LESLEY SEEKS ADVICE.
Added to Lesley's new views of life, there was also a new feeling for
her father. In the first rush of enthusiastic admiration for his book,
she forgot all that she had heard against him, and believed--for the
moment--that he was all Maurice Kenyon represented him to be. But
naturally this state of mind could not last. The long years of her
mother's influence told against any claim to love or respect on the
father's part. Lesley remembered how bitterly Lady Alice spoke of him.
She could not think that her mother had been wrong.
It is a terrible position for a son or daughter--to have to judge
between father and mother. It is a wrong position, and one in which
Lesley felt instinctively that she ought never to have been placed. Of
course it was impossible for her to help it. Father and mother had
virtually made her their judge. They said to her, "Live for a year with
each of us, and choose which you prefer. You cannot have us both." And
as the only true and natural position for a child is that in which he or
she can have both, Lesley Brooke was in a very trying situation. She had
begun life in her father's house as her mother's ardent partisan; and
she was her mother's partisan still. Only she was not quite sure whether
she was not going to find that she could love her father too. And in
that case, Lesley was tremulously certain that Lady Alice would accuse
her of unfaithfulness to _her_.
She turned with a sigh from the contemplation of her position to her new
views of London and modern life. The poverty and ignorance of which she
read had seemed hateful to her. But her impulse--always the impulse of
generous souls--was not to shrink away from this newly-discovered
misery, but to go down into the midst of it and help to cure the evil.
Still blindly ignorant of what was already done, or doing, she hardly
knew in which way to begin a work that was so new to her. Indeed, she
hardly estimated its difficulties. All the poor that she had ever seen
were the blue-bloused peasants, or brown-faced crones, and quaint little
maidens with pigtails, who had visited the convent at Fontainebleau. She
was quite sure that English poor people were not like these. Her father
knew a great deal about them, but she could not ask him. The very way in
which he spoke to her--lightly always, and jestingly--made serious
questioning impossible. To whom then should she apply? The answer
presented itself almost immediately, and with extraordinary
readiness--to Mr. Oliver Trent.
This decision was not so remarkable as it at first may seem. Lesley
had run over in her mind a list of the persons whom she could not
or would not ask. Her father and Miss Brooke?--impossible. Mrs.
Romaine?--certainly not. Ethel?--Lesley did not believe that she knew
anything about the poor. Maurice Kenyon?--not for worlds. The
neighboring clergy?--Mr. Brooke had said that he did not want "the
Blacks" about his house. The other men and women whom Lesley had seen
were mere casual acquaintances; not friends of the family, like Oliver
Trent.
At least, she _supposed_ that Oliver was a friend of the family. He was
Mrs. Romaine's brother; and Mrs. Romaine was a good deal at the house.
In her own mind Lesley put him on the same footing as Mr. Kenyon--which
estimate would have made Caspar Brooke exceedingly indignant, could he
have known it. For though he did not exactly dislike Oliver Trent, he
would never have thought of classing him with his friend, Maurice
Kenyon.
But Oliver had already called twice on some pretext or other, since
Lesley had come home: and on the latter of these occasions he had sat
for a full hour with her in the drawing-room, talking chiefly of France
and Italy--in low and softly modulated tones. Lesley was losing all her
horror of interviews with young men. If the nuns had seen her now they
would indeed have thought her lost to all sense of propriety. For one of
Miss Brooke's chief theories was that no self-respecting young woman
needs a chaperon. And she had flatly refused to chaperone Lesley except
on inevitable or really desirable occasions. "The girl must learn to go
about the world by herself," she had said. "And I will say this for
Lesley, she is not naturally timid or helpless--it is only training that
makes her so." And under this tuition Lesley soon acquired the
self-possession in which she had been somewhat wanting when she came,
newly-fledged, from her convent.
So when Oliver called again--it was on a message from his sister, and it
had not yet recurred to Lesley to wonder at the readiness shown by
English brothers to run on messages to their sisters' friends--he found
Lesley alone, as usual, in the drawing-room, and she welcomed him with
considerable warmth--a warmth that took him by surprise.
"I am so glad to see you, Mr. Trent: I wanted to ask you something," she
said, at once.
"Ask me anything--command me in anything," he replied.
He sank into a low chair at her right hand, and looked quite
devotionally into her face. Lesley felt a trifle disturbed. She could
not forget that Oliver was Ethel's lover, and she did not think that he
ought to look at her so--_eagerly_--she did not know what else to call
it. It was a look that made her uncomfortable. Nobody had ever looked at
her in that way before. They did not look like that in the convent.
"It is nothing very particular," she said, shrinking back a little.
"Only I have nobody to ask."
"I know--I understand," said Oliver, in his softest tones. Somehow his
sympathy did not offend her, as Mr. Kenyon's had done.
"It is very stupid of me," Lesley went on, trying to smile, "not to ask
my father or Aunt Sophy; but I am afraid they would only laugh at me."
"I shall not laugh at you," said Oliver, marvelling inwardly.
