BUT though Mrs. Leigh said this it is by no means certain that she meant
it even at the first moment. It is only a very prudent woman who objects
to being asked to interfere in a young man’s love affairs. Generally the
request itself is a compliment, and not less, but perhaps more so, when
made to a mother by her son. And Mrs. Leigh, though a sensible and
prudent person enough in ordinary affairs, did not attain to the height
of virtue above indicated. When she went upstairs to change her gown for
dinner, after talking it over and over with Aubrey in every possible
point of view, her mind, though she had not yet consented in words, had
begun to turn over the best methods of opening the question with the
Kingswards, and what it would be wisest in the circumstances to do. That
Aubrey should be beaten, that he should have to give up the girl whom he
loved, and of whom he gave so exalted a description, seemed the one
thing that must not be permitted to be. Mrs. Leigh was very anxious that
her son should marry, if it were only to wipe out the episode of that
little, silly Amy, who was fonder of her friend than of her husband; and
the half ludicrous, half tragic chapter of _that_ woman, staying on,
resisting all efforts to dislodge her for so long, until she had as she
thought acquired rights over the poor young man, who was not
strong-minded enough to turn her out of his house. To obliterate these
circumstances from the mind of the county altogether, as could only be
done by a happy and suitable marriage, Mrs. Leigh would have done much,
and, to be sure, her son’s happiness was also dear to her. Poor Aubrey!
His first adventure into life had not been a happy one, and his
descriptions of Bee and all her belongings had been full of a young
lover’s enthusiasm, not tame and tepid as she had always felt his
sentiments towards Amy to be. What would it be best to do if I really
undertake this business, she said to herself. Herself replied that it
was not a business for her to meddle with, that she would do no good,
and many other dissuasions of the conventional kind; but, when her
imagination and feelings were once lit up, Mrs. Leigh was not a woman to
be smothered in that way. After dinner, without still formally
undertaking the mission, she talked with Aubrey of the best ways of
carrying it out. If she did interfere, how should she set about it?
“Mind, I don’t promise anything, but supposing----” Should she write?
Should she go? Which thing would it be best to do? If she made up her
mind to go, should she write beforehand to warn them? What, on the
whole, would it be most appropriate to do?
The method finally decided upon between them--“if I go--but I don’t say
that I will go--” was that Mrs. Leigh should first, without warning or
preparation, endeavour to see Bee, and ascertain whether any new
representations had been made to her to change her mind; and then,
according to her success or non-success with Bee, decide whether she
should ask an interview with her father. Aubrey slept under his mother’s
roof with greater tranquility and refreshment than he had known for some
time, and with something of the vague hope of his childhood that she
could set everything right, do away with punishment or procure pleasure,
when she took it in hand. It had always been so in the childish days,
which seemed to come near him in the sight of the old furniture, the
well-known pictures and ornaments and curiosities which Mrs. Leigh had
brought with her when she settled in this diminished house. How well he
remembered them all!--the old print of the little Samuel on his knees,
the attitude of which he used half-consciously to copy when he said his
prayers; the little old-fashioned books in blue and brown morocco on the
shelves, the china ornaments on the mantel-piece. He smiled at their
antiquity now-a-days, but he had thought them very grand and imposing
once upon a time.
In the morning Mrs. Leigh coquetted a little, or else saw the whole
subject in a colder light. “Don’t you think it is possible that I might
do more harm than good,” she said; “things might settle of themselves if
you only give them a little time. Colonel Kingsward would come to his
senses, and Miss Bee--”
“Mother,” cried Aubrey, pale with alarm, “on the contrary. Do you forget
the circumstances? Mrs. Kingsward is dead, there is a large family of
little children, and Bee is of the race of the Quixotes. Don’t you see
what will happen? She will get it into her mind, and everybody will
persuade her, that as the eldest daughter she is wanted at home. It will
be impressed upon her on all sides, and unless there is a strong
influence to counteract it, and at once, Bee is lost to me for ever.”
“My dear, don’t be so tragical. These dreadful things don’t happen in
our days.”
“You may laugh, mother, but it is no laughing matter to me.”
“I don’t laugh,” she said. “I see the strength of your argument; but, my
dear boy, nothing will be so effectual in showing your Bee the happiness
that is awaiting her as a little trial of the troubles of a large
family on her shoulders. I know what it is.”
