A COLD WOOING.
"Get yourself ready," ordered Squire Cleverdon, looking at Bessie across
the table. "Your aunt is unwell, and I have sent word that we would come
and see her. A wet day, and nothing better to be done, so we can find
out what is the matter with her."
"Certainly, father," answered Elizabeth, with alacrity. "I hope nothing
serious is the matter with her?"
"Oh, serious, no."
The manner of the Squire was never gracious to his daughter; always
imperious, but this day there was a peculiarity in it that struck her.
There was, she felt instinctively, something in the background.
"What is it, father? I pray you tell me. She is not in any danger?"
"Oh, danger? No." A twitching of his cheeks marked inner uneasiness.
Bessie looked anxiously at him. "I am sure, father, you are hiding
something from me."
"Go at once and get ready! Do not stop chattering here like a parrot,"
he roared forth, and Bessie fled.
Elizabeth had no anxiety over the weather. That was not the day of
umbrellas, but then, neither was it the day of fine bonnets. The skirts
were worn short, and did not trail in and collect the mud. A woman
pinned up her gown, or looped it at the girdle, exposing a bright
coloured petticoat, and below that her ankles, and there were many
inches between the mud and the petticoat. A thick serge mantle covered
gown and petticoat; it was provided with a hood that was drawn over the
head, and bright eyes looked out of the hood and laughed at the rain and
cold.
We sometimes wonder now how the world got on before the introduction of
the umbrella. Very well. It was dryer, warmer, better protected in
former days. It is only since the invention and the expansion of the
parapluie, that those marvels of millinery, the nineteenth-century
bonnet, piled up of feathers and flowers, and bead and lace, became
possible. The umbrella has been a bell-shade under which it has grown.
Mr. Cleverdon was not communicative on the ride to Tavistock. Now and
then he growled forth a curse on the weather, but said nothing against
Magdalen. This surprised his daughter, who was accustomed to hear him
grumble at his sister if she occasioned him any inconvenience; but she
charitably set it down to real concern for Magdalen, and this increased
her fear that more was the matter with her aunt than her father chose to
admit.
Aunt Magdalen really was indisposed; but the indisposition was partly,
if not chiefly, due to her distress of mind about her niece. She knew
that her brother had resolved to act upon her own to marry Bess to young
Crymes, and that he expected his sister to help him to overcome any
opposition that might be encountered from Bessie. Poor Elizabeth had as
little suspicion, as she accompanied her father to Tavistock, that he
was about to sacrifice her, as had Isaac when he ascended Moriah at the
side of Abraham.
When Mr. Cleverdon and Bessie arrived at the house of Miss Magdalen,
near the Abbey Bridge, they observed a man's hat and cloak hung up in
the hall.
"Oh!" exclaimed Elizabeth, "the doctor is here! I am sure my aunt is
really very ill."
At the same moment the side door opened, and the old lady appeared, and
caught her niece in her arms.
"He is here," said Magdalen--"arrived only a minute before you."
"Who is here?" asked Bessie. "What do you mean?"
"Come aside with me into my snuggery," said her aunt. "I have a word
with you before I speak with your father, and in the parlour he will
find Anthony."
"Anthony! My brother!" with a joyful flash from Bessie; and she flung
her arms round her aunt. "Oh, you dear--you good Aunt Magdalen! You
have----"
"Have done with this folly," said the Squire, angrily. "Are you still
such a fool as to think that when I say a thing I shall change about?
No--your brother is not in there, but your bridegroom."
Miss Cleverdon put up her hand entreatingly to stop her brother, and
hastily brought her niece into the adjoining room and shut the door.
"What is the meaning of this?" asked Bessie, with some composure. She
had now a suspicion that the visit concerned herself, and not her aunt.
"My dear," said Magdalen, "do seat yourself--no, not in that chair; it
is hard, and there is something wrong with the back--the bar comes
exactly where it ought not, and hurts the spine--at least, I find it so.
I never sit in it myself, never. Take that seat by the fireplace. I am
so sorry there is nothing burning on the hearth, but, on my word, I did
not expect to have you in here. I thought I might have spoken a word
with you in the parlour before he came, or--but, bless my heart, Bess! I
am so distracted I hardly know what I thought."
Bessie shook down her skirt over her dark-blue petticoat, and seated
herself where her aunt desired, then laid her hands in her lap, and
looked steadily at Miss Cleverdon.
"You are not ill, then?" she said.
"Oh, my dear, ill! I have not slept a wink, nor had a stomach for aught.
