OF THE NEWS MR. ELPHINSTONE TOLD MRS. PROTHEROE. HOW CHALLIS HAD
FOLLOWED JUDITH TO MENTONE. YOUNG MRS. CRAIK AND HER DEAD DICKY-BIRD.
HOW CHALLIS BECAME A KNIGHT
When Miss Arkroyd came back to her sister's wedding in January it
was not to Grosvenor Square, but Royd Hall. A wedding in London in
midwinter would have been too awful. Fancy being married in a thick
fog! Thus it happened that Grosvenor Square remained packed in brown
holland and carpetless until the Family came back from abroad in April.
The middle of that month saw the wrappers off the picture-frames and
the carpets on the stairs. The windows were cleaned, and the beds were
made, and the fires were lighted. These last in every room, for snow
and sleet were whirling about in the Square; and the full horror of an
average Spring was cutting Londoners to the quick, after hopes had been
held out of an abnormal one.
The housekeeper's room in the basement had as good a fire in it as the
best; and the butler, who had been abroad with the Family, and had
come back in advance to prepare the way for it, was taking a cup of
tea there, and chatting over the occurrences during his absence with
the lady in possession, Mrs. Protheroe, the housekeeper--a responsible
person, to whom it was safe to speak about things, under reserve. One
of the things was a thing to the importance of which we couldn't shut
our eyes, if true. It threw all other subjects into the shade.
"That's the gentleman, Mrs. Protheroe. You mark my words if it isn't!"
And Mr. Elphinstone repeated his words, that they might be better
marked, more than once, in the silence that followed.
"I shall be very greatly shocked, Mr. Elphinstone, if it turns out like
you think. But we must hope and pray no such a disgrace could happen to
the Family."
The old lady, a perfect example of her kind, who had known the Family
through two generations, was gravely disquieted provisionally. But such
a thing was not to be accepted lightly, whatever it was. Dismiss it or
condemn it, certainly! Entertain it, scarcely!
Mr. Elphinstone appeared to revolve something in his mind. It found
expression in the words, "It was Michaelmas. Last Michaelmas twelve
months. Just a year and a half."
"He and his wife dined once, and then he came down to Royd." In Mrs.
Protheroe's speech all things relate to the Family, so there is no need
to say whom Mr. and Mrs. Challis dined with.
"Too free and easy, to my thinking. Wife a stoopid sort. Spoken of so
afterwards in the Family freely. 'Armless, I should have put it at,
myself."
"Received, certainly!" Mrs. Protheroe shows that she anticipates
comment on the stupid lady's social drawbacks. But Mr. Elphinstone
covers the ground fully.
"No questions were asked," he says. "Subsequently it was elicited
Deceased Wife's Sister. Information from Bishop Barham's lady at the
Castle."
"But her ladyship had called when in London." The implication was that
the Family's _ægis_, once extended, was not a thing that could be
withdrawn without loss of prestige. Mr. Elphinstone can recall, with
reflection, incidents bearing on this point.
"In my hearing," he says, "no one but the Family being present, strong
opinions tending to liberality received sanction. His lordship the
Bishop's lady being referred to as bigoted, Sir Murgatroyd especially
exculpating. Parties happening to be other parties' Deceased Wife's
Sisters said to be victims of equivocal state of Law. I should say,
too--but this, Mrs. Protheroe, is merely opinion--that the voice of her
Grace the Duchess had weight, being thrown in the scale on the side of
Toleration." Mr. Elphinstone felt pleased with his figure of speech,
although he knew it was not original. He was indebted for it to Mr.
Ramsey Tomes, to whom he was an attentive listener.
"Her ladyship," said Mrs. Protheroe, "has been predisposed towards her
Grace from a child. Addicted, you might almost say. Some do think her
Grace's opinions too easy."
"In this case," said Mr. Elphinstone, who wished to pursue his sketch
of the _status quo_, whatever it was, "nothin' applied. Owing, I should
say, to the fundamental attitood of Mrs. Challis. Both young ladies,
as well as her ladyship, having gone lengths--I assure you, Mrs.
Protheroe, having gone great lengths."
The housekeeper was not inclined to admit that she knew less than the
butler. "So I have understood," she said, and added nods about more
things she knew, but held in reserve. But she would not entirely
exclude Mr. Elphinstone. "Miss Sibyl behaved sweet, I must say. But it
was just no use at all, any more than a lump of lead."
The butler looked introspective and analytical.
