KENELM CHILLINGLY rose with the sun, according to his usual custom,
and took his way to the Temperance Hotel. All in that sober building
seemed still in the arms of Morpheus. He turned towards the stables
in which he had left the gray cob, and had the pleasure to see that
ill-used animal in the healthful process of rubbing down.
"That's right," said he to the hostler. "I am glad to see you are so
early a riser."
"Why," quoth the hostler, "the gentleman as owns the pony knocked me
up at two o'clock in the morning, and pleased enough he was to see the
creature again lying down in the clean straw."
"Oh, he has arrived at the hotel, I presume?--a stout gentleman?"
"Yes, stout enough; and a passionate gentleman too. Came in a yellow
and two posters, knocked up the Temperance and then knocked up me to
see for the pony, and was much put out as he could not get any grog at
the Temperance."
"I dare say he was. I wish he had got his grog: it might have put him
in better humour. Poor little thing!" muttered Kenelm, turning away;
"I am afraid she is in for a regular vituperation. My turn next, I
suppose. But he must be a good fellow to have come at once for his
niece in the dead of the night."
About nine o'clock Kenelm presented himself again at the Temperance
Hotel, inquired for Mr. Bovill, and was shown by the prim maid-servant
into the drawing-room, where he found Mr. Bovill seated amicably at
breakfast with his niece, who of course was still in boy's clothing,
having no other costume at hand. To Kenelm's great relief, Mr. Bovill
rose from the table with a beaming countenance, and extending his hand
to Kenelm, said,--
"Sir, you are a gentleman; sit down, sit down and take breakfast."
Then, as soon as the maid was out of the room, the uncle continued,--
"I have heard all your good conduct from this young simpleton. Things
might have been worse, sir."
Kenelm bowed his head, and drew the loaf towards him in silence.
Then, considering that some apology was due to his entertainer, he
said,--
"I hope you forgive me for that unfortunate mistake, when--"
"You knocked me down, or rather tripped me up. All right now. Elsie,
give the gentleman a cup of tea. Pretty little rogue, is she not? and
a good girl, in spite of her nonsense. It was all my fault letting
her go to the play and be intimate with Miss Lockit, a stage-stricken,
foolish old maid, who ought to have known better than to lead her into
all this trouble."
"No, uncle," cried the girl, resolutely; "don't blame her, nor any one
but me."
Kenelm turned his dark eyes approvingly towards the girl, and saw that
her lips were firmly set; there was an expression, not of grief nor
shame, but compressed resolution in her countenance. But when her
eyes met his they fell softly, and a blush mantled over her cheeks up
to her very forehead.
"Ah!" said the uncle, "just like you, Elsie; always ready to take
everybody's fault on your own shoulders. Well, well, say no more
about that. Now, my young friend, what brings you across the country
tramping it on foot, eh? a young man's whim?" As he spoke, he eyed
Kenelm very closely, and his look was that of an intelligent man not
unaccustomed to observe the faces of those he conversed with. In fact
a more shrewd man of business than Mr. Bovill is seldom met with on
'Change or in market.
"I travel on foot to please myself, sir," answered Kenelm, curtly, and
unconsciously set on his guard.
"Of course you do," cried Mr. Bovill, with a jovial laugh. "But it
seems you don't object to a chaise and pony whenever you can get them
for nothing,--ha, ha!--excuse me,--a joke."
Herewith Mr. Bovill, still in excellent good-humour, abruptly changed
the conversation to general matters,--agricultural prospects, chance
of a good harvest, corn trade, money market in general, politics,
state of the nation. Kenelm felt there was an attempt to draw him
out, to sound, to pump him, and replied only by monosyllables,
generally significant of ignorance on the questions broached; and at
the close, if the philosophical heir of the Chillinglys was in the
habit of allowing himself to be surprised he would certainly have been
startled when Mr. Bovill rose, slapped him on the shoulder, and said
in a tone of great satisfaction, "Just as I thought, sir; you know
nothing of these matters: you are a gentleman born and bred; your
clothes can't disguise you, sir. Elsie was right. My dear, just
leave us for a few minutes: I have something to say to our young
friend. You can get ready meanwhile to go with me." Elsie left the
table and walked obediently towards the doorway. There she halted a
moment, turned round, and looked timidly towards Kenelm. He had
naturally risen from his seat as she rose, and advanced some paces as
if to open the door for her. Thus their looks encountered. He could
not interpret that shy gaze of hers: it was tender, it was
deprecating, it was humble, it was pleading; a man accustomed to
female conquests might have thought it was something more, something
in which was the key to all. But that something more was an unknown
tongue to Kenelm Chillingly.