"Won't you? You are sure? It is only a little, stupid, ordinary
question. Do you know anything about Macclesfield Buildings?"
Oliver drew himself up in his chair. Was _that_ the question? He did not
believe it. But he answered her unsmilingly.
"Yes, Miss Brooke. They are the blocks of workmen's dwellings where your
father has founded a Club."
"Has he?" said Lesley, her eyes dilating. "That is--very good of him,
isn't it?"
"Oh, I suppose so," Oliver answered, with a little laugh. "Of
course--but I must not insinuate worldly motives into his daughter's
ears!"
"Oh, please, go on: I want to hear!"
"It is nothing wrong. Only if a man wants to stand well with the
working-people--if he wants votes, for instance--it isn't at all a bad
move to begin with a Working-Men's Club."
"Votes, Mr. Trent? What for?"
"School Board, or County Council, or Parliament," said Oliver, coolly.
"Or even Board of Guardians. I don't know what your father's ambitions
are, exactly. But popularity is always a good thing."
Lesley pondered a little, the color rising in her cheeks. "Then," she
said, "you think my father does good things from--from what people call
'interested motives?'"
"Good heavens, no, Miss Brooke, I never said anything of the kind,"
declared Oliver, somewhat alarmed by her straightforwardness. "I was
only thinking of the general actions of man, not of your father in
particular."
Lesley nodded. "I don't quite understand," she said. "But that doesn't
matter for the present. I have another question to ask you, Mr. Trent.
Do you know anything about the poor?"
"I'm very poor myself," said Oliver, laughing. "Horribly poor. 'Pon my
word, I don't know any one poorer."
"Oh, you are laughing at me now," said Lesley, almost petulantly. "And
you said that you would not laugh."
She leaned back in her chair, with heightened color and brightening
eyes: her breath came a little more quickly than usual, as if her pulses
were quickened. There is nothing so catching as emotion. Oliver's
sluggish pulses began to stir at the sight of her. That soft and tender
face seemed more beautiful to him than the sparkle and vivacity of Ethel
Kenyon's. If it had not been for Ethel's twenty thousand pounds, he did
not know but what he would have preferred Lesley. Rosy had said that
Lesley would suit him best.
"I am not laughing; I swear I am not," he said earnestly. "I know what
you mean--you are thinking of the London poor. Your tender heart has
been stirred by the sight of them in the streets--they are dreadful to
look at, are they not? It is like you to feel their woes so acutely."
"I want to know," said Lesley, rather plaintively, "whether I cannot do
anything for them?"
"You--do anything--for the poor?" repeated Oliver. Then he scanned her
narrowly--scanned her shining hair, delicate features, Paris-made gown,
and dainty shoe--and laughed a little. "You can let them look at
you--that ought to be enough," he said.
Lesley frowned. "Nonsense, Mr. Trent. What does my father do for his
Club?"
"Smokes with the men, sometimes, I believe. You couldn't do that, you
know----"
"Although----" and then Lesley stopped short and laughed.
"Although Aunt Sophy does. It's no secret, my dear Miss Brooke. Half the
women in London smoke now-a-days, I believe. Even my sister indulges now
and then."
Lesley gave her head a little toss. "What else does my father do?" she
asked.
"Sings to them. Sunday afternoon, that is, you know. The wives are
allowed to come to the Club-room then, and he has a sort of little
concert for them--good music, sacred music, even, I believe. He gets
professionals to come now and then; they will do anything to oblige your
father, you know--and when they don't come, he sings himself. He really
has a very good bass voice."
"Ladies don't sing, I suppose," said Lesley, after a little pause.
"Oh, yes, they do. He nearly always has a lady to sing. Why don't you go
down on a Sunday afternoon? The club is open to friends of the founder,
if not of the members, on Sunday afternoons. Don't Mr. Brooke and Miss
Brooke always go?"
"I suppose they do--I never asked where they went," said Lesley, with
burning cheeks. She remembered that they always did disappear on Sunday
afternoons. No, she had not asked; she had not hitherto felt any
curiosity as to their doings; and they had not asked her to accompany
them. She began to resent their lack of readiness to invite her to the
club.
"You might go down on Sunday afternoon," said Oliver, lazily. "I'm
going: they have asked me to sing. Though you mayn't know it, Miss
Brooke, I have a very decent tenor voice. Ethel is going with me. Won't
you come?"
"I don't know," said Lesley, nervously. She bethought herself that she
could not easily propose to accompany her father, and that Ethel and
Oliver Trent would not want her. She would be one too many in either
party. She could not go.
But Oliver read the reason of her scruples. "If you will allow me," he
said, "I will ask my sister to come too. Then we shall be a compact
little party of four, and we can start off without telling Mr. Brooke
anything about it."
Lesley hesitated a little, but finally consented. She had a great desire
to see what was going on in Macclesfield Buildings. But Oliver, it may
be feared, believed in his heart that she went because he was going. And
he resolved to bestow his society on her rather than on Ethel and Mrs.
