One morning late in June, Hubert Eldon passed through the gates of
Wanley Manor and walked towards the village. It was the first time since
his illness that he had left the grounds on foot. He was very thin,
and had an absent, troubled look; the natural cheerfulness of youth’s
convalescence seemed altogether lacking in him.
From a rising point of the road, winding between the Manor and Wanley,
a good view of the valley offered itself; here Hubert paused, leaning
a little on his stick, and let his eyes dwell upon the prospect. A year
ago he had stood here and enjoyed the sweep of meadows between Stanbury
Hill and the wooded slope opposite, the orchard-patches, the flocks
along the margin of the little river. To-day he viewed a very different
scene. Building of various kinds was in progress in the heart of the
vale; a great massive chimney was rising to completion, and about it
stood a number of sheds. Beyond was to be seen the commencement of a
street of small houses, promising infinite ugliness in a little space;
the soil over a considerable area was torn up and trodden into mud. A
number of men were at work; carts and waggons and trucks were moving
about. In truth, the benighted valley was waking up and donning the true
nineteenth-century livery.
The young man’s face, hitherto thoughtfully sad, changed to an
expression of bitterness; he muttered what seemed to be angry and
contemptuous words, then averted his eyes and walked on. He entered the
village street and passed along it for some distance, his fixed gaze
appearing studiously to avoid the people who stood about or walked by
him. There was a spot of warm colour on his cheeks; he held himself very
upright and had a painfully self-conscious air.
He stopped before a dwelling-house, rang the bell, and made inquiry
whether Mr. Mutimer was at home. The reply being affirmative, he
followed the servant up to the first floor. His name was announced at
the door of a sitting-room, and he entered.
Two men were conversing in the room. One sat at the table with a sheet
of paper before him, sketching a rough diagram and scribbling notes;
this was Richard Mutimer. He was dressed in a light tweed suit; his fair
moustache and beard were trimmed, and the hand which rested on the table
was no longer that of a daily-grimed mechanic. His linen was admirably
starched; altogether he had a very fresh and cool appearance. His
companion was astride on a chair, his arms resting on the back, a pipe
in his mouth. This man was somewhat older than Mutimer; his countenance
indicated shrewdness and knowledge of the world. He was dark and
well-featured, his glossy black hair was parted in the middle, his
moustache of the cut called imperial, his beard short and peaked. He
wore a canvas jacket, a white waistcoat and knickerbockers; at his
throat a blue necktie fluttered loose. When Hubert’s name was announced
by the servant, this gentleman stopped midway in a sentence, took his
pipe from his lips, and looked to the door with curiosity.
Mutimer rose and addressed his visitor easily indeed, but not
discourteously.
‘How do you do, Mr. Eldon? I’m glad to see that you are so much better.
Will you sit down? I think you know Mr. Rodman, at all events by name?’
Hubert assented by gesture. He had come prepared for disagreeable
things in this his first meeting with Mutimer, but the honour of an
introduction to the latter’s friends had not been included in his
anticipations. Mr. Rodman had risen and bowed slightly. His smile
carried a disagreeable suggestion from which Mutimer’s behaviour was
altogether free; he rather seemed to enjoy the situation.
For a moment there was silence and embarrassment. Richard overcame the
difficulty.
‘Come and dine with me to-night, will you?’ he said to Rodman. ‘Here,
take this plan with you, and think it over.’
‘Pray don’t let me interfere with your business,’ interposed Hubert,
with scrupulous politeness. ‘I could see you later, Mr. Mutimer.’
‘No, no; Rodman and I have done for the present,’ said Mutimer,
cheerfully. ‘By-the-by,’ he added, as his right-hand man moved to the
door, ‘don’t forget to drop a line to Slater and Smith. And, I say, if
Hogg turns up before two o’clock, send him here; I’ll be down with you
by half-past.’
Mr. Rodman gave an ‘All right,’ nodded to Hubert, who paid no attention,
and took his departure.
