AT THE DEANERY.
There was a dinner-party at the deanery during Miss Tallowax's sojourn
at Brotherton. Mr. Canon Holdenough and Lady Alice were there. The
bishop and his wife had been asked,--a ceremony which was gone through
once a year,--but had been debarred from accepting the invitation by
the presence of clerical guests at the palace. But his lordship's
chaplain, Mr. Groschut, was present. Mr. Groschut also held an honorary
prebendal stall, and was one of the chapter,--a thorn sometimes in the
Dean's side. But appearances were well kept up at Brotherton, and no
one was more anxious that things should be done in a seemly way than
the Dean. Therefore, Mr. Groschut, who was a very low churchman and had
once been a Jew, but who bore a very high character for theological
erudition, was asked to the deanery. There were also one or two other
clergymen there, with their wives, and Mr. and Mrs. Houghton. Mrs.
Houghton, it will be remembered, was the beautiful woman who had
refused to become the wife of Lord George Germain. Before taking this
step, the Dean had been careful to learn whether his son-in-law would
object to meet the Houghtons. Such objection would have been foolish,
as the families had all known each other. Both Mr. De Baron, Mrs.
Houghton's father, and Mr. Houghton himself, had been intimate with the
late marquis, and had been friends of the present lord before he had
quitted the country. A lady when she refuses a gentleman gives no cause
of quarrel. All this the Dean understood; and as he himself had known
both Mr. Houghton and Mr. De Baron ever since he came to Brotherton, he
thought it better that there should be such a meeting. Lord George
blushed up to the roots of his hair, and then said that he should be
very glad to meet the gentleman and his wife.
The two young brides had known each other as girls, and now met with,
at any rate, an appearance of friendship.
"My dear," said Mrs. Houghton, who was about four years the elder, "of
course I know all about it, and so do you. You are an heiress, and
could afford to please yourself. I had nothing of my own, and should
have had to pass all my time at Manor Cross. Are you surprised?"
"Why should I be surprised?" said Lady George, who was, however, very
much surprised at this address.
"Well, you know; he is the handsomest man in England. Everybody allows
that; and, then, such a family--and such possibilities! I was very much
flattered. Of course he had not seen you then, or only seen you as a
child, or I shouldn't have had a chance. It is a great deal better as
it is,--isn't it?"
"I think so, certainly."
"I am so glad to hear that you have a house in town. We go up about the
first of April, when the hunting is over. Mr. Houghton does not ride
much, but he hunts a great deal. We live in Berkeley Square, you know;
and I do so hope we shall see ever so much of you."
"I'm sure I hope so too," said Lady George, who had never hitherto been
very fond of Miss De Baron, and had entertained a vague idea that she
ought to be a little afraid of Mrs. Houghton. But when her father's
guest was so civil to her she did not know how to be other than civil
in return.
"There is no reason why what has passed should make any
awkwardness;--is there?"
"No," said Lady George, feeling that she almost blushed at the allusion
to so delicate a subject.
"Of course not. Why should there? Lord George will soon get used to me,
just as if nothing had happened; and I shall always be ever so fond of
him,--in a way, you know. There shall be nothing to make you jealous."
"I'm not a bit afraid of that," said Lady George, almost too earnestly.
"You need not be, I'm sure. Not but what I do think he was at one time
very--very much attached to me. But it couldn't be. And what's the good
of thinking of such a thing when it can't be? I don't pretend to be
very virtuous, and I like money. Now Mr. Houghton, at any rate, has got
a large income. If I had had your fortune at my own command, I don't
say what I might not have done."
Lady George almost felt that she ought to be offended by all
this,--almost felt that she was disgusted; but, at the same time, she
did not quite understand it. Her father had made a point of asking the
Houghtons, and had told her that of course she would know the Houghtons
up in town. She had an idea that she was very ignorant of the ways of
life; but that now it would behove her, as a married woman, to learn
those ways. Perhaps the free and easy mode of talking was the right
thing. She did not like being told by another lady that that other lady
would have married her own husband, only that he was a pauper; and the
offence of all this seemed to be the greater because it was all so
recent. She didn't like being told that she was not to be jealous,
especially when she remembered that her husband had been desperately in
love with the lady who told her so not many months ago. But she was not
jealous, and was quite sure she never would be jealous; and, perhaps,
it did not matter. All this had occurred in the drawing-room before
dinner. Then Mr. Houghton came up to her, telling that he had been
commissioned by the Dean to have the honour of taking her down to
dinner. Having made his little speech, Mr. Houghton retired,--as
gentlemen generally do retire when in that position.
"Be as nice as you can to him," said Mrs. Houghton. "He hasn't much to
say for himself, but he isn't half a bad fellow; and a pretty woman
like you can do what she likes with him."
Lady George, as she went down to dinner, assured herself that she had
no slightest wish to take any unfair advantage of Mr. Houghton.
