ANOTHER TEMPTATION.
Anthony rose, when he saw his father, with instinctive filial respect,
but he did not look him in the face. He could not do this.
"Hah!" said the old man, entering the room, and closing the door behind
him. "I had come here with an intent that is now set aside. I had come,
Julian, to tell thee that it was yet in thy power to weld together the
estates of Hall and Kilworthy, notwithstanding what has occurred--that
is, if thou wouldst overlook a certain disparity in years, and keep
thine eye fixed on the main advantage. But that is over. I am glad I
came when I chanced, and in time to save me from running a great risk.
Thou art too free with thy kisses, too lavish in thy love to please me."
He spoke as though what he said must wither Julian, crush her under the
sense of her great loss. His assurance that she must be attracted by the
same ambition as himself was so grotesque that Julian at once rallied
from the confusion that had covered her, laughed, and said:
"You do me a mighty honour."
"Not at all--I decline to show you the honour."
"So much the better. When I walk through a wood I do not like to have
the bramble claw at me. If it does, then I must turn and put my foot on
it. Let the bramble hug the nettle, and not aim at the lady."
Her impudence staggered him.
"It is mighty sport," she continued, "to hear that little Hall desired
to hitch itself on to the skirts of Kilworthy. But Master Cleverdon, if
thou art in a marrying mood, prithee go to the next giglet fair, and
choose thee there a wench."
Her insolence had its effect; the effect designed. Instead of being
attacked by the old Squire, she was the assailant, and she hit him where
she knew she could keenly wound him, so as to draw off his thoughts from
what he had just seen. He was offended and angry.
"There," said she--"sit down in my seat by the fire. I meant no harm;
but as you were absurd on your side, I made grimaces on mine. I am glad
you are here, and face to face with Anthony, for, mayhap, I can persuade
you to that which, unpersuaded, you were loth to do."
The old man was so angry that he did not answer her. He remained near
the door, doubtful whether to retire or to come forward. He had not
expected to meet his son there, and was unprepared for an interview;
though hardly regretting it, for, in his bitter and resentful spirit he
was willing that Anthony should hear from his own lips what he
designed--learn to the full the completeness of the severance between
them.
"Whatever persuasion you may attempt," said he, looking at Julian,
"comes at a wrong time, after you have shown me that you are a person
who, not respecting herself, deserves no respect from another, and after
you have grossly insulted me. But I will listen to you, though, I tell
you, what you say will not weigh with me as a feather."
"If that be so," laughed Julian, "I will spare myself the trouble. But
look at your son; look at him calmly, and tell me whether I was wrong in
pitying him, ay, and if, in consideration of old, tried friendship, that
has been almost cousinship--so well have we known each other since
childhood--was I so very wrong in lightly touching his brow with my
lips, for from my heart I was sorry for him. Think what it would have
been for you, when you married, had your father lived and treated you as
you have treated Anthony! Is a man to be cast out of every home because
he has committed one folly? I dare stake my word that Anthony has rued
his act almost daily; and is all his regret to count for nothing?"
"A man must take the consequences of what he has done."
"Julian, I do not wish you to plead my cause," said Anthony, coming
before his father; "I will speak to him myself. I want to ask of him a
question or two."
"I will answer them," said the old man. "Say on."
"I desire to know for certain whether you intend to give Bessie to Fox
Crymes?"
"Yes, I do."
"And she consents?"
"All are not so disobedient as yourself."
"And if she refuses?"
"She will not refuse. I can but let her go, as I let you go. But she
will not refuse; I have that to say to her which will make her give
way."
"Then if she takes Fox, do you intend to take him into Hall?"
"Yes, I do."
"And under my name?"
"Certainly. He changes his name of Crymes to that of Cleverdon when he
becomes my son."
"Then I tell you it shall not be. There shall not be another Anthony
Cleverdon in Hall. I give you and Fox fair warning. There cannot--there
shall not--be a supplanter in Hall bearing my name."
"We shall see."
"Yes you shall see. Tell Fox what I have said."
"Tell him yourself. I will be no bearer of messages between you."
"Mr. Cleverdon," said Julian, "I cannot let you meet and part in my
presence, spoiling all my pleasure in this little room forever with the
remembrance of this scene, without one more effort to bring you to
agreement. Come, now--what if Anthony returns to you?"
"Returns to me?"
