, or it soon becomes a whirl and scandal flying about, and +those lawyers picking up and putting together. I have had a difficulty +to persuade them!... and my own niece! whom I saw married at the British +Embassy in Madrid, as I take good care to tell everybody; for it was my +doing; I am the responsible person! and by an English Protestant +clergyman, to all appearance able to walk erect in and out of any of +these excellent new Life Assurance offices they are starting for the +benefit of widows and orphans, and deceased within six days of the +ceremony--if ceremony one may call the hasty affair in those foreign +places. My dear, the instant I heard it I had a presentiment, 'All has +gone well up to now.' I remember murmuring the words. Then your letter, +received in that smelly Barcelona: Lord Ormont was carrying you off to +Granada--a dream of my infancy! It may not have been his manoeuvre, but +it was the beginning of his manoeuvres." + +Aminta shuddered. "And tra-la-la, and castanets, and my Cid! my Cid! and +the Alhambra, the Sierra Nevada, and ay di me, Alhama; and Boabdil el +Chico and el Zagal and Fray Antonio Agapida!" She flung out the rattle, +yawning, with her arms up and her head back, in the posture of a woman +wounded. One of her aunt's chance shots had traversed her breast, +flashing at her the time, the scene, the husband, intensest sunniness on +sword-edges of shade,--and now the wedded riddle; illusion dropping mask, +romance in its anatomy, cold English mist. Ah, what a background is the +present when we have the past to the fore! That filmy past is diaphanous +on heaving ribs. + +She smiled at the wide-eyed little gossip. "Don't speak of manaoeuvres, +dear aunt. And we'll leave Granada to the poets. I'm tired. Talk of +our own people, on your side and my father's, and as much as you please +of the Pagnell-Pagnells, they refresh me. Do they go on marrying?" + +"Why, my child, how could they go on without it?" + +Aminta pressed her hands at her eyelids. "Oh, me!" she sighed, feeling +the tear come with a sting from checked laughter. "But there are +marriages, aunty, that don't go on, though Protestant clergymen +officiated. Leave them unnoticed, I have really nothing to tell." + +"You have not heard anything of Lady Eglett?" + +"Lady Charlotte Eglett? No syllable. Or wait--my lord's secretary was +with her at Olmer; approved by her, I have to suppose." + +"There, my dear, I say again I do dread that woman, if she can make a man +like Lord Ormont afraid of her. And no doubt she is of our old +aristocracy. And they tell me she is coarse in her conversation--like a +man. Lawyers tell me she is never happy but in litigation. Years back, +I am given to understand, she did not set so particularly good an +example. Lawyers hear next to everything. I am told she lifted her +horsewhip on a gentleman once, and then put her horse at him and rode him +down. You will say, the sister of your husband. No; not to make my +niece a countess, would I, if I had known the kind of family! Then one +asks, Is she half as much afraid of him? In that case, no wonder they +have given up meeting. Was formerly one of the Keepsake Beauties. Well, +Lady Eglett, and Aminta, Countess of Ormont, will be in that Peerage, as +they call it, let her only have her dues. My dear, I would--if I ever +did--swear the woman is jealous." + +"Of me, aunty!" + +"I say more; I say again, it would be a good thing for somebody if +somebody had his twitch of jealousy. Wives may be too meek. Cases and +cases my poor Alfred read to me, where an ill-behaving man was brought to +his senses by a clever little shuffle of the cards, and by the most +innocent of wives. A kind of poison to him, of course; but there are +poisons that cure. It might come into the courts; and the nearer the +proofs the happier he in withdrawing from his charge and effecting a +reconciliation. Short of guilt, of course. Men are so strange. Imagine +now, if a handsome young woman were known to be admired rather more than +enough by a good-looking gentleman near about her own age. Oh, I've no +patience with, the man for causing us to think and scheme! Only there +are men who won't be set right unless we do. My husband used to say, +change is such a capital thing in life's jogtrot; that men find it +refreshing if we now and then, reverse the order of our pillion-riding +for them. A spiritless woman in a wife is what they bear least of all. +Anything rather. Is Mr. Morsfield haunting Mrs. Lawrence Finchley's +house as usual?" + +Aminta's cheeks unrolled their deep damask rose at the abrupt intrusion +of the name. "I meet him there." + +"Lord Adderwood, Sir John Randeller; and the rest?" + +"Two or three times a week." + +"And the lady, wife of the captain, really a Lady Fair--Mrs.... month of +May: so I have to get at it." + +"She may be seen there." + +"Really a contrast, when you two are together! As to reputation, there +is an exchange of colours. Those lawyers hold the keys of the great +world, and a naughty world it is, I fear--with exceptions, who are the +salt, but don't taste so much. I can't help enjoying the people at Mrs. +Lawrence Finchley's. I like to feel I can amuse them, as they do me. +One puzzles for what they say--in somebody's absence, I mean. They must +take Lord Ormont for a perfect sphinx; unless they are so silly as to +think they may despise him, or suppose him indifferent. Oh, that upper +class! It's a garden, and we can't help pushing to enter it; and fair +flowers, indeed, but serpents too, like the tropics. It tries us more +than anything else in the world--well, just as good eating tries the +constitution. He ought to know it and feel it, and give his wife all the +protection of his name, instead of--not that he denies: I have brought +him to that point; he cannot deny it with me. But not to present her--to +shun the Court; not to introduce her to his family, to appear ashamed of +her! My darling Aminta, a month of absence for reflection on your +legally-wedded husband's conduct increases my astonishment. For usually +men old enough to be the grandfathers of their wives--" + +"Oh, pray, aunty, pray, pray!" Aminta cried, and her body writhed. "No +more to-night. You mean well, I am sure. Let us wait. I shall sleep, +perhaps, if I go to bed early. I dare say I am spiritless--not worth +more than I get. I gave him the lead altogether; he keeps it. In +everything else he is kind; I have all the luxuries--enough to loathe +them. Kiss me and say good night." + +Aminta made it imperative by rising. Her aunt stood up, kissed, and +exclaimed, "I tell you you are a queenly creature, not to be treated as +any puny trollop of a handmaid. And although he is a great nobleman, he +is not to presume to behave any longer, my dear, as if your family had no +claim on his consideration. My husband, Alfred Pagnell, would have laid +that before him pretty quick. You are the child of the Farrells and the +Solers, both old families; on your father's side you are linked with the +oldest nobility in Europe. It flushes one to think of it! Your +grandmother, marrying Captain Algernon Farrell, was the legitimate +daughter of a Grandee of Spain; as I have told Lord Ormont often, and I +defy him to equal that for a romantic marriage in the annals of his +house, or boast of bluer blood. Again, the Solers--" + +"We take the Solers for granted, aunty, good night." + +"Commoners, if you like; but established since the Conquest. That is, +we trace the pedigree. And to be treated, even by a great nobleman, as +if we were stuff picked up out of the ditch! I declare, there are times +when I sit and think and boil. Is it chivalrous, is it generous--is it, +I say, decent--is it what Alfred would have called a fair fulfilment of a +pact, for your wedded husband--? You may close my mouth! But he +pretends to be chivalrous and generous, and he has won a queen any +wealthy gentleman in England--I know of one, if not two--would be proud +to have beside him in equal state; and what is he to her? He is an +extinguisher. Or is it the very meanest miserliness, that he may keep +you all to himself? There we are again! I say he is an unreadable +sphinx." + +Aminta had rung the bell for her maid. Mrs. Pagnell could be counted on +for drawing in her tongue when the domestics were near. + +A languor past delivery in sighs was on the young woman's breast. She +could have heard without a regret that the heart was to cease beating. +Had it been downright misery she would have looked about her with less of +her exanimate glassiness. The unhappy have a form of life: until they +are worn out, they feel keenly. She felt nothing. The blow to her pride +of station and womanhood struck on numbed sensations. She could complain +that the blow was not heavier. + +A letter lying in her jewel-box called her to read it, for the chance of +some slight stir. The contents were known. The signature of Adolphus +Morsfield had a new meaning for her eyes, and dashed her at her husband +in a spasm of revolt and wrath against the man exposing her to these +letters, which a motion of her hand could turn to blood, and abstention +from any sign maintained in a Satanic whisper, saying, "Here lies one way +of solving the riddle." It was her husband who drove her to look that +way. + +The look was transient, and the wrath: she could not burn. A small +portion of contempt lodged in her mind to shadow husbands precipitating +women on their armoury for a taste of vengeance. Women can always be +revenged--so speedily, so completely: they have but to dip. Husbands +driving wives to taste their power execrate the creature for her fall +deep downward. They are forgetful of causes. + +Does it matter? Aminta's languor asked. The letter had not won a reply. +Thought of the briefest of replies was a mountain of effort, and she +moaned at her nervelessness in body and mind. To reply, to reproach the +man, to be flame--an image of herself under the form she desired--gave +her a momentary false energy, wherein the daring of the man, whose life +was at a loss for the writing of this letter, hung lighted. She had +therewith a sharp vision of his features, repellent in correctness, Greek +in lines, with close eyes, hollow temples, pressed lips--a face +indicating the man who can fling himself on a die. She had heard tales +of women and the man. Some had loved him, report said. Here were words +to say that he loved her. They might, poor man, be true. Otherwise she +had never been loved. + +Memory had of late been paying visits to a droopy plant in the golden +summer drought on a gorgeous mid-sea island, and had taken her on board +to refresh her with voyages, always bearing down full sail on a couple of +blissful schools, abodes of bloom and briny vigour, sweet merriment, +innocent longings, dreams the shyest, dreams the mightiest. At night +before sleep, at morn before rising, often during day, and when vexed or +when dispirited, she had issued her command for the voyage. Sheer +refreshment followed, as is ever the case if our vessel carries no +freight of hopes. There could be no hopes. It was forgotten that they +had ever been seriously alive. But it carried an admiration. Now, an +admiration may endure, and this one had been justified all round. The +figure heroical, the splendid, active youth, hallowed Aminta's past. The +past of a bitterly humiliated Aminta was a garden in the coming kiss of +sunset, with that godlike figure of young manhood to hallow it. There he +stayed, perpetually assuring her of his triumphs to come. + +She could have no further voyages. Ridicule convulsed her home of +refuge. For the young soldier-hero, to be unhorsed by misfortune, was +one thing; but the meanness of the ambition he had taken in exchange for +the thirst of glory, accused his nature. He so certainly involved her in +the burlesque of the transformation that she had to quench memory. + +She was, therefore, having smothered a good part of herself, accountably +languid--a condition alternating with fire in Aminta; and as Mr. +Morsfield's letter supplied the absent element, her needy instinct pushed +her to read his letter through. She had not yet done that with +attention. + +Whether a woman loves a man or not, he is her lover if he dare tell her +he loves her, and is heard with attention. Aware that the sentences were +poison, she summoned her constitutional antagonism to the mad step +proposed, so far nullifying the virus as to make her shrink from the +madness. Even then her soul cried out to her husband, Who drives me to +read? or rather, to brood upon what she read. The brooding ensued, was +the thirst of her malady. The best antidote she could hit on was the +writer's face. Yet it expressed him, his fire and his courage--gifts she +respected in him, found wanting in herself. Read by Lord Ormont, this +letter would mean a deadly thing. + +Aminta did her lord the justice to feel sure of him, that with her name +bearing the superscription, it might be left on her table, and world not +have him to peruse it. If he manoeuvred, it was never basely. Despite +resentment, her deepest heart denied his being indifferent either to her +honour or his own in relation to it. He would vindicate both at a +stroke, for a sign. Nevertheless, he had been behaving cruelly. She +charged on him the guilt of the small preludes, archeries, anglings, +veilings, evasions, all done with the eyelids and the mute of the lips, +or a skirmisher word or a fan's flourish, and which, intended to pique +the husband rather than incite the lover, had led Mrs. Lawrence Finchley +to murmur at her ear, in close assembly, without a distinct designation +of Mr. Morsfield, "Dangerous man to play little games with!" It had +brought upon her this letter of declaration, proposal, entreaty. + +This letter was the man's life in her hands, and safe, of course. But +surely it was a proof that the man loved her? + +Aminta was in her five-and-twentieth year; when the woman who is +uncertain of the having been loved, and she reputed beautiful, desirable, +is impelled by a sombre necessity to muse on a declaration, and nibble at +an idea of a test. If "a dangerous man to play little games with," he +could scarcely be dangerous to a woman having no love for him at all. It +meant merely that he would soon fall to writing letters like this, and he +could not expect an answer to it. But her heart really thanked him, and +wished the poor gentleman to take its dumb response as his reward, for +being the one sole one who had loved her. + +Aminta dwelt on "the one sole one." Lord Ormont's treatment had detached +her from any belief in love on his part; and the schoolboy, now ambitions +to become a schoolmaster, was behind the screen unlikely to be lifted +again by a woman valuing her pride of youth, though he had--behold our +deceptions!--the sympathetic face entirely absent from that of Mr. +Adolphus Morsfield, whom the world would count quite as handsome--nay, it +boasted him. He enjoyed the reputation of a killer of ladies. Women +have odd tastes, Aminta thought, and examined the gentleman's +handwriting. It pleased her better. She studied it till the +conventional phrases took a fiery hue, and came at her with an invasive +rush. + +The letter was cast back into the box, locked up; there an end to it, or +no interdiction of sleep. + +Sleep was a triumph. Aminta's healthy frame rode her over petty +agitations of a blood uninflamed, as lightly as she swam the troubled +sea-waters her body gloried to cleave. She woke in the morning peaceful +and mildly reflective, like one who walks across green meadows. Only by +degrees, by glimpses, was she drawn to remember the trotting, cantering, +galloping, leaping of an active heart during night. We cannot, men or +woman, control the heart in sleep at night. There had been wild +leapings. Night will lead an unsatisfied heart of a woman, by way of +sleep, to scale black mountains, jump jagged chasms. Sleep is a horse +that laughs at precipices and abysses. We bid women, moreover, be all +heart. They are to cultivate their hearts, pay much heed to their +hearts. The vast realm of feeling is open to these appointed keepers of +the sanctuary household, who may be withering virgins, may be childless +matrons, may be unhusbanded wives. Wandering in the vast realm which +they are exhorted to call their own, for the additional attractiveness it +gives them, an unsatisfied heart of woman will somewhat audaciously cross +the borderland a single step into the public road of the vast realm of +thinking. Once there, and but a single step on the road, she is a rebel +against man's law for her sex. Nor is it urgent on her that she should +think defiantly in order to feel herself the rebel. She may think +submissively; with a heart (the enlarged, the scientifically plumped, the +pasture of epicurean man), with her coveted heart in revolt, and from the +mere act of thinking at all. + +Aminta reviewed perforce, dead against her will, certain of the near-to- +happiness ratings over-night. She thinned her lips, and her cheeks +glowed. An arm, on the plea of rescuing, had been round her. The choice +now offered her was, to yield to softness or to think. She took the +latter step, the single step of an unaccustomed foot, which women +educated simply to feet, will, upon extreme impulsion, take; and it held +a candle in a windy darkness. She saw no Justice there. The sensational +immensity touched sublime, short of that spirit of Justice required for +the true sublime. And void of Justice; what a sunless place is any +realm! Infants, the male and the female alike, first begin to know they +feel when it is refused them. When they know they feel, they have begun +to reflect. The void of Justice is a godless region. Women, to whom +the solitary thought has come as a blown candle, illumining the fringes +of their storm, ask themselves whether they are God's creatures or man's. +The question deals a sword-stroke of division between them and their +human masters. Young women, animated by the passions their feeling +bosoms of necessity breed, and under terror discover, do not distinguish +an abstract justice from a concrete. They are of the tribe too long +hereditarily enslaved to conceive an abstract. So it is with them, that +their God is the God of the slave, as it is with all but the bravest of +boys. He is a Thing to cry to, a Punisher, not much of a Supporter--the +Biblical Hebrew's right reading of Nature, favouring man, yet prompt to +confound him, and with woman for the instrument of vengeance. By such a +maze the blindfolded, are brought round to see Justice on earth. If +women can only believe in some soul of justice, they will feel they +belong to God--of the two; and the peril for them then is, that they will +set the one incomprehensible Power in opposition to the other, urging +them unsatisfied natures to make secret appeal away from man and his laws +altogether, at the cost of losing clear sight of the God who shines in +thought. It is a manner whereby the desperately harried among these +creatures of the petted heart arrive upon occasion at an agreeable, +almost reposeful, contemplation of the reverse of God. + +There is little pleasure to be on the lecture-rostrum for a narrator +sensible to the pulses of his audience. Justice compels at times. In +truth, there are times when the foggy obscurities of the preacher are by +comparison broad daylight beside the whirling loose tissues of a woman +unexplained. Aminta was one born to prize rectitude, to walk on the +traced line uprightly; and while the dark rose overflowed the soft brown +of her cheeks, under musings upon her unlicenced heart's doings +overnight, she not only pleaded for woeful creatures of her sex burdened +as she and erring, she weighed them in the scales with men, and put her +heart where Justice pointed, sending men to kick aloft. + +Her husband, the man-riddle: she was unable to rede or read him. Her +will could not turn him; nor her tongue combat; nor was it granted her to +pique the mailed veteran. Every poor innocent little bit of an art had +been exhausted. Her title was Lady Ormont her condition actually slave. +A luxuriously established slave, consorting with a singularly +enfranchised set,--as, for instance, Mrs. Lawrence Finchley and Lord +Adderwood; Sir John Randeller and Lady Staines; Mrs. May, Amy May, +notorious wife of a fighting captain, the loneliest of blondes; and other +ladies, other gentlemen, Mr. Morsfield in the list, paired or not yet +paired: gossip raged. Aminta was of a disposition too generously cordial +to let her be the rigorous critic of people with whom she was in touch. +But her mind knew relief when she recollected that her humble little +school-mate, Selina Collect, who had suffered on her behalf in old days, +was coming up to her from the Suffolk coast on a visit for a week. +However much a slave and an unloved woman, she could be a constant and +protecting friend. Besides, Lord Ormont was gracious to little Selina. +She thought of his remarks about the modest-minded girl after first +seeing her. From that she struck upon a notion of reserves of humaneness +being in him, if she might find the path to them: and thence, fortified +by the repose her picture of little Selina's merit had bestowed, she +sprang to the idea of valiancy, that she would woo him to listen to her, +without inflicting a scene. He had been a listening lover, seeming +lover, once, later than the Granada sunsets. The letter in her jewel-box +urged Aminta to clear her conscience by some means, for leaving it +unburnt. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +EXHIBITS EFFECTS OF A PRATTLER'S DOSES + +The rules in Lord Ormont's household assisted to shelter him for some +hours of the day from the lady who was like a blast of sirocco under his +roof. He had his breakfast alone, as Lady Charlotte had it at Olmer; +a dislike of a common table in the morning was a family trait with both. +At ten o'clock the secretary arrived, and they were shut up together. +At the luncheon table Aminta usually presided. If my lord dined at home, +he had by that time established an equanimity rendering, his constant +civility to Mrs. Pagnell less arduous. The presence of a woman of +tongue, perpetually on the spring to gratify him and win him, was among +the burdens he bore for his Aminta. + +Mrs. Pagnell soon perceived that the secretary was in favour. My lord +and this Mr. Weyburn had their pet themes of conversation, upon which the +wary aunt of her niece did not gaze like the wintry sun with the distant +smile her niece displayed over discussions concerning military +biographies, Hannibal's use of his elephants and his Numidian horse, the +Little St. Bernard, modern artillery, ancient slingers, English and +Genoese bowmen, Napoleon's tactics, his command to the troopers to "give +point," and English officers' neglect of sword exercise, and the "devil +of a day" Old England is to have on a day to come. My lord connected our +day of trial with India. Mrs. Pagnell assumed an air of studious +interest; she struck in to give her niece a lead, that Lord Ormont might +know his countess capable of joining the driest of subjects occupying +exalted minds. Aminta did not follow her; and she was extricated +gallantly by the gentlemen in turn. + +The secretary behaved with a pretty civility. Aminta shook herself to +think tolerantly of him when he, after listening to the suggestion, put +interrogatively, that we should profit by Hannibal's example and train +elephants to serve as a special army corps for the perfect security of +our priceless Indian Empire, instanced the danger likely to result from +their panic fear of cannon, and forbore to consult Lord Ormont's eye. + +Mrs. Pagnell knew that she had put her foot into it; but women advised of +being fools in what they say, are generally sustained by their sense of +the excellent motive which impelled them. Even to the Countess of +Ormont, she could have replied, "We might have given them a higher idea +of us"--if, that meant, the Countess of Ormont had entered the field +beside her, to the exclusion of a shrinking Aminta. She hinted as much +subsequently, and Aminta's consciousness of the troth was touched. The +young schoolmaster's company sat on her spirits, deadened her vocabulary. +Her aunt spoke of passing the library door and hearing the two gentlemen +loudly laughing. It seemed subserviency on the fallen young hero's part. +His tastes were low. He frequented the haunts of boxing men; her lord +informed her of his having made, or of his making, matches to run or swim +or walk certain distances against competitors or within a given time. +He had also half a dozen boys or more in tow, whom he raced out of town +on Sundays; a nucleus of the school he intended to form. + +But will not Achilles become by comparison a common rushlight where was a +blazing torch, if we see him clap a clown's cap on the head whose golden +helm was fired by Pallas? + +Nay, and let him look the hero still: all the more does he point finger +on his meanness of nature. + +Turning to another, it is another kind of shame that a woman feels, if +she consents to an exchange of letters--shameful indeed, but not such a +feeling of deadly sickness as comes with the humiliating view of an +object of admiration degraded. Bad she may be; and she may be deceived, +vilely treated, in either case. And what is a woman's pride but the +staff and banner of her soul, beyond all gifts? He who wounds it cannot +be forgiven--never!--he has killed the best of her. Aminta found herself +sliding along into the sentiment, that the splendid idol of a girl's +worship is, if she discover him in the lapse of years as an +infinitesimally small one, responsible for the woman's possible reckless +fit of giddiness. And she could see her nonsense; she could not correct +it. Lines of the letters under signature of Adolphus were phosphorescent +about her: they would recur; and she charged their doing so on the +discovered meanness of the girl's idol. Her wicked memory was caused +by his having plunged her low. + +Mrs. Pagnell performed the offices of attention to Mr. Weyburn in lieu of +the countess, who seemed to find it a task to sit at the luncheon table +with him, when Lady Ormont was absent. "Just peeped in," she said as she +entered the library, "to see if all was comfortable;" and gossip ensued, +not devoid of object. She extracted an astonishingly smooth description +of Lady Charlotte. Weyburn was brightness in speaking of the much- +misunderstood lady. "She's one of the living women of the world." + +"You are sure you don't mean one of the worldly women?" Mrs. Pagnell +rejoiced. + +"She has to be known to be liked," he owned. + +"And you were, one hears, among the favoured?" + +"I can scarcely pretend to that, ma'am." + +"You were recommended." + +"Lady Charlotte is devoted to her brother." + +Mrs. Pagnell's bosom heaved. "How strange Lord Ormont is! One would +suppose, with his indignation at the country for its treatment of him, +admirers would be welcome. Oh dear, no! that is not the way. On board +the packet, on our voyage to Spain, my niece in her cabin, imploring +mercy of Neptune, as they say, I heard of Lord Ormont among the +passengers. I could hardly credit my ears. For I had been hearing of +him from my niece ever since her return from a select establishment for +the education of young ladies, not much more than a morning's drive out +of London, though Dover was my residence. She had got a hero! It was +Lord Ormont! Lord Ormont! all day: and when the behaviour of the country +to him became notorious, Aminta--my niece the countess--she could hardly +contain herself. A secret:--I promised her--it's not known to Lord +Ormont himself:--a printed letter in a metropolitan paper, copied into +the provincial papers, upholding him for one of the greatest of our +patriot soldiers and the saviour of India, was the work of her hands. +You would, I am sure, think it really well written. Meeting him on deck +--the outline of the coast of Portugal for an introductory subject, our +Peninsular battles and so forth--I spoke of her enthusiasm. The effect +was, to cut off all communication between us. I had only to appear, Lord +Ormont vanished. I said to myself, this is a character. However, the +very mention of him to my niece, as one of the passengers on board-- +medicine, miraculous! She was up in half an hour, out pacing the deck +before evening, hardly leaning on my arm, and the colour positively +beginning to show on her cheeks again. He fled, of coarse. I had +prepared her for his eccentricities. Next morning she was out by +herself. In the afternoon Lord Ormont strode up to us his--military +step--and most courteously requested the honour of an introduction. I +had broken the ice at last; from that moment he was cordiality itself, +until--I will not say, until he had called her his own--a few little +misunderstandings!--not with his countess. You see, a resident aunt is +translated mother-in-law by husbands; though I spare them pretty +frequently; I go to friends, they travel. Here in London she must have a +duenna. The marriage at Madrid, at the Embassy:--well, perhaps it was a +step for us, for commoners, though we rank with the independent. Has her +own little pin-money--an inheritance. Perhaps Lady Eglett gives the +world her version. She may say, there was aiming at station. I reply, +never was there a more whole-hearted love-match! Absolutely the girl's +heart has been his from the period of her school-days. Oh! a little +affair--she was persecuted by a boy at a neighbouring school. Her +mistress wrote me word--a very determined Romeo young gentleman indeed-- +quite alarmed about him. In the bud! I carried her off on the spot, and +snapped it effectually. Warned he meant to be desperate, I kept her away +from my house at Dover four months, place to place; and I did well. I +heard on my return, that a youth, answering to the schoolmistress's +description of him, had been calling several times, the first two months +and longer. You have me alluding to these little nonsensical nothings, +because she seemed born to create violent attachments, even at that early +day; and Lady Eglett--Lady Charlotte Eglett may hear; for there is no end +to them, and impute them to her, when really!--can she be made +responsible for eyes innocent of the mischief they appear destined to do? +But I am disturbing you in your work." + +"You are very good, ma'am," said the ghost of the determined young +gentleman. + +"A slight cold, have you?" Mrs. Pagnell asked solicitously. + +"Dear me, no!" he gave answer with a cleared throat. + +In charging him with more than he wanted to carry, she supplied him with +particulars he had wanted to know; and now he asked himself what could be +the gain of any amount of satisfied curiosity regarding a married Aminta. +She slew my lord on board a packet-boat; she bears the arrows that slay. +My lord married her where the first English chaplain was to be found; +that is not wonderful either. British Embassy, Madrid! Weyburn believed +the ceremony to have been performed there: at the same time, he could +hear Lady Charlotte's voice repeating with her varied intonation Mrs. +Pagnell's impressive utterances; and he could imagine how the somewhat +silly duenna aunt, so penetrable in her transparent artifices, struck +emphasis on the incredulity of people inclined to judge of the reported +ceremony by Lord Ormont's behaviour to his captive. + +How explain that strange matter? But can there be a gain in trying to +sound it? Weyburn shuffled it away. Before the fit of passion seized +him, he could turn his eager mind from anything which had not a +perceptible point of gain, either for bodily strength or mental +acquisition, or for money, too, now that the school was growing palpable +as an infant in arms and agape for the breast. Thought of gain, and the +bent to pursue it, is the shield of Athene over young men in the press of +the seductions. He had to confess his having lost some bits of himself +by reason of his meditations latterly; and that loss, if we let it +continue a space, will show in cramp at the wrist, logs on the legs, a +wheezy wind, for any fellow vowed to physical trials of strength and +skill. It will show likewise in the brain beating broken wings-- +inability to shoot a thought up out of the body for half a minute. And, +good Lord! how quickly the tight-strong fellow crumbles, when once the +fragmentary disintegration has begun! Weyburn cried out on a heart that +bounded off at prodigal gallops, and had to be nipped with reminders of +the place of good leader he was for taking among the young. Hang +superexcellence! but we know those moanings over the troubles of a +married woman; we know their sources, know their goal, or else we are the +fiction-puppet or the Bedlamite; and she is a married woman, married at +the British Embassy, Madrid, if you please! after a few weeks' +acquaintance with her husband, who doubtless wrote his name intelligibly +in the registrar's book, but does not prove himself much the hero when he +drives a pen, even for so little as the signing of his name! He signed +his name, apparently not more than partly pledging himself to the bond. +Lord Ormont's autobiographical scraps combined with Lady Charlotte's +hints and Mrs. Pagnell's communications, to provoke the secretary's +literary contempt of his behaviour to his wife. However, the former +might be mended, and he resumed the task. + +It had the restorative effect of touching him to see his old hero in +action; whereby he was brought about to a proper modesty, so that he +really craved no more than for the mistress of this house to breathe the +liberal air of a public acknowledgment of her rightful position. Things +constituted by their buoyancy to float are remarkable for lively bobbings +when they are cast upon the waters; and such was the case with Weyburn, +until the agitation produced by Mrs. Pagnell left him free to sail away +in the society of the steadiest. + +He decided that by not observing, not thinking, not feeling, about the +circumstances of the household into which Fate had thrown him, he would +best be able--probably it was the one way--to keep himself together; and +his resolution being honest all round, he succeeded in it as long as he +abstained from a very wakeful vigilance over simple eyesight. For if one +is nervously on guard to not-see, the matter starts up winged, and enters +us, and kindles the mind, and tingles through the blood; it has us as a +foe. The art of blind vision requires not only practice, but an intimate +knowledge of the arts of the traitor we carry within. Safest for him, +after all, was to lay fast hold of the particularly unimportant person he +was, both there and anywhere else. The Countess of Ormont's manner +toward him was to be read as a standing index of the course he should +follow; and he thanked her. He could not quite so sincerely thank her +aunt. His ingratitude for the sickly dose she had administered to him +sprang a doubt whether Lady Ormont now thanked her aunt on account of +services performed at the British Embassy, Madrid. + +Certain looks of those eyes recently, when in colloquy with my lord, +removed the towering nobleman to a shadowed landscape. + +Was it solely an effect of eyes commanding light, and having every shaft +of the quiver of the rays at her disposal? Or was it a shot from a +powerful individuality issuing out of bondage to some physical oppressor +no longer master of the soul, in peril of the slipping away of the body? +Her look on him was not hate: it was larger, more terribly divine. Those +eyes had elsewhere once looked love: they had planted their object in a +throbbing Eden. The man on whom they had looked shivered over the +thought of it after years of blank division. + +Rather than have those eyes to look on him their displacing unintentness, +the man on whom they had once looked love would have chosen looks of +wrath, the darts that kill--blest darts of the celestial Huntress, giving +sweet sudden cessation of pain, in the one everlasting last flash of life +with thought that the shot was hers. Oh for the 'ayava behea' of the +Merciful in splendour! + +These were the outcries of the man deciding simultaneously not to +observe, not to think, not to feel, and husbanding calculations upon +storage of gain for the future. Softness held the song below. It came +of the fact that his enforced resolution, for the sake of sanity, drove +his whole reflective mind backward upon his younger days, when an Evening +and a Morning star in him greeted the bright Goddess Browny or sang +adieu, and adored beyond all golden beams the underworld whither she had +sunk, where she was hidden. + +Meanwhile, the worthy dame who had dosed him was out in her carriage, +busy paying visits to distinguished ladies of the great world, with the +best of excuses for an early call, which was gossip to impart, such as +the Countess of Ormont had not yet thought of mentioning; and two or +three of them were rather amusedly interested to hear that Lord Ormont +had engaged a handsome young secretary, "under the patronage of Lady +Charlotte Eglett, devoted to sports of all kinds, immensely favoured by +both." Gossip must often have been likened to the winged insect bearing +pollen to the flowers; it fertilizes many a vacuous reverie. Those +flowers of the upper garden are not, indeed, stationary and in need of +the missionary buzzer, but if they have been in one place unmoved for one +hour, they are open to take animation from their visitors. Aminta was +pleasantly surprised next day by the receipt of a note from Mrs. Lawrence +Finchley, begging to be invited to lunch if she came, as she had a +purpose in the wish to meet my lord. + + + + +[NOTE: The remainder of 'Lord Ormont and His Aminta' is taken from an +older edition which uses single rather than double quotation marks. +D.W.] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +MRS. LAWRENCE FINCHLEY + +My lord had one of his wilful likings for Isabella Lawrence Finchley, +and he consented to the torture of an hour of Mrs. Nargett Pagnell in the +middle of the day, just to taste the favourite he welcomed at home as he +championed her abroad. The reasons were numerous and intimate why she +pleased him. He liked the woman, enjoyed the cause for battle that she +gave. Weyburn, on coming to the luncheon table, beheld a lady with the +head of a comely boy, the manner, softened in delicate feminine, of a +capital comrade. Her air of candour was her nature in her face; and it +carried a guileless roguery, a placid daring, a supersensual naughtiness, +a simplicity of repose amid the smoky reputation she created, that led +one to think the vapour calumnious or the creature privileged. That +young boy's look opened him at once; he had not to warm to her,--he flew. +Ordinarily the sweetest ladies will make us pass through cold mist and +cross a stile or two, or a broken bridge, before the formalities are +cleared away to grant us rights of citizenship. She was like those frank +lands where we have not to hand out a passport at the frontier and wait +for dubious inspection of it. + +She prevailed with cognizant men and with the frivolous. Women were +capable of appreciating her, too: as Aminta did, despite some hinted +qualifications addressed shyly to her husband. But these were the very +matters exciting his particular esteem. He was of Lady Charlotte's mind, +in her hot zeal against injustice done to the creatures she despised; and +yet more than she applauded a woman who took up her idiot husband's +challenge to defend her good name, and cleared it, right or wrong, and +beat him down on his knees, and then started for her spell of the merry +canter over turf: an example to the English of the punishment they get +for their stupid Puritanic tyranny--sure to be followed by a national +helter-skelter down-hill headlong. And Mrs. Lawrence was not one of the +corrupt, he argued; she concealed what it was decent to conceal, without +pouting hypocritical pretences; she had merely dispensed with idle legal +formalities, in the prettiest curvetting airy wanton way, to divorce the +man who tried to divorce her, and 'whined to be forgiven when he found he +couldn't. Adderwood was ready to marry her to-morrow, if the donkey +husband would but go and bray his last. Half a dozen others were heads +off on the same course to that goal.' + +That was her champion's perusal of a lady candidly asserting her right +to have breeched comrades, and paying for it in the advocacy which +compromises. She was taken to be and she was used as a weapon wherewith +to strike at our Pharisees. Women pushing out into the world for +independence, bleed heavy payments all round. + +The earl's double-edged defence of her was partly a vindication of +another husband, who allowed his wife to call her friend; he was +nevertheless assured of her not being corrupt, both by his personal +knowledge of the lady, and his perception of her image in the bosom of +his wife. She did no harm there, he knew well. Although he was not a +man to put his trust in faces, as his young secretary inclined to do, +Mrs. Lawrence's look of honest boy did count among the pleadings. And +somewhat so might a government cruiser observe the intrusion of a white- +sailed yacht in protected sea-waters, where licenced trawlers are at the +haul. + +Talk over the table coursed as fluently as might be, with Mrs. Pagnell +for a boulder in the stream. Uninformed by malice, she led up to Lord +Adderwood's name, and perhaps more designedly spoke of Mr. Morsfield, on +whom her profound reading into the female heart of the class above her +caused her to harp, as 'a real Antinous,' that the ladies might discuss +him and Lord Ormont wax meditative. + +Mrs. Lawrence pitied the patient gentleman, while asking him in her mind +who was the author of the domestic burden he had to bear. + +'It reminds me I have a mission,' she said. 'There's a fencing match +down at a hall in the West, near the barracks; private and select: +Soldier and Civilian; I forget who challenged--Civilian, one judges; +Soldiers are the peaceful party. They want you to act "umpire," as they +call it, on the military side, my dear lord; and you will?--I have given +my word you will bring Lady Ormont. You will?--and not let me be +confounded! Yes, and we shall make a party. I see consent. Aminta will +enjoy the switch of steel. I love to see fencing. It rouses all that is +diabolical in me.' + +She sent a skimming look at the opposite. + +'And I,' said he, much freshened. + +'You fence?' + +'Handle the foils.' + +'If you must speak modestly! Are you in practice?' + +'I spend in hour in Captain Chiallo's fencing rooms generally every +evening before dinner. I heard there the first outlines of the match +proposed. You are right; it was the civilian.' + +'Mr. Morsfield, as I suspected.' + +She smiled to herself, like one saying, Not badly managed, Mr. Morsfield! + +'Italian school?' Lord Ormont inquired, with a screw of the eyelids. + +'French, my lord.' + +'The only school for teaching.' + +'The simplest--has the most rational method. Italians are apt to be +tricky. But they were masters once, and now and then they send out a +fencer the French can't touch.' + +'How would you account for it?' + +'If I had to account for it, I should say, hotter blood, cool nerve, +quick brain.' + +'Hum. Where are we, then?' + +'We don't shine with the small sword.' + +'We had men neatly pinked for their slashings in the Peninsula.' + +'We've had clever Irishmen.' + +'Hot enough blood! This man Morsfield--have you crossed the foils with +him?' + +'Goes at it like a Spaniard; though Spaniards in Paris have been found +wary enough.' + +My lord hummed. 'Fellow looks as if he would easily lose his head over +steel.' + +'He can be dangerous.' + +The word struck on something, and rang. + +Mrs. Lawrence had a further murmur within her lips. Her travelling eye +met Aminta's and passed it. + +'But not dangerous, surely, if the breast is padded?' said Mrs. Pagnell. + +'Oh no, oh no; not in that case!' Mrs. Lawrence ran out her voluble +assent, and her eyelids blinked; her fair boy's face was mischief at +school under shadow of the master. + +She said to Weyburn: 'Are you one in the list--to give our military a +lesson? They want it.' + +His answer was unheard by Aminta. She gathered from Mrs. Lawrence's +pleased sparkle that he had been invited to stand in the list; and the +strange, the absurd spectacle of a young schoolmaster taking the heroic +attitude for attack and defence wrestled behind her eyes with a suddenly +vivid first-of-May cricketing field, a scene of snowballs flying, the +vision of a strenuous lighted figure scaling to noble young manhood. +Isabella Lawrence's look at him spirited the bright past out of the +wretched long-brown-coat shroud of the present, prompting her to grieve +that some woman's hand had not smoothed a small tuft of hair, disorderly +on his head a little above the left parting, because Isabella Lawrence +Finchley could have no recollection of how it used to toss feathery--wild +at his games. + +My lord hummed again. 'I suspect we 're going to get a drubbing. This +fellow here has had his French maitre d'armes. Show me your hand, sir.' + +Weyburn smiled, and extended his right hand, saying: 'The wrist wants +exercise.' + +'Ha! square thumb, flesh full at the nails' ends; you were a bowler at +cricket.' + +'Now examine the palms, my lord; I judge by the lines on the palms,' Mrs. +Pagnell remarked. + +He nodded to her and rose. + +Coffee had not been served, she reminded him; it was coming in, so down +he sat a yard from the table; outwardly equable, inwardly cursing coffee; +though he refused to finish a meal without his cup. + +'I think the palms do betray something,' said Mrs. Lawrence; and Aminta +said: 'Everything betrays.' + +'No, my dear,' Mrs. Pagnell corrected her; 'the extremities betray, and +we cannot read the centre. Is it not so, my lord?' + +'It may be as you say, ma'am.' + +She was disappointed in her scheme to induce a general examination of +palms, and especially his sphinx lordship's. + +Weyburn controlled the tongue she so frequently tickled to an elvish +gavotte, but the humour on his face touched Mrs. Lawrence's to a subdued +good-fellow roguishness, and he felt himself invited to chat with her on +the walk for a reposeful ten minutes in Aminta's drawing-room. + +Mrs. Pagnell, 'quite enjoying the company,' as she told her niece, was +dismayed to hear her niece tell her of a milliner's appointment, positive +for three o'clock; and she had written it in her head 'p.m., four +o'clock,' and she had mislaid or destroyed the milliner's note; and she +still had designs upon his lordship's palms, things to read and hint +around her off the lines. She departed. + +Lord Ormont became genial; and there was no one present who did not +marvel that he should continue to decree a state of circumstances more or +less necessitating the infliction he groaned under. He was too lofty to +be questioned, even by his favourites. Mrs. Lawrence conjured the ghost +of Lady Charlotte for an answer: this being Lord Adderwood's idea. +Weyburn let his thoughts go on fermenting. Pride froze a beginning +stir in the bosom of Aminta. + +Her lord could captivate a reluctant woman's bosom when he was genial. +He melted her and made her call up her bitterest pride to perform its +recent office. That might have failed; but it had support in a second +letter received from the man accounted both by Mrs. Lawrence and by Mr. +Weyburn 'dangerous'; and the thought of who it was that had precipitated +her to 'play little games' for the sole sake of rousing him through +jealousy to a sense of righteous duty, armed her desperately against him. +She could exult in having read the second letter right through on receipt +of it, and in remembering certain phrases; and notably in a reflection +shot across her bewildered brain by one of the dangerous man's queer mad +sentences: 'Be as iron as you like, I will strike you to heat'; and her +thought: Is there assurance of safety in a perpetual defence?--all while +she smiled on her genial lord, and signified agreement, with a smiting of +wonderment at her heart, when he alluded to a panic shout of the country +for defence, and said: 'Much crying of that kind weakens the power to +defend when the real attack comes.' Was it true? + +'But say what you propose?' she asked. + +Lord Ormont proposed vigilance and drill; a small degree of self- +sacrifice on the part of the population, and a look-out head in the War +Department. He proposed to have a nation of stout-braced men laughing at +the foreign bully or bandit, instead of being a pack of whimpering women; +whom he likened to the randomly protestant geese of our country roadside, +heads out a yard in a gabble of defence while they go backing. + +So thereupon Aminta's notion of a resemblance in the mutual thought +subsided; she relapsed on the cushioning sentiment that she was a woman. +And--only a woman! he might exclaim, if it pleased him; though he would +never be able to say she was one of the whimpering. She, too, had the +choice to indulge in scorn of the superior man stone blind to proceedings +intimately affecting him--if he cared! One might doubt it. + +Mrs. Lawrence listened to him with a mind more disengaged, and a flitting +disapproval of Aminta's unsympathetic ear, or reluctance to stimulate the +devout attention a bruised warrior should have in his tent. She did not +press on him the post of umpire. He consented--at her request, he said-- +to visit the show; but refused any official position that would, it was +clearly enough implied, bring his name in any capacity whatever before +the country which had unpardonably maltreated him. + +Feminine wits will be set working, when a point has been gained; and as +Mrs. Lawrence could now say she had persuaded Lord Ormont to gratify her +specially, she warmed to fancy she read him, and that she might have +managed the wounded and angry giant. Her minor intelligence, caracoling +unhampered by harassing emotions, rebuked Aminta's for not perceiving +that to win him round to whatever a woman may desire, she must be with +him, outstrip him even, along the line he chooses for himself; abuse the +country, rail at the Government, ridicule the title of English Army, +proscribe the name of India in his hearing. Little stings of jealousy +are small insect bites, and do not pique a wounded giant hardly sensible +of irritation under his huge, and as we assume for our purpose, +justifiable wrath. We have to speculate which way does the giant incline +to go? and turn him according to the indication. + +Mrs. Lawrence was driven by her critic mood to think Aminta relied-- +erroneously, after woman's old fashion--on the might of superb dark eyes +after having been captured. It seemed to her worse than a beautiful +woman's vanity, a childishness. But her boy's head held boy's brains; +and Lord Ormont's praise of the splendid creature's nerve when she had to +smell powder in Spain, and at bull-fights, and once at a wrecking of +their carriage down a gully on the road over the Alpujarras, sent her +away subdued, envious, happy to have kissed the cheek of the woman who +could inspire it. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +A FLASH OF THE BRUISED WARRIOR + +The winning of Lord Ormont's consent to look on at the little bout of +arms was counted an achievement; for even in his own rarefied upper +circle, where the fervid sentiments are not allowed to be seen plunging, +he had his troop of enthusiasts; and they were anxious that he should +make an appearance in public, to take what consolation a misunderstood +and injured man could get from evidence of the grateful esteem +entertained for him by a party of his countrymen, who might reasonably +expect at the same time to set eyes, at rather close quarters, on the +wonderful dark beauty, supposed a Spaniard, occasionally beheld riding +beside him. If it is possible to connect a woman with the devoutest of +their anticipations, the sons of leisure up there will do it. But, in +truth, an English world was having cause to ransack the dust-heaps for +neglected men of mettle. Our intermittent ague, known as dread of +invasion, was over the land. Twice down the columns of panic newspaper +correspondence Lord Ormont saw his name cited, with the effect on him +that such signs of national repentance approaching lodged a crabbed +sourness in his consulting-room, whether of head or breast. + +He was assailed by a gusty appeal from Lady Charlotte, bidding him seize +the moment to proclaim his views while the secretary had a private +missive from her, wherein, between insistency and supplication, she +directed him to bring the subject before my lord every day, and be sure +to write out a fair copy of the epistle previous to the transmission of +it. 'Capua' was mentioned; she brought in 'a siren,' too. Her brother +was to be the soldier again--fling off silken bonds. The world might +prate of his morality; now was the hour for showing his patriotism, +casting aside his just anger, and backing his chief's opinion. 'A good +chance to get their names together.' To her brother she declared that +the columns of the leading journal were open to him--'in large type'; he +was to take her word for it; he had only to 'dictate away,' quite at his +ease, just as he talked at Olmer, and leave the bother of the scribe's +business to his aide. 'Lose no time,' she concluded; 'the country wants +your ideas; let us have your plan.' + +The earl raised his shoulders, and kept his aide exclusively at the +Memoirs. Weyburn, however, read out to him, with accentuation, foolish +stuff in the recurrent correspondence of the daily sheets, and a +complacent burgess article, meant to be a summary of the controversy and +a recommendation to the country to bask in the sun of its wealth again. + +'Ay, be the porker sow it's getting liker and liker to every year!' Lord +Ormont exclaimed, and sprang on his feet. 'Take a pen. Shut up that +box. We'll give 'em digestive biscuits for their weak stomachs. +Invasion can't be done, they say! I tell the doddered asses Napoleon +would have been over if Villeneuve had obeyed him to the letter. +Villeneuve had a fit of paralysis, owing to the prestige of Nelson-- +that 's as it happened. And they swear at prestige, won't believe in it, +because it's not fat bacon. I tell them, after Napoleon's first battles, +prestige did half his work for him. It saved him at Essling from a +plunge into the Danube; it saved him at Moskowa; it would have marched +him half over England at his first jump on our shingle beach. But that +squelch of fat citizens should be told--to the devil with them! will they +ever learn? short of a second William!--there were eight-and-forty hours +when the liberty of this country hung wavering in the balance with those +Boulogne boats. Now look at Ulm and Austerlitz. Essling, Wagram; put +the victors in those little affairs to front our awkward squads. The +French could boast a regimental system, and chiefs who held them as the +whist-player his hand of cards. Had we a better general than the +Archduke Charles? or cavalry and artillery equal to the Hungarian? +or drilled infantry numbering within eighty thousand of the Boulogne- +Wimereux camps? We had nothing but the raw material of courage--pluck, +and no science. Ask any boxing man what he thinks of the chances. +The French might have sacrificed a fleet to land fifty thousand. +Our fleet was our one chance. Any foreign General at the head of fifty +thousand trained, picked troops would risk it, and cut an 'entrechat' for +joy of the chance. We should have fought and bled and been marched over +--a field of Anglo-Saxon stubble! and Nelson riding the Channel, +undisputed lord of the waters. Heigh! by the Lord, this country would +have been like a man free to rub his skin with his hand and a mortal +disease in his blood. Are you ready? How anticipate a hostile march on +the capital, is our business.' + +Striding up and down the library, Lord Ormont dropped his wrath to +dictate the practical measures for defence--detesting the cat's-cry +'defence,' he said; but the foe would bring his old growlers, and we +should have to season our handful of regulars and mob of levies, turn the +mass into troops. With plenty of food, and blows daily, Englishmen soon +get stomachs for the right way to play the game; bowl as well as bat; and +the sooner they give up the idea of shamming sturdy on a stiff hind leg, +the better for their chances. Only, it's a beastly thing to see that for +their favourite attitude;--like some dog of a fellow weak in the fists, +weaker in the midriff, at a fair, who cries, Come on, and prays his gods +you won't. All for peace, the rascal boasts himself, and he beats his +wife and kicks his curs at home. Is there any one to help him now, he +vomits gold and honours on the man he yesterday treated as a felon. Ha! + +Bull the bumpkin disposed of, my lord drew leisurely back from the +foeman's landing-place, at the head of a body of serious Englishmen; +teaching them to be manageable as chess-pieces, ready as bow-strings to +let fly. Weyburn rejoiced to find himself transcribing crisp sentences, +hard on the matter, without garnish of scorn. Kent, Sussex, Surrey, all +the southern heights about London, round away to the south-western of the +Hampshire heathland, were accurately mapped in the old warrior's brain. +He knew his points of vantage by name; there were no references to +gazetteer or atlas. A chain of forts and earthworks enables us to choose +our ground, not for clinging to them, but for choice of time and place to +give battle. If we have not been playing double-dyed traitor to +ourselves, we have a preponderating field artillery; our yeomanry and +volunteer horsemen are becoming a serviceable cavalry arm; our infantry +prove that their heterogeneous composition can be welded to a handy mass, +and can stand fire and return it, and not be beaten by an acknowledged +defeat. + +'That's English! yes, that's English! when they're at it,' my lord sang +out. + +'To know how to take a licking, that wins in the end,' cried Weyburn; his +former enthusiasm for the hero mounting, enlightened by a reminiscence of +the precept he had hammered on the boys at Cuper's. + +'They fall well. Yes, the English fall like men,' said my lord, +pardoning and embracing the cuffed nation. 