LAURA'S SCHEME.
The rector and Margaret continued to be fast friends, and the
intercourse between the Hall and the Rectory was of the most intimate
kind. The children of either house scarcely knew which was their home.
The rector was a high-minded, unworldly man, altogether untouched by
ambition or the love of money; there was perhaps a shade of indolence
in his temperament, which made him less likely to feel the spur of
ambition. Margaret and he understood one another better than any
others understood them. Moreover, his genuine admiration, and his
strong affection for her husband, added much to her happiness. For now
and then, with the persistent recurrence of doubt, a misgiving crossed
Margaret's mind that Sidney was not exactly a Christian in the sense
she was. Not that he was in any degree negligent in observing the
outward duties of religion. He was a constant attendant at church
services; and a more regular communicant than she was herself. Day by
day his life appeared to be one of conscientious continuance in
well-doing. He was foremost in all philanthropic and religious
schemes, and worked energetically at them. But now and then, at rare
intervals, a false note jarred upon the harmonious and sensitive chords
of Margaret's inmost soul; and then there was no man's praise of her
husband so precious to her as that of his cousin George, who had been
brought up with him as a brother, and who never doubted that he was one
of the best men living.
As for Sidney, he was well content with himself and his career; and, as
the years passed by, he was no longer troubled by qualms of conscience.
He was spreading himself like a green bay tree; and his "inward thought
was to found a house that should continue forever, a dwelling-place to
all generations." He was increasing the glory of his house; and men
praised him because he was doing well for himself. He blessed his own
soul, and fell into the mistake that God was blessing him.
For Sidney almost fully persuaded himself that he was a Christian. He
accepted what he imagined were the doctrines of Christianity. He would
have signed the thirty-nine Articles of the Christian faith as readily
as any candidate for orders. He had no doubts, or rather he had not
time to trouble himself with inconvenient questions, so he believed
that he was a believer. Often when he was listening with deep
attention to some eloquent or touching sermon, he felt a thrill of
emotion, which he mistook for devotion to Christ as his Master. The
sins of his youth had been repented of and cast behind him; and if one
repents is he not forgiven? He gave largely to the cause of religion,
both in time and money. He was in no open way self-indulgent. If he
was not a Christian man, as well as a rich man, who then could be
saved? The camel had gone through the needle's eye.
The training of his sons he left almost entirely to Margaret; and she
had them brought up as simply and hardily as their first cousins at the
Rectory, boys not born to inherit wealth. No differences were made
between them; no extra indulgences were allowed to her own children
because some day they would be rich men. They had the same tutor and
the same lessons. When Philip was old enough to go to Eton, his
cousins, Sidney and Dick, were sent with him; when Hugh went, the two
younger accompanied him. As they grew up to young manhood they were
sent in the same manner to Oxford. It was no wonder that the rector
believed, what he was always ready to assert, that Sidney was better
than a brother to him. But if the rector was more than content with
his lot, and grateful beyond words for Sidney's generous friendship and
munificent liberality in the education of his four sons, Laura was very
far from feeling the same satisfaction. She had been willing to marry
George for love when he was a poor curate, especially after Sidney had
settled £10,000 upon him; but she could never forget the inequality
existing between her income and position and Margaret's. Both of them
belonged to better families than the Martins; but Margaret was an only
child, and Laura was one of a family of eleven children, with so small
a dowry that the interest of it only found her in dress. She could not
help feeling that she and Margaret were in each other's places;
Margaret would have been perfectly happy as a poor rector's wife, and
she would have been perfectly happy as the owner of Apley Hall and the
wife of a wealthy merchant. She was fond of pre-eminence, but she
always found herself occupying the second place. Margaret's splendid
generosity, and almost lavish expenditure on objects which she
considered worthy of her time and her money, aroused in Laura merely a
spirit of envious criticism. The economical management of household
expenses at the Hall, where Margaret would brook no wasteful customs,
however time-honored, Laura pronounced mean. The bountiful hand, which
gave largely if a gift could be helpful, she called ostentatious.
George Martin's sisters, who paid annual visits to the Rectory, never
failed to fan the smoldering fire of her discontent into a flame. They
always lamented over the small share they and their brother had
received of their uncle's wealth.
"Every penny was left to Sidney," the rector would say in grieved
remonstrance.
"Then he ought to have halved it," persisted Laura, "at the very least;
half for himself, and half for you and your sisters. And he only gave
you a paltry £10,000! It makes one quite mad to think of dividing such
a mean sum among our five children. Two thousand apiece! The portion
of a farmer's daughter, or a tradesman's son! Andrew Goldsmith
possesses as much as that. And think of what Philip and Hugh will
inherit."
"Oh, hush! hush!" answered the rector, "we are rich; as rich as anyone
need be. God knows I am ashamed of having all we have, while so many
of his people have scarcely the necessaries of life. And, my dear
Laura, it seems to me that you have all that Margaret allows herself.
Tell me what indulgence she has that you lack. If she and Sidney have
money, they are not spending it on themselves; they are making it a
blessing to all about them."
"So should we," replied Laura sulkily.
But Laura took care to keep on excellent terms with Margaret. Indeed
it would have been difficult for her to quarrel with her. Margaret's
affection for the rector gathered into its wide embrace all belonging
to him; and his children were only a degree less dear to her than her
own. Phyllis was scarcely a degree less dear, as she had no daughter;
and this little girl almost filled the place of one. All of them were
as much at home at the Hall as at the Rectory; and the rector took
hardly less interest in Philip and Hugh than in his own sons.