"Yes, what if he throws up all connection with Willsworthy? He is
wretched there--poverty-stricken. He is unhappy in a hundred ways. Look
at his face. Where is the old brightness--where the old pride? He has
lost all the ancient merry Anthony, and now is a sad one. Let him come
back to Hall, and leave Urith to manage with her uncle--to manage, or
mismanage--as before, till all goes there to pieces. He has committed a
boyish folly, and he knows it. He has thrown away gold for dross, and he
has found it out. He will now be twice the Tony to you that he was. Then
he was thoughtless, careless, devil-may-care; now he has learned a
lesson, and learned it so sharply that he will never forget it again. He
has learned what disobedience costs--what it is to go against a
father--what boy's fancies are compared with matured plans in the head
of a man. Give him that chance. Come, you do not know Fox as I know him.
Take him into your house, and he will not be more dutiful to you than
has been your own Tony. He will make you unhappy, and your Bessie
wretched. I saw by Tony's face, when he came here, that he had
quarrelled with his wife. He came here because his home was hateful to
him--because it was unendurable to him to be there any more. We cannot
retain him here. Let him go to thee, and there will be an end to Fox and
his story with Bessie. Anthony will be dutiful and loving henceforth,
and cling to thee, and esteem thee, as he never clung to thee and
esteemed thee heretofore."
Anthony was speechless. The blood rushed into his face. Everything might
be as it was--or almost everything.
Old Anthony Cleverdon stood irresolute.
He had misgivings relative to Fox. One crafty malevolent nature
mistrusts another of the same quality. His daughter's peace of mind
troubled him little, but he was by no means certain that Fox, once in
the house, might not presume, and that there would not be sharp contests
between them. Moreover, when Fox was there, married to his daughter, his
place would be assured, and the old man could not well drive him from
it. There were other reasons which made the old Squire feel that, to
some extent, Fox would be unassailable, and might be eminently
disagreeable.
The suggestion made by Julian was inviting. In the depths of his heart
lurked love for his only son; his old pride in him was there, and was
wounded and sore with the spectacle of the lad humbled, sinking out of
men's favour, and out of his old dignity. He looked at him, and saw what
an alteration had taken place in him--how oldened and worn in face he
was, how shabby in his clothing.
"Do you know, Mr. Cleverdon," pursued Julian, "why it was that poor Tony
caught me by the neck and kissed me? It was because he was so utterly
forlorn and disconsolate; he had lost all his friends, his heart was
void through bereavement from his father; he was estranged from that
Jacob, that supplanter, Fox; he saw his own sister turning against him,
and--I doubt not he has not found that solace and sufficiency in his own
home that would make up for these mighty losses. He held me, because he
had none other. I do not want him, I have no right to him--let me cast
him off--but only on to his father's bosom, into his father's arms."
The old man went to the window and looked forth. His face was agitated.
He must have time to consider.
Anthony, moreover, remained mute, and his face was troubled. A terrible
temptation was presented to him. He believed that now, were he to throw
himself at his father's feet, take his hand, and ask his forgiveness,
the old man would receive him back at once into favour on the terms
proposed by Julian. That he would forgive him on any other, he might not
expect. That he knew full well.
And the old man saw that an opportunity was offered to deal the most
insulting and cruel stroke to the daughter of the man who had incurred
his undying hatred. He could by a word rob her of her husband, of the
prize she had laboured to win, but which he could prevent her from
retaining.
To Julian was offered the most complete and open triumph over her
enemy. A triumph more complete than she could have hoped to gain.
Anthony could be nothing to her, he would remain as a friend, that was
all; but she would see, and show to Urith, her threat made good to
wrench Anthony away from her.
Anthony stood with downcast eyes. The temptation was a strong
one--strong, to a young man who had been humoured and allowed to have
his own way uncontrolled, allowed to follow his pleasure or whim without
hindrance. He could not return home without having to face his wife,
angered and resentful, without having to acknowledge himself to have
been in the wrong. Anthony Crymes was playing him a treacherous and
cruel trick, and here was a chance offered him of at once recovering his
old position, wiping out his past mistake, and discomfiting Fox when on
the eve of success. Was he sure that he could ever be on the same terms
as before with Urith? Had she not been gradually estranged from him,
till she had declared to him that she hated him, that she wished she had
never seen him? Would it not be a relief to be rid of him, to be spared
any more domestic broils?
Old Anthony Cleverdon was at the window, and as he stood there he marked
the initials drawn on the fogged glass, and turned and looked at his
son. Young Anthony noticed the look, and observed what had attracted his
father's attention. He moved hastily to the window, and his father drew
away, went to the fireplace, and rested his elbow against the
mantel-shelf and fixed his eyes intently on his son. So also did Julian.
