THE LAST.
This is how Phoebe's difficulties ended. Contrary to her every
expectation, Mr. Copperhead made a great brag of her powers wherever he
went. "Money is money," he said, "but brains is brains, all the same--we
can't get on without 'em--and when you want to make a figure in the
world, sir, buy a few brains if they fall in your way--that's my style.
I've done with stupid ones up till now; but when I see there's a want of
a clever one, I ain't such a fool as to shut my eyes to it. They cost
dear, but I'm thankful to say I can afford that, ay, and a good deal
more." Thus everything was satisfactorily arranged. Tozer and his wife
cried together for joy on the wedding-day, but they did not expect to be
asked to that ceremony, being well aware that Phoebe, having now
completely entered into the regions of the great, could not be expected
to have very much to say to them. "Though I know, the darling, as she'd
just be the same if she was here, and wouldn't let nobody look down upon
you and me," said the old woman.
"She's a wonderful girl, she is," said old Tozer. "Wind us all round her
little finger, that's what she could do--leastways, except when there
was principle in it, and there I stood firm. But I've done things for
Phoebe as I wouldn't have done for no other breathing, and she knew it. I
wouldn't give in to her tho' about church folks being just as good as
them as is more enlightened. That's agin' reason. But I've done things
for 'em along of her!--Ah! she's a wonderful girl is Phoebe--Phoebe,
Junior, as I always call her. There ain't her match between here and
London, and that's what I'll always say."
But we will not try to describe the glory and joy that filled Mr.
Beecham's house in the Terrace, when Mrs. Clarence Copperhead went back
there with all their friends to the wedding-breakfast, which was in the
very best style, and regardless of expense. Even at that moment it gave
Phoebe a little pang to see her mother in the bright colours which she
loved, but which made her so much pinker and fatter than was needful.
Little Mrs. Copperhead, in dim neutral tints, looked like a little
shadow beside the pastor's buxom wife, and was frightened and ill at
ease and sad to the heart to lose her boy, who had been all she
possessed in the world. Sophy Dorset, specially asked for the purpose
with Ursula May, who was a bridesmaid, looked on with much admiration at
the curious people, so rich, so fine, and so overwhelming, among whom
her father had found it so remarkable to meet not one person whom he
knew. "Now, Ursula," she said, "if you had played your cards properly
that beautiful bridegroom and that nice little house in Mayfair, and the
privilege, perhaps, of writing M.P. after your name some time or other,
might all have been yours instead of Miss Beecham's. Why did you let her
carry off the prize?"
"Cousin Sophy!" cried Ursula indignantly. "As if I ever thought of him
as a prize! But I know you are only laughing at me. The strange thing is
that she likes him, though I am sure she knew very well that
Reginald--Oh, when one thinks how many people there are in this world
who do not get what they wish most--and how many people there are--"
Ursula paused, involved in her own antithesis, and Sophy ended it for
her with a sigh.
"Who do--and the one is no happier than the other, most times, little
Ursula; but you don't understand that, and as you are going to be one
of the blessed ones, you need not take to making reflections; that is my
privilege, my dear."
"Oh, Cousin Sophy, why were not you one of those blessed ones too?"
cried Ursula, clasping her arms suddenly round her kind friend. This, be
it understood, was after the breakfast was over, and when, in the deep
gloom which generally concludes a wedding day, everybody had gone home.
The two were in a magnificent large bedchamber in Portland Place, in the
vast silent mansion of the Copperheads, where at present there was
nothing more cheerful than the bridegroom's soft-eyed mother, taking
herself dreadfully to task for not being happy, and trying not to cry,
though there was to be a great dinner and entertainment that night.
"Don't you know?" said Sophy, putting her aside with a certain proud
coldness, and a momentary laugh, "he I loved proved false; that is to
say, in simple language, he turned out so poor a creature that it is
very good of me not to despise humanity for his sweet sake. Never mind.
If all had gone well, and he had been a real man instead of the sham
image of one, I don't suppose I should have ever been among the blessed
ones. Anne is, who never thought of such mysteries at all; and so you
will be, my little Ursula--very happy. I am sure of it--though how you
can manage to be happy, my dear, marrying a man who is not a good
Churchman, it is not for me to say."
"Cousin Sophy, have I been brought up in a way to make me so fond of
Churchmen?" said Ursula solemnly. She could not have told how much or
how little she knew about her father's behaviour, and the "shock to his
mental system;" but vaguely and by instinct there was a great deal that
she did know.
"You have been behind the scenes too much perhaps," said Sophy Dorset,
shrugging her shoulders, "but don't think any worse of the world than
you ought, if you can't think very much better. No class is good or bad,
Ursula. Men are but men all over the world."
