SHIRLEY SEEKS TO BE SAVED BY WORKS.
"Of course, I know he will marry Shirley," were her first words when she
rose in the morning. "And he ought to marry her. She can help him," she
added firmly. "But I shall be forgotten when they _are_ married," was
the cruel succeeding thought. "Oh! I shall be wholly forgotten! And
what--_what_ shall I do when Robert is taken quite from me? Where shall
I turn? _My_ Robert! I wish I could justly call him mine. But I am
poverty and incapacity; Shirley is wealth and power. And she is beauty
too, and love. I cannot deny it. This is no sordid suit. She loves
him--not with inferior feelings. She loves, or _will_ love, as he must
feel proud to be loved. Not a valid objection can be made. Let them be
married, then. But afterwards I shall be nothing to him. As for being
his sister, and all that stuff, I despise it. I will either be all or
nothing to a man like Robert; no feeble shuffling or false cant is
endurable. Once let that pair be united, and I will certainly leave
them. As for lingering about, playing the hypocrite, and pretending to
calm sentiments of friendship, when my soul will be wrung with other
feelings, I shall not descend to such degradation. As little could I
fill the place of their mutual friend as that of their deadly foe; as
little could I stand between them as trample over them. Robert is a
first-rate man--in my eyes. I _have_ loved, _do_ love, and _must___ love
him. I would be his wife if I could; as I cannot, I must go where I
shall never see him. There is but one alternative--to cleave to him as
if I were a part of him, or to be sundered from him wide as the two
poles of a sphere.--Sunder me then, Providence. Part us speedily."
Some such aspirations as these were again working in her mind late in
the afternoon, when the apparition of one of the personages haunting her
thoughts passed the parlour window. Miss Keeldar sauntered slowly by,
her gait, her countenance, wearing that mixture of wistfulness and
carelessness which, when quiescent, was the wonted cast of her look and
character of her bearing. When animated, the carelessness quite
vanished, the wistfulness became blent with a genial gaiety, seasoning
the laugh, the smile, the glance, with a unique flavour of sentiment, so
that mirth from her never resembled "the crackling of thorns under a
pot."
"What do you mean by not coming to see me this afternoon, as you
promised?" was her address to Caroline as she entered the room.
"I was not in the humour," replied Miss Helstone, very truly.
Shirley had already fixed on her a penetrating eye.
"No," she said; "I see you are not in the humour for loving me. You are
in one of your sunless, inclement moods, when one feels a
fellow-creature's presence is not welcome to you. You have such moods.
Are you aware of it?"
"Do you mean to stay long, Shirley?"
"Yes. I am come to have my tea, and must have it before I go. I shall
take the liberty, then, of removing my bonnet, without being asked."
And this she did, and then stood on the rug with her hands behind her.
"A pretty expression you have in your countenance," she went on, still
gazing keenly, though not inimically--rather indeed pityingly--at
Caroline. "Wonderfully self-supported you look, you solitude-seeking,
wounded deer. Are you afraid Shirley will worry you if she discovers
that you are hurt, and that you bleed?"
"I never do fear Shirley."
"But sometimes you dislike her; often you avoid her. Shirley can feel
when she is slighted and shunned. If you had not walked home in the
company you did last night, you would have been a different girl to-day.
What time did you reach the rectory?"
"By ten."
"Humph! You took three-quarters of an hour to walk a mile. Was it you,
or Moore, who lingered so?"
"Shirley, you talk nonsense."
"_He_ talked nonsense--that I doubt not; or he looked it, which is a
thousand times worse. I see the reflection of his eyes on your forehead
at this moment. I feel disposed to call him out, if I could only get a
trustworthy second. I feel desperately irritated. I felt so last night,
and have felt it all day."
"You don't ask me why," she proceeded, after a pause, "you little
silent, over-modest thing; and you don't deserve that I should pour out
my secrets into your lap without an invitation. Upon my word, I could
have found it in my heart to have dogged Moore yesterday evening with
dire intent. I have pistols, and can use them."
"Stuff, Shirley! Which would you have shot--me or Robert?"
"Neither, perhaps. Perhaps myself--more likely a bat or a tree-bough. He
is a puppy, your cousin--a quiet, serious, sensible, judicious,
ambitious puppy. I see him standing before me, talking his half-stern,
half-gentle talk, bearing me down (as I am very conscious he does) with
his fixity of purpose, etc.; and then--I have no patience with him!"