"You have to consider, ma'am," said he, unconsciously borrowing a
phrase from Dr. Johnson, "that class-feeling may run high when least
expected. Can we blame a lady of her style for refusing to mix?
Especially when compliance leads to ructions."
Mrs. Protheroe looked thoughtful, too. "Once to dinner," she said.
"Once to an evening. Afterwards excuses. No--Mr. Elphinstone. I'll
tell you just how I see it. No lady would ever feel so to undervalue
herself--not to the extent of denying herself. Their looks satisfy,
personally, and give confidence. But, sought for in Society on behalf
of their husbands--no!"
This way of putting the case would bear polishing, no doubt! But when
we have said that no woman with any _amour propre_ at all would keep
out of brilliant Society on her merits, but might do so rather than be
the mere satellite of a distinguished husband, have we improved so very
much on Mrs. Protheroe's inexactitudes?
Mr. Elphinstone would take a second cup of tea, thank you! He was
determined to sift to the dregs this matter he couldn't shut his eyes
to. "I should like, ma'am," said he, "to pursue the sequel with you,
having spoken so frank. Allow me! It is impossible for me, although
no names are mentioned, to keep going a pretence of ignorance." He
dropped his voice. "There is great warmth of feeling in the Family; it
cannot be disguised. The Family sometimes forget the presence of the
household, and raise their voices. The household may conscientiously
withdraw, but the principle continues to hold good that scraps leak
out." Mr. Elphinstone seemed to feel a reluctance, creditable in
so old a retainer, to confess to so much knowledge of the Family's
private affairs, overheard against his will; and his apologies for
this knowledge made him prolix. Abbreviated, his narrative told of
fiery passages of arms between Judith and her mother and sister; more
temperate, but still warm, discussion between the former and her
father, and a certain amount of chance phrases from semi-confidential
talk between her ladyship and the Duchess, and one or two others. But
they all related manifestly to a determination of Judith to marry a
gentleman the Family would have none of on any terms. And this not
on the score of class-prejudice, nor of ways and means, nor of any
personal aversion, but simply because the said gentleman was to all
intents and purposes a married man. Having regard to some niceties
of social intercourse, or their omission, as between Mr. Alfred
Challis and Miss Arkroyd, their frequent correspondence and obvious
_empressement_ in each other's society, there could be no reasonable
doubt who this gentleman was. Mr. Elphinstone's second cup must have
been cold by the time he drank it, so absorbed was he in this narrative.
"I don't see all you do, Mr. Elphinstone, nor hear. Naturally, because
of opportunities! But I _have_ seen our Miss Judith and this Mr.
Challis together...."
The butler interrupted. "He's been honoured with knighthood, as I
understand. Sir Alfred Challis. Doo to literary distinction!"
"Oh, indeed, I didn't know." Mrs. Protheroe was impressed. "Sir Alfred
Challis. Well, I should have said, without ever being told, they was
going on. And you said she called him Alfred, and said she would marry
him?" This referred to the most striking passage of the butler's
narrative. Repetition would reinforce it.
"It was exactly that," said he. "I was approachin' the door, and
endeavoured to call attention. But Miss Judith, partly not noticing,
partly in her 'igh mood, not caring, just went on: 'I should marry
Titus if he were divorced,' she was just shouting it out in a tempest.
'I _should_,' she says. 'Why should I not marry him, when this woman is
not his wife?' And then, 'If she is his wife, how dares she refuse to
live with him?' And then, 'If she is his wife, how dares she deprive
him of his children? Answer that!' It all came very quick. Then Miss
Judith, she sees me--just come in--and says to me, a bit quieter: 'No,
Elphinstone, don't you go. _I'm_ going.' And sweeps out, white. I asked
pardon, but the bell had rung twice. Her ladyship says, 'Never mind,
Elphinstone!' Then she sinks back like on the sofa, and says to Miss
Sibyl...."
The housekeeper interrupted. "We mustn't call her ladyship out of her
name," she said deprecatingly.
"Old 'abit!" says Mr. Elphinstone. "Where was I?... Oh, says to Lady
Felixthorpe, 'The girl frightens me.' And then, 'Oh dear!--fancy her
making a scene here in the Hotel!' Then Miss Sib ... her ladyship, Lady
Felixthorpe, she says to me: 'Can't the people in the next room hear
every word through that door, Elphinstone?' As if I knew everything,
Mrs. Protheroe!"
"You reassured her ladyship, Mr. Elphinstone?"
