The Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope (page 5)

‘I don’t like Crawley the less for speaking his mind free to the bishop,’ said the lawyer, laughing. ‘And he’ll speak it free to you too, Mr Robarts.’

‘He won’t break any of my bones. Tell me, Mr Walker, what lawyer shall I name to him?’

‘You can’t have a better man than Mr Mason, up the street there.’

‘Winthrop proposed Borleys at Barchester.’

‘No, no, no. Borleys and Bonstock are capital people to push a fellow through on a charge of horse-stealing, or to squeeze a man for a little money; but they are not the people for Mr Crawley in such a case as this. Mason is the better man; and then Mason and I know each other.’ In saying which Mr Walker winked.

There was then a discussion between them whether Mr Robarts should go at once to Mr Mason; but it was decided at last that he should see Mr Crawley and also write to the dean before his did so. The dean might wish to employ his own lawyer, and if so the double expense should be avoided. ‘Always remember, Mr Robarts, that when you go into an attorney’s office door, you will have to pay for it, first or last. In here, you see, the dingy old mahogany, bare as it is, makes you safe. Or else it’s the salt-cellar, which will not allow itself to be polluted by six-and-eightpenny considerations. But there is the other kind of tax to be paid. You must go up and see Mrs Walker, or you won’t get her help in the matter.’

Mr Walker returned to his work, either to some private den within his house, or to his office, and Mr Robarts was taken upstairs to the drawing-room. There he found Mrs Walker and her daughter, and Miss Anne Prettyman, who had just looked in, full of the story of Mr Crawley’s walk to Barchester. Mr Thumble had seen one of Dr Tempest’s curates, and had told the whole story–he, Mr Thumble, having heard Mrs Proudie’s version of what had occurred, and having, of course, drawn his own deductions from her premises. And it seemed that Mr Crawley had been watched as he passed through the close out of Barchester. A minor canon had seen him, and had declared that he was going at the rate of a hunt, swinging his arms on high and speaking very loud, though–as the minor canon said with regret–the words were hardly audible. But there had been no doubt as to the man. Mr Crawley’s old hat, and short rusty cloak, and dirty boots, had been duly observed and chronicled by the minor canon; and Mr Thumble had been enabled to put together a not altogether false picture of what had occurred. As soon as the greetings between Mr Robarts and the ladies had been made, Miss Anne Prettyman broke out again, just where she had left off when Mr Robarts came in. ‘They say that Mrs Proudie declared that she will have him sent to Botany Bay!’

‘Luckily Mrs Proudie won’t have much to do in the matter,’ said Miss Walker, who ranged herself, as to church matters, in the ranks altogether opposed to those commanded by Mrs Proudie.

‘She will have nothing to do with it, my dear,’ said Mrs Walker; ‘and I daresay Mrs Proudie was not foolish enough to say anything of the kind.’

‘Mamma, she would be foolish enough to say anything. Would she not Mr Robarts?’

‘You forget, Miss Walker, that Mrs Proudie is in authority over me.’

‘So she is, for the matter of that,’ said the young lady; ‘but I know very well what you all think of her, and say of her too, at Framley. Your friend, Lady Lufton, loves her dearly. I wish I could have been behind a curtain in the palace, to hear what Mr Crawley said to her.’

‘Mr Smilie declares,’ said Miss Prettyman, ‘that the bishop has been ill ever since. Mr Smilie went over to his mother’s at Barchester for Christmas, and took part of the cathedral duty, and we had Mr Spooner over here in his place. So Mr Smilie of course heard all about it. Only fancy, poor Mr Crawley walking all the way from Hogglestock to Barchester and back;–and I am told he hardly had a shoe to his foot! Is it not a shame, Mr Robarts?’

‘I don’t think it was quite as bad as you say, Miss Prettyman; but, upon the whole, I do think it is a shame. But what can we do?’

‘I suppose there are tithes at Hogglestock? Why are they not given up to the church, as they ought to be?’

‘My dear, Miss Prettyman, that is a very long subject, and I am afraid it cannot be settled in time to relieve our poor friend from his distress.’ Then Mr Robarts escaped from the ladies in Mr Walker’s house, who, as it seemed to him, were touching upon dangerous ground, and went back to the yard of the George Inn for his gig–the George and Vulture it was properly called, and was the house in which the magistrates had sat when they committed Mr Crawley for trial.

‘Footed it every inch of the way, blowed if he didn’t,’ the ostler was saying to a gentleman’s groom, whom Mr Robarts recognised to be the servant of his friend Major Grantly; and Mr Robarts knew that they also were talking about Mr Crawley. Everybody in the county was talking about Mr Crawley. At home, at Framley, there was no other subject of discourse. Lady Lufton, the dowager, was full of it, being firmly convinced that Mr Crawley was innocent, because the bishop was supposed to regard him as guilty. There had been a family conclave held at Framley Court over that basket of provisions which had been sent for the Christmas cheer of the Hogglestock parsonage, each of the three ladies, the two Lady Luftons and Mrs Robarts, having special views of their own. How the pork had been substituted for the beef by old Lady Lufton, young Lady Lufton thinking that after all the beef might be dangerous, and how a small turkey had been rashly suggested by Mrs Robarts, and how certain small articles had been inserted in the bottom of the basket which Mrs Crawley had never shown to her husband, need not here be told at length. But Mr Robarts, as he heard the two grooms talking about Mr Crawley, began to feel that Mr Crawley had achieved at least celebrity.

The groom touched his hat as Mr Robarts walked up. ‘Has the major returned home yet?’ Mr Robarts asked. The groom said that his master was still at Plumstead, and that he was to go over to fetch the major and Miss Edith in a day or two. Then Mr Robarts got into his gig, and as he drove out of the yard he heard the words of the men as they returned to the same subject. ‘Footed it all the way,’ said one. ‘And yet he’s a gen’leman, too,’ said the other. Mr Robarts thought of this as he drove on, intending to call at Hogglestock on that very day on his way home. It was undoubtedly the fact that Mr Crawley was recognised to be a gentleman by all who knew him, high or low, rich or poor, by those who thought well of him and by those who thought ill. These grooms, who had been telling each other that this parson, who was to be tried as a thief, had been constrained to walk from Hogglestock to Barchester and back, because he could not afford to travel any other way, and that his boots were cracked and his clothes ragged, had still known him to be a gentleman! Nobody doubted it; not even they who thought he had stolen the money. Mr Robarts himself was certain of it, and told himself that he knew it by the evidences which his own education made clear to him. But how was it that the grooms knew it? For my part I think that there are no better judges of the article than the grooms.

Thinking of all which he had heard, Mr Robarts found himself at Mr Crawley’s gate at Hogglestock.

CHAPTER XXI

MR ROBARTS ON HIS EMBASSY

Mr Robarts was not altogether easy in his mind as he approached Mr Crawley’s house. He was aware that the task before him was a very difficult one, and he had not confidence in himself–that he was exactly the man fitted for the performance of such a task. He was a little afraid of Mr Crawley, acknowledging tacitly to himself that the man had a power of ascendancy with which he would hardly be able to cope successfully. In old days he had once been rebuked by Mr Crawley, and had been cowed by the rebuke; and though there was no touch of rancour in his heart on this account, no slightest remaining venom–but rather increased respect and friendship–still he was unable to overcome his remembrance of the scene in which the perpetual curate of Hogglestock had undoubtedly the mastery of him. So, when two dogs have fought and one has conquered, the conquered dog will always show an unconscious submission to the conqueror.

He hailed a boy on the road as he drew near to the house, knowing that he would find no one at the parsonage to hold his horse for him, and was thus able without delay to walk through the garden and knock at the door. ‘Papa was not at home,’ Jane said. ‘Papa was at the school. But papa could certainly be summoned.’ She herself would run across to the school if Mr Robarts would come in. So Mr Robarts entered, and found Mrs Crawley in the sitting-room. Mr Crawley would be in directly, she said. And then, hurrying on to the subject with confused haste, in order that a word or two might be spoken before her husband came back, she expressed her thanks and his for the good things which had been sent to them at Christmas-tide.

‘It’s old Lady Lufton’s doings,’ said Mr Robarts, trying to laugh the matter over.

‘I knew that it came from Framley, Mr Robarts, and I know how good you all are there. I have not written to thank Lady Lufton. I thought it better not to write. Your sister will understand why, if no one else does. But you will tell them from me, I am sure, that it was, as they intended, a comfort to us. Your sister knows too much of us for me to suppose that our great poverty can be a secret from her. And, as far as I am concerned, I do not much care who knows it.’

‘There is no disgrace in not being rich,’ said Mr Robarts.

‘No; and the feeling of disgrace which does attach itself to being so poor as we are is deadened by the actual suffering which such poverty brings with it. At least it has become so with me. I am not ashamed to say that I am very grateful for what you all have done for us at Framley. But you must not say anything to him about it.’

‘Of course I will not, Mrs Crawley.’

‘His spirit is higher than mine, I think, and he suffers more from the natural disinclination which we all have from receiving alms. Are you going to speak to him about the affair–the cheque, Mr Robarts?’

‘I am going to ask him to put his case into some lawyer’s hands.’

‘Oh! I wish he would!’

‘And will he not?’

‘It is very kind of you, your coming to ask him, but–‘

‘Has he so strong an objection?’

‘He will tell you that he has no money to pay a lawyer.’

‘But, surely, if he were convinced that it was absolutely necessary for the vindication of his innocence, he would submit to charge himself with an expense so necessary, not only for himself, but for his family?’

‘He will say it ought not to be necessary. You know, Mr Robarts, that in some respects he is not like other men. You will not let what I say of him set you against him?’

‘Indeed, no.’

‘It is most kind of you to make the attempt. He will be here directly, and when he comes I will leave you together.’

While she was yet speaking his step was heard along the gravel-path, and he hurried into the room with quick steps. ‘I crave your pardon, Mr Robarts,’ he said, ‘that I should keep you waiting.’ now Mr Robarts had not been there ten minutes, and any such asking of pardon was hardly necessary. And, even in his own house, Mr Crawley affected a mock humility, as though, either through his own debasement, or because of the superior station of the other clergyman, he were not entitled to put himself on an equal footing with his visitor. He would not have shaken hands with Mr Robarts–intending to indicate that he did not presume to do so while the present accusation was hanging over him–had not the action been forced upon him. And then there was something of a protest in his manner, as though remonstrating against a thing that was unbecoming to him. Mr Robarts, without analysing it, understood it all, and knew that behind the humility there was a crushing pride–a pride which, in all probability, would rise up and crush him before he could get himself out of the room again. It was, perhaps, after all, a question whether the man was not served rightly by the extremities to which he was reduced. There was something radically wrong within him, which had put him into antagonism with all the world, and which produced these never-dying grievances. There were many clergymen in the country with incomes as small as that which had fallen to the lot of Mr Crawley, but they managed to get on without displaying their sores as Mr Crawley displayed his. They did not wear their old rusty cloaks with all that ostentatious bitterness of poverty which seemed to belong to that garment when displayed on Mr Crawley’s shoulders. Such, for a moment, were Mr Robarts’ thoughts, and he almost repented himself of his present mission. But then he thought of Mrs Crawley, and remembering that her sufferings were at any rate undeserved, determined that he would persevere.

