KENELM CHILLINGLY rose with the sun, according to his usual custom, and
took his way to the Temperance Hotel. All in that sober building seemed
still in the arms of Morpheus. He turned towards the stables in which he
had left the gray cob, and had the pleasure to see that ill-used animal
in the healthful process of rubbing down.
“That’s right,” said he to the hostler. “I am glad to see you are so
early a riser.”
“Why,” quoth the hostler, “the gentleman as owns the pony knocked me
up at two o’clock in the morning, and pleased enough he was to see the
creature again lying down in the clean straw.”
“Oh, he has arrived at the hotel, I presume?--a stout gentleman?”
“Yes, stout enough; and a passionate gentleman too. Came in a yellow and
two posters, knocked up the Temperance and then knocked up me to see
for the pony, and was much put out as he could not get any grog at the
Temperance.”
“I dare say he was. I wish he had got his grog: it might have put him in
better humour. Poor little thing!” muttered Kenelm, turning away; “I am
afraid she is in for a regular vituperation. My turn next, I suppose.
But he must be a good fellow to have come at once for his niece in the
dead of the night.”
About nine o’clock Kenelm presented himself again at the Temperance
Hotel, inquired for Mr. Bovill, and was shown by the prim maid-servant
into the drawing-room, where he found Mr. Bovill seated amicably at
breakfast with his niece, who of course was still in boy’s clothing,
having no other costume at hand. To Kenelm’s great relief, Mr. Bovill
rose from the table with a beaming countenance, and extending his hand
to Kenelm, said,--
“Sir, you are a gentleman; sit down, sit down and take breakfast.”
Then, as soon as the maid was out of the room, the uncle continued,--
“I have heard all your good conduct from this young simpleton. Things
might have been worse, sir.”
Kenelm bowed his head, and drew the loaf towards him in silence. Then,
considering that some apology was due to his entertainer, he said,--
“I hope you forgive me for that unfortunate mistake, when--”
“You knocked me down, or rather tripped me up. All right now. Elsie,
give the gentleman a cup of tea. Pretty little rogue, is she not? and a
good girl, in spite of her nonsense. It was all my fault letting her go
to the play and be intimate with Miss Lockit, a stage-stricken, foolish
old maid, who ought to have known better than to lead her into all this
trouble.”
“No, uncle,” cried the girl, resolutely; “don’t blame her, nor any one
but me.”
Kenelm turned his dark eyes approvingly towards the girl, and saw that
her lips were firmly set; there was an expression, not of grief nor
shame, but compressed resolution in her countenance. But when her eyes
met his they fell softly, and a blush mantled over her cheeks up to her
very forehead.
“Ah!” said the uncle, “just like you, Elsie; always ready to take
everybody’s fault on your own shoulders. Well, well, say no more about
that. Now, my young friend, what brings you across the country tramping
it on foot, eh? a young man’s whim?” As he spoke, he eyed Kenelm very
closely, and his look was that of an intelligent man not unaccustomed to
observe the faces of those he conversed with. In fact a more shrewd man
of business than Mr. Bovill is seldom met with on ‘Change or in market.
“I travel on foot to please myself, sir,” answered Kenelm, curtly, and
unconsciously set on his guard.
“Of course you do,” cried Mr. Bovill, with a jovial laugh. “But it seems
you don’t object to a chaise and pony whenever you can get them for
nothing,--ha, ha!--excuse me,--a joke.”
Herewith Mr. Bovill, still in excellent good-humour, abruptly changed
the conversation to general matters,--agricultural prospects, chance of
a good harvest, corn trade, money market in general, politics, state of
the nation. Kenelm felt there was an attempt to draw him out, to sound,
to pump him, and replied only by monosyllables, generally significant
of ignorance on the questions broached; and at the close, if the
philosophical heir of the Chillinglys was in the habit of allowing
himself to be surprised he would certainly have been startled when Mr.
