It was the end of August. The little lawn at Slumberleigh Rectory was
parched and brown. The glebe beyond was brown; so was the field beyond
that. The thirsty road was ash-white between its gray hedge-rows. It was
hotter in the open air than in the house, but Ruth had brought her books
out into the garden all the same, and had made a conscientious effort to
read under the chestnut-tree.
For under the same roof with Mrs. Alwynn she had soon learned that
application or study of any kind was an impossibility. Mrs. Alwynn had
several maxims as to the conduct of herself, and consequently of every
one else, and one of those to which she most frequently gave utterance
was that "young people should always be cheery and sociable, and should
not be left too much to themselves."
When in the winter Mr. Alwynn had brought home Ruth, quite overwhelmed
for the time by the shock of the first real trouble she had known, Mrs.
Alwynn was kindness itself in the way of sweet-breads and warm rooms;
but the only thing Ruth craved for, to be left alone, she would not
allow for a moment. No! Mrs. Alwynn was cheerful, brisk, and pious at
intervals. If she found her niece was sitting in her own room, she
bustled up-stairs, poked the fire, gave her a kiss, and finally brought
her down to the drawing-room, where she told her she would be as quiet
as in her own room. She need not be afraid her uncle would come in; and
she must not allow herself to get moped. What would she, Mrs. Alwynn,
have done, she would like to know, if, when she was in trouble--and she
knew what trouble meant, if any one did--she had allowed herself to get
moped. Ruth must try and bear up. And at Lady Deyncourt's age it was
quite to be expected. And Ruth must remember she still had a sister, and
that there was a happy home above. And now, if she would get that green
wool out of the red plush iron (which really was a work-box--such a
droll idea, wasn't it?), Ruth should hold the wool, and they would have
a cosey little chat till luncheon time.
And so Mrs. Alwynn did her duty by her niece; and Ruth, in the dark
days that followed her grandmother's death, took all the little
kindnesses in the spirit in which they were meant, and did her duty by
her aunt.
But after a time Mrs. Alwynn became more exacting. Ruth was visibly
recovering from what Mrs. Alwynn called "her bereavement." She could
smile again without an effort; she took long walks with Mr. Alwynn, and
later in the spring paid a visit to her uncle, Lord Polesworth. It was
after this visit that Mrs. Alwynn became more exacting. She had borne
with half attention and a lack of interest in crewel-work while Ruth was
still "fretting," as she termed it. But when a person lays aside crape,
and goes into half-mourning, the time had come when she may--nay, when
she ought to be "chatty." This time had come with Ruth, but she was not
"chatty." Like Mrs. Dombey, she did not make an effort, and, as the
months passed on, Mrs. Alwynn began to shake her head, and to fear that
"there was some officer or something on her mind." Mrs. Alwynn always
called soldiers officers, and doctors physicians.
Ruth, on her side, was vaguely aware that she did not give satisfaction.
The small-talk, the perpetual demand on her attention, the constant
interruptions, seemed to benumb what faculties she had. Her mind became
like a machine out of work--rusty, creaking, difficult to set going. If
she had half an hour of leisure she could not fix her attention to
anything. She, who in her grandmother's time had been so keen and alert,
seemed to have drifted, in Mrs. Alwynn's society, into a torpid state,
from which she made vain attempts to emerge, only to sink the deeper.
When she stood once more, fresh from a fortnight of pleasant intercourse
with pleasant people, in the little ornate drawing-room at Slumberleigh,
on her return from Atherstone, the remembrance of the dulled, confused
state in which she had been living with her aunt returned forcibly to
her mind. The various articles of furniture, the red silk handkerchiefs
dabbed behind pendent plates, the musical elephants on the mantle-piece,
the imitation Eastern antimacassars, the shocking fate, in the way of
nailed and glued pictorial ornamentation, that had overtaken the back of
the cottage piano--indeed, all the various objects of luxury and _vertu_
with which Mrs. Alwynn had surrounded herself, seemed to recall to Ruth,
as the apparatus of the sick-room recalls the illness to the patient,
the stupor into which she had fallen in their company. With her eyes
fixed upon the new brass pig (that was at heart a pen-wiper) which Mrs.
Alwynn had pointed out as a gift of Mabel Thursby, who always brought
her back some little "tasty thing from London"--with her eyes on the
brass pig, Ruth resolved that, come what would, she would not allow
herself to sink into such a state of mental paralysis again.
