The lowliest flowers the closest cling to earth,
And they first feel the sun; so violets blue,
So the soft star-like primrose drenched in dew,
The happiest of spring’s happy fragrant birth,
To gentlest touches, sweetest tones reply;
So humbleness, with her low-breathed voice,
Can steal o’er man’s proud heart, and win his choice.
‘She is ready to see you,’ said Arthur, meeting Theodora, as she came
down at nine the next morning after church.
Violet’s face, white as a lily, was on the pillow, and a little dark
downy head was beside her.
A sense of being too late, of neglect and disappointment, rushed over
Theodora, and made her looks not what the mother expected, as with
smiling eyes and feeble voice she said, ‘Your niece, dear Theodora.’
‘I did not know--’ were Theodora’s first words, and their dissatisfied
sound made Arthur regret his abrupt introduction; though she recovered
herself enough to say something of gladness, and of hopes that Violet
was comfortable.
‘Yes, thank you, quite. I am so thankful! I am so glad of everything.
Now I hope Arthur will not lose the 12th of August.’
‘Only don’t talk now, my sweet one. Come, Theodora,’ as if he only
wanted to get her out of the room.
‘I have not looked at the baby. What a fine one!’ and she was going to
take her.
‘Oh, please don’t!’ said Violet; ‘she will begin screaming again!’ Then,
seeing the cloud return, ‘Presently, dear aunt, when she wakes. Is not
she a beauty?’
Arthur, his hand on the door, hurried Theodora again.
‘I will come’ she said, impatiently, ‘I will come and sit with you after
breakfast, Violet; I only wish I had been called.’
‘Indeed, I know how kind you would have been,’ said Violet, holding her
hand, and watching to see whether the displeasure was removed: ‘but
it seemed a pity to disturb you. Please don’t be vexed; I’ll give you
plenty of trouble yet.’
She had, roused herself enough to alarm Arthur and the nurse.
‘This will never do,’ he said, laying his hand on his sister’s arm, and
drawing her away almost by force: ‘You MUST keep quiet, Violet.’
‘I will, indeed, but please, Theodora--’
‘She pleases all you wish. Never mind,’ said Arthur, fairly putting her
out, then stepping back, ‘Lie still, and mind your big baby; that is all
you have to do.’
‘Only don’t let her be vexed.’
‘No such thing.’
But when out of Violet’s hearing he could not refrain from telling
Theodora his displeasure. ‘I thought you had more sense, or I would
never have let you in.’
‘I knew nothing of it.’
‘Your own fault for marching off at that time in the morning! I had been
up to tell you, and could not think where you were.’
‘Why was I not allowed to be of use?’
‘A pretty specimen of your usefulness, vexing her with your black looks,
till she was talking herself into a fever!’
‘Surely she is doing well?’
‘She was, unless you have undone everything with your humours.’
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
That was the last word. Theodora sat swelling under the sense of
injustice and neglect, where she had intended to be so important;
and Arthur was weary enough in mind and body to be more than usually
sensible of her ungraciousness, and to miss the refreshment of cheerful
sympathy. On going up after breakfast he found Violet weaker and more
ill than he had previously thought her, and her solicitous inquiries
about his sister made him the more attribute this to distress at those
moody looks. He would not hear of again admitting Theodora, and in
bitterness of spirit she wrote the letters, and tried to content
Johnnie--all in vain; for strive to conceal it as she would, he always
seemed to perceive her bad moods, and never would be happy with her when
she was in one of them.
Every hour brought fresh mortification. She was jealous of Arthur’s
being needful to the patient, and jealous of being left by him; angry at
being treated as useless, and angry at the work she had to do; certain
that her ill temper was Arthur’s fancy, yet certain he had caused it;
anxious about Violet, yet disdaining his anxiety. She was much
annoyed at his keeping aloof from her unpleasing looks, deserting the
dinner-table after the first course, and when she had waited long for
him, leaving her to discover that he had had a cup of tea in Violet’s
room, and was gone down to smoke. The kindly affections that had always
been the hope of her character were rejected and thwarted, and thus
thrown back on herself, the wayward wilful spirit began to rise.
She paced the dull walk in the square gardens in the summer twilight,
and thought of the life before her, uncherished at home, an intruder in
the family where she had expected to earn fond gratitude, rejected by
him who had loved her from childhood!
There was an alternative! One look of encouragement, and Lord St. Erme
was at her disposal, ready to rejoice at acceptance, even if she should
tell him that she had no heart to bestow. She would be no longer spurned
and cast aside; she should be able to befriend Violet, she would live
uncontrolled, adored; above all, she would teach Percy Fotheringham
that she did not pine for him! She would belie those foolish tears that
Violet had seen her shed!
