“And who is this young widow of yours whom I hear so much about? I
understand Lucy’s rapture over any stranger; but you, too, mother--”
“I too--well, there is no particular witchcraft about it; a nice young
woman has as much chance with me as with any one, Ralph--”
“Oh, if it’s only a nice young woman--”
“It’s a great deal more,” said Lucy. “Why, Miss Jones at the school is a
nice young woman--don’t you be taken in by mother’s old-fashioned
stilts. She is a darling--she is as nice as nice can be. She’s pretty,
and she’s good, and she’s clever. She has read a lot, and seen a lot,
and been everywhere, and knows heaps and heaps of people, and yet just
as simple and as nice as if she had never been married, never had a
baby, and was just a girl like the rest of us--Mother! there is nothing
wrong in what I said?” Lucy suddenly cried, stopping short and blushing
all over with the innocent alarm of a youthfulness which had not been
trained to modern modes of speech.
“Nothing wrong, certainly,” said the mother, with a half smile;
“but--there is no need for entering into all these details.”
“They would have found out immediately, though,” said Lucy, with a
lowered voice, “that there was--Tiny, you know.”
The scene was a drawing-room in a country house looking out upon what
was at this time of year the rather damp and depressing prospect of a
park, with some fine trees and a great breadth of very green, very
mossy, very wet grass. It was only October, though the end of the month;
and in the middle of the day, in the sunshine, the trees, in all their
varied colors, were a fine sight, cheerful and almost exhilarating,
beguiling the eye; but now the sun was gone, the leaves were falling in
little showers whenever the faintest breath of air arose, and where the
green turf was not veiled by their many colored remnants, it was green
with that emerald hue which means only wet; one knew as one gazed across
it that one’s foot would sink in the spongy surface, and wet, wet would
be the boot, the skirt which touched it; the men in their
knickerbockers, or those carefully turned up trousers--which we hear are
the fashion in the dryest streets of Paris and New York--suffered
comparatively little. The brushwood was all wet, with blobs of moisture
on the long brambles and drooping leaves. The park was considered a
beautiful park, though not a very large one, but it was melancholy
itself to look out for hours together upon that green expanse in such an
evening. It was not a bad evening either. There was no rain; the clouds
hung low, but as yet had given forth no shower. The air was damp but yet
brisk. There was a faint yellow glimmer of what might have been sunset
in the sky.
The windows in the Wradisley drawing-rooms were large; one of them, a
vast, shallow bow, which seemed to admit the outside into the interior,
rather than to enlighten the interior with the view of what was outside.
Mrs. Wradisley sat within reach of, but not too near, a large, very red
fire--a fire which was like the turf outside, the growth of generations,
or at least had not at all the air of having been lighted to-day or any
recent day. It did not flame, but glowed steadily, adding something to
the color of the room, but not much to the light. Later in the season,
when larger parties assembled, there was tea in the hall for the
sportsmen and the ladies who waited for them; but Mrs. Wradisley thought
the hall draughty, and much preferred the drawing-room, which was
over-furnished after the present mode of drawing-rooms, but at least
warm, and free from draughts. She was working--knitting with white pins,
or else making mysterious chains and bridges in white wool with a
crochet-hook, her eyes being supposed to be not very strong, and this
kind of industry the best adapted for them. As to what Lucy was doing,
that defies description. She was doing everything and nothing. She had
something of a modern young lady’s contempt for every kind of
needlework, and, then, along with that, a great admiration for it as
something still more superior than the superiority of idleness. A needle
is one of the things that has this double effect. It is the scorn of a
great number of highly advanced, very cultured and superior feminine
people; but yet here and there will arise one, still more advanced and
cultured, who loves the old-fashioned weapon, and speaks of it as a
sacred implement of life. Lucy followed first one opinion and then
another. She had half a dozen pieces of work about, begun under the
influence of one class of her friends, abandoned under that of another.
She had a little studio, too, where she painted and carved, and executed
various of the humbler decorative arts, which, perhaps, to tell the
truth, she enjoyed more than art proper; but these details of the young
lady’s life may be left to show themselves where there is no need of
such vanities. Lucy was, at all events, whatever her other qualities
might be, a most enthusiastic friend.
“Well, I suppose we shall see her, and find out, as Lucy says, for
ourselves--not that it is of much importance,” the brother said, who had
begun this conversation.
“Oh! but it is of a great deal of importance,” cried Lucy. “Mrs. Nugent
is my chief friend. She is mother’s prime favorite. She is the nicest
person in the neighborhood. She is here constantly, or I am there. If
you mean not to like her, you might as well, without making any fuss
about it, go away.”
“Lucy!” cried Mrs. Wradisley, moved to indignation, and dropping all the
white fabric of wool on her knees, “your brother--and just come home
after all these years!”
“What nonsense! Of course I don’t mean that in the least,” Lucy cried.
