LAURA CHOOSES HER KNIGHT
Why Laura, how your cheeks burn!" exclaimed Mrs. Arnot as she entered
her niece's room one afternoon.
"Now, don't laugh at me for being so foolish, but I have become absurdly
excited over this story. Scott was well called the 'Wizard of the
North.' What a spell he weaves over his pages! When reading some of his
descriptions of men and manners in those old chivalric times, I feel
that I have been born some centuries too late--in our time everything is
so matter-of-fact, and the men are so prosaic. The world moves on with a
steady business jog, or, to change the figure, with the monotonous clank
of uncle's machinery. My castle in the air would be the counterpart of
those which Scott describes."
"Romantic as ever," laughed her aunt; "and that reminds me, by the way,
of the saying that romantic girls always marry matter-of-fact men,
which, I suppose, will be your fate. I confess I much prefer our own
age. Your stony castles make me shiver with a sense of discomfort; and
as for the men, I imagine they are much the same now as then, for human
nature does not change much."
"O, auntie, what a prosaic speech! Uncle might have made it himself. The
idea of men being much the same now! Why, in that day there were the
widest and most picturesque differences between men of the same rank.
There were horrible villains, and then to vanquish these and undo the
mischief they were ever causing, there were knights _sans peur et sans
reproche._ But now a gentleman is a gentleman, and all made up very
much in the same style, like their dress coats. I would like to have
seen at least one genuine knight--a man good enough and brave enough to
do and to dare anything to which he could be impelled by a most
chivalric sense of duty. About the most heroic thing a man ever did for
me was to pick up my fan."
Mrs. Arnot thought of one man whose heart was almost breaking for her,
and yet who maintained such a quiet, masterful self-control that the
object of his passion, which had become like a torturing flame, was not
subjected to even the slightest annoyance; and she said, "You are
satirical today. In my opinion there are as true knights now as your
favorite author ever described."
"Not in Hillaton," laughed Laura, "or else their disguise is perfect."
"Yes, in Hillaton," replied Mrs. Arnot, with some warmth, "and among the
visitors at this house. I know of one who bids fair to fulfil my highest
ideal of knighthood, and I think you will do me the justice to believe
that my standard is not a low one."
"Auntie, you fairly takeaway my breath!" said Laura, in the same
half-jesting spirit. "Where have my eyes been? Pray, who is this
paragon, who must, indeed, be nearly perfect, to satisfy your standard?"
"You must discover him for yourself; as you say, he appears to be but a
gentleman, and would be the last one in the world to think of himself as
a knight, or to fill your ideal of one. You must remember the character
of our age. If one of your favorite knights should step, armed
_cap-a-pie,_ out of Scott's pages, all the dogs in town would be at
his heels, and he would probably bring up at the station-house. My
knight promises to become the flower of his own age. Now I think of it,
I do not like the conventional word 'flower,' as used in this
connection, for my knight is steadily growing strong like a young oak. I
hope I may live to see the man he will eventually become."
"You know well, auntie," said Laura, "that I have not meant half I have
said. The men of our day are certainly equal to the women, and I shall
not have to look far to find my superior in all respects. I must admit,
however, that your words have piqued my curiosity, and I am rather glad
you have not named this 'heart of oak,' for the effort to discover him
will form a pleasant little excitement."
"Were I that way inclined," said Mrs. Arnot, smiling, "I would be
willing to wager a good deal that you will hit upon the wrong man."
Laura became for a time quite a close student of human nature, observing
narrowly the physiognomy and weighing the words and manner, of her many
gentleman acquaintances; but while she found much to respect, and even
to admire, in some, she was not sure that any one of them answered to
her aunt's description. Nor could she obtain any further light by
inquiring somewhat into their antecedents. As for Mrs. Arnot, she was
considerably amused, but continued perfectly non-committal.
After Laura had quite looked through her acquaintances Haldane made one
of his infrequent calls, but as Mr. Beaumont was also present she gave
to her quondam lover scarcely more than a kindly word of greeting, and
then forgot his existence. It did not occur to her, any more than it
would to Haldane himself, that he was the knight.