As she opened the gate to leave the gardens, Lord St. Erme rode by
with a young lady. Was he passing from her power? The spirit of
rivalry prompted a gracious bow and smile. He checked his horse, looked
delighted, and introduced ‘his sister.’
A fair, delicate, blushing girl of sixteen, a pretty likeness of
himself, bent her head low, and Theodora felt that her blue eyes were
intently perusing her under their downcast lids, while the brother’s
tones almost trembled with the pleasure of her unwonted look of
encouragement. He said that he was enjoying having his sister alone
with him, at his aunt’s house in London, for a short time, and added
something about calling. She gave one of her bewitching smiles, and they
rode on.
There at least she was prized! How unlike this to the treatment she met
with from her own family! If she could not love the Earl, she could do
very well without that nonsense; and she should escape from her unloving
home, begin a new life, reign queen o’er herself and him, idolized,
uncontradicted, with ample opportunities of usefulness, triumphant over
him who had disdained her.
So she mused while taking off her bonnet, till Sarah brought a message
that Mrs. Martindale would be glad to see her. An hour ago and she would
have rejoiced; now, Arthur’s household was becoming a secondary object,
since they had rejected her, and driven her to seek fresh interests.
She was received with hands outstretched. ‘Dear Theodora, thank you.
Will you stay and take care of baby and me while nurse goes to supper?’
‘If I may.’
‘Thank you. Nurse, pray give baby to Miss Martindale. You need not
hurry; I shall be so comfortable.’
The sweet pale face and languid eyes were as a charm to expel all but
kindly thoughts, as Theodora sat down with the living weight warm on
her lap, and the gentle mother at intervals softly asking about her boy.
‘Poor little man, they would not let him come in: they kept away both
the people I wanted.’
‘Arthur guards you most jealously.’
‘Yes, is not he a wonderful nurse? I had to exercise a little self-will
in getting you here. How good we must be to make him forgive us!’
Next. ‘You cannot think what a difference it makes to have you here. I
never need think about Arthur’s being made comfortable.’
Theodora’s sincerity longed for confession, and she refrained with
difficulty. Those unconscious words set her vile temper before her in
its true light. She had resented the being treated with consideration,
and had been moody towards her brother, because he was under anxiety!
Self-convicted, she gave a deep sigh; but fearing again to distress
Violet, began to admire the baby, who was in truth a remarkably large
and handsome child, very dark and like the Martindales, and, both in
size and serenity, such a contrast to her brother, that, proud as
she was of her, her mamma only half liked praise of her that might be
depreciation of him, and began to defend him from the charge of crying
before he had had strength for it.
Her name, of course, was to be Helen, and to this Violet softly added,
Theodora.
‘No, no; that will bring her no good. It is Aunt Nesbit’s name.’
‘It is one I love the sound of.’
‘You won’t another time.’
Violet vaguely perceived something amiss; but too weak to think about
it, closed her eyes and fell into a doze.
Those few gentle sayings had brought back Theodora’s affection and sense
of right. She longed to recall her glance. If it had taken effect she
must persevere. She could not endure the humiliation of having a third
time trifled with a lover; she would not feel herself sunk into a mere
coquette. But what would Violet think!
Violet suddenly awoke with a terrified gaze. ‘Arthur! Arthur! O, where
is he!’
‘Down-stairs, dearest; he will come.’ But to her extreme alarm, the
words had no effect.
‘Arthur! O, when will he come? Why did he go away?’
Dismayed out of all presence of mind, Theodora rang with a violent
peal, and flew down-stairs, the baby in her arms, rousing Arthur from
a slumber in his chair by breathless tidings that Violet was worse--was
delirious; Mr. Harding must be sent for--
When Arthur had hurried up-stairs, it proved to be only a frightened
wakening, such as had often happened last year. She was perfectly
conscious, but so much fluttered and agitated by Theodora’s own
proceedings, that it was with great difficulty that Arthur could soothe
and tranquillize her on her baby’s account. The nurse was very angry,
and Theodora perceived her delinquency might have serious consequences,
especially when she beheld Violet, still tremulous from the alarm,
endeavouring to reassure them, to shield her from displeasure, and to
take all the blame to herself for her foolish terror.
There was an end of Theodora’s grand designs of nursing! She could only
enter the room at all by favour of the patient and by sufferance of the
nurse; and she could attempt no remonstrance when ordered off by her
brother, and even felt unworthy of Violet’s kiss.