“Ralph knows--_of course_, I would rather have him than--all the friends
in the world.”
There was a faltering note, however, in this profession. Why should she
like Ralph better than all the friends in the world? He was her brother,
that was true; but he knew very little of Lucy, and Lucy knew next to
nothing of him; he had been gone since she was almost a child--he came
back now with a big beard and a loud voice and a step which rang through
the house. It was evident he thought her, if not a child, yet the most
unimportant feminine person who did not count; and why should she prefer
him to her own nice friends, who were soft of voice and soft of step,
and made much of her, and thought as she did? It is acknowledged
universally that in certain circumstances, when the man is her lover, a
girl prefers that man to all the rest of the creation; but why, when it
is only your brother Raaf, and it may really be said that you don’t know
him--why should you prefer him to your own beloved friends? Lucy did not
ask herself this question--she said what she knew it was the right thing
to say, though with a faltering in her voice. And Ralph, who fortunately
did not care in the least, took no notice of what Lucy said. He liked
the little girl, his little sister, well enough; but it did not upset
the equilibrium of the world in the very least whether she preferred him
or not--if he had thought on the subject he would probably have said,
“More shame to her, the little insensible thing!” but he did not take
the trouble to give it a passing thought.
“I’ve got to show Bertram the neighborhood,” he said; “let him see we’re
not all muffs or clowns in the country. He has a kind of notion that is
about what the English aborigines are--and I daresay it’s true, more or
less.”
“Oh, Raaf!” cried Lucy, raising her little smooth head.
“Well, it’s natural enough. One doesn’t meet the cream of the cream in
foreign parts; unless you’re nothing but a sportsman, or a great swell
doing it as the right thing, the most of the fellows you meet out there
are loafers or blackguards, more or less.”
“It is a pity to form an estimate from blackguards,” said Mrs.
Wradisley, with a smile; “but that, I suppose, I may take as an
exaggeration too. We don’t see much of that kind here. Mr. Bertram is
much mistaken if he thinks--”
“Oh, don’t be too hasty, mother,” said Ralph. “We know the breed; our
respectable family has paid toll to the devil like other folks since it
began life, which is rather a long time ago. After a few hundred years
you get rather proud of your black sheep. I’m something of the kind
myself,” he added, in his big voice.
Mrs. Wradisley once more let the knitting drop in her lap. “You do
yourself very poor justice, Raaf--no justice at all, in fact. You are
not spotless, perhaps, but I hope that black--”
“Whitey-brown,” said her son. “I don’t care for the distinction; but one
white flower is perhaps enough in a family that never went in for
exaggerated virtue--eh? Ah, yes--I know.”
These somewhat incoherent syllables attended the visible direction of
Mrs. Wradisley’s eyes toward the door, with the faintest lifting of her
eyelids. The door had opened and some one had come in. And yet it is
quite inadequate to express the entrance of the master of the house by
such an expression. His foot made very little sound, but this was from
some quality of delicacy and refinement in his tread, not from any want
of dignity or even impressiveness in the man. He was dressed just like
the other men so far as appeared--in a grey morning suit, about which
there was nothing remarkable. Indeed, it would have been against the
perfection of the man had there been anything remarkable in his
dress--but it was a faultless costume, whereas theirs were but common
coats and waistcoats from the tailor’s, lined and creased by wear and
with marks in them of personal habit, such, for instance, as that minute
burnt spot on Raaf’s coat-pocket, which subtly announced, though it was
a mere speck, the thrusting in of a pipe not entirely extinguished, to
that receptacle. Mr. Wradisley, I need not say, did not smoke; he did
not do anything to disturb the perfect outline of an accomplished
gentleman, refined and fastidious, which was his natural aspect. To
smell of tobacco, or indeed of anything, would have put all the fine
machinery of his nature out of gear. He hated emotion as he hated--what
shall I say?--musk or any such villainous smell; he was always _point
devise_, body and soul. It is scarcely necessary to say that he was Mr.
Wradisley and the head of the house. He had indeed a Christian name, by
which he was called by his mother, brother, and sister, but not
conceivably by any one else. Mr. Wradisley was as if you had said Lord,
when used to him--nay, it was a little more, for lord is _tant soit peu_
vulgar and common as a symbol of rank employed by many other people,
whereas Mr., when thus elevated, is unique; the commonest of addresses,
when thus sublimated and etherealized, is always the grandest of all. He
was followed into the room by a very different person, a person of whom
the Wradisley household did not quite know what to make--a friend of
Ralph’s who had come home with him from the deserts and forests whence
that big sportsman and virtuous prodigal had come. This stranger’s name
was Bertram. He had not the air of the wilds about him as Ralph
Wradisley had. He was said to be a bigger sportsman even than Ralph, and
a more prodigious traveler; but this was only Ralph’s report, who was
always favorable to his friends; and Mr. Bertram looked more like a man
about town than an African traveler, except that he was burnt very brown
by exposure, which made his complexion, once fair, produce a sort of
false effect in contrast with his light hair, which the sun had rather
diminished than increased in color. Almost any man would have looked
noisy and rough who had the disadvantage to come into a room after Mr.