Bovill rose, slapped him on the shoulder, and said in a tone of great
satisfaction, “Just as I thought, sir; you know nothing of these
matters: you are a gentleman born and bred; your clothes can’t disguise
you, sir. Elsie was right. My dear, just leave us for a few minutes: I
have something to say to our young friend. You can get ready meanwhile
to go with me.” Elsie left the table and walked obediently towards the
doorway. There she halted a moment, turned round, and looked timidly
towards Kenelm. He had naturally risen from his seat as she rose, and
advanced some paces as if to open the door for her. Thus their looks
encountered. He could not interpret that shy gaze of hers: it was
tender, it was deprecating, it was humble, it was pleading; a man
accustomed to female conquests might have thought it was something more,
something in which was the key to all. But that something more was an
unknown tongue to Kenelm Chillingly.
When the two men were alone, Mr. Bovill reseated himself and motioned to
Kenelm to do the same. “Now, young sir,” said the former, “you and I can
talk at our ease. That adventure of yours yesterday may be the luckiest
thing that could happen to you.”
“It is sufficiently lucky if I have been of any service to your niece.
But her own good sense would have been her safeguard if she had been
alone, and discovered, as she would have done, that Mr. Compton had,
knowingly or not, misled her to believe that he was a single man.”
“Hang Mr. Compton! we have done with him. I am a plain man, and I come
to the point. It is you who have carried off my niece; it is with you
that she came to this hotel. Now when Elsie told me how well you
had behaved, and that your language and manners were those of a real
gentleman, my mind was made up. I guess pretty well what you are; you
are a gentleman’s son; probably a college youth; not overburdened with
cash; had a quarrel with your governor, and he keeps you short. Don’t
interrupt me. Well, Elsie is a good girl and a pretty girl, and will
make a good wife, as wives go; and, hark ye, she has L20,000. So just
confide in me; and if you don’t like your parents to know about it till
the thing’s done and they be only got to forgive and bless you, why, you
shall marry Elsie before you can say Jack Robinson.”
For the first time in his life Kenelm Chillingly was seized with
terror,--terror and consternation. His jaw dropped; his tongue was
palsied. If hair ever stands on end, his hair did. At last, with
superhuman effort, he gasped out the word, “Marry!”
“Yes; marry. If you are a gentleman you are bound to it. You have
compromised my niece,--a respectable, virtuous girl, sir; an orphan, but
not unprotected. I repeat, it is you who have plucked her from my very
arms, and with violence and assault eloped with her; and what would the
world say if it knew? Would it believe in your prudent conduct?--conduct
only to be explained by the respect you felt due to your future wife.
And where will you find a better? Where will you find an uncle who will
part with his ward and L20,000 without asking if you have a sixpence?
and the girl has taken a fancy to you; I see it: would she have given up
that player so easily if you had not stolen her heart? Would you break
that heart? No, young man: you are not a villain. Shake hands on it!”
“Mr. Bovill,” said Kenelm, recovering his wonted equanimity, “I am
inexpressibly flattered by the honour you propose to me, and I do not
deny that Miss Elsie is worthy of a much better man than myself. But
I have inconceivable prejudices against the connubial state. If it be
permitted to a member of the Established Church to cavil at any sentence
written by Saint Paul,--and I think that liberty may be permitted to a
simple layman, since eminent members of the clergy criticise the whole
Bible as freely as if it were the history of Queen Elizabeth by Mr.
Froude,--I should demur at the doctrine that it is better to marry than
to burn: I myself should prefer burning. With these sentiments it would
ill become any one entitled to that distinction of ‘gentleman’ which you
confer on me to lead a fellow-victim to the sacrificial altar. As for
any reproach attached to Miss Elsie, since in my telegram I directed you
to ask for a young gentleman at this hotel, her very sex is not known in
this place unless you divulge it. And--”
Here Kenelm was interrupted by a violent explosion of rage from the
uncle. He stamped his feet; he almost foamed at the mouth; he doubled
his fist, and shook it in Kenelm’s face.
“Sir, you are mocking me: John Bovill is not a man to be jeered in this
way. You _shall_ marry the girl. I’ll not have her thrust back upon me
to be the plague of my life with her whims and tantrums. You have taken
her, and you shall keep her, or I’ll break every bone in your skin.”
