INTRIGUES OF SOCIETY AND LOVE
Colonel Talbot became more kindly in his demeanour towards Waverley
after the confidence he had reposed in him; and as they were necessarily
much together, the character of the Colonel rose in Waverley's
estimation. There seemed at first something harsh in his strong
expressions of dislike and censure, although no one was in the general
case more open to conviction. The habit of authority had also given his
manners some peremptory hardness, notwithstanding the polish which they
had received from his intimate acquaintance with the higher circles. As
a specimen of the military character, he differed from all whom Waverley
had as yet seen. The soldiership of the Baron of Bradwardine was marked
by pedantry; that of Major Melville by a sort of martinet attention to
the minutiae and technicalities of discipline, rather suitable to one
who was to manoeuvre a battalion, than to him who was to command an
army; the military spirit of Fergus was so much warped and blended with
his plans and political views, that it was less that of a soldier than
of a petty sovereign. But Colonel Talbot was in every point the English
soldier. His whole soul was devoted to the service of his king and
country, without feeling any pride in knowing the theory of his art with
the Baron, or its practical minutiae with the Major, or in applying his
science to his own particular plans of ambition, like the Chieftain
of Glennaquoich. Added to this, he was a man of extended knowledge and
cultivated taste, although strongly tinged, as we have already observed,
with those prejudices which are peculiarly English.
The character of Colonel Talbot dawned upon Edward by degrees; for the
delay of the Highlanders in the fruitless siege of Edinburgh Castle
occupied several weeks, during which Waverley had little to do,
excepting to seek such amusement as society afforded. He would willingly
have persuaded his new friend to become acquainted with some of his
former intimates. But the Colonel, after one or two visits, shook his
head, and declined further experiment. Indeed he went further, and
characterized the Baron as the most intolerable formal pedant he had
ever had the misfortune to meet with, and the Chief of Glennaquoich as
a Frenchified Scotchman, possessing all the cunning and plausibility
of the nation where he was educated, with the proud, vindictive, and
turbulent humour of that of his birth. 'If the devil,' he said, 'had
sought out an agent expressly for the purpose of embroiling this
miserable country, I do not think he could find a better than such
a fellow as this, whose temper seems equally active, supple, and
mischievous, and who is followed, and implicitly obeyed, by a gang of
such cut-throats as those whom you are pleased to admire so much.'
The ladies of the party did not escape his censure. He allowed that
Flora Mac-Ivor was a fine woman, and Rose Bradwardine a pretty girl.
But he alleged that the former destroyed the effect of her beauty by an
affectation of the grand airs which she had probably seen practised at
the mock court of St. Germains. As for Rose Bradwardine, he said it
was impossible for any mortal to admire such a little uninformed thing,
whose small portion of education was as ill adapted to her sex or youth,
as if she had appeared with one of her father's old campaign-coats upon
her person for her sole garment. Now much of this was mere spleen and
prejudice in the excellent Colonel, with whom the white cockade on the
breast, the white rose in the hair, and the Mac at the beginning of a
name, would have made a devil out of an angel; and indeed he himself
jocularly allowed, that he could not have endured Venus herself, if she
had been announced in a drawing-room by the name of Miss Mac-Jupiter.
Waverley, it may easily be believed, looked upon these young ladies with
very different eyes. During the period of the siege, he paid them almost
daily visits, although he observed with regret that his suit made as
little progress in the affections of the former as the arms of the
Chevalier in subduing the fortress. She maintained with rigour the rule
she had laid down of treating him with indifference, without either
affecting to avoid him, or to shun intercourse with him. Every word,
every look, was strictly regulated to accord with her system, and
neither the dejection of Waverley, nor the anger which Fergus scarcely
suppressed, could extend Flora's attention to Edward beyond that
which the most ordinary politeness demanded. On the other hand, Rose
Bradwardine gradually rose in Waverley's opinion. He had several
opportunities of remarking, that, as her extreme timidity wore off, her
manners received a higher character; that the agitating circumstances
of the stormy time seemed to call forth a certain dignity of feeling and
expression, which he had not formerly observed; and that she omitted
no opportunity within her reach to extend her knowledge and refine her
taste.
Flora Mac-Ivor called Rose her pupil, and was attentive to assist her in
her studies, and to fashion both her taste and understanding. It might
have been remarked by a very close observer, that in the presence of
Waverley she was much more desirous to exhibit her friend's excellences
than her own. But I must request of the reader to suppose, that this
kind and disinterested purpose was concealed by the most cautious
delicacy, studiously shunning the most distant approach to affectation.
So that it was as unlike the usual exhibition of one pretty woman
affecting to PRONER another, as the friendship of David and Jonathan
might be to the intimacy of two Bond-street loungers.
The fact is, that, though the effect was felt, the cause could hardly be
observed. Each of the ladies, like two excellent actresses, were perfect
in their parts, and performed them to the delight of the audience; and
such being the case, it was almost impossible to discover that the
elder constantly ceded to her friend that which was most suitable to her
talents.
But to Waverley, Rose Bradwardine possessed an attraction which few men
can resist, from the marked interest which she took in everything that
effected him. She was too young and too inexperienced to estimate the
full force of the constant attention which she paid to him. Her father
was too abstractedly immersed in learned and military discussions
to observe her partiality, and Flora Mac-Ivor did not alarm her by
remonstrance, because she saw in this line of conduct the most probable
chance of her friend securing at length a return of affection.