‘You’ve had a long pull of it,’ Richard began, as he took his chair
again, and threw his legs into an easy position. ‘Shall I close the
windows? Maybe you don’t like the draught.’
‘Thank you; I feel no draught.’
The working man had the advantage as yet. Hubert in vain tried to be
at ease, whilst Mutimer was quite himself, and not ungraceful in
his assumption of equality. For one thing, Hubert could not avoid
a comparison between his own wasted frame and the other’s splendid
physique; it heightened the feeling of antagonism which possessed him in
advance, and provoked the haughtiness he had resolved to guard against.
The very lineaments of the men foretold mutual antipathy. Hubert’s
extreme delicacy of feature was the outward expression of a character
so compact of subtleties and refinements, of high prejudice and jealous
sensibility, of spiritual egoism and all-pervading fastidiousness,
that it was impossible for him not to regard with repugnance a man who
represented the combative principle, even the triumph, of the uncultured
classes. He was no hidebound aristocrat; the liberal tendencies of his
intellect led him to scorn the pageantry of long-descended fools as
strongly as he did the blind image-breaking of the mob; but in a case
of personal relations temperament carried it over judgment in a very
high-handed way. Youth and disappointment weighed in the scale of
unreason. Mutimer, on the other hand, though fortune helped him to
forbearance, saw, or believed he saw, the very essence of all he most
hated in this proud-eyed representative of a county family. His own
rough-sculptured comeliness corresponded to the vigour and practicality
and zeal of a nature which cared nothing for form and all for substance;
the essentials of life were to him the only things in life, instead
of, as to Hubert Eldon, the mere brute foundation of an artistic super
structure. Richard read clearly enough the sentiments with which his
visitor approached him; who that is the object of contempt does not
readily perceive it? His way of revenging himself was to emphasise a
tone of good fellowship, to make it evident how well he could afford
to neglect privileged insolence. In his heart he triumphed over the
disinherited aristocrat; outwardly he was civil, even friendly.
Hubert had made this call with a special purpose.
‘I am charged by Mrs. Eldon,’ he began, ‘to thank you for the courtesy
you have shown her during my illness. My own thanks likewise I hope you
will accept. We have caused you, I fear, much inconvenience.’
Richard found himself envying the form and tone of this deliverance; he
gathered his beard in his hands and gave it a tug.
‘Not a bit of it,’ he replied. ‘I am very comfortable here. A bedroom
and a place for work, that’s about all I want.’
Hubert barely smiled. He wondered whether the mention of work was meant
to suggest comparisons. He hastened to add--
‘On Monday we hope to leave the Manor.’
‘No need whatever for hurry,’ observed Mutimer, good-humouredly. ‘Please
tell Mrs. Eldon that I hope she will take her own time.’ On reflection
this seemed rather an ill-chosen phrase; he bettered it. ‘I should be
very sorry if she inconvenienced herself on my account.’
‘Confound the fellow’s impudence!’ was Hubert’s mental comment. ‘He
plays the forbearing landlord.’
His spoken reply was: ‘It is very kind of you. I foresee no difficulty
in completing the removal on Monday.’
In view of Mutimer’s self-command, Hubert began to be aware that his own
constraint might carry the air of petty resentment Fear of that drove
him upon a topic he would rather have left alone.
‘You are changing the appearance of the valley,’ he said, veiling by his
tone the irony which was evident in his choice of words.
Richard glanced at him, then walked to the window, with his hands in
his pockets, and gave himself the pleasure of a glimpse of the
furnace-chimney above the opposite houses. He laughed.
‘I hope to change it a good deal more. In a year or two you won’t know
the place.’
‘I fear not.’
Mutimer glanced again at his visitor.
‘Why do you fear?’ he asked, with less command of his voice.
‘I of course understand your point of view. Personally, I prefer
nature.’
Hubert endeavoured to smile, that his personal preferences might lose
something of their edge.
