LADY GEORGE AT THE DEANERY.
It took Mary a long long morning,--not altogether an unhappy
morning,--to write her letter to her husband. She was forced to make
many attempts before she could tell the great news in a fitting way,
and even when the telling was done she was very far from being
satisfied with the manner of it. There should have been no necessity
that such tidings should be told by letter. It was cruel, very cruel,
that such a moment should not have been made happy to her by his joy.
The whisper made to her father should have been made to him,--but that
things had gone so untowardly with her. And then, in her present
circumstances, she could not devote her letter to the one event. She
must refer to the said subject of their separation. "Dear, dearest
George, pray do not think of quarrelling with me," she said twice over
in her letter. The letter did get itself finished at last, and the
groom was sent over with it on horseback.
What answer would he make to her? Would he be very happy? would he be
happy enough to forgive her at once and come and stay with her at the
deanery? or would the importance of the moment make him more imperious
than ever in commanding that she should go with him to Cross Hall. If
he did command her now she thought that she must go. Then she sat
meditating what would be the circumstances of her life there,--how
absolutely she would be trodden upon; how powerless she would be to
resist those Dorcas conclaves after her mutiny and subsequent
submission! Though she could not quite guess, she could nearly guess
what bad things had been said of her; and the ladies at Cross Hall
were, as she understood, now in amity with him who had said them. They
had believed evil of her, and of course, therefore, in going to Cross
Hall, she would go to it as to a reformatory. But the deanery would be
to her a paradise if only her husband would but come to her there. It
was not only that she was mistress of everything, including her own
time, but that her father's infinite tenderness made all things soft
and sweet to her. She hated to be scolded, and the slightest roughness
of word or tone seemed to her to convey a rebuke. But he was never
rough. She loved to be caressed by those who were dear and near and
close to her, and his manner was always caressing. She often loved, if
the truth is to be spoken, to be idle, and to spend hours with an
unread book in her hand under the shade of the deanery trees, and among
the flowers of the deanery garden. The Dean never questioned her as to
those idle hours. But at Cross Hall not a half-hour would be allowed to
pass without enquiry as to its purpose. At Cross Hall there would be no
novels,--except those of Miss Edgeworth, which were sickening to her.
She might have all Mudie down to the deanery if she chose to ask for
it. At Cross Hall she would be driven out with the Dowager, Lady
Susanna, and Lady Amelia, for two hours daily, and would have to get
out of the carriage at every cottage she came to. At the deanery there
was a pair of ponies, and it was her great delight to drive her father
about the roads outside the city. She sometimes thought that a long
sojourn at Cross Hall would kill her. Would he not be kind to her now,
and loving, and would he not come and stay with her for one or two
happy weeks in her father's house? If so, how dearly she would love
him; how good she would be to him; how she would strive to gratify him
in all his whims! Then she thought of Adelaide Houghton and the letter;
and she thought also of those subsequent visits to Berkeley Square. But
still she did not in the least believe that he cared for Adelaide
Houghton. It was impossible that he should like a painted, unreal,
helmeted creature, who smelt of oils, and was never unaffected for a
moment. At any rate she would never, never throw Adelaide Houghton in
his teeth. If she had been imprudent, so had he; and she would teach
him how small errors ought to be forgiven. But would he come to her, or
would he only write? Surely he would come to her now when there was
matter of such vital moment to be discussed between them! Surely there
would be little directions to her given, which should be obeyed,--oh,
with such care, if he would be good to her.
That pernicious groom must have ridden home along the road nearly as
quick as the Dean's cob would carry him for the express purpose of
saying that there was no message. When he had been about ten minutes in
the Cross Hall kitchen, he was told that there was no message, and had
trotted off with most unnecessary speed. Mary was with her father when
word was brought to him, saying that there was no message. "Oh, papa,
he doesn't care!" she said.
"He will be sure to write," said the Dean, "and he would not allow
himself to write in a hurry."
"But why doesn't he come?"
