Mrs. Boulby's ears had not deceived her; it had been a bet: and the day
would have gone disastrously with Robert, if Mrs. Lovell had not won
her bet. What was heroism to Warbeach, appeared very outrageous
blackguardism up at Fairly. It was there believed by the gentlemen,
though rather against evidence, that the man was a sturdy ruffian,
and an infuriated sot. The first suggestion was to drag him before
the magistrates; but against this Algernon protested, declaring his
readiness to defend himself, with so vehement a magnanimity, that it was
clearly seen the man had a claim on him. Lord Elling, however, when he
was told of these systematic assaults upon one of his guests, announced
his resolve to bring the law into operation. Algernon heard it as the
knell to his visit.
He was too happy, to go away willingly; and the great Jew City of London
was exceedingly hot for him at that period; but to stay and risk an
exposure of his extinct military career, was not possible. In his
despair, he took Mrs. Lovell entirely into his confidence; in doing
which, he only filled up the outlines of what she already knew
concerning Edward. He was too useful to the lady for her to afford to
let him go. No other youth called her “angel” for listening complacently
to strange stories of men and their dilemmas; no one fetched and carried
for her like Algernon; and she was a woman who cherished dog-like
adoration, and could not part with it. She had also the will to reward
it.
At her intercession, Robert was spared an introduction to the
magistrates. She made light of his misdemeanours, assuring everybody
that so splendid a horseman deserved to be dealt with differently from
other offenders. The gentlemen who waited upon Farmer Eccles went in
obedience to her orders.
Then came the scene on Ditley Marsh, described to that assembly at the
Pilot, by Stephen Bilton, when she perceived that Robert was manageable
in silken trammels, and made a bet that she would show him tamed. She
won her bet, and saved the gentlemen from soiling their hands, for which
they had conceived a pressing necessity, and they thanked her, and paid
their money over to Algernon, whom she constituted her treasurer. She
was called “the man-tamer,” gracefully acknowledging the compliment.
Colonel Barclay, the moustachioed horseman, who had spoken the few words
to Robert in passing, now remarked that there was an end of the military
profession.
“I surrender my sword,” he said gallantly.
Another declared that ladies would now act in lieu of causing an appeal
to arms.
“Similia similibus, &c.,” said Edward. “They can, apparently, cure what
they originate.”
“Ah, the poor sex!” Mrs. Lovell sighed. “When we bring the millennium to
you, I believe you will still have a word against Eve.”
The whole parade back to the stables was marked by pretty speeches.
“By Jove! but he ought to have gone down on his knees, like a horse when
you've tamed him,” said Lord Suckling, the young guardsman.
“I would mark a distinction between a horse and a brave man, Lord
Suckling,” said the lady; and such was Mrs. Lovell's dignity when an
allusion to Robert was forced on her, and her wit and ease were so
admirable, that none of those who rode with her thought of sitting in
judgement on her conduct. Women can make for themselves new spheres,
new laws, if they will assume their right to be eccentric as an
unquestionable thing, and always reserve a season for showing forth like
the conventional women of society.
The evening was Mrs. Lovell's time for this important re-establishment
of her position; and many a silly youth who had sailed pleasantly with
her all the day, was wrecked when he tried to carry on the topics where
she reigned the lady of the drawing-room. Moreover, not being eccentric
from vanity, but simply to accommodate what had once been her tastes,
and were now her necessities, she avoided slang, and all the insignia of
eccentricity.
Thus she mastered the secret of keeping the young men respectfully
enthusiastic; so that their irrepressible praises did not (as is usual
when these are in acclamation) drag her to their level; and the female
world, with which she was perfectly feminine, and as silkenly insipid
every evening of her life as was needed to restore her reputation,
admitted that she belonged to it, which is everything to an adventurous
spirit of that sex: indeed, the sole secure basis of operations.
You are aware that men's faith in a woman whom her sisters
discountenance, and partially repudiate, is uneasy, however deeply
they may be charmed. On the other hand, she maybe guilty of prodigious
oddities without much disturbing their reverence, while she is in the
feminine circle.
But what fatal breath was it coming from Mrs. Lovell that was always
inflaming men to mutual animosity? What encouragement had she given to
Algernon, that Lord Suckling should be jealous of him? And what to Lord
Suckling, that Algernon should loathe the sight of the young lord? And
why was each desirous of showing his manhood in combat before an eminent
peacemaker?