To read a book of any description was out of the question in the society
of Mrs. Alwynn. But Ruth, with the connivance of Mr. Alwynn, devised a
means of eluding her aunt. At certain hours of the day she was lost
regularly, and not to be found. It was summer, and the world, or at
least the neighborhood of Slumberleigh Rectory, which was the same
thing, was all before her where to choose. In after-years she used to
say that some books had always remained associated with certain places
in her mind. With Emerson she learned to associate the scent of hay, the
desultory remarks of hens, and the sudden choruses of ducks. Carlyle's
"Sartor Resartus," which she read for the first time this year, always
recalled to her afterwards the leathern odor of the box-room, with an
occasional _soupçon_ of damp flapping linen in the orchard, which spot
was not visible from the rectory windows.
Gradually Mrs. Alwynn became aware of the fact that Ruth was never to be
seen with a book in her hand, and she expressed fears that the latter
was not keeping up her reading.
"And if you don't like to read to yourself, my dear, you can read to me
while I work. German, now. I like the sound of German very well. It
brings back the time when your Uncle John and I went up the Rhine on our
honey-moon. And then, for English reading there's a very nice book Uncle
John has somewhere on natural history, called 'Animals of a Quiet Life,'
by a Mr. Hare, too--so comical, I always think. It's good for you to be
reading something. It is what your poor dear granny would have wished if
she had been alive. Only it must not be poetry, Ruth, not poetry."
Mrs. Alwynn did not approve of poetry. She was wont to say that for her
part she liked only what was perfectly _true_, by which it is believed
she meant prose.
She had no books of her own. In times of illness she borrowed from Mrs.
Thursby (who had all Miss Young's works, and selections from the
publications of the S.P.C.K.). On Sundays, when she could not work, she
read, half aloud, of course, with sighs at intervals, a little manual
called "Gold Dust," or a smaller one still called "Pearls of Great
Price," which she had once recommended to Charles, whom she knew
slightly, and about whom she affected to know a great deal, which
nothing (except pressing) would induce her to repeat; which rendered
the application of the "Pearls," to be followed by the "Dust," most
essential to his future welfare.
On this particular morning in August, Ruth had slipped out as far as the
chestnut-tree, the lower part of which was hidden from the rectory
windows by a blessed yew hedge. It was too hot to walk, it was too hot
to draw, it was even too hot to read. It did not seem, however, to be
too hot to _ride_, for presently she heard a horse's hoofs clattering
across the stones of the stable-yard, and she knew, from the familiarity
of the sound at that hour of the day, that Dare had probably ridden
over, and, more probably still, would stay to luncheon.
The foreign gentleman, as all the village people called him, had by this
time become quite an institution in the neighborhood of Vandon. Every
one liked him, and he liked every one. Like the sun, he shone upon the
just and unjust. He went to every tennis-party to which he was invited.
He was pleased if people were at home when he called. He became in many
houses a privileged person, and he never abused his privileges. Women
especially liked him. He had what Mrs. Eccles defined as "such a way
with him;" his way being to make every woman he met think that she was
particularly interesting in his eyes--for the time being. Men did not,
of course, care for him so much. When he stayed anywhere, it was vaguely
felt by the sterner sex of the party that he stole a march upon them.
While they were smoking, after their kind, in clusters on the lawn, it
would suddenly be observed that he was sitting in the drawing-room,
giving a lesson in netting, or trying over a new song encircled by young
ladyhood. It was felt that he took an unfair advantage. What business
had he to come down to tea in that absurd amber plush smoking-suit, just
because the elder ladies had begged to see it? It was all the more
annoying, because he looked so handsome in it. Like most men who are
admired by women, he was not much liked by men.
But the house to which he came the oftenest was Slumberleigh Rectory. He
was faithful to his early admiration of Ruth; and the only obstacle to
his making her (in his opinion) happy among women, namely, her possible
want of fortune, had long since been removed by the confidential remarks
of Mrs. Alwynn. To his foreign habits and ideas fourteen or fifteen
hundred a year represented a very large sum. In his eyes Ruth was an
heiress, and in all good earnest he set himself to win her. Mr. Alwynn
had now become the proper person to consult regarding his property; and
at first, to Ruth's undisguised satisfaction, he consulted him nearly
every other day, his horse at last taking the turn for Slumberleigh as a
matter of course. Many a time, in these August days, might Mrs. Eccles
and all the other inhabitants of Slumberleigh have seen Dare ride up the
little street, taking as much active exercise as his horse, only
skyward; the saddle being to him merely a point of rebound.
