THE NEW CAMPAIGN
Jenny had come back with her courage unbroken--and with her ambitions
unappeased, though it seemed that their direction had been in some
measure changed. Somehow Margaret Octon was now one of their principal
objects. It was not possible just now to see further into her mind, even
at a tolerably close view--a much closer one than her neighbors were
permitted to enjoy. It was even an appreciable time before Catsford
heard of Margaret Octon at all. The presence of the girl was not
obtruded, much less her name; nothing was said of her in the paragraph
that went to the paper. Jenny left Catsford to digest the fact of her
own return first.
It was enough to occupy the neighborhood's digestive faculties for many
days. It raised such various questions, on which different minds settled
with differing degrees of avidity. Questions of morality, of propriety,
of conventionality on the one hand--questions of charity, of policy, of
self-interest on the other. There were the party of principle and the
party of expediency, cutting across the lines of the party of propriety
and the party of charity. Some quoted Caesar's wife--when do they not?
Others maintained that an Englishman was innocent till he was proved
guilty--and _a fortiori_ a handsome, attractive, interesting, and
remarkably rich Englishwoman. It was contended by one faction that a
self-banishment of nearly three years was apology enough--if apology
were needed; by the other that Jenny had insolently spurned any effort
to "put herself right" with public opinion. To add to the complication,
people shifted their attitudes from day to day--either under influence,
as when they had been talked to by Mrs. Jepps or by Mr. Bindlecombe as
the case might be, or from the sheer pleasure of discussing the matter
over again from another point of view, and drawing out their neighbors
by advocating what, twenty-four hours earlier, they had condemned.
The climax came when the news of Margaret leaked out, as it was bound
soon to do, if only through the mouths of the servants at the Priory.
There was a pretty girl there, a girl of seventeen--whose name was
Octon--daughter, it was understood, of the late Mr. Leonard Octon of
Hatcham Ford; she was living with Miss Driver, as her friend or her
ward--at any rate, apparently, as a fixture. Some found a likeness
between Margaret's sudden appearance and Jenny's own, and this element
added a piquancy to the situation, even though the similarity was rather
superficial than essential. Old Nicholas Driver had every reason to
produce his daughter and invest her formally with the position of
heir-apparent to his great possessions, to his over-lordship of the
town. Octon had been merely the temporary tenant of a hired house--a
mere bird of passage--and a solitary bird besides, neither giving nor
receiving confidences. Why should he have talked about his dead wife and
his young daughter to ears that cared not a straw about either of them?
The coincidence was noted, but it was soon swallowed up in the new issue
as to Jenny's conduct which the appearance of Margaret raised.
Bluntly--for which party was this a score? Jenny's opponents saw in it a
new defiance--a willful flaunting of offense; her friends found in it a
romantic flavor which pleaded for her.
On the whole, so far as could be judged from Bindlecombe's accounts--he
was my constant reporter--Jenny's adherents gained ground in the
town--partly from her personal popularity, partly from the old power of
her family, in part, perhaps (if one may venture to say so from the safe
obscurity of a private station), because our lords the masses are not in
a matter of this sort very unforgiving--in which they touch hands with
the opposite end of society. Self-interest probably aided--Catsford had
of late basked in the somewhat wintry favor of Fillingford Manor; the
beams were chilly; Breysgate would emit a kinder glow. It "paid" so many
people in the town to have Jenny back! The feeling in the county was
preponderatingly against her. There Fillingford Manor was a greater
power; its attitude was definite, resolute, not to be misunderstood.
Outside the town Jenny could look at present for little support. Old Mr.
Dormer with his pliant standards was dead. There were only the
Aspenicks--Lady Aspenick must be civil--owing to what she had done about
the road; but her influence, even if cordially exercised, would not be
enough.