Edward laughed--“Ah-ha!” and rubbed his hands as at a special
confirmation of his prophecy, when Algernon came into his room and
said, “I shall fight that fellow Suckling. Hang me if I can stand his
impudence! I want to have a shot at a man of my own set, just to let
Peggy Lovell see! I know what she thinks.”
“Just to let Mrs. Lovell see!” Edward echoed. “She has seen it lots of
times, my dear Algy. Come; this looks lively. I was sure she would soon
be sick of the water-gruel of peace.”
“I tell you she's got nothing to do with it, Ned. Don't be confoundedly
unjust. She didn't tell me to go and seek him. How can she help his
whispering to her? And then she looks over at me, and I swear I'm not
going to be defended by a woman. She must fancy I haven't got the pluck
of a flea. I know what her idea of young fellows is. Why, she said
to me, when Suckling went off from her, the other day, 'These are our
Guards.' I shall fight him.”
“Do,” said Edward.
“Will you take a challenge?”
“I'm a lawyer, Mr. Mars.”
“You won't take a challenge for a friend, when he's insulted?”
“I reply again, I am a lawyer. But this is what I'll do, if you like.
I'll go to Mrs. Lovely and inform her that it is your desire to gain her
esteem by fighting with pistols. That will accomplish the purpose you
seek. It will possibly disappoint her, for she will have to stop the
affair; but women are born to be disappointed--they want so much.”
“I'll fight him some way or other,” said Algernon, glowering; and
then his face became bright: “I say, didn't she manage that business
beautifully this morning? Not another woman in the world could have done
it.”
“Oh, Una and the Lion! Mrs. Valentine and Orson! Did you bet with the
rest?” his cousin asked.
“I lost my tenner; but what's that!”
“There will be an additional five to hand over to the man Sedgett.
What's that!”
“No, hang it!” Algernon shouted.
“You've paid your ten for the shadow cheerfully. Pay your five for the
substance.”
“Do you mean to say that Sedgett--” Algernon stared.
“Miracles, if you come to examine them, Algy, have generally had a
pathway prepared for them; and the miracle of the power of female
persuasion exhibited this morning was not quite independent of the
preliminary agency of a scoundrel.”
“So that's why you didn't bet.” Algernon signified the opening of his
intelligence with his eyelids, pronouncing “by jingos” and “by Joves,”
to ease the sudden rush of ideas within him. “You might have let me
into the secret, Ned. I'd lose any number of tens to Peggy Lovell, but a
fellow don't like to be in the dark.”
“Except, Algy, that when you carry light, you're a general illuminator.
Let the matter drop. Sedgett has saved you from annoyance. Take him his
five pounds.”
“Annoyance be hanged, my good Ned!” Algernon was aroused to reply. “I
don't complain, and I've done my best to stand in front of you; and as
you've settled the fellow, I say nothing; but, between us two, who's the
guilty party, and who's the victim?”
“Didn't he tell you he had you in his power?”
“I don't remember that he did.”
“Well, I heard him. The sturdy cur refused to be bribed, so there was
only one way of quieting him; and you see what a thrashing does for that
sort of beast. I, Algy, never abandon a friend; mark that. Take the five
pounds to Sedgett.”
Algernon strode about the room. “First of all, you stick me up in a
theatre, so that I'm seen with a girl; and then you get behind me, and
let me be pelted,” he began grumbling. “And ask a fellow for money, who
hasn't a farthing! I shan't literally have a farthing till that horse
'Templemore' runs; and then, by George! I'll pay my debts. Jews are
awful things!”
“How much do you require at present?” said Edward, provoking his
appetite for a loan.
“Oh, fifty--that is, just now. More like a thousand when I get to town.
And where it's to come from! but never mind. 'Pon my soul, I pity the
fox I run down here. I feel I'm exactly in his case in London. However,
if I can do you any service, Ned--”
Edward laughed. “You might have done me the service of not excusing
yourself to the squire when he came here, in such a way as to implicate
me.”
“But I was so tremendously badgered, Ned.”
“You had a sort of gratification in letting the squire crow over his
brother. And he did crow for a time.”
“On my honour, Ned, as to crowing! he went away cursing at me. Peggy
Lovell managed it somehow for you. I was really awfully badgered.”
“Yes; but you know what a man my father is. He hasn't the squire's
philosophy in those affairs.”
“'Pon my soul, Mr. Ned, I never guessed it before; but I rather fancy
you got clear with Sir Billy the banker by washing in my basin--eh, did
you?”
