I did not mention Miss Farington's threatened visit until the very
moment when, after dinner, as we were all turning out for a walk round
the garden, I caught a glimpse of her little pony carriage between the
trees of the drive. Babiole, wrapt in a long shawl of Indian
embroidery which I had taken a fancy to in a bazaar in Calcutta, and
had sent home to her, was standing by a rose-tree and choosing the
flowers which I was to cut. Mrs. Ellmer, with characteristic vivacity,
was running little races with old Ta-ta, whose failing energy was now
satisfied with such small performances as these. The dog stopped
short to bark at the carriage, to which Mrs. Ellmer now directed my
attention.
'Oh yes, it's Miss Farington, I think; she said she might come round
this evening.'
'What! Miss Farington? Your young lady? And you could forget that she
was coming! Oh, naughty, naughty!' cried Mrs. Ellmer.
Babiole's face had flushed from chin to forehead.
'We must go and meet her,' she said quietly, setting the example of
going up the steps which led from terrace to terrace to the house.
Reminded of my duty, I hastened up to the lawn, and was just in time
to help my visitor out of the little carriage. She wore a gray dress,
a dark blue jacket, a brown hat, and black silk gloves--a costume in
which I had seen her often before, but which had not struck me as
being a hideous combination until I saw it straightway after looking
at a figure which, seen in the soft evening shadows which had begun to
creep up under the trees, had left in my mind an intoxicating vision
of rich colours and soft outlines, like the conception of an Indian
princess by an Impressionist painter.
Lucy Farington's manner suffered as much by contrast with Mrs. Scott's
as her dress had done. Never before had she seemed so matter-of-fact,
so brusque, so blind and deaf to everything that was not strictly
useful or severely intellectual. On finding that Mrs. Scott took but a
tepid interest in the subject of artisans' dwellings, and had no
acquaintance with the writings either of Kant or Klopstock, she
glanced at me, who had never been bold enough to avow the whole depth
of my indifference to the one and my ignorance of the other subject,
with an expression of scarcely disguised contempt.
'I'm afraid Henry and I shall scarcely find in you a warm sympathiser
with our plans, Mrs. Scott,' she said with rather a pitying smile.
'But of course we must not expect you London ladies to condescend to
take an interest in cottagers; and it is only we poor country girls
who, for want of anything better to do, have to improve our minds.'
We were all in the drawing-room now, to my great regret, for I felt
that if we had remained in the garden we might have dispersed
ourselves, and I might have been spared hearing my _fiancee's_
unaccountable outbreak of bad taste. Babiole answered very quietly.
'You have misunderstood me a little, I am afraid, Miss Farington,' she
said. 'It is not that my mother and I don't take an _interest_ in
cottagers; but that, having been cottagers ourselves, and having known
and visited cottagers rather as friends than as patrons, we can't at
once jump into the habit of considering them wholesale, as if we were
poor-law guardians.'
'And as for improving one's mind,' broke in Mrs. Ellmer, who was
growing exceedingly irate at the persistent manner in which the
philanthropist ignored her, 'you must blame Mr. Maude if she is not
learned enough, for it was he who educated her.'
This bold speech made a great sensation. Miss Farington drew herself
up. Babiole shot at me an eloquent involuntary glance from eyes which
were suddenly filled with tears; while I confess that if I had been
called upon to speak at that moment I should have gone near to
choking. In the meantime Mrs. Ellmer went on undaunted.
'I suppose it's very old-fashioned to think that one's studies ought
to be with the object of giving pleasure to other people. But I'm sure
it's pleasanter to hear a girl play a nice piece of music than to
hear her talk about books that most of us have never heard of.'
'I love music--_good_ music,' said Lucy coldly. 'No study is more
refining and more profound than that of the great masters of harmony.
I had no idea, Mrs. Scott, that you were an accomplished amateur. Will
you not give me the pleasure of hearing you?'
'I am afraid I am not a very scientific student,' said Babiole, as she
walked towards the piano, which I opened for her.
