A QUIET LITTLE DINNER.
Sir Henry Harcourt was married and took his bride to Paris and Nice;
and Sir Lionel Bertram tried to get married, but his bride--bride
as he hoped her to have been--ran away by herself to Hadley. In the
meantime George Bertram lived alone in his dark dull chambers in
London.
He would fain have been all alone; but at what was perhaps the worst
moment of his misery, his father came to him. It may be remembered
how anxiously he had longed to know his father when he first
commenced that journey to Jerusalem, how soon he became attached to
him, how fascinated he had been by Sir Lionel's manners, how easily
he forgave the first little traits of un-paternal conduct on his
father's part, how gradually the truth forced itself upon his mind.
But now, at this time, the truth had forced itself on his mind. He
knew his father for what he was.
And his mind was not one which could reject such knowledge, or alter
the nature of it because the man was his father. There are those
to whom a father's sins, or a husband's sins, or a brother's sins
are no sins at all. And of such one may say, that though we must of
compulsion find their judgment to be in some sort delinquent, that
their hearts more than make up for such delinquency. One knows that
they are wrong, but can hardly wish them to be less so.
But George Bertram was not one of them: he had been in no hurry to
condemn his father; but, having seen his sins, he knew them for sins,
and did condemn them. He found that his uncle had been right, and
that Sir Lionel was a man whom he could in no wise respect, and could
hardly love. Money he perceived was his father's desire. He would
therefore give him what money he could spare; but he would not give
him his society.
When, therefore, Sir Lionel announced his arrival in town and his
intention to remain there some little time, George Bertram was by no
means solaced in his misery. In those days he was very miserable. It
was only now that he knew how thoroughly he loved this woman--now
that she was so utterly beyond his reach. Weak and wavering as he was
in many things, he was not weak enough to abandon himself altogether
to unavailing sorrow. He knew that work alone could preserve him
from sinking--hard, constant, unflinching work, that one great cure
for all our sorrow, that only means of adapting ourselves to God's
providences.
So he set himself to work--not a lazy, listless reading of counted
pages; not history at two volumes a week, or science at a treatise a
day; but to such true work as he found it in him to do, working with
all his mind and all his strength. He had already written and was
known as a writer; but he had written under impulse, carelessly,
without due regard to his words or due thought as to his conclusions.
He had written things of which he was already ashamed, and had put
forth with the _ex cathedra_ air of an established master ideas which
had already ceased to be his own. But all that should be altered now.
Then he had wanted a quick return for his writing. It had piqued him
to think that the names of others, his contemporaries, were bruited
about the world, but that the world knew nothing of his own. Harcourt
was already a noted man, while he himself had done no more than
attempted and abandoned a profession. Harcourt's early success had
made him an early author; but he already felt that his authorship
was unavailing. Harcourt's success had been solid, stable, such as
men delight in; his had as yet resulted only in his all but forced
withdrawal from the only respectable position which he had achieved.
And now Harcourt's success was again before him. Harcourt had now as
his own that which he had looked to as the goal of all his success,
the worldly reward for which he had been willing to work. And yet
what was Harcourt as compared with him? He knew himself to be of
a higher temperament, of a brighter genius, of greater powers. He
would not condescend even to compare himself to this man who had so
thoroughly distanced him in the world's race.
Thinking, and feeling, and suffering thus, he had begun to work
with all the vehemence of which he was master. He would ask for no
speedy return now. His first object was to deaden the present misery
of his mind; and then, if it might be so, to vindicate his claim
to be regarded as one of England's worthy children, letting such
vindication come in its own time.
Such being the state of his mind, his father's arrival did not
contribute much to his comfort. Sir Lionel was rather petulant
when he was with him; objected to him that he had played his cards
badly; would talk about Caroline, and, which was almost worse, about
the solicitor-general; constantly urged him to make overtures of
reconciliation to his uncle; and wanted one day five pounds, on
another ten pounds, and again on a third fifteen pounds. At this
moment George's fixed income was but two hundred pounds a year, and
any other wealth of which he was possessed was the remainder of his
uncle's thousand pounds. When that was gone, he must either live on
his income, small as it was, or write for the booksellers. Such being
the case, he felt himself obliged to decline when the fifteen pounds
was mentioned.
