One word about Mr. Norman Maitland, of whom this history will have
something more to say hereafter. He was one of those men, too few
in number to form a class, but of which nearly every nation on the
Continent has some examples,--men with good manners and good means, met
with always in the great world,--at home in the most exclusive circles,
much thought of, much caressed; but of whom, as to family, friends, or
belongings, no one can tell anything. They who can recall the society of
Paris some forty years back, will remember such a man in Montrond. Rich,
accomplished, handsome, and with the most fascinating address, Montrond
won his way into circles the barriers to which extended even to royalty;
and yet all the world were asking, “Who is he?--who knows him?” Maitland
was another of these. Men constantly canvassed him, agreed that he was
not of these “Maitlands” or of those--that nobody was at school with
him,--none remembered him at Eton or at Rugby. He first burst upon life
at Cambridge, where he rode boldly, was a first-rate cricketer, gave
splendid wine-parties, wrote a prize poem, and disappeared none ever
knew whence or wherefore. He was elected for a borough, but only was
seen twice or thrice in the House. He entered the army, but left without
joining his regiment. He was to be heard of in every city of Europe,
living sumptuously, playing high,--more often a loser than a winner. His
horses, his carriages, his liveries, were models; and wherever he went
his track could be marked in the host of imitators he left behind him.
For some four or five years back all that was known of him was in some
vague paragraph appearing from time to time that some tourist had met
him in the Rocky Mountains, or that he had been seen in Circassia. An
Archduke on his travels had partaken of his hospitality in the extreme
north of India; and one of our naval commanders spoke of dining on board
his yacht in the Southern Pacific. Those who were curious about him
learned that he was beginning to show some slight touches of years,--how
he had grown fatter, some said more serious and grave,--and a few
censoriously hinted that his beard and moustaches were a shade darker
than they used to be. Maitland, in short, was just beginning to drop out
of people's minds, when he reappeared once more in England, looking
in reality very little altered, save that his dark complexion seemed a
little darker from travel, and he was slightly, very slightly, bald on
the top of the head.
It was remarked, however, that his old pursuits, which were purely those
of pleasure or dissipation, had not, to all appearance, the same hold
on him as before. “He never goes down to Tattersall's,” “I don't think
I have seen him once at the opera,” “He has given up play altogether,”
were the rumors one heard on all sides; and so it was that the young
generation, who had only heard of but never seen him, were sorely
disappointed in meeting the somewhat quiet, reserved-looking, haughty
man, whose wild feats and eccentricities had so often amused them,
but who now gave no evidence of being other than a cold, well-bred
gentleman.
It was when hastily passing through London, on his return from India,
that Mark Lyle had met him, and Maitland had given him a half-careless
promise to come and see him. “I want to go across to Ireland,” said he,
“and whenever town gets hot, I'll run over.” Mark would have heard the
same words from a royal duke with less pride, for he had been brought up
in his Sandhurst days with great traditions of Maitland; and the favor
the great man had extended to him in India, riding his horses, and once
sharing his bungalow, had so redounded to his credit in the regiment
that even a tyrannical major had grown bland and gentle to him.
Mark was, however, far from confident that he could rely on his promise.
It seemed too bright a prospect to be possible. Maitland, who had never
been in Ireland,--whom one could, as Mark thought, no more fancy in
Ireland than he could imagine a London fine lady passing her mornings in
a poorhouse, or inspecting the coarse labors of a sewing-school,--_he_
coming over to see him! What a triumph, were it only to be true! and
now the post told him it was true, and that Maitland would arrive at the
Abbey on Saturday. Now, when Mark had turned away so hastily and left
his sisters, he began to regret that he had announced the approaching
arrival of his friend with such a flourish of trumpets. “I ought to have
said nothing whatever about him. I ought simply to have announced him
as a man very well off, and much asked out, and have left the rest to
fortune. All I have done by my ill-judged praise has been to awaken
prejudice against him, and make them eager to detect flaws, if they can,
in his manner,--at all events in his temper.” The longer he thought over
these things the more they distressed him; and, at last, so far from
being overjoyed, as he expected, at the visit of his distinguished
friend, he saw the day of his coming dawn with dismay and misgiving.
Indeed, had such a thing as putting him off been possible, it is likely
he would have done it.
The long-looked-for and somewhat feared Saturday came at last, and with
it came a note of a few lines from Maitland. They were dated from a
little village in Wicklow, and ran thus:--
“Dear L.,--I have come down here with a Yankee, whom I
chanced upon as a travelling companion, to look at the
mines,--gold, they call them; and if I am not seduced into
a search after nuggets, I shall be with you some time--I
cannot define the day--next week. The country is prettier
and the people less barbarous than I expected; but I hear
your neighborhood will compensate me for both
disappointments.
“Yours,
“N. M.”
“Well! are we to send the carriage into Coleraine for him, Mark?” asked
Sir Arthur, as his son continued to read the letter, without lifting his
eyes.