She looked so pale and tired that I suggested in a low voice that she
had better not play to-night. She glanced at Miss Farington, however,
and I, following the direction of her eyes, saw that my _fiancee_ was
watching us in a displeased manner. I therefore beat a retreat from
the piano, and Babiole began to play. She was a good performer, and
though not one of phenomenal accomplishment, she seemed to me to give
something of her own grace and charm to the music she interpreted. She
was nervous this evening on account of the critical element in the
audience; but I thought she played with even more of sympathy and of
power than usual. She had chosen one of the less hackneyed of
Mendelssohn's 'Songs without Words,' and when she had finished I
thanked her heartily, while Miss Farington chimed in with more
reserve.
'I am afraid,' said Babiole, 'that it is not the sort of music to give
you great pleasure, but I can't play much by heart, and that is one of
the few things I know.'
'Of course,' agreed Miss Farington readily, 'I acquit you of such a
terrible charge as an enthusiasm for the shallow sentimentalism of the
"Lieder ohne Worte." Some day, I hope, in the daytime, you will let me
have the pleasure of hearing you play something you really like. It
is really very good of you to have received me at all so late, but I
had heard so much about you that I really must plead guilty to the
_childish_ charge of not being able to control my impatience to see
you.'
And Miss Farington took leave of the two ladies and sailed out of the
room, followed meekly by me. I was in no affectionate mood, having
been astonished and disgusted by her undreamt-of powers of making
herself disagreeable.
'I want you to come and spend the day at Oak Lodge to-morrow, Henry,'
she said in a kinder tone than she had used during the evening, as
soon as she was seated in the pony-carriage. 'I have some designs of a
new church to show you, which I think even you will like; and my Uncle
Matthew is most anxious to see more of you than he had a chance of
doing yesterday.'
'Thank you; it is very kind,' I answered rather coldly; 'and of course
I shall be happy to come and see you to-morrow as usual if you will
let me. But I couldn't spend the whole day at Oak Lodge, because, you
see, I have guests to consider.'
'And can't they spare you for a single afternoon?' asked Lucy with a
hard laugh. 'I shall really begin to feel quite jealous.'
'You need not indeed,' I broke out hastily and earnestly, 'I assure
you----'
She interrupted me in a very abrupt and icy manner. 'Pray do not take
the trouble. No man who was such a flimsy creature as to give me
reason for jealousy could possibly retain a hold upon my affections.'
'Of course not,' I assented, in my usual mean-spirited way, but with a
dawning suspicion that my _fiancee's_ affections would not prove
strong enough for even a less flimsy creature than I to obtain a firm
grip on.
'My father and Mrs. Farington will drive over to-morrow,' Lucy went
on; 'I believe they intend to ask Mrs. Scott to dinner. I suppose one
must ask the mother too,' she added dubiously.
'It will certainly be better, unless you wish to insult them both,' I
said in an unnaturally subdued tone the significance of which I think
she failed to notice. 'But in any case the invitation will have no
awful results, for Mrs. Scott is not well enough to go out to
dinners.'
'Ah, poor thing, I suppose not. She looks very ill. It seems almost
impossible to believe what they tell me, that she was once very
pretty. Perhaps she would not look so bad though if somebody could
only persuade her to dress like other people. Did you ever see
anything like that shawl arrangement she had on when I first came?'
'Never,' said I calmly. 'But I confess I am barbarous enough to think
that a merit. Every lady's style of dress should have something
unique about it.'
'Indeed! Then how about mine?'
'Your style of dress is unique too,' said I politely.
Miss Farington looked at me doubtfully, but came, I think, to the
conclusion that she had been disagreeable enough for one day, even if
this compliment were a dubious one. So she contented herself with
begging me warmly to come early the next day and to remember that my
guests were not to absorb me too entirely, and then she advanced her
cheek for me to kiss and drove away through the trees. When I turned
back into the house I found a great turmoil prevailing. 'Mistress
Scott had been on her way to her room when she had swooned awa' on the
stairs,' Janet said. I stole presently up the staircase to her door,
and Mrs. Ellmer came out to tell me that Babiole had indeed been
overcome by fatigue and had fainted, but that she was much better
now, and would be all right in the morning after the night's rest.
But I was anxious about the poor child; for her pallor during the
evening had frightened me. My Lucy's new departure too had given me
something to think about, so that sleep for the present was out of the
question. I therefore determined to keep my vigil comfortably; going
into the study, I threw another log on the fire which, winter and
summer, was always necessary in the evening, and, lighting my pipe,
stretched myself in my old chair and gave myself up to meditation,
which resolved itself before long into a doze.
