The elder Lady Ellington had never yet in the whole course of her
combative life been knocked out of time by the blows of adverse
circumstances, and she did not intend to begin being knocked out now.
That Madge's marriage was a frightful disaster she did not deny or seek
to conceal, but her admirable habits of self-control and her invariable
custom of never letting anything dwell on her mind or make her worry,
served her in good stead now. She considered that Madge and Evelyn had
both behaved quite unpardonably, and though she had no thought of
pardoning either of them, she had no thought of dwelling on the matter.
When the thing was done, it was done, and, like David, she, so to speak,
proposed to go and oil herself--in other words, to pay her customary
round of summer and autumn visits, carrying with her all her old
inflexible firmness and readiness to advise. For Philip, finally, she
hardly felt pity at all; a man really must be a fool if he could lose
his wife like that at the eleventh hour. It was impossible to acquit him
altogether of blame, though it would have puzzled her who had so nearly
been his mother-in-law to say exactly where the blame lay. General
incapacity to keep what was morally one's own perhaps covered it, and
incapacity of all kinds she detested.
These visits took her up to Scotland about the middle of August, since
this was on the whole the easiest way of not getting out of touch with
people. Scotland, if one went to the right houses, she considered to be
a sort of barometer as to the way people would behave, and the general
trend of affairs go, when the gatherings began for the autumn parties in
England and people came up to London in the spring; and though she could
not have been considered exactly a conventional woman, she very much
wanted to know what kind of line society in general would take about
Madge. For with all her hard shrewdness, she had not what we may call a
sensitive social touch. When Society beat time she could follow it with
scrupulous exactitude, but she was not capable of conducting herself.
And this concerted piece was rather complex, and though Society had been
so unanimous in its condemnation at the time, Lady Ellington, knowing it
pretty well, did not feel at all sure that the sentence it passed on
July 28th would not be reprieved, whether, in fact, Society would not
say that there had been a miscarriage of justice, and that Madge--and
Evelyn, for that matter--were entirely innocent and even laudable. For
if Philip had wealth, which he undoubtedly had, and Madge had thrown
that overboard, she had at any rate picked up, as one picks up a pilot,
a man with extraordinary charm and extraordinary gifts, about whom
Society was even now on the point of losing its head. Evelyn, in fact,
if he continued to be as gay as he always was, to enjoy himself as
thoroughly, and also continued to paint pictures which really furnished
Society with conversation to quite a remarkable degree, promised well to
be as desirable a husband as the other. Also Philip's stern attention to
business during the month of August had done his cause, as has been
mentioned, no inconsiderable damage. Indeed if he had married old Lady
Ellington instead it perhaps would have been more suitable. But having
failed to secure the rose, he had not shown any inclination to be near
it, and had gone to the City instead.
It was all this which Lady Ellington hoped to pick up in Scotland. She
wanted, in fact, to know what would be her most correct attitude towards
Madge. Her own personal attitude she knew well enough; she was still
quite furious with her. But (she put it to herself almost piously) it is
better sometimes to sink the personal feeling in the deep waters of the
public good, just as you drown a superfluous kitten. However she felt
privately, it might be kinder and wiser to conceal and even eradicate
that personal grudge. She went, in fact, in order to see whether Society
was possibly taking a more Christian line about her daughter than her
daughter's mother really was. Strange as the fact may sound, this was
the fact, for it would never do that Madge's mother should on the one
hand be estranged from her daughter, while all the world embraced her;
nor, on the other, that Madge's mother should continue to embrace her
daughter while all the world discreetly looked the other way and said
"That minx!"
Now, as has already been briefly stated, the country verdict about
Madge, the verdict, that is to say, of London gone into the country, had
reaped the benefit of country air and early hours. The personal
inconvenience and the necessary incidental chatter had died down; nobody
really cared about it; the stern condemnation originally made was felt
to be but a hollow voice, and Society, which, whatever may be said about
it, is really rather indulgent, just as it hopes individually for
indulgence, in that most unlikely contingency of indulgence being
desirable, was already, without the slightest sign of embarrassment,
executing a _volte-face_. For if the _volte-face_ is general, the only
embarrassment arises from not executing it. And Lady Dover's house,
which, so to speak, kept social Greenwich time without error, was the
first place that Lady Ellington visited.
It was only this strong sense of duty--duty towards Madge--that drew her
there; otherwise nothing would have induced her to go. There was a night
in the train and a day in the train, and at the end of that a
thirty-mile drive starting from a spot called Golspie. Her experience of
Golspie was that it rained, and that an endless road stretched over mile
after mile of moor, where it rained worse than in Golspie. But in
Scotland it is officially supposed never to rain; the utmost that can
happen in the way of moisture is that it should be "saft." She arrived
at Golspie, an open motor-car was waiting for her, and it was "saft."
