Albinia needed patience to keep alive hope and energy, for a sore
disappointment awaited her. Whatever had been her annoyances with the
girls, she had always been on happy and comfortable terms with Gilbert,
he had responded to her advances, accommodated himself to her wishes,
adopted her tastes, and returned her affection. She had early perceived
that his father and sisters looked on him as the naughty one of the
family, but when she saw Lucy’s fretting interference, and, Sophia’s
wrangling contempt, she did not wonder that an unjust degree of blame
had often fallen to his share; and under her management, he scarcely
ever gave cause for complaint. That he was evidently happier and better
for her presence, was compensation for many a vexation; she loved him
with all her heart, made fun with him, told legends of the freaks of
her brother Maurice and cousin Fred, and grudged no trouble for his
pleasure.
As long as The Three Musqueteers lasted, he had come constantly to
her dressing-room, and afterwards she promised to find other pleasant
reading; but after such excitement, it was not easy to find anything
that did not appear dry. As the daughter of a Peninsular man, she
thought nothing so charming as the Subaltern, and Gilbert seemed to
enjoy it; but by the time he had heard all her oral traditions of the
war by way of notes, his attendance began to slacken; he stayed out
later, and always brought excuses--Mr. Salsted had kept him, he had
been with a fellow, or his pony had lost a shoe. Albinia did not care
to question, the evenings were light and warm, and the one thing she
desired for him was manly exercise: she thought it much better for him
to be at play with his fellow-pupils, and she could not regret the gain
of another hour to her hurried day.
One morning, however, Mr. Kendal called her, and his look was so grave
and perturbed, that she hardly waited till the door was shut to ask in
terror, what could be the matter.
‘Nothing to alarm you,’ he said. ‘It is only that I am vexed about
Gilbert. I have reason to fear that he is deceiving us again; and I
want you to help us to recollect on which days he should have been at
Tremblam. My dear, do not look so pale!’
For Albinia had turned quite white at hearing that the boy, on whom
she had fixed her warm affection, had been carrying on a course of
falsehood; but a moment’s hope restored her. ‘I did keep him at home
on Tuesday,’ she said, ‘it was so very hot, and he had a headache. I
thought I might. You told me not to send him on doubtful days.’
‘I hope you may be able to make out that it is right,’ said Mr. Kendal,
‘but I am afraid that Mr. Salsted has too much cause of complaint. It is
the old story!’
And so indeed it proved, when Albinia heard what the tutor had come
to say. The boy was seldom in time, often altogether missing, excusing
himself by saying he was kept at home by fears of the weather; but Mr.
Salsted was certain that his father could not know how he disposed of
his time, namely, in a low style of sporting with young Tritton, the son
of a rich farmer or half-gentleman, who was the pest of Mr. Salsted’s
parish. Ill-learnt, slurred-over lessons, with lame excuses, were
nothing as compared with this, and the amount of petty deceit,
subterfuge, and falsehood, was frightful, especially when Albinia
recollected the tone of thought which the boy had seemed to be catching
from her. Unused to duplicity, except from mere ignorant, unmanageable
school-children, she was excessively shocked, and felt as if he must be
utterly lost to all good, and had been acting a lie from first to last.
After the conviction had broken on her, she hardly spoke, while Mr.
Kendal was promising to talk to his son, threaten him with severe
punishment, and keep a strict account of his comings and goings, to be
compared weekly with Mr. Salsted’s notes of his arrival. This settled,
the tutor departed, and no sooner was he gone, than Albinia, hiding her
face in her hands, shed tears of bitter grief and disappointment. ‘My
dearest,’ said her husband, fondly, ‘you must not let my boy’s doings
grieve you in this manner. You have been doing your utmost for him, if
any one could do him good, it would be you.’
‘O no, surely I must have made some dreadful mistake, to have promoted
such faults.’
‘No, I have long known him not to be trustworthy. It is an evil of long
standing.’
‘Was it always so?’