“Break them,” said Kenelm, resignedly, but at the same time falling back
into a formidable attitude of defence, which cooled the pugnacity of his
accuser. Mr. Bovill sank into his chair, and wiped his forehead. Kenelm
craftily pursued the advantage he had gained, and in mild accents
proceeded to reason,--
“When you recover your habitual serenity of humour, Mr. Bovill, you
will see how much your very excusable desire to secure your niece’s
happiness, and, I may add, to reward what you allow to have been
forbearing and well-bred conduct on my part, has hurried you into an
error of judgment. You know nothing of me. I may be, for what you know,
an impostor or swindler; I may have every bad quality, and yet you are
to be contented with my assurance, or rather your own assumption, that
I am born a gentleman, in order to give me your niece and her L20,000.
This is temporary insanity on your part. Allow me to leave you to
recover from your excitement.”
“Stop, sir,” said Mr. Bovill, in a changed and sullen tone; “I am not
quite the madman you think me. But I dare say I have been too hasty and
too rough. Nevertheless the facts are as I have stated them, and I do
not see how, as a man of honour, you can get off marrying my niece. The
mistake you made in running away with her was, no doubt, innocent on
your part: but still there it is; and supposing the case came before a
jury, it would be an ugly one for you and your family. Marriage alone
could mend it. Come, come, I own I was too business-like in rushing to
the point at once, and I no longer say, ‘Marry my niece off-hand.’ You
have only seen her disguised and in a false position. Pay me a visit at
Oakdale; stay with me a month; and if at the end of that time you do not
like her well enough to propose, I’ll let you off and say no more about
it.”
While Mr. Bovill thus spoke, and Kenelm listened, neither saw that the
door had been noiselessly opened and that Elsie stood at the threshold.
Now, before Kenelm could reply, she advanced into the middle of the
room, and, her small figure drawn up to its fullest height, her cheeks
glowing, her lips quivering, exclaimed,--
“Uncle, for shame!” Then addressing Kenelm in a sharp tone of anguish,
“Oh, do not believe I knew anything of this!” she covered her face with
both hands and stood mute.
All of chivalry that Kenelm had received with his baptismal appellation
was aroused. He sprang up, and, bending his knee as he drew one of her
hands into his own, he said,--
“I am as convinced that your uncle’s words are abhorrent to you as I am
that you are a pure-hearted and high-spirited woman, of whose friendship
I shall be proud. We meet again.” Then releasing her hand, he addressed
Mr. Bovill: “Sir, you are unworthy the charge of your niece. Had you not
been so, she would have committed no imprudence. If she have any female
relation, to that relation transfer your charge.”
“I have! I have!” cried Elsie; “my lost mother’s sister: let me go to
her.”
“The woman who keeps a school!” said Mr. Bovill sneeringly.
“Why not?” asked Kenelm.
“She never would go there. I proposed it to her a year ago. The minx
would not go into a school.”
“I will now, Uncle.”
“Well, then, you shall at once; and I hope you’ll be put on bread and
water. Fool! fool! you have spoilt your own game. Mr. Chillingly, now
that Miss Elsie has turned her back on herself, I can convince you that
I am not the mad man you thought me. I was at the festive meeting held
when you came of age: my brother is one of your father’s tenants. I did
not recognize your face immediately in the excitement of our encounter
and in your change of dress; but in walking home it struck me that I had
seen it before, and I knew it at once when you entered the room to-day.
It has been a tussle between us which should beat the other. You have
beat me; and thanks to that idiot! If she had not put her spoke into my
wheel, she would have lived to be ‘my lady.’ Now good-day, sir.”
“Mr. Bovill, you offered to shake hands: shake hands now, and promise
me, with the good grace of one honourable combatant to another, that
Miss Elsie shall go to her aunt the schoolmistress at once if she wishes
it. Hark ye, my friend” (this in Mr. Bovill’s ear): “a man can never
manage a woman. Till a woman marries, a prudent man leaves her to women;
when she does marry, she manages her husband, and there’s an end of it.”
Kenelm was gone.
“Oh, wise young man!” murmured the uncle. “Elsie, dear, how can you go
to your aunt’s while you are in that dress?”
Elsie started as from a trance, her eyes directed towards the
doorway through which Kenelm had vanished. “This dress,” she said
contemptuously, “this dress; is not that easily altered with shops in
the town?”
“Gad!” muttered Mr. Bovill, “that youngster is a second Solomon; and if
I can’t manage Elsie, she’ll manage a husband--whenever she gets one.”