"You can let me have it for a couple of months?" said Sir Lionel.
"Not conveniently," said his son.
"I will send it you back immediately on my return to Littlebath,"
said the father; "so if you have got it by you, pray oblige me."
"I certainly have got it," said the son--and he handed him the
desired check; "but I think you should remember, sir, how very small
my income is, and that there is no prospect of its being increased."
"It must be altogether your own fault then," said the colonel,
pocketing the money. "I never knew a young man who had a finer hand
of cards put into his hand--never; if you have played it badly, it
is your own fault, altogether your own fault." In truth, Sir Lionel
did really feel that his son had used him badly, and owed him
some amends. Had George but done his duty, he might now have been
the actual recognized heir of his uncle's wealth, and the actual
possessor of as much as would have been allowed to a dutiful,
obedient son. To a man of Sir Lionel's temperament, it was annoying
that there should be so much wealth so near him, and yet absolutely,
and, alas! probably for ever out of his reach.
Sir Lionel had resolved to wait in London for his answer, and there
he received it. Short as was poor Miss Baker's letter, it was quite
sufficiently explicit. She had betrayed him to the old gentleman,
and after that all hopes of money from that source were over.
It might still be possible for him to talk over Miss Baker, but
such triumph would be but barren. Miss Baker with a transferred
allegiance--transferred from the old gentleman to him--would be but
a very indifferent helpmate. He learnt, however, from Littlebath
that she was still away, and would probably not return. Then he went
back in fancied security, and found himself the centre of all those
amatory ovations which Miss Todd and Miss Gauntlet had prepared for
him.
It was about two months after this that George Bertram saw Sir Henry
Harcourt for the first time after the marriage. He had heard that
Sir Henry was in town, had heard of the blaze of their new house in
Eaton Square, had seen in the papers how magnificently Lady Harcourt
had appeared at court, how well she graced her brilliant home, how
fortunate the world esteemed that young lawyer who, having genius,
industry, and position of his own, had now taken to himself in
marriage beauty, wealth, and social charms. All this George Bertram
heard and read, and hearing it and reading it had kept himself from
the paths in which such petted children of fortune might probably be
met.
Twice in the course of these two months did Sir Henry call at
Bertram's chambers; but Bertram was now at home to no one. He lived
in a great desert, in which was no living being but himself--in a
huge desert without water and without grass, in which there was
no green thing. He was alone; to one person only had he spoken of
his misery; once only had he thought of escaping from it. That
thought had been in vain: that companion was beyond his reach; and,
therefore, living there in his London chambers, he had been all
alone.
But at last they did meet. Sir Henry, determined not to be beaten in
his attempt to effect a reconciliation, wrote to him, saying that he
would call, and naming an hour. "Caroline and you," he said, "are
cousins; there can be no reason why you should be enemies. For her
sake, if not for mine, do oblige me in this."
Bertram sat for hours with that note beneath his eyes before he could
bring himself to answer it. Could it really be that she desired
to see him again? That she, in her splendour and first glow of
prosperous joy, would wish to encounter him in his dreary, sad,
deserted misery? And why could she wish it? and, ah! how could she
wish it?
And then he asked himself whether he also would wish to see her. That
he still loved her, loved her as he never had done while she was yet
his own, he had often told himself. That he could never be at rest
till he had ceased to make her the first object of his thoughts he
had said as often. That he ought not to see her, he knew full well.
The controversy within his own bosom was carried on for two hours,
and then he wrote to Sir Henry, saying that he would be at his
chambers at the hour named. From that moment the salutary effort was
discontinued, the work was put aside, and the good that had been done
was all revoked.
Sir Henry came, true to his appointment. Whatever might be
his object, he was energetic in it. He was now a man of many
concernments; hours were scanty with him, and a day much too short.
The calls of clients, and the calls of party, joined to those other
calls which society makes upon men in such brilliant stations, hardly
left him time for sleeping; but not the less urgent was he in his
resolve to see his beaten rival who would so willingly have left him
to his brilliant joy. But was not all this explained long even before
Christianity was in vogue? "Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat."
Whom God will confound, those he first maddens.
