"When is Dick Cavendish coming?" said Mrs. Wilberforce to her husband.
"I wish he hadn't chosen to come now, of all times in the world, just
when we can do nothing to amuse him; for with the Warrenders in such
deep mourning, and those other horrible people on the other side, and
things in general getting worse and worse every day----"
"He is not acquainted with the parish, and he does not know that things
are getting worse and worse every day. It is a pity about the mourning;
but do you think it is so deep that a game of croquet would be impossible?
Croquet is not a riotous game."
"Herbert!" cried Mrs. Wilberforce. She added in a tone of indignant
disapproval, "If you feel equal to suggesting such a thing to girls
whose father has not yet been six weeks in his grave, I don't."
The rector was reduced to silence. He was aware that the laws of decorum
are in most cases better understood by ladies than by men, and also that
the girls at the Warren would sooner die than do anything that was not
according to the proper rule that regulated the conduct of persons in
their present circumstances. He withdrew, accordingly, to his study,
with rather an uneasy feeling about the visit of Dick Cavendish. The
rector's study was on the opposite side of the hall, at the end of a
short passage, which was a special providence; for nothing that Mrs.
Wilberforce could do would prevent him from smoking, and by this means
the hall, at least, and the chief sitting-room were kept free of any
suggestions of smoke. He said of himself that he was not such a great
smoker, but there was no doubt that it was one of the crosses which his
wife said everybody had to bear. That was her cross, her husband's pipe,
and she tried to put up with it like a Christian. This is one of the cases
in which there is very often a conflict of evidence without anything
that could be called perjury on either side: for Mrs. Wilberforce
declared to her confidants (she would not have acknowledged it to the
public for worlds) that her husband smoked morning, noon, and night;
whereas he, when the question was put to him casually, asserted that
he was not at all a great smoker, though he liked a pipe when he was
working, and a cigar after dinner. "When you are working! Then what a
diligent life you must lead, for I think you are always working,"
the wife would remark. "Most of my time, certainly, dear," said the
triumphant husband. There are never very serious jars in a family where
smoke takes so important a place. Mr. Wilberforce retired now, and took
a pipe to help him to consider. The study was a commodious room, with a
line of chairs against the further wall, which the parish mostly took when
the bumpkins had anything to say to the parson. A large writing-table,
fitted with capacious drawers, stood in the middle of the room, of which
one side was for parish business, the other magisterial: for the rector
of Underwood was also a justice of the peace, and very active in that
respect. He was a man who did not fail in his duty in any way. His
sermons he kept in a handsome old carved-oak bureau against the wall,
where--for he had been a dozen years in Underwood, and had worked
through all the fasts and feasts a great many times--he had executed a
classification, and knew where to put his hand on the Christmas sermons,
and those for the saints' days, and even for exceptional occasions, such
as funerals, almost in the dark. Two large windows, one of which opened
upon the lawn, and the other, round the corner, in the other wall of the
house, commanded a pretty view of the village, lying with its red roofs
in the midst of a luxuriant greenness. Saint Mary-under-wood was the
true name of the parish, for it lay in a part of the country which was
very rich in trees.
Here he sat down with his friend's letter, and thought. The Cavendishes
had once held an important position in the county, and lived in one of
the greatest "places" in the neighbourhood. But they had met with a fate
not unknown to the greatest favourites, and had descended from their
greatness to mediocrity, without, however, sacrificing everything, and
indeed with so good a margin that, though they were no longer included
among the most eminent gentry of England, they still held the place of
a county family. They had shifted their headquarters to a much smaller
house, but it was one which had already been possessed by them before
they became great. The younger sons, however, had very little to look
to, and Dick, who was considered clever, was going to the bar. He was a
friend, more or less, of young Warrender's, and had been at Oxford with
him, where he was junior to Theo in the university, though his senior in
years. For Dick had been a little erratic in his ways. He had not been
so orderly and law-abiding as a young English gentleman generally is. He
had gone away from home very young, and spent several years in wandering
before he would address himself to serious life. He had been in Canada
and in the backwoods, and though California was not known then as now,
had spent a few months at the gold diggings, in the rude life and strife
which English families, not yet acquainted with farming in Manitoba and
ranches in the far West, heard of with horror, and where only those sons
who were "wild," or otherwise unmanageable, had as yet begun to go. When
he returned, and announced that he was going to Oxford, and after that
to the bar, it was like the vision of the madman clothed and in his
right mind to his parents. This their son who had been lost was found.
He came into a little fortune, left him by his godfather, when he
returned; and, contrary to the general habit of families in respect to
younger sons, his parents were of opinion that if some "nice girl" could
be found for Dick it would be the best thing that could happen,--a thing
which would lighten their own responsibilities, and probably confirm him
in well-doing.
