There is a law of compensation even for the small things of this life,
and by the wise enactments of that law, human happiness, on the whole,
is pretty equally distributed. The rich man, probably, never felt one
tithe of the enjoyment in his noble demesne that it yielded to some poor
artisan who strolled through it on a holiday, and tasted at once the
charms of a woodland scene with all the rapturous delight of a day of
rest.
Arguing from these premises, I greatly doubt if Lady Cobham, at the
head of her great household, with her house crowded with distinguished
visitors, surrounded by every accessory of luxury and splendor, tasted
anything approaching to the delight felt by one, the very humblest
of her guests, and who for a brief twenty-four hours partook of her
hospitality.
Polly Dill, with all her desire and ambition for notice amongst
the great people of the county, had gone to this dinner-party with
considerable misgivings. She only knew the Admiral in the hunting-field;
of her Ladyship she had no knowledge whatever, save in a few dry
sentences uttered to her from a carriage one day at “the meet,” when the
Admiral, with more sailor-like frankness than politeness, presented her
by saying, “This is the heroine of the day's run, Dr. Dill's daughter.”
And to this was responded a stare through a double eye-glass, and a
cold smile and a few still colder words, affecting to be compliment, but
sounding far more like a correction and a rebuke.
No wonder, then, if Polly's heart was somewhat faint about approaching
as a hostess one who could be so repelling as a mere acquaintance.
Indeed, one less resolutely bent on her object would not have
encountered all the mortification and misery her anticipation pictured;
but Polly fortified herself by the philosophy that said, “There is
but one road to this goal; I must either take that one, or abandon the
journey.” And so she did take it.
Either, however, that she had exaggerated the grievance to her own mind,
or that her Ladyship was more courteous at home than abroad; but Polly
was charmed with the kindness of her reception. Lady Cobham had shaken
hands with her, asked her had she been hunting lately, and was about
to speak of her horsemanship to a grim old lady beside her, when the
arrival of other guests cut short the compliment, and Polly passed
on--her heart lightened of a great load--to mix with the general
company.
I have no doubt it was a pleasant country-house; it was called the
pleasantest in the county. On the present occasion it counted amongst
its guests not only the great families of the neighborhood, but several
distinguished visitors from a distance, of whom two, at least, are
noteworthy,--one, the great lyric poet; the other, the first tragic
actress of her age and country. The occasion which assembled them was
a project originally broached at the Admiral's table, and so frequently
discussed afterwards that it matured itself into a congress. The plan
was to get up theatricals for the winter season at Kilkenny, in
which all the native dramatic ability should be aided by the first
professional talent. Scarcely a country-house that could not boast of,
at least, one promising performer. Ruthven and Campion and Probart had
in their several walks been applauded by the great in art, and there
were many others who in the estimation of friends were just as certain
of a high success.
Some passing remark on Polly's good looks, and the suitability of
her face and style for certain small characters in comedy,--the pink
ribboned damsels who are made love to by smart valets,--induced
Lady Cobham to include her in her list; and thus, on these meagre
credentials, was she present. She did not want notice or desire
recognition; she was far too happy to be there, to hear and see and mark
and observe all around her, to care for any especial attention. If the
haughty Arabellas and Georgianas who swept past her without so much as
a glance, were not, in her own estimation, superior in personal
attractions, she knew well that they were so in all the accidents
of station and the advantages of dress; and perhaps--who knows?--the
reflection was not such a discouraging one.
No memorable event, no incident worth recording, marked her visit. In
the world of such society the machinery moves with regularity and
little friction. The comedy of real life is admirably played out by
the well-bred, and Polly was charmed to see with what courtesy, what
consideration, what deference people behaved to each other; and all
without an effort,--perhaps without even a thought.
It was on the following day, when she got home and sat beside her
mother's chair, that she related all she had seen. Her heart was filled
with joy; for, just as she was taking her leave, Lady Cobham had said,
“You have been promised to us for Tuesday next, Miss Dill. Pray don't
forget it!” And now she was busily engaged in the cares of toilette; and
though it was a mere question of putting bows of a sky-blue ribbon on
a muslin dress,--one of those little travesties by which rustic beauty
emulates ball-room splendor,--to her eyes it assumed all the importance
of a grand preparation, and one which she could not help occasionally
rising to contemplate at a little distance.
“Won't it be lovely, mamma,” she said, “with a moss-rose--a mere bud--on
each of those bows? But I have n't told you of how he sang. He was the
smallest little creature in the world, and he tripped across the room
with his tiny feet like a bird, and he kissed Lady Cobham's hand with a
sort of old-world gallantry, and pressed a little sprig of jasmine she
gave him to his heart,--this way,--and then he sat down to the piano. I
thought it strange to see a man play!”
“Effeminate,--very,” muttered the old lady, as she wiped her spectacles.
“Well, I don't know, mamma,--at least, after a moment, I lost all
thought of it, for I never heard anything like his singing before.
