A Change of Air
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Title: A Change of Air
Author: Anthony Hope
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CHANGE OF AIR ***
A CHANGE OF AIR
[Illustration: ANTHONY HOPE HAWKINS.]
A CHANGE OF AIR.
BY
ANTHONY HOPE
AUTHOR OF "THE PRISONER OF ZENDA," ETC.
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
1894
COPYRIGHT, 1894,
BY
HENRY HOLT & CO.
THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS,
RAHWAY, N. J.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
"ANTHONY HOPE", vii
I. A MISSION TO THE HEATHEN, 1
II. THE NEW MAN AT LITTLEHILL, 7
III. DENBOROUGH DETERMINES TO CALL, 16
IV. A QUIET SUNDAY AFTERNOON, 26
V. THE NECESSARY SCAPEGOAT, 36
VI. LITTLEHILL GOES INTO SOCIETY, 47
VII. "TO A PRETTY SAINT," 57
VIII. AN INDISCREET DISCIPLE, 67
IX. DALE'S OWN OPINION, 77
X. A PREJUDICED VERDICT, 87
XI. A FABLE ABOUT BIRDS, 98
XII. A DEDICATION--AND A DESECRATION, 106
XIII. THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF GENIUS, 114
XIV. MR. DELANE LIKES THE IDEA, 123
XV. HOW IT SEEMED TO THE DOCTOR, 132
XVI. "NO MORE KINGS," 141
XVII. DALE TRIES HIS HAND AT AN ODE, 153
XVIII. DELILAH JOHNSTONE, 161
XIX. A WELL-PAID POEM, 169
XX. AN EVENING'S END, 177
XXI. "THE OTHER GIRL DID," 183
XXII. THE FITNESS OF THINGS, 191
XXIII. A MORBID SCRUPLE, 200
XXIV. THE HEROINE OF THE INCIDENT, 208
XXV. THE SCENE OF THE OUTRAGE, 219
XXVI. AGAINST HER BETTER JUDGMENT, 229
XXVII. A VILLAIN UNMASKED, 237
XXVIII. A VISION, 245
"ANTHONY HOPE."
In his speech at the annual banquet of the Royal Academy in 1894, among
many other good things, Mr. Andrew Lang said:
"The thrifty plan of giving us sermons, politics, fiction, all in
one stodgy sandwich, produces no permanent literature, produces
but temporary 'tracts for the times.' Fortunately we have among us
many novelists--young ones, luckily--who are true to the primitive
and eternal, the Fijian canons of fiction. We have Oriental romance
from the author of 'Plain Tales from the Hills.' We have the humor
and tenderness--certainly not Fijian, I admit--which produces that
masterpiece 'A Window in Thrums'; we have the adventurous fancy that
gives us 'A Gentleman of France,' 'The Master of Ballantrae,' 'Micah
Clarke,' 'The Raiders,' 'The Prisoner of Zenda.'"
The last of these books was by Anthony Hope Hawkins, whom Mr. Lang thus
classed among potential immortals. This romance has made him within the
last three months fairly famous. Walter Besant, too, has stamped it
with his high approval, and the English and American press have been
unusually unanimous in their praise.
Its hero is a rare and striking figure, and thoroughly represents the
ideal soldier of our Anglo-Saxon race. He faces great dangers and does
brave deeds, quietly and quickly. He suffers and loves deeply, but says
little. In his portrayal, the possibilities of "repressed emotion" have
been startlingly indicated. He appeals to Americans and English far
more than the swaggering and loquacious, though more historic heroes of
Dumas and his school ever can.
Much curiosity has been excited regarding "Anthony Hope."
The author's methods of composition and what may have suggested the
very original plot are as yet unknown. Besides what we may get from
his portrait, we are told that he is "a tall, thin, dark man, with a
face that would be ascetic if it were not bubbling with humor." He is a
lawyer, as other good romancers have been before him, and has chambers
in the Middle Temple, a place made famous in fiction by Thackeray and
on the stage by Pinero. His profession and politics are his chief
concerns, and literature a diversion in his leisure hours. He is an
extremely modest man, and in response to a request from his American
publishers for autobiographical matter, gave the barest facts of his
life. He expressed absolutely no opinion on literary canons or on his
own work. There was, however, a rare sincerity and cordiality in his
letters.
Anthony Hope Hawkins was born in 1863, his father being the Rev. E.
C. Hawkins of St. Brides, Fleet Street, London. He was educated at
Marlborough, and at Balliol College, Oxford, of which he was a scholar.
At Oxford, he was a hard worker and obtained first classes in Classical
Moderations and in the School of Litteræ Humaniores, commonly known as
"Greats." At this university, where he attained the degree of M. A.
some eight years ago, he began to show an aptitude for public life, was
a striking figure among his contemporaries, and became president of the
Union. In 1892 he stood as a Liberal candidate for a seat in Parliament
from the southern division of Buckinghamshire, but was defeated by
Viscount Curzon.
His first book, "A Man of Mark," was published in 1890, and was
followed next year by "Father Stafford," an interesting study of an
Anglican priest's struggles between love and sense of obligation to his
vow of celibacy. The pictures of his cheerless ascetic life are marked
by the sincerity conspicuous in Mr. Hawkins' later books. Some very
thoughtful conversations on art and on religion are introduced.
In 1892 appeared "Mr. Witt's Widow, a Frivolous Tale" of a lady who
had "harmonious contrasts," such as dark eyes and golden hair. It
foreshadows the power in plot-making that characterizes our author's
later works.
In the spring of 1893 appeared "Sport Royal," a collection of Mr.
Hawkins' short stories, mostly from the _St. James' Gazette_.
In "Half a Hero," published last year, there are several foreshadowings
of "The Prisoner of Zenda." In both stories the scene is imaginary,
but given realism by characteristics respectively of New Zealand and
of Germany; in both intrigues and heroism are conspicuous, though in
the latter the author did not adopt the old device of giving his hero
some bad qualities to make him human. "Half a Hero" contains much firm,
crisp character-drawing, and a strong love interest, but has the slight
taint of the "purpose novel," already noted in Father Stafford; in this
case, the discussion being politics, especially the "labor" element.
Anthony Hope inherited refinement through a father in an exalted
calling; he used his college advantages to the utmost, and now his
interests are in living public affairs, and in his chosen calling as a
lawyer, he has good opportunities to study life, and seems already to
have well mastered the best elements of Anglo-Saxon character. From his
work, he appears to have read widely and with a sympathetic eye for the
merits of markedly diverse writers, which he seems to make his own. His
style has the terseness and suggestiveness characteristic of Kipling,
but without his harshness, and at times he shows a sense of beauty
almost worthy of our own Hawthorne, and withal the military dash and
snap of Lever. It would be strange if the foundation for the remarkably
life-like colonists of "Half a Hero," and the German officers of "The
Prisoner of Zenda," had had not been laid by travel and the observation
of their more or less remote prototypes.
"A Change of Air," while containing much of its humor and snap,
furnishes a marked contrast to "The Prisoner of Zenda," and is in
a more serious vein, having a strong and tragic undercurrent, and
not without an element of peril. Confining its occurrences pretty
severely to the possible and generally probable, it nevertheless is
highly original. Dale Bannister, the wild young poet, who commences by
thoroughly scandalizing Market Denborough, is a most picturesque and
uncommon character. The effect of his early principles on his later
life is deftly indicated. The story moves on steadily, and while it
teaches a lesson of moderation and charity, it does so entirely by the
acts and thoughts of the characters without any sermonizing on the part
of the author. Some good authorities that have seen this book place
it even above "The Prisoner of Zenda," which we probably shall see on
the stage next year, as the author has a friend busily engaged on its
dramatization.
R. H.
_July, 1894._
A CHANGE OF AIR.
CHAPTER I.
=A Mission to the Heathen.=
When the Great King, that mirror of a majesty whereof modern times
have robbed the world, recoiled aghast from the threatened indignity
of having to wait, he laid his finger with a true touch on a
characteristic incident of the lot of common men, from which it was
seemly that the state of God's Vicegerents should be free. It was a
small matter, no doubt, a thing of manners merely, and etiquette; yet
manners and etiquette are first the shadowed expression of facts and
then the survival of them; the reverence once paid to power, and now
accorded, in a strange mixture of chivalry and calculation, to mere
place whence power has fled. The day of vicegerents is gone, and the
day of officers has come; and it is not unknown that officers should
have to wait, or even--such is the insolence, no longer of office,
but of those who give it--should altogether go without. Yet, although
everybody has now to wait, everybody has not to wait the same length of
time. For example, a genius needs not wait so long for what he wants
as a fool--unless, as chances now and then, he be both a genius and a
fool, when probably his waiting will be utterly without end.
In a small flat in Chelsea, very high toward heaven, there sat one
evening in the summer, two young men and a genius; and the younger of
the young men, whose name was Arthur Angell, said discontentedly to the
genius:
"The brute only sent me ten and sixpence. What did you get for yours?"
The genius blushed and murmured apologetically:
"That agent chap I've sold myself to got twenty pounds for it."
The second young man, who was not so young, being, in fact, well
turned of thirty, and growing bald, took his pipe out of his mouth,
and, pointing the stem first at the genius, then at Arthur Angell, and
lastly, like a knife, at his own breast, said:
"Pounds--shillings--and pence. He sent me nothing at all."
A pause followed, and the genius began:
"Look here, you fellows----" But Philip Hume went on: "Ten and sixpence
is a good sum of money, a comfortable sum of money, and, my dear
Arthur, I should say the full value of your poem. As to Dale's poem,
who knows the value of Dale's poem? By what rod shall you measure----"
He broke off with a laugh at Dale's gesture of protest.
"I'm making the deuce of a lot of money," said Dale in an awestruck
tone. "It's rolling in. I don't know what to do with it."
"Littlehill will swallow it," said Philip.
"You don't mean that he sticks to that idea?" exclaimed Arthur. "You
don't, do you, Dale?"
"I do," answered Dale. "I'm not going permanently. I'm not going to
forsake our old ways or our old life. I'm not going to turn into a rich
man."
"I hope not, by Jove!" cried Arthur.
"But I want to see the country--I've not seen it for years. And I want
to see country people, and--and----"
"It'll end in our losing you," prophesied Arthur gloomily.
"Nonsense!" said Dale, flushing a little. "It'll end in nothing of the
sort. I've only taken the house for a year."
"A gentleman's residence," said Philip; "five sitting rooms, twelve
bedrooms, offices, stabling, and three acres of grounds."
Arthur groaned.
"It sounds a villa all over," he said.
"Not at all," said Dale sharply; "it's a country house."
"Is there any difference?" asked Arthur scornfully.
"All the difference," said Philip; "as you would know if you moved in
anything approaching respectable circles."
"I'm glad I don't," said Arthur. "What will respectable circles say to
'The Clarion,' eh, Dale?"
"Who cares what they say?" laughed Dale. "They seem to buy it."
Arthur looked at him with revengeful eye, and suddenly inquired.
"What about Nellie?"
"That's just the delightful part of it," answered Dale eagerly.
"Nellie's been seedy ever so long, you know. She was ordered perfect
rest and country air. But it didn't run to it."
"It never ran to anything here," said Philip in a tone of dispassionate
acquiescence in facts, "till you became famous."
"Now I can help!" pursued Dale. "She and Mrs. Hodge are coming to pay
me a long visit. Of course, Phil's going to be there permanently.
You'll come too, Arthur?"
At first Arthur Angell said he would not go near a villa; he could not
breath in a villa; or sleep quiet o' nights in a villa; but presently
he relented.
"I can't stand it for long, though," he said. "Still, I'm glad you're
going to have Nellie there. She'd have missed you awfully. When do you
go?"
"Actually, to-morrow. I'm not used to it yet."
Arthur shook his head again, as he put on his hat.
"Well, good-night," said he. "I hope it's all right."
Dale waited till the door was closed behind his guest, and then laughed
good-humoredly.
"I like old Arthur," he said. "He's so keen and in earnest about it.
But it's all bosh. What difference can it make whether I live in London
or the country? And it's only for a little while."
"He begins to include you in the well-to-do classes, and suspects you
accordingly," replied Philip.
There was a knock at the door, and a pretty girl came in.
"Oh, I ran up," she said, "to ask whether this hat would do for
Denshire. I don't want to disgrace you, Dale;" and she held up a hat
she carried in her hand.
"It would do for Paradise," said Dale. "Besides, there isn't going to
be any difference at all in Denshire. We are going to be and do and
dress just as we are and do and dress here. Aren't we, Phil?"
"That is the scheme," said Philip.
"We shall care for no one's opinion," pursued Dale, warming to his
subject. "We shall be absolutely independent. We shall show them that
their way of living is not the only way of living. We----"
"In fact, Nellie," interrupted Philip, "we shall open their eyes
considerably. So we flatter ourselves."
"It's not that at all," protested Dale.
"You can't help it, Dale," said Nellie, smiling brightly at him. "Of
course they will open their eyes at the great Mr. Bannister. We all
open our eyes at him, don't we, Mr. Hume? Well, then, the hat will
do--as a week-day hat, I mean?"
"A week-day hat?" repeated Philip. "Dear old phrase! It recalls one's
happy church-going youth. Have you also provided a Sunday hat?"
"Of course, Mr. Hume."
"And, Dale, have you a Sunday coat?"
Dale laughed.
"It's a pretty excuse for pretty things, Phil," he said. "Let Nellie
have her Sunday hat. I doubt if they'll let me into the church."
Philip stretched out his hand and took up a glass of whisky and water
which stood near him.
"I drink to the success of the expedition!" said he.
"To the success of our mission!" cried Dale gayly, raising his glass.
"We will spread the light!"
"Here's to Dale Bannister, apostle _in partibus_!" and Philip drank the
toast.
CHAPTER II.
=The New Man at Littlehill.=
Market Denborough is not a large town. Perhaps it is none the worse
for that, and, if it be, there is compensation to be found in its
picturesqueness, its antiquity, and its dignity; for there has been a
town where it stands from time immemorial; it makes a great figure in
county histories and local guidebooks; it is an ancient corporation,
an assize town, and quarter-sessions borough. It does not grow, for
country towns, dependent solely on the support of the rural districts
surrounding, are not given to growing much nowadays. Moreover, the
Delanes do not readily allow new houses to be built, and if a man lives
in Market Denborough, he must be a roofless vagrant or a tenant of
Mr. Delane. It is not the place to make a fortune; but, on the other
hand, unusual recklessness is necessary to the losing of one there. If
the triumphs of life are on a small scale, the struggle for existence
is not very fierce, and a wise man might do worse than barter the
uncertain chances and precarious joys of a larger stage, to play a
modest, easy, quiet part on the little boards of Market Denborough.
It must not, however, be supposed that the lion and the lamb have quite
sunk their differences and lain down together at Market Denborough.
There, as elsewhere, the millennium tarries, and there are not wanting
fierce feuds, personal, municipal, nay, even, within the wide limits
of Mr. Delane's tolerance, political. If it were not so, the Mayor
would not have been happy, for the Mayor loved a fight; and Alderman
Johnstone, who was a Radical, would have felt his days wasted; and
the two gentlemen would not have been, as they continually were, at
loggerheads concerning paving contracts and kindred subjects. There was
no want of interests in life, if a man were ready to take his own part
and keep a sharp eye on the doings of his neighbor. Besides, the really
great events of existence happened at Market Denborough much as they
do in London; people were born, and married, and died; and while that
rotation is unchecked, who can be seriously at a loss for matter of
thought or topic of conversation?
As Mr. James Roberts, member of the Royal College of Surgeons, a thin
young man, with restless eyes and tight-shut lips, walked down High
Street one hot, sunny afternoon, it never entered his head that there
was not enough to think about in Market Denborough. Wife and child,
rent, rates and taxes, patients and prescriptions, the relation between
those old enemies, incomings and outgoings, here was food enough
for any man's meditations. Enough? Ay, enough and to spare of such
distasteful, insipid, narrow, soul-destroying stuff. Mr., or, to give
him the brevet rank all the town gave him. Dr. Roberts, hated these
sordid, imperious interests that gathered round him and hemmed him in,
shutting out all else--all dreams of ambition, all dear, long-harbored
schemes, all burning enthusiasms, even all chance of seeking deeper
knowledge and more commanding skill. Sadly and impatiently the doctor
shook his head, trying to put his visions on one side, and nail his
mind down to its work. His first task was to turn three hundred pounds
a year into six hundred pounds. It was hard it should be so, and he
chafed against necessity, forgetting, as perhaps he pardonably might,
that the need was the price he paid for wife and child. Yes, it was
hard; but so it was. If only more people would be--no, but if only more
people who were ill would call in Dr. Roberts! Then he could keep two
horses, and not have to "pad the hoof," as he phrased it to himself,
about sweltering streets or dusty lanes all the long afternoon, because
his one pony was tired out with carrying him in the morning to Dirkham,
a village five miles off, where he was medical officer at a salary of
forty pounds by the year. That was forty, and Ethel had a hundred,
and the profits from his paying patients (even if you allowed for the
medicine consumed by those who did not pay) were about a hundred and
fifty. But then the bills---- Oh, well, he must go on. The second horse
must wait, and that other dream of his, having an assistant, that must
wait, too. If he had an assistant, he would have some leisure for
research, for reading, for studying the political and social questions
where his real and engrossing interest lay. He could then take his part
in the mighty work of rousing----
Here his meditations were interrupted. He had reached, in his progress
down the street, a large plate-glass-windowed shop, the shop of a
chemist, and of no less a man than Mr. James Hedger, Mayor of Market
Denborough. The member of the lower branch of their common art was a
richer man than he who belonged to the higher, and when Mr. Hedger was
playfully charged with giving the young Doctor his medicines cheap, he
never denied the accusation. Anyhow, the two were good friends, and the
Mayor, who was surveying his dominions from his doorstep, broke in on
Dr. Roberts' train of thought with a cheerful greeting.
"Have you heard the news?" he asked.
"No; I've no time for the news. I always look to you for it, Mr. Mayor."
"It mostly comes round to me, being a center, like," said the Mayor.
"It's natural."
"Well, what is it this time?" asked the Doctor, calling up a show of
interest. He did not care much for Denborough news.
"Littlehill's let," replied the Mayor.
Littlehill, the subject of Philip Hume's half-ironical description,
was a good house, standing on rising ground about half a mile outside
the town. It belonged, of course, to Mr. Delane, and had stood empty
for more than a year. A tenant at Littlehill meant an increase of
custom for the tradespeople, and perchance for the doctors. Hence the
importance of the Mayor's piece of news.
"Indeed?" said Roberts. "Who's taken it?"
"Not much good--a young man, a bachelor," said the Mayor, shaking his
head. Bachelors do not require, or anyhow do not take, many chemist's
drugs. "Still, I hear he's well off, and p'r'aps he'll have people to
stop with him."
"What's his name?"
"Some name like Bannister. He's from London."
"What's he coming here for?" asked Roberts, who, if he had been a
well-to-do bachelor, would not have settled at Market Denborough.
"Why shouldn't he?" retorted the Mayor, who had never lived, or thought
of living, anywhere else.
"Well, I shouldn't have thought he'd have found much to do. He wouldn't
come in the summer for the hunting."
"Hunting? Not he! He's a literary gentleman--writes poetry and what
not."
"Poetry? Why, it's not Dale Bannister, is it?"
"Ay, that's the name."
"Dale Bannister coming to Littlehill! That is an honor for the town!"
"An honor? What do you mean, sir?"
"Why, he's a famous man, Mr. Mayor. All London's talking of him."
"I never heard his name in my life before," said the Mayor.
"Oh, he's a genius. His poems are all the rage. You'll have to read
them now."
"He's having a lot done up there," remarked the Mayor. "Johnstone's got
the job. Mr. Bannister don't know as much about Johnstone as some of
us."
"How should he?" said Roberts, smiling.
"Johnstone's buildin' 'im a room. It'll tumble down."
"Oh, come, Mr. Mayor, you're prejudiced."
"No man can say that of me, sir. But I knows--I know Johnstone, Doctor.
That's where it is!"
"Well, I hope Johnstone's room won't fall on him. We can't spare Dale
Bannister. Good-day, Mr. Mayor."
"Where are you goin'?"
"To Tom Steadman's."
"Is he bad again?" inquired the Mayor, with interest.
"Yes. He broke out last week, with the usual result."
"Broke out? Yes! He had two gallons of beer and a bottle o' gin off the
'Blue Lion' in one day, the landlord told me."
"They ought to go to prison for serving him."
"Well, well, a man drinks or he don't," said the Mayor tolerantly; "and
if he does, he'll get it some'ow. Good-day, sir."
The Doctor completed his rounds, including the soothing of Tom
Steadman's distempered imagination, and made his way home in quite
a flutter of excitement. Hidden away in his study, underneath
heavy medical works and voluminous medical journals, where the eye
of patients could not reach, nor the devastations of them that
tidy disturb, lay the two or three little volumes which held Dale
Bannister's poems. The Doctor would not have admitted that the poems
were purposely concealed, but he certainly did not display them
ostentatiously, and he undoubtedly told his wife, with much decision,
that he was sure they would not prove to her taste. Yet he himself
almost worshiped them; all the untamed revolt, the recklessness of
thought, the scorn of respectability, the scant regard to what the
world called propriety, which he had nourished in his own heart in
his youth, finding no expression for them, and from which the binding
chains of fate seemed now forever to restrain his spirit, were in those
three slim volumes. First came "The Clarion and other Poems," a very
small book, published by a very small firm--published for the author,
though the Doctor did not know this, and circulated at the expense of
the same; then "Sluggards," from a larger firm, the source of some
few guineas to Dale Bannister, of hundreds more if he had not sold
his copyright; and lastly, "The Hypocrite's Heaven," quite a lengthy
production, blazoning the name of the leading house of all the trade,
and bearing in its train a wealth of gold, and praise, and fame for the
author: yes, and of rebuke, remonstrance, blame, and hands uplifted
in horror at so much vice united to so much genius. Praise and rebuke
alike brought new bricks to build the pyramid of glory; and on the top
of it, an object of abhorrence and of worship, stood the young poet,
prodigally scattering songs, which, as one critic of position said of
them, should never have been written, but being written, could never
die. Certainly the coming of such a man to settle there was an event
for Market Denborough; it was a glorious chance for the poet's silent,
secret disciple. He would see the man; he might speak with him; if
fortune willed, his name might yet be known, for no merit of his, but
as that of Dale Bannister's friend.