Mrs Crawley disappeared almost as soon as her husband appeared, and Mr Robarts found himself standing in front of his friend, who remained fixed to the spot, with his hands folded over each other and his neck bent slightly forward, in token also of humility. ‘I regret,’ he said, ‘that your horse should be left there, exposed to the inclemency of the weather; but–‘

‘The horse won’t mind it a bit,’ said Mr Robarts. ‘A parson’s horse is like a butcher’s, and knows he mustn’t be particular about waiting in the cold.’

‘I never have had one myself,’ said Mr Crawley. Now Mr Robarts had had more horses than one before now, and had been thought by some to have incurred greater expense than was befitting in his stable comforts. The subject, therefore, was a sore one, and he was worried a little. ‘I just wanted to say a few words to you, Crawley,’ he said, ‘and if I am not occupying too much of your time–‘

‘My time is altogether at your disposal. Will you be seated?’

Then Mr Robarts sat down, and, swinging his hat between his legs, bethought himself how he should begin his work. ‘We had the archdeacon over at Framley the other day,’ he said. ‘Of course you know the archdeacon?’

‘I never had the advantage of any acquaintance with Dr Grantly. Of course I know him well by name, and also personally–that is, by sight.’

‘And by character?’

‘Nay; I can hardly so much as that. But I am aware that his name stands high with many of his order.’

‘Exactly; that is what I mean. You know that his judgment is thought more of in clerical matters than that of any other clergyman in the county.’

‘By a certain party, Mr Robarts.’

‘Well, yes. They don’t think much of him, I suppose, in the palace. But that won’t lower him in your estimation.’

‘I by no means derogate from Dr Grantly’s high position in his own archdeaconry–to which, as you are aware, I am not attached–nor to criticise his conduct in any respect. It would therefore be unbecoming in me to do so. But I cannot accept it as a point in a clergyman’s favour, that he should be opposed to his bishop.’

Now this was too much for Mr Robarts. After all that he had heard of the visit paid by Mr Crawley to the palace–of the venom displayed by Mrs Proudie on that occasion, and of the absolute want of subordination to episcopal authority which Mr Crawley himself was supposed to have shown–Mr Robarts did feel it hard that his friend the archdeacon should be snubbed in this way because he was deficient in reverence for his bishop! ‘I thought, Crawley,’ he said, ‘that you yourself were inclined to dispute orders coming to you from the palace. That world at least says as much concerning you.’

‘What the world says of me I have learned to disregard very much, Mr Robarts. But I hope that I shall never disobey the authority of the Church when properly and legally exercised.’

‘I hope with all my heart you never will; not I either. And the archdeacon, who knows, to the breadth of a hair, what a bishop ought to do and what he ought not, and what he may do and what he may not, will, I should say, be the last man in England to sin in that way.’

‘Very probably. I am far from contradicting you there. Pray understand, Mr Robarts, that I bring no accusation against the archdeacon. Why should I?’

‘I didn’t mean to discuss him at all.’

‘Nor did I, Mr Robarts.’

‘I only mentioned his name, because, as I said, he was over with us the other day at Framley, and we were all talking about your affair.’

‘My affair!’ said Mr Crawley. And then came a frown upon his brow, and a gleam of fire into his eyes, which effectually banished that look of humility which he had assumed. ‘And may I ask why the archdeacon was discussing–my affair?’

‘Simply from the kindness which he bears to you.’

‘I am grateful for the archdeacon’s kindness, as a man is bound to be for any kindness, whether displayed wisely or unwisely. But it seems to me that my affair, as you call it, Mr Robarts, is of that nature that they who wish well to me will better further their wishes by silence than by any discussion.’

‘Then I cannot agree with you.’ Mr Crawley shrugged his shoulders, opened his hands a little and then closed them, and bowed his head. He could not have declared more clearly by any words that he differed altogether from Mr Robarts, and that as the subject was one so peculiarly his own he had a right to expect that his opinion should be allowed to prevail against that of any other person. ‘If you come to that, you know, how is anybody’s tongue to be stopped?’

‘That vain tongues cannot be stopped, I am well aware. I do not expect that people’s tongues should be stopped. I am not saying what men will do, but what good wishes should dictate.’

‘Well, perhaps you’ll hear me out for a minute.’ Mr Crawley again bowed his head. ‘Whether we were wise or unwise, we were discussing this affair.’

‘Whether I stole Mr Soames’s money?’

‘No; nobody supposed for a moment you had stolen it.’

‘I cannot understand how they can suppose anything else, knowing, as they do, that the magistrates have committed me for the theft. This took place at Framley, you say, and probably in Lord Lufton’s presence.’

‘Exactly.’

‘And Lord Lufton was chairman at the sitting of the magistrates at which I was committed. How can it be that he should think otherwise?’

‘I am sure that he has not an idea that you were guilty. Nor yet has Dr Thorne, who was also one of the magistrates. I don’t suppose one of them then thought so.’

‘Then their action, to say the least of it, was very strange.’

‘It was all because you had nobody to manage it for you. I thoroughly believe that if you had placed the matter in the hands of a good lawyer, you would never have heard a word more about it. That seems to be the opinion of everybody I speak to on the subject.’

‘Then in this country a man is to be punished or not, according to ability to fee a lawyer!’

‘I am not talking about punishment.’

‘And presuming an innocent man to have the ability and not the will to do so, he is to be punished, to be ruined root and branch, self and family, character and pocket, simply because, knowing his own innocence, he does not choose to depend on the mercenary skill of a man whose trade he abhors for the establishment of that which should be clear as sun at noonday! You say I am innocent, and yet you tell me I am to be condemned as a guilty man, have my gown taken from me, be torn from my wife and children, be disgraced before the eyes of all men, and made a byword and a thing horrible to be mentioned, because I will not fee an attorney to fee another man to come and lie on my behalf, to browbeat witnesses, to make false appeals, and perhaps shed false tears in defending me. You have come to me asking me to do this, if I understand you, telling me that the archdeacon would so advise me.’

‘That is my object.’ Mr Crawley, as he had spoken, had in his vehemence, risen from his seat, and Mr Robarts was also standing.

‘Then tell the archdeacon,’ said Mr Crawley, ‘that I will have none of his advice. I will have no one there paid by me to obstruct the course of justice or to hoodwink a jury. I have been in the courts of law, and know what is the work for which these gentlemen are hired. I will have none of it, and I will thank you to tell the archdeacon so, with my respectful acknowledgements of his consideration and condescension. I say nothing as to my own innocence, or my own guilt. But I do say that if I am dragged before that tribunal, an innocent man, and am falsely declared to be guilty, because I lack money to bribe a lawyer to speak for me, then the laws of this country deserve but little of that reverence which we are accustomed to pay them. And if I be guilty–‘

‘Nobody supposes you to be guilty.’

‘And if I be guilty,’ continued Mr Crawley, altogether ignoring the interruption, except by the repetition of his words, and a slight raising of his voice, ‘I will not add to my guilt by hiring anyone to prove a falsehood or to disprove a truth.’

‘I’m sorry that you should say so, Mr Crawley.’

‘I speak according to what light I have, Mr Robarts; and if I have been over-warm with you–and I am conscious that I have been at fault in that direction–I must pray you to remember that I am somewhat hardly tried. My sorrows and troubles are so great that they rise against me and disturb me, and drive me on–whither I would not be driven.’

‘But, my friend, is not that just the reason why you should trust in this matter to someone who can be more calm than yourself?’

‘I cannot trust to anyone–in a matter of conscience. To do as you would have me is to me wrong. Shall I do wrong because I am unhappy?’

‘You should cease to think it wrong when so advised by persons you can trust.’

‘I can trust no one with my own conscience;–not even the archdeacon, great as he is.’

‘The archdeacon has meant only well by you.’

‘I will presume so. I will believe so. I do think so. Tell the archdeacon from me that I humbly thank him;–that in a matter of church question, I might probably submit my judgment to his; even though he might have no authority over me, knowing as I do that in such matters his experience has been great. Tell him also, that though I would fain that this unfortunate affair might burden the tongue of none of my neighbours–at least till I shall have stood before the judge to receive the verdict of the jury, and, if needful, his lordship’s sentence–still I am convinced that in what he has spoken, as also in what he has done, he has not yielded to the idleness of gossip, but has exercised his judgment with intended kindness.’

‘He has certainly intended to do you a service; and as for its not being talked about, that is out of the question.’

‘And for yourself, Mr Robarts, whom I have ever regarded as a friend since circumstances brought me into your neighbourhood–for you, whose sister I love tenderly in memory of past kindness, though now she is removed so far above my sphere, as to make it unfit I should call her my friend–‘

‘She does not think so at all.’

‘For yourself, as I was saying, pray believe me that though from the roughness of my manner, being now unused to social intercourse, I seem to be ungracious and forbidding, I am grateful and mindful, and that in the tablets of my heart I have written you down as one in whom I could trust–were it given to me to trust in men and women.’ Then he turned round with his face to the wall and his back to his visitor, and so remained till Mr Robarts had left him. ‘At any rate, I wish you well through your trouble,’ said Robarts; and as he spoke he found that his own words were nearly choked by a sob that was rising in this throat.

He went away without another word, and got out to his gig without seeing Mrs Crawley. During one period of the interview he had been very angry with the man–so angry as to make him almost declare to himself that he would take no more trouble on his behalf. Then he had been brought to acknowledge that Mr Walker was right, and that Crawley was certainly mad. He was so mad, so far removed from the dominion of sound sense, that no jury could say that he was guilty and that he ought to be punished for his guilt. And, as he so resolved, he could not but ask himself the question, whether the charge of the parish ought to be left in the hands of such a man? But, at last, just before he went, these feelings and these convictions gave way to pity, and he remembered simply the troubles which seemed to have been heaped on the head of this poor victim to misfortune. As he drove home he resolved that there was nothing left for him to do, but to write to the dean. It was known by all who knew them both, that the dean and Mr Crawley had lived together on the closest intimacy at college, and that the friendship had been maintained through life;–though, from the peculiarity of Mr Crawley’s character, the two had not been much together of late years. Seeing how things were going now, and hearing how pitiful was the plight in which Mr Crawley was placed, the dean would, no doubt, feel it to be his duty to hasten his return to England. He was believed to be at this moment in Jerusalem, and it would be long before a letter could reach him; but there still wanted three months to the assizes, and his return might be probably effected before the end of February.

