HOW TO DISPOSE OF A WIFE.
When Sir Hugh came up to town there did not remain to him quite a
week before the day on which he was to leave the coast of Essex in
Jack Stuart's yacht for Norway, and he had a good deal to do in the
meantime in the way of provisioning the boat. Fortnum and Mason, no
doubt, would have done it all for him without any trouble on his
part, but he was not a man to trust any Fortnum or any Mason as to
the excellence of the article to be supplied, or as to the price. He
desired to have good wine,--very good wine; but he did not desire to
pay a very high price. No one knew better than Sir Hugh that good
wine cannot be bought cheap,--but things may be costly and yet not
dear; or they may be both. To such matters Sir Hugh was wont to pay
very close attention himself. He had done something in that line
before he left London, and immediately on his return he went to the
work again, summoning Archie to his assistance, but never asking
Archie's opinion,--as though Archie had been his head-butler.
Immediately on his arrival in London he cross-questioned his brother
as to his marriage prospects. "I suppose you are going with us?" Hugh
said to Archie, as he caught him in the hall of the house in Berkeley
Square on the morning after his arrival.
"O dear, yes," said Archie. "I thought that was quite understood.
I have been getting my traps together." The getting of his traps
together had consisted in the ordering of a sailor's jacket with
brass buttons, and three pair of white duck trousers.
"All right," said Sir Hugh. "You had better come with me into the
City this morning. I am going to Boxall's in Great Thames Street."
"Are you going to breakfast here?" asked Archie.
"No; you can come to me at the Union in about an hour. I suppose you
have never plucked up courage to ask Julia to marry you?"
"Yes, I did," said Archie.
"And what answer did you get?" Archie had found himself obliged to
repudiate with alacrity the attack upon his courage which his brother
had so plainly made; but, beyond that, the subject was one which
was not pleasing to him. "Well, what did she say to you?" asked his
brother, who had no idea of sparing Archie's feelings in such a
matter.
"She said;--indeed I don't remember exactly what it was that she did
say."
"But she refused you?"
"Yes;--she refused me. I think she wanted me to understand that I had
come to her too soon after Ongar's death."
"Then she must be an infernal hypocrite;--that's all." But of any
hypocrisy in this matter the reader will acquit Lady Ongar, and will
understand that Archie had merely lessened the severity of his own
fall by a clever excuse. After that the two brothers went to Boxall's
in the City, and Archie, having been kept fagging all day, was sent
in the evening to dine by himself at his own club.
Sir Hugh also was desirous of seeing Lady Ongar, and had caused his
wife to say as much in that letter which she wrote to her sister. In
this way an appointment had been made without any direct intercourse
between Sir Hugh and his sister-in-law. They two had never met since
the day on which Sir Hugh had given her away in Clavering Church.
To Hugh Clavering, who was by no means a man of sentiment, this
signified little or nothing. When Lady Ongar had returned a widow,
and when evil stories against her had been rife, he had thought it
expedient to have nothing to do with her. He did not himself care
much about his sister-in-law's morals; but should his wife become
much complicated with a sister damaged in character there might come
of it trouble and annoyance. Therefore, he had resolved that Lady
Ongar should be dropped. But during the last few months things had
in some respects changed. The Courton people,--that is to say, Lord
Ongar's family,--had given Hugh Clavering to understand that, having
made inquiry, they were disposed to acquit Lady Ongar, and to declare
their belief that she was subject to no censure. They did not wish
themselves to know her, as no intimacy between them could now be
pleasant; but they had felt it to be incumbent on them to say as much
as that to Sir Hugh. Sir Hugh had not even told his wife, but he had
twice suggested that Lady Ongar should be asked to Clavering Park. In
answer to both these invitations, Lady Ongar had declined to go to
Clavering Park.
And now Sir Hugh had a commission on his hands from the same Courton
people, which made it necessary that he should see his sister-in-law,
and Julia had agreed to receive him. To him, who was very hard in
such matters, the idea of his visit was not made disagreeable by any
remembrance of his own harshness to the woman whom he was going to
see. He cared nothing about that, and it had not occurred to him that
she would care much. But, in truth, she did care very much, and when
the hour was coming on which Sir Hugh was to appear, she thought
much of the manner in which it would become her to receive him.
He had condemned her in that matter as to which any condemnation
is an insult to a woman; and he had so condemned her, being her
brother-in-law and her only natural male friend. In her sorrow she
should have been able to lean upon him; but from the first, without
any inquiry, he had believed the worst of her, and had withdrawn from
her altogether his support, when the slightest support from him would
have been invaluable to her. Could she forgive this? Never; never!
