FRANK HOUSTON IS PENITENT.
"And now the Adriatic's free to wed another," said Houston to
himself, as he put himself into a cab, and had himself carried to
his club. There he wrote that valedictory letter to Gertrude which
is given at the end of the last chapter. Had he reason to complain
of his fate, or to rejoice? He had looked the question of an
establishment full in the face,--an establishment to be created by
Sir Thomas Tringle's money, to be shared with Sir Thomas Tringle's
daughter, and had made up his mind to accept it, although the
prospects were not, as he told himself, "altogether rosy." When he
first made up his mind to marry Gertrude,--on condition that Gertrude
should bring with her, at any rate, not less than three thousand
a-year,--he was quite aware that he would have to give up all his
old ways of life, and all his little pleasures. He would become
son-in-law to Sir Thomas Tringle, with a comfortable house to live
in; with plenty to eat and drink, and, probably, a horse or two to
ride. If he could manage things at their best, perhaps he might be
able to settle himself at Pau, or some other place of the kind, so as
to be as far away as possible from Tringle influences. But his little
dinners at one club, his little rubbers of whist at the other club,
his evenings at the opera, the pleasant smiles of the ladies, whom he
loved in a general way,--these would be done with for ever! Earn his
own bread! Why, he was going to earn his bread, and that in a most
disagreeable manner. He would set up an establishment, not because
such an establishment would have any charms for him, but because he
was compelled by lack of money to make some change in his present
manner of life. And yet the time had been when he had looked forward
to a marriage as the happiest thing that could befall him. As far as
his nature could love, he had loved Imogene Docimer. There had come a
glimpse upon him of something better than the little dinners and the
little rubbers. There had been a prospect of an income,--not ample,
as would have been that forthcoming from Sir Thomas,--but sufficient
for a sweet and modest home, in which he thought that it would have
sufficed for his happiness to paint a few pictures, and read a few
books, and to love his wife and children. Even as to that there had
been a doubt. There was a regret as to the charms of London life.
But, nevertheless, he had made up his mind,--and she, without any
doubt, had made up hers. Then that wicked uncle had died, and was
found to have expended on his own pursuits the money which was to
have been left to his nephew. Upon that there was an explanation
between Frank and Imogene; and it was agreed that their engagement
should be over, while a doubtful and dangerous friendship was to be
encouraged between them.
Such was the condition of things when Frank first met Gertrude
Tringle at Rome, now considerably more than twelve months since.
When Gertrude had first received his proposition favourably he had
written to Imogene a letter in that drolling spirit common to him, in
which he declared his purpose;--or rather, not his purpose, but his
untoward fate, should the gods be unkind to him. She had answered him
after the same fashion, saying, that in regard to his future welfare
she hoped that the gods would prove unkind. But had he known how to
read all that her letter expressed between the lines, he would have
perceived that her heart was more strongly moved than his own. Since
that time he had learned the lesson. There had been a letter or two;
and then there had been that walk in the wood on the Italian side of
the Tyrolese Alps. The reader may remember how he was hurried away
in the diligence for Innspruck, because it was considered that his
further sojourn in the same house with Imogene was dangerous. He had
gone, and even as he went had attempted to make a joke of the whole
affair. But it had not been quite a joke to him even then. There
was Imogene's love and Imogene's anger,--and together with these an
aversion towards the poor girl whom he intended to marry,--which
became the stronger the more strongly he was convinced both of
Imogene's love and of her anger.
Nevertheless, he persevered,--not with the best success, as has
already been told. Now, as he left the house in Lombard Street, and
wrote what was intended to be his last epistle to Gertrude, he was
driven again to think of Miss Docimer. Indeed, he had in his pocket,
as he sat at his club, a little note which he had lately received
from that lady, which, in truth, had disturbed him much when he made
his last futile efforts at Merle Park and in Lombard Street. The
little note was as follows;--
DEAR FRANK,
One little friendly word in spite of our storm on
the Tyrolese hill-side! If Miss Tringle is to be the
arbiter of your fate;--why, then, let there be an end of
everything between us. I should not care to be called upon
to receive such a Mrs. Frank Houston as a dear friend.
But if Tringle père should at the last moment prove
hard-hearted, then let me see you again.--Yours,
I.
With this letter in his pocket he had gone down to Merle Park,
determined to put an end to the Tringle affair in one way or
the other. His duty, as he had planned it to himself, would not
be altered by Imogene's letter; but if that duty should become
impracticable, why, then, it would be open to him to consider
whatever Imogene might have to say to him.