‘I was never so distressed in my life,’ Mark Robarts said to his wife.

‘And you think you have done no good?’

‘Only this, that I have convinced myself that the poor man is to responsible for what he does, and that for her sake as well as for his own, some person should be enabled to interfere for his protection.’ Then he told Mrs Robarts what Mr Walker had said; also the message which Mr Crawley had sent to the archdeacon. But they both agreed that that message need not be sent any further.

CHAPTER XXII

MAJOR GRANTLY AT HOME

Mrs Thorne had spoken very plainly in the advice which she had given to Major Grantly. That had been Mrs Thorne’s advice; and though Major Grantly had no idea of making the journey so rapidly as the lady had proposed, still he thought that he would make it before long, and follow the advice in spirit if not to the letter. Mrs Thorne had asked him if it was fair that the girl should be punished because of the father’s fault; and the idea had been sweet to him that the infliction or non-infliction of such punishment should be in his hands. ‘You go and ask her,’ Mrs Thorne had said. Well;–he would go and ask her. If it should turn out at last that he had married the daughter of a thief, and that he was disinherited for doing so–an arrangement of circumstances which had to teach himself to regard as very probable–he would not love Grace the less on that account, or allow himself for one moment to repent what he had done. As he thought of all this he became somewhat in love with a small income, and imagined to himself what honours would be done to him by the Mrs Thornes of the county, when they should come to know in what way he had sacrificed himself to his love. Yes;–they would go and live in Pau. He thought Pau would do. He would have enough income for that;–and Edith would get lessons cheaply, and would learn to talk French fluently. He certainly would do it. He would go down to Allington, and ask Grace to be his wife; and bid her to understand that if she loved him she could not be justified in refusing him by the circumstances of her father’s position.

But he must go to Plumstead before he could go to Allington. He was engaged to spend Christmas there, and must go now at once. There was not time for the journey to Allington before he was due at Plumstead. And, moreover, though he could not bring himself to resolve that he would tell his father what he was going to do;–‘It would seem as though I were asking his leave!’ he said to himself;–he thought he would make a clean breast of it to his mother. It made him sad to think that he should cut the rope which fastened his own boat among the other boats in the home harbour at Plumstead, and that he should go out all alone into strange waters–turned adrift altogether, as it were, from the Grantly fleet. If he could only get the promise of his mother’s sympathy for Grace it would be something. He understood–no one better than he–the tendency of all his family to an uprising in the world, which tendency was almost as strong in his mother as his father. And he had been by no means without a similar ambition himself, though with him the ambition had been only fitful, not enduring. He had a brother, a clergyman, a busy, stirring, eloquent London preacher, who got churches built, and was heard of far and wide as a rising man, who had married a certain Lady Anne, the daughter of an earl, and who was already mentioned as a candidate for high places. How his sister was the wife of a marquis, and a leader in the fashionable world, the reader already knows. The archdeacon himself was a rich man, so powerful that he could afford to look down upon a bishop; and Mrs Grantly, though there was left about her something of an old softness of nature, a touch of the former life which had been hers before the stream of her days had run to gold, yet she, too, had taken kindly to wealth and high standing, and was by no means one of those who construe literally that passage of scripture which tells of the camel and the needle’s eye. Our Henry Grantly, our major, knew himself to be his mother’s favourite child–knew himself to have become so since something of a coolness had grown up between her and her daughter. The augustness of the daughter had done much to reproduce the old freshness of which I spoke of in the mother’s heart, and had specially endeared to her the son, who, of all her children, was the least subject to the family’s failing. The clergyman, Charles Grantly–he who had married the Lady Anne–was his father’s darling in these days. The old archdeacon would go up to London and be quite happy in his son’s house. He met there the men whom he loved to meet, and heard the talk which he loved to hear. It was very fine, having the Marquis of Hartletop for his son-in-law, but he had never cared to be much at Lady Hartletop’s house. Indeed, the archdeacon cared to be in no house in which those around him were supposed to be bigger than himself. Such was the little family fleet from which Henry Grantly was now proposing to sail alone with his little boat–taking Grace Crawley with him at the helm. ‘My father is a just man at the bottom,’ he said to himself, ‘and though he may not forgive me, he will not punish Edith.’

But there was still left one of the family–not a Grantly, indeed, but one so nearly allied to them as to have his boat moored in the same harbour–who, as the major well knew, would thoroughly sympathise with him. This was old Mr Harding, his mother’s father–the father of his mother and of his aunt Mrs Arabin–whose home was now at the deanery. He was also to be at Plumstead during this Christmas, and he at any rate would give a ready assent to such a marriage as that which the major was proposing to himself. But then poor old Mr Harding had been thoroughly deficient in that ambition which had served to aggrandize the family into which his daughter had married. He was a poor old man who, in spite of good friends–for the late bishop of the diocese had been his dearest friend–had never risen high in his profession, and had fallen even from the moderate altitude which he had attained. But he was a man whom all loved who knew him; and it was much to the credit of his son-in-law the archdeacon, that, with all his tendencies to love rising suns, he had ever been true to Mr Harding.

Major Grantly took his daughter with him, and on his arrival at Plumstead she of course was the first object of attention. Mrs Grantly declared that she had grown immensely. The archdeacon complimented her red cheeks, and said that Cosby Lodge was as healthy a place as any in the county, while Mr Harding, Edith’s great-grandfather, drew slowly from his pocket sundry treasures with which he had come prepared for the delight of the little girl. Charles Grantly and Lady Anne had no children, and the heir of all the Hartletops was too august to have been trusted to the embraces of her mother’s grandfather. Edith, therefore, was all that he had in that generation, and of Edith he was prepared to be as indulgent as he had been, in their time, of his grandchildren, the Grantlys, and still was of his grandchildren the Arabins, and before that of his own daughters. ‘She’s more like Eleanor than anyone else,’ said the old man in a plaintive tone. Now Eleanor was Mrs Arabin, the dean’s wife, and was at this time–if I were to say over forty I do not think I should be uncharitable. No one else saw the special likeness, but no one else remembered, as Mr Harding did, what Eleanor had been when she was three years old.

‘Aunt Nelly is in France,’ said the child.

‘Yes, my darling, aunt Nelly is in France, and I wish she were at home. Aunt Nelly has been away a long time.’

‘I suppose she’ll stay till the dean picks her up on his way home?’

‘So she says in her letters. I heard from her yesterday, and I brought the letter, as I thought you’d like to see it.’ Mrs Grantly took the letter and read it, while her father still played with the child. The archdeacon and the major were standing together on the rug discussing the shooting at Chaldicotes, as to which the archdeacon had a strong opinion. ‘I’m quite sure that a man with a place like that does more good by preserving than by leaving it alone. The better head of game he has the richer the county will be generally. It is just the same with pheasants as it is with sheep and bullocks. A pheasant doesn’t cost more than he’s worth any more than a barn-door fowl. Besides, a man who preserves is always respected by the poachers, and the man who doesn’t is not.’

‘There’s something in that, sir, certainly,’ said the major.

‘More than you think for, perhaps. Look at poor Sowerby, who went on there for years without a shilling. How he was respected, because he lived as the people around him expected a gentleman to live. Thorne will have a bad time of it, if he tries to change things.’

‘Only think,’ exclaimed Mrs Grantly, ‘when Eleanor wrote she had not heard of that affair of poor Mr Crawley’s.’

‘Does she say anything about him?’ asked the major.

‘I’ll read what it says. “I see in Galignani that a clergyman in Barsetshire has been committed for theft. Pray tell me who it is. Not the bishop, I hope, for the credit of the diocese?”‘

‘I wish it were,’ said the archdeacon

‘For shame, my dear,’ said his wife.

‘No shame at all. If we are to have a thief among us, I’d sooner find him in a bad man than a good one. Besides, we should have a change at the palace, which would be a great thing.’

‘But is it not odd that Eleanor should have heard nothing of it?’ said Mrs Grantly.

‘It’s odd that you should not have mentioned it yourself.’

‘I did not, certainly; nor you, papa, I suppose?’

Mr Harding acknowledged that he had not spoken of it, and then they calculated that perhaps she might not have received any letter from her husband since the news had reached him. ‘Besides, why should he have mentioned it?’ said the major. ‘He only knows as yet of the inquiry about the cheque, and can have heard nothing of what was done by the magistrates.’

‘Still it seems odd that Eleanor should not have known of it, seeing that we have been talking of nothing else for the last week.’

For two days the major said not a word of Grace Crawley to anyone. Nothing could be more courteous and complaisant than was his father’s conduct to him. Anything that he wanted for Edith was to be done. For himself there was no trouble which would not be taken. His hunting, and his shooting, and his fishing seemed to have become matters of paramount consideration to his father. And then the archdeacon became very confidential about money matters–not offering anything to his son, which, as he well knew, would be seen through as palpable bribery and corruption–but telling him of this little scheme and of that, of one investment and of another;–how he contemplated buying a small property here, and spending a few thousands on building there. ‘Of course it is all for you and your brother,’ said the archdeacon, with that benevolent sadness which is used habitually by fathers on such occasions; ‘and I like you to know what it is I am doing. I told Charles about the London property the last time I was up,’ said the archdeacon, ‘and there shall be no difference between him and you, if all goes well.’ This was very good-natured on the archdeacon’s part, and was not strictly necessary, as Charles was the eldest son; but the major understood it perfectly. ‘There shall be an elysium opened to you, if only you will not do that terrible thing of which you spoke when last you were here.’ The archdeacon uttered no such words as these, and did not even allude to Grace Crawley; but the words were as good as spoken, and had they been spoken ever so plainly the major could not have understood them more clearly. He was quite awake to the loveliness of the elysium before him. He had had his moment of anxiety, whether his father would or would not make an elder son of his brother Charles. The whole thing was now put before him plainly. Give up Grace Crawley, and you shall share alike with your brother. Disgrace yourself by marrying her, and you brother shall have everything. There was the choice, and it was till open to him to take which side he pleased. Were he never to go near Grace Crawley again no one would blame him, unless it were Miss Prettyman or Mrs Thorne. ‘Fill your glass, Henry,’ said the archdeacon. ‘You’d better, I tell you, for there is no more of it left.’ Then the major filled his glass and sipped the wine, and swore to himself that he would go down to Allington at once. What! Did his father think to bribe him by giving him ’20 port? He would certainly go down to Allington, and he would tell his mother tomorrow morning, or certainly on the next day, what he was going to do. ‘Pity it should all be gone; isn’t it, sir?’ said the archdeacon to his father-in-law. ‘It has lasted my time,’ said Mr Harding, ‘and I’m very much obliged to it. Dear, dear; how well I remember your father giving the order for it! There were two pipes, and somebody said it was a heady wine. “If the prebendaries and rectors can’t drink it,” said your father, “the curates will.”‘

‘Curates indeed!’ said the archdeacon. ‘It’s too good for a bishop, unless it is of the right sort.’

