(I)
The Rector of Merefield was returning from a short pastoral visitation
towards the close of an afternoon at the beginning of November. His
method and aims were very characteristic of himself, since he was one of
that numerous class of persons who, interiorly possessing their full
share of proper pride, wear exteriorly an appearance of extreme and
almost timid humility. The aims of his visiting were, though he was
quite unaware of the fact, directed towards encouraging people to hold
fast to their proper position in life (for this, after all, is only
another name for one's duty towards one's neighbor), and his method was
to engage in general conversation on local topics. There emerged, in
this way, information as to the patient's habits and actions; it would
thus transpire, for example, whether the patient had been to church or
not, whether there were any quarrels, and, if so, who were the
combatants and for what cause.
He had been fairly satisfied to-day; he had met with good excuses for
the absence of two children from day-school, and of a young man from
choir-practice; he had read a little Scripture to an old man, and had
been edified by his comments upon it. It was not particularly
supernatural, but, after all, the natural has its place, too, in life,
and he had undoubtedly fulfilled to-day some of the duties for whose
sake he occupied the position of Rector of Merefield, in a completely
inoffensive manner. The things he hated most in the world were
disturbances of any kind, abruptness and the unexpected, and he had a
strong reputation in the village for being a man of peace.
It sounds a hard thing to say of so conscientious a man, but a properly
preserved social order was perhaps to his mind the nearest approach to
the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Each person held
his proper position, including himself, and he no more expected others
to be untrue to their station than he wished to be untrue to his own.
There were, of course, two main divisions--those of gentle birth and
those not of gentle birth, and these were as distinct as the sexes. But
there were endless gradations in each respectively, and he himself
regarded those with as much respect as those of the angelic hierarchy:
the "Dominations" might, or might not be as "good" as the "Powers," but
they were certainly different, by Divine decree. It would be a species
of human blasphemy, therefore, for himself not to stand up in Lord
Talgarth's presence, or for a laborer not to touch his hat to Miss
Jenny. This is sometimes called snobbishness, but it is nothing of the
kind. It is merely a marked form of Toryism.
It was a pleasant autumnal kind of afternoon, and he took off his hat as
he turned up past the park gates to feel the cool air, as he was a
little heated with his walk. He felt exceedingly content with all
things: there were no troubles in the parish, he enjoyed excellent
health, and he had just done his duty. He disliked pastoral visiting
very deeply indeed; he was essentially a timid kind of man, but he made
his rules and kept them, for he was essentially a conscientious man. He
was so conscientious that he was probably quite unaware that he disliked
this particular duty.
Just as he came opposite the gates--great iron-work affairs with ramping
eagles and a Gothic lodge smothered in ivy--the man ran out and began to
wheel them back, after a hasty salute to his pastor; and the Rector,
turning, saw a sight that increased his complacency. It was just Jenny
riding with Lord Talgarth, as he knew she was doing that afternoon.
They made a handsome, courtly kind of pair--a sort of "father and
daughter" after some romantic artist or other. Lord Talgarth's heavy
figure looked well-proportioned on horseback, and he sat his big black
mare very tolerably indeed. And Jenny looked delicious on the white
mare, herself in dark green. A groom followed twenty yards behind.
Lord Talgarth's big face nodded genially to the Rector and he made a
kind of salute; he seemed in excellent dispositions; Jenny was a little
flushed with exercise, and smiled at her father with a quiet, friendly
dignity.
"Just taking her ladyship home," said the old man.... "Yes; charming
day, isn't it?"
* * * * *
The Rector followed them, pleased at heart. Usually Jenny rode home
alone with the groom to take back her mare to the stables. It was the
first time, so far as he could remember, that Lord Talgarth had taken
the trouble to escort her all the way home himself. It really was very
pleasant indeed, and very creditable to Jenny's tact, that relations
were so cordial.... And they were dining there to-morrow, too. The
social order of Merefield seemed to be in an exceedingly sound
condition.