Also the motor could not take all her luggage; that was to follow in a
cart. The cart, so she mentally calculated, if it did not stick in a bog
(not a wet one, only a "saft" one) might arrive about midnight. Another
passenger also alighted at Golspie; the present bearer of her husband's
title. He too was going to Lady Dover's, and the motor was to take them
both. He hazarded that this was "awfully jolly," but he seemed not to
have said the right thing.
The softness grew softer as they breasted the hills, and Lady Ellington
really wondered whether this was worth while. But the conclusion must
have been that it was, otherwise she would have had no hesitation in
turning back even now and sleeping at Golspie, if sleep could be
obtained in so outlandish a spot. She knew well too what her week there
would be; a Scotch breakfast, the departure of the male sex to the
hills, with fishing "in the burn" probably for those who remained; the
return of the male sex about six, their instant dispersal to baths and
their own rooms; dinner, no bridge, but conversation, and the final
dispersal of everybody about half-past ten. Yet it was worth it; from
here, goodness knew why, ticked out the "correct attitude." Lady Dover's
opinion, not because she was clever, so said her guest to herself, but
because she was completely ordinary, would be an infallible sign as to
what the rest of the world would think about Madge. Assembled at her
house too would be those who, right and left, would endorse Lady Dover's
opinion, not because she had intimated it to them, but because they
would naturally think as she did. It was, in fact, the bourgeois
conclusion of the upper class that she sought.
Bourgeois conclusions of all sorts she got on her drive.
"Devilish evening, eh?" said Lord Ellington. "Makes one wonder if it's
worth while. Thirty miles of this, isn't it, shofer?"
"Yes, my lord; thirty-two miles."
"Well, let's get on a bit; don't you think so, Lady Ellington? Put your
foot down on some of those pedals, and turn some of those handles, eh?
And how's all going, Lady Ellington? Rum thing; there'll be two Lady
Ellingtons in the house. Gladys arrived three days ago. I couldn't.
Detained, don't you know. I always say detained, eh?"
All this anyhow was a kind of olive branch. It continued with but short
replies on her part, to wave in the wind.
"Awful smash, wasn't it?" continued he. "Gladys and I were very sorry.
Good fellow, Home, he put her--me--up to an investment or two that
turned out well. But there's no telling about girls; kittle cattle, you
know, eh? I daresay she's awfully happy--what? And of course the man
doesn't matter. Men are meant to go to the wall. Lord, how it rains!"
Lady Ellington did not really mind rain; she knew too that even this
man, whom she detested, had his vote in public opinion, and, what was
more, he reflected public opinion, like some newspaper. What he said
other people would say. She did not in the least want the vote of
bohemian circles, any more than she wanted the vote of bishops; what
she wanted to know was the general opinion of her class. A most elusive
thing it was, and one on which it was intensely rash to risk a prophecy.
For one person would be found with a stolen halter in her hand, and yet
no one would say that the halter was dishonestly come by; another would
but look over a hedge, and the whole world would say that the design was
to steal horse and halter too. To which class did Madge, with her calm
eyes, belong in the world's opinion?
"Yes, of course, it has been terrible," she said. "My poor girl has gone
so utterly astray. What could have been nicer than the marriage that was
arranged?"
"Well, she seems to have found something she thought nicer," said her
companion.
"Yes, but from the sensible point of view. Supposing you fell in love
with a match girl----"
Lord Ellington gave a loud, hoarse laugh.
"Trust Gladys for hoofing her out of it in double quick time," he
remarked.
Yet this, too, was what Lady Ellington sought; vulgar, hopeless as the
man was, he yet reflected the opinion of the average person, which it
was her purpose to learn. For the votes of the "Moliere's housemaids"
will always swamp those of the most enlightened critics, and the
popularity of the play depends on them. And Lady Dover's house was a
sort of central agency for such opinions; smart, respectable, and rich
people congregated there, who were utterly conventional, not because
they feared Mrs. Grundy, but because they were Mrs. Grundy--she herself,
and no coloured imitation of her. The good old home-brewed, national,
typical, English upper-class view of life might here really be said to
have its fountain head, and to have stayed in the house was a sort of
certificate that you were all right. Scandal might, just possibly,
twitter afterwards about some one of Lady Dover's guests; but these
twitterings would be harmless, for the knowledge that he or she about
whom it twittered had stayed at Glen Callan would convince all
right-minded people that there was nothing in it.
It was after eight when they arrived, and when they emerged into the
light and warmth of the hall, hung round, as was suitable in the
Highlands, with rows of stags' heads and sporting prints, dinner had
already begun. But Lady Dover came out of the dining-room with her
husband to welcome them.
"Dear Lady Ellington," she said, "what a dreadful drive you must have
had. But no one minds rain in Scotland, do they? How are you, Lord
Ellington? So nice that you could come together! Gladys arrived two days
ago. Mr. Osborne calls her the fishmonger, because she really supplies
us all with fish; we are now eating the grilse she caught this
afternoon. Take Lord Ellington to his room, will you, Dover? Pray don't
make anything of a toilet, Lady Ellington; it is the Highlands, you
know. We went in to dinner because I felt sure you would prefer that we
should. It is so much nicer to feel that one is keeping nobody waiting,
is it not?"