He had not much voice, nor, perhaps, great skill, but there was an
expression in the words, a rippling melody with which the verses ran
from his lips, while the accompaniment tinkled on beside them, perfectly
rapturous. It all seemed as if words and air were begotten of the
moment, as if, inspired on the instant, he poured forth the verses, on
which he half dwelt, while thinking over what was to follow, imparting
an actual anxiety as you listened, lest he should not be ready with his
rhyme; and through all there was a triumphant joy that lighted up his
face and made his eyes sparkle with a fearless lustre, as of one who
felt the genius that was within him, and could trust it.” And then he
had been so complimentary to herself, called her that charming little
“rebel,” after she had sung “Where 's the Slave,” and told her that
until he had heard the words from her lips he did not know they were
half so treasonable. “But, mamma dearest, I have made a conquest; and
such a conquest,--the hero of the whole society,--a Captain Stapylton,
who did something or captured somebody at Waterloo,--a bold dragoon,
with a gorgeous pelisse all slashed with gold, and such a mass of
splendor that he was quite dazzling to look upon.” She went on, still
very rapturously, to picture him. “Not very young; that is to say, he
might be thirty-five, or perhaps a little more,--tall, stately, even
dignified in appearance, with a beard and moustache almost white,--for
he had served much in India, and he was dark-skinned as a native.” And
this fine soldier, so sought after and so courted, had been markedly
attentive to her, danced with her twice, and promised she should have
his Arab, “Mahmoud,” at her next visit to Cobham. It was very evident
that his notice of her had called forth certain jealousies from young
ladies of higher social pretensions, nor was she at all indifferent to
the peril of such sentiments, though she did not speak of them to her
mother, for, in good truth, that worthy woman was not one to investigate
a subtle problem, or suggest a wise counsel; not to say that her
interests were far more deeply engaged for Miss Harlowe than for her
daughter Polly, seeing that in the one case every motive, and the spring
to every motive, was familiar to her, while in the other she possessed
but some vague and very strange notions of what was told her. Clarissa
had made a full confidence to her: she had wept out her sorrows on
her bosom, and sat sobbing on her shoulder. Polly came to her with
the frivolous narrative of a ball-room flirtation, which threatened no
despair nor ruin to any one. Here were no heart-consuming miseries,
no agonizing terrors, no dreadful casualties that might darken a whole
existence; and so Mrs. Dill scarcely followed Polly's story at all, and
never with any interest.
Polly went in search of her brother, but he had left home early that
morning with the boat, no one knew whither, and the doctor was in a
towering rage at his absence. Tom, indeed, was so full of his success
with young Conyers that he never so much as condescended to explain his
plans, and simply left a message to say, “It was likely he 'd be back
by dinner-time.” Now Dr. Dill was not in one of his blandest humors.
Amongst the company at Cobham, he had found a great physician from
Kilkenny, plainly showing him that all his social sacrifices were not to
his professional benefit, and that if colds and catarrhs were going, his
own services would never be called in. Captain Stapylton, too, to
whom Polly had presented him, told him that he “feared a young brother
officer of his, Lieutenant Conyers, had fallen into the hands of some
small village practitioner, and that he would take immediate measures
to get him back to headquarters,” and then moved off, without giving him
the time for a correction of the mistake.
He took no note of his daughter's little triumphs, the admiration that
she excited, or the flatteries that greeted her. It is true he did not
possess the same means of measuring these that she had, and in all that
dreary leisure which besets an unhonored guest, he had ample time to
mope and fret and moralize, as gloomily as might be. If, then, he
did not enjoy himself on his visit, he came away from it soured and
ill-humored.
He denounced “junketings”--by which unseemly title he designated the
late entertainment--as amusements too costly for persons of his means.
He made a rough calculation--a very rough one--of all that the
“precious tomfoolery” had cost: the turnpike which he had paid, and
the perquisites to servants--which he had not; the expense of Polly's
finery,--a hazarded guess she would have been charmed to have had
confirmed; and, ending the whole with a startling total, declared that a
reign of rigid domestic economy must commence from that hour. The edict
was something like what one reads from the French Government, when
about to protest against some license of the press, and which opens by
proclaiming that “the latitude hitherto conceded to public discussion
has not been attended with those gratifying results so eagerly
anticipated by the Imperial administration.” Poor Mrs. Dill--like a mere
journalist--never knew she had been enjoying blessings till she was
told she had forfeited them forever, and she heard with a confused
astonishment that the household charges would be still further reduced,
and yet food and fuel and light be not excluded from the supplies.
He denounced Polly's equestrianism as a most ruinous and extravagant
pursuit. Poor Polly, whose field achievements had always been on a
borrowed mount! Tom was a scapegrace, whose debts would have beggared
half-a-dozen families,--wretched dog, to whom a guinea was a gold-mine;
and Mrs. Dill, unhappy Mrs. Dill, who neither hunted, nor smoked,
nor played skittles, after a moment's pause, he told her that his
hard-earned pence should not be wasted in maintaining a “circulating
library.” Was there ever injustice like this? Talk to a man with one
meal a day about gluttony, lecture the castaway at sea about not giving
way to his appetites, you might just as well do so as to preach to
Mrs. Dill--with her one book, and who never wanted another--about the
discursive costliness of her readings.
Could it be that, like the cruel jailer, who killed the spider the
prisoner had learned to love, he had resolved to rob her of Clarissa?
The thought was so overwhelming that it stunned her; and thus stupefied,
she saw the doctor issue forth on his daily round, without venturing
one word in answer. And he rode on his way,--on that strange mission
of mercy, meanness, of honest sympathy, or mock philanthropy, as men's
hearts and natures make of it,--and set out for the “Fisherman's Home.”