'Bodies knocked over, hearts +upright. That's example; we breed Ironsides out of a sight like that. +If it weren't for a cursed feeble Government scraping 'conges' to the +taxpayer--well, so many of our good fellows would not have to fall. That +I say; for this thing is going to happen some day, mind you, sir! And I +don't want to have puncheons and hogsheads of our English blood poured +out merely to water the soil of a conquered country because English +Governments are a craven lot, not daring risk of office by offending the +taxpayer. But, on!' + +Weyburn sent Lady Charlotte glowing words of the composition in progress. + +They worked through a day, and a second day--talked of nothing else in +the intervals. Explanatory answers were vouchsafed to Aminta's modest +inquiries at Finch, as she pictured scenes of smoke, dust and blood from +the overpowering plain masculine lines they drew, terrible in bluntness. +The third morning Lord Ormont had map and book to verify distances and +attempt a scale of heights, take names of estates, farms, parishes, +commons, patches of woodland. Weyburn wrote his fair copy on folio +paper, seven-and-thirty pages. He read it aloud to the author on the +afternoon of the fourth day, with the satisfaction in his voice that he +felt. My lord listened and nodded. The plan for the defence of +England's heart was a good plan. + +He signed to have the manuscript handed to him. A fortified London +secure of the Thames for abundant supplies, well able to breathe within +earthworks extending along the southern hills, was clearly shown to stand +the loss of two big battles on the Sussex weald or more East to North- +east, if fortune willed it. + +He rose from his chair, paced some steps, with bent head, came back +thoughtfully, lifted the manuscript sheets for another examination. +Then he stooped to the fire, spreading the edges unevenly, so that they +caught flame. Weyburn spied at him. It was to all appearance the doing +of a man who had intended it and brought it to the predetermined +conclusion. + +'About time for you to be off for your turn at Chiallo's,' our country's +defender remarked, after tossing the last half-burnt lump under the grate +and shovelling at it. + +'I will go, my lord,' said Weyburn--and he was glad to go. + +He went, calculated his term of service under Lord Ormont. He was young, +not a philosopher. Waste of anything was abhorrent to a nature pointed +at store of daily gain, if it were only the gain in a new or a freshened +idea; and time lost, work lost, good counsel to the nation lost, +represented horrid vacuity to him, and called up the counter +demonstration of a dance down the halls of madness, for proof that we +should, at least, have jolly motion of limbs there before Perdition +struck the great gong. Ay, and we should be twirling with a fair form on +the arm: woman and man; as it ought to be; twirling downward, true, but +together. Such a companionship has a wisdom to raise it above the title +of madness. Name it, heartily, pleasure; and in contempt of the moralist +burgess, praise the dance of a woman and the man together high over a +curmudgeonly humping solitariness, that won't forgive an injury, nurses +rancour, smacks itself in the face, because it can't--to use the old +schoolboy words--take a licking! + +These were the huddled, drunken sensations and thoughts entertained by +Weyburn, without his reflecting on the detachment from his old hero, of +which they were the sign. He criticized impulsively, and fancied he did +no more, and was not doing much though, in fact, criticism is the end of +worship; the Brutus blow at that Imperial but mortal bosom. + +The person criticized was manifest. Who was the woman he twirled with? +She was unfeatured, undistinguished, one of the sex, or all the sex: the +sex to be shunned as our deadly sapper of gain, unless we find the chosen +one to super-terrestrialize it and us, and trebly outdo our gift of our +whole self for her. + +She was indistinguishable, absolutely unknown; yet she murmured, or +seemed to murmur--for there was no sound--a complaint of Lord Ormont. +And she, or some soundless mouth of woman, said he was a splendid +military hero, a chivalrous man, a man of inflexible honour; but had no +understanding of how to treat a woman, or belief in her having equal life +with him on earth. + +She was put aside rather petulantly, and she took her seat out of the +whirl with submission. Thinking she certainly was not Browny, whom he +would have known among a million, he tried to quit the hall, and he +twirled afresh, necessarily not alone; it is the unpardonable offence +both to the Graces and the Great Mother for man to valse alone. She +twirled on his arm, uninvited; accepted, as in the course of nature; +hugged, under dictate of the nature of the man steeled against her by the +counting of gain, and going now at desperation's pace, by very means of +those defensive locked steam-valves meant to preserve him from this +madness,--for the words of the red-lipped mate, where there were no +words, went through him like a music when the bow is over the viol, +sweeping imagination, and they said her life was wasting. + +Was not she a priceless manuscript cast to the flames? Her lord had been +at some trouble to win her. Or his great fame and his shadowed fortunes +had won her. He took her for his own, and he would not call her his own. +He comported himself with absolute, with kindly deference to the lady +whose more than vital spark he let the gossips puff at and blur. He +praised her courage, visibly admired her person, admitted her in private +to be his equal, degraded her in public. Could anything account for the +behaviour of so manly and noble a gentleman?--Rhetoric made the attempt, +and Weyburn gave up the windy business. + +Discovering that his fair partner of the wasting life was--he struggled +to quench the revelation--Aminta, he stopped the dance. If there was no +gain in whirling fancifully with one of the sex, a spin of a minute with +her was downright bankruptcy. + +He was young, full of blood; his heart led him away from the door Lord +Ormont had exposed; at which a little patient unemotional watchfulness +might have intimated to him something besides the simple source of the +old hero's complex chapter of conduct. As it was, Weyburn did see the +rancour of a raw wound in operation. But he moralized and disapproved; +telling himself, truly enough, that so it would not have been with him; +instead of sounding at my lord's character, and his condition of the +unjustly neglected great soldier, for the purpose of asking how that raw +wound would affect an injured veteran, who compressed, almost repressed, +the roar of Achilles, though his military bright name was to him his +Briseis. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A SHORT PASSAGE IN THE GAME PLAYED BY TWO + +Politest of men in the domestic circle and everywhere among women, Lord +Ormont was annoyed to find himself often gruffish behind the tie of his +cravat. Indeed, the temper of our eminently serene will feel the strain +of a doldrum-dulness that is goaded to activity by a nettle. The +forbearance he carried farther than most could do was tempted to kick, +under pressure of Mrs. Nargett Pagnell. Without much blaming Aminta, on +whose behalf he submitted to it, and whose resolution to fix in England +had brought it to this crisis, he magnanimously proposed to the Fair +Enemy he forced her to be, and liked to picture her as being, a month in +Paris. + +Aminta declined it for herself; after six or more years of travelling, +she wished to settle, and know her country, she said: a repetition +remark, wide of the point, and indicatory to the game of Pull she was +again playing beneath her smooth visage, unaware that she had the wariest +of partners at the game. + +'But go you--do, I beg,' she entreated. 'It will give you new +impressions; and I cannot bear to tie you down here.' + +'How you can consent to be tied down here, is the wonder to me!' said he. +'When we travelled through the year, just visited England and were off +again, we were driving on our own road. Vienna in April and May--what do +you say? You like the reviews there, and the dances, concerts, Zigeuner +bands, military Bohemian bands. Or Egypt to-morrow, if you like--though +you can't be permitted to swim in the Nile, as you wanted. Come, Xarifa, +speak it. I go to exile without you. Say you come.' + +She smiled firmly. The name of her honeymoon days was not a cajolery to +her. + +His name had been that of the Christian Romancero Knight Durandarte, and +she gave it to him, to be on the proper level with him, while she still +declined. + +'Well, but just a month in Paris! There's nothing doing here. And we +both like the French theatre.' + +'London will soon be filling.' + +'Well, but--' He stopped; for the filling of London did really concern +her, in the game of Pull she was covertly playing with him. 'You seem to +have caught the fever of this London; . . . no bands . . . no +reviews . . . Low comedy acting.' He muttered his objections to +London. + +'The society of people speaking one's own tongue, add that,' she ventured +to say. + +'You know you are ten times more Spanish than English. Moorish, if you +like.' + +'The slave of the gallant Christian Knight, converted, baptized, and +blissful. Oh, I know. But now we are settled in England, I have a wish +to study English society.' + +'Disappointing, I assure you;--dinners heavy, dancing boorish, intrigue a +blind-man's-buff. We've been over it all before !' + +'We have.' + +'Admired, I dare say. You won't be understood.' + +'I like my countrymen.' + +'The women have good looks--of the ungarnished kind. The men are louts.' + +'They are brave.' + +'You're to see their fencing. You'll own a little goes a long way.' + +'I think it will amuse me.' + +'So I thought when I gave the nod to Isabella your friend.' + +'You like her?' + +'You, too.' + +'One fancies she would make an encouraging second in a duel.' + +'I will remember . . . when I call you out.' + +'Oh, my dear lord, you have dozens to choose from leave me my one if we +are to enter the lists.' + +'We are, it seems; unless you consent to take the run to Paris. You are +to say Tom or Rowsley.' + +'The former, I can never feel at home in saying; Rowsley is Lady +Charlotte's name for you.' + +The name of Lady Charlotte was an invitation to the conflict between +them. He passed it, and said 'Durandarte runs a mile on the mouth, and +the Coriolanus of their newspapers helps a stage-player to make lantern +jaws. Neither of them comes well from the lips of my girl. After seven +years she should have hit on a nickname, of none of the Christian suit. +I am not "at home" either with "my lord." However, you send me off to +Paris alone; and you'll be alone and dull here in this London. +Incomprehensible to me why!' + +'We are both wondering?' said Aminta. + +'You 're handsomer than when I met you first--by heaven you are!' + +She flushed her dark brown-red late-sunset. 'Brunes are exceptional in +England.' + +'Thousands admiring you, of course! I know, my love, I have a jewel.' + +She asked him: 'What are jewels for?' and he replied, 'To excite +cupidity.' + +'When they 're shut in a box?' + +'Ware burglars! But this one is not shut up. She shuts herself up. And +up go her shoulders! Decide to be out of it, and come to Paris for some +life for a month. No? It's positive? When do you expect your little +school friend?' + +'After Easter. Aunt will be away.' + +'Your little friend likes the country. I'll go to my house agents. If +there 's a country house open on the upper Thames, you can have swimming, +boating, botanizing . . .' + +He saw her throat swallow. But as he was offering agreeable things he +chose to not understand how he was to be compassionate. + +'Steignton?' she said, and did her cause no good by saying it feebly. + +His look of a bygone awake-in-sleep old look, drearily known to her, was +like a strip of sunlight on a fortress wall. It signified, Is the poor +soul pushing me back to that again? + +She compelled herself to say: 'Your tenant there?' + +'Matter of business . . . me and my tenant,' he remarked. 'The man +pays punctually.' + +'The lease has expired.' + +'Not quite. You are misinformed.' + +'At Easter.' + +'Ah! Question of renewing.' + +'You were fond of the place.' + +'I was fond of the place? Thank Blazes, I'm not what I was!' He paced +about. 'There's not a corner of the place that doesn't screw an eye at +me, because I had a dream there. La gloire!' + +The rest he muttered. 'These English!' was heard. Aminta said: 'Am I +never to see Steignton?' + +Lord Ormont invoked the Powers. He could not really give answer to this +female talk of the eternities. + +'Beaten I can never be,' he said, with instinctive indulgence to the +greater creature. 'But down there at Steignton, I should be haunted by a +young donkey swearing himself the fellow I grew up out of. No doubt of +that. I don't like him the better for it. Steignton grimaces at a +cavalry officer fool enough at his own risks and penalties to help save +India for the English. Maunderers! You can't tell--they don't know +themselves--what they mean. Except that they 're ready to take anything +you hand 'em, and then pipe to your swinging. I served them well--and at +my age, in full activity, they condemn me to sit and gape!' + +He stopped his pacing and gazed on the glass of the window. + +'Would you wish me not to be present at this fencing?' said Aminta. + +'Dear me! by all means, go, my love,' he replied. + +Any step his Fair Enemy won in the secret game Pull between them, she was +undisputedly to keep. + +She suggested: 'It might lead to unpleasantness.' + +'Of what sort?' + +'You ask?' + +He emphasized: 'Have you forgotten? Something happened after that last +ball at Challis's Rooms. Their women as well as their men must be +careful not to cross me.' + +Aminta had confused notions of her being planted in hostile territory, +and torn and knitted, trumpeted to the world as mended, but not +honourably mended in a way to stop corridor scandal. The ball at +Challis's Rooms had been one of her steps won: it had necessitated a +requirement for the lion in her lord to exhibit himself, and she had +gained nothing with Society by the step, owing to her poor performance +of the lion's mate. She had, in other words, shunned the countenance of +some scattered people pityingly ready to support her against the deadly +passive party known to be Lady Charlotte's. + +She let her lord go; thinking that once more had she striven and gained +nothing: which was true of all their direct engagements. And she had +failed because of her being only a woman! Mr. Morsfield was foolishly +wrong in declaring that she, as a woman, had reserves of strength. He +was perhaps of Lady Charlotte's mind with regard to the existence of a +Countess of Ormont, or he would know her to be incredibly cowardly. +Cowardly under the boast of pride, too; well, then, say, if you like, a +woman! + +Yet this mere shallow woman would not hesitate to meet the terrible Lady +Charlotte at any instant, on any terms: and what are we to think of a +soldier, hero, lion, dreading to tell her to her face that the persecuted +woman is his wife! + +'Am I a woman they can be ashamed of?' she asked, and did not seek the +answer at her mirror. She was in her bedroom, and she put out a hand to +her jewel-box, fingered it, found it locked, and abandoned her idle +project. A gentleman was 'dangerous.' She had not found him so. He had +the reputation, perhaps, because he was earnest. Not so very many men +are earnest. She called to recollection how ludicrously practical he was +in the thick of his passion. His third letter (addressed to the Countess +of Ormont--whom he manifestly did not or would not take to be the +veritable Countess--and there was much to plead for his error), or was it +his fourth?--the letters were a tropical hail-storm: third or fourth, he +broke off a streaked thunderpeal, to capitulate his worldly possessions, +give the names and degrees of kinship of his relatives, the exact amount +of the rent-roll of his Yorkshire estates, of his funded property. + +Silly man! but not contemptible. He proposed everything in honour, from +his view of it. + +Whether in his third, fourth, or fifth letter. . . . How many had +come? She drew the key from her purse, and opened a drawer. The key of +the jewel-box was applied to the lock. + +Mr. Morsfield had sent her six flaming letters. He not only took no +precautions, he boasted that he hailed the consequences of discovery. +Six! + +She lifted a pen: it had to be done. + +He was briefly informed that he disturbed her peace. She begged he would +abstain from any further writing to her. + +The severity was in the brevity. The contrast of her style and his +appeared harsh. But it belonged to the position. + +Having with one dash of the pen scribbled her three lines, she slipped +the letter into her pocket. That was done, and it had to be done; it +ought to have been done before. How simple it was when one contemplated +it as actually done! Aminta made the motion of a hand along the paper, +just a flourish. Soon after, her head dropped back on the chair, and her +eyes shut, she took in breath through parted lips. The brief lines of +writing had cut away a lump of her vitality. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE SECRETARY TAKEN AS AN ANTIDOTE + +Dusty wayfarers along a white high-road who know of a bubbling little +spring across a stile, on the woodland borders of deep grass, are hailed +to sit aside it awhile: and Aminta's feverishness was cooled by now and +then a quiet conversation with the secretary ambitious to become a +school-master. Lady Charlotte liked him, so did her lord; Mrs. Lawrence +had chatted with him freshly, as it was refreshing to recollect; nobody +thought him a stunted growth. + +In Aminta's realized recollections, amid the existing troubles of her +mind, the charge against him grew paler, and she could no longer quite +think that the young hero transformed into a Mr. Cuper had deceived her, +though he had done it--much as if she had assisted at the planting and +watched aforetime the promise of a noble tree, to find it, after an +interval of years, pollarded--a short trunk shooting out a shock of +small, slim, stiff branches; dwarfed and disgraced; serviceable perhaps; +not ludicrous or ugly, certainly, taking it for a pollard. And he was a +cool well-spring to talk with. He, supposed once to be a passionate +nature, scorned passion as a madness; he smiled in his merciful +executioner's way at the high society, of which her aim was to pass for +one among the butterflies or dragonflies; he had lost his patriotism; he +labelled our English classes the skimmers, the gorgers, the grubbers, and +stigmatized them with a friendly air; and uttered words of tolerance only +for farmers and surgeons and schoolmasters. But that was quite +incidental in the humorous run of his talk, diverting to hear while it +lasted. He had, of course, a right to his ideas. + +No longer concerned in contesting them, she drank at the water of this +plain earth-well, and hoped she preferred it to fiery draughts, though it +was flattish, or, say, flavourless. In the other there was excess of +flavour--or, no, spice it had to be called. The young schoolmaster's +world seemed a sunless place, the world of traders bargaining for gain, +without a glimmer of the rich generosity to venture life, give it, dare +all for native land--or for the one beloved. Love pressed its claim on +heroical generosity, and instantly it suffused her, as an earth under +flush of sky. The one beloved! She had not known love; she was in her +five-and-twentieth year, and love was not only unknown to her, it was +shut away from her by the lock of a key that opened on no estimable +worldly advantage in exchange, but opened on a dreary, clouded round, +such as she had used to fancy it must be to the beautiful creamy circus- +horse of the tossing mane and flowing tail and superb step. She was +admired; she was just as much doomed to a round of paces, denied the +glorious fling afield, her nature's food. Hitherto she would have been +shamefaced as a boy in forming the word 'love': now, believing it denied +to her for good and all--for ever and ever--her bosom held and uttered +the word. She saw the word, the nothing but the word that it was, and +she envisaged it, for the purpose of saying adieu to it--good-bye even to +the poor empty word. + +This condition was attributable to a gentleman's wild rageing with the +word, into which he had not infused the mystic spirit. He poured hot +wine and spiced. If not the spirit of love, it was really the passion of +the man. Her tremors now and again in the reading of his later letters +humiliated her, in the knowledge that they came of no response to him, +but from the temporary base acquiescence; which is, with women, a +terrible perception of the gulf of their unsatisfied nature. + +The secretary, cheerful at his work, was found for just the opening of a +door. Sometimes she hesitated--to disturb him, she said to herself,--and +went up-stairs or out visiting. He protested that he could work on and +talk too. She was able to amuse her lord with some of his ideas. He had +a stock of them, all his own. + +Ideas, new-born and naked original ideas, are acceptable at no time to +the humanity they visit to help uplift, it from the state of beast. In +the England of that, period original or unknown ideas were a smoking +brimstone to the nose, dread Arabian afrites, invisible in the air, +jumping out of vases, armed for the slaughter of the venerable and the +cherished, the ivy-clad and celestially haloed. They carried the +dishevelled Maenad's torch. A step with them, and we were on the +Phlegethon waters of the French Revolution. For a publication of simple +ideas men were seized, tried at law, mulcted, imprisoned, and not +pardoned after the term of punishment; their names were branded: the +horned elect butted at them; he who alluded to them offered them up, +wittingly or not, to be damned in the nose of the public for an +execrable brimstone stench. + +Lord Ormont broke through his shouts or grunts at Aminta's report of the +secretary's ideas on various topics, particularly the proposal that the +lords of the land should head the land in a revolutionary effort to make +law of his crazy, top-heavy notions, with a self-satisfied ejaculation: +'He has not favoured me with any of these puffballs of his.' + +The deduction was, that the author sagaciously considered them adapted +for the ear of a woman; they were womanish--i.e. flighty, gossamer. To +the host of males, all ideas are female until they are made facts. + +This idea, proposing it to our aristocracy to take up his other ideas, +or reject them on pain of the forfeiture of their caste and headship with +the generations to follow, and a total displacing of them in history by +certain notorious, frowzy, scrubby pamphleteers and publishers, Lord +Ormont thought amazingly comical. English nobles heading the weavers, +cobblers, and barbers of England! He laughed, but he said, 'Charlotte +would listen to that.' + +The dread, high-sitting Lady Charlotte was, in his lofty thinking, +a woman, and would therefore listen to nonsense, if it happened to +strike a particular set of bells hanging in her cranium. She patronized +blasphemous and traitorous law-breakers, just to keep up the pluck of the +people, not with a notion of maintaining our English aristocracy eminent +in history. + +Lady Charlotte, however, would be the foremost to swoop down on the +secretary's ideas about the education of women. + +On that subject, Aminta said she did not know what to think. + +Now, if a man states the matter he thinks, and a woman does but listen, +whether inclining to agree or not, a perceptible stamp is left on soft +wax. Lord Ormont told her so, with cavalier kindness. + +She confessed 'she did not know what to think,' when the secretary +proposed the education and collocation of boys and girls in one group, +never separated, declaring it the only way for them to learn to know and +to respect one another. They were to learn together, play together, have +matches together, as a scheme for stopping the mischief between them. + +'But, my dear girl, don't you see, the devilry was intended by Nature. +Life would be the coldest of dishes without it.' And as for mixing the +breeched and petticoated in those young days--'I can't enter into it,' +my lord considerately said. 'All I can tell you is, I know boys.' + +Aminta persisted in looking thoughtful. 'Things are bad, as they are +now,' she said. + +'Always were--always will be. They were intended to be, if we are to +call them bad. Botched mendings will only make them worse.' + +'Which side suffers?' + +'Both; and both like it. One side must be beaten at any game. It's off +and on, pretty equal--except in the sets where one side wears thick +boots. Is this fellow for starting a mixed sexes school? Funny +mothers!' + +'I suppose--' Aminta said, and checked the supposition. 'The mothers +would not leave their girls unless they were confident . . . ?' + +'There's to be a female head of the female department? He reckons on +finding a woman as big a fool as himself? A fair bit of reckoning +enough. He's clever at the pen. He doesn't bother me with his ideas; now +and then I 've caught a sound of his bee buzzing.' + +The secretary was left undisturbed at his labours for several days. + +He would have been gladdened by a brighter look of her eyes at her next +coming. They were introspective and beamless. She had an odd leaning +to the talk upon Cuper's boys. He was puzzled by what he might have +classed, in any other woman, as a want of delicacy, when she recurred to +incidents which were red patches of the school time, and had clearly lost +their glow for her. + +A letter once written by him, in his early days at Cuper's, addressed to +J. Masner, containing a provocation to fight with any weapons, and +signed, 'Your Antagonist,' had been read out to the whole school, under +strong denunciation of the immorality, the unchristian-like conduct of +the writer, by Mr. Cuper; creating a sensation that had travelled to Miss +Vincent's establishment, where some of the naughtiest of the girls had +taken part with the audacious challenger, dreadful though the +contemplation of a possible duel so close to them was. And then the +girls heard that the anonymous 'Your Antagonist,' on being cited to +proclaim himself in public assembly of school-mates and masters, had +jumped on his legs and into the name of--one who was previously thought +by Miss Vincent's good girls incapable of the 'appalling wickedness,' as +Mr. Cuper called it, of signing 'Your Antagonist' to a Christian school- +fellow, having the design to provoke a breach of the law of the land and +shed Christian blood. Mr. Cuper delivered an impressive sermon from his +desk to the standing up boarders and day-scholars alike, vilifying the +infidel Greek word 'antagonist.' + +'Do you remember the offender's name?' the Countess of Ormont said; and +Weyburn said-- + +'Oh yes, I 've not forgotten the incident.' + +Her eyes, wherein the dead time hung just above the underlids, lingered, +as with the wish for him to name the name. + +She said: 'I am curious to hear how you would treat a case of that sort. +Would you preach to the boys? + +'Ten words at most. The right assumption is that both fellows were to +blame. I fancy the proper way would be to appeal to the naughty girls +for their opinion as to how the dispute should be decided.' + +'You impose too much on them. And you are not speaking seriously.' + +'Pardon me, I am. I should throw myself into the mind of a naughty girl +--supposing none of these at hand--and I should let it be known that my +eyes were shut to proceedings, always provided the weapons were not such +as would cause a shock of alarm in female bosoms.' + +'You would at your school allow it to be fought out?' + +'Judging by the characters of the boys. If they had heads to understand, +I would try them at their heads. Otherwise they are the better, they +come round quicker to good blood, at their age--I speak of English boys +--for a little hostile exercise of their fists. Well, for one thing, it +teaches them the value of sparring.' + +'I must imagine I am not one of the naughty sisterhood,--for I cannot +think I should ever give consent to fighting of any description, unless +for the very best of reasons,' said the countess. + +His eyes were at the trick of the quarter-minute's poising. Her lids +fluttered. 'Oh, I don't mean to say I was one of the good,' she added. + +At the same time her enlivened memory made her conscious of a warning, +that she might, as any woman might, so talk on of past days as to take, +rather more than was required of the antidote she had come for. + +The antidote was excellent; cooling, fortifying; 'quite a chalybeate,' +her aunt would say, and she was thankful. Her heart rose on a quiet wave +of the thanks, and pitched down to a depth of uncounted fathoms. Aminta +was unable to tell herself why. + +Mrs. Lawrence Finchley had been announced. On her way to the drawing +room Aminta's brain fell upon a series of dots, that wound along a track +to the point where she accused herself of a repented coquettry--cause of +the burning letters she was doomed to receive and could not stop without +rousing her lion. She dotted backwards; there was no sign that she had +been guilty of any weakness other than the almost--at least, in design-- +innocent first move, which had failed to touch Lord Ormont in the +smallest degree. Never failure more absolute! + +She was about to inquire of her bosom's oracle whether she greatly cared +now. For an answer, her brain went dotting along from Mr. Cuper's +school, and a boy named Abner there, and a boy named Matey Weyburn, who +protected the little Jew-boy, up to Mr. Abner in London, who recommended +him in due season to various acquaintances; among them to Lady Charlotte +Eglett. Hence the introduction to Lord Ormont. How little extraordinary +circumstances are, if only we trace them to the source! + +But if only it had appeared marvellous, the throbbing woman might have +seized on it, as a thing fateful, an intervention distinctly designed to +waken the best in her, which was, after all, the strongest. Yea, she +could hope and pray and believe it was the strongest. + +She was listening to Isabella Lawrence Finchley, wishing she might have +followed to some end the above line of her meditations. + +Mrs. Lawrence was changed, much warmer, pressing to be more than merely +friendly. Aminta twice gave her cheek for kisses. The secretary had +spoken of Mrs. Lawrence as having the look of a handsome boy; and +Aminta's view of her now underwent a change likewise. Compunction, +together with a sisterly taste for the boyish fair one flying her sail +independently, and gallantly braving the winds, induced her to kiss in +return. + +'You do like me a morsel?' said Mrs. Lawrence. 'I fell in love with you +the last time I was here. I came to see Mr. Secretary--it's avowed; and +I have been thinking of you ever since, of no one else. Oh yes, for a +man; but you caught me. I've been hearing of him from Captain May. They +fence at those rooms. And it 's funny, Mr. Morsfield practises there, +you know; and there was a time when the lovely innocent Amy, Queen of +Blondes, held the seat of the Queen of Brunes. Ah, my dear, the +infidelity of men doesn't count. They are affected by the changeing +moons. As long as the captain is civil to him, we may be sure beautiful +Amy has not complained. Her husband is the pistol she carries in her +pocket, and she has fired him twice, with effect. Through love of you I +have learnt the different opinion the world of the good has of her and of +me; I thought we ran under a common brand. There are gradations. I went +to throw myself at the feet of my great-aunt; good old great-aunt Lady de +Culme, who is a power in the land. I let her suppose I came for myself, +and she reproached me with Lord Adder. I confessed to him and ten +others. She is a dear, she's ticklish, and at eighty-four she laughed! +She looked into my eyes and saw a field with never a man in it--just the +shadow of a man. She admitted the ten cancelled the one, and exactly +named to me, by comparison with the erring Amy, the sinner I am and must +be, if I 'm to live. So, dear, the end of it is,' and Mrs. Lawrence put +her fingers to a silken amber bow at Aminta's throat, and squared it and +flattened it with dainty precision, speaking on under dropped eyelids, +intent upon her work, 'Lady de Culme will be happy to welcome you +whenever it shall suit the Countess of Ormont to accompany her +disreputable friend. But what can I do, dear?' She raised her lids and +looked beseechingly. 'I was born with this taste for the ways and games +and style of men. I hope I don't get on badly with women; but if I 'm +not allowed to indulge my natural taste, I kick the stable-boards and +bite the manger.' + +Aminta threw her arms round her, and they laughed their mutual peal. + +Caressing her still, Aminta said: 'I don't know whether I embrace a boy.' + +'That idea comes from a man!' said Mrs. Lawrence. It was admitted. The +secretary was discussed. + +Mrs. Lawrence remarked: 'Yes, I like talking with him; he's bright. You +drove him out of me the day I saw him. Doesn't he give you the idea of a +man who insists on capturing you and lets it be seen he doesn't care two +snaps of a finger?' + +Aminta petitioned on his behalf indifferently: 'He 's well bred.' + +She was inattentive to Mrs. Lawrence's answer. The allusion of the Queen +of Blondes had stung her in the unacknowledged regions where women +discard themselves and are most sensitive. + +'Decide on coming soon to Lady de Culme,' said Mrs. Lawrence. 'Now that +her arms are open to you, she would like to have you in them. She is +old--. You won't be rigorous? no standing on small punctilios? + +She would call, but she does not--h'm, it is M. le Comte that she does +not choose to--h'm. But her arms are open to the countess. It ought to +be a grand step. You may be assured that Lady Charlotte Eglett would +not be taken into them. My great-aunt has a great-aunt's memory. The +Ormonts are the only explanation--if it 's an apology--she can offer for +the behaviour of the husband of the Countess of Ormont. You know I like +him. I can't help liking a man who likes me. Is that the way with a +boy, Mr. Secretary? I must have another talk with the gentleman, my +dear. You are Aminta to me.' + +'Always Aminta to you,' was the reply, tenderly given. + +'But as for comprehending him, I'm as far off that as Lady de Culme, who +hasn't the liking for him I have.' + +'The earl?' said Aminta, showing by her look that she was in the same +position. + +Mrs. Lawrence shrugged: 'I believe men and women marry in order that they +should never be able to understand one another. The riddle's best read +at a moderate distance. It 's what they call the golden mean; too close, +too far, we're strangers. I begin to understand that husband of mine, +now we're on bowing terms. Now, I must meet the earl to-morrow. You +will arrange? His hand wants forcing. Upon my word, I don't believe it +'s more.' + +Mrs. Lawrence contrasted him in her mind with the husband she knew, and +was invigorated by the thought that a placable impenetrable giant may +often be more pliable in a woman's hands than an irascible dwarf--until, +perchance, the latter has been soundly cuffed, and then he is docile to +trot like a squire, as near your heels as he can get. She rejoiced to +be working for the woman she had fallen in love with. + +Aminta promised herself to show the friend a livelier affection at their +next meeting. + +A seventh letter, signed 'Adolphus,' came by post, was read and locked up +in her jewel-box. They were all nigh destruction for a wavering minute +or so. They were placed where they lay because the first of them had +been laid there, the box being a strong one, under a patent key, and +discovery would mean the terrible. They had not been destroyed because +they had, or seemed to her to have, the language of passion. She could +read them unmoved, and appease a wicked craving she owned to having, and +reproached herself with having, for that language. + +Was she not colour in the sight of men? Here was one, a mouthpiece of +numbers, who vowed that homage was her due, and devotion, the pouring +forth of the soul to her. What was the reproach if she read the stuff +unmoved? + +But peruse and reperuse it, and ask impressions to tell our deepest +instinct of truthfulness whether language of this character can have been +written to two women by one hand! Men are cunning. Can they catch a +tone? Not that tone! + +She, too, Mrs. Amy May, was colour in the sight of men. Yet it seemed +that he could not have written so to the Queen of Blondes. And she, by +repute, was as dangerous to slight as he to attract. Her indifference +exonerated him. Besides, a Queen of Blondes would not draw the hearts +out of men in England, as in Italy and in Spain. Aminta had got thus far +when she found 'Queen of Brunes' expunged by a mist: she imagined +hearing the secretary's laugh. She thought he was right to laugh at her. +She retorted simply: 'These are feelings that are poetry.' + +A man may know nothing about them, and be an excellent schoolmaster. + +Suggestions touching the prudence of taking Mrs. Lawrence into her +confidence, as regarded these troublesome letters of the man with the +dart in his breast, were shuffled aside for various reasons: her modesty +shrank; and a sense of honour toward the man forbade it. She would have +found it easier to do if she had conspired against her heart in doing it. +And yet, cold-bloodedly to expose him and pluck the clothing from a +passion--dear to think of only when it is profoundly secret--struck her +as an extreme baseness, of which not even the woman who perused and +reperused his letters could be guilty. + +Her head rang with some of the lines, and she accused her head of the +crime of childishness, seeing that her heart was not an accomplice. At +the same time, her heart cried out violently against the business of a +visit to Lady de Culme, and all the steps it involved. Justly she +accused her heart of treason. Heart and head were severed. This, as she +partly apprehended, is the state of the woman who is already on the slope +of her nature's mine-shaft, dreading the rush downwards, powerless to +break away from the light. + +Letters perused and reperused, coming from a man never fervently noticed +in person, conjure features one would wish to put beside the actual, +to make sure that the fiery lines he writes are not practising a +beguilement. Aminta had lost grasp of the semblance of the impassioned +man. She just remembered enough of his eyes to think there might be +healing in a sight of him. + +Latterly she had refused to be exhibited to a tattling world as the great +nobleman's conquest:--The 'Beautiful Lady Doubtful' of a report that had +scorched her cars. Theatres, rides, pleasure-drives, even such houses as +she saw standing open to her had been shunned. Now she asked the earl to +ride in the park. + +He complied, and sent to the stables immediately, just noted another of +her veerings. The whimsy creatures we are matched to contrast with, +shift as the very winds or feather-grasses in the wind. Possibly a fine +day did it. Possibly, too, her not being requested to do it. + +He was proud of her bearing on horseback. She rode well and looked well. +A finer weapon wherewith to strike at a churlish world was never given +into the hands of man. These English may see in her, if they like, that +they and their laws and customs are defied. It does her no hurt, and it +hits them a ringing buffet. + +Among the cavaliers they passed was Mr. Morsfield. He rode by slowly. +The earl stiffened his back in returning the salute. Both that and the +gentleman were observed by Aminta. + +'He sees to having good blood under him,' said the earl. 'I admired his +mount,' she replied. + +Interpreted by the fire of his writing, his features expressed character: +insomuch that a woman could say of another woman, that she admired him +and might reasonably do so. His gaze at her in the presence of her lord +was audacious. + +He had the defect of his virtue of courage. Yet a man indisputably +possessing courage cannot but have an interesting face--though one may +continue saying, Pity that the eyes are not a little wider apart! He +dresses tastefully; the best English style. A portrait by a master hand +might hand him down to generations as an ancestor to be proud of. But +with passion and with courage, and a bent for snatching at the lion's +own, does he not look foredoomed to an early close? Her imagination +called up a portrait of Elizabeth's Earl of Essex to set beside him; and +without thinking that the two were fraternally alike, she sent him riding +away with the face of the Earl of Essex and the shadow of the unhappy +nobleman's grievous fortunes over his head. + +But it is inexcuseable to let the mind be occupied recurrently by a man +who has not moved the feelings, wicked though it be to have the feelings +moved by him. Aminta rebuked her silly wits, and proceeded to speculate +from an altitude, seeing the man's projects in a singularly definite +minuteness, as if the crisis he invoked, the perils he braved, the mute +participation he implored of her for the short space until their fate +should be decided, were a story sharply cut on metal. Several times she +surprised herself in an interesting pursuit of the story; abominably +cold, abominably interested. She fell upon a review of small duties of +the day, to get relief; and among them a device for spiriting away her +aunt from the table where Mrs. Lawrence wished to meet Lord Ormont. It +sprang up to her call like an imp of the burning pit. She saw it +ingenious and of natural aspect. I must be a born intriguer! she said in +her breast. That was hateful; but it seemed worse when she thought of a +woman commanding the faculty and consenting to be duped and foiled. That +might be termed despicable; but what if she had not any longer the wish +to gain her way with her lord? + +Those letters are acting like a kind of poison in me! her heart cried: +and it was only her head that dwelt on the antidote. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A woman, and would therefore listen to nonsense +And not be beaten by an acknowledged defeat +Botched mendings will only make them worse +Convincing themselves that they impersonate sagacity +I have all the luxuries--enough to loathe them +Lawyers hold the keys of the great world +Naked original ideas, are acceptable at no time +Not daring risk of office by offending the taxpayer +This female talk of the eternities +To know how to take a licking, that wins in the end +To males, all ideas are female until they are made facts +We cannot, men or woman, control the heart in sleep at night +Who cries, Come on, and prays his gods you won't + + + + + + +BOOK 3. + +XII. MORE OF CUPER'S BOYS +XIII. WAR AT OLMER +XIV. OLD LOVERS NEW FRIENDS +XV. SHOWING A SECRET FISHED WITHOUT ANGLING +XVI. ALONG TWO ROADS TO STEIGNTON + + + +CHAPTER XII + +MORE OF CUPER'S BOYS + +Entering the dining-room at the appointed minute in a punctual household, +Mrs. Lawrence informed the company that she had seen a Horse Guards +orderly at the trot up the street. Weyburn said he was directing a boy +to ring the bell of the house for him. Lord Ormont went to the window. + +'Amends and honours?' Mrs. Lawrence hummed and added an operatic +flourish of an arm. Something like it might really be imagined. A large +square missive was handed to the footman. Thereupon the orderly trotted +off. + +My lord took seat at table, telling the footman to lay 'that parcel' +beside the clock on the mantelpiece. Aminta and Mrs. Lawrence gave out a +little cry of bird or mouse, pitiable to hear: they could not wait, they +must know, they pished at sight of plates. His look deferred to their +good pleasure, like the dead hand of a clock under key; and Weyburn +placed the missive before him, seeing by the superscription that it was +not official. + +It was addressed, in the Roman hand of a boy's copybook writing, to + + General the Earl of Ormont, I.C.B., etc., + Horse Guards, + London.' + +The earl's eyebrows creased up over the address; they came down low on +the contents. + +He resumed his daily countenance. 'Nothing of importance,' he said to +the ladies. + +Mrs. Lawrence knocked the table with her knuckles. Aminta put out a +hand, in sign of her wish. + +'Pray let me see it.' + +'After lunch will do.' + +'No, no, no! We are women--we are women,' cried Mrs. Lawrence. + +'How can it concern women?' + +'As well ask how a battle-field concerns them!' + +'Yes, the shots hit us behind you,' said Aminta; and she, too, struck the +table. + +He did not prolong their torture. Weyburn received the folio sheet and +passed it on. Aminta read. Mrs. Lawrence jumped from her chair and ran +to the countess's shoulder; her red lips formed the petitioning word to +the earl for the liberty she was bent to take. + +'Peep? if you like,' my lord said, jesting at the blank she would find, +and soft to the pretty play of her mouth. + +When the ladies had run to the end of it, he asked them: 'Well; now +then?' + +'But it's capital--the dear laddies!' Mrs. Lawrence exclaimed. + +Aminta's eyes met Weyburn's. + +She handed him the sheet of paper; upon the transmission of which empty +thing from the Horse Guards my lord commented: 'An orderly!' + +Weyburn scanned it rapidly, for the table had been served. + +The contents were these: + + + + 'HIGH BRENT NEAR ARTSWELL. + 'April 7th. + + 'To GENERAL THE EARL OF ORMONT + 'Cavalry. + + 'May it please your Lordship, we, the boys of Mr. Cuper's school, + are desirous to bring to the notice of the bravest officer England + possesses now living, a Deed of Heroism by a little boy and girl, + children of our school laundress, aged respectively eight and six, + who, seeing a little fellow in the water out of depth, and sinking + twice, before the third time jumped in to save him, though unable to + swim themselves; the girl aged six first, we are sorry to say; but + the brother, Robert Coop, followed her example, and together they + made a line, and she caught hold of the drowning boy, and he held + her petycoats, and so they pulled. We have seen the place: it is + not a nice one. They got him ashore at last. The park-keeper here + going along found them dripping, rubbing his hands, and blowing into + his nostrils. Name, T. Shellen, son of a small cobbler here, and + recovered. + + 'May it please your Lordship, we make bold to apply, because you + have been for a number of years, as far as the oldest can recollect, + the Hero of our school, and we are so bold as to ask the favour of + General Lord Ormont's name to head a subscription we are making to + circulate for the support of their sick mother, who has fallen ill. + We think her a good woman. Gentlemen and ladies of the + neighbourhood are willing to subscribe. If we have a great name to + head the list, we think we shall make a good subscription. Names:-- + + 'Martha Mary Coop, mother. + 'Robert Coop. + 'Jane Coop, the girl, aged six. + + 'If we are not taking too great a liberty, a subscription paper will + follow. We are sure General the Earl of Ormont's name will help to + make them comfortable. + 'We are obediently and respectfully, + 'DAVID GOWEN, + 'WALTER BENCH, + 'JAMES PANNERS PARSONS, + 'And seven others.' + +Weyburn spared Aminta an answering look, that would have been a begging +of Browny to remember Matey. + +'It 's genuine,' he said to Mrs. Lawrence, as he attacked his plate with +the gusto for the repast previously and benignly observed by her. 'It +ought to be the work of some of the younger fellows.' + +'They spell correctly, on the whole.' + +'Excepting,' said my lord, 'an article they don't know much about yet.' + +Weyburn had noticed the word, and he smiled. 'Said to be the happy +state! The three signing their names are probably what we called bellman +and beemen, collector, and heads of the swarm-enthusiasts. If it is not +the work of some of the younger hands, the school has levelled on minors. +In any case it shows the school is healthy.' + +'I subscribe,' said Mrs. Lawrence. + +'The little girl aged six shall have something done for her,' said +Aminta, and turned her eyes on the earl. + +He was familiar with her thrilled voice at a story of bravery. He said-- + +'The boys don't say the girl's brother turned tail.' + +'Only that the girl's brother aged eight followed the lead of the little +girl aged six,' Mrs. Lawrence remarked. 'Well, I like the schoolboys, +too--"we are sorry to say!" But they 're good lads. Boys who can +appreciate brave deeds are capable of doing them.' + +'Speak to me about it on Monday,' the earl said to Weyburn. + +He bowed, and replied-- + +'I shall have the day to-morrow. I 'll walk it and call on Messrs.' (he +glanced at the paper) 'Gowen, Bench, and Parsons. I have a German friend +in London anxious to wear his legs down stumpier.' + +'The name of the school?' + +'It is called Cuper's.' + +Aminta, on hearing the name of Cuper a second time, congratulated herself +on the happy invention of her pretext to keep Mrs. Pagnell from the table +at midday. Her aunt had a memory for names: what might she not have +exclaimed! There would have been little in it, but it was as well that +the 'boy of the name of Weyburn' at Cuper's should be unmentioned. By an +exaggeration peculiar to a disgust in fancy, she could hear her aunt +vociferating 'Weyburn!' and then staring at Mr. Weyburn opposite--perhaps +not satisfied with staring. + +He withdrew after his usual hearty meal, during which his talk of boys +and their monkey tricks, and what we can train them to, had been pleasant +generally, especially to Mrs. Lawrence. Aminta was carried back to the +minute early years at High Brent. A line or two of a smile touched her +cheek. + +'Yes, my dear countess, that is the face I want for Lady de Culme +to-day,' said Mrs. Lawrence.' She likes a smiling face. Aunty--aunty +has always been good; she has never been prim. I was too much for her, +until I reflected that she was very old, and deserved to know the truth +before she left us; and so I went to her; and then she said she wished to +see the Countess of Ormont, because of her being my dearest friend. I +fancy she entertains an 'arriere' idea of proposing her flawless niece +Gracey, Marchioness of Fencaster, to present you. She 's quite equal to +the fatigue herself. You 'll rejoice in her anecdotes. People were +virtuous in past days: they counted their sinners. In those days, too, +as I have to understand, the men chivalrously bore the blame, though the +women were rightly punished. Now, alas! the initiative is with the +women, and men are not asked for chivalry. Hence it languishes. Lady +de Culme won't hear of the Queen of Blondes; has forbidden her these many +years!' + +Lord Ormont, to whom the lady's prattle was addressed, kept his visage +moveless, except in slight jerks of the brows. + +'What queen?' + +'You insist upon renewing my old, old pangs of jealousy, my dear lord! +The Queen of Cyprus, they called her, in the last generation; she fights +our great duellist handsomely.' + +'My dear Mrs. Lawrence!' + +'He triumphs finally, we know, but she beats him every round.' + +'It 's only tattle that says the duel has begun.' + +'May is the month of everlasting beauty! There 's a widower marquis now +who claims the right to cast the glove to any who dispute it.' + +'Mrs. May is too good-looking to escape from scandal.' + +'Amy May has the good looks of the Immortals.' + +'She can't be thirty.' + +'In the calendar of women she counts thirty-four.' + +'Malignity! Her husband's a lucky man.' + +'The shots have proved it.' + +Lord Ormont nodded his head over the hopeless task of defending a woman +from a woman, and their sharp interchange ceased. But the sight of his +complacency in defeat told Aminta that he did not respect his fair +client: it drew a sketch of the position he allotted his wife before the +world side by side with this Mrs. Amy May, though a Lady de Culme was +persuaded to draw distinctions. + +He had, however, quite complacently taken the dose intended for him by +Mrs. Lawrence, who believed that the system of gently forcing him was the +good one. + +The ladies drove away in the afternoon. The earl turned his back on +manuscript. He sent for a couple of walking sticks, and commanded +Weyburn to go through his parades. He was no tyro, merely out of +practice, and unacquainted with the later, simpler form of the great +master of the French school, by which, at serious issues, the guarding of +the line can be more quickly done: as, for instance, the 'parade de +septime' supplanting the slower 'parade de prime;' the 'parade de quarte' +having advantage over the 'parade de quince;' the 'parade de tierce' +being readier and stronger than the 'parade de sixte;' the same said for +the 'parade de seconde' instead of the weak 'parade d'octave.' + +These were then new points of instruction. Weyburn demonstrated them as +neatly as he could do with his weapon. + +'Yes, the French think,' Lord Ormont said, grasping the stick to get +conviction of thumb-strength and finger-strength from the parades +advocated; 'their steel would thread the ribs of our louts before: they +could raise a cry of parry; so here they 're pleased to sneer at fencing, +as if it served no purpose but the duel. Fencing, for one thing, means, +that with a good stick in his hand, a clever fencer can double up a giant +or two, grant him choice of ground. Some of our men box; but the sword's +the weapon for an officer, and precious few of 'em are fit for more than +to kick the scabbard. Slashing comes easier to them: a plaguey cut, if +it does cut--say, one in six. Navy too. Their cutlass-drill is like a +woman's fling of the arm to fetch a slap from behind her shoulder. +Pinking beats chopping. These English 'll have their lesson. It 's like +what you call good writing: the simple way does the business, and that's +the most difficult to learn, because you must give your head to it, as +those French fellows do. 'Trop de finesse' is rather their fault. +Anything's better than loutishness. Well! the lesson 'll come.' + +He continued. He spoke as he thought: he was not speaking what he was +thinking. His mind was directed on the visit of Aminta to Lady de Culme, +and the tolerably wonderful twist whereby Mrs. Lawrence Finchley had +vowed herself to his girl's interests. And he blamed neither of them; +only he could not understand how it had been effected, for Aminta and +Mrs. Lawrence had not been on such particularly intimate terms last week +or yesterday. His ejaculation, 'Women!' was, as he knew, merely +ignorance roaring behind a mask of sarcasm. But it allied him with all +previous generations on the male side, and that was its virtue. His view +of the shifty turns of women got no further, for the reason that he took +small account of the operations of the feelings, to the sole exercise of +which he by system condemned the sex. + +He was also insensibly half a grain more soured by the homage of those +poor schoolboys, who called to him to take it for his reward in a country +whose authorities had snubbed, whose Parliament had ignored, whose Press +had abused him. The ridiculous balance made him wilfully oblivious that +he had seen his name of late eulogized in articles and in books for the +right martial qualities. Can a country treating a good soldier--not +serving it for pay--in so scurvy a fashion, be struck too hard with our +disdain? One cannot tell it in too plain a language how one despises its +laws, its moralities, its sham of society. The Club, some choice +anecdotists, two or three listeners to his dolences clothed as diatribes; +a rubber, and the sight of his girl at home, composed, with a week's +shooting now and then, his round of life now that she refused to travel. +What a life for a soldier in his vigour. Weyburn was honoured by the +earl's company on the walk to Chiallo's. In the street of elegant shops +they met Lord Adderwood, and he, as usual, appeared in the act of +strangling one of his flock of yawns, with gentlemanly consideration for +the public. Exercise was ever his temporary specific for these +incurables. Flinging off his coat, he cast away the cynic style +engendering or engendered by them. He and Weyburn were for a bout. Sir +John Randeller and Mr. Morsfield were at it, like Bull in training and +desperado foiled. A French 'maitre d'armes,' famed in 'escrime,' +standing near Captain Chiallo, looked amused in the eyes, behind a mask +of professional correctness. He had come on an excursion for the display +of his art. Sir John's very sturdy defence was pierced. Weyburn saluted +the Frenchman as an acquaintance, and they shook hands, chatted, +criticized, nodded. Presently he and his adversary engaged, vizored and +in their buckram, and he soon proved to be too strong for Adderwood, as +the latter expected and had notified to Lord Ormont before they crossed +the steel. My lord had a pleasant pricking excitement in the sound. +There was a pretty display between Weyburn and the 'escrimeur,' who +neatly and kindly trifled, took a point and returned one, and at the +finish complimented him. The earl could see that he had to be +sufficiently alert. + +Age mouthed an ugly word to the veteran insensible of it in his body, +when a desire to be one with these pairs of nimble wrists and legs was +like an old gamecock shown the pit and put back into the basket. He left +the place, carrying away an image of the coxcombical attitudinizing of +the man Morsfield at the salut, upon which he brought down his powers of +burlesque. + +My lord sketched the scene he had just quitted to a lady who had stopped +her carriage. She was the still beautiful Mrs. Amy May, wife of the +famous fighting captain. Her hair was radiant in a shady street; her +eyelids tenderly toned round the almond enclosure of blue pebbles, bright +as if shining from the seawash. The lips of the fair woman could be seen +to say that they were sweet when, laughing or discoursing, they gave +sight of teeth proudly her own, rivalling the regularity of the grin of +dentistry. A Venus of nature was melting into a Venus of art, and there +was a decorous concealment of the contest and the anguish in the process, +for which Lord Ormont liked her well enough to wink benevolently at her +efforts to cheat the world at various issues, and maintain her duel with +Time. The world deserved that she should beat it, even if she had been +all deception. + +She let the subject of Mr. Morsfield pass without remark from her, until +the exhaustion of open-air topics hinted an end of their conversation, +and she said-- + +'We shall learn next week what to think if the civilians. I have heard +Mr. Morsfield tell that he is 'de premiere force.' Be on your guard. +You are to know that I never forget a service, and you did me one once.' +'You have reason . . . ?' said the earl. + +'If anybody is the dragon to the treasure he covets he is a spadassin who +won't hesitate at provocations. Adieu.' + +Lord Ormont's eye had been on Mr. Morsfield. He had seen what Mrs. +Pagnell counselled her niece to let, him see. He thanked Mr. Morsfield +for a tonic that made him young with anticipations of bracing; and he set +his head to work upon an advance half-way to meet the gentleman, and +safely exclude his wife's name. + +Monday brought an account of Cuper's boys. Aminta received it while the +earl was at his papers for the morning's news of the weightier deeds of +men. + +They were the right boys, Weyburn said; his interview with Gowen, Bench, +Parsons, and the others assured him that the school was breathing big +lungs. Mr. Cuper, too, had spoken well of them. + +'You walked the twenty miles?' Aminta interrupted him. + +'With my German friend: out and home: plenty of time in the day. He has +taken to English boys, but asks why enthusiasm and worship of great deeds +don't grow upward from them to their elders. And I, in turn, ask why +Germans insist on that point more even than the French do.' + +'Germans are sentimental. But the English boys he saw belonged to a +school with traditions of enthusiasm sown by some one. The school +remembered?' + +'Curiously, Mr. Cuper tells me, the hero of the school has dropped and +sprung up, stout as ever, twice--it tells me what I wish to believe-- +since Lord Ormont led their young heads to glory. He can't say how it +comes. The tradition's there, and it 's kindled by some flying spark.' + +'They remember who taught the school to think of Lord Ormont?' + +'I 'm a minor personage. I certainly did some good, and that 's a push +forward.' + +'They speak of you?' + +It was Aminta more than the Countess of Ormont speaking to him. + +'You take an interest in the boys,' he said, glowing. 