Women have very often, and the best of women most often, a provoking
sedateness of mind. Mrs. Roberts had never read the poems. True, but
she had, of course, read about them, and about their author, and about
their certain immortality; yet she was distinctly more interested
in the tidings of Tom Steadman, a wretched dipsomaniac, than in the
unparalleled news about Dale Bannister. In her heart she thought the
Doctor a cleverer, as she had no doubt he was a better, man than
the poet, and the nearest approach she made to grasping the real
significance of the situation was when she remarked:
"It will be nice for him to find one man, at all events, who can
appreciate him."
The Doctor smiled; he was pleased--who would not be?--that his wife
should think first of the pleasure Dale Bannister would find in his
society. It was absurd, but it was charming of her, and as she sat on
the edge of his chair, he put his arm round his waist and said:
"I beat him in one thing, anyhow."
"What's that, Jim?"
"My wife. He has no wife like mine."
"Has he a wife at all?" asked Mrs. Roberts, with increased interest. A
wife was another matter.
"I believe not, but if he had----"
"Don't be silly. Did you leave Tom quiet?"
"Hang Tom! he deserves it. And give me my tea."
Then came the baby, and with it an end, for the time, of Dale
Bannister.
CHAPTER III.
=Denborough Determines to Call.=
"I will awake the world," Dale Bannister had once declared in the
insolence of youth and talent and the privacy of a gathering of
friends. The boast was perhaps as little absurd in his mouth as it
could ever be; yet it was very absurd, for the world sleeps hard, and
habit has taught it to slumber peacefully through the batterings of
impatient genius at its door. At the most, it turns uneasily on its
side, and, with a curse at the meddlesome fellow, snores again. So Dale
Bannister did not awake the world. But, within a month of his coming
to Littlehill, he performed an exploit which was, though on a smaller
scale, hardly less remarkable. He electrified Market Denborough,
and the shock penetrated far out into the surrounding districts of
Denshire--even Denshire, which, remote from villas and season-tickets,
had almost preserved pristine simplicity. Men spoke with low-voiced awe
and appreciative twinkling of the eye of the "doings" at Littlehill:
their wives thought that they might be better employed; and their
children hung about the gates to watch the young man and his guests
come out. There was disappointment when no one came to church from
Littlehill; yet there would have been disappointment if anyone had:
it would have jarred with the fast-growing popular conception of the
household. To the strictness of Denborough morality, by which no sin
was leniently judged save drunkenness, Littlehill seemed a den of
jovial wickedness, and its inhabitants to reck nothing of censure,
human or divine.
As might be expected by all who knew him, the Mayor had no hand in
this hasty and uncharitable judgment. London was no strange land to
him; he went up four times a year to buy his stock; London ways were
not Denshire ways, he admitted, but, for all that, they were not to be
condemned offhand nor interpreted in the worst light without some pause
for better knowledge.
"It takes all sorts to make a world," said he, as he drank his
afternoon draught at the "Delane Arms," where the civic aristocracy was
wont to gather.
"He's free enough and to spare with 'is money," said Alderman
Johnstone, with satisfaction.
"You ought to know, Johnstone," remarked the Mayor significantly.
"Well, I didn't see no 'arm in him," said Mr. Maggs, the horse-dealer,
a rubicund man of pleasant aspect; "and he's a rare 'un to deal with."
Interest centered on Mr. Maggs. Apparently he had spoken with Dale
Bannister.
"He's half crazy, o' course," continued that gentleman, "but as
pleasant-spoken, 'earty a young gent as I've seen."
"Is he crazy?" asked the girl behind the bar.
"Well, what do you say? He came down a day or two ago, 'e and 'is
friend, Mr. 'Ume----"
"Hume," said the Mayor, with emphasis. The Mayor, while occasionally
following the worse, saw the better way.
"Yes, 'Ume. Mr. Bannister wanted a 'orse. 'What's your figger, sir?'
says I. He took no notice, but began looking at me with 'is eyes wide
open, for all the world as if I'd never spoke. Then he says, 'I want a
'orse, broad-backed and fallen in the vale o' years.' Them was 'is very
words."
"You don't say?" said the girl.
"I never knowed what he meant, no more than that pint-pot; but Mr.
'Ume laughed and says, 'Don't be a fool, Dale,' and told me that Mr.
Bannister couldn't ride no more than a tailor--so he said--and wanted
a steady, quiet 'orse. He got one from me--four-and-twenty years old,
warranted not to gallop. I see 'im on her to day--and it's lucky she is
quiet."
"Can't he ride?"
"No more than"--a fresh simile failed Mr. Maggs, and he concluded
again--"that pint-pot. But Mr. 'Ume can. 'E's a nice set on a 'orse."
The Mayor had been meditating. He was a little jealous of Mr. Maggs'
superior intimacy with the distinguished stranger, or perhaps it was
merely that he was suddenly struck with a sense of remissness in his
official duties.
"I think," he announced, "of callin' on him and welcomin' him to the
town."
There was a chorus of approbation, broken only by a sneer from Alderman
Johnstone.
"Ay, and take 'im a bottle of that cod-liver oil of yours at
two-and-three. 'E can afford it."
"Not after payin' your bill, Johnstone," retorted the Mayor, with a
triumphant smile. A neat repartee maketh glad the heart of the utterer.
The establishment at Littlehill and the proper course to be pursued
in regard to it were also the subject of consideration in circles
more genteel even than that which gathered at the "Delane Arms." At
Dirkham Grange itself the topic was discussed, and Mr. Delane was torn
with doubts whether his duty as landlord called upon him to make Dale
Bannister's acquaintance, or his duty as custodian-general of the laws
and proprieties of life in his corner of the world forbade any sanction
being given to a household of which such reports were on the wing.
People looked to the Squire, as he was commonly called, for guidance in
social matters, and he was aware of the responsibility under which he
lay. If he called at Littlehill, half the county would be likely enough
to follow his example. And perhaps it might not be good for half the
county to know Dale Bannister.
"I must consider the matter," he said at breakfast.
"Well, one does hear strange things," remarked Mrs. Delane. "And
aren't his poems very odd, George?"
The Squire had not accorded to the works referred to a very close
study, but he answered offhand:
"Yes, I hear so; not at all sound in tone. But then, my dear, poets
have a standard of their own."
"Of course, there was Byron," said Mrs. Delane.
"And perhaps we mustn't be too hard on him," pursued the Squire. "He's
a very young man, and no doubt has considerable ability."
"I dare say he has never met anybody."
"I'm sure, papa," interposed Miss Janet Delane, "that it would have a
good effect on him to meet us."
Mr. Delane smiled at his daughter.
"Would you like to know him, Jan?" he asked.
"Of course I should! He wouldn't be dull, at all events, like most of
the men about here, Tora Smith said the Colonel meant to call."
"Colonel Smith is hardly in your father's position, my dear."
"Oh, since old Smith had his row with the War Office about that
pension, he'll call on anybody who's for upsetting everything. It's
enough for him that a man's a Radical."
"Tora means to go, too," said Janet.
"Poor child! It's a pity she hasn't a mother," said Mrs. Delane.
"I think I shall go. We can drop him if he turns out badly."
"Very well, my dear, as you think best."
"I'll walk over on Sunday. I don't suppose he objects to Sunday calls."
"Not on the ground that he wants to go to church, at all events,"
remarked Mrs. Delane.
"Perhaps he goes to chapel, mamma."
"Oh, no, my dear, he doesn't do that." Mrs. Delane was determined to be
just.
"Well, he was the son of a Dissenting minister, mamma. The _Critic_
said so."
"I wonder what his father thinks of him," said the Squire, with a
slight chuckle, not knowing that death had spared Dale's father all
chance of trouble on his son's score.
"Mrs. Roberts told me," said Janet, "that her husband had been to see
him, and liked him awfully."
"I think Roberts had better have waited," the Squire remarked, with
a little frown. "In his position he ought to be very careful what he
does."
"Oh, it will be all right if you call, papa."
"It would have been better if he had let me go first."
Mr. Delane spoke with some severity. Apart from his position of
overlord of Denborough, which, indeed, he could not but feel was
precarious in these innovating days, he thought he had special claims
to be consulted by the Doctor. He had taken him up; his influence had
gained him his appointment at Dirkham and secured him the majority of
his more wealthy _clientèle_; his good will had opened to the young
unknown man the doors of the Grange, and to his wife the privilege of
considerable intimacy with the Grange ladies. It was certainly a little
hasty in the Doctor not to wait for a lead from the Grange, before he
flung himself into Dale Bannister's arms.
All these considerations were urged by Janet in her father's defense
when his title to approve, disapprove, or in any way concern himself
with Dr. Roberts' choice of friends and associates was vigorously
questioned by Tora Smith. Colonel Smith--he had been Colonel
Barrington-Smith, but he did not see now what a man wanted with two
names--was, since his difference with the authorities, a very strong
Radical; on principle he approved of anything of which his friends
and neighbors were likely on principle to disapprove. Among other
such things, he approved of Dale Bannister's views and works, and of
the Doctor's indifference to Mr. Delane's opinion. And, just as Janet
was more of a Tory than her father, Tora--she had been unhappily
baptized in the absurd names of Victoria Regina in the loyal days
before the grievance; but nothing was allowed to survive of them which
could possibly be dropped--was more Radical than her father, and she
ridiculed the Squire's pretensions with an extravagance which Sir Harry
Fulmer, who was calling at the Smiths' when Janet came in, thought none
the less charming for being very unreasonable. Sir Harry, however,
suppressed his opinion on both these points--as to its being charming,
because matters had not yet reached the stage when he could declare
it, and as to its being unreasonable, because he was by hereditary
right the head of the Liberal party in the district, and tried honestly
to live up to the position by a constant sacrifice of his dearest
prejudices on the altar of progress.
"I suppose," he said in reply to an appeal from Tora, "that a man has a
right to please himself in such things."
"After all papa has done for him! Besides, Sir Harry, you know a doctor
ought to be particularly careful."
"What is there so dreadful about Mr. Bannister?" asked Tora. "He looks
very nice."
"Have you seen him, Tora?" asked Janet eagerly.
"Yes; we met him riding on such a queer old horse. He looked as if he
was going to tumble off every minute; he can't ride a bit. But he's
awfully handsome."
"What's he like?"
"Oh, tall, not very broad, with beautiful eyes, and a lot of waving
auburn hair; he doesn't wear it clipped like a toothbrush. And he's got
a long mustache, and a straight nose, and a charming smile. Hasn't he,
Sir Harry?"
"I didn't notice particularly. He's not a bad-looking chap. Looks a bit
soft, though."
"Soft? why, he's a tremendous genius, papa says."
"I didn't mean that; I mean flabby and out of training, you know."
"Oh, he isn't always shooting or hunting, of course," said Tora
contemptuously.
"I don't suppose," remarked Janet, "that in his position of
life,--well, you know, Tora, he's of quite humble birth,--he ever had
the chance."
"He's none the worse for that," said Sir Harry stoutly.
"The worse? I think he's the better. Papa is going to ask him here."
"You're quite enthusiastic, Tora."
"I love to meet new people. One sees the same faces year after year in
Denshire."
Sir Harry felt that this remark was a little unkind.
"I like old friends," he said, "better than new ones."
Janet rose to go.
"We must wait and hear papa's report," she said, as she took her leave.
Tora Smith escorted her to the door, kissed her, and, returning, said,
with a snap of her fingers:
"I don't care that for 'papa's report.' Jan is really too absurd."
"It's nice to see her----"
"Oh, delightful. I hate dutiful people!"
"You think just as much of your father."
"We happen to agree in our opinions, but papa always tells me to use my
own judgment. Are you going to see Mr. Bannister?"
"Yes, I think so. He won't hurt me, and he may subscribe to the hunt."
"No; he may even improve you."
"Do I want it so badly, Miss Smith?"
"Yes. You're a weak-kneed man."
"Oh, I say! Look here, you must help me."
"Perhaps I will, if Mr. Bannister is not too engrossing."
"Now you're trying to draw me."
"Was I? And yet you looked pleased. Perhaps you think it a compliment."
"Isn't it one? It shows you think it worth while to----"
"It shows nothing of the kind," said Tora decisively.
Thus, for one reason or another, from one direction and another, there
was converging on Littlehill a number of visitors. If your neighbor
excites curiosity, it is a dull imagination that finds no plausible
reason for satisfying it. Probably there was more in common than at
first sight appeared between Mr. Delane's sense of duty, the Mayor's
idea of official courtesy, Colonel Smith's contempt for narrowness of
mind, Sir Harry Fulmer's care for the interests of the hunt, and Dr.
Roberts' frank and undisguised eagerness to see and speak with Dale
Bannister face to face.
CHAPTER IV.
=A Quiet Sunday Afternoon.=
To dissolve public report into its component parts is never a light
task. Analysis, as a rule, reveals three constituents: truth,
embroidery, and mere falsehood; but the proportions vary infinitely.
Denborough, which went to bed, to a man, at ten o'clock, or so soon
after as it reached home from the public house, said that the people
at Littlehill sat up very late; this was truth, at least relative
truth, and that is all we can expect here. It said that they habitually
danced and sang the night through; this was embroidery; they had once
danced and sung the night through, when Dale had a party from London.
It said that orgies--if the meaning of its nods, winks, and smiles may
be summarized--went on at Littlehill; this was falsehood. Dale and his
friends amused themselves, and it must be allowed that their enjoyment
was not marred, but rather increased, by the knowledge that they did
not command the respect of Denborough. They had no friends there. Why
should they care for Denborough's approval? Denborough's approval was
naught, whereas Denborough's disapproval ministered to the pleasure
most of us feel in giving gentle shocks to our neighbors' sense of
propriety. No doubt an electric eel enjoys itself. But, after all, if
the mere truth must be told, they were mild sinners at Littlehill, the
leading spirits, Dale and Arthur Angell, being indeed young men whose
antinomianism found a harmless issue in ink, and whose lawlessness
was best expressed in meter. A cynic once married his daughter to a
professed atheist, on the ground that the man could not afford to be
other than an exemplary husband and father. Poets are not trammeled
so tight as that, for, as Mrs. Delane remarked, there was Byron, and
perhaps one or two more; yet, for the most part, she who marries a poet
has nothing worse than nerves to fear. But a little lawlessness will
go a long way in the right place,--for example, lawn-tennis on Sunday
in the suburbs,--and the Littlehill party extorted a gratifying meed
of curiosity and frowns, which were not entirely undeserved by some of
their doings, and were more than deserved by what was told of their
doings.
After luncheon on Sunday, Mr. Delane had a nap, as his commendable
custom was. Then he took his hat and stick and set out for Littlehill.
The Grange park stretches to the outskirts of the town, and borders in
part on the grounds of Littlehill, so that the Squire had a pleasant
walk under the cool shade of his own immemorial elms, and enjoyed
the satisfaction of inspecting his own most excellent shorthorns.
Reflecting on the elms and the shorthorns, and on the house, the acres,
and the family that were his, he admitted that he had been born to
advantages and opportunities such as fell to the lot of a few men;
and, inspired to charity by the distant church-bell sounding over the
meadows, he acknowledged a corresponding duty of lenient judgment in
respect of the less fortunate. Thus he arrived at Littlehill in a
tolerant temper, and contented himself with an indulgent shake of the
head when he saw the gravel fresh marked with horses' hoofs.
"Been riding instead of going to church, the young rascals," he said to
himself, as he rang the bell.
A small, shrewd-faced man opened the door and ushered Mr. Delane into
the hall. Then he stopped.
"If you go straight on, sir," said he, "through that baize door, and
across the passage, and through the opposite door, you will find Mr.
Bannister."
Mr. Delane's face expressed surprise.
"Mr. Bannister, sir," the man explained, "don't like visitors being
announced, sir. If you would be so kind as walk in----"
It was a harmless whim, and the Squire nodded assent. He passed through
the baize door, crossed the passage, and paused before opening the
opposite door. The sounds which came from behind it arrested his
attention. To the accompaniment of a gentle drumming noise, as if of
sticks or umbrellas bumped against the floor, a voice was declaiming,
or rather chanting, poetry. The voice rose and fell, and Mr. Delane
could not distinguish the words, until it burst forth triumphantly
with the lines:
"Love grows hate for love's sake, life takes death for guide;
Night hath none but one red star--Tyrannicide."
"Good gracious!" said Mr. Delane.
The voice dropped again for a few moments, then it hurled out:
"Down the way of Tsars awhile in vain deferred,
Bid the Second Alexander light the Third.
How for shame shall men rebuke them? how may we
Blame, whose fathers died and slew, to leave us free?"
The voice was interrupted and drowned by the crash of the pianoforte,
struck with remorseless force, and another voice, the voice of a woman,
cried, rising even above the crash:
"Now, one of your own, Dale."
"I think I'd better go in," thought Mr. Delane, and he knocked loudly
at the door.
He was bidden to enter by the former of the two voices, and, going in,
found himself in a billiard room. Five or six people sat round the
wall on settees, each holding a cue, with which they were still gently
strumming on the floor. A stout, elderly woman was at the piano, and a
young man sat cross-legged in the middle of the billiard-table, with
a book in one hand and a cigar in the other. There was a good deal of
tobacco smoke in the room, and Mr. Delane did not at first distinguish
the faces of the company.
The young man on the table uncoiled himself with great agility, jumped
down, and came forward to meet the newcomer with outstretched hands.
As he outstretched them, he dropped the book and the cigar to the
ground on either side of him.
"Ah, here you are! Delightful of you to come!" he cried. "Now, let me
guess you!"
"Mr. Bannister?--Have I the pleasure?"
"Yes, yes. Now let's see--don't tell me your name."
He drew back a step, surveyed Mr. Delane's portly figure, his dignified
carriage, his plain solid watch-chain, his square-toed strong boots.
"The Squire!" he exclaimed. "Mr. Delane, isn't it?"
"I am Mr. Delane."
"Good! You don't mind being guessed, do you? It's so much more amusing.
What will you have?"
"Thank you, I've lunched, Mr. Bannister."
"Have you? We've just breakfasted--had a ride before, you know. But I
must introduce you."
He searched the floor, picked up the cigar, looked at it regretfully,
and threw it out of an open window.
"This," he resumed, waving his hand toward the piano, "is Mrs. Ernest
Hodge. This is Miss Fane, Mrs. Hodge's daughter--no, not by a first
marriage; everybody suggests that. Professional name, you know--she
sings. Hodge really wouldn't do, would it, Mrs. Hodge? This is Philip
Hume. This is Arthur Angell, who writes verses--like me. This is--but I
expect you know these gentlemen?"
Mr. Delane peered through the smoke which Philip Hume was producing
from a long pipe, and to his amazement discerned three familiar faces:
those of Dr. Roberts, the Mayor, and Alderman Johnstone. The Doctor
was flushed and looked excited; the Mayor was a picture of dignified
complacency; Johnstone appeared embarrassed and uncomfortable, for his
bald head was embellished with a flowery garland. Dale saw Mr. Delane's
eyes rest on this article.
"We always crown anybody who adds to our knowledge," he explained. "He
gets a wreath of honor. The Alderman added to our knowledge of the
expense of building a room. So Miss Fane crowned him."
An appreciative chuckle from the Mayor followed this explanation; he
knocked the butt of his cue against the floor, and winked at Philip
Hume.
The last-named, seeing that Mr. Delane was somewhat surprised at the
company, came up to him and said:
"Come and sit down; Dale never remembers that anybody wants a seat.
Here's an armchair."
Mr. Delane sat down next to Miss Fane, and noticed, even in his
perturbation, that his neighbor was a remarkably pretty girl, with fair
hair clustering in a thick mass on the nape of her neck, and large blue
eyes which left gazing on Dale Bannister when their owner turned to
greet him. Mr. Delane would have enjoyed talking to her, had not his
soul been vexed at the presence of the three Denborough men. One did
not expect to meet the tradesmen of the town; and what business had the
Doctor there? To spend Sunday in that fashion would not increase his
popularity or his practice. And then that nonsense about the wreath!
How undignified it was! it was even worse than yelling out Nihilistic
verses by way of Sabbath amusement.
"I shall get away as soon as I can," he thought, "and I shall say a
word to the Doctor."
He was called from his meditations by Miss Fane. She sat in a low chair
with her feet on a stool, and now, tilting the chair back, she fixed
her eyes on Mr. Delane, and asked:
"Are you shocked?"
No man likes to admit that he is shocked.
"I am not, but many people would be."
"I suppose you don't like meeting those men?"
"Hedger is an honest man in his way of life. I have no great opinion of
Johnstone."
"This is your house, isn't it?"
"Yes."
"All the houses about here are yours, aren't they?"
"Most of them are, Miss Fane."
"Then you are a great man?"
The question was put so simply that Mr. Delane could not suspect a
sarcastic intent.
"Only locally," he answered, smiling.
"Have you any daughters?" she asked.
"Yes; one."
"What is she like?"
"Fancy asking her father! I think Janet a beauty."
"Fair or dark?"
"Dark."
"Dale likes dark girls. Tall or short?"
"Tall."
"Good eyes?"
"I like them."
"Oh, that'll do. Dale will like her;" and Miss Fane nodded
reassuringly. Mr. Delane had not the heart to intimate his indifference
to Dale Bannister's opinion of his daughter.
"Do you know this country?" he asked, by way of conversation.
"We've only been here a week, but we've ridden a good deal. We hold
Dale on, you know."
"You are on a visit to Mr. Bannister?"
"Oh, yes, mother and I are here."
Mr. Delane could not help wondering whether their presence was such a
matter of course as her tone implied, but before he could probe the
matter further, he heard Dale exclaim:
"Oh, it's a wretched thing! Read it yourself, Roberts."