When the two men were alone, Mr. Bovill reseated himself and motioned
to Kenelm to do the same. "Now, young sir," said the former, "you and
I can talk at our ease. That adventure of yours yesterday may be the
luckiest thing that could happen to you."
"It is sufficiently lucky if I have been of any service to your niece.
But her own good sense would have been her safeguard if she had been
alone, and discovered, as she would have done, that Mr. Compton had,
knowingly or not, misled her to believe that he was a single man."
"Hang Mr. Compton! we have done with him. I am a plain man, and I
come to the point. It is you who have carried off my niece; it is
with you that she came to this hotel. Now when Elsie told me how well
you had behaved, and that your language and manners were those of a
real gentleman, my mind was made up. I guess pretty well what you
are; you are a gentleman's son; probably a college youth; not
overburdened with cash; had a quarrel with your governor, and he keeps
you short. Don't interrupt me. Well, Elsie is a good girl and a
pretty girl, and will make a good wife, as wives go; and, hark ye, she
has L20,000. So just confide in me; and if you don't like your
parents to know about it till the thing's done and they be only got to
forgive and bless you, why, you shall marry Elsie before you can say
Jack Robinson."
For the first time in his life Kenelm Chillingly was seized with
terror,--terror and consternation. His jaw dropped; his tongue was
palsied. If hair ever stands on end, his hair did. At last, with
superhuman effort, he gasped out the word, "Marry!"
"Yes; marry. If you are a gentleman you are bound to it. You have
compromised my niece,--a respectable, virtuous girl, sir; an orphan,
but not unprotected. I repeat, it is you who have plucked her from my
very arms, and with violence and assault eloped with her; and what
would the world say if it knew? Would it believe in your prudent
conduct?--conduct only to be explained by the respect you felt due to
your future wife. And where will you find a better? Where will you
find an uncle who will part with his ward and L20,000 without asking
if you have a sixpence? and the girl has taken a fancy to you; I see
it: would she have given up that player so easily if you had not
stolen her heart? Would you break that heart? No, young man: you are
not a villain. Shake hands on it!"
"Mr. Bovill," said Kenelm, recovering his wonted equanimity, "I am
inexpressibly flattered by the honour you propose to me, and I do not
deny that Miss Elsie is worthy of a much better man than myself. But
I have inconceivable prejudices against the connubial state. If it be
permitted to a member of the Established Church to cavil at any
sentence written by Saint Paul,--and I think that liberty may be
permitted to a simple layman, since eminent members of the clergy
criticise the whole Bible as freely as if it were the history of Queen
Elizabeth by Mr. Froude,--I should demur at the doctrine that it is
better to marry than to burn: I myself should prefer burning. With
these sentiments it would ill become any one entitled to that
distinction of 'gentleman' which you confer on me to lead a
fellow-victim to the sacrificial altar. As for any reproach attached
to Miss Elsie, since in my telegram I directed you to ask for a young
gentleman at this hotel, her very sex is not known in this place
unless you divulge it. And--"
Here Kenelm was interrupted by a violent explosion of rage from the
uncle. He stamped his feet; he almost foamed at the mouth; he doubled
his fist, and shook it in Kenelm's face.
"Sir, you are mocking me: John Bovill is not a man to be jeered in
this way. You /shall/ marry the girl. I'll not have her thrust back
upon me to be the plague of my life with her whims and tantrums. You
have taken her, and you shall keep her, or I'll break every bone in
your skin."
