CAPTAIN BATSBY AT MERLE PARK.
When Ayala went to Stalham Captain Batsby went to Merle Park. They
had both been invited by Lady Tringle, and when the letter was
written to Ayala she was assured that Tom should not be there. At
that time Tom's last encounter with the police had not as yet become
known to the Tringles, and the necessity of keeping Tom at the house
in the country was not manifest. The idea had been that Captain
Batsby should have an opportunity of explaining himself to Ayala. The
Captain came; but, as to Ayala, Mrs. Dosett sent word to say that she
had been invited to stay some days just at that time with her friend
Lady Albury at Stalham.
What to do with Captain Batsby had been felt to be a difficulty by
Lady Albury. It was his habit to come to Stalham some time in March
and there finish the hunting season. It might be hoped that Ayala's
little affair might be arranged early in March, and then, whether he
came or whether he did not, it would be the same to Ayala. But the
Captain himself would be grievously irate when he should hear the
trick which would have been played upon him. Lady Albury had already
desired him not to come till after the first week in March, having
fabricated an excuse. She had been bound to keep the coast clear both
for Ayala's sake and the Colonel's; but she knew that when her trick
should be discovered there would be unmeasured wrath. "Why the deuce
don't you let the two men come, and then the best man may win!"
said Sir Harry, who did not doubt but that, in such a case, the
Colonel would prove to be the best man. Here too there was another
difficulty. When Lady Albury attempted to explain that Ayala would
not come unless she were told that she would not meet the Captain,
Sir Harry declared that there should be no such favour. "Who the
deuce is this little girl," he asked, "that everybody should be
knocked about in this way for her?" Lady Albury was able to pacify
the husband, but she feared that any pacifying of the Captain would
be impossible. There would be a family quarrel;--but even that must
be endured for the Colonel's sake.
In the meantime the Captain was kept in absolute ignorance of Ayala's
movements, and went down to Merle Park hoping to meet her there.
He must have been very much in love, for Merle Park was by no
means a spot well adapted for hunting. Hounds there were in the
neighbourhood, but he turned up his nose at the offer when Sir Thomas
suggested that he might bring down a hunter. Captain Batsby, when he
went on hunting exhibitions, never stirred without five horses, and
always confined his operations to six or seven favoured counties. But
Ayala just at present was more to him than hunting, and therefore,
though it was now the end of February, he went to Merle Park.
"It was all Sir Thomas's doing." It was thus that Lady Tringle
endeavoured to console herself when discussing the matter with her
daughters. The Honourable Septimus Traffick had now gone up to
London, and was inhabiting a single room in the neighbourhood of the
House. Augusta was still at Merle Park, much to the disgust of her
father. He did not like to tell her to be gone; and would indeed have
been glad enough of her presence had it not been embittered by the
feeling that he was being "done." But there she remained, and in
discussing the affairs of the Captain with her mother and Gertrude
was altogether averse to the suggested marriage for Ayala. To her
thinking Ayala was not entitled to a husband at all. Augusta had
never given way in the affair of Tom;--had declared her conviction
that Stubbs had never been in earnest; and was of opinion that
Captain Batsby would be much better off at Merle Park without Ayala
than he would have been in that young lady's presence. When he
arrived nothing was said to him at once about Ayala. Gertrude,
who recovered from the great sickness occasioned by Mr. Houston's
misconduct, though the recovery was intended only to be temporary,
made herself as pleasant as possible. Captain Batsby was made
welcome, and remained three days before he sought an opportunity of
asking a question about Ayala.
During this time he found Gertrude to be a very agreeable companion,
but he made Mrs. Traffick his first confidant. "Well, you know,
Captain Batsby, to tell you the truth, we are not very fond of our
cousin."
"Sir Thomas told me she was to be here."
"So we know. My father is perhaps a little mistaken about Ayala."
"Was she not asked?" demanded Captain Batsby, beginning to think that
he had been betrayed.
"Oh, yes; she was asked. She has been asked very often, because she
is mamma's niece, and did live with us once for a short time. But she
did not come. In fact she won't go anywhere, unless--"
"Unless what?"
"You know Colonel Stubbs?"