‘I cannot tell,’ said he, sitting down beside her, and shading his brow
with one hand; ‘I have only been aware of it since he has been left
alone. When the twins were together, they were led by one soul of truth
and generosity. What this poor fellow was separately no one could know,
while he had his brother to guide and shield him. The first time I
noticed the evil was when we were recovering. Gilbert and Sophia were
left together, and in one of their quarrels injured some papers of
mine. I was very weak, and had little power of self-control; I believe I
terrified him too much. There was absolute falsehood, and the truth was
only known by Sophia’s coming forward and confessing the whole. It
was ill managed. I was not equal to dealing with him, and whether the
mischief began then or earlier, it has gone on ever since, breaking
out every now and then. I had hoped that with your care--But oh! how
different it would have been with his brother! Albinia, what would I not
give that you had but seen _him!_ Not a fault was there; not a moment’s
grief did he give us, till--O what an overthrow of hope!’ And he gave
way to an excess of grief that quite appalled her, and made her feel
herself powerless to comfort. She only ventured a few words of peace and
hope; but the contrast between the brothers, was just then keen agony,
and he could not help exclaiming how strange it was, that Edmund should
be the one to be taken.
‘Nay,’ he said, ‘was not he ripe for better things? May not poor Gilbert
have been spared that longer life may train him to be like his brother?’
‘He never will be like him,’ cried Mr. Kendal. ‘No! no! The difference
is evident in the very countenance and features.’
‘Was he like you?’
‘They said so, but you could not gather an idea of him from me,’ said
Mr. Kendal, smiling mournfully, as he met her gaze. ‘It was the most
beautiful countenance I ever saw, full of life and joy; and there were
wonderful expressions in the eyes when he was thinking or listening.
He used to read the Greek Testament with me every morning, and his
questions and remarks rise up before me again. That text--You have seen
it in church.’
‘Because I live, ye shall live also,’ Albinia repeated.
‘Yes. A little before his illness we came to that. He rested on it, as
he used to do on anything that struck him, and asked me, “whether it
meant the life hereafter, or the life that is hidden here?” We went over
it with such comments as I could find, but his mind was not satisfied;
and it must have gone on working on it, for one night, when I had been
thinking him delirious, he called me, and the light shone out of those
bright dark eyes of his as he said, joyfully, “It is both, papa! It is
hidden here, but it will shine out there,” and as I did not catch his
meaning, he repeated the Greek words.’
‘Dear boy! Some day we shall be glad that the full life and glory came
so soon.’
He shook his head, the parting was still too recent, and it was
the first time he had been able to speak of his son. It was a great
satisfaction to her that the reserve had once been broken; it seemed
like compensation for the present trouble, though that was acutely
felt, and not softened by the curious eyes and leading questions of the
sisters, when she returned to give what attention she could to their
interrupted lessons.
Gilbert returned, unsuspicious of the storm, till his father’s stern
gravity, and her depressed, pre-occupied manner, excited his attention,
and he asked her anxiously whether anything were the matter. A sad
gesture replied, and perhaps revealed the state of the case, for he
became absolutely silent. Albinia left them together. She watched
anxiously, and hurried after Mr. Kendal into the study, where his manner
showed her not to be unwelcome as the sharer of his trouble. ‘I do not
know what to do,’ he said, dejectedly. ‘I can make nothing of him. It is
all prevarication and sulkiness! I do not think he felt one word that I
said.’
‘People often feel more than they show.’
He groaned.
‘Will you go to him?’ he presently added. ‘Perhaps I grew too angry at
last, and I believe he loves you. At least, if he does not, he must be
more unfeeling than I can think him. You do not dislike it, dearest.’
‘O no, no! If I only knew what would be best for him!’
‘He may be more unreserved with you,’ said Mr. Kendal; and as he
was anxious for her to make the attempt, she moved away, though in
perplexity, and in the revulsion of feeling, with a sort of disgust
towards the boy who had deceived her so long.