Aubrey sprang from his seat though it was in the middle of his
breakfast. “Mother,” he said, “there is one thing that I believe you
will never know--and that is, Bee. The burden is exactly what will hold
her fast beyond any argument--the sense of duty--the feeling that she is
bound to take her mother’s place.”
What was in Mrs. Leigh’s mind was the thought: Ah, that’s all very well
at first, till she has tried it. But what she said was: “I beg your
pardon, Aubrey. Of course, that is a much more elevated feeling. Sit
down, my dear, and take your breakfast. It is not my fault that I don’t
know Bee.”
Upon which Aubrey had to beg her pardon and sit down, commiserating her
for that deficiency, which was indeed her misfortune and not her fault.
At the end Mrs. Leigh was wound up to take the strongest step possible.
She joined her son in London after about a week had elapsed. He chafed
at the delay, but allowed that to leave Bee in quiet for a few days
after all the storms that had gone over her head was necessary. Mrs.
Leigh went down early on a bright October morning to Kingswarden with
much more excitement than she had expected to feel. She was herself
inclined to take a lighter view, to laugh at the idea of interrupted
letters or parental cruelty, and to believe that poor Bee was worn out,
her nerves all wrong, and possibly her temper affected by the
irritability which is so apt to accompany unaccustomed grief, and that
in a little time she would of herself come round. Seeing, however, that
these suggestions only made Aubrey angry, she had given them up, and was
in fact more influenced than she cared to show by his emotion and
anxiety when she thus sallied forth into the unknown to plead her son’s
cause. They had ascertained that Colonel Kingsward had returned to his
office, so the coast was clear. Only the two girls and the little
children were at home. Mrs. Leigh said to herself as she walked to the
gate that it was a shame to take the little girl, poor little thing,
thus unprotected, with nobody to stand by her. If it were not that it
was entirely for her good--nobody that knew Aubrey would deny that he
would make the best husband in the world, and surely to have a good
house of her own, and a good husband, and distinct place in the world
was better than to grow to maturity a harassed woman at the head of her
father’s house, acting mother to a troop of children who would not obey
her, nor even be grateful for her kindness to them. Surely there could
not be two opinions as to what it would be best for the girl to do. Yet
she felt a little like a wolf going down into the midst of the lambkins
when she opened the unguarded gate.
Mrs. Leigh was a clever woman, and a woman of the world. She had a great
deal of natural understanding, and a considerable knowledge of life, but
she was not unlike in appearance the ordinary British matron, who is not
much credited with these qualities. That is to say, she was stout--which
is a calamity common with the kind. She had white hair, considerably
frizzed on the top of the forehead, as it is becoming to white hair to
be, and dark eyes and good complexion. These things were in her favour;
still, it is impossible to deny that when Bee and Betty saw coming
towards them, following the footman across the lawn, a stout figure, not
very tall, nor distinguishable from various ladies in both country and
town whom they knew, and with the natural impertinence of youth set down
as bores, they had both a strong revolt in their minds against their
visitor. “Oh, who is it--who is it?” they said to each other. “Why did
James let her in? Why did he let anyone in?”
It was a warm morning, though the season was far advanced, and they were
seated again on that bench under the tree where they had watched the
white cloud floating away on the night of their mother’s death. They
went there instinctively whenever they went out. “Mother’s tree,” they
began to call it, and sat as she had been used to do, with the children
playing near, and nurse walking up and down with the baby in her arms.
They had been talking more that morning than ever before. It was little
more than a week since Mrs. Kingsward’s funeral, but they were so young
that their hearts now and then for a moment burst the bondage of their
sorrow, and escaped the length of a smile or two. It was not much; and,
to be sure, for the children’s sake it was indispensable that they
should not be crying and miserable always, as at first they had felt as
if they must continually be. But it was another thing to receive
visitors and have perhaps to answer questions about the circumstances of
their loss.
“Mrs.--? what did James say?” Neither of them were sure, though a thrill
ran through Bee’s veins. It was a stranger. Who could it be?
“I have to apologise for coming--without knowing you--and at such a
time,” said Mrs. Leigh, making a little pause till the nurse had got to
the end of the gravel walk with the baby, and James was out of hearing.
“It is you who are Bee, is it not?” she said, suddenly taking the girl’s
hands. “I am the mother of Aubrey Leigh.”
