Our chain on silence clanks.
Time leers between, above his twiddling thumbs.
--GEORGE MEREDITH.
Lord Lossiemouth had come into his kingdom. He was rich, but not
vulgarly so. He had a great position, and what his artistic nature
valued even more, the possession of one of the most beautiful places in
England. The Lossiemouth pictures and heirlooms, the historic house with
its wonderful gardens--all these were his.
He had at first been quite dazed by the magnitude of his good fortune.
When it came to him it found him somewhat sore and angry at a recent
rebuff which had wounded his vanity not a little. But the excitement of
his great change of fortune soon healed what little smart remained.
A few months before he succeeded, he had fallen in love, not for the
first time by many times, with a woman who seemed to meet his
requirements. She was gentle, submissive, pretty, easily led, refined,
not an heiress, but by no means penniless.
To his surprise and indignation she had refused him, evidently not
without a certain tepid regret. He discovered that the mother had other
views for her daughter, and that the daughter, though she inclined
towards him, was quite incapable or even desirous of opposing her
mother. She was gentleness and pliability itself. These qualities, so
admirable in domestic life, have a tendency of which he had not thought
before to make their charming owner, if a hitch occurs, subside into
becoming another man's wife. If only women could be adamant until they
reach the altar, and like wax afterwards.
When everything bitter that could be said at the expense of women had
been ably expressed, Lord Lossiemouth withdrew. A month later, when he
was making an angry walking tour in Hungary, he learned from an English
paper, already many days old, of the two deaths which effected his great
change of fortune. He communicated with his lawyer, arranged to return
by a certain date, and continued his tour for another month.
On his return he had gone at once to Lossiemouth, which he had visited
occasionally as a poor and peppery and not greatly respected relation.
Business of all kinds instantly engulfed him. He was impatient,
difficult, _distrait_, slightly pleased with himself at showing so
little gratification at his magnificent inheritance.
On the third day he sorted out the letters which looked like personal
ones, from among a heap of correspondence, the accumulation of many
weeks.
Quantities of envelopes were torn open, and the contents thrown aside,
begging letters, decently veiled congratulations from "old friends" who
had not so far shown any particular desire to make their friendship a
joy to him.
Presently he came upon a long, closely written letter of several sheets,
in a slanting hand, which he was about to dismiss as another begging
letter when his eye fell on the signature. Bellows? Bulteel? Buller?
_Bellairs?_
Aunt Aggie's signature was quite illegible. It was an arranged squiggle
painfully acquired in youth, which through life had resulted in all
kinds of difficulties with tradespeople, and in continual annoyance and
inconvenience to herself. Letters and parcels were frequently directed
to her as A. Buller, Esq. She could only account for this mistake by the
business-like nature of her style and handwriting. She often told her
friends that, unless people knew her personally, her letters were
generally believed to be a man's.
It had never struck Aunt Aggie that Lord Lossiemouth might possibly, in
an interval of fifteen years, have forgotten who _A._ Bellows might be.
But the words "my beloved niece Magdalen" strongly underlined, and the
postmark on the envelope, showed him who A. Bellairs was. He thought he
remembered an old aunt who lived near Priesthope.
He read the long sentimental effusion and bit his lip.
Ah, me! Was that half-forgotten, dim-in-the-distance boyish love of his
to be raked up again now!
He sighed impatiently. Why had Fate parted him and Magdalen? He still
regretted her in a way, when he was depressed or harassed, or disgusted
with the world in general; and he was often depressed and harassed and
disgusted.
More letters. What business had people to give him the trouble of
reading them? The floor was becoming strewn with his correspondence. The
empty fireplace had become a target for crumpled balls of paper.
A short one in a large, scrambling, illiterate hand with a signature
that might mean anything. That tall capital, shaped like a ham, was
perhaps a B.
The letter was written on Priesthope notepaper. "_My daughter
Magdalen._"
This, then, was from Colonel Bellairs.
It was not such a very bad letter, but it was a deplorably unwise one.