(II)
Lord Talgarth, too, seemed to the lodge-keeper, as ten minutes later the
gates rolled back again to welcome their lord, in an unusually genial
temper (and, indeed, there was always about this old man as great a
capacity for geniality on one side as for temper on the other; it is
usually so with explosive characters). He even checked his horse and
asked after "the missus" in so many words; although two days before a
violent message had come down to complain of laxity in the gate-opening,
owing to the missus' indisposition on an occasion when the official
himself had been digging cabbages behind the Gothic lodge and the hoot
of the motor had not been heard.
The missus, it seemed, was up and about again (indeed her husband caught
a glimpse out of the tail of his eye of a pale face that glanced and
withdrew again apprehensively above the muslin curtain beyond his
lordship).
"That's all right," remarked Lord Talgarth heartily, and rode on.
The lodge-keeper exchanged a solemn wink with the groom half a minute
later, and stood to watch the heavy figure ahead plunging about rather
in the saddle as the big black mare set her feet upon the turf and
viewed her stable afar off.
It was a fact that Lord Talgarth was pleased with himself and all the
world to-day, for he kept it up even with the footman who slipped, and
all but lost his balance, as he brought tea into the library.
"Hold up!" remarked the nobleman.
The footman smiled gently and weakly, after the manner of a dependent,
and related the incident with caustic gusto to his fellows in the
pantry.
After tea Lord Talgarth lay back in his chair and appeared to meditate,
as was observed by the man who fetched out the tea-things and poked the
fire; and he was still meditating, though now there was the aromatic
smell of tobacco upon the air, when his own man came to tell him that it
was time to dress.
It was indeed a perfect room for arm-chair meditations; there were tall
book-shelves, mahogany writing-tables, each with its shaded electric
lamp; the carpet was as deep as a summer lawn; and in the wide hearth
logs consumed themselves in an almost deferential silence. There was
every conceivable thing that could be wanted laid in its proper place.
It was the kind of room in which it would seem that no scheme could
miscarry and every wish must prevail; the objective physical world
grouped itself so obediently to the human will that it was almost
impossible to imagine a state of things in which it did not so. The
great house was admirably ordered; there was no sound that there should
not be--no hitches, no gaps or cracks anywhere; it moved like a
well-oiled machine; the gong, sounded in the great hall, issued
invitations rather than commands. All was leisurely, perfectly adapted
and irreproachable.
* * * * *
It is always more difficult for people who live in such houses as these
to behave well under adverse fortune than for those who live in houses
where the Irish stew can be smelled at eleven o'clock in the morning,
and where the doors do not shut properly, and the kitchen range goes
wrong. Possibly something of this fact helped to explain the owner's
extreme violence of temper on the occasion of his son's revolt. It was
intolerable for a man all of whose other surroundings moved like
clockwork, obedient to his whims, to be disobeyed flatly by one whose
obedience should be his first duty--to find disorder and rebellion in
the very mainspring of the whole machine.
Possibly, too, the little scheme that was maturing in Lord Talgarth's
mind between tea and dinner that evening helped to restore his
geniality; for, as soon as the thought was conceived, it became obvious
that it could be carried through with success.
He observed: "Aha! it's time, is it?" to his man in a hearty kind of
way, and hoisted himself out of his chair with unusual briskness.
(III)
He spent a long evening again in the library alone. Archie was away; and
after dining alone with all the usual state, the old man commanded that
coffee should be brought after him. The butler found him, five minutes
later, kneeling before a tall case of drawers, trying various keys off
his bunch, and when the man came to bring in whisky and clear away the
coffee things he was in his deep chair, a table on either side of him
piled with papers, and a drawer upon his knees.
"You can put this lot back," he remarked to the young footman,
indicating a little pile of four drawers on the hearth-rug. He watched
the man meditatively as he attempted to fit them into their places.
"Not that way, you fool! Haven't you got eyes?... The top one at the
top!"
But he said it without bitterness--almost contemplatively. And, as the
butler glanced round a moment or two later to see that all was in order,
he saw his master once more beginning to read papers.
"Good-night," said Lord Talgarth.