Romaine on Sunday. It was decidedly more amusing to waken that still
sweet face to animation than to engage in a war of wit with Ethel.
Lesley thought of Oliver very little. Once or twice he had startled her
by an assumption of intimacy, a softening of his voice, and a look of
tenderness in his eyes, which made her shrink into herself with an
instinctive emotion of dislike. But she had then proceeded to scold
herself for foolish shyness and prudery--the prudery of a French-school
girl, who was not accustomed to the ways of men. She had begun to feel
herself very ignorant of the world since she came to her father's house.
It would never do to offend one of her father's friends by seeming
afraid of him. So she tried to smile and looked pleased when Oliver drew
near, and she was all the more gracious to him because she had already
quarrelled with Maurice Kenyon, who was even more her father's friend
than Oliver himself. But what could she do? Mr. Kenyon had insulted
her--the hot blood rose to her cheeks as she thought of some of the
things that he had said. Insulted her by assuming that she could not
appreciate her father because she was too careless, too frivolous, too
foolish to do so. That she was ignorant, Lesley was ready to
acknowledge; but not that she was incapable of learning.
Oliver had no difficulty in persuading his sister to make one of the
party on Sunday afternoon. Indeed, Mrs. Romaine made the expedition
easier by inviting Lesley to lunch with her beforehand.
"I asked Maurice and Ethel Kenyon, too," she said to Lesley, "but they
would not come. Mr. Kenyon had his patients to attend to; and Ethel
would not leave him to lunch alone."
Lesley did not answer, but privately reflected that if the Kenyons had
accepted the invitation she would have lunched at home.
She went to church by herself on Sunday morning, for Mr. Brooke was not
up, and Doctor Sophy frequented some assembly of eclectic souls, of
which Lesley had never heard before. So she went demurely to that
ugliest of all Protestant temples, St. Pancras' Church, and was not very
much surprised when she perceived that Oliver Trent was in the seat
behind her, and that he sat so that he could see her face.
"I did not know that you went to St. Pancras'," she said, innocently, as
they stood on the steps together outside when the service was over.
"Nor do I," he answered her. "It is the most hideous church I ever saw.
But there was an attraction this morning."
Lesley looked as if she did not understand. And indeed she did not.
"You are coming to lunch with us, are you not? Will you let me escort
you?"
"Thank you, Mr. Trent. But--do you mind?--I shall have to call at my
father's house on my way. Just to leave my prayer-book. It will not take
me a minute."
Oliver could not object, although he was not altogether pleased. For Mr.
Brooke's house was immediately opposite the Kenyons', and Miss Ethel was
as likely as not to be sitting at the drawing-room window. Her sharp
eyes would espy him from afar, and she might ask Lesley if he had been
to church with her. Not a very great difficulty, but Oliver had a
far-seeing mind, and one question might lead to others of a more serious
kind.
However, there was no help for it. He paused on the steps of number
fifty, while Lesley rang the bell. She had been formally presented with
a latch-key, but the use of it was so new to her, and the fear of losing
it so great, that she usually left it on her dressing-table.
A maid opened the door and said something to Lesley in an under tone.
Oliver was looking across the street and neither heard the words nor
saw the woman's face. But Lesley turned to him hastily.
"Oh, Mr. Trent, I am so sorry to keep you waiting, but I must run up to
my aunt for a moment."
She disappeared into the house, and then Oliver turned and met the eyes
of Lesley's waiting-maid. And at the same moment he was aware--as one is
sometimes aware of what goes on behind one's back--that Ethel, in her
pretty autumn dress of fawn-color and deep brown, had come out upon the
balcony of her house and was observing him.
"_You_, Mary?" said Oliver, in a stifled whisper.
The woman looked at him with hard, defiant eyes. "Yes, me," she said.
"You ought to know that I couldn't do anything else."
He stood looking at her with a frown.
"This is the last place where you ought to have come," he said.
"Because they are friends of yours?" she asked. "I can't help that. I
didn't know it when I came, but I know it now."
"Then leave," said Oliver, still in the lowest possible tone, but also
with all possible intensity. "Leave as soon as you can. I'll find you
another place. It is the worst thing you can do for your own interest to
remain here, where you may be recognized."
"I can take care of that," said Mary Kingston, icily. "I'll think over
it."
Oliver put his hand into his pocket as if in search of a coin. But
Kingston suddenly shook her head. "No," she said, quickly, "I don't want
it. Not from you."
And then Lesley's foot was heard upon the stairs. Oliver looked up to
Ethel's balcony. Yes, she was there, her hand upon the railing, her eyes
fixed on him with what was evidently a puzzled stare. Oliver smiled and
raised his hat. Ethel nodded and smiled in return. But he
fancied--though, of course, at that distance he could not be sure--that
she still looked puzzled as she returned his bow and smile.
He walked on with Lesley. But his good-humor was gone: the usual suavity
of his manner was a little ruffled. His recognition of Mary Kingston had
evidently been displeasing as well as embarrassing to him.