Mr. Arnot, partly out of a grim humor peculiarly his own, and partly to
extenuate his severity toward the youth, had sent to his niece all the
city papers containing unfavorable references to Haldane, and to her
mind the associations created by those disgraceful scenes were still
inseparable from him. She honestly respected him for his resolute effort
to reform, as she would express it, and as a sincere Christian girl she
wished him the very best of success, but this seemed as far as her
regard for him could ever go. She treated him kindly where most others
in her station would not recognize him at all, but such was the delicacy
and refinement of her nature that she shrank from one who had been
capable of acts like his. The youth who had annoyed her with his
passion, whom she had seen fall upon the floor in gross intoxication,
who had been dragged through the streets as a criminal, and who twice
had been in jail, was still a vivid memory. She knew comparatively
little about, and did not understand, the man of to-day. Beyond the
general facts that he was doing well and doing good, it was evident
that, by reason of old and disagreeable associations, she did not wish
to hear much about him, and Mrs. Arnot had the wisdom to see that time
and the young man's own actions would do more to remove prejudice from
the mind of her niece, as well as from the memory of society in general,
than could any words of hers.
Of course, such a girl as Laura had many admirers, and among them Mr.
Beaumont was evidently winning the first place in her esteem. Whether he
were the knight that her aunt had in mind or no, she was not sure, but
he realized her ideal more completely than any man whom she had ever
met. He did, indeed, seem the "perfect flower of his age," although she
was not so sure of the oak-like qualities. She often asked herself
wherein she could find fault with him or with all that related to him,
and even her delicate discrimination could scarcely find a vulnerable
point. He was fine-looking, his heavy side-whiskers redeeming his face
from effeminacy; he was tall and elegant in his proportions; his taste
in his dress was quiet and faultless; he possessed the most refined and
highly cultured mind of any man whom she had known; his family was
exceedingly proud and aristocratic, but as far as there can be reason
for these characteristics, this old and wealthy family had such reason.
Laura certainly could not find fault with these traits, for from the
first Mr. Beaumont's parents had sought to pay her especial attention.
It was quite evident that they thought that the orphaned girl who was so
richly dowered with wealth and beauty might make as good a wife for
their matchless son as could be found, and such an opinion on their part
was, indeed, a high compliment to Laura's birth and breeding. No one
else in Hillaton would have been thought of with any equanimity.
The son was inclined to take the same view as that entertained by his
parents, but, as the party most nearly interested, he felt it incumbent
upon him to scrutinize very closely and deliberately the woman who might
become his wife, and surely this was a sensible thing to do.
There was nothing mercenary or coarse in his delicate analysis and close
observation. Far from it. Mr. Beaumont was the last man in the world to
look a lady over as he would a bale of merchandise. More than all things
else, Mr. Beaumont was a _connoisseur_, and he sought Mrs. Arnot's
parlors with increasing frequency because he believed that he would
there find the woman best fitted to become the chief ornament of the
stately family mansion.
Laura had soon become conscious of this close tentative scrutiny, and at
first she had been inclined to resent its cool deliberateness. But,
remembering that a man certainly has a right to learn well the character
of the woman whom he may ask to be his wife, she felt that there was
nothing in his action of which she could complain; and it soon became a
matter of pride with her, as much as anything else, to satisfy those
fastidious eyes that hitherto had critically looked the world over, and
in vain, for a pearl with a lustre sufficiently clear. She began to
study his taste, to dress for him, to sing for him, to read his favorite
authors; and so perfect was his taste that she found herself aided and
enriched by it. He was her superior in these matters, for he had made
them his life-study. The first hour that she spent with him in a
picture-gallery was long remembered, for never before had those fine and
artistic marks which make a painting great been so clearly pointed out
to her. She was brought to believe that this man could lead her to the
highest point of culture to which she could attain, and satisfy every
refined taste that she possessed. It seemed as if he could make life one
long gallery of beautiful objects, through which she might stroll in
elegant leisure, ever conscious that lie who stood by to minister and
explain was looking away from all things else in admiration of herself.
The prospect was too alluring. Laura was not an advanced female, with a
mission; she was simply a young and lovely woman, capable of the noblest
action and feeling should the occasion demand them, but naturally
luxurious and beauty-loving in her tastes, and inclined to shun the
prosaic side of life.