'Yes, well, they +have their talks. I happened to be a cricketer, counting wickets and +scores. I don't fancy it's remembered that it was I preached my lord. +A day of nine wickets and one catch doesn't die out of a school. The +boy Gowen was the prime spirit in getting up the subscription for the +laundress. But Bench and Parsons are good boys, too.' + +He described them, dwelt on them. The enthusiast, when not lyrical, is +perilously near to boring. Aminta was glad of Mrs. Lawrence's absence. +She had that feeling because Matthew Weyburn would shun talk of himself +to her, not from a personal sense of tedium in hearing of the boys; and +she was quaintly reminded by suggestions, coming she knew not whence, of +a dim likeness between her and these boys of the school when their hero +dropped to nothing and sprang up again brilliantly--a kind of distant +cousinship, in her susceptibility to be kindled by so small a flying +spark as this one on its travels out of High Brent. Moreover, the dear +boys tied her to her girlhood, and netted her fleeting youth for the +moth-box. She pressed to hear more and more of them, and of the school- +laundress Weyburn had called to see, and particularly of the child, +little Jane, aged six. Weyburn went to look at the sheet of water to +which little Jane had given celebrity over the county. The girl stood +up to her shoulders when she slid off the bank and made the line for her +brother to hold, he in the water as well. Altogether, Cuper's boys were +justified in promoting a subscription, the mother being helpless. + +'Modest little woman,' he said of Jane. 'We'll hope people won't spoil +her. Don't forget, Lady Ormont, that the brother did his part; he had +more knowledge of the danger than she.' + +'You will undertake to convey our subscriptions? Lord Ormont spoke of +the little ones and the schoolboys yesterday.' + +'I'll be down again among them next Sunday, Lady Ormont. On the Monday +I go to Olmer.' + +'The girls of High Brent subscribe?' + +There was a ripple under Weyburn's gravity. + +'Messrs. Gowen, Bench, and Parsons thought proper to stop Miss Vincent at +the head of her detachment in the park.' + +'On the Sunday?' + +'And one of them handed her a paper containing a report of their +interview with Mrs. Coop and a neat eulogy of little Jane. But don't +suspect them, I beg. I believe them to be good, honest fellows. Bench, +they say, is religious; Gowen has written verses; Parsons generally +harum-scarum. They're boyish in one way or another, and that'll do. +The cricket of the school has been low: seems to be reviving.' + +'Mr. Weyburn,' said the countess, after a short delay--and Aminta broke +through--'it pleases me to hear of them, and think they have not +forgotten you, or, at least, they follow the lead you gave. I should +like to know whether an idea I have is true: Is much, I mean constant, +looking down on young people likely to pull one's mind down to their +level?' + +'Likely enough to betray our level, if there 's danger,' he murmured. +'Society offers an example that your conjecture is not unfounded, Lady +Ormont. But if we have great literature and an interest in the world's +affairs, can there be any fear of it? The schoolmaster ploughs to make a +richer world, I hope. He must live with them, join with them in their +games, accustom them to have their heads knocked with what he wants to +get into them, leading them all the while, as the bigger schoolfellow +does, if he is a good fellow. He has to be careful not to smell of his +office. Doing positive good is the business of his every day--on a small +scale, but it 's positive, if he likes his boys. 'Avaunt favouritism!' +he must like all boys. And it 's human nature not so far removed from +the dog; only it's a supple human nature: there 's the beauty of it. We +train it. Nothing is more certain than that it will grow upward. I have +the belief that I shall succeed, because I like boys, and they like me. +It always was the case.' + +'I know,' said Aminta. + +Their eyes met. She looked moved at heart behind that deep forest of her +chestnut eyes. + +'And I think I can inspire confidence in fathers and mothers,' he +resumed.' I have my boys already waiting for me to found the school. +I was pleased the other day: an English friend brought an Italian +gentleman to see me and discuss my system, up at Norwood, at my mother's +--a Signor Calliani. He has a nephew; the parents dote on him. The +uncle confesses that the boy wants--he has got hold of our word--"pluck." +We had a talk. He has promised to send me the lad when I am established +in Switzerland.' + +'When?' said Aminta. + +'A relative from whom a Reversion comes is near the end. It won't be +later than September that I shall go. My Swiss friend has the school, +and would take me at once before he retires.' + +'You make friends wherever you go,' said Aminta. + +'Why shouldn't everybody? I'm convinced it's because I show people I +mean well, and I never nurse an injury, great or small. And besides, +they see I look forward. I do hope good for the world. If at my school +we have all nationalities--French boys and German, Italian, Russian, +Spaniard--without distinction of race and religion and station, and with +English intermixing--English games, English sense of honour and +conception of gentleman--we shall help to nationalize Europe. Emile +Grenat, Adolf Fleischer, and an Italian, Vincentino Chiuse, are prepared +to start with me: and they are men of attainments; they will throw up +their positions; they will do me the honour to trust to my leadership. +It's not scaling Alps or commanding armies, true.' + +'It may be better,' said Aminta, and thought as she spoke. + +'Slow work, if we have a taste for the work, doesn't dispirit. +Otherwise, one may say that an African or South American traveller has a +more exciting time. I shall manage to keep my head on its travels.' + +'You have ideas about the education of girls?' + +'They can't be carried out unaided.' + +'Aid will come.' + +Weyburn's confidence, high though it was, had not mounted to that pitch. + +'One may find a mate,' he said. The woman to share and practically to +aid in developing such ideas is not easily found: that he left as +implied. + +Aminta was in need of poetry; but the young schoolmaster's plain, well- +directed prose of the view of a business in life was welcome to her. + +Lord Ormont entered the room. She reminded him of the boys of High Brent +and the heroine Jane. He was ready to subscribe his five-and-twenty +guineas, he said. The amount of the sum gratified Weyburn, she could +see. She was proud of her lord, and of the boys and the little girl; +and she would have been happy to make the ardent young schoolmaster aware +of her growing interest in the young. + +The night before the earl's departure on the solitary expedition to which +she condemned him, he surprised her with a visit of farewell, so that he +need not disturb her in the early morning, he said. She was reading +beside her open jewel-box, and she closed it with the delicate touch of a +hand turned backward while listening to him, with no sign of nervousness. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +WAR AT OLMER + +Lively doings were on the leap to animate Weyburn at Olmer during Easter +week. The Rev. Mr. Hampton-Evey, rector of Barborough, on hearing that +Lady Charlotte Eglett was engaged in knocking at the doors of litigation +with certain acts that constituted distinct breaches of the law and the +peace, and were a violation of the rights of her neighbour, Mr. Gilbert +Addicote, might hope that the troublesome parishioner whom he did not +often number among his congregation would grant him a term of repose. +Therein he was deceived. Alterations and enlargements of the church, +much required, had necessitated the bricking up of a door regarded by the +lady as the private entrance to the Olmer pew. She sent him notice of +her intention to batter at the new brickwork; so there was the prospect +of a pew-fight before him. But now she came to sit under him every +Sunday; and he could have wished her absent; for she diverted his +thoughts from piety to the selections of texts applicable in the case of +a woman who sat with arms knotted, and the frown of an intemperate +schoolgirl forbidden speech; while her pew's firelight startlingly at +intervals danced her sinister person into view, as from below. The +lady's inaccessible and unconquerable obtuseness to exhortation informed +the picture with an evil spirit that cried for wrestlings. + +Regularly every week-day she headed the war now rageing between Olmer and +Addicotes, on the borders of the estates. It was open war, and herself +to head the cavalry. Weyburn, driving up a lane in the gig she had sent +to meet the coach, beheld a thicket of countrymen and boys along a ridge; +and it swayed and broke, and through it burst the figure of a mounted +warrior woman at the gallop, followed by what bore an appearance of horse +and gun, minus carriage, drivers at the flanks cracking whips on foot. +Off went the train, across a small gorse common, through a gate. + +'That's another down,' said his whip. 'Sound good wood it is, not made +to fall. Her ladyship's at it hard to-day. She 'll teach Mr. Addicote +a thing or two about things females can do. That is, when they stand +for their rights.' + +He explained to Weyburn that Mr. Addicote, a yeoman farmer and a good +hunting man, but a rare obstinate one, now learning his lesson from her +ladyship, was in dispute with her over rights of property on a stretch of +fir-trees lining the ridge where the estates of Olmer and Addicotes met. +Her ladyship had sworn that if he did not yield to her claim she would +cut down every tree of the ridge and sell the lot for timber under his +nose. She acted according to her oath, in the teeth of his men two feet +across the border. All the world knew the roots of those trees were for +the most part in Olmer soil, though Addicote shared the shade. All the +people about mourned for the felling of those trees. All blamed Mr. +Gilbert Addicote for provoking her ladyship, good hunting man though he +was. But as to the merits of the question, under the magnifier of the +gentlemen of the law, there were as many different opinions as wigs in +the land. + +'And your opinion?' said Weyburn. + +To which the young groom answered: 'Oh, I don't form an opinion, sir. +I 'm of my mistress's opinion; and if she says, Do it, think as we like, +done it has to be.' + +Lady Charlotte came at a trot through the gate, to supervise the +limbering-up of another felled tree. She headed it as before. The log +dragged bounding and twirling, rattling its chains; the crowd along the +ridge, forbidden to cheer, watching it with intense repression of the +roar. We have not often in England sight of a great lady challengeing an +unpopular man to battle and smacking him in the face like this to provoke +him. Weyburn was driven on a half-circle of the lane to the gate, where +he jumped out to greet Lady Charlotte trotting back for another smack in +the face of her enemy,--a third rounding of her Troy with the vanquished +dead at her heels, as Weyburn let a flimsy suggestion beguile his fancy, +until the Homeric was overwhelming even to a playful mind, and he put +her in a mediaeval frame. She really had the heroical aspect in a +grandiose-grotesque, fitted to some lines of Ariosto. Her head wore +a close hood, disclosing a fringe of grey locks, owlish to see about +features hooked for action. + +'Ah, you! there you are: good--I'll join you in three minutes,' she sang +out to him, and cantered to the ridge. + +Hardly beyond the stated number she was beside him again, ranging her +steed for the victim log to dance a gyration on its branches across the +lane and enter a field among the fallen compeers. One of her men had run +behind her. She slid from her saddle and tossed him the reins, catching +up her skirts. + +'That means war, as much as they'll have it in England,' she said, seeing +his glance at the logs. 'My husband's wise enough to leave it to me, so +I save him trouble with neighbours. An ass of a Mr. Gilbert Addicote +dares us to make good our claim on our property, our timber, because half +a score of fir-tree roots go stretching on to his ground.' + +She swished her whip. Mr. Gilbert Addicote received the stroke and +retired, a buried subject. They walked on at an even pace. 'You 'll see +Leo to-morrow. He worships you. You may as well give him a couple of +hours' coaching a day for the week. He'll be hanging about you, and you +won't escape him. Well, and my brother Rowsley: how is Lord Ormont? +He never comes to me now, since--Well, it 's nothing to me; but I like +to see my brother. She can't make any change here. Olmer and Lady +Charlotte 's bosom were both implied. 'What do you think?--you 've +noticed: is he in good health? It 's the last thing he 'll be got to +speak of.' + +Weyburn gave the proper assurances. + +'Not he!' said she. 'He's never ill. Men beat women in the long race, +if they haven't overdone it when young. My doctor wants me to renounce +the saddle. He says it 's time. Not if I 've got work for horseback!' +she nicked her head emphatically: 'I hate old age. They sha'nt dismount +me till a blow comes. Hate it! But I should despise myself if I showed +signs, like a worm under heel. Let Nature do her worst; she can't +conquer us as long as we keep up heart. You won't have to think of that +for a good time yet. Now tell me why Lord Ormont didn't publish the +"Plan for the Defence" you said he was writing; and he was, I know. He +wrote it and he finished it; you made the fair copy. Well, and he read +it,--there! see!' She took the invisible sheets in her hands and tore +them. 'That's my brother. He's so proud. It would have looked like +asking the country, that injured him, to forgive him. I wish it had been +printed. But whatever he does I admire. That--she might have advised, +if she 'd been a woman of public spirit or cared for his reputation. He +never comes near me. Did she read your copy?' + +The question was meant for an answer. + +Weyburn replied: 'Lady Ormont had no sight of it.' + +'Ah! she's Lady Ormont to the servants, I know. She has an aunt living +in the house. If my brother's a sinner, and there's punishment for him, +he has it from that aunt. Pag . . . something. He bears with her. +He 's a Spartan. She 's his pack on his back, for what she covers and +the game he plays. It looks just tolerably decent with her in the house. +She goes gabbling a story about our Embassy at Madrid. To preserve +propriety, as they call it. Her niece doesn't stoop to any of those +tricks, I 'm told. I like her for that.' + +Weyburn was roused: 'I think you would like Lady Ormont, if you knew her, +my lady.' + +'The chances of my liking the young woman are not in the dice-box. You +call her Lady Ormont: you are not one of the servants. Don't call her +Lady Ormont to me.' + +'It is her title, Lady Charlotte.' She let fly a broadside at him. + +'You are one of the woman's dupes. I thought you had brains. How can +you be the donkey not to see that my brother Rowsley, Lord Ormont, would +never let a woman, lawfully bearing his name, go running the quadrille +over London in couples with a Lady Staines and a Mrs. Lawrence Finchley, +Lord Adderwood, and that man Morsfield, who boasts of your Lady Ormont, +and does it unwhipped---tell me why? Pooh, you must be the poorest fool +born to suppose it possible my brother would allow a man like that man +Morsfield to take his wife's name in his mouth a second time. Have you +talked much with this young person?' + +'With Lady Ormont? I have had the honour occasionally.' + +'Stick to the title and write yourself plush-breech. Can't you be more +than a footman? Try to be a man of the world; you're old enough for that +by now. I know she 's good-looking; the whole tale hangs on that. You +needn't be singing me mooncalf hymn tunes of "Lady Ormont, Lady Ormont," +solemn as a parson's clerk; the young woman brought good looks to market; +and she got the exchange she had a right to expect. But it 's not my +brother Rowsley's title she has got--except for footmen and tradesmen. +When there's a true Countess of Ormont!..... Unless my brother has cut +himself from his family. Not he. He's not mad.' + +They passed through Olmer park-gates. Lady Charlotte preceded him, and +she turned, waiting for him to rejoin her. He had taken his flagellation +in the right style, neither abashed nor at sham crow: he was easy, ready +to converse on any topic; he kept the line between supple courtier and +sturdy independent; and he was a pleasant figure of a young fellow. +Thinking which, a reminder that she liked him drew her by the road of +personal feeling, as usual with her, to reflect upon another, and a +younger, woman's observing and necessarily liking him too. + +'You say you fancy I should like the person you call Lady Ormont?' + +'I believe you would, my lady.' + +'Are her manners agreeable?' + +'Perfect; no pretension.' + +'Ah! she sings, plays--all that? + +'She plays the harp and sings.' + +'You have heard her?' + +'Twice.' + +'She didn't set you mewing?' + +'I don't remember the impulse; at all events, it was restrained.' + +'She would me; but I'm an old woman. I detest their squalling and +strumming. I can stand it with Italians on the boards: they don't, stop +conversation. She was present at that fencing match where you plucked a +laurel? I had an account of it. I can't see the use of fencing in this +country. Younger women can, I dare say. Now, look. If we're to speak +of her, I can't call her Lady Ormont, and I don't want to hear you. Give +me her Christian name.' + + +'It is'--Weyburn found himself on a slope without a stay--'Aminta.' + +Lady Charlotte's eye was on him. He felt intolerably hot; his vexation +at the betrayal of the senseless feeling made it worse, a conscious +crimson. + +'Aminta,' said she, rather in the style of Cuper's boys, when the name +was a strange one to them. 'I remember my Italian master reading out a +poem when I was a girl. I read poetry then. You wouldn't have imagined +that. I did, and liked it. I hate old age. It changes you so. None of +my children know me as I was when I had life in me and was myself, and my +brother Rowsley called me Cooey. They think me a hard old woman. I was +Cooey through the woods and over the meadows and down stream to Rowsley. +Old age is a prison wall between us and young people. They see a +miniature head and bust, and think it a flattery--won't believe it. +After I married I came to understand that the world we are in is a world +to fight in, or under we go. But I pity the young who have to cast +themselves off and take up arms. Young women above all.' + +Why had she no pity for Aminta? Weyburn asked it of his feelings, and he +had the customary insurgent reply from them. + +'You haven't seen Steignton yet,' she continued. 'No place on earth is +equal to Steignton for me. It 's got the charm. Here at Olmer I'm a +mother and a grandmother--the "devil of an old-woman" my neighbours take +me to be. She hasn't been to Steignton, either. No, and won't go there, +though she's working her way round, she supposes. He'll do everything +for his "Aminta," but he won't take her to Steignton. I'm told now she's +won Lady de Culme. That Mrs. Lawrence Finclhley has dropped the curtsey +to her great-aunt and sworn to be a good girl, for a change, if Lady de +Culme will do the chaperon, and force Lord Ormont's hand. My brother +shrugs. There'll be a nice explosion one day soon. Presented? The +Court won't have her. That I know for positive. If she's pushed +forward, she 'll be bitterly snubbed. It 's on the heads of those women +--silly women! I can't see the game Mrs. Lawrence Finchley's playing. +She'd play for fun. If they'd come to me, I 'd tell them I 've proof +she 's not the Countess of Ormont: positive proof. You look? I have it. +I hold something; and not before,--(he may take his Aminta to Steignton, +he may let her be presented, she may wear his name publicly, I say he's +laughing at them, snapping his fingers at them louder and louder the more +they seem to be pushing him into a corner, until--I know my brother +Rowsley!--and, poor dear fellow! a man like that, the best cavalry +general England ever had:--they'll remember it when there comes a cry +for a general from India: that's the way with the English; only their +necessities teach them to be just!)--he to be reduced to be out- +manoeuvring a swarm of women,--I tell them, not before my brother Rowsley +comes to me for what he handed to my care and I keep safe for him, will +I believe he has made or means to make his Aminta Countess of Ormont.' + +They were at the steps of the house. Turning to Weyburn there, the +inexhaustible Lady Charlotte remarked that their conversation had given +her pleasure. Leo was hanging on to one of his hands the next minute. A +small girl took the other. Philippa and Beatrice were banished damsels. + +Lady Charlotte's breath had withered the aspect of Aminta's fortunes. +Weyburn could forgive her, for he was beginning to understand her. He +could not pardon 'her brother Rowsley,' who loomed in his mind +incomprehensible, and therefore black. Once he had thought the great +General a great man. He now regarded him as a mere soldier, a soured +veteran; socially as a masker and a trifler, virtually a callous angler +playing his cleverly-hooked fish for pastime. + +What could be the meaning of Lady Charlotte's 'that, man Morsfield, who +boasts of your Lady Ormont, and does it unwhipped'? + +Weyburn stopped his questioning, with the reflection that he had no right +to recollect her words thus accurately. The words, however, stamped +Morsfield's doings and sayings and postures in the presence of Aminta +with significance. When the ladies were looking on at the fencers, +Morsfield's perfect coxcombry had been noticeable. He knew the art of +airing a fine figure. Mrs. Lawrence Finchley had spoken of it, and +Aminta had acquiesced; in the gravely simple manner of women who may be +thinking of it much more intently than the vivacious prattler. Aminta +confessed to an admiration of masculine physical beauty; the picador, +matador, of the Spanish ring called up an undisguised glow that English +ladies show coldly when they condescend to let it be seen; as it were, a +line or two of colour on the wintriest of skies. She might, after all, +at heart be one of the leisured, jewelled, pretty-winged; the spending, +never harvesting, world she claimed and sought to enter. And what a +primitive world it was!--world of the glittering beast and the not too +swiftly flying prey, the savage passions clothed in silk. Surely desire +to belong to it writes us poor creatures. Mentally, she could hardly be +maturer than the hero-worshipping girl in the procession of Miss +Vincent's young seminarists. Probably so, but she carried magic. She +was of the order of women who walk as the goddesses of old, bearing the +gift divine. And, by the way, she had the step of the goddess. Weyburn +repeated to himself the favourite familiar line expressive of the +glorious walk, and accused Lord Ormont of being in cacophonous accordance +with the perpetual wrong of circumstance, he her possessor, the sole +person of her sphere insensible to the magic she bore! So ran his +thought. + +The young man chose to conceive that he thought abstractedly. He was, +in truth, often casting about for the chances of his meeting on some +fortunate day the predestined schoolmaster's wife: a lady altogether +praiseworthy for carrying principles of sound government instead of +magic. Consequently, susceptible to woman's graces though he knew +himself to be, Lady Ormont's share of them hung in the abstract for him. +His hopes were bent on an early escape to Switzerland and his life's +work. + +Lady Charlotte mounted to ride to the battle daily. She talked of +her brother Rowsley, and of 'Aminta,' and provoked an advocacy of the +Countess of Ormont, and trampled the pleas and defences to dust, much in +the same tone as on the first day; sometimes showing a peep of sweet +humaneness, like the ripe berry of a bramble, and at others rattling +thunder at the wretch of a woman audacious enough to pretend to a part +in her brother's title. + +Not that she had veneration for titles. She considered them a tinsel, +and the devotee on his knee-caps to them a lump for a kick. Adding: +'Of course I stand for my class; and if we can't have a manlier people-- +and it 's not likely in a country treating my brother so badly--well, +then, let things go on as they are.' But it was the pretension to a part +in the name of Ormont which so violently offended the democratic +aristocrat, and caused her to resent it as an assault on the family +honour, by 'a woman springing up out of nothing'--a woman of no +distinctive birth. + +She was rational in her fashion; or Weyburn could at least see where and +how the reason in her took a twist. The Rev. Mr. Hampton-Evey would not +see it; he was, in charity to her ladyship, of a totally contrary +opinion, he informed Weyburn. The laborious pastor and much-enduring +Churchman met my lady's apologist as he was having a swing of the legs +down the lanes before breakfast, and he fell upon a series of complaints, +which were introduced by a declaration that 'he much feared' her ladyship +would have a heavy legal bill to pay for taking the law into her hands up +at Addicotes. + +Her ladyship might, if she pleased, he said, encourage her domestics and +her husband's tenants and farm-labourers to abandon the church for the +chapel, and go, as she had done and threatened to do habitually, to the +chapel herself; but to denounce the ritual of the Orthodox Church under +the denomination of 'barbarous,' to say of the invoking supplications of +the service, that they were--she had been heard to state it more or less +publicly and repeatedly--suitable to abject ministers and throngs at the +court of an Indian rajah, that he did not hesitate to term highly +unbecoming in a lady of her station, subversive and unchristian. The +personal burdens inflicted on him by her ladyship he prayed for patience +to endure. He surprised Weyburn in speaking of Lady Charlotte as +'educated and accomplished.' She was rather more so than Weyburn knew, +and more so than was common among the great ladies of her time. + +Weyburn strongly advised the reverend gentleman on having it out with +Lady Charlotte in a personal interview. He sketched the great lady's +combative character on a foundation of benevolence, and stressed her +tolerance for open dealing, and the advantage gained by personal dealings +with her--after a mauling or two. His language and his illustrations +touched an old-school chord in the Rev. Mr. Hampton-Evey, who hummed over +the project, profoundly disrelishing the introductory portion. + +'Do me the honour to call and see me to-morrow, after breakfast, before +her ladyship starts for the fray on Addicote heights,' Weyburn said; 'and +I will ask your permission to stand by you. Her bark is terrific, we +know; and she can bite, but there's no venom.' + +Finally, on a heave of his chest, Mr. Hampton-Evey consented to call, in +the interests of peace. + +Weyburn had said it must be 'man to man with her, facing her and taking +steps'; and, although the prospect was unpleasant to repulsiveness, it +was a cheerful alternative beside Mr. Hampton-Evey's experiences and +anticipations of the malignant black power her ladyship could be when she +was not faced. + +'Let the man come,' said Lady Charlotte. Her shoulders intimated +readiness for him. + +She told Weyburn he might be present--insisted to have him present. +During the day Weyburn managed to slide in observations on the favourable +reports of Mr. Hampton-Evey's work among the poor--emollient doses that +irritated her to fret and paw, as at a checking of her onset. + +In the afternoon the last disputed tree on the Addicotes' ridge was +felled and laid on Olmer ground. Riding with Weyburn and the joyful Leo, +she encountered Mr. Eglett and called out the news. He remarked, in the +tone of philosophy proper to a placable country gentleman obedient to +government on foreign affairs: 'Now for the next act. But no more +horseback now, mind!' + +She muttered of not recollecting a promise. He repeated the interdict. +Weyburn could fancy seeing her lips form words of how she hated old age. + +He had been four days at Olmer, always facing her, 'man to man,' in the +matter of Lady Ormont, not making way at all, but holding firm, and +winning respectful treatment. They sat alone in her private room, where, +without prelude, she discharged a fiery squib at impudent hussies caught +up to the saddle-bow of a hero for just a canter, and pretending to a +permanent seat beside him. + +'You have only to see Lady Ormont; you will admit the justice of her +claim, my lady,' said he; and as evidently he wanted a fight, she let him +have it. + +'You try to provoke me; you take liberties. You may call the woman +Aminta, I've told you; you insult me when you call the woman by my family +name.' + +'Pardon me, my lady: I have no right to call Lady Ormont Aminta.' + +'You've never done so, eh? Say!' + +She had him at the edge of the precipice. He escaped by saying, 'Her +Christian name was asked the other day, and I mentioned it. She is +addressed by me as Lady Ormont.' + +'And by her groom and her footman. They all do; it 's the indemnity to +that class of young woman. Her linendraper is Lady-Ormonting as you do. +I took you for a gentleman. Let me hear you give her that title again, +you shall hear her true one, that the world fits her with, from me.' + +The time was near the half-hour bell before dinner, the situation between +them that of the fall of the breath to fetch words electrical. She left +it to him to begin the fight, and was not sorry that she had pricked him +for it. + +A footman entered the room, bearer of a missive for Mr. Weyburn. Lord +Ormont's groom had brought it from London. + +'Send in the man,' said Lady Charlotte. + +Weyburn read + +'The Countess of Ormont begs Mr. Weyburn to return instantly. There has +been an accident in his home. It may not be very serious. An arm--a +shock to the system from a fall. Messenger informs her, fear of internal +hemorrhage. Best doctors in attendance.' + +He handed Lady Charlotte the letter. She humped at the first line, +flashed across the remainder, and in a lowered voice asked-- + +'Sister in the house?' + +'My mother,' Weyburn said. + +The groom appeared. He knew nothing. The Countess had given him orders +to spare no expense on the road to Olmer, without a minute's delay. He +had ridden and driven. + +He looked worn. Lady Charlotte rang the bell for her butler. To him she +said-- + +'See that this man has a good feed of meat, any pastry you have, and a +bottle of port wine. He has earned a pipe of tobacco; make up a bed for +him. Despatch at once any one of the stable-boys to Loughton--the +Dolphin. Mr. Leeman there will have a chariot, fly, gig, anything, +ready-horsed in three hours from now. See Empson yourself; he will put +my stepper Mab to the light trap; no delay. Have his feed at Loughton. +Tell Mrs. Maples to send up now, here, a tray, whatever she has, within +five minutes--not later. A bottle of the Peace of Amiens Chambertin-- +Mr. Eglett's. You understand. Mrs. Maples will pack a basket for the +journey; she will judge. Add a bottle of the Waterloo Bordeaux. Wait: +a dozen of Mr. Eglett's cigars. Brisk with all the orders. Go.' + +She turned to Weyburn. 'You pack your portmanteau faster than a servant +will do it.' + +He ran up-stairs. + +She was beside the tray to welcome and inspirit his eating, and she +performed the busy butler's duty in pouring out wine for him. It was a +toned old Burgundy, happy in the year of its birth, the grandest of +instruments to roll the gambol-march of the Dionysiaca through the blood +of this frame and sound it to the spirit. She spoke no word of his cause +for departure. He drank, and he felt what earth can do to cheer one of +her stricken children and strengthen the beat of a heart with a dread +like a shot in it. + +She, while he flew supporting the body of his most beloved to the sun of +Life in brighter hope, reckoned the stages of his journey. + +'Leeman at Loughton will post you through the night to Mersley. Wherever +you bait, it is made known that you come from Olmer, and are one of us. +That passes you on up to London. Where can Lord Ormont be now?' + +'In Paris.' + +'Still in Paris? He leaves her. She did well to send as she did. You +will not pay for the posting along the road.' + +'I will pay for myself--I have a 'purse,' Weyburn said; and continued, +'Oh, my lady; there is Mr. Hampton-Evey to-morrow morning: I promised to +stand by him.' + +'I'll explain,' said Lady Charlotte. 'He shall not miss you. If he +strips the parson and comes as a man and a servant of the poor, he has +nothing to fear. You've done? The night before my brother Rowsley's +first duel I sat with him at supper and poured his wine out, and knew +what was going to happen, didn't say a word. No use in talking about +feelings. Besides, death is only the other side of the ditch, and one or +other of us must go foremost. Now then, good-bye. Empson's waiting by +this time. Mr. Eglett and Leo shall hear the excuses from me. Think of +anything you may want, while I count ten.' + +She held his hand. He wanted her to be friendly to Lady Ormont, but +could not vex her at the last moment, touched as he was by her practical +kindness. + +She pressed his hand and let it go. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +OLD LOVERS NEW FRIENDS + +The cottage inhabited by Weyburn's mother was on the southern hills over +London. He reached it late in the afternoon. His mother's old servant, +Martha, spied the roadway at the gate of the small square of garden. Her +steady look without welcome told him the scene he would meet beyond the +door, and was the dead in her eyes. He dropped from no height; he stood +on a level with the blow. His apprehensions on the road had lowered him +to meet it. + +'Too late, Martha?' + +'She's in heaven, my dear.' + +'She is lying alone?' + +'The London doctor left half an hour back. She's gone. Slipped, and +fell, coming from her room, all the way down. She prayed for grace to +see her son. She 'll watch over him, be sure. You 'll not find it lone +and cold. A lady sits with it--Lady Ormont, they call her--a very kind +lady. My mistress liked her voice. Ever since news of the accident, up +to ten at night; and never eats or drinks more than a poor tiny bit of +bread-and-butter, with a teacup.' + +'Weyburn went up-stairs. + +Aminta sat close to the bedside in a darkened room. They greeted +silently. He saw the white shell of the life that had flown; he took his +mother's hand and kissed it, and knelt, clasping it. + +Fear of disturbing his prayer kept Aminta seated. Death was a stranger +to him. The still warm, half-cold, nerveless hand smote the fact of +things as they were through the prayer for things as we would have them. +The vitality of his prayer was the sole light he had. It drew +sustainment from the dead hand in his grasp, and cowered down to the +earth claiming all we touch. He tried to summon vision of a soaring +spirituality; he could not; his understanding and senses were too +stricken. He prayed on. His prayer was as a little fountain, not rising +high out of earth, and in the clutch of death; but its being it had from +death, his love gave it food. + +Prayer is power within us to communicate with the desired beyond our +thirsts. The goodness of the dear good mother gone was in him for +assurance of a breast of goodness to receive her, whatever the nature of +the eternal secret may be. The good life gone lives on in the mind; the +bad has but a life in the body, and that not lasting,--it extends, +dispreads, it worms away, it perishes. Need we more to bid the mind +perceive through obstructive flesh the God who reigns, a devil +vanquished? Be certain that it is the pure mind we set to perceive. The +God discerned in thought is another than he of the senses. And let the +prayer be as a little fountain. Rising on a spout, from dread of the +hollow below, the prayer may be prolonged in words begetting words, and +have a pulse of fervour: the spirit of it has fallen after the first jet. +That is the delirious energy of our craving, which has no life in our +souls. We do not get to any heaven by renouncing the Mother we spring +from; and when there is an eternal secret for us, it is befit to believe +that Earth knows, to keep near her, even in our utmost aspirations. + +Weyburn still knelt. He was warned to quit the formal posture of an +exhausted act by the thought, that he had come to reflect upon how he +might be useful to his boys in a like calamity. + +Having risen, he became aware, that for some time of his kneeling +Aminta's hand had been on his head, and they had raised their souls in +unison. It was a soul's link. They gazed together on the calm, rapt +features. They passed from the room. + +'I cannot thank you,' he said. + +'Oh no; I have the reason for gratitude,' said she. 'I have learnt to +know and love her, and hope I may imitate when my time is near.' + +"She..... at the last?' + +'Peacefully; no pain. The breath had not left her very long before you +came.' + +'I said I cannot; but I must-- + +'Do not.' + +'Not in speech, then.' + +They went into the tasteful little sitting-room below, where the +stillness closed upon them as a consciousness of loss. + +'You have comforted her each day,' he said. + +'It has been my one happiness.' + +'I could not wish for better than for her to have known you.' + +'Say that for me. I have gained. She left her last words for you with +me. They were love, love . . . pride in her son: thanks to God for +having been thought worthy to give him birth.' + +'She was one of the noble women of earth.' + +'She was your mother. Let me not speak any more. I think I will now go. +I am rarely given to these--' + +The big drops were falling. + +'You have not ordered your carriage?' + +'It brings me here. I find my way home.' + +'Alone?' + +'I like the independence.' + +'At night, too!' + +'Nothing harmed me. Now it is daylight. A letter arrived for you from +High Brent this morning. I forgot to bring it. Yesterday two of your +pupils called here. Martha saw them.' + +Her naming of the old servant familiarly melted him. 'You will not bear +to hear praise or thanks.' + +'If I deserved them. I should like you to call on Dr. Buxton; he will +tell you more than we can. He drove with me the first day, after I had +sent you the local doctor's report. I had it from the messenger, his +assistant.' + +Weyburn knew Dr. Buxton's address. He begged her to stay and take some +nourishment; ventured a remark on her wasted look. + +'It is poor fare in cottages.' + +'I have been feeding on better than bread and meat,' she said.' I should +have eaten if I had felt appetite. My looks will recover, such as they +are. I hope I have grown out of them; they are a large part of the +bondage of women. You would like to see me safe into some conveyance. +Go up-stairs for a few minutes; I will wait here.' + +He obeyed her. Passing from the living to the dead, from the dead to the +living, they were united in his heart. + +Her brevity of tone, and her speech, so practical upon a point of need, +under a crisis of distress, reminded him of Lady Charlotte at the time +of the groom's arrival with her letter. + +Aminta was in no hurry to drive. She liked walking and looking down on +London, she said. + +'My friend and schoolmate, Selina Collett, comes to me at Whitsuntide. +We have taken a house on the Upper Thames, above Marlow. You will come +and see us, if you can be persuaded to leave your boys. We have a +boathouse, and a bathing-plank for divers. The stream is quiet there +between rich meadows. It seems to flow as if it thought. I am not +poetical; I tell you only my impression. You shall be a great deal by +yourself, as men prefer to be.' + +'As men are forced to be--I beg!' said he. 'Division is against my +theories.' + +'We might help, if we understood one another, I have often fancied. +I know something of your theories. I should much like to hear you +some day on the scheme of the school in Switzerland, and also on the +schoolmaster's profession. She whom we have lost was full of it, and +spoke of it to me as much as her weakness would permit. The subject +seemed to give her strength.' + +'She has always encouraged me,' said Weyburn.' I have lost her, but I +shall feel that she is not absent. She had ideas of her own about men +and women.' + +'Some she mentioned.' + +'And about marriage?' + +'That too.' + +Aminta shook herself out of a sudden stupor. + +'Her mind was very clear up to the last hour upon all the subjects +interesting her son. She at one time regretted his not being a soldier, +for the sake of his father's memory. Then she learned to think he could +do more for the world as the schoolmaster. She said you can persuade.' + +'We had our talks. She would have the reason, if she was to be won. +I like no other kind of persuasion.' + +'I long to talk over the future school with you. That is, to hear your +plans.' + +They were at the foot of the hill, in view of an inn announcing livery +stables. She wished to walk the whole distance. He shook his head. + +The fly was ready for her soon, and he begged to see her safe home. She +refused, after taking her seat, but said: 'At any other time. We are old +friends. You will really go through the ceremony of consulting me about +the school?' + +He replied: 'I am honoured.' + +'Ah, not to me,' said Aminta. 'We will be the friends we--You will not +be formal with me?--not from this day?' + +She put out her hand. He took it gently. The dead who had drawn them +together withheld a pressure. Holding the hand, he said: 'I shall crave +leave of absence for some days.' + +'I shall see you on the day,' said she. 'If it is your desire: I will +send word.' + +'We both mourn at heart. We should be in company. Adieu.' + +Their hands fell apart. They looked. The old school time was in each +mind. They saw it as a shore-bank in grey outline across morning mist. +Years were between; and there was a division of circumstance, more +repelling than an abyss or the rush of deep wild waters. + +Neither of them had regrets. Under their cloud, and with the grief they +shared, they were as happy as two could be in recovering one another as +friends. + +On the day of the funeral Aminta drove to the spot where they had parted +--she walked to the churchyard. + +She followed the coffin to its gravel-heap, wishing neither to see nor be +seen, only that she might be so far attached to the remains of the dead; +and the sense of blessedness she had in her bowed simplicity of feeling +was as if the sainted dead had cleansed and anointed her. + +When the sods had been cast on, the last word spoken, she walked her way +back, happy in being alone, unnoticed. She was grateful to the chief +mourner for letting her go as she had come. That helped her to her sense +of purification, the haven out of the passions, hardly less quiet than +the repose into which the dear dead woman, his mother, had entered. + +London lay beneath her. The might of the great hive hummed at the verge +of her haven of peace without disturbing. There she had been what none +had known of her: an ambitious girl, modest merely for lack of +intrepidity; paralyzed by her masterful lord; aiming her highest at a +gilt weathercock; and a disappointed creature, her breast a home of +serpents; never herself. She thought and hoped she was herself now. +Alarm lest this might be another of her moods, victim of moods as she had +latterly been, was a shadow armed with a dart playing round her to find +the weak spot. It sprang from her acknowledged weakness of nature; and +she cast about for how to keep it outside her and lean on a true though a +small internal support. She struck at her desires, to sound them. + +They were yesterday for love; partly for distinction, for a woman having +beauty to shine in the sphere of beauty; but chiefly to love and be +loved, therefore to live. She had yesterday read letters of a man who +broke a music from the word--about as much music as there is in a tuning +--fork, yet it rang and lingered; and he was not the magical musician. +Now those letters were as dust of the road. The sphere of beauty was a +glass lamp-globe for delirious moths. She had changed. Belief in the +real change gave her full view of the compliant coward she had been. + +Her heart assured her she had natural courage. She felt that it could be +stubborn to resist a softness. Now she cared no more for the hackneyed +musical word; friendship was her desire. If it is not life's poetry, it +is a credible prose; a land of low undulations instead of Alps; beyond +the terrors and the deceptions. And she could trust her friend: he who +was a singular constancy. His mother had told her of his preserving +letters of a girl he loved when at school; and of his journeys to an +empty house at Dover. That was past; but, as the boy, so the man would +be in sincerity of feeling trustworthy to the uttermost. + +She mused on the friend. He was brave. She had seen how he took his +blow, and sorrow as a sister, conquering emotion. It was not to be +expected of him by one who knew him when at school. Had he faults? He +must have faults. She, curiously, could see none. After consenting to +his career as a schoolmaster, and seeing nothing ludicrous in it, she +endowed him with the young school-hero's reputation, beheld him with the +eyes of the girl who had loved him--and burnt his old letters!--bitterly +regretted that she burnt his letters!--and who had applauded his contempt +of ushers and master opposing his individual will and the thing he +thought it right to do. + +Musing thus, she turned a corner, on a sudden, in her mind, and ran +against a mirror, wherein a small figure running up to meet her, grew +large and nodded, with the laugh and eyes of Browny. So little had she +changed! The stedfast experienced woman rebuked that volatile, and some +might say, faithless girl. But the girl had her answer: she declared +they were one and the same, affirmed that the years between were a bad +night's dream, that her heart had been faithful, that he who conjures +visions of romance in a young girl's bosom must always have her heart, +as a crisis will reveal it to her. She had the volubility of the mettled +Browny of old, and was lectured. When she insisted on shouting 'Matey! +Matey!' she was angrily spurned and silenced. + +Aminta ceased to recline in her carriage. An idea that an indolent +posture fostered vapourish meditations, counselled her sitting rigidly +upright and interestedly observing the cottages and merry gutter-children +along the squat straight streets of a London suburb. Her dominant +ultimate thought was, 'I, too, can work!' Like her courage, the plea of +a capacity to work appealed for confirmation to the belief which exists +without demonstrated example; and as she refrained from probing to the +inner sources of that mental outcry, it was allowed to stand and remain +among the convictions we store--wherewith to shape our destinies. + +Childishly indeed, quite witlessly, she fell into a trick of repeating +the name of Matthew Weyburn in her breast and on her lips, after the +manner of Isabella Lawrence Finchley, when she had inquired for his +Christian name, and went on murmuring it, as if sucking a new bonbon, +with the remark: 'It sounds nice, it suits the mouth.' Little Selina +Collett had told, Aminta remembered, how those funny boys at Cuper's +could not at first get the name 'Aminta' to suit the mouth, but went +about making hideous faces in uttering it. She smiled at the +recollection, and thought, up to a movement of her lips, one is not +tempted to do that in saying Matthew Weyburn! + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +SHOWING A SECRET FISHED WITHOUT ANGLING + +That great couchant dragon of the devouring jaws and the withering +breath, known as our London world, was in expectation of an excitement +above yawns on the subject of a beautiful Lady Doubtful proposing +herself, through a group of infatuated influential friends, to a decorous +Court, as one among the ladies acceptable. The popular version of it +sharpened the sauce by mingling romance and cynicism very happily; for +the numerous cooks, when out of the kitchen, will furnish a piquant dish. +Thus, a jewel-eyed girl of half English origin (a wounded British officer +is amiably nursed in a castle near the famous Peninsula battlefield, +etc.), running wild down the streets of Seville, is picked up by Lord +Ormont, made to discard her tambourine, brought over to our shores, and +allowed the decoration of his name, without the legitimate adornment of +his title. Discontented with her position after a time, she now pushes +boldly to claim the place which will be most effective in serving her as +a bath. She has, by general consent, beauty; she must, seeing that she +counts influential friends, have witchery. Those who have seen her +riding and driving beside her lord, speak of Andalusian grace, Oriental +lustre, fit qualification for the fair slave of a notoriously susceptible +old warrior. + +She won a party in the widening gossip world; and enough of a party in +the regent world to make a stream. Pretending to be the actual Countess +of Ormont, though not publicly acknowledged as his countess by the earl, +she had on her side the strenuous few who knew and liked her, some who +were pleased compassionately to patronize, all idle admirers of a +shadowed beautiful woman at bay, the devotees of any beauty in distress, +and such as had seen, such as imagined they had seen, such as could paint +a mental picture of a lady of imposing stature, persuasive appearance, +pathetic history, and pronounce her to be unjustly treated, with a +general belief that she was visible and breathing. She had the ready +enthusiasts, the responsive sentimentalists, and an honest active minor +number, of whom not every one could be declared perfectly unspotted in +public estimation, however innocent under verdict of the courts of law. + +Against her was the livid cloud-bank over a flowery field, that has not +yet spoken audible thunder: the terrible aggregate social woman, of man's +creation, hated by him, dreaded, scorned, satirized, and nevertheless, +upheld, esteemed, applauded: a mark of civilization, on to which our +human society must hold as long as we have nothing humaner. She exhibits +virtue, with face of waxen angel, with paw of desert beast, and blood +of victims on it. Her fold is a genial climate and the material +pleasures for the world's sheepy: worshipping herself, she claims the +sanctification of a performed religion. She is gentle when unassailed, +going her way serenely, with her malady in the blood. When the skin +bears witness to it, she swallows an apothecary, and there is a short +convulsion. She is refreshed by cutting off diseased inferior members: +the superior betraying foul symptoms, she covers up and retains; +rationally, too, for they minister to her present existence, and she +lives all in the present. Her subjects are the mixed Subservient; among +her rebellious are earth's advanced, who have cold a morning on their +foreheads, and these would not dethrone her, they would but shame and +purify by other methods than the druggist. She loves nothing. +Undoubtedly, she dislikes the vicious. On that merit she subsists. + +The vexatious thing in speaking of her is, that she compels to the use of +the rhetorician's brass instrument. As she is one of the Powers giving +life and death, one may be excused. This tremendous queen of the +congregation has brought discredit on her sex for the scourge laid on +quivering female flesh, and for the flippant indifference shown to misery +and to fine distinctions between right and wrong, good and bad; and +particularly for the undiscriminating hardness upon the starved of women. +We forget her having been conceived in the fear of men, shaped to gratify +them. She is their fiction of the state they would fain beguile +themselves to suppose her sex has reached, for their benefit; where she +may be queen of it in a corner, certain of a loyal support, if she will +only give men her half-the-world's assistance to uplift the fabric +comfortable to them; together with assurance of paternity, case of mind +in absence, exclusive possession, enormous and minutest, etc.; not by any +means omitting a regimental orderliness, from which men are privately +exempt, because they are men, or because they are grown boys--the brisker +at lessons after a vacation or a truancy, says the fiction. + +In those days the world had oscillated, under higher leading than its +royal laxity, to rigidity. Tiny peccadilloes were no longer matter of +jest, and the sinner exposed stood 'sola' to receive the brand. A +beautiful Lady Doubtful needed her husband's countenance if she was to +take one of the permanent steps in public places. The party of Lady +Charlotte Eglett called on the livid cloud-bank aforesaid to discharge +celestial bolts and sulphur oil on the head of an impudent, underbred, +ambitious young slut, whose arts had bewitched a distinguished nobleman +not young in years at least, and ensnared the remainder wits of some +principal ancient ladies of the land. Professional Puritans, born +conservatives, malicious tattlers, made up a goodly tail to Lady +Charlotte's party. The epithet 'unbred' was accredited upon the quoted +sayings and doings of the pretentious young person's aunt, repeated +abroad by noblemen and gentlemen present when she committed herself; +and the same were absurd. They carried a laugh, and so they lived and +circulated. Lord Ormont submitted to the infliction of that horrid +female in his household! It was no wonder he stopped short of allying +himself with the family. + +Nor was it a wonder that the naturally enamoured old warrior or invalided +Mars (for she had the gift of beauty) should deem it prudent to be out of +England when she and her crazy friends determined on the audacious move. +Or put it the other way--for it is just as confounding right side or +left--she and her friends take advantage of his absence to make the +clever push for an establishment, and socially force him to legalize +their union on his return. The deeds of the preceding reign had +bequeathed a sort of legendary credence to the wildest tales gossip +could invent under a demurrer. + +But there was the fact, the earl was away. Lady Charlotte's party buzzed +everywhere. Her ladyship had come to town to head it. Her ladyship laid +trains of powder from dinner-parties, balls, routs, park-processions, +into the Lord Chamberlain's ear, and fired and exploded them, deafening +the grand official. Do you consider that virulent Pagan Goddesses and +the flying torch-furies are extinct? Error of Christians! We have +relinquished the old names and have no new ones for them; but they are +here, inextinguishable, threading the day and night air with their dire +squib-trail, if we would but see. Hissing they go, and we do not hear. +We feel the effects. + +Upon the counsel of Mrs. Lawrence, Aminta sent a letter to Lord Ormont +at his hotel in Paris, informing him of the position of affairs. He had +delayed his return, and there had been none of his brief communications. + +She wrote, as she knew, as she felt, coldly. She was guided by others, +and her name was up before the world, owing to some half-remembered +impulsion of past wishes, but her heart was numbed; she was not a woman +to have a wish without a beat of the heart in it. For her name she had a +feeling, to be likened rather to the losing gambler's contemplation of a +big stake he has flung, and sees it gone while fortune is undecided; and +he catches at a philosophy nothing other than his hug of a modest little +background pleasure, that he has always preferred to this accursed bad +habit of gambling with the luck against him. Reckless in the cast, she +was reckless of success. + +Her letter was unanswered. + +Then, and day by day more strongly, she felt for her name. She put a +false heart into it. She called herself to her hearing the Countess of +Ormont, and deigned to consult the most foolish friend she could have +chosen--her aunt; and even listened to her advice, that she should run +about knocking at all the doors open to her, and state her case against +the earl. It seemed the course to take, the moment for taking it. Was +she not asked if she could now at last show she had pride? Her pride ran +stinging through her veins, like a band of freed prisoners who head the +rout to fire a city. She charged her lord with having designedly--oh! +cunningly indeed left her to be the prey of her enemies at the hour when +he knew it behoved him to be her great defender. There had been no +disguise of the things in progress: they had been spoken of allusively, +quite comprehensibly, after the fashion common with two entertaining a +secret semi-hostility on a particular subject; one of them being the +creature that blushes and is educated to be delicate, reserved, and +timorous. He was not ignorant, and he had left her, and he would not +reply to her letter! + +So fell was her mood, that an endeavour to conjure up the scene of her +sitting beside the death-bed of Matthew Weyburn's mother, failed to sober +and smooth it, holy though that time was. The false heart she had put +into the pride of her name was powerfuller than the heart in her bosom. +But to what end had the true heart counselled her of late? It had been +a home of humours and languors, an impotent insurgent, the sapper of her +character; and as we see in certain disorderly States a curative +incendiarism usurp the functions of the sluggish citizen, and the work +of re-establishment done by destruction, in peril of a total extinction, +Aminta's feverish anger on behalf of her name went a stretch to vivify +and give her dulled character a novel edge. She said good-bye to +cowardice. 'I have no husband to defend me--I must do it for myself.' +The peril of a too complete exercise of independence was just intimated +to her perceptions. On whom the blame? And let the motively guilty go +mourn over consequences! That Institution of Marriage was eyed. Is it +not a halting step to happiness? It is the step of a cripple,--and one +leg or the other poses for the feebler sex,--small is the matter which! +And is happiness our cry? Our cry is rather for circumstance and +occasion to use our functions, and the conditions are denied to women by +Marriage--denied to the luckless of women, who are many, very many: +denied to Aminta, calling herself Countess of Ormont, for one, denied to +Mrs. Lawrence Finchley for another, and in a base bad manner. She had +defended her good name triumphantly, only to enslave herself for life or +snatch at the liberty which besmirches. + +Reviewing Mrs. Lawrence, Aminta's real heart pressed forward at the beat, +in tender pity of the woman for whom a yielding to love was to sin; and +unwomanly is the woman who does not love: men will say it. Aminta found +herself phrasing. 'Why was she unable to love her husband?