A little while after that evening at the Palace we learnt to our dismay
that Ideala's husband had taken a house in one of the rough
manufacturing districts, to which he meant to remove immediately.
Business was the pretext, as he had money in some great ironworks
there; but I think the nearness of a large city, where a man of his
stamp would be able to indulge all his tastes without let or hindrance,
had something to do with the change.
Ideala had kept up very well while she was among us, but soon after she
went away we gathered from the tone of her letters that there was a
change in her which alarmed us. Her health, which had hitherto been
splendid, seemed to be giving way, and it was evident that her new
position did not please her, and that, even after she had been there
for months, she continued to feel herself "a stranger in a strange
land." The people were uncongenial, and I think it likely they regarded
Ideala's oddities with some suspicion, and did not take to her as we
had done. She had not that extreme youth which had been her excuse when
she came to us, and which, somehow, we had not missed when she lost it;
and her habitual reserve on all matters that immediately concerned
herself must also have tended to make her unpopular with people whose
predominant quality was "an eminent curiosity."
"They are far above books," Ideala wrote to Claudia; "what they study
is each other, and in the pursuit of this branch of knowledge they are
indefatigable. When they can get nothing out of me about myself, they
question me about my husband and friends, and it is in vain that I
answer them with those words of wisdom (I feel sure I misquote them)--
'All that is mine own is yours till the end of my life; but the secret
of my friend is not mine own'--they persevere.
"Our house is near the town, Eighteen big chimneys darken our daylight
and deluge us with smuts when the wind brings the smoke, our way; and
besides the smoke we are subject to unsavoury vapours from chemical
works in the other direction, so that when the wind shifts we only
exchange evils. They say these chemical fumes are not unwholesome, and
quote the death-rate, which is lower than any other place of the size
in England. In fact, scarcely anybody dies here. They go away as soon
as they begin to feel ill--perhaps that accounts for it. But those
horrid chemical fumes have a great deal to answer for. They have killed
the trees for miles around. It is the oaks that suffer principally. The
tops are nipped first, and then they gradually die downwards till the
whole tree is decayed all through. The absence of trees makes the
country bleak and desolate, and I cannot help thinking the unlovely
surroundings affect us all. The people themselves are unlovely in
thought, and word, and deed; but I have found a good deal of rough
kindliness amongst them nevertheless. They did mob me on one occasion,
and made most unkind remarks about my nether garments, when I was
obliged to walk through the town in my riding habit; but, as a rule,
the mill girls merely observe 'That's a lady,' and let me go by
unmolested--unless I happen to be carrying flowers. They do so love
flowers, poor things and I cannot resist their pathetic entreaties when
they beg for 'One, missus, on'y one!' Some of my lady friends are not
let off so easily as I am. The girls chaff them unmercifully about
their dress and personal peculiarities, and if they show signs of
annoyance they call them names that are not to be repeated. The mill
girls wear bright-coloured gowns, white aprons, and nothing on their
heads. If a policeman catches them at any mischief they either clatter
off in their clogs with shrieks of laughter, or knock him down and kick
him most unmercifully. They are as strong as men, and as beautiful,
some of them, as saints; but they are very unsaintlike creatures
really--irresponsible, and with little or no idea of right and wrong.
One scarcely believes that they have souls--and I am always surprised
to find that anything not cruel and coarse can survive in the hearts of
people, begrimed, body and mind, like these, by their hard
surroundings; but it is there, nevertheless--the human nature, and the
poetry, and the something ready to thrill to better things. A gentleman
has a lovely place not far from us, where the trees have been spared by
a miracle. Nightingales seldom wander so far north, but a few years ago
a stray one was heard there, and the wonder and the beauty of its voice
brought hundreds from the mills and crowded streets to hear it sing.
Special trains were run from the neighbouring city to accommodate the
crowds that came nightly to wait in the moonlight and listen; and an
enterprising trader set up a stall, and sold gingerbeer. The story ends
there, but I like it, don't you? especially the gingerbeer part of it.
It was told me by one who remembers the circumstance.
"My greatest pleasure in life is in my flowers, they are dearer to me
than any I ever had before, because they are all so delicate, and
require such infinite care and tenderness to keep them alive in this
uncongenial climate. I have my thrushes also--two, which I stole from
a nest in a wood one moonlight night, and brought up by hand on bread
and milk and scraped beef. I had to get up at daylight, and feed them
every hour until dark; but the clergy will not allow that this
obligation was a proper excuse for staying away from church, and just
now I am unhappy in the feeling that their religion must be inhuman.