Laura's scheme with respect to Phyllis grew deeper and stronger as the
years went on. If she could never be more than Mrs. Martin of the
Rectory, her daughter should be Mrs. Martin of Brackenburn; or if not
that, Mrs. Cleveland of Apley Hall. One of the two brothers she must
marry. But Hugh was nearly two years younger than Phyllis; if possible
she must become the wife of Philip.
She began very early to mold the children to her wishes. She made much
of Philip, lavishing upon him praises and indulgences which he seldom
received from his mother. She left Phyllis almost constantly at the
Hall, before Philip went to Eton, to share his nursery games and
childish pursuits. Philip was grave and serious; what the townfolk of
Apley called "an old-fashioned child"; but Phyllis was like a little
bird flattering joyously about the quiet nursery, and filling it with
childish chatter. She could rouse Philip to play and laughter out of
his gravest moods; and Margaret was thankful to Laura for sparing the
child to her.
"Mother!" said Philip, coming one day into Margaret's sitting room,
holding Phyllis by the hand, while both children looked up to her with
large and solemn eyes, "mother, may I marry Phyllis when I grow up to
be a man? Cousin Laura says yes. Will you say yes too?"
"My boy," answered Margaret gravely, yet almost unable to conceal a
smile, "you cannot understand what marriage means. You are only a
child of seven yet: and marriage is more solemn and more important even
than death is. You know that death is very solemn?"
"Yes," said the boy, "it is too high for me to understand yet."
"And marriage is still higher," continued Margaret; "you will
understand something of death first. Some day, when you are years
older, I will talk to you about marriage, but not now. And, Philip, do
not talk foolishly about a thing that is too high for you to
understand."
"No, mother," he said gravely.
"Phyllis is not your little sister," she said, "but she will be like a
sister to you for many years to come; and she will always be your
friend, if you are good children."
It was in keeping with Philip's thoughtful and steadfast nature never
again to speak of Phyllis as his little wife, or to allow anyone about
him to do so. But constantly, by a word dropped now and again, Laura
kept alive in his mind the idea that Phyllis would some day be his
wife. To Phyllis she spoke as if her whole life was to be fitted to
meet Philip's wishes. It was skillfully and subtly done; never being
so definite as to excite opposition in the nature of either of them.
Year after year Phyllis was taught that the one person in the world
whom she was bound to please was her cousin Philip.
But when Phyllis was fourteen, and Philip, a few months older, was an
Eton schoolboy, Laura thought it wisest to put some little check upon
their intimacy, which was too much like that of brother and sister.
Phyllis was at an age when a country girl is apt to be something of a
hoyden. She rode after the hounds with as much spirit as her brothers;
could play at cricket as well as any of them; and was an adept at
climbing trees. She could shoot and fish fairly well, and tramped
about the country with the boys, never owning to fatigue. But her
mother shrewdly suspected that none of these accomplishments would
retain their charm for Philip, when he entered upon that romantic and
sentimental era of a young man's life during which she hoped to
successfully attach him to Phyllis. If she was to be the accomplished
and cultivated girl likely to attract him then, she must be sent away
for some years.
So Phyllis was sent away, coming home for her holidays generally when
Philip was absent; only meeting for a few days at Christmas just to
keep them in mind of one another. So well and wisely did Laura manage
that Margaret did not notice that virtually Phyllis was separated both
from her brothers and her cousins. She only felt that the girl, whom
she loved very tenderly, was undergoing a change which was distasteful
to her.
The night before Phyllis left home for the first time, her mother went
into the little room opening out of her own bedroom, where the girl had
slept ever since she was a child. Laura held the shaded lamp up to see
if she was sleeping, and thought with exultation how pretty the face
was on which the light fell. She put the lamp away into the other
room, and sat down in the dusk by her young daughter.
"Phyllis," she said, with her hand resting fondly on the girl's head,
"there's one thing I must say to you before you go away to school; but
it must be between you and me, a secret. You must not speak of it to
anybody else; not even to Dick, or your father. You love Philip, my
darling?"
"Oh, yes, mother!" she answered, "I have always loved him."
"More than anyone else?" suggested her mother.
"I think so," she said, "unless, perhaps, it is Dick."
"Oh! you must love Philip more than Dick," replied her mother; "never
think of loving anybody as much as Philip. By and by, when he is old
enough, he will ask you to be his wife; and then your father and I
would be happier than words can tell."
"That was settled a long while ago," said Phyllis, "as soon as I was
born, and you called me by a name something like his."
"But it was to be kept a profound secret," urged her mother, "and
nobody has ever spoken of it since, except me, to you. Of course if
you and Philip did not like it, no one could force you to marry one
another."
"Nobody could do that in England," said Phyllis, with a wise little
laugh, "but don't you be worried, mother; I do love Philip; and I will
marry him."
"Then you must do all you can to fit yourself for him," pursued Laura
anxiously; "he will go to Oxford, and when he has been there he will
not want a romp and a tom-boy about him. You must make a lady of
yourself. When you are his wife, you will be very rich, not a simple
country parson's daughter; and by and by you will be Mrs. Martin of
Brackenburn. You must learn how to fill such a position."
"I must learn to do my duty in that state of life into which it may
please God to call me," said Phyllis, laughing again. "Oh, mother, you
shall see what a fine lady I can make of myself. I will say to myself
every morning, 'Remember you are to be Mrs. Martin of Brackenburn!' and
I will act up to it. I have quite made up my mind to marry Philip."