Nothing could exceed the bland friendship, the winning manners, and
the frank courtesy of Sir Henry. He said but little about what was
past; but that little went to show that he had been blessed with the
hand of Caroline Waddington only because Bertram had rejected that
blessing as not worthy his acceptance. Great man as he was, he almost
humbled himself before Bertram's talent. He spoke of their mutual
connection at Hadley as though they two were his heirs of right, and
as though their rights were equal; and then he ended by begging that
they might still be friends.
"Our careers must be widely different," said Bertram, somewhat
touched by his tone; "yours will be in the light; mine must be in the
dark."
"Most men who do any good live in the dark for some period of their
lives," said Harcourt. "I, too, have had my dark days, and doubtless
shall have them again; but neither with you nor with me will they
endure long."
Bertram thought that Harcourt knew nothing about it, and sneered when
the successful man talked of his dark days. What darkness had his
mental eyesight ever known? We are all apt to think when our days are
dark that there is no darkness so dark as our own.
"I know what your feelings are," continued Sir Henry; "and I hope
you will forgive me if I speak openly. You have resolved not to meet
Caroline. My object is to make you put aside that resolve. It is
my object and hers also. It is out of the question that you should
continue to avoid the world. Your walk in life will be that of
a literary man: but nowadays literary men become senators and
statesmen. They have high rank, are well paid, and hold their own
boldly against men of meaner capacities. This is the career that we
both foresee for you; and in that career we both hope to be your
friends."
So spoke the great advocate with suasive eloquence--with eloquence
dangerously suasive as regarded his own happiness. But in truth this
man knew not what love meant--not that love which those two wretched
lovers understood so well. That his own wife was cold to him, cold as
ice--that he well knew. That Bertram had flung her from him because
she had been cold to him--that he believed. That he himself could
live without any passionate love--that he acknowledged. His wife was
graceful and very beautiful--all the world confessed that. And thus
Sir Henry was contented. Those honeymoon days had indeed been rather
dreary. Once or twice before that labour was over he had been almost
tempted to tell her that he had paid too high for the privilege of
pressing such an icicle to his bosom. But he had restrained himself;
and now in the blaze of the London season, passing his mornings
in courts of law and his evenings in the House of Parliament, he
flattered himself that he was a happy man.
"Come and dine with us in a quiet way the day after to-morrow," said
Sir Henry, "and then the ice will be broken." George Bertram said
that he would; and from that moment his studies were at an end.
This occurred on the Monday. The invitation was for the following
Wednesday. Sir Henry explained that from some special cause he would
be relieved from parliamentary attendance, at any rate till ten
o'clock; that at the quiet dinner there would be no other guests
except Mr. and Mrs. Stistick, and Baron Brawl, whose wife and family
were not yet in town.
"You'll like the baron," said Harcourt; "he's loud and arrogant, no
doubt; but he's not loud and arrogant about nothing, as some men are.
Stistick is a bore. Of course you know him. He's member for Peterloo,
and goes with us on condition that somebody listens to him about once
a week. But the baron will put him down."
"And Mrs. Stistick?" said George.
"I never heard of her till yesterday, and Caroline has gone to call
on her to-day. It's rather a bore for her, for they live somewhere
half-way to Harrow, I believe. Half-past seven. Good-bye, old fellow.
I ought to have been before Baron Brawl at Westminster twenty minutes
since." And so the solicitor-general, rushing out from the Temple,
threw himself into a cab; and as the wheels rattled along the Strand,
he made himself acquainted with the contents of his brief.
Why should Caroline have expressed a wish to see him? That was the
thought that chiefly rested in Bertram's mind when Sir Henry left
him. Why should it be an object to her to force a meeting between her
and him? Would it not be better for them both that they should be far
as the poles asunder?
"Well," he said to himself, "if it be no difficulty to her, neither
shall it be a difficulty to me. She is strong-minded, and I will be
so no less. I will go and meet her. It is but the first plunge that
gives the shock."
And thus he closed his work, and sat moodily thinking. He was angry
with her in that she could endure to see him; but, alas! half-pleased
also that she should wish to do so. He had no thought, no most
distant thought, that she could ever now be more to him than the wife
of an acquaintance whom he did not love too well. But yet there was
in his heart some fragment of half-satisfied vanity at hearing that
she did look forward to see him once again.
And how shall we speak of such a wish on her part? "Caroline," her
husband had said to her at breakfast, "it will be all nonsense
for you and George Bertram to keep up any kind of quarrel. I hate
nonsense of that sort."