"Mount him on the rostrum," cried the young man who had been presented
to Mr. Delane as Arthur Angell, and who had hitherto been engaged in an
animated discussion with the Doctor.
Laughing, and only half resisting, the Doctor allowing himself to be
hoisted on to the billiard-table, sat down, and announced in a loud
voice:
"'Blood for Blood': by Dale Bannister."
The poem which bore this alarming title was perhaps the most outrageous
of the author's works. It held up to ridicule and devoted to damnation
every person and every institution which the Squire respected and
worshiped. And the misguided young man declaimed it with sparkling
eyes and emphasizing gestures, as though every wicked word of it were
gospel. And to this man's charge were committed the wives and families
of the citizens of Denborough! The Squire's self-respect demanded a
protest. He rose with dignity, and went up to his host.
"Good-by, Mr. Bannister."
"What? you're not going yet? What? Does this stuff bore you?"
"It does not bore me. But I must add--excuse an old-fashioned
fellow--that it does something worse."
"What? Oh, you're on the other side? Of course you are!"
"Whatever side I was, I could not listen to that. As an older man, let
me give you a word of advice."
Dale lifted his hands in good-humored protest.
"Sorry you don't like it," he said. "Shut up, Roberts! If I'd known, we
wouldn't have had it. But it's true--true--true."
The Doctor listened with sparkling eyes.
"I must differ utterly; I must indeed. Good-by, Mr. Bannister. Hedger?"
The Mayor started.
"I am walking into the town. Come with me."
The Mayor wavered. The Squire stood and waited for him.
"I didn't think of goin' yet, Mr. Delane, sir."
Dale watched the encounter with a smile.
"Your wife will expect you," said the Squire. "Come along."
The Mayor rose, ignoring Johnstone's grin and the amusement on the
faces of the company.
"I'll come and look you up," said Dale, pressing the Squire's hand
warmly. "Oh, it's all right. Tastes differ. I'm not offended. I'll come
some day this week."
He showed them out, and, returning, said to the Doctor, "Roberts,
you'll get into trouble."
"Nonsense!" said the Doctor. "What business is it of his?"
Dale had turned to Johnstone.
"Good-by," said he abruptly. "We close at five."
"I've 'ad a pleasant afternoon, sir."
"It will be deducted from your bill," answered Dale.
After ejecting Johnstone, he stood by the table, looking moodily at the
floor.
"What's the matter, Dale?" asked Miss Fane.
"I suppose he thought we were beasts or lunatics."
"Probably," said Philip Hume. "What then?"
"Well, yes," answered Dale, smiling again. "You're quite right, Phil.
What then?"
CHAPTER V.
=The Necessary Scapegoat.=
If men never told their wives anything, the condition of society would
no doubt be profoundly modified, though it is not easy to forecast the
precise changes. If a guess may be hazarded, it is probable that much
less good would be done, and some less evil said: the loss of matter
of interest for half the world may be allowed to sway the balance in
favor of the present practice--a practice so universal that Mr. Delane,
the Mayor, and Alderman Johnstone, one and all, followed it by telling
their wives about their Sunday afternoon at Littlehill. Dr. Roberts,
it is true, gave a meager account to his wife, but the narratives of
the other three amply filled the gaps he left, and, as each of them
naturally dwelt on the most remarkable features of their entertainment,
it may be supposed that the general impression produced in Market
Denborough did not fall short of the truth in vividness of color.
The facts as to what occurred have been set down without extenuation
and without malice: the province of Market Denborough society was to
supply the inferences arising therefrom, and this task it fulfilled
with no grudging hand. Before eight-and-forty hours had passed, there
were reports that the Squire had discovered a full-blown Saturnalia in
process at Littlehill--and that in these scandalous proceedings the
Mayor, Alderman Johnstone, and Dr. Roberts were participators.
Then ensued conduct on the part of the Mayor and the Alderman deserving
of unmeasured scorn. They could not deny that dreadful things had been
done and said, though they had not seen the deeds nor understood the
words: their denial would have had no chance of credit. They could not
venture to say that Squire Delane had done anything except manfully
protest. They began by accusing one another in round terms, but each
found himself so vulnerable that by an unholy tacit compact they
agreed to exonerate one another. The Mayor allowed that Johnstone was
not conspicuous in wickedness; Johnstone admitted that the Mayor had
erred, if at all, only through weakness and good-nature. Public opinion
demanded a sacrifice; and the Doctor was left to satisfy it. Everybody
was of one mind in holding that Dr. Roberts had disgraced himself, and
nobody was surprised to hear that the Squire's phaeton had been seen
standing at his door for half an hour on Wednesday morning. The Squire
was within, and was understood to be giving the Doctor a piece of his
mind.
The Doctor was stiff-necked.
"It is entirely a private matter," said he, "and no one has a right to
dictate to me."
"My dear Roberts, I spoke merely in your own interest. It would ruin
you if it became known that you held those atrocious opinions; and
become known it must, if you openly ally yourself with this young man."
"I am not the servant of the people I attend. I may choose my own
opinions."
"Yes, and they may choose their own doctor," retorted the Squire.
The two parted, almost quarreling. Perhaps they would have quite
quarreled had not the Squire thought of Mrs. Roberts and the baby. He
wondered that the Doctor did not think of them, too, but he seemed to
Mr. Delane to be under such a spell that he thought of nothing but Dale
Bannister. It was not as if Roberts were the only medical man in the
place. There was young Doctor Spink--and he was a real M. D.--up the
street, ready and eager to snap up stray patients. And Doctor Spink
was a churchwarden. The Squire did not like him overmuch, but he found
himself thinking whether it would not be well to send for him next time
there was a case of illness at the Grange.
The Squire meditated, while others acted. On her walk the same
afternoon, Ethel Roberts heard news which perturbed her. The Vicar's
wife was ill and Dr. Spink had been sent for. The Vicar was a
well-to-do man. He had a large family, which yet grew. He had been a
constant and a valuable client of her husband's. And now Dr. Spink was
sent for.
"Jim," she said, "did you know that Mrs. Gilkison was ill?"
"Ill?" said the Doctor, looking up from "Sluggards." "No, I've heard
nothing of it."
She came and leaned over his chair.
"They've sent for Dr. Spink," she said.
"What?" he exclaimed, dropping his beloved volume.
"Mrs. Hedger told me."
"Well, they can do as they like. I suppose his 'Doctor' is the
attraction."
"Do you think it's that, dear?"
"What else can it be?--unless it's a mere freak."
"Well, Jim, I thought--I thought perhaps that the Vicar had heard
about--about--Littlehill. Yes, I know it's very stupid and narrow,
dear--but still----"
The Doctor swore under his breath.
"I can't help it if the man's an ass," he said.
Ethel smiled patiently.
"It's a pity to offend people, Jim, dear, isn't it?"
"Are you against me too, Ethel?"
"Against you? You know I never would be, but----"
"Then do let us leave Denborough gossip alone. Fancy Denborough taking
on itself to disapprove of Dale Bannister! It's too rich!"
Ethel sighed. Denborough's disapproval was no doubt a matter of
indifference to Dale Bannister: it meant loss of bread and butter to
James Roberts and his house.
Meanwhile Dale Bannister, all unconscious of the dread determinations
of the Vicar, pursued his way in cheerful unconcern. People came and
went. Arthur Angell returned to his haunts rather dissatisfied with
the quiet of Littlehill, but rejoicing to have found in the Doctor one
thorough-going believer. Mrs. Hodge, her daughter, and Philip Hume
seemed to be permanent parts of the household. Riding was their chief
amusement. They would pass down High Street, Dale on his ancient mare,
with Nellie and Philip by his side, laughing and talking merrily,
Dale's own voice being very audible as he pointed out, with amusement
a trifle too obvious to be polite, what struck him as remarkable in
Denborough ways of life.
Philip, however, whom Mr. Delane had described to his wife as the only
apparently sane person at Littlehill, was rather uneasy in his mind
about Roberts.
"You'll get that fellow disliked, Dale," he said one morning, "if you
don't take care."
"I? What have I to do with it?" asked Dale.
"They'll think him unsafe, if they see him with you."
"He needn't come unless he likes. He's not a bad fellow, only he takes
everything so precious seriously."
"He thinks you do, judging by your books."
"Oh, I do by fits. By the way, I have a fit now! Behold, I will write!
Nellie! Where's Nellie?"
Nellie Fane came at his call.
"Sit down just opposite me, and look at me. I am going to write.
The editor of the _Cynosure_ begs for twenty lines--no more; twenty
lines--fifty pounds! Now, Nellie, inspire me, and you shall have a new
hat out of it. No, look at me!"
Nellie sat down and gazed at him, obediently.
"Two pound ten a line; not bad for a young 'un," he pursued. "They
say Byron wrote on gin and water. I write on your eyes, Nellie--much
better."
"You're not writing at all--only talking nonsense."
"I'm just beginning."
"Look here, Dale, why don't you keep the Doctor----" began Philip.
"Oh, hang the Doctor! I'd just got an idea. Look at me, Nellie!"
Philip shrugged his shoulders, and Dr. Roberts dropped out of
discussion.
The twenty lines were written, though they were never considered one of
his masterpieces, then Dale rose with a sigh of relief.
"Now for lunch, and then I'm going to return Mr. Delane's call."
"I thought we were to ride," said Nellie disappointedly.
"Well, won't you come?"
"Don't be absurd!"
"Mightn't she come, Phil?"
"Mrs. Delane has not called, has she?" inquired Philip, as though for
information.
"Of course I shan't go, Dale. You must go alone."
"What a nuisance! I shall have to walk. I daren't trust myself to that
animal alone."
After luncheon he started, walking by the same way by which Mr. Delane
had come.
He reached the lodge of the Grange; a courtesying child held open the
gate, and he passed along under the immemorial elms, returning a cheery
good-day to the gardeners, who paused in their work to touch their
hats with friendly deference. The deference was wrong, of course, but
the friendliness pleased him, and even the deference seemed somehow
in keeping with the elms and with the sturdy old red-brick mansion,
with its coat of arms and defiant Norman motto over the principal
door. Littlehill was a pleasant house, but it had none of the ancient
dignity of Dirkham, and Dale's quick brain was suddenly struck with a
new understanding of how such places bred the men they did. He had had
a fancy for a stay in the country; it would amuse him, he thought, to
study country life; that was the meaning of his coming to Littlehill.
Well, Dirkham summed up one side of country life, and he would be glad
to study it.
Mr. Delane was not at home--he had gone to Petty Sessions; and Dale,
with regret, for he wanted to see the inside of the house, left his
name--as usual he had forgotten to bring a card--and turned away. As he
turned, a pony carriage drew up and a girl jumped out. Dale drew back
to let her pass, raising his hat. The servant said a word to her, and
when he had gone some ten or fifteen yards, he heard his name called.
"Oh, Mr. Bannister, do come in! I expect papa back every minute, and he
will be so sorry to miss you. Mamma is up in London; but I hope you'll
come in."
Dale had no idea of refusing the invitation given so cordially. He
had been sorry to go away before, and the sight of Janet Delane made
him more reluctant still. He followed her into the oak-paneled hall,
hung with pictures of dead Delanes and furnished with couches and
easy-chairs.
"Well," she said, after tea was brought, "and what do you think of us?"
"I have not seen very much of you yet."
"As far as you have gone? And be candid."
"You are very restful."
She made a little grimace.
"You mean very slow?"
"Indeed I don't! I think you very interesting."
"You find us interesting, but slow. Yes, you meant that, Mr. Bannister,
and it's not kind."
"Have your revenge by telling me what you think of me."
"Oh, we find you interesting, too. We're all talking about you."
"And slow?"
"No, certainly not slow," she said, with a smile and a glance: the
glance should be described, if it were describable, but it was not.
Dale, however, understood it, for he replied, laughing:
"They've been prejudicing you against me."
"I don't despair of you. I think you may be reformed. But I'm afraid
you're very bad just now."
"Why do you think that? From what your father said?"
"Partly. Partly also because Colonel Smith and Tora--do you know
them?--are so enthusiastic about you."
"Is that a bad sign?"
"Terrible. They are quite revolutionary. So are you, aren't you?"
"Not in private life."
"But of course," she asked, with serious eyes, "you believe what you
write?"
"Well, I do; but you pay writers a compliment by saying 'of course.'"
"Oh, I hope not! Anything is better than insincerity."
"Even my opinions?"
"Yes. Opinions may be changed, but not natures, you know."
She was still looking at him with serious, inquiring eyes. The eyes
were very fine eyes. Perhaps that was the reason why Dale thought the
last remark so excellent. He said nothing, and she went on:
"People who are clever and--and great, you know, ought to be so careful
that they are right, oughtn't they?"
"Oh, a rhymer rhymes as the fit takes him," answered he, with affected
modesty.
"I wouldn't believe that of you. You wouldn't misuse your powers like
that."
"You have read my poetry?"
"Some of it." She paused and added, with a little blush for her
companion: "There was some papa would not let me read."
A man may not unreasonably write what a young girl's father may very
reasonably not like her to read. Nevertheless, Dale Bannister felt
rather uncomfortable.
"Those were the shocking political ones, I suppose?" he asked.
"No; I read most of those. These were against religion and----"
"Well?"
"Morality, papa said," she answered, with the same grave look of
inquiry.
Dale rose and held out his hand, saying petulantly:
"Good-by, Miss Delane. You evidently don't think me fit to enter your
house."
"Oh, now I have made you angry. I have no right to speak about it, and,
of course, I know nothing about it. Only----"
"Only what?"
"Some things are right and some are wrong, aren't they?"
"Oh, granted--if we could only agree which were which."
"As to some we have been told. And I don't think that about you at
all--I really don't. Do wait till papa comes."
Dale sat down again. He had had his lecture; experience told him
that a lecture from such lecturers is tolerably often followed by a
petting, and the pettings were worth the lectures. In this instance
he was disappointed. Janet did not pet him, though she displayed much
friendliness, and he took his leave (for the Squire did not appear)
feeling somewhat put out.
Approbation and applause were dear to this man, who seemed to spend his
energies in courting blame and distrust; whatever people thought of his
writings, he wished them to be fascinated by him. He was not sure that
he had fascinated Miss Delane.
"I should like to see more of her," he thought. "She's rather an odd
girl."
CHAPTER VI.
=Littlehill Goes into Society.=
Mr. Delane's late return from his public duties was attributable simply
to Colonel Smith's obstinacy. He and the Colonel sat together on the
bench, and very grievously did they quarrel over the case of a man
who had been caught in the possession of the body of a fresh-killed
hare. They differed first as to the policy of the law, secondly as to
its application, thirdly as to its vindication; and when the Vicar
of Denborough, who was a county justice and present with them, sided
with the Squire on all these points, the Colonel angrily denounced the
reverend gentleman as a disgrace, not only to the judicial bench, but
even to his own cloth. All this took time, as did also the Colonel's
cross-examination of the constable in charge of the case, and it was
evening before the dispute was ended, and a fine imposed. The Colonel
paid the fine, and thus everyone, including the law and the prisoner,
was in the end satisfied.
Mr. Delane and the Colonel, widely and fiercely as they differed on
every subject under the sun, were very good friends, and they rode
home together in the dusk of a September evening, for their roads lay
the same way for some distance. Presently they fell in with Sir Harry
Fulmer, who had been to see Dale Bannister, and, in his absence, had
spent the afternoon with Nellie Fane and Philip Hume.
"Hume's quite a good fellow," he declared; "quiet, you know, and rather
sarcastic, but quite a gentleman. And Miss Fane--I say, have you seen
her, Colonel?"
"By the way, who is Miss Fane?" asked the Squire.
"Oh, she acts, or sings, or something. Awfully jolly girl, and uncommon
pretty. Don't you think so, Squire?"
"Yes, I did, Harry. But why is she staying there?"
"Really, Delane," said the Colonel, "what possible business is that of
yours?"
"I've called on Bannister, and he's going to return my call. I think
it's a good deal of business of mine."
"Well!" exclaimed the Colonel; "for sheer uncharitableness and the
thinking of all evil, give me a respectable Christian man like
yourself, Delane."
"Oh, it's all right," said Sir Harry cheerfully. "The old lady, Mrs.
What's-her-name, is there."
"I hope it is," said the Squire. "Bannister has himself to thank for
any suspicions which may be aroused."
"Suspicions? Bosh!" said the Colonel. "They are all coming to dine with
me to-morrow. I met Bannister and asked him. He said he had friends,
and I told him to bring the lot. Will you and Mrs. Delane come, Squire?"
"My wife's away, thanks."
"Then bring Janet."
"Hum! I think I'll wait."
"Oh, as you please. You'll come, Harry?"
Sir Harry was delighted to come.
"Tora was most anxious to know them," the Colonel continued, "and I
hate ceremonious ways. There'll be nobody else, except the Doctor and
his wife."
"You haven't asked Hedger and Johnstone, have you?" inquired the
Squire. "They're friends of Bannister's. I met them at his house."
"I haven't, but I don't know why I shouldn't."
"Still you won't," said Sir Harry, with a laugh.
The Colonel knew that he would not, and changed the subject.
* * * * *
"This is a great occasion," said Philip Hume at afternoon tea next day.
"To-night we are to be received into county society."
"Is Colonel Smith 'county society'?" asked Nellie.
"Yes. The Mayor told me so. The Colonel is a Radical, and a bad one at
that, but the poor man comes of good family and is within the toils."
"I expect he really likes it," said Nellie, "I should."
"Are you nervous?" inquired Philip.
Nellie laughed and colored.
"I really am a little. I hope I shall behave properly. Mother is in a
dreadful state."
"Where is Mrs. Hodge?"
"Putting some new lace on her gown."
"And Dale?"
"He's writing. Mr. Hume, has he told you anything about his visit
yesterday?"
"Yes. He says he met an angel."
"Oh, that accounts for the title."
"What title?"
"Why, I went and looked over his shoulder, and saw he was beginning
some verses, headed, 'To a Pretty Saint.' I always look, you know, but
this time he snatched the paper away."
"'To a Pretty Saint'? Dear, dear! Perhaps he meant you, Nellie."
Miss Fane shook her head.
"He meant Miss Delane, I'm sure," she said dolefully. "I hope Miss
Smith is just exactly a county young lady--you know what I mean. I want
to see one."
"Do you contemplate remodeling yourself?"
"I'm sure Dale will like that sort of girl."
Philip looked at her sideways. He thought of telling her that "county
young ladies" did not proclaim all their thoughts. But then he
reflected that he would not.
The Littlehill party arrived at Mount Pleasant, the Colonel's
residence, in the nick of time; and Mrs. Hodge sailed in to dinner
on her host's arm in high good humor. Dale, as the great man and the
stranger, escorted Tora, Philip Hume Mrs. Roberts, and Sir Harry fell
to Nellie's lot.
Mrs. Hodge was an amusing companion. She did not dally at the outworks
of acquaintance, but closed at once into intimacy, and before half an
hour was gone, she found herself trying hard not to call the Colonel
"my dear," and to remember to employ the usual prefixes to the names of
the company. The Colonel was delighted; was he at last escaping from
the stifling prison of conventionality and breathing a freer air?
Unhappily, just in proportion as good cheer and good fellowship put
Mrs. Hodge at her ease, and made her more and more to the Colonel's
taste, her daughter's smothered uneasiness grew more intense. Nellie
had borne herself with an impossible dignity and distance of manner
toward Sir Harry, in the fear lest Sir Harry should find her wanting in
the characteristics of good society, and her frigidity was increased by
her careful watch on her mother's conduct. Sir Harry was disappointed.
As he could not sit by Tora Smith, he had consoled himself with the
prospect of some fun with "little Miss Fane." And little Miss Fane held
him at arms'-length. He determined to try to break down her guard.
"How did you manage to shock the Squire so?" he asked.
"Was he shocked? I didn't know."
"You were there, weren't you?"
"Oh, yes. Well, I suppose it was Mr. Bannister's poetry."
"Why should that shock him?" asked Sir Harry, who knew very well. "By
Jove, I wish I could write some like it!"
She turned to him with sudden interest.
"Do you admire Dale's writings?"
"Awfully," said Sir Harry. "Don't you?"
"Of course _I_ do, but I didn't know whether you would. Do you know
Miss Delane?"
"Yes, very well."
"Do you like her?"
"Oh, yes. I have known her all my life, and I like her. She frightens
me a little, you know."
"Does she? How?"
"She expects such a lot of a fellow. Have you met her?"
"No. D--Mr. Bannister has. He likes her."
"I expect she blew him up, didn't she?"
"Oh, I shouldn't think so. Dale wouldn't like that."
"Depends how it's done," observed Sir Harry. "Don't you ever blow him
up?"
"Of course not. I'm much too--I look up to him too much."
They were interrupted by the Colonel's voice. He was saying, with much
energy:
"Ability we don't expect in a Government office, but honesty one might
hope for."
"Just what Hodge used to say of old Pratt," said Mrs. Hodge.
"I beg pardon?" said the Colonel.
"Pratt was his manager, you know--my husband's."
"Oh, yes, of course."
"Nellie, you remember your father throwing down that two pound ten on
the table, and saying, 'Well, I'm----'"
"No, mother, I don't. Do you think I could learn to hunt, Sir Harry?"
"Of course you could, in no time."
"Does Miss Delane?"
"And Pratt said that if Hodge couldn't play the king at two pound ten a
week,--though that's hard living, my dear,--I beg pardon--Colonel----"
The Colonel bowed courteously. Nellie grew very red.
"Why, bantam-cocks had risen since his day, and that was all about it."
And Mrs. Hodge emptied her glass and beamed pleasantly on the company.
Suddenly Dale Bannister began to laugh gently. Tora Smith turned an
inquiring look in his direction.
"What is it, Mr. Bannister?"
"I saw your father's butler looking at my friend Mrs. Hodge."
"What nonsense! Simmons is not allowed to look at anyone."
"Isn't he? Why not?"
"No good servant does."