All the colour went out of Bee’s face; she drew away her hands
hurriedly, and dropped upon her mother’s seat. She felt that she had no
power to say a word.
“Oh, I thought it was Mrs. Leigh he said,” cried Betty, “but I could not
suppose--oh, Mrs. Leigh, whatever Bee may say, I am so glad, so glad to
see you--perhaps you will be able to make things right.”
“I hope I shall,” said Mrs. Leigh, “and I shall always be obliged to
you, my dear, for giving me your countenance. But your sister does not
look as if she meant to let me put things right.”
“I am sorry if I seem rude,” said Bee, gathering herself together,
“but--I don’t think that papa would like us to receive visitors.”
“I am not a common visitor,” said Mrs. Leigh. “I hope you will do me the
credit to think that it is with a very different feeling I come. I am
very, very sorry for you, so young as you are--more sorry than I can
say. And, Bee, if indeed I am to hope to be one day your mother--”
Bee did not speak; but she fixed her blue eyes upon her visitor with a
sort of entreaty to be left alone, and mournfully shook her head.
“We can’t think just now of that name,” said little Betty, with the
tears standing in her eyes.
“My dear children, I came to try to comfort you, not to open your
wounds. Dear,” she said, putting her hand on Bee’s shoulder, “you would
not see Aubrey, nor let him have a word from you. But he said you had
heard everything an evil woman could say, and did not give him up for
that--and he is heart-broken. He thought perhaps you would tell me if he
had done anything to displease you--or if it was only the effect of your
grief, to which he would be submissive at once. All he wanted was to
share your trouble, my dear child.”
This was not at all what Mrs. Leigh intended to say. She had meant to
represent her visit as one of sympathy solely, without at first
referring to the hard case of Aubrey; but Bee’s looks had confused even
this experienced woman. The girl’s pale face put on an expression of
determined decision, or rather of that blank of resistance to entering
upon the question, which is a kind of defence which it is almost
impossible to break down.
“I would rather, if you please, not say anything of Mr. Leigh.”
“Dear child! Do not take that tone. If he has done anything that does
not please you, how is he ever to clear himself if you will not tell him
what it is.”
“She is like this all the time,” cried Betty; “she will not say what is
wrong--and yet she is just as miserable herself as anyone could be.”
Bee gave her sister a look in which Mrs. Leigh, closely watching, saw
the lightening of the glance, the brilliancy and splendour of the blue
eyes of which Aubrey had raved. Poor little Betty was illuminated as if
with a great flame. It was all that she could do to restrain a very
inappropriate smile. “You know nothing, and how do you dare to say
anything?” Bee said.
“I am sure that Bee is just,” said the older lady. “She would not
condemn anyone unheard. Aubrey Leigh is my son, but we have been
separated for many years, and I think I judge him impartially. He does
not always please me, and I am sure that at some time or other he has
much displeased you. Your eyes tell me, though you have not said a
word. But, my dear, I have never, since he was a child, found him out in
anything except the one thing you know, in which he was so sorely,
sorely tried. He has always been kind. He gets into trouble by his
kindness as other men do by ill-behaviour. I don’t know what you have
against him, but I feel sure that he will clear himself if you will let
him speak. Bee----”
“I do not want,” cried Bee, “to seem rude. Oh, I don’t want to be rude!
I am sure, quite sure, that you are kind; but I have nothing to say, oh!
nothing to say to anyone. I am not able to discuss any subject, or enter
into things. I have a great deal to think of, for I am the eldest and it
will not do for me to--to break down, or to have any more to bear. I am
very, very sorry--and you are so kind. But I must go in now--I must go
in now.”
“Bee, Bee----”
“You can stay, Betty, and talk to the lady. You can stay, but--oh,
forgive me--I cannot--cannot help it! I must go in now.”
This was the end of Mrs. Leigh’s embassy. She had a long talk with
Betty, who was but too glad to pour into this kind woman’s bosom all her
troubles. Betty could not tell what had happened to Bee. She was not the
Bee of old, and she did not know what it was that had happened about
Aubrey, or if Bee had heard anything against him. She was as much in the
dark as Mrs. Leigh herself. But she made it very evident that Bee had a
grievance, a real or supposed ground of complaint which made her very
angry, and which she resented bitterly. What was it? But this Betty did
not know.