Following the example of great commanders, Jenny massed her forces on
the most favorable point. She flung herself on the workingmen of
Catsford. Hesitating, probably, to expose Margaret to the chances of the
campaign, she left her at home, but she requisitioned Cartmell and
myself, and we drove down in full state into Catsford at noon on the
fourth day after her return. Our ostensible purpose was to go to
Cartmell's office, to transact some legal business; as he could easily
have brought his papers up to the Priory, this did not seem very
convincing. Our way took us past the great Driver works--conducted now
by a limited company, in which Jenny held a controlling interest. In
front of the big building was a large open space, still known as "The
Green" though constant traffic of feet had worn away all trace of grass.
Here was the forum of Catsford, where men assembled for open-air
meetings and, less formally, for discussion, gossip--even, it was said,
for betting--in their spare moments, and especially in the dinner-hour.
It happened to be the dinner-hour now--as Jenny observed innocently when
we found the place full of Driver employees who had swallowed their meal
and were talking together or lounging about, their pipes in their
mouths. Cartmell gave a grim chuckle at Jenny's artless surprise. He had
taken her return very quietly, loyally accepting his position as her man
of business, but hardly welcoming her with real cordiality. I fancy that
he found it hard to forgive; was not Fillingford Manor gone forever?
We had not progressed many yards before she was recognized. She courted
recognition, stopping to speak to an old artisan who had once been
introduced to her as a contemporary of her father's. Men gathered round
her as she sat chatting with the veteran. She seemed unconscious of
being gradually surrounded. At last, with a most gracious good-by, she
said, "Now drive on, please," then looked suddenly round, saw all the
folk, and bowed and smiled. One fellow started, "Three cheers for Miss
Driver!" That set the thing going. They gave her cheer on cheer. Jenny
sat through it smiling, flushed, just once glancing across to me with a
covert triumph. The cheers brought more men running up; there were two
or three hundred round us. "Welcome home!" they cried. "Welcome home!"
Then somebody called, "Speech, speech!" The cry was taken up with
hilarious enthusiasm, and the crowd grew every minute.
Suddenly on the outskirts of the throng I saw a man on horseback. He had
stopped his horse and was looking on. There was no mistaking Lacey's
handsome face and trim figure.
Jenny rose to her feet and held up her hand for silence. She spoke her
few words in a ringing voice. "My friends and neighbors, thank you for
your welcome home. I am glad from my heart to be in Catsford again.
That's where Nicholas Driver's daughter ought to be. So I've come back."
She kissed her hand to them two or three times, standing there in the
carriage. Then I saw that she caught sight of Lacey. The flush on her
cheeks deepened. For a second she stood, looking at him her lips just
parted in a smile; but she did not incline her head. He lifted his hat
and bowed low from his saddle. Then she gave him her most radiant
recognition--and sank down on the cushions of the carriage with a sigh.
Jenny could not have reckoned on that encounter--though it seemed all to
the good. We were to have another, on which she had not counted either
when she chose so cleverly the scene of her public reappearance. When at
last they made a lane for our horses to pass, some taking leave of us
with fresh cheers, others escorting us on either side, with jokes and
horseplay among themselves, we met a little procession. It was Alison's
custom to hold a short out-of-door service three times a week during the
men's dinner-hour; the Green was his chosen pulpit, as it had been
Jenny's chosen scene. He came toward us now in all his ecclesiastical
panoply, attended by two or three of his (if Mrs. Jepps will allow me
the term) assistant priests and by a band of choir boys, all in their
robes. Jenny caught sight of the procession and leaned forward eagerly.
I looked back. Lacey was still there; a man was by his horse, talking to
him no doubt, but his eyes were following our progress.
I do not happen to know whether it be etiquette to offer or return the
ordinary signs of recognition when one forms part of a procession,
either secular or ecclesiastical. In the case of the latter, at all
events, probably it is not. This perhaps got Alison out of a
difficulty--while it left Jenny in a doubt. But I think that it must be
permissible to look rather more benevolent, rather less sternly aloof,
than Alison's face was as she passed, escorted by her jesting adherents.