I should think I was indeed ill, but all about you. You must remember
that the commandment with promise is that which refers to the submission
of a child to the parent; but, Lord! Bess, I would not have you forced
against your wishes. Your father's mind is made up, and he has met with
a sore disappointment in the case of Anthony. I do think it will be a
comfort to him, and heal over that trouble somewhat, if he finds you
more pliant than was Anthony. But, Lord! Bess, nothing, I trust, hinders
you--no previous attachment. Lord! I did at one time think that your
heart was gone a-hankering after Luke."
Bessie, who had become very pale, flushed, and said, "I entreat thee,
aunt, not to have any fancies concerning me. I never gave thee grounds
for any such opinion."
"I know that, I know that, child. But, Lord! an old woman like me must
have her thoughts about those she loves and wishes well for."
"Aunt," said Bessie, "I think I can understand that my father desires to
have me married, and has asked you to see me thereon. I have had some
notions thereupon myself, but I would gladly hear from you whom he has
fixed on, though, indeed, I think I can guess."
"It is Fox," answered Miss Cleverdon, and looked down on the floor, and
arranged her stool, which was slipping from under her feet. "There,
there, I have told thee; thy father put it on me. And I can only say to
thee that which thou knowest well thyself. He belongs to an ancient
family, once well estated, but now sadly come down; nevertheless, there
is something of the old patrimony remaining. He is thy father's friend's
son; and as it has come about that the families that were to be united
by my nephew have not been thus joined, it is not wonderful that your
father would see them clipped together by thee."
"I cannot indeed take Fox," said Bessie, gravely.
"Well--well--the final choosing must be with thee, wench. All that thy
father can do is to say he desires it, and all I can do is to support
him. God forbid that we should constrain thee unwilling, and yet a
blessing does rain down from above the clouds on the heads of such
children as be obedient. Now look to Anthony, and see if he be happy,
having gone against his father's wishes."
"Is he unhappy?" asked Bessie.
"I do not think him the same at all. He is restless, and his mood has
lost all brightness. I have not seen much of him, but what I have seen
has made me uneasy concerning him, and what Fox tells me still farther
disconcerts me."
"I may not go to Willsworthy. I may not see my brother nor Urith--except
by very chance I meet them," said Bessie, heaving a sigh, and her eyes
filling. "My father seems no nearer forgiving than he was at first."
"I do not think that aught will move him to forgiveness save, perchance,
the finding of ready obedience in thee."
"I cannot--indeed I cannot, in this," said Bess.
"Lord! I would not counsel thee against thy happiness," pursued
Magdalen. "But see how ill it has worked with Anthony. He followed his
own will, and went against the commandment of his father, and it eats as
a canker into his heart, I can see that; now if then----"
Then the door was thrown open, and the Squire appeared in it, with Fox
behind his back in the passage.
"Sister," said old Cleverdon, "time enough has been spent over preparing
Bess for what must be. As you have not brought her unto us, to the
parlour, we've come in here to you. Come in, Tony! Come in! Look at
her--there she sits; kiss her, lad! She is thine!"
But Fox did not offer to do what he was required; Bessie started and
drew back, fearing lest he should, but was at once reassured by his
deprecatory look and uplifted hand.
"May I enter?" asked Fox.
"Come in, boy, come in!" said the old man, answering for his sister, as
though the house were his own; and his own it might be considered, for
it was paid for and furnished out of Hall; the maintenance of Miss
Cleverdon fell on him and his estate.
"Come!" said the Squire, roughly, "shut the door behind you boy. Go over
beside her. Take her hand. Hold out yours, Bess. Doy' hear? It is all
settled between us."
Fox entered the room, fastened the door, and remained fumbling at the
lock, with his face to it, affecting great diffidence. Mr. Cleverdon
took him by the arm and thrust him away, and pointed imperiously to
where Bess sat, near the fireplace, on which burnt no spark; her hands
lay in her lap folded, and her eyes on the hearth. The window was behind
her. The little room was panelled with dark oak that was polished. There
were no pictures, no ornaments on the wall--only one oval pastel over
the mantelshelf of Magdalen when she was a girl. The colour had faded
from this, the pink gone wholly--it was a poor bleached picture of a
plain maiden; and now beneath it sat one as blanched, for all the colour
had gone out of Bessie's face, and she had assumed the same stiff
attitude that her aunt had maintained when drawn by the artist.
Fox, with apparent reluctance, went over to the fireplace; Elizabeth
looked at her father with great drops formed on her brow, as though the
damp of the atmosphere had condensed on that surface of white alabaster.