That little scene of trivialities had been her first true humiliation.
It had shown her the vanity of her boast of strength of mind; for when
she thought of the morning’s unreasonable ill-humour, and unkindness to
her brother and his wife at such a moment, and of the coquetry with Lord
St. Erme, she was indeed lowered in her own eyes; and it was sorrow, not
bitterness.
Her heart was very heavy, but less hard. Slowly had the power of
Violet’s meekness and lowliness been stealing into her affections and
undermining her pride. Perhaps the direct attacks of Percy, though
strongly resisted, had in reality given a shock which prepared the way
for the silent effect of sweetness and forbearance. At any rate, she was
now sincerely sorry for the sin as well as the folly of the past day,
and felt that it might bring a penalty in perplexities about Lord St.
Erme, if he had really taken her smile for encouragement.
Many were her resolutions of amiability for to-morrow; but she was
disappointed. Violet had passed a restless night, and could not be
visited; and Arthur, after his experience of yesterday, was in no haste
to subject himself to his sister’s humours. Her two years of caprice and
neglect had told even on his easy temper.
It had long been a scheme of hers to surprise Violet on her recovery
with a likeness of Johnnie, taken by a small, humble niece of Mrs.
Harrison’s, lately started in life as an artist in crayons; and in
the midst of yesterday’s sullenness she had taken measures which this
morning brought the lady to Cadogan-place, at the hour when he was most
likely to be in his best looks. Sarah, highly approving of anything that
exalted Master John, sedulously traced the one-sided masculine division
in his flaxen locks, and tied his best white frock with scarlet ribbons,
in honour, as she said, of his being ‘a little granny-dear’; and
Theodora carried him down, and heard him pronounced ‘a lovely
interesting darling.’
Sitting well was not, however, one of his perfections; he could not
be induced to show his face to a stranger, and turned from toys and
pictures, with arms stretched out to his aunt, and piteous calls for
mamma: to Theodora’s further despair Arthur came in, and stood amazed,
so that she had to unfold her plans, and beg him to keep the secret. He
smiled, saying she might as well take a picture of a washed-out doll;
but that Violet would be sure to like it.
Meantime the child was presenting a golden opportunity; fixed in rapt
contemplation of his father, and gazing motionless, with one little foot
doubled under him, and one tiny white arm drooping over the crimson
sofa cushion. Miss Piper sketched as if for her life. Theodora directed
Arthur’s attention to his little son. He spoke to him, and was surprised
and pleased at the plainness of the reply, and the animated spring
of gladness. In another minute he was sitting on the floor, most
successfully entertaining the child, while Miss Piper could hardly
help drawing that handsome black head in contrast with the small, white
creature, whose morsels of hands were coaxing his brown red cheeks;
and Theodora looked on, amused to see how papa succeeded in drawing out
those pretty, hesitating smiles, so embellishing to the little face,
that had generally more than the usual amount of baby gravity.
They were in full debate whether he should be represented smiling or
grave; the aunt wishing the latter as the habitual expression, the
father declaring that ‘the fellow was only fit to be seen smiling like
his mother;’ when suddenly there was an announcement--
‘Lady Lucy Delaval and Lord St. Erme.’
Arthur hardly had time to start up from the ground, his colour deepening
with discomfiture as he glanced at the disarray of the room, littered
with playthings, displaced cushions, newspapers, with which he had been
playing bo-peep, drawing materials, all in as much confusion as the
hair, which, in an unguarded moment, he had placed at the mercy of
Johnnie’s fingers.
Theodora comprehended the sharp click with which he rang the nursery
bell, and the half frown with which he watched in dread of a cry, while
Lady Lucy tried to make friends with Johnnie.
The drawing was brought under discussion, but he held aloof after one
look, which Theodora perceived to be disapproving, though she did not
know that the reason was that the smile, somewhat overdone by Miss
Piper, had brought out one of old Mr. Moss’s blandest looks. Meantime
Lord St. Erme talked to the little artist, giving her some valuable
hints, which she seized with avidity, and then quietly retreated.
Arthur tried to talk to Lady Lucy; but she was very young, not yet come
out, timid, and, apparently, afraid of something that she had to say,
watching Miss Martindale as earnestly as she dared; while Lord St. Erme
spoke eagerly, yet as if he hardly knew what he was saying, of art,
music, books, striving in vain to obtain one of the looks of yesterday.
It warmed Theodora’s heart to feel herself the object of such
enthusiastic admiration, but she preserved her look of rigid
indifference. It was a long visit; but at last the brother made the
move, looking at his sister, as if to remind her of something.