To say that he took no more notice of us or of them than if we had not
been there is inadequate. His ignoring of us achieved a positive
quality. He passed by with his eyes purposely, aggressively,
indifferent. The boys and men looked after him and his procession, and
nudged one another with smiles.
Jenny's face told nothing of her view of this little incident. She was
still smiling when we quickened up and, with final hand-wavings, shook
ourselves clear of our adherents. At Cartmell's office her head was as
clear and her manner as composed as possible. The business that brought
us having been transacted, she opened fire on Cartmell about Oxley Lodge
and the outlying farms of Hingston. Verily she was losing no time in her
campaign!
Cartmell was obviously amused at her. "That's making up for lost time
with a vengeance, Miss Jenny! Hingston and Oxley all at once!" As soon
as they got on to business--got to work again--his old pride and
pleasure in her began to revive.
"Only a bit of Hingston!" Jenny pleaded with a smile.
"There's plenty of money," he said thoughtfully. "In spite of keeping
things going here as you ordered--much too lavishly done it was, too, in
my opinion--it's been piling up since you've been away. If they're
willing to sell--I hear on good authority that Bertram Ware is if he can
get his price--the money's not the difficulty. But what's the good?"
"The good?" asked Jenny.
"Surely you've got plenty? What's the good of a lot more? Isn't it only
a burden on you?"
She answered him not with her old impatience, but with all her
resoluteness--her old certainty that she knew what she wanted, and why
she wanted it--and that it was quite immaterial whether anyone else did.
"You look after the money, Mr. Cartmell; you can leave the good to
me--and the burden!"
"Yes, yes, you and your father!" he grumbled. "No good advising--not the
least! 'Slave-Driver' I used to call him over our port after dinner
sometimes. You're just the same, Miss Jenny."
"All that just because I want to buy a pretty house!" said Jenny,
appealing deprecatingly to me.
She would not go away without his promise to press both matters on.
Having extracted this, she went home--and ended her first day's campaign
by issuing an ukase that all the Driver workmen should, at an early
date, have a day's holiday on full wages, with a great feast for them,
their wives, children, and sweethearts in the grounds of
Breysgate--wages and feast alike to be provided out of the privy purse
of Miss Driver. Catsford was behaving well and was to be petted! Jenny
did not mention whether she intended to invite its chief spiritual
director.
I dined at the Priory that night--a night, on the whole, of distinct
triumph--and made acquaintance with Margaret Octon. Strange daughter of
such a father! Mrs. Octon must--one was inclined to speculate--have been
marvelously different from her husband--and from Jenny Driver.
Imagination began to picture something ineffably timid, shrinking,
gentle--something which, blending with Octon's strong rough strain,
would issue in this child. She seemed all things in turn--except
self-confident. Evidently she was devoted to Jenny; perpetually she
referred all she did to Jenny's approval--but that "all" included many
varieties. Now she would be demure, now venturesome, now childishly
merry, now assuming a premature sedateness. She played tricks with
Jenny, her brown eyes always asking whether she might play them; she
enjoyed herself immensely--by Jenny's kind permission. This constant
reference and this constant appeal found no warrant in anything in
Jenny's manner; the child was evidently a privileged pet and could do
just as she pleased--Jenny delighted in her. It was then in the girl's
nature itself. She was grace and charm--without strength. It would be
very appealing, if one were the person appealed to; it would be most
attractive, most tempting, when seconded by her frail fairy-like beauty.
For it was a joy to look at her; and if she looked at you, asking leave
to be happy, what could you say but--"By all means--and pray let me do
all I can to help!"
Jenny seemed to watch her gayeties and her demureness, her ventures and
retreats, with delight indeed, but also with a more subtle feeling. She
not only enjoyed; she studied and pondered. She gave the impression of
wanting to know what would be thought by others. This with Jenny was
unusual; but her manner did unmistakably ask me my opinion several
times, and when, after dinner, Margaret had waltzed Chat out of the room
for a stroll in the garden, she asked it plainly.