When had Colonel Bellairs ever indited a wise one! But he made his
precarious position even less tenable by ignoring the fact that Lord
Lossiemouth's fortunes had altered, by asserting that he had had it in
his mind to write to this effect the previous Christmas but had not had
time. When Colonel Bellairs concocted that sentence he had felt, not
without pride, that it covered the ground of his fifteen years' silence,
and also showed that Lord Lossiemouth's wealth had nothing to do with
his recall. For the letter was a recall.
"Blundering old idiot," said Lord Lossiemouth, but he had become very
red.
All kinds of memories were surging up in him; Magdalen's crystal love
for him, her indefinable charm, her gaiety, her humility, her shyness,
her exquisite beauty.
Life had never brought him anything so marvellous, so enchanting, as
that first draught of April passion. And he had quenched his thirst at
many other cups since then. His lips had been blistered and stained at
poisoned brims. Why had that furious old turkey-cock parted him and
Magdalen! His heart sank for a moment at the remembrance of his first
love.
But what was the use! The Magdalen he had loved had ceased to exist. The
wand-like figure with its apple-blossom face faded, faded, and in its
place rose up the image of the thin, distinguished-looking grey-haired
woman who had supplanted that marvel. He had met Magdalen accidentally
once or twice in London of late years, and had felt dismayed anger at
the change in her, an offended anger not wholly unlike that with which
he surveyed himself at his tailors', and inspected at unbecoming angles,
through painfully frank mirrors, a thick back and a stout neck and jaw
which cruelly misrepresented his fastidious artistic personality.
He returned to his letters.
Three sheets in a firm, upright hand.
"I do not suppose you remember me," it began, "but I intend to recall
myself to your memory, which I believe to be none of the best. I am the
wife of Sir John Blore, and aunt to Magdalen Bellairs."
He flung the letter down. But this was intolerable, a persecution. And
what fools they were _all_ to write. Had Magdalen set them on?
He groaned with sudden self-disgust. What unworthy thought would come to
him next? Of course she knew nothing of this.
He looked at the date of each letter carefully. Aunt Aggie's according
to her wont had only the day of the week on it, just Tuesday, or it
might be Thursday--but Colonel Bellairs's and Lady Blore's were fully
dated, and about a fortnight apart. Colonel Bellairs had written last.
Lord Lossiemouth divined that each of the three believed him or herself
to be the only one to tackle the subject.
How ghastly! What a cruelly good short story it would make for a
magazine!
Then he read Lady Blore's letter. Apparently it was not pleasant
reading. It seemed to prick somewhat sharply. He winced once or twice,
and spoke angrily to it.
"My good woman, as if I did not _know_ that! Men are always behaving
heartlessly to women in their opinion. It is the normal male state. It
is an established fact that we are all brutes. Why do you want me to
marry your paragon if you have such a low opinion of me?"
Still he could not put the letter down.
"It is possible though improbable," wrote that dauntless woman, "that
your vacillating and selfish character may have improved sufficiently in
the course of years for you to have become aware that you have behaved
disgracefully to a woman, who, if she had had any sense, ought never to
have given you a second thought, who was and still is deeply attached to
you; probably the only person on this earth who has the misfortune to
care two pins about you."
Lord Lossiemouth tried to feel sarcastic. He tried to laugh. But it was
no use. Lady Blore's arrow had penetrated a joint in his harness.
After all he need take no notice of any of these monstrous effusions.
He was disgusted with opening letters. Nevertheless he hurried on.
Perhaps he should find others less intolerable.
A somewhat formal letter from his cousin the Bishop of Lostford, who had
never been cordial to him since his engagement to Magdalen had been
broken off. The Bishop pointed out certain grave abuses connected with
house property at Lostford, at which the late Lord Lossiemouth had
persistently connived, but which he hoped his successor might enquire
into personally and redress.
Quantities of other letters were torn open and aimed in balls at the
empty grate. But at last he came to a long one which he read
breathlessly.
It was from the mother of the girl who had so recently refused him, an
involved tortuous epistle, which implied that the daughter was seriously
attached to him, and hinted that if he were to come forward again he
would not be refused a second time. There was also a short, wavering,
nondescript note with nothing in particular in it from the girl herself.
The mother had evidently made her write.
A very venomous expression settled on Lord Lossiemouth's heavy face. He
suddenly took up a Bradshaw and looked out the trains for Lostford.