She made Beaumont feel that she also was critical and exacting. She had
lived too long under Mrs. Arnot's influence to be satisfied with a man
who merely lived for the pleasure he could get out of each successive
day. He saw that she demanded that he should have a purpose and aim in
life, and he skilfully met this requirement by frequently descanting on
aesthetic culture as the great lever which could move the world, and by
suggesting that the great question of his future was how he could best
bring this culture to the people. As a Christian, she took issue with
him as to its being the great lever, but was enthusiastic over it as a
most powerful means of elevating the masses, and she often found herself
dreaming over how much a man gifted with Mr. Beaumont's exquisite taste
and large wealth could do by placing within the reach of the multitude
objects of elevating art and beauty.
By a fine instinct she felt, rather than saw, that Mrs. Arnot did not
specially like the seemingly faultless man, and was led to believe that
her aunt's ideal knight was to be found among some of the heartier young
men who were bent on doing good in the old-fashioned ways; and, with a
tendency not unnatural in one so young and romantic, she thought of her
aunt as being a bit old-fashioned and prosaic herself. In her youthful
and ardent imagination Beaumont came to fill more and more definitely
her ideal of the modern knight--a man who summed up within himself the
perfect culture of his age, and who was proposing to diffuse that
culture as widely as possible.
"You do not admire Mr. Beaumont," said Laura a little abruptly to her
aunt one day.
"You are mistaken, Laura; I do admire him very much."
"Well, you do not like him, then, to speak more correctly; he takes no
hold upon your sympathies."
"There is some truth in your last remark, I must admit. For some reason
he does not. Perhaps it is my fault, and I have sometimes asked myself,
Is Mr. Beaumont capable of strong affection or self-sacrificing action?
has he much heart?"
"I think you do him injustice in these respects," said Laura warmly.
"Quite probably," replied Mrs. Arnot, adding with a mischievous smile,
which brought the rich color to her niece's cheeks, "Perhaps you are in
a better position to judge of his possession of these qualities than I
am. Thus far he has given me only the opportunity of echoing society's
verdict--He is a perfect gentleman. I wish he were a better Christian,"
she concluded gravely.
"I think he is a Christian, auntie."
"Yes, dear, in a certain aesthetic sense. But far be it from me to judge
him. Like the rest of the world, I respect him as an honorable
gentleman."
A few days after this conversation Mr. Beaumont drove a pair of
coal-black horses to Mrs. Arnot's door, and invited Laura to take a
drive. When, in the twilight, she returned, she went straight to her
aunt's private parlor, and, curling down at her knees, as was her custom
when a child, said:
"Give me your blessing, auntie; your congratulations, also--I hope,
although I am not so sure of these. I have found my knight, though
probably not yours. See!" and she held up her finger, with a great
flashing diamond upon it.
Mrs. Arnot took the girl in her arms and said, "I do bless you, my
child, and I think I can congratulate you also. On every principle of
worldly prudence and worldly foresight I am sure I can. It will be very
hard ever to give you up to another; and yet I am growing old, and I am
glad that you, who are such a sacred charge to me, have chosen one who
stands so high in the estimation of all, and who is so abundantly able
to gratify your tastes."
"Yes, auntie, I think I am fortunate," said Laura, with complacent
emphasis. "I have found a man not only able to gratify all my
tastes--and you know that many of them are rather expensive--but he
himself satisfies my most critical taste, and even fills out the ideal
of my fancy."
Mrs. Arnot gave a sudden sigh.
"Now, auntie, what, in the name of wonder, can that foreboding sigh
mean?"
"You have not said that he satisfied your heart."
"O, I think he does fully," said Laura, hastily, though with a faint
misgiving. "These tender feelings will come in their own good time. We
have not got far enough along for them yet. Besides, I never could have
endured a passionate lover. I was cured of any such tastes long ago, you
remember," she added, with a faint laugh.
"Poor Egbert!" ejaculated Mrs. Arnot, with such sad emphasis that Laura
looked up into her face inquiringly as she asked:
"You don't think he will care much, do you?"
"Yes, Laura; you know he will care, perhaps more deeply than I do; but I
believe that he will wish you happiness as truly and honestly as
myself."
"O, auntie! how can it be that he will care as much as yourself?"
"Is it possible, Laura, that you have failed to detect his regard for
you in all these months? I detected it at a glance, and felt sure that
you had also."
"So I did, auntie, long since, but I supposed it was, as you say, a mere
regard that did not trouble him much. I should be sorry to think that it
was otherwise."
"At all events, it has not troubled you much, whatever it may have cost
him. You hardly do Haldane justice. Your allusion to his former passion
should remind you that he still possesses the same ardent and impetuous
nature, out it is under control. You cannot return his deep, yet
unobtrusive, love, and, as the world is constituted, it is probably well
for you that this is true; but I cannot bear that it should have no
better reward than your last rather contemptuous allusion."
