The recollection of that unexplained and ill-timed merriment clouded
over the household horizon even next morning; but Dick was so cheerful
and so much at his ease that things ameliorated imperceptibly. The heart
of a woman, even when most disapproving, is softened by the man who takes
the trouble to make himself agreeable to her children. She thought that
there could not be so very much harm in him, after all, when she saw
the little ones clustering about him, one on his knees and one on his
shoulders. "There is a sort of instinct in children," she said afterwards:
and most people would be in this respect of Mrs. Wilberforce's opinion.
And about noon the rector took his guest to call at the Warren. Though
this was not what an ordinary stranger would have been justified in
doing, yet when you consider that he had known Theo at Oxford and
entertained the ladies at Commem., you will understand why the rector
took this liberty. "I suppose I may ask the girls and Theo to come over
in the afternoon," said Mr. Wilberforce.
"Oh, certainly, Herbert, you may _ask_ them," she replied, but with a
feeling that if Minnie accepted it would be as if the pillars of the
earth were shaken; though indeed in the circumstances with a young
man on her hands to be amused for all the lingering afternoon, Mrs.
Wilberforce herself would have been very willing that they should come.
Dick Cavendish was a pleasant companion for a morning walk. He admired
the country in its fresh greenness, as they went along, though its
beauty was not striking. He admired the red village, clustering under
the warmth and fulness of the foliage, and pleased the rector, who
naturally felt his own _amour propre_ concerned in the impression made
by his parish upon a new spectator. "We must come to old England for
this sort of thing," said Dick, looking back upon the soft rural scene
with the half-patronising experience of a man _qui en a vu bien d'autres_.
And the rector was pleased, especially as it was not all undiscriminating
praise. When they got within the grounds of the Warren criticism came
in. "What does Warrender mean," Dick said, "by letting everything run up
in this wild way? the trees have no room to breathe."
"You must recollect that Theo has just come into it. And the old
gentleman was long feeble, and very conservative,--though not in
politics, as I could have wished."
"Ah, I thought Warrender was a bit of a radical: but they say a man
always becomes more or less a Tory when he comes into his property. I
have no experience," said Dick, with his light-hearted laugh. Had Mrs.
Wilberforce heard him, she would have found in it that absence of respect
for circumstances which she considered to be one of the signs of the
times; and it had a startling and jarring effect upon the individual
who did hear it, who was disturbed by it in the stillness of his
morning walk and thoughts. It broke the silence of the brooding air,
and awakened impertinent echoes everywhere, Nature being always glad of
the opportunity. The young owner of the place was himself absorbed in
a warm haze of visions, like his own trees in the hush of the noon. Any
intrusion was disagreeable to him. Nevertheless, when he saw the rector
he came forward with that consciousness of the necessity of looking
pleased which is one of the vexations of a recluse. What did he mean by
bringing men here, where nobody wanted either them or him? But when he
saw who it was who accompanied the rector, Warrender's face and the line
of annoyance in his forehead softened a little; for Dick was one of the
men who are everywhere welcome. Warrender even smiled as he held out his
hand.
"You, Cavendish! Who could have thought of seeing you here?"
"I am afraid I am rather presuming: but I could not be so near
without coming to see you." Dick grew grave, as was incumbent in the
circumstances, and though he had no doubt whatever of seeing the ladies
added a sort of humble suggestion: "I am afraid I can scarcely hope to
pay my respects?"
"You must come in and see my mother," Warrender said.
The house, as has been said, looked its best when shade and coolness
were a necessity of the season; but the visitor who came with keen eyes,
observing everything, not because he had any special object, but because
he could not help it, took in in a moment the faded air of solid
respectability, the shabbiness which does not mean poverty, the decent
neglect, as of a place whose inhabitants took no thought of such small
matters, which showed everywhere. It was not neglect, in the ordinary
sense of the word, for all was carefully and nicely arranged, fresh
flowers on the tables, and signs of living--but rather a composed and
decorous content. The girls, as they were always called, were found,
Chatty with her hands full of flowers and a number of china vases before
her, standing at an old buffet in the hall, and Minnie just coming out
of the dining-room, where she had been doing her morning needle-work,
which was of a plain and homely description, not calculated to be seen
by visitors. The old buffet in the hall was not like the mahogany
catafalque in the other rooms, and the flowers were very fresh and the
china of unappreciated antiquity. Perhaps these accessories helped to
make the modest little picture of Charlotte arranging the flowers a
pretty one; and she was young and fresh and modest and unconscious;
her figure was pretty and light; her look, as she raised her head and
blushed to see the little party of men, so guileless, frank, and good
that, though the others, who were used to her, thought nothing of her,
to Dick it appeared that Chatty was a very pleasant thing to see against
the dim background of the old respectable house.
