THE SQUIRE
Hilary Ffolliot, squire of Redmarley in the county of Garsetshire, did
not appreciate the blessings heaped upon him by providence in the shape
of so numerous a family, and from their very earliest years manifested
a strong determination that no child of his should be spoilt through
any injudicious slackening of discipline.
His rules and regulations were as the sands of the sea for number, and
as they all tended in the same direction, namely, to the effacement of
his lively and ubiquitous offspring, it is hardly surprising that such
a large and healthy family found it difficult, not to say impossible,
to attain to his ideal of the whole duty of children. And although a
desire not to transgress his code regarding silence and decorum in such
parts of the house as were within ear-shot of his study was strong in
the children, knowing how swift and sure was the retribution overtaking
such offenders--yet, however willing the spirit, the flesh was weak,
and succumbed to temptations to jump whole flights of stairs, to slide
down bannisters, arriving with a sounding thump at the bottom, and
occasionally to bang the schoolroom door in the faces of the pursuing
brethren.
Thus it was that strangers ringing the front-door bell at the Manor
House were, on being admitted, faced by large cards on the opposite
wall bearing such devices as, "Be sure you shut the door quietly," "Do
not speak loudly," "Go round to the back if possible." And it is told
of one timid guest, that on reading the aforesaid directions (which, by
the way, were only supposed to apply to the children) he incontinently
fled before the astonished butler could stop him; and, as directed,
meekly rang the back-door bell, some five minutes afterwards.
Mr Ffolliot suffered from nerves. He was by temperament quite unfitted
to be either a country squire or the father of a large family. Above
all, was he singularly unable to bear with equanimity the strain upon
his income such a large family entailed. He liked his comforts about
him, he was by nature of a contemplative and aesthetically studious
turn, and saw no good reason why his learned leisure should suffer
interruption, or his delicate susceptibilities be ruffled by such
incongruities as the loud voices and inharmonious movements of a set of
thoughtless children.
The village was small and well-to-do, his duties as a landowner sat
lightly upon him, and he was very awe-inspiring, didactic, and distant
in his dealings with the surrounding neighbours. He had a fine taste
in old prints and old port, and every spring his health necessitated a
somewhat lengthened stay in an "oasis" which he had "discovered," so he
said, in the south of France, where he communed with nature, and
manifested a nice appreciation of the artistic efforts of his host's
most excellent cook.
In fact, the matter of intercourse with outsiders was largely left to
the discretion of his wife; and whoever had much to do with Mrs
Ffolliot (and most people wanted as much as they could get) spent a
good deal of time in the society of the children. And to the
children--what was she not to those children?
For them "mother" signified everything that was kind, and gay, and
gracious, and above all, understanding. Other people might be stupid,
and attaint with evil intention accidents, which while certainly
unfortunate in their results, were wholly unpremeditated, but mother
always gave the offender the benefit of the doubt, and not infrequently
by her charms of person and persuasive arts of conversation, so
effectually turned away the wrath of the injured one (generally a
farmer), that no hint of the escapade reached Mr Ffolliot's ears.
For the fact is that being somewhat tightly kept at home, the young
Ffolliots were more than something of a nuisance when they went abroad;
and as several of them generally were abroad, in their train did
mischief and destruction follow.
For three hundred years there had been Ffolliots at Redmarley; of the
last three owners two were married and childless, and the one
immediately preceding Mr Hilary Ffolliot was a bachelor. But the fact
that the Manor had not for over a hundred years descended from father
to son, in no way affected the love each reigning Ffolliot felt for it.
There was something about Redmarley that seized the imagination and the
affection of the dwellers there. The little grey stone village that
lay so lovingly along the banks of the Marle was so enduring, so
valorous in its sturdy indifference to time; in the way its gabled
cottages under their overhanging eaves faced summer sun and winter
rains, and instead of crumbling away seemed but to stand the firmer and
more dignified in their cheery eld.
The Ffolliots were good landlords. No leaking roofs or defective walls
were complained of at Redmarley. Never was Ffolliot yet who had not
realised the unique quality of the village, and done his best to
maintain it. It never grew, rarely was a house to let, and the jerry
builder was an unknown evil. It was a healthy village, too, set high
in the clean Cotswold air. Big farms surrounded it, the nearest
railway line was three miles off, and the nearest station almost seven.
Of course there was poverty and a good deal of rheumatism among the
older inhabitants, but on the whole the periodic outbursts of
industrial discontent and unrest that convulsed other parts of England
seemed to pass Redmarley by.