"There is no quarrel between us," she replied.
"There ought to be none; and I shall get him to come here."
The colour of her face became slightly heightened as she answered:
"If you wish it, Sir Henry, and he wishes it also, I shall not
object."
"I do wish it, certainly. I think it absolutely necessary as regards
my position with your grandfather."
"Do just as you think best," said his wife. 'Twas thus that Lady
Harcourt had expressed her desire to see George Bertram at her house.
Had he known the truth, that fragment of half-satisfied vanity would
have been but small.
In those early days of her marriage, Lady Harcourt bore her triumphs
very placidly. She showed no great elation at the change that had
come over her life. Her aunt from Hadley was frequently with her, and
wondered to find her so little altered, or rather, in some respects,
so much altered; for she was more considerate in her manner, more
sparing of her speech, much less inclined to domineer now, as
Lady Harcourt, than in former days she had ever been as Caroline
Waddington. She went constantly into society, and was always much
considered; but her triumphs were mainly of that quiet nature which
one sometimes sees to be achieved with so little effort by beautiful
women. It seemed but necessary that she should sit still, and
sometimes smile, and the world was ready to throw itself at her feet.
Nay, the smile was but too often omitted, and yet the world was
there.
At home, though more employed, she was hardly more energetic. Her
husband told her that he wished his house to be noted for the
pleasantness of his dinner-parties, and, therefore, she studied the
subject as a good child would study a lesson. She taught herself what
the material of a dinner should be, she satisfied herself that her
cook was good, she looked to the brilliancy of her appointments, and
did her best to make the house shine brightly. The house did shine,
and on the whole Sir Henry was contented. It was true that his wife
did not talk much; but what little she did say was said with a sweet
manner and with perfect grace. She was always dressed with care, was
always beautiful, was always ladylike. Had not Sir Henry reason to be
contented? As for talking, he could do that himself.
And now that she was told that George Bertram was to come to her
house, she did not show much more excitement at the tidings than at
the promised advent of Mr. Baron Brawl. She took the matter with such
indifference that Sir Henry, at least, had no cause for jealousy. But
then she was indifferent about everything. Nothing seemed to wake
her either to joy or sorrow. Sir Henry, perhaps, was contented; but
lovely, ladylike, attractive as she was, he sometimes did feel almost
curious to know whether it were possible to rouse this doll of his to
any sense of life or animation. He had thought, nay, almost wished,
that the name of her old lover would have moved her, that the idea of
seeing him would have disturbed her. But, no; one name was the same
to her as another. She had been told to go and call on Mrs. Stistick,
and she had gone. She was told to receive Mr. Bertram, and she was
quite ready to do so. Angels from heaven, or spirits from below,
could Sir Henry have summoned such to his table, would have been
received by her with equal equanimity. This was dutiful on her part,
and naturally satisfactory to a husband inclined to be somewhat
exigeant. But even duty may pall on an exigeant husband, and a man
may be brought to wish that his wife would cross him.
But on this occasion Sir Henry had no such pleasure. "I saw Bertram
this morning," he said, when he went home for five minutes before
taking his seat in the House for the night. "He's to be here on
Wednesday."
"Oh, very well. There will be six, then." She said no more. It
was clear that the dinner, and that only, was on her mind. He had
told her to be careful about his dinners, and therefore could not
complain. But, nevertheless, he was almost vexed. Don't let any
wife think that she will satisfy her husband by perfect obedience.
Overmuch virtue in one's neighbours is never satisfactory to us
sinners.
But there were moments in which Lady Harcourt could think of her
present life, when no eye was by to watch her--no master there to
wonder at her perfections. Moments! nay, but there were hours, and
hours, and hours. There were crowds of hours; slow, dull, lingering
hours, in which she had no choice but to think of it. A woman may
see to her husband's dinners and her own toilet, and yet have too
much time for thinking. It would almost have been a comfort to Lady
Harcourt if Sir Henry could have had a dinner-party every day.
How should she bear herself; what should she say; how should she look
when George Bertram came there as a guest to her house? How could he
be so cruel, so heartless, so inhuman as to come there? Her path was
difficult enough for her poor weary feet. He must know that--should,
at any rate, have known it. How could he be so cruel as to add this
great stumbling-block to her other perils?