"It is Mr. Cavendish," said Minnie. "How curious! It is true sometimes,
no doubt, as everybody says, that talk of an angel and you see its wings;
but generally it is just the person whom one least thinks of who appears."
"That is very hard upon me," said Dick. "My mind has been so full of you
for twenty-four hours that you ought to have thought a little upon me,
if only on the theory of brain waves."
"I hope you don't believe in anything of that sort. How should you think
of people when there is nothing to put you in mind of them? If we had
been in Oxford, indeed--Come into the drawing-room; we shall find mamma
there. And how is dear Mrs. Wilberforce?"
"She wants you all," said the rector, in a low voice aside, "to come
over this afternoon to tea."
"To tea, when you have company! Oh, she could not--she never could expect
such a thing!"
"Do you call one of your brother's friends company,--one? I should say
it took three at least to constitute company. And I want Theo to come.
Mind what I say. If you don't amuse him, Theo will think of nothing but
going to Markland. He goes to Markland more than I like already."
"Mr. Wilberforce, I am not one that believes in love being blind,
and I know all Theo's faults; but to think that he is courting
amusement,--amusement, and papa only dead six weeks!"
"I did not say amusement," said the rector crossly. "I said to be
amused, which is quite different; not to be left for ever in the same
state of mind, not to lie vacant."
"You must have a very poor opinion of him and of all of us," said Miss
Warrender, leading the way into the drawing-room, where the others had
gone before them. Chatty remained behind, being still busy with her
flowers. The rector and Minnie were supposed to be talking parish talk,
and to have lingered with that purpose. Chatty thought it sounded too
animated to be all about the clothing club and the mothers' meetings,
but she supposed that some one must have gone wrong, which was generally
the exciting element in parish talk. She was not herself excited by it,
being greatly occupied how to make the big white Canterbury bells stand
up as they ought in the midst of a large bouquet, in a noble white and
blue Nankin vase, which was meant for the table in the hall.
Mrs. Warrender was very glad to see young Cavendish. She asked at once
if they were going to take him to Hurst Hill and the old castle at
Pierrepoint, and entered almost eagerly into a description of what could
be done for a stranger. "For we have scarcely anything, except the
country itself, to show a stranger," she said. "There is nothing that
is exciting, not much society, and unfortunately, at this moment, the
little that there was----"
"I know," said Dick, "it is my misfortune. I was deeply sorry to
hear----" He had never seen Mr. Warrender, and naturally could have no
profound regret on the subject, but his eyes expressed so much tender
sympathy that her heart was touched, and tears came to her own.
"You are very kind to take a part in our sorrows," she said. "If all had
been well with us, there would have been no one more pleased than he to
make our country pleasant to you. He was always so much interested in
Theo's friends. But even as things are, if you do not find it too sad,
we shall always be glad to see you. Not that we have anything to tempt
you," she added, with a smile.
"Then, Mrs. Warrender," said the rector, "may I tell my wife that you
are not going away?"
Mrs. Warrender cast a wistful look round her,--at her son, at the
remorseless inclosure of those dull walls, which were like those of a
prison. "It appears not, for the present," she said.
"No," said Minnie; "for where can we be so well as at home? For my part,
I don't believe in change. What do you change? Only the things about you.
You can't change yourself nor your circumstances."
"The skies, but not the soul," said Dick.
"That is just what I mean, Mr. Cavendish. I see you understand. Mamma
thinks it would be more cheerful to go away. But we don't really want to
be cheerful. Why should we be cheerful?--at least for six months, or I
should say a year. We can't be supposed to be equal to anything, after
our great loss, in less than a year."