Had the Manor stood empty or the vicar been a poor man with a large
family, doubtless things would have been uncomfortable enough to stir
the villagers out of their habitual philosophic acceptance of the "rich
man in his castle, the poor man at his gate" as an inevitable and
immutable law. But they couldn't actively dislike either squire or
parson, and although the agricultural labourer is slow of speech he is
not lacking in shrewdness, and those at Redmarley realised that things
would be much worse than they were if Squire and Parson were suddenly
eliminated.
Hilary Ffolliot liked the rôle of landed proprietor in the abstract.
He would not have let the Manor and lived elsewhere for the world. He
went regularly to church on Sunday morning, though it bored him
extremely, because, like Major Pendennis, he thought that "when a
gentleman is _sur ses terres_ he must give an example to the country
people." Had he been starving he would not have sold a single rood of
Redmarley land to assuage his hunger. Similarly he would himself have
done without a great many things rather than let any of his people go
hungry. But it was only because they were _his_ people, part of the
state and circumstance of Redmarley. He didn't care for them a bit as
individuals. Any intercourse with the peasantry was irksome to him.
Dialect afflicted him. He had nothing to say to them, and they were
stricken dumb in his awe-inspiring presence. He was well content to
have few personal dealings with those, who, in his own mind, he thought
of as his "retainers." He left everything of that sort to his wife.
It was the same with the children. He looked upon them as a concession
to Marjory's liking for that sort of thing: and by "that sort of thing"
he meant his wife's enthusiastic interest in her fellow-creatures.
To be sure he was pleased that there should be no question as to a
direct heir . . . but . . . six of them was really rather a nuisance.
Children were like peasantry, inclined to be awkward and uncouth, crude
in thought and word and deed; apt to be sticky unless fresh from the
hands of nurse; in summer nearly always hot, frequently dirty, and
certainly always noisy, with, moreover, a distinct leaning towards low
company and a plainly manifest discomfort in his own.
He was proud of them because they were Ffolliots, and because they were
tall and straight and handsome (how wisely he had chosen their
mother!), and he supposed that some day, when they became more
civilised, he would be able to take some pleasure in their society.
Even the two eldest, Grantly and Mary, wearied him. He could never
seem to find any topic of mutual interest, except Redmarley itself, and
then they always introduced irrelevant matter relating to the
inhabitants that he had no desire to hear.
Had Marjory, his wife, grown plain and anxious during her twenty years
of married life, it is probable she would have bored him too. But she
kept her hold upon him because she was not only the most beautiful
woman he knew, but she satisfied his artistic sensibilities all round.
She was full of individuality and quick-witted decision. Long ago she
had made up her mind that it was quite impossible to alter him, but she
was equally assured as to her perfect right to differ from him in every
possible way. He quite fell in with this view of the situation; so
long as he was allowed unchallenged to be as stiff and stand-off and
unapproachable as he pleased, he was well content that she should be
extraordinarily sympathetic, gracious, and gay. It pleased him that
the "retainers" should adore her and come to her in their troubles and
difficulties; that she should be constantly surrounded by her children;
that she should be in great request at every social gathering in the
county.
Did it happen that his need of her clashed with the children's, and
that just then she considered theirs was the stronger claim, he was
annoyed; but apart from that he approved of her devotion to them.
Somebody must look after the children; and it was not in his line.
So many things were not in his line.
One day, early in their married life, with unusual want of tact,
Marjory had asked him what his line was.
The question surprised and distressed him, it was so difficult to
answer. However, the retort courteous came easily to Mr Ffolliot, and
raising her hand to his lips, he replied, "To provide a sufficiently
beautiful setting for you, my dear, that is my _métier_ at present."
And Marjory, who had spent a long, hot morning in superintending the
removal of books, busts, and pictures to the room that, for the future,
was to be his study, the room that till then had been her drawing-room,
felt an unregenerate desire to slap him with the hand he had just
kissed.
Mr Ffolliot believed that he could best develop the ultimate highest
that was in him if his surroundings were entirely harmonious.
Therefore had he selected the sunniest, largest room on the entrance
floor for his own study. It had a lovely view of the river.
The oak wainscotting and shelves were removed there piece by piece from
the old library at the back, which faced north and had rather an
uninteresting outlook towards the woods. This rather gloomy chamber he
caused to be newly panelled with wood enamelled white, and presented it
to his wife for her own use with a "God bless you, my darling, I hope
you may have many happy hours here."
Her drawing-room was the only room in Redmarley that Marjory Ffolliot
thoroughly disliked, and she never sat there if she could help it.
On that Sunday afternoon when Eloquent thought fit to visit his aunt,
Mr Ffolliot had left his writing-table and was standing in one of the
great windows that he might look out and, with the delicate
appreciation of the connoisseur, savour the crimson beauties of the
winter sunset.
As he gazed he mentally applauded the pageant of colour provided for
his enjoyment, and then he perceived two figures standing not fifty
yards from his window.