"I mentioned that the party in the next room was fouring, and not
unlikely unfamiliar with English. Also, if anyone was there they would
be audible--all being alike in that respect on the Continent--but in
point of fact the suite was vacant." His cup was, too. When he had
received another, and said "Thank you," he added: "But that was not the
only occasion, by many, Miss Judith made use of the expression 'Titus.'"
From this it may be gathered that the Family, diminished by one of the
daughters, had after her wedding fled to the Riviera, and remained
until an enjoyable sunshine convinced them--they being English--that
it was getting too hot, and also imposed on their credulity to the
extent of making them believe Spring had begun in England. So, at
this moment, they are _en route_ for Grosvenor Square, somewhere,
having sent Elphinstone on ahead, to get the house ready for their
arrival. He and Mrs. Protheroe have, therefore, a splendid opportunity
for comparing notes, and just before we found them doing so he had
remarked that a gentleman whom Mrs. Protheroe would remember two
years ago--"play-acting gentleman--friend of Miss Judith's--slight,
middle-aged--soft felt hat--talked to himself--smoker--got him?"
had turned up at Mentone just before he left, and had renewed his
intercourse with the Family.
Thereupon Mrs. Protheroe, who had "got" Challis after some effort
of memory, had said uneasily: "I hope that would not be the same
gentleman...." And Mr. Elphinstone had asked, "What gentleman?" On
which Mrs. Protheroe pleaded, apologetically, guilty to gossip. Perhaps
she ought not to have said it. But there, it was only the child, after
all. Little Tilley! All nonsense, most likely! Being pressed, she had
produced a letter from Cintilla, saying boldly that "Miss Judith's
lover had reappeared, and they'd made it up; only her ladyship and Sir
Murgatroyd refused to see him." The pretty little ex-dairy maiden, whom
a course of spoiling had not improved, had withheld the name of Miss
Judith's admirer. Mrs. Protheroe might guess. It was then that Mr.
Elphinstone noted his desire that his words should be marked. No doubt
Mrs. Protheroe marked them as little as you and I have done in response
to like appeals.
However, this April chat, more than ten months after Challis wrote his
letter to Judith, to get her to try to whitewash him in Marianne's
eyes, will serve to show how the pieces have shifted on the board. For
an untold gap in a tale is like the hour of the game of chess you, the
spectator, were called away from to speak to Mrs. Smith. When you left,
not a piece was lost, and Black had taken the opportunity to castle.
When you returned, White and Black had exchanged queens, and heaps of
pawns and pieces were smiling sickly smiles upon the floor, and had
lost interest in the proceedings, as you had done yourself. Still, you
pretended that you could see exactly what had happened, which was
fibs. But you recovered interest in the game then, and may do so in the
story. However, the intervening _hiatus_ cannot be left an absolute
blank.
It was made up, for Challis, of more or less disguised dangling at the
heels of Judith Arkroyd, broken by several short excursions, pleasant
enough, abroad, and one short, dreary sojourn at his own empty home.
This was chosen at the period of Bob's holidays, which were divided by
that young man impartially between Wimbledon and Broadstairs. He showed
an accommodating, unenquiring spirit in his acceptance of the _status
quo_, as somehow or other right; offering to fight any disputant of his
own sex and weight who suggested that his domestic arrangements were
exceptional. He silenced controversy by trenchant expressions, such as
"You shut up, anyhow!" and went so far once as to tell Tillotson--who
had two Camberwell Beauties, certainly, but was in all other human
relations an Awful Little Humbug--that Dean Tillotson, his father,
and Lady Augusta Tillotson, his mother, only resided together to
produce a false impression of concord on the cathedral-town society
they were central pivot of. Once out of the public sight, according to
Bob, this worthy prelate--of whom he knew absolutely nothing--and his
aristocratic wife "went on" like a cat and dog. Morally, of course! Bob
admitted, under catechism, that her ladyship was not driven up trees
and afraid to come down because the Dean was barking at the bottom;
but, metaphorically speaking, he held to his indictment--provisionally,
at least, until it should be shown in a fair ordeal of battle that the
owner of the Camberwell Beauties could lick its promulgator. Challis
ventured to dwell on the unfairness of making the preservation of an
unblemished family reputation turn on such an issue, but Bob was deaf
to argument. Europe would see, next term, if he didn't give Tillotson
an awful licking, and thereby prove his words true. He would have done
so last term, only that old fool Spit had caught the combatants _in
flagrante delicto_, and made them write alternate verses of the sixth
book of the "Iliad" all through, off the same copy.