"Give him your hand. Are you deaf?"
Elizabeth remained with her hands folded as before, her eyes wide open,
fixed reproachfully on her father. She had given her young life to him,
borne his roughness, experienced from him no love, no consideration--in
every way sacrificed herself to make his home happy, and now he cast her
happiness from him, gave her up to a man for whom she had no regard,
without considering her feelings in the smallest degree. Then Magdalen
looked at the crayon drawing of herself and down at Bessie, and some
reminiscence at once painful and yet sweet in its bitterness came back
to her--a remembrance, may be, of some sacrifice she had been called to
make when about Bessie's age, and the tears came into her eyes.
"Brother," she said, "you are too hasty. The poor child is overcome with
surprise. You handle her too roughly. Tell her that her well-being is
dear to you, tell her that this plan of yours has been considered by you
as the best for her, but do not attempt to drive her, as you might a
sheep into the fold to be shorn, with a crack of whip and bark."
"You keep silence, Magdalen," said the Squire. "You have had time to say
what you had, and have, it seems, wofully mismanaged the task set thee.
I ought to know how to deal with my children."
"Nay, brother, I cannot be sure of that, after what has fallen out with
Anthony."
Magdalen regretted having made this sharp reply when it was too late to
recall it.
"You understand me, Bess," said the old man; "I have let you see by the
way in which I have treated that rebellious son of mine, that my wishes
are not to be slighted, my commands not to be disobeyed. You do as I
tell you. Give your hand to Tony Crymes, or else----"
Bessie's calm, steadfast eyes were on him. He did not finish his
sentence.
"Or else, what, father?" she asked.
He did not answer her; he put out one hand to the table, leaned on it,
and thrust the other behind him under the coat-tails. His brows were
knit, and his eyes glittered into stony hardness and cruel resolve.
"I cannot obey you, father," said Bessie.
"You will not!" shouted the old man.
"Father, I neither will, nor can obey, you. I have known Fox, I mean
Anthony Crymes, ever since I have been a child, but I have never cared
for him." She turned to Fox apologetically; even then, in that moment of
trial and pain to herself, she could not endure to say a word that might
seem to slight and give a pang to another. "I beg your pardon, Fox, I
mean that I have never cared for you more than, in any other way than,
as a friend, and as Julian's brother."
"Pshaw! What of that?" asked the old man, somewhat lowering his voice,
and attempting to keep his temper under control. "Love comes after
marriage where it did not precede it. See what love comes to when it is
out of place before it, in your brother's case."
"I cannot promise Anthony Crymes my love, for I know it never will come.
I am glad he is the friend of my brother, and as such I regard him, but
I esteem him only for what merits he has in him. I never can love
him--never--never!"
"Disobedient hussy!" exclaimed the old man, losing the slight control he
had exerted momentarily over himself. "Am I to be set at defiance by you
as well as by Anthony? By heaven, I did not think there was such folly
in the family. It did not come from me--not from my side. I will be
obeyed. I will not have it said in the town that I cannot have my own
way with my children."
He looked so angry, so threatening, that Fox interfered. He slipped
between Bessie and her father, and said:
"Master Cleverdon, I will have no constraint used. If you attempt to
coerce Bessie, then I withdraw at once. I have known and loved her for
many years, and would now have hardly dared to offer myself, but that
you cast out the suggestion to me. I saw that Bessie did not love me,
and I held back, hoping the time might come when she would, perhaps, be
guided less by the feelings of the heart and more by the cool reason of
the brain. If she refuses me, it shall be a refusal to me, to an offer
made in my own way, with delicacy and consideration for her feelings,
not with threat and bluster. Excuse plain speaking, Squire, but such are
my views on this matter, and this is a matter that concerns Bessie and
me first, and you, Master Cleverdon, afterwards."
"Yes," said Magdalen, "your violence, brother, will effect nothing. You
will only drive your remaining child from under your roof, as you drove
Anthony."
"Be silent, you magpie!" shouted old Cleverdon, but he looked alarmed.
"Now," said Fox, "you have frightened and offended Bessie, and effected
no good. Let her walk home, although it is raining, and I will accompany
her part of the way, if not the whole, and speak to her in my own
manner, and hear her decision from her own lips."
Bessie stood up.
"I am content," she said; "but do not for a moment think that my
determination is to be changed. Have with you, Fox. Father, you will
follow when your business in the town is over, and will catch me up. You
said, I think, that you were going up to Kilworthy to see Mr. Crymes."