But with all the new-fashioned talk about education and work for women,
which then had just begun, nice girls were not quite so sure as they
used to be that to reclaim a prodigal, or consolidate a penitence, was
their mission in life. Perhaps they were right; but the old idea was
good for the race, if not for the individual woman, human sacrifices
being a fundamental principle of natural religion, if not of the
established creed. And it cannot be said that it was altogether without
a thought of finding the appropriate victim that the prodigal had been
invited to Underwood. He was not altogether a prodigal, nor would she be
altogether a victim. People do not use such hard words. He was a young
fellow who wanted steadying, for whom married life (when he had taken
his degree), or even an engagement, might be expected to do much. And
the Miss Warrenders were "nice girls," whose influence might be of the
greatest advantage to him. What need to say any more?
But it was tiresome that, after having made up this innocent little
scheme for throwing them together, Dick should choose, of all times in
the world, to arrive at the rectory just after Mr. Warrender's death,
when the family were in mourning, and not "equal to" playing croquet, or
any other reasonable amusement. It was hard, the rector thought. It was
he, and not his wife, strangely enough, who had thrown himself into this
project of match-making. The Warrender girls were the most well-regulated
girls in the world, and the most likely to keep their respective
husbands straight; and Mr. Wilberforce also thought it would be a very
good thing for the girls themselves, who were so much out of the way of
seeing eligible persons, or being sought. The rector felt that if Minnie
Warrender once took the young man in hand he was safe. And they had
already met at Oxford during Commemoration, and young Cavendish had
remembered with pleasure their fresh faces and slightly, pleasantly
rustic and old-fashioned ways. He was very willing to come when he was
told that the Wilberforces saw a great deal of Warrender's nice sisters.
"Why, I am in love with them both! Of course I shall come," he had said,
with his boyish levity. But with equal levity had put it off from time
to time, and at last had chosen the moment which was least convenient,
the most uncomfortable for all parties,--a moment when there was nothing
but croquet, or picnics, or other gentle pleasures which require feminine
co-operation, to amuse the stranger, and when the feminine co-operation
which had been hoped for was for the time altogether laid on the shelf
and out of the question. Few things could be more trying than this state
of affairs.
Notwithstanding which Dick Cavendish arrived, as had been arranged.
There was nothing remarkable about his appearance. He was an ordinary
brown-haired, blue-eyed young man,--not, perhaps, ordinary, for that
combination is rather rare,--and there were some people who said that
something in his eye betrayed what they called insincerity; indeed there
was generally about him an agreeableness, a ready self-adaptation to
everybody's way of thinking, a desire to recommend himself, which is
always open to censure. Mrs. Wilberforce was one of the people who shook
her head and declared him to be insincere. And as he went so far as to
agree that the empire very possibly was dropping to pieces, and the
education of the poor tending to their and our destruction, in order to
please her, it is possible that she was not far wrong. As a matter of
fact, however, his tactics were successful even with her; and though
she did not relinquish her deep-seated conviction, yet the young man
succeeded in flattering and pleasing her, which was all that he wanted,
and not that she should vouch for his sincerity. He was very sorry to
hear that the Warrenders were in mourning. "I saw the death in the
papers," he said, "and thought for a moment that I had perhaps better
write and put off; for some people look their worst in mourning. But
then I reflected that some others look their best; and their hearts are
soft, and a little judicious consolation nicely administered----"
Though it was not perhaps of a very high quality, the rector was
delighted with his young friend's wit.
"It must be nicely administered," he said, "and you will not find them
inaccessible. They are the best girls in the world, but too natural to
make a fuss, as some girls do. He was a very insignificant, neutral-tinted
kind of man. I cannot think why they should be supposed to be so
inconsolable."
"Oh, Herbert!" said his wife.
"Yes, I know, my dear; but Oh, Herbert, is no argument. Nobody is
missed so much as we expect, not the very best. Life may have to make
itself a new channel, but it flows always on. And when the man is quite
insignificant, like poor Mr. Warrender----"
"Don't blaspheme the dead, Herbert. It is dreadful to hear you, you
are so cynical; and when even a clergyman takes up such opinions,
what can we expect of other people?" Mrs. Wilberforce said, with marked
disapproval, as she left the gentlemen after dinner. She left them in
a novel sort of way, going out of the window of the dining-room to the
lawn, which ran along all that side of the house. The drawing-room, too,
opened upon it, and one window of the rector's study; and the line of
limes, very fine trees, which stood at a little distance, throwing a
delightful shadow with their great silken mass of foliage over the
velvety grass, made the lawn into a kind of great withdrawing-room,
spacious and sweet. Mrs. Wilberforce had a little settlement at one end
of this, with wicker-work chairs and a table for her work and one for
tea, while her husband, at the other end, clinging to his own window,
which provided a mode of escape in case any one should appear to whom
his cigar might be offensive, smoked at the other, throwing now and then
a few words at her between the puffs. While thus indulging himself he
was never allowed to approach more near.