Bob's reports of the household at Broadstairs were Challis's only
information about Marianne and the little girls, and it appeared
from these that his mother had been loyal to her husband in one
respect; she had kept back the reasons of their separation from the
children. Circumstances had been glossed over--veils drawn. Young folk
can be easily duped by guardians and parents, who do not generally
scruple--did yours?--to take advantage of their simplicity. As long as
his father and mother were satisfied, Bob was content. And as long as
his sisters felt in some sort of touch with "at home," through his own
holiday visits "at grandmamma's," their inquiries took no very active
form. Challis could not ask his boy the questions he longed to ask. How
was it possible, for instance, to say to him, "Do Chobbles and Mumps
never ask after their Pappy?" He was constantly in dread of saying
something that would set the boy's curiosity on the alert. And he was
thankful, when the time for school came again, that it was still, so
far as he knew, at rest.
But the joy of oblivion, in change of scene and association, grew on
him. He left England for the South of France, as we have seen, shortly
after Bob departed for Broadstairs the first time, midway in his summer
holiday. He wandered about a little in old French towns after Judith
returned for her sister's wedding, catching the last half of Bob's
Christmas holiday, that youth having spent the first half partly at
his grandmamma's and partly in a visit to a school-friend. If you know
and understand boys, you will feel no surprise on hearing that this
was Tillotson! Bob had a high old time at the Deanery at Inchester to
tell his father of when he went to the Hermitage in January. And his
spontaneous narratives of the distinguishing features of Inchester and
Broadstairs, to the disadvantage of the latter, did more to bring an
image of Marianne and her present surroundings to her husband's mind
than more carefully prepared statements, substantially true, could have
done. Grandmamma was not a stinking old Salvation Army Dissenter, but
a properly enrolled member of the Establishment. Nevertheless, Bob's
contrast between what he called "her style" and that of the Venerable
Dean was full of suggestion to his father, whose imagination could
supply the merely academical accuracy needed for a perfect picture.
When Bob went back to school Challis remained at the Hermitage long
enough to complete the correction of the proofs of his forthcoming
novel for the Spring issue. "The Hangman's Orphan" had been already
announced in the press, and only a revise or two was wanting to
complete it. He arranged that this should be posted to him at Mentone,
where he expected to remain through January. He could wire corrections
if needful.
Whether his selection of Mentone for a winter sojourn was the result of
a suggestion from Judith or not is of little importance to the story.
What does concern it is the question how Challis came to be admitted on
the family visiting-list at all when he left his card at the Hôtel de
la Paix on their arrival. Remember what Sibyl's report may have--must
have--been of the little drama she had distinguished in "Tophet" in the
moonlight of last June. Certainly Challis had "left cards" in Grosvenor
Square once or twice; had, at Judith's suggestion, been engaged
elsewhere when once asked to dinner, but had had no real intercourse
with any of the Family, except that time when he was caught and brought
into the house by Cintilla. Of course, if Judith's hand had been free,
things would have been different. Still, something is needed to account
for the position of affairs at Mentone. There was certainly a change.
Our own belief is that the brilliant success of a play of our author's
at the Megatherium Theatre had a great deal to do with it.
Nice scruples bow before great booms; and although Sibyl's antipathy,
shared to a great extent by her mother, and her father's irresolution
before their united forces, were obstacles to Miss Arkroyd's perfect
freedom of intercourse with that Mr. Challis who had married his
Deceased Wife's Sister, and was living apart from her, they were
obstacles of a sort liable to disappear under a sufficiently lofty heap
of laurels. Even her Grace of Rankshire, who had condemned Challis
off-hand, and recommended that the doors of Royd Hall should be closed
against him, softened in the Royal box before the thunders of applause
that accompanied the call for the author when the curtain fell on
"Aminta Torrington." He wasn't Shakespeare, of course; but, then, he
wasn't Ibsen, and _what_ a comfort that was! And one couldn't stand
against a popular verdict. "And, after all," said she to Lady Arkroyd,
"we probably only know half the story."
"Well, Thyringia," said Lady Arkroyd, thereon, "you know it isn't me
that is making the fuss," which was not only bad grammar, but untrue.
"If you would say a word to Sir Murgatroyd to influence him, it would
have such weight. And then the man could come to a reception or
something, and Ju would let me have a little peace. I can't tell you
how sick and tired I am of it all."