‘Your father used to say those things, but with him the poorer the guest the better the cheer. When he had a few clergymen round him, how he loved to make them happy!’

‘Never talked shop to them–did he?’ said the archdeacon.

‘Not after dinner, at any rate. Goodness gracious, when one thinks of it! Do you remember how we used to play cards?’

‘Every night regularly;–threepenny points, and sixpence on the rubber,’ said the archdeacon.

‘Dear, dear! How things are changed! And I remember when the clergymen did more of the dancing in Barchester than all the other young men in the city put together.’

‘And a good set they were;–gentlemen every one of them. It’s well that some of them don’t dance now;–that is, for the girl’s sake.’

‘I sometimes sit and wonder,’ said Mr Harding, ‘whether your father’s spirit ever comes back to the old house and sees the changes–and if so whether he approves of them.’

‘Approves them!’ said the archdeacon.

‘Well;–yes. I think he would, upon the whole. I’m sure of this: he would not disapprove, because the new ways are changed from his ways. He never thought himself infallible. And do you know, my dear, I am not sure that it isn’t all for the best. I sometimes think that some of us were very idle when we were young. I was, I know.’

‘I worked hard enough,’ said the archdeacon.

‘Ah, yes; you. But most of us took it very easily. Dear, dear! When I think of it, and see how hard they work now, and remember what pleasant times we used to have–I don’t feel sometimes quite sure.’

‘I believe the work was done a great deal better than it is now,’ said the archdeacon. ‘There wasn’t so much fuss, but there was more reality. And men were men, and clergymen were gentlemen.’

‘Yes;–they were gentlemen.’

‘Such a creature as that old woman at the palace couldn’t have held his head up among us. That’s what has come from Reform. A reformed House of Commons makes Lord Brock Prime Minister, and then your Prime Minister makes Dr Proudie a bishop! Well;–it will last my time, I suppose.’

‘It has lasted mine–like the wine,’ said Mr Harding.

‘There’s one glass more, and you shall have it, sir.’ Then Mr Harding drank the last of the 1820 port, and they went into the drawing-room.

On the next morning after breakfast the major went out for a walk by himself. His father had suggested to him that he should go over to shoot at Framley, and had offered him the use of everything the archdeacon possessed in the way of horses, dogs, guns and carriages. But the major would have none of these things. He would go out and walk by himself. ‘He’s not thinking of her; is he?’ said the archdeacon to his wife, in a whisper. ‘I don’t know. I think he is,’ said Mrs Grantly. ‘It will be so much better for Charles, if he does,’ said the archdeacon grimly; and the look of his face as he spoke was by no means pleasant. ‘You will do nothing unjust, archdeacon,’ said his wife. ‘I will do as I like with my own,’ said he. And then he also went out and took a walk by himself.

That evening after dinner, there was no 1820 port, and no recollection of old days. They were rather dull, the three of them, as they sat together–and dullness is always more endurable than sadness. Old Mr Harding went to sleep and the archdeacon was cross. ‘Henry,’ he said, ‘you haven’t said a word to throw to a dog.’ ‘I’ve got rather a headache this evening, sir,’ said the major. The archdeacon drank two glasses of wine, one after another, quickly. Then he woke his father-in-law gently, and went off. ‘Is there anything the matter?’ asked the old man. ‘Nothing particular. My father seems a little cross.’ ‘Ah! I’ve been to sleep, and I oughtn’t. It’s my fault. We’ll go in and smooth him down.’ But the archdeacon wouldn’t be smoothed down on that occasion. He would let his son see the difference between a father pleased, and a father displeased–or rather between a father pleasant, and a father unpleasant. ‘He hasn’t said anything to you, has he?’ said the archdeacon that night to his wife. ‘Not a word;–as yet.’ ‘If he does it without the courage to tell us, I shall think him a cur,’ said the archdeacon. ‘But he did tell you,’ said Mrs Grantly, standing up for her favourite son; ‘and, for the matter of that, he has courage enough for anything. If he does it, I shall always say that he has been driven to it by your threats.’

‘That’s sheer nonsense,’ said the archdeacon.

‘It’s not nonsense at all,’ said Mrs Grantly.

‘Then I suppose I was to hold my tongue and say nothing?’ said the archdeacon; and as he spoke he banged the door between his dressing-room and Mrs Grantly’s bedroom.

On the first day of the new year Major Grantly spoke his mind to his mother. The archdeacon had gone into Barchester, having in vain attempted to induce his son to go with him. Mr Harding was in the library reading a little and sleeping a little, and dreaming of old days and old friends, and perhaps sometimes, of the old wine. Mrs Grantly was alone in a small sitting-room which she frequented upstairs, when suddenly her son entered the room. ‘Mother,’ he said, ‘I think it better to tell you that I am going to Allington.’

‘To Allington, Henry?’ She knew very well who was at Allington, and what must be the business which would take him there.

‘Yes, mother. Miss Crawley is there, and there are circumstances which make it incumbent on me to see her without delay.’

‘What circumstances, Henry?’

‘As I intend to ask her to be my wife, I think it best to do so now. I owe it to her and to myself that she should not think I am deterred by her father’s position.’

‘But would it not be reasonable that you should be deterred by her father’s position?’

‘No, I think not. I think it would be dishonest as well as ungenerous. I cannot bring myself to brook such delay. Of course I am alive to the misfortune which has fallen upon her–upon her and me, too, should she ever become my wife. But it is one of those burdens which a man should have shoulders broad enough to bear.’

‘Quite so, if she were your wife, or even if you were engaged to her. Then honour would require it of you, as well as affection. As it is, your honour does not require it, and I think you should hesitate, for all our sakes, and especially for Edith’s.’

‘It will do Edith no harm; and, mother, if you alone were concerned, I think you would feel that it would not hurt you.’

‘I was not thinking of myself, Henry.’

‘As for my father, the very threats which he has made make me conscious that I have only to measure the price. He has told me that he will stop my allowance.’

‘But that may not be the worst. Think how you are situated. You are the younger son of a man who will be held to be justified in making an elder son, if he thinks fit to do so.’

‘I can only hope that he will be fair to Edith. If you will tell him that from me, it is all that I wish you to do.’

‘But you will see him yourself?’

‘No, mother; not till I have been to Allington. Then I will see him again or not, just as he pleases. I shall stop at Guestwick, and will write to you a line from thence. If my father decides on doing anything, let me know at once, as it will be necessary that I should get rid of the lease of my house.’

‘Oh, Henry!’

‘I have thought a great deal about it, mother, and I believe I am right. Whether I am right or wrong, I shall do it. I will not ask you now for any promise or pledge; but should Miss Crawley become my wife, I hope that you at least will not refuse to see her as your daughter.’ Having so spoken, he kissed his mother, and was about to leave the room; but she held him by his arm, and he saw that her eyes were full of tears. ‘Dearest mother, if I grieve you I am sorry indeed.’

‘Not me, not me, not me,’ she said.

‘For my father, I cannot help it. Had he not threatened me I should have told him also. As he has done so, you must tell him. But give him my kindest love.’

‘Oh, Henry; you will be ruined. You will, indeed. Can you not wait? Remember how headstrong your father is, and how good;–and how he loves you! Think of all he that he has done for you. When did he refuse you anything?’

‘He has been good to me, but in this I cannot obey him. He should not ask me.’

‘You are wrong. You are indeed. He has a right to expect that you will not bring disgrace upon the family.’

‘Nor will I;–except such disgrace as shall attend upon poverty. Good-bye, mother. I wish you could have said one kind word to me.’

‘Have I not said a kind word?’

‘Not as yet, mother.’

‘I would not for the world speak unkindly to you. If it were not for your father I would bid you bring whom you pleased home to me as your wife; and I would be as a mother to her. And if this girl should become your wife–‘

‘It shall not be my fault if she does not.’

‘I will try to love her–some day.’

Then the major went, leaving Edith at the rectory, as requested by his mother. His own dog-cart and servant were at Plumstead, and he drove himself home to Cosby Lodge.

When the archdeacon returned the news was told to him at once. ‘Henry has gone to Allington to propose to Miss Crawley,’ said Mrs Grantly.

‘Gone–without speaking to me!’

‘He left his love, and said that it was useless remaining, as he knew he should only offend you.’

‘He has made his bed, and he must lie upon it,’ said the archdeacon. And then there was not another word said about Grace Crawley on that occasion.

CHAPTER XXIII

MISS LILY DALE’S RESOLUTION

The ladies at the Small House at Allington breakfasted always at nine–a liberal nine; and the postman whose duty it was to deliver letters in that village at half-past eight, being also liberal in his ideas as to time, always arrived punctually in the middle of breakfast, so that Mrs Dale expected her letters, and Lily hers, just before the second cup of tea, as though the letters formed a part of the morning meal. Jane, the maidservant, always brought them in, and handed them to Mrs Dale–for Lily had in these days come to preside at the breakfast table; and then there would be an examination of the outsides before the envelopes were violated, and as each party knew pretty well the circumstances of the correspondence of the other, there would be some guessing as to what this or that epistle might contain; and after that a reading out loud of passages, and not unfrequently the entire letter. But now, at the time of which I am speaking, Grace Crawley was at the Small House, and therefore the common practice was somewhat in abeyance.

On one of the first days of the new year Jane brought in the letters as usual, and handed them to Mrs Dale. Lily was at the time occupied with the teapot, but still she saw the letters, and had not her hands so full as to be debarred from the expression of her usual anxiety. ‘Mamma, I’m sure I see two there for me,’ she said. ‘Only one for you, Lily,’ said Mrs Dale. Lily instantly knew from the tone of the voice that some letter had come, which by the very aspect of the handwriting had disturbing her mother. ‘There is one for you, my dear,’ said Mrs Dale, throwing a letter across the table to Grace. ‘And one for you, Lily, from Bell. The others are for me.’ ‘And whom are you yours from, mamma?’ asked Lily. ‘One is from Mrs Jones; and the other, I think, is a letter on business.’ Then Lily said nothing further, but she observed that her mother only opened one of her letters at the breakfast-table. Lily was very patient;–not by nature, I think, but by exercise and practice. She had, once in her life, been too much in a hurry; and having then burned herself grievously, she now feared the fire. She did not therefore follow her mother after breakfast, but sat with Grace over the fire, hemming diligently at certain articles of clothing which were intended for use in the Hogglestock parsonage. The two girls were making a set of new shirts for Mr Crawley. ‘But I know he will ask where they come from,’ said Grace; ‘and then mamma will be scolded.’ ‘But I hope he’ll wear them,’ said Lily. ‘Sooner of later he will,’ said Grace; ‘because mamma manages generally to have her way at last.’ Then they went on for an hour or so, talking about the home affairs at Hogglestock. But during the whole time Lily’s mind was intent upon her mother’s letter.