"Forgive me, auntie; I did not imagine that he felt as you seem to
think. Indeed, in my happiness and preoccupation, I have scarcely
thought of him at all. His love has, in truth, been unobtrusive. So
scrupulously has he kept it from my notice that I had thought and hoped
that it had but little place in his mind. But if you are right, I am
very, very sorry. Why is the waste of these precious heart-treasures
permitted?" and gathering tears attested her sincerity.
"That is an old, old question, which the world has never answered. The
scientists tell us that by a law of nature no force is ever lost. If
this be true in the physical world, it certainly should be in the
spiritual. I also believe that an honest, unselfish love can enrich the
heart that gives it, even though it receives no other reward. But you
have no occasion to blame yourself, Laura. It is one of those things
which never could have been helped. Besides, Haldane is serving a Master
who is pledged to shape seeming evils for his good. I had no thought of
speaking of him at all, only your remark seemed so like injustice that I
could not be silent. In the future, moreover, you may do something for
him. Society is too unrelenting, and does not sufficiently recognize the
struggle he has made, and is yet making; and he is so morbidly sensitive
that he will not take anything that even looks like social alms. You
will be in a position to help him toward the recognition which he
deserves, for I should be sorry to see him become a lonely and isolated
man. Of course, you will have to do this very carefully, but your own
graceful tact will best guide you in this matter. I only wish you to
appreciate the brave fight he is making and the character he is forming,
and not to think of him merely as a commonplace, well-meaning man, who
is at last trying to do right, and who will be fairly content with life
if he can secure his bread and butter."
"I will remember what you say, and do my very best," said Laura
earnestly, "for I do sincerely respect Mr. Haldane for his efforts to
retrieve the past, and I should despise myself did I not appreciate the
delicate consideration he has shown for me if he has such feelings as
you suppose. Auntie!" she exclaimed after a moment, a sudden light
breaking in upon her, "Mr. Haldane is your knight."
"And a very plain, prosaic knight, no doubt, he seems to you."
"I confess that he does, and yet when I think of it I admit that he has
fought his way up against tremendous odds. Indeed, his present position
in contrast with what he was involves so much hard fighting that I can
only think of him as one of those plain, rugged men who have risen from
the ranks."
"Look for the plain and rugged characteristics when he next calls," said
Mrs. Arnot quietly. "One would have supposed that such a rugged nature
would have interposed some of his angles in your way."
"Forgive me, auntie; I am inclined to think that I know very little
about your knight; but it is natural that I should much prefer my own.
Your knight is like one of those remorseful men of the olden time who,
partly from faith and partly in penance for past misdeeds, dons a suit
of plain heavy iron armor, and goes away to parts unknown to fight the
infidel. My knight is clad in shining steel; nor is the steel less true
because overlaid with a filagree of gold; and he will make the world
better not by striking rude and ponderous blows, but by teaching it
something of his own fair courtesy and his own rich culture."
"Your description of Haldane is very fanciful and a little far-fetched,"
said Mrs. Arnot, laughing; "should I reply in like vein I would only add
that I believe that he will henceforth keep the 'white cross' on his
knightly mantle unstained. Already he seems to have won a place in that
ancient and honorable order established so many centuries ago, the
members of which were entitled to inscribe upon their shields the
legend, 'He that ruleth his own spirit is better than he that taketh a
city.' But we are carrying this fanciful imagery too far, and had better
drop it altogether. I know that you will do for Haldane all that womanly
delicacy permits, and that is all I wish. Mr. Beaumont's course toward
you commands my entire respect. He long since asked both your uncle's
consent and mine to pay you his addresses, and while we, of course, gave
our approval, we have left you wholly free to follow the promptings of
your own heart. In the world's estimation, Laura, it will be a brilliant
alliance for each party; but my prayer shall be that it may be a happy
and sympathetic union, and that you may find an unfailing and increasing
content in each other's society. Nothing can compensate for the absence
of a warm, kind heart, and the nature that is without it is like a home
without a hearth-stone and a fire; the larger and more stately it is,
the colder and more cheerless it seems."
Laura understood her aunt's allusion to her own bitter disappointment,
and she almost shivered at the possibility of meeting a like experience.