A TRIUMPH OF REASON
Mrs. Northover took care that her interrupted conversation with Job Legg
should be completed; and he, too, was anxious, that she should know his
position. But he realised the danger very fully and was circumspect in
his criticism of Richard Gurd's attitude toward 'The Seven Stars.'
"For my part," said Job on the evening that preceded a very important
event, "I still repeat that you have a right to consider we're higher
class than 'The Tiger'; and to speak of the renowned garden as a 'bit of
grass' was going much too far. It shows a wrong disposition, and it
wasn't a gentlemanly thing, and if it weren't such a wicked falsehood,
you might laugh at it for jealousy."
"Who ever would have thought the man jealous?" she asked.
"These failings will out," declared Mr. Legg. "And seeing you mean to
take him, it is as well you know it."
She nodded rather gloomily.
"Your choice of words is above praise, I'm sure, Job," she said. "For
such a simple and straightforward man, you've a wonderful knowledge of
the human heart."
"Through tribulation I've come to it," he answered. "However, I'm here
to help you, not talk about my own bitter disappointments. And very
willing I am to help you when it can be done."
"D'you think you could speak to Richard for me, and put out the truth
concerning 'The Seven Stars'?" she asked. But Mr. Legg, simple though he
might be, was not as simple as that.
"No," he replied. "There's few things I wouldn't do for you, on the
earth or in the waters under the earth, and I say that, even though
you've turned me down after lifting the light of hope. But for me to see
Gurd on this subject is impossible. It's far too delicate. Another man
might, but not me, because he knows that I stand in the unfortunate
position of the cast out. So if there's one man that can't go to Gurd
and demand reparation on your account, I'm that man. In a calmer moment,
you'll be the first to see it."
"I suppose that is so. He'd think, if you talked sense to him, you had
an axe to grind and treat you according. You've suffered enough."
"I have without a doubt, and shall continue to do so," he answered her.
"I think just as much of you as ever I did notwithstanding," said Mrs.
Northover. "And I'll go so far as to say that your simple goodness and
calm sense under all circumstances might wear better in the long run
than Richard's overbearing way and cruel conceit. Be honest, Job. Do you
yourself think 'The Tiger' is a finer house and more famous than my
place?"
Mr. Legg perceived very accurately where Nelly suffered most.
"This house," he declared, "have got the natural advantages and Gurd
have got the pull in the matter of capital. My candid opinion, what I've
come to after many years of careful thought on the subject, is that if
we--I say 'we' from force of habit, though I'm in the outer darkness
now--if we had a few hundred pounds spending on us and an advertisement
to holiday people in the papers sometimes, then in six months we
shouldn't hear any more about 'The Tiger.' Cash, spent by the hand of a
master on 'The Seven Stars,' would lift us into a different house and we
should soon be known to cater for a class that wouldn't recognise 'The
Tiger.' What we want is a bit of gold and white paint before next summer
and all those delicate marks about the place that women understand and
value. I've often thought that a new sign for example, with seven golden
stars on a sky blue background, and perhaps even a flagstaff in the
pleasure grounds, with our own flag flying upon it, would, as it were,
widen the gulf between him and you. But, of course, that was before
these things happened, and when I was thinking, day and night you may
say, how to catch the custom."
Mrs. Northover sighed.
"In another man, it would be craft to say such clever things," she
answered; "but, in you, I know it's just simple goodness of heart and
Christian fellowship. 'Tis amazing how we think alike."
"Not now," he corrected her. "Too late now. I wish to God we had thought
alike; for then, instead of looking at my money as I'd look at a pile of
road scrapings, I should see it with very different eyes. My windfall
would have been poured out here in such a fashion that the people would
have wondered. This place is my life, in a manner of speaking. My
earthly life, I mean; which you may say is ended now. I was, in my own
opinion, as much a part of 'The Seven Stars,' as the beer engine. And
when uncle died this was my first thought. Or I should say my second,
because in the natural course of events, you were the first."
She sighed again and Mr. Legg left this delicate ground.
"If the man can only be brought to see he's wrong about his fanciful
opinion of 'The Tiger,' all may go right for you," he continued. "I
don't care for his feelings over-much, but your peace of mind I do
consider. At present he dares to think you're a silly woman whose goose
is a swan. That's very disorderly coming from the man who's going to
marry you. Therefore you must get some clear-sighted person to open his
eyes, and make it bitter clear to him that 'The Tiger' never was and
never will be a place to draw nice minds and the female element like
us."
"There's nobody could put it to him better than you," she said.
"At another time, perhaps--not now. I'm not clever, Nelly; but I'm too
clever to edge in between a man like Gurd and his future wife. If we
stood different, then nobody would open his mouth quicker than me."
"We may stand different yet," she answered. "There was a good deal of
passion when we met, and not the sort of passion you expect between
lovers, either."
"If that is so," he answered, "then we can only leave it for the future.
But this I'll certainly say: if you tell me presently that you're free
to the nation once more and have changed your mind about Richard, then
I'd very soon let him know there's a gulf fixed between 'The Tiger' and
'The Seven Stars'; and if you said the word, he'd see that gulf getting
broader and broader under his living eyes."
"I'd have overlooked most anything but what he actually said," she
declared. "But to strike at the garden--However, I'll see him, and if I
find he's feeling like what I am, it's quite in human reason that we may
undo the past before it's too late."