Nothing was said about it at lunch, and nothing when they walked out after lunch, for Lily was very patient. But during the walk Mrs Dale became aware that her daughter was uneasy. These two watched each other unconsciously with a closeness which hardly allowed a glance of the eye, certainly not a tone of the voice, to pass unobserved. To Mrs Dale it was everything in the world that her daughter should be, if not happy at heart, at least tranquil; and to Lily, who knew that her mother was always thinking of her, and of her alone, her mother was the only human divinity now worthy of adoration. But nothing was said about the letter during the walk.

When they came home it was nearly dusk, and it was their habit to sit up for a while without candles, talking, till the evening had in truth set in and the unmistakable and enforced idleness of remaining without candles was apparent. During this time, Lily, demanding patience of herself all the while, was thinking what she would do, or rather what she would say, about the letter. That nothing would be done or said in the presence of Grace Crawley was a matter of course, nor would she do or say anything to get rid of Grace. She would be very patient; but she would, at last, ask her mother about the letter.

And then, as luck would have it, Grace Crawley got up and left the room. Lily still waited for a few minutes, and, in order that her patience might be thoroughly exercised, she said a word or two about her sister Bell; how the eldest child’s whooping-cough was nearly well, and how the baby was doing wonderful things with its first tooth. But as Mrs Dale had already seen Bell’s letter, all this was not intensely interesting. At last Lily came to the point and asked her question. ‘Mamma, from whom was that other letter which you got this morning?’

Our story will perhaps be best told by communicating the letter to the reader before it was discussed with Lily. The letter was as follows:-

‘GENERAL COMMITTEE OFFICE,–January, 186-‘

I should have said that Mrs Dale had not opened the letter till she had found herself in the solitude of her own bedroom; and that then, before doing so, she had examined the handwriting with anxious eyes. When she first received it she thought she knew the writer, but was not sure. Then she had glanced at the impression over the fastening, and had known at once from whom the letter had come. It was from Mr Crosbie, the man who had brought so much trouble into her house, who had jilted her daughter; the only man in the world whom she had a right to regard as a positive enemy to herself. She had no doubt about it, as she tore the envelope open; and yet, when the address given made her quite sure, a new feeling of shivering came upon her, and she asked herself whether it might not be better that she should send his letter back to him without reading it. But she read it.

‘MADAM,’ the letter began–
‘You will be very much surprised to hear from me, and I am quite aware that I am not entitled to the ordinary courtesy of an acknowledgement from you, should you be pleased to throw my letter on some side as unworthy of your notice. But I cannot refrain from addressing you, and must leave it to you to reply or not, as you may think fit.

‘I will only refer to that episode of my life with which you are acquainted, for the sake of acknowledging my great fault and of assuring you that I did not go unpunished. It would be useless for me now to attempt to explain to you the circumstances which led me into that difficulty which ended in so great a blunder; but I will ask you to believe that my folly was greater than my sin.

‘But I will come to my point at once. You are, no doubt, aware that I married the daughter of Lord De Courcy, and that I was separated from my wife a few weeks after our unfortunate marriage. It is now something over twelve months since she died at Baden- Baden in her mother’s house. I never saw her since the day we first parted. I have not a word to say against her. The fault was mine in marrying a woman whom I did not love and had never loved. When I married Lady Alexandrina I loved, not her, but your daughter.

‘I believe I may venture to say to you that your daughter once loved me. From the day on which I last wrote to you that terrible letter which told you of my fate, I have never mentioned the name of Lily Dale to human ears. It has been too sacred for my mouth–too sacred for the intercourse of any friendship with which I have been blessed. I now use it for the first time to you, in order that I may ask whether it be possible that her old love should ever live again. Mine has lived always–has never faded for an hour, making me miserable during the last years that have passed since I saw her, but capable of making me very happy, if I may be allowed to see her again.

‘You will understand my purpose now as well as though I were to write pages. I have no scheme formed in my head for seeing your daughter again. How can I dare to form a scheme, when I am aware that the chance of success must be so strong against me? But if you will tell me that there can be a gleam of hope, I will obey any commands that you can put upon me in any way that you may point out. I am free again–and she is free. I love her with all my heart, and seem to long for nothing in the world but that she should become my wife. Whether any of her old love may still abide with her, you will know. If it do, it may even yet prompt her to forgive one, who, in spite of falseness of conduct, has yet been true to her in heart.

‘I have the honour to be, Madam,
‘Your most obedient servant,

ADOLPHUS CROSBIE.’

This was the letter which Mrs Dale had received, and as to which she had not as yet said a word to Lily, or even made up her mind whether she would say a word or not. Dearly as the mother and daughter loved each other, thorough as was the confidence between them, yet the name of Adolphus Crosbie had not been mentioned between them oftener, perhaps, than half-a-dozen times since the blow had been struck. Mrs Dale knew that their feelings about the man were altogether different. She, herself, not only condemned him for what he had done, believing it to be impossible that any shadow of excuse could be urged for his offence, thinking that the fault had shown the man to be mean beyond redemption–but she had allowed herself actually to hate him. He had in one sense murdered her daughter, and she believed that she could never forgive him. But, Lily, as her mother well knew, had forgiven this man altogether, had made excuses for him which cleansed his sin of all its blackness in her own eyes, and was to this day anxious as ever for his welfare and his happiness. Mrs Dale feared that Lily did in truth love him still. If it was so, was she not bound to show her this letter? Lily was old enough to judge for herself–old enough, and wise enough too. Mrs Dale told herself half-a-score of times that morning that she could not be justified in keeping the letter from her daughter.

But yet much she wished that the letter had never been written, and would have given very much to be able to put it out of the way without injustice to Lily. To her thinking it would be impossible that Lily should be happy marrying such a man. Such a marriage now would be, as Mrs Dale thought, a degradation to her daughter. A terrible injury had been done to her; but such reparation as this would, in Mrs Dale’s eyes, only make the injury deeper. And yet Lily loved the man; and, loving him, how could she resist the temptation of his offer? ‘Mamma, from whom was that letter which you got this morning? Lily asked. For a few moments Mrs Dale remained silent. ‘Mamma,’ continued Lily, ‘I think I know whom it was from. If you tell me to ask nothing further, of course I will not.’

‘No, Lily; I cannot tell you that.’

‘Then, mamma, out with it at once. What is the use of shivering on the brink?’

‘It was from Mr Crosbie.’

‘I knew it. I cannot tell you why, but I knew it. And now, mamma;–am I to read it?’

‘You shall do as you please, Lily.’

‘Then I please to read it.’

‘Listen to me a moment first. For myself, I wish that the letter had never been written. It tells badly for the man, as I think of it. I cannot understand how any man could have brought himself to address either you or me, after having acted as he acted.’

‘But, mamma, we differ about all that, you know.’

‘Now he has written, and there is the letter–if you choose to read it.’

Lily had it in her hand, but she still sat motionless, holding it. ‘You think, mamma, I ought not to read it?’

‘You must judge for yourself, dearest.’

‘And if I do not read it, what shall you do, mamma?’

‘I shall do nothing;–or, perhaps, I should in such a case acknowledge it, and tell him that we have nothing more to say to him.’

‘That should be very stern.’

‘He has done that which makes some sternness necessary.’

Then Lily was again silent, and still she sat motionless, with the letter in her hand. ‘Mamma,’ she said at last, ‘if you tell me not to read it, I will give it back to you unread. If you bid me exercise my own judgment, I shall take it upstairs and read it.’

‘You must exercise your own judgment,’ said Mrs Dale. Then Lily got up from her chair and walked slowly out of the room, and went to her mother’s chamber. The thoughts which passed through Mrs Dale’s mind while her daughter was reading the letter were very sad. She could find no comfort anywhere. Lily, she had told herself, would surely give way to this man’s renewed expressions of affection, and she, Mrs Dale herself, would be called upon to give her child to a man whom she could neither love nor respect;–who, for aught she knew, she could never cease to hate. And she could not bring herself to believe that Lily could be happy with such a man. As for her own life, desolate as it would be–she cared little for that. Mothers know that their daughters will leave them. Even widowed mothers, mothers with but one child left–such a one as was this mother—are aware that they will be left alone, and they can bring themselves to welcome the sacrifice of themselves with something of satisfaction. Mrs Dale and Lily had, indeed, of late become bound together especially, so that the mother had been justified in regarding the link which joined them as being firmer than that by which most daughters are bound to their mothers;–but in all that she would have found no regret. Even now, in these very days, she was hoping that Lily might yet be brought to give herself to John Eames. But she could not, after all that was come and gone, be happy in thinking that Lily should be given to Adolphus Crosbie.

When Mrs Dale went upstairs to her own room before dinner Lily was not there; nor were they alone together again that evening except for a moment, when Lily, as usual, went into her mother’s room when she was undressing. But neither of them then said a word about the letter. Lily during dinner and throughout the evening had borne herself well, giving no sign of special emotion, keeping to herself entirely her own thoughts about the proposition made to her. And afterwards she had progressed diligently with the fabrication of Mr Crawley’s shirts, as though she had no such letter in her pocket. And yet there was not a moment in which she was not thinking of it. To Grace, just before she went to bed, she did say one word. ‘I wonder whether it can ever come to a person to be so placed that there can be no doing right, let what will be done;–that, do or not do, as you may, it must be wrong?’

‘I hope you are not in such a condition,’ said Grace.

‘I am something near it,’ said Lily, ‘but perhaps if I look long enough I shall see the light.’

‘I hope that it will be a happy light at last,’ said Grace, who thought that Lily was referring only to John Eames.

At noon on the next day Lily had still said nothing to her mother about the letter; and then what she said was very little. ‘When must you answer Mr Crosbie, mamma?’

‘When, my dear?’

‘I mean how long may you take? It need not be today.’

‘No;–certainly not today.’

‘Then I will talk it over with you tomorrow. It wants some thinking;–does it not, mamma?’

‘It would not want much with me, Lily.’