Whereupon her Grace had attacked the Bart. before the Bishop, to the
discomfiture of both; the Bart. because he was really unconscious of
any active share in the ostracism of Challis, and only supposed that he
was meeting her ladyship half-way; the Bishop because Thyringia seized
the opportunity of flouting his lordship on the Deceased Wife's Sister
question--trampling on his most cherished episcopal conviction as
nothing but a coronet would have dared to do. She chose to ascribe the
attitude of Royd towards Challis entirely to his irregular marriage,
and "pointed out" that if the legalizing Bill passed next year--"and it
would, yes!"--the Bart. would look like a fool. "What a parcel of geese
you are," said her Grace before a whole roomful of people, "to suppose
the man wants to marry Judith!... Well! he'll have to look sharp about
it, anyhow!" The Bishop turned purple; but there!--a Duchess can say
exactly whatever she likes.
No doubt the confidence her Grace expressed that the "legalizing Bill"
would pass--backed as her opinion was by that of many others--had
its fair share of weight. For both Judith's parents, with a probably
well-grounded faith that their daughter, if only from self-interest,
would do nothing irregular, could not hide from themselves that they
would welcome any change that would define the position, and keep the
suspected couple permanently apart.
This feeling may well have increased and taken a more heart-felt
form when Challis, possibly with the written sanction of Judith--but
nothing came out to that effect--made his appearance at Mentone. Lady
Felixthorpe and her husband joined the party later. It must have been
during their short stay that the little scene occurred so graphically
described by the butler to Mrs. Protheroe. This little scene, the news
of which reached England a few days before its actors, prepares the
story for a change in its conditions. It has to adapt itself to a new
state of things--a state three words of Mr. Elphinstone's narrative
suffice to show. Judith is speaking of Challis as Titus.
* * * * *
Had the lonely and reserved young widow with the two little girls, who
lived with her mother at Broadstairs, and was called by the few who had
occasion to call her anything "Young Mrs. Craik"--had she been told
that that other woman, whom she hated as a Choctaw hates a Cherokee--to
scalping-point--was actually speaking and thinking of the husband she
had renounced by the name the pride of her heart in his first great
success in authorship had chosen and kept for him and, although less
frequent in speech than of old, it was the name her own mind still gave
him--would it have added anything to her resentment? Would she have
been one scrap more miserable than she was, for knowing it? The story
has to report otherwise.
As a matter of fact, Marianne would in a sense have welcomed the
knowledge. She had made up her mind to kill her love for the father of
her children, and it may be she found it died harder than she expected.
Did you, who read this, ever have to kill anything larger than an
insect you could flatten out in a trice to a mere blot? You may perhaps
have caught some bird, maimed by a sportsman--or sportsbooby--past
all hope of rising in the wind--just a scrabbled wreck, good for
nothing but for a sportscat to get a little joy from--and may have
seen that it would be merciful in you, not a sportsperson at all, but
a sentimentalist, to make a quick end of it; and then you may have
tried, and found it still had heart in it for a fight for life. Did
your sentimentalism make you feel sick, till the last last kick left it
collapsed and cooling? Then, were you not glad?
Marianne would have been glad to know that her love for Titus was dead,
and the killing of it come to an end. But would it die? There was
always the painful doubt. Your little dicky-bird ended on a tiny jerk,
and hung limp and chill. Would a love those two young folks brought
back memories of, hour by hour, do the like?
More than once, Choctaw as she was, her mind had wavered towards
relenting. Once she had actually begun a letter to her husband--not
imploring forgiveness for her overstrained anger and jealousy; she was
too proud for that sort of thing--but the other sort of thing, the
sort that is ready with Christian Forgiveness, the sort that makes the
consumption of a good large humble pie a _sine qua non_, the sort that
indulges in a truculent sort of joy over the sinner that repenteth.
She was too proud to admit that she had been at all in fault, but
just--only just--_not_ too proud to indulge a secret hope that Titus
would be magnanimous enough to shut his eyes to her omission. All she
wanted was contrition galore and absolution absolute. On those terms
she would come back and marshal Mrs. Steptoe and the crew of a new
domestic Argo. Only, bygones were to be bygones! She had a dim sense
that this expression was to be held to mean that Charlotte Eldridge
was to be assoilzied. It was a dim one, because she had no idea of
admitting that she had been influenced by Charlotte.
Her mother dissuaded her from sending this letter, if you call it
dissuasion to "point out" that Hell-fire awaits those who run counter
to your voice of warning. What Challis would have called the "religious
hoots" of the worthy old lady took the form of warning her daughter
against returning to what Holy Writ denounced plainly as a Life of Sin.