Lord George had taken down Miss Tallowax, the Dean having been very
wise in this matter; and Miss Tallowax was in a seventh heaven of
happiness. Miss Tallowax, though she had made no promises, was quite
prepared to do great things for her noble connexions, if her noble
connexions would treat her properly. She had already made half-a-dozen
wills, and was quite ready to make another, if Lord George would be
civil to her. The Dean was in his heart a little ashamed of his aunt;
but he was man enough to be able to bear her eccentricities without
showing his vexation, and sufficiently wise to know that more was to be
won than lost by the relationship.
"The best woman in the world," he had said to Lord George beforehand,
speaking of his aunt; "but, of course, you will remember that she was
not brought up as a lady."
Lord George, with stately urbanity, had signified his intention of
treating Miss Tallowax with every consideration.
"She has thirty thousand pounds at her own disposal," continued the
Dean. "I have never said a word to her about money, but, upon my
honour, I think she likes Mary better than any one else. It's worth
bearing in mind, you know."
Lord George smiled again in a stately manner,--perhaps showing
something of displeasure in his smile. But, nevertheless, he was well
aware that it was worth his while to bear Miss Tallowax and her money
in his mind.
"My lord," said Miss Tallowax, "I hope you will allow me to say how
much honoured we all feel by Mary's proud position." Lord George bowed
and smiled, and led the lady into the deanery dining-room. Words did
not come easily to him, and he hardly knew how to answer the lady. "Of
course, it's a great thing for people such as us," continued Miss
Tallowax, "to be connected with the family of a Marquis." Again Lord
George bowed. This was very bad, indeed,--a great deal worse than he
had anticipated from the aunt of so courtly a man as his father-in-law,
the Dean. The lady looked to be about sixty; very small, very healthy,
with streaky red cheeks, small grey eyes, and a brown front. Then came
upon him an idea, that it would be a very long time before the thirty
thousand pounds, or any part of it, would come to him. And then there
came to him another idea, that as he had married the Dean's daughter,
it was his duty to behave well to the Dean's aunt, even though the
money should never come to him. He therefore told Miss Tallowax that
his mother hoped to have the pleasure of seeing her at Manor Cross
before she left Brotherton. Miss Tallowax almost got out of her seat,
as she curtseyed with her head and shoulders to this proposition.
The Dean was a very good man at the head of his own dinner-table, and
the party went off pleasantly in spite of sundry attempts at clerical
pugnacity made by Mr. Groschut. Every man and every beast has his own
weapon. The wolf fights with his tooth, the bull with his horn, and Mr.
Groschut always fought with his bishop,--so taught by inner instinct.
The bishop, according to Mr. Groschut, was inclined to think that this
and that might be done. That such a change might be advantageously made
in reference to certain clerical meetings, and that the hilarity of the
diocese might be enhanced by certain evangelical festivities. These
remarks were generally addressed to Mr. Canon Holdenough, who made
almost no reply to them. But the Dean was, on each occasion, prepared
with some civil answer, which, while it was an answer, would still seem
to change the conversation. It was a law in the Close that Bishop
Barton should be never allowed to interfere with the affairs of
Brotherton Cathedral; and if not the bishop, certainly not the bishop's
chaplain. Though the Canon and the Dean did not go altogether on all
fours in reference to clerical affairs generally they were both agreed
on this point. But the Chaplain, who knew the condition of affairs as
well as they did, thought the law a bad law, and was determined to
abolish it. "It certainly would be very pleasant, Mr. Holdenough, if we
could have such a meeting within the confines of the Close. I don't
mean to-day, and I don't mean to-morrow; but we might think of it. The
bishop, who has the greatest love for the cathedral services, is very
much of that mind."
"I do not know that I care very much for any out-of-door gatherings,"
said the Canon.
"But why out of doors?" asked the Chaplain.
"Whatever meeting there is to be in the Close, will, I hope, be held in
the deanery," said the Dean; "but of all meetings, I must say that I
like meetings such as this, the best. Germain, will you pass the
bottle?" When they were alone together he always called his son-in-law,
George; but in company he dropped the more familiar name.
Mr. De Baron, Mrs. Houghton's father, liked his joke. "Sporting men,"
he said, "always go to a meet, and clerical men to a meeting. What's
the difference?"
"A good deal, if it is in the colour of the coat," said the Dean.
"The one is always under cover," said the Canon. "The other, I believe,
is generally held out of doors."
"There is, I fancy, a considerable resemblance in the energy of those
who are brought together," said the Chaplain.
"But clergymen ain't allowed to hunt, are they?" said Mr. Houghton,
who, as usual, was a little in the dark as to the subject under
consideration.
"What's to prevent them?" asked the Canon, who had never been out
hunting in his life, and who certainly would have advised a young
clergyman to abstain from the sport. But in asking the question, he was
enabled to strike a sidelong blow at the objectionable chaplain, by
seeming to question the bishop's authority.