‘Oh, Miss Martindale,’ said she, with an effort, ‘we thought you must be
staying in a great deal. Would you be so kind, now and then, as to walk
with me?’
This was an alarming request, and not very easy to refuse. Theodora said
something of seeing about it, and hoping--
‘It would be such a treat,’ said Lady Lucy, growing bolder, as the two
gentlemen were speaking to each other. ‘My aunt is gone to her brother’s
little parsonage, where there is no room for me, and my governess had to
go home, luckily, so that we are quite alone together; and St. Erme said
perhaps you would be so kind sometimes as to walk with me--’
Theodora smiled. ‘I hope we may meet sometimes,’ said she. ‘If my sister
was down-stairs perhaps we might; but I am engaged to her.’
Thus ended the visit, and Arthur, hastily throwing the cushions back
into their places, demanded, ‘What on earth could possess those folks to
come here now!’
‘It was an inconvenient time,’ said Theodora.
‘Dawdling and loitering here!--a man with nothing better to do with his
time!’
‘Nay,’ said Theodora, touched by the injustice; ‘Lord St. Erme is no man
not to know how to dispose of his time.’
‘Whew!’ whistled Arthur; ‘is the wind gone round to that quarter? Well,
I thought better of you than that you would like a fellow that can do
nothing but draw, never shoots over his own moors, and looks like
a German singer! But do put the room tidy; and if you must have the
nursery down here, put it into the back room, for mercy sake!’
He went away, having thus stirred her feelings in the St. Erme
direction, and he left them to take their chance for the rest of the
day. She took a solitary walk; on her return saw a hat in the hall, and
asking whether Mr. Harding was there, was told no, but that Mr. Gardner
was with Captain Martindale. And after long waiting till Arthur should
come to dinner, he only put in his head, saying, ‘Oh, Theodora, are you
waiting? I beg your pardon, I am going out to dinner. You can sit with
Violet; and if she should want me, which she won’t, James knows where to
find me.’
Theodora scorned to inquire of the servant whither his master was gone;
but her appetite forsook her at the sight of the empty chair, and the
recollection of the warning against Mark Gardner.
This was not her last solitary dinner. Arthur had engagements almost
every day, or else went to his club; and when at home, if he was not
with Violet, he sat in his own room, and would never again assist at
the sittings, which were completed under less favourable auspices,
soon enough to allow time for the framing before the mamma should come
down-stairs. Her recovery proceeded prosperously; and Theodora was quite
sufficiently in request in her room to be satisfied, and to make it
difficult to find a spare afternoon to go and order one of her favourite
oak frames.
However, she was at length able to make the expedition; and she was busy
in giving directions as to the width of margin, when from the interior
of the shop there came forward no other than the Earl of St. Erme.
They shook hands, and she sent her excuses to Lady Lucy for having been
too much occupied to call, asking whether she was still in town.
‘Only till Thursday,’ he said, ‘when I take her to join my aunt, who is
to show her the Rhine.’
‘Do not you go with them?’
‘I have not decided. It depends upon circumstances. Did not I hear
something of your family visiting Germany?’
‘Perhaps they may,’ said Theodora, dryly. He began to study the
portrait, and saw some likeness, but was distressed by something in the
drawing of the mouth.
‘Yes,’ said Theodora, ‘I know it is wrong; but Miss Piper could not see
it as I did, and her alterations only made it worse, till I longed to be
able to draw.’
‘I wonder if I might venture,’ said Lord St. Erme, screwing up his eye,
and walking round the picture. ‘I am sure, with your artist eye, you
must know what it is not to be able to keep your hands off.’
‘Not I,’ said Theodora, smiling. ‘Pencils are useless tools to me. But
it would be a great benefit to the picture, and Miss Piper will fancy it
all her own.’
‘You trust me, then?’ and he turned to ask for a piece of chalk, adding,
‘But is it not too bold a measure without the subject?’
‘He is in the carriage, with his nurse;’ and Theodora, unable to resist
so material an improvement to her gift, brought him in, and set him up
on the counter opposite to a flaming picture of a gentleman in a red
coat, which he was pleased to call papa, and which caused his face to
assume a look that was conveyed to the portrait by Lord St. Erme, and
rendered it the individual Johnnie Martindale, instead of merely a pale
boy in a red sash.
Theodora was too much gratified not to declare it frankly, and to say
how much charmed his mother would be; and she was pleased by a remark of
Lord St. Erme, that showed that his poet mind comprehended that wistful
intelligence that gave a peculiar beauty to Johnnie’s thin white face.