She omitted to mention the chapter and verse; but, then, her style,
as Bob called it, was one that lent itself to fervour--not to say
bluster--rather than verification of references. It was a style that
Bob, backed by his father--and Tillotson's, for that matter--could
easily sneer at. But it was harder for Marianne to ignore the force
of the words-without-meaning that had been thundered at her from her
cradle. The well-worn phrases had force in them still for her, and
when she burned that letter she had a kind of sacred feeling, like the
Northern Farmer when he came away from Church.
It is right to mention, lest any reader should condemn Marianne for too
great submission to her mother, that the thunderbolts of hereditary
superstition were not the only malign influences she had to bear
up against. She never lost touch with Charlotte Eldridge. In fact,
Charlotte paid her more than one short visit at Broadstairs, and made
the best use of her time in each. Nothing could have exceeded the
earnestness of her supplications to her friend to allow her to act
as intercessor and mediator, to be the bearer of the olive-branch of
peace, except it were the warmth of her exhortations to forgiveness,
or the subtle dexterity with which the suggestion of offence still
untold weakened the effect of both. It is impossible to enlarge on
the merit of overlooking the wrong that has been inflicted on us,
without by implication enlarging the area of the wrong itself. Meekness
needs something to work with; a buffalo cannot find sustenance from
a flower-pot. Charlotte never asked pardon for the offender without
contriving to suggest a new offence.
Of course, if Marianne had not been a bit of a Choctaw, the position
need never have become so exasperated. But it isn't fair to make
her the scapegoat on that account. What a many items of the total
imbroglio could have cancelled it, by simply attending to their own
non-existence! If, for instance, Judith Arkroyd had kept her eyes to
herself, or had never left Challis's hand to do the letting-go--who can
say, then, what the exact force of that moonlight adventure in Tophet
would have been? Or if that theatrical nonsense had not let witchcraft
loose on an easy victim; easy because unsuspicious? Or if Marianne's
writing-paper had been the thin sort that goes abroad, eight pages for
twopence-halfpenny, instead of that sort the envelope cuts your tongue
when you lick it to--Harmood's phraseology, we believe--would not
Challis have read the postscript? Think of the difference that would
have made!
No!--there is no sense in trying to fix blame; certainly not on either
of the principal actors. Blame Judith if you like! But even then,
bear in mind that until Challis broke out in that foolish way, Judith
had observed all the rules of the game, and was playing fair. Do her
justice! Can you gibbet Judith, without affirming that a woman has no
right to be beautiful, and very little to take for granted that a man
with a still young wife and two children will not credit her with a
readiness to assume as a matter of course that he will never imagine
that she will suppose he has fallen in love with her?... We hope this
is intelligible. More might be added to the same effect, but let it
stand.
Judith's father never saw any fault to be found with his daughter's
conduct; so why should the story? However, it is true that Sibyl always
said that papa was a bat; and her ladyship suggested that, socially
speaking, conflagrations might break out all round, and Sir Murgatroyd
never notice them until she called his attention to them. When the
Duchess said what the story has already reported about Challis and
Judith, it only presented itself to him as a sheer joke; his Arcadian
mind could not receive the idea of Judith--our Judith!--nourishing a
_tendresse_ for ... a married author! It was not the authorship, but
the marriage, or marriages rather; for if we considered Marianne null
and void, what should we call her residuum? A widower at large, with a
doubtful record?
The fact is, the old boy had a fine chivalrous heart behind his
occasional absurdities, and any advantage taken of a legal technicality
to shuffle out of a deliberate contract would have been branded by
him as it deserved. And, although it was quite untrue that he was the
maker of the fuss her ladyship disclaimed any hand in, it is certain
that he inaugurated a fuss of his own invention after that outbreak of
the Duchess, when he heard--to deglutition point--the full story of
Marianne's revolt. It had been placed before him some time since in an
imperfect form, but he had swallowed barely a mouthful. Now that his
wife satisfied the curiosity her Grace's escapade had excited, and gave
him full details, he became keen to justify Mrs. Challis, and was for
a while secretly intolerant of her husband. He _would_ know all about
it; and in spite of his informant's appeal to him to be most careful on
no account to say anything to Judith, he seized an early opportunity to
get at that young lady's version of the subject.
