"WOULDN'T YOU COME HERE--FOR A WEEK?"
Lord George Germain was very much troubled by the nobility of the
Dean's offer. He felt sure that he could not accept it, but he felt at
the same time that it would be almost as difficult to decline to accept
it. What else was he to do? where was he to go? how was he now to
exercise authority over his wife? With what face could he call upon her
to leave her father's house, when he had no house of his own to which
to take her? There was, no doubt, the house in London, but that was her
house, and peculiarly disagreeable to him. He might go abroad; but then
what would become of his mother and sisters? He had trained himself to
think that his presence was necessary to the very existence of the
family; and his mother, though she ill-treated him, was quite of the
same opinion. There would be a declaration of a break up made to all
the world if he were to take himself far away from Manor Cross. In his
difficulty, of course he consulted Lady Sarah. What other counsellor
was possible to him?
He was very fair with his sister, trying to explain everything to
her--everything, with one or two exceptions. Of course he said nothing
of the Houghton correspondence, nor did he give exactly a true account
of the scene at Mrs. Montacute Jones' ball; but he succeeded in making
Lady Sarah understand that though he accused his wife of nothing, he
felt it to be incumbent on him to make her completely subject to his
own authority. "No doubt she was wrong to waltz after what you told
her," said Lady Sarah.
"Very wrong."
"But it was simply high spirits, I suppose."
"I don't think she understands how circumspect a young married woman
ought to be," said the anxious husband. "She does not see how very much
such high spirits may injure me. It enables an enemy to say such
terrible things."
"Why should she have an enemy, George?" Then Lord George merely
whispered his brother's name. "Why should Brotherton care to be her
enemy?"
"Because of the Dean."
"She should not suffer for that. Of course, George, Mary and I are very
different. She is young and I am old. She has been brought up to the
pleasures of life, which I disregard, perhaps because they never came
in my way. She is beautiful and soft,--a woman such as men like to have
near them. I never was such a one. I see the perils and pitfalls in her
way; but I fancy that I am prone to exaggerate them, because I cannot
sympathise with her yearnings. I often condemn her frivolity, but at
the same time I condemn my own severity. I think she is true of
heart,--a loving woman. And she is at any rate your wife."
"You don't suppose that I wish to be rid of her?"
"Certainly not; but in keeping her close to you you must remember that
she has a nature of her own. She cannot feel as you do in all things
any more than you feel as she does."
"One must give way to the other."
"Each must give way to the other if there is to be any happiness."
"You don't mean to say she ought to waltz, or dance stage dances?"
"Let all that go for the present. She won't want to dance much for a
time now, and when she has a baby in her arms she will be more apt to
look at things with your eyes. If I were you I should accept the Dean's
offer."
There was a certain amount of comfort in this, but there was more pain.
His wife had defied him, and it was necessary to his dignity that she
should be brought to submission before she was received into his full
grace. And the Dean had encouraged her in those acts of defiance. They
had, of course, come from him. She had been more her father's daughter
than her husband's wife, and his pride could not endure that it should
be so. Everything had gone against him. Hitherto he had been able to
desire her to leave her father and to join him in his own home. Now he
had no home to which to take her. He had endeavoured to do his
duty,--always excepting that disagreeable episode with Mrs.
Houghton,--and this was the fruit of it. He had tried to serve his
brother, because his brother was Marquis of Brotherton, and his brother
had used him like an enemy. His mother treated him, with steady
injustice. And now his sister told him that he was to yield to the
Dean! He could not bring himself to yield to the Dean. At last he
answered the Dean's letter as follows;--
"MY DEAR DEAN,--
"Your offer is very kind, but I do not think that I can accept it
just at present. No doubt I am very much troubled by my brother's
conduct. I have endeavoured to do my duty by him, and have met
with but a poor return. What arrangements I shall ultimately make
as to a home for myself and Mary, I cannot yet say. When anything
is settled I shall, of course, let her know at once. It will
always be, at any rate, one of my chief objects to make her
comfortable, but I think that this should be done under my roof
and not under yours. I hope to be able to see her in a day or two,
when perhaps I shall have been able to settle upon something.