The Wednesday came, and at half-past seven she was in her
drawing-room as beautiful and as dignified as ever. She had a
peculiar place of her own in the corner of a peculiar sofa, and there
she lived. It was her goddess' shrine, and her worshippers came and
did reverence before her. None came and sat beside her. Hers was not
that gentle fascination which entices men, and women too, to a near
proximity. Her bow was very gracious, and said much; but "noli me
tangere" was part of its eloquence. And so Baron Brawl found, when on
entering her drawing-room he told her that the fame of her charms had
reached his ears, and that he was delighted to have an opportunity of
making her acquaintance.
Mr. and Mrs. Stistick were the next comers. Mrs. Stistick sat herself
down on an opposite sofa, and seemed to think that she did her duty
to society by sitting there. And so she did. Only permit her so to
sit, and there was no further labour in entertaining Mrs. Stistick.
She was a large, heavy woman, with a square forehead and a square
chin, and she had brought up seven children most successfully. Now,
in these days of her husband's parliamentary prosperity, she was
carried about to dinners; and in her way she enjoyed them. She was
not too shy to eat, and had no wish whatever either to be talked to
or to talk. To sit easily on a sofa and listen to the buzz of voices
was life and society to her. Perhaps in those long hours she was
meditating on her children's frocks or her husband's linen. But they
never seemed to be long to her.
Mr. Stistick was standing on the rug before the fire, preparing for
his first onslaught on Baron Brawl, when the servant announced Mr.
Bertram.
"Ah! Bertram, I'm delighted to see you," said Sir Henry;--"doubly
so, as dinner is ready. Judge, you know my friend Bertram, by name,
at any rate?" and some sort of half-introduction was performed.
"He who moved all Oxford from its propriety?" said the baron. But
Bertram neither saw him nor heard him. Neither his eyes nor his ears
were at his command.
As he took his host's proffered hand, he glanced his eyes for a
moment round the room. There she sat, and he had to speak to her as
best he might. At his last interview with her he had spoken freely
enough, and it all rushed now upon his mind. Then how little he had
made of her, how lightly he had esteemed her! Now, as she sat there
before him his spirit acknowledged her as a goddess, and he all
but feared to address her. His face, he knew, was hot and red; his
manner, he felt, was awkward. He was not master of himself, and when
such is the case with a man, the fact always betrays itself.
But he did speak to her. "How do you do, Lady Harcourt?" he said, and
he put his hand out, and he felt the ends of her fingers once more
within his own.
And she spoke too, probably. But pretty women can say almost as much
as is necessary on such occasions as this without opening their lips.
Whether she spoke, or whether she did not, it was the same to him.
He certainly did not hear her. But her fingers did touch his hand,
her eyes did rest upon his face; and then, in that moment of time,
he thought of Jerusalem, of the Mount of Olives, of those rides
at Littlebath, and of that last meeting, when all, all had been
shattered to pieces.
"There are five hundred and fifty-five thousand male children between
the ages of nine and twelve," said Mr. Stistick, pursuing some
wondrous line of argument, as Bertram turned himself towards the
fire.
"What a fine national family!" said the baron. "And how ashamed I
feel when I bethink myself that only one of them is mine!"
"Dinner is served," said the butler.
"Mrs. Stistick, will you allow me?" said Sir Henry. And then in half
a minute Bertram found himself walking down to dinner with the member
of Parliament. "And we have school accommodation for just one hundred
and fourteen," continued that gentleman on the stairs. "Now, will you
tell me what becomes of the other four hundred and forty-one?"
Bertram was not at that moment in a condition to give him any
information on the subject.
"I can tell you about the one," said the baron, as Sir Henry began
his grace.
"An odd thousand is nothing," said Mr. Stistick, pausing for a second
till the grace was over.
The judge and Mr. Stistick sat at Lady Harcourt's right and left, so
that Bertram was not called upon to say much to her during dinner.
The judge talked incessantly, and so did the member of Parliament,
and so also did the solicitor-general. A party of six is always a
talking party. Men and women are not formed into pairs, and do not
therefore become dumb. Each person's voice makes another person
emulous, and the difficulty felt is not as to what one shall say, but
how one shall get it in. Ten, and twelve, and fourteen are the silent
numbers.