She found him seated on a wheelbarrow by the pond, chucking pebbles into
the still black water, and disturbing the duckweed on the surface. His
colour was gone, and his face was dark and moody, and strove not to
relax, as she said, ‘O Gilbert, how could you?’
He turned sharply away, muttering, ‘She is coming to bother, now!’
It cut her to the heart. ‘Gilbert!’ was all she could exclaim, but the
tone of pain made him look at her, as if in spite of himself, and as he
saw the tears he exclaimed in an impatient voice of rude consolation,
‘There’s nothing to take so much to heart. No one thinks anything of
it!’
‘What would Edmund have thought?’ said Albinia; but the appeal came
too soon, he made an angry gesture and said, ‘He was nearly three years
younger than I am now! He would not have been kept in these abominable
leading-strings.’
She was too much shocked to find an answer, and Gilbert went on,
‘Watched and examined wherever I go--not a minute to myself--nothing
but lessons at Tremblam, and bother at home; driven about hither and
thither, and not allowed a friend of my own, nor to do one single thing!
There’s no standing it, and I won’t!’
‘I am very sorry,’ said Albinia, struggling with choking tears. ‘It has
been my great wish to make things pleasant to you. I hope I have not
teased or driven you to--’
‘Nonsense!’ exclaimed Gilbert, disrespectfully indeed, but from the
bottom of his heart, and breaking at once into a flood of tears. ‘You
are the only creature that has been kind to me since I lost my mother
and Ned, and now they have been and turned you against me too;’ and he
sobbed violently.
‘I don’t know what you mean, Gilbert. If I stand in your mother’s place,
I can’t be turned against you, any more than she could,’ and she stroked
his brow, which she found so throbbing as to account for his paleness.
‘You can grieve and hurt me, but you can’t prevent me from feeling for
you, nor for your dear father’s grief.’
He declared that people at home knew nothing about boys, and made an
uproar about nothing.
‘Do you call falsehood nothing?’
‘Falsehood! A mere trifle now and then, when I am driven to it by being
kept so strictly.’
‘I don’t know how to talk to you, Gilbert,’ said Albinia, rising; ‘your
conscience knows better than your tongue.’
‘Don’t go;’ and he went off into another paroxysm of crying, as he
caught hold of her dress; and when he spoke again his mood was changed;
he was very miserable, nobody cared for him, he did not know what to do;
he wanted to do right, and to please her, but Archie Tritton would not
let him alone; he wished he had never seen Archie Tritton. At last,
walking up and down with him, she drew from him a full confidence, and
began to understand how, when health and strength had come back to him
in greater measure than he had ever before enjoyed, the craving for
boyish sports had awakened, just after he had been deprived of his
brother, and was debarred from almost every wholesome manner of
gratifying it. To fall in with young Tritton was as great a misfortune
as could well have befallen a boy, with a dreary home, melancholy,
reserved father, and wearisome aunt. Tritton was a youth of seventeen,
who had newly finished his education at an inferior commercial school,
and lived on his father’s farm, giving himself the airs of a sporting
character, and fast hurrying into dissipation.
He was really good-natured, and Gilbert dwelt on his kindness with
warmth and gratitude, and on his prowess in all sporting accomplishments
with a perfect effervescence of admiration. He evidently patronized
Gilbert, partly from good-natured pity, and partly as flattered by the
adherence of a boy of a grade above him; and Gilbert was proud of the
notice of one who seemed to him a man, and an adept in all athletic
games. It was a dangerous intimacy, and her heart sank as she found that
the pleasures to which he had been introducing Gilbert, were not merely
the free exercise, the rabbit-shooting and rat-hunting of the farm, nor
even the village cricket-match, all of which, in other company, would
have had her full sympathy. But there had been such low and cruel sports
that she turned her head away sickened at the notion of any one dear to
her having been engaged in such amusements, and when Gilbert in excuse
said that every one did it, she answered indignantly, ‘My brothers
never!’
‘It is no use talking about what swells do that hunt and shoot and go to
school,’ answered Gilbert.
‘Do you wish you went to school?’ asked Albinia.