Miss Keeldar started off on a rapid walk through the room, repeating
energetically that she had no patience with men in general, and with her
tenant in particular.
"You are mistaken," urged Caroline, in some anxiety. "Robert is no puppy
or male flirt; I can vouch for that."
"_You_ vouch for it! Do you think I'll take your word on the subject?
There is no one's testimony I would not credit sooner than yours. To
advance Moore's fortune you would cut off your right hand."
"But not tell lies. And if I speak the truth, I must assure you that he
was just civil to me last night--that was all."
"I never asked what he was. I can guess. I saw him from the window take
your hand in his long fingers, just as he went out at my gate."
"That is nothing. I am not a stranger, you know. I am an old
acquaintance, and his cousin."
"I feel indignant, and that is the long and short of the matter,"
responded Miss Keeldar. "All my comfort," she added presently, "is
broken up by his manœuvres. He keeps intruding between you and me.
Without him we should be good friends; but that six feet of puppyhood
makes a perpetually-recurring eclipse of our friendship. Again and again
he crosses and obscures the disc I want always to see clear; ever and
anon he renders me to you a mere bore and nuisance."
"No, Shirley, no."
"He does. You did not want my society this afternoon, and I feel it
hard. You are naturally somewhat reserved, but I am a social personage,
who cannot live alone. If we were but left unmolested, I have that
regard for you that I could bear you in my presence for ever, and not
for the fraction of a second do I ever wish to be rid of you. You cannot
say as much respecting me."
"Shirley, I can say anything you wish. Shirley, I like you."
"You will wish me at Jericho to-morrow, Lina."
"I shall not. I am every day growing more accustomed to--fonder of you.
You know I am too English to get up a vehement friendship all at once;
but you are so much better than common--you are so different to
every-day young ladies--I esteem you, I value you; you are never a
burden to me--never. Do you believe what I say?"
"Partly," replied Miss Keeldar, smiling rather incredulously; "but you
are a peculiar personage. Quiet as you look, there is both a force and a
depth somewhere within not easily reached or appreciated. Then you
certainly are not happy."
"And unhappy people are rarely good. Is that what you mean?"
"Not at all. I mean rather that unhappy people are often preoccupied,
and not in the mood for discoursing with companions of my nature.
Moreover, there is a sort of unhappiness which not only depresses, but
corrodes; and that, I fear, is your portion. Will pity do you any good,
Lina? If it will, take some from Shirley; she offers largely, and
warrants the article genuine."
"Shirley, I never had a sister--you never had a sister; but it flashes
on me at this moment how sisters feel towards each other--affection
twined with their life, which no shocks of feeling can uproot, which
little quarrels only trample an instant, that it may spring more freshly
when the pressure is removed; affection that no passion can ultimately
outrival, with which even love itself cannot do more than compete in
force and truth. Love hurts us so, Shirley. It is so tormenting, so
racking, and it burns away our strength with its flame. In affection is
no pain and no fire, only sustenance and balm. I am supported and
soothed when you--that is, _you only_--are near, Shirley. Do you
believe me now?"
"I am always easy of belief when the creed pleases me. We really are
friends, then, Lina, in spite of the black eclipse?"
"We really are," returned the other, drawing Shirley towards her, and
making her sit down, "chance what may."
"Come, then; we will talk of something else than the Troubler." But at
this moment the rector came in, and the "something else" of which Miss
Keeldar was about to talk was not again alluded to till the moment of
her departure. She then delayed a few minutes in the passage to say,
"Caroline, I wish to tell you that I have a great weight on my mind; my
conscience is quite uneasy as if I had committed, or was going to
commit, a crime. It is not my _private_ conscience, you must understand,
but my landed-proprietor and lord-of-the-manor conscience. I have got
into the clutch of an eagle with iron talons. I have fallen under a
stern influence, which I scarcely approve, but cannot resist. Something
will be done ere long, I fear, which it by no means pleases me to think
of. To ease my mind, and to prevent harm as far as I can, I mean to
enter on a series of good works. Don't be surprised, therefore, if you
see me all at once turn outrageously charitable. I have no idea how to
begin, but you must give me some advice. We will talk more on the
subject to-morrow; and just ask that excellent person, Miss Ainley, to
step up to Fieldhead. I have some notion of putting myself under her
tuition. Won't she have a precious pupil? Drop a hint to her, Lina,
that, though a well-meaning, I am rather a neglected character, and then
she will feel less scandalized at my ignorance about clothing societies
and such things."