Both saw that the moment was a crucial one. The young man was forced to
make up his mind on a point which would determine his whole after-life.
It was more than that, it was a crucial moment in his moral life. He
must now take a step upward or downward, in the path of right or that of
wrong. This neither Julian nor his father considered, intent only on
their selfish ends. But this appeared clearly to Anthony. His inner
consciousness spoke out and told him plainly where went the path of duty
and where lay the deflexion from it. But the path of duty was a painful
one full of humiliations, promising no happiness, only a repetition of
contests with a sulky wife, and jars with the foolish Solomon Gibbs, of
struggle against poverty, of labour like a common hired workman, of
loss for ever of his old position, and deprivation of all the amusements
that had filled his former life.
He and Urith did not suit each other. His temperament was sanguine, his
spirit mirthful; he was sociable, and full of the sparkle of youth;
whereas she was moody, almost morose, had no humour and laughter in her
soul, brooded over imagined wrongs as well as those that were real, and
could as little accommodate herself to his mood as could he to hers.
Surely it were best, under these circumstances, that they should part.
Now Anthony was standing at the window where he had stood before when he
drew those initials on the panes, in the place occupied recently by his
father. So full was he of his thoughts, of the rolling of conflicting
waves of feeling, that he forgot where he was, forgot the presence of
his father and of Julian--the very sense of the lapse of time was gone
from him. Though he looked through the window, he saw nothing.
Then, all at once, uncalled for, there broke and oozed forth in his
heart the old vein of love which had been filled with so hot and full a
flood when he was Urith's suitor; he saw her with the old eyes once
more, and looked in mental vision once more into the sombre eyes, as he
had on the moor, when he lifted her into his saddle, and there came over
him that sensation of mingled love and fear. It seemed to him that now
only did he understand the cause of that fear; it was fear lest he
himself should prove a wreck through lack of love and devotion to her.
He thought now of how, after their wedding, on his coming to Willsworthy
he had taken her in his arms, how her dark head had lain on his bosom,
and he had stooped and kissed her brow, and she had looked up into his
face with eyes expressive of perfect confidence, of intensest love. He
thought now how he had forced her against her will, against her
conscience, to marry him prematurely, after her mother's death, and
against the dying command of that mother. He thought how that he had
lived on her estate, had been, as it were, her pensioner. He thought
also of the efforts she had made, efforts he had perceived, to
accommodate herself to him, to meet his humour, to overcome her own
gloom, to struggle against the bad habits of slovenliness into which
the household had fallen, and to correct her own want of order, because
she saw it pained her husband. She had done a great deal for him, and
what had he done for her? Grumbled, been peevish, disappointed her. He
recalled that evening at the Cakes, where he had slighted her. He
thought of how he had trifled with his old regard for Julian, allowed
her to lure him away from his wife, and had let her see that he was no
more at one with Urith, and that he wished he could have undone the
marriage and re-tied the old threads that had bound him to Julian.
She--this Julian, had been playing with him--she, for her own ends, had
been making mischief between him and his wife--and what had he done?
His eyes were opened, and he saw the initials on the glass, and the
love-knot between them.
With the blood surging to his brow and cheeks, and a fire in his eye, he
raised his hand, and angrily brushed his palm over the three panes,
effacing utterly the characters there inscribed, then he remained with
uplifted hand and forefinger extended, still, as in dream, unconscious
that he was being watched.
A new thought had occurred to him--that he was about to become a father.
A father! and he away at Hall, while the deserted Urith sat at
Willsworthy--wan, with tears on her cheek, drip, drip, over the cradle
he had treated so insultingly--her cradle, which he had deemed unworthy
of his child, and which, for all that, with his child in it, he was
inclined to abandon!
Then the blood went out of Anthony's face, went back to his heart, as he
grew pale and still with the thought of the infamy of the conduct that
had been his, had he yielded to the temptation.
And tears, tears of shame at himself, of love for Urith, of infinite
longing for that little child that was to be his, and to nestle in his
arms, filled his throat and choked him. With a trembling finger on
another clouded pane he drew an U and interlaced with it an A, twisting
and turning the initials about, weaving them inextricably together, till
the U was lost in the A, and the A confounded with the U.
He could not speak. He did not look round. With his eyes fixed before
him, and his mind full of the thoughts that opened to him, he went out
of the room, out of the house, and spoke to no one.
But old Anthony and Julian knew his decision--knew it from his
finger-writing on the little diamond pane.
Yet the old man would not accept it--he called after his son.
"I give thee three days. I will do no more for three days in the
matter."
But Anthony did not turn his head or answer.