‘But then, mamma, you are not I. Believing as I believe, feeling as I feel, it wants some thinking. That’s what I mean.’

‘I wish I could help you, my dear.’

‘You shall help me–tomorrow.’ The morrow came and Lily was still very patient; but she had prepared herself, and had prepared the time also, so that in the hour of the gloaming she was alone with her mother, and sure that she might remain alone with her for an hour or so. ‘Mamma, sit there,’ she said; ‘I will sit down here, and then I can lean against you and be comfortable. You can bear as much of me as that–can’t you, mamma?’ Then Mrs Dale put her arm over Lily’s shoulder, and embraced her daughter. ‘And now, mamma, we will talk about this wonderful letter.’

‘I do not know, dear, that I have anything to say about it.’

‘But you must have something to say about it, mamma. You must bring yourself to have something to say–to have a great deal to say.’

‘You know what I think as well as though I talked for a week.’

‘That won’t do, mamma. Come, you must not be hard with me.’

‘Hard, Lily!’

‘I don’t mean that you will hurt me, or not give me any food–or that you will not go on caring about me more than anything else in the whole world ten times over–‘ And Lily as she spoke, tightened the embrace of her mother’s arm round her neck. I’m not afraid you’ll be hard in that way. But you must soften your heart so as to be able to mention his name and talk about him, and tell me what I ought to do. You must see with my eyes, and hear with my ears, and feel with my heart;–and then, when I know that you have done that, I must judge with your judgment.’

‘I wish you to use your own.’

‘Yes;–because you won’t see with my eyes and hear with my ears. That’s what I call being hard. Though you should feed me with blood from your breast, I should call you a hard pelican, unless you could give me also the sympathy which I demand from you. You see, mamma, we have never allowed ourselves to speak of this man.’

‘What need has there been, dearest?’

‘Only because we have been thinking of him. Out of the full heart the mouth speaketh;–that is, the mouth does so, when the full heart is allowed to have its own comfortably.’

‘There are things which should be forgotten.’

‘Forgotten, mamma?’

‘The memory of which should not be fostered by much talking.’

‘I have never blamed you, mamma; never, even in my heart. I have known how good and gracious and sweet you have been. But I have often accused myself of cowardice because I have not allowed his name to cross my lips either to you or to Bell. To talk of forgetting such an accident as that is a farce. And as for fostering the memory of it–! Do you think that I have ever spent a night from that time to this without thinking of him? Do you imagine that I have ever crossed our own lawn, or gone down through the garden-path there, without thinking of the times when he and I walked there together? There needs no fostering for such memories as those. They are weeds which will go rank and strong though nothing be done to foster them. There is the earth and the rain, and that is enough for them. You cannot kill them if you would, and they certainly will not die because you are careful not to hoe and rake the ground.

‘Lily, you forget how short the time has been as yet.’

‘I have thought it very long; but the truth is, mamma, that this non-fostering of memories, as you call it, has not been the real cause of our silence. We have not spoken of Mr Crosbie because we have not thought alike about him. Had you spoken you would have spoken with anger, and I could not endure to hear him abused. That has been it.’

‘Partly so, Lily.’

‘Now you must talk of him, and you must not abuse him. We must talk of him, because something must be done about his letter. Even it be left unanswered, it cannot be so left without discussion. And yet you must say no evil of him.’

‘Am I to think he behaved well?’

‘No, mamma; you are not to think that; but you are to look upon his fault as a fault that has been forgiven.’

‘It cannot be forgiven, dear.’

‘But, mamma, when you go to heaven–‘

‘My dear!’

‘But you will go to heaven, mamma, and why should I not speak of it? You will go to heaven, and yet I suppose you have been very wicked, because we are all very wicked. But you won’t be told of your wickedness there. You won’t be hated there, because you were this or that when you were here.’

‘I hope not, Lily; but isn’t your argument almost profane?’

‘No; I don’t think so. We ask to be forgiven just as we forgive. That is the way in which we hope to be forgiven, and therefore it is the way in which we ought to forgive. When you say that prayer at night, mamma, do you ever ask yourself whether you have forgiven him?’

‘I forgive him as far as humanity can forgive. I would do him no injury.’

‘But if you and I are forgiven only after that fashion we shall never get to heaven.’ Lily paused for some further answer from her mother, but as Mrs Dale was silent she allowed that portion of the subject to pass as completed. ‘And now, mamma, what answer do you think we ought to send to his letter?’

‘My dear, how am I to say? You know I have said already that if I could act on my own judgment, I would send none.’

‘But that was said in the bitterness of gall.’

‘Come, Lily, say what you think yourself. We shall get on better when you have brought yourself to speak. Do you think that you wish to see him again?’

‘I don’t know, mamma. Upon the whole, I think not.’

‘Then in heaven’s name, let me write and tell him so.’

‘Stop a moment, mamma. There are two persons here to be considered–or rather, three.’

‘I would not have you think of me in such a question.’

‘I know you would not; but never mind, and let me go on. The three of us are concerned, at any rate; you, he, and I. I am thinking of him now. We have all suffered, but I do believe that hitherto he has had the worst of it.’

‘And who had deserved the worst?’

‘Mamma, how can you go back in that way? We have agreed that that should be regarded as done and gone. He has been very unhappy, and now we see what remedy he proposes to himself for his misery. Do I flatter myself if I allow myself to look at it in that way?’

‘Perhaps he thinks he is offering a remedy for your misery.’

As this was said, Lily turned round slowly and looked up into her mother’s face. ‘Mamma,’ she said, ‘that is very cruel. I did not think you could be so cruel. How can you, who believe him to be so selfish, think that?’

‘It is very hard to judge of men’s motives. I have never supposed him to be so black that he would not wish to make atonement for the evil he has done.’

‘If I thought that there certainly could be no answer.’

‘Who can look into a man’s heart and judge all the sources of his actions? There are mixed feelings there, no doubt. Remorse for what he has done; regret for what he has lost;–something, perhaps, of the purity of love.’

‘Yes, something–I hope something–for his sake.’

‘But when a horse kicks and bites, you know his nature and do not go near him. When a man has cheated you once, you think he will cheat you again, and you do not deal with him. You do not look to gather grapes from thistles, after you have found that they are thistles.’

‘I still go for the roses though I have often torn my hand with thorns in looking for them.’

‘But you do not pluck those that have become cankered in the blowing.’

‘Because he was once at fault, will he be cankered always?’

‘I would not trust him.’

‘Now, mamma, see how different we are; or, rather, how different it is when one judges for oneself or another. If it were simply myself, and my own future fate in life, I would trust him with it all tomorrow, without a word. I should go to him as a gambler goes to the gaming-table, knowing that I lose everything, I could hardly be poorer than I was before. But I should have a better hope than the gambler is justified in having. That, however, is not my difficulty. And when I think of him I can see a prospect for success for the gambler. I think so well of myself that, loving him, as I do;–yes, mamma, do not be uneasy;–loving him as I do, I believe I could be a comfort to him. I think that he might be better with me than without me. That is, he would be so, if he could teach himself to look back upon the past as I can do, and to judge of me as I can judge of him.’

‘He has nothing, at least, for which to condemn you.’

‘But he would have, were I to marry him now. He would condemn me because I had forgiven him. He would condemn me because I had borne what he had done to me, and had still loved him–loved him through it all. He would feel and know the weakness–and there is weakness. I have been weak in not being able to rid myself of him altogether. He would recognise this after a while, and would despise me for it. But he would not see what there is of devotion to him in my being able to bear the taunts of the world in going back to him, and to your taunts, and my own taunts. I should have to bear his also–not spoken aloud, but to be seen in his face and heard in his voice–and that I could not endure. If he despised me, and he would, that would make us both unhappy. Therefore, mamma, tell him not to come; tell him that he can never come; but, if it be possible, tell him tenderly.’ Then she got up and walked away, as though she were going out of the room, but her mother had caught her before the door was opened.

‘Lily,’ she said, ‘if you think you can be happy with him, he shall come.’

‘No, mamma, no. I have been looking for the light ever since I read his letter, and I think I see it. And now, mamma, I will make a clean breast of it. From the moment in which I heard that that poor woman was dead, I have been in a state of flutter. It has been weak of me, and silly, and contemptible. But I could not help it. I kept on asking myself whether he would ever think of me now. Well; he has answered the question; and has so done it that he has forced upon me the necessity of a resolution. I have resolved, and I believe that I shall be the better for it.’

The letter which Mrs Dale wrote to Mr Crosbie was as follows:-

‘Mrs Dale presents her compliments to Mr Crosbie, and begs to assure him that it will not now be possible that he should renew the relations which were broken off three years ago, between him and Mrs Dale’s family.’ It was very short, certainly, and it did not by any means satisfy Mrs Dale. But she did not know how to say more without saying too much. The object of her letter was to save him the trouble of a futile perseverance, and them from the annoyance of persecution; and this she wished to do without mentioning her daughter’s name. And she was determined that no word should escape her in which there was any touch of severity, any hint of an accusation. So much she owed to Lily in return for all that Lily was prepared to abandon. ‘There is my note,’ she said at last, offering it to her daughter. ‘I did not mean to see it,’ said Lily, ‘and, mamma, I will not read it now. Let it go. I know you have been good and have not scolded him.’ ‘I have not scolded him, certainly,’ said Mrs Dale. And then the letter was sent.

CHAPTER XXIV

MRS DOBBS BROUGHTON’S DINNER-PARTY

Mr John Eames of the Income-Tax Office, had in three days risen so high in that world that people in the west-end of town, and very respectable people too–people living in South Kensington, in neighbourhoods not far from Belgravia, and in very handsome houses round Bayswater–were glad to ask him out to dinner. Money had been left to him by an earl, and rumour had of course magnified that money. He was a private secretary, which is in itself a great advance on being a mere clerk. And he had become the particular intimate friend of an artist who had pushed himself into high fashion during the last year or two–one Conway Dalrymple, whom the rich English world was beginning to pet and pelt with gilt sugar-plums, and who seemed to take very kindly to petting and gilt sugar-plums. I don’t know whether the friendship of Conway Dalrymple had not done as much to secure John Eames his position at the Bayswater dinner-tables, as had either the private secretaryship, or the earl’s money; and yet, when they had first known each other, now only two or three years ago, Conway Dalrymple had been the poorer man of the two. Some chance had brought them together, and they had lived in the same room for nearly two years. This arrangement had been broken up, and the Conway Dalrymple of these days had a studio of his own, somewhere near Kensington Palace, where he painted portraits of young countesses, and in which he had even painted a young duchess. It was the peculiar merit of his pictures–so at least said the art-loving world–that though the likeness was always good, the stiffness of the modern portrait was never there. There was also ever some story told in Dalrymple’s pictures over and above the story of the portraiture. This countess was drawn as a fairy with wings, that countess as a goddess with a helmet. The thing took for a time, and Conway Dalrymple was picking up his gilt sugar-plums with considerable rapidity.