I woke up suddenly before the fire had got low, and heard the old
boards of the floor above me creaking repeatedly, as if some one were
hurrying about on them with a soft tread. The room over my study was
that which had been assigned to Mrs. Scott, so that I was on the
alert at once, afraid that she had been taken ill again in the night,
and that her mother, who slept in a little room next to hers, was
running to and fro in attendance upon her.
I jumped up from my chair, with the intention of going upstairs to ask
Mrs. Ellmer whether I could be of any use; but before I had taken two
steps, in a slow sleepy fashion, listening all the time, the creaking
ceased, and I heard the sound of a door being opened on the landing
above. The study-door was ajar, so that in the complete stillness of
the night the faintest noise was audible to me. I crossed the room
softly, creeping nearer to the door with keenly open ears and with
something more than curiosity in my mind. For without being at all one
of those highly sensitive persons who can distinguish without fail one
footfall from another, I knew the difference between Mrs. Ellmer's
quick active step, and the slow soft tread which I now heard on the
polished uncarpeted floor of the corridor. The steps became inaudible
as I caught the light sound of a skirt sweeping from stair to stair:
then again I heard a slow tread on the polished floor of the hall.
Although I knew well enough who it was, a long sigh which suddenly
reached my ears and proclaimed beyond doubt the wanderer's identity,
seemed to pierce my body and leave a deep wound. It was Babiole,
either in misery or in pain, who was wandering about the house in the
middle of the night. She was feeling about for something in the
darkness when I opened wide the door of my study, and let the
lamplight fall upon her just as the chain of the front door rattled in
her hands and fell with a loud noise against the oak.
She glanced back at me in a startled manner, but proceeded to unlock
the door and to turn the handle. She had on the muslin dress she had
worn during the evening, with her travelling cloak and bonnet. I saw
by the vacant manner in which her eyes rested for a moment upon me,
without surprise or recognition, that there was some cloud in her
brain. I advanced quickly into the hall and laid my fingers upon the
handle of the door.
'What are you doing down here to-night?' I asked in a low voice, but
with an air of authority. 'You ought to be sleeping.'
She drew back a little and looked helplessly from the door to me.
'Now go upstairs again and get into bed as fast as you can,' I
continued coaxingly, 'or your mother will find out that you have left
your room, and be very much frightened.'
But recalling her purpose, she made a spring towards the door, and as
I stood firm and prevented her opening it, she fell to wild and
piteous entreaties.
'Let me pass, please. I must go, I tell you I must go, before they
know--before they guess. It will all come right if I go.'
'Tell me first why you want to go,' said I gently.
The lamplight streamed out from the open study door upon us, showing
me her dazed, almost haggard face, her disordered dress, the nervous
trembling of her hands. She looked at me for a moment more steadily,
and I thought she was coming to herself.
'I can't tell _you_,' she whispered, still fumbling with the door
handle and looking down at her own fingers.
'Well, then, go upstairs now, and you shall tell me all about it
to-morrow,' I said persuasively.
'No, no, no,' she broke out wildly and vehemently as at first, seeming
again to lose all control of herself as she became excited. 'To-morrow
I shall be happy again, and I shall not be able to go. He cannot care
for this girl while I'm here, I know it! I am spoiling everything for
them: I want to go back to my husband, and not wait for him to come
and fetch me. Don't you see? Don't you understand?'
Even while she babbled out these secrets, ignorant who I was, her
instinct of confidence in me made her support herself on my arm, and
lean upon me as she whispered excitedly in my ear.
'Well, but it is night, and there are no trains till the morning, you
know.'
For a moment she seemed bewildered. Then with an expression of
childlike simplicity she said, 'I shall find my way. God told me I was
right to go. I can pray up here among the hills, just as I used when I
was a child, and He told me it was right.'
Luckily, perhaps, her strength was failing her even as she spoke. She
swayed unsteadily on my arm and made little resistance but a faint
murmur of protest as I half carried her back to the staircase. As her
head fell languidly against my shoulder I saw that again, as fatigue
overcame excitement, she was recovering her wandering consciousness,
and I made haste to take advantage of the fact.