The Docimers were now in London, where it was their custom to live
during six months of the year; but Houston had not been at their
house since he had parted from them in the Tyrol. He had spent but
little of his time in London since the autumn, and, when there, had
not been anxious to see people who had, at any rate, treated him
somewhat roughly. But now it would be necessary that he should
answer Imogene's letter. What should be the nature of such answer he
certainly had not as yet decided, nor could he have decided before
those very convincing assurances of Sir Thomas Tringle. That matter
was at any rate over, and now the "Adriatic might wed another,"--if
the Adriatic thought well to do so. The matter, however, was one
which required a good deal of consideration. He gave to it ten
minutes of intense thought, during which he consumed a cup of coffee
and a cigarette; and then, throwing away the burnt end of the paper,
he hurried into the morning-room, and wrote to the lady as follows;--
DEAR IMOGENE,
You will not have to press to your bosom as my wife the
second daughter of Sir Thomas Tringle, Bart. The high
honour of that alliance has at last been refused by him in
very plain language. Had she become Mrs. Frank Houston, I
do not doubt but you would have done your duty to your own
cousin. That lot, however, has not been written for me in
the Book of Fates. The father is persistent in looking
upon me as an idle profligate adventurer; and though he
has been kind enough to hint more than once that it might
be possible for me to achieve the young lady, he has
succeeded in convincing me that I never should achieve
anything beyond the barren possession of her beauty. A
wife and family on my present very moderate income would
be burdensome; and, therefore, with infinite regrets, I
have bade adieu to Miss Tringle.
I have not hitherto been to see either you or your brother
or Mrs. Docimer because I have been altogether unaware
whether you or your brother or Mrs. Docimer would be glad
to see me. As you say yourself, there was a storm on the
Tyrolese hill-side,--in which there was more than one
wind blowing at the same time. I do not find fault with
anybody,--perhaps a storm was needed to clear the air. But
I hate storms. I do not pretend to be a very grand fellow,
but I do endeavour not to be disagreeable. Your brother,
if you remember, was a little hard. But, in truth, I say
this only to account for my apparent incivility.
And, perhaps, with another object;--to gain a little time
before I plunge into the stern necessity of answering all
that you say in your very comprehensive letter of five
lines. The first four lines I have answered. There will be
no such Mrs. Frank Houston as that suggested. And then, as
to the last line. Of course, you will see me again, and
that very speedily. So it would seem that the whole letter
is answered.
But yet it is not answered. There is so much in it that
whole sheets would not answer it. A quire of note-paper
stuffed full would hardly contain all that I might find
to say in answer to it,--on one side and the other. Nay,
I might fill as many reams of folio as are required for a
three-volume novel. And then I might call it by one of two
names, "The Doubts of Frank Houston," or "The Constancy of
Imogene Docimer,"--as I should at last bring my story to
one ending or the other. But the novel would contain that
fault which is so prevalent in the novels of the present
day. The hero would be a very namby-mamby sort of a
fellow, whereas the heroine would be too perfect for human
nature.
The hero would be always repeating to himself a certain
line out of a Latin poet, which, of all lines, is the most
heart-breaking;--
The better course I see and know;--
The worser one is where I go.
But then in novels the most indifferent hero comes out
right at last. Some god comes out of a theatrical cloud
and leaves the poor devil ten thousand a-year and a title.
He isn't much of a hero when he does go right under such
inducements, but he suffices for the plot, and everything
is rose-coloured. I would be virtuous at a much cheaper
rate;--if only a young man with his family might have
enough to eat and drink. What is your idea of the lowest
income at which a prudent,--say not idiotically-quixotic
hero,--might safely venture to be heroic?
Now I have written to you a long letter, and think
that I have indicated to you the true state of my
feelings. Whatever may turn up I do not think I shall go
fortune-hunting again. If half-a-million in female hands
were to throw itself at my head, there is no saying
whether I might not yield. But I do not think that I shall
again make inquiry as to the amount of booty supposed
to be within the walls of a city, and then sit down to
besiege the city with regular lines of approach. It is a
disgusting piece of work. I do not say but what I can lie,
and did lie foully on the last siege operation; but I do
not like it. And then to be told that one is unmanly by
the father, and a coward by the young lady, as occurred to
me in this affair, is disheartening. They were both right,
though I repudiated their assertions. This might be borne
as a prelude to success; but, as part of a failure, it is
disgusting. At the present moment I am considering what
economy might effect as to a future bachelor life, and
am meditating to begin with a couple of mutton chops and
half-a-pint of sherry for my dinner to-day. I know I shall
break down and have a woodcock and some champagne.
I will come to you about three on Sunday. If you can
manage that your brother should go out and make his calls,
and your sister attend divine service in the afternoon, it
would be a comfort.
Yours always,
F. HOUSTON.
It was a long rambling letter, without a word in it of solid
clearly-expressed meaning; but Imogene, as she read it, understood
very well its real purport. She understood more than its purport, for
she could see by it,--more clearly than the writer did himself,--how
far her influence over the man had been restored, and how far she
might be able to restore it. But was it well that she should regain
her influence? Her influence regained would simply mean a renewed
engagement. No doubt the storm on the hill-side had come from the
violence of true love on her part! No doubt her heart had been
outraged by the idea that he should give himself up to another woman
after all that had passed between them. She had been devoted to him
altogether; but yet she had been taught by him to regard her love as
a passion which of its nature contained something of the ridiculous.