‘I wish I was out of it all!’
He was in a very different frame. He owned that he knew how wrong it
had been to deceive, but he seemed to look upon it as a sort of fate;
he wished he could help it, but could not, he was so much afraid of his
father that he did not know what he said; Archie Tritton said no one
could get on without.--There was an utter bewilderment in his notions,
here and there showing a better tone, but obscured by the fancies
imbibed from his companion, that the knowledge and practice of evil
were manly. At one moment he cried bitterly, and declared that he was
wretched; at another he defended each particular case with all his
might, changing and slipping away so that she did not know where to take
him. However, the conclusion was far more in pity than anger, and after
receiving many promises that if she would shield him from his father and
bear with him, he would abstain from all she disapproved, she caressed
and soothed the aching head, and returned to his father hopeful and
encouraged, certain that the evil had been chiefly caused by weakness
and neglect and believing that here was a beginning of repentance. Since
there was sorrow and confession, there surely must be reformation.
For a week Gilbert went on steadily, but at the end of that time his
arrivals at home became irregular, and one day there was another great
aberration. On a doubtful day, when it had been decided that he might
go safely between the showers, he never came to Tremblam at all, and Mr.
Salsted sent a note to Mr. Kendal to let him know that his son had been
at the races--village races, managed by the sporting farmers of the
neighbourhood. There was a sense of despair, and again a talk, bringing
at once those ever-ready tears and protestations, sorrow genuine, but
fruitless. ‘It was all Archie’s fault, he had overtaken him, persuaded
him that Mr. Salsted would not expect him, promised him that he should
see the celebrated ‘Blunderbuss,’ Sam Shepherd’s horse, that won the
race last year. Gilbert had gone ‘because he could not help it.’
‘Not help it!’ cried Albinia, looking at him with her clear indignant
eyes. ‘How can you be such a poor creature, Gilbert?’
‘It is very hard!’ exclaimed Gilbert; ‘I must go past Robble’s Leigh
twice every day of my life, and Archie will come out and be at me.’
‘That is the very temptation you have to resist,’ said Albinia. ‘Fight
against it, pray against it, resolve against it; ride fast, and don’t
linger and look after him.’
He looked desponding and miserable. If she could only have put a spirit
into him!
‘Shall I walk and meet you sometimes before you get to Robbie’s Leigh!’
His face cleared up, but the cloud returned in a moment.
‘What is it?’ she asked. ‘Only tell me. You know I wish for nothing so
much as to help you.’
He did confess that there was nothing he should like better, if Archie
would not be all the worse another time, whenever he should catch him
alone.
‘But surely, Gilbert, he is not always lying in ambush for you, like a
cat for a mouse. You can’t be his sole game.’
‘No, but he is coming or going, or out with his gun, and he will often
come part of the way with me, and he is such a droll fellow!’
Albinia thought that there was but one cure. To leave Gilbert daily
exposed to the temptation must be wrong, and she laid the case before
Mr. Kendal with so much earnestness, that he allowed that it would be
better to send the boy from home; and in the meantime, Albinia obtained
that Mr. Kendal should ride some way on the Tremblam road with his son
in the morning, so as to convoy him out of reach of the tempter; whilst
she tried to meet him in the afternoon, and managed so that he should be
seldom without the hope of meeting her.
Albinia’s likings had taken a current absolutely contrary to all her
preconceived notions; Sophia, with her sullen truth, was respected, but
it was not easy to like her even as well as Lucy, who, though pert and
empty, had much good-nature and good-temper, and was not indocile; while
Gilbert, in spite of a weak, shallow character, habits of deception, and
low ungentlemanly tastes, had won her affection, and occupied the chief
of her time and thoughts; and she dreaded the moment of parting
with him, as removing the most available and agreeable of her young
companions.