"Jonathan Stubbs. Oh dear, yes; very intimately. He is a sort of
connection of mine. He is my half-brother's second cousin by the
father's side."
"Oh indeed! Does that make him very near?"
"Not at all. I don't like him, if you mean that. He always takes
everything upon himself down at Stalham."
"What we hear is that Ayala is always running after him."
"Ayala running after Jonathan?"
"Haven't you heard of that?" asked Mrs. Traffick. "Why;--she is at
Stalham with the Alburys this moment, and I do not doubt that Colonel
Stubbs is there also. She would not have gone had she not been sure
of meeting him."
This disturbed the Captain so violently that for two or three hours
he kept himself apart, not knowing what to do with himself or where
to betake himself. Could this be true about Jonathan Stubbs? There
had been moments of deep jealousy down at Stalham; but then he had
recovered from that, having assured himself that he was wrong. It
had been Larry Twentyman and not Jonathan Stubbs who had led the two
girls over the brook,--into which Stubbs had simply fallen, making
himself an object of pity. But now again the Captain believed it all.
It was on this account, then, that his half-sister-in-law, Rosaline,
had desired him to stay away from Stalham for the present! He knew
well how high in favour with Lady Albury was that traitor Stubbs;
how it was by her favour that Stubbs, who was no more than a second
cousin, was allowed to do just what he pleased in the stables, while
Sir Harry himself, the master of the hounds, confined himself to
the kennel! He was determined at first to leave Merle Park and
start instantly for Stalham, and had sent for his servant to begin
the packing of his things; but as he thought of it more maturely
he considered that his arrival at Stalham would be very painful
to himself as well as to others. For the others he did not much
care, but he saw clearly that the pain to himself would be very
disagreeable. No one at Stalham would be glad to see him. Sir Harry
would be disturbed, and the other three persons with whom he was
concerned,--Lady Albury, Stubbs, and Ayala,--would be banded together
in hostility against him. What chance would he have under such
circumstances? Therefore he determined that he would stay at Merle
Park yet a little longer.
And, after all, was Ayala worth the trouble which he had proposed to
take for her? How much had he offered her, how scornfully had his
offer been received, and how little had she to give him in return!
And now he had been told that she was always running after Jonathan
Stubbs! Could it be worth his while to run after a girl who was
always running after Jonathan Stubbs? Was he not much higher in the
world than Jonathan Stubbs, seeing that he had, at any rate, double
Stubbs's income? Stubbs was a red-haired, ugly, impudent fellow, who
made his way wherever he went simply by "cheek"! Upon reflection, he
found that it would be quite beneath him to run after any girl who
could so demean herself as to run after Jonathan Stubbs. Therefore he
came down to dinner on that evening with all his smiles, and said not
a word about Ayala to Sir Thomas, who had just returned from London.
"Is he very much provoked?" Sir Thomas asked his wife that evening.
"Provoked about what?"
"He was expressly told that he would meet Ayala here."
"He seems to be making himself very comfortable, and hasn't said a
word to me about Ayala. I am sick of Ayala. Poor Tom is going to be
really ill." Then Sir Thomas frowned, and said nothing more on that
occasion.
Tom was certainly in an uncomfortable position, and never left his
bed till after noon. Then he would mope about the place, moping even
worse than he did before, and would spend the evening all alone in
the housekeeper's room, with a pipe in his mouth, which he seemed
hardly able to take the trouble to keep alight. There were three
or four other guests in the house, including two Honourable Miss
Trafficks, and a couple of young men out of the City, whom Lady
Tringle hoped might act as antidotes to Houston and Hamel. But with
none of them would Tom associate. With Captain Batsby he did form
some little intimacy; driven to it, no doubt, by a community of
interest. "I believe you were acquainted with my cousin, Miss Dormer,
at Stalham?" asked Tom. At the moment the two were sitting over the
fire in the housekeeper's room, and Captain Batsby was smoking a
cigar, while Tom was sucking an empty pipe.
"Oh, yes," said Captain Batsby, pricking up his ears, "I saw a good
deal of her."
"A wonderful creature!" ejaculated Tom.
"Yes, indeed!"
"For a real romantic style of beauty, I don't suppose that the world
ever saw her like before. Did you?"
