The Three Attacks
During the following week the communications between Harrington and
Matching were very frequent. There were no further direct messages
between Tregear and Lady Mary, but she heard daily of his progress.
The Duke was conscious of the special interest which existed in his
house as to the condition of the young man, but, after his arrival,
not a word was spoken for some days between him and his daughter on
the subject. Then Gerald went back to his college, and the Duke made
his preparations for going up to town and making some attempt at
parliamentary activity.
It was by no concert that an attack was made upon him from three
quarters at once as he was preparing to leave Matching. On the Sunday
morning during church time,--for on that day Lady Mary went to her
devotions alone,--Mrs. Finn was closeted for an hour with the Duke
in his study. "I think you ought to be aware," she said to the Duke,
"that though I trust Mary implicitly and know her to be thoroughly
high principled, I cannot be responsible for her, if I remain with
her here."
"I do not quite follow your meaning."
"Of course there is but one matter on which there can, probably,
be any difference between us. If she should choose to write to Mr.
Tregear, or to send him a message, or even to go to him, I could not
prevent it."
"Go to him!" exclaimed the horrified Duke.
"I merely suggest such a thing in order to make you understand that I
have absolutely no control over her."
"What control have I?"
"Nay; I cannot define that. You are her father, and she acknowledges
your authority. She regards me as a friend--and as such treats me
with the sweetest affection. Nothing can be more gratifying than her
manner to me personally."
"It ought to be so."
"She has thoroughly won my heart. But still I know that if there were
a difference between us she would not obey me. Why should she?"
"Because you hold my deputed authority."
"Oh, Duke, that goes for very little anywhere. No one can depute
authority. It comes too much from personal accidents, and too little
from reason or law to be handed over to others. Besides, I fear, that
on one matter concerning her you and I are not agreed."
"I shall be sorry if it be so."
"I feel that I am bound to tell you my opinion."
"Oh yes."
"You think that in the end Lady Mary will allow herself to be
separated from Tregear. I think that in the end they will become man
and wife."
This seemed to the Duke to be not quite so bad as it might have been.
Any speculation as to results were very different from an expressed
opinion as to propriety. Were he to tell the truth as to his own
mind, he might perhaps have said the same thing. But one is not to
relax in one's endeavours to prevent that which is wrong, because one
fears that the wrong may be ultimately perpetrated. "Let that be as
it may," he said, "it cannot alter my duty."
"Nor mine, Duke, if I may presume to think that I have a duty in this
matter."
"That you should encounter the burden of the duty binds me to you for
ever."
"If it be that they will certainly be married one day--"
"Who has said that? Who has admitted that?"
"If it be so; if it seems to me that it must be so,--then how can I
be anxious to prolong her sufferings? She does suffer terribly." Upon
this the Duke frowned, but there was more of tenderness in his frown
than in the hard smile which he had hitherto worn. "I do not know
whether you see it all." He well remembered all that he had seen when
he and Mary were travelling together. "I see it; and I do not pass
half an hour with her without sorrowing for her." On hearing this he
sighed and turned his face away. "Girls are so different! There are
many who though they be genuinely in love, though their natures are
sweet and affectionate, are not strong enough to support their own
feelings in resistance to the will of those who have authority over
them." Had it been so with his wife? At this moment all the former
history passed through his mind. "They yield to that which seems to
be inevitable, and allow themselves to be fashioned by the purposes
of others. It is well for them often that they are so plastic.
Whether it would be better for her that she should be so I will not
say."
"It would be better," said the Duke doggedly.
"But such is not her nature. She is as determined as ever."
"I may be determined too."
"But if at last it will be of no use,--if it be her fate either to be
married to this man or die of a broken heart--"
"What justifies you in saying that? How can you torture me by such a
threat?"
"If I think so, Duke, I am justified. Of late I have been with her
daily,--almost hourly. I do not say that this will kill her now,--in
her youth. It is not often, I fancy, that women die after that
fashion. But a broken heart may bring the sufferer to the grave after
a lapse of many years. How will it be with you if she should live
like a ghost beside you for the next twenty years, and you should
then see her die, faded and withered before her time,--all her life
gone without a joy,--because she had loved a man whose position in
life was displeasing to you? Would the ground on which the sacrifice
had been made then justify itself to you? In thus performing your
duty to your order would you feel satisfied that you had performed
that to your child?"