--he is not +old.' She hurried in flight from the remark to confidences imparted by +other ladies, showing strange veins in an earthy world; after which, her +mind was bent to rebuke Mrs. Pagnell for the silly soul's perpetual +allusions to Lord Ormont's age. She did not think of his age. But she +was vividly thinking that she was young. Young, married, loveless, +cramped in her energies, publicly dishonoured--a Lady Doubtful, courting +one friend whom she liked among women, one friend whom she respected +among men; that was the sketch of her. + +That was in truth the outline, as much as Aminta dared sketch of herself +without dragging her down lower than her trained instinct would bear to +look. Our civilization shuns nature; and most shuns it in the most +artificially civilized, to suit the market. They, however, are always +close to their mother nature, beneath their second nature's mask of +custom; and Aminta's unconscious concluding touch to the sketch: 'My +husband might have helped me to a footing in Society,' would complete +it as a coloured picture, if writ in tones. + +She said it, and for the footing in Society she had lost her taste. + +Mrs. Lawrence brought the final word from high quarters: that the +application must be deferred until Lord Ormont returned to town. It was +known before, that such would be the decision. She had it from the +eminent official himself, and she kicked about the room, setting her +pretty mouth and nose to pout and sniff, exactly like a boy whose chum +has been mishandled by a bully. + +'Your dear good man is too much for us. I thought we should drive him. +'C'est un ruse homme de guerre.' I like him, but I could slap him. He +stops the way. Upon my word, he seems tolerably careless of his +treasure. Does he suppose Mrs. Paggy is a protection? Do you know she's +devoted to that man Morsfield? He listens to her stories. To judge by +what he shouts aloud, he intends carrying you off the first opportunity, +divorcing, and installing you in Cobeck Hall. All he fears is, that your +lord won't divorce. You should have seen him the other day; he marched +up and down the room, smacking his head and crying out: "Legal measures +or any weapons her husband pleases!" For he has come to believe that the +lady would have been off with him long before, if her lord had no claim +to the marital title. "It 's that husband I can't get over! that +husband!" He reminded me, to the life, of Lawrence Finchley with a +headache the morning after a supper, striding, with his hand on the +shining middle of his head: "It's that Welsh rabbit! that Welsh rabbit!" +He has a poor digestion, and he will eat cheese. The Welsh rabbit chased +him into his bed. But listen to me, dear, about your Morsfield. I told +you he was dangerous.' + +'He is not my Morsfield,' said Aminta. + +'Beware of his having a tool in Paggy. He boasts of letters.' + +'Mine? Two: and written to request him to cease writing to me.' + +'He stops at nothing. And, oh, my Simplicity! don't you see you gave +him a step in begging him to retire? Morsfield has lived a good deal +among our neighbours, who expound the physiology of women. He anatomizes +us; pulls us to pieces, puts us together, and then animates us with a +breath of his "passion"--sincere upon every occasion, I don't doubt. He +spared me, although he saw I was engaged. Perhaps it was because I 'm of +no definite colour. Or he thought I was not a receptacle for "passion." +And quite true,--Adder, the dear good fellow, has none. Or where should +we be? On a Swiss Alp, in a chalet, he shooting chamois, and I milking +cows, with 'ah-ahio, ah-ahio,' all day long, and a quarrel at night over +curds and whey. Well, and that 's a better old pensioner's limp to his +end for "passion" than the foreign hotel bell rung mightily, and one of +the two discovered with a dagger in the breast, and the other a don't- +look lying on the pavement under the window. Yes, and that's better than +"passion" splitting and dispersing upon new adventures, from habit, with +two sparks remaining of the fire.' + +Aminta took Mrs. Lawrence's hands. 'Is it a lecture?' + +She was kissed. 'Frothy gabble. I'm really near to "passion" when I +embrace you. You're the only one I could run away with; live with all +alone, I believe. I wonder men can see you while that silly lord of +yours is absent, and not begin Morsfielding. They're virtuous if they +resist. Paggy tells the world . . . well?' Aminta had reddened. + +'What does my aunt tell the world?' + +Mrs. Lawrence laid her smoothing hand absently on a frill of lace fichu +above a sternly disciplined bosom at half-heave. 'I think I can +judge now that you're not much hurt by this wretched business of the +presentation. The little service I could do was a moral lesson to me on +the subject of deuce-may-care antecedents. My brother Tom, too, was +always playing truant, as a boy. It 's in the blood.' + +She seemed to be teasing, and Aminta cried: 'My aunt! Let me hear. +She tells the world--?' + +'Paggy? ah, yes. Only that she says the countess has an exalted opinion +of Mr. Secretary's handwriting--as witnessed by his fair copy of the +Memoirs, of course.' + +'Poor woman! How can she talk such foolishness! I guessed it.' + +'You wear a dark red rose when you're guessing, 'ma mie,'--French for, my +Aminta.' + +'But consider, Isabella, Mr. Weyburn has just had the heaviest of losses. +My aunt should spare mention of him.' + +'Matthew Weyburn! we both like the name.' Mrs. Lawrence touched at her +friend and gazed. 'I've seen it on certain evenings--crimson over an +olive sky. What it forebodes, I can't imagine; but it's the end of a +lovely day. They say it threatens rain, if it begins one. It 's an +ominous herald.' + +'You make me,' said Aminta. 'I must redden if you keep looking at me so +closely.' + +'Now frown one little bit, please. I love to see you. I love to see a +secret disclose itself ingenuously.' + +'But what secret, my dear?' cried Aminta's defence of her innocence; and +she gave a short frown. + +'Have no fear. Mr. Secretary is not the man to be Morsfielding. And he +can enjoy his repast; a very good sign. But is he remaining long?' + +'He is going soon, I hear.' + +'He's a good boy. I could have taken to him myself, and not dreaded a +worrying. There 's this difference between you and me, though, my +Aminta; one of us has the fireplace prepared for what's-his-name-- +"passion." Kiss me. How could you fancy you were going to have a woman +for your friend and keep hidden from her any one of the secrets that +blush! and with Paggy to aid! I am sure it means very little. +Admiration for good handwriting is--' a smile broke the sentence. + +'You're astray, Isabella.' + +'Not I, dear, I'm too fond of you.' + +'You read what is not.' + +'What is not yet written, you mean.' + +'What never could be written.' + +'I read what is in the blood, and comes out to me when I look. That lord +of yours should take to study you as I have done ever since I fell in +love with you. He 's not counselling himself well in keeping away.' + +'Now you speak wisely,' said Aminta. + +'Not a particle more wisely. And the reason is close at hand--see. +You are young, you attract--how could it be otherwise?--and you have +"passion" sleeping, and likely to wake with a spring whether roused or +not. In my observation good-man t'other fellow--the poet's friend--is +never long absent when the time is ripe--at least, not in places where we +gather together. Well, one is a buckler against the other: I don't say +with lovely Amy May,--with an honourable woman. But Aminta can smell +powder and grow more mettlesome. Who can look at you and be blind to +passion sleeping! The sight of you makes me dream of it--me, a woman, +cool as a wine-cellar or a well. So there's to help you to know yourself +and be on your guard. I know I'm not deceived, because I've fallen in +love with you, and no love can be without jealousy, so I have the needle +in my breast, that points at any one who holds a bit of you. Kind of +sympathetic needle to the magnet behind anything. You'll know it, if you +don't now. I should have felt the thing without the aid of Paggy. So, +then, imagine all my nonsense unsaid, and squeeze a drop or two of 'sirop +de bon conseil' out of it, as if it were your own wise meditations.' The +rest of Mrs. Lawrence's discourse was a swallow's wing skimming the city +stream. She departed, and Aminta was left to beat at her heart and ask +whether it had a secret. + +But if there was one, the secret was out, and must have another name. +It had been a secret for her until she heard her friend speak those pin- +points that pricked her heart, and sent the blood coursing over her face, +like a betrayal, so like as to resemble a burning confession. + +But if this confessed the truth, she was the insanest of women. +No woman could be surer that she had her wits. She had come to see +things, previously mysteries, with surprising clearness. As, for example, +that passion was part of her nature; therefore her very life, lying +tranced. She certainly could not love without passion such an +abandonment was the sole justification of love in a woman standing where +she stood. And now for the first time she saw her exact position before +the world; and she saw some way into her lord: saw that he nursed a +wound, extracted balm from anything enabling him to show the world how he +despised it, and undesigningly immolated her for the petty gratification. + +It could not, in consequence, be the truth. To bear what she had borne +she must be a passionless woman; and she was glad of her present safety +in thinking it. Once it was absolutely true. She swam away to the +golden-circled Island of Once; landed, and dwelt there solitarily and +blissfully, looking forward to Sunday's walk round the park, looking back +on it. Proudly she could tell herself that her dreams of the Prince of +the island had not been illusions as far as he was concerned; for he had +a great soul. He did not aim at a tawdry glory. He was a loss to our +army--no loss to his country or the world. A woman might clasp her +feeling of pride in having foreseen distinction for him; and a little, +too, in distinguishing now the true individual distinction from the +feathered uniform vulgar. Where the girl's dreams had proved illusions, +she beheld in a title and luxuries, in a loveless marriage. + +That was perilous ground. Still it taught her to see that the +substantial is the dust; and passion not being active, she could reflect. +After a series of penetrative flashes, flattering to her intelligence the +more startling they were, reflection was exhausted. She sank on her +nature's desire to join or witness agonistic incidents, shocks, +wrestlings, the adventures which are brilliant air to sanguine energies. +Imagination shot tap, and whirled the circle of a succession of them; and +she had a companion and leader, unfeatured, reverently obeyed, accepted +as not to be known, not to be guessed at, in the deepest hooded inmost of +her being speechlessly divined. + +The sudden result of Aminta's turmoil was a determination that she must +look on Steignton. And what was to be gained by that? She had no idea. +And how had she stopped her imaginative flight with the thought of +looking on Steignton? All she could tell was, that it would close a +volume. She could not say why the volume must be closed. + +Her orders for the journey down to Steignton were prompt. Mrs. Pagnell +had an engagement at the house of Lady Staines for the next day to meet +titles and celebrities, and it precluded her comprehension of the +project. She begged to have the journey postponed. She had pledged her +word, she said. + +'To Mr. Morsfield?' said Aminta. + +Her aunt was astounded. + +'I did tell him we should be there, my dear.' 'He appears to have a +pleasure in meeting you.' 'He is one of the real gentlemen of the land.' + +'You correspond with him?' + +'I may not be the only one.' + +'Foolish aunty! How can you speak to me in that senseless way?' cried +Aminta. 'You know the schemer he is, and that I have no protection from +his advances unless I run the risk of bloodshed.' + +'My dear Aminta, whenever I go into society, and he is present, I know I +shall not be laughed at, or fall into that pit of one of their dead +silences, worse for me to bear than titters and faces. It is their way +of letting one feel they are of birth above us. Mr. Morsfield--purer +blood than many of their highest titles--is always polite, always +deferential; he helps me to feel I am not quite out of my element in the +sphere I prefer. We shall be travelling alone?' + +'Have you any fear?' + +'Not if nothing happens. Might we not ask that Mr. Weyburn?' + +'He has much work to do. He will not long be here. He is absent +to-day.' + +Mrs. Pagnell remarked: 'I must say he earns his money easily.' + +Aminta had softened herself with the allusion to the shortness of his +time with them. Her aunt's coarse hint, and the thought of his loss, +and the banishment it would be to her all the way to Steignton, checked +a sharp retort she could have uttered, but made it necessary to hide her +eyes from sight. She went to her bedroom, and flung herself on the bed. +Even so little as an unspoken defence of him shook her to floods of +tears. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +ALONG TWO ROADS TO STEIGNTON + +Unaccountable resolutions, if impromptu and springing from the female +breast, are popularly taken for caprices; and even when they divert the +current of a history, and all the more when they are very small matters +producing a memorable crisis. In this way does a lazy world consign +discussion to silence with the cynical closure. Man's hoary shrug at a +whimsy sex is the reading of his enigma still. + +But ask if she has the ordinary pumping heart in that riddle of a breast: +and then, as the organ cannot avoid pursuit, we may get hold of it, and +succeed in spelling out that she is consequent, in her fashion. She is a +creature of the apparent moods and shifts and tempers only because she is +kept in narrow confines, resembling, if you like, a wild cat caged. +Aminta's journey down to Steignton turned the course of other fortunes +besides her own; and she disdained the minor adventure it was, while +dreaming it important; and she determined eagerly on going, without +wanting to go; and it was neither from a sense of duty nor in a spirit +of contrariety that she went. Nevertheless, with her heart in hand, +her movements are traceably as rational as a soldier's before the enemy +or a trader's matching his customer. + +The wish to look on Steignton had been spoken or sighed for during long +years between Aminta and her aunt, until finally shame and anger clinched +the subject. To look on Steignton for once was now Aminta's phrasing of +her sudden resolve; it appeared as a holiday relief from recent worries, +and it was an expedition with an aim, though she had but the coldest +curiosity to see the place, and felt alien to it. Yet the thought, +never to have seen Steignton! roused phantoms of dead wishes to drive +the strange engine she was, faster than the living would have done. Her +reason for haste was rationally founded on the suddenness of her resolve, +which, seeing that she could not say she desired to go, seemed to come of +an external admonition; and it counselled quick movements, lest her +inspired obedience to the prompting should as abruptly breathe itself +out. 'And in that case I shall never have seen Steignton at all,' she +said, with perfect calmness, and did not attempt to sound her meaning. + +She did know that she was a magazine of a great storage of powder. It +banked inoffensively dry. She had forgiven her lord, owning the real +nobleman he was in courtesy to women, whom his inherited ideas of them so +quaintly minimized and reduced to pretty insect or tricky reptile. They, +too, had the choice of being ultimately the one or the other in fact; the +latter most likely. + +If, however, she had forgiven her lord, the shattering of their union was +the cost of forgiveness. In letting him stand high, as the lofty man she +had originally worshipped, she separated herself from him, to feel that +the humble she was of a different element, as a running water at a +mountain's base. They are one in the landscape; they are far from one +in reality. Aminta's pride of being chafed at the yoke of marriage. + +Her aunt was directed to prepare for a start at an early hour the next +morning. Mrs. Pagnell wrote at her desk, and fussed, and ordered the +posting chariot, and bewailed herself submissively; for it was the +Countess of Ormont speaking when Aminta delivered commands, and the only +grievance she dared to mutter was 'the unexpectedness.' Her letters +having been despatched, she was amazed in the late evening to hear Aminta +give the footman orders for the chariot to be ready at the door an hour +earlier than the hour previously appointed. She remonstrated. Aminta +simply observed that it would cause less inconvenience to all parties. +A suspicion of her aunt's proceedings was confirmed by the good woman's +flustered state. She refrained from smiling. + +She would have mustered courage to invite Matthew Weyburn as her escort, +if he had been at hand. He was attending to his affairs with lawyers-- +mainly with his friend Mr. Abner. She studied map and gazetteer till +late into the night. Giving her orders to the postillion on the pavement +in the morning, she named a South-westerly direction out of London, and +after entering the chariot, she received a case from one of the footmen. + +'What is that, my dear?' said Mrs. Pagnell. + +Aminta unlocked and laid it open. A pair of pistols met Mrs. Pagnell's +gaze. + +'We shan't be in need of those things?' the lady said anxiously. + +'One never knows, on the road, aunt.' + +'Loaded? You wouldn't hesitate to fire; I'm sure.' + +'At Mr. Morsfield himself, if he attempted to stop me.' + +Mrs. Pagnell withdrew into her astonishment, and presently asked, in a +tone of some indignation: 'Why did you mention Mr. Morsfield, Aminta?' + +'Did you not write to him yesterday afternoon, aunt?' + +'You read the addresses on my letters!' + +'Did you not supply him with our proposed route and the time for +starting?' + +'Pistols!' exclaimed Mrs. Pagnell. 'One would fancy you think we are in +the middle of the last century. Mr. Morsfield is a gentleman, not a +highwayman.' + +'He gives the impression of his being a madman.' + +'The real madman is your wedded husband, Aminta, if wedding it was!' + +It was too surely so, in Aminta's mind. She tried, by looking out of the +window, to forget her companion. The dullness of the roads and streets +opening away to flat fields combined with the postillion's unvarying jog +to sicken her thoughts over the exile from London she was undergoing, and +the chance that Matthew Weyburn might call at a vacant house next day, to +announce his term of service to the earl, whom he had said he much wanted +to see. He said it in his sharp manner when there was decision behind +it. Several times after contemplating the end of her journey, and not +perceiving any spot of pleasure ahead, an emotion urged her to turn back; +for the young are acutely reasoning when their breasts advise them to +quit a road where no pleasure beckons. + +Unlike Matthew Weyburn, the tiptoe sparkle of a happy mind did not leap +from her at wayside scenes, a sweep of grass, distant hills, clouds in +flight. She required, since she suffered, the positive of events or +blessings to kindle her glow. + +Matthew Weyburn might call at the house. Would he be disappointed? He +had preserved her letters of the old school-days. She had burnt his. +But she had not burnt the letters of Mr. Morsfield; and she cared nothing +for that man. Assuredly she merited the stigma branding women as crack- +brained. Yet she was not one of the fools; she could govern a household, +and she liked work, she had the capacity for devotedness. So, therefore, +she was a woman perverted by her position, and she shook her bonds in +revolt from marriage. Imagining a fall down some suddenly spied chasm +of her nature, she had a sisterly feeling for the women named sinful. +At the same time, reflecting that they are sinful only with the sinful, +she knelt thankfully at the feet of the man who had saved her from such +danger. Tears threatened. They were a poor atonement for the burning of +his younger letters. But not he--she was the sufferer, and she whipped +up a sensation of wincing at the flames they fell to, and at their void +of existence, committing sentimental idiocies worthy of a lovesick girl, +consciously to escape the ominous thought, which her woman's perception +had sown in her, that he too chafed at a marriage no marriage: was true +in fidelity, not true through infidelity, as she had come to be. The +thought implied misery for both. She entered a black desolation, with +the prayer that he might not be involved, for his own sake: partly also +on behalf of the sustaining picture the young schoolmaster at his task, +merry among his dear boys, to trim and point them body and mind for their +business in the world, painted for her a weariful prospect of the life +she must henceforth drag along. + +Is a woman of the plain wits common to numbers ever deceived in her +perception of a man's feelings for her? Let her first question herself +whether she respects him. If she does not, her judgement will go easily +astray, intuition and observation are equally at fault, she has no key; +he has charmed her blood, that is all. But if she respects him, she +cannot be deceived; respect is her embrace of a man's character. +Aminta's vision was clear. She had therefore to juggle with the fact +revealed, that she might keep her heart from rushing out; and the process +was a disintegration of her feminine principle of docility under the +world's decrees. At each pause of her mental activity she was hurled +against the state of marriage. Compassion for her blameless fellow in +misery brought a deluge to sweep away institutions and landmarks. + +But supposing the blest worst to happen, what exchange had she to bestow? +Her beauty? She was reputed beautiful. It had made a madman of one man; +and in her poverty of endowments to be generous with, she hovered over +Mr. Morsfield like a cruel vampire, for the certification that she had a +much-prized gift to bestow upon his rival. + +But supposing it: she would then be no longer in the shiny garden of the +flowers of wealth; and how little does beauty weigh as all aid to an +active worker in the serious fighting world! She would be a kind of +potted rose-tree under his arm, of which he must eventually tire. + +A very cold moment came, when it seemed that even the above supposition, +in the case of a woman who has been married, is shameful to her, a sin +against her lover, and should be obliterated under floods of scarlet. +For, if she has pride, she withers to think of pushing the most noble of +men upon his generosity. And, further, if he is not delicately +scrupulous, is there not something wanting in him? The very cold wave +passed, leaving the sentence: better dream of being plain friends. + +Mrs. Pagnell had been quietly chewing her cud of the sullens, as was the +way with her after a snub. She now resumed her gossip of the naughty +world she knelt to and expected to see some day stricken by a bolt from +overhead; containing, as it did, such wicked members as that really +indefensible brazen Mrs. Amy May, who was only the daughter of a half-pay +naval captain, and that Marquis of Collestou, who would, they say, +decorate her with his title to-morrow, if her husband were but somewhere +else. She spread all sorts of report, about Mr. Morsfield, and he was +honour itself in his reserve about her. 'Depend upon it, Aminta--he was +not more than a boy then, and they say she aimed at her enfranchisement +by plotting the collision, for his Yorkshire revenues are immense, +and he is, you know, skilful in the use of arms, and Captain May has no +resources whatever: penury! no one cares to speculate how they contrive! +---but while that dreadful duelling--and my lord as bad as any in his +day-exists, depend upon it, an unscrupulous good-looking woman has as +many lives for her look of an eye or lift of a finger as a throned +Ottoman Turk on his divan.' + +Aminta wished to dream. She gave her aunt a second dose, and the lady +relapsed again. + +Power to dream had gone. She set herself to look at roadside things, +cottage gardens, old housewives in doorways, gaffer goodman meeting his +crony on the path, groups of boys and girls. She would take the girls, +Matthew Weyburn the boys. She had lessons to give to girls, she had +sympathy, pity, anticipation. That would be a life of happy service. +It might be a fruitful trial of the system he proposed, to keep the boys +and girls in company as much as possible, both at lessons and at games. +His was the larger view. Her lord's view appeared similar to that of her +aunt's 'throned Ottoman Turk on his divan.' Matthew Weyburn believed in +the bettering of the world; Lord Ormont had no belief like it. + +Presently Mrs. Pagnell returned to the charge, and once more she was +nipped, and irritated to declare she had never known her niece's temper +so provoking. Aminta was launching a dream of a lass she had seen in a +field, near a white hawthorn, standing upright, her left arm aloft round +the pole of a rake, the rim of her bonnet tipped on her forehead; an +attitude of a rustic. + +Britannia with helmet heeling at dignity. The girl's eyes hung to the +passing chariot, without movement of her head. It was Aminta who looked +back, and she saw the girl looking away. Among the superior dames and +damsels she had seen, there was not one to match that figure for stately +air, gallant ease, and splendour of pose. Matthew Weyburn would have +admired the girl. Aminta did better than envy, she cast off the last +vestiges of her bitter ambition to be a fine lady, and winged into the +bosom of the girl, and not shyly said 'yes' to Matthew Weyburn, and to +herself, deep in herself: 'A maid has no need to be shy.' Hardly +blushing, she walks on into the new life beside him, and hears him say: +'I in my way, you in yours; we are equals, the stronger for being +equals,' and she quite agrees, and she gives him the fuller heart for +his not requiring her to be absorbed--she is the braver mate for him. +Does not that read his meaning? Happiest of the girls of earth, she has +divined it at once, from never having had the bitter ambition to be a +slave, that she might wear rich tissues; and let herself be fettered, +that she might loll in idleness; lose a soul to win a title; escape +commonplace to discover it ghastlier under cloth of gold, and the animal +crowned, adored, fattened, utterly served, in the class called by consent +of human society the Upper. + +Reason whispered a reminder of facts to her. + +'But I am not the Countess of Ormont!' she said. She felt herself the +girl, her sensations were so intensely simple. + +Proceeding to an argument, that the earl did not regard her as the +Countess of Ormont, or the ceremony at the British Embassy as one serious +and binding, she pushed her reason too far: sweet delusion waned. She +waited for some fresh scene to revive it. + +Aminta sat unwittingly weaving her destiny. + +While she was thus engaged, a carriage was rolling on the more westerly +road down to Steignton. Seated in it were Lady Charlotte Eglett and +Matthew Weyburn. They had met at Arthur Abner's office the previous day. +She went there straight from Lord Ormont's house-agent and upholsterer, +to have a queer bit of thunderous news confirmed, that her brother was +down at Steignton, refurnishing the house, and not for letting. She +was excited: she treated Arthur Abner's closed-volume reticence as a +corroboration of the house-agent's report, and hearing Weyburn speak of +his anxiety to see the earl immediately, in order to get release from his +duties, proposed a seat in her carriage; for down Steignton way she meant +to go, if only as excuse for a view of the old place. She kept asking +what Lord Ormont wanted down at Steignton refurnishing the house, and not +to let it! Her evasions of answers that, plain speculation would supply +were quaint. 'He hasn't my feeling for Steignton. He could let it-- +I couldn't. Sacrilege to me to have a tenant in my old home where I was +born. He's furnishing to raise his rent. His country won't give him +anything to do, so he turns miser. That's my brother Rowsley's way of +taking on old age.' + +Her brother Rowsley might also be showing another sign of his calamitous +condition. She said to Weyburn, in the carriage, that her brother +Rowsley might like having his hair clipped by the Philistine woman; which +is one of the ways of strong men to confess themselves ageing. 'Not,' +said she, with her usual keen justness 'not that I've, a word against +Delilah. I look upon her as a patriot; she dallied and she used the +scissors on behalf of her people. She wasn't bound to Samson in honour, +--liked a strong man, probably enough. She proved she liked her country +better. The Jews wrote the story of it, so there she stands for +posterity to pelt her, poor wretch.' + +'A tolerably good analogy for the story of men and women generally,' said +Weyburn. + +'Ah, well, you've a right to talk; you don't run miauling about women. +It 's easy to be squashy on that subject. As for the Jews, I don't go by +their history, but now they 're down I don't side with the Philistines, +or Christians. They 're good citizens, and they 've got Samson in the +brain, too. That comes of persecution, a hard education. They beat the +world by counting in the head. That 's because they 've learnt the value +of fractions. Napoleon knew it in war, when he looked to the boots and +great-coats of his men; those were his fractions. Lord Ormont thinks he +had too hard-and-fast a system for the battle-field.' + +'A greater strategist than tactician, my lady? It may be,' said Weyburn, +smiling at her skips. + +'Massing his cannon to make a big hole for his cavalry, my brother says; +and weeding his infantry for the Imperial Guard he postponed the moment +to use.' + +'At Moskowa?' + +'Waterloo. I believe Lord Ormont would--there! his country 's lost him, +and chose it. They 'll have their day for repentance yet. What a +rapture to have a thousand horsemen following you! I suppose there never +was a man worthy of the name who roared to be a woman. I know I could +have shrieked half my life through to have been born male. It 's no +matter now. When we come to this hateful old age, we meet: no, we 're no +sex then--we 're dry sticks. I 'll tell you: my Olmer doctor--that 's an +impudent fellow who rode by staring into my carriage. The window's down. +He could see without pushing his hat in.' + +Weyburn looked out after a man cantering on. + +'A Mr. Morsfield,' he said. 'I thought it was he when I saw him go by. +I've met him at the fencing-rooms. He 's one of the violent fencers, +good for making his point, if one funks an attack.' + +'That man Morsfield, is it? I wonder what he's doing on the road here. +He goes over London boasting--hum, nothing to me. But he 'll find Lord +Ormont's arm can protect a poor woman, whatever she is. He'd have had it +before, only Lord Ormont shuns a scandal. I was telling you, my Olmer +doctor forbade horse-riding, and my husband raised a noise like one of my +turkeycocks on the wing; so I 've given up the saddle, to quiet him. I +guessed. I went yesterday morning to my London physician. He sounded +me, pushed out his mouth and pulled down his nose, recommended avoidance +of excitement. "Is it heart?" I said. He said it was heart. That was +the best thing an old woman could hear. He said, when he saw I wasn't +afraid, it was likely to be quick; no doctors, no nurses and daily +bulletins for inquirers, but just the whites of the eyes, the laying-out, +the undertaker, and the family-vault. That's one reason why I want to +see Steignton before the blow that may fall any day, whether my brother +Rowsley's there or no. But that Olmer doctor of mine, Causitt, Peter +Causitt, shall pay me for being a liar or else an ignoramus when I told +him he was to tell me bluntly the nature of my disease.' + +A horseman, in whom they recognized Mr. Morsfield, passed, clattering on +the road behind them. + +'Some woman here about,' Lady Charlotte muttered. Weyburn saw him joined +by a cavalier, and the two consulted and pointed whips right and left. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +As well ask (women) how a battle-field concerns them! +Boys who can appreciate brave deeds are capable of doing them +Careful not to smell of his office +Chose to conceive that he thought abstractedly +Consign discussion to silence with the cynical closure +Convictions we store--wherewith to shape our destinies +Death is only the other side of the ditch +Didn't say a word No use in talking about feelings +Enthusiast, when not lyrical, is perilously near to boring +He took small account of the operations of the feelings +Her duel with Time +Hopeless task of defending a woman from a woman +I hate old age It changes you so +Ignorance roaring behind a mask of sarcasm +Men bore the blame, though the women were rightly punished +Never nurse an injury, great or small +No love can be without jealousy +Old age is a prison wall between us and young people +Orderliness, from which men are privately exempt +People were virtuous in past days: they counted their sinners +Professional Puritans +Regularity of the grin of dentistry +That pit of one of their dead silences +The beat of a heart with a dread like a shot in it +The good life gone lives on in the mind +The shots hit us behind you +The spending, never harvesting, world +The terrible aggregate social woman +Venus of nature was melting into a Venus of art + + + + + + +BOOK 4. + +XVII. LADY CHARLOTTE'S TRIUMPH +XVIII. A SCENE ON THE ROAD BACK +XIX. THE PURSUERS +XX. AT THE SIGN OF THE JOLLY CRICKETERS +XXI. UNDER-CURRENTS IN THE MINDS OF LADY CHARLOTTE AND LORD ORMONT +XXII. TREATS OF THE FIRST DAY OF THE CONTENTION OF BROTHER AND SISTER +XXIII. THE ORMONT JEWELS + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +LADY CHARLOTTE'S TRIUMPH + +One of the days of sovereign splendour in England was riding down the +heavens, and drawing the royal mantle of the gold-fringed shadows over +plain and wavy turf, blue water and woods of the country round Steignton. +A white mansion shone to a length of oblong lake that held the sun-ball +suffused in mild yellow. + +'There's the place,' Lady Charlotte said to Weyburn, as they had view of +it at a turn of the park. She said to herself--where I was born and +bred! and her sight gloated momentarily on the house and side avenues, +a great plane standing to the right of the house, the sparkle of a little +river running near; all the scenes she knew, all young and lively. She +sprang on her seat for a horse beneath her, and said, 'But this is +healthy excitement,' as in reply to her London physician's remonstrances. +'And there's my brother Rowsley, talking to one of the keepers,' she +cried. 'You see Lord Ormont? I can see a mile. Sight doesn't fail with +me. He 's insisting. 'Ware poachers when Rowsley's on his ground! You +smell the air here? Nobody dies round about Steignton. Their legs wear +out and they lie down to rest them. It 's the finest air in the world. +Now look, the third window left of the porch, first floor. That was my +room before I married. Strangers have been here and called the place +home. It can never be home to any but me and Rowsley. He sees the +carriage. He little thinks! He's dressed in his white corduroy and +knee-breeches. Age! he won't know age till he's ninety. Here he comes +marching. He can't bear surprises. I'll wave my hand and call.' + +She called his name. + +In a few strides he was at the carriage window. 'You, Charlotte?' + +'Home again, Rowsley! Bring down your eyebrows, and let me hear you're +glad I 've come.' + +'What made you expect you would find me here?' + +'Anything-cats on the tiles at night. You can't keep a secret from me. +Here's Mr. Weyburn, good enough to be my escort. I 'll get out.' + +She alighted, scorning help; Weyburn at her heels. The earl nodded to +him politely and not cordially. He was hardly cordial to Lady Charlotte. + +That had no effect on her. 'A glorious day for Steignton,' she said. +'Ah, there's the Buridon group of beeches; grander trees than grow at +Buridon. Old timber now. I knew them slim as demoiselles. Where 's the +ash? We had a splendid ash on the west side.' + +'Dead and cut down long since,' replied the earl. + +'So we go!' + +She bent her steps to the spot: a grass-covered heave of the soil. + +'Dear old tree!' she said, in a music of elegy: and to Weyburn: 'Looks +like a stump of an arm lopped off a shoulder in bandages. Nature does it +so. All the tenants doing well, Rowsley?' + +'About the same amount of trouble with them.' + +'Ours at Olmer get worse.' + +'It's a process for the extirpation of the landlords.' + +'Then down goes the country.' + +'They 've got their case, their papers tell us.' + +'I know they have; but we've got the soil, and we'll make a, fight of +it.' + +'They can fight too, they say.' + +'I should be sorry to think they couldn't if they're Englishmen.' + +She spoke so like his old Charlotte of the younger days that her brother +partly laughed. + +'Parliamentary fighting 's not much to your taste or mine. They 've lost +their stomach for any other. The battle they enjoy is the battle that +goes for the majority. Gauge their valour by that.' + +'To be sure,' said his responsive sister. She changed her note. 'But +what I say is, let the nobles keep together and stick to their class. +There's nothing to fear then. They must marry among themselves, think +of the blood: it's their first duty. Or better a peasant girl! Middle +courses dilute it to the stuff in a publican's tankard. It 's an +adulterous beast who thinks of mixing old wine with anything.' + +'Hulloa!' said the earl; and she drew up. + +'You'll have me here till over to-morrow, Rowsley, so that I may have one +clear day at Steignton?' + +He bowed. 'You will choose your room. Mr. Weyburn is welcome.' + +Weyburn stated the purport of his visit, and was allowed to name an early +day for the end of his term of service. + +Entering the house, Lady Charlotte glanced at the armour and stag +branches decorating corners of the hall, and straightway laid her head +forward, pushing after it in the direction of the drawing room. She went +in, stood for a minute, and came out. Her mouth was hard shut. + +At dinner she had tales of uxorious men, of men who married mistresses, +of the fearful incubus the vulgar family of a woman of the inferior +classes ever must be; and her animadversions were strong in the matter of +gew-gaw modern furniture. The earl submitted to hear. + +She was, however, keenly attentive whenever he proffered any item of +information touching Steignton. After dinner Weyburn strolled to the +points of view she cited as excellent for different aspects of her old +home. + +He found her waiting to hear his laudation when he came back; and in the +early morning she was on the terrace, impatient to lead him down to the +lake. There, at the boat-house, she commanded him to loosen a skiff and +give her a paddle. Between exclamations, designed to waken louder from +him, and not so successful as her cormorant hunger for praise of +Steignton required, she plied him to confirm with his opinion an opinion +that her reasoning mind had almost formed in the close neighbourhood of +the beloved and honoured person providing it; for abstract ideas were +unknown to her. She put it, however, as in the abstract:-- + +'How is it we meet people brave as lions before an enemy, and rank +cowards where there's a botheration among their friends at home? And +tell me, too, if you've thought the thing over, what's the meaning of +this? I 've met men in high places, and they've risen to distinction by +their own efforts, and they head the nation. Right enough, you'd say. +Well, I talk with them, and I find they've left their brains on the +ladder that led them up; they've only the ideas of their grandfather on +general subjects. I come across a common peasant or craftsman, and he +down there has a mind more open--he's wiser in his intelligence than his +rulers and lawgivers up above him. He understands what I say, and I +learn from him. I don't learn much from our senators, or great lawyers, +great doctors, professors, members of governing bodies--that lot. Policy +seems to petrify their minds when they 've got on an eminence. Now +explain it, if you can.' + +'Responsibility has a certain effect on them, no doubt,' said Weyburn. +'Eminent station among men doesn't give a larger outlook. Most of them +confine their observation to their supports. It happens to be one of the +questions I have thought over. Here in England, and particularly on a +fortnight's run in the lowlands of Scotland once, I have, like you, my +lady, come now and then across the people we call common, men and women, +old wayside men especially; slow-minded, but hard in their grasp of +facts, and ready to learn, and logical, large in their ideas, though +going a roundabout way to express them. They were at the bottom of +wisdom, for they had in their heads the delicate sense of justice, upon +which wisdom is founded. That is what their rulers lack. Unless we have +the sense of justice abroad like a common air, there 's no peace, and no +steady advance. But these humble people had it. They reasoned from it, +and came to sound conclusions. I felt them to be my superiors. On the +other hand, I have not felt the same with "our senators, rulers, and +lawgivers." They are for the most part deficient in the liberal mind.' + +'Ha! good, so far. How do you account for it?' said Lady Charlotte. + +'I read it in this way: that the world being such as it is at present, +demanding and rewarding with honours and pay special services, the men +called great, who have risen to distinction, are not men of brains, but +the men of aptitudes. These men of aptitudes have a poor conception of +the facts of life to meet the necessities of modern expansion. They are +serviceable in departments. They go as they are driven, or they resist. +In either case, they explain how it is that we have a world moving so +sluggishly. They are not the men of brains, the men of insight and +outlook. Often enough they are foes of the men of brains.' + +'Aptitudes; yes, that flashes a light into me,' said Lady Charlotte. +'I see it better. It helps to some comprehension of their muddle. A man +may be a first-rate soldier, doctor, banker--as we call the usurer now-a +-days---or brewer, orator, anything that leads up to a figure-head, and +prove a foolish fellow if you sound him. I 've thought something like +it, but wanted the word. They say themselves, "Get to know, and you see +with what little wisdom the world is governed!" You explain how it is. +I shall carry "aptitudes" away.' + +She looked straight at Weyburn. 'If I were a younger woman I could kiss +you for it.' + +He bowed to her very gratefully. + +'Remember, my lady, there's a good deal of the Reformer in that +definition.' + +'I stick to my class. But they shall hear a true word when there's one +abroad, I can tell them. That reminds me---you ought to have asked; let +me tell you I'm friendly with the Rev. Mr. Hampton-Evey. We had a +wrestle for half an hour, and I threw him and helped him up, and he +apologized for tumbling, and I subscribed to one of his charities, and +gave up about the pew, but had an excuse for not sitting under the +sermon. A poor good creature. He 's got the aptitudes for his office. +He won't do much to save his Church. I knew another who had his aptitude +for the classics, and he has mounted. He was my tutor when I was a girl. +He was fond of declaiming passages from Lucian and Longus and Ovid. One +day he was at it with a piece out of Daphnis and Chloe, and I said, "Now +translate." He fetched a gurgle to say he couldn't, and I slapped his +check. Will you believe it? the man was indignant. I told him, if he +would like to know why I behaved in "that unmaidenly way," he had better +apply at home. I had no further intimations of his classical aptitudes; +but he took me for a cleverer pupil than I was. I hadn't a notion of the +stuff he recited. I read by his face. That was my aptitude--always has +been. But think of the donkeys parents are when they let a man have a +chance of pouring his barley-sugar and sulphur into the ears of a girl. +Lots of girls have no latent heckles and prickles to match his villany. +--There's my brother come back to breakfast from a round. You and I 'll +have a drive before lunch, and a ride or a stroll in the afternoon. +There's a lot to see. I mean you to get the whole place into your head. +I 've ordered the phaeton, and you shall take the whip, with me beside +you. That's how my husband and I spent three-quarters of our honeymoon.' + +Each of the three breakfasted alone. + +They met on the terrace. It was easily perceived that Lord Ormont stood +expecting an assault at any instant; prepared also to encounter and do +battle with his redoubtable sister. Only he wished to defer the +engagement. And he was magnanimous: he was in the right, she in the +wrong; he had no desire to grapple with her, fling and humiliate. The +Sphinx of Mrs. Pagnell had been communing with himself unwontedly during +the recent weeks. + +What was the riddle of him? That, he did not read. But, expecting an +assault, and relieved by his sister Charlotte's departure with Weyburn, +he went to the drawing-room, where he had seen her sniff her strong +suspicions of a lady coming to throne it. Charlotte could believe that +he flouted the world with a beautiful young woman on his arm; she would +not believe him capable of doing that in his family home and native +county; so, then, her shrewd wits had nothing or little to learn. But +her vehement fighting against facts; her obstinate aristocratic +prejudices, which he shared; her stinger of a tongue: these in ebullition +formed a discomforting prospect. The battle might as well be conducted +through the post. Come it must! + +Even her writing of the pointed truths she would deliver was an +unpleasant anticipation. His ears heated. Undoubtedly he could crush +her. Yet, supposing her to speak to his ears, she would say: 'You +married a young woman, and have been foiling and fooling her ever since, +giving her half a title to the name of wife, and allowing her in +consequence to be wholly disfigured before the world--your family +naturally her chief enemies, who would otherwise (Charlotte would +proclaim it) have been her friends. What! your intention was (one could +hear Charlotte's voice) to smack the world in the face, and you smacked +your young wife's instead!' + +His intention had been nothing of the sort. He had married, in a foreign +city, a young woman who adored him, whose features, manners, and carriage +of her person satisfied his exacting taste in the sex; and he had +intended to cast gossipy England over the rail and be a traveller for the +remainder of his days. And at the first she had acquiesced, tacitly +accepted it as part of the contract. He bore with the burden of an +intolerable aunt of hers for her sake. The two fell to work to conspire. +Aminta 'tired of travelling,' Aminta must have a London house. She +continually expressed a hope that 'she might set her eyes on Steignton +some early day.' In fact, she as good as confessed her scheme to plot for +the acknowledged position of Countess of Ormont in the English social +world. That was a distinct breach of the contract. + +As to the babble of the London world about a 'very young wife,' he +scorned it completely, but it belonged to the calculation. 'A very +handsome young wife,' would lay commands on a sexagenarian vigilance +while adding to his physical glory. The latter he could forego among +a people he despised. It would, however, be an annoyance to stand +constantly hand upon sword-hilt. There was, besides, the conflict with +his redoubtable sister. He had no dread of it, in contemplation of the +necessity; he could crush his Charlotte. The objection was, that his +Aminta should be pressing him to do it. Examine the situation at +present. Aminta has all she needs--every luxury. Her title as Countess +of Ormont is not denied. Her husband justly refuses to put foot into +English society. She, choosing to go where she may be received, +dissociates herself from him, and he does not complain. She does +complain. There is a difference between the two. + +He had always shunned the closer yoke with a woman because of these +vexatious dissensions. For not only are women incapable of practising, +they cannot comprehend magnanimity. + +Lord Ormont's argumentative reverie to the above effect had been pursued +over and over. He knew that the country which broke his military career +and ridiculed his newspaper controversy was unforgiven by him. He did +not reflect on the consequences of such an unpardoning spirit in its +operation on his mind. + +If he could but have passed the injury, he would ultimately--for his +claims of service were admitted--have had employment of some kind. +Inoccupation was poison to him; travel juggled with his malady of +restlessness; really, a compression of the warrior's natural forces. +His Aminta, pushed to it by the woman Pagnell, declined to help him in +softening the virulence of the disease. She would not travel; she would +fix in this London of theirs, and scheme to be hailed the accepted +Countess of Ormont. She manoeuvred; she threw him on the veteran +soldier's instinct, and it resulted spontaneously that he manoeuvred. + +Hence their game of Pull, which occupied him a little, tickled him and +amused. The watching of her pretty infantile tactics amused him too much +to permit of a sidethought on the cruelty of the part he played. She had +every luxury, more than her station by right of birth would have +supplied. + +But he was astonished to find that his Aminta proved herself clever, +though she had now and then said something pointed. She was in awe of +him: notwithstanding which, clearly she meant to win and pull him over. +He did not dislike her for it; she might use her weapons to play her +game; and that she should bewitch men--a, man like Morsfield--was not +wonderful. On the other hand, her conquest of Mrs. Lawrence Finchley +scored tellingly: that was unaccountably queer. What did Mrs. Lawrence +expect to gain? the sage lord asked. He had not known women devoid of a +positive practical object of their own when they bestirred themselves to +do a friendly deed. + +Thanks to her conquest of Mrs. Lawrence, his Aminta was gaining ground +--daily she made an advance; insomuch that he had heard of himself as +harshly blamed in London for not having countenanced her recent and +rather imprudent move. In other words, whenever she gave a violent tug +at their game of Pull, he was expected to second it. But the world of +these English is too monstrously stupid in what it expects, for any of +its extravagances to be followed by interjections. + +All the while he was trimming and rolling a field of armistice at +Steignton, where they could discuss the terms he had a right to dictate, +having yielded so far. Would she be satisfied with the rule of his +ancestral hall, and the dispensing of hospitalities to the county? +No, one may guess: no woman is ever satisfied. But she would have to +relinquish her game, counting her good round half of the honours. +Somewhat more, on the whole. Without beating, she certainly had +accomplished the miracle of bending him. To time and a wife it is no +disgrace for a man to bend. It is the form of submission of the bulrush +to the wind, of courtesy in the cavalier to a lady. + +'Oh, here you are, Rowsley,' Lady Charlotte exclaimed at the drawing room +door. 'Well, and I don't like those Louis Quinze cabinets; and that +modern French mantelpiece clock is hideous. You seem to furnish in +downright contempt of the women you invite to sit in the room. Lord help +the wretched woman playing hostess in such a pinchbeck bric-a-brac shop, +if there were one! She 's spared, at all events.' + +He stepped at slow march to one of the five windows. Lady Charlotte went +to another near by. She called to Weyburn-- + +'We had a regatta on that water when Lord Ormont came of age. I took an +oar in one of the boats, and we won a prize; and when I was landing I +didn't stride enough to the spring-plank, and plumped in.' + +Some labourers of the estate passed in front. + +Lord Ormont gave out a broken laugh. 'See those fellows walk! That 's +the raw material of the famous English infantry. They bend their knees +five-and-forty degrees for every stride; and when you drill them out of +that, they 're stiff as ramrods. I gymnasticized them in my regiment. +I'd have challenged any French regiment to out-walk or out-jump us, or +any crack Tyrolese Jagers to out-climb, though we were cavalry.' + +'Yes, my lord, and exercised crack corps are wanted with us,' Weyburn +replied. 'The English authorities are adverse to it, but it 's against +nature--on the supposition that all Englishmen might enrol untrained in +Caesar's pet legion. Virgil shows knowledge of men when he says of the +row-boat straining in emulation, 'Possunt quia posse videntur.'' + +He talked on rapidly; he wondered that he did not hear Lady Charlotte +exclaim at what she must be seeing. From the nearest avenue a lady had +issued. She stood gazing at the house, erect--a gallant figure of a +woman--one hand holding her parasol, the other at her hip. He knew her. +She was a few paces ahead of Mrs. Pagnell, beside whom a gentleman +walked. + +The cry came: 'It's that man Morsfield! Who brings that man Morsfield +here? He hunted me on the road; he seemed to be on the wrong scent. Who +are those women? Rowsley, are your grounds open every day of the week? +She threatens to come in!' + +Lady Charlotte had noted that the foremost and younger of 'those women' +understood how to walk and how to dress to her shape and colour. She +inclined to think she was having to do with an intrepid foreign-bred +minx. + +Aminta had been addressed by one of her companions, and had hastened +forward. It looked like the beginning of a run to enter the house. + +Mrs. Pagnell ran after her. She ran cow-like. + +The earl's gorge rose at the spectacle Charlotte was observing. + +With Morsfield he could have settled accounts at any moment, despatching +Aminta to her chamber for an hour. He had, though he was offended, an +honourable guess that she had not of her free will travelled with the man +and brought him into the grounds. It was the presence of the intolerable +Pagnell under Charlotte's eyes which irritated him beyond the common +anger he felt at Aminta's pursuit of him right into Steignton. His mouth +locked. Lady Charlotte needed no speech from him for sign of the +boiling; she was too wary to speak while that went on. + +He said to Weyburn, loud enough for his Charlotte to heir. 'Do me the +favour to go to the Countess of Ormont. Conduct her back to London. You +will say it is my command. Inform Mr. Morsfield, with my compliments, I +regret I have no weapons here. I understand him to complain of having to +wait. I shall be in town three days from this date.' + +'My lord,' said Mr. Weyburn; and actually he did mean to supplicate. He +could imagine seeing Lord Ormont's eyebrows rising to alpine heights. + +Lady Charlotte seized his arm. + +'Go at once. Do as you are told. I'll have your portmanteau packed and +sent after you--the phaeton's out in the yard--to Rowsley, or Ashead, or +Dornton, wherever they put up. Now go, or we shall have hot work. Keep +your head on, and go.' + +He went, without bowing. + +Lady Charlotte rang for the footman. + +The earl and she watched the scene on the sward below the terrace. + +Aminta listened to Weyburn. Evidently there was no expostulation. + +But it was otherwise with Mrs. Pagnell. She flung wild arms of a +semaphore signalling national events. She sprang before Aminta to stop +her retreat, and stamped and gibbed, for sign that she would not be +driven. She fell away to Mr. Morsfield, for simple hearing of her +plaint. He appeared emphatic. There was a passage between him and +Weyburn. + +'I suspect you've more than your match in young Weyburn, Mr. Morsfield,' +Lady Charlotte said, measuring them as they stood together. They turned +at last. + +'You shall drive back to town with me, Rowsley,' said the fighting dame. + +She breathed no hint of her triumph. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +A SCENE ON THE ROAD BACK + +After refusing to quit the grounds of Steignton, in spite of the +proprietor, Mrs. Pagnell burst into an agitation to have them be at +speed, that they might 'shake the dust of the place from the soles of +their feet'; and she hurried past Aminta and Lord Ormont's insolent +emissary, carrying Mr. Morsfield beside her, perforce of a series of +imperiously-toned vacuous questions, to which he listened in rigid +politeness, with the ejaculation steaming off from time to time, 'A +scandal!' + +He shot glances behind him. + +Mrs. Pagnell was going too fast. She, however, world not hear of a halt, +and she was his main apology for being present; he was excruciatingly +attached to the horrid woman. + +Weyburn spoke the commonplaces about regrets to Aminta. + +'Believe me, it's long since I have been so happy,' she said. + +She had come out of her stupefaction, and she wore no theatrical looks of +cheerfulness. + +'I regret that you should be dragged away. But, if you say you do not +mind, it will be pleasant to me. I can excuse Lord Ormont's anger. +I was ignorant of his presence here. I thought him in Paris. I supposed +the place empty. I wished to see it once. I travelled as the niece of +Mrs. Pagnell. She is a little infatuated. . . . Mr. Morsfield heard +of our expedition through her. I changed the route. I was not in want +of a defender. I could have defended myself in case of need. We slept +at Ashead, two hours from Steignton. He and a friend accompanied us, not +with my consent. Lord Ormont could not have been aware of that. These +accidental circumstances happen. There may be pardonable intentions on +all sides.' + +She smiled. Her looks were open, and her voice light and spirited; +though the natural dark rose-glow was absent from her olive cheeks. + +Weyburn puzzled over the mystery of so volatile a treatment of a serious +matter, on the part of a woman whose feelings he had reason to know were +quick and deep. She might be acting, as women so cleverly do. + +It could hardly be acting when she pointed to peeps of scenery, with a +just eye for landscape. + +'You leave us for Switzerland very soon?' she said. + +'The Reversion I have been expecting has fallen in, besides my +inheritance. My mother was not to see the school. But I shall not +forget her counsels. I can now make my purchase of the house and +buildings, and buy out my partner at the end of a year. My boys are +jumping to start. I had last week a letter from Emile.' + +'Dear little Emile!' + +'You like him?' + +'I could use a warmer word. He knew me when I was a girl.' + +She wound the strings of his heart suddenly tense, and they sang to their +quivering. + +'You will let me hear of you, Mr. Weyburn?' + +'I will write. Oh! certainly I will write, if I am told you are +interested in our doings, Lady Ormont.' + +'I will let you know that I am.' + +'I shall be happy in writing full reports.' + +'Every detail, I beg. All concerning the school. Help me to feel I am a +boarder. I catch up an old sympathy I had for girls and boys. For boys! +any boys! the dear monkey boys! cherub monkeys! They are so funny. I am +sure I never have laughed as I did at Selina Collett's report, through +her brother, of the way the boys tried to take to my name; and their +sneezing at it, like a cat at a deceitful dish. "Aminta"--was that their +way?' + +'Something--the young rascals!' + +'But please repeat it as you heard them.' + +'" Aminta."' + +He subdued the mouthing. + +'It didn't, offend me at all. It is one of my amusements to think of it. +But after a time they liked the name; and then how did they say it?' + +He had the beloved Aminta on his lips. + +He checked it, or the power to speak it failed. She drew in a sharp +breath. + +'I hope your boys will have plenty of fun in them. They will have you +for a providence and a friend. I should wish to propose to visit your +school some day. You will keep me informed whether the school has +vacancies. You will, please, keep me regularly informed?' + +She broke into sobs. + +Weyburn talked on of the school, for a cover to the resuming of her +fallen mask, as he fancied it. + +She soon recovered, all save a steady voice for converse, and begged him +to proceed, and spoke in the flow of the subject; but the quaver of her +tones was a cause of further melting. The tears poured, she could not +explain why, beyond assuring him that they were no sign of unhappiness. +Winds on the great waters against a strong tidal current beat up the wave +and shear and wing the spray, as in Aminta's bosom. Only she could know +that it was not her heart weeping, though she had grounds for a woman's +weeping. But she alone could be aware of her heart's running counter to +the tears. + +Her agitation was untimely. Both Mrs. Pagnell and Mr. Morsfield observed +emotion at work. And who could wonder? A wife denied the admittance to +her husband's house by her husband! The most beautiful woman of her time +relentlessly humiliated, ordered to journey back the way she had come. + +They had reached the gate of the park, and had turned. + +'A scandal!' + +Mr. Morsfield renewed his interjection vehemently, for an apology to his +politeness in breaking from Mrs. Pagnell. + +Joining the lady, whose tears were of the nerves, he made offer of his +devotion in any shape; and she was again in the plight to which a +desperado can push a woman of the gentle kind. She had the fear of +provoking a collision if she reminded him, that despite her entreaties, +he had compelled her, seconded by her aunt as he had been, to submit to +his absurd protection on the walk across the park. + +He seemed quite regardless of the mischief he had created; and, +reflecting upon how it served his purpose, he might well be. Intemperate +lover, of the ancient pattern, that he was, his aim to win the woman +acknowledged no obstacle in the means. Her pitiable position appealed to +the best of him; his inordinate desire of her aroused the worst. It was, +besides, an element of his coxcombry, that he should, in apeing the +utterly inconsiderate, rush swiftly to impersonate it when his passions +were cast on a die. + +Weyburn he ignored as a stranger, an intruder, an inferior. + +Aminta's chariot was at the gate. + +She had to resign herself to the chances of a clash of men, and, as there +were two to one, she requested help of Weyburn's hand, that he might be +near her. + +A mounted gentleman, smelling parasite in his bearing, held the bridle of +Morsfield's horse. + +The ladies having entered the chariot, Morsfield sprang to the saddle, +and said: 'You, sir, had better stretch your legs to the inn.' + +'There is room for you, Mr. Weyburn,' said Aminta. + +Mrs. Pagnell puffed. + +'I can't think we've room, my dear. I want that bit of seat in front for +my feet.' + +Morsfield kicked at his horse's flanks, and between Weyburn and the +chariot step, cried: 'Back, sir!' + +His reins were seized; the horse reared, the unexpected occurred. + +Weyburn shouted 'Off!' to the postillion, and jumped in. + +Morsfield was left to the shaking of a dusty coat, while the chariot +rolled its gentle course down the leafy lane into the high-road. + +His friend had seized the horse's bridle-reins; and he remarked: 'I say, +Dolf, we don't prosper to-day.' + +'He pays for it!' said Morsfield, foot in stirrup. 'You'll take him and +trounce him at the inn. I don't fight with servants. Better game. One +thing, Cumnock: the fellow's clever at the foils.' + +'Foils to the devil! If I tackle the fellow, it won't be with the +buttons. But how has he pushed in?' + +Morsfield reported 'the scandal!' in sharp headings. + +'Turned her away. Won't have her enter his house--grandest woman in all +England! Sent his dog to guard. Think of it for an insult! It's insult +upon insult. I 've done my utmost to fire his marrow. I did myself a +good turn by following her up and entering that park with her. I shall +succeed; there 's a look of it. All I have--my life--is that woman's. +I never knew what this devil's torture was before I saw her.' + +His friend was concerned for his veracity. 'Amy!' + +'A common spotted snake. She caught me young, and she didn't carry me +off, as I mean to carry off this glory of her sex--she is: you've seen +her!--and free her, and devote every minute of the rest of my days to +her. I say I must win the woman if I stop at nothing, or I perish; and +if it 's a failure, exit 's my road. I 've watched every atom she +touched in a room, and would have heaped gold to have the chairs, tables, +cups, carpets, mine. I have two short letters written with her hand. +I 'd give two of my estates for two more. If I were a beggar, and kept +them, I should be rich. Relieve me of that dog, and I toss you a +thousand-pound note, and thank you from my soul, Cumnock. You know +what hangs on it. Spur, you dolt, or she'll be out of sight.' + +They cantered upon application of the spur. Captain Cumnock was an +impecunious fearless rascal, therefore a parasite and a bully duellist; +a thick-built north-countryman; a burly ape of the ultra-elegant; hunter, +gamester, hard-drinker, man of pleasure. His known readiness to fight +was his trump-card at a period when the declining custom of the duel +taxed men's courage to brave the law and the Puritan in the interests of +a privileged and menaced aristocracy. An incident like the present was +the passion in the dice-box to Cumnock. Morsfield was of the order of +men who can be generous up to the pitch of their desires. Consequently, +the world accounted him open-handed and devoted when enamoured. Few men +liked him; he was a hero with some women. The women he trampled on; the +men he despised. To the lady of his choice he sincerely offered his +fortune and his life for the enjoyment of her favour. His ostentation +and his offensive daring combined the characteristics of the peacock and +the hawk. Always near upon madness, there were occasions when he could +eclipse the insane. He had a ringing renown in his class. + +Chariot and horsemen arrived at the Roebuck Arms, at the centre of the +small town of Ashead, on the line from Steignton through Rowsley. The +pair of cavaliers dismounted and hustled Weyburn in assisting the ladies +to descend. + +The ladies entered the inn; they declined refection of any sort. They +had biscuits and sweetmeats, and looked forward to tea at a farther +stage. Captain Cumnock stooped to their verdict on themselves, with +marvel at the quantity of flesh they managed to put on their bones from +such dieting. + +'By your courtesy, sir, a word with you in the inn yard, if you please,' +he said to Weyburn in the inn-porch. + +Weyburn answered, 'Half a minute,' and was informed that it was exactly +the amount of time the captain could afford to wait. + +Weyburn had seen the Steignton phaeton and coachman in the earl's light- +blue livery. It was at his orders, he heard. He told the coachman to +expect hire shortly, and he followed the captain, with a heavy trifle of +suspicion that some brew was at work. He said to Aminta in the passage-- + +'You have your settlement with the innkeeper. Don't, I beg, step into +the chariot till you see me.' + +'Anything?' said she. + +'Only prudence.' + +'Our posting horses will be harnessed soon, I hope. I burn to get away.' + +Mrs. Pagnell paid the bill at the bar of the inn. Morsfield poured out +for the injured countess or no-countess a dram of the brandy of passion, +under the breath. + +'Deny that you singled me once for your esteem. Hardest-hearted of the +women of earth and dearest! deny that you gave me reason to hope--and +now! I have ridden in your track all this way for the sight of you, as +you know, and you kill me with frost. Yes, I rejoice that we were seen +together. Look on me. I swear I perish for one look of kindness. You +have been shamefully used, madam.' + +'It seems to me I am being so,' said Aminta, cutting herself loose from +the man of the close eyes that wavered as they shot the dart. + +Her action was too decided for him to follow her up under the observation +of the inn windows and a staring street. + +Mrs. Pagnell came out. She went boldly to Morsfield and they conferred. +He was led by her to the chariot, where she pointed to a small padded +slab of a seat back to the horses. Turning to the bar, he said:-- +My friend will look to my horse. Both want watering and a bucketful. +There!'--he threw silver--'I have to protect the ladies.' + +Aminta was at the chariot door talking to her aunt inside. + +'But I say I have been insulted--is the word--more than enough by Lord +Ormont to-day!' Mrs. Pagnell exclaimed; 'and I won't, I positively refuse +to ride up to London with any servant of his. It's quite sufficient that +it's his servant. I'm not titled, but I 'in not quite dirt. Mr. +Morsfield kindly offers his protection, and I accept. He is company.' + +Nodding and smirking at Morsfield's approach, she entreated Aminta to +step up and in, for the horses were coming out of the yard. + +Aminta looked round. Weyburn was perceived; and Morsfield's features +cramped at thought of a hitch in the plot. + +'Possession,' Mrs. Pagnell murmured significantly. She patted the seat. +Morsfield sprang to Weyburn's place. + +That was witnessed by Aminta and Weyburn. She stepped to consult him. +He said to the earl's coachman--a young fellow with a bright eye for +orders-- + +'Drive as fast as you can pelt for Dornton. I'm doing my lord's +commands.' + +'Trust yourself to me, madam.' His hand stretched for Aminta to mount. +She took it without a word and climbed to the seat. A clatter of hoofs +rang out with the crack of the whip. They were away behind a pair of +steppers that could go the pace. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE PURSUERS + +For promptitude, the lady, the gentleman, and the coachman were in such +unison as to make it a reasonable deduction that the flight had been +concerted. + +Never did any departure from the Roebuck leave so wide-mouthed a body of +spectators. Mrs. Pagnell's shrieks of 'Stop, oh! stop!' to the backs of +the coachman and Aminta were continued until they were far down the +street. She called to the innkeeper, called to the landlady and to +invisible constables for help. But her pangs were childish compared with +Morsfield's, who, with the rage of a conceited schemer tricked and the +fury of a lover beholding the rape of his beautiful, bellowed impotently +at Weyburn and the coachman out of hearing, 'Stop! you!' He was in the +state of men who believe that there is a virtue in imprecations, and he +shot loud oaths after them, shook his fist, cursed his friend Cumnock, +whose name he vociferated as a summons to him,--generally the baffled +plotter misconducted himself to an extreme degree, that might have +apprised Mrs. Pagnell of a more than legitimate disappointment on his +part. + +Pursuit was one of the immediate ideas which rush forward to look +back woefully on impediments and fret to fever over the tardiness of +operations. A glance at the thing of wrinkles receiving orders to buckle +at his horses and pursue convinced them of the hopelessness; and +Morsfield was pricked to intensest hatred of the woman by hearing the +dire exclamation, 'One night, and her character's gone!' + +'Be quiet, ma'am, if you please, or nothing can be done,' he cried. + +'I tell you, Mr. Morsfield--don't you see?--he has thrown them +together. It is Lord Ormont's wicked conspiracy to rid himself of her. +A secretary! He'll beat any one alive in plots. She can't show her face +in London after this, if you don't overtake her. And she might have seen +Lord Ormont's plot to ruin her. He tired of her, and was ashamed of her +inferior birth to his own, after the first year, except on the Continent, +where she had her rights. Me he never forgave for helping make him the +happy man he might have been in spite of his age. For she is lovely! +But it's worse for a lovely woman with a damaged reputation. And that 's +his cunning. How she could be so silly as to play into it! She can't +have demeaned herself to look on that secretary! I said from the first +he seemed as if thrown into her way for a purpose. But she has pride: my +niece Aminta has pride. She might well have listened to flatterers--she +had every temptation--if it hadn't been for her pride. It may save her +yet. However good-looking, she will remember her dignity--unless he's a +villain. Runnings away! drivings together! inns oh! the story over +London! I do believe she has a true friend in you, Mr. Morsfield; and I +say, as I have said before, the sight of a devoted admirer would have +brought any husband of more than sixty to his senses, if he hadn't hoped +a catastrophe and determined on it. Catch them we can't, unless she +repents and relents; and prayers for that are our only resource. Now, +start, man, do!' + +The postillion had his foot in position to spring. Morsfield bawled +Cumnock's name, and bestrode his horse. Captain Cumnock emerged from the +inn-yard with a dubitative step, pressing a handkerchief to his nose, +blinking, and scrutinizing the persistent fresh stains on it. + +Stable-boys were at the rear. These, ducking and springing, surcharged +and copious exponents of the play they had seen, related, for the benefit +of the town, how that the two gentlemen had exchanged words in the yard, +which were about beastly pistols, which the slim gentleman would have +none of; and then the big one trips up, like dancing, to the other one +and flicks him a soft clap on the check--quite friendly, you may say; +and before he can square to it, the slim one he steps his hind leg half a +foot back, and he drives a straight left like lightning off the shoulder +slick on to t' other one's nob, and over he rolls, like a cart with the +shafts up down a bank; and he' a been washing his 'chops' and threatening +bullets ever since. + +The exact account of the captain's framework in the process of the fall +was graphically portrayed in our blunt and racy vernacular, which a +society nourished upon Norman-English and English-Latin banishes from +print, largely to its impoverishment, some think. + +By the time the primary narrative of the encounter in the inn yard had +given ground for fancy and ornament to present it in yet more luscious +dress, Lord Ormont's phaeton was a good mile on the road. Morsfield and +Captain Cumnock--the latter inquisitive of the handkerchief pressed +occasionally at his nose--trotted on tired steeds along dusty wheel- +tracks. Mrs. Pagnell was the solitary of the chariot, having a horrid +couple of loaded pistols to intimidate her for her protection, and the +provoking back view of a regularly jogging mannikin under a big white hat +with blue riband, who played the part of Time in dragging her along, with +worse than no countenance for her anxieties. + +News of the fugitives was obtained at the rampant Red Lion in Dudsworth, +nine miles on along the London road, to the extent that the Earl of +Ormont's phaeton, containing a lady and a gentleman, had stopped there +a minute to send back word to Steignton of their comfortable progress, +and expectations of crossing the borders into Hampshire before sunset. +Morsfield and Cumnock shrugged at the bumpkin artifice. They left their +line of route to be communicated to the chariot, and chose, with +practised acumen, that very course, which was the main road, and rewarded +them at the end of half an hour with sight of the Steignton phaeton. + +But it was returning. A nearer view showed it empty of the couple. + +Morsfield bade the coachman pull up, and he was readily obeyed. Answers +came briskly. + +Although provincial acting is not of the high class which conceals the +art, this man's look beside him and behind him at vacant seats had +incontestable evidence in support of his declaration, that the lady and +gentleman had gone on by themselves: the phaeton was a box of flown +birds. + +'Where did you say they got out, you dog?' said Cumnock. + +The coachman stood up to spy a point below. 'Down there at the bottom of +the road, to the right, where there's a stile across the meadows, making +a short cut by way of a bridge over the river to Busley and North +Tothill, on the high-road to Hocklebourne. The lady and gentleman +thought they 'd walk for a bit of exercise the remains of the journey.' + +'Can't prove the rascal's a liar,' Cumnock said to Morsfield, who rallied +him savagely on his lucky escape from another knock-down blow, and tossed +silver on the seat, and said-- + +'We 'll see if there is a stile.' + +'You'll see the stile, sir,' rejoined the man, and winked at their backs. + +Both cavaliers, being famished besides baffled, were in sour tempers, +expecting to see just the dead wooden stile, and see it as a grin at +them. Cumnock called on Jove to witness that they had been donkeys +enough to forget to ask the driver how far round on the road it was to +the other end of the cross-cut. + +Morsfield, entirely objecting to asinine harness with him, mocked at his +invocation and intonation of the name of Jove. + +Cumnock was thereupon stung to a keen recollection of the allusion to his +knock-down blow, and he retorted that there were some men whose wit was +the parrot's. + +Morsfield complimented him over the exhibition of a vastly superior and +more serviceable wit, in losing sight of his antagonist after one trial +of him. + +Cumnock protested that the loss of time was caused by his friend's +dalliance with the Venus in the chariot. + +Morsfield's gall seethed at a flying picture of Mrs. Pagnell, coupled +with the retarding reddened handkerchief business, and he recommended +Cumnock to pay court to the old woman, as the only chance he would have +of acquaintanceship with the mother of Love. + +Upon that Cumnock confessed in humility to his not being wealthy. +Morsfield looked a willingness to do the deed he might have to pay for in +tenderer places than the pocket, and named the head as a seat of poverty +with him. + +Cumnock then yawned a town fop's advice to a hustling street passenger to +apologize for his rudeness before it was too late. Whereat Morsfield, +certain that his parasitic thrasyleon apeing coxcomb would avoid +extremities, mimicked him execrably. + +Now this was a second breach of the implied convention existing among the +exquisitely fine-bred silken-slender on the summits of our mundane +sphere, which demands of them all, that they respect one another's +affectations. It is commonly done, and so the costly people of a single +pattern contrive to push forth, flatteringly to themselves, luxuriant +shoots of individuality in their orchidean glass-house. A violation of +the rule is a really deadly personal attack. Captain Cumnock was +particularly sensitive regarding it, inasmuch as he knew himself not the +natural performer he strove to be, and a mimicry affected him as a +haunting check. + +He burst out: 'Damned if I don't understand why you're hated by men and +women both!' + +Morsfield took a shock. 'Infernal hornet!' he muttered; for his +conquests had their secret history. + +'May and his wife have a balance to pay will trip you yet, you 'll find.' + +'Reserve your wrath, sir, for the man who stretched you on your back.' + +The batteries of the two continued exchangeing redhot shots, with the +effect, that they had to call to mind they were looking at the stile. +A path across a buttercup meadow was beyond it. They were damped to +some coolness by the sight. + +'Upon my word, the trick seems neat!' said Cumnock staring at the +pastoral curtain. + +'Whose trick?' he was asked sternly. + +'Here or there 's not much matter; they 're off, unless they 're under a +hedge laughing.' + +An ache of jealousy and spite was driven through the lover, who groaned, +and presently said-- + +'I ride on. That old woman can follow. I don't want to hear her +gibberish. We've lost the game--there 's no reckoning the luck. If +there's a chance, it's this way. It smells a trick. He and she--by all +the devils! It has been done in my family--might have been done again. +Tell the men on the plain they can drive home. There's a hundred-pound +weight on your tongue for silence.' + +Cumnock cried: 'But we needn't be parting, Dolf! Stick together. Bad +luck's not repeated every day. Keep heart for the good.' + +'My heart's shattered, Cumnock. I say it's impossible she can love a +husband twice her age, who treats her--you 've seen. Contempt of that +lady! + +By heaven! once in my power, I swear she would have been sacred to me. +But she would have been compelled to face the public and take my hand. +I swear she would have been congratulated on the end of her sufferings. +Worship!--that's what I feel. No woman ever alive had eyes in her head +like that lady's. I repeat her name ten times every night before I go to +sleep. If I had her hand, no, not one kiss would I press on it without +her sanction. I could be in love with her cruelty, if only I had her +near me. I 've lost her--by the Lord, I 've lost her!' + +'Pro tem.,' said the captain. 'A plate of red beef and a glass of port +wine alters the view. Too much in the breast, too little in the belly, +capsizes lovers. Old story. Horses that ought to be having a mash +between their ribs make riders despond. Say, shall we back to the town +behind us, or on? Back's the safest, if the chase is up.' + +Morsfield declared himself incapable of turning and meeting that chariot. +He sighed heavily. Cumnock offered to cheer him with a song of Captain +Chanter's famous collection, if he liked; but Morsfield gesticulated +abhorrence, and set out at a trot. Song in defeat was a hiss of derision +to him. + +He had failed. Having failed, he for the first time perceived the +wildness of a plot that had previously appeared to him as one of the +Yorkshire Morsfields' moves to win an object. Traditionally they stopped +at nothing. There would have been a sunburst of notoriety in the capture +and carrying off of the beautiful Countess of Ormont. + +She had eluded him during the downward journey to Steignton. He came on +her track at the village at the junction of the roads above Ashead, and +thence, confiding in the half-connivance or utter stupidity of the fair +one's duenna, despatched a mounted man-servant to his coachman and +footmen, stationed ten miles behind, with orders that they should drive +forthwith to the great plain, and be ready at a point there for two +succeeding days. That was the plot, promptly devised upon receipt of +Mrs. Pagnell's communication; for the wealthy man of pleasure was a +strategist fit to be a soldier, in dexterity not far from rivalling the +man by whom he had been outdone. + +An ascetic on the road to success, he dedicated himself to a term of hard +drinking under a reverse; and the question addressed to the chief towns +in the sketch counties his head contained was, which one near would be +likely to supply the port wine for floating him through garlanding dreams +of possession most tastily to blest oblivion. + +He was a lover, nevertheless, honest in his fashion, and meant not worse +than to pull his lady through a mire, and wash her with Morsfield soap, +and crown her, and worship. She was in his blood, about him, above him; +he had plunged into her image, as into deeps that broke away in +phosphorescent waves on all sides, reflecting every remembered, every +imagined, aspect of the adored beautiful woman piercing him to extinction +with that last look of her at the moment of flight. + +Had he been just a trifle more sincere in the respect he professed for +his lady's duenna, he would have turned on the road to Dornton and a +better fortune. Mrs. Pagnell had now become the ridiculous Paggy of Mrs. +Lawrence Finchley and her circle for the hypocritical gentleman; and he +remarked to Captain Cumnock, when their mutual trot was established: +'Paggy enough for me for a month--good Lord! I can't stand another dose +of her by herself.' + +'It's a bird that won't roast or boil or stew,' said the captain. + +They were observed trotting along below by Lord Ormont's groom of the +stables on promotion, as he surveyed the country from the chalk-hill rise +and brought the phaeton to a stand, Jonathan Boon, a sharp lad, whose +comprehension was a little muddled by 'the rights of it' in this +adventure. He knew, however, that he did well to follow the directions +of one who was in his lordship's pay, and stretched out the fee with the +air of a shake of the hand, and had a look of the winning side, moreover. +A born countryman could see that. + +Boon watched the pair of horsemen trotting to confusion, and clicked in +his cheek. The provincial of the period when coaches were beginning to +be threatened by talk of new-fangled rails was proud to boast of his +outwitting Londoners on material points; and Boon had numerous tales of +how it had been done, to have the laugh of fellows thinking themselves +such razors. They compensated him for the slavish abasement of his whole +neighbourhood under the hectoring of the grand new manufacture of wit in +London:--the inimitable Metropolitan PUN, which came down to the country +by four-in-hand, and stopped all other conversation wherever it was +reported, and would have the roar--there was no resisting it. Indeed, +to be able to see the thing smartly was an entry into community with the +elect of the district; and when the roaring ceased and the thing was +examined, astonishment at the cleverness of it, and the wonderful +shallowness of the seeming deep hole, and the unexhausted bang it had to +go off like a patent cracker, fetched it out for telling over again; and +up went the roar, and up it went at home and in stable-yards, and at the +net puffing of churchwardens on a summer's bench, or in a cricket-booth +after a feast, or round the old inn's taproom fine. The pun, the +wonderful bo-peep of double meanings darting out to surprise and smack +one another from behind words of the same sound, sometimes the same +spelling, overwhelmed the provincial mind with awe of London's occult and +prolific genius. + +Yet down yonder you may behold a pair of London gentlemen trotting along +on as fine a fool's errand as ever was undertaken by nincompoops bearing +a scaled letter, marked urgent, to a castle, and the request in it that +the steward would immediately upon perusal down with their you-know-what +and hoist them and birch them a jolly two dozen without parley. + +Boon smacked his leg, and then drove ahead merrily. + +For this had happened to his knowledge: the gentleman accompanying the +lady had refused to make anything of a halt at the Red Lion, and had said +he was sure there would be a small public-house at the outskirts of the +town, for there always was one; and he proved right, and the lady and he +had descended at the sign of the Jolly Cricketers, and Boon had driven on +for half an hour by order. + +This, too, had happened, external to Boon's knowledge: the lady and the +gentleman had witnessed, through the small diamond window-panes of the +Jolly Cricketers' parlour, the passing-by of the two horsemen in pursuit +of them; and the gentleman had stopped the chariot coming on some fifteen +minutes later, but he did not do it at the instigation of the lady. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +AT THE SIGN OF THE JOLLY CRICKETERS + +The passing by of the pair of horsemen, who so little suspected the +treasure existing behind the small inn's narrow window did homage in +Aminta's mind to her protector's adroitness. Their eyes met without a +smile, though they perceived the grisly comic of the incident. Their +thoughts were on the chariot to follow. + +Aminta had barely uttered a syllable since the start of the flight from +Ashead. She had rocked in a swing between sensation and imagination, +exultant, rich with the broad valley of the plain and the high green +waves of the downs at their giant's bound in the flow of curves and sunny +creases to the final fling-off of the dip on sky. Here was a twisted +hawthorn carved clean to the way of the wind; a sheltered clump of +chestnuts holding their blossoms up, as with a thousand cresset-clasping +hands; here were grasses that nodded swept from green to grey; flowers +yellow, white, and blue, significant of a marvellous unknown through the +gates of colour; and gorse-covers giving out the bird, squares of young +wheat, a single fallow threaded by a hare, and cottage gardens, shadowy +garths, wayside flint-heap, woods of the mounds and the dells, fluttering +leaves, clouds: all were swallowed, all were the one unworried +significance. Scenery flew, shifted, returned; again the line of the +downs raced and the hollows reposed simultaneously. They were the same +in change to an eye grown older; they promised, as at the first, +happiness for recklessness. The whole woman was urged to delirious +recklessness in happiness, and she drank the flying scenery as an +indication, a likeness, an encouragement. + +When her wild music of the blood had fallen to stillness with the stopped +wheels, she was in the musky, small, low room of the diamond window- +panes, at her companion's disposal for what he might deem the best: he +was her fate. But the more she leaned on a man of self-control, the more +she admired; and an admiration that may not speak itself to the object +present drops inward, stirs the founts; and if these are repressed, the +tenderness which is not allowed to weep will drown self-pity, hardening +the woman to summon scruples in relation to her unworthiness. He might +choose to forget, but the more she admired, the less could her feminine +conscience permit of an utter or of any forgetfulness that she was not +the girl Browny, whom he once loved--perhaps loved now, under some +illusion of his old passion for her--does love now, ill-omened as he is +in that! She read him by her startled reading of her own heart, and she +constrained her will to keep from doing, saying, looking aught that would +burden without gracing his fortunes. For, as she felt, a look, a word, a +touch would do the mischief; she had no resistance behind her cold face, +only the physical scruple, which would become the moral unworthiness if +in any way she induced him to break his guard and blow hers to shreds. +An honourable conscience before the world has not the same certificate in +love's pure realm. They are different kingdoms. A girl may be of both; +a married woman, peering outside the narrow circle of her wedding-ring, +should let her eyelids fall and the unseen fires consume her. + +Their common thought was now, Will the chariot follow? + +What will he do if it comes? was an unformed question with Aminta. + +He had formed and not answered it, holding himself, sincerely at the +moment, bound to her wishes. Near the end of Ashead main street she had +turned to him in her seat beside the driver, and conveyed silently, with +the dental play of her tongue and pouted lips, 'No title.' + +Upon that sign, waxen to those lips, he had said to the driver, 'You took +your orders from Lady Charlotte? + +And the reply, 'Her ladyship directed me sir, exonerated Lord Ormont so +far. + +Weyburn remembered then a passage of one of her steady looks, wherein an +oracle was mute. He tried several of the diviner's shots to interpret +it: she was beyond his reach. She was in her blissful delirium of the +flight, and reproached him with giving her the little bit less to resent +--she who had no sense of resentment, except the claim on it to excuse. + +Their landlady entered the room to lay the cloth for tea and eggs. She +made offer of bacon as well, homecured. She was a Hampshire woman, and +understood the rearing of pigs. Her husband had been a cricketer, and +played for his county. He didn't often beat Hampshire! They had a good +garden of vegetables, and grass-land enough for two cows. They made +their own bread, their own butter, but did not brew. + +Weyburn pronounced for a plate of her home-cured. She had children, the +woman told him--two boys and a girl. Her husband wished for a girl. Her +eldest boy wished to be a sailor, and would walk miles to a pond to sail +bits of wood on it, though there had never been a sea-faring man in her +husband's family or her own. She agreed with the lady and gentleman that +it might be unwise to go contrary to the boy's bent. Going to school or +coming home, a trickle of water would stop him. + +Aminta said to her companion in French, 'Have you money?' + +She chased his blood. 'Some: sufficient. I think.' It stamped their +partnership. + +'I have but a small amount. Aunt was our paymaster. We will buy the +little boy a boat to sail. You are pale.' + +'I 've no notion of it.' + +'Something happened it Ashead.' + +'It would not have damaged my complexion.' + +He counted his money. Aminta covertly handed him her purse. Their +fingers touched. The very minor circumstance of their landlady being in +the room dammed a flood. + +Her money and his amounted to seventeen pounds. The sum-total was a +symbol of days that were a fiery wheel. + +Honour and blest adventure might travel together two days or three, he +thought. If the chariot did not pass:--Lord Ormont had willed it. A man +could not be said to swerve in his duty when acting to fulfil the +master's orders, and Mrs. Pagnell was proved a hoodwinked duenna, and +Morsfield was in the air. The breathing Aminta had now a common purse +with her first lover. For three days or more they were, it would seem, +to journey together, alone together: the prosecution of his duty imposed +it on him. Sooth to say, Weyburn knew that a spice of passion added to a +bowl of reason makes a sophist's mess; but he fancied an absolute +reliance on Aminta's dignity, and his respect for her was another +barrier. He begged the landlady's acceptance of two shillings for her +boy's purchase of a boat, advising her to have him taught early to swim. +Both he and Aminta had a feeling that they could be helpful in some +little things on the road if the chariot did not pass. + +Justification began to speak loudly against the stopping of the chariot +if it did pass. The fact that sweet wishes come second, and not so +loudly, assured him they were quite secondary; for the lover sunk to +sophist may be self-beguiled by the arts which render him the potent +beguiler. + +'We are safe here,' he said, and thrilled her with the 'we' behind the +curtaining leaded window-panes. + +'What is it you propose?' Her voice was lower than she intended. To +that she ascribed his vivid flush. It kindled the deeper of her dark +hue. + +He mentioned her want of luggage, and the purchase of a kit. + +She said, 'Have we the means?' + +'We can adjust the means to the ends.' + +'We must be sparing of expenses.' + +'Will you walk part of the way?' + +'I should like it.' + +'We shall be longer on the journey.' + +'We shall not find it tiresome, I hope.' + +'We can say so, if we do.' + +'We are not strangers.' + +The recurrence of the 'we' had an effect of wedding: it was fatalistic, +it would come; but, in truth, there was pleasure in it, and the pleasure +was close to consciousness of some guilt when vowing itself innocent. + +And, no, they were not strangers; hardly a word could they utter without +cutting memory to the quick; their present breath was out of the far +past. + +Love told them both that they were trembling into one another's arms, +not voluntarily, against the will with each of them; they knew it would +be for life; and Aminta's shamed reserves were matched to make an +obstacle by his consideration for her good name and her station, +for his own claim to honest citizenship also. + +Weyburn acted on his instinct at sight of the postillion and the chariot; +he flung the window wide and shouted. Then he said, 'It is decided,' and +he felt the rightness of the decision, like a man who has given a +condemned limb to the surgeon. + +Aminta was passive as a water-weed in the sway of the tide. Hearing it +to be decided, she was relieved. What her secret heart desired, she kept +secret, almost a secret from herself. He was not to leave her; so she +had her permitted wish, she had her companion plus her exclamatory aunt, +who was a protection, and she had learnt her need of the smallest +protection. + +'I can scarcely believe I see you, my dear, dear child!' Mrs. Pagnell +cried, upon entering the small inn parlour; and so genuine was her +satisfaction that for a time she paid no heed to the stuffiness of the +room, the meanness of the place, the unfitness of such a hostelry to +entertain ladies--the Countess of Ormont! + +'Eat here?' Mrs. Pagnell asked, observing the preparations for the meal. +Her pride quailed, her stomach abjured appetite. But she forbore from +asking how it was that the Countess of Ormont had come to the place. + +At a symptom of her intention to indulge in disgust; Aminta brought up +Mr. Morsfield by name; whereupon Mrs. Pagnell showed she had reflected on +her conduct in relation to the gentleman, and with the fear of the earl +if she were questioned. + +Home-made bread and butter, fresh eggs and sparkling fat of bacon invited +her to satisfy her hunger. Aminta let her sniff at the teapot +unpunished; the tea had a rustic aroma of ground-ivy, reminding Weyburn +of his mother's curiosity to know the object of an old man's plucking of +hedgeside leaves in the environs of Bruges one day, and the simple reply +to her French, 'Tea for the English.' A hint of an anecdote interested +and enriched the stores of Mrs. Pagnell, so she capped it and partook of +the infusion ruefully. + +'But the bread is really good,' she said, 'and we are unlikely to be seen +leaving the place by any person of importance.' + +'Unless Mr. Morsfield should be advised to return this way,' said Aminta. + +Her aunt proposed for a second cup. She was a manageable woman; the same +scourge had its instant wholesome effect on her when she snubbed the +secretary. + +So she complimented his trencherman's knife, of which the remarkably fine +edge was proof enough that he had come heart-whole out of the trial of an +hour or so's intimate companionship with a beautiful woman, who had never +been loved, never could be loved by man, as poor Mr. Morsfield loved her! +He had sworn to having fasted three whole days and nights after his first +sight of Aminta. Once, he said, her eyes pierced him so that he dreamed +of a dagger in his bosom, and woke himself plucking at it. That was +love, as a born gentleman connected with a baronetcy and richer than many +lords took the dreadful passion. A secretary would have no conception of +such devoted extravagance. At the most he might have attempted to +insinuate a few absurd, sheepish soft nothings, and the Countess of +Ormont would know right well how to shrivel him with one of her looks. +No lady of the land could convey so much either way, to attract or to +repel, as Aminta, Countess of Ormont! And the man, the only man, +insensible to her charm or her scorn, was her own wedded lord and +husband. Old, to be sure, and haughty, his pride might not allow him to +overlook poor Mr. Morsfield's unintentional offence. But the presence of +the countess's aunt was a reply to any charge he might seek to establish. +Unhappily, the case is one between men on their touchiest point, when +women are pushed aside, and justice and religion as well. We might be +living in a heathen land, for aught that morality has to say. + +Mrs. Pagnell fussed about being seen on her emergence from the Jolly +Cricketers. Aminta sent Weyburn to spy for the possible reappearance of +Mr. Morsfield. He reported a horseman; a butcher-boy clattered by. +Aminta took the landlady's hand, under her aunt's astonished gaze, and +said: 'I shall not forget your house and your attention to us.' She spoke +with a shake of her voice. The landlady curtseyed and smiled, curtseyed +and almost whimpered. The house was a poor one, she begged to say; they +didn't often have such guests, but whoever came to it they did their best +to give good food and drink. + +Hearing from Weyburn that the chariot was bound to go through Winchester, +she spoke of a brother, a baker there, the last surviving member of her +family and, after some talk, Weyburn offered to deliver a message of +health and greeting at the baker's shop. There was a waving of hands, +much nodding and curtseying, as the postillion resumed his demi-volts-- +all to the stupefaction of Mrs. Pagnell; but she dared not speak, she had +Morsfield on the mouth. Nor could she deny the excellent quality of the +bread and butter, and milk, too, at the sign of the Jolly Cricketers. +She admitted, moreover, that the food and service of the little inn +belonged in their unpretentious honesty to the, kind we call old English: +the dear old simple country English of the brotherly interchange in sight +of heaven--good stuff for good money, a matter with a blessing on it. + +'But,' said she, 'my dear Aminta, I do not and I cannot understand looks +of grateful affection at a small innkeeper's wife paid, and I don't doubt +handsomely paid, for her entertainment of you.' + +'I feel it,' said Aminta; tears rushed to her eyelids, overflowing, and +her features were steady. + +'Ah, poor dear! that I do understand,' her aunt observed. 'Any little +kindness moves you to-day; and well it may.' + +'Yes, aunty,' said Aminta, and in relation to the cause of her tears she +was the less candid of the two. + +So far did she carry her thanks for a kindness as to glance back through +her dropping tears at the sign-board of the Jolly Cricketers; where two +brave batsmen cross for the second of a certain three runs, if only the +fellow wheeling legs, face up after the ball in the clouds, does but miss +his catch: a grand suspensory moment of the game, admirably chosen by the +artist to arrest the wayfarer and promote speculation. For will he let +her slip through his fingers when she comes down? or will he have her +fast and tight? And in the former case, the bats are tearing their legs +off for just number nought. And in the latter, there 's a wicket down, +and what you may call a widower walking it bat on shoulder, parted from +his mate for that mortal innings, and likely to get more chaff than +consolation when he joins the booth. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +UNDER-CURRENTS IN THE MINDS OF LADY CHARLOTTE AND LORD ORMONT + +Another journey of travellers to London, in the rear of the chariot, was +not diversified by a single incident or refreshed by scraps of dialogue. +Lady Charlotte had her brother Rowsley with her, and he might be +taciturn,--she drove her flocks of thoughts, she was busily and +contentedly occupied. Although separation from him stirred her mind more +excitedly over their days and deeds of boy and girl, her having him near, +and having now won him to herself, struck her as that old time's harvest, +about as much as can be hoped for us from life, when we have tasted it. + +The scene of the invasion of Steignton by the woman and her aunt, and +that man Morsfield, was a steel engraving among her many rapid and +featureless cogitations. She magnified the rakishness of the woman's +hand on hip in view of the house, and she magnified the woman's insolence +in bringing that man Morsfield--to share probably the hospitality of +Steignton during the master's absence! Her trick of caricature, whenever +she dealt with adversaries, was active upon the three persons under +observation of the windows. It was potent to convince her that her +brother Rowsley had cast the woman to her native obscurity. However, +Lady Charlotte could be just: the woman's figure, and as far as could be +seen of her face, accounted for Rowsley's entanglement. + +Why chastize that man Morsfield at all? Calling him out would give a +further dip to the name of Ormont. A pretty idea, to be punishing a roan +for what you thank him for! He did a service; and if he's as mad about +her as he boasts, he can take her and marry her now Rowsley 's free of +her. + +Morsfield says he wants to marry her--wants nothing better. Then let +him. Rowsley has shown him there 's no legal impediment. Pity that +young Weyburn had to be sent to do watch-dog duty. But Rowsley would +not have turned her back to travel alone: that is, without a man to +guard. He 's too chivalrous. + +The sending of Weyburn, she now fancied, was her own doing, and Lady +Charlotte attributed it to her interpretation of her brother's heart of +chivalry; though it would have been the wiser course, tending straight +and swift to the natural end, if the two women and their Morsfield had +received the dismissal to travel as they came. + +One sees it after the event. Yes, only Rowsley would not have dismissed +her without surety that she would be protected. So it was the right +thing prompted on the impulse of the moment. And young Weyburn would +meet some difficulty in protecting his 'Lady Ormont,' if she had no +inclination for it. + +Analyzing her impulse of the moment, Lady Charlotte credited herself, not +unjustly, with a certain considerateness for the woman, notwithstanding +the woman's violent intrusion between brother and sister. Knowing the +world, and knowing the upper or Beanstalk world intimately, she winked at +nature's passions. But when the legitimate affection of a brother and +sister finds them interposing, they are, as little parsonically as +possible, reproved. If persistently intrusive, they are handed to the +constable. + +How, supposing the case of a wife? Well, then comes the contest; and it +is with an inferior, because not a born, legitimacy of union; which may +be, which here and there is, affection; is generally the habit of +partnership. It is inferior, from not being the union of the blood; it +is a matter merely of the laws and the tastes. No love, she reasoned, is +equal to the love of brother and sister: not even the love of parents for +offspring, or of children for mother and father. Brother and sister have +the holy young days in common; they have lastingly the recollection of +their youth, the golden time when they were themselves, or the best of +themselves. A wife is a stranger from the beginning; she is necessarily +three parts a stranger up to the finish of the history. She thinks she +can absorb the husband. Not if her husband has a sister living! She may +cry and tear for what she calls her own: she will act prudently in bowing +her head to the stronger tie. Is there a wife in Europe who broods on +her husband's merits and his injuries as the sister of Thomas Rowsley, +Earl of Ormont does? or one to defend his good name, one to work for his +fortunes, as devotedly? + +Over and over Lady Charlotte drove her flocks, of much the same pattern, +like billows before a piping gale. They might be similar--a puffed +iteration, and might be meaningless and wearisome; the gale was a power +in earnest. + +Her brother sat locked-up. She did as a wife would not have done, and +held her peace. He spoke; she replied in a few words--blunt, to the +point, as no wife would have done. + +Her dear, warm-hearted Rowsley was shaken by the blow he had been obliged +to deal to the woman--poor woman!--if she felt it. He was always the +principal sufferer where the feelings were concerned. He was never for +hurting any but the enemy. + +His 'Ha, here we dine!' an exclamation of a man of imprisoned yawns at +the apparition of the turnkey, was delightful to her, for a proof of +health and sanity and enjoyment of the journey. + +'Yes, and I've one bottle left, in the hamper, of the hock you like,' she +said. 'That Mr. Weyburn likes it too. He drank a couple coming down.' + +She did not press for talk; his ready appetite was the flower of +conversation to her. And he slept well, he said. Her personal +experience on that head was reserved. + +London enfolded them in the late evening of a day brewing storm. My lord +heard at the door of his house that Lady Ormont had not arrived. Yet she +had started a day in advance of him. He looked down, up and round at +Charlotte. He looked into an empty hall. Pagnell was not there. A +sight of Pagnell would, strange to say, have been agreeable. + +Storm was in the air, and Aminta was on the road. Lightning has, before +now, frightened carriage-horses. She would not misconduct herself; she +would sit firm. No woman in England had stouter nerve--few men. + +But the carriage might be smashed. He was ignorant of the road she had +chosen for her return. Out of Wiltshire there would be no cliffs, +quarries, river-banks, presenting dangers. Those dangers, however, +spring up when horses have the frenzy. + +Charlotte was nodded at, for a signal to depart; and she drove off, +speculating on the bullet of a grey eye, which was her brother's adieu +to her. + +The earl had apparently a curiosity to inspect vacant rooms. His +Aminta's drawing-room, her boudoir, her bed-chamber, were submissive in +showing bed, knickknacks, furniture. They told the tale of a corpse. + +He washed and dressed, and went out to his club to dine, hating the faces +of the servants of the house, just able to bear with the attentions of +his valet. + +Thunder was rattling at ten at night. The house was again the tomb. + +She had high courage, that girl. She might be in a bed, with her window- +blind up, calmly waiting for the flashes: lightning excited her. He had +seen her lying at her length quietly, her black hair scattered on the +pillow, like shadow of twigs and sprays on moonlit grass, illuminated +intermittently; smiling to him, but her heart out and abroad, wild as any +witch's. If on the road, she would not quail. But it was necessary to +be certain of her having a trusty postillion. + +He walked through the drench and scream of a burst cloud to the posting- +office. There, after some trouble, he obtained information directing him +to the neighbouring mews. He had thence to find his way to the +neighbouring pot-house. + +The report of the postillion was, on the whole, favourable. The man +understood horses--was middle-aged--no sot; he was also a man with an +eye for weather, proverbially in the stables a cautious hand--slow 'Old +Slow-and-sure,' he was called; by name, Joshua Abnett. + +'Oh, Joshua Abnett?' said the earl, and imprinted it on his memory, for +the service it was to do during the night. + +Slow-and-sure Joshua Abnett would conduct her safely, barring accidents. +For accidents we must all be prepared. She was a heroine in an accident. +The earl recalled one and more: her calm face, brightened eyes, easy +laughter. Hysterics were not in her family. + +She did wrong to let that fellow Morsfield accompany her. Possibly he +had come across her on the road, and she could not shake him off. +Judging by all he knew of her, the earl believed she would not have +brought the fellow into the grounds of Steignton of her free will. She +had always a particular regard for decency. + +According to the rumour, Morsfield and the woman Pagnell were very thick +together. He barked over London of his being a bitten dog. He was near +to the mad dog's fate, as soon as a convenient apology for stopping his +career could be invented. + +The thinking of the lesson to Morsfield on the one hand, and of the slow- +and-sure postillion Joshua Abriett on the other, lulled Lord Ormont to a +short repose in his desolate house. Of Weyburn he had a glancing +thought, that the young man would be a good dog to guard the countess +from a mad dog, as he had reckoned in commissioning him. + +Next day was the day of sunlight Aminta loved. + +It happens with the men who can strike, supposing them of the order of +civilized creatures, that when they have struck heavily, however deserved +the blow, a liking for the victim will assail them, if they discover no +support in hatred; and no sooner is the spot of softness touched than +they are invaded by hosts of the stricken person's qualities, which plead +to be taken as virtues, and are persuasive. The executioner did rightly. +But it is the turn for the victim to declare the blow excessive. + +Now, a just man, who has overdone the stroke, will indemnify and console +in every way, short of humiliating himself. + +He had an unusually clear vision of the scene at Steignton. Surprise and +wrath obscured it at the moment, for reflection to bring it out in sharp +outline; and he was able now to read and translate into inoffensive +English the inherited Spanish of it, which violated nothing of Aminta's +native 'donayre,' though it might look on English soil outlandish or +stagey. + +Aminta stood in sunlight on the greensward. She stood hand on hip, +gazing at the house she had so long desired to see, without a notion that +she committed an offence. Implicitly upon all occasions she took her +husband's word for anything he stated, and she did not consequently +imagine him to be at Steignton. So, then, she had no thought of running +down from London to hunt and confound him, as at first it appeared. The +presence of that white-faced Morsfield vindicated her sufficiently so +far. And let that fellow hang till the time for cutting him down! Not +she, but Pagnell, seems to have been the responsible party. And, by the +way, one might prick the affair with Morsfield by telling him publicly +that his visit to inspect Steignton was waste of pains, for he would not +be accepted as a tenant in the kennels, et caetera. + +Well, poor girl, she satisfied her curiosity, not aware that a few weeks +farther on would have done it to the full. + +As to Morsfield, never once, either in Vienna or in Paris, had she, +warmly admired though she was, all eyes telescoping and sun-glassing on +her, given her husband an hour or half an hour or two minutes of anxiety. +Letters came. The place getting hot, she proposed to leave it. + +She had been rather hardly tried. There are flowers we cannot keep +growing in pots. Her fault was, that instead of flinging down her glove +and fighting it out openly, she listened to Pagnell, and began the game +of Pull. If he had a zest for the game, it was to stump the woman +Pagnell. So the veteran fancied in his amended mind. + +This intrusive sunlight chased him from the breakfast-table and out of +the house. She would be enjoying it somewhere; but the house empty of a +person it was used to contain had an atmosphere of the vaults, and inside +it the sunlight she loved had an effect of taunting him singularly. + +He called on his upholsterer and heard news to please her. The house +hired for a month above Great Marlow was ready; her ladyship could enter +it to-morrow. It pleased my lord to think that she might do so, and not +bother him any more about the presentation at Court during the current +year. In spite of certain overtures from the military authorities, and +roused eulogistic citations of his name in the newspapers and magazines, +he was not on friendly terms with his country yet, having contracted the +fatal habit of irony, which, whether hitting or musing its object, stirs +old venom in our wound, twitches the feelings. Unfortunately for him, +they had not adequate expression unless he raged within; so he had to +shake up wrath over his grievances, that he might be satisfactorily +delivered; and he was judged irreconcilable when he had subsided into the +quietest contempt, from the prospective seat of a country estate, in the +society of a young wife who adored him. + +An exile from the sepulchre of that house void of the consecration of +ashes, he walked the streets and became reconciled to street sunlight. +There were no carriage accidents to disturb him with apprehensions. +Besides, the slowness of the postillion Joshua Abnett, which probably +helped to the delay, was warrant of his sureness. And in an accident the +stringy fellow, young Weyburn, could be trusted for giving his attention +to the ladies--especially to the younger of the two, taking him for the +man his elders were at his age. As for Pagnell, a Providence watches +over the Pagnells! Mortals have no business to interfere. + +An accident on water would be a frolic to his girl. Swimming was a gift +she had from nature. Pagnell vowed she swam out a mile at Dover when she +was twelve. He had seen her in blue water: he had seen her readiness to +jump to the rescue once when a market-woman, stepping out of a boat to +his yacht on the Tabus, plumped in. She had the two kinds of courage-- +the impulsive and the reasoned. What is life to man or woman if we are +not to live it honourably? Men worthy of the name say this. The woman +who says and acts on it is--well, she is fit company for them. But only +the woman of natural courage can say it and act on it. + +Would she come by Winchester, or choose the lower road by Salisbury and +Southampton, to smell the sea? perhaps-like her!--dismissing the chariot +and hiring a yacht for a voyage round the coast and up the Thames. She +had an extraordinary love of the sea, yet she preferred soldiers to +sailors. A woman? Never one of them more a woman! But it came of her +quickness to take the colour and share the tastes of the man to whom she +gave herself. + +My lord was beginning to distinguish qualities in a character. + +He was informed at the mews that Joshua Abnett was on the road still. +Joshua seemed to be a roadster of uncommon unprogressiveness, proper to a +framed picture. + +While debating whether to lunch at his loathed club or at a home loathed +more, but open to bright enlivenment any instant, Lord Ormont beheld a +hat lifted and Captain May saluting him. They were near a famous +gambling-house in St. James's Street. + +'Good! I am glad to see you,' he said. 'Tell me you know Mr. Morsfield +pretty well. I'm speaking of my affair. He has been trespassing down +on my grounds at Steignton, and I think of taking the prosecution of him +into my own hands. Is he in town?' + +'I 've just left his lame devil Cumnock, my lord,' said May, after a +slight grimace. 