"Are you one among your cousin's admirers?" demanded the Captain.
"Am I?" asked Tom, surprised that there should be anybody who had
not as yet heard his tragic story. "Am I one of her admirers?
Why,--rather! Haven't you heard about me and Stubbs?"
"No, indeed."
"I thought that everybody had heard that. I challenged him, you
know."
"To fight a duel?"
"Yes; to fight a duel. I sent my friend Faddle down with a letter to
Stalham, but it was of no use. Why should a man fight a duel when he
has got such a girl as Ayala to love him?"
"That is quite true, then?"
"I fear so! I fear so! Oh, yes; it is too true. Then you know;"--and
as he came to this portion of his story he jumped up from his chair
and frowned fiercely;--"then, you know, I met him under the portico
of the Haymarket, and struck him."
"Oh,--was that you?"
"Indeed it was."
"And he did not do anything to you?"
"He behaved like a hero," said Tom. "I do think that he behaved like
a hero,--though of course I hate him." The bitterness of expression
was here very great. "He wouldn't let them lock me up. Though, in
the matter of that, I should have been best pleased if they would
have locked me up for ever, and kept me from the sight of the world.
Admire that girl, Captain Batsby! I don't think that I ever heard of
a man who loved a girl as I love her. I do not hesitate to say that I
continue to walk the world,--in the way of not committing suicide, I
mean,--simply because there is still a possibility while she has not
as yet stood at the hymeneal altar with another man. I would have
shot Stubbs willingly, though I knew I was to be tried for it at the
Old Bailey,--and hung! I would have done it willingly,--willingly; or
any other man." After that Captain Batsby thought it might be prudent
not to say anything especial as to his own love.
And how foolish would it be for a man like himself, with a good
fortune of his own, to marry any girl who had not a sixpence!
The Captain was led into this vain thought by the great civility
displayed to him by the ladies of the house. With Lucy, whom he knew
to be Ayala's sister, he had not prospered very well. It came to
his ears that she was out of favour with her aunt, and he therefore
meddled with her but little. The Tringle ladies, however, were very
kind to him,--so kind that he was tempted to think less than ever of
one who had been so little courteous to him as Ayala. Mrs. Traffick
was of course a married woman, and it amounted to nothing. But
Gertrude--! All the world knew that Septimus Traffick without a
shilling of his own had become the happy possessor of a very large
sum of money. He, Batsby, had more to recommend him than Traffick!
Why should not he also become a happy possessor? He went away for a
week's hunting into Northamptonshire, and then, at Lady Tringle's
request, came back to Merle Park.
At this time Miss Tringle had quite recovered her health. She had
dropped all immediate speech as to Mr. Houston. Had she not been
provoked, she would have allowed all that to drop into oblivion. But
a married sister may take liberties. "You are well rid of him, I
think," said Augusta. Gertrude heaved a deep sigh. She did not wish
to acknowledge herself to be rid of him until another string were
well fitted to her bow. "After all, a man with nothing to do in the
world, with no profession, no occupation, with no money--"
"Mr. Traffick had not got very much money of his own."
"He has a seat in Parliament, which is very much more than fortune,
and will undoubtedly be in power when his party comes in. And he is a
man of birth. But Frank Houston had nothing to recommend him."
"Birth!" said Gertrude, turning up her nose.
"The Queen, who is the fountain of honour, made his father a
nobleman, and that constitutes birth." This the married sister
said with stern severity of manner, and perfect reliance on the
constitutional privileges of her Sovereign.
"I don't know that we need talk about it," said Gertrude.
"Not at all. Mr. Houston has behaved very badly, and I suppose there
is an end of him as far as this house is concerned. Captain Batsby
seems to me to be a very nice young man, and I suppose he has got
money. A man should certainly have got money,--or an occupation."
"He has got both," said Gertrude, which, however, was not true, as
Captain Batsby had left the service.
* * * * * *
"Have you forgotten my cousin so soon?" Gertrude asked one day, as
she was walking with the happy Captain in the park. The Captain, no
doubt, had been saying soft things to her.
"Do you throw that in my teeth as an offence?"