On the morrow Caroline found Shirley sitting gravely at her desk, with
an account-book, a bundle of banknotes, and a well-filled purse before
her. She was looking mighty serious, but a little puzzled. She said she
had been "casting an eye" over the weekly expenditure in housekeeping at
the hall, trying to find out where she could retrench; that she had also
just given audience to Mrs. Gill, the cook, and had sent that person
away with a notion that her (Shirley's) brain was certainly crazed. "I
have lectured her on the duty of being careful," said she, "in a way
quite new to her. So eloquent was I on the text of economy that I
surprised myself; for, you see, it is altogether a fresh idea. I never
thought, much less spoke, on the subject till lately. But it is all
theory; for when I came to the practical part I could retrench nothing.
I had not firmness to take off a single pound of butter, or to prosecute
to any clear result an inquest into the destiny of either dripping,
lard, bread, cold meat, or other kitchen perquisite whatever. I know we
never get up illuminations at Fieldhead, but I could not ask the meaning
of sundry quite unaccountable pounds of candles. We do not wash for the
parish, yet I viewed in silence items of soap and bleaching-powder
calculated to satisfy the solicitude of the most anxious inquirer after
our position in reference to those articles. Carnivorous I am not, nor
is Mrs. Pryor, nor is Mrs. Gill herself, yet I only hemmed and opened my
eyes a little wide when I saw butchers' bills whose figures seemed to
prove that fact--falsehood, I mean. Caroline, you may laugh at me, but
you can't change me. I am a poltroon on certain points; I feel it. There
is a base alloy of moral cowardice in my composition. I blushed and hung
my head before Mrs. Gill, when she ought to have been faltering
confessions to me. I found it impossible to get up the spirit even to
hint, much less to prove, to her that she was a cheat. I have no calm
dignity, no true courage about me."
"Shirley, what fit of self-injustice is this? My uncle, who is not given
to speak well of women, says there are not ten thousand men in England
as genuinely fearless as you."
"I am fearless, physically; I am never nervous about danger. I was not
startled from self-possession when Mr. Wynne's great red bull rose with
a bellow before my face, as I was crossing the cowslip lea alone,
stooped his begrimed, sullen head, and made a run at me; but I was
afraid of seeing Mrs. Gill brought to shame and confusion of face. You
have twice--ten times--my strength of mind on certain subjects,
Caroline. You, whom no persuasion can induce to pass a bull, however
quiet he looks, would have firmly shown my housekeeper she had done
wrong; then you would have gently and wisely admonished her; and at
last, I dare say, provided she had seemed penitent, you would have very
sweetly forgiven her. Of this conduct I am incapable. However, in spite
of exaggerated imposition, I still find we live within our means. I have
money in hand, and I really must do some good with it. The Briarfield
poor are badly off; they must be helped. What ought I to do, think you,
Lina? Had I not better distribute the cash at once?"
"No, indeed, Shirley; you will not manage properly. I have often noticed
that your only notion of charity is to give shillings and half-crowns in
a careless, free-handed sort of way, which is liable to continual abuse.
You must have a prime minister, or you will get yourself into a series
of scrapes. You suggested Miss Ainley yourself; to Miss Ainley I will
apply. And, meantime, promise to keep quiet, and not begin throwing away
your money. What a great deal you have, Shirley! You must feel very rich
with all that?"
"Yes; I feel of consequence. It is not an immense sum, but I feel
responsible for its disposal; and really this responsibility weighs on
my mind more heavily than I could have expected. They say that there are
some families almost starving to death in Briarfield. Some of my own
cottagers are in wretched circumstances. I must and will help them."
"Some people say we shouldn't give alms to the poor, Shirley."
"They are great fools for their pains. For those who are not hungry, it
is easy to palaver about the degradation of charity, and so on: but they
forget the brevity of life, as well as its bitterness. We have none of
us long to live. Let us help each other through seasons of want and woe
as well as we can, without heeding in the least the scruples of vain
philosophy."
"But you do help others, Shirley. You give a great deal as it is."