'Come,' said I, 'you had better go upstairs and rest a little
while--before you start, you know.'
She looked up at me in a dreamy bewildered manner as she leant,
supported by my arms, against the staircase, and two tears, shining in
the darkness, rolled down her cheeks. 'I am afraid,' said she in a
broken whisper, 'that I shall not be able to go at all.'
Then, with a long sigh, she stood up, twined her arms within mine and
let me lead her upstairs. The door of her room was open, and the two
candles, flickering and smoking in the draught, cast moving shadows
over a disorder of dress and dainty woman's clothing flung in
confusion about the room. Babiole glanced inside and then looked up at
me in bewilderment and alarm, like one roused out of sleep to see
something strange and terrible. I wanted her to go to rest before her
memory should overtake her. So I took off her bonnet and cloak, and
profiting by the utter docility she showed me, glanced into the room
and said, in a tone of authority, such as one would use to a child--
'Now, I shall come upstairs again in exactly five minutes and shall
knock at your door. If you are in bed by that time you are to call out
"good-night." If you are not, I shall wake your mother up, and send
her to you. Now will you do as I tell you?'
'Yes, yes,' said she meekly.
'Then good-night.'
'Good-night, Mr. Maude.'
She knew me then; but I somehow fancied, from the old-fashioned
demureness with which she gave her hand, that she believed herself to
be once more the little maid of Craigendarroch, and me to be her old
master.
Next day Babiole did not appear at breakfast, and her mother said she
was in a state of deep depression, and must, her mother thought by her
manner, have had a fright in the night. I was very anxious to see her
again, and to find out how much she remembered of our nocturnal
adventure. So anxious was I, in fact, that I forgot all about my
appointment at Oak Lodge at eleven, and it was not until Mrs. Ellmer
and I were having luncheon at two that I was suddenly reminded of my
neglect in a rather summary fashion by being presented by Ferguson
with a note directed in my _fiancee's_ handwriting, and told that a
messenger was waiting. I opened it, conscience-stricken, but hardly
prepared for the blow it contained. This was the note:--
DEAR MR. MAUDE--[The opening was portentous] It is with
feelings of acute pain that I address thus formally a gentleman
in whom I once thought I had had the good fortune to discover a
heart, and more especially a mind, to which I could in all
things submit the control of my own weaker and more frivolous
nature. [Lucy Farington frivolous! Shades of Aristotle and
Bacon!] For some time past I have begun to feel that I was
deceived. I do not for a moment mean that you intended
deception, but that, in my anxiety to believe the best, I
deceived myself. Your growing indifference to the dearest
wishes of my heart, culminating in your positive non-appearance
this morning (when I had prepared a little surprise for you in
shape of a meeting with Mr. Finch, the architect, with his
designs for a model self-supporting village laundry), leave
hardly any room for doubt that our views of life are too
hopelessly dissimilar for us to hope to embark happily in
matrimony. If this is indeed the case, with much regret I will
give you back your liberty, and request the return of my
perhaps foolishly fond letters. If, on the other hand, you are
not willing that all should be at an end between us, I beg that
you will come to me in the pony carriage which will await your
orders.--I remain, dear Mr. Maude, with my sincerest apologies
if I have been unduly hasty, yours most sincerely,
LUCY FARINGTON.
My first emotion was one of anger against the girl for being such a
fool; my second was of thankfulness to her for being so wise. I should
have liked, in pique, to have straightway got those letters, which she
was mistaken in considering compromisingly affectionate, to have made
them into a small but neat parcel and despatched them forthwith.
Instead of this, I excused myself to Mrs. Ellmer, went into the study
in a state of excitement, half pain and half relief, and wrote a note.
MY DEAR MISS FARINGTON--Your letter forbids me to address you
in a more affectionate way, though you are mistaken in
supposing that my feelings towards you have changed. It seems
to be that we have both, if I may use the expression, been
running our heads against a brick wall. You have been seeking
in me a learned gentleman with a strong natural bent for
philanthropy, while I hoped to find in you an intelligent and
withal most kind and loving-hearted girl, who would condescend
to console me for the "slings and arrows of outrageous
fortune," in return for my very best endeavours to make her
happy. Well, is the mistake past repairing? I am not too old to
learn philanthropy under your guidance; you, I am sure, are too
sweet not to forgive me for preferring a walk with you alone to
interviews with all the architects who ever desecrated nature.