‘You prefer nature,’ Mutimer repeated, coming back to his chair, on the
seat of which he rested a foot. ‘Well, I can’t say that I do. The Wanley
Iron Works will soon mean bread to several hundred families; how many
would the grass support?’
‘To be sure,’ assented Hubert, still smiling.
‘You are aware,’ Mutimer proceeded to ask, ‘that this is not a
speculation for my own profit?’
‘I have heard something of your scheme. I trust it will be appreciated.’
‘I dare say it will be--by those who care anything about the welfare of
the people.’
Eldon rose; he could not trust himself to continue the dialogue. He had
expected to meet a man of coarser grain; Mutimer’s intelligence made
impossible the civil condescension which would have served with a boor,
and Hubert found the temptation to pointed utterance all the stronger
for the dangers it involved.
‘I will drop you a note,’ he said, ‘to let you know as soon as the house
is empty.’
‘Thank you.’
They had not shaken hands at meeting, nor did they now. Each felt
relieved when out of the other’s sight.
Hubert turned out of the street into a road which would lead him to the
church, whence there was a field-path back to the Manor. Walking with
his eyes on the ground he did not perceive the tall, dark figure that
approached him as he drew near to the churchyard gate. Mr. Wyvern had
been conducting a burial; he had just left the vestry and was on his way
to the vicarage, which stood five minutes’ walk from the church. Himself
unperceived, he scrutinised the young man until he stood face to face
with him; his deep-voiced greeting caused Hubert to look up’ with a
start.
‘I’m very glad to see you walking,’ said the clergyman.
He took Hubert’s hand and held it paternally in both his own. Eldon
seemed affected with a sudden surprise; as he met the large gaze his
look showed embarrassment.
‘You remember me?’ Mr. Wyvern remarked, his wonted solemnity lightened
by the gleam of a brief smile. Looking closely into his face was like
examining a map in relief; you saw heights and plains, the intersection
of multitudinous valleys, river-courses with their tributaries. It was
the visage of a man of thought and character. His eyes spoke of late
hours and the lamp; beneath each was a heavy pocket of skin, wrinkling
at its juncture with the cheek. His teeth were those of an incessant
smoker, and, in truth, you could seldom come near him without detecting
the odour of tobacco. Despite the amplitude of his proportions, there
was nothing ponderous about him; the great head was finely formed, and
his limbs must at one time have been as graceful as they were muscular.
‘Is this accident,’ Hubert asked; ‘or did you know me at the time?’
‘Accident, pure accident. Will you walk to the vicarage with me?’
They paced side by side.
‘Mrs. Eldon profits by the pleasant weather, I trust?’ the vicar
observed, with grave courtesy.
‘Thank you, I think she does. I shall be glad when she is settled in her
new home.’
They approached the door of the vicarage in silence. Entering Mr. Wyvern
led the way to his study. When he had taken a seat, he appeared to
forget himself for a moment, and played with the end of his bean.
Hubert showed impatient curiosity.
‘You found me there by chance that morning?’ he began.
The clergyman returned to the present. His elbows on either arm of
his round chair, he sat leaning forward, thoughtfully gazing at his
companion.
‘By chance,’ he replied. ‘I sleep badly; so it happened that I was
abroad shortly after daybreak. I was near the edge of the wood when I
heard a pistol-shot. I waited for the second.’
‘We fired together,’ Hubert remarked.
‘Ah! It seemed to me one report. Well, as I stood listening, there came
out from among the trees a man who seemed in a hurry. He was startled at
finding himself face to face with me, but didn’t stop; he said something
rapidly in French that I failed to catch, pointed back into the wood,
and hastened off.’
‘We had no witnesses,’ put in Hubert; ‘and both aimed our best. I wonder
he sent you to look for me.’