"Not enough. I must give more, or, I tell you, my brother's blood will
some day be crying to Heaven against me. For, after all, if political
incendiaries come here to kindle conflagration in the neighbourhood, and
my property is attacked, I shall defend it like a tigress--I know I
shall. Let me listen to Mercy as long as she is near me. Her voice once
drowned by the shout of ruffian defiance, and I shall be full of
impulses to resist and quell. If once the poor gather and rise in the
form of the mob, I shall turn against them as an aristocrat; if they
bully me, I must defy: if they attack, I must resist, and I will."
"You talk like Robert."
"I feel like Robert, only more fierily. Let them meddle with Robert, or
Robert's mill, or Robert's interests, and I shall hate them. At present
I am no patrician, nor do I regard the poor around me as plebeians; but
if once they violently wrong me or mine, and then presume to dictate to
us, I shall quite forget pity for their wretchedness and respect for
their poverty, in scorn of their ignorance and wrath at their
insolence."
"Shirley, how your eyes flash!"
"Because my soul burns. Would you, any more than me, let Robert be borne
down by numbers?"
"If I had your power to aid Robert, I would use it as you mean to use
it. If I could be such a friend to him as you can be, I would stand by
him, as you mean to stand by him, till death."
"And now, Lina, though your eyes don't flash, they glow. You drop your
lids; but I saw a kindled spark. However, it is not yet come to
fighting. What I want to do is to _prevent_ mischief. I cannot forget,
either day or night, that these embittered feelings of the poor against
the rich have been generated in suffering: they would neither hate nor
envy us if they did not deem us so much happier than themselves. To
allay this suffering, and thereby lessen this hate, let me, out of my
abundance, give abundantly; and that the donation may go farther, let it
be made wisely. To that intent, we must introduce some clear, calm,
practical sense into our councils. So go and fetch Miss Ainley."
Without another word Caroline put on her bonnet and departed. It may,
perhaps, appear strange that neither she nor Shirley thought of
consulting Mrs. Pryor on their scheme; but they were wise in abstaining.
To have consulted her--and this they knew by instinct--would only have
been to involve her in painful embarrassment. She was far better
informed, better read, a deeper thinker than Miss Ainley, but of
administrative energy, of executive activity, she had none. She would
subscribe her own modest mite to a charitable object willingly--secret
almsgiving suited her; but in public plans, on a large scale, she could
take no part; as to originating them, that was out of the question. This
Shirley knew, and therefore she did not trouble Mrs. Pryor by unavailing
conferences, which could only remind her of her own deficiencies, and do
no good.
It was a bright day for Miss Ainley when she was summoned to Fieldhead
to deliberate on projects so congenial to her; when she was seated with
all honour and deference at a table with paper, pen, ink, and--what was
best of all--cash before her, and requested to draw up a regular plan
for administering relief to the destitute poor of Briarfield. She, who
knew them all, had studied their wants, had again and again felt in what
way they might best be succoured, could the means of succour only be
found, was fully competent to the undertaking, and a meek exultation
gladdened her kind heart as she felt herself able to answer clearly and
promptly the eager questions put by the two young girls, as she showed
them in her answers how much and what serviceable knowledge she had
acquired of the condition of her fellow-creatures around her.
Shirley placed at her disposal £300, and at sight of the money Miss
Ainley's eyes filled with joyful tears; for she already saw the hungry
fed, the naked clothed, the sick comforted thereby. She quickly drew up
a simple, sensible plan for its expenditure; and she assured them
brighter times would now come round, for she doubted not the lady of
Fieldhead's example would be followed by others. She should try to get
additional subscriptions, and to form a fund; but first she must consult
the clergy. Yes, on that point she was peremptory. Mr. Helstone, Dr.
Boultby, Mr. Hall, _must_ be consulted (for not only must Briarfield be
relieved, but Whinbury and Nunnely). It would, she averred, be
presumption in her to take a single step unauthorized by them.
The clergy were sacred beings in Miss Ainley's eyes; no matter what
might be the insignificance of the individual, his station made him
holy. The very curates--who, in their trivial arrogance, were hardly
worthy to tie her patten-strings, or carry her cotton umbrella, or check
woollen shawl--she, in her pure, sincere enthusiasm, looked upon as
sucking saints. No matter how clearly their little vices and enormous
absurdities were pointed out to her, she could not see them; she was
blind to ecclesiastical defects; the white surplice covered a multitude
of sins.
