His brilliant prospects dated from the death of his brother, who had
no children, had indeed steadily refused to marry. When I say brilliant
prospects, I mean the vision of the baronetcy, one of the oldest in
England, of a charming seventeenth-century house, with its park, in
Dorsetshire, and a property worth some twenty thousand a year. Such a
collection of items is still dazzling to me, even after what you would
call, I suppose, a familiarity with British grandeur. My husband is n’t
a baronet (or we probably should n’t be in London in December), and he
is far, alas, from having twenty thousand a year. The full enjoyment of
these luxuries, on Ambrose Tester’s part, was dependent naturally, on
the death of his father, who was still very much to the fore at the time
I first knew the young man. The proof of it is the way he kept nagging
at his sons, as the younger used to say, on the question of taking a
wife. The nagging had been of no avail, as I have mentioned, with
regard to Francis, the elder, whose affections were centred (his brother
himself told me) on the winecup and the faro-table. He was not an
exemplary or edifying character, and as the heir to an honorable name
and a fine estate was very unsatisfactory indeed. It had been possible
in those days to put him into the army, but it was not possible to keep
him there; and he was still a very young man when it became plain that
any parental dream of a “career” for Frank Tester was exceedingly vain.
Old Sir Edmund had thought matrimony would perhaps correct him, but
a sterner process than this was needed, and it came to him one day at
Monaco--he was most of the time abroad--after an illness so short that
none of the family arrived in time. He was reformed altogether, he was
utterly abolished.
The second son, stepping into his shoes, was such an improvement that
it was impossible there should be much simulation of mourning. You have
seen him, you know what he is; there is very little mystery about him.
As I am not going to show this composition to you, there is no harm
in my writing here that he is--or at any rate he was--a remarkably
attractive man. I don’t say this because he made love to me, but
precisely because he did n’t. He was always in love with some one
else,--generally with Lady Vandeleur. You may say that in England
that usually does n’t prevent; but Mr. Tester, though he had almost no
intermissions, did n’t, as a general thing, have duplicates. He was not
provided with a second loved object, “under-studying,” as they say, the
part. It was his practice to keep me accurately informed of the state of
his affections,--a matter about which he was never in the least vague.
When he was in love he knew it and rejoiced in it, and when by a miracle
he was not he greatly regretted it. He expatiated to me on the charms of
other persons, and this interested me much more than if he had attempted
to direct the conversation to my own, as regards which I had no
illusions. He has told me some singular things, and I think I may say
that for a considerable period my most valued knowledge of English
society was extracted from this genial youth. I suppose he usually found
me a woman of good counsel, for certain it is that he has appealed to
me for the light of wisdom in very extraordinary predicaments. In his
earlier years he was perpetually in hot water; he tumbled into scrapes
as children tumble into puddles. He invited them, he invented them; and
when he came to tell you how his trouble had come about (and he always
told the whole truth), it was difficult to believe that a man should
have been so idiotic.
And yet he was not an idiot; he was supposed to be very clever,
and certainly is very quick and amusing. He was only reckless, and
extraordinarily natural, as natural as if he had been an Irishman. In
fact, of all the Englishmen that I have known he is the most Irish in
temperament (though he has got over it comparatively of late). I used to
tell him that it was a great inconvenience that he didn’t speak with a
brogue, because then we should be forewarned, and know with whom we were
dealing. He replied that, by analogy, if he were Irish enough to have
a brogue he would probably be English, which seemed to me an answer
wonderfully in character. Like most young Britons of his class he went
to America, to see the great country, before he was twenty, and he took
a letter to my father, who had occasion, _à propos_ of some pickle of
course, to render him a considerable service. This led to his coming
to see me--I had already been living here three or four years--on
his return; and that, in the course of time, led to our becoming fast
friends, without, as I tell you, the smallest philandering on either
side. But I must n’t protest too much; I shall excite your suspicion.
“If he has made love to so many women, why should n’t he have made love
to you?”--some inquiry of that sort you will be likely to make. I have
answered it already, “Simply on account of those very engagements.” He
could n’t make love to every one, and with me it would n’t have done him
the least good. It was a more amiable weakness than his brother’s, and
he has always behaved very well. How well he behaved on a very important
occasion is precisely the subject of my story.
He was supposed to have embraced the diplomatic career; had been
secretary of legation at some German capital; but after his brother’s
death he came home and looked out for a seat in Parliament. He found it
with no great trouble and has kept it ever since. No one would have the
heart to turn him out, he is so good-looking. It’s a great thing to be
represented by one of the handsomest men in England, it creates such a
favorable association of ideas. Any one would be amazed to discover that
the borough he sits for, and the name of which I am always forgetting,
is not a very pretty place. I have never seen it, and have no idea that
it is n’t, and I am sure he will survive every revolution. The people
must feel that if they should n’t keep him some monster would be
returned. You remember his appearance,--how tall, and fair, and strong
he is, and always laughing, yet without looking silly. He is exactly
the young man girls in America figure to themselves--in the place of the
hero--when they read English novels, and wish to imagine something very
aristocratic and Saxon. A “bright Bostonian” who met him once at my
house, exclaimed as soon as he had gone out of the room, “At last, at
last, I behold it, the mustache of Roland Tremayne!”
“Of Roland Tremayne!”
“Don’t you remember in _A Lawless Love_, how often it’s mentioned, and
how glorious and golden it was? Well, I have never seen it till now, but
now I _have_ seen it!”
If you had n’t seen Ambrose Tester, the best description I could give
of him would be to say that he looked like Roland Tremayne. I don’t know
whether that hero was a “strong Liberal,” but this is what Sir Ambrose
is supposed to be. (He succeeded his father two years ago, but I shall
come to that.) He is not exactly what I should call thoughtful,
but he is interested, or thinks he is, in a lot of things
that I don’t understand, and that one sees and skips in the
newspapers,--volunteering, and redistribution, and sanitation, and the
representation of minors--minorities--what is it? When I said just now
that he is always laughing, I ought to have explained that I did n’t
mean when he is talking to Lady Vandeleur. She makes him serious, makes
him almost solemn; by which I don’t mean that she bores him. Far from
it; but when he is in her company he is thoughtful; he pulls his golden
mustache, and Roland Tremayne looks as if his vision were turned in,
and he were meditating on her words. He does n’t say much himself; it is
she--she used to be so silent--who does the talking. She has plenty to
say to him; she describes to him the charms that she discovers in the
path of duty. He seldom speaks in the House, I believe, but when he does
it’s offhand, and amusing, and sensible, and every one likes it. He
will never be a great statesman, but he will add to the softness of
Dorsetshire, and remain, in short, a very gallant, pleasant, prosperous,
typical English gentleman, with a name, a fortune, a perfect appearance,
a devoted, bewildered little wife, a great many reminiscences, a great
many friends (including Lady Vandeleur and myself), and, strange to
say, with all these advantages, something that faintly resembles a
conscience.