'They generally run in tandem.' + +'Will you let me know?' + +'At once, when I hear.' + +'You will call on me? Before noon?' + +'Any service required?' + +'My respects to your wife.' + +'Your lordship is very good.' + +Captain May bloomed at a civility paid to his wife. He was a smallish, +springy, firm-faced man, devotee of the lady bearing his name and +wielding him. In the days when duelling flourished on our land, frail +women could be powerful. + +The earl turned from him to greet Lord Adderwood and a superior officer +of his Profession, on whom he dropped a frigid nod. He held that all but +the rank and file, and a few subalterns, of the service had abandoned him +to do homage to the authorities. The Club he frequented was not his +military Club. Indeed, lunching at any Club in solitariness that day, +with Aminta away from home, was bitter penance. He was rejoiced by Lord +Adderwood's invitation, and hung to him after the lunch; for a horrible +prospect of a bachelor dinner intimated astonishingly that he must have +become unawares a domesticated man. + +The solitary later meal of a bachelor was consumed, if the word will suit +a rabbit's form of feeding. He fatigued his body by walking the streets +and the bridge of the Houses of Parliament, and he had some sleep under a +roof where a life like death, or death apeing life, would have seemed to +him the Joshua Abnett, if he had been one to take up images. + +Next day he was under the obligation to wait at home till noon. Shortly +before noon a noise of wheels drew him to the window. A young lady, in +whom he recognized Aminta's little school friend, of some name, stepped +out of a fly. He met her in the hall. + +She had expected to be welcomed by Aminta, and she was very timid on +finding herself alone with the earl. He, however, treated her as the +harbinger bird, wryneck of the nightingale, sure that Aminta would keep +her appointment unless an accident delayed. He had forgotten her name, +but not her favourite pursuit of botany; and upon that he discoursed, +and he was interested, not quite independently of the sentiment of her +being there as a guarantee of Aminta's return. Still he knew his English +earth, and the counties and soil for particular wild-flowers, grasses, +mosses; and he could instruct her and inspire a receptive pupil on the +theme of birds, beasts, fishes, insects, in England and other lands. + +He remained discoursing without much weariness till four of the +afternoon. Then he had his reward. The chariot was at the door, and the +mounted figure of Joshua Abnett, on which he cast not a look or a +thought. Aminta was alone. She embraced Selina Collett warmly, and +said, in friendly tones, 'Ah! my lord, you are in advance of me.' + +She had dropped Mrs. Pagnell and Mr. Weyburn at two suburban houses; +working upon her aunt's dread of the earl's interrogations as regarded +Mr. Morsfield. She had, she said, chosen to take the journey easily on +her return, and enjoyed it greatly. + +My lord studied her manner more than her speech. He would have +interpreted a man's accurately enough. He read hers to signify that she +had really enjoyed her journey, 'made the best of it,' and did not intend +to be humble about her visit to Steignton without his permission; but +that, if hurt at the time, she had recovered her spirits, and was ready +for a shot or two--to be nothing like a pitched battle. And she might +fire away to her heart's content: wordy retorts would not come from him; +he had material surprises in reserve for her. His question concerning +Morsfield knew its answer, and would only be put under pressure. + +Comparison of the friends Aminta and Selina was forced by their standing +together, and the representation in little Selina of the inferiority of +the world of women to his Aminta; he thought of several, and splendid +women, foreign and English. The comparison rose sharply now, with +Aminta's novel, airy, homely, unchallengeing assumption of an equal +footing beside her lord, in looks and in tones that had cast off +constraint of the adoring handmaid, to show the full-blown woman, +rightful queen of her half of the dominion. Between the Aminta of then +and now, the difference was marked as between Northern and Southern +women: the frozen-mouthed Northerner and the pearl and rose-nipped +Southerner; those who smirk in dropping congealed monosyllables, and +those who radiantly laugh out the voluble chatter. + +Conceiving this to the full in a mind destitute of imagery, but +indicative of the thing as clearly as the planed, unpolished woodwork of +a cabinet in a carpenter's shop, Lord Ormont liked her the better for the +change, though she was not the woman whose absence from his house had +caused him to go mooning half a night through the streets, and though it +forewarned him of a tougher bit of battle, if battle there was to be. + +He was a close reader of surfaces. But in truth, the change so notable +came of the circumstance, that some little way down below the surface he +perused, where heart weds mind, or nature joins intellect, for the two to +beget a resolution, the battle of the man and the woman had been fought, +and the man beaten. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +TREATS OF THE FIRST DAY OF THE CONTENTION OF BROTHER AND SISTER + +In the contest rageing at mid-sea still between the man and the woman, +it is the one who is hard to the attractions of the other that will make +choice of the spot and have the advantages. A short time earlier Lord +Ormont could have marked it out at his leisure. He would have been +unable to comprehend why it was denied him to do so now; for he was +master of himself, untroubled by conscience, unaware, since he was +assured of his Aminta's perfect safety and his restored sense of +possession, that any taint of softness in him had reversed the condition +of their alliance. He felt benevolently the much he had to bestow, and +was about to bestow. Meanwhile, without complicity on his part, without +his knowledge, yet absolutely involving his fate, the battle had gone +against him in Aminta's breast. + +Like many of his class and kind, he was thoroughly acquainted with the +physical woman, and he took that first and very engrossing volume of +the great Book of Mulier for all the history. A powerful wing of +imagination, strong as the flappers of the great Roc of Arabian story, +is needed to lift the known physical woman even a very little way up into +azure heavens. It is far easier to take a snap-shot at the psychic, and +tumble her down from her fictitious heights to earth. The mixing of the +two make nonsense of her. She was created to attract the man, for an +excellent purpose in the main. We behold her at work incessantly. One +is a fish to her hook; another a moth to her light. By the various arts +at her disposal she will have us, unless early in life we tear away the +creature's coloured gauzes and penetrate to her absurdly simple +mechanism. That done, we may, if we please, dominate her. High priests +of every religion have successively denounced her as the chief enemy. +To subdue and bid her minister to our satisfaction is therefore a right +employment of man's unperverted superior strength. Of course, we keep to +ourselves the woman we prefer; but we have to beware of an uxorious +preference, or we are likely to resemble the Irishman with his wolf, and +dance imprisoned in the hug of our captive. + +For it is the creature's characteristic to be lastingly awake, in her +moments of utmost slavishness most keenly awake to the chances of the +snaring of the stronger. Be on guard, then. Lord Ormont had been on +guard then and always: his instinct of commandership kept him on guard. +He was on guard now when his Aminta played, not the indignant and the +frozen, but the genially indifferent. She did it well, he admitted. + +Had it been the indignant she played, he might have stooped to cajole the +handsome queen of gypsies she was, without acknowledgement of her right +to complain. Feeling that he was about to be generous, he shrugged. He +meant to speak in deeds. + +Lady Charlotte's house was at the distance of a stroller's half-hour +across Hyde Park westward from his own. Thither he walked, a few minutes +after noon, prepared for cattishness. He could fancy that he had +hitherto postponed the visit rather on her account, considering that +he would have to crush her if she humped and spat, and he hoped to +be allowed to do it gently. There would certainly be a scene. + +Lady Charlotte was at home. + +'Always at home to you, Rowsley, at any hour. Mr. Eglett has driven down +to the City. There 's a doctor in a square there's got a reputation for +treating weak children, and he has taken down your grand-nephew Bobby to +be inspected. Poor boy comes of a poor stock on the father's side. Mr. +Eglett would have that marriage. Now he sees wealth isn't everything. +Those Benlews are rushlights. However, Elizabeth stood with her father +to have Robert Benlew, and this poor child 's the result. I wonder +whether they have consciences!' + +My lord prolonged the sibilation of his 'Yes,' in the way of absent- +minded men. He liked little Bobby, but had to class the boy second +for the present. + +'You have our family jewels in your keeping, Charlotte?' + +'No, I haven't,--and you know I haven't, Rowsley.' She sprang to arms, +the perfect porcupine, at his opening words, as he had anticipated. + +'Where are the jewels?' + +'They're in the cellars of my bankers, and safe there, you may rely on +it.' + +'I want them.' + +'I want to have them safe; and there they stop.' + +'You must get them and hand them over.' + +'To whom?' + +'To me.' + +'What for?' + +'They will be worn by the Countess of Ormont' + +'Who 's she?' + +'The lady who bears the title.' + +'The only Countess of Ormont I know of is your mother and mine, Rowsley; +and she's dead.' + +'The Countess of Ormont I speak of is alive.' + +Lady Charlotte squared to him. 'Who gives her the title?' + +'She bears it by right.' + +'Do you mean to say, Rowsley, you have gone and married the woman since +we came up from Steignton?' + +'She is my wife.' + +'Anyhow, she won't have our family jewels.' + +'If you had swallowed them, you'd have to disgorge.' + +'I don't give up our family jewels to such people.' + +'Do you decline to call on her?' + +'I do: I respect our name and blood.' + +'You will send the order to your bankers for them to deliver the jewels +over to me at my house this day.' + +'Look here, Rowsley; you're gone cracked or senile. You 're in the hands +of one of those clever wenches who catch men of your age. She may catch +you; she shan't lay hold of our family jewels: they stand for the honour +of our name and blood.' + +'They are to be at my house-door at four o'clock this afternoon.' + +'They'll not stir.' + +'Then I go down to order your bankers and give them the order.' + +'My bankers won't attend to it without the order from me.' + +'You will submit to the summons of my lawyers.' + +'You're bent on a public scandal, are you?' + +'I am bent on having the jewels.' + +'They are not yours; you 've no claim to them; they are heirlooms in our +family. Things most sacred to us are attached to them. They belong to +our history. There 's the tiara worn by the first Countess of Ormont. +There 's the big emerald of the necklace-pendant--you know the story +of it. Two rubies not counted second to any in England. All those +diamonds! I wore the cross and the two pins the day I was presented +after my marriage.' + +'The present Lady Ormont will wear them the day she is presented.' + +'She won't wear them at Court.' + +'She will.' + +'Don't expect the Lady Ormont of tradesmen and footmen to pass the Lord +Chamberlain.' + +'That matter will be arranged for next season. Now I 've done.' + +'So have I; and you have my answer, Rowsley.' They quitted their chairs. + +'You decline to call on my wife?' said the earl. + +Lady Charlotte replied: 'Understand me, now. If the woman has won you +round to legitimize the connection, first, I've a proper claim to see her +marriage lines. I must have a certificate of her birth. I must have a +testified account of her life before you met her and got the worst of it. +Then, as the case may be, I 'll call on her. + +'You will behave yourself when you call.' + +'But she won't have our family jewels.' + +'That affair has been settled by me.' + +'I should be expecting to hear of them as decorating the person of one of +that man Morsfield's mistresses.' + +The earl's brow thickened. 'Charlotte, I smacked your cheek when you +were a girl.' + +'I know you did. You might again, and I wouldn't cry out. She travels +with that Morsfield; you 've seen it. He goes boasting of her. Gypsy or +not, she 's got queer ways.' + +'I advise you, you had better learn at once to speak of her +respectfully.' + +'I shall have enough to go through, if what you say's true, with +questions of the woman's antecedents and her people, and the date of the +day of this marriage. When was the day you did it? I shall have to give +an answer. You know cousins of ours, and the way they 'll be pressing, +and comparing ages and bawling rumours. None of them imagined my brother +such a fool as to be wheedled into marrying her. You say it's done, +Rowsley. Was it done yesterday or the day before?' + +Lord Ormont found unexpectedly that she struck on a weak point. Married +from the first? Why not tell me of it? He could hear her voice as if +she had spoken the words. And how communicate the pell-mell of reasons? + +'You're running vixen. The demand I make is for the jewels,' he said. + +'You won't have them, Rowsley--not for her.' + +'You think of compelling me to use force?' + +'Try it.' + +'You swear the jewels are with your bankers?' + +'I left them in charge of my bankers, and they've not been moved by me.' + +'Well, it must be force.' + +'Nothing short of it when the honour of our family's concerned.' + +It was rather worse than the anticipated struggle with this Charlotte, +though he had kept his temper. The error was in supposing that an hour's +sharp conflict would settle it, as he saw. The jewels required a siege. + +'When does Eglett return?' he asked. + +'Back to lunch. You stay and lunch here, Rowsley we don't often have +you.' + +The earl contemplated her, measuring her powers of resistance for a +prolonged engagement. Odd that the pride which had withdrawn him from +the service of an offending country should pitch him into a series of +tussles with women, for its own confusion! He saw that, too, in his dim +reflectiveness, and held the country answerable for it. + +Mr. Eglett was taken into confidence by him privately after lunch. +Mr. Eglett's position between the brother and sister was perplexing; +habitually he thought his wife had strong good sense, in spite of the +costliness of certain actions at law not invariably confirming his +opinion; he thought also that the earl's demand must needs be considered +obediently. At the same time, his wife's objections to the new Countess +of Ormont, unmasked upon the world, seemed very legitimate; though it +might be asked why the earl should not marry, marrying the lady who +pleased him. But if, in the words of his wife, the lady had no claim to +be called a lady, the marriage was deplorable. On the other hand, Lord +Ormont spoke of her in terms of esteem, and he was no fondling dotard. + +How to compromise the matter for the sake of peace? The man perpetually +plunged into strife by his combative spouse, cried the familiar question +again; and at every suggestion of his on behalf of concord he heard from +Lady Charlotte that he had no principles, or else from Lord Ormont that +his head must be off his shoulders. + +The man for peace had the smallest supply of language, and so, unless he +took a side and fought, his active part was football between them. + +It went on through the afternoon up to five o'clock. No impression was +betrayed by Lady Charlotte. + +She congratulated her brother on the recruit he had enlisted. He smiled +his grimmest of the lips drawn in. A combat, perceptibly of some +extension, would soon give him command of the man of peace; and energy +to continue attacks will break down the energies of any dogged defensive +stand. + +He deferred the discussion with his unreasonable sister until the next +day at half-past twelve o'clock. Lady Charlotte nodded to the +appointment. She would have congratulated herself without irony on the +result of the first day's altercation but for her brother Rowsley's +unusual and ominous display of patience. Twice during the wrangle she +had to conceal a difficult breathing. She felt a numbness in one arm +now it was over, and mentally complimented her London physician on the +unerringness of his diagnosis. Her heart, however, complained of the +cruelty of having in the end, perhaps, if the wrangle should be +protracted, to yield, for sheer weakness, without ceasing to beat. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE ORMONT JEWELS + +At half-past twelve of the noon next day Lord Ormont was at Lady +Charlotte's house door. She welcomed him affectionately, as if nothing +were in dispute; he nodded an acceptance of her greetings, with a blunt +intimation of the business to be settled; she put on her hump of the +feline defensive; then his batteries opened fire and hers barked back on +him. Each won admiration of the other's tenacity, all the more +determined to sap or split it. They had known one another's character, +but they had never seen it in such strong light. Never had their mutual +and similar, though opposed, resources been drawn out so copiously and +unreservedly. This was the shining scrawl of all that each could do to +gain a fight. They admired one another's contemptibly justifiable +evasions, changes of front, statements bordering the lie, even to +meanness in the withdrawal of admissions and the denial of the same ever +having been made. That was Charlotte! That was Rowsley! Anything to +beat down the adversary. + +As to will, the woman's will, of these two, equalled the man's. They +were matched in obstinacy and unscrupulousness. + +Her ingenuitics of the defence eluded his attacks, and compelled him to +fall on heavy iteration of his demand for the jewels, an immediate +restitution of the jewels. 'Why immediate?' cried she. + +He repeated it without replying to her. + +'But, you tell me, Rowsley, why immediate? If you're in want of money +for her, you come to me, tell me, you shall have thousands. I'll drive +down to the City to-morrow and sell out stock. Mr. Eglett won't mind +when he hears the purpose. I shall call five thousand cheap, and don't +ask to see the money again.' + +'Ah! double the sum to have your own way!' said he. + +She protested that she valued her money. She furnished instances of her +carefulness of her money all along up to the present period of brutal old +age. Yet she would willingly part with five thousand or more to save the +family honour. Mr. Eglett would not only approve, he would probably +advance a good part of the money himself. + +'Money! Who wants money?' thundered the earl, and jumped out of her trap +of the further diversion from the plain request. 'To-morrow, when I am +here, I shall expect to have the jewels delivered to me.' + +'That you may hand them over to her. Where are they likely to be this +time next year? And what do you know about jewels? You may look at them +when you ask to see them, and not know imitation paste--like the stuff +Lady Beltus showed her old husband. Our mother wore them, and she prized +them. I'm not sure I wouldn't rather hear they were exhibited in a Bond +Street jeweller's shop or a Piccadilly pawnbroker's than have them on +that woman.' + +'You speak of my wife.' + +'For a season, perhaps; and off they're likely to go, to pay bills, if +her Adderwoods and her Morsfields are out of funds, as they call it.' + +'You are aware you are speaking of my wife, Charlotte?' + +'You daren't say my sister-in-law.' + +He did not choose to say it; and once more she dared him. She could +imagine she scored a point. + +They were summoned to lunch by Mr. Eglett; and there was an hour's +armistice; following which the earl demanded the restitution of the +jewels, and heard the singular question, childishly accentuated, 'What +for?' + +Patience was his weapon and support, so he named his object with an air +of inveteracy in tranquillity they were for his wife to wear. + +Lady Charlotte dared him to say they were for her sister-in-law. + +He despised the transparent artifice of the challenge. + +'But you have to own the difference,' she said. 'You haven't lost +respect for your family, thank God! No. It 's one thing to say she 's +a wife: you hang fire when it 's to say she 's my sister-in-law.' + +'You'll have to admit the fact, Charlotte.' + +'How long is it since I should have had to admit the fact?' + +'From the date of my marriage.' + +'Tell me the date.' + +'No, you don't wear a wig, Charlotte; but you are fit to practise in the +Law-courts!' he said, exasperatedly jocular. + +She had started a fresh diversion, and she pressed him for the date. +'I 'm supposed to have had a sister-in-law-how many weeks?--months?' + +'Years.' + +'Married years! And if you've been married years, where were you +married? Not in a church. That woman's no church-bride.' + +'There are some clever women made idiots of by their trullish tempers.' + +'Abuse away. I've asked you where you were married, Rowsley.' + +'Go to Madrid. Go to the Embassy. Apply to the chaplain.' + +'Married in Madrid! Who's ever married in Madrid! You flung her a +yellow handkerchief, and she tied it round her neck--that 's your +ceremony! Now you tell me you've been married years; and she's a young +woman; you fetch her over from Madrid, set her in a place where those +Morsfields and other fungi-fellows grow, and she has to think herself +lucky to be received by a Lady Staines and a Mrs. Lawrence Finchley, and +she the talk of the town, refused at Court, for all an honourable-enough +old woman countenanced her in pity; and I 'm asked to believe she was my +brother's wife, sister-in-law of mine, all the while! I won't.' + +Lady Charlotte dilated on it for a length of time, merely to show she +declined to believe it; pouring Morsfield over him and the talk of the +town, the gypsy caught in Spain--now to be foisted on her as her sister- +in-law! She could fancy she produced an effect. + +She did indeed unveil to him a portion of the sufferings his Aminta had +undergone; as visibly, too, the good argumentative reasons for his +previous avoidance of the deadly, dismal wrangle here forced on him. +A truly dismal, profitless wrangle! But the finish of it would be +the beginning of some solace to his Aminta. + +The finish of it must be to-morrow. He refrained from saying so, and +simply appointed to-morrow for the resumption of the wrestle, departing +in his invincible coat of patience: which one has to wear when dealing +with a woman like Charlotte, he informed Mr. Eglett, on his way out at +a later hour than on the foregone day. Mr. Eglett was of his opinion, +that an introduction of lawyers into a family dispute was 'rats in the +pantry'; and he would have joined him in his gloomy laugh, if the thought +of Charlotte in a contention had not been so serious a matter. She might +be beaten; she could not be brought to yield. + +She retired to her bedroom, and laid herself flat on her bed, immoveable, +till her maid undressed her for the night. A cup of broth and strip of +toast formed her sole nourishment. As for her doctor's possible +reproaches, the symptoms might crowd and do their worst; she fought for +the honour of her family. + +At midday of the third day Lady Charlotte was reduced to the condition of +those fortresses which wave defiantly the flag, but deliver no further +shot, awaiting the assault. Her body, affected by hideous old age, +succumbed. Her will was unshaken. She would not write to her bankers. +Mr. Eglett might go to them, if he thought fit. Rowsley was to +understand that he might call himself married; she would have no flower- +basket bunch of a sister-in-law thrust upon her. + +Lord Ormont and Mr. Eglett walked down to her bankers in the afternoon. +As a consequence of express injunctions given by my lady five years +previously, the assistant-manager sought an interview with her. + +The jewels were lodged at her house the day ensuing. They were examined, +verified by the list in Lady Charlotte's family record-book, and then +taken away--forcibly, of course--by her brother. + +He laughed in his dry manner; but the reminiscent glimpses, helping him +to see the humour of it, stirred sensations of the tug it had been with +that combative Charlotte, and excused him for having shrunk from the +encounter until he conceived it to be necessary. + +Settlement of the affair with Morsfield now claimed his attention. The +ironical tolerance he practised in relation to Morsfield when Aminta had +no definite station before the world changed to an angry irritability +at the man's behaviour now that she had stepped forth under his +acknowledgement of her as the Countess of Ormont. He had come round +to a rather healthier mind regarding his country, and his introduction +of the Countess of Ormont to the world was his peace-offering. + +As he returned home earlier on the third day, he found his diligent +secretary at work. The calling on Captain May and the writing to the +sort of man were acts obnoxious to his dignity; so he despatched Weyburn +to the captain's house, one in a small street of three narrow tenements +abutting on aristocracy and terminating in mews. Weyburn's mission was +to give the earl's address at Great Marlow for the succeeding days, and +to see Captain May, if the captain was at home. During his absence the +precious family jewel-box was locked in safety. Aminta and her friend, +little Miss Collett, were out driving, by the secretary's report. The +earl considered it a wholesome feature of Aminta's character that she +should have held to her modest schoolmate the fact spoke well for both of +them. + +A look at the papers to serve for Memoirs was discomposing, and led him +to think the secretary could be parted with as soon as he pleased to go: +say, a week hence. + +The Memoirs were no longer designed for issue. He had the impulse to +treat them on the spot as the Plan for the Defence of the Country had +been treated; and for absolutely obverse reasons. The secretary and the +Memoirs were associated: one had sprung out of the other. Moreover, the +secretary had witnessed a scene at Steignton. The young man had done his +duty, and would be thanked for that, and dismissed, with a touch of his +employer's hand. The young man would have made a good soldier--a better +soldier, good as he might be as a scribe. He ought to have been in his +father's footsteps, and he would then have disciplined or quashed his +fantastical ideas. Perhaps he was right on the point of toning the +Memoirs here and there. Since the scene at Steignton Lord Ormont's views +had changed markedly in relation to everybody about him, and most things. + +Weyburn came back at the end of an hour to say that he had left the +address with Mrs. May, whom he had seen. + +'A handsome person,' the earl observed. + +'She must have been very handsome,' said Weyburn. + +'Ah! we fall into their fictions, or life would be a bald business, upon +my word!' + +Lord Ormont had not uttered it before the sentiment of his greater luck +with one of that queer world of the female lottery went through him on a +swell of satisfaction, just a wave. + +An old-world eye upon women, it seemed to Weyburn. But the man who could +crown a long term of cruel injustice with the harshness to his wife at +Steignton would naturally behold women with that eye. + +However, he was allowed only to generalize; he could not trust himself +to dwell on Lady Ormont and the Aminta inside the shell. Aminta and Lady +Ormont might think as one or diversely of the executioner's blow she had +undergone. She was a married woman, and she probably regarded the +wedding by law as the end a woman has to aim at, and is annihilated by +hitting; one flash of success, and then extinction, like a boy's cracker +on the pavement. Not an elevated image, but closely resembling that +which her alliance with Lord Ormont had been! + +At the same time, no true lover of a woman advises her--imploring is +horrible treason--to slip the symbolic circle of the law from her finger, +and have in an instant the world for her enemy. She must consent to be +annihilated, and must have no feelings; particularly no mind. The mind +is the danger for her. If she has a mind alive, she will certainly push +for the position to exercise it, and run the risk of a classing with +Nature's created mates for reptile men. + +Besides, Lady Ormont appeared, in the company of her friend Selina +Collett, not worse than rather too thoughtful; not distinctly unhappy. +And she was conversable, smiling. She might have had an explanation with +my lord, accepting excuses--or, who knows? taking the blame, and offering +them. Weakness is pliable. So pliable is it, that it has been known for +a crack of the masterly whip to fling off the victim and put on the +culprit! Ay, but let it be as it may with Lady Ormont, Aminta is of a +different composition. Aminta's eyes of the return journey to London +were haunting lights, and lured him to speculate; and for her sake he +rejected the thought that for him they meant anything warmer than the +passing thankfulness, though they were a novel assurance to him of her +possession beneath her smothering cloud of the power to resolve, and show +forth a brilliant individuality. + +The departure of the ladies and my lord in the travelling carriage for +the house on the Upper Thames was passably sweetened to Weyburn by the +command to him to follow in a day or two, and continue his work there +until he left England. Aminta would not hear of an abandonment of the +Memoirs. She spoke on the subject to my lord as to a husband pardoned. + +She was not less affable and pleasant with him out of Weyburn's hearing. +My lord earned her gratitude for his behaviour to Selina Collett, to whom +he talked interestedly of her favourite pursuit, as he had done on the +day when, as he was not the man to forget, her arrival relieved him of +anxiety. Aminta, noticed the box on the seat beside him. + +They drove up to their country house in time to dress leisurely for +dinner. Nevertheless, the dinner-hour had struck several minutes before +she descended; and the earl, as if not expecting her, was out on the +garden path beside the river bank with Selina. She beckoned from the +step of the open French window. + +He came to her at little Selina's shuffling pace, conversing upon water- +plants. + +'No jewelry to-day?' he said. + +And Aminta replied: 'Carstairs has shown me the box and given the key. +I have not opened it.' + +'Time in the evening, or to-morrow. You guess the contents?' + +'I presume I do.' + +She looked feverish and shadowed. + +He murmured kindly: 'Anything?' + +'Not now: we will dine.' + +She had missed, had lost, she feared, her own jewelbox; a casket of no +great treasure to others, but of a largely estimable importance to her. + +After the heavy ceremonial entrance and exit of dishes, she begged the +earl to accompany her for an examination of the contents of the box. + +As soon as her chamber-door was shut, she said, in accents of alarm: +'Mine has disappeared. Carstairs, I know, is to be trusted. She +remembers carrying the box out of my room; she believes she can remember +putting it into the fly. She had to confess that it had vanished, +without her knowing how, when my boxes were unpacked.' + +'Is she very much upset?' said the earl. + +'Carstairs? Why, yes, poor creature! you can imagine. I have no doubt +she feels for me; and her own reputation is concerned. What do you think +is best to be done?' + +'To be done! Overhaul the baggage again in all the rooms.' + +'We've not failed to do that.' + +'Control yourself, my dear. If, by bad luck, they're lost, we can +replace them. The contents of this box, now, we could not replace. +Open it, and judge.' + +'I have no curiosity--forgive me, I beg. And the servant's fly has been +visited, ransacked inside and out, footmen questioned; we have not left +anything we can conceive of undone. My lord, will you suggest?' + +'The intrinsic value of the gems would not be worth--not worth Aminta's +one beat of the heart. Upon my word--not one!' + +An amatory knightly compliment breasting her perturbation roused an +unwonted spite; and a swift reflection on it startled her with a +suspicion. She cast it behind her. He could be angler and fish, he +would not be cat and mouse. + +She said, however, more temperately: 'It is not the value of the gems. +We are losing precious minutes!' + +'Association of them with the giver? Is it that? If that has a value +for you, he is flattered.' + +This betrayed him to the woman waxing as intensely susceptible in all her +being as powder to sparks. + +'There is to be no misunderstanding, my lord,' she said. 'I like-- +I value my jewels; but--I am alarmed lest the box should fall into hands +--into strange hands.' + +'The box!' he exclaimed with an outline of a comic grimace; and, if +proved a voluptuary in torturing, he could instance half a dozen points +for extenuation: her charm of person, withheld from him, and to be +embraced; her innocent naughtiness; compensation coming to her in excess +for a transient infliction of pain. 'Your anxiety is about the box?' + +'Yes, the box,' Aminta said firmly. 'It contains--' + +'No false jewels? A thief might complain.' + +'It contains letters, my lord.' 'Blackmail?' + +'You would be at liberty to read them. I would rather they were burnt.' + +'Ah!' The earl heaved his chest prodigiously. 'Blackmail letters are +better in a husband's hands, if they can be laid there.' + +'If there is a necessity for him to read them--yes.' + +'There may be a necessity, there can't be a gratification,--though there +are dogs of thick blood that like to scratch their sores,' he murmured to +himself. 'You used to show me these declaration epistles.' + +'Not the names.' + +'Not the names--no!' + +'When we had left the country, I showed you why it had been my wish to +go.' + +'Xarifa was and is female honour. Take the key, open that box; I will +make inquiries. But, my dear, you guess everything. Your little box was +removed for the bigger impression to be produced by this one.' + +A flash came out of her dark eyes. + +'No, you guess wrong this time, you clever shrew! I wormed nothing from +you,' said he. 'I knew you kept particular letters in that receptacle of +things of price: Aminta can't conceal. The man has worried you. Why not +have come to me?' + +'Oblige me, my lord, by restoring me my box.' + +'This is your box.' + +Her bosom lifted with the words Oh, no! unspoken. He took the key and +opened the box. A dazzling tray of stones was revealed; underneath it +the constellations in cases, very heavens for the worldly Eve; and he +doubted that Eve could have gone completely out of her. But she had, as +observation instructed him, set her woman's mind on something else, and +must have it before letting her eyes fall on objects impossible for any +of her sex to see without coveting them. + +He bowed. 'I will fetch it,' he said magnanimously. Her own box was +brought from his room. She then consented to look womanly at the Ormont +jewels, over which the battle; whereof she knew nothing, and nothing +could be told her, had been fought in her interests, for her sovereign +pleasure. + +She looked and admired. They were beautiful jewels the great emerald was +wonderful, and there were two rubies to praise. She excused herself for +declining to put the circlet for the pendant round her neck, or a +glittering ring on her finger. Her remarks were encomiums, not quite so +cold as those of a provincial spinster of an ascetic turn at an +exhibition of the world's flycatcher gewgaws. He had divided Aminta from +the Countess of Ormont, and it was the wary Aminta who set a guard on +looks and tones before the spectacle of his noble bounty, lest any, the +smallest, payment of the dues of the countess should be demanded. +Rightly interpreting him to be by nature incapable of asking pardon, or +acknowledging a wrong done by him, however much he might crave exemption +from blame and seek for peace, she kept to her mask of injury, though she +hated unforgivingness; and she felt it little, she did it easily, because +her heart was dead to the man. My lord's hand touched her on her +shoulder, propitiatingly in some degree, in his dumb way. + +Offended women can be emotional to a towering pride, that bends while it +assumes unbendingness: it must come to their sensations, as it were a +sign of humanity in the majestic, speechless king of beasts; and they are +pathetically melted, abjectly hypocritical; a nice confusion of +sentiments, traceable to a tender bosom's appreciation of strength and +the perceptive compassion for its mortality. + +In a case of the alienated wife, whose blood is running another way, no +foul snake's bite is more poisonous than that indicatory touch, however +simple and slight. My lord's hand, lightly laid on Aminta's shoulder, +became sensible of soft warm flesh stiffening to the skeleton. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A bird that won't roast or boil or stew +Acting is not of the high class which conceals the art +Ah! we fall into their fictions +Bad luck's not repeated every day Keep heart for the good +Began the game of Pull +By nature incapable of asking pardon +Consciousness of some guilt when vowing itself innocent +Having contracted the fatal habit of irony +He had to shake up wrath over his grievances +Her vehement fighting against facts +His aim to win the woman acknowledged no obstacle in the means +His restored sense of possession +How to compromise the matter for the sake of peace? +I could be in love with her cruelty, if only I had her near me +Men who believe that there is a virtue in imprecations +Not men of brains, but the men of aptitudes +Not the indignant and the frozen, but the genially indifferent +One is a fish to her hook; another a moth to her light +One night, and her character's gone +Passion added to a bowl of reason makes a sophist's mess +Policy seems to petrify their minds +Rage of a conceited schemer tricked +Respect one another's affectations +To time and a wife it is no disgrace for a man to bend +Uncommon unprogressiveness +When duelling flourished on our land, frail women powerful +Where heart weds mind, or nature joins intellect +With what little wisdom the world is governed + + + + + +LORD ORMONT AND HIS AMINTA + +By George Meredith + + + +BOOK 5. + +XXIV. LOVERS MATED +XXXV. PREPARATIONS FOR A RESOLVE +XXVI. VISITS OF FAREWELL +XXVII. A MARINE DUET +XXVIII. THE PLIGHTING +XXIX. AMINTA TO HER LORD +XXX. CONCLUSION + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +LOVERS MATED + +He was benevolently martial, to the extent of paternal, in thinking his +girl, of whom he deigned to think now as his countess, pardonably +foolish. Woman for woman, she was of a pattern superior to the world's +ordinary, and might run the world's elect a race. But she was pitifully +woman-like in her increase of dissatisfaction with the more she got. +Women are happier enslaved. Men, too, if their despot is an Ormont. +Colonel of his regiment, he proved that: his men would follow him +anywhere, do anything. Grand old days, before he was condemned by one +knows not what extraordinary round of circumstances to cogitate on women +as fluids, and how to cut channels for them, that they may course along +in the direction good for them, imagining it their pretty wanton will to +go that way! Napoleon's treatment of women is excellent example. +Peterborough's can be defended. + +His Aminta could not reason. She nursed a rancour on account of the blow +she drew on herself at Steignton, and she declined consolation in her +being pardoned. The reconcilement evidently was proposed as a finale of +one of the detestable feminine storms enveloping men weak enough to let +themselves be dragged through a scene for the sake of domestic +tranquillity. + +A remarkable exhibition of Aminta the woman was, her entire change of +front since he had taken her spousal chill. Formerly she was passive, +merely stately, the chiselled grande dame, deferential in her bearing +and speech, even when argumentative and having an opinion to plant. +She had always the independent eye and step; she now had the tongue of +the graceful and native great lady, fitted to rule her circle and hold +her place beside the proudest of the Ormonts. She bore well the small +shuffle with her jewel-box--held herself gallantly. There had been no +female feignings either, affected misapprehensions, gapy ignorances, and +snaky subterfuges, and the like, familiar to men who have the gentle +twister in grip. Straight on the line of the thing to be seen she flew, +and struck on it; and that is a woman's martial action. He would right +heartily have called her comrade, if he had been active himself. +A warrior pulled off his horse, to sit in a chair and contemplate the +minute evolutions of the sex is pettish with his part in such battle- +fields at the stage beyond amusement. + +Seen swimming, she charmed him. Abstract views of a woman summon +opposite advocates: one can never say positively, That is she! But the +visible fair form of a woman is hereditary queen of us. We have none of +your pleadings and counter-pleadings and judicial summaries to obstruct a +ravenous loyalty. My lord beheld Aminta take her three quick steps on +the plank, and spring and dive and ascend, shaking the ends of her bound +black locks; and away she went with shut mouth and broad stroke of her +arms into the sunny early morning river; brave to see, although he had to +flick a bee of a question, why he enjoyed the privilege of seeing, and +was not beside her. The only answer confessed to a distaste for all +exercise once pleasurable. + +She and her little friend boated or strolled through the meadows during +the day; he fished. When he and Aminta rode out for the hour before +dinner, she seemed pleased. She was amicable, conversable, all that was +agreeable as a woman, and she was the chillest of wives. My lord's +observations and reflections came to one conclusion: she pricked and +challenged him to lead up to her desired stormy scene. He met her and +meant to vanquish her with the dominating patience Charlotte had found +too much for her: women cannot stand against it. + +To be patient in contention with women, however, one must have a +continuous and an exclusive occupation; and the tax it lays on us +conduces usually to impatience with men. My lord did not directly +connect Aminta's chillness and Morsfield's impudence; yet the sensation +roused by his Aminta participated in the desire to punish Morsfield +speedily. Without wishing for a duel, he was moved by the social +sanction it had to consider whether green youths and women might not +think a grey head had delayed it too long. The practice of the duel +begot the peculiar animal logic of the nobler savage, which tends to +magnify an offence in the ratio of our vanity, and hunger for a blood +that is not demanded by the appetite. Moreover, a waning practice, in +disfavour with the new generation, will be commended to the conservative +barbarian, as partaking of the wisdom of his fathers. Further, too, we +may have grown slothful, fallen to moodiness, done excess of service to +Omphale, our tyrant lady of the glow and the chill; and then undoubtedly +the duel braces. + +He left Aminta for London, submissive to the terms of intimacy dictated +by her demeanour, his unacknowledged seniority rendering their harshness +less hard to endure. She had not gratified him with a display of her +person in the glitter of the Ormont jewels; and since he was, under +common conditions, a speechless man, his ineptitude for amorous +remonstrances precipitated him upon deeds, that he might offer additional +proofs of his esteem and the assurance of her established position as his +countess. He proposed to engage Lady Charlotte in a conflict severer +than the foregoing, until he brought her to pay the ceremonial visit to +her sister-in-law. The count of time for this final trial of his +masterfulness he calculated at a week. It would be an occupation, +miserable occupation though it was. He hailed the prospect of chastising +Morsfield, for a proof that his tussels with women, prolonged study of +their tricks, manoeuvrings and outwittings of them, had not emasculated +him. + +Aminta willingly promised to write from day to day. Her senses had his +absence insured to them by her anticipation of the task. She did not +conceive it would be so ponderous a task. What to write to him when +nothing occurred! Nothing did occur, unless the arrival of Mr. Weyburn +was to be named an event. She alluded to it: 'Mr. Weyburn has come, +expecting to find you here. The dispatch-box is here. Is he to await +you?' + +That innocent little question was a day gained. + +One day of boating on the upper reaches of the pastoral river, and walks +in woods and golden meadows, was felicity fallen on earth, the ripe fruit +of dreams. A dread surrounded it, as a belt, not shadowing the horizon; +and she clasped it to her heart the more passionately, like a mother her +rosy infant, which a dark world threatens and the universal fate. + +Love, as it will be at her June of life, was teaching her to know the +good and bad of herself. Women, educated to embrace principles through +their timidity and their pudency, discover, amazed, that these are not +lasting qualities under love's influence. The blushes and the fears take +flight. The principles depend much on the beloved. Is he a man whose +contact with the world has given him understanding of life's laws, and +can hold him firm to the right course in the strain and whirling of a +torrent, they cling to him, deeply they worship. And if they tempt him, +it is not advisedly done. Nature and love are busy in conjunction. The +timidities and pudencies have flown; they may hover, they are not +present. You deplore it, you must not blame; you have educated them so. +Muscular principles are sown only out in the world; and, on the whole, +with all their errors, the worldly men are the truest as well as the +bravest of men. Her faith in his guidance was equal to her dependence. +The retrospect of a recent journey told her how he had been tried. + +She could gaze tenderly, betray her heart, and be certain of safety. +Can wine match that for joy? She had no schemes, no hopes, but simply +the desire to bestow, the capacity to believe. Any wish to be enfolded +by him was shapeless and unlighted, unborn; though now and again for some +chance word or undefined thought she surprised the strange tenant of her +breast at an incomprehensibly faster beat, and knew it for her own and +not her own, the familiar the stranger--an utter stranger, as one who had +snared her in a wreath and was pulling her off her feet. + +She was not so guileless at the thought of little Selina Collett here, +and of Selina as the letter-bearer of old; and the marvel that Matey and +Browny and Selina were together after all! Was it not a kind of summons +to her to call him Matey just once, only once, in play? She burned and +ached to do it. She might have taxed her ingenuity successfully to +induce little Selina to the boldness of calling him Matey--and she then +repeating it, as the woman who revived with a meditative effort +recollections of the girl. Ah, frightful hypocrite! Thoughts of the +pleasure of his name aloud on her lips in his hearing dissolved through +her veins, and were met by Matthew Weyburn's open face, before which +hypocrisy stood rent and stripped. She preferred the calmer, the truer +pleasure of seeing him modestly take lessons in the nomenclature of +weeds, herbs, grasses, by hedge and ditch. Selina could instruct him as +well in entomology, but he knew better the Swiss, Tyrolese, and Italian +valley-homes of beetle and butterfly species. Their simple talk was a +cool zephyr fanning Aminta. + +The suggestion to unite the two came to her, of course, but their +physical disparity denied her that chance to settle her own difficulty, +and a whisper of one physically the match for him punished her. In +stature, in healthfulness, they were equals, perhaps: not morally or +intellectually. And she could claim headship of him on one little point +confided to her by his mother, who was bearing him, and startled by the +boom of guns under her pillow, when her husband fronted the enemy: +Matthew Weyburn, the fencer, boxer, cricketer, hunter, all things manly, +rather shrank from firearms--at least, one saw him put on a screw to +manipulate them. In danger--among brigands or mutineers, for example-- +she could stand by him and prove herself his mate. Intellectually, +morally, she had to bow humbly. Nor had she, nor could she do more than +lean on and catch example from his prompt spiritual valiancy. It shone +out from him, and a crisis fulfilled the promise. Who could be his mate +for cheerful courage, for skill, the ready mind, easy adroitness, and for +self-command? To imitate was a woman's utmost. + +Matthew Weyburn appeared the very Matey of the first of May cricketing +day among Cuper's boys the next morning, when seen pacing down the +garden-walk. He wore his white trousers of that happiest of old days-- +the 'white ducks' Aminta and Selina remembered. Selina beamed. 'Yes, he +did; he always wore them; but now it's a frock-coat instead of a jacket.' + +'But now he will be a master instead of a schoolboy,' said Aminta. +'Let us hope he will prosper.' + +'He gives me the idea of a man who must succeed,' Selina said; and she +was patted, rallied, asked how she had the idea, and kissed; Aminta +saying she fancied it might be thought, for he looked so confident. + +'Only not what the boys used to call "cocky,"' said Selina. 'He won't be +contemptuous of those he outstrips.' + +'His choice of the schoolmaster's profession points to a modesty in him, +does it not, little woman?' + +'He made me tell him, while you were writing your letters yesterday, all +about my brother and his prospects.' + +'Yes, that is like him. And I must hear of your brother, "little +Collett." Don't forget, Sely, little Collett was our postman.' + +The Countess of Ormont's humorous reference to the circumstance passed +with Selina for a sign of a poetic love of the past, and a present social +elevation that allowed her to review it impassively. She admired the +great lady and good friend who could really be interested in the fortunes +of a mere schoolmaster and a merchant's clerk. To her astonishment, by +some agency beyond her fathoming, she found herself, and hardly for her +own pleasure, pushing the young schoolmaster animatedly to have an +account of his aims in the establishment of the foreign school. + +Weyburn smiled. He set a short look at Aminta; and she, conscious of her +detected diplomacy, had an inward shiver, mixed of the fascination and +repugnance felt by a woman who knows that under one man's eyes her +character is naked and anatomized. Her character?--her soul. He held it +in hand and probed it mercifully. She had felt the sweet sting again and +again, and had shrunk from him, and had crawled to him. The love of him +made it all fascination. How did he learn to read at any moment right to +the soul of a woman? Did experience teach him, or sentimental sympathy? +He was too young, he was too manly. It must be because of his being in +heart and mind the brother to the sister with women. + +Thames played round them on his pastoral pipes. Bee-note and woodside +blackbird and meadow cow, and the fish of the silver rolling rings, +composed the leap of the music. + +She gave her mind to his voice, following whither it went; half was in +air, higher than the swallow's, exalting him. + +How is it he is the brother of women? They are sisters for him because +he is neither sentimentalist nor devourer. He will not flatter to feed +on them. The one he chooses, she will know love. There are women who go +through life not knowing love. They are inanimate automatic machines, +who lay them down at last, inquiring wherefore they were caused to move. +She is not of that sad flock. She will be mated; she will have the right +to call him Matey. A certain Browny called him Matey. She lived and +died. A certain woman apes Browny's features and inherits her passion, +but has forfeited her rights. Were she, under happiest conditions, +to put her hand in his, shame would burn her. For he is just--he is +Justice; and a woman bringing him less than his due, she must be a +creature of the slime! + +This was the shadowy sentiment that made the wall of division between +them. There was no other. Lord Ormont had struck to fragments that +barrier of the conventional oath and ceremonial union. He was unjust-- +he was Injustice. The weak may be wedded, they cannot be married; to +Injustice. And if we have the world for the buttress of injustice, then +is Nature the flaring rebel; there is no fixed order possible. Laws are +necessary instruments of the majority; but when they grind the sane human +being to dust for their maintenance, their enthronement is the rule of +the savage's old deity, sniffing blood-sacrifice. There cannot be a +based society upon such conditions. An immolation of the naturally +constituted individual arrests the general expansion to which we step, +decivilizes more, and is more impious to the God in man, than temporary +revelries of a licence that Nature soon checks. + +Arrows of thoughts resembling these shot over the half of Aminta's mind +not listening. Her lover's head was active on the same theme while he +spoke. They converged to it from looks crossing or catching profiles, +or from tones, from a motion of hand, from a chance word. Insomuch that +the third person present was kept unobservant only by her studious and +humble speculations on the young schoolmaster's grand project to bring +the nationalities together, and teach Old England to the Continent--the +Continent to Old England: our healthy games, our scorn of the lie, +manliness; their intellectual valour, diligence, considerate manners. + +'Just to name a few of the things for interchange,' said Weyburn. 'As to +method, we shall be their disciples. But I look forward to our fellows +getting the lead. No hurry. Why will they? you ask in petto. Well, +they 're emulous, and they take a thrashing kindly. That 's the way to +learn a lesson. I 've seen our fellows beaten and beaten--never the +courage beaten out of them. In the end, they won and kept the field. +They have a lot to learn--principally not to be afraid of ideas. They +lose heaps of time before they can feel at home with ideas. They call +themselves practical for having an addiction to the palpable. It is a +pretty wreath they clap on their deficiencies. Practical dogs are for +bones, horses for corn. I want the practical Englishman to settle his +muzzle in a nosebag of ideas. When he has once got hold of them, he +makes good stuff of them. On the Continent ideas have wings and pay +visits. Here, they're stay-at-home. Then I want our fellows to have the +habit of speaking from the chest. They shall return to England with the +whoop of the mountains in them and ready to jump out. They shall have +an Achillean roar; and they shall sing by second nature. Don't fear: +they'll give double for anything they take. I've known Italians, to whom +an Englishman's honesty of mind and dealing was one of the dreams of a +better humanity they had put in a box. Frenchmen, too, who, when they +came to know us, were astonished at their epithet of perfide, and loved +us.' + +'Emile,' said Aminta. 'You remember Emile, Selina: the dear little +French boy at Mr. Cuper's?' + +'Oh, I do,' Selina responded. + +'He will work with Mr. Weyburn in Switzerland.' + +'Oh, that will be nice!' the girl exclaimed. + +Aminta squeezed Selina's hand. A shower of tears clouded her eyes. She +chose to fancy it was because of her envy of the modest, busy, peaceful +girl, who envied none. Conquers also sincerity in the sincerest. She +was vexed with her full breast, and had as little command of her thoughts +as of her feelings. + +'Mr. Weyburn has ideas for the education of girls too,' she said. + +'There's the task,' said he. 'It's to separate them as little as +possible. All the--passez-moi le mot--devilry between the sexes begins +at their separation. They 're foreigners when they meet; and their +alliances are not always binding. The chief object in life, if happiness +be the aim, and the growing better than we are, is to teach men and women +how to be one; for, if they 're not, then each is a morsel for the other +to prey on. Lady Charlotte Eglett's view is, that the greater number of +them on both sides hate one another.' + +'Hate!' exclaimed Selina; and Aminta said: 'Is Lady Charlotte Eglett an +authority?' + +'She has observed, and she thinks. She has in the abstract the justest +of minds: and that is the curious point about her. But one may say they +are trained at present to be hostile. Some of them fall in love and +strike a truce, and still they are foreigners. They have not the same +standard of honour. They might have it from an education in common.' + +'But there must be also a lady to govern the girls?' Selina interposed. + +'Ah, yes; she is not yet found!' + +'Would it increase their mutual respect?--or show of respect, if you +like?' said Aminta, with his last remark at work as the shattering bell +of a city's insurrection in her breast. + +'In time, under management; catching and grouping them young. A boy who +sees a girl do what he can't, and would like to do, won't take refuge in +his muscular superiority--which, by the way, would be lessened.' + +'You suppose their capacities are equal?' + +'Things are not equal. I suppose their excellencies to make a pretty +nearly equal sum in the end. But we 're not weighing them each. The +question concerns the advantage of both.' + +'That seems just!' + +Aminta threw no voice into the word 'just.' It was the word of the +heavens assuaging earth's thirst, and she was earth to him. Her soul +yearned to the man whose mind conceived it. + +She said to Selina: 'We must plan an expedition next year or the year +after, and see how the school progresses.' + +All three smiled; and Selina touched and held Aminta's hand shyly. +Visions of the unseen Switzerland awed her. + +Weyburn named the Spring holiday time, the season of the flowering Alpine +robes. He promised welcome, pressed for a promise of the visit. Warmly +it was given. 