Shirley, knowing this harmless infatuation on the part of her
recently-chosen prime minister, stipulated expressly that the curates
were to have no voice in the disposal of the money, that their meddling
fingers were not to be inserted into the pie. The rectors, of course,
must be paramount, and they might be trusted. They had some experience,
some sagacity, and Mr. Hall, at least, had sympathy and loving-kindness
for his fellow-men; but as for the youth under them, they must be set
aside, kept down, and taught that subordination and silence best became
their years and capacity.
It was with some horror Miss Ainley heard this language. Caroline,
however, interposing with a mild word or two in praise of Mr Sweeting,
calmed her again. Sweeting was, indeed, her own favourite. She
endeavoured to respect Messrs. Malone and Donne, but the slices of
sponge-cake and glasses of cowslip or primrose wine she had at different
times administered to Sweeting, when he came to see her in her little
cottage, were ever offered with sentiments of truly motherly regard. The
same innocuous collation she had once presented to Malone; but that
personage evinced such open scorn of the offering, she had never
ventured to renew it. To Donne she always served the treat, and was
happy to see his approbation of it proved beyond a doubt by the fact of
his usually eating two pieces of cake, and putting a third in his
pocket.
Indefatigable in her exertions where good was to be done, Miss Ainley
would immediately have set out on a walk of ten miles round to the three
rectors, in order to show her plan, and humbly solicit their approval;
but Miss Keeldar interdicted this, and proposed, as an amendment, to
collect the clergy in a small select reunion that evening at Fieldhead.
Miss Ainley was to meet them, and the plan was to be discussed in full
privy council.
Shirley managed to get the senior priesthood together accordingly, and
before the old maid's arrival, she had, further, talked all the
gentlemen into the most charming mood imaginable. She herself had taken
in hand Dr. Boultby and Mr. Helstone. The first was a stubborn old
Welshman, hot, opinionated, and obstinate, but withal a man who did a
great deal of good, though not without making some noise about it. The
latter we know. She had rather a friendly feeling for both, especially
for old Helstone; and it cost her no trouble to be quite delightful to
them. She took them round the garden; she gathered them flowers; she was
like a kind daughter to them. Mr. Hall she left to Caroline--or rather,
it was to Caroline's care Mr. Hall consigned himself.
He generally sought Caroline in every party where she and he happened to
be. He was not in general a lady's man, though all ladies liked him;
something of a book-worm he was, near-sighted, spectacled, now and then
abstracted. To old ladies he was kind as a son. To men of every
occupation and grade he was acceptable. The truth, simplicity, frankness
of his manners, the nobleness of his integrity, the reality and
elevation of his piety, won him friends in every grade. His poor clerk
and sexton delighted in him; the noble patron of his living esteemed him
highly. It was only with young, handsome, fashionable, and stylish
ladies he felt a little shy. Being himself a plain man--plain in aspect,
plain in manners, plain in speech--he seemed to fear their dash,
elegance, and airs. But Miss Helstone had neither dash nor airs, and her
native elegance was of a very quiet order--quiet as the beauty of a
ground-loving hedge-flower. He was a fluent, cheerful, agreeable talker.
Caroline could talk too in a _tête-à-tête_. She liked Mr. Hall to come
and take the seat next her in a party, and thus secure her from Peter
Augustus Malone, Joseph Donne, or John Sykes; and Mr. Hall never failed
to avail himself of this privilege when he possibly could. Such
preference shown by a single gentleman to a single lady would certainly,
in ordinary cases, have set in motion the tongues of the gossips; but
Cyril Hall was forty-five years old, slightly bald, and slightly gray,
and nobody ever said or thought he was likely to be married to Miss
Helstone. Nor did he think so himself. He was wedded already to his
books and his parish. His kind sister Margaret, spectacled and learned
like himself, made him happy in his single state; he considered it too
late to change. Besides, he had known Caroline as a pretty little girl.
She had sat on his knee many a time; he had bought her toys and given
her books; he felt that her friendship for him was mixed with a sort of
filial respect; he could not have brought himself to attempt to give
another colour to her sentiments, and his serene mind could glass a fair
image without feeling its depths troubled by the reflection.
When Miss Ainley arrived, she was made kindly welcome by every one. Mrs.
Pryor and Margaret Hall made room for her on the sofa between them; and
when the three were seated, they formed a trio which the gay and
thoughtless would have scorned, indeed, as quite worthless and
unattractive--a middle-aged widow and two plain, spectacled old
maids--yet which had its own quiet value, as many a suffering and
friendless human being knew.