She was not a woman to wish to forgive such an offence. It was an
offence which it would be despicable in her to forgive. Many had
offended her, some had injured her, one or two had insulted her; but
to her thinking, no one had so offended her, had so injured her, had
so grossly insulted her, as he had done. In what way then would it
become her to receive him? Before his arrival she had made up her
mind on this subject, and had resolved that she would, at least, say
no word of her own wrongs.
"How do you do, Julia?" said Sir Hugh, walking into the room with a
step which was perhaps unnaturally quick, and with his hand extended.
Lady Ongar had thought of that too. She would give much to escape
the touch of his hand, if it were possible; but she had told herself
that she would best consult her own dignity by declaring no actual
quarrel. So she put out her fingers and just touched his palm.
"I hope Hermy is well?" she said.
"Pretty well, thank you. She is rather lonely since she lost her poor
little boy, and would be very glad if you would go to her."
"I cannot do that; but if she would come to me I should be
delighted."
"You see it would not suit her to be in London so soon after Hughy's
death."
"I am not bound to London. I would go anywhere else,--except to
Clavering."
"You never go to Ongar Park, I am told."
"I have been there."
"But they say you do not intend to go again."
"Not at present, certainly. Indeed, I do not suppose I shall ever go
there. I do not like the place."
"That's just what they have told me. It is about that--partly--that I
want to speak to you. If you don't like the place, why shouldn't you
sell your interest in it back to the family? They'd give you more
than the value for it."
"I do not know that I should care to sell it."
"Why not, if you don't mean to use the house? I might as well
explain at once what it is that has been said to me. John Courton,
you know, is acting as guardian for the young earl, and they don't
want to keep up so large a place as the Castle. Ongar Park would just
suit Mrs. Courton,"--Mrs. Courton was the widowed mother of the young
earl,--"and they would be very happy to buy your interest."
"Would not such a proposition come best through a lawyer?" said Lady
Ongar.
"The fact is this,--they think they have been a little hard on you."
"I have never accused them."
"But they feel it themselves, and they think that you might take it
perhaps amiss if they were to send you a simple message through an
attorney. Courton told me that he would not have allowed any such
proposition to be made, if you had seemed disposed to use the place.
They wish to be civil, and all that kind of thing."
"Their civility or incivility is indifferent to me," said Julia.
"But why shouldn't you take the money?"
"The money is equally indifferent to me."
"You mean then to say that you won't listen to it? Of course they
can't make you part with the place if you wish to keep it."
"Not more than they can make you sell Clavering Park. I do not,
however, wish to be uncivil, and I will let you know through my
lawyer what I think about it. All such matters are best managed by
lawyers."
After that Sir Hugh said nothing further about Ongar Park. He was
well aware, from the tone in which Lady Ongar answered him, that she
was averse to talk to him on that subject; but he was not conscious
that his presence was otherwise disagreeable to her, or that she
would resent any interference from him on any subject because he
had been cruel to her. So after a little while he began again about
Hermione. As the world had determined upon acquitting Lady Ongar,
it would be convenient to him that the two sisters should be again
intimate, especially as Julia was a rich woman. His wife did not like
Clavering Park, and he certainly did not like Clavering Park himself.
If he could once get the house shut up, he might manage to keep it
shut for some years to come. His wife was now no more than a burden
to him, and it would suit him well to put off the burden on to his
sister-in-law's shoulders. It was not that he intended to have his
wife altogether dependent on another person, but he thought that if
they two were established together, in the first instance merely as
a summer arrangement, such establishment might be made to assume
some permanence. This would be very pleasant to him. Of course he
would pay a portion of the expense,--as small a portion as might be
possible,--but such a portion as might enable him to live with credit
before the world.
"I wish I could think that you and Hermy might be together while I am
absent," he said.
"I shall be very happy to have her if she will come to me," Julia
replied.
"What,--here, in London? I am not quite sure that she wishes to come
up to London at present."
"I have never understood that she had any objection to being in
town," said Lady Ongar.
"Not formerly, certainly; but now, since her boy's death--"
"Why should his death make more difference to her than to you?"
To this question Sir Hugh made no reply. "If you are thinking of
society, she could be nowhere safer from any such necessity than with
me. I never go out anywhere. I have never dined out, or even spent an
evening in company since Lord Ongar's death. And no one would come
here to disturb her."
"I didn't mean that."
"I don't quite know what you did mean. From different causes she and
I are left pretty nearly equally without friends."
"Hermione is not left without friends," said Sir Hugh with a tone of
offence.
"Were she not, she would not want to come to me. Your society is
in London, to which she does not come, or in other country-houses
than your own, to which she is not taken. She lives altogether at
Clavering, and there is no one there, except your uncle."