He had never ceased gently to laugh at himself, even in her presence,
because he had subjected himself to her attraction. She had caught
up the same spirit,--or at any rate the expression of spirit,--and,
deceived by that, he had thought that to relieve herself from the
burden of her love would be as easy to her as to him. In making this
mistake he had been ignorant of the intrinsic difference in the
nature of a man's and of a woman's heart, and had been unaware that
that, which to a man at his best can only be a part of his interest
in his life's concerns, will to a woman be everything. She had
attempted to follow his lead when it did not seem that by doing so
she would lose anything. But when the moment of trial came she had
not in truth followed his lead at all. She made the attempt, and in
making the attempt gave him her permission to go from her; but when
she realised the fact that he was gone,--or going,--then she broke
down utterly. Then there came these contentions between her and her
brother, and that storm on the hill-side.
After that she passed some months of wretchedness. There was no
possibility for her to droll away her love. She had taught herself to
love the man whether he were good or whether he were bad,--whether
he were strong-hearted or whether he were fickle,--and the thing
was there present to her, either as a permanent blessing, or, much
more probably, a permanent curse. As the months went on she learned,
though she never saw Frank himself, that his purpose of marrying
Gertrude Tringle was not likely to be carried out. Then at last she
wrote that comprehensive letter of five lines,--as Houston had called
it. It had been intended to be comprehensive, and did, in fact,
contain much more than it seemed to say. "If you can bring yourself
to return to me, and to endure whatever inconveniences may be
incidental to your doing so, I hereby declare that I will do the
same; and I declare also that I can find for myself no other content
in the world except what may come to me from such an agreement
between us." It was this that she said in that last line, in which
she had begged him to come to her, if at the last moment "Tringle
père" should prove to be hard-hearted. All troubles of poverty, all
the lingering annoyance of waiting, all her possible doubts as to his
future want of persistency, would be preferable to the great loss
which she found herself unable to endure.
Yes; it would be very well that both her brother and her
sister-in-law should be absent when he came to her. To neither of
them had she said a word of her last correspondence;--to neither of
them a word of her renewed hopes. For the objections which might be
raised by either of them would she care little if she could succeed
with Frank. But while that success was still doubtful it would be
well to get at any rate the assistance of her sister-in-law. On the
Sunday afternoon Mr. Docimer would certainly be away from the house.
It was his custom to go off among his friends almost immediately
after lunch, and his absence might be counted on as assured. But with
his wife it was different. That project of sending her to church was
quite out of the question. Mrs. Docimer generally went to church of a
Sunday morning, and then always considered herself to have performed
the duties of the day. Nor did Imogene like the idea of this
appointment with her lover without a word spoken about it to her
sister-in-law. "Mary," she said, "Frank Houston is coming here on
Sunday."
"Frank!" exclaimed Mrs. Docimer. "I thought we were to consider
ourselves as altogether separated from that fortunate youth."
"I don't see why."
"Well; he left us not with the kindest possible feelings in the
Tyrol; and he has allowed ever so many months to pass by without
coming to see us. I asked Mudbury whether we should have him to
dinner one day last week, and he said it would be better to let him
go his own way."
"Nevertheless, he is coming here on Sunday."
"Has he written to you?"
"Yes, he has written to me,--in answer to a line from me. I told him
that I wished to see him."
"Was that wise?"
"Wise or not, I did so."
"Why should you wish to see him?"
"Am I to tell you the truth or a lie?"
"Not a lie, certainly. I will not ask for the truth if the truth be
unpalatable to you."
"It is unpalatable;--but yet I might as well tell it you. I wrote to
ask him to come and see me, because I love him so dearly."
"Oh, Imogene!"
"It is the truth."
"Did you tell him so?"
"No; I told him nothing. I merely said, that, if this match was over
between him and that girl of Sir Thomas Tringle, then he might come
and see me again. That was all that I said. His letter was very much
longer, but yet it did not say much. However, he is to come, and I am
prepared to renew our engagement should he declare that he is willing
to do so."
"What will Mudbury say?"
"I do not care very much what he says. I do not know that I am
bound to care. If I have resolved to entangle myself with a long
engagement, and Mr. Houston is willing to do the same, I do not
think that my brother should interfere. I am my own mistress, and am
dealing altogether with my own happiness."
"Imogene, we have discussed this so often before."
"Not a doubt; and with such effect that with my permission Frank was
enabled to ask this young woman with a lot of money to marry him. Had
it been arranged, I should have had no right to find fault with him,
however sore of heart I might have been. All that has fallen through,
and I consider myself quite entitled to renew my engagement again. I
shall not ask him, you may be sure of that."
"It comes to the same thing, Imogene."
"Very likely. It often happens that ladies mean that to be expressed
which it does not become them to say out loud. So it may be with me
on this occasion. Nevertheless, the word, if it have to be spoken,
will have to be spoken by him. What I want you to do now is to let me
have the drawing-room alone at three o'clock on Sunday. If anything
has to be said it will have to be said without witnesses."
With some difficulty Mrs. Docimer was induced to accede to the
request, and to promise that, at any rate for the present, nothing
should be said to her husband on the subject.