‘A momentary weakness, no doubt,’ rejoined the vicar drily. I made my
way among the trees and found you lying there, unconscious. I made some
attempt to stop the blood-flow, then picked you up; it seemed better,
on the whole, than leaving you on the wet grass an indefinite time. Your
overcoat was on the ground; as I took hold of it, two letters fell
from the pocket. I made no scruple about reading the addresses, and was
astonished to find that one was to Mrs. Eldon, at Wanley Manor, Wanley
being the place where I was about to live on my return to England. I
took it for granted that you were Mrs. Eldon’s son. The other letter, as
you know, was to a lady at a hotel in the town.’
Hubert nodded.
‘And you went to her as soon as you left me?’
‘After hearing from the doctor that there was no immediate danger.--The
letters, I suppose, would have announced your death?’
Hubert again inclined his head. The imperturbable gravity of the
speaker had the effect of imposing self-command on the young man; whose
sensitive cheeks showed what was going on within.
‘Will you tell me of your interview with her?’ he asked.
‘It was of the briefest; my French is not fluent.’
‘But she speaks English well.’
‘Probably her distress led her to give preference to her native tongue.
She was anxious to go to you immediately, and I told her where you lay.
I made inquiries next day, and found that she was still giving you
her care. As you were doing well, and I had to be moving homewards, I
thought it better to leave without seeing you again. The innkeeper had
directions to telegraph to me if there was a change for the worse.’
‘My pocket-book saved me,’ remarked Hubert, touching his side.
Mr. Wyvern drew in his lips.
‘Came between that ready-stamped letter and Wanley Manor,’ was his
comment.
There was a brief silence.
‘You allow me a question?’ the vicar resumed. ‘It is with reference to
the French lady.’
‘I think you have every right to question me.’
‘Oh no! It does not concern the events prior to your--accident.’ Mr.
Wyvern savoured the word. ‘How long did she remain in attendance upon
you?’
‘A short time--two day--I did not need--’
Mr. Wyvern motioned with his hand, kindly.
‘Then I was not mistaken,’ he said, averting his eyes for the first
time, ‘in thinking that I saw her in Paris.’
‘In Paris?’ Hubert repeated, with a poor affectation of indifference.
‘I made a short stay before crossing. I had business at a bank one
day; as I stood before the counter a gentleman entered and took a place
beside me. A second look assured me that he was the man who met me at
the edge of the wood that morning. I suppose he remembered me, for
he looked away and moved from me. I left the bank, and found an open
carriage waiting at the door. In it sat the lady of whom we speak. I
took a turn along the pavement and back again. The Frenchman entered the
carriage; they drove away.’
Hubert’s eyes were veiled; he breathed through his nostrils. Again there
was silence.
‘Mr. Eldon,’ resumed the vicar, ‘I was a man of the world before I
became a Churchman; you will notice that I affect no professional tone
in speaking with you, and it is because I know that anything of the kind
would only alienate you. It appeared to me that chance had made me
aware of something it might concern you to hear. I know nothing of the
circumstances of the case, merely offer you the facts.’
‘I thank you,’ was Hubert’s reply in an undertone.
‘It impressed me, that letter ready stamped for Wanley Manor. I thought
of it again after the meeting in Paris.’
‘I understand you. Of course I could explain the necessity. It would be
useless.’
‘Quite. But experience is not, or should not be, useless, especially
when commented on by one who has very much of it behind him.’
Hubert stood up. His mind was in a feverishly active state, seeming to
follow several lines of thought simultaneously. Among other things, he
was wondering how it was that throughout this conversation he had been
so entirely passive. He had never found himself under the influence of
so strong a personality, exerted too in such a strangely quiet way.
‘What are your plans--your own plans?’ Mr. Wyvern inquired.
‘I have none.’
‘Forgive me;--there will be no material difficulties?’
‘None; I have four hundred a year.’
‘You have not graduated yet, I believe?’
‘No. But I hardly think I can go back to school.’
‘Perhaps not. Well, turn things over. I should like to hear from you.’
‘You shall.’