This made Ursula cry, though it is difficult to say why. She thought it
cynical, and probably so will the reader. Perhaps Sophy Dorset abandoned
the cause of mankind too easily, as most people of her temperament and
age are disposed to do. Anyhow the evening entertainment took place and
was very fine, and every honour was done to Clarence Copperhead's
marriage, especially by his mother, who appeared in the most lovely
satin that eyes ever saw, and diamonds--and almost succeeded all the
evening in keeping herself from crying, but not entirely. She did break
down when the health of bridegroom and bride was drunk as it ought to
be; but recovered herself hastily when the mother on the other side gave
her a kiss of sympathy. Though it was an honest kiss it filled poor
little Mrs. Copperhead's mind with the most unchristian feelings, and
gave her strength to keep up for the rest of the evening, and do her
duty to the last. Nevertheless Phoebe was the best of daughters-in-law,
and ended by making her husband's mother dependent on her for most of
the comforts of her life. And Clarence got into Parliament, and the
reader, perhaps (if Parliament is sitting), may have had the luck to
read a speech in the morning paper of Phoebe's composition, and if he
ever got the secret of her style would know it again, and might trace
the course of a public character for years to come by that means. But
this secret is one which no bribe nor worldly inducement will ever tempt
our lips to betray.
Northcote was released from the charge of Salem Chapel directly after
these events, by the return of the minister safe and sound from his
holiday, to the great delight of the congregation, though they had not
been very fond of their old pastor before. Now they could not
sufficiently exult over the happy re-instalment. "The other one never
crossed our doors from the day he came till now as he's going away,"
said one indignant member; "nor took no more notice of us chapel folks
nor if we were dirt beneath his feet." "That time as the Meeting was
held, when he spoke up again' the sinecure, was the only time as my mind
was satisfied," cried another. "And a deal came of it after, making
friends with the very man he had abused." "All his friends was Church
folks," said a third; "he was a wolf in sheep's clothing, that's what I
calls him; and a poor moralist as a preacher, with never a rousing word
in them things as he called his sermons. We're well rid of the likes of
him, though he may be clever. I don't give much for that kind of
cleverness; and what's the good of you, minister or not minister, if you
can't keep consistent and stick to your own side." The chorus was so
strong that the echo of it moved Tozer, who was a kind of arch-deacon
and leading member too, in his way, where he sat twiddling his thumbs in
his little room. "I'm one as is qualified to give what you may call a
casting vote," said Tozer, "being the oldest deacon in Salem, and one as
has seen generations coming and going. And as for Church and Chapel,
I've served 'em both, and seen the colour of their money, and there's
them as has their obligations to me, though we needn't name no names.
But this I will say, as I'm cured of clever men and them as is thought
superior. They ain't to be calculated upon. If any more o' them young
intellectuals turns up at Carlingford, I'll tell him right out, 'You
ain't the man for my money.' I'll say to him as bold as brass, 'I've
been young, and now I'm old, and it's my conviction as clever young men
ain't the sort for Salem. We want them as is steady-going, and them as
is consistent; good strong opinions, and none o' your charity, that's
what we wants here.'" Now Tozer had loved clever young men in his day
more well than wisely, as everybody knew, and this deliverance carried
all the more weight in consequence, and was echoed loudly by one general
hum of content and applause.
Northcote took this very quietly, but he retired, after he had married
Ursula, from the office of pastor, for which he was not fitted, and from
the Liberation Society, and various other societies, coming to see that
Disestablishment was not a panacea for national evils any more than
other things. He was in the habit of quoting his brother-in-law,
Reginald May, as the best man he knew; but this did not make him a
Churchman; for naturally he could not say the same of other members of
the same class and family. He was shaken out of his strong opinions; but
it is doubtful how far this was good for him, for he was a man of
warlike disposition, and not to have something which he could go to the
stake for--something which he could think the devil's own stronghold to
assail, was a drawback to him, and cramped his mental development; but
he was happy in his home with his pretty Ursula, which is probably all
the reader will care to know. He paid Tozer's hundred and fifty pounds.
And he made no inquiries, and tried not to ask himself what all that
strange scene had meant--and whatever it did mean it was over for ever,
and nobody asked any further questions or made any revelations on the
subject. As for Mr. May, his mysterious illness went on for some time,
the doctors never venturing to put any name to it. It was "mental
shock," and perhaps aberration, though he was sane enough to calm down
after that incomprehensible scene. Mr. Simpson of the Bank had a good
guess at the secret of the enigma, but even Tozer got hazy about it
after a while, and though he knew that he had done Mr. May a wonderful
service, could scarcely have told what it was--and neither, when it was
all over, could the culprit have told. He got better and worse for about
a year, and then he died, his strength failing him without any distinct
reason, no one could tell how. Reginald got the living and stepped into
his father's place, making a home for the children, which sharp Janey
rules over, not so softly or steadily as Ursula, with a love of theories
and experiments not quite consistent with the higher graces of
housekeeping, yet with an honest meaning through it all. As the times
are so unsettled, and no one can tell what may become within a year of
any old foundation, the trustees have requested Reginald to retain his
chaplaincy at the old College; so that he is in reality a pluralist, and
almost rich, though they say the hardest-worked man in Carlingford. He
has his vagaries too, which no man can live without, but he is the
kindest guardian to his brothers and sisters, and bears with Janey's
freaks with exemplary gentleness. And he has a curate, whom in the
course of nature Janey will probably marry--though this has not yet been
revealed to either party, who have reached only the first stage of
hating each other up to this time. It is not thought in the family that
Reginald will ever marry. She was never worthy of him, the sisters say;
but he thinks differently, as yet at least. However he is young, and
things may mend.
THE END.
End of Project Gutenberg's Phoebe, Junior, by Mrs [Margaret] Oliphant