That moment of parting, though acknowledged to be expedient, did not
approach. Gilbert, could not be sent to a public school without risk and
anxiety which his father did not like, and which would have been horror
to his grandmother; and Albinia herself did not feel certain that he
was fit for it, nor that it was her part to enforce it. She wrote to
her brother, and found that he likewise thought a tutor would be a safe
alternative; but then he must be a perfect man in a perfect climate, and
Mr. Kendal was not the man to make researches. Mr. Dusautoy mentioned
one clergyman who took pupils, Maurice Ferrars another, but there
was something against each. Mr. Kendal wrote four letters, and was
undecided--a third was heard of, but the locality was doubtful, and
the plan went off, because Mr. Kendal could not make up his mind to go
thirty miles to see the place, and talk to a stranger.
Albinia found that her power did not extend beyond driving him from
‘I’ll see about it,’ to ‘Yes, by all means.’ Action was a length to
which he could not be brought. Mr. Nugent was very anxious that he
should qualify as a magistrate since a sensible, highly-principled man
was much wanted counterbalance Admiral Osborn’s misdirected, restless
activity and the lower parts of the town were in a dreadful state. Mrs.
Nugent talked to Albinia, and she urged it in vain. To come out of his
study, examine felons, contend with the Admiral, and to meet all the
world at the quarter sessions, was abhorrent to him, and he silenced her
almost with sternness.
She was really hurt and vexed, and scarcely less so by a discovery that
she made shortly after. The hot weather had made the houses beneath the
hill more close and unwholesome than ever, Simkins’s wife had fallen
into a lingering illness, and Albinia, visiting her constantly, was
painfully sensible of the dreadful atmosphere in which she lived, under
the roof, with a window that would not open. She offered to have the
house improved at her own expense, but was told that Mr. Pettilove would
raise the rent if anything were laid out on it. She went about talking
indignantly of Mr. Pettilove’s cruelty and rapacity, and when Mr.
Dusautoy hinted that Pettilove was only agent, she exclaimed that the
owner was worse, since ignorance alone could be excused. Who was the
wretch? Some one, no doubt, who never came near the place, and only
thought of it as money.
‘Fanny,’ said Mr. Dusautoy, ‘I really think we ought to tell her.’
‘Yes,’ said Mrs. Dusautoy, ‘I think it would be better. The houses
belonged to old Mr. Meadows.’
‘Oh, if they are Mrs. Meadows’s, I don’t wonder at anything.’
‘I believe they are Gilbert Kendal’s.’
They were very kind; Mr. Dusautoy strode out at the window, and his wife
would not look at Albinia during the minute’s struggle to regain her
composure, under the mortification that her husband should have let her
rave so much and so long about what must be in his own power. Her only
comfort was the hope that he had never heard what she said, and she knew
that he so extremely disliked a conference with Pettilove, that he would
consent to anything rather than have a discussion.
She was, for the first time in her life, out of spirits. Gilbert was
always upon her mind; and the daily walk to meet him was a burthen,
consuming a great deal of time, and becoming trying on hot summer
afternoons, the more so as she seldom ventured to rest after it, lest
dulness should drive Gilbert into mischief, or, if nothing worse, into
quarrelling with Sophia. If she could not send him safely out fishing,
she must be at hand to invent pleasures and occupations for him; and the
worst of it was, that the girls grudged her attention to their brother,
and were becoming jealous. They hated the walk to Robble’s Leigh,
and she knew that it was hard on them that their pleasure should be
sacrificed, but it was all-important to preserve him from evil. She had
wished to keep the tutor-negotiations a secret, but they had oozed out,
and she found that Mrs. and Miss Meadows had been declaring that they
had known how it would be--whatever people said beforehand, it always
came to the same thing in the end, and as to its being necessary, poor
dear Gibbie was very different before the change at home.
Albinia could not help shedding a few bitter tears. Why was she to
be always misjudged, even when she meant the best? And, oh! how hard,
well-nigh impossible, to forgive and candidly to believe that, in the
old lady, at least, it was partiality, and not spite.