Hubert continued his walk to the Manor. Before the entrance stood
two large furniture-vans; the doorway was littered with materials of
packing, and the hall was full of objects in disorder, footsteps made
a hollow resonance in all parts of the house, for everywhere the long
wonted conditions of sound were disturbed. The library was already
dismantled; here he could close the door and walk about without fear
of intrusion. He would have preferred to remain in the open air, but a
summer shower had just begun as he reached the house. He could not sit
still; the bare floor of the large room met his needs.
His mind’s eye pictured a face which a few months ago had power to lead
him whither it willed, which had in fact led him through strange scenes,
as far from the beaten road of a college curriculum as well could be. It
was a face of foreign type, Jewish possibly, most unlike that ideal of
womanly charm kept in view by one who seeks peace and the heart’s home.
Hubert had entertained no thought of either. The romance which most
young men are content to enjoy in printed pages he had acted out in
his life. He had lived through a glorious madness, as unlike the vulgar
oat-sowing of the average young man of wealth as the latest valse on a
street-organ is unlike a passionate dream of Chopin. However unworthy
the object of his frenzy--and perhaps one were as worthy as another--the
pursuit had borne him through an atmosphere of fire, tempering him
for life, marking him for ever from plodders of the dusty highway. A
reckless passion is a patent of nobility. Whatever existence had in
store for him henceforth, Hubert could feel that he had lived.
An hour’s communing with memory was brought to an end by the ringing
of the luncheon-bell. Since his illness Hubert had taken meals with his
mother in her own sitting-room. Thither he now repaired.
Mrs. Eldon had grown older in appearance since that evening of her son’s
return. Of course she had discovered the cause of his illness, and the
incessant torment of a great fear had been added to what she suffered
from the estrangement between the boy and herself. Her own bodily
weakness had not permitted her to nurse him; she had passed days and
nights in anguish of expectancy. At one time it had been life or death.
If he died, what life would be hers through the brief delay to which she
could look forward?
Once more she had him by her side, but the moral distance between them
was nothing lessened. Mrs. Eldon’s pride would not allow her to
resume the conversation which had ended so hopelessly for her, and she
interpreted Hubert’s silence in the saddest sense. Now they were about
to be parted again. A house had been taken for her at Agworth, three
miles away; in her state of health she could not quit the neighbourhood
of the few old friends whom she still saw. But Hubert would necessarily
go into the world to seek some kind of career. No hope shone for her in
the prospect.
Whilst the servant waited on them at luncheon, mother and son exchanged
few words. Afterwards, Mrs. Eldon had her chair moved to the window,
where she could see the garden greenery.
‘I called on Mr. Mutimer,’ Hubert said, standing near her. Through the
meal he had cast frequent glances at her pale, nobly-lined countenance,
as if something had led him to occupy his thoughts with her. He looked
at her in the same way now.
‘Did you? How did he impress you?’
‘He is not quite the man I had expected; more civilised. I should
suppose he is the better kind of artisan. He talks with a good deal of
the working-class accent, of course, but not like a wholly uneducated
man.’
‘His letter, you remember, was anything but illiterate. I feel I ought
to ask him to come and see me before we leave.’
‘The correspondence surely suffices.’
‘You expressed my thanks?’
‘Conscientiously.’
‘I see you found the interview rather difficult, Hubert.’
‘How could it be otherwise? The man is well enough, of his kind, but the
kind is detestable.’
‘Did he try to convert you to Socialism?’ asked his mother, smiling in
her sad way.
‘I imagine he discerned the hopelessness of such an under taking. We had
a little passage of arms,--quite within the bounds of civility. Shall
I tell you how I felt in talking with him? I seemed to be holding a
dialogue with the twentieth century, and you may think what that means.’
‘Ah, it’s a long way off, Hubert.’
‘I wish it were farther. The man was openly exultant; he stood for Demos
grasping the sceptre. I am glad, mother, that you leave Wanley before
the air is poisoned.’
‘Mr. Mutimer does not see that side of the question?’
‘Not he! Do you imagine the twentieth century will leave one green spot
on the earth’s surface?’