"I am afraid we have not very much amusement for you," the rector said.
"There is nothing going on at this season, and the Warren, as my wife
says, is shut up."
"Not so much shut up but that one may go to see Warrender?"
"Oh no."
"And in that case the ladies must be visible, too: for I entertained
them, you know, in my rooms at Commem. They must at least ask me to tea.
They owe me tea."
"Well, if you are content with that. My wife is dreadfully particular,
you know. I daresay we may be able to manage a game, for all Mrs.
Wilberforce says; and if the worst comes to the worst, Dick, I suppose
you can exist without the society of ladies for a few days."
"So long as I have Mrs. Wilberforce to fall back upon, and Flo. Flo is
growing very pretty, perhaps you don't know? Parents are so dull to that
sort of thing. But there is somebody else in the parish I have got to
look after. What is their name? I can't recollect, but I know the name
of the house. It is the Elms."
"The Elms, my dear fellow!" cried the rector, with consternation. He
turned pale with fright and horror, and, rising, went softly and closed
the window, which his wife had left open. "For Heaven's sake," he said,
"don't speak so loud; my wife might hear."
"Why shouldn't she hear?" said Dick undaunted. "There's nothing wrong,
is there? I don't remember the people's name----"
"No, most likely not; one name will do as well as another," said the
rector solemnly. "Dick, I know that a young fellow like you looks at
things in another light from a man of my cloth; but there are things
that can be done, and things that can't, and it is simply impossible,
you know, that you should visit at a place like that from my house."
"What do you mean by a place like that? I know nothing about the place.
It belongs to my uncle Cornwall, and there is something to be done to
it, or they won't stay."
The rector drew a long breath. "You relieve me very much," he said. "Is
the Mr. Cornwall that bought the Elms your uncle Cornwall--without a
joke? Then you must tell him, Dick, there's a good fellow, to do nothing
to it, but for the love of Heaven help us to get those people away."
"Who are the people?" said the astonished Dick. It is uncertain whether
Mr. Wilberforce managed to make any articulate reply, but he sputtered
forth some broken words, which, with the look that accompanied them,
gave to his visitor an idea of the fact which had been for a month or
two whispered, with bated breath, by the villagers and people about.
Dick, who was still nominally of the faction of the reprobates, fell
a-laughing when the news penetrated his mind. It was not that his
sympathies were with vice as against virtue, as the rector was disposed
to believe; but the thought of the righteous and strait-laced uncle, who
had sent him into what would have been to Mr. Cornwall the very jaws of
hell, and of all that might have happened had he himself, Dick, announced
in Mrs. Wilberforce's presence his commission to the Elms, was too comical
to be resisted, and the peals of his laughter reached the lady on the
lawn, and brought the children pressing to the dining-room window to
see what had happened. Flo, of whom Dick had said that she was getting
pretty, but who certainly was not shy, and had no fear of finding herself
out of place, came pertly and tapped at the window, and, looking in with
her little sunny face, demanded to know what was the fun, so that Dick
burst forth again and again. The rector did not see the fun, for his
part; he saw no fun at all. Even when Dick, almost weeping with the
goodness of the joke, endeavoured to explain how droll it was to think
of his old uncle sending him there, Mr. Wilberforce did not see it. "My
wife will ask me what you were laughing about, and how am I to tell her?
She will see no joke in it, and she will not believe that I was not
laughing with you--at all that is most sacred, Emily will say." No one
who had seen the excellent rector at that moment would have accused him
of sharing in the laughter, for his face was as blankly serious as if he
had been at a funeral: but he knew the view which Mrs. Wilberforce was
apt to take.
And his fears came so far true that he did undergo a rigid
cross-questioning as soon as the guest was out of the way. And though
the rector was as discreet as possible, it yet became deeply impressed
upon the mind of his wife that the fun had something to do with the
Elms. That gentlemen did joke on such subjects, which were not fit to
be talked about, she was fully aware; but that her own husband, a man
privileged beyond most men, a clergyman of the Church of England,
should do it, was bitter indeed to her. "I know what young men are," she
said; "they are all the same. I know there is nothing that amuses and
attracts them so much as improper people. But, Herbert, you! and when
vice is at our very doors, to laugh! Oh, don't say another word to me on
the subject!" Mrs. Wilberforce cried.