TOM went away the next morning. He declined to see Jessie again,
saying curtly, "I don't wish the impression made on me the other
evening to incur a chance of being weakened."
Kenelm was in no mood to regret his friend's departure. Despite all
the improvement in Tom's manners and culture, which raised him so much
nearer to equality with the polite and instructed heir of the
Chillinglys, Kenelm would have felt more in sympathy and rapport with
the old disconsolate fellow-wanderer who had reclined with him on the
grass, listening to the minstrel's talk or verse, than he did with the
practical, rising citizen of Luscombe. To the young lover of Lily
Mordaunt there was a discord, a jar, in the knowledge that the human
heart admits of such well-reasoned, well-justified transfers of
allegiance; a Jessie to-day, or an Emily to-morrow; "La reine est
morte: vive la reine"
An hour or two after Tom had gone, Kenelm found himself almost
mechanically led towards Braefieldville. He had instinctively divined
Elsie's secret wish with regard to himself and Lily, however skilfully
she thought she had concealed it.
At Braefieldville he should hear talk of Lily, and in the scenes where
Lily had been first beheld.
He found Mrs. Braefield alone in the drawing-room, seated by a table
covered with flowers, which she was assorting and intermixing for the
vases to which they were destined.
It struck him that her manner was more reserved than usual and
somewhat embarrassed; and when, after a few preliminary matters of
small talk, he rushed boldly /in medias res/ and asked if she had seen
Mrs. Cameron lately, she replied briefly, "Yes, I called there the
other day," and immediately changed the conversation to the troubled
state of the Continent.
Kenelm was resolved not to be so put off, and presently returned to
the charge.
"The other day you proposed an excursion to the site of the Roman
villa, and said you would ask Mrs. Cameron to be of the party.
Perhaps you have forgotten it?"
"No; but Mrs. Cameron declines. We can ask the Emlyns instead. He
will be an excellent /cicerone/."
"Excellent! Why did Mrs. Cameron decline?"
Elsie hesitated, and then lifted her clear brown eyes to his face,
with a sudden determination to bring matters to a crisis.
"I cannot say why Mrs. Cameron declined, but in declining she acted
very wisely and very honourably. Listen to me, Mr. Chillingly. You
know how highly I esteem, and how cordially I like you, and judging by
what I felt for some weeks, perhaps longer, after we parted at Tor
Hadham--" Here again she hesitated, and, with a half laugh and a
slight blush, again went resolutely on. "If I were Lily's aunt or
elder sister, I should do as Mrs. Cameron does; decline to let Lily
see much more of a young gentleman too much above her in wealth and
station for--"
"Stop," cried Kenelm, haughtily, "I cannot allow that any man's wealth
or station would warrant his presumption in thinking himself above
Miss Mordaunt."
"Above her in natural grace and refinement, certainly not. But in the
world there are other considerations which, perhaps, Sir Peter and
Lady Chillingly might take into account."
"You did not think of that before you last saw Mrs. Cameron."
"Honestly speaking, I did not. Assured that Miss Mordaunt was a
gentlewoman by birth, I did not sufficiently reflect upon other
disparities."
"You know, then, that she is by birth a gentlewoman?"
"I only know it as all here do, by the assurance of Mrs. Cameron, whom
no one could suppose not to be a lady. But there are different
degrees of lady and of gentleman, which are little heeded in the
ordinary intercourse of society, but become very perceptible in
questions of matrimonial alliance; and Mrs. Cameron herself says very
plainly that she does not consider her niece to belong to that station
in life from which Sir Peter and Lady Chillingly would naturally wish
their son should select his bride. Then (holding out her hand) pardon
me if I have wounded or offended you. I speak as a true friend to you
and to Lily both. Earnestly I advise you, if Miss Mordaunt be the
cause of your lingering here, earnestly I advise you to leave while
yet in time for her peace of mind and your own."
"Her peace of mind," said Kenelm, in low faltering tones, scarcely
hearing the rest of Mrs. Braefield's speech. "Her peace of mind? Do
you sincerely think that she cares for me,--could care for me,--if I
stayed?"
"I wish I could answer you decidedly. I am not in the secrets of her
heart. I can but conjecture that it might be dangerous for the peace
of any young girl to see too much of a man like yourself, to divine
that he loved her, and not to be aware that he could not, with the
approval of his family, ask her to become his wife."
Kenelm bent his face down, and covered it with his right hand. He did
not speak for some moments. Then he rose, the fresh cheek very pale,
and said,--
"You are right. Miss Mordaunt's peace of mind must be the first
consideration. Excuse me if I quit you thus abruptly. You have given
me much to think of, and I can only think of it adequately when
alone."