‘My dear, it will always be necessary to grow grass and corn.’
‘By no means; depend upon it. Such things will be cultivated by chemical
processes. There will not be one inch left to nature; the very oceans
will somehow be tamed, the snow-mountains will be levelled. And
with nature will perish art. What has a hungry Demos to do with the
beautiful?’
Mrs. Eldon sighed gently.
‘I shall not see it.’
Her eyes dreamed upon the soft-swaying boughs of a young chestnut.
Hubert was watching her face; its look and the meaning implied in her
words touched him profoundly.
‘Mother!’ he said under his breath.
‘My dear?’
He drew nearer to her and just stroked with his fingers the silver lines
which marked the hair on either side of her brows. He could see that she
trembled and that her lips set themselves in hard self-conquest.
‘What do you wish me to do when we have left the Manor?’
His own voice was hurried between two quiverings of the throat; his
mother’s only whispered in reply.
‘That is for your own consideration, Hubert.’
‘With your counsel, mother.’
‘My counsel?’
‘I ask it I will follow it. I wish to be guided by you.’
He knelt by her, and his mother pressed his head against her bosom.
Later, she asked--
‘Did you call also on the Walthams?’
He shook his head.
‘Should you not do so, dear?
‘I think that must be later.’
The subject was not pursued.
The next day was Saturday. In the afternoon Hubert took a walk which had
been his favourite one ever since he could remember, every step of the
way associated with recollections of childhood, boyhood, or youth. It
was along the lane which began in a farmyard close by the Manor and
climbed with many turnings to the top of Stanbury Hill. This was ever
the first route re-examined by his brother Godfrey and himself on
their return from school at holiday-time. It was a rare region for
bird-nesting, so seldom was it trodden save by a few farm-labourers
at early morning or when the day’s work was over. Hubert passed with
a glance of recognition the bramble in which he had found his first
spink’s nest, the shadowed mossy bank whence had fluttered the hapless
wren just when the approach of two prowling youngsters should have
bidden her keep close. Boys on the egg-trail are not wont to pay much
attention to the features of the country; but Hubert remembered that
at a certain meadow-gate he had always rested for a moment to view the
valley, some mute presage of things unimagined stirring at his heart.
Was it even then nineteenth century? Not for him, seeing that the life
of each of us reproduces the successive ages of the world. Belwick,
roaring a few miles away, was but an isolated black patch on the earth’s
beauty, not, as he now understood it, a malignant cancer-spot, spreading
day by day, corrupting, an augury of death. In those days it had seemed
fast in the order of things that Wanley Manor should be his home through
life; how otherwise? Was it not the abiding-place of the Eldons from of
old? Who had ever hinted at revolution? He knew now that revolution
had been at work from an earlier time than that; whilst he played and
rambled with his brother the framework of their life was crumbling about
them. Belwick was already throwing a shadow upon Wanley. And now behold!
he stood at the old gate, rested his hands where they had been wont
to rest, turned his eyes in the familiar direction; no longer a mere
shadow, there was Belwick itself.
His heart was hot with outraged affection, with injured pride. On the
scarcely closed grave of that passion which had flamed through so brief
a life sprang up the flower of natural tenderness, infinitely sweet and
precious. For the first time he was fully conscious of what it meant to
quit Wanley for ever; the past revealed itself to him, lovelier and more
loved because parted from him by so hopeless a gulf. Hubert was not old
enough to rate experience at its true value, to acquiesce in the law
which wills that the day must perish before we can enjoy to the full its
light and odour. He could only feel his loss, and rebel against the fate
which had ordained it.
He had climbed but half-way up the hill; from this point onwards there
was no view till the summit was reached, for the lane proceeded between
high banks and hedges. To gain the very highest point he had presently
to quit the road by a stile and skirt the edge of a small rising meadow,
at the top of which was an old cow-house with a few trees growing about
it. Thence one had the finest prospect in the county.