One he recognised at once as his daughter, and for a moment he included
her in his beatitude at the prospect presented to his view. Yes; Mary
was undoubtedly pleasing to the eye, she was growing very like his
wife, and for that resemblance, like the Ancient Mariner, "he blessed
her unaware."
But when he became fully cognisant of the other figure, his feeling
wholly changed. He screwed his eyeglass firmly into his eye and glared
at the couple.
Who on earth was this muddy, rather plebeian-looking person with whom
Mary was conversing on apparently friendly and familiar terms? He
suddenly realised with an irritated sense of rapidly approaching
complications that Mary was nearly grown up.
In another minute the young man was walking down the drive alone, and
his daughter had vanished.
He gave her time to take off her boots, then he sent for her.
He sat down at his writing-table and awaited her, feeling intensely
annoyed.
How dared that mud-bespattered young man speak to her?
How could Mary be so wanting in dignity as to reply?
What was Marjory about to allow it?
Those children had far too much latitude.
He was in that frame of mind which, during the middle ages, resulted in
the immurement of such disturbing daughters in the topmost turrets of
their fathers' castles.
Mary came in, shut the door softly, and waited just inside it to say
nervously:
"You sent for me, father?"
"Come here," said Mr Ffolliot.
Mary crossed the big room and stood at the other side of the knee-hole
table facing him.
"I sent for you," Mr Ffolliot began slowly, and paused. Angry as he
was, he found a moment in which to feel satisfaction at her pure
colouring . . . "to make enquiries" he continued, "as to your late
companion. Who is that exceedingly muddy person with whom you were
talking in the front drive a few minutes ago?"
Yes; her colouring was certainly admirable. A good healthy blush
sweeping over the white forehead till it reached the pretty growth of
hair round the temples and dying away as rapidly as it had arisen, was
quite a forgivable weakness in a young girl.
"I believe," said Mary cautiously, "that he is Mr Gallup, the new
Liberal candidate."
"Did he tell you so?"
"No, father. He told me his name, but it was Grantly who thought he
was that one."
"And may I ask what reason Mr Gallup had for imparting his name to
you--did no one introduce him?"
"No, father."
"Well, how did the man come to speak to you?" Mr Ffolliot demanded,
irritably. "You must see that the matter requires explanation."
"He was lost," Mary said mournfully, "and so I showed him the way."
"Lost," Mr Ffolliot repeated scornfully; "lost in Redmarley!"
"No, father, in the wood."
"And what was he doing in our woods, pray?"
"He had tried to come by a short-cut and got muddled and he fell down,
and I couldn't pass by without speaking, could I . . . he might have
broken his leg or something."
"What were you doing in the woods alone? I have told you repeatedly
that I will not have you scouring the country by yourself. You have
plenty of brothers, let one of them accompany you."
"I wasn't exactly alone," Mary pleaded; "Parker was with me."
"Mary," Mr Ffolliot said solemnly, "has it ever occurred to you that
you are very nearly eighteen years old?"
"Yes, father."
"Well, that being the case, don't you think that decorum in your
conduct, more dignity and formality in your manner are a concession you
owe to your family. You know as well as I do that a young girl in your
position does not converse haphazard with any stranger that she happens
to find prone in the woods. It's not done, Mary, and what is more, _I_
will not have it. This impertinent young counter-jumper probably was
only too ready to seize upon any excuse to address you. You should
have given him the information he asked and walked on."
"But we were going the same way," Mary objected; "it seemed so snobby
to walk on, besides . . ." again that glorious blush, "he didn't speak
to me first, I spoke to him."
Mr Ffolliot sighed. "Remember," he said solemnly, "that should you see
him again you do not know that young man. . . ."
Silence on the part of Mary. Deep thought on the brow of Mr Ffolliot.
"To-morrow," he said at last, "you may do up your hair."
"Oh, father, mayn't I do it up to-night before church. I should love
to, do let me."
"No, my child, to-morrow is more suitable."
Mary did not ask why. None of the children except the Kitten ever
questioned any of Mr Ffolliot's decisions . . . to him.
"Have you done with me, father?" Mary asked. "I think it must be
tea-time."
"Yes, Mary, you may go, but remember, nothing of this sort must ever
occur again; it has distressed and annoyed me."
"I'm sorry, father, I didn't think . . ."
"You never do," said Mr Ffolliot, "that is what I complain of."
Thus it came about that Mr Ffolliot was himself directly responsible
for the friendly smile which greeted Eloquent as Mary passed him in the
aisle of Redmarley church that evening.
She had not been allowed to put up her hair that evening. She was not
a grown-up lady yet.
Therefore would she grin at whomsoever she pleased.