"Whatever neighbourhood there is she has,--just like other women."
"Just like some other women, no doubt. I shall remain in town for
another month, and after that I shall go somewhere; I don't much care
where. If Hermy will come to me as my guest I shall be most happy
to have her. And the longer she will stay with me the better. Your
coming home need make no difference, I suppose."
There was a keenness of reproach in her tone as she spoke, which even
he could not but feel and acknowledge. He was very thick-skinned
to such reproaches, and would have left this unnoticed had it been
possible. Had she continued speaking he would have done so. But she
remained silent, and sat looking at him, saying with her eyes the
same thing that she had already spoken with her words. Thus he was
driven to speak. "I don't know," said he, "whether you intend that
for a sneer."
She was perfectly indifferent whether or no she offended him. Only
that she had believed that the maintenance of her own dignity forbade
it, she would have openly rebuked him, and told him that he was not
welcome in her house. No treatment from her could, as she thought,
be worse than he had deserved from her. His first enmity had injured
her, but she could afford to laugh at his present anger. "It is hard
to talk to you about Hermy without what you are pleased to call a
sneer. You simply wish to rid yourself of her."
"I wish no such thing, and you have no right to say so."
"At any rate you are ridding yourself of her society; and if under
those circumstances she likes to come to me I shall be glad to
receive her. Our life together will not be very cheerful, but neither
she nor I ought to expect a cheerful life."
He rose from his chair now with a cloud of anger upon his brow. "I
can see how it is," said he; "because everything has not gone smooth
with yourself you choose to resent it upon me. I might have expected
that you would not have forgotten in whose house you met Lord Ongar."
"No, Hugh; I forget nothing; neither when I met him, nor how I
married him, nor any of the events that have happened since. My
memory, unfortunately, is very good."
"I did all I could for you, and should have been safe from your
insolence."
"You should have continued to stay away from me, and you would have
been quite safe. But our quarrelling in this way is foolish. We can
never be friends,--you and I; but we need not be open enemies. Your
wife is my sister, and I say again that if she likes to come to me,
I shall be delighted to have her."
"My wife," said he, "will go to the house of no person who is
insolent to me." Then he took his hat, and left the room without
further word or sign of greeting. In spite of his calculations and
caution as to money,--in spite of his well-considered arrangements
and the comfortable provision for his future ease which he had
proposed to himself, he was a man who had not his temper so much
under control as to enable him to postpone his anger to his prudence.
That little scheme for getting rid of his wife was now at an end. He
would never permit her to go to her sister's house after the manner
in which Julia had just treated him!
When he was gone Lady Ongar walked about her own room smiling, and
at first was well pleased with herself. She had received Archie's
overture with decision, but at the same time with courtesy, for
Archie was weak, and poor, and powerless. But she had treated Sir
Hugh with scorn, and had been enabled to do so without the utterance
of any actual reproach as to the wrongs which she herself had endured
from him. He had put himself in her power, and she had not thrown
away the opportunity. She had told him that she did not want his
friendship, and would not be his friend; but she had done this
without any loud abuse unbecoming to her either as a countess, a
widow, or a lady. For Hermione she was sorry. Hermione now could
hardly come to her. But even as to that she did not despair. As
things were going on, it would become almost necessary that her
sister and Sir Hugh should be parted. Both must wish it; and if this
were arranged, then Hermione should come to her.
But from this she soon came to think again about Harry Clavering. How
was that matter to be decided, and what steps would it become her to
take as to its decision? Sir Hugh had proposed to her that she should
sell her interest in Ongar Park, and she had promised that she would
make known her decision on that matter through her lawyer. As she had
been saying this she was well aware that she would never sell the
property;--but she had already resolved that she would at once give
it back, without purchase-money, to the Ongar family, were it not
kept that she might hand it over to Harry Clavering as a fitting
residence for his lordship. If he might be there, looking after
his cattle, going about with the steward subservient at his heels,
ministering justice to the Enoch Gubbys and others, she would care
nothing for the wants of any of the Courton people. But if such were
not to be the destiny of Ongar Park,--if there were to be no such
Adam in that Eden,--then the mother of the little lord might take
herself thither, and revel among the rich blessings of the place
without delay, and with no difficulty as to price. As to price,;--had
she not already found the money-bag that had come to her to be too
heavy for her hands?
But she could do nothing till that question was settled; and how was
she to settle it? Every word that had passed between her and Cecilia
Burton had been turned over and over in her mind, and she could only
declare to herself as she had then declared to her visitor, that it
must be as Harry should please. She would submit, if he required her
submission; but she could not bring herself to take steps to secure
her own misery.