"And always remember it's his own will you shall live at 'The Tiger,'"
warned Job. "Excuse my bluntness in reminding you of his words; which,
no doubt, you committed to memory long before you told me about 'em; but
the point lies there. You can't be in two places at once, and so sure as
you sign yourself 'Gurd,' you'll sell, or sublet 'The Seven Stars.' In
fact, even a simple brain like mine can see you'll sell, for Richard
will never be content to let you serve two masters; and where the
treasure is, there will the heart be also. And to one of your delicate
feelings, to know strange hands are in this house, and strange things
being done, and liberties taken with the edifice and the garden, very
likely. But I don't want to paint any such dreadful picture as that,
and, of course, if you honestly love Richard, though you're the first
woman that ever could--then enough said."
"The question is whether he loves me. However, I'll turn it over; and no
doubt he will," she answered. "I see him to-morrow."
"And don't leave anything uncertain, if I may advise," concluded Mr.
Legg. "I speak as a child in these matters; but, if he's looking at this
thing same as you are, and if you both feel you'd be finer ornaments of
society apart, than married, all I say is don't let any false manhood on
his part, or modesty on yours, keep you to it. Better be good neighbours
than bad partners. And if I've said too much, God forgive me."
Fired by these opinions Nelly went to her meeting with Richard and the
first words uttered by Mr. Gurd sent a ray of warmth to her heart, for
it seemed he also had reviewed the situation in a manner worthy of his
high intelligence.
But he approached the subject uneasily and Mrs. Northover was too much a
woman to rescue him at once. She had been through a good deal and felt
it fair that the master of 'The Tiger' should also suffer.
"It's borne in upon me," he said, after some generalities and vague
hopes that Nelly was well, "that, perhaps, there's no smoke without
fire, as the saying is."
"Meaning what?" asked she.
"Meaning, that though we flared up a bit and forgot what we owe to
ourselves, there must have been a reason for so much feeling."
"There certainly was."
"We needn't go back over the details; but you may be sure there must
have lurked more behind our row than just a difference of opinion.
People don't get properly hot with each other unless there's a reason,
Nelly, and I'm beginning to fear that the reason lies deeper than we
thought."
He waited for her to speak; but she did not.
"You mustn't think me shifty, or anything of that kind; but I do feel,
where there was such a lot of smoke and us separated all these weeks,
and none the worse for separation apparently, that, if we was to take
the step--in a word, it's come over me stronger and stronger that we
might do well to weigh what we're going to do in the balance before we
do it."
Her delight knew no bounds. But still she did not reply, and Mr. Gurd
began to grow red.
"If, by your silence, you mean that I'm cutting a poor figure before
you, and you think I want to be off our bargain, you're wrong," he said.
"Your mind ought to move quicker and I don't mind telling you so. I'm
not off my bargain, because I'm a man of honour, and my word, given to
man, woman or child, is kept. And if you don't know that, you're the
only party in Bridport that don't. But I say again, there's two sides to
it, and look before you leap, though not a maxim women are very addicted
to following, is a good rule for all that. So I'll ask you how the land
lies, if you please. You've turned this over same as me; and I'll be
obliged if you'll tell me how you're viewing it."
"In other words you've changed your mind?"
"My mind can wait. I may have done so, or I may not; but to change my
mind ain't to change my word, so you need have no anxiety on that
account."
"Far from being anxious," answered Mrs. Northover, "I never felt so
light-hearted since I was a girl, Richard. For why? My name for honest
dealing is as high as yours, I believe, and if you'd come back to me and
asked for bygones to be bygones, I should have struggled with it, same
as you meant to do. But, seeing you're shaken, I'm pleased to tell, that
I'm shaken also. In fact, 'shaken' isn't a strong enough word. I'm
thankful to Heaven you don't want to go on with it, because, more don't
I."
"If anything could make me still wish to take you, it's to hear such
wisdom," declared Mr. Gurd, after a noisy expiration of thanksgiving. "I
might have known you wasn't behind me in brain power, and I might have
felt you'd be bound to see this quite as quick as me, if not quicker.
And I'm sure nothing could make me think higher of you than to hear
these comforting words."
Mrs. Northover used an aphorism from Mr. Legg.
"Our only fault was not to see each other's cleverness," she said, "or
to think for a moment, after what passed between us, we could marry
without loss of self-respect. It's a lot better, Richard, to be good
neighbours than bad partners. And good neighbours we always have been
and shall be; and whether we'd be good partners or not is no matter; we
won't run the risk."
"God bless you!" he answered. "Then we part true friends, and if
anything could make me feel more friendly than I always have felt, it is
your high-mindedness, Nelly. For high-mindedness there never was your
equal. And if many and many a young couple, that flies together and then
feels the call to fly apart again, could only approach the tender
subject with your fair sight and high reasoning powers, it would be a
happier world."
"There's only one thing left," concluded Mrs. Northover, "and that's to
let the public know we've changed our minds. With small people, that
wouldn't matter; but with us, we can't forget we've been on the centre
of the stage lately; and it would never do to let the people suppose
that we had quarrelled, or sunk to anything vulgar."
"Leave it to me," he answered. "It only calls for a light hand. I shall
pass it off with one of my jokes, and then people will treat it in a
laughing spirit and not brood over it. Folk are quick to take a man's
own view on everything concerning himself if he's got the art to
convince."
"We'll say that more marriages are made on the tongues of outsiders than
ever come to be celebrated in church," suggested Mrs. Northover, "and
then people will begin to doubt if it wasn't all nonsense from the
first."
"And they won't be far wrong if they do. It was nonsense; and if we say
so in the public ear, none will dare to doubt it."