"Oh dear!--that tiresome woman!" was her spoken response. But the kiss
she bestowed on her parent's shaving-area was commiserating, tolerant
of the inquiry, not absolutely unamused at the Arcadian simplicity of
the kiss. Dear old man, leaving his manures and eleventh centuries and
things, to meddle with Us and the World! A kiss that said, "What a
shame of mamma to disturb such pastoral tranquillity!" But Judith would
keep nothing back, not she! She dropped into the visitor's chair of the
Bart.'s sanctum, to tell the tale, throwing her hands in her lap, to
lie there till wanted; a sort of despairing submission to lip-boredom
to come. "I need not drum through the whole story; it's too silly!"
She looked appealingly at her father, who immediately weakened his
position of catechist.
"Oh no!--your mother has told me the main facts," said he. And then,
perhaps feeling ground lost, added: "At least, I infer so."
"Did she tell you _I_ was supposed to be the heroine of the romance?"
Eyes closed for a second on an amused face, reopened to look for the
answer. Self-possession perfect!
"Well--yes! She said something of the sort."
"Did she say I was in love with Challis?"
"Certainly not!" Emphatically.
"Well, I don't know! One can't trust one's _madre_. I shouldn't have
been the least surprised."
"Oh--hum--well! Very distinguished man...."
"Oh, I like Challis very much. He's a most amusing companion. I wish
that fool of a woman wouldn't make him so miserable."
"I understand she took offence at his showing you...."
"Showing me her letter! Yes--just fancy! Why--the letter was as good
as a letter to _me_. It was nothing but a message to say why she
wouldn't come to Royd.... No, really there was nothing else in it....
Well!--something illegible on the back that he had overlooked. And she
would listen to no explanation, and went off in a fury, and took the
children with her. And he's never seen her since."
"I can't believe she has any claim to the children. Has he taken legal
advice?"
"Oh dear, yes! Heaps. But it seems he can do nothing. She was a
half-sister of his first wife, you know. If he had married her
in Australia, he might, they said, have got some legal remedy in
Australia; but even then they thought he would have had a deal of
trouble to get at the children. I think he has done wisely to let it
alone. Frank says the Bill is sure to pass the Lords this year or next;
probably this. Then she'll _have_ to be his wife, whether she likes it
or not. I've no patience with such folly."
The Baronet assumed the look of intense profundity political
males generally wear in the presence of womankind, suggesting
magazines of thought beyond their shallow comprehension.
"Some--very--funny--questions," he said, in judicial instalments, "will
arise if that Bill becomes Law. Ve-ry funny ones." But apparently too
complex or too delicate for discussion with one's daughters. So the
Bart. shut them into his soul with the closed lips of discretion, and
looked responsible.
Perhaps Judith saw her way to quenching any suspicions anent herself
and Challis by parading her unreluctance to talk about him. "I don't
know," said she, "that a little trouble is necessarily bad for Challis,
with all this success going on. It may save him from becoming odious.
Besides, of course, Marianne means to come back to him in the end."
* * * * *
This was about the time of Sibyl's wedding, shortly after the
production of "Aminta Torrington." So convincing was Judith's attitude
of her detachment from Challis, helped always by his leaving England
immediately afterwards, that all suspicion had vanished from the mind
of her parents by the time he made his appearance at Mentone; and at
that time Sibyl was honeymooning. There had never been anything that
could be called a split. And discretion, for some reason, must have
been carefully observed by Challis and Judith during this visit, for
gossip never mentioned them in the same breath. And the lady's father,
in our opinion, was righteously shocked when it came to his knowledge
that his daughter and this gentleman, who had been accepting his
hospitality as a married man, were to all intents and purposes plighted
lovers, and free to wed without let or hindrance. Except, indeed, on
the lady's side, an almost solid phalanx of family opposition; and on
the gentleman's a previous marriage which was no legal wedlock at all,
but which he could not be said to have been disloyal to, for he had
never either refused to play the husband nor been guilty of any legal
infidelity. It was entirely Marianne who had refused to play the wife.
Lord Felixthorpe, Sibyl's coronet, was the only dissentient in the
family circle. "It certainly seems to me," said he, as deliberately
as ever, "that either our Legal Acumen, or our Boasted Civilization,
or our Moral Sense, or the Marvellous Elasticity of our Political
System, or Convocation, or the Higher Socialism, or something equally
impressive, must be in a sense defective, when any person not convicted
of crime is under compulsion to live single, as long as there is a lady
willing to marry him. I say nothing of the case of a friend of ours
(whom I do not name for obvious reasons) who says that no lady will
accept him. If he were to endeavour to drag an unwilling bride to the
altar, the police should be instructed to interpose. But in the case
of Challis--if I am rightly informed--my fascinating sister-in-law is
ready to accept the situation. Now, although, under the existing Law,
one's own Deceased Wife's Sister is excluded from the questionable
advantage of becoming one's Legitimate Wife, the most stringent
morality has never enrolled someone else's Live Wife's Sister among
prohibited degrees of consanguinity...."