Dale smiled.
"I know what you mean," Tora continued; "but surely while they're
actually waiting, Mr. Bannister, we can't treat them quite like
ourselves? At any other time, of course----"
"You'd take a walk with them?"
"They'd be horribly uncomfortable if I did," she answered, laughing.
"That's the worst of it," said he.
"Do you think us great shams?"
"I have come to learn, not to criticise."
"We want a leader," said Tora, with pretty earnestness.
"Haven't you one?"
"Sir Harry Fulmer is our leader, but we're not contented with him. He's
a very mild Radical. Won't you come to our help?"
"I expect I should be too extreme the other way."
"Oh, I love people who are extreme--in my direction, I mean."
"Well, then, try the Doctor."
"Mr. Roberts? Oh, he's hardly prominent enough; we must have somebody
of position. Now, what are you laughing at, Mr. Bannister?"
The gentleman to whom they referred sat looking on at them with no
great pleasure, though they found one another entertaining enough to
prevent them noticing him. Dale Bannister said that his new friend took
life seriously, and the charge was too true for the Doctor's happiness.
Dale Bannister had taken hold of his imagination. He expected Dale to
do all he would give his life to see done, but could not do himself.
The effect of Dale was to be instantaneous, enormous, transforming
Denborough and its inhabitants. He regarded the poet much as a man
might look upon a benevolent volcano, did such a thing exist in the
order of nature. His function was, in the Doctor's eyes, to pour forth
the burning lava of truth and justice, wherewith the ignorance,
prejudice, and cruelty of the present order should be consumed and
smothered; let the flood be copious, scorching, and unceasing! The
Doctor could do little more than hail the blessed shower and declare
its virtues; but that he was ready to do at any cost. And the volcano
would not act! The eruptions were sadly intermittent. The hero, instead
of going forth to war, was capering nimbly in a lady's chamber, to the
lascivious pleasing of a lute; that is to say, he was talking trifles
to Tora Smith, with apparent enjoyment, forgetful of his mission,
ignoring the powers of darkness around. No light-spreading saying, no
swordflash had come from him all the evening. He was fiddling while
Rome was--waiting for the burning it needed so badly.
Perhaps it was a woebegone look about the Doctor that made Philip Hume
take the chair next him after dinner, while Dale was, still as if in
play, emitting anarchist sparks for the Colonel's entertainment.
"Is it possible," asked the Doctor in low, half-angry tones, "that he
thinks these people are any good--that they are sincere or thorough in
the matter? He's wasting his time."
"Well, well, my dear fellow, we must all dine, whatever our opinions."
"Oh, yes; we must dine, while the world starves."
"The bow can't be always stretched," said Philip, with a slight smile.
"You don't think, Hume, do you, that he's getting any less--less in
earnest, you know?"
"Oh, he wrote a scorcher this very morning."
"Did he? That's good news. Where is it to appear?"
"I don't know. He didn't write it on commission."
"His poems have such magnificent restlessness, haven't they? I can't
bear to see him idle."
"Poor Dale! You must give him some holidays. He likes pleasure like the
rest of us."
The Doctor sighed impatiently, and Philip looking at him anxiously,
laid a hand on his arm.
"Roberts," he said, "there is no need that you should be ground to
powder."
"I don't understand."
"I hope you never will. Your wife doesn't look very strong. Why don't
you give her a change?"
"A change? How am I to afford a change? Besides, who wants a change?
What change do most workers get?"
"Hang most workers! Your wife wants a change."
"I haven't got the money, anyhow."
"Then there's an end of it."
The Colonel rose, and they made for the drawing room.
Philip detained his companion for a moment.
"Well?" said the Doctor, feeling the touch on his arm.
"For God's sake, old fellow, go slow," said Philip, pressing his arm,
and looking at him with an appealing smile.
CHAPTER VII.
="To a Pretty Saint."=
When Mrs. Delane came back from London, she was met with a question of
the precise kind on which she felt herself to be no mean authority. It
was a problem of propriety, of etiquette, and of the usages of society,
and Mrs. Delane attacked it with a due sense of its importance and with
the pleasure of an expert. It arose out of Dale Bannister's call at the
Grange. Dale had been accustomed, when a lady found favor in his eyes,
to inform her of the gratifying news through the medium of a set of
verses, more or less enthusiastic and rhapsodic in their nature. The
impulse to follow his usual practice was strong on him after meeting
Janet Delane, and issued in the composition of that poem called "To a
Pretty Saint," the title of which Nellie had seen. He copied it out
fair, and was about to put it in the post when a thought suddenly
struck him. Miss Delane was not quite like most of his acquaintances.
It was perhaps possible that she might think his action premature, or
even impertinent, and that she might deem it incumbent on her to resent
being called either a saint or pretty by a friend of one interview's
standing. Dale was divided between his newborn doubt of his own
instinct of what was permissible and his great reluctance to doom his
work to suppression. He decided to consult Philip Hume, who was, as he
knew, more habituated to the social atmosphere of places like Denshire.
"Eh? what?" said Philip, who was busily engaged in writing a newspaper
article. "Written a poem to a girl? All right. I'll listen presently."
"I don't want you to listen. I want your advice as to whether to send
it or not."
"If you've wasted your time writing the thing,--by the way, take care
the Doctor doesn't hear of it,--you may as well send it."
"The question is, whether she'll be offended."
"I'm glad it isn't more important, because I'm busy."
"Look here! Stop that anonymous stabber of yours and listen. It's to
Miss Delane."
Philip stopped in the middle of a particularly vicious paragraph of the
"stabber," and looked up with amusement on his face.
"It's a perfectly--you know--suitable poem," pursued Dale. "The only
question is, will she think it a liberty?"
"Oh, send it. They like getting 'em;" and Philip took up his pen again.
"You don't know the sort of girl she is."
"Then what the deuce is the good of asking me? Ask Nellie."
"No, I shan't," said Dale shortly.
Thus thrown, by his friend's indifference, on his own judgment, Dale
made up his mind to send the verses,--he could not deny himself the
pleasure,--but, half alarmed at his own audacity, which feeling was
a new one in him, he "hedged" by inclosing with them a letter of an
apologetic character. Miss Delane was not to suppose that he took the
liberty of referring to her in the terms of his title: the little copy
of verses had merely been suggested by a remark she made. He had failed
to find an answer on the spot. Would she pardon him for giving his
answer now in this indirect way?--and so forth.
The verses, with their accompanying letter, were received by Janet,
and Janet had no doubt of what she did feel about them, but some
considerable doubt as to what she ought to feel; so she carried them to
her mother. Mrs. Delane put on her _pince-nez_ and read the documents
in the case.
"I'm sure he didn't mean to be--anything but what's nice, mamma," said
Janet.
"I dare say not, my dear. The question is, whether the young man knows
his manners. Let's see."
After careful perusal, during which Janet watched her mother's face
with some anxiety, Mrs. Delane delivered judgment.
"There's no positive harm in them," she said, "and I don't think we
need take any actual steps. Still, Janet, he is evidently to be treated
with discretion."
"How do you mean, mamma?"
"Well, he isn't in need of encouragement, is he? He's not backward in
making friends."
"I suppose not. May I keep them?"
"Keep them? Do you want to keep them?"
"Not particularly, dear," answered Janet. "I--I thought he meant me to."
"No doubt. Write a civil note, dear, thank him for letting you see
them, and return them inclosed."
Janet was a little reluctant to part with her autograph
manuscript,--not because of its pecuniary value, though that was more
than a trifle, had she known, but because such things are pleasant
possessions to show to envious friends,--but she did as she was told.
She did not, however, feel herself bound altogether to smother her
pride or to make a secret of the tribute she had received. Tora Smith
heard the story with evident amusement, and, thinking that others would
share her appreciation of it, relieved the somewhat uphill course of
Mrs. Hodge's call by a repetition of it: whereby it happened that
Nellie Fane came to know, not only that Dale had written verses to
Miss Delane and sent them, but also that Miss Delane had returned the
offering. She told Philip the latter fact, and the two ventured to
rally the poet on the occurrence. Dale took their action very badly,
and his displeasure soon reduced Nellie to apologies. Philip was less
sensitive.
"D. W. T., by Jove!" he remarked. "Quite like old times, Dale!"
Dale muttered something about "infernal chatter."
"You will soon be in a position to publish a volume of 'Rejected
Addresses.'"
"Not at all," said Dale. "It's simply that she didn't understand I
meant her to keep them."
"Oh, that's her delicate way of snubbing you, my boy."
"What the deuce do you know about it, Phil? You never wrote verses in
your life. Don't you agree with me, Nellie?"
"Miss Smith said Miss Delane thought she had better not keep them."
"I knew that girl was a gossip directly I set eyes on her."
"You're naturally hurt, old fellow, but----"
"Go to the deuce! Look here, I'll bet you a fiver she takes them back
and keeps them."
"Done!" said Philip, and Dale seized his hat.
"Why does he want her to take them?" asked Nellie.
"Vanity, my dear, vanity. I suppose he's accustomed to having his
verses laid up in lavender. Is that what you do with yours?"
"He never wrote me any," answered Nellie in a tone of superlative
indifference.
It being only two o'clock, Dale felt he could not yet go to the Grange.
He made a detour by the town, on pretense of buying stamps; and, the
stars fighting with him, outside the Mayor's shop he saw Janet talking
to the Mayor himself.
"Thank you, Miss Delane, miss," said the Mayor. "Mrs. Hedger is doin'
nicely. She had a bit of feverishness about her, but Dr. Spink's
treated her wonderful."
"Dr. Spink? I thought you went to Dr. Roberts?"
"I did, miss, but---- Well, things come round to me, miss, being a
center like."
"What things?"
"Well, you may not have heard, miss, of the things that----
Good-mornin', Mr. Bannister, sir, good-mornin'. A fine day. Anything in
our line, sir?"
"Good-morning, Mr. Mayor," said Dale. "Ah, Miss Delane, how do you do?"
His coming interrupted Janet's investigations into the affairs of the
Doctor, and she took her leave of the Mayor, Dale assuming permission
to walk with her. He ought to have asked, no doubt, thought Janet, but
it would be making too much of it to tell him so.
They had hardly started when he turned to her:
"Why did you send back my verses?"
"I could hardly venture to keep them, could I?"
"Why not?"
"On so slight an acquaintance! It was very kind of you to let me see
them before they were published."
"They're not going to be published."
"Oh, you must publish them. They're so very pretty."
"Didn't you think I meant you to keep them?"
"I should have been very conceited if I had, shouldn't I?"
"Well, they were for you--not to be published. If you don't like them,
they'll be burned, that's all."
Janet stole a glance at his face; he looked like a petulant Apollo--so
she thought.
"That would be a pity," she said gravely; "but I don't think I ought to
keep them."
"Why not?"
Socrates is reported to have said that nothing is reasonable which
cannot be stated in a reasonable form. Miss Janet Delane would have
dissented.
"Of course I like them very much. But--well, we haven't known each
other very long, Mr. Bannister."
"You mean it was impertinent?"
"Oh, no. I thought your letter perfect--I did really. But mamma
thought----"
"Oh!" said Dale, with brightening face. "You would have kept them?"
"That's not the question," said Janet, smiling. It was pleasant to see
Apollo looking less petulant. "But what would people say if they heard
I had poems of Mr. Dale Bannister's about me? I should be thought a
dangerous person."
"I'll write some which you would like to have."
"I am sure you could, if you only would. Fancy, if you wrote really
noble verses--worthy of you!"
"Well, I will, if it will please you."
"Nonsense, Mr. Bannister! There's no question of pleasing me: it
doesn't matter--well, I mean, then, the great thing is to do justice to
yourself."
"I ought to have some encouragement in well-doing," said Dale
plaintively.
She shook her head with a smile, and he went on:
"I wish you'd come to Littlehill and see the house. I've improved it
tremendously."
"Oh, you must invite mamma."
"Would Mrs. Delane come?"
This question was a little awkward, for Mrs. Delane, after
cross-examining Tora Smith closely as to Mrs. Hodge and her daughter,
had announced that she would not go.
"A bachelor doesn't entertain ladies, does he?"
"I should like to; and there are some ladies----" A sudden thought
struck him, and he stopped. He looked so pointedly at Janet that, to
her intense annoyance, she felt herself blushing. She made the grave
mistake of changing the conversation abruptly.
"How did you like the Smiths?"
"Oh, pretty well."
"I should have thought you would have got on tremendously well
together."
"Oh, I don't know. I think I like people to be one thing or the other,
and the Smiths are halfway housers."
"You're very ungrateful."
"Oh, they only asked us as a demonstration," said Dale, who had some
acuteness.
Janet laughed, but her companion was moodily prodding the ground with
his stick as he walked along.
They reached a cottage where she had a visit to pay, and she bade him
good-by.
"Then you won't have the verses?"
"I think not."
"Very well, then, here goes;" and he took the paper out of his pocket
and tore it to bits. The fragments fluttered to the ground.
"How foolish!" she said. "I dare say they were worth a lot of
money--but, then, you can write them out again."
"Do you think I shall?" he asked, grinding the fragments into the mud.
"I'm afraid you will do nothing wise," she said, giving him her hand.
Yet the extravagance rather pleased her.
Until Dale reached his own house it did not strike him that he had lost
his bet. Philip quickly reminded him, and laughed mercilessly when a
crumpled five-pound note was thrown at his head by his angry friend.
"I tell you she wanted to keep them," said Dale unjustifiably.
"Then why didn't she?" asked Nellie.
"Mrs. Delane didn't approve of it."
"I expect Mrs. Delane doesn't approve of you at all," remarked Philip.
"No, nor of my friends either," answered Dale, flinging himself into a
chair.
"Well, my dear," said Mrs. Hodge, who sat by, "her opinion will neither
make us nor mar us."
"How have we had the misfortune to offend the lady?" inquired Philip.
"She has never seen us."
"Here's your tea, Dale," said Nellie. "Are you tired?"
"Yes, a little. Thanks, Nellie."
"Was she looking nice, Dale?"
"I didn't see her."
"I mean Miss Delane."
"Oh, yes, I suppose so. I didn't look much."
CHAPTER VIII.
=An Indiscreet Disciple.=
Summer wore away, and autumn came in brief, calm radiance, and passed;
winter began to threaten. At Denborough one quiet day followed another,
each one noticeable for little, but in the aggregate producing some not
unimportant changes at Littlehill. Dale Bannister had begun to work
hard and to work in solitude; the inspiration of Nellie's eyes seemed
either unnecessary or ineffectual. Moreover, his leisure hours were
now largely spent in visiting at houses in the neighborhood. He did
not neglect his guests, but whenever their engagements occupied them,
instead of wandering about alone or enjoying the humors of the High
Street, as he had been prone to do in the early days of his sojourn,
he would go over to Mount Pleasant, or to the Grange, or to Sir Harry
Fulmer's, and he was becoming learned in country lore and less scornful
of country ways. The Doctor was a rare visitor now, and, when he came,
it generally fell to Philip Hume's lot to entertain him. Philip did
his duty loyally, but it was dreary work, for Roberts' conversation,
at their meetings, consisted, in the main, of diatribes against
Dale Bannister. He would declare that Dale's conduct, in maintaining
friendly relations with the gentry of the neighborhood, was in flagrant
contradiction to the views he had proclaimed in his writings. Philip
shrugged his shoulders, and said that some men were better than their
writings, some worse, but no man the same as his writings; the prose
must ever be allowed for: and at this the angry man often turned his
back on the house with an imprecation on half-heartedness. For the
rest, Philip's hands were not very full, and he and Nellie Fane found
time for long expeditions together, which would have been more cheerful
had it not been for Nellie's scrupulous determination to ignore the
absence of the third member of the old trio. One day Philip's idle
steps led him through the town on the search for matter of amusement.
He was caught in a shower, and took refuge in the Mayor's shop, knowing
that his Worship always had time for a gossip. He was not disappointed.
The Mayor entertained him with a graphic account of the last assault on
Mr. Delane's position as member for the Denborough division, and of his
own recent re-election to his high office. Philip congratulated him on
the latter event, and asked in curiosity:
"And what are your politics, Mr. Mayor?"
"I hold as a man in my position should have no politics, not party
politics, Mr. Hume, sir."
"Well, there's something to be said for that."
"After all, we know what they are, sir. One out and the other
in--that's what they are, sir."
"But you said Mrs. Hedger canvassed for the Squire."
"So she did, sir. Now, my daughter is on the Liberal side; she and Miss
Smith used to go a-drivin' round together."
"A sad division of opinion, Mr. Mayor."
"Well, we can differ without disagreein', sir. Besides," he added, with
something like a wink, "customers differ too."
"Most true."
"Business is business, sir, especially with a growin' fam'ly. I always
think of my fam'ly, Mr. Hume, and how I should leave 'em if I was
took--taken."
"A man's first duty, Mr. Mayor."
"You wouldn't catch me goin' on like this young Roberts."
"Why, what's he been up to now?" asked Philip uneasily.
"You aint seen the _Standard_, sir?" The Mayor, of course, meant the
_East Denshire Standard_, not the London paper of the same name.
"No."
"Well, last week they printed the Vicar's sermon on 'The Work of
Christianity in the World.' A fine sermon it was, sir. I heard it,
being a Church of England man. Mrs. Hedger goes to Chapel."
"'Customers differ too,'" thought Philip, smiling.
"Well, as I was sayin', Jones of the _Standard_ got the Vicar to give
it 'im, and it came out, with a leadin' article of Jones' crackin' it
up."
"But how does the Doctor----"
"This week, sir," continued the Mayor, shaking an impressive
forefinger, "in the _Chronicle_--that's the Liberal paper, sir--there's
a letter from the Doctor--two columns--just abusin' the Church and the
parsons, and the 'ole--whole thing, fit to--well, I never did!"
"Hum! Rather rash, isn't it?"
"Rash, Mr. Hume, sir? It's madness, that's what it is, sir. He talks
about 'pestilent priests,' and I don't know what all, sir, and ends
with quotin' thirty or forty lines from a poem called, I think, 'The
Arch Apostates'--would that be it, sir?--by Mr. Bannister."
"No! does he, by Jove?" said Philip, slapping his thigh.
"And the po'try, sir, is worse than the Doctor's own stuff, sir,
beggin' your pardon as a friend of Mr. Bannister."
"I know the lines. They're some of the hottest he's ever done."
"Mr. Bannister, of course, can afford it, sir,--his opinions are what
he pleases,--but the Doctor, sir!"
"So the fat's in the fire?"
"Just the very worst time it could ha' come out, sir. The Guardians
over at Dirkham meet to-morrow to elect their medical officer. I'm
afraid as they won't re-elect Dr. Roberts, sir, and there was more than
one down at the Delane Arms sayin' they'd had the last to do with him."
Philip parted from his informant in much concern for Roberts, and in
no small amusement at the public placarding of "The Arch Apostates."
"_Surtout, point de zele_," he could imagine Dale saying to his
infatuated disciple.
On returning home, however, he found the poet saying much harder things
of, if not to, Mr. Roberts. Dale had been calling at the Smiths'. The
Colonel, while shaking his head over Roberts' impudence, had applauded
his opinions, and was, above all, enchanted with the extract from
Dale's poem, which he had never hitherto read. His pleasure was, as
he told Dale, greatly increased by finding that the letter and the
quotation had fallen like a bombshell on the Grange household.
"The Squire was furious. Mrs. Delane said she had no idea you had done
anything so bad as that; and little Janet sat and looked as if someone
had knocked down the Archbishop of Canterbury. It was splendid! Gad,
sir, you've waked 'em up."
These congratulations had the effect of reducing the poet almost to a
frenzy. "What business," he demanded, "has the fellow to quote me in
support of his balderdash without my leave?"
"My dear fellow, your works are the possession of the nation," said
Philip, smiling, as he lit a cigar.
"It's an infernal liberty!" fumed Dale.
"You light the fire, and blame it for blazing," said Philip.
"One doesn't want to shove one's views down people's throats."
"Doesn't one? One used to."
"I shall write and disclaim any responsibility."
"For the poem?"
"For its publication, of course."
"That won't do you much good."
The Mayor's forecast, based on a lifelong observation of his neighbors,
proved only too correct. Dr. Spink entered the lists against Roberts,
and was elected by every vote save one. Sir Harry Fulmer, in blind and
devoted obedience to Tora Smith, voted for Roberts; the rest, headed by
the Squire, installed his rival in his place; and the Squire, having
sternly done his duty, sat down and wrote a long and friendly letter of
remonstrance and explanation to his erring friend.
As misfortune followed misfortune, the Doctor set his teeth, and dared
fate to do her worst. He waited a few days, hoping to be comforted by a
word of approval from his master; none came. At last he determined to
seek out Dale Bannister, and was about to start when his wife came in
and gave him the new issue of the _Chronicle_. Ethel Roberts was pale
and weary-looking, and she glanced anxiously at her husband.
"I am going up to Littlehill," he said.
"Have you done your round, dear?"
"My round doesn't take long nowadays. Maggs will give me fifteen pounds
for the pony: you know we don't want him now."
"No, Jim, and we do want fifteen pounds."
"What's that?"
"The _Chronicle_, dear. There's--a letter from Mr. Bannister."
"Is there? Good! Let's see what Bannister has to say to these bigoted
idiots."
He opened the paper, and in the middle of the front page read:
A DISCLAIMER FROM MR. BANNISTER.
SIR: I desire to state that the use made by Mr. James Roberts of my
poem in your last issue was without my authority or approbation. The
poem was written some years ago, and must not be assumed to represent
my present view on the subject of which it treats.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
DALE BANNISTER.
The Doctor stared at the letter.
"Bannister--Dale Bannister wrote that!" and he flung the paper angrily
on the floor. "Give me my hat."
"You're not going----"
"Yes, I am, Ethel. I'm going to find out what this means."
"Hadn't you better wait till you're less----"
"Less what, Ethel? What do you mean?"
"Till the rain stops, Jim, dear; and it's just baby's time for coming
down."
"Hang--no, I beg your pardon, Ethel. I'm very sorry, but I must see the
end of this."