Every now and again Harcourt endeavoured to make Bertram join in the
conversation; and Bertram did make some faint attempts. He essayed to
answer some of Mr. Stistick's very difficult inquiries, and was even
roused to parry some raillery from the judge. But he was not himself;
and Caroline, who could not but watch him narrowly as she sat there
in her silent beauty, saw that he was not so. She arraigned him in
her mind for want of courage; but had he been happy, and noisy, and
light of heart, she would probably have arraigned him for some deeper
sin.
"As long as the matter is left in the hands of the parents, nothing
on earth will be done," said Mr. Stistick.
"That's what I have always said to Lady Brawl," said the judge.
"And it's what I have said to Lord John; and what I intend to say to
him again. Lord John is all very well--"
"Thank you, Stistick. I am glad, at any rate, to get as much as that
from you," said the solicitor.
"Lord John is all very well," continued the member, not altogether
liking the interruption; "but there is only one man in the country
who thoroughly understands the subject, and who is able--"
"And I don't see the slightest probability of finding a second," said
the judge.
"And who is able to make himself heard."
"What do you say, Lady Harcourt," asked the baron, "as to the
management of a school with--how many millions of them, Mr.
Stistick?"
"Five hundred and fifty-five thousand male children--"
"Suppose we say boys," said the judge.
"Boys?" asked Mr. Stistick, not quite understanding him, but rather
disconcerted by the familiarity of the word.
"Well, I suppose they must be boys;--at least the most of them."
"They are all from nine to twelve, I say," continued Mr. Stistick,
completely bewildered.
"Oh, that alters the question," said the judge.
"Not at all," said Mr. Stistick. "There is accommodation for only--"
"Well, we'll ask Lady Harcourt. What do you say, Lady Harcourt?"
Lady Harcourt felt herself by no means inclined to enter into the
joke on either side; so she said, with her gravest smile, "I'm sure
Mr. Stistick understands very well what he's talking about."
"What do you say, ma'am?" said the judge, turning round to the lady
on his left.
"Mr. Stistick is always right on such matters," said the lady.
"See what it is to have a character. It absolutely enables one to
upset the laws of human nature. But still I do say, Mr. Solicitor,
that the majority of them were probably boys."
"Boys!" exclaimed the member of Parliament. "Boys! I don't think you
can have understood a word that we have been saying."
"I don't think I have," said the baron.
"There are five hundred and fifty-five thousand male children
between--"
"Oh--h--h! male children! Ah--h--h! Now I see the difference; I beg
your pardon, Mr. Stistick, but I really was very stupid. And you mean
to explain all this to Lord John in the present session?"
"But, Stistick, who is the one man?" said Sir Henry.
"The one man is Lord Boanerges. He, I believe, is the only man living
who really understands the social wants of this kingdom."
"And everything else also," sneered the baron. The baron always
sneered at cleverness that was external to his own profession,
especially when exhibited by one who, like the noble lord named,
should have confined his efforts to that profession.
"So Boanerges is to take in hand these male children? And very
fitting, too; he was made to be a schoolmaster."
"He is the first man of the age; don't you think so, Sir Henry?"
"He was, certainly, when he was on the woolsack," said Sir Henry.
"That is the normal position always assumed by the first man of his
age in this country."
"Though some of them when there do hide their lights under a bushel,"
said the judge.
"He is the first law reformer that perhaps ever lived," said Mr.
Stistick, enthusiastically.
"And I hope will be the last in my time," said his enemy.
"I hope he will live to complete his work," said the politician.
"Then Methuselah will be a child to him, and Jared and Lamech little
babies," said the judge.
"In such case he has got his work before him, certainly," said Mr.
Solicitor.
And so the battle was kept up between them, and George Bertram and
Lady Harcourt sat by and listened; or more probably, perhaps, sat by
and did not listen.
But when her ladyship and Mrs. Stistick had retreated--Oh, my
readers, fancy what that next hour must have been to Caroline
Harcourt!--How Gothic, how barbarous are we still in our habits,
in that we devote our wives to such wretchedness as that! O, lady,
has it ever been your lot to sit out such hour as that with some
Mrs. Stistick, who would neither talk, nor read, nor sleep; in whose
company you could neither talk, nor read, nor yet sleep? And if such
has been your lot, have you not asked yourself why in this civilized
country, in this civilized century, you should be doomed to such a
senseless, sleepless purgatory?--But when they were gone, and when
the judge, radiant with fun and happiness, hastened to fill his
claret beaker, then Bertram by degrees thawed, and began to feel that
after all the world was perhaps not yet dead around him.