"He ought to come."
"Oh, papa;--if he doesn't care, I shall die."
"Men always care very much."
"But if he has made up his mind to quarrel with me for ever, then he
won't care. Why didn't he send his love?"
"He wouldn't do that by the groom."
"I'd send him mine by a chimney-sweep if there were nobody else." Then
the door was opened, and in half a second she was in her husband's
arms. "Oh, George, my darling, my own, I am so happy. I thought you
would come. Oh, my dear!" Then the Dean crept out without a word, and
the husband and the wife were together for hours.
"Do you think she is well," said Lord George to the Dean in the course
of the afternoon.
"Well? why shouldn't she be well!"
"In this condition I take it one never quite knows."
"I should say there isn't a young woman in England in better general
health. I never knew her to be ill in my life since she had the
measles."
"I thought she seemed flushed."
"No doubt,--at seeing you."
"I suppose she ought to see the doctor."
"See a fiddlestick. If she's not fretted she won't want a doctor till
the time comes when the doctor will be with her whether she wants him
or not. There's nothing so bad as coddling. Everybody knows that now.
The great thing is to make her happy."
There came a cloud across Lord George's brow as this was said,--a cloud
which he could not control, though, as he had hurried across the park
on horseback, he had made up his mind to be happy and good-humoured. He
certainly had cared very much. He had spoken no word on the subject to
anyone, but he had been very much disappointed when he had been married
twelve months and no hope of an heir had as yet been vouchsafed to him.
When his brother had alluded to the matter, he had rebuked even his
brother. He had never ventured to ask a question even of his wife. But
he had been himself aware of his own bitter disappointment. The reading
of his wife's letter had given him a feeling of joy keener than any he
had before felt. For a moment he had been almost triumphant. Of course
he would go to her. That distasteful Popenjoy up in London was sick and
ailing; and after all this might be the true Popenjoy who, in coming
days, would re-establish the glory of the family. But, at any rate, she
was his wife, and the bairn would be his bairn. He had been made a
happy man, and had determined to enjoy to the full the first blush of
his happiness. But when he was told that she was not to be fretted,
that she was to be made especially happy, and was so told by her
father, he did not quite clearly see his way for the future. Did this
mean that he was to give up everything, that he was to confess tacitly
that he had been wrong in even asking his wife to go with him to Cross
Hall, and that he was to be reconciled in all things to the Dean? He
was quite ready to take his wife back, to abstain from accusations
against her, to let her be one of the family, but he was as eager as
ever to repudiate the Dean. To the eyes of his mother the Dean was now
the most horrible of human beings, and her eldest born the dearest of
sons. After all that he had endured he was again going to let her live
at the old family house, and all those doubts about Popenjoy had, she
thought, been fully satisfied. The Marquis to her thinking was now
almost a model Marquis, and this dear son, this excellent head of the
family, had been nearly murdered by the truculent Dean. Of course the
Dean was spoken of at Cross Hall in very bitter terms, and of course
those terms made impression on Lord George. In the first moments of his
paternal anxiety he had been willing to encounter the Dean in order
that he might see his wife; but he did not like to be told by the Dean
that his wife ought to be made happy. "I don't know what there is to
make her unhappy," he said, "if she will do her duty."
"That she has always done," said the Dean, "both before her marriage
and since."
"I suppose she will come home now," said Lord George.
"I hardly know what home means. Your own home I take it is in Munster
Court."
"My own home is at Manor Cross," said Lord George, proudly.
"While that is the residence of Lord Brotherton it is absolutely
impossible that she should go there. Would you take her to the house of
a man who has scurrilously maligned her as he has done?"
"He is not there or likely to be there. Of course she would come to
Cross Hall first."
"Do you think that would be wise? You were speaking just now with
anxiety as to her condition."
"Of course I am anxious."
"You ought to be at any rate. Do you think, that as she is now she
should be subjected to the cold kindnesses of the ladies of your
family?"
"What right have you to call their kindness cold?"