"Isn't she just as charming as she looks?"
"She worships you," I remarked.
"That's nothing--natural just at first, while she's so young. But don't
you find her charming?" Jenny persisted.
"I don't know about women--but if that form of flattery were brought to
bear on any man, I don't see how he could possibly resist."
"It's quite natural; it's not put on in the least."
"I'm sure of it. That's what would make it so dangerous. To have that
beautiful little creature treating one as a god--who could refuse the
incense, or not become devoted to the worshiper?"
Jenny nodded. "You understand it, I see. Men would feel that way, would
they?"
"Rather!" I answered, with a laugh. Jenny was leaning her head on her
elbow, and looked across the table at me with a satisfied mocking smile.
I could see that I had given an answer that pleased her--but she was not
minded to tell me why she was pleased.
Half chaffing her, half really wondering what she would be at, I asked,
"Do you want Oxley Lodge for Margaret?"
"For her?" exclaimed Jenny, smiling still. "Why? Isn't this house big
enough for the mite?"
"Suppose you both marry--or either? You're both eminently marriageable
young women."
"Are we? Eminently marriageable? Well, I suppose so." She laughed. "Even
if one doesn't marry, it's something to be marriageable, isn't it?"
"A most valuable asset," said I. "Then you'd want two houses."
"I suppose we should. But how far you look ahead, Austin!"
"If that isn't Satan reproving sin--!" I cried.
"What do you suspect me of now?" she asked, still mocking, but genuinely
curious, I think, to fathom my thoughts.
"No, no! You'll be off on another tack if you think you've been
sighted."
She laughed as she rose from the table. "Oh, come out and walk! At any
rate, my getting Oxley would annoy Lady Sarah, wouldn't it?"
"You can annoy her cheaper than that!"
"There's plenty of money, Mr. Cartmell says," she answered, smiling over
her shoulder as she led the way.
I had a talk with Margaret, too, a little later on. Jenny sent us for a
moonlight stroll together. Young as the child was, she was good company,
independently of her place in Jenny's mind, which for me gave her an
adventitious interest. But what a contrast to Jenny, no less than to
Octon--and perhaps a more profound one! The fine new surroundings, the
enlarged horizon which Jenny's friendship opened to her, were still a
delightful bewilderment; she enjoyed actively, but she accepted
passively; she applauded the entertainment, but never thought of
arranging the bill of the play. Jenny could not have been like
that--even at seventeen; she would have itched to write some lines in
the book, to have a word to say to the scenes. Margaret's simplicity of
grateful responsiveness was untouched by any calculation.
"It's all just so wonderful!" she said to me, her arms waving over the
park, her brown eyes wide with surprised admiration.
She came to it only on an invitation. Jenny had come as owner. But Jenny
had not been overwhelmed like this. Jenny had kept cool, had taken it
all in--and been interested to survey, from Tor Hill, the next estate!
"To happen to me--suddenly! Ah, but I wish father had lived. If he could
have lived to marry Jenny! They were engaged when he--was killed, you
know."
"Yes," I said, "I know. But don't be sad to-night. Things smell sweet,
and there's a moon in the sky."
She laughed--merry in an instant. "Jenny says we're going to do such
things! As soon as she's settled down again, you know." She paused for a
moment. "Did she love my father very much?"
"Yes, I think she did," I answered, "and I think she loves you."
"To me she's just--everything." Her eyes grew mirthful and adventurous;
she gave a little laugh as she added, "And she says she'll find me a
fairy prince!" At once she was looking to see how I liked this, not with
the anxiety which awaited Jenny's approval, but none the less with an
evident desire for mine.
"That's only right," I answered, laughing. "But she needn't hurry, need
she? You'll be happy here for a bit longer?"