"Inconstancy in men is generally considered as an offence," said
Gertrude. What it might be in women she did not just then declare.
"After all I have heard of your cousin since I have been here, I
should hardly have thought that it would be reckoned so in this
case."
"You have heard nothing against her from me."
"I am told that she has treated your brother very badly."
"Poor Tom!"
"And that she is flirting with a man I particularly dislike."
"I suppose she does make herself rather peculiar with that Colonel
Stubbs."
"And, after all, only think how little I saw of her! She is pretty."
"So some people think. I never saw it myself," said Gertrude. "We
always thought her a mass of affectation. We had to turn her out of
the house once you know. She was living here, and then it was that
her sister had to come in her place. It is not their fault that they
have got nothing;--poor girls! They are mamma's nieces, and so papa
always has one of them." After that forgiveness was accorded to the
Captain on account of his fickle conduct, and Gertrude consented to
accept of his services in the guise of a lover. That this was so Mrs.
Traffick was well aware. Nor was Lady Tringle very much in the dark.
Frank Houston was to be considered as good as gone, and if so it
would be well that her daughter should have another string. She
was tired of the troubles of the girls around her, and thought
that as Captain Batsby was supposed to have an income he would do
as a son-in-law. But she had not hitherto been consulted by the
young people, who felt among themselves that there still might be
a difficulty. The difficulty lay with Sir Thomas. Sir Thomas had
brought Captain Batsby there to Merle Park as Ayala's lover, and as
he had been very little at home was unaware of the changes which
had taken place. And then Gertrude was still supposed to be engaged
to Mr. Houston, although this lover had been so violently rejected
by himself. The ladies felt that, as he was made of sterner stuff
than they, so would it be more difficult to reconcile him to the
alterations which were now proposed in the family arrangements. Who
was to bell the cat? "Let him go to papa in the usual way, and ask
his leave," said Mrs. Traffick.
"I did suggest that," said Gertrude, "but he seems not to like to do
it quite yet."
"Is he such a coward as that?"
"I do not know that he is more a coward than anybody else. I remember
when Septimus was quite afraid to go near papa. But then Benjamin has
got money of his own, which does make a difference."
"It's quite untrue saying that Septimus was ever afraid of papa. Of
course he knows his position as a Member of Parliament too well for
that. I suppose the truth is, it's about Ayala."
"It is a little odd about Ayala," said Gertrude, resuming her
confidential tone. "It is so hard to make papa understand about these
kind of things. I declare I believe he thinks that I never ought to
speak to another man because of that scoundrel Frank Houston."
All this was in truth so strange to Sir Thomas that he could not
understand any of the existing perplexities. Why did Captain Batsby
remain as a guest at Merle Park? He had no special dislike to the
man, and when Lady Tringle had told him that she had asked the
Captain to prolong his visit he had made no objection. But why should
the man remain there, knowing as he did now that there was no chance
of Ayala's coming to Merle Park? At last, on a certain Saturday
evening, he did make inquiry on the subject. "What on earth is that
man staying here for?" he said to his wife.
"I think he likes the place."
"Perhaps he likes the place as well as Septimus Traffick, and means
to live here always!" Such allusions as these were constant with Sir
Thomas, and were always received by Lady Tringle with dismay and
grief. "When does he mean to go away?" asked Sir Thomas, gruffly.
Lady Tringle had felt that the time had come in which some word
should be said as to the Captain's intentions; but she feared to
say it. She dreaded to make the clear explanation to her husband.
"Perhaps," said she, "he is becoming fond of some of the young
ladies."
"Young ladies! What young ladies? Do you mean Lucy?"
"Oh dear no!" said Lady Tringle.
"Then what the deuce do you mean? He came here after Ayala, because
I wanted to have all that nonsense settled about Tom. Ayala is not
here, nor likely to be here; and I don't know why he should stay here
philandering away his time. I hate men in a country-house who are
thorough idlers. You had better take an opportunity of letting him
know that he has been here long enough."
All this was repeated by Lady Tringle to Mrs. Traffick, and by Mrs.
Traffick to Gertrude. Then they felt that this was no time for
Captain Batsby to produce himself to Sir Thomas as a suitor for his
youngest daughter.