But if the object of his frequent visits was misunderstood by Ruth at
first, Dare did not allow it to remain so long. And not only Ruth
herself, but Mr. and Mrs. Alwynn, and the rectory servants, and half the
parish were soon made aware of the state of his affections. What was the
good of being in love, of having in view a social aim of such a
praiseworthy nature, if no one were aware of the same? Dare was not the
man to hide even a night-light under a bushel; how much less a burning
and a shining hymeneal torch such as this. His sentiments were strictly
honorable. If he raised expectations, he was also quite prepared to
fulfil them. Miss Deyncourt was quite right to treat him with her
adorable, placid assumption of indifference until his attentions were
more avowed. In the mean while she was an angel, a lily, a pearl, a
star, and several other things, animal, vegetable, and mineral, which
his vivid imagination chose to picture her. But whatever Dare's faults
may have been--and Ruth was not blind to them--he was at least head over
ears in love with her, fortune or none; and as his attachment deepened,
it burned up like fire all the little follies with which it had begun.
A clergyman has been said to have made love to the helpmeet of his
choice out of the Epistle to the Galatians. Dare made his out of
material hardly more promising--plans for cottages, and estimates of
repairs. He had quickly seen how to interest Ruth, though the reason for
such an eccentric interest puzzled him. However, he turned it to his
advantage. Ruth encouraged, suggested, sympathized in all the little he
was already doing, and the much that he proposed to do.
Of late, however, a certain not ungrounded suspicion had gradually
forced itself upon her which had led her to withdraw as much as she
could from her former intercourse with Dare; but her change of manner
had not quite the effect she had intended.
"She thinks I am not serious," Dare had said to himself; "she thinks
that I play with her feelings. She does not know me. To-morrow I ride
over; I set her mind at rest. To-morrow I propose; I make an offer; I
claim that adored hand; I--become engaged."
Accordingly, not long after the clatter of horse's hoofs in the
stable-yard, Dare himself appeared in the garden, and perceiving Ruth,
for whom he was evidently looking, informed her that he had ridden over
to ask Mr. Alwynn to support him at a dinner his tenants were giving in
his honor--a custom of the Vandon tenantry from time immemorial on the
accession of a new landlord. He spoke absently; and Ruth, looking at him
more closely as he stood before her, wondered at his altered manner. He
had a rose in his button-hole. He always had a rose in his button-hole;
but somehow this was more of a rose than usual. His mustaches were
twirled up with unusual grace.
"You will find Mr. Alwynn in the study," said Ruth, hurriedly.
His only answer was to cast aside his whip and gloves, as possible
impediments later on, and to settle himself, with an elegant arrangement
of the choicest gaiters, on the grass at her feet.
It is probably very disagreeable to repeat in any form, however
discreetly worded, the old phrase--
"The reason why I cannot tell,
But I don't like you, Doctor Fell."
But it must be especially disagreeable, if a refusal is at first not
taken seriously, to be obliged to repeat it, still more plainly, a
second time. It was Ruth's fate to be obliged to do this, and to do it
hurriedly, or she foresaw complications might arise.
At last Dare understood, and the sudden utter blankness of his
expression smote Ruth to the heart. He had loved her in his way after
all. It is a bitter thing to be refused. She felt that she had been
almost brutal in her direct explicitness, called forth at the moment by
an instinct that he would proceed to extreme measures unless
peremptorily checked.
"I am so sorry," she said, involuntarily.
Poor Dare, who had recovered a certain amount of self-possession, now
that he was on his feet again, took up his gloves and riding-whip in
silence. All his jaunty self-assurance had left him. He seemed quite
stunned. His face under his brown skin was very pale.
"I am so sorry," said Ruth again, feeling horribly guilty.
"It is I who am sorry," he said, humbly. "I have made a great mistake,
for which I ask pardon;" and, after looking at her for a moment, in
blank incertitude as to whether she could really be the same person whom
he had come to seek in such happy confidence half an hour before, he
raised his hat, his new light gray hat, and was gone.
Ruth watched him go, and when he had disappeared, she sat down again
mechanically in the chair from which she had risen a few moments before,
and pressed her hands tightly together. She ought not to have allowed
such a thing to happen, she said to herself. Somehow it had never
presented itself to her in its serious aspect before. It is difficult to
take a vain man seriously. Poor Mr. Dare! She had not known he was
capable of caring so much about anything. He had never appeared to such
advantage in her eyes as he had done when he had left her the moment
before, grave and silent. She felt she had misjudged him. He was not so
frivolous, after all. And now that her influence was at an end, who
would keep him up to the mark about the various duties which she knew
now he had begun to fulfil only to please her? Oh, who would help and
encourage him in that most difficult of positions, a land-owner without
means sufficient for doing the best by land and tenantry? She
instinctively felt that he could not be relied upon for continuous
exertion by himself.
"I wish I could have liked him," said Ruth to herself. "I wish, I wish,
I could!"