"Happy here? I should think so!" she cried. "Ah, there's Jenny looking
for me!" In an instant she was gone; the next her arm was through
Jenny's, and she was talking merrily.
I became aware of Chat's presence. She came toward me in her faded, far
from sumptuous, gentility. She had a little gush for me. "So happy it
all seems again, Mr. Austin!" she said.
"We seem to be starting again very well indeed," I assented.
"Dear Jenny has behaved so splendidly all through," Chat proceeded. "How
did they dare to be so malicious about her? But I've known her from a
girl. I always trusted her. Why, I may say I did a good deal to form
her!"
A vivid--and highly inopportune--picture came back into my mind, a
picture dating from the night of Jenny's flight--of Chat rocking her
helpless old body to and fro, and saying through her sobs, "I tried, I
tried, I tried!" What had Chat meant that she tried to do? To keep Jenny
out of mischief? Hardly that. To save her from the danger of it had been
the object. As for forming her--Chat had made other confessions about
that.
However--as things stood--Chat had always trusted Jenny. It was
impossible to say how far--at this moment--Jenny had trusted Chat. Not
very far, I think. Jenny probably had said nothing which could make it
harder for Chat to say what she would want to say; both reticence and
revelation would have been bent to that object--and Jenny was an artist
in the use of each of these expedients. Doubtless Chat had been given
her cue. Nevertheless, there was something unusual in her air--something
very friendly, confidential, yet rather furtive, as she drew a little
closer to me.
"But the dear girl is so impulsive," she said. "Of course, it's
delightful, but--" She pursed her lips and gave me a significant look.
"This child!" said Chat.
"Oh, you mean Margaret Octon? Seems a very nice girl, Miss Chatters."
"Jenny's heart's so good--but what a handicap!"
Chat was of that view, then, concerning the coming of Margaret. Well, it
was not uncommon.
"We shall never get back to our old terms with Fillingford Manor as long
as she's here," said Chat.
"Were you so much attached to Fillingford Manor?" I ventured to ask.
"That would end all the talk," she insisted with an agitated urgency.
"If only Lord Fillingford would overlook--" She stopped in a sudden
fright. "Don't say I said that!"
"Why, of course not," I answered, smiling. "Anything you want said you
can say yourself. It's not my business."
"One can always rely on you, Mr. Austin. But wouldn't that be
perfect--after it all, you know?"
It certainly would be picking up the pieces--after a smash into utter
fragments! But it is always pleasant to see people contemplating what
they regard as perfection; and no very clear duty lies on a private
individual to disturb their vision. I told Chat that the idea was no
doubt worth thinking over, and so, in amity, we parted.
That was Chat's idea. Octon was gone with his fascination--not unfelt by
Chat. Now it would be perfection if Lord Fillingford would overlook! But
with that goal in view Margaret Octon was a heavy handicap.
Undoubtedly--so heavy, so fatal, that the goal could hardly be Jenny's.
Chat, who had done so much to form Jenny, might have given a thought to
that aspect of the matter. If one thing were certain, it was that Jenny,
when she accepted her legacy from Octon and brought Margaret to
Breysgate, thereby abandoned and renounced all thought of renewing her
relations with Fillingford. I was glad to come to that conclusion,
helped to getting at it clearly (as one often is) by the opposite point
of view presented by another. I had never been an enthusiastic
Fillingfordite; I had accepted rather than welcomed. And I could bear
him better suing than overlooking. Having things overlooked did not suit
my idea of Jenny--though I could enjoy seeing her riding buoyant over
them.
Jenny and Margaret came along the terrace toward us, arm in arm, their
approach heralded by merry laughter. "We've been building castles in the
air!" cried Jenny.
"May you soon be living in them!"
She shook her head at me in half-serious rebuke. "They were for
Margaret!"
Jenny might deny herself the sky; but she would have castles
somewhere--founded solidly on earth. It was the earth she trusted now.
You cannot fall off that.