He reached the stone shed, looked back for a moment over Wanley, then
walked round to the other side. As he turned the corner of the building
his eye was startled by the unexpected gleam of a white dress. A girl
stood there; she was viewing the landscape through a field-glass, and
thus remained unaware of his approach on the grass. He stayed his step
and observed her with eyes of recognition. Her attitude, both hands
raised to hold the glass, displayed to perfection the virginal outline
of her white-robed form. She wore a straw hat of the plain masculine
fashion; her brown hair was plaited in a great circle behind her head,
not one tendril loosed from the mass; a white collar closely circled her
neck; her waist was bound with a red girdle. All was grace and purity;
the very folds towards the bottom of her dress hung in sculpturesque
smoothness; the form of her half-seen foot bowed the herbage with
lightest pressure. From the boughs above there fell upon her a dancing
network of shadow.
Hubert only half smiled; he stood with his hands joined behind him, his
eyes fixed upon her face, waiting for her to turn But several moments
passed and she was still intent on the landscape. He spoke.
‘Will you let me look?’
Her hands fell, all but dropping the glass; still, she did not start
with unbecoming shrug as most people do, the instinctive movement of
guarding against a stroke; the falling of her arms was the only abrupt
motion, her head turning in the direction of the speaker with a grace as
spontaneous as that we see in a fawn that glances back before flight.
‘Oh, Mr. Eldon! How silently you have come!’
The wild rose of her cheeks made rivalry for an instant with the richer
garden blooms, and the subsiding warmth left a pearly translucency as of
a lily petal against the light.
She held her hand to him, delicately gloved, warm; the whole of it was
hidden within Hubert’s clasp.
‘What were you looking at so attentively?’ he asked.
‘At Agworth station,’ replied Adela, turning her eyes again in that
quarter. ‘My brother’s train ought to be in by now, I think. He comes
home every Saturday.’
‘Does he?’
Hubert spoke without thought, his look resting upon the maiden’s red
girdle.
‘I am glad that you are well again,’ Adela said with natural kindness.
‘You have had a long illness.’
‘Yes; it has been a tiresome affair. Is Mrs. Waltham well?’
‘Quite, thank you.’
‘And your brother?’
‘Alfred never had anything the matter with him in his life, I believe,’
she answered, with a laugh.
‘Fortunate fellow! Will you lend me the glass?’
She held it to him, and at the same moment her straying eye caught a
glimpse of white smoke, far off.
‘There comes the train!’ she exclaimed. ‘You will be able to see it
between these two hills.’
Hubert looked and returned the glass to her, but she did not make use of
it.
‘Does he walk over from Agworth?’ was Hubert’s next question.
‘Yes. It does him good after a week of Belwick.’
‘There will soon be little difference between Belwick and Wanley,’
rejoined Hubert, drily.
Adela glanced at him; there was sympathy and sorrow in the look.
‘I knew it would grieve you,’ she said.
‘And what is your own feeling? Do you rejoice in the change as a sign of
progress?’
‘Indeed, no. I am very, very sorry to have our beautiful valley so
spoilt. It is only--’
Hubert eyed her with sudden sharpness of scrutiny; the look seemed to
check her words.
‘Only what?’ he asked. ‘You find compensations?’
‘My brother won’t hear of such regrets,’ she continued with a little
embarrassment ‘He insists on the good that will be done by the change.’
‘From such a proprietor as I should have been to a man of Mr. Mutimer’s
activity. To be sure, that is one point of view.’
Adela blushed.
‘That is not my meaning, Mr. Eldon, as you know. I was speaking of the
change without regard to who brings it about. And I was not giving my
own opinion; Alfred’s is always on the side of the working people; he
seems to forget everybody else in his zeal for their interests. And
then, the works are going to be quite a new kind of undertaking. You
have heard of Mr. Mutimer’s plans of course?’
‘I have an idea of them.’
‘You think them mistaken?’