"Well, Mr. Stistick," said the baron; "if Sir Henry will allow us,
we'll drink Lord Boanerges."
"With all my heart," said Mr. Stistick. "He is a man of whom it may
be said--"
"That no man knew better on which side his bread was buttered."
"He is buttering the bread of millions upon millions," said Mr.
Stistick.
"Or doing better still," said Bertram; "enabling them to butter their
own. Lord Boanerges is probably the only public man of this day who
will be greater in a hundred years than he is now."
"Let us at any rate hope," said the baron, "that he will at that time
be less truculent."
"I can't agree with you, Bertram," said Sir Henry. "I consider we are
fertile in statesmen. Do you think that Peel will be forgotten in
a hundred years?" This was said with the usual candour of a modern
turncoat. For Sir Henry had now deserted Peel.
"Almost, I should hope, by that time," said Bertram. "He will have a
sort of a niche in history, no doubt; as has Mr. Perceval, who did so
much to assist us in the war; and Lord Castlereagh, who carried the
Union. They also were heaven-sent ministers, whom Acheron has not as
yet altogether swallowed up."
"And Boanerges, you think, will escape Libitina?"
"If the spirit of the age will allow immortality to any man of these
days, I think he will. But I doubt whether public opinion, as now
existing, will admit of hero-worship."
"Public opinion is the best safeguard for a great man's great name,"
said Mr. Stistick, with intense reliance on the civilization of his
own era.
"Quite true, sir; quite true," said the baron,--"for the space of
twenty-four hours."
Then followed a calm, and then coffee. After that, the
solicitor-general, looking at his watch, marched off impetuous to the
House. "Judge," he said, "I know you will excuse me; for you, too,
have been a slave in your time: but you will go up to Lady Harcourt;
Bertram, you will not be forgiven if you do not go upstairs."
Bertram did go upstairs, that he might not appear to be unmanly, as
he said to himself, in slinking out of the house. He did go upstairs,
for one quarter of an hour.
But the baron did not. For him, it may be presumed, his club had
charms. Mr. Stistick, however, did do so; he had to hand Mrs.
Stistick down from that elysium which she had so exquisitely graced.
He did hand her down; and then for five minutes George Bertram found
himself once more alone with Caroline Waddington.
"Good-night, Lady Harcourt," he said, again essaying to take her
hand. This and his other customary greeting was all that he had yet
spoken to her.
"Good-night, Mr. Bertram." At last her voice faltered, at last her
eye fell to the ground, at last her hand trembled. Had she stood firm
through this trial all might have been well; but though she could
bear herself right manfully before stranger eyes, she could not alone
support his gaze; one touch of tenderness, one sign of weakness was
enough--and that touch was there, that sign she gave.
"We are cousins still, are we not?" said he.
"Yes, we are cousins--I suppose so."
"And as cousins we need not hate each other?"
"Hate each other!" and she shuddered as she spoke; "oh, no, I hope
there is no hatred!"
He stood there silent for a moment, looking, not at her, but at the
costly ornaments which stood at the foot of the huge pier-glass over
the fireplace. Why did he not go now? why did he stand there silent
and thoughtful? why--why was he so cruel to her?
"I hope you are happy, Lady Harcourt," at last he said.
There was almost a savage sternness in her face as she made an effort
to suppress her feelings. "Thank you--yes," she said; and then she
added, "I never was a believer in much happiness."
And yet he did not go. "We have met now," he said, after another
pause.
"Yes, we have met now;" and she even attempted to smile as she
answered him.
"And we need not be strangers?" Then there was again a pause; for
at first she had no answer ready. "Is it needful that we should be
strangers?" he asked.
"I suppose not; no; not if Sir Henry wishes it otherwise."
And then he put out his hand, and wishing her good-night a second
time, he went.
For the next hour, Lady Harcourt sat there looking at the smouldering
fire. "Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat." Not in such language,
but with some such thought, did she pass judgment on the wretched
folly of her husband.