She thought to pay off her obligations by an immediate visit to his
sister, while she knew him to be safe out of the way; and, driving to
Mrs. Delaval’s, she sent her nephew home, intending to walk back.
Lady Lucy was alone, and she found her a gentle, simple-hearted girl,
with one sole affection, namely, for the brother, who was the whole
world to her; and taking Miss Martindale, on his word, as an object of
reverence and admiration. It was impossible not to thaw towards her: and
when Theodora spoke of the embellishment of the portrait, she needed
no more to make her spring up, and fetch a portfolio to exhibit her
brother’s drawings. Admirable they were; sketches of foreign scenery,
many portraits, in different styles, of Lady Lucy herself, and the
especial treasure was a copy of Tennyson, interleaved with illustrations
in the German style, very fanciful and beautiful. Theodora was, however,
struck by the numerous traces she saw of the Lalla Rookh portrait. It
was there as the dark-eyed Isabel; again as Judith, in the Vision of
Fair Women; it slept as the Beauty in the Wood; and even in sweet St.
Agnes, she met it refined and purified; so that at last she observed,
‘It is strange how like this is to my mother.’
‘I think it must be,’ said Lady Lucy; ‘for I was quite struck by your
likeness to St. Erme’s ideal sketches.’
Rather annoyed, Theodora laughed, and turning from the portfolio, asked
if she did not also draw?
‘A little; but mine are too bad to be looked at.’
Theodora insisted, and the drawings were produced: all the best had
been done under Lord St. Erme’s instruction. The affection between the
brother and sister touched her, and thinking herself neglectful of a
good little girl, she offered to take the desired walk at once. While
Lady Lucy was preparing, however, the brother came home, and oh! the
inconvenient satisfaction of his blushing looks.
Yet Theodora pardoned these, when he thanked her for being kind to his
sister; speaking with a sort of parental fondness and anxiety of his
wish to have Lucy with him, and of his desire that she should form
friendships that would benefit her.
Never had he spoken with so much reality, nor appeared to so much
advantage; and it was in his favour, too, that Theodora contrasted this
warm solicitude for his young sister with the indifference of her own
eldest brother. There was evidently none of the cold distance that was
the grievance of her home.
‘Lady Lucy is almost out of the school-room,’ she said. ‘You will soon
be able to have her with you in the country.’
‘There are certainly some considerations that might make me resolve on
an English winter,’ said Lord St. Erme.
‘Every consideration, I should think.’
‘Fogs and frosts, and clouds, that hang like a weight on the whole
frame,’ said Lord St. Erme, shivering.
‘Healthy, freshening mists, and honest vigorous frosts to brace one for
service,’ said Theodora, smiling.
‘O, Miss Martindale!’ cried Lady Lucy, entering, ‘are you persuading St.
Erme to stay all the year in England? I do so wish he would.’
‘Then you ought to make him,’ said Theodora.
‘If Miss Martindale were to express a wish or opinion--’
She saw it was time to cut him short. ‘Every one’s opinion must be the
same,’ she said.
‘O,’ cried Lucy, ‘of course Italy is pleasanter. It is selfish to
wish to keep him here; but if I had my will, we would live together at
Wrangerton, and have such nice poor people.’
‘A “chateau en Espagne” indeed, my little sister. Wrangerton is a most
forlorn place, an old den of the worst period of architecture, set down
just beyond the pretty country, but in the programme of all the tourists
as a show place; the third-rate town touching on the park, and your nice
poor people not even the ordinary English peasantry, but an ill-disposed
set of colliers.’
Theodora looked, but did not speak.
‘Miss Martindale thinks me a laggard, but she hears my excuse.’
‘If they are ill-disposed,’ said Theodora, in her low, severe voice
(she could not help it), ‘it is for want of influence from the right
quarter.’
‘My agent tells me they are perfectly impracticable.’
‘Knights of old liked something impracticable.’ She was almost ready
to check herself; but there was something inspiriting in the idea of
awakening this youth, who seemed to catch at her words as if she were a
damsel sending forth a champion. His reply was--
‘Those were days worth living for. Then the knight’s devoir was poetry
in real life.’
‘Devoir is always poetry in real life,’ said Theodora. ‘What is it but
the work ready to hand? Shrinking from it is shrinking from the battle.
Come, Lady Lucy, I will not detain you.’
Lord St. Erme seemed about to say something as he shook hands, but it
did not come. The walk was passed by the simple-hearted Lucy discoursing
of the events by which she counted her eras, namely, his visits. Her
perfect brother was her only theme.