Edward looked straight at his cousin, saying, “You deserved worse than
that. You were treacherous. You proved you were not to be trusted; and
yet, you see, I trust you. Call it my folly. Of course (and I don't mind
telling you) I used my wits to turn the point of the attack. I may be
what they call unscrupulous when I'm surprised. I have to look to
money as well as you; and if my father thought it went in a--what he
considers--wrong direction, the source would be choked by paternal
morality. You betrayed me. Listen.”
“I tell you, Ned, I merely said to my governor--”
“Listen to me. You betrayed me. I defended myself; that is, I've managed
so that I may still be of service to you. It was a near shave; but you
now see the value of having a character with one's father. Just open my
writing-desk there, and toss out the cheque-book. I confess I can't see
why you should have objected--but let that pass. How much do you want?
Fifty? Say forty-five, and five I'll give you to pay to Sedgett--making
fifty. Eighty before, and fifty--one hundred and thirty. Write that you
owe me that sum, on a piece of paper. I can't see why you should wish to
appear so uncommonly virtuous.”
Algernon scribbled the written acknowledgment, which he despised himself
for giving, and the receiver for taking, but was always ready to give
for the money, and said, as he put the cheque in his purse: “It was this
infernal fellow completely upset me. If you were worried by a bull-dog,
by Jove, Ned, you'd lose your coolness. He bothered my head off. Ask me
now, and I'll do anything on earth for you. My back's broad. Sir Billy
can't think worse of me than he does. Do you want to break positively
with that pretty rival to Peggy L.? I've got a scheme to relieve you,
my poor old Ned, and make everybody happy. I'll lay the foundations of a
fresh and brilliant reputation for myself.”
Algernon took a chair. Edward was fathoms deep in his book.
The former continued: “I'd touch on the money-question last, with any
other fellow than you; but you always know that money's the hinge, and
nothing else lifts a man out of a scrape. It costs a stiff pull on your
banker, and that reminds me, you couldn't go to Sir Billy for it; you'd
have to draw in advance, by degrees anyhow, look here:--There are lots
of young farmers who want to emigrate and want wives and money. I know
one. It's no use going into particulars, but it's worth thinking over.
Life is made up of mutual help, Ned. You can help another fellow better
than yourself. As for me, when I'm in a hobble, I give you my word of
honour, I'm just like a baby, and haven't an idea at my own disposal.
The same with others. You can't manage without somebody's assistance.
What do you say, old boy?”
Edward raised his head from his book. “Some views of life deduced
from your private experience?” he observed; and Algernon cursed at
book-worms, who would never take hints, and left him.
But when he was by himself, Edward pitched his book upon the floor and
sat reflecting. The sweat started on his forehead. He was compelled to
look into his black volume and study it. His desire was to act humanely
and generously; but the question inevitably recurred: “How can I utterly
dash my prospects in the world?” It would be impossible to bring Dahlia
to great houses; and he liked great houses and the charm of mixing among
delicately-bred women. On the other hand, lawyers have married beneath
them--married cooks, housemaids, governesses, and so forth. And what has
a lawyer to do with a dainty lady, who will constantly distract him with
finicking civilities and speculations in unprofitable regions? What he
does want is a woman amiable as a surface of parchment, serviceable
as his inkstand; one who will be like the wig in which he closes his
forensic term, disreputable from overwear, but suited to the purpose.
“Ah! if I meant to be nothing but a lawyer!” Edward stopped the flow of
this current in Dahlia's favour. His passion for her was silent. Was it
dead? It was certainly silent. Since Robert had come down to play his
wild game of persecution at Fairly, the simple idea of Dahlia had been
Edward's fever. He detested brute force, with a finely-witted man's full
loathing; and Dahlia's obnoxious champion had grown to be associated
in his mind with Dahlia. He swept them both from his recollection
abhorrently, for in his recollection he could not divorce them. He
pretended to suppose that Dahlia, whose only reproach to him was her
suffering, participated in the scheme to worry him. He could even forget
her beauty--forget all, save the unholy fetters binding him. She seemed
to imprison him in bare walls. He meditated on her character. She had
no strength. She was timid, comfort-loving, fond of luxury, credulous,
preposterously conventional; that is, desirous more than the ordinary
run of women of being hedged about and guarded by ceremonies--“mere
ceremonies,” said Edward, forgetting the notion he entertained of women
not so protected. But it may be, that in playing the part of fool and
coward, we cease to be mindful of the absolute necessity for sheltering
the weak from that monstrous allied army, the cowards and the fools.