He rushed out, and the baby found a dull, preoccupied, almost tearful,
very unamusing mother to play with that day.
The Doctor marched into Dale's room with a stern look on his face.
"Well, Roberts, how are you?" asked Dale, not graciously.
"What does this mean, Bannister?"
"It means, my dear fellow, that you took my name in vain, and I had to
say so."
"I'm not thinking of myself, though it would have been more friendly to
write to me first."
"Well, I was riled, and didn't think of that."
"But do you mean to deny your own words?"
"Really, Roberts, you seem to forget that I don't enjoy setting the
place by the ears, although you seem to."
"You wrote that poem?"
"Of course I wrote the damned thing," said Dale peevishly.
"And now--Bannister, you're not going to--to throw us over?"
"Nonsense! I like to publish my views at my own time and place, that's
all."
"A man like you belongs to his followers as much as to himself."
"More, it seems."
The Doctor looked at him almost scornfully. Dale did not like scorn
from anyone.
"I was particularly anxious," he began apologetically, "not to get into
a shindy here. I wanted to drop politics and so on, and be friendly----"
"Do you know what you're saying, or the meanness of it?"
"Meanness? What do you mean?"
"You know very well. All I want to know is if you wrote this thing?"
"Of course I wrote it."
"And you stand to it?"
"Yes. I think you ought to have asked me before you did it."
"The Squire is shocked, eh?" asked the Doctor, with a sneer.
"The Squire's views are nothing to me," answered Dale, flushing very
red.
The Doctor laughed bitterly.
"Come, come, old fellow," said Dale, "don't let us quarrel."
"Quarrel? Well, we won't. Only look here, Bannister."
"Well?"
"If you throw us over now, you'll be----"
"There, don't abuse me any more."
"Oh, I wasn't going to abuse you. If you leave us,--you, the leader we
trusted,--where are we, where are we?"
"Give me another chance," said Dale, holding out his hand.
"You won't withdraw this?"
"How the deuce can I now?"
The Doctor shook his hand, saying:
"Don't betray us, don't betray us;" and thus the very uncomfortable
interview came to a desired end.
That night at dinner Dale was cross and in low spirits. His friends,
perceiving it, forbore to express their views as to his last public
utterance, and the repast dragged its weary length along amid
intermittent conversation.
When the dessert was on the table, a note was brought for Dale. It was
from the Squire.
DEAR BANNISTER: I was very glad to see your letter in the _Chronicle_.
Mrs. Delane joins me in hoping you will dine with us to-morrow _en
famille_. Excuse short notice. The man waits for an answer--don't
write one.
Yours truly,
GEORGE DELANE.
"Say I'll come with great pleasure," said Dale, his face growing
brighter.
"Where will he go with great pleasure?" asked Philip of Nellie Fane.
"Where is it, Dale?"
"Oh, only to the Grange, to dinner to-morrow. I think I had better
write a note, though--don't you think so, Phil? More--more attentive,
you know."
"Write, my son," answered Philip, and, as Dale left the room, he looked
round with a smile and exclaimed, "One!"
"One what, my dear?" asked Mrs. Hodge.
"Piece of silver, ma'am," replied Philip.
"You're sneering again," said Nellie in a warning tone. "Why shouldn't
he like to dine at the Grange?" and she looked marvelously reasonable
and indifferent.
"I was speaking with the voice of Doctor Roberts, Nellie, that's all.
For my own part, I think a dinner is one of those things one may accept
even from the enemy."
CHAPTER IX.
=Dale's Own Opinion.=
If ever our own fortune would allow us to be perfectly happy, the
consumation is prevented and spoiled by the obstinately intruding
unhappiness of others. The reverend person who was of opinion that the
bliss of the blessed would be increased and, so to say, vivified by the
sight of the tortures of the damned, finds few supporters nowadays,
perhaps because our tenderer feelings shrink from such a ruthless
application of the doctrine that only by contemplating the worse can
we enjoy the better; perhaps also because we are not so sure as he was
that we should not be the onlooked rather than the onlookers if ever
his picture came to be realized. So sensitive are we to the ills that
others suffer that at times we feel almost a grudge against them for
their persistence--however unwilling it be--in marring our perfect
contentment; surely they could let us forget them for once in a way.
This last was Dale Bannister's frame of mind as he lay, idly and
yet not peacefully, on his sofa next morning. This Doctor, with
his unflinching logic and unrestrained zeal, was a nuisance. His
devotion had not been sought, and certainly, if it entailed scenes
like yesterday's, was not desired. Dale never asked him to ruin his
practice, as Philip Hume said he was doing, in order to uphold Dale's
principles; Dale did not want a starving family to his account, whose
hungry looks should press him to a close questioning of his conscience.
Any man with an ounce of common sense would understand that there was
a time for everything, and a place. It was one thing to publish your
views in a book, addressed to the world of thinkers and intelligent
readers; it was quite another to brandish them in the face of your
neighbors, and explode them, like shells, in the innocent streets of
Denborough. And yet, because he recognized this obvious distinction,
because he had some sense of what was suitable and reasonable, and
because he refused to make enemies of people simply because they were
well off, the Doctor stormed at him as if he were a traitor and a snob.
And Philip Hume had taken to smiling in an aggravating way when the
Grange was mentioned; and even Nellie---- But Dale, alert as he was in
his present mood to discover matter of complaint, found none against
Nellie, unless it might be some falling off in her old cheerfulness and
buoyancy.
Dale lit his pipe and set himself to consider with impartiality
whether Roberts had in fact any grievance against him. He wanted to
satisfy himself that there was no basis for the Doctor's indignation;
his self-esteem demanded that the accusation should be disproved.
But really it was too plain. What had he done? Refused to acquiesce
in being made a fool of, refused to meet civility with incivility,
to play the churl, to shut his eyes to intelligence and culture and
attractiveness because they happened to be found among people who did
not think as he did or as Roberts was pleased to think. He knew what
those sneers meant, but he would go his own way. Things had come to
a pretty pass if a man might not be civil and seek to avoid wholly
unnecessary causes of offense without being treated as a renegade
to all his convictions. That was not his idea of breadth of mind or
toleration, or of good feeling either. It was simple bigotry, as narrow
as--aye, narrower than--anything he at least had found on the other
side.
Dale disposed of this question, but he still lay on the sofa and
thought. It had been a gain to him, he said to himself, to see this
new side of life; the expedition to Littlehill was well justified. It
is good for a man to take a flag of truce and go talk with the enemy
in the gate. He may not change his own views,--Dale was conscious
of no change in his,--but he comes to see how other people may hold
different ones, and the reason, or anyhow the naturalness, of theirs.
A man of Roberts' fierce Puritan temper could not feel nor appreciate
what appealed to him so strongly in such a life as they lived, for
instance, at the Grange. It had a beauty so its own, that unquestioned
superiority, not grasped as a prize or valued as an opportunity,
but gravely accepted as the parent of duties--the unbroken family
life, grasping through many hands the torch undimmed from reverend
antiquity--the very house, which seemed to enshrine honorable
traditions, at which he could not bring himself to sneer. The sweetness
of it all broke back baffled from the wall of the Doctor's stern
conviction and iron determination. Yet how sweet it all was! And these
people welcomed into their circle any man who had a claim to welcome,
freely, ungrudgingly, cordially. All they asked was a little gentleness
to their--he supposed they were prejudices, a little deference to
their prepossessions, a little smoothing off of the rougher edges of
difference. It was not much to ask. Was he churlishly to deny the small
concession, to refuse to meet them any part of the way, to intrench
himself in the dogmatic intolerance of his most vehement utterances, to
shut his mind off from this new source of inspiration? That was what
Roberts wanted. Well, then--Roberts be hanged!
The course of these reflections produced in Dale a return to his usual
equanimity. It was plainly impossible to please everybody. He must
act as seemed right to himself, neglecting the frowns of unreasonable
grumblers. No doubt Roberts was devoted to him, and Arthur Angell too.
Yet Roberts abused him, and Arthur bothered him with imploring letters,
which warned him against the subtle temptations of his new life. It was
a curious sort of devotion which showed itself mainly in criticism
and disapproval; it was very flattering of these good friends to set
him on a pedestal and require him to live up to the position; only,
unfortunately, the pedestal was of their choosing, not his. All he
asked was to be allowed to live a quiet life and work out his own
ideas in his own way. If they could not put up with that, why---- Dale
refilled his pipe and opened a story by Maupassant.
It may be asserted that every man is the victim of a particular
sort of follies, the follies engendered by his particular sort of
surroundings; they make a fool's circle within which each of us has a
foot planted; for the rest, we may be, and no doubt generally are, very
sensible people. If we set aside Squire Delane's special and indigenous
illusions, he was very far indeed from a fool, and after dinner that
evening he treated his distinguished guest with no small tact. The
young man was beyond question a force; was it outside of ingenuity to
turn him in a better direction?
"Everybody approves of your letter," he said. "Roberts had no business
to drag your name in."
"Of course one is exposed to that sort of thing."
"It's a penalty of greatness. But the case is peculiar when you're
actually living in the place."
"That's exactly what I feel. It's making me a party in a local quarrel."
"That's what he wanted to do; he wanted to fight under your shield."
"I didn't come here to fight at all."
"I should think not; and you haven't found us thirsting for battle,
have you?"
"I have found a kinder welcome than I had any right to expect."
"My dear fellow! Much as we differ, we're all proud of counting you
as a Denshire man. And I don't suppose we shall quarrel much about
Denshire affairs. Oh, I know you think the whole system of country life
an iniquity. I don't go so deep myself. I say, there it is. Perhaps it
might be changed, but, pending that, sensible men can work together
to make the best of it. At any rate, they can avoid treading on one
another's corns."
"I want to avoid everybody's corns, if they'll avoid mine."
"Well, we'll try. I dare say we shall pull together. At any rate, it's
very pleasant dining together. Shall we go upstairs and ask Janet for a
song?"
Mrs. Delane had evidently caught her cue from her husband, and she
treated Dale not as a sinner who repenteth,--a mode of reception
which, after all, requires great tact to make it acceptable,--but as
one who had never been a sinner at all. She asked Dale if he had been
overwhelmed by callers. He replied that he had not suffered much in
that way.
"I knew it," she said. "You have frightened them, Mr. Bannister; they
think you came in search of studious retirement."
"Oh, I hate both study and retirement, Mrs. Delane."
"Well, I shall tell people that--may I? Now, when I was at the
Cransfords' yesterday,--he's our Lord Lieutenant, you know,--they were
wondering whether they might call."
"I am delighted to see anyone."
"From the Mayor upward--or, I suppose, Hedger would think I ought to
say downward. We heard what fun you made of the poor man."
"Mr. Bannister will be more respectful to the Lord Lieutenant," said
Janet, smiling.
"I suppose I disapprove of Lord Lieutenants," remarked Dale, with a
laugh.
"You'll like Lady Cransford very much, and she'll like you. She gives
so many balls that a bachelor household is a godsend."
"Bannister hardly depends on that for a welcome, my dear," said the
Squire from the hearthrug.
"Now I declare, meeting him just as a friend like this, I'm always
forgetting that he's a famous man."
"Please go on, Mrs. Delane. It's a capital exchange. But when are you
going to give me the pleasure of seeing you at Littlehill?"
Mrs. Delane paused for just a second.
"I should like to visit your hermit's cell. But I'm so busy just now,
and I dare say you are. When your guests forsake you, perhaps we will
come and relieve your solitude. Janet, will you give us some music?"
Dale followed Janet to the piano, with a little frown on his brow. Why
wouldn't she come now? Was it---- Janet's voice dispersed the frown and
the reflection.
She sang a couple of songs, choosing them out of a book. As she turned
over the leaves, Dale saw that some of the airs were set to words of
his own writing. When Janet came to one of these, she turned the leaf
hastily. The Squire had gone out, and Mrs. Delane, with the privilege
of near relationship, was absorbed in a novel.
"Will you do me a great favor?" he said.
"What, Mr. Bannister?"
"I should like to hear you sing words of mine. See, here are two or
three."
She glanced through them; then she shut the book and made as though to
rise.
"You won't do it?"
Janet blushed and looked troubled.
"I'm so sorry, Mr. Bannister; but I can't sing those words. I--I don't
like them."
"I am sorry they are so bad," he answered in an offended tone.
"Oh, of course, so far as power and--and beauty goes, everything in the
book is trash compared to them. But I can't sing them."
"I won't press you."
"I know you are angry. Please don't be angry, Mr. Bannister. I can't do
what I think wrong, can I?"
"Oh, I have no right to be angry."
"There, you wouldn't say that unless you were angry. People never do."
"You have such a wretchedly bad opinion of me, Miss Delane."
"Do you mind that?"
"You know I do."
"Then one would think you would try to change it."
"Ah, how can I?"
"Write something I should delight in singing."
"If I do, may I dedicate it to you?"
"I'm afraid that wouldn't be allowed."
"But if it were allowed, would you allow it?"
"You know how proud any girl would be of it--of course you know."
"You don't do justice to my humility."
"Do justice to yourself first, Mr. Bannister."
"What sort of songs do you like?"
"Oh, anything honest, and manly, and patriotic, and--and nice in
feeling."
"A catholic taste--and yet none of mine satisfy it."
"I will not be quarreled with," declared Janet.
"My only wish is to propitiate you."
"Then you know now how to do it."
It must be allowed that conversations of this nature have a
pleasantness of their own, and Dale left the Grange with a delightful
feeling of having been treated as he ought to be treated. He found
Philip Hume writing and smoking in the study.
"Well, been stroked the right way, old man?" asked Philip, throwing
down his pen.
Dale helped himself to whisky and soda water, without replying.
"I've been having a talk with Nellie," pursued Philip.
"What's wrong with Nellie?"
"She's got some notion in her head that she and her mother ought to go."
Dale was lighting a cigar.
"Of course I told her it was all nonsense, and that you meant them to
stay as long as they liked. She's got some maggot in her head about
propriety--all nonsense, when her mother's here."
"I don't want them to go, if they like staying," said Dale.
"Well, we should be slow without Nellie, shouldn't we? You must blow
her up for thinking of it. She only wants to be persuaded."
"She can do as she likes."
"You don't seem very enthusiastic about it, one way or the other."
"Well, my dear Phil, I can't be expected to cry at the idea of little
Nellie Fane leaving us."
"Yet you made rather a point of her coming--but that was two months
ago."
"Really, you might leave Nellie and me to settle it."
"What I told her was right, I suppose?"
"Well, you don't suppose I wanted you to tell her to pack up?"
"I don't know what you want, old man," said Philip; "and I doubt if you
do."
CHAPTER X.
=A Prejudiced Verdict.=
It has been contumeliously said by insolent Englishmen--a part of
our population which may sometimes seem to foreign eyes as large as
the whole--that you might put any other of the world's capitals, say
Paris or New York, down in London, and your cabman would not be able
to find it. However this may be,--and there is no need in this place
either for assertions or admissions,--it is certain that you might
unload a wagonful of talents in Piccadilly, and they would speedily be
absorbed and leave little obvious trace of the new ingredient. Hence
the advantage, for a man who does not dislike the _digito monstrari
et dicier_ "_hic est_," of dwelling in small places, and hence, a
cynic might suggest, the craving for quieter quarters displayed by
some of our less conspicuous celebrities. It is better, says a certain
authority, to reign in hell than serve in heaven; and a man may grow
weary of walking unrecognized down the Strand, when he has only, to
be the beheld of all beholders, to take up his residence in--perhaps
it will be more prudent to say Market Denborough, and not point the
finger of printed scorn at any better known resort.
This very ungenerous explanation was the one which Miss Victoria Smith
chose to adopt as accounting for Dale Bannister's coming to Littlehill.
Such an idea had never crossed her mind at first, but it became evident
that a man who could leave his friend in the lurch and palter with
his principles, as Dale's letter to the _Chronicle_ showed him to be
doing, could only be credited with any discoverable motive less bad and
contemptible than the worst through mere hastiness and ill-considered
good nature. For her part, she liked a man to stick to his colors and
to his friends, and not be ashamed before the tea tables of Denshire.
No, she had never read his poems, she had no time, but papa had, and
agreed with every word of them.
"Gad! does he?" said Sir Harry Fulmer, to whom these views were
expressed. "Well played the Colonel!"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, some of them made me sit up rather," remarked Sir Harry.
"Oh, anything would make you 'sit up,' as you call it. I don't consider
you a Radical."
"I voted for your friend the Doctor anyhow."
"Yes, that was good of you. You were the only one with an elementary
sense of justice."
Sir Harry's sense of justice, elementary or other, had had very little
to do with his vote, but he said with honest pride:
"Somebody ought to stand by a fellow when he's down."
"Especially when he's in the right."
"Well, I don't quite see, Miss Smith, what business it was of Roberts'
to cut up the Vicar's sermon. Naturally the Vicar don't like it."
"So he takes his medicine from Dr. Spink!"
"Rather awkward for him to have Roberts about the place."
"Oh, of course you defend him."
"The Vicar's a very good fellow, though he's a Tory."
"You seem to think all Tories good fellows."
"So they are, most of them."
"I suppose you think Mr. Bannister's right too?"
"I shouldn't be so down on him as you are."
"You like people who lead their friends on and then forsake them?"
"Bannister never asked him to write the letter."
"Well, it's not my idea of friendship. I wouldn't have a friend who
thought that conduct right."
"Then I think it deuced wrong," said Sir Harry promptly.
"It's no compliment to a woman to treat her like a baby," remarked Tora
with dignity.
Sir Harry perceived that it would be to his advantage to change the
subject.
"Are you going skating?" he asked. "There's nothing else to do in this
beastly frost."
"Does the ice bear?"
"Yes, they're skating on the Grange lake. I met Hume, Bannister's
friend, and he told me Bannister was there."
"Wasn't he going? I rather like him."
"No, he was walking with Miss Fane. I believe I rather put my foot in
it by asking her if she wasn't going."
"Why shouldn't you?"
"She said she didn't know Mrs. Delane, and looked confused, don't you
know."
"Hasn't Mrs. Delane called?"
"It seems not," said Sir Harry.
"I wonder how long they are going to stay at Littlehill?"
"Forever, apparently. Shall you come to the lake?"
"Perhaps in the afternoon."
Tora returned to the house, still wondering. She was very angry with
Dale, and prepared to think no good of him. Was it possible that she
and the Colonel had been hasty in stretching out the hand of welcome to
Mrs. Hodge and her daughter? For all her independence, Tora liked to
have Mrs. Delane's _imprimatur_ on the women of her acquaintance. She
thought she would have a word with the Colonel, and went to seek him in
his study. He was not there, but it chanced that there lay on the table
a copy of Dale's first published volume, "The Clarion." Three-quarters
of the little book were occupied with verses on matters of a more or
less public description--beliefs past and future, revolutions effected
and prayed for, and so forth; the leaves bore marks of use, and
evidently were often turned by the Colonel. But bound up with them was
a little sheaf of verses of an amatory character: where these began,
the Colonel's interest appeared to cease, for the pages were uncut;
he had only got as far as the title. It was not so with his daughter.
Having an idle hour and some interest in the matters and affairs of
love, she took a paper-knife and sat down to read. Poets are, by
ancient privilege, _legibus soluti_, and Dale certainly reveled in his
freedom. Still, perhaps, the verses were not in reality so very, very
atrocious as they unhappily appeared to the young lady who now read
them. Tora was accustomed to consider herself almost a revolutionary
spirit, and her neighbors, half in earnest, half in joke, encouraged
the idea; but her revolutions were to be very strictly confined, and
the limits of her free-thought were marked out by most unyielding metes
and bounds--bounds that stopped very short at the church door and on
the domestic threshold. This frame of mind is too common to excite
comment, and it had been intensified in her by the social surroundings
against which she was in mock revolt. Dale's freedom knew no trammels,
or had known none when he wrote "The Clarion"; nothing was sacred to
him except truth, everything as nothing beside reason, reason the
handmaid of passion, wherein the spirit and individuality of each man
found their rightful expression. This theory, embodied in a poet's
fancy and enlivened by a young man's ardor, made fine verses, but
verses which startled Tora Smith. She read for half an hour, and then,
flinging the book down and drawing a long breath, exclaimed: "I can
believe anything of him now!"
And she had had this man to dinner! And that girl! Who was that girl?
The Colonel came home to luncheon in very good spirits. He had just
succeeded, in the interests of freedom, in stirring up a spirit of
active revolt in Alderman Johnstone. The Alderman had hitherto, like
his father before him, occupied his extensive premises on a weekly
tenancy; he had never been threatened with molestation or eviction; but
he felt that he existed on sufferance, and the consciousness of his
precarious position had been irksome to him. A moment had come when
the demand for houses was slack, when two or three were empty, and
when the building trade itself was nearly at a standstill. The Colonel
had incited Johnstone to seize the opportunity to ask from the Squire
a lease, and Johnstone had promised to take nothing less than "seven,
fourteen, or twenty-one." If refused, he declared he would surrender
the premises and build for himself on some land of the Colonel's just
outside the town.
"Delane must grant it," said the Colonel, rubbing his hands, "and then
we shall have one house anyhow where our bills can be put up. Bannister
will be delighted. By the way, Tora, he wants us to go in to tea
to-day, after skating. I suppose you're going to skate?"
"I am going to skate, but I am not going to Mr. Bannister's," said Tora
coldly.
"Why not?"
The Colonel was told why not with explicitness and vehemence. He tugged
his white whisker in some perplexity: he did not mind much about the
poems, though, of course, no excess of scrupulousness could be too
great in a girl like Tora; but if she were right about the other
affair! That must be looked into.
The Colonel was one of those people who pride themselves on tact and
_savoir faire_; he aggravated this fault by believing that tact and
candor could be combined in a happy union, and he determined to try the
effect of the mixture on Dale Bannister. It would go hard if he did not
destroy this mare's nest of Tora's.