In September, Mr. and Mrs. Ferrars returned from their journey. Albinia
was anxious to see them, for if there was a sense that she had fallen
short of her confident hopes of doing prosperously, there was also a
great desire for their sympathy and advice. But Maurice had been too
long away from his parish to be able to spare another day, and begged
that the Kendals would come to Fairmead. Seeing that Albinia’s heart was
set on it, Mr. Kendal allowed himself to be stirred up to appoint a time
for driving her over to spend a long day at Fairmead.
For her own pleasure and ease of mind, Albinia made a point of taking
Gilbert, and the girls were to spend the day with their grandmother.
‘Pretty old Fairmead!’ she cried, as the beech-trees rose before her;
and she was turning round every minute to point out to Gilbert some of
the spots of which she had told him, and nodding to the few scattered
children who were not at school, and who looked up with mouths from
ear to ear, and flushed cheeks, as they curtsied to ‘Miss Ferrars.’ The
‘Miss Ferrars’ life seemed long ago.
They came to the little green gate that led to what had been ‘home’ for
the happiest years of Albinia’s life, and from the ivy porch there was
a rush of little Willie and Mary, and close at hand their mamma, and
Maurice emerging from the school. It was very joyous and natural. But
there were two more figures, not youthful, but of decided style and
air, and quiet but fashionable dress, and Albinia had only time to say
quickly to her husband, ‘my aunts,’ before she was fondly embraced.
It was not at all what she had intended. Mrs. Annesley and Miss Ferrars
were very kind aunts, and she had much affection for them; but there was
an end of the hope of the unreserve and confidence that she wanted.
She could get plenty of compassion and plenty of advice, but her
whole object would be to avoid these; and, besides, Mr. Kendal had not
bargained for strangers. What would become of his opportunity of getting
better acquainted with Maurice and Winifred, and of all the pleasures
that she had promised Gilbert?
At least, however, she was proud that her aunts should see what a
fine-looking man her husband was, and they were evidently struck with
his appearance and manner. Gilbert, too was in very good looks, and was
altogether a bright, gentlemanly boy, well made, though with the air
of growing too fast, and with something of uncertainty about his
expression.
It was quickly explained that the aunts had only decided, two days
before, on coming to Fairmead at once, some other engagement having
failed them, and they were delighted to find that they should meet their
dear Albinia, and be introduced to Mr. Kendal. Setting off before the
post came in, Albinia had missed Winifred’s note to tell her of their
arrival.
‘And,’ said Winifred, as she took Albinia upstairs, ‘if I did suspect
that would be the case, I wont say I regretted it. I did not wish to
afford Mr. Kendal the pleasures of anticipation.’
‘Perhaps it was better,’ said Albinia, smiling, ‘especially as I suppose
they will stay for the next six weeks, so that the days will be short
before you will be free.’
‘And now let me see you, my pretty one,’ said Winifred, fondly. ‘Are you
well, are you strong? No, don’t wriggle your head away, I shall believe
nothing but what I read for myself.’
‘Don’t believe anything you read without the notes,’ said Albinia. ‘I
have a great deal to say to you, but I don’t expect much opportunity
thereof.’
Certainly not, for Miss Ferrars was knocking at the door. She had never
been able to suppose that the sisters-in-law could be more to each other
than she was to her own niece.
So it became a regular specimen of a ‘long day’ spent together by
relations, who, intending to be very happy, make themselves very
weary of each other, by discarding ordinary occupations, and reducing
themselves to needlework and small talk. Albinia was bent on liveliness,
and excelled herself in her droll observations; but to Winifred, who
knew her so well, this brilliancy did not seem like perfect ease; it was
more like effort than natural spirits. This was no wonder, for not only
had the sight of new people thrown Mr. Kendal into a severe access
of shyness and silence, but he was revolving in fear and dread the
expediency of asking them to Willow Lawn, and considering whether
Albinia and propriety could make the effort bearable. Silent he sat,
while the aunts talked of their wishes that one nephew would marry, and
that the other would not, and no one presumed to address him, except
little Mary, who would keep trotting up to him, to make him drink out of
her doll’s tea-cups.