On a certain day he and John Eames were to dine out together at a certain house in that Bayswater district. It was a large mansion, if not made of stone yet looking very stony, with thirty windows at least, all of them with cut-stone frames, requiring, let me say, at least four thousand a year for its maintenance. And its owner, Dobbs Broughton, a man very well known both in the City and over the grass in Northamptonshire, was supposed to have a good deal more than four thousand a year. Mrs Dobbs Broughton, a very beautiful woman, who certainly was not yet thirty-five, let her worst enemies say what they might, had been painted by Conway Dalrymple as a Grace. There were, of course, three Graces in the picture, but each Grace was Mrs Dobbs Broughton repeated. We all know how Graces stand sometimes; two Graces looking one way, and one the other. In this picture, Mrs Dobbs Broughton as centre Grace looked you full in the face. For this pretty toy Mr Conway Dalrymple had picked up a gilt sugar-plum to the tune of six hundred pounds, and had, moreover, won the heart of both Mr and Mrs Dobbs Broughton. ‘Upon my word, Johnny,’ Dalrymple had said to his friend, ‘he’s a deuced good fellow, has really a good glass of claret–which is getting rarer and rarer every day–and will mount you for a day, whenever you please, down Market Harboro’. Come and dine with them.’ Johnny Eames condescended, and did go and dine with Mr Dobbs Broughton. I wonder whether he remembered, when Conway Dalrymple was talking of the rarity of good claret, how much beer the young painter used to drink when they were out together in the country, as they used to do occasionally, three years ago; and how the painter had then been used to complain that bitter cost threepence a glass, instead of twopence, which had hitherto been the recognised price of the article. In those days the sugar-plums had not been gilt, and had been much rarer.

Johnny Eames and his friend went together to the house of Mr Dobbs Broughton. As Dalrymple lived close to the Broughtons, Eames picked him up in a cab. ‘Filthy things, these cabs are,’ said Dalrymple, as he got into the hansom.

‘I don’t know about that,’ said Johnny. ‘They’re pretty good, I think.’

‘Foul things,’ said Conway. ‘Don’t you feel what a draught comes in here because the glass is cracked. I’d have one of my own, only I should never know what to do with it.’

‘The greatest nuisance on earth, I should think,’ said Johnny.

‘If you could always have it standing ready round the corner,’ said the artist, ‘it would be delightful. But one would want half-a-dozen horses, and two or three men for that.’

‘I think the stands are the best,’ said Johnny.

They were a little late–a little later than they should have been had they considered that Eames was to be introduced to his new acquaintances. But he had already lived long enough before the world to be quite at his ease in such circumstances, and he entered Mrs Broughton’s drawing-room with his pleasantest smile upon his face. But as he entered he saw a sight which made him look serious in spite of his efforts to the contrary. Mr Adolphus Crosbie, secretary to the Board at the General Committee Office, was standing on the rug before the fire.

‘Who will be there?’ Eames had asked of his friend, when the suggestion to go and dine with Dobbs Broughton had been made to him.

‘Impossible to say,’ Conway had replied. ‘A certain horrible fellow by the name of Musselbro, will almost certainly be there. He always is when they have anything of a swell dinner-party. He is a sort of partner of Broughton’s in the City. He wears a lot of chains, and has elaborate whiskers, and an elaborate waistcoat, which is worse; and he doesn’t wash his hands as often as he ought to do.’

‘An objectionable party, rather, I should say,’ said Eames.

‘Well, yes; Musselbro is objectionable. He’s very good-humoured you know, and good-looking in a sort of way, and goes everywhere; that is among people of this sort. Of course he’s not hand-and-glove with Lord Derby; and I wish he could be made to wash his hands. They haven’t any other standing dish, and you may meet anybody. They always have a Member of Parliament; they generally manage to catch a Baronet; and I have met a Peer there. On that august occasion Musselbro was absent.’

So instructed, Eames, on entering that room, looked round at once for Mr Musselbro. ‘If I don’t see the whiskers and chain,’ he had said, I shall know there’s a Peer.’ Mr Musselbro was in the room, but Eames had descried Mr Crosbie long before he had seen Mr Musselbro.

There was no reason for confusion on his part in meeting Crosbie. They had both loved Lily Dale. Crosbie might have been successful, but for his own fault. Eames had on one occasion been thrown into contact with him, and on that occasion had quarrelled with him and had beaten him, giving him a black eye, and in this way obtained some mastery over him. There was no reason why he should be ashamed of meeting Crosbie; and yet, when he saw him, the blood mounted all over his face, and he forgot to make any further search for Mr Musselbro.

‘I am so much obliged to Mr Dalrymple for bringing you,’ said Mrs Dobbs Broughton very sweetly, ‘only he ought to have come sooner. Naughty man! I know it was his fault. Will you take Miss Demolines down? Miss Demolines–Mr Eames.’

Mr Dobbs Broughton was somewhat sulky and had not welcomed our hero very cordially. He was beginning to think that Conway gave himself airs and did not sufficiently understand that a man who had horses at Market Harboro’ and ’41 Lafitte was at any rate as good as a painter who was pelted with gilt sugar-plums for painting countesses. But he was a man whose ill-humour never lasted long, and he was soon pressing his wine on Johnny Eames as though he loved him dearly.

But there was a few minutes before they went down to dinner, and Johnny Eames, as he endeavoured to find something to say to Miss Demolines–which was difficult, as he did not in the least know Miss Demolines’ line of conversation–was aware that his efforts were impeded by thoughts of Mr Crosbie. The man looked older than when he had last seen him–so much older that Eames was astonished. He was bald, or becoming bald; and his whiskers were grey, or were becoming grey, and he was much fatter. Johnny Eames, who was always thinking of Lily Dale, could not now keep himself from thinking of Adolphus Crosbie. He saw at a glance that the man was in mourning, though there was nothing but his shirt-studs by which to tell it; and he knew that he was in mourning for his wife. ‘I wish she might have lived for ever,’ Johnny said to himself.

He had not yet been definitely called upon by the entrance of the servant to offer his arm to Miss Demolines, when Crosbie walked across to him from the rug and addressed him.

‘Mr Eames,’ said he, ‘it is some time since we met.’ And he offered his hand to Johnny.

‘Yes, it is’ said Johnny, accepting the proffered salutation. ‘I don’t know exactly how long, but ever so long.’

‘I am very glad to have the opportunity of shaking hands with you,’ said Crosbie; and then he retired, as it had become his duty to wait with his arm ready for Mrs Dobbs Broughton. Having married an earl’s daughter he was selected for that honour. There was a barrister in the room, and Mrs Dobbs Broughton ought to have known better. As she professed to be guided in such matters by the rules laid down by the recognised authorities, she ought to have been aware that a man takes no rank from his wife. But she was entitled I think to merciful consideration for her error. A woman situated as was Mrs Dobbs Broughton cannot altogether ignore these terrible rules. She cannot let her guests draw lots for precedence. She must select someone for the honour of her arm. And amidst the intricacies of rank how is it possible for woman to learn and to remember everything? If Providence would only send Mrs Dobbs Broughton a Peer for every dinner-party, the thing would go more easily; but what woman will tell me, off-hand, which should go out of a room first; a C.B., and Admiral of the Blue, the Dean of Barchester, or the Dean of Arches? Who is to know who was everybody’s father? How am I to remember that young Thompson’s progenitor was made a baronet and not a knight when he was Lord Mayor? Perhaps Mrs Dobbs Broughton ought to have known that Mr Crosbie could have gained nothing by his wife’s rank, and the barrister may be considered to have been not immoderately severe when he simply spoke of her afterwards as the silliest and most ignorant old woman he had ever met in his life. Eames with the lovely Miss Demolines on his arm was the last to move before the hostess. Mr Dobbs Broughton had led the way energetically with old Lady Demolines. There was no doubt about Lady Demolines–as his wife had told him, because her title marked her. Her husband had been a physician in Paris, and had been knighted in consequence of some benefit supposed to have been done to some French scion of royalty–when such scions in France were royal and not imperial. Lady Demolines’ rank was not much certainly; but it served to mark her, and was beneficial.

As he went downstairs Eames was still thinking of his meeting with Crosbie, and had as yet hardly said a word to his neighbour, and his neighbour had not said a word to him. Now Johnny understood dinners quite well enough to know that in a party of twelve, among whom six are ladies, everything depends of your next neighbour, and generally on the next neighbour who specially belongs to you; and as he took his seat he was a little alarmed as to his prospect for the next two hours. On his other hand sat Mrs Ponsonby, the barrister’s wife, and he did not much like the look of Mrs Ponsonby. She was fat, heavy, and good-looking; with a broad space between her eyes, and light smooth hair;–a youthful British matron every inch of her, of whom any barrister with a young family of children might be proud. Now Miss Demolines, though she was hardly to be called beautiful, was at any rate remarkable. She had large, dark, well-shaped eyes, and very dark hair, which she wore tangled about in an extraordinary manner, and she had an expressive face–a face made expressive by the owner’s will. Such power of expression is often attained by dint of labour–though it never reaches to the expression of anything in particular. She was almost sufficiently good-looking to be justified in considering herself a beauty.

But Miss Demolines, though she had said nothing as yet, knew her game very well. A lady cannot begin conversation to any good purpose in the drawing-room, when she is seated and the man is standing;–nor can she know then how the table may subsequently arrange itself. Powder may be wasted, and often is wasted, and the spirit rebels against the necessity of commencing a second enterprise. But Miss Demolines, when she found herself seated, and perceived that on the other side of her was Mr Ponsonby, a married man, commenced her enterprise at once, and our friend John Eames was immediately aware that he would have no difficulty as to conversation.

‘Don’t you like winter dinner-parties?’ began Miss Demolines. This was said just as Johnny was taking his seat, and he had time to declare that he liked dinner-parties at all periods of the year if the dinner was good and the people pleasant before the host had muttered something which was intended to be understood to be a grace. ‘But I mean specially the winter,’ continued Miss Demolines. ‘I don’t think daylight should ever be admitted at a dinner-table; and though you may shut out the daylight, you can’t shut out the heat. And then there are always so many other things to go to in May and June and July. Dinners should be stopped by Act of Parliament for those three months. I don’t care what people do afterwards, because we always fly away on the first of August.’

‘That is good-natured on your part.’

‘I’m sure what I say would be for the good of society;–but at this time of the year a dinner is warm and comfortable.’

‘Very comfortable, I think.’