She had come there determined to say it all,--to liberate her own
soul as it were,--but had much doubted the spirit in which the Duke
would listen to her. That he would listen to her she was sure,--and
then if he chose to cast her out, she would endure his wrath. It
would not be to her now as it had been when he accused her of
treachery. But, nevertheless, bold as she was and independent, he had
imbued her, as he did all those around him, with so strong a sense of
his personal dignity, that when she had finished she almost trembled
as she looked in his face. Since he had asked her how she could
justify to herself the threats which she was using he had sat still
with his eyes fixed upon her. Now, when she had done, he was in no
hurry to speak. He rose slowly and walking towards the fireplace
stood with his back towards her, looking down upon the fire. She was
the first to speak again. "Shall I leave you now?" she said in a low
voice.
"Perhaps it will be better," he answered. His voice, too, was very
low. In truth he was so moved that he hardly knew how to speak at
all. Then she rose and was already on her way to the door when he
followed her. "One moment, if you please," he said almost sternly.
"I am under a debt of gratitude to you of which I cannot express
my sense in words. How far I may agree with you, and where I may
disagree, I will not attempt to point out to you now."
"Oh no."
"But all that you have troubled yourself to think and to feel in this
matter, and all that true friendship has compelled you to say to me,
shall be written down in the tablets of my memory."
"Duke!"
"My child has at any rate been fortunate in securing the friendship
of such a friend." Then he turned back to the fireplace, and she was
constrained to leave the room without another word.
She had determined to make the best plea in her power for Mary; and
while she was making the plea had been almost surprised by her own
vehemence; but the greater had been her vehemence, the stronger, she
thought, would have been the Duke's anger. And as she had watched the
workings of his face she had felt for a moment that the vials of his
wrath were about to be poured out upon her. Even when she left the
room she almost believed that had he not taken those moments for
consideration at the fireplace his parting words would have been
different. But, as it was, there could be no question now of her
departure. No power was left to her of separating herself from
Lady Mary. Though the Duke had not as yet acknowledged himself to
be conquered, there was no doubt to her now but that he would be
conquered. And she, either here or in London, must be the girl's
nearest friend up to the day when she should be given over to Mr.
Tregear.
That was one of the three attacks which were made upon the Duke
before he went up to his parliamentary duties.
The second was as follows: Among the letters on the following morning
one was brought to him from Tregear. It is hoped that the reader will
remember the lover's former letter and the very unsatisfactory answer
which had been sent to it. Nothing could have been colder, less
propitious, or more inveterately hostile than the reply. As he lay
in bed with his broken bones at Harrington he had ample time for
thinking over all this. He knew every word of the Duke's distressing
note by heart, and had often lashed himself to rage as he had
repeated it. But he could effect nothing by showing his anger. He
must go on and still do something. Since the writing of that letter
he had done something. He had got his seat in Parliament. And he
had secured the interest of his friend Silverbridge. This had been
partially done at Polwenning; but the accident in the Brake country
had completed the work. The brother had at last declared himself
in his friend's favour. "Of course I should be glad to see it," he
had said while sitting by Tregear's bedside. "The worst is that
everything does seem to go against the poor governor."
Then Tregear made up his mind that he would write another letter.
Personally he was not in the best condition for doing this as he was
lying in bed with his left arm tied up, and with straps and bandages
all round his body. But he could sit up in bed, and his right hand
and arm were free. So he declared to Lady Chiltern his purpose of
writing a letter. She tried to dissuade him gently and offered to be
his secretary. But when he assured her that no secretary could write
this letter for him she understood pretty well what would be the
subject of the letter. With considerable difficulty Tregear wrote his
letter.
MY LORD DUKE,--[On this occasion he left out the epithet
which he had before used]
Your Grace's reply to my last letter was not encouraging,
but in spite of your prohibition I venture to write to you
again. If I had the slightest reason for thinking that
your daughter was estranged from me, I would not persecute
either you or her. But if it be true that she is as
devoted to me as I am to her, can I be wrong in pleading
my cause? Is it not evident to you that she is made
of such stuff that she will not be controlled in her
choice,--even by your will?
I have had an accident in the hunting-field and am now
writing from Lord Chiltern's house, where I am confined to
bed. But I think you will understand me when I say that
even in this helpless condition I feel myself constrained
to do something. Of course I ask for nothing from you on
my own behalf,--but on her behalf may I not add my prayers
to hers?
I have the honour to be,
Your Grace's very faithful Servant,
FRANCIS TREGEAR.