"Yours always affectionately,
"G. GERMAIN."
Then, upon reading this over and feeling that it was cold and almost
heartless, he added a postscript. "I do feel your offer to be very
generous, but I think you will understand the reasons which make it
impossible that I should accept it." The Dean as he read this declared
to himself that he knew the reasons very well. The reasons were not far
to search. The man was pigheaded, foolish, and obstinately proud. So
the Dean thought. As far as he himself was concerned Lord George's
presence in the house would not be a comfort to him. Lord George had
never been a pleasant companion to him. But he would have put up with
worse than Lord George for the sake of his daughter.
On the very next day Lord George rode into Brotherton and went direct
to the deanery. Having left his horse at the inn he met the Dean in the
Close, coming out of a side door of the Cathedral close to the deanery
gate. "I thought I would come in to see Mary," he said.
"Mary will be delighted."
"I did not believe that I should be able to come so soon when I wrote
yesterday."
"I hope you are going to tell her that you have thought better of my
little plan."
"Well;--no; I don't think I can do that. I think she must come to me
first, sir."
"But where!"
"I have not yet quite made up my mind. Of course there is a difficulty.
My brother's conduct has been so very strange."
"Your brother is a madman, George."
"It is very easy to say so, but that does not make it any better.
Though he be ever so mad the house is his own. If he chooses to turn me
out of it he can. I have told Mr. Knox that I would leave it within a
month,--for my mother's sake; but that as I had gone there at his
express instance, I could not move sooner. I think I was justified in
that."
"I don't see why you should go at all."
"He would let the place."
"Or, if you do go, why you should not come here. But, of course, you
know your own business best. How d'ye do, Mr. Groschut? I hope the
Bishop is better this morning."
At this moment, just as they were entering the deanery gate, the
Bishop's chaplain had appeared. He had been very studious in spreading
a report, which he had no doubt believed to be true, that all the
Germain family, including Lord George, had altogether repudiated the
Dean, whose daughter, according to his story, was left upon her
father's hands because she would not be received at Manor Cross. For
Mr. Groschut had also heard of Jack De Baron, and had been cut to the
soul by the wickedness of the Kappa-kappa. The general iniquity of
Mary's life in London had been heavy on him. Brotherton, upon the
whole, had pardoned the Dean for knocking the Marquis into the
fireplace, having heard something of the true story with more or less
correctness. But the Chaplain's morals were sterner than those of
Brotherton at large, and he was still of opinion that the Dean was a
child of wrath, and poor Mary, therefore, a grandchild. Now, when he
saw the Dean and his son-in-law apparently on friendly terms, the
spirit of righteousness was vexed within him as he acknowledged this to
be another sign that the Dean was escaping from that punishment which
alone could be of service to him in this world. "His Lordship is better
this morning. I hope, my Lord, I have the pleasure of seeing your
Lordship quite well." Then Mr. Groschut passed on.
"I'm not quite sure," said the Dean, as he opened his own door,
"whether any good is ever done by converting a Jew."
"But St. Paul was a converted Jew," said Lord George.
"Well--yes; in those early days Christians were only to be had by
converting Jews or Pagans; and in those days they did actually become
Christians. But the Groschuts are a mistake." Then he called to Mary,
and in a few minutes she was in her husband's arms on the staircase.
The Dean did not follow them, but went into his own room on the ground
floor; and Lord George did not see him again on that day.