He admitted even to himself that he had deceived her, at the same time
denouncing her unheard-of capacity of belief, which had placed him in a
miserable hobble, and that was the truth.
Now, men confessing themselves in a miserable hobble, and knowing they
are guilty of the state of things lamented by them, intend to drown that
part of their nature which disturbs them by its outcry. The submission
to a tangle that could be cut through instantaneously by any exertion of
a noble will, convicts them. They had better not confide, even to their
secret hearts, that they are afflicted by their conscience and the
generosity of their sentiments, for it will be only to say that these
high qualities are on the failing side. Their inclination, under
the circumstances, is generally base, and no less a counsellor than
uncorrupted common sense, when they are in such a hobble, will sometimes
advise them to be base. But, in admitting the plea which common sense
puts forward on their behalf, we may fairly ask them to be masculine in
their baseness. Or, in other words, since they must be selfish, let them
be so without the poltroonery of selfishness. Edward's wish was to be
perfectly just, as far as he could be now--just to himself as well; for
how was he to prove of worth and aid to any one depending on him, if he
stood crippled? Just, also, to his family; to his possible posterity;
and just to Dahlia. His task was to reconcile the variety of justness
due upon all sides. The struggle, we will assume, was severe, for he
thought so; he thought of going to Dahlia and speaking the word of
separation; of going to her family and stating his offence, without
personal exculpation; thus masculine in baseness, he was in idea; but
poltroonery triumphed, the picture of himself facing his sin and its
victims dismayed him, and his struggle ended in his considering as
to the fit employment of one thousand pounds in his possession, the
remainder of a small legacy, hitherto much cherished.
A day later, Mrs. Lovell said to him: “Have you heard of that
unfortunate young man? I am told that he lies in great danger from a
blow on the back of his head. He looked ill when I saw him, and however
mad he may be, I'm sorry harm should have come to one who is really
brave. Gentle means are surely best. It is so with horses, it must be so
with men. As to women, I don't pretend to unriddle them.”
“Gentle means are decidedly best,” said Edward, perceiving that her
little dog Algy had carried news to her, and that she was setting
herself to fathom him. “You gave an eminent example of it yesterday. I
was so sure of the result that I didn't bet against you.”
“Why not have backed me?”
The hard young legal face withstood the attack of her soft blue eyes,
out of which a thousand needles flew, seeking a weak point in the mask.
“The compliment was, to incite you to a superhuman effort.”
“Then why not pay the compliment?”
“I never pay compliments to transparent merit; I do not hold candles to
lamps.”
“True,” said she.
“And as gentle means are so admirable, it would be as well to stop
incision and imbruing between those two boys.”
“Which?” she asked innocently.
“Suckling and Algy.”
“Is it possible? They are such boys.”
“Exactly of the kind to do it. Don't you know?” and Edward explained
elaborately and cruelly the character of the boys who rushed into
conflicts. Colour deep as evening red confused her cheeks, and she said,
“We must stop them.”
“Alas!” he shook his head; “if it's not too late.”
“It never is too late.”
“Perhaps not, when the embodiment of gentle means is so determined.”
“Come; I believe they are in the billiard room now, and you shall see,”
she said.
The pair were found in the billiard room, even as a pair of terriers
that remember a bone. Mrs. Lovell proposed a game, and offered herself
for partner to Lord Suckling.
“Till total defeat do us part,” the young nobleman acquiesced; and total
defeat befell them. During the play of the balls, Mrs. Lovell threw a
jealous intentness of observation upon all the strokes made by Algernon;
saying nothing, but just looking at him when he did a successful thing.
She winked at some quiet stately betting that went on between him and
Lord Suckling.
They were at first preternaturally polite and formal toward one another;
by degrees, the influence at work upon them was manifested in a thaw
of their stiff demeanour, and they fell into curt dialogues, which Mrs.
Lovell gave herself no concern to encourage too early.
Edward saw, and was astonished himself to feel that she had ceased to
breathe that fatal inciting breath, which made men vindictively emulous
of her favour, and mad to match themselves for a claim to the chief
smile. No perceptible change was displayed. She was Mrs. Lovell still;
vivacious and soft; flame-coloured, with the arrowy eyelashes; a
pleasant companion, who did not play the woman obtrusively among men,
and show a thirst for homage. All the difference appeared to be, that
there was an absence as of some evil spiritual emanation.