‘And people get to know each other’;–in saying which Miss Demolines looked very pleasantly into Johnny’s face.

‘There is a great deal in that,’ said he. ‘I wonder whether you and I will get to know each other.’

‘Of course we shall;–that is, if I’m worth knowing.’

‘There can be no doubt about that, I should say.’

‘Time alone can tell. But, Mr Eames, I see that Mr Crosbie is a friend of yours.’

‘Hardly a friend.’

‘I know very well that men are friends when they step up and shake hands with each other. It is the same when women kiss.’

‘When I see women kiss, I always think there is deep hatred at the bottom of it.’

‘And there may be deep hatred between you and Mr Crosbie for anything I know to the contrary,’ said Miss Demolines.

‘The very deepest,’ said Johnny, pretending to look grave.

‘Ah; then I know he is your bosom friend, and that you will tell him anything I say. What a strange history that was of his marriage.’

‘So I have heard;–but he is not quite bosom friend enough with me to have told me all the particulars. I know that his wife is dead.’

‘Dead; oh, yes; she has been dead these two years I should say.’

‘Not so long as that, I should think.’

‘Well–perhaps not. But it’s ever so long ago;–quite long enough for him to be married again. Did you know her?’

‘I never saw her in my life.’

‘I knew her–not well indeed; but I am intimate with her sister, Lady Amelia Gazebee, and I have met her there. None of that family have married what you may call well. And now, Mr Eames, pray look at the menu and tell me what I am to eat. Arrange for me a little dinner of my own, out of the great bill of fare provided. I always expect some gentleman to do that for me. Mr Crosbie, you know, only lived with his wife for one month.’

‘So I’ve been told.’

‘And a terrible month they had of it. I used to hear of it. He doesn’t look that sort of man, does he?’

‘Well;–no. I don’t think he does. But what sort of man do you mean?’

‘Why, such a regular Bluebeard! Of course you know how he treated another girl before he married Lady Alexandrina. She died of it–with a broken heart; absolutely died; and there he is, indifferent as possible;–and would treat me in the same way tomorrow if I would let him.’

Johnny Eames, finding it impossible to talk to Miss Demolines about Lily Dale, took up the card of the dinner and went to work in earnest, recommending his neighbour what to eat and what to pass by. ‘But you have skipped the pate?’ said she, with energy.

‘Allow me to ask you to choose mine for me instead. You are much more fit to do it.’ And she did choose his dinner for him.

They were sitting at a round table, and in order that the ladies and gentlemen should alternate themselves properly, Mr Musselboro was opposite to the host. Next to him on his right was old Mrs Van Siever, the widow of a Dutch merchant, who was very rich. She was a ghastly thing to look at, as well from the quantity as from the nature of the wiggeries she wore. She had not only a false front, but long false curls, as to which it cannot be conceived that she would suppose that anyone would be ignorant as to their falseness. She was very thin, too, and very small, and putting aside her wiggeries, you would think her to be all eyes. She was a ghastly old woman to the sight, and not altogether pleasant in her mode of talking. She seemed to know Mr Musselboro very well, for she called him by his name without any prefix. He had, indeed, begun life as a clerk in her husband’s office.

‘Why doesn’t What’s-his-name have real silver forks?’ she said to him. Now Mrs What’s-his-name–Mrs Dobbs Broughton we will call her–was sitting on the other side of Mr Musselboro, between him and Mr Crosbie; and, so placed, Mr Musselboro found it rather hard to answer the question, more especially as he was probably aware that other questions would follow.

‘What’s the use?’ said Mr Musselboro. ‘Everybody has these plated things now. What’s the use of a lot of capital lying dead?’

‘Everybody doesn’t. I don’t. You know as well as I do, Musselboro, that the appearance of the thing goes for a great deal. Capital isn’t lying dead as long as people know that you’ve got it.’

Before answering this Mr Musselboro was driven to reflect that Mrs Dobbs Broughton would probably hear his reply. ‘You won’t find that there is any doubt on that head in the City as to Broughton,’ he said.

‘I shan’t ask in the City, and if I did, I should not believe what people told me. I think there are sillier folks in the City than anywhere else. What did he give for that picture upstairs which the young man painted?’

‘What, Mrs Dobbs Broughton’s portrait?’

‘You don’t call that a portrait, do you? I mean the one with the three naked women?’ Mr Musselboro glanced around with one eye, and felt sure that Mrs Dobbs Broughton had heard the question. But the old woman was determined to have an answer. ‘How much did he give for it, Musselboro?’

‘Six hundred pounds, I believe,’ said Mr Musselboro, looking straight before him as he answered, and pretending to treat the subject with perfect indifference.

‘Did he indeed, now? Six hundred pounds! And yet he hasn’t got silver spoons. How things are changed! Tell me, Musselboro, who was that young man who came in with the painter?’

Mr Musselboro turned round and asked Mrs Dobbs Broughton. ‘A Mr John Eames, Mrs Van Siever,’ said Mrs Dobbs Broughton, whispering across the front of Mr Musselboro. ‘He is private secretary to Lord–Lord–Lord I forget who. Some one of the Ministers, I know. And he had a great fortune left him the other day by Lord–Lord–Lord somebody else.’

‘All among the lords, I see,’ said Mrs Van Siever. Then Mrs Dobbs Broughton drew herself back, remembering some little attack which had been made on her by Mrs Van Siever when she herself had had the real lord to dine with her.

There was a Miss Van Siever there also, sitting between Crosbie and Conway Dalrymple. Conway Dalrymple had been specially brought there to sit next to Miss Van Siever. ‘There’s no knowing how much she’ll have,’ said Mrs Dobbs Broughton, in the warmth of their friendship. ‘But it’s all real. It is, indeed. The mother is awfully rich.’

‘But she’s awful in another way, too,’ said Dalrymple.

‘Indeed she is, Conway.’ Mrs Dobbs Broughton had got into a way of calling her young friend by his Christian name. ‘All the world calls him Conway,’ she had said to her husband once when her husband had caught her doing so. ‘She is awful. Her husband made the business in the City, when things were very different from what they are now, and I can’t help having her. She has transactions of business with Dobbs. But there’s no mistake about the money.’

‘She needn’t leave it to her daughter, I suppose?’

‘But why shouldn’t she? She has nobody else. You might offer to paint her, you know. She’d make an excellent picture. So much character. You come and see her.’

Conway Dalrymple had expressed his willingness to meet Miss Van Siever, saying something, however, as to his present position being one which did not admit of any matrimonial speculation. Then Mrs Dobbs Broughton had told him, with much seriousness, that he was altogether wrong, and that were he to forget himself, or commit himself, or misbehave himself, there must be an end to their pleasant intimacy. In answer to which, Mr Dalrymple had said that his Grace was surely of all Graces the least gracious. And now he had come to meet Miss Van Siever, and was now seated next to her at table.

Miss Van Siever, who at this time had perhaps reached her twenty-fifth year, was certainly a handsome young woman. She was fair and large, bearing no likeness whatever to her mother. Her features were regular, and her full, clear eyes had a brilliance of their own, looking at you always steadfastly and boldly, though very seldom pleasantly. Her mouth would have been beautiful had it not been too strong for feminine beauty. Her teeth were perfect–too perfect–looking like miniature walls of carved ivory. She knew the fault of this perfection, and showed her teeth as little as she could. Her nose and chin were finely chiselled, and her head stood well upon her shoulders. But there was something hard about it all which repelled you. Dalrymple, when he saw her, recoiled from her, not outwardly, but inwardly. Yes, she was handsome, as may be horse or a tiger; but there was about her nothing of feminine softness. He could not bring himself to think of taking Clara Van Siever as the model that was to sit before him for the rest of his life. He certainly could make a picture of her, as had been suggested by his friend, Mrs Broughton, but it must be as Judith with the dissevered head, or as Jael using her hammer over the temple of Sisera. Yes–he thought she would do as Jael; and if Mrs Van Siever would throw him a sugar-plum–for he would want the sugar-plum, seeing that any other result was out of the question–the thing might be done. Such was the idea of Mr Conway Dalrymple respecting Miss Van Siever–before he led her down to dinner.

At first he found it hard to talk to her. She answered him, and not with monosyllables. But she answered him without sympathy, or apparent pleasure in talking. Now the young artist was in the habit of being flattered by ladies, and expected to have his small talk made very easy for him. He liked to give himself little airs, and was not generally disposed to labour very hard at the task of making himself agreeable.

‘Were you ever painted yet?’ he asked after they had both been sitting silent for two or three minutes.

‘Was I ever–painted? In what way?’

‘I don’t mean rouged, or enamelled, or got up by Madame Rachel; but have you ever had your portrait taken?’

‘I have been photographed of course.’

‘That’s why I asked you if you had been painted–so as to make some little distinction between the two. I am a painter by profession, and do portraits.’

‘So Mrs Broughton told me.’

‘I am not asking for a job, you know.’

‘I am quite sure of that.’

‘But I should have thought you would have been sure to have sat to somebody.’

‘I never did. I never thought of doing so. One does those things at the instigation of one’s intimate friends–fathers, mothers, uncles, and aunts and the like.’

‘Or husbands, perhaps–or lovers?’

‘Well, yes; my intimate friend is my mother, and she would never dream of such a thing. She hates pictures.’

‘Hates pictures!’

‘And especially portraits. And I’m afraid, Mr Dalrymple, she hates artists.’

‘Good heavens; how cruel! I suppose there is some story attached to it. There has been some fatal likeness–some terrible picture–something in her early days.’

‘Nothing of the kind, Mr Dalrymple. It is merely the fact that her sympathies are with ugly things, rather than with pretty things. I think she loves the mahogany dinner-table better than anything else in the house; and she likes to have everything dark, and plain, and solid.’

‘And good?’

‘Good of its kind, certainly.’

‘If everyone was like your mother, how would the artist live?’

‘There would be none.’

‘And the world, you think, would be none the poorer?’

‘I did not speak for myself. I think the world would be very much the poorer. I am very fond of ancient masters, though I do not suppose that I understand them.’

‘They are easier understood than the modern, I can tell you. Perhaps you don’t care for modern pictures?’

‘Not in comparison, certainly. If that is uncivil, you have brought it on yourself. But I do not in truth mean anything derogatory to the painters of the day. When their pictures are old, they–that is the good ones among them–will be nice also.’

‘Pictures are like wine, and want age, you think?’

‘Yes, and statues too, and buildings above all things. The colours of new paintings are so glaring, and the faces are so bright and self-conscious, that they look to me when I go to the exhibition like coloured prints in a child’s new picture-book. It is the same thing with buildings. One sees all the points, and nothing is left to the imagination.’

‘I find I have come across a real critic.’