Mr. Ferrars took pity on him, and took him and Gilbert out to call upon
Colonel Bury; but this did not lessen his wife’s difficulties, for there
was a general expectation that she would proceed to confidences;
whereas she would do nothing but praise the Dusautoys, ask after all
the parishioners of Fairmead one by one, and consult about French
reading-books and Italian grammars. Mrs. Annesley began a gentle warning
against overtaxing her strength, and Miss Ferrars enforced it with such
vehemence, that Winifred, who had been rather on that side, began to
take Albinia’s part, but perceived, with some anxiety, that her sister’s
attempts to laugh off the admonition almost amounted to an admission
that she was working very hard. As to the step-daughters, no
intelligence was attainable, except that Lucy would be pleased with
a new crochet pattern, and that Sophy was like her father, but not so
handsome.
The next division of time passed better. Albinia walked out at the
window to meet the gentlemen when they came home, and materially
relieved Mr. Kendal’s mind by saying to him, ‘The aunts are settled in
here till they go to Knutsford. I hope you don’t think--there is not the
least occasion for asking them to stay with us.’
‘Are you sure you do not wish it?’ said Mr. Kendal, with great kindness,
but an evident weight removed.
‘Most certain!’ she exclaimed, with full sincerity; ‘I am not at all
ready for them. What should I do with them to entertain?’
‘Very well,’ said Mr. Kendal, ‘you must be the judge. If there be no
necessity, I shall be glad to avoid unsettling our habits, and probably
Bayford would hardly afford much enjoyment to your aunts.’
Albinia glanced in his face, and in that of her brother, with her own
arch fun. It was the first time that day that Maurice had seen that
peculiarly merry look, and he rejoiced, but he was not without fear that
she was fostering Mr. Kendal’s retiring habits more than was good for
him. But it was not only on his account that she avoided the invitation,
she by no means wished to show Bayford to her fastidious aunts, and felt
as if to keep them satisfied and comfortable would be beyond her power.
Set free from this dread, and his familiarity with his brother-in-law
renewed, Mr. Kendal came out to great advantage at the early dinner.
Miss Ferrars was well read and used to literary society, and she started
subjects on which he was at home, and they discussed new books and
criticised critics, so that his deep reading showed itself, and even a
grave, quiet tone of satire, such as was seldom developed, except under
the most favourable circumstances. He and Aunt Gertrude were evidently
so well pleased with each other, that Albinia almost thought she had
been precipitate in letting him off the visit.
Gilbert had, fortunately, a turn for small children, and submitted to be
led about the garden by little Willie; and as far as moderate enjoyment
went, the visit was not unsuccessful; but as for what Albinia came for,
it was unattainable, except for one little space alone with her brother.
‘I meant to have asked a great deal,’ she said, sighing.
‘If you, want me, I would contrive to ride over,’ said Maurice.
‘No, it is not worth that. But, Maurice, what is to be done when one
sees one’s duty, and yet fails for ever for want of tact and temper! Ah,
I know what you will say, and I often say it to myself, but whatever I
propose, I always do either the wrong thing or in the wrong way!’
‘You fall a hundred times a day, but are raised up again,’ said Maurice.
‘Maurice, tell me one thing. Is it wrong to do, not the best, but only
the best one can?’
‘It is the wrong common to us all,’ said Maurice.
‘I used to believe in “whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing
well.” Now, I do everything ill, rather than do nothing at all.’
‘There are only two ways of avoiding that.’
‘And they are--?’
‘Either doing nothing, or admiring all your own doings.’
‘Which do you recommend?’ said Albinia, smiling, but not far from tears.
‘My dear,’ said Maurice, ‘all I can dare to recommend, is patience and
self-control. Don’t fret and agitate yourself about what you can’t do,
but do your best to do calmly what you can. It will be made up, depend
upon it.’
There was no time for more, but the sound counsel, the sympathy, and
playfulness had done Albinia wonderful good, and she was almost glad
there had been no more privacy, or her friends might have guessed that
she had not quite found a counsellor at home.