"Do say what you mean, Frank, instead of going out of your way to make
fun of Will, and talking nonsense!"
"I mean, dearest, that it's too much to expect of any fellow that he's
to stand his wife bolting on the plea that the wedding-knot wasn't
tied, and lugging away his kids, and refusing to see him, and him not
be allowed to marry somebody else."
But William Rufus, who had been slighted by an American beauty, and was
gloomy in consequence, shook his head and said: "Can't see it--never
shall!" And Sibyl settled the matter. "If he wants to marry anybody
else's husband's Live Wife's Sister, let him! Only not mine!"
So it had come about that discord reigned in Grosvenor Square when the
Family returned from Mentone. But the outer world knew nothing about
it. Mr. Elphinstone and Mrs. Protheroe talked of what they heard to
each other, and nothing reached the lower stratum of the household.
Conjecture must supply a motive for delay on the part of this betrothed
couple: for they must be called so. If they intended to ignore Marianne
and defy public opinion, why not do so at once? Was it because no
certainty existed that Challis's marriage was invalid? No legal means
of dissolving a marriage not recognized by Law seems to exist. It was
impossible to make a clean slate and start fair. Who could say that
time would be sufficient to calm the family tempest and put the ship
in commission so as to be sure of sailing before that Bill was brought
forward in the Commons? Suppose it was rushed through, and overtook the
wedding! Was Judith's thirst for wedlock intense enough to run such a
risk? Was it not, rather, common prudence to wait for the rejection
of the Bill, and have a cool year to turn the matter over? Our own
impression is that the young lady was not in love enough to say _yes_
to the first question, or _no_ to the second.
Whether Challis's arrangement of his affairs and his
whereabouts--always favouring what Harmood would have called "keeping
company," while thrusting himself as little as possible on the
Family--was in consequence of a definite plan of campaign, arranged
with Judith, is not known to this story. There is a suspicion that
the attack of influenza that laid him up at Marseilles on November
6 was made the most of, in order that he might shirk the receipt of
knighthood in person on the 9th. There is his name among the Birthday
Honours of the year; and, as we all know, he is now Sir Alfred Challis.
He was able, somehow, to get enough degrees of fever certified to make
his presence at the Palace impossible; but whether he knelt to receive
them subsequently, or whether they reached him through the æther, like
a Marconigraph, we do not know. He had certainly shaken off the "flu"
very completely when he came to England after Christmas.
The story is a bit hazy on many points at this period. What made
Challis, with all his impatience with what he called the "performing
classes," accept a knighthood? One theory--a plausible one--is that
Judith ordered him to do so. Not from any idea that her parents or
Sibyl would soften towards Challis on that account--much they cared for
knighthoods! But she was woman enough to wish to have the World on her
side. It might be a snobbish world; but what a big one it is! And what
a lot of power one's elbow gets from the sympathy of it! Anyhow, to our
thought, Challis, having accepted the honour at Judith's bidding, ought
to have overcome his reluctance to conform to usages, and not run his
temperature up to 103. As it was, the little thermometer had its way.
He remained abroad, then, until the Easter holiday--which coincided,
you see, very nearly with the return of the Family to Grosvenor
Square--when he came to Wimbledon for some more Bob. All we want to
know about him at this time, and for a little time yet, is that his
correspondence with Judith continued, and that during the season in
London the two of them contrived to meet very frequently. It was a
wonder they managed to steer clear of gossip as cleverly as they did.
But an anxious time was approaching. Suppose that Bill passed!...
Did Challis ever say to himself, to put a finishing-touch on the oddity
of his position, "What would it matter? If it did put a barrier between
me and Judith, would it not give me back my old home and the kids?"
The story can conceive his doing so, and also that his mind would then
wander back on his old days ... not always perfect; but still!...
and then would shudder at its own brutality, for never asking what
of Judith, in that case? What would be left for _her_? For Challis,
though he had speculated a good deal in his writings on the many ways
of loving that there are, had scarcely applied his conclusions to
himself. Some theorists will have it that no man ever has the slightest
consideration for the woman he loves--in one of the ways, mind
you!--suppose we say the volcanic way! They hold that it is himself he
loves all the time.
However, the Bishop said it was impossible that Bill should pass. And
he ought to have known.