All the neighborhood was skating on the Grange lake under a winter sun,
whose ruddy rays tinged the naked trees, and drew an answering glitter
from the diamond-paned windows of the house. The reeds were motionless,
and the graze of skaters on the ice sounded sharp in the still air, and
struck the ear through the swishing of birch brooms and the shuffle of
sweepers' feet. From time to time a sudden thud and a peal of laughter
following told of disaster, or there grated across the lake a chair,
carrying one who preferred the conquest of men to the science of
equilibrium. Rosy cheeks glowed, nimble feet sped, and lissom figures
swayed to and fro as they glided over the shining surface, till even
the old and the stout, the cripples and the fox hunters, felt the glow
of life tingling in their veins, and the beauty of the world feeding
their spirits with fresh desire. "It is not all of life to live," but,
at such a moment, it is the best part of it.
Dale Bannister was enjoying himself; he was a good skater, and it gave
him pleasure that, when people turned to look at the famous poet,
they should see an athletic youth: only he wished that Janet Delane
would give him an opportunity of offering his escort, and not appear
so contented with the company of a tall man of military bearing, who
had come down to the water with the Grange party. He was told that the
newcomer was Captain Ripley, Lord Cransford's eldest son, and he did
not escape without witnessing some of the nods and becks which, in the
country, where everybody knows everybody, accompany the most incipient
stages of a supposed love affair. Feeling, under these circumstances,
a little desolate, for Philip was engrossed in figures and would not
waste his time talking, he saw with pleasure Tora Smith and Sir Harry
coming toward him. He went to meet them, and, at a distance of a few
yards from them, slackened his pace and lifted his hat, not doubting
of friendly recognition. Sir Harry returned his salute with a cheery
"How are you?" but did not stop, for Tora swept on past Dale Bannister,
without a glance at him. In surprise, he paused. "She must have seen
me," he thought, "but why in the world----" Bent on being sure, he
put himself right in her path as she completed the circle and met him
again. There was no mistaking her intention; she gave him the cut
direct, as clearly and as resolutely as ever it was given.
Sir Harry had remonstrated in vain. In Tora's uncompromising mind
impulse did not wait on counsel, and her peremptory "I have my reasons"
refused all information and prevented all persuasion. He felt he had
done enough for friendship when he braved her disapproval by declining
to follow her example. He did not pretend to understand the ways of
women, and Dale Bannister might fight his own battles.
While Dale was yet standing in angry bewilderment,--for who had
received him with more cordiality than she who now openly insulted
him?--he saw the Colonel hobbling toward him across the slippery
expanse. The Colonel fell once, and Dale heard him swear testily at the
sweeper who helped him to rise. He thought it kind to meet him halfway;
perhaps the Colonel would explain. The Colonel was most ready to do so;
in fact, he had come for the very purpose of warning Bannister that
some silly idea was afloat, which it only needed a word to scatter.
"Is there?" said Dale. "Possibly that is why Miss Smith failed to see
me twice just now?"
"Your poems have shocked her, my boy," said the Colonel, with a knowing
look--the look that represented tact and _savoir faire_.
"Is that all? She takes rather severe measures, doesn't she?"
"Well," answered the Colonel, with the smile which brought candor into
play, "that isn't quite all."
"What in the world else is there?"
"You know how censorious people are, and how a girl takes alarm at the
very idea of anything--you know?"
Dale chafed at these diplomatic approaches.
"If there's anything said against me, pray let me know."
"Oh, it's nothing very definite," said the Colonel uneasily. He did not
find what he had to say so simple as it had seemed.
"Indefinite things are most hopeless."
"Yes, yes, quite so. Well, if you really wish it--if you won't be
offended. No doubt it's all a mistake."
"What do they say?"
"Well, we're men of the world, Bannister. The fact is, people don't
quite understand your--your household."
"My household It consists of myself alone and the servants."
"Of course, my dear fellow, of course! I knew it was so, but I am glad
to be able to say so on your own authority."
The aim of speech is, after all, only to convey ideas; the Colonel
had managed, however clumsily, to convey his idea. Dale frowned, and
pretended to laugh.
"How absurd!" he said. "I should resent it if it were not too absurd."
"I'm sure, Bannister, you'll acquit me of any meddling."
"Oh, yes. I'm sorry my guests have given rise, however innocently, to
such talk."
"It's most unfortunate. I'm sure nothing more is needed. I hope the
ladies are well?"
"Yes, thanks."
"I don't see them here."
"No, they're not here," answered Dale, frowning again.
"I hope we shall see some more of them?"
"You're very kind. I--I don't suppose they--will be staying much
longer."
As Dale made his way to the bank to take off his skates, Janet and Tora
passed him together. Tora kept her eyes rigidly fixed on the chimneys
of the Grange. He made no sign of expecting recognition, but Janet, as
she drew near, looked at him, blushing red, and bowed and smiled.
"That girl's a trump," said Dale Bannister. "She sticks to her
friends."
CHAPTER XI.
=A Fable about Birds.=
Mrs. Hodge and Nellie, being left to their own resources, had employed
the afternoon in paying a visit to Ethel Roberts, and nothing was
wanting to fill Dale's cup of vexation to overflowing, unless it were
to have Nellie flying open-mouthed at him, as he grumblingly expressed
it, with a tale of the distress in the Doctor's household. Ethel
Roberts had the fortitude to bear her troubles, the added fortitude
to bear them cheerfully, but not the supreme fortitude which refuses
to tell a tale of woe to any ear, however sympathetic. She did not
volunteer information, but she did allow it to be dragged out of her,
and the barriers of her reserve broke down before Mrs. Hodge's homely
consolations and Nellie's sorrowful horror. They were reduced, she
admitted, in effect to living on little else than her own wretched
income; the practice brought in hardly more than it took out, for,
while the rich patients failed, the poor remained; the rent was
overdue, bills were unpaid, and the butcher, the milkman, and the coal
merchant were growing sulky.
"And while," said Mrs. Hodge, "that poor young creature is pinching,
and starving, and crying, the man's thinking of nothing but Nihilists
and what not. I'd Nihilist him!"
Dinner was served to Dale with sauce of this sort.
"Can I prevent fools suffering for their folly?" he asked.
"The baby looks so ill," said Nellie, "and Mrs. Roberts is worn to a
shadow."
"Did you see Roberts?" asked Philip.
"For a minute," said Nellie, "but he was very cold and disagreeable."
"Thought you were tarred with the same brush as Dale, I suppose?"
"Can't you do anything for 'em, Dale?" asked Mrs. Hodge.
"I can send him a check."
"He'll send it back," remarked Philip.
"I wish he'd get out of the place."
"Yes, he might as well be miserable somewhere else, mightn't he?"
Dale glared at his friend, and relapsed into silence. Nevertheless,
in spite of Philip's prediction, he sat down after dinner and wrote
to Roberts, saying that he had heard that he was in temporary
embarrassment, and urging him to allow Dale to be his banker for the
moment; this would, Dale added, be the best way of showing that he bore
no malice for Dale's letter. He sent a man with the note, ordering him
to wait for an answer.
The answer was not long in coming; the man was back in half an hour,
bringing the Doctor's reply:
Three months ago I should have thought it an honor to share my last
crust with you, and no shame to ask half of all you had. Now I will
not touch a farthing of your money until you come back to us. If your
friends pay my wife further visits, I shall be obliged if they will
look somewhat less keenly at my household arrangements.
JAMES ROBERTS.
"There is the snub you have brought on me!" exclaimed Dale angrily,
flinging the letter to Nellie. "I might have known better than to
listen to your stories."
"Dale, Dale, it was every word true. How selfish he is not to think of
his wife!"
"Many people are selfish."
"Is anything the matter, Dale?"
"Oh, I'm infernally worried. I never get any peace."
"Hadn't you a good time skating?"
"No. I'm beginning to hate this place."
"Oh, Dale, I've enjoyed my visit so much!"
"Very glad to hear it, I'm sure."
"You must have seen it; we've stayed so long. I've often told mamma we
ought to be going."
Dale lit a cigarette.
"Indeed we have had no mercy on you, Dale; but the country and the rest
are so delightful."
"Hum--in some ways."
"But I must be back at work. Mamma thought next Saturday would do."
"As soon as that?" said Dale, with polite surprise.
"Think how long we have been here."
"Oh, don't go on Saturday!"
Nellie's face brightened.
"Don't you want us to?" she asked, with an eager little smile. Dale was
going to be kind after all.
"No. Why shouldn't you stay till Monday?"
The face fell, the smile disappeared; but she answered, saving her
self-respect:
"Saturday is more convenient for--for arriving in town. I think we had
better fix Saturday, Dale."
"As you like. Sorry to lose you, Nell."
He sauntered off to the smoking room to join Philip. When Philip came
into the drawing room half an hour later in search of a book, he found
Nellie sitting before the fire. He took his stand on the hearthrug, and
looked steadily down on her.
"Once upon a time," he said, "there was a very beautiful bird who, as
it chanced, grew up with a lot of crows. For a long while he liked the
crows, and the crows liked him--very much, some of them. Both he and
the crows were pleased when the eagles and all the swell birds admired
him, and said nice things about him, and wanted to know him--and the
crows who liked him most were most pleased. Presently he did come to
know the eagles and the other swell birds, and he liked them very much,
and he began to get a little tired of the old crows, and by and by he
left their company a good deal. He was a polite bird and a kind bird,
and never told them that he didn't want them any more. But they saw he
didn't."
There was a little sob from the armchair.
"Whereupon some of them broke their hearts, and others--didn't. The
others were wisest, Nellie."
He paused, gazing down at the distressful little heap of crumpled
drapery and roughened gleaming hair.
"Much wisest. He was not a bad bird as birds go--but not a bird to
break one's heart about, Nellie: what bird is?"
There was another sob. Philip looked despairingly at the ceiling and
exclaimed under his breath:
"I wish to God she wouldn't cry!"
He took his book from the mantelpiece where he had laid it and moved
toward the door. But he came back again, unable to leave her like that,
and walked restlessly about the room, stopping every now and then to
stand over her, and wonder what he could do.
Presently he took a feverish little hand in his, and pressed it as it
lay limp there.
"The old crows stood by one another, Nellie," he said, and he thought
he felt a sudden grip of his hand, coming and timidly in an instant
going.
It seemed to comfort her to hold his hand. The sobs ceased, and
presently she looked up and said, with a smile:
"I always used to cry at going back to school."
"Going back to work," said Philip, "is one of the few things in the
world really worth crying about."
"Yes, isn't it?" she said, unblushingly availing herself of the shelter
of his affected cynicism. She was afraid he might go on talking
about crows, a topic which had been all very well, and even a little
comforting, when she was hidden among the cushions, but would not do
now.
"And London is so horrid in winter," she continued. "Are you going back
soon?"
"Oh, I shall wait a little and look after Dale."
"Dale never tells one what is happening."
"I'll keep you posted, in case there's a revolution in Denborough, or
anything of that sort."
A step was heard outside. With a sudden bound Nellie reached the
piano, sat down, and began to play a lively air. Dale came in, looking
suspiciously at the pair.
"I thought you'd gone to bed, Nellie."
"Just going. Mr. Hume and I have been talking."
"About the affairs of the nation," said Philip.
"But I'm off now. Good-night, Dale."
Dale looked closely at her.
"What are your eyes red for? Have you been crying?"
"_Crying_, Dale? What nonsense! I've been roasting them before the
fire, that's all; and if they are red, it's not polite to say so, is
it, Mr. Hume?"
"Rightly understood, criticism is a compliment, as the reviewers say
when they slate you," remarked Philip. "He might not have noticed your
eyes at all."
"Inconceivable," said Dale politely, for he was feeling very kindly
disposed to this pretty girl, who came when he wanted her, and went
when--well, after a reasonably long visit.
"Good-night, Dale. I'm so sorry about--Mr. Roberts, you know."
Dale, having no further use for this grievance, was graciously pleased
to let it be forgotten.
"Oh, you couldn't know he'd be such a brute. Good-night, Nellie."
The two men returned to the smoking room. Philip, looking for a piece
of paper wherewith to light his pipe, happened to notice a little
bundle of proof-sheets lying on the table.
"Ah, the spring bubbling again?" he asked.
Dale nodded.
"My dear fellow, how are the rest of us to get our masterpieces
noticed? You are a monopolist."
"It's only a little volume."
"What's it about? May I look?"
"Oh, if you like," answered Dale carelessly; but he kept his eye on his
friend.
Philip took up the first sheet, and read the title-page; he smiled,
and, turning over, came to the dedication.
"You call it 'Amor Patriæ?'"
"Yes. Do you like the title?"
"Hum! There was no thought of pleasing me when it was christened, I
presume. And you dedicate it----"
"Oh, is that there?"
"Yes, that's there--'_To her that shall be named hereafter._'"
Dale poked the fire before he answered.
"Yes," he said, "that's the dedication."
"So I see. Well, I hope she'll like them. It is an enviable privilege
to confer immortality."
"I'll confer it on you, if you like."
"Yes, do. It will be less trouble than getting it for myself."
"Under the title of 'The Snarler.'"
Philip stood on the hearthrug and warmed himself.
"My dear Dale," he said, "I do not snarl. A wise author pleases each
section of the public in turn. Hitherto you have pleased me and my
kind, and Roberts and his kind, and Arthur Angell and his kind--who
are, by the way, not worth pleasing, for they expect presentation
copies. Now, in this new work, which is, I understand, your tribute to
the nation which has the honor to bear you, you will please----" He
paused.
"I always write to please myself," said Dale.
"Yourself," continued Philip, "this mysterious lady, and, I think we
may add, the Mayor of Market Denborough."
"Go to the devil!" said the poet.
CHAPTER XII.
=A Dedication--and a Desecration.=
A few weeks later the Mayor stood at his door, one bright morning in
January, holding a parley with Alderman Johnstone.
"I dessay, now," said the Mayor, "that you aint been in the way of
seein' the Squire lately?"
"I see him last when he signed my lease," answered the Alderman, with a
grim smile, "and that's a month come to-morrow."
"I had a conversation with him yesterday, and after touchin' on the
matter of that last pavin' contract,--he'd heard o' your son-in-law
gettin' it, Johnstone,--he got talkin' about Mr. Bannister."
"Aye? did he?"
"And about his noo book. 'It's a blessin',' he says, 'to see a young
man of such promise shakin' himself free of that pestilential trash.'
He meant your opinions by that, Johnstone."
"Supposing 'e did, what then? I don't label my opinions to please the
customers like as some do their physic."
The Mayor was not in a fighting mood; his mind was busy with
speculations, and he ignored the challenge.
"Queer start Mr. Bannister showin' up at the church bazaar, eh? Spent
a heap o' money, too. I met Mr. Hume, and asked him about it, and he
said----"
"It wan't no business o' yours, didn't he?"
"Mr. Hume--he's a gentleman, Johnstone," remarked the Mayor in grave
rebuke.
"Well, what did 'e say?"
"That where the carcass was, the eagles 'ud be gathered together."
Mr. Johnstone smiled a smile of pity for the Mayor's density.
"Well, what do you suppose he meant?" asked the Mayor in reply to the
smile.
"Where the gells is, the lads is," said the Alderman, with a wink, as
he passed on his way.
This most natural, reasonable, and charitable explanation of Dale's
conduct in identifying himself with the Vicar's pastoral labors had,
oddly enough, suggested itself to no one else, unless it might be
to Captain Gerard Ripley. His presence had been hailed on the one
side, and anathematized on the other, as an outward sign of an inward
conversion, and his lavish expenditure had been set down to a repentant
spirit rather than a desire to gratify any particular stall-holder. The
Vicar had just read "Amor Patriæ," and he remarked to everyone he met
that the transition from an appreciation of the national greatness to
an adhesion to the national church was but a short step.
Unhappily, in a moment of absence, he chanced to say so to Colonel
Smith, who was at the bazaar for the purpose of demonstrating his
indifferent impartiality toward all religious sects.
"You might as well say," answered the Colonel in scorn, "that because a
man stands by the regiment he's bound to be thick with the chaplain."
Captain Ripley alone, with the penetration born of jealousy, attributed
Dale's presence simply and solely to the same motive as had produced
his own, to wit, a desire to be where Miss Delane was. The Captain was
a little sore; he had known Janet from childhood, they had exchanged
many children's vows, and when he was sixteen and she thirteen she
had accepted a Twelfth Night cake ring from him. The flirtation had
always proceeded in its gentle, ambling course, and the Captain had
returned on long leave with the idea that it was time to put the
natural termination in the way of being reached. Janet disappointed
him; she ridiculed his tender references to bygone days, characterizing
what had passed as boy-and-girl nonsense, and perseveringly kept
their intercourse on a dull level of friendliness. On the other hand,
whatever might be the nature of her acquaintance with Dale Bannister,
it was at least clear that it was marked by no such uneventful
monotony. Sometimes she would hardly speak to him; at others she cared
to speak to no one else. The Captain would have profited ill by the
opportunities a residence in garrison towns offers if he had not
recognized that these changeful relations were fraught with peril to
his hopes.
At the bazaar, for example, he was so much moved by a long conversation
between Janet and Dale, which took place over the handing of a cup of
tea, that he unburdened himself to his friend Sir Harry Fulmer. Now
Sir Harry was in a bad temper; he had his object in attending as the
Captain had, and Colonel Smith had just told him that Tora was not
coming.
"Who is the fellow?" demanded Captain Ripley.
"Writes poetry."
"I never heard of him."
"I dare say not. It's not much in your line, is it?"
"Well, he's a queer-looking beggar."
"Think so? Now I call him a good-looking chap."
"Why the deuce doesn't he get his hair cut?"
"Don't know. Perhaps Janet Delane likes it long."
"I hate that sort of fellow, Harry."
"He's not a bad chap."
"Does the Squire like him?"
"I don't know, and I don't care. How beastly hot this room is! I shall
go."
"I say, Harry, I've only just come back, you know. Is there anything
on?"
"Well, if you want to take a hand, I should cut in pretty sharp," said
Sir Harry, elbowing his way to the door.
Captain Ripley, impatiently refusing to buy a negro doll which the
Vicar's daughter pressed on his favorable notice, leaned against the
wall and grimly regarded Dale Bannister.
The latter was just saying:
"Have you looked at the verses at all, Miss Delane?"
"I have read every one, over and over. They are splendid."
"Oh, I'm new to that sort of thing."
"Yes, but it's so--such a joy to me to see you doing what is really
worthy of you."
"If there is any credit, it's yours."
"Now why do you say that? It isn't true, and it just spoils it."
"Spoils it?" said Dale, who thought girls liked compliments.
"Yes. If you had really only done it to please--an individual, it would
be worth nothing. You couldn't help doing it. I knew you couldn't."
"At any rate, you must accept the responsibility of having put it into
my head."
"Not even that, Mr. Bannister."
"Oh, but that's the meaning of the dedication."
No one is quite free from guile. Janet answered:
"The dedication is rather mysterious, Mr. Bannister."
"I meant it to be so to all the world."
"Oh, did you?"
"Except you."
Janet blushed and smiled.
"I wonder," pursued Dale, "if I shall ever be allowed to name that
lady?"
"That will depend on whether she wishes it."
"Of course. Do you think she will--hereafter?"
"Won't you have another cup? It's only half a crown."
"Yes, two more, please. Do you think she will?"
"How thirsty you seem to be!"
"Will she?"
"Now, Mr. Bannister, I mustn't neglect all my customers. See, Mrs.
Gilkison is selling nothing."
"But will she?"
"Certainly not--unless you go and buy something from Mrs. Gilkison."
Now whether Janet were really concerned for Mrs. Gilkison, or whether
she had caught sight of Captain Ripley's lowering countenance, or
whether she merely desired to avoid pledging herself to Dale, it is
immaterial, and also impossible to say. Dale felt himself dismissed,
with the consolation of perceiving that his dedication had not been
unfavorably received in the quarter to which it was addressed.
Accordingly it was in a cheerful frame of mind that he set out for
home, scattering most of his purchases among the children before he
went.
He was in a kindly mood, and when he saw James Roberts coming up High
Street, he did not, as he had once or twice lately, cross the road to
avoid meeting him, but held on his path, determined to offer a friendly
greeting.
When the Doctor came up, he stopped and took from his breast pocket the
little green volume which contained Dale's latest poems. He held it up
before the author's eyes.
"Ah, Roberts, I see you have the new work. How do you like it?"
He tried to speak easily, but the Doctor did not appear to be in a
conciliatory temper.
"Are these things really yours?" he asked.
"Of course they are."
"This wretched jingo doggerel yours?"
Dale felt this unjust. The verses might not express the Doctor's views,
but an immortal poet's works are not lightly to be called doggerel.
"What a narrow-minded beggar you are!" he exclaimed.
The Doctor answered nothing. Buttoning up his threadbare coat, so as
to leave his arms free, with an effort he tore the leaves from their
cover, rent them across, flung them on the road, and trod them into the
mud. Then, without a word, he passed on his way, while Dale stood and
stared at the dishonored wreck.
"He's mad--stark mad!" he declared at last. "How ill the poor chap
looks, too!"
The Doctor hurried down the street, with a strange malicious smile on
his face. Every now and then his hand sought his breast pocket again,
and hugged a check for a hundred pounds which lay there. It was his
last money in the world; when that was gone, his banking account was
exhausted, and nothing remained but his wife's pittance--and nothing
more was coming. Yet he had devoted that sum to a purpose, and now he
stopped at Alderman Johnstone's door, and asked for the master of the
house, still grimly smiling at the thought of what he was preparing for
Dale Bannister, if only Johnstone would help him. Johnstone had a lease
now, he was independent--if only he would help him!
The Alderman listened to the plan.
"It's a new trade for me," said he, with a grin.
"I find the stock--I have it ready. And----" He held up the check.
The Alderman's eyes glistened.
"They can't touch me," he said, "and I should like to 'ave a shy at the
Squire. 'Ere's my 'and upon it."
A day or two afterward Dale heard that the sale of "Sluggards" was
increasing by leaps and bounds. A single house had taken five hundred
copies. "Amor Patriæ" had evidently given a fresh impetus to the
earlier work, in spite of the remarkable difference of tone which
existed between them.