But my thrushes have well repaid the trouble. They call me when I go
into the room, and come to me when I open the door of their cage, and
perch on my shoulder. One of them, Israfil, sings divinely. People who
come to hear him see only a little brown bird with speckled breast,
and call him a thrush; but _I_ know he is Israfil, 'the angel of song,
and most melodious of God's creatures;' and _he_ thinks that I have
wings. He told me so!
"I wish you would send me a basket of snails packed up in lettuce
leaves. I don't know why, but I can find none here, and I cannot hear
of one ever having been seen in the county. But please do not send them
unless you are quite sure you can spare them."
"Ideala is trying to hide herself behind these pretty trivialities,"
Claudia said. "I always suspect that there is something more wrong than
usual when she adopts this playful tone and childlike simplicity of
taste."
"It must be trying to have a friend who believes so little in one as
you do in Ideala," I answered.
"Oh, how exasperating you are!" Claudia exclaimed. "You know what I
mean quite well enough."
Later, Ideala wrote: "You are anxious about my health. The fact is, I
have developed a most extraordinary talent for taking cold. I went by
train to see the museum in the city the other day. I took off my cloak
while I was there, and stayed an hour, and when I came away, the
antiquary, who knew I was a precious specimen, wrapped me up carefully
himself. Nevertheless I caught cold. Then I went to stay with some
people near here who clamoured much for the pleasure of my company.
They live in a palace and are entertaining. The lady's papa took me in
to dinner he first evening. He asked me about Major Gorst, and wanted
to know, in an impressive tone of voice, if I had heard that he was the
next heir but one to the Hearldom of Cathcourt.
"The next day my hostess said to her husband: 'Dearest, do let me ride
Oscar,' and he replied: 'No, my darling, I can't till I know he's safe.
I must get some one to try him first'--and he looked at me--'Perhaps
you wouldn't mind?'
"They had never seen me on horseback, and I was longing to distinguish
myself. I did distinguish myself. Oscar was a merry horse, but one
never knew how he would take things. The first bridge we came to--I
was 'sitting easy to a canter' with my foot out of the stirrup and my
leg _over_ the third crutch--a bad habit I learnt from a foreign
friend--and an express train rushed by. Oscar went on abruptly, but I
remained. The next difficulty was at a brook. We ought to have crossed
it together; but Oscar changed his mind at the last moment, so he
remained and I went on. And after that we came to cross-roads, and had
a difference of opinion about which was the right one. That ended in
our coming over together, which made me feel solemn--disheartened, in
fact--and then I thought we should never understand each other and be
friends, so I gave him up. I did not talk much about riding to those
people after that.
"But I wore my summer habit that day, and of course I caught cold. And
when that was nearly well I went downstairs to be civil to some people
who had driven a long way to see me. The drawing-room was damp from
disuse, and the fire had only just been lighted--and of course I caught
cold. When that was better I went for a drive. The wind was east, and
the carriage was open--and of course I caught cold. I don't know how it
may strike you, but argument seems to me useless when a person has such
a constitution."
"Can you read between the lines of that letter?" Claudia asked me.
"She seems to be dreadfully _don't care_," I said.
"Exactly. She is more reckless, and therefore more miserable, than she
used to be. I wouldn't live with him."
"Ideala won't shirk her duty because it is hard and unpalatable," I
answered.
"I believe she likes it!" Claudia exclaimed; and then, smiling at her
own inconsistency, she explained, "I mean if she really is miserable
she ought to speak and let us do something."
"It is contrary to her principles. She would think it wrong to disturb
_your_ mind for a moment because her own life is a burden to her.
That is why she always tries to seem happy, and is cheerful on the
surface. If she made lament, we should suffer in sympathy, and all the
more because there is so very little we could do to help her. Silence
is best. If she ever gives way, she will not be able to bear it again."
"But why _should_ she bear it?" Claudia demanded.
"It is her duty."
"I know she thinks so, and is sacrificing her life to that principle.
But will you kindly tell me where a woman's duty to her husband ends
and her duty to herself begins? I suppose you will allow that she has a
duty to herself? And the line should be drawn somewhere."
Claudia's mind was a sort of boomerang just then, returning inevitably
to this point of departure; but I could make no suggestion that
satisfied her. And I was uneasy myself. Ideala refused to come to us,
and had made some excuse to prevent it when Claudia offered to go to
her. This puzzled me; but we induced her at last to promise to meet us
in London in May. It was April then, and we thought if she could be
persuaded to stay two months of the season in town with us, and go with
us afterwards to a place of mine in the North which she loved, she
would probably recover her health and spirits.