“No,” said Mark, in some confusion. “This is a sort of put-off. He
cannot be here for several days. Some friend or acquaintance has dragged
him off in another direction;” and he crushed the note in his hand,
afraid of being asked to read or to show it.
“The house will be full after Tuesday, Mark,” said Lady Lyle. “The Gores
and the Masseys and the M'Clintocks will all be here, and Gambier Graham
threatens us with himself and his two daughters.”
“If they come,” broke in Mark, “you'll have my rooms at your disposal.”
“I delight in them,” said Mrs. Trafford; “and if your elegantly
fastidious friend should really come, I count upon them to be perfect
antidotes to all his impertinence. Sally Graham and the younger one,
whom her father calls 'Dick,' are downright treasures when one is in
want of a forlorn hope to storm town-bred pretension.”
“If Maitland is to be baited, Alice, I 'd rather the bullring was
somewhere else,” said her brother, angrily.
“The real question is, shall we have room for all these people and their
followers?” said Lady Lyle.
“I repeat,” said Mark, “that if the Graham girls are to be here, I 'm
off. They are the most insufferably obtrusive and aggressive women I
ever met; and I 'd rather take boat and pass a month at the Hebrides
than stop a week in the house with them.”
“I think Sally thrashed you when you came home once for the holidays,”
said Mrs. Trafford, laughing.
“No, Alice, it was Beck,” broke in her sister. “She has a wonderful
story of what she calls a left-hander, that she planted under his eye.
She tells it still with great gusto, but owns that Mark fought on very
bravely for two rounds after.”
“And are these the people you expect me to show Maitland?” said Mark,
rising from the table; “I'd rather, fifty times rather, write and say,
'We cannot receive you; our house is full, and will be for a month to
come.'”
“Yes, dear Mark, that is the really sensible way to look at it. Nobody
nowadays has any scruple in such matters. One is invited from Monday to
Thursday, but on no possible pretext can he stay to Friday.” And so Mrs.
Trafford ran away, heaping, by apparent consolations, coals of fire on
his angry head.
“I think you had better get Alice to write the letter herself,” said
Bella; “I'm sure she will do it with great tact and discretion.”
“Pray do,” added she. “Entrust me with the despatch, and I promise you
the negotiation will be completed then and there.”
“It is quite bad enough to shut the door in a man's face, without
jeering at him out of the window,” said Mark; and he dashed out of the
room in a rage.
“I wish he had shown us his friend's note,” said Alice. “I'm quite
certain that his anger has far, more to do with that epistle than with
any of our comments upon it.”
“I'm very sorry Mark should be annoyed,” said Bella; “but I'm selfish
enough to own that, if we escape Mr. Maitland's visit, I shall deem the
bargain a good one.”
“I suspect Mr. Maitland does not intend to honor us by his company, and
that we may spare ourselves all the embarrassment of preparing for it,”
said Lady Lyle. And now the three ladies set themselves to consider in
committee that oft-vexed problem of how to make a country-house
hold more people than it had room for, and how to persuade the less
distinguished of the guests that they are “taking out” in cordiality
all that their reception wants in convenience. One difficulty presented
itself at every step, and in a variety of shapes. Never before had the
Abbey been full of visitors without Tony Butler being there to assist in
their amusement,--Tony, equally at home on land and on sea, the cavalier
of young ladies, the safe coachman of mammas, the guide to all that was
noteworthy, the fisherman, the yachtsman whom no weather disconcerted,
no misadventure could provoke,--so good-tempered and so safe; ay, so
safe! for Tony never wanted to flirt with the young heiress, nor teach
her schoolboy brother to smoke a short pipe. He had neither the ambition
to push his fortune unfairly, nor to attach his junior to him by
unworthy means. And the sisters ran over his merits, and grew very
enthusiastic about traits in him which, by inference, they implied were
not the gifts of others nearer home.
“I wish, papa, you would ride over and see Mrs. Butler, and ask when
Tony is expected back again.”
“Or if,” added Mrs. Trafford--“or if we could get him back by writing,
and saying how much we want him.”
“I know I 'll never venture on Soliman till Tony has had a hand on him.”
“And those chestnuts mamma wants for the low phaeton,--who is to break
them now?” cried Bella.
“I only heard yesterday,” said Sir Arthur, “that the 'Mermaid's' sails
were all cut up. Tony was going to make a schooner of her, it seems;
and there she is now, dismantled, and not one of us able to put her in
commission again.”
“I declare it sounds absurd,” broke in Lady Lyle, “but I fancy the
garden is beginning to look neglected already. Certainly I never saw
Mr. Graft there the whole morning; and he would not have dared to absent
himself if Tony were here.”
“I 'd go over willingly and see his mother,” said Sir Arthur; “but as
Tony did not confide to us his intended journey, but set off without a
word, it would have the appearance of a certain prying curiosity on my
part were I to ask after him, and when he is expected home again.”
“Not if you were to say frankly that we wanted him, and could n't get
on without him, papa,” said Alice. “I 'd have no shame in saying that
we are perfectly helpless without his skill, his courage, his ready wit,
and his good nature.”