And here a thought crossed him--one of the memorable little evanescent
thoughts which sway us by our chance weakness; “Does she think me
wanting in physical courage?”
Now, though the difference between them had been owing to a scornful
remark that she had permitted herself to utter, on his refusal to accept
a quarrel with one of her numerous satellites, his knowledge of her
worship of brains, and his pride in his possession of the burdensome
weight, had quite precluded his guessing that she might haply suppose
him to be deficient in personal bravery. He was astounded by the
reflection that she had thus misjudged him. It was distracting;
sober-thoughted as he was by nature. He watched the fair simplicity of
her new manner with a jealous eye. Her management of the two youths
was exquisite; but to him, Edward, she had never condescended to show
herself thus mediating and amiable. Why? Clearly, because she conceived
that he had no virile fire in his composition. Did the detestable little
devil think silly duelling a display of valour? Did the fair seraph
think him anything less than a man?
How beautifully hung the yellow loop of her hair as she leaned over the
board! How gracious she was and like a Goddess with these boys, as he
called them! She rallied her partner, not letting him forget that he
had the honour of being her partner; while she appeared envious of
Algernon's skill, and talked to both and got them upon common topics,
and laughed, and was like a fair English flower of womanhood; nothing
deadly.
“There, Algy; you have beaten us. I don't think I'll have Lord Suckling
for my partner any more,” she said, putting up her wand, and pouting.
“You don't bear malice?” said Algernon, revived.
“There is my hand. Now you must play a game alone with Lord Suckling,
and beat him; mind you beat him, or it will redound to my discredit.”
With which, she and Edward left them.
“Algy was a little crestfallen, and no wonder,” she said. “He is soon
set up again. They will be good friends now.”
“Isn't it odd, that they should be ready to risk their lives for
trifles?”
Thus Edward tempted her to discuss the subject which he had in his mind.
She felt intuitively the trap in his voice.
“Ah, yes,” she replied; “it must be because they know their lives are
not precious.”
So utterly at her mercy had he fallen, that her pronunciation of that
word “precious” carried a severe sting to him, and it was not spoken
with peculiar emphasis; on the contrary, she wished to indicate that she
was of his way of thinking, as regarded this decayed method of settling
disputes. He turned to leave her.
“You go to your Adeline, I presume,” she said.
“Ah! that reminds me. I have never thanked you.”
“For my good services? such as they are. Sir William will be very happy,
and it was for him, a little more than for you, that I went out of my
way to be a matchmaker.”
“It was her character, of course, that struck you as being so eminently
suited to mine.”
“Can I tell what is the character of a girl? She is mild and shy, and
extremely gentle. In all probability she has a passion for battles and
bloodshed. I judged from your father's point of view. She has money, and
you are to have money; and the union of money and money is supposed to
be a good thing. And besides, you are variable, and off to-morrow what
you are on to-day; is it not so? and heiresses are never jilted. Colonel
Barclay is only awaiting your retirement. Le roi est mort; vive le roi!
Heiresses may cry it like kingdoms.”
“I thought,” said Edward, meaningly, “the colonel had better taste.”
“Do you not know that my friends are my friends because they are not
allowed to dream they will do anything else? If they are taken poorly, I
commend them to a sea-voyage--Africa, the North-West Passage, the source
of the Nile. Men with their vanity wounded may discover wonders! They
return friendly as before, whether they have done the Geographical
Society a service or not. That is, they generally do.”
“Then I begin to fancy I must try those latitudes.”
“Oh! you are my relative.”
He scarcely knew that he had uttered “Margaret.”
She replied to it frankly, “Yes, Cousin Ned. You have made the voyage,
you see, and have come back friends with me. The variability of opals!
Ah! Sir John, you join us in season. We were talking of opals. Is the
opal a gem that stands to represent women?”
Sir John Capes smoothed his knuckles with silken palms, and with
courteous antique grin, responded, “It is a gem I would never dare to
offer to a lady's acceptance.”
“It is by repute unlucky; so you never can have done so.
“Exquisite!” exclaimed the veteran in smiles, “if what you deign to
imply were only true!”
They entered the drawing-room among the ladies.
Edward whispered in Mrs. Lovell's ear, “He is in need of the voyage.”
“He is very near it,” she answered in the same key, and swam into
general conversation.
Her cold wit, Satanic as the gleam of it struck through his mind, gave
him a throb of desire to gain possession of her, and crush her.