Shirley opened the business and showed the plan.
"I know the hand which drew up that," said Mr. Hall, glancing at Miss
Ainley, and smiling benignantly. His approbation was won at once.
Boultby heard and deliberated with bent brow and protruded under lip.
His consent he considered too weighty to be given in a hurry. Helstone
glanced sharply round with an alert, suspicious expression, as if he
apprehended that female craft was at work, and that something in
petticoats was somehow trying underhand to acquire too much influence,
and make itself of too much importance. Shirley caught and comprehended
the expression. "This scheme is nothing," said she carelessly. "It is
only an outline--a mere suggestion. You, gentlemen, are requested to
draw up rules of your own."
And she directly fetched her writing-case, smiling queerly to herself as
she bent over the table where it stood. She produced a sheet of paper, a
new pen, drew an arm-chair to the table, and presenting her hand to old
Helstone, begged permission to install him in it. For a minute he was a
little stiff, and stood wrinkling his copper-coloured forehead
strangely. At last he muttered, "Well, you are neither my wife nor my
daughter, so I'll be led for once; but mind--I know I _am_ led. Your
little female manœuvres don't blind me."
"Oh!" said Shirley, dipping the pen in the ink, and putting it into his
hand, "you must regard me as Captain Keeldar to-day. This is quite a
gentleman's affair--yours and mine entirely, doctor" (so she had dubbed
the rector). "The ladies there are only to be our aides-de-camp, and at
their peril they speak, till we have settled the whole business."
He smiled a little grimly, and began to write. He soon interrupted
himself to ask questions, and consult his brethren, disdainfully lifting
his glance over the curly heads of the two girls and the demure caps of
the elder ladies, to meet the winking glasses and gray pates of the
priests. In the discussion which ensued, all three gentlemen, to their
infinite credit, showed a thorough acquaintance with the poor of their
parishes--an even minute knowledge of their separate wants. Each rector
knew where clothing was needed, where food would be most acceptable,
where money could be bestowed with a probability of it being judiciously
laid out. Wherever their memories fell short, Miss Ainley or Miss Hall,
if applied to, could help them out; but both ladies took care not to
speak unless spoken to. Neither of them wanted to be foremost, but each
sincerely desired to be useful; and useful the clergy consented to make
them--with which boon they were content.
Shirley stood behind the rectors, leaning over their shoulders now and
then to glance at the rules drawn up and the list of cases making out,
listening to all they said, and still at intervals smiling her queer
smile--a smile not ill-natured, but significant--too significant to be
generally thought amiable. Men rarely like such of their fellows as read
their inward nature too clearly and truly. It is good for women,
especially, to be endowed with a soft blindness; to have mild, dim eyes,
that never penetrate below the surface of things--that take all for what
it seems. Thousands, knowing this, keep their eyelids drooped on system;
but the most downcast glance has its loophole, through which it can, on
occasion, take its sentinel-survey of life. I remember once seeing a
pair of blue eyes, that were usually thought sleepy, secretly on the
alert, and I knew by their expression--an expression which chilled my
blood, it was in that quarter so wondrously unexpected--that for years
they had been accustomed to silent soul-reading. The world called the
owner of these blue eyes _bonne petite femme_ (she was not an
Englishwoman). I learned her nature afterwards--got it off by
heart--studied it in its farthest, most hidden recesses. She was the
finest, deepest, subtlest schemer in Europe.
When all was at length settled to Miss Keeldar's mind, and the clergy
had entered so fully into the spirit of her plans as to head the
subscription-list with their signatures for £50 each, she ordered supper
to be served, having previously directed Mrs. Gill to exercise her
utmost skill in the preparation of this repast. Mr. Hall was no _bon
vivant_--he was naturally an abstemious man, indifferent to luxury; but
Boultby and Helstone both liked good cookery. The _recherché_ supper
consequently put them into excellent humour. They did justice to it,
though in a gentlemanly way--not in the mode Mr. Donne would have done
had he been present. A glass of fine wine was likewise tasted, with
discerning though most decorous relish. Captain Keeldar was complimented
on his taste; the compliment charmed him. It had been his aim to gratify
and satisfy his priestly guests. He had succeeded, and was radiant with
glee.