"Break them," said Kenelm, resignedly, but at the same time falling
back into a formidable attitude of defence, which cooled the pugnacity
of his accuser. Mr. Bovill sank into his chair, and wiped his
forehead. Kenelm craftily pursued the advantage he had gained, and in
mild accents proceeded to reason,--
"When you recover your habitual serenity of humour, Mr. Bovill, you
will see how much your very excusable desire to secure your niece's
happiness, and, I may add, to reward what you allow to have been
forbearing and well-bred conduct on my part, has hurried you into an
error of judgment. You know nothing of me. I may be, for what you
know, an impostor or swindler; I may have every bad quality, and yet
you are to be contented with my assurance, or rather your own
assumption, that I am born a gentleman, in order to give me your niece
and her L20,000. This is temporary insanity on your part. Allow me
to leave you to recover from your excitement."
"Stop, sir," said Mr. Bovill, in a changed and sullen tone; "I am not
quite the madman you think me. But I dare say I have been too hasty
and too rough. Nevertheless the facts are as I have stated them, and
I do not see how, as a man of honour, you can get off marrying my
niece. The mistake you made in running away with her was, no doubt,
innocent on your part: but still there it is; and supposing the case
came before a jury, it would be an ugly one for you and your family.
Marriage alone could mend it. Come, come, I own I was too
business-like in rushing to the point at once, and I no longer say,
'Marry my niece off-hand.' You have only seen her disguised and in a
false position. Pay me a visit at Oakdale; stay with me a month; and
if at the end of that time you do not like her well enough to propose,
I'll let you off and say no more about it."
While Mr. Bovill thus spoke, and Kenelm listened, neither saw that the
door had been noiselessly opened and that Elsie stood at the
threshold. Now, before Kenelm could reply, she advanced into the
middle of the room, and, her small figure drawn up to its fullest
height, her cheeks glowing, her lips quivering, exclaimed,--
"Uncle, for shame!" Then addressing Kenelm in a sharp tone of
anguish, "Oh, do not believe I knew anything of this!" she covered her
face with both hands and stood mute.
All of chivalry that Kenelm had received with his baptismal
appellation was aroused. He sprang up, and, bending his knee as he
drew one of her hands into his own, he said,--
"I am as convinced that your uncle's words are abhorrent to you as I
am that you are a pure-hearted and high-spirited woman, of whose
friendship I shall be proud. We meet again." Then releasing her
hand, he addressed Mr. Bovill: "Sir, you are unworthy the charge of
your niece. Had you not been so, she would have committed no
imprudence. If she have any female relation, to that relation
transfer your charge."
"I have! I have!" cried Elsie; "my lost mother's sister: let me go to
her."
"The woman who keeps a school!" said Mr. Bovill sneeringly.
"Why not?" asked Kenelm.
"She never would go there. I proposed it to her a year ago. The minx
would not go into a school."
"I will now, Uncle."
"Well, then, you shall at once; and I hope you'll be put on bread and
water. Fool! fool! you have spoilt your own game. Mr. Chillingly,
now that Miss Elsie has turned her back on herself, I can convince you
that I am not the mad man you thought me. I was at the festive
meeting held when you came of age: my brother is one of your father's
tenants. I did not recognize your face immediately in the excitement
of our encounter and in your change of dress; but in walking home it
struck me that I had seen it before, and I knew it at once when you
entered the room to-day. It has been a tussle between us which should
beat the other. You have beat me; and thanks to that idiot! If she
had not put her spoke into my wheel, she would have lived to be 'my
lady.' Now good-day, sir."
"Mr. Bovill, you offered to shake hands: shake hands now, and promise
me, with the good grace of one honourable combatant to another, that
Miss Elsie shall go to her aunt the schoolmistress at once if she
wishes it. Hark ye, my friend" (this in Mr. Bovill's ear): "a man can
never manage a woman. Till a woman marries, a prudent man leaves her
to women; when she does marry, she manages her husband, and there's an
end of it."
Kenelm was gone.
"Oh, wise young man!" murmured the uncle. "Elsie, dear, how can you
go to your aunt's while you are in that dress?"
Elsie started as from a trance, her eyes directed towards the doorway
through which Kenelm had vanished. "This dress," she said
contemptuously, "this dress; is not that easily altered with shops in
the town?"
"Gad!" muttered Mr. Bovill, "that youngster is a second Solomon; and
if I can't manage Elsie, she'll manage a husband--whenever she gets
one."