"Ask yourself. You hear what they say. I do not. You must know exactly
what has been the effect in your mother's house of the scene between me
and your brother at that hotel. I spurned him from me with violence
because he had maligned your wife. I may expect you to forgive me."
"It was very unfortunate."
"I may feel sure that you as a man must exonerate me from blame in that
matter, but I cannot expect your mother to see it in the same light. I
ask you whether they do not regard her as wayward and unmanageable?"
He paused for a reply; and Lord George found himself obliged to say
something. "She should come and show that she is not wayward or
unmanageable."
"But she would be so to them. Without meaning it they would torment
her, and she would be miserable. Do you not know that it would be so?"
He almost seemed to yield. "If you wish her to be happy, come here for
a while. If you will stay here with us for a month, so that this stupid
idea of a quarrel shall be wiped out of people's minds, I will
undertake that she shall then go to Cross Hall. To Manor Cross she
cannot go while the Marquis is its ostensible master."
Lord George was very far from being prepared to yield in this way. He
had thought that his wife in her present condition would have been sure
to obey him, and had even ventured to hope that the Dean would make no
further objection. "I don't think that this is the place for her," he
said. "Wherever I am she should be with me."
"Then come here, and it will be all right," said the Dean.
"I don't think that I can do that."
"If you are anxious for her health you will." A few minutes ago the
Dean had been very stout in his assurances that everything was well
with his daughter, but he was by no means unwilling to take advantage
of her interesting situation to forward his own views. "I certainly
cannot say that she ought to go to Cross Hall at present. She would be
wretched there. Ask yourself."
"Why should she be wretched?"
"Ask yourself. You had promised her that you would come here. Does not
the very fact of your declining to keep that promise declare that you
are dissatisfied with her conduct, and with mine?" Lord George was
dissatisfied with his wife's conduct and with the Dean's, but at the
present moment did not wish to say so. "I maintain that her conduct is
altogether irreproachable; and as for my own, I feel that I am entitled
to your warmest thanks for what I have done. I must desire you to
understand that we will neither of us submit to blame."
Nothing had been arranged when Lord George left the deanery. The
husband could not bring himself to say a harsh word to his wife. When
she begged him to promise that he would come over to the deanery, he
shook his head. Then she shed a tear, but as she did it she kissed him,
and he could not answer her love by any rough word. So he rode back to
Cross Hall, feeling that the difficulties of his position were almost
insuperable.
On the next morning Mr. Price came to him. Mr. Price was the farmer who
had formerly lived at Cross Hall, who had given his house up to the
Dowager, and who had in consequence been told that he must quit the
land at the expiration of his present term. "So, my lord, his lordship
ain't going to stay very long after all," said Mr. Price.
"I don't quite know as yet," said Lord George.
"I have had Mr. Knox with me this morning, saying that I may go back to
the Hall whenever I please. He took me so much by surprise, I didn't
know what I was doing."
"My mother is still there, Mr. Price."
"In course she is, my lord. But Mr. Knox was saying that she is going
to move back at once to the old house. It's very kind of his lordship,
I'm sure, to let bygones be bygones." Lord George could only say that
nothing was as yet settled, but that Mr. Price would be, of course,
welcome to Cross Hall, should the family go back to Manor Cross.
This took place about the 10th of June, and for a fortnight after that
no change took place in any of their circumstances. Lady Alice
Holdenough called upon Lady George, and, with her husband, dined at the
deanery; but Mary saw nothing else of any of the ladies of the family.
No letter came from either of her sisters-in-law congratulating her as
to her new hopes, and the Manor Cross carriage never stopped at the
Dean's door. The sisters came to see Lady Alice, who lived also in the
Close, but they never even asked for Lady George. All this made the
Dean very angry, so that he declared that his daughter should under no
circumstances be the first to give way. As she had not offended, she
should never be driven to ask for pardon. During this time Lord George
more than once saw his wife, but he had no further interview with the
Dean.