‘No. I would rather say they don’t interest me. That seems to disappoint
you, Miss Waltham. Probably you are interested in them?’
At the sound of her own name thus formally interjected, Adela just
raised her eyes from their reflective gaze on the near landscape; then
she became yet more thoughtful.
‘Yes, I think I am,’ she replied, with deliberation. ‘The principle
seems a just one. Devotion to a really unselfish cause is rare, I am
afraid.’
‘You have met Mr. Mutimer?
‘Once. My brother made his acquaintance, and he called on us.’
‘Did he explain his scheme to you in detail?’
‘Not himself. Alfred has told me all about it. He, of course, is
delighted with it; he has joined what he calls the Union.’
‘Are you going to join?’ Hubert asked, smiling.
‘I? I doubt whether they would have me.’
She laughed silverly, her throat tremulous, like that of a bird that
sings. How significant the laugh was! the music of how pure a freshet of
life!
‘All the members, I presume,’ said Hubert, ‘are to be speedily enriched
from the Wanley Mines and Iron Works?’
It was jokingly uttered, but Adela replied with some earnestness, as if
to remove a false impression.
‘Oh, that is quite a mistake. Mr. Eldon. There is no question of anyone
being enriched, least of all Mr. Mutimer himself. The workmen will
receive just payment, not mere starvation wages, but whatever profit
there is will be devoted to the propaganda.’
‘Propaganda! Starvation wages! Ah, I see you have gone deeply into these
matters. How strangely that word sounds on your lips--propaganda!’
Adela reddened.
‘Why strangely, Mr. Eldon?’
‘One associates it with such very different speakers; it has such a
terrible canting sound. I hope you will not get into the habit of using
it--for your own sake.’
‘I am not likely to use it much. I suppose I have heard it so often
from Alfred lately. Please don’t think,’ she added rather hastily, ‘that
I have become a Socialist. Indeed, I dislike the name; I find it implies
so many things that I could never approve of.’
Her way of speaking the last sentence would have amused a dispassionate
critic, it was so distinctively the tone of Puritan maidenhood. From
lips like Adela’s it is delicious to hear such moral babbling. Oh, the
gravity of conviction in a white-souled English girl of eighteen! Do you
not hear her say those words: ‘things that I could never approve of’?
As her companion did not immediately reply, she again raised the
field-glass to her eyes and swept the prospect.
‘Can you see your brother on the road?’ Hubert inquired.
‘No, not yet. There is a trap driving this way. Why, Alfred sitting in
it! Oh, it is Mr. Mutimer’s trap I see. He must have met Alfred at the
station and have given him a ride.’
‘Evidently they are great friends,’ commented Eldon.
Adela did not reply. After gazing a little longer, she said--
‘He will be home before I can get there.’
She screwed up the glasses and turned as if to take leave. But Hubert
prepared to walk by her side, and together they reached the lane.
‘Now I am going to run down the hill,’ Adela said, laughing. ‘I can’t
ask you to join in such childishness, and I suppose you are not going
this way, either?’
‘No, I am walking back to the Manor,’ the other replied soberly. ‘We had
better say good-bye. On Monday we shall leave Wanley, my mother and I.’
‘On Monday?’
The girl became graver.
‘But only to go to Agworth?’ she added.
‘I shall not remain at Agworth. I am going to London.’
‘To--to study?’
‘Something or other, I don’t quite know what. Good-bye!’
‘Won’t you come to say good-bye to us--to mother?’
‘Shall you be at home to-morrow afternoon, about four o’clock say?’
‘Oh, yes; the very time.’
‘Then I will come to say good-bye.’
‘In that case we needn’t say it now, need we? It is only good
afternoon.’
She began to walk down the lane.
‘I thought you were going to run,’ cried Hubert.
She looked back, and her silver laugh made chorus with the joyous
refrain of a yellow-hammer, piping behind the hedge. Till the turn of
the road she continued walking, then Hubert had a glimpse of white folds
waving in the act of flight, and she was beyond his vision.