"It shows," said Dale complacently to Philip Hume, "that most people
are not such intolerant idiots as that fellow Roberts."
But what it really did show will appear in due season. Dale did not
know; nor did Philip, for he said, with a fine sneer:
"It shows that immorality doesn't matter if it's combined with sound
political principles, old man."
CHAPTER XIII.
=The Responsibilities of Genius.=
Dr. Spink sat in his comfortable dining room with his after-dinner
glass of wine before him. The snow was falling and the rain beating
against the windows, but the Doctor had finished his work, and feared
only that some sudden call would compel him to face the fury of the
weather again. A few months back he would have greeted any summons,
however unreasonable the hour, and thought a new patient well bought at
the price of a spoiled evening. But of late the world had smiled upon
him, the hill which had looked so steep was proving easy to climb, and
he was already considering whether he should not take a partner, to
relieve him of the more irksome parts of his duty. He pulled his neatly
trimmed whisker and caressed his smooth-shaven chin, as he reflected
how the folly of that mad fellow, Roberts, had turned to his advantage.
No man could say that he had deviated an inch from professional
propriety, or pressed his advantage the least unfairly. He had merely
persevered on the lines he laid down for himself on his first arrival.
The success, which astonished even himself, had come to him, partly no
doubt, because merit must make its way, but mainly because his rival
had willfully flung away his chances, preferring--and to Dr. Spink it
seemed a preference almost insane--to speak his mind, whatever it might
be, rather than, like a wise man, hold his tongue and fill his pockets.
So Roberts had willed, and hence the Vicarage, the Grange, and many
other houses now knew his footstep no more, and Spink filled his place.
As he pondered on this, Dr. Spink spared a pang of pity for his beaten
competitor, wondering what in the world the man meant to live upon.
The door bell rang. He heard it with a sigh--the half-pleased,
half-weary, resigned sigh that a man utters when fortune gives him no
rest in getting gain. A moment later he was on his way to the surgery
to see a lady who would not send in her name or business.
He recognized Ethel Roberts with surprise, when she raised her veil.
They had known one another to bow to, but he could not imagine what
brought her to his surgery.
"Mrs. Roberts! Is there anything----"
"Oh, Dr. Spink, you must forgive me for coming. I am in great trouble,
and I thought you might help me."
"Pray sit down. Is anyone ill--your little boy?"
"No, he's not ill. It's--it's about my husband."
"I hope Mr. Roberts is not ill?"
"I don't know," she said nervously. "That's what I want to ask you.
Have you seen him lately?"
"No, not very; I passed him in the street the other day."
"He's gone to London, suddenly, I don't know why. Oh, he's been so
strange lately!"
"I thought he looked worried. Tell me about it," said Dr. Spink, moved
now with genuine pity for the pale haggard face before him.
"Ever since--but you mustn't tell I came to you--or spoke to anybody, I
mean--will you?"
He reassured her, and she continued:
"Ever since his quarrel with Mr. Bannister--you know about it?--there
is something the matter with him. He is moody, and absent-minded,
and--and hasty, and he settles to nothing. And now he is gone off like
this."
"Come, Mrs. Roberts, you must compose yourself. I suppose he has let
these politics worry him."
"He seems to care nothing for--for his home or the baby, you know; he
does nothing but read, or wander up and down the room."
"It sounds as if he wanted a rest and a change. You say he has gone
away?"
"Yes; but on business, I think."
"I'm afraid I can't tell you much, unless he calls me in and lets me
have a look at him."
"He'll never do that!" she exclaimed, before she could stop herself.
Dr. Spink took no notice of her outburst.
"If he comes back no better, send me a line, Mrs. Roberts, and we'll
see. And mind you let me know if you or the baby want any advice."
"You're very kind, Dr. Spink. I--I'm sorry James is so----"
"Oh, that's a symptom. If he gets right, he won't be like that. Your
jacket's too thin for such a night. Let me send you home in the
brougham."
Ethel refused the offer, and started on her return, leaving Dr. Spink
shaking a thoughtful head in the surgery doorway.
"It really looks," he said, "as if he was a bit queer. But what can I
do? Poor little woman!"
And, not being able to do anything, he went back and finished his glass
of port. Then, for his dinner had been postponed till late by business,
and it was half-past ten, he went to bed.
Ethel beat her way down the High Street against the wind and snow,
shutting her eyes in face of the blinding shower, and pushing on with
all her speed to rejoin her baby, whom she had left alone. When, wet
and weary, she reached her door, to her surprise she saw a man waiting
there. For a moment she joyously thought it was her husband, but as the
man came forward to meet her, she recognized Philip Hume.
"Out on such a night, Mrs. Roberts!"
She murmured an excuse, and he went on:
"Is the Doctor in? I came to look him up."
"No, he's away in London, Mr. Hume."
"In London? What for?"
"I don't know."
"May I come in for a moment?" asked Philip, who had been looking at her
closely.
"If you like," she answered in some surprise. "I'm afraid there's no
fire."
Philip had followed her in and seen the grate in the sitting room with
no fire lighted.
"No fire?" he exclaimed.
"There is one in my room where baby is," she explained.
"There ought to be one here too," said he. "You're looking ill."
"Oh, I'm not ill, Mr. Hume--I'm not indeed."
Philip had come on an errand. There are uses even in gossips, and he
had had a talk with his friend the Mayor that day.
"Where are the coals?" he asked.
"There are some in the scuttle," she said.
He looked and found a few small pieces. The fire was laid with a few
more. Philip lit them and threw on all the rest. Then he went to the
door, and shouted:
"Wilson!"
The small shrewd-faced man who waited on Dale Bannister appeared. He
was pushing a wheelbarrow before him.
"Wheel it into the passage," said Philip; "and then go. And, mind, not
a word!"
Wilson looked insulted.
"I don't talk, sir," said he.
Philip returned to the room.
"Mrs. Roberts," he said, "listen to me. I am a friend of your
husband's. Will you let me help you?"
"Indeed, I need no help."
"I know you are frozen," he went on; "and--where is the servant?"
"She has left. I--I haven't got another yet," she faltered.
"In the passage," Philip went on, "there is a wheelbarrow. It holds
coals, food, and drink. It's for you."
She started up.
"I can't--indeed I can't! Jim wouldn't like it."
"Jim be hanged! I'll settle with him. You're to take them. Do you hear?"
She did not answer. He walked up to her and put a little canvas bag in
her hands.
"There's money. No, take it. I shall keep an account."
"I really don't need it."
"You do--you know you do. How much money has he left you?"
She laid her hand on his arm.
"He's not himself, he isn't indeed, Mr. Hume, or he wouldn't----"
"No, of course he isn't. So I do what he would, if he were himself. You
were going to starve."
"He will be angry."
"Then don't tell him. He'll never notice. Now, will he?"
"He notices nothing now," she said.
"And you'll take them? Come, think of what's-his-name--the baby, you
know."
"You're too kind to me."
"Nonsense! Of course we look after you, Mrs. Roberts."
"Mr. Hume, do you think--what do you think is the matter with Jim?"
"Oh, I think he's an old fool, Mrs. Roberts, and you may tell him so
from me. No, no, he'll be all right in a week or two. Meanwhile, we're
going to make you and Tommy--oh, Johnny, is it?--comfortable."
He did not leave her till she had consented to accept all he offered;
then he went back to Littlehill.
"I think, Dale," he said, "Roberts must be mad. He left his wife and
child starving."
"Did she take the things?"
"Yes; I made her."
"That's all right. What a strange beggar he is! He can't be quite right
in his head."
"Fancy that poor little woman left like that!"
"Horrible!" said Dale, with a shudder. "At any rate we can prevent
that. I'm so glad you thought of it."
"Old Hedger told me they had ordered nothing for three days."
"How the deuce does Hedger know everything?"
"It's lucky he knew this, isn't it?"
"By Jove, it is! Because, you know, Phil, I feel a kind of
responsibility."
"Nonsense, Dale! Not really?"
"Oh, you needn't laugh. Of course I couldn't know the man was a sort of
lunatic. One doesn't write for lunatics."
"Perhaps they ought to be considered, being so numerous."
"However, it's all right now. Awfully obliged to you, Phil."
"I wonder if he'll come back."
"Roberts? Why shouldn't he?"
"I don't know, but he's quite capable of just cutting the whole
concern."
"I think he's capable of anything."
"Except appreciating 'Amor Patriæ,' eh?"
Dale, having got the Roberts family off his mind, drifted to another
topic.
"I say, Phil, old chap, will you stop playing the fool for once, and
give me your advice?"
"What about?" asked Philip, throwing himself into an armchair.
"What," said Dale gravely, filling his pipe, "do you think about
getting married?"
"Are you thinking of it?"
"Discuss marriage in the abstract."
"It is a position of greater responsibility and less freedom."
"Yes, I know that. But a lot depends on the girl, doesn't it?"
"I expect so."
"I say, Phil, what do you think of Ripley?"
"He seemed a decent enough fellow."
"Do you think--I mean, do you call him an attractive fellow?"
"Oh, uncommonly!"
"Really?"
"Well, why not?"
Dale fidgeted in his chair, and relit the pipe, which had gone out. He
was much too perturbed to give to the filling of it the attention that
operation needs.
"I suppose he'll be rich, and a swell, and all that," he went on.
"No doubt--but not a Victorian poet."
"Don't be a fool!"
"I meant it kindly. Some girls like poets."
"They were awfully kind about 'Amor Patriæ' at the Grange to-night."
"Oh, you've been there?"
"You know I have. Ripley was there. I don't think I care much about
him, Phil."
"Don't you? Does he like you?"
Dale laughed as he rose to go to bed.
"Not much, I think," said he.
Philip also, being left companionless, got up and knocked out his
pipe. Then he stood looking into the dying embers for a minute or two,
and thinking, as he warmed his hands with the last of the heat. "Poor
little Nellie!" he said. After a pause, he said it again; and once
again after that. But then, as saying it was no use at all, he sighed
and went to bed.
CHAPTER XIV.
=Mr. Delane Likes the Idea.=
On a bright morning, when February was in one of its brief moods of
kindliness, Janet Delane was in the garden, and flitting from it into
the hothouses in search of flowers. It was half-past eleven, and
Captain Ripley had kept her gossiping long after breakfast; that was
the worst of idle men staying in a house. So she hastened to and fro in
a great parade of business-like activity, and, as she went, she would
sing blithely and stop and smile to herself, and break into singing
again, and call merrily to her dog, a rotund, slate-colored bundle of
hair that waddled after her, and answered, if he were given time to
get within earshot, to the name of Mop. Mop was more sedate than his
mistress: she only pretended to be on business bent, while he had been
dragged out to take a serious constitutional on account of his growing
corpulence, and it made him sulky to be called here and beckoned there,
and told there were rats, and cats, and what not--whereas in truth
there was no such thing. But Janet did not mind his sulkiness; she
smiled, and sang, and smiled, for she was thinking--but is nothing to
be sacred from a prying race? It is no concern of anyone's what she
was thinking, and no doubt she did not desire it to be known, or she
would have told Captain Ripley in the course of that long gossip.
The Captain stood gazing at her out of the window, with his hands in
his pockets and a doleful look of bewilderment on his face. He stared
out into the garden, but he was listening to Mrs. Delane, and wondering
uneasily if he were really such a dolt as his hostess seemed to
consider.
"You know, Gerard," said Mrs. Delane in her usual tone of suave
sovereignty, "that I am anxious to help you all I can. I have always
looked forward to it as an event which would give us all pleasure, and
I know my husband agrees with me. But really we can't do anything if
you don't help yourself."
The Captain gnawed his mustache and thrust his hands deeper into his
pockets.
"I can't make her out," said he. "I can't get any farther with her."
"It's not the way to 'get farther,'" answered Mrs. Delane, marking the
quotation by a delicate emphasis, "with any girl to stand on the other
side of the room and scowl whenever she talks to another man."
"You mean Bannister?"
"I mean anybody. I don't care whether it's Mr. Bannister or not. And
it's just as useless to pull a long face and look tragic whenever she
makes fun of you."
"She didn't use to be like that last time I was home."
"My dear boy, what has that got to do with it? She was a child then."
"She's always blowing me up. This morning she asked me why I didn't go
to India instead of wasting my time doing nothing in London."
This was certainly unfeeling conduct on Janet's part. Mrs. Delane
sighed.
"I don't know that I quite understand her either, Gerard. There's the
Squire calling you. He's ready to ride, I expect."
When Janet came, she found her mother alone.
"Where's Gerard?" she asked.
"He's gone for a ride."
"Is he staying to-night?"
"Yes; two or three days, I think."
"Well, dear, I am glad we amuse him. There doesn't seem much for a man
to do here, does there?"
"Don't you like him to be here?"
"Oh, I don't mind; only he wastes my time."
"I begin to think he's wasting his own too," remarked Mrs. Delane.
"Oh, he's got nothing else to do with it--or at least he does nothing
else with it."
"You know what I mean, Janet, dear."
"I suppose I do, but how can I help it? I do all I can to show him it's
no use."
"You used to like him very much."
"Oh, so I do now. But that's quite different."
The world goes very crooked. Mrs. Delane sighed again.
"It would have pleased your father very much."
"I'm so sorry. But I couldn't care for a man of that sort."
"What's the matter with the man, my dear?"
"That's just it, mamma. Nothing--nothing bad--and nothing good. Gerard
is like heaps of men I know."
"I think you underrate him. His father was just the same, and he was
very distinguished in the House."
Janet's gesture betrayed but slight veneration for the High Court of
Parliament, as she answered: "They always say that about dull people."
"Well, if it's no use, the sooner the poor boy knows it the better."
"I can't tell him till he asks me, can I, dear? Though I'm sure he
might see it for himself."
Mrs. Delane, when she made up her mind to sound her daughter's
inclinations, had expected to find doubt, indecision, perhaps even
an absence of any positive inclination toward Captain Ripley. She
had not been prepared for Janet's unquestioning assumption that
the thing was not within the range of consideration. A marriage so
excellent from a material point of view, with one who enjoyed all the
advantages old intimacy and liking could give, seemed to claim more
than the unhesitating dismissal with which Janet relegated it to the
limbo of impossibility, with never a thought for all the prospects
it held out, and never a sigh for the wealth and rank it promised. Of
course the Delanes needed no alliances to establish their position;
still, as the Squire had no son, it would have been pleasant if his
daughter had chosen a husband from the leading family in the county.
The more Mrs. Delane thought, the more convinced she became that there
must be a reason; and if there were, it could be looked for only in
one direction. She wondered whether the Squire's _penchant_ for his
gifted young neighbor was strong enough to make him welcome him as a
son-in-law. Frankly, her own was not.
Mr. Delane came in to luncheon, but Captain Ripley sent a message of
excuse. He had ridden over to Sir Harry Fulmer's, and would spend
the afternoon there. Mrs. Delane's reception of the news conveyed
delicately that such conduct was only what might be expected, if one
considered how Janet treated the poor fellow, but the Squire was too
busy to appreciate the subtleties of his wife's demeanor.
Important events were in the way to happen. Denshire, like many other
counties, had recently made up its mind that it behooved it to educate
itself, and a building had arisen in Denborough which was to serve
as an institute of technical education, a school of agriculture, a
center of learning, a home of instructive recreation, a haven for
the peripatetic lecturer, and several things besides. Lord Cransford
had consented to open this temple of the arts, which was now near
completion, and an inauguration by him would have been suitable and
proper. But the Squire had something far better to announce. The Lord
Lieutenant was, next month, to be honored by a visit from a Royal Duke,
and the Royal Duke had graciously consented to come over and open the
Institute. It would be an occasion the like of which Denborough had
seldom seen, and Lord Cransford and Mr. Delane might well be pardoned
the deputy-providential air with which they went about for the few
days next following on the successful completion of this delicate
negotiation.
"Now," said the Squire, when he had detailed the Prince's waverings and
vacillations, his he-woulds and he-would-nots, and the culmination of
his gracious assent, "I have a great idea, and I want you to help me,
Jan."
"How can I help?" asked Janet, who was already in a flutter of loyalty.
"When the Duke comes, I want him to have a splendid reception."
"I'm sure he will, my dear," said Mrs. Delane; "at least I hope that we
are loyal."
"We want," continued the Squire, "to show him all our resources."
"Well, papa, that won't take him very long. There's the old Mote Hall,
and the Roman pavement and----Oh, but will he come here, papa--to the
Grange?"
"I hope he will take luncheon here."
"How delightful!" exclaimed Janet joyfully.
"Goodness!" said Mrs. Delane anxiously.
"But, Jan, I want to show him our poet!"
"Papa! Mr. Bannister?"
"Yes. I want Bannister to write a poem of welcome."
"My dear," remarked Mrs. Delane, "Mr. Bannister doesn't like princes;"
and she smiled satirically.
"What do you say, Jan?" asked the Squire, smiling in his turn.
"Oh, yes, do ask him, papa. I wish he would."
"Well, will you ask him to?"
"Really, George, you are the person to suggest it."
"Yes, Mary. But if I fail? Now, Jan?"
"Oh, don't be foolish papa. It's not likely----"
"Never mind. Will you?"
But Janet had, it seemed, finished her meal; at least she had left the
room. Mrs. Delane looked vexed. The Squire laughed, for he was a man
who enjoyed his little joke.
"Poor Jan!" he said. "It's a shame to chaff her on her conquests."
Mrs. Delane's fears had been confirmed by her daughter's reception of
the raillery. She would have answered in the same tone, and accepted
the challenge, if the banter had not hit the mark.
"It's a pity," said Mrs. Delane, "to encourage her to think so much
about this young Bannister."
"Eh?" said the Squire, looking up from his plate.
"She thinks quite enough about him already, and hears enough, too."
"Well, I suppose he's something out of the common run, in Denshire at
all events, and so he interests her."
"She'll have nothing to say to Gerard Ripley."
"What? Has he asked her?"
"No; but I found out from her. He's quite indifferent to her."
"I'm sorry for that, but there's time yet. I don't give up hope."
"Do you think you help your wishes by asking her to use her influence
to make Dale Bannister write poems?"
The Squire laid down his napkin and looked at his wife.
"Oh!" he said, after a pause.
"Yes," said Mrs. Delane. "Are you surprised?"
"Yes, I am, rather."
He got up and walked about the room, jangling the money in his pocket.
"We know nothing about young Bannister," he said.
"Except that he's the son of a Dissenting minister and has lived with
very queer people."
The Squire frowned; but presently his face cleared. "I dare say we're
troubling ourselves quite unnecessarily. I haven't noticed anything."
"I dare say not, George," said Mrs. Delane.
"Come, Mary, you know it's a weakness of yours to find out people's
love affairs before they do themselves."
"Very well, George," answered she in a resigned tone. "I have told
you, and you will act as you think best. Only, if you wouldn't like him
for a son-in-law----"
"Well, my dear, you do go ahead."
"Try to put him out of Janet's head, not in it;" and Mrs. Delane swept
out of the room.
The Squire went to his study, thinking as he went. He would have
liked the Ripley connection. Lord Cransford was an old friend, and
the match would have been unimpeachable. Still---- The Squire could
not quite analyze his feelings, but he did feel that the idea of Dale
Bannister was not altogether unattractive. By birth, of course, he
was a nobody, and he had done and said, or at least said he had done,
or would like to do,--for the Squire on reflection softened down his
condemnation,--wild things; but he was a distinguished man, a man of
brains, a force in the country. One must move with the times. Nowadays
brains opened every front door, and genius was a passport everywhere.
He was not sure that he disliked the idea. Women were such sticklers
for old notions. Now, he had never been a--stick-in-the-mud Tory. If
Dale went on improving as he was doing, the Squire would think twice
before he refused him. But there! very likely it was only Mary's
match-making instincts making a mountain out of a molehill.
"I shall keep at Jan about that poem," he ended by saying. "It would be
a fine facer for the Radicals."
CHAPTER XV.
=How It Seemed to the Doctor.=
James Roberts made to himself some excuse of business for his sudden
expedition to London, but in reality he was moved to go by the desire
for sympathy. There are times and moods when a man will do many strange
things, if thereby he may gain the comfort of an approving voice. It
was not so much his straitened means and impoverished household, with
the silent suppressed reproach of his wife's sad face, which made
Denborough for the time uninhabitable to the Doctor. The selfishness
engendered by his absorption in outside affairs armed him against
these; he was more oppressed, and finally overcome and routed to
flight, by the universal, unbroken, and unhesitating condemnation
and contempt that he met with. The severe banned him as wicked, the
charitable dubbed him crazy; even Johnstone, whom he had bought, gave
him no sympathy. He could not share his savage sneers, or his bitter
mirth, or his passionate indignation, with a man to whom the whole
affair was a matter of business or of personal grudge. He felt that he
must escape for a time, and seek society in which he could unbosom
himself and speak from his heart without stirring horror or ridicule.
Arthur Angell at least, who, in regard to Dale and Dale's views, had
always been a better royalist than the King, would share his anger
and appreciate his meditated revenge. The lesson he meant to give the
backslider was so appropriate and of such grim humor that Arthur must
be delighted with it.
On Dale's departure, Arthur Angell had moved into the little flat at
the top of the tall building in Chelsea, and there he cultivated the
Muses with a devotion which was its own ample reward. Though to be
passing rich on forty pounds a year is, with the best will, impossible
in London as it is to-day, yet to be passing happy on one hundred
and fifty is not beyond the range of youth and enthusiasm, when the
future still provides a gorgeous setting and background, wherein the
sordid details of the present are merged and lose their prominence,
and all trials are but landmarks by which the hopeful grub counts his
nearer approach to butterflydom. The little room, the humble chop, the
occasional pit, the constant tobacco, the unending talks with fellows
like-minded and like-pursed--all these had the beauty of literary
tradition, and if not a guarantee, seemed at least a condition of
future fame. So Arthur often said to Mrs. Hodge, who lived in the same
block, a couple of floors lower down; and Mrs. Hodge heartily agreed as
she instanced, in confirmation of the doctrine, how the late Mr. Hodge
had once played the King at two pound ten, _consule Pratt_, and had
lived to manage his own theater. This was to compare small things with
great, felt Arthur, but the truth is true in whatever sphere it works.