Wradisley; but Bertram bore the comparison better than most. Ralph
Wradisley had something of the aspect of a gamekeeper beside both of
them, though I think the honest fellow would have been the first to whom
a child or injured person would have turned. The ladies made involuntary
mental comments upon them as the three stood together.
“Oh, if Raaf were only a little less rough!” his mother breathed in her
heart. Lucy, I think, was most critical of Bertram, finding in him, on
the whole, something which neither of her brothers possessed, though he
must have been forty at the very least, and therefore capable of
exciting but little interest in a girl’s heart.
“I have been showing your friend my treasures,” said Mr. Wradisley, with
a slight turn of his head toward his brother, “and I am delighted to
find we have a great many tastes in common. There is a charm in
sympathy, especially when it is so rare, on these subjects.”
“You could not expect Raaf to know about your casts and things,
Reginald,” said Mrs. Wradisley, precipitately. “He has been living among
such very different scenes.”
“Raaf!” said Mr. Wradisley, slightly elevating his eyebrows. “My dear
mother, could you imagine I was referring in any way to Raaf?”
“Never mind, Reg, I don’t take it amiss,” said the big sportsman, with a
laugh out of his beard.
There was, however, a faint color on his browned cheeks. It is well that
a woman’s perceptions should be quick, no doubt, but if Mrs. Wradisley
had not been jealous for her younger son this very small household jar
need not have occurred. Mr. Wradisley put it right with his natural
blandness.
“We all have our pet subjects,” he said; “you too, mother, as much as
the worst of us. Is the time of tea over, or may I have some?”
“Mr. Wradisley’s casts are magnificent,” cried the stranger. “I should
have known nothing about them but for a wild year or two I spent in
Greece and the islands. A traveler gets a sniff of everything. Don’t you
recollect, Wradisley, the Arabs and their images at--”
The name was not to be spelt by mere British faculties, and I refrain.
“Funny lot of notions,” said Raaf, “I remember; pretty little thing or
two, however, I should like to have brought for Lucy--just the things a
girl would like--but Bertram there snapped them all up before I had a
chance--confounded knowing fellow, always got before me. You come down
on him, Lucy; it’s his fault if I have so few pretty things for you.”
“I am very well contented, Raaf,” said Lucy, prettily. As a matter of
fact the curiosities Ralph had brought home had been chiefly hideous
ivory carvings of truly African type, which Lucy, shuddering, had put
away in a drawer, thanking him effusively, but with averted eyes.
“There were two or three very pretty little Tanagra figurine among the
notions,” said Bertram. “I am sorry Miss Wradisley had not her share of
them--they’re buried in my collections in some warehouse or other, and
probably will never see the light.”
“Ah, Tanagra!” said Mr. Wradisley, with a momentary gleam of interest.
He laid his hand not unkindly on his little sister’s shoulder, as she
handed him, exactly as he liked it, his cup of tea. “It is the less
matter, for Lucy would not have appreciated them,” he said.
“When,” said Mrs. Wradisley, with a little gasp, “do you expect your
friends, Reginald? October is getting on, and the ladies that belong to
them will lie heavy on our hands if we have bad weather.”
“Oh, the guns,” said Mr. Wradisley. “Don’t call them my friends,
mother--friends of the house, friends of the covers, if you like. Not so
great a nuisance as usual this year, since Raaf is here, but no
intimates of mine.”
“We needn’t stand upon words, Reginald. They are coming, anyhow, and I
never remember dates.”
“Useless to attempt it. You should make a memorandum of everything,
which is much more sure. I can tell you at once.”
He took a note-book from his pocket, unerringly, without the usual
scuffle to discover in which pocket it was, and, drawing a chair near
his mother, began to read out the names of the guests. Then there ensued
a little discussion as to where they were to be placed; to Mrs.
Wradisley proposing the yellow room for one couple who had already, in
Mr. Wradisley’s mind, been settled in the green. It was not a very great
difference, but the master of the house had his way. A similar little
argument, growing fainter and fainter on the mother’s side, was carried
on over the other names. In every case Mr. Wradisley had his way.
“I am going to run down to the park gates--that is, to the village,--I
mean I am going to see Mrs. Nugent,” said Lucy, “while mother and
Reginald settle all these people. Raaf, will you come?”
“And I, too?” said Bertram, with a pleasant smile. He had a pleasant
smile, and he was such a gentleman, neither rough like Raaf, nor
over-dainty like Reginald. Lucy was very well content he should come
too.