At this they were all silent, a little overawed; and then Mrs. Warrender
returned to her original discourse upon Pierrepoint Castle and the Hurst
at Cleveland: "They are both excellent places for picnics. You should
take Mr. Cavendish there."
"That was all very well," said the rector, "when there was all of you to
fall back upon; but he must be content with the domestic croquet and the
mild gratification of walks, in present circumstances. Has Theo come to
any decision about the improvements? I suppose you will not begin to cut
down till the autumn?"
"Everything is at a standstill, Mr. Wilberforce."
"Well," said Theo, almost angrily, turning to the rector, "there is
no hurry, I hope. One need not start, axe in hand, as if one had been
waiting for that. There is time enough, in autumn or in spring, or when
it happens to be convenient. I am in no haste, for my part."
There was again a little pause, for there had been temper in Theo's
tones. And then it was that the rector distinguished himself by the
most ill-timed question,--a question which startled even Chatty, who
was coming in at the moment with a bowl full of roses, carried in both
hands. Yet it was a very innocent-seeming question, and Cavendish was
not aware of any significance in it till he saw the effect it produced.
"How," said Mr. Wilberforce very distinctly, "is Lady Markland?" He was
looking straight at Theo, but as the words came out of his mouth, struck
too late by their inappropriateness, turned and looked Mrs. Warrender
somewhat severely in the face.
"Oh!" she said, as if some one had struck her; and as for Warrender, he
sprang to his feet, and walked across the room to one of the windows,
where he stood pulling to pieces one of Chatty's bouquets. She put down
her roses, and stood with her hands dropped and her mouth a little open,
a picture of innocent consternation, which, however, was caused more by
the effect upon the others than by any clear perception in herself. All
this took place in a moment, and then Mrs. Warrender replied sedately,
"The last time I saw her she was well enough in health. Sor--trouble,"
she added, changing the word, "does not always affect the health."
"And does she mean to stay _there_?" the rector said, feeling it necessary
to follow up his first question. Mrs. Warrender hesitated, and began to
reply that she did not know, that she believed nothing was settled,
that--when Theodore suddenly turned and replied:--
"Why shouldn't she stay? The reason is just the same for her as for us.
Death changes little except to the person immediately concerned. It is
her home: why shouldn't she stay?"
"Really," said the rector, "you take it so seriously I--when you put the
question to me, I---- As a matter of fact," he added, "I did not mean
anything, if I must tell the truth. I just said the first thing that
occurred. And a change is always the thing that is first thought of after
such a--after such a----" The rector sought about for a word. He could
not say calamity, or affliction, or any of the words that are usually
employed. He said at last, with a sense of having got triumphantly over
the difficulty--"such a shock."
"I agree with the rector," said Minnie. "It would be far better that she
should go away, for a change. The circumstances are quite different. For
a lady to go and look after everything herself, when it ought not to be
supposed possible that she could do anything: seeing the lawyers, and
giving the orders, and acting exactly as if nothing had happened,--oh,
it is too dreadful! It is quite different from us. And she does not even
wear a widow's cap! That would be reason enough for going away, if there
was nothing else. She ought to go away for the first year, not to let
anybody know that she has never worn a widow's cap."
"Now that is a very clever reason," said Dick Cavendish, who felt it
was time for him to interfere, and lessen the serious character of the
discussion. "Unaided, I should never have thought of that. Do at Rome as
Rome does; or if you don't, go out of Rome, and don't expose yourself.
There is a whole system of social philosophy in it."
"Oh, I am not a philosopher," cried Minnie, "but I know what I think. I
know what my opinion is."
"We are not here to criticise Lady Markland," said her mother; and then
she burst into an unpremeditated invitation, to break the spell. "You
will bring Mr. Cavendish to dine with us one evening?" she said. "He and
you will excuse the dulness of a sad house."
The rector felt his breath taken from him, and thought of what his wife
would say. "If you are sure it will not be too much for you," he replied.