Into his happy life there broke suddenly the tempestuous form of the
Denborough Doctor. He arrived with but a pound or two in his pocket
with wild ideas of employment on ultra-Radical newspapers; above all,
with the full load of his rage against Dale Bannister, the traitor.
He strode up and down the little room, tugging his beard and fiercely
denouncing the renegade, while Arthur looked at his troubled eyes and
knitted brows, and wondered if his mind were not unhinged. Who could
talk like that about Dale, if he were sane? Arthur would have chaffed
his friend, laughed at him, ridiculed him, perhaps slyly hinted at the
illicit charms of rank and wealth, for which the poet's old mistress
mourned deserted. But to speak in hate and rancor! And what was he
plotting?
But when he heard the plot, his face cleared, and he laughed.
"I think you're hard on Dale," he said; "but, after all, it will be a
good joke."
"Johnstone will do it," exclaimed the Doctor, pausing in his stride.
"His shop window will be full of them. He'll have sandwich-men all over
the place. Bannister won't be able to go out without being met by his
own words--the words he denies. I'll cram them down his throat."
Arthur laughed again.
"It will be awkward when he's walking with old Delane."
"Aye, and with that girl who's got hold of him. He shan't forget
what he wrote--nor shall a soul in Denborough either. I'll make his
treachery plain, if I spend my last farthing."
"When are you going back?"
"In a week. It will all be ready in a week. He'll know who did it.
Curse him!"
"My dear Doctor, aren't you a little----"
"Are you like that, too?" burst out Roberts. "Have none of you any
sincerity? Is it sham with all of you? You laugh as if it were a joke."
"I can't be angry with old Dale. I expect he'll only laugh himself, you
know. It will be good fun."
Roberts looked at him in hopeless wrath. It seemed to him that these
men, who wrote the words and proclaimed the truths which had turned his
life and reformed his soul, were themselves but playing with what they
taught. Were they only actors--or amusing themselves?
"You are as bad as he is," he said angrily, and stalked out of the room.
Arthur, puzzled with his unmanageable guest, went down, as he often
did, to his neighbors, and laid the whole case before Mrs. Hodge and
Nellie Fane. He found them both in, Nellie having just returned from an
afternoon concert where she had been singing.
"I believe the fellow's half mad, you know," said Arthur.
"If he isn't, he ought to be ashamed of himself," said Mrs. Hodge, and
she launched on a description of Mrs. Robert's pitiable state.
"Well, I don't think that he's got more than five pounds in the world,"
responded Arthur. "And he's got no chance of making any money. Nobody
dares publish what he wants to write."
"He used to be pleasant at Littlehill," Nellie remarked, "when we were
first there."
"Yes, wasn't he? But he's gone quite wild over Dale. Do you know what
his next move is?" And Arthur disclosed the Johnstone conspiracy.
"It will be rather sport, won't it?" he asked. "Poor old Dale!"
But no; Miss Fane did not see the "sport." She was indignant; she
thought that such a trick was mean, malicious, and odious in the
highest degree, and she was surprised that Arthur Angell could be
amused at it.
"Women never see a joke," said Arthur huffily.
"Where's the joke in making Dale unhappy and--and absurd? And you call
yourself his friend!"
"It's only a joke. Old Dale does deserve a dig, you know."
"And pray, why? You choose your friends, why mayn't he choose his? I
dare say you would be glad enough to know that sort of people if you
could."
"Oh, come, Nellie! I'm not like that. Besides, it's not the people;
it's what he's written."
"I've read what he's written. It's beautiful. No, I call the whole
thing horrid, and just like Dr. Roberts."
"I suppose you think, just like me, too?"
"If you don't write and warn Dale, I shall."
"I say, you mustn't do that. I told you in confidence. Roberts will be
furious."
"What do I care for Dr. Roberts' fury? I shall write at once;" and she
sat down at the table.
Arthur glanced in despair at Mrs. Hodge, but that discreet lady was
entirely hidden in the evening paper.
"Well, I'll never tell you anything again, Nellie," he said.
"You'll never have the chance, unless you behave something like a
gentleman," retorted Nellie.
Arthur banged the door as he went out, exclaiming:
"Damn Roberts! What does he want to make a row for?"
Meanwhile, the Doctor, who was angry enough with Arthur Angell to have
rejoiced had he known that he had embroiled him in a quarter where
Arthur was growing very anxious to stand well, was pacing the streets,
nursing his resentment. His head ached, and fragments of what he had
read, and half-forgotten conversations, mingling in his whirling
brain, fretted and bewildered him. He could think of nothing but his
wrongs and his revenge, returning always to hug himself on his own
earnestness, and angrily to sneer at the weakness and treachery of his
friends. Whatever it cost him or his, the world should see that there
was one man ready to sacrifice himself for truth and right--and punish
"that hound Dale Bannister."
As he walked, he bought the special edition of the paper, and, in
hastily glancing at it, his eye was caught by the announcement that
His Royal Highness the Duke of Mercia was to visit Lord Cransford,
and would open the Institute at Market Denborough. The paragraph went
on to describe the preparations being made to give the Prince a loyal
reception, and ended by saying that it was hoped that the eminent poet,
Mr. Dale Bannister, who was resident at Denborough, would consent to
write a few lines of welcome to the illustrious visitor. The writer
added a word or two of good-natured banter about Mr. Bannister's
appearance in a new character, and the well-known effect which the
proximity of royalty was apt to have on English republicanism. "Who
knows," he concluded, "that Mr. Bannister may not figure as Sir Dale
before long?"
The Doctor read the paragraph twice, the flush of anger reddening
his pale face. Then he crumpled up the paper and flung it from him,
resuming his hasty, restless walk. He could imagine the sickening
scene, the rampant adulation, the blatant snobbishness. And, in the
midst, a dishonored participator, the man who had been his leader,
his liberator, the apostle of all he loved and lived by. Had the man
been a hypocrite from the first? Impossible! No hypocrite could have
written those burning lines which leaped to his memory and his lips. Or
was he merely a weak fool? That could not be either. It was a barter,
a deliberate barter of truth and honor against profit--as sordid a
transaction as could be. He wanted a position in society, money, a rich
wife, petting from great people--perhaps even, as that scribbler said,
a ribbon to stick in his coat or a handle to fasten to his name. How
could he? how could he? And the Doctor passed his hand across his hot,
throbbing brow in the bewilderment of wrath.
For an hour and more he ranged the streets aimlessly, a prey to his
unreasoning fury. For this man's sake he had ruined himself; led on by
this man's words, he had defied the world--his world. At all hazards
he had joined the daring band. Now he was forsaken, abandoned, flung
aside. He and his like had served their turn. On their backs Dale
Bannister had mounted. But now he had done with them, and their lot was
repudiation and disdain. Roberts could not find words for his scorn and
contempt. His head racked him more and more. Connected thought seemed
to become impossible; he could do nothing but repeat again and again,
"The traitor! The traitor!"
At last he turned home to his humble lodgings. The short hush of very
early morning had fallen on the streets; he met no one, and the moon
shone placidly down on the solitary figure of the maddened man,
wrestling with his unconquerable rage. He could not stem it; yielding
to its impulse, with quivering voice and face working with passion, he
stretched his clenched fist to the sky and cried:
"By God, he shall pay for it!"
CHAPTER XVI.
="No More Kings."=
After her father's report and the departure of Nellie Fane, Miss Tora
Smith had been pleased to reconsider her judgment of Dale Bannister,
and to modify it to some extent. The poems and the suspicion, taken in
conjunction, each casting a lurid light on the other, had been very bad
indeed; but when Tora's mind was disabused of the suspicion, she found
it in her heart to pardon the poems. Although she treated Sir Harry
Fulmer with scant ceremony, she had no small respect for his opinion,
and when he and the Colonel coincided in the decision that Dale need
not be ostracized, she did not persist against them. She was led to be
more compliant by the fact that she was organizing an important Liberal
gathering, and had conceived the ambition of inducing Dale to take part
in the proceedings.
"Fancy, if he would write us a song!" she said; "a song which we could
sing in chorus. Wouldn't it be splendid?"
"What would the Squire say?" asked Sir Harry.
Tora smiled mischievously.
"Are you," she demanded, "going to stand by and see him captured by the
Grange?"
"He ought to be with us, oughtn't he?" said Sir Harry.
"Of course. And if our leader had an ounce of zeal----"
"I'll write to him to-day," said Sir Harry.
"Yes; and mind you persuade him. I shall be so amused to see what Jan
Delane says, if he writes us a song."
"He won't do it."
"He won't, if you go in that despairing mood. Now write at once. Write
as if you expected it."
The outcome of this conversation, together with the idea which
had struck the Squire, was, of course, that Dale received, almost
by the same post, an urgent request for a militant Radical ditty,
and a delicate, but very flattering, suggestion that it would be
most agreeable to His Royal Highness--indeed he had hinted as much
in response to Lord Cransford's question--to find the loyalty of
Denborough, as it were, crystallized in one of Mr. Bannister's undying
productions. For the first time in his life, Dale felt a grudge against
the Muses for their endowment. Could not these people let him alone? He
did not desire to put himself forward; he only asked to be let alone.
It was almost as repugnant to him--at least, he thought it would be--to
take part in Lord Cransford's pageant, as it certainly would be to hear
the Radicals of Denborough screeching out his verses. He was a man of
letters, not a politician, and he thought both requests very uncalled
for. It might be that the Grange folks had some claim on him, but his
acquaintance with Sir Harry Fulmer was of the slightest; and what did
the man mean by talking of his "well-known views"? He was as bad as the
Doctor himself. Presently Philip Hume came in, and Dale disclosed his
perplexities.
"I want to please people," he said, "but this is rather strong."
"Write both," suggested Philip.
"That will enrage both of them."
"Then write neither."
"Really, Phil, you might show some interest in the matter."
"I am preoccupied. Have you been in the town to-day, Dale?"
"No."
"Then you haven't seen Johnstone's window?"
"Johnstone's window? What does Johnstone want with a window?"
"Put on your hat and come and see. Yes, come along. It concerns you."
They walked down together in the gathering dusk of the afternoon,
and when they came near Johnstone's, they saw his window lighted
with a blaze of gas, and a little knot of curious people standing
outside. The window was full of Dale's books, and the rows of green
volumes were surmounted by a large placard--"Dale Bannister, the poet
of Denborough--Works on Sale Here. Ask for 'The Clarion,' 'The Arch
Apostates,' 'Blood for Blood'"; and outside, a file of men carried
boards, headed, "The Rights of the People. Read Dale Bannister! No more
Kings! No more Priests! Read Dale Bannister!"
A curse broke from Dale. Philip smiled grimly.
"Who's done this?" Dale asked.
Philip pointed to a solitary figure which stood on the opposite side
of the road, looking on at the spectacle. It was James Roberts, and he
smiled grimly in his turn when he saw the poet and his friend.
"He put Johnstone up to it," said Philip. "Johnstone told me so."
Dale was aflame. He strode quickly across the road to where the Doctor
stood, and said to him hotly:
"This is your work, is it?"
The Doctor was jaunty and cool in manner.
"No, your works," he answered, with a foolish, exasperating snigger.
"Aren't you pleased to see what notice they are attracting? I was
afraid they were being forgotten in Denborough."
"God only knows," said Dale angrily, "why you take pleasure in annoying
me; but I have borne enough of your insolence."
"Is it insolent to spread the sale of your books?"
"You will make your jackal take those books down and stop his infernal
posters, or I'll thrash you within an inch of your life."
"Ah!" said Roberts, and his hand stole toward his breast-pocket.
"What do you say?"
"I say that if I can make a wretched snob like you unhappy, it's money
well spent, and I'll see you damned before I take the books down."
Dale grasped his walking-cane and took a step forward. The Doctor stood
waiting for him, smiling and keeping his hand in his pocket.
"Jim!"
The Doctor turned and saw his wife at his side. Dale fell back, lifting
his hat, at the sight of the pale distressed face and clasped hands.
"Do come home, dear!" she said, with an appealing glance.
Philip took Dale's arm.
"Come," he said, "let's reason with Johnstone."
Dale allowed himself to be led away, not knowing that death had stared
him in the face; for it was a loaded revolver that Roberts let fall
back into the recesses of his pocket when his wife's touch recalled for
a moment his saner sense.
The reasoning with Johnstone was not a success. Dale tried threats,
abuse, and entreaties, all in vain. At last he condescended to bribery,
and offered Johnstone twice the sum, whatever it might be, which he had
received. He felt his degradation, but the annoyance was intolerable.
The Alderman's attitude, on receiving this offer, was not without
pathos. He lamented in himself an obstinate rectitude, which he
declared had often stood in his way in business affairs. His political
convictions, engaged as they were in the matter, he would have
sacrificed, if the favor thereby accorded to Mr. Bannister were so
great as to be measured by two hundred pounds; but he had passed his
word; and he concluded by beseeching Dale not to tempt him above that
which he was able.
"Take it away, take it away, sir," he said when Dale held a pocketbook
before his longing eyes. "It aint right, sir, it aint indeed--and me a
family man."
Dale began to feel the guilt of the Tempter, and fell back on an appeal
to the Alderman's better feelings. This line of argument elicited only
a smile.
"If I won't do it for two hundred sovereigns, does it stand to reason,
sir, as I should do it to obleege?"
Dale left him, after a plain statement of the estimation in which he
held him, and went home, yielding, only after a struggle, to Philip's
representation that any attempt to bribe the sandwich-men must result
in his own greater humiliation and discomfiture.
Angry as Dale was, he determined not to allow this incident to turn
him from the course he had marked out for himself. It confirmed his
determination to have nothing to do with Sir Harry's Radical song, but
it did not make him any the more inclined to appear as a eulogist of
royalty. Neutrality in all political matters was his chosen course,
and it appeared to him to be incomparably the wisest under all the
circumstances. This view he expressed to the family at the Grange,
having walked over for that purpose. He expected to meet with some
opposition, but to his surprise the Squire heartily acquiesced.
"After this scandalous business," he said, "you must cut the Radicals
altogether. Of course, Harry Fulmer will object to it as much as we do,
but he must be responsible for his followers. And I think you're quite
right to let us alone, too. Why should you literary men bother with
politics?"
Dale was delighted at this opinion, and at Janet's concurrence with it.
"Then I dare say you will be so kind as to express my feelings to Lord
Cransford; if he thinks fit, he can let the Duke know them."
The Squire's face expressed surprise, and his daughter's reflected it.
"But, my dear fellow," said Mr. Delane, "what has Cransford's
suggestion to do with politics? The throne is above politics."
"Surely, Mr. Bannister," added Janet, "we are all loyal, whatever our
politics? I'm sure Sir Harry himself is as loyal as papa."
"Come, Bannister, you press your scruples too far. There are no
politics in this."
Dale was staggered, but not convinced.
"I'd rather not put myself forward at all," he said.
The Squire assumed an air of apologetic friendliness.
"I know you'll excuse me, Bannister. I'm twice your age or more, and
I--well--I haven't been so lucky as you in escaping the world of
etiquette. But, my dear fellow, when the Duke sends a message--it
really comes to that--it's a strongish thing to say you won't do it.
Oh, of course, you can if you like--there's no beheading nowadays; but
it's not very usual."
"I wish Lord Cransford had never mentioned me to the Duke at all."
"Perhaps it would have been wiser," the Squire conceded candidly, "but
Cransford is so proud of anything that brings _kudos_ to the county,
and he could no more leave you out than he could the Institute itself.
Well, we mustn't force you. Think it over, think it over. I must be
off. No, don't you go. Stay and have tea with the ladies;" and the
Squire, who, as has been previously mentioned, was no fool, left his
daughter to entertain his guest.
Janet was working at a piece of embroidery, and she went on working in
silence for a minute or two. Then she looked up and said:
"Tora Smith was here this morning. She'll be very disappointed at your
refusal to write for her meeting."
"Miss Smith has no claim on me," said Dale stiffly. He had not
forgotten Tora's injurious suspicions. "Besides, one doesn't do such
things simply for the asking--not even if it's a lady who asks."
"You know, I don't think anybody ought to ask--no, not princes; and
I hope you won't do what Lord Cransford wants merely because you're
asked."
"Your father says I ought."
"Papa wants you to do it very much."
"And I should like to do what he wants."
"I should like you to do what he wants, but not because he wants it,"
said Janet.
Dale turned round to her and said abruptly:
"I'll do it, if you want me to."
Now this was flattering, and Janet could not deny that it gave her
pleasure; but she clung to her principles.
"I don't want it--in that sense," she answered. "I should be glad if it
seemed to you a right thing to do; but I should be sorry if you did it,
unless it did."
"You will not let me do it for you?"
"No," she answered, smiling.
"You have no pleasure in obedience?"
"Oh, well, only in willing obedience," said she, with a smile.
"It would be very willing--even eager."
"The motive would not be right. But how absurd! I believe----"
"Well, what?"
"That you mean to do it, and are trying to kill two birds with one
stone."
"You don't really think that, Miss Delane?"
"No, of course not. Only you were becoming so serious."
"May I not be serious?"
"It isn't serious to offer to take important steps because it would
please a girl."
"Aren't you rather contradicting yourself? You called that becoming
serious just now."
"If I am, it is a privilege we all have."
"Girls, you mean? Well, you refuse to help me?"
"Entirely."
"Even to counteract Miss Smith's illicit influence?"
"I shall trust to your own sense of propriety."
Dale walked home, grievously puzzled. A small matter may raise a great
issue, and he felt, perhaps without full reason, that he was at the
parting of the ways. "No more Kings! No more Priests!" Or "An Ode to
H. R. H. the Duke of Mercia on his visit to Denborough"! Dale ruefully
admitted that there would be ground for a charge of inconsistency. Some
would talk of conversion, some of tergiversation; he could not make up
his mind which accusation would be the more odious. There was clearly
nothing for it but absolute neutrality; he must refuse both requests.
Janet would understand why; of course she would, she must; and even if
she did not, what was that to him? The throne above politics!--that
must be a mere sophism; there could not be anything in that. No doubt
this young Prince was not morally responsible for the evils, but he
personified the system, and Dale could not bow the knee before him. If
it had been possible--and as he went he began idly to frame words for
an ode of welcome. An idea or two, a very happy turn, came into his
head; he knew exactly the tone to take, just how far to go, just the
mean that reconciles deference to independence. He had the whole thing
mapped out before he recalled to himself the thought that he was not
going to write at all, and as he entered his own garden he sighed at
the necessary relinquishing of a stately couplet. There was no doubt
that work of that class opened a new field, a hitherto virgin soil, to
his genius. It was a great pity.
In the garden, to his surprise, he came on Arthur Angell. "What brings
you here, Arthur?" he said. "Delighted to see you, though."
Arthur explained that he had run down at Nellie Fane's bidding. Nellie
had written her letter of warning about the Doctor's conspiracy, but,
having thus relieved her mind, had straightway forgotten all about her
letter, and it had lain unposted in her pocket for a week. Then she
found it, and sent Arthur off in haste to stop the mischief.
"It's awfully kind of Nellie," said Dale; "but I don't suppose it would
have been of any use, and anyhow it's too late now."
"Yes, so Phil told me."
"A dirty trick, isn't it?"
"Well, I suppose it's rather rough on you," said Arthur, struggling
between principles and friendship, and entirely suppressing his own
privity to the said dirty trick.
"You'll stay?"
"I've got no clothes."
"Oh, Wilson will see to that. Come in."
Philip met them at the door.
"I've a message for you, Dale," he said. "The Mayor has been here."
"And what may the Mayor want?"
"The Mayor came as an ambassador. He bore a resolution from the
Town Council, a unanimous resolution (_absente_ Johnstone owing to
pressure in the bookselling trade), begging you to accede to the Lord
Lieutenant's request and write a poem for the Duke."
"Hang the Town Council!" exclaimed Dale. "I wonder why nobody will let
me alone!"
Then he remembered that Miss Delane had been almost ostentatious in
her determination to let him alone. If he wrote, they could not say
that he had written to please her. But he was not going to write. True,
it would have been a good revenge on the Doctor, and it would have
pleased----
"Shall you do the ode?" asked Philip Hume.
"Certainly not," answered Dale in a resolute tone.
CHAPTER XVII.
=Dale tries His Hand at an Ode.=
Dale's preoccupations with his new friends had thrown on Philip Hume
the necessity of seeking society for himself, if he did not wish to
spend many solitary evenings at Littlehill. The resources of Denborough
were not very great, and his dissipation generally took the form of a
quiet dinner, followed by a rubber of whist, at Mount Pleasant. The
Colonel and he suited one another, and, even if Philip had been less
congenial in temper, the Colonel was often too hard put to it for a
fourth player to be nice in scrutinizing the attractions of anyone
who could be trusted to answer a call and appreciate the strategy of
a long suit. Even with Philip's help the rubber was not a brilliant
one; for Tora only played out of filial duty, and Sir Harry came in to
join because it was better to be with Tora over a whist-table than not
to be with her at all. That he thought so witnessed the intensity of
his devotion, for to play whist seemed to Sir Harry to be going out of
one's way to seek trouble and perplexity of mind.
On the evening of Arthur Angell's arrival the usual party had dined
together and set to work. Things were not going well. At dinner they
had discussed the royal visit, and the Colonel had been disgusted to
find that his daughter, unmindful of her, or rather his, principles,
was eager to see and, if it might be, to speak with "this young
whippersnapper of a Prince." The Colonel could not understand such a
state of feeling, but Tora was firm. All the county would be there in
new frocks; she had ordered a new frock, of which she expected great
things, and she meant to be there in it; it would not do, she added,
for the Duke to think that the Radicals had no pretty girls on their
side. The Colonel impatiently turned to Sir Harry; but Sir Harry agreed
with Tora, and even Philip Hume announced his intention of walking down
High Street to see, not the Prince of course, but the people and the
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