Lord George remained with his wife nearly all the afternoon, going out
with her into the town as she did some little shopping, and being seen
with her in the market-place and Close. It must be owned of Mary that
she was proud thus to be seen with him again, and that in buying her
ribbons and gloves she referred to him, smiling as he said this, and
pouting and pretending to differ as he said that, with greater urgency
than she would have done had there been no breach between them. It had
been terrible to her to think that there should be a quarrel,--terrible
to her that the world should think so. There was a gratification to her
in feeling that even the shopkeepers should see her and her husband
together. And when she met Canon Pountner and stopped a moment in the
street while that worthy divine shook hands with her husband, that was
an additional pleasure to her. The last few weeks had been heavy to her
in spite of her father's affectionate care,--heavy with a feeling of
disgrace from which no well-minded young married woman can quite
escape, when she is separated from her husband. She had endeavoured to
do right. She thought she was doing right. But it was so sad! She was
fond of pleasure, whereas he was little given to any amusement; but no
pleasures could be pleasant to her now unless they were in some sort
countenanced by him. She had never said such a word to a human being,
but since that dancing of the Kappa-kappa she had sworn to herself a
thousand times that she would never waltz again. And she hourly yearned
for his company, having quite got over that first difficulty of her
married life, that doubt whether she could ever learn to love her
husband. During much of this day she was actually happy in spite of the
great sorrow which still weighed so heavily upon them both.
And he liked it also in his way. He thought that he had never seen her
looking more lovely. He was sure that she had never been more gracious
to him. The touch of her hand was pleasant to his arm, and even he had
sufficient spirit of fun about him to enjoy something of the mirth of
her little grimaces. When he told her what her father had said about
Mr. Groschut, even he laughed at her face of assumed disgust. "Papa
doesn't hate him half as much as I do," she said. "Papa always does
forgive at last, but I never can forgive Mr. Groschut."
"What has the poor man done?"
"He is so nasty! Don't you see that his face always shines. Any man
with a shiny face ought to be hated." This was very well to give as a
reason, but Mary entertained a very correct idea as to Mr. Groschut's
opinion of herself.
Not a word had been said between the husband and wife as to the great
question of residence till they had returned to the deanery after their
walk. Then Lord George found himself unable to conceal from her the
offer which the Dean had made. "Oh, George,--why don't you come?"
"It would not be--fitting."
"Fitting! Why not fitting? I think it would fit admirably. I know it
would fit me." Then she leaned over him and took his hand and kissed
it.
"It was very good of your father."
"I am sure he meant to be good."
"It was very good of your father," Lord George repeated,--"very good
indeed; but it cannot be. A married woman should live in her husband's
house and not in her father's."
Mary gazed into his face with a perplexed look, not quite understanding
the whole question, but still with a clear idea as to a part of it. All
that might be very true, but if a husband didn't happen to have a house
then might not the wife's father's house be a convenience? They had
indeed a house, provided no doubt with her money, but not the less now
belonging to her husband, in which she would be very willing to live if
he pleased it,--the house in Munster Court. It was her husband that
made objection to their own house. It was her husband who wished to
live near Manor Cross, not having a roof of his own under which to do
so. Were not these circumstances which ought to have made the deanery a
convenience to him? "Then what will you do?" she asked.
"I cannot say as yet." He had become again gloomy and black-browed.
"Wouldn't you come here--for a week?"
"I think not, my dear."
"Not when you know how happy it would make me to have you with me once
again. I do so long to be telling you everything." Then she leant
against him and embraced him, and implored him to grant her this
favour. But he would not yield. He had told himself that the Dean had
interfered between him and his wife, and that he must at any rate go
through the ceremony of taking his wife away from her father. Let it be
accorded to him that he had done that, and then perhaps he might visit
the deanery. As for her, she would have gone with him anywhere now,
having fully established her right to visit her father after leaving
London.
There was nothing further settled, and very little more said, when Lord
George left the deanery and started back to Manor Cross. But with Mary
there had been left a certain comfort. The shopkeepers and Dr. Pountner
had seen her with her husband, and Mr. Groschut had met Lord George at
the deanery door.