The truth is, that, in her first conversation after their meeting,
Rose had discovered the state of her mind to that acute and intelligent
friend, although she was not herself aware of it. From that time,
Flora was not only determined upon the final rejection of Waverley's
addresses, but became anxious that they should, if possible, be
transferred to her friend. Nor was she less interested in this plan,
though her brother had from time to time talked, as between jest and
earnest, of paying his suit to Miss Bradwardine. She knew that Fergus
had the true continental latitude of opinion respecting the institution
of marriage, and would not have given his hand to an angel, unless for
the purpose of strengthening his alliances, and increasing his influence
and wealth. The Baron's whim of transferring his estate to the distant
heir-male instead of his own daughter, was therefore likely to be an
insurmountable obstacle to his entertaining any serious thoughts of Rose
Bradwardine. Indeed, Fergus's brain was a perpetual workshop of scheme
and intrigue of every possible kind and description; while, like many a
mechanic of more ingenuity than steadiness, he would often unexpectedly
and without any apparent motive, abandon one plan, and go earnestly
to work upon another, which was either fresh from the forge of his
imagination, or had at some former period been flung aside half
finished. It was therefore often difficult to guess what line of conduct
he might finally adopt upon any given occasion.
Although Flora was sincerely attached to her brother, whose high
energies might indeed have commanded her admiration even without the
ties which bound them together, she was by no means blind to his faults,
which she considered as dangerous to the hopes of any woman who should
found her ideas of a happy marriage in the peaceful enjoyment of
domestic society, and the exchange of mutual and engrossing affection.
The real disposition of Waverley, on the other hand, notwithstanding
his dreams of tented fields and military honour, seemed exclusively
domestic. He asked and received no share in the busy scenes which were
constantly going on around him, and was rather annoyed than interested
by the discussion of contending claims, rights, and interests, which
often passed in his presence. All this pointed him out as the person
formed to make happy a spirit like that of Rose, which corresponded with
his own.
She remarked this point in Waverley's character one day while she sat
with Miss Bradwardine. 'His genius and elegant taste,' answered Rose,
'cannot be interested in such trifling discussions. What is it to him,
for example, whether the Chief of the Macindallaghers, who has brought
out only fifty men, should be a colonel or a captain? and how could
Mr. Waverley be supposed to interest himself in the violent altercation
between your brother and young Corrinaschian, whether the post of honour
is due to the eldest cadet of a clan or the youngest?' 'My dear Rose,
if he were the hero you suppose him, he would interest himself in these
matters, not indeed as important in themselves, but for the purpose
of mediating between the ardent spirits who actually do make them the
subject of discord. You saw when Corrinaschian raised his voice in great
passion, and laid his hand upon his sword, Waverley lifted his head as
if he had just awaked from a dream, and asked, with great composure,
what the matter was.'
'Well, and did not the laughter they fell into at his absence of mind,
serve better to break off the dispute than anything he could have said
to them?'
'True, my dear,' answered Flora; 'but not quite so creditably for
Waverley as if he had brought them to their senses by force of reason.'
'Would you have him peacemaker general between all the gunpowder
Highlanders in the army? I beg your pardon, Flora--your brother, you
know, is out of the question; he has more sense than half of them. But
can you think the fierce, hot, furious spirits, of whose brawls we see
much, and hear more, and who terrify me out of my life every day in the
world, are at all to be compared to Waverley?'
'I do not compare him with those uneducated men, my dear Rose. I only
lament, that, with his talents and genius, he does not assume that place
in society for which they eminently fit him, and that he does not lend
their full impulse to the noble cause in which he has enlisted. Are
there not Lochiel, and P--, and M--, and G--, all men of the highest
education, as well as the first talents?--why will he not stoop like
them to be alive and useful?--I often believe his zeal is frozen by that
proud cold-blooded Englishman, whom he now lives with so much.'
'Colonel Talbot?--he is a very disagreeable person, to be sure. He looks
as if he thought no Scottish woman worth the trouble of handing her a
cup of tea. But Waverley is so gentle, so well informed'--
'Yes,' said Flora, smiling; 'he can admire the moon, and quote a stanza
from Tasso.'
'Besides, you know how he fought,' added Miss Bradwardine.
'For mere fighting,' answered Flora, 'I believe all men (that is, who
deserve the name) are pretty much alike; there is generally more courage
required to run away. They have, besides, when confronted with each
other, a certain instinct for strife, as we see in other male animals,
such as dogs, bulls, and so forth. But high and perilous enterprise is
not Waverley's forte. He would never have been his celebrated ancestor
Sir Nigel, but only Sir Nigel's eulogist and poet. I will tell you where
he will be at home, my dear, and in his place,--in the quiet circle
of domestic happiness, lettered indolence, and elegant enjoyments, of
Waverley-Honour. And he will refit the old library in the most exquisite
Gothic taste, and garnish its shelves, with the rarest and most valuable
volumes; and he will draw plans and landscapes, and write verses, and
rear temples, and dig grottoes;--and he will stand in a clear summer
night in the colonnade before the hall, and gaze on the deer as they
stray in the moonlight, or lie shadowed by the boughs of the huge old
fantastic oaks;--and he will repeat verses to his beautiful wife, who
will hang upon his arm;--and he will be a happy man.'
'And she will be a happy woman,' thought poor Rose. But she only sighed,
and dropped the conversation.