“Why not secure all those perfections beyond risk, Alice?” said Sir
Arthur, laughing.
“How so?--only tell me.”
“Marry him.”
“First of all, papa, he might not marry me; and, secondly, if he should,
it might not be the way to insure the perpetuity I covet. You know what
Swift says of the 'promising' Princes and the 'bad' Kings the world is
full of?”
“I protest,” said Lady Lyle, haughtily, “I have a great regard for young
Butler; but it has never gone the length of making me desire him for a
son-in-law.”
“Meanwhile, papa,--for we have quite time enough to think over the
marriage,--pray let me order them to saddle Peter for you, and ride over
to the Burnside.”
“Do so, Alice; I'm quite ready; but, first of all, give me my
instructions.”
“We want Tony,” broke in Bella.
“Yes; and insist on having him. He must be here by Monday night or
Tuesday morning, if it cost an express to go after him.”
“We ought to bear in mind, girls, that Tony has not left home in pursuit
of pleasure. The poor fellow has had some call of urgency or necessity,
and our selfishness must not go the length of a cruelty.”
“But with your nice tact, papa, you'll find out all that; you 'll learn,
in the course of conversation, whether anything of importance has called
him away, or whether it be not, as I half suspect, a sort of passing
caprice.” And she looked significantly at Bella, and left her sentence
unfinished.
“Do you know of anything that should induce you to believe this, Alice?”
“Nothing more than a chance word that dropped from Mark this morning.
He took it into his head last night that poor Tony was presumptuous,
and gave himself airs,--Tony! of all creatures in the world; and so the
great hussar, in the plenitude of his regimental experiences, essayed
what he called 'to put him down'! Now, the chances are that this may
have occasioned some unpleasantness, and it is not in the least unlikely
may have led to Tony's departure.”
“You must be right, Alice; and since we have been standing here at the
window, I saw Mrs. Butler's herd give Mark a letter, which, after
reading, he crushed impatiently in his hand and thrust into his pocket.
This decides me at once. I will go down to Mrs. Butler's without delay.”
“Please explain that I have not called, solely because the carriage-road
is so bad. The drive down through that forest of fern and reeds is like
a horrid nightmare on me,” said Lady Lyle.
“Well, I think I can apologize for your absence without telling her that
she lives in an unapproachable wilderness,” said he, laughing; “and as
she cares little for visiting or being visited, the chances are my task
will be an easy one.
“Would you like me to go with you, papa?” asked Alice.
“Yes, by all means; but stay,” added he, quickly, “it might possibly be
better not to come; if anything unpleasant should have occurred between
Mark and Tony, she will have less reluctance to speak of it when we are
alone.”
They all agreed that this was well thought of, and soon after saw him
set out on his mission, their best wishes for his success following him.
Sir Arthur pondered as he went over what he should say, and how he would
meet the remarks he deemed it likely she would make to him. Without
being in the least what is called a person of superior abilities, Mrs.
Butler was a somewhat hard-headed woman, whose North of Ireland caution
and shrewdness stood her in stead for higher qualities; and if they
would not have guided her in great difficulties, she had the good
fortune or the prudence to escape from such. He knew this; and he
knew besides that there pertains to a position of diminished means and
station a peculiar species of touchy pride, always suggesting to its
possessor the suspicion that this or that liberty would never have been
taken in happier days, and thus to regard the most well-meant counsels
and delicately conveyed advice as uncalled-for interference, or worse.
It was after much consideration he saw himself at the little wicket of
the garden, where he dismounted, and, fastening his bridle to the gate,
knocked at the door. Though he could distinctly hear the sound of voices
within, and the quick movement of feet, his summons was unanswered, and
he was about to repeat it for the third time when the door was opened.
“Is your mistress at home, Jeanie?” said he, recognizing with a smile
the girl's courtesy to him.
“Yes, sir, she's at home,” was the dry answer.
“Will you just tell her, then, that Sir Arthur Lyle would take it as a
great favor if she'd permit him to speak to her?”
The girl disappeared with the message, but did not return again for
several minutes; and when she did, she looked slightly agitated. “My
mistress is very sorry, sir, but she canna see ye the day; it's a sort
of a headache she has.”
“Mr. Anthony, is he at home?” asked he, curious to remark the effect of
his question.
“He's no just at name the noo,” was the cautious reply.
“He has not been up at the Abbey to-day,” said he, carelessly; “but, to
be sure, I came through the 'bracken,' and might have missed him.”
A little dry nod of the head, to acknowledge that this or anything else
was possible, was all that his speech elicited.
“Say that I was very sorry, Jeanie, that Mrs. Butler could not see me,
and sorrier for the reason; but that I hope tomorrow or next day to be
more fortunate. Not,” added he, after a second thought, “that what I
wanted to speak of is important, except to myself; don't forget this,
Jeanie.”
“I winna forget,” said she; and courtesying again, closed the door. Sir
Arthur rode slowly back to report that his embassy had failed.