"Their own conscience, I should hope," said the Chaplain, solemnly,
thereby parrying the blow successfully.
"I am very glad, then," said Mr. Houghton, "that I didn't go into the
Church." To be thought a real hunting man was the great object of Mr.
Houghton's ambition.
"I am afraid you would hardly have suited us, Houghton," said the Dean.
"Come, shall we go up to the ladies?"
In the drawing-room, after a little while, Lord George found himself
seated next to Mrs. Houghton--Adelaide De Baron, as she had been when
he had sighed in vain at her feet. How it had come to pass that he was
sitting there he did not know, but he was quite sure that it had come
to pass by no arrangement contrived by himself. He had looked at her
once since he had been in the room, almost blushing as he did so, and
had told himself that she was certainly very beautiful. He almost
thought that she was more beautiful than his wife; but he knew,--he
knew now,--that her beauty and her manners were not as well suited to
him as those of the sweet creature whom he had married. And now he was
once more seated close to her, and it was incumbent on him to speak to
her. "I hope," she said, almost in a whisper, but still not seeming to
whisper, "that we have both become very happy since we met last."
"I hope so, indeed," said he.
"There cannot, at least, be any doubt as to you, Lord George. I never
knew a sweeter young girl than Mary Lovelace; so pretty, so innocent,
and so enthusiastic. I am but a poor worldly creature compared to her."
"She is all that you say, Mrs. Houghton." Lord George also was
displeased,--more thoroughly displeased than had been his wife. But he
did not know how to show his displeasure; and though he felt it, he
still felt, also, the old influence of the woman's beauty.
"I am so delighted to have heard that you have got a house in Munster
Court. I hope that Lady George and I may be fast friends. Indeed, I
won't call her Lady George; for she was Mary to me before we either of
us thought of getting husbands for ourselves." This was not strictly
true, but of that Lord George could know nothing. "And I do hope,--may
I hope,--that you will call on me?"
"Certainly I will do so."
"It will add so much to the happiness of my life, if you will allow me
to feel that all that has come and gone has not broken the friendship
between us."
"Certainly not," said Lord George.
The lady had then said all that she had got to say, and changed her
position as silently as she had occupied it. There was no abruptness of
motion, and yet Lord George saw her talking to her husband at the other
side of the room, almost while his own words were still sounding in his
own ears. Then he watched her for the next few minutes. Certainly, she
was very beautiful. There was no room for comparison, they were so
unlike; otherwise, he would have been disposed to say that Adelaide was
the more beautiful. But Adelaide certainly would not have suited the
air of Manor Cross, or have associated well with Lady Sarah.
On the next day the Marchioness and Ladies Susannah and Amelia drove
over to the deanery in great state, to call on Miss Tallowax, and to
take Lady George back to Manor Cross. Miss Tallowax enjoyed the company
of the Marchioness greatly. She had never seen a lady of that rank
before. "Only think how I must feel," she said to her niece, that
morning, "I, that never spoke to any one above a baronet's lady in my
life."
"I don't think you'll find much difference," said Mary.
"You're used to it. You're one of them yourself. You're above a
baronet's lady,--ain't you, my dear?"
"I have hardly looked into all that as yet, aunt." There must surely
have been a little fib in this, or the Dean's daughter must have been
very much unlike other young ladies.
"I suppose I ought to be afraid of you, my dear; only you are so nice
and so pretty. And as for Lord George, he was quite condescending."
Lady George knew that praise was intended, and therefore made no
objection to the otherwise objectionable epithet.
The visit of the Marchioness was passed over with the less disturbance
to Miss Tallowax because it was arranged that she was to be taken over
to lunch at Manor Cross on the following day. Lord George had said a
word, and Lady Sarah had consented, though, as a rule, Lady Sarah did
not like the company of vulgar people. The peasants of the parish, down
to the very poorest of the poor, were her daily companions. With them
she would spend hours, feeling no inconvenience from their language or
habits. But she did not like gentlefolk who were not gentle. In days
now long gone by, she had only assented to the Dean, because holy
orders are supposed to make a gentleman; for she would acknowledge a
bishop to be as grand a nobleman as any, though he might have been born
the son of a butcher. But nobility and gentry cannot travel backwards,
and she had been in doubt about Miss Tallowax. But even with the Lady
Sarah a feeling has made its way which teaches them to know that they
must submit to some changes. The thing was to be regretted, but Lady
Sarah knew that she was not strong enough to stand quite alone. "You
know she is very rich," the Marchioness had said in a whisper; "and if
Brotherton marries, your poor brother will want it so badly."
"That ought not to make any difference, mamma," said Lady Sarah.
Whether it did make any difference or not, Lady Sarah herself probably
hardly knew; but she did consent to the asking of Miss Tallowax to
lunch at Manor Cross.