This coming alone would perhaps have had no effect. The Duke had
desired the young man not to address him again; and the young man had
disobeyed him. No mere courtesy would now have constrained him to
send any reply to this further letter. But coming as it did while his
heart was still throbbing with the effects of Mrs. Finn's words, it
was allowed to have a certain force. The argument used was a true
argument. His girl was devoted to the man who sought her hand. Mrs.
Finn had told him that sooner or later he must yield,--unless he was
prepared to see his child wither and fade at his side. He had once
thought that he would be prepared even for that. He had endeavoured
to strengthen his own will by arguing with himself that when he saw a
duty plainly before him, he should cleave to that let the results be
what they might. But that picture of her face withered and wan after
twenty years of sorrowing had had its effect upon his heart. He even
made excuses within his own breast in the young man's favour. He
was in Parliament now, and what may not be done for a young man in
Parliament? Altogether the young man appeared to him in a light
different from that through which he had viewed the presumptuous,
arrogant, utterly unjustifiable suitor who had come to him, now
nearly a year since, in Carlton Terrace.
He went to breakfast with Tregear's letter in his pocket, and was
then gracious to Mrs. Finn, and tender to his daughter. "When do you
go, papa?" Mary asked.
"I shall take the 11.45 train. I have ordered the carriage at a
quarter before eleven."
"May I go to the train with you, papa?"
"Certainly; I shall be delighted."
"Papa!" Mary said as soon as she found herself seated beside her
father in the carriage.
"My dear."
"Oh, papa!" and she threw herself on to his breast. He put his arm
round her and kissed her,--as he would have had so much delight in
doing, as he would have done so often before, had there not been this
ground of discord. She was very sweet to him. It had never seemed
to him that she had disgraced herself by loving Tregear--but that a
great misfortune had fallen upon her. Silverbridge when he had gone
into a racing partnership with Tifto, and Gerald when he had played
for money which he did not possess, had--degraded themselves in
his estimation. He would not have used such a word; but it was
his feeling. They were less noble, less pure than they might have
been, had they kept themselves free from such stain. But this
girl,--whether she should live and fade by his side, or whether she
should give her hand to some fitting noble suitor,--or even though
she might at last become the wife of this man who loved her, would
always have been pure. It was sweet to him to have something to
caress. Now in the solitude of his life, as years were coming on him,
he felt how necessary it was that he should have someone who would
love him. Since his wife had left him he had been debarred from these
caresses by the necessity of showing his antagonism to her dearest
wishes. It had been his duty to be stern. In all his words to his
daughter he had been governed by a conviction that he never ought to
allow the duty of separating her from her lover to be absent from
his mind. He was not prepared to acknowledge that that duty had
ceased;--but yet there had crept over him a feeling that as he
was half conquered, why should he not seek some recompense in his
daughter's love? "Papa," she said, "you do not hate me?"
"Hate you, my darling?"
"Because I am disobedient. Oh, papa, I cannot help it. He should not
have come. He should not have been let to come." He had not a word
to say to her. He could not as yet bring himself to tell her,--that
it should be as she desired. Much less could he now argue with her
as to the impossibility of such a marriage as he had done on former
occasions when the matter had been discussed. He could only press his
arm tightly round her waist, and be silent. "It cannot be altered
now, papa. Look at me. Tell me that you love me."
"Have you doubted my love?"
"No, papa,--but I would do anything to make you happy; anything that
I could do. Papa, you do not want me to marry Lord Popplecourt?"
"I would not have you marry any man without loving him."
"I never can love anybody else. That is what I wanted you to know,
papa."
To this he made no reply, nor was there anything else said upon the
subject before the carriage drove up to the railway station. "Do not
get out, dear," he said, seeing that her eyes had been filled with
tears. "It is not worth while. God bless you, my child! You will be
up in London I hope in a fortnight, and we must try to make the house
a little less dull for you."
And so he had encountered the third attack.
Lady Mary, as she was driven home, recovered her spirits wonderfully.
Not a word had fallen from her father which she could use hereafter
as a refuge from her embarrassments. He had made her no promise. He
had assented to nothing. But there had been something in his manner,
in his gait, in his eye, in the pressure of his arm, which made her
feel that her troubles would soon be at an end.
"I do love you so much," she said to Mrs. Finn late on that
afternoon.
"I am glad of that, dear."
"I shall always love you,--because you have been on my side all
through."
"No, Mary;--that is not so."
"I know it is so. Of course you have to be wise because you are
older. And papa would not have you here with me if you were not wise.
But I know you are on my side,--and papa knows it too. And someone
else shall know it some day."