I cannot come back with the carriage now to see Mr. Finch; but
if you will, in the course of the afternoon, let me have
another ever so short note telling me to come and see _you_, I
shall take it as a token that you are willing to give me
another chance, and within half an hour of receiving it I will
be with you to take my first serious lesson in philanthropy and
to pay for it in what love coin you please.--Believe me, dear
Lucy if I may, dear Miss Farington if I must, yours ever most
faithfully and sincerely,
HENRY L. MAUDE.
I saw the groom drive off with this note, and spent the early part of
the afternoon wandering about the garden, trying to make out what sort
of answer I wished for. This was the one I got:--
DEAR MR. MAUDE--The tone of levity which characterises your
note admits but of one explanation. No gentleman could so
address the lady whose respect and esteem he sincerely wished
to retain. I therefore return your letters and the various
presents you have been kind enough to make me, and beg that you
will return me my share of our correspondence. Please do not
think I bear you any ill-will; I am willing to believe the
error was mutual, and shall rather increase than discontinue my
prayers on your behalf, that your perhaps somewhat pliable
nature may not render you the victim of designing persons.--I
remain, dear Mr. Maude, ever sincerely your friend,
LUCY FARINGTON.
When I got to the end of this warm-hearted effusion I rushed off to
make up my parcel: seven notes, a smoking-cap, and a pair of slippers,
which last I regretted giving up, as they were large and comfortable;
a book on Village Architecture, and another of sermons by an eloquent
and unpractical modern preacher, completed the list. I fastened them
up, sealed and directed them, and sent them out to the under-gardener
from 'Oak Lodge,' who had brought the note, and had been directed to
wait for an answer. Then, with a sense of relief which was unmixed
this time, I went back to my study, lit my pipe, and sat down in front
of the parcel my late love had sent me. I was struck by its enormous
superiority in neatness to the ill-shapen brown paper bundle in which
I had just sent off mine; and it presently occurred to me that the
remarkable deftness with which corners had been turned in and string
knotted and tied could never have been attained by hands unused to any
kind of active labour. Miss Farington, either too much overcome by
emotion to tie her parcel up herself, or from an absence of sentiment
which might or might not be considered to do her credit, had entrusted
the task of sending back my presents to her maid.
Mechanically I opened the parcel and, not being deeply enough wounded
by the abrupt termination of my engagement to throw my rejected gifts
with passion into the fire, I arranged them on the table in a row,
spread out my returned letters (which had all been neatly opened with
a pen--or small paper-knife), and considered the well-meant but
disastrous venture of which they were the relics with much
thoughtfulness. It had been a failure from first to last: not only had
it failed to draw my thoughts and affections from the little pale lady
who was now the wife of my friend, but it had also unhappily resulted
in rendering her by contrast a lovelier and more desirable object than
before. There was no doubt of it: the only unalloyed pleasure my
_fiancee_ had afforded me was the increase of delight I had felt,
after nearly three weeks of her improving society, in meeting my
little witch of the hills once more. On the whole my conscience was
pretty clear with regard to Miss Farington; I had been prepared to
offer her affection, and she had preferred an interest in domestic
architecture, which I had then sedulously cultivated: the question
was, what was to be done now? I decided that the most prudent course
would be to say nothing of my rupture with my lady-love, and if I
should be unable to subdue a certain unwonted hilarity at dinner time,
to ascribe it to other causes.
I had scarcely made this resolution, however, when I heard light
sounds in the hall and a knock at my door, and I said 'Come in' with
my heart leaping up and a hot and feverish conviction that it was all
up with the secret; for the outspread letters which I convulsively
gathered into a heap, the lace pocket-handkerchief, the chased gold
smelling-bottle, and other articles for which a bachelor of retired
habits would be likely to have small use, told their own tale; while,
to make matters worse, To-to had got hold of the engagement ring and
had placed it on the top of his box for safety while he minutely
inspected its morocco case, and chewed up the velvet lining with all
the zest of a gourmand.
One helpless glance was all I had time for before the door opened, and
Babiole came in.