'We will; we will indeed!' + +'I shall look forward,' he said. + +There was nothing else for him or for her, except to doat on the passing +minute that slipped when seized. The looking forward turned them to the +looking back at the point they had flown from, and yielded a momentary +pleasure, enough to stamp some section of a picture on their memories, +which was not the burning now Love lives for, in the clasp, if but of +hands. Desire of it destroyed it. They swung to the future, swung to +the present it made the past, sensible to the quick of the now they could +not hold. They were lovers. Divided lovers in presence, they thought +and they felt in pieces. Feelings and thoughts were forbidden to speech. +She dared look the very little of her heart's fulness, without the +disloyalty it would have been in him to let a small peep of his heart be +seen. While her hand was not clasped she could look tenderly, and her +fettered state, her sense of unworthiness muffled in the deeps, would +keep her from the loosening to passion. + +He who read through her lustrous, transiently dwelling eyes had not that +security. His part, besides the watch over the spring of his hot blood, +was to combat a host, insidious among which was unreason calling her +Browny, urging him to take his own, to snatch her from a possessor who +forfeited by undervaluing her. This was the truth in a better-ordered +world: she belonged to the man who could help her to grow and to do her +work. But in the world we have around us, it was the distorted truth: +and keeping passion down, he was able to wish her such happiness as +pertained to safety from shipwreck, and for himself, that he might +continue to walk in the ranks of the sober citizens. + +Oh, true and right, but she was gloriously beautiful! Day by day she +surpassed the wondrous Browny of old days. All women were eclipsed by +her. She was that fire in the night which lights the night and draws the +night to look at it. And more: this queen of women was beginning to have +a mind at work. One saw already the sprouting of a mind repressed. She +had a distinct ability; the good ambition to use her qualities. She +needed life and air--that is, comprehension of her, encouragement, the +companion mate. With what strength would she now endow him! The pride +in the sharp imagination of possessing her whispered a boast of the +strength her mate would have from her. His need and her need rushed +together somewhere down the skies. They could not, he argued, be +separated eternally. + +He had to leave her. Selina, shocked at a boldness she could not +understand in herself, begged him to stay and tell her of Switzerland +and Alpine flowers and herbs, and the valleys for the gold beetle and +the Apollo butterfly. Aminta hinted that Lord Ormont might expect to +find him there, if he came the next morning; but she would not try to +persuade, and left the decision with him, loving him for the pain he +inflicted by going. + +Why, indeed, should he stay? Both could ask; they were one in asking. +Anguish balanced pleasure in them both. The day of the pleasure was +heaven to remember, heaven to hope for; not so heavenly to pray for. +The praying for it, each knew, implored their joint will to decree the +perilous blessing. A shadowy sentiment of duty and rectitude, born of +what they had suffered, hung between them and the prayer for a renewal, +that would renew the tempting they were conscious of when the sweet, the +strained, throbbing day was over. They could hope for chance to renew +it, and then they would be irresponsible. Then they would think and wish +discreetly, so as to have it a happiness untainted. In refusing now to +take another day or pray for it, they deserved that chance should grant +it. + +Aminta had said through Selina the utmost her self-defences could allow. +But the idea of a final parting cut too cruelly into her life, and she +murmured: 'I shall see you before you go for good?' + +'I will come, here or in London.' + +'I can trust?' + +'Quite certain.' + +A meeting of a few hasty minutes involved none of the dangers of a sunny, +long summer day; and if it did, the heart had its claims, the heart had +its powers of resistance. Otherwise we should be base verily. + +He turned on a bow to leave her before there was a motion for the offer +of her hand. + +After many musings and frettings, she reached the wisdom of that. Wisdom +was her only nourishment now. A cold, lean dietary it is; but he +dispensed it, and it fed her, or kept her alive. It became a proud +feeling that she had been his fellow in the achievement of a piece of +wisdom; though the other feeling, that his hand's kind formal touching, +without pressure of hers, would have warmed her to go through the next +interview with her lord, mocked at pure satisfaction. Did he distrust +himself? Or was it to spare her? But if so, her heart was quite bare +to him! But she knew it was. + +Aminta drove her questioning heart as a vessel across blank circles of +sea, where there was nothing save the solitary heart for answer. It +answered intelligibly and comfortingly at last, telling her of proof +given that she could repose under his guidance with absolute faith. Was +ever loved woman more blest than she in such belief? She had it firmly; +and a blessedness, too, in this surety wavering beneath shadows of the +uncertainty. Her eyes knew it, her ears were empty of the words. Her +heart knew it, and it was unconfirmed by reason. As for his venturing to +love her, he feared none. And no sooner did that reflection surge than +she stood up beside him in revolt against her lion and lord. Her +instinct judged it impossible she could ever have yielded her heart to +a man lacking courage. Hence--what? when cowardice appeared as the sole +impediment to happiness now! + +He had gone, and the day lived again for both of them--a day of sheer +gold in the translation from troubled earth to the mind. One another's +beauty through the visage into the character was newly perceived and +worshipped; and the beauties of pastoral Thames, the temple of peace, +hardly noticed in the passing of the day--taken as air to the breather; +until some chip of the scene, round which an emotion had curled, was +vivid foreground and gateway to shrouded romance: it might be the +stream's white face browning into willow-droopers, or a wagtail on a +water-lily leaf, or the fore-horse of an up-river barge at strain of +legs, a red-finned perch hung a foot above the pebbles in sun-veined +depths, a kingfisher on the scud under alders, the forest of the bankside +weeds. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +PREPARATIONS FOR A RESOLVE + +That day receded like a spent billow, and lapsed among the others +advancing, but it left a print deeper than events would have stamped. +Aminta's pen declined to run to her lord; and the dipping it in ink was +no acceleration of the process. A sentence, bearing likeness to an +artless infant's trot of the half-dozen steps to mother's lap, stumbled +upon the full stop midway. Desperate determination pushed it along, and +there was in consequence a dead stop at the head of the next sentence. +A woman whose nature is insurgent against the majesty of the man to whom +she must, among the singular injunctions binding her, regularly write, +sees no way between hypocrisy and rebellion. For rebellion, she, with +the pen in her hand, is avowedly not yet ripe, hypocrisy is abominable. + +If she abstained from writing, he might travel down to learn the cause; +a similar danger, or worse, haunted the writing frigidly. She had to be +the hypocrite or else--leap. + +But an honest woman who is a feeling woman, when she consents to play +hypocrite, cannot do it by halves. From writing a short cold letter, +Aminta wrote a short warm one, or very friendly. Length she could avoid, +because she was unable to fill a page. It seemed that she could not +compose a friendly few lines without letting her sex be felt in them. +What she had put away from her, so as not to feel it herself, the +simulation of ever so small a bit of feeling brought prominently back; +and where she had made a cast for flowing independent simplicity, she +was feminine, ultra-feminine to her reading of it. + +Better take the leap than be guilty of double-dealing even on paper! +The nature of the leap she did not examine. + +Her keen apprehension of the price payable for his benevolent intentions +caught scent of them in the air. Those Ormont jewels shone as emblems of +a detested subjection, the penalty for being the beautiful woman rageing +men proclaimed. Was there no scheme of some other sort, and far less +agreeable, to make amends for Steignton? She was shrewd at divination; +she guessed her lord's design. Rather than meet Lady Charlotte, she +proposed to herself the 'leap' immediately; knowing it must be a leap in +the dark, hoping it might be into a swimmer's water. She had her own +pin-money income, and she loathed the chain of her title. So the leap +would at least be honourable, as it assuredly would be unregretted, +whatever ensued. + +While Aminta's heart held on to this debate, and in her bed, in her boat, +across the golden valley meadows beside her peaceful little friend, she +gathered a gradual resolution without sight of agencies or consequences, +Lord Ormont was kept from her by the struggle to master his Charlotte a +second time--compared with which the first was insignificant. And this +time it was curious: he could not subdue her physique, as he did before; +she was ready for him each day, and she was animated, much more voluble, +she was ready to jest. The reason being, that she fought now on +plausibly good grounds: on behalf of her independent action. + +Previously, her intelligence of the ultimate defeat hanging over the more +stubborn defence of a weak position had harassed her to death's door. +She had no right to retain the family jewels; she had the most perfect of +established rights to refuse doing an ignominious thing. She refused to +visit the so-called Countess of Ormont, or leave her card, or take one +step to warrant the woman in speaking of her as her sister-in-law. And +no,--it did not signify that her brother Rowsley was prohibited by her +from marrying whom he pleased. It meant, that to judge of his acts as +those of a reasoning man, he would have introduced his wife to his +relatives--the relatives he had not quarrelled with--immediately upon his +marriage unless he was ashamed of the woman; and a wife he was ashamed of +was no sister-in-law for her nor aunt for her daughters. Nor should she +come playing the Black Venus among her daughters' husbands, Lady +Charlotte had it in her bosom to say additionally. + +Lord Ormont was disconcerted by her manifest pleasure in receiving him +every day. Evidently she consented to the recurrence of a vexatious +dissension for the enjoyment of having him with her hourly. Her +dialectic, too, was cunning. Impetuous with meaning, she forced her +way to get her meaning out, in a manner effective to strike her blow. +Anything for a diversion or a triumph of the moment! He made no way. +She was the better fencer at the tongue. + +Yet there was not any abatement of her deference to her brother; and this +little misunderstanding put aside, he was the Rowsley esteemed by her as +the chief of men. She foiled him, it might seem, to exalt him the more. +After he had left the house, visibly annoyed and somewhat stupefied, she +talked of him to her husband, of the soul of chivalry Rowsley was, the +loss to his country. Mr. Eglett was a witness to one of the +altercations, when she, having as usual the dialectical advantage, +praised her brother, to his face, for his magnanimous nature; regretting +only that it could be said he was weak on the woman side of him--which +was, she affirmed, a side proper to every man worth the name; but in his +case his country might complain. Of what?--Well, of a woman.--What had +she done, for the country to complain of her?--Why, then, arts or graces, +she had bewitched and weaned him from his public duty, his military +service, his patriotic ambition. + +Lord Ormont's interrogations, heightening the effect of Charlotte's +charge, appeared to Mr. Eglett as a giving of himself over into her +hands; but the earl, after a minute of silence, proved he was a tricky +combatant. It was he who had drawn on Charlotte, that he might have his +opportunity to eulogize--'this lady, whom you continue to call the woman, +after I have told you she is my wife.' According to him, her appeals, +her entreaties, that he should not abandon his profession or let his +ambition rust, had been at one period constant. + +He spoke fervently, for him eloquently; and he gained his point; he +silenced Lady Charlotte's tongue, and impressed Mr. Eglett. + +When the latter and his wife were alone, he let her see that the Countess +of Ormont was becoming a personage in his consideration. + +Lady Charlotte cried out: 'Hear these men where it's a good-looking woman +between the winds! Do you take anything Rowsley says for earnest? You +ought to know he stops at no trifle to get his advantage over you in a +dispute. That 's the soldier in him. It 's victory at any cost!--and I +like him for it. Do you tell me you think it possible my brother Rowsley +would keep smothered years under a bushel the woman he can sit here +magnifying because he wants to lime you and me: you to take his part, and +me to go and call the noble creature decked out in his fine fiction my +sister-in-law. Nothing 'll tempt me to believe my brother could behave +in such a way to the woman he respected!' + +So Mr. Eglett opined. But he had been impressed. + +He relieved his mind on the subject in a communication to Lord Adderwood; +who habitually shook out the contents of his to Mrs. Lawrence Finchley, +and she, deeming it good for Aminta to have information of the war waging +for her behoof, obtained her country address, with the resolve to drive +down, a bearer of good news to the dear woman she liked to think of, look +at, and occasionally caress; besides rather tenderly pitying her, now +that a change of fortune rendered her former trials conspicuous. + +An incident, considered grave even in the days of the duel and the kicks +against a swelling public reprehension of the practice, occurred to +postpone her drive for four-and-twenty hours. London was shaken by +rumours of a tragic mishap to a socially well-known gentleman at the +Chiallo fencing rooms. The rumours passing from mouth to mouth acquired, +in the nature of them, sinister colours as they circulated. Lord Ormont +sent Aminta word of what he called 'a bad sort of accident at Chiallo's,' +without mentioning names or alluding to suspicions. + +He treated it lightly. He could not have written of it with such +unconcern if it involved the secretary! Yet Aminta did seriously ask +herself whether he could; and she flew rapidly over the field of his +character, seizing points adverse, points favourably advocative, +balancing dubiously--most unjustly: she felt she was unjust. But in her +condition, the heart of a woman is instantly planted in jungle when the +spirits of the two men closest to her are made to stand opposed by a +sudden excitement of her fears for the beloved one. She cannot see +widely, and is one of the wild while the fit lasts; and, after it, that +savage narrow vision she had of the unbeloved retains its vivid print in +permanence. Was she unjust? Aminta cited corroboration of her being +accurate: such was Lord Ormont! and although his qualities of gallantry, +courtesy, integrity, honourable gentleman, presented a fair low-level +account on the other side, she had so stamped his massive selfishness +and icy inaccessibility to emotion on her conception of him that the +repulsive figure formed by it continued towering when her mood was +kinder. + +Love played on love in the woman's breast. Her love had taken a fever +from her lord's communication of the accident at Chiallo's, and she +pushed her alarm to imagine the deadliest, and plead for the right of +confession to herself of her unrepented regrets. She and Matey Weyburn +had parted without any pressure of hands, without a touch. They were, +then, unplighted if now the grave divided them! No touch: mere glances! +And she sighed not, as she pleaded, for the touch, but for the plighting +it would have been. If now she had lost him, he could never tell herself +that since the dear old buried and night-walking schooldays she had said +once Matey to him, named him once to his face Matey Weyburn. A sigh like +the roll of a great wave breaking against a wall of rock came from her +for the possibly lost chance of naming him to his face Matey,--oh, and +seeing his look as she said it! + +The boldness might be fancied: it could not be done. Agreeing with the +remote inner voice of her reason so far, she toned her exclamatory +foolishness to question, in Reason's plain, deep, basso-profundo +accompaniment tone, how much the most blessed of mortal women could +do to be of acceptable service to a young schoolmaster? + +There was no reply to the question. But it became a nestling centre for +the skiey flock of dreams, and for really temperate soundings of her +capacities, tending to the depreciatory. She could do little. She +entertained the wish to work, not only 'for the sake of Somebody,' as her +favourite poet sang, but for the sake of working and serving--proving +that she was helpfuller than a Countess of Ormont, ranged with all the +other countesses in china and Dresden on a drawing-room mantelpiece for +show. She could organize, manage a household, manage people too, she +thought: manage a husband? The word offends. Perhaps invigorate him, +here and there perhaps inspire him, if he would let her breathe. +Husbands exist who refuse the right of breathing to their puppet wives. +Above all, as it struck her, she could assist, and be more than an echo +of one nobler, in breathing manliness, high spirit, into boys. With that +idea she grazed the shallows of reality, and her dreams whirred from the +nest and left it hungrily empty. + +Selina Collett was writing under the verandah letters to her people in +Suffolk, performing the task with marvellous ease. Aminta noted it as a +mark of superior ability, and she had the envy of the complex nature +observing the simple. It accused her of some guiltiness, uncommitted and +indefensible. She had pushed her anxiety about 'the accident at +Chiallo's' to an extreme that made her the creature of her sensibilities. +In the midst of this quiet country life and landscape; these motionless +garden flowers headed by the smooth white river, and her gentle little +friend so homely here, the contemplation of herself was like a shriek in +music. Worse than discordant, she pronounced herself inferior, unfit +mentally as well as bodily for the dreams of companionship with any noble +soul who might have the dream of turning her into something better. +There are couples in the world, not coupled by priestly circumstance, who +are close to the true; union, by reason of generosity on the one part, +grateful devotion, as for the gift of life, on the other. For instance, +Mrs. Lawrence Finchley and Lord Adderwood, which was an instance without +resemblance; but Aminta's heart beat thick for what it wanted, and they +were the instance of two that did not have to snap false bonds of a +marriage-tie in order to walk together composedly outside it--in honour? +Oh yes, yes! She insisted on believing it was in honour. + +She saw the couple issue from the boathouse. She had stepped into the +garden full of a presentiment; so she fancied, the moment they were seen. +She had, in fact, heard a noise in the boathouse while thinking of them, +and the effect on her was to spring an idea of mysterious interventions +at the sight. + +Mrs. Lawrence rushed to her, and was embraced. 'You 're not astonished +to see me? Adder drove me down, and stopped his coach at the inn, and +rowed me the half-mile up. We will lunch, if you propose; but presently. +My dear, I have to tell you things. You have heard?' + +'The accident?' + +Aminta tried to read in Mrs. Lawrence's eyes whether it closely concerned +her. + +Those pretty eyes, their cut of lids hinting at delicate affinities with +the rice-paper lady of the court of China, were trying to peer +seriously. + +'Poor man! One must be sorry for him: he--' + +'Who?' + +'You 've not heard, then?' Mrs. Lawrence dropped her voice: 'Morsfield.' + +Aminta shivered. 'All I have heard-half a line from my lord this +morning: no name. It was at the fencing-rooms, he said.' + +'Yes, he wouldn't write more;' said Mrs. Lawrence, nodding. 'You know, +he would have had to do it himself if it had not been done for him. +Adder saw him some days back in a brown consultation near his club with +Captain May. Oh, but of course it was accident! Did he call it so in +his letter to you?' + +'One word of Mr. Morsfield: he is wounded?' + +'Past cure: he has the thing he cried for, spoilt boy as he was from his +birth. I tell you truth, m' Aminta, I grieve to lose him. What with his +airs of the foreign-tinted, punctilious courtly gentleman covering a +survival of the ancient British forest boar or bear, he was a picture in +our modern set, and piquant. And he was devoted to our sex, we must +admit, after the style of the bears. They are for honey, and they have a +hug. If he hadn't been so much of a madman, I should have liked him for +his courage. He had plenty of that, nothing to steer it. A second +cousin comes in for his estates.' + +'He is dead?' Aminta cried. + +'Yes, dear, he is gone. What the women think of it I can't say. The +general feeling among the men is that some one of them would have had to +send him sooner or later. The curious point, Adder says, is his letting +it be done by steel. He was a dead shot, dangerous with the small sword, +as your Mr. Weyburn said, only soon off his head. But I used to be +anxious about the earl's meeting him with pistols. He did his best to +provoke it. Here, Adder,'--she spoke over her shoulder,--'tell Lady +Ormont all you know of the Morsfield-May affair.' + +Lord Adderwood bowed compliance. His coolness was the masculine of Mrs. +Lawrence's hardly feminine in treating of a terrible matter, so that the +dull red facts had to be disengaged from his manner of speech before they +sank into Aminta's acceptance; of them as credible. + +'They fought with foils, buttons off, preliminary ceremonies perfect; +salute in due order; guard, and at it. + +Odd thing was, nobody at Chiallo's had a notion of the business till +Morsfield was pinked. He wouldn't be denied; went to work like a fellow +meaning to be skewered, if he couldn't do the trick: and he tried it. +May had been practising some weeks. He's well on the Continent by this +time. It'll blow over. Button off sheer accident. I wasn't lucky +enough to see the encounter: came in just when Chiallo was lashing his +poll over Morsfield flat on the ground. He had it up to the hilt. We +put a buttoned foil by the side of Morsfield, and all swore to secrecy. +As it is, it 'll go badly against poor Chiallo. Taste for fencing won't +be much improved by the affair. They quarrelled in the dressing room, +and fetched the foils and knocked off the buttons there. A big rascal +toady squire of Morsfield's did it for him. Morsfield was just up from +Yorkshire. He said he was expecting a summons elsewhere, bound to await +it, declined provocation for the present. May filliped him on the +cheek.' + +'Adder conveyed the information of her husband's flight to the consolable +Amy,' said Mrs. Lawrence. + +'He had to catch the coach for Dover,' Adderwood explained. 'His wife +was at a dinner-party. I saw her at midnight.' + +'Fair Amy was not so very greatly surprised?' + +'Quite the soldier's wife!' + +'She said she was used to these little catastrophes. But, Adder, what +did she say of her husband?' + +'Said she was never anxious about him, for nothing would kill him.' + +Mrs. Lawrence shook a doleful head at Aminta. + +'You see, my dear Aminta, here's another, and probably her last, chance +of sharing the marquisate gone. Who can fail to pity her, except old +Time! And I 'm sure she likes her husband well enough. She ought: no +woman ever had such a servant. But the captain has not been known to +fight without her sanction, and the inference is--'Alas! woe! Fair Amy +is doomed to be the fighting captain's bride to the end of the chapter. +Adder says she looked handsome. A dinner-party suits her cosmetic +complexion better than a ball. The account of the inquest is in the +day's papers, and we were tolerably rejoiced we could drive out of London +without having to reply to coroner's questions.' + +'He died-soon?' Aminta's voice was shaken. + +Mrs. Lawrence touched at her breast, it might be for heart or lungs. +Judging by Aminta's voice and face, one could suppose she was harking +back, in woman's way, to her original sentiment for the man, now that he +lay prostrate. + +Aminta read the unreproachful irony in the smile addressed to her. She +was too convulsed by her many emotions and shouting thoughts to think of +defending herself. + +Selina, in the drawing-room, diligently fingered and classed brown-black +pressed weeds of her neophyte's botany-folios. The sight of her and her +occupation struck Aminta as that of a person in another world beyond this +world of blood, strangely substantial to view; and one heard her speak. + +Guilty?--no. But she had wished to pique her lord. After the term of a +length of months, could it be that the unhappy man and she were punished +for the half-minute's acting of some interest in him? And Lord Ormont +had been seen consulting Captain May; or was it giving him directions? + +Her head burned. All the barren interrogations were up, running and +knocking for hollow responses; and, saving a paleness of face, she +cloaked any small show of the riot. She was an amiable hostess. She had +ceased to comprehend Mrs. Lawrence, even to the degree of thinking her +unfeminine. She should have known that the 'angelical chimpanzee,' as a +friend, once told of his being a favourite with the lady, had called her, +could not simulate a feeling, and had not the slightest power of pretence +to compassion for an ill-fated person who failed to quicken her +enthusiasm. In that, too, she was a downright boy. Morsfield was a kind +of Bedlamite to her; amusing in his antics, and requiring to be +manoeuvred and eluded while he lived: once dead, just a tombstone, of +interest only to his family. + +She beckoned Aminta to follow her; and, with a smirk of indulgent fun, +commended Lord Adderwood to a study of Selina Collett's botany-folios, +which the urbanest of indifferent gentlemen had slid his eyes over his +nose to inspect before the lunch. + +'You ought to know what is going on in town, my dear Aminta. You have +won the earl to a sense of his duty, and he 's at work on the harder task +of winning Lady Charlotte Eglett to a sense of hers. It 's tremendous. +Has been forward some days, and no sign of yielding on either side. Mr. +Eglett, good man, is between them, catching it right and left; and he +deserves his luck for marrying her. Vows she makes him the best of +wives. If he 's content, I 've nothing to complain of. You must be +ready to receive her; my lord is sure to carry the day. You gulp. You +won't be seeing much of her. I 'm glad to say he is condescending to +terms of peace with the Horse Guards. We hear so. You may be throning +it officially somewhere next year. And all 's well that ends well! Say +that to me!' + +'It is, when the end comes,' Aminta replied. + +Mrs. Lawrence's cool lips were pressed to her cheek. The couple and +their waterman rowed away to the party they had left with the four-in- +hand at their inn. + +A wind was rising. The trees gave their swish of leaves, the river +darkened the patch of wrinkles, the bordering flags amid the reed-blades +dipped and streamed. + +Surcharged with unassimilated news of events, that made a thunder in her +head, Aminta walked down the garden path, meeting Selina and bearing her +on. She had a witch's will to rouse gales. Hers was not the woman's +nature to be driven cowering by stories of men's bloody deeds. She took +the field, revolted, dissevering herself from the class which tolerated +them--actuated by a reflective moralty, she believed; and loathed herself +for having aspired, schemed, to be a member of the class. But it was not +the class, it was against her lord as representative of the class, +that she was now the rebel, neither naming him nor imaging him. Her +enveloping mind was black on him. Such as one of those hard slaughtering +men could call her his own? She breathed short and breathed deep. Her +bitter reason had but the common pity for a madman despatched to his +rest. Yet she knew hatred of her lord in his being suspected as +instigator or accomplice of the hand that dealt the blow. He became to +her thought a python whose coils were about her person, insufferable to +the gaze backward. + +Moments like these are the mothers in travail of a resolve joylessly +conceived, undesired to clasp, Necessity's offspring. Thunderclouds have +as little love of the lightnings they fling. + +Aminta was aware only of her torment. The trees were bending, the water +hissing, the grasses all this way and that, like hands of a delirious +people in surges of wreck. She scorned the meaningless shake of the +garments of earth, and exclaimed: 'If we were by the sea to-night!' + +'I shall be to-morrow night,' said Selina. 'I shall think of you. Oh! +would you come with me?' + +'Would you have me?' + +'My mother will indeed be honoured by your consenting to come.' + +'Write to her before the post is out.' + +'We shall travel down together?' + +Aminta nodded and smiled, and Selina kissed her hand in joy, saying, that +down home she would not be so shy of calling her Aminta. She was bidden +to haste. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +VISITS OF FAREWELL + +The noise in London over Adolphus Morsfield's tragical end disturbed Lord +Ormont much less than the cessation of letters from his Aminta; and that +likewise, considering his present business on her behalf, he patiently +shrugged at and pardoned, foreseeing her penitent air. He could do it +lightly after going some way to pardon his offending country. For Aminta +had not offended, his robust observation of her was moved to the kindly +humorous by a reflective view here and there of the downright woman her +clever little shuffles exposed her to be, not worse. It was her sex that +made her one of the gliders in grasses, some of whom are venomous; but +she belonged to the order only as an innocuous blindworm. He could +pronounce her small by-play with Morsfield innocent, her efforts to climb +the stairs into Society quite innocent; judging her, of course, by her +title of woman. A woman's innocence has a rainbow skin. Set this one +beside other women, she comes out well, fairly well, well enough. + +Now that the engagement with Charlotte assumed proportions of a series of +battle, properly to be entitled a campaign, he had, in his loneliness, +fallen into the habit of reflecting at the close of his day's work; and +the rubbing of that unused opaque mirror hanging inside a man of action +had helped him piecemeal to perceive bits of his conduct, entirely +approved by him, which were intimately connected, nevertheless, with a +train of circumstances that he disliked and could not charge justly upon +any other shoulders than his own. What was to be thought of it? He +would not be undergoing this botheration of the prolonged attempt to +bring a stubborn woman to a sense of her duty, if he had declared his +marriage in the ordinary style, and given his young countess her +legitimate place before the world. What impeded it? The shameful +ingratitude of his countrymen to the soldier who did it eminent service +at a crisis of the destinies of our Indian Empire! He could not condone +the injury done to him by entering among them again. Too like the kicked +cur, that! He retired--call it 'sulked in his tent,' if you like. His +wife had to share his fortunes. He being slighted, she necessarily was +shadowed. For a while she bore it contentedly enough; then began her +mousy scratches to get into the room off the wainscot, without blame from +him; she behaved according to her female nature. + +Yes, but the battles with Charlotte forced on his recognition once more, +and violently, the singular consequences of his retirement and Coriolanus +quarrel with his countrymen. He had doomed himself ever since to a +contest with women. First it was his Queen of Amazons, who, if +vanquished, was not so easily vanquished, and, in fact, doubtfully, +--for now, to propitiate her, he had challenged, and must overcome or be +disgraced, the toughest Amazonian warrior man could stand against at cast +of dart or lock of arms. No day scored an advantage; and she did not +apparently suffer fatigue. He did: that is to say, he was worried and +hurried to have the wrangle settled and Charlotte at Aminta's feet. He +gained not an inch of ground. His principle in a contention of the sort +was to leave the woman to the practice of her obvious artifices, and +himself simply hammer, incessantly hammer. But Charlotte hammered as +well. The modest position of the defensive negative was not to her +taste. The moment he presented himself she flew out upon some +yesterday's part of the argument and carried the war across the borders, +in attacks on his character and qualities--his weakness regarding women, +his incapacity to forgive, and the rest. She hammered on that head. As +for any prospect of a termination of the strife, he could see none in her +joyful welcome to him and regretful parting and pleased appointment of +the next meeting day after day. + +The absurdest of her devices for winding him off his aim was to harp on +some new word she had got hold of as, for example, to point out to him +his aptitudes, compliment him on his aptitudes, recommend him to study +and learn the limitations of his aptitudes! She revelled in something +the word unfolded to her. + +However, here was the point: she had to be beaten. So, if she, too, +persisted in hammering, he must employ her female weapon of artifice with +her. One would gladly avoid the stooping to it in a civil dispute, in +which one is not so gloriously absolved for lying and entrapping as in +splendid war. + +Weyburn's name was announced to him at an early hour on Thursday morning. +My lord nodded to the footman; he nodded to himself over a suggestion +started in a tactical intelligence by the name. + +'Ah! you 're off?' he accosted the young man. + +'I have come to take my leave, my lord.' + +'Nothing new in the morning papers?' + +'A report that Captain May intends to return and surrender.' + +'Not before a month has passed, if he follows my counsel.' + +'To defend his character.' + +'He has none.' + +'His reputation.' + +'He has too much.' + +'These charges against him must be intolerable.' + +'Was he not a bit of a pupil of yours?' + +'We practised two or three times-nothing more.' + +'Morsfield was a wasp at a feast. Somebody had to crush him. I 've seen +the kind of man twice in my life and exactly the kind of man. If their +law puts down duelling, he rules the kingdom!' + +'My lord, I should venture to say the kind of man can be a common +annoyance because the breach of the law is countenanced.' + +'Bad laws are best broken. A society that can't get a scouring now and +then will be a dirty set.' + +With a bend of the head, in apology for speaking of himself, Weyburn +said: 'I have acted on my view. I declined a challenge from a sort of +henchman of his.' + +'Oh! a poacher's lurcher? You did right. Fight such fellows with +constables. You have seen Lady Charlotte?' + +'I am on my way to her ladyship.' + +'Do me this favour. Fourteen doors up the street of her residence, my +physician lives. I have to consult him at once. Dr. Rewkes.' + +Weyburn bowed. Lady Charlotte could not receive him later than half-past +ten of the morning, he said. 'This morning she can,' said my lord. 'You +will tell Dr. Rewkes that it is immediate. I rather regret your going. +I shall be in a controversy with the Horse Guards about our cavalry +saddles. It would be regiments of raw backs the first fortnight of a +campaign.' + +The earl discoursed on saddles; and passed to high eulogy of our +Hanoverian auxiliary troopers in the Peninsula; 'good husbands,' he named +them quaintly, speaking of their management of their beasts. Thence he +diverged to Frederic's cavalry, rarely matched for shrewdness and +endurance; to the deeds of the Liechtenstein Hussars; to the great +things Blucher did with his horsemen. + +The subject was interesting; but Weyburn saw the clock at past the half +after ten. He gave a slight sign of restiveness, and was allowed to go +when the earl had finished his pro and con upon Arab horses and Mameluke +saddles. Lord Ormont nicked his head, just as at their first interview: +he was known to have an objection to the English shaking of hands. +'Good-morning,' he said; adding a remark or two, of which et cetera may +stand for an explicit rendering. It concerned the young man's +prosperity: my lord's conservative plain sense was in doubt of the +prospering of a giddy pate, however good a worker. His last look at the +young man, who had not served him badly, held an anticipation of possibly +some day seeing a tatterdemalion of shipwreck, a rueful exhibition of +ideas put to the business of life. + +Weyburn left the message with Dr. Rewkes in person. It had not seemed +to him that Lord Ormont was one requiring the immediate attendance of a +physician. By way of accounting to Lady Charlotte for the lateness of +his call, he mentioned the summons he had delivered. + +'Oh, that's why he hasn't come yet,' said she. 'We'll sit and talk till +he does come. I don't wonder if his bile has been stirred. He can't oil +me to credit what he pumps into others. His Lady Ormont! I believe in +it less than ever I did. Morsfield or no Morsfield--and now the poor +wretch has got himself pinned to the plank, like my grandson Bobby's +dragonflies, I don't want to say anything further of him--she doesn't +have much of a welcome at Steignton! If I were a woman to wager as men +do, I 'd stake a thousand pounds to five on her never stepping across the +threshold of Steignton. All very well in London, and that place he hires +up at Marlow. He respects our home. That 's how I know my brother +Rowsley still keeps a sane man. A fortune on it!--and so says Mr. +Eglett. Any reasonable person must think it. He made a fool of some +Hampton-Evey at Madrid, if he went through any ceremony--and that I +doubt. But she and old (what do they call her?) may have insisted upon +the title, as much as they could. He sixty; she under twenty, I'm told. +Pagnell 's the name. That aunt of a good-looking young woman sees a +noble man of sixty admiring her five feet seven or so--she's tall--of +marketable merchandise, and she doesn't need telling that at sixty he'll +give the world to possess the girl. But not his family honour! He stops +at that. Why? Lord Ormont 's made of pride! He'll be kind to her, +he'll be generous, he won't forsake her; she'll have her portion in his +will, and by the course of things in nature, she'll outlive him and +marry, and be happy, I hope. Only she won't enter Steignton. You +remember what I say. You 'll live when I 'm gone. It 's the thirst of +her life to be mistress of Steignton. Not she!--though Lord Ormont would +have us all open our doors to her; mine too, now he 's about it. He sets +his mind on his plan, and he forgets rights and dues--everything; he must +have it as his will dictates. That 's how he made such a capital +soldier. You know the cavalry leader he was. If they'd given him a +field in Europe! His enemies admit that. Twelve! and my clock's five +minutes or more slow. What can Rowsley be doing?' + +She rattled backward on the scene at Steignton, and her brother's +handsome preservation of his dignity 'stood it like the king he is!' and +to the Morsfield-May encounter, which had prevented another; and Mrs. May +was rolled along in the tide, with a hint of her good reason for liking +Lord Ormont; also the change of opinion shown by the Press as to Lord +Ormont's grand exploit. Referring to it, she flushed and jigged on her +chair for a saddle beneath her. And that glorious Indian adventure +warmed her to the man who had celebrated it among his comrades when a boy +at school. + +'You 're to teach Latin and Greek, you said. For you 're right: we +English can't understand the words we 're speaking, if we don't know a +good deal of Latin and some Greek. "Conversing in tokens, not standard +coin," you said, I remember; and there'll be a "general rabble tongue," +unless we English are drilled in the languages we filched from. Lots +of lords and ladies want the drilling, then! I'll send some over to you +for Swiss air and roots of the English tongue. Oh, and you told me you +supported Lord Ormont on his pet argument for corps d'elite; and you +quoted Virgil to back it. Let me have that line again--in case of his +condescending to write to the papers on the subject.' + +Weyburn repeated the half-line. + +'Good: I won't forget now. And you said the French act on that because +they follow human nature, and the English don't. We "bully it," you +said. That was on our drive down to Steignton. I hope you 'll succeed. +You 'll be visiting England. Call on me in London or at Olmer--only mind +and give me warning. I shall be glad to see you. I 've got some ideas +from you. If I meet a man who helps me to read the world and men as +they are, I 'm grateful to him; and most people are not, you 'll find. +They want you to show them what they 'd like the world to be. We don't +agree about a lady. You 're in the lists, lance in rest, all for +chivalry. You 're a man, and a young man. Have you taken your leave of +her yet? She'll expect it, as a proper compliment.' + +'I propose running down to take my leave of Lady Ormont to-morrow,' +replied Weyburn. + +'She is handsome?' + +She is very handsome.' + +'Beautiful, do you mean?' + +'Oh, my lady, it would only be a man's notion!' + +'Now, that 's as good an answer as could be made! You 're sure to +succeed. I 'm not the woman's enemy. But let her keep her place. Why, +Rowsley can't be coming to-day! Did Lord Ormont look ill?' + +'It did not strike me so.' + +'He 's between two fires. A man gets fretted. But I shan't move a step. +I dare say she won't. Especially with that Morsfield out of the way. +You do mean you think her a beauty. Well, then, there'll soon be a +successor to Morsfield. Beauties will have their weapons, and they can +hit on plenty; and it 's nothing to me, as long as I save my brother from +their arts.' + +Weyburn felt he had done his penance in return for kindness. He bowed +and rose, Lady Charlotte stretched out her hand. + +'We shall be sending you a pupil some day,' she said, and smiled. + +'Forward your address as soon as you 're settled.' Her face gave a +glimpse of its youth in a cordial farewell smile. + +Lord Ormont had no capacity to do the like, although they were strictly +brother and sister in appearance. The smallest difference in character +rendered her complex and kept him simple. She had a thirsting mind. + +Weyburn fancied that a close intimacy of a few months would have enabled +him to lift her out of her smirching and depraving mean jealousies. He +speculated, as he trod the street, on little plots and surprises, which +would bring Lady Charlotte and Lady Ormont into presence, and end by +making friends of them. Supposing that could be done, Lady Ormont might +be righted by the intervention of Lady Charlotte after all. + +Weyburn sent his dream flying with as dreamy an after-thought: 'Funny it +will be then for Lady Charlotte to revert to the stuff she has been +droning in my ear half an hour ago!--Look well behind, and we see spots +where we buzzed, lowed, bit and tore; and not until we have cast that +look and seen the brute are we human creatures.' + +A crumb of reflection such as this could brace him, adding its modest +maravedi to his prized storehouse of gain, fortifying with assurances of +his having a concrete basis for his business in life. His great youthful +ambition had descended to it, but had sunk to climb on a firmer footing. + +Arthur Abner had his next adieu. They talked of Lady Ormont, as to whose +position of rightful Countess of Ormont Mr. Abner had no doubt. He said +of Lady Charlotte: 'She has a clear head; but she loves her "brother +Rowsley" excessively; and any excess pushes to craziness.' + +He spoke to Weyburn of his prospects in the usually, perhaps necessarily, +cheerless tone of men who recognize by contrast the one mouse's nibbling +at a mountain of evil. 'To harmonize the nationalities, my dear boy! +teach Christians to look fraternally on Jews! David was a harper, but +the setting of him down to roll off a fugue on one of your cathedral +organs would not impose a heavier task than you are undertaking. You +have my best wishes, whatever aid I can supply. But we 're nearer to +King John's time than to your ideal, as far as the Jews go.' + +'Not in England.' + +'Less in England,' Abner shrugged. + +'You have beaten the Christians on the field they challenged you to enter +for a try. They feel the pinch in their interests and their vanity. +That will pass. I 'm for the two sides, under the name of Justice; +and I give the palm to whichever of the two first gets hold of the idea +of Justice. My old schoolmate's well?' + +'Always asking after Matey Weyburn !' + +'He shall have my address in Switzerland. You and I will be +corresponding.' + +Now rose to view the visit to the lady who was Lady Ormont on the tongue, +Aminta at heart; never to be named Aminta even to himself. His heart +broke loose at a thought of it. + +He might say Browny. For that was not serious with the intense present +signification the name Aminta had. Browny was queen of the old school- +time-enclosed it in her name; and that sphere enclosed her, not excluding +him. And the dear name of Browny played gently, humorously, fervently, +too, with life: not, pathetically, as that of Aminta did when came a +whisper of her situation, her isolation, her friendlessness; hardly +dissimilar to what could be imagined of a gazelle in the streets of +London city. The Morsfields were not all slain. The Weyburns would be +absent. + +At the gate of his cottage garden Weyburn beheld a short unfamiliar +figure of a man with dimly remembered features. Little Collett he still +was in height. The schoolmates had not met since the old days of +Cuper's. + +Little Collett delivered a message of invitation from Selina, begging Mr. +Weyburn to accompany her brother on the coach to Harwich next day, and +spend two or three days by the sea. But Weyburn's mind had been set in +the opposite direction--up Thames instead of down. + +He was about to refuse, but he checked his voice and hummed. Words of +Selina's letter jumped in italics. He perceived Lady Ormont's hand. +For one thing, would she be at Great Marlow alone? And he knew that hand +--how deftly it moved and moved others. Selina Collett would not have +invited him with underlinings merely to see a shoreside house and garden. +Her silence regarding a particular name showed her to be under +injunction, one might guess. At worst, it would be the loss of a couple +of days; worth the venture. They agreed to journey by coach next day. + +Facing eastward in the morning, on a seat behind the coachman, Weyburn +had a seafaring man beside him, bound for the good port of Harwich, where +his family lived, and thence by his own boat to Flushing. Weyburn set +him talking of himself, as the best way of making him happy; for it is +the theme which pricks to speech, and so liberates an uncomfortably +locked-up stranger; who, if sympathetic to human proximity, is thankful. +They exchanged names, delighted to find they were both Matthews; +whereupon Matthew of the sea demanded the paw of Matthew of the land, and +there was a squeeze. The same with little Collett, after hearing of him +as the old schoolmate of the established new friend. Then there was +talk. Little Collett named Felixstowe as the village of his mother's +house and garden sloping to the sands. 'That 's it-you have it,' said +the salted Matthew: 'peace is in that spot, and there I 've sworn to +pitch my tent when I 'm incapacitated for further exercise--profitable, +so to speak. My eldest girl has a bar of amber she picked up one wash of +the tide at Felixstowe, and there it had been lying sparkling, unseen, +hours, the shore is that solitary. What I like!--a quiet shore and a +peopled sea. Ever been to Brighton? There it 's t' other way.' + +Not long after he had mentioned the time of early evening for their entry +into his port of Harwich, the coach turned quietly over on a bank of the +roadside, depositing outside passengers quite safely, in so matter-of- +course a way, that only the screams of an uninjured lady inside repressed +their roars of laughter. One of the wheels had come loose, half a mile +off the nearest town. Their entry into Harwich was thereby delayed until +half-past nine at night. Full of consideration for the new mates now +fast wedded to his heart by an accident. Matthew Shale proposed to +Matthew Weyburn, instead of the bother of crossing the ferry with a +portmanteau and a bag at that late hour, to sup at his house, try the +neighbouring inn for a short sleep, and ship on board his yawl, the +honest Susan, to be rowed ashore off the Swin to Felixstowe sands no +later than six o'clock of a summer's morning, in time for a bath and a +swim before breakfast. It sounded well--it sounded sweetly. Weyburn +suggested the counter proposal of supper for the three at the inn. But +the other Matthew said: 'I married a cook. She expects a big appetite, +and she always keeps warm when I 'm held away, no matter how late. Sure +to be enough.' + +Beds were secured at the inn; after which came the introduction to Mrs. +Shale, the exhibition of Susan Shale's bar of amber, the dish of fresh- +fried whiting, the steak pudding, a grog, tobacco, rest at the inn, and +a rousing bang at the sleepers' doors when the unwonted supper in them +withheld an answer to the intimating knock. Young Matthew Shale, who had +slept on board the Susan, conducted them to her boat. His glance was +much drawn to the very white duck trousers Weyburn had put on, for a +souvenir of the approbation they had won at Marlow. They were on, and so +it was of no use for young Matthew to say they were likely to bear away a +token from the Susan. She was one among the damsels of colour, and free +of her tokens, especially to the spotless. + +How it occurred, nobody saw; though everybody saw how naturally it must +occur for the white ducks to 'have it in the eye' by the time they had +been on board a quarter of an hour. Weyburn got some fun out of them, +for a counterbalance to a twitch of sentimental regret scarcely +decipherable, as that the last view of him should bear a likeness of +Browny's recollection of her first. + +A glorious morning of flushed open sky and sun on sea chased all small +thoughts out of it. The breeze was from the west, and the Susan, lightly +laden, took the heave of smooth rollers with a flowing current-curtsey in +the motion of her speed. Fore-sail and aft were at their gentle strain; +her shadow rippled fragmentarily along to the silver rivulet and boat of +her wake. Straight she flew to the ball of fire now at spring above the +waters, and raining red gold on the line of her bows. By comparison she +was an ugly yawl, and as the creature of wind and wave beautiful. + +They passed an English defensive fort, and spared its walls, in obedience +to Matthew Shale's good counsel that they should forbear from sneezing. +Little Collett pointed to the roof of his mother's house twenty paces +rearward of a belt of tamarisks, green amid the hollowed yellows of +shorebanks yet in shade, crumbling to the sands. Weyburn was attracted +by a diminutive white tent, of sentry-box shape, evidently a bather's, +quite as evidently a fair bather's. He would have to walk on some way +for his dip. He remarked to little Collett that ladies going into the +water half-dressed never have more than half a bath. His arms and legs +flung out contempt of that style of bathing, exactly in old Matey's well- +remembered way. Half a mile off shore, the Susan was put about to flap +her sails, and her boat rocked with the passengers. Turning from a final +cheer to friendly Matthew, Weyburn at the rudder espied one of those +unenfranchised ladies in marine uniform issuing through the tent-slit. +She stepped firmly, as into her element. A plain look at her, and a +curious look, and an intent look fixed her fast, and ran the shock on his +heart before he knew of a guess. She waded, she dipped; a head across +the breast of the waters was observed: this one of them could swim. She +was making for sea, a stone's throw off the direction of the boat. +Before his wits had grasped the certainty possessing them, fiery envy and +desire to be alongside her set his fingers fretting at buttons. A grand +smooth swell of the waters lifted her, and her head rose to see her +world. She sank down the valley, where another wave was mounding for its +onward roll: a gentle scene of Weyburn's favourite Sophoclean chorus. +Now she was given to him--it was she. How could it ever have been any +other! He handed his watch to little Collett, and gave him the ropes, +pitched coat and waistcoat on his knees, stood free of boots and socks, +and singing out, truly enough, the words of a popular cry, 'White ducks +want washing,' went over and in. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +A MARINE DUET + +She soon had to know she was chased. She had seen the dive from the +boat, and received all illumination. With a chuckle of delighted +surprise, like a blackbird startled, she pushed seaward for joy of the +effort, thinking she could exult in imagination of an escape up to the +moment of capture, yielding then only to his greater will; and she meant +to try it. + +The swim was a holiday; all was new--nothing came to her as the same old +thing since she took her plunge; she had a sea-mind--had left her earth- +mind ashore. The swim, and Matey Weyburn pursuing her passed up, out of +happiness, through the spheres of delirium, into the region where our +life is as we would have it be a home holding the quiet of the heavens, +if but midway thither, and a home of delicious animation of the whole +frame, equal to wings. + +He drew on her, but he was distant, and she waved an arm. The shout of +her glee sprang from her: 'Matey!' He waved; she heard his voice. Was it +her name? He was not so drunken of the sea as she: he had not leapt out +of bondage into buoyant waters, into a youth without a blot, without an +aim, satisfied in tasting; the dream of the long felicity. + +A thought brushed by her: How if he were absent? It relaxed her stroke +of arms and legs. He had doubled the salt sea's rapture, and he had +shackled its gift of freedom. She turned to float, gathering her knees +for the funny sullen kick, until she heard him near. At once her stroke +was renewed vigorously; she had the foot of her pursuer, and she called, +'Adieu, Matey Weyburn!' + +Her bravado deserved a swifter humiliation than he was able to bring down +on her: she swam bravely, and she was divine to see ahead as well as +overtake. + +Darting to the close parallel, he said: 'What sea nymph sang me my name?' + +She smote a pang of her ecstasy into him: 'Ask mine!' + +'Browny!' + +They swam; neither of them panted; their heads were water-flowers that +spoke at ease. + +'We 've run from school; we won't go back.' + +'We 've a kingdom.' + +'Here's a big wave going to be a wall.' + +'Off he rolls.' + +'He's like the High Brent broad meadow under Elling Wood.' + +'Don't let Miss Vincent hear you.' + +'They 're not waves; they 're sighs of the deep.' + +'A poet I swim with! He fell into the deep in his first of May morning +ducks. We used to expect him.' + +'I never expected to owe them so much.' + +Pride of the swimmer and the energy of her joy embraced Aminta, that she +might nerve all her powers to gain the half-minute for speaking at her +ease. + +'Who 'd have thought of a morning like this? You were looked for last +night.' + +'A lucky accident to our coach. I made friends with the skipper of the +yawl.' + +'I saw the boat. Who could have dreamed----? Anything may happen now.' + +For nothing further would astonish her, as he rightly understood her; but +he said: 'You 're prepared for the rites? Old Triton is ready.' + +'Float, and tell me.' + +They spun about to lie on their backs. Her right hand, at piano-work of +the octave-shake, was touched and taken, and she did not pull it away. +Her eyelids fell. + +'Old Triton waits.' + +'Why?' + +'We 're going to him.' + +'Yes?' + +'Customs of the sea.' + +'Tell me.' + +'He joins hands. We say, "Browny-Matey," and it 's done.' + +She splashed, crying 'Swim,' and after two strokes, 'You want to beat me, +Matey Weyburn.' + +'How?' + +'Not fair!' + +'Say what.' + +'Take my breath. But, yes! we'll be happy in our own way. We 're sea- +birds. We 've said adieu to land. Not to one another. We shall be +friends?' + +'Always.' + +'This is going to last?' + +'Ever so long.' + +They had a spell of steady swimming, companionship to inspirit it. +Browny was allowed place a little foremost, and she guessed not +wherefore, in her flattered emulation. + +'I 'm bound for France.' + +'Slew a point to the right: South-east by South. We shall hit +Dunkerque.' + +'I don't mean to be picked up by boats.' + +'We'll decline.' + +'You see I can swim.' + +'I was sure of it.' + +They stopped their talk--for the pleasure of the body to be savoured in +the mind, they thought; and so took Nature's counsel to rest their voices +awhile. + +Considering that she had not been used of late to long immersions, and +had not broken her fast, and had talked much, for a sea-nymph, Weyburn +spied behind him on a shore seeming flat down, far removed. + +'France next time,' he said: 'we'll face to the rear.' + +'Now?' said she, big with blissful conceit of her powers and incredulous +of such a command from him. + +'You may be feeling tired presently.' + +The musical sincerity of her 'Oh no, not I!' sped through his limbs; he +had a willingness to go onward still some way. + +But his words fastened the heavy land on her spirit, knocked at the habit +of obedience. Her stroke of the arms paused. She inclined to his +example, and he set it shoreward. + +They swam silently, high, low, creatures of the smooth green roller. He +heard the water-song of her swimming. She, though breathing equably at +the nostrils, lay deep. The water shocked at her chin, and curled round +the under lip. He had a faint anxiety; and, not so sensible of a weight +in the sight of land as she was, he chattered, by snatches, rallied her, +encouraged her to continue sportive for this once, letting her feel it +was but a once and had its respected limit with him. So it was not out +of the world. + +Ah, friend Matey! And that was right and good on land; but rightness and +goodness flung earth's shadow across her brilliancy here, and any stress +on 'this once' withdrew her liberty to revel in it, putting an end to +perfect holiday; and silence, too, might hint at fatigue. She began to +think her muteness lost her the bloom of the enchantment, robbing her of +her heavenly frolic lead, since friend Matey resolved to be as eminently +good in salt water as on land. Was he unaware that they were boy and +girl again?--she washed pure of the intervening years, new born, by +blessing of the sea; worthy of him here!--that is, a swimmer worthy of +him, his comrade in salt water. + +'You're satisfied I swim well?' she said. + +'It would go hard with me if we raced a long race.' + +'I really was out for France.' + +'I was ordered to keep you for England.' She gave him Browny's eyes. + +'We've turned our backs on Triton.' + +'The ceremony was performed.' + +'When?' + +'The minute I spoke of it and you splashed.' + +'Matey! Matey Weyburn!' + +'Browny Farrell!' + +'Oh, Matey! she's gone!' + +'She's here.' + +'Try to beguile me, then, that our holiday's not over. You won't forget +this hour?' + +'No time of mine on earth will live so brightly for me.' + +'I have never had one like it. I could go under and be happy; go to old +Triton, and wait for you; teach him to speak your proper Christian name. +He hasn't heard it yet,--heard "Matey,"--never yet has been taught +"Matthew."' + +'Aminta!' + +'Oh, my friend! my dear!' she cried, in the voice of the wounded, like a +welling of her blood: 'my strength will leave me. I may play--not you: +you play with a weak vessel. Swim, and be quiet. How far do you count +it?' + +'Under a quarter of a mile.' + +'Don't imagine me tired.' + +'If you are, hold on to me.' + +'Matey, I'm for a dive.' + +He went after the ball of silver and bubbles, and they came up together. +There is no history of events below the surface. + +She shook off her briny blindness, and settled to the full sweep of the +arms, quite silent now. Some emotion, or exhaustion from the strain of +the swimmer's breath in speech, stopped her playfulness. The pleasure +she still knew was a recollection of the outward swim, when she had been +privileged to cast away sex with the push from earth, as few men will +believe that women, beautiful women, ever wish to do; and often and +ardently during the run ahead they yearn for Nature to grant them their +one short holiday truce. + +But Aminta forgave him for bringing earth so close to her when there was +yet a space of salt water between her and shore; and she smiled at times, +that he might not think she was looking grave. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +THE PLIGHTING + +They touched sand at the first draw of the ebb, and this being earth, +Matey addressed himself to the guardian and absolving genii of matter-of- +fact, by saying; 'Did you inquire about the tides?' + +Her head shook, stunned with what had passed. She waded to shore, +after motioning for him to swim on. Men, in comparison beside their fair +fellows, are so little sensationally complex, that his one feeling now, +as to what had passed, was relief at the idea of his presence having been +a warrantable protectorship. + +Aminta's return from the sea-nymph to the state of woman crossed +annihiliation on the way back to sentience, and picked up meaningless +pebbles and shells of life, between the sea's verge and her tent's +shelter; hardly her own life to her understanding yet, except for the +hammer Memory became, to strike her insensible, at here and there a +recollected word or nakedness of her soul. + +He swam along by the shore to where the boat was paddled, spying at her +bare feet on the sand, her woman's form. He waved, and the figure in the +striped tunic and trousers waved her response, apparently the same person +he had quitted. + +Dry and clad, and decently formal under the transformation, they met at +Mrs. Collett's breakfast-table, and in each hung the doubt whether land +was the dream or sea. Both owned to a swim; both omitted mention of the +tale of white ducks. Little Collett had brought Matey's and his +portmanteau into the house, by favour of the cook, through the scullery. +He, who could have been a pictorial and suggestive narrator, carried a +spinning head off his shoulders from this wonderful Countess of Ormont to +Matey Weyburn's dark-eyed Browny at High Brent, and the Sunday walk in +Sir Peter Wensell's park. Away and back his head went. Browny was not +to be thought of as Browny; she was this grand Countess of Ormont; she +had married Matey Weyburn's hero: she would never admit she had been +Browny. Only she was handsome then, and she is handsome now; and she +looks on Matey Weyburn now just as she did then. How strange is the +world! Or how if we are the particular person destined to encounter the +strange things of the world? And fancy J. Masner, and Pinnett major, and +young Oakes (liked nothing better than a pretty girl, he strutted +boasting at thirteen), and the Frenchy, and the lot, all popping down at +the table, and asked the name of the lady sitting like Queen Esther--how +they would roar out! Boys, of course--but men, too!--very few men have a +notion of the extraordinary complications and coincidences and cracker- +surprises life contains. Here 's an instance; Matey Weyburn positively +will wear white ducks to play before Aminta Farrell on the first of May +cricketing-day. He happens to have his white ducks on when he sees the +Countess of Ormont swimming in the sea; and so he can go in just as if +they were all-right bathing-drawers. In he goes, has a good long swim +with her, and when he comes out, says, of his dripping ducks, 'tabula +votiva . . . avida vestimenta,' to remind an old schoolmate of his +hopping to the booth at the end of a showery May day, and dedicating them +to the laundry in these words. It seems marvellous. It was a quaint +revival, an hour after breakfast, for little Collett to be acting as +intermediary with Selina to request Lady Ormont's grant of a five- +minutes' interview before the church-bell summoned her. She was writing +letters, and sent the message: 'Tell Mr. Weyburn I obey.' Selina +delivered it, uttering 'obey' in a demurely comical way, as a word of +which the humour might be comprehensible to him. + +Aminta stood at the drawing-room window. She was asking herself whether +her recent conduct shrieked coquette to him, or any of the abominable +titles showered on the women who take free breath of air one day after +long imprisonment. + +She said: 'Does it mean you are leaving us?' the moment he was near. + +'Not till evening or to-morrow, as it may happen,' he answered: 'I have +one or two things to say, if you will spare the time.' + +'All my time,' said she, smiling to make less of the heart's reply; and +he stepped into the room. + +They had not long back been Matey and Browny, and though that was in +another element, it would not sanction the Lady Ormont and Mr. Weyburn +now. As little could it be Aminta and Matthew. Brother and sister they +were in the spirit's world, but in this world the titles had a sound of +imposture. And with a great longing to call her by some allying name, he +rejected 'friend' for its insufficiency and commonness, notwithstanding +the entirely friendly nature of the burden to be spoken. Friend, was a +title that ran on quicksands: an excuse that tried for an excuse. He +distinguished in himself simultaneously, that the hesitation and beating +about for a name had its origin in an imperfect frankness when he sent +his message: the fretful desire to be with her, close to her, hearing +her, seeing her, besides the true wish to serve her. He sent it after +swinging round abruptly from an outlook over the bordering garden +tamarisks on a sea now featureless, desolately empty. + +However, perceptibly silence was doing the work of a scourge, and he +said: 'I have been thinking I may have--and I don't mind fighting hard to +try it before I leave England on Tuesday or Wednesday--some influence +with Lady Charlotte Eglett. She is really one of the true women living, +and the heartiest of backers, if she can be taught to see her course. +I fancy I can do that. She 's narrow, but she is not one of the class +who look on the working world below them as, we'll say, the scavenger +dogs on the plains of Ilium were seen by the Achaeans. And my failure +would be no loss to you! Your name shall not be alluded to as empowering +me to plead for her help. But I want your consent, or I may be haunted +and weakened by the idea of playing the busy-body. One has to feel +strong in a delicate position. Well, you know what my position with her +has been--one among the humble; and she has taken contradictions, +accepted views from me, shown me she has warmth of heart to an extreme +degree.' + +Aminta slightly raised her hand. 'I will save you trouble. I have +written to Lord Ormont. I have left him.' + +Their eyes engaged on the thunder of this. 'The letter has gone?' + +'It was posted before my swim: posted yesterday.' + +'You have fully and clearly thought it out to a determination?' + +'Bit by bit--I might say, blow by blow.' + +'It is no small matter to break a marriage-tie.' + +'I have conversed with your mother.' + +'Yes, she! and the woman happiest in marriage!' + +'I know. It was hatred of injustice, noble sympathy. And she took me +for one of the blest among wives.' + +'She loved God. She saw the difference between men's decrees for their +convenience, and God's laws. She felt for women. You have had a hard +trial Aminta.' + +'Oh, my name! You mean it?' + +'You heard it from me this morning.' + +'Yes, there! I try to forget. I lost my senses. You may judge me +harshly, on reflection.' + +'Judge myself worse, then. You had a thousand excuses. I had only my +love of you. There's no judgement against either of us, for us to see, +if I read rightly. We elect to be tried in the courts of the sea-god. +Now we 'll sit and talk it over. The next ten minutes will decide our +destinies.' + +His eyes glittered, otherwise he showed the coolness of the man +discussing business; and his blunt soberness refreshed and upheld her, as +a wild burst of passion would not have done. + +Side by side, partly facing, they began their interchange. + +'You have weighed what you abandon?' + +'It weighs little.' + +'That may be error. You have to think into the future.' + +'My sufferings and experiences are not bad guides.' + +'They count. How can you be sure you have all the estimates?' + +'Was I ever a wife?' + +'You were and are the Countess of Ormont.' + +'Not to the world. An unacknowledged wife is a slave, surely.' + +'You step down, if you take the step.' + +'From what? Once I did desire that station--had an idea it was glorious. +I despise it: or rather the woman who had the desire.' + +'But the step down is into the working world.' + +'I have means to live humbly. I want no more, except to be taught to +work.' + +'So says the minute. Years are before you. You have weighed well, that +you attract?' + +She reddened and murmured: 'How small!' Her pout of spite at her +attractions was little simulated. + +'Beauty and charm are not small matters. You have the gift, called +fatal. Then--looking right forward--you have faith in the power of +resistance of the woman living alone?' + +He had struck at her breast. From her breast she replied. + +'Hear this of me. I was persecuted with letters. I read them and did +not destroy them. Perhaps you saved me. Looking back, I see weakness, +nothing worse; but it is a confession.' + +'Yes, you have courage. And that comes of a great heart. And therein +lies the danger.' + +'Advise me of what is possible to a lonely woman.' + +'You have resolved on the loneliness?' + +'It means breathing to me.' + +'You are able to see that Lord Ormont is a gentleman?' + +'A chivalrous gentleman, up to the bounds of his intelligence.' + +The bounds of his intelligence closed their four walls in a rapid +narrowing slide on Aminta's mind, and she exclaimed: + +'If only to pluck flowers in fields and know their names, I must be free! +I say what one can laugh at, and you are good and don't. Is the +interrogatory exhausted?' + +'Aminta, my beloved, if you are free, I claim you.' + +'Have you thought--?' + +The sense of a dissolving to a fountain quivered through her veins. + +'Turn the tables and examine me.' + +'But have you thought--oh! I am not the girl you loved. I would go +through death to feel I was, and give you one worthy of you.' + +'That means what I won't ask you to speak at present but I must have +proof.' + +He held out a hand, and hers was laid in his. + +There was more for her to say, she knew. It came and fled, lightened and +darkened. She had yielded her hand to him here on land, not with the +licence and protection of the great holiday salt water; and she was +trembling from the run of his blood through hers at the pressure of +hands, when she said in undertones: 'Could we--we might be friends.' + +'Meet and part as friends, you and I,' he replied. + +His voice carried the answer for her, his intimate look had in it the +unfolding of the full flower of the woman to him, as she could not +conceal from such eyes; and feeling that, she was all avowal. + +'It is for life, Matthew.' + +'My own words to myself when I first thought of the chance.' + +'But the school?' + +'I shall not consider that we are malefactors. We have the world against +us. It will not keep us from trying to serve it. And there are hints of +humaner opinions; it's not all a huge rolling block of a Juggernaut. Our +case could be pleaded before it. I don't think the just would condemn us +heavily. I shall have to ask you to strengthen me, complete me. If you +love me, it is your leap out of prison, and without you, I am from this +time no better than one-third of a man. I trust you to weigh the +position you lose, and the place we choose to take in the world. It 's +this--I think this describes it. You know the man who builds his house +below the sea's level has a sleepless enemy always threatening. His +house must be firm and he must look to the dykes. We commit this +indiscretion. With a world against us, our love and labour are +constantly on trial; we must have great hearts, and if the world is +hostile we are not to blame it. In the nature of things it could not be +otherwise. My own soul, we have to see that we do--though not publicly, +not insolently, offend good citizenship. But we believe--I with my whole +faith, and I may say it of you--that we are not offending Divine law. +You are the woman I can help and join with; think whether you can tell +yourself that I am the man. So, then, our union gives us powers to make +amends to the world, if the world should grant us a term of peace for the +effort. That is our risk; consider it, Aminta, between now and tomorrow; +deliberate. We don't go together into a garden of roses.' + +'I know. I should feel shame. I wish it to look dark,' said Aminta, her +hand in his, and yet with a fair-sailing mind on the stream of the blood. + +Rationally and irrationally, the mixed passion and reason in two clear +heads and urgent hearts discussed the stand they made before a world +defied, neither of them quite perceiving what it was which coloured +reason to beauty, or what so convinced their intellects when passion +spoke the louder. + +'I am to have a mate.' + +'She will pray she may be one.' + +'She is my first love.' + +Aminta's lips formed 'mine,' without utterance. + +Meanwhile his hand or a wizardry subdued her will, allured her body. She +felt herself being drawn to the sign and seal of their plighting for +life. She said, 'Matthew,' softly in protest; and he said, 'Never once +yet!' She was owing to his tenderness. Her deepened voice murmured: +'Is this to deliberate?' Colour flooded the beautiful dark face, as of +the funeral hues of a sun suffusing all the heavens; firing earth. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +AMINTA TO HER LORD + +On Friday, on Saturday, on Sunday, Lady Charlotte waited for her brother +Rowsley, until it was a diminished satisfaction that she had held her +ground and baffled his mighty will to subdue her. She did not sleep for +thinking of him on the Sunday night. Toward morning a fit of hazy +horrors, which others would have deemed imaginings, drove her from her +bed to sit and brood over Rowsley in a chair. What if it was a case of +heart with him too? Heart disease had been in the family. A man like +Rowsley, still feeling the world before him, as a man of his energies and +aptitudes, her humour added in the tide of his anxieties, had a right to +feel, would not fall upon resignation like a woman. + +She was at the physician's door at eight o'clock. Dr. Rewkes reported +reassuringly; it was a simple disturbance in Lord Ormont's condition of +health, and he conveyed just enough of disturbance to send the impetuous +lady knocking and ringing at her brother's door upon the hour of nine. + +The announcement of Lady Charlotte's early visit informed my lord that +Dr. Rewkes had done the spiriting required of him. He descended to the +library and passed under scrutiny. + +'You don't look ill, Rowsley,' she said, reluctantly in the sound. + +'I am the better for seeing you here, Charlotte. Shall I order breakfast +for you? I am alone.' + +'I know you are. I've eaten. Rewkes tells me you've not lost appetite.' + +'Have I the appearance of a man who has lost anything?' Prouder man, and +heartier and ruddier, could not be seen, she thought. + +'You're winning the country to right you; that I know.' + +'I don't ask it.' + +'The country wants your services.' + +'I have heard some talk of it. That lout comes to a knowledge of his +wants too late. If they promoted and offered me the command in India to- +morrow--'My lord struck the arm of his chair. 'I live at Steignton +henceforth; my wife is at a seaside place eastward. She left the jewel- +case when on her journey through London for safety; she is a particularly +careful person, forethoughtful. I take her down to Steignton two days +after her return. We entertain there in the autumn. You come?' + +'I don't. I prefer decent society.' + +'You are in her house now, ma'am.' + +'If I have to meet the person, you mean, I shall be civil. The society +you've given her, I won't meet.' + +'You will have to greet the Countess of Ormont if you care to meet your +brother.' + +'Part, then, on the best terms we can. I say this, the woman who keeps +you from serving your country, she 's your country's enemy.' + +'Hear my answer. The lady who is my wife has had to suffer for what you +call my country's treatment of me. It 's a choice between my country and +her. I give her the rest of my time.' + +'That's dotage.' + +'Fire away your epithets.' + +'Sheer dotage. I don't deny she's a handsome young woman.' + +'You'll have to admit that Lady Ormont takes her place in our family with +the best we can name.' + +'You insult my ears, Rowsley.' + +'The world will say it when it has the honour of her acquaintance.' + +'An honour suspiciously deferred.' + +'That's between the world and me.' + +'Set your head to work, you'll screw the world to any pitch you like-- +that I don't need telling.' + +Lord Ormont's head approved the remark. + +'Now,' said Lady Charlotte, 'you won't get the Danmores, the Dukerlys, +the Carminters, the Oxbridges any more than you get me.' + +'You are wrong, ma'am. I had yesterday a reply from Lady Danmore to a +communication of mine.' + +'It 's thickening. But while I stand, I stand for the family; and I 'm +not in it, and while I stand out of it, there 's a doubt either of your +honesty or your sanity.' + +'There's a perfect comprehension of my sister!' + +'I put my character in the scales against your conduct, and your Countess +of Ormont's reputation into the bargain.' + +'You have called at her house; it 's a step. You 'll be running at her +heels next. She 's not obdurate.' + +'When you see me running at her heels, it'll be with my head off. Stir +your hardest, and let it thicken. That man Morsfield's name mixed up +with a sham Countess of Ormont, in the stories flying abroad, can't hurt +anybody. A true Countess of Ormont--we 're cut to the quick.' + +'We 're cut! Your quick, Charlotte, is known to court the knife.' + +Letters of the morning's post were brought in. + +The earl turned over a couple and took up a third, saying: 'I 'll attend +to you in two minutes'; and thinking once more: Queer world it is, where, +when you sheath the sword, you have to be at play with bodkins! + +Lady Charlotte gazed on the carpet, effervescent with retorts to his last +observation, rightly conjecturing that the letter he selected to read was +from 'his Aminta.' + +The letter apparently was interesting, or it was of inordinate length. +He seemed still to be reading. He reverted to the first page. + +At the sound of the paper, she discarded her cogitations and glanced up. +His countenance had become stony. He read on some way, with a sudden +drop on the signature, a recommencement, a sound in the throat, as when +men grasp a comprehensible sentence of a muddled rigmarole and begin to +have hopes of the remainder. But the eye on the page is not the eye +which reads. + +'No bad news, Rowsley?' + +The earl's breath fell heavily. + +Lady Charlotte left her chair, and walked about the room. + +'Rowsley, I 'd like to hear if I can be of use.' + +'Ma'am?' he said; and pondered on the word 'use,' staring at her. + +'I don't intend to pry. I can't see my brother look like that, and not +ask.' + +The letter was tossed on the table to her. She read these lines, dated +from Felixstowe: + + 'MY DEAR LORD, + + 'The courage I have long been wanting in has come at last, to break + a tie that I have seen too clearly was a burden on you from the + beginning. I will believe that I am chiefly responsible for + inducing you to contract it. The alliance with an inexperienced + girl of inferior birth, and a perhaps immoderate ambition, has taxed + your generosity; and though the store may be inexhaustible, it is + not truly the married state when a wife subjects the husband to such + a trial. The release is yours, the sadness is for me. I have + latterly seen or suspected a design on your part to meet my former + wishes for a public recognition of the wife of Lord Ormont. Let me + now say that these foolish wishes no longer exist. I rejoice to + think that my staying or going will be alike unknown to the world. + I have the means of a livelihood, in a modest way, and shall trouble + no one. + + 'I have said, the sadness is for me. That is truth. But I have to + add, that I, too, am sensible of the release. My confession of a + change of feeling to you as a wife, writes the close of all + relations between us. I am among the dead for you; and it is a + relief to me to reflect on the little pain I give . . .' + + +'Has she something on her conscience about that man Morsfield?' Lady +Charlotte cried. + +Lord Ormont's prolonged Ah! of execration rolled her to a bundle. + +Nevertheless her human nature and her knowledge of woman's, would out +with the words: 'There's a man!' + +She allowed her brother to be correct in repudiating the name of the dead +Morsfield--chivalrous as he was on this Aminta's behalf to the last!--and +struck along several heads, Adderwood's, Weyburn's, Randeller's, for the +response to her suspicion. A man there certainly was. He would be +probably a young man. He would not necessarily be a handsome man. . . . +or a titled or a wealthy man. She might have set eyes on a gypsy +somewhere round Great Marlow--blood to blood; such things have been. +Imagining a wildish man for her, rather than a handsome one and one +devoted staidly to the founding of a school, she overlooked Weyburn, or +reserved him with others for subsequent speculation. + +The remainder of Aminta's letter referred to her delivery of the Ormont +jewel-case at Lord Ormont's London house, under charge of her maid +Carstairs. The affairs of the household were stated very succinctly, the +drawer for labelled keys, whatever pertained to her management, in London +or at Great Marlow. + +'She 's cool,' Lady Charlotte said, after reading out the orderly array +of items, in a tone of rasping irony, to convince her brother he was well +rid of a heartless wench. + +Aminta's written statement of those items were stabs at the home she had +given him, a flashed picture of his loss. Nothing written by her touched +him to pierce him so shrewdly; nothing could have brought him so closely +the breathing image in the flesh of the woman now a phantom for him. + +'Will she be expecting you to answer, Rowsley?' + +'Will that forked tongue cease hissing!' he shouted, in the agony of a +strong man convulsed both to render and conceal the terrible, shameful, +unexampled gush of tears. + +Lady Charlotte beheld her bleeding giant. She would rather have seen the +brother of her love grimace in woman's manner than let loose those +rolling big drops down the face of a rock. The big sob shook him, and +she was shaken to the dust by the sight. Now she was advised by her deep +affection for her brother to sit patient and dumb, behind shaded eyes: +praising in her heart the incomparable force of the man's love of the +woman contrasted with the puling inclinations of the woman for the man. + +Neither opened mouth when they separated. She pressed and kissed a large +nerveless hand. Lord Ormont stood up to bow her forth. His ruddied skin +had gone to pallor resembling the berg of ice on the edge of Arctic seas, +when sunlight has fallen away from it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +CONCLUSION + +The peaceful little home on the solitary sandy shore was assailed, +unwarned, beneath a quiet sky, some hours later, by a whirlwind, a dust- +storm, and rattling volleys. Miss Vincent's discovery, in the past +school-days, of Selina Collett's 'wicked complicity in a clandestine +correspondence' had memorably chastened the girl, who vowed at the time +when her schoolmistress, using the rod of Johnsonian English for the +purpose, exposed the depravity of her sinfulness, that she would never +again be guilty of a like offence. Her dear and lovely Countess of +Ormont, for whom she then uncomplainingly suffered, who deigned now to +call her friend, had spoken the kind good-bye, and left the house after +Mr. Weyburn's departure that same day; she, of course, to post by Harwich +to London; he to sail by packet from the port of Harwich for Flushing. +The card of an unknown lady, a great lady, the Lady Charlotte Eglett, was +handed to her mother at eight o'clock in the evening. + +Lady Charlotte was introduced to the innocent country couple; the mother +knitting, the daughter studying a book of the botany of the Swiss Alps, +dreaming a distant day's journey over historic lands of various hues to +the unimaginable spectacle of earth's grandeur. Her visit lasted fifteen +minutes. From the moment of her entry, the room was in such turmoil as +may be seen where a water-mill wheel's paddles are suddenly set rounding +to pour streams of foam on the smooth pool below. A relentless catechism +bewildered their hearing. Mrs. Collett attempted an opposition of +dignity to those vehement attacks for answers. It was flooded and rolled +over. She was put upon her honour to reply positively to positive +questions: whether the Countess of Ormont was in this house at present; +whether the Countess of Ormont left the house alone or in company; +whether a gentleman had come to the house during the stay of the Countess +of Ormont; whether Lady Ormont had left the neighbourhood; the exact time +of the day when she quitted the house, and the stated point of her +destination. + +Ultimately, protesting that they were incapable of telling what they did +not know--which Lady Charlotte heard with an incredulous shrug--they +related piecemeal what they did know, and Weyburn's name gave her scent. +She paid small heed to the tale of Mr. Weyburn's having come there in the +character of young Mr. Collett's old schoolmate. Mr. Weyburn had started +for the port of Harwich. This day, and not long subsequently, Lady +Ormont had started for the port of Harwich, on her way to London, if we +like to think it. Further corroboration was quite superfluous. + +'Is there a night packet-boat from this port of yours?' Lady Charlotte +asked. + +The household servants had to be consulted; and she, hurriedly craving +the excuse of their tedious mistress, elicited, as far as she could +understand them, that there might be and very nearly was, a night packet- +boat starting for Flushing. The cook, a native of Harwich, sent up word +of a night packet-boat starting at about eleven o'clock last year. + +Lady Charlotte saw the chance as a wind-blown beacon-fire under press of +shades. Changeing her hawkish manner toward the simple pair, she gave +them view of a smile magical by contrast, really beautiful--the smile she +had in reserve for serviceable persons whom she trusted--while thanking +them and saying, that her anxiety concerned Lady Ormont's welfare. + +Her brother had prophesied she would soon be 'running at his wife's +heels,' and so she was, but not 'with her head off,' as she had rejoined. +She might prove, by intercepting his Aminta, that her head was on. +The windy beacon-fire of a chance blazed at the rapid rolling of her +carriage-wheels, and sank to stifling smoke at any petty obstruction. +Let her but come to an interview with his Aminta, she would stop all that +nonsense of the woman's letter; carry her off--and her Weyburn plucking +at her other hand to keep her. Why, naturally, treated as she was by +Rowsley, she dropped soft eyes on a good-looking secretary. Any woman +would--confound the young fellow! But all 's right yet if we get to +Harwich in time; unless . . . as a certain coldfish finale tone of the +letter playing on the old string, the irrevocable, peculiar to women who +are novices in situations of the kind, appeared to indicate; they see in +their conscience-blasted minds a barrier to a return home, high as the +Archangelical gate behind Mother Eve, and they are down on their knees +blubbering gratitude and repentance if the gate swings open to them. It +is just the instant, granting the catastrophe, to have a woman back to +her duty. She has only to learn she has a magnanimous husband. If she +learns into the bargain how he suffers, how he loves her,--well, she +despises a man like that Lawrence Finchley all the more for the +'magnanimity' she has the profit of, and perceives to be feebleness. +But there 's woman in her good and her bad; she'll trick a man of age, +and if he forgives her, owning his own faults in the case, she won't +scorn him for it; the likelihood is, she 'll feel bound in honour to +serve him faithfully for the rest of their wedded days. + +A sketch to her of Rowsley's deep love. . . . Lady Charlotte wandered +into an amazement at it. A sentence of her brother's recent speaking +danced in her recollection. He said of his country: That Lout comes to a +knowledge of his wants too late. True, Old England is always louting to +the rear, and has to be pricked in the rear and pulled by the neck before +she 's equal to the circumstances around her. But what if his words were +flung at him in turn! Short of 'Lout,' it rang correctly. 'Too late,' +we hope to clip from the end of the sentence likewise. We have then, if +you stress it--'comes to a knowledge of his wants;--a fair example of the +creatures men are; the greatest of men; who have to learn from the loss +of the woman--or a fear of the loss--how much they really do love her. + +Well, and she may learn the same or something sufficiently like it, if +she 's caught in time, called to her face, Countess of Ormont, sister-in- +law, and smoothed, petted, made believe she 's now understood and won't +be questioned on a single particular--in fact, she marches back in a sort +of triumph; and all the past in a cupboard, locked up, without further +inquiry. + +Her brother Rowsley's revealed human appearance of the stricken man +--stricken right into his big heart--precipitated Lady Charlotte's +reflections and urged her to an unavailing fever of haste during the +circuitous drive in moonlight to the port. She alighted at the principal +inn, and was there informed that the packetboat, with a favouring breeze +and tide, had started ten minutes earlier. She summoned the landlord, +and described a lady, as probably one of the passengers: 'Dark, holds +herself up high. Some such lady had dined at the inn on tea, and gone +aboard the boat soon after. + +Lady Charlotte burned with the question: Alone? She repressed her +feminine hunger and asked to see the book of visitors. But the lady had +not slept at the inn, so had not been requested to write her name. + +The track of the vessel could be seen from the pier, on the line of a bar +of moonlight; and thinking, that the abominable woman, if aboard she was, +had coolly provided herself with a continental passport--or had it done +for two by her accomplice, that Weyburn, before she left London--Lady +Charlotte sent a loathing gaze at the black figure of the boat on the +water, untroubled by any reminder of her share in the conspiracy of +events, which was to be her brother's chastisement to his end. + + +Years are the teachers of the great rocky natures, whom they round and +sap and pierce in caverns, having them on all sides, and striking deep +inward at moments. There is no resisting the years, if we have a heart, +and a common understanding. They constitute, in the sum of them, the +self-examination, whence issues, acknowledged or not, a belated self- +knowledge, to direct our final actions. She had the heart. Sight of the +high-minded, proud, speechless man suffering for the absence of a runaway +woman, not ceasing to suffer, never blaming the woman, and consequently, +it could be fancied, blaming himself, broke down Lady Charlotte's +defences and moved her to review her part in her brother Rowsley's +unhappiness. For supposing him to blame himself, her power to cast a +shadow of blame on him went from her, and therewith her vindication of +her conduct. He lived at Olmer. She read him by degrees, as those who +have become absolutely tongueless have to be read; and so she gathered +that this mortally (or lastingly) wounded brother of hers was pleased by +an allusion to his Aminta. He ran his finger on the lines of a map of +Spain, from Barcelona over to Granada; and impressed his nail at a point +appearing to be mountainous or woody. Lady Charlotte suggested that he +and his Aminta had passed by there. He told a story of a carriage +accident: added, 'She was very brave.' One day, when he had taken a +keepsake book of England's Beauties off the drawing-room table, his eyes +dwelt on a face awhile, and he handed it, with a nod, followed by a +slight depreciatory shrug. 'Like her, not so handsome,' Lady Charlotte +said. + +He nodded again. She came to a knowledge of Aminta's favourite colours +through the dwelling of his look on orange and black, deepest rose, light +yellow, light blue. Her grand-daughters won the satisfied look if they +wore a combination touching his memory. The rocky are not imaginative, +and have to be struck from without for a kindling of them. Submissive +though she was to court and soothe her brother Rowsley, a spur of +jealousy burned in the composition of her sentiments, to set her going. +He liked visiting Mrs. Lawrence Finchley at her effaced good man's +country seat, Brockholm in Berkshire, and would stay there a month at a +time. Lady Charlotte learnt why. The enthusiast for Aminta, without +upholding her to her late lord, whom she liked well, talked of her openly +with him, confessed to a fondness for her. How much Mrs. Lawrence +ventured to say, Lady Charlotte could not know. But rivalry pushed her +to the extreme of making Aminta partially a topic; and so ready was he to +follow her lead in the veriest trifles recalling the handsome runaway; +that she had to excite his racy diatribes against the burgess English and +the pulp they have made of a glorious nation, in order not to think him +inclining upon dotage. + +Philippa's occasional scoff in fun concerning 'grandmama's tutor,' hurt +Lady Charlotte for more reasons than one, notwithstanding the +justification of her fore-thoughtfulness. The girl, however, was +privileged; she was Bobby Benlew's dearest friend, and my lord loved the +boy; with whom nothing could be done at school, nor could a tutor at +Olmer control him. In fine, Bobby saddened the family and gained the +earl's anxious affection by giving daily proofs of his being an Ormont +in a weak frame; patently an Ormont, recurrently an invalid. His moral +qualities hurled him on his physical deficiencies. The local doctor and +Dr. Rewkes banished him twice to the seashore, where he began to bloom +the first week and sickened the next, for want of playfellows, jolly +fights and friendships. Ultimately they prescribed mountain air, Swiss +air, easy travelling to Switzerland, and several weeks of excursions at +the foot of the Alps. Bobby might possibly get an aged tutor, or find an +English clergyman taking pupils, on the way. + +Thus it happened, that seven years after his bereavement, Lord Ormont and +Philippa and Bobby were on the famous Bernese Terrace, grandest of +terrestrial theatres where soul of man has fronting him earth's utmost +majesty. Sublime: but five minutes of it fetched sounds as of a plug in +an empty phial from Bobby's bosom, and his heels became electrical. + +He was observed at play with a gentleman of Italian complexion. Past +guessing how it had come about, for the gentleman was an utter stranger. +He had at any rate the tongue of an Englishman. He had the style, too, +the slang and cries and tricks of an English schoolboy, though visibly a +foreigner. And he had the art of throwing his heart into that bit of +improvised game, or he would never have got hold of Bobby, shrewd to read +a masker. + +Lugged-up by the boy to my lord and the young lady, he doffed and bowed. +'Forgive me, pray,' he said; 'I can't see an English boy without having a +spin with him; and I make so bold as to speak to English people wherever +I meet them, if they give me the chance. Bad manners? Better than that. +You are of the military profession, sir, I see. I am a soldier, fresh +from Monte Video. Italian, it is evident, under an Italian chief there. +A clerk on a stool, and hey presto plunged into the war a month after, +shouldering a gun and marching. Fifteen battles in eighteen months; and +Death a lady at a balcony we kiss hands to on the march below. Not a bit +more terrible! Ah, but your pardon, sir,' he hastened to say, observing +rigidity on the features of the English gentleman; 'would I boast? Not +I. Accept it as my preface for why I am moved to speak the English +wherever I meet them:--Uruguay, Buenos Ayres, La Plata, or Europe. +I cannot resist it. At least, he bent gracefully, 'I do not. We come +to the grounds of my misbehaviour. I have shown at every call I fear +nothing, kiss hand of welcome or adieu to Death. And I, a boy of the +age of this youngster--he 's not like me, I can declare!--I was a sneak +and a coward. It follows, I was a liar and a traitor. Who cured me of +that vileness, that scandal? I will tell you--an Englishman and an +Englishwoman: my schoolmaster and his wife. My schoolmaster--my friend! +He is the comrade of his boys: English, French, Germans, Italians, a +Spaniard in my time--a South American I have sent him--two from Boston, +Massachusetts--and clever!--all emulous to excel, none boasting. But, +to myself; I was that mean fellow. I did--I could let you know: before +this young lady--she would wither me with her scorn, Enough, I sneaked, +I lied. I let the blame fall on a schoolfellow and a housemaid. Oh! +a small thing, but I coveted it--a scarf. It reminded me of Rome. +Enough, there at the bottom of that pit, behold me. It was not +discovered, but my schoolfellow was unpunished, the housemaid remained in +service; I thought, I thought, and I thought until I could not look in my +dear friend Matthew's face. He said to me one day: "Have you nothing to +tell me, Giulio?" as if to ask the road to right or left. Out it all +came. And no sermon, no! He set me the hardest task I could have. That +was a penance!--to go to his wife, and tell it all to her. Then I did +think it an easier thing to go and face death--and death had been my +nightmare. I went, she listened, she took my hand she said: "You will +never do this again, I know, Giulio." She told me no English girl would +ever look on a man who was a coward and lied. From that day I have made +Truth my bride. And what the consequence? I know not fear! I could +laugh, knowing I was to lie down in my six-foot measure to-morrow. If I +have done my duty and look in the face of my dear Matthew and his wife! +Ah, those two! They are loved. They will be loved all over Europe. He +works for Europe and America--all civilized people--to be one country. +He is the comrade of his boys. Out of school hours, it is Christian +names all round--Matthew, Emile, Adolf, Emilio, Giulio, Robert, Marcel, +Franz, et caetera. Games or lessons, a boy can't help learning with him. +He makes happy fellows and brave soldiers of them without drill. Sir, do +I presume when I say I have your excuse for addressing you because you +are his countryman? I drive to the old school in half an hour, and next +week he and his dear wife and a good half of the boys will be on the +tramp over the Simplon, by Lago Maggiore, to my uncle's house in Milan +for a halt. I go to Matthew before I see my own people.' + +He swept another bow of apology, chiefly to Philippa, as representative +of the sex claiming homage. + +Lord Ormont had not greatly relished certain of the flowery phrases +employed by this young foreigner. 'Truth his bride,' was damnable: +and if a story had to be told, he liked it plain, without jerks and +evolutions. Many offences to our taste have to be overlooked in +foreigners--Italians! considered, before they were proved in fire, +a people classed by nature as operatic declaimers. Bobby had shown +himself on the road out to Bern a difficult boy, and stupefyingly +ignorant. My lord had two or three ideas working to cloudy combination +in his head when he put a question, referring to the management of the +dormitories at the school. Whereupon the young Italian introduced +himself as Giulio Calliani, and proposed a drive to inspect the old +school, with its cricket and football fields, lake for rowing and +swimming, gymnastic fixtures, carpenter's shed, bowling alley, and four +European languages in the air by turns daily; and the boys, too, all the +boys rosy and jolly, according to the last report received of them from +his friend Matthew. Enthusiasm struck and tightened the loose chord of +scepticism in Lord Ormont; somewhat as if a dancing beggar had entered a +kennel-dog's yard, designing to fascinate the faithful beast. It is a +chord of one note, that is tightened to sound by the violent summons to +accept, which is a provocation to deny. At the same time, the +enthusiast's dance is rather funny; he is not an ordinary beggar; to see +him trip himself in his dance would be rather funnier. This is to say, +inspect the trumpeted school and retire politely. My lord knew the Bern +of frequent visits: the woman was needed beside him to inspire a feeling +for scenic mountains. Philippa's admiration of them was like a new- +pressed grape-juice after a draught of the ripe vintage. Moreover, Bobby +was difficult: the rejected of his English schools was a stiff Ormont at +lessons, a wheezy Benlew in the playground: exactly the reverse of what +should have been. A school of four languages in bracing air, if a school +with healthy dormitories, and a school of the trained instincts we call +gentlemanly, might suit Master Bobby for a trial. An eye on the boys of +the school would see in a minute what stuff they were made of. Supposing +this young Italianissimo with the English tongue to be tolerably near the +mark, with a deduction of two-thirds of the enthusiasm, Bobby might stop +at the school as long as his health held out, or the master would keep +him. Supposing half a dozen things and more, the meeting with this Mr. +Calliand was a lucky accident. But lucky accidents are anticipated only +by fools. + +Lord Ormont consented to visit the school. He handed his card and +invited his guest; he had a carriage in waiting for the day, he said; +and obedient to Lady Charlotte's injunctions, he withheld Philippa from +the party. She and her maid were to pass the five hours of his absence +in efforts to keep their monkey Bobby out of the well of the solicitious +bears. + +My lord left his carriage at the inn of the village lying below the +school-house on a green height. The young enthusiast was dancing him +into the condition of livid taciturnity, which could, if it would, flash +out pungent epigrams of the actual world at Operatic recitative. + +'There's the old school-clock! Just in time for the half-hour before +dinner,' said Calliani, chattering two hundred to the minute, of the +habits and usages of the school, and how all had meals together, the +master, his wife, the teachers, the boys. 'And she--as for her!' +Calliani kissed finger up to the furthest skies: into which a self- +respecting sober Northener of the Isles could imagine himself to kick +enthusiastic gesticulators, if it were polite to do so. + +The school-house faced the master's dwelling house, and these, with a +block of building, formed a three-sided enclosure, like barracks! Forth +from the school-house door burst a dozen shouting lads, as wasps from the +hole of their nest from a charge of powder. Out they poured whizzing; +and the frog he leaped, and pussy ran and doubled before the hounds, and +hockey-sticks waved, and away went a ball. Cracks at the ball anyhow, +was the game for the twenty-five minutes breather before dinner. + +'French day!' said Calliani, hearing their cries. Then he bellowed +'Matthew!--Giulio !' + +A lusty inversion of the order of the names and an Oberland jodel +returned his hail. The school retreating caught up the Alpine cry +in the distance. Here were lungs! Here were sprites! + +Lord Ormont bethought him of the name of the master. 'Mr. Matthew, I +think you said, sir,' he was observing to Calliani, as the master came +nearer; and Calliani replied: 'His Christian name. But if the boys are +naughty boys, it is not the privilege. Mr. Weyburn.' + +There was not any necessity to pronounce that name Calliani spoke it on +the rush to his friend. + +Lord Ormont and Weyburn advanced the steps to the meeting. Neither of +them flinched in eye or limb. + +At a corridor window of the dwelling-house a lady stood. Her colour was +the last of a summer day over western seas; her thought: 'It has come!' +Her mind was in her sight; her other powers were frozen. + +The two men conversed. There was no gesture. + +This is one of the lightning moments of life for the woman, at the +meeting of the two men between whom her person has been in dispute, may +still be; her soul being with one. And that one, dearer than the blood +of her body, imperilled by her. + +She could ask why she exists, if a question were in her grasp. She would +ask for the meaning of the gift of beauty to the woman, making her +desireable to those two men, making her a cause of strife, a thing of +doom. An incessant clamour dinned about her: 'It has come!' + +The two men walked conversing into the school-house. She was unconscious +of the seeing of a third, though she saw and at the back of her mind +believed she knew a friend in him. The two disappeared. She was +insensible stone, except for the bell-clang: 'It has come'; until they +were in view again, still conversing: and the first of her thought to +stir from petrifaction was: 'Life holds no secret.' + +She tried, in shame of the inanimate creature she had become, +to force herself to think: and had, for a chastising result, a series +of geometrical figures shooting across her brain, mystically expressive +of the situation, not communicably. The most vivid and persistent was a +triangle. Interpret who may. The one beheld the two pass from view +again, still conversing. + +They are on the gravel; they bow; they separate. He of the grey head +poised high has gone. + +Her arm was pressed by a hand. Weyburn longed to enfold her, and she +desired it, and her soul praised him for refraining. Both had that +delicacy. + +'You have seen, my darling,' Weyburn said. 'It has come, and we take our +chance. He spoke not one word, beyond the affairs of the school. He has +a grandnephew in want of a school: visited the dormitories, refectory, +and sheds: tasted the well-water, addressed me as Mr. Matthew. He had it +from Giulio. Came to look at the school of Giulio's "friend Matthew,": +--you hear him. Giulio little imagines!--Well, dear love, we stand with +a squad in front, and wait the word. It mayn't be spoken. We have +counted long before that something like it was bound to happen. And +you are brave. Ruin's an empty word for us two.' + +'Yes, dear, it is: we will pay what is asked of us,' Aminta said. 'It +will be heavy, if the school . . . and I love our boys. I am fit to +be the school-housekeeper; for nothing else.' + +'I will go to the boys' parents. At the worst, we can march into new +territory. Emile will stick to us. Adolf, too. The fresh flock will +come.' + +Aminta cried in the voice of tears: 'I love the old so!' + +'The likelihood is, we shall hear nothing further.' + +'You had to bear the shock, Matthew.' + +'Whatever I bore, and you saw, you shared.' + +'Yes,' she said. + +'Mais, n'oublions pas que c'est aujourd'hui jour francais; si, madame, +vous avez assez d'appetit pour diner avec nous? + +'Je suis, comme toujours, aux ordres de Monsieur.' She was among the +bravest of women. She had a full ounce of lead in her breast when she +sat with the boys at their midday meal, showing them her familiar +pleasant face. + +Shortly after the hour of the evening meal, a messenger from Bern +delivered a letter addressed to the Headmaster. Weyburn and Aminta were +strolling to the playground, thinking in common, as they usually did. +They read the letter together. These were the lines: + +'Lord Ormont desires to repeat his sense of obligation to Mr. Matthew for +the inspection of the school under his charge, and will be thankful to +Mr. Calliani, if that gentleman will do him the favour to call at his +hotel at Bern to-morrow, at as early an hour as is convenient to him, for +the purpose of making arrangements, agreeable to the Head-master's rules, +for receiving his grandnephew Robert Benlew as a pupil at the school.' + +The two raised eyes on one another, pained in their deep joy by the +religion of the restraint upon their hearts, to keep down the passion to +embrace. + +'I thank heaven we know him to be one of the true noble men,' said +Aminta, now breathing, and thanking Lord Ormont for the free breath +she drew. + +Weyburn spoke of an idea he had gathered from the earl's manner. But he +had not imagined the proud lord's great-heartedness would go so far as to +trust him with the guardianship of the boy. That moved, and that humbled +him, though it was far from humiliating. + +Six months later, the brief communication arrived from Lady Charlotte + +'She is a widow. + +'Unlikely you will hear from me again. Death is always next door, you +said once. I look on the back of life. + +'Tell Bobby, capital for him to write he has no longing for home +holidays. If any one can make a man of him, you will. That I know. + + 'CHARLOTTE EGLETT.' + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Affected misapprehensions +Any excess pushes to craziness +Bad laws are best broken +Being in heart and mind the brother to the sister with women +Bounds of his intelligence closed their four walls +Boys, of course--but men, too! +But had sunk to climb on a firmer footing +Challenged him to lead up to her desired stormy scene +Could we--we might be friends +Death is always next door +Desire of it destroyed it +Detestable feminine storms enveloping men weak enough +Distaste for all exercise once pleasurable +Divided lovers in presence +Enthusiasm struck and tightened the loose chord of scepticism +Exult in imagination of an escape up to the moment of capture +Greatest of men; who have to learn from the loss of the woman +He gave a slight sign of restiveness, and was allowed to go +He had gone, and the day lived again for both of them +I look on the back of life +I married a cook She expects a big appetite +I want no more, except to be taught to work +If the world is hostile we are not to blame it +Increase of dissatisfaction with the more she got +Learn--principally not to be afraid of ideas +Look well behind +Lucky accidents are anticipated only by fools +Magnify an offence in the ratio of our vanity +Man who helps me to read the world and men as they are +Meant to vanquish her with the dominating patience +Napoleon's treatment of women is excellent example +Necessity's offspring +One has to feel strong in a delicate position +Our love and labour are constantly on trial +Perhaps inspire him, if he would let her breathe +Person in another world beyond this world of blood +Practical for having an addiction to the palpable +Screams of an uninjured lady +Selfishness and icy inaccessibility to emotion +She had a thirsting mind +She had to be the hypocrite or else--leap +Silence was doing the work of a scourge +Smile she had in reserve for serviceable persons +Snatch her from a possessor who forfeited by undervaluing her +So says the minute Years are before you +The next ten minutes will decide our destinies +The woman side of him +There are women who go through life not knowing love +There is no history of events below the surface +They want you to show them what they 'd like the world to be +Things are not equal +Titles showered on the women who take free breath of air +Violent summons to accept, which is a provocation to deny +We don't go together into a garden of roses +Why he enjoyed the privilege of seeing, and was not beside her +Women are happier enslaved +World against us It will not keep us from trying to serve +Years are the teachers of the great rocky natures + + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS FOR THE ENTIRE LORD ORMONT AND HIS AMINTA + +A bird that won't roast or boil or stew +A woman, and would therefore listen to nonsense +A free-thinker startles him as a kind of demon +A female free-thinker is one of Satan's concubines +Acting is not of the high class which conceals the art +Affected misapprehensions +Ah! we fall into their fictions +All that Matey and Browny were forbidden to write they looked +And not be beaten by an acknowledged defeat +Any excess pushes to craziness +As well ask (women) how a battle-field concerns them! +Bad luck's not repeated every day Keep heart for the good +Bad laws are best broken +Began the game of Pull +Being in heart and mind the brother to the sister with women +Botched mendings will only make them worse +Bounds of his intelligence closed their four walls +Boys who can appreciate brave deeds are capable of doing them +Boys, of course--but men, too! +But had sunk to climb on a firmer footing +By nature incapable of asking pardon +Cajoled like a twenty-year-old yahoo at college +Careful not to smell of his office +Challenged him to lead up to her desired stormy scene +Chose to conceive that he thought abstractedly +Consciousness of some guilt when vowing itself innocent +Consign discussion to silence with the cynical closure +Convictions we store--wherewith to shape our destinies +Convincing themselves that they impersonate sagacity +Could not understand enthusiasm for the schoolmaster's career +Could we--we might be friends +Curious thing would be if curious things should fail to happen +Death is only the other side of the ditch +Death is always next door +Desire of it destroyed it +Detestable feminine storms enveloping men weak enough +Didn't say a word No use in talking about feelings +Distaste for all exercise once pleasurable +Divided lovers in presence +Enthusiasm struck and tightened the loose chord of scepticism +Enthusiast, when not lyrical, is perilously near to boring +Exult in imagination of an escape up to the moment of capture +Few men can forbear to tell a spicy story of their friends +Greatest of men; who have to learn from the loss of the woman +Having contracted the fatal habit of irony +He had to shake up wrath over his grievances +He had gone, and the day lived again for both of them +He gave a slight sign of restiveness, and was allowed to go +He loathed a skulker +He took small account of the operations of the feelings +He began ambitiously--It's the way at the beginning +Her vehement fighting against facts +Her duel with Time +His aim to win the woman acknowledged no obstacle in the means +His restored sense of possession +Hopeless task of defending a woman from a woman +How to compromise the matter for the sake of peace? +I have all the luxuries--enough to loathe them +I hate old age It changes you so +I could be in love with her cruelty, if only I had her near me +I look on the back of life +I want no more, except to be taught to work +I married a cook She expects a big appetite +I'm for a rational Deity +If the world is hostile we are not to blame it +Ignorance roaring behind a mask of sarcasm +Increase of dissatisfaction with the more she got +Lawyers hold the keys of the great world +Learn--principally not to be afraid of ideas +Loathing of artifice to raise emotion +Look well behind +Lucky accidents are anticipated only by fools +Magnify an offence in the ratio of our vanity +Man who helps me to read the world and men as they are +Meant to vanquish her with the dominating patience +Men bore the blame, though the women were rightly punished +Men who believe that there is a virtue in imprecations +Naked original ideas, are acceptable at no time +Napoleon's treatment of women is excellent example +Necessity's offspring +Never nurse an injury, great or small +Nevertheless, inclinations are an infidelity +No love can be without jealousy +Not daring risk of office by offending the taxpayer +Not the indignant and the frozen, but the genially indifferent +Not men of brains, but the men of aptitudes +Old age is a prison wall between us and young people +One has to feel strong in a delicate position +One night, and her character's gone +One is a fish to her hook; another a moth to her light +Orderliness, from which men are privately exempt +Our love and labour are constantly on trial +Passion added to a bowl of reason makes a sophist's mess +People were virtuous in past days: they counted their sinners +Perhaps inspire him, if he would let her breathe +Person in another world beyond this world of blood +Policy seems to petrify their minds +Practical for having an addiction to the palpable +Professional Puritans +Published Memoirs indicate the end of a man's activity +Rage of a conceited schemer tricked +Regularity of the grin of dentistry +Respect one another's affectations +Screams of an uninjured lady +Selfishness and icy inaccessibility to emotion +She had to be the hypocrite or else--leap +She had a thirsting mind +Silence was doing the work of a scourge +Smile she had in reserve for serviceable persons +Snatch her from a possessor who forfeited by undervaluing her +So says the minute Years are before you +That pit of one of their dead silences +The despot is alert at every issue, to every chance +The spending, never harvesting, world +The shots hit us behind you +The terrible aggregate social woman +The next ten minutes will decide our destinies +The woman side of him +The good life gone lives on in the mind +The beat of a heart with a dread like a shot in it +There is no history of events below the surface +There are women who go through life not knowing love +They want you to show them what they 'd like the world to be +Things are not equal +Things were lumpish and gloomy that day of the week +This female talk of the eternities +Titles showered on the women who take free breath of air +To males, all ideas are female until they are made facts +To time and a wife it is no disgrace for a man to bend +To know how to take a licking, that wins in the end +Uncommon unprogressiveness +Venus of nature was melting into a Venus of art +Violent summons to accept, which is a provocation to deny +We cannot, men or woman, control the heart in sleep at night +We shall want a war to teach the country the value of courage +We don't go together into a garden of roses +When duelling flourished on our land, frail women powerful +Where heart weds mind, or nature joins intellect +Who cries, Come on, and prays his gods you won't +Why he enjoyed the privilege of seeing, and was not beside her +With what little wisdom the world is governed +Women are happier enslaved +World against us It will not keep us from trying to serve +Years are the teachers of the great rocky natures +You'll have to guess at half of everything he tells you +You're going to be men, meaning something better than women + + +[The End] + + + + +************************************************************************ +The Project Gutenberg Etext Lord Ormont and his Aminta, All, by Meredith +**********This file should be named gm88v10.txt or gm88v10.zip********** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, gm88v11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, gm88v10a.txt + +This etext was produced by Pat Castevans <patcat@ctnet.net> +and David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + +More information about this book is at the top of this file. + +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. 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