"Good-night, my lord," said the butler.
There was a good deal of discussion that night in the men's wing as to
the meaning of all this, and it was conducted with complete frankness.
Mr. Merton, the butler, had retired to his own house in the stable-yard,
and Mr. Clarkson, the valet, was in his lordship's dressing-room; so the
men talked freely. It was agreed that only two explanations were
possible for the unusual sweetness of temper: either Mr. Frank was to be
reinstated, or his father was beginning to break up. Frank was extremely
popular with servants always; and it was generally hoped that the former
explanation was the true one. Possibly, however, both were required.
* * * * *
Mr. Clarkson too was greatly _intrigué_ that night. He yawned about the
dressing-room till an unusually late hour, for Lord Talgarth generally
retired to rest between ten and half-past. To-night, however, it was
twenty minutes to twelve before the man stood up suddenly from the sofa
at the sound of a vibration in the passage outside. The old man came in
briskly, bearing a bundle of papers in one hand and a bed-candle in the
other, with the same twinkle of good temper in his eyes that he had
carried all the evening.
"Give me the dispatch-box under the sofa," he said; "the one in the
leather case."
This was done and the papers were laid in it, carefully, on the top.
Mr. Clarkson noticed that they had a legal appearance, were long-shaped
and inscribed in stiff lettering. Then the dispatch-box was reclosed and
set on the writing-table which my lord used sometimes when he was
unwell.
"Remind me to send for Mr. Manners to-morrow," he said. (This was the
solicitor.)
* * * * *
Getting ready for bed that evening was almost of a sensational nature,
and Mr. Clarkson had to keep all his wits about him to respond with
sufficient agility to the sallies of his master. Usually it was all a
very somber ceremony, with a good deal of groaning and snarling in
asides. But to-night it was as cheerful as possible.
The mysteries of it all are too great for me to attempt to pierce them;
but it is really incredible what a number of processes are necessary
before an oldish man, who is something of a buck and something of an
invalid, and altogether self-centered, is able to lay him down to rest.
There are strange doses to be prepared and drunk, strange manipulations
to be performed and very particular little ceremonies to be observed,
each in its proper place. Each to-night was accompanied by some genial
comment: the senna-pod distillation, that had been soaking since seven
p.m. in hot water, was drunk almost with the air of a toast; the
massaging of the ankles and toes (an exercise invented entirely by Lord
Talgarth himself) might have been almost in preparation for a dance.
He stood up at last, an erect, stoutish figure, in quilted dressing-gown
and pyjamas, before the fire, as his man put on his slippers for him,
for the little procession into the next room.
"I think I'm better to-night, Clarkson," he said.
"Your lordship seems very well indeed, my lord," murmured that diplomat
on the hearth-rug.
"How old do you think I am, Clarkson?"
Clarkson knew perfectly well, but it was better to make a deprecatory
confused noise.
"Ah! well, we needn't reckon by years ... I feel young enough," observed
the stately figure before the fire.
* * * * *
Then the procession was formed: the double doors were set back, the
electric light switched on; Lord Talgarth passed through towards the
great four-posted bed that stood out into the bedroom, and was in bed,
with scarcely a groan, almost before the swift Mr. Clarkson could be at
his side to help him in. He lay there, his ruddy face wonderfully
handsome against the contrast of his gray hair and the white pillow,
while Mr. Clarkson concluded the other and final ceremonies. A small
table had to be wheeled to a certain position beside the bed, and the
handle of the electric cord laid upon it in a particular place, between
the book and the tray on which stood some other very special draught to
be drunk in case of thirst.
"Call me a quarter of an hour earlier than usual," observed the face on
the pillow. "I'll take a little stroll before breakfast."
"Yes, my lord."
"What did I tell you to remind me to do after breakfast?"
"Send for Mr. Manners, my lord."
"That's right. Good-night, Clarkson."
"Good-night, my lord."
* * * * *
There was the usual discreet glance round the room to see that all was
in order; then the door into the dressing-room closed imperceptibly
behind Mr. Clarkson's bent back.