Dick's eyes and attention were fixed upon the girls. Minnie's face
expressed the utmost horror. She opened her mouth to speak; her sharp
eyes darted dagger thrusts at her mother; it was evident that she was
bursting with remonstrance and denunciation. Chatty, on the contrary,
looked at her mother, and then at the stranger, with a soft look of
pleasure stealing over her face. It softened still more the rounded
outline, the rose tints, which were those of a girl of seventeen rather
than twenty-three, and which her black dress brought out with double
force. Dick thought her quite pretty,--nay, very pretty,--as she stood
there, her sleeves thrust a little back on her arms,--her hands a little
wet with the flowers, her face owning a half guilty pleasure of which
she was half ashamed. The others were involved in thoughts quite
different: but innocent Chatty, relieved by the slightest lifting of the
cloud, and glad that somebody should be coming to dinner, was to him the
central interest of the group.
"You put your foot in it, I think," he said to the rector, as they
walked back, "but I could not quite make out how. Who is the unhappy
woman, lost to all sense of shame, who wears no widow's cap?"
"I meant no harm," said the rector. "It was quite natural that I should
ask for Lady Markland. Of course it stands to reason that as he died
there, and they were mixed up with the whole business, and she is not in
my parish, they should know more of her than I."
"And so old Warrender is mixed up with a beautiful widow," said Dick. "He
doesn't seem the sort of fellow: but I suppose something of that sort
comes to most men, one time or another," he added, with a half laugh.
"What, a widow?" said the rector, with a smile. "Eh? What are you
saying? What is that? Well, as you ask, that is the Elms, Cavendish,
where I suppose you no longer have any desire to go."
"Oh, that is the Elms, is it?" said Cavendish. His voice had not its
usual cheerful sound. He stood quite still, with an interest which the
rector thought quite uncalled for. The Elms was a red brick house, tall
like the rectory, and of a similar date, the upper stories of which
appeared over a high wall. The quick shutting of a door in this wall was
the thing which had awakened the interest of Cavendish. A girl had come
hurriedly, furtively, out, and with the apparent intention of closing
it noiselessly had let the door escape from her hand, and marked her
departure by a clang which for a moment filled the air. She glanced
round her hastily, and with a face in which a very singular succession
of emotions were painted looked in the faces of the gentlemen. The first
whom she noticed was evidently the rector, to whom she gave a glance of
terror: but then turned to Dick, with a look of amazement which seemed
to take every other feeling away,--amazement and recognition. She stared
at him for a moment as if paralysed, and then, fluttering like a bird in
her light dress, under the high, dark line of the wall, hurried away.
"Bless me," said the rector troubled, "Lizzie Hampson! Now I recollect
that was what the ladies were saying. Silly girl, she has gone, after
all; but I must put a stop to that. How she stared at you, Dick, to be
sure!"
"Yes, she has got a sharp pair of eyes. I think she will know me again,"
said Dick, with what seemed to the rector rather forced gaiety. "Rather
a pretty little girl, all the same. What did you call her? Is she one of
your parishioners? She looked mighty frightened of you."
"Lizzie Hampson," said the rector. "She is the granddaughter of the
old woman at the shop. She is half a foreigner I believe: but I always
thought--Bless me! Emily will be very sorry, but very angry too, I am
afraid. I wish I had not seen it. I wish we had not come this way."
"Do you think you are obliged to tell? It was only by accident that
we saw her," said Cavendish. "It would hurt nobody if you kept it to
yourself."
"I daresay the poor little thing meant no harm," said the rector to
himself; "it is natural to want to make a little more money. I am
entering into temptation, but I cannot help it. Do you think, after all,
I might say nothing about seeing her? We should not have seen her, you
know, if we had come home the other way."
"Give her the benefit of the possibility," said Dick, with a short laugh.
But he seemed to be affected too, which was wonderfully sympathetic and
nice of him, with what troubled the rector so much. He scarcely talked
at all for the rest of the way. And though he was perhaps as gay as ever
at lunch, there came over him from time to time a curious abstraction,
quite out of character with Dick Cavendish. In the afternoon, Warrender
and Chatty came in, as they had been invited to tea (not Minnie, which
satisfied Mrs. Wilberforce's sense of right), and a very quiet game of
croquet, a sort of whisper of a game, under their breath, as it were,
was played. And in this way the day passed. The visitor declared in the
evening that he had enjoyed himself immensely. But he had a headache,
and instead of coming in to prayers went out in the dark for a walk;
which was not at all the sort of thing which Mrs. Wilberforce liked her
visitors to do.