There was only a small party in the house, so Lady Ellington found when
she joined them in the dining-room. Mr. Osborne, whose brilliant
_sobriquet_ for Gladys has already sparkled on these pages, was there;
he was a very wealthy man, who had married Lady Angela Harvey, the
daughter of a Duke, and was one of the main props and pillars of English
Protestantism. Lady Angela was there too, thin-lipped and political,
sitting next Seymour Dennison, the Royal Academician, who had painted
and exhibited so many miles of Sutherlandshire scenery that, were all
the ordnance maps lost, it might almost have been possible to
reconstruct the county again from his pictures without any fresh survey.
His wife, of course, whom he had only lately married, was also of the
party; Lady Dover had not previously met her, for she had lived in
Florence, and though there was a certain risk about asking to the house
someone who was really quite unknown, still to ask Mr. Dennison without
his wife would have been to stigmatise her, which Lady Dover would never
do without good reason. Harold Aintree, a first cousin of Lady Dover's,
completed, with Gladys and her husband, the party of ten. He, too, was
eminently in place, for he was a great traveller in out-of-the-way
countries, which is always considered an enlightened pursuit. Moreover,
you could read all his published accounts of them without having any
sensibility or delicacy offended. Savage tribes, so his experiences
showed, and Australian aborigines, had a true and unfailing sense of
propriety.
Lady Ellington's place was next her host, and as she ate the grilse,
Lord Dover told her about it. Gladys was his cousin, therefore he
referred to her by her Christian name.
"Gladys caught that grilse only this afternoon," he said. "A beautifully
fresh fish, is it not? Mr. Osborne calls her the fishmonger. Lady
Fishmonger Ellington, was it not, Osborne?"
Mr. Osborne paused in his conversation with Mrs. Dennison to bow his
acknowledgments.
"But Lady Ellington fishes too," he said. "We shall get into terrible
confusion now."
"Ah, you must find another name for her," said Lady Dover. "Is it not a
beautiful fish, Lady Ellington? The flesh is so firm. Dover says it
could not have been up from the sea more than a day or two."
Mr. Osborne resumed his talk with Mrs. Dennison, whom he was questioning
about the churches in Florence. Otherwise there was a moment's pause
round the table, which was unfortunate, as she just then referred to the
Catholic churches, meaning the Roman Catholic churches. She corrected
her error, however, on seeing the questioning look in his face, and the
general conversation was resumed.
"Yes, the sunset was one sheet of intolerable glory," said Seymour
Dennison to his hostess, "and how little one expected that this rain was
coming. What a wet drive Lady Ellington must have had."
"I did not see the sunset," said she. "I returned to write a few
letters. You must describe it to us, Mr. Dennison, not in words but in
colours. The sunsets here this year have been quite remarkable. They
have been so very varied; no two alike, so far as I have seen."
Seymour Dennison was always in character as the poetical interpreter of
Nature. His words, in fact, were generally as highly coloured as his
canvases.
"And yet perhaps the finest sunsets one ever sees are at Hyde Park
Corner," he said. "Is it not a wonderful thing how Nature takes the foul
smoke of our cities, and by that alchemy of light transmutes them into
those unimaginable spectacles which even the eye, much less the hand,
cannot fully grasp and realise? Light! Where would the world be without
light?"
Lord Ellington had a moment's spasmodic desire to answer "In the dark,"
but he checked it. It was as well he did.
"That dying cry of Goethe's is so wonderful, is it not?" said Lady
Angela, turning to Harold Aintree, and picking up this thread. "'More
light, more light,' you know."
Harold cleared his throat; he seldom spoke except in paragraphs.
"It is extraordinary how the most savage tribes have a deep sense of
natural beauty," he said. "I remember entering a settlement in Zambesi
at evening, and finding all the inhabitants sitting in rows watching the
setting of the sun. It appears to be a religious ceremony, akin to some
way to the sun-worship of the Parsees. Even the most rudimentary
civilisation--this particular tribe of the Zambesi, I may remind you,
are cannibals--show traces of some appreciation of the beauties of
Nature. Indeed one almost thinks that perhaps civilisation obscures that
appreciation. Else how do we in England consent to live in the sordid
ugliness of the towns we build?"
He turned half-left as he spoke, to pick up Lady Ellington, so to speak,
for Lord Dover had crossed over to Gladys, with whom he was again
discussing the grilse she had been so fortunate as to catch that
afternoon.
"Ah, but we don't all live in cities, Mr. Aintree," she said, "and I
think that there is a great return to simplicity going on. Don't you
remember last July how we all took to lentils and no hats? And think of
Mr. Merivale, who lives in the New Forest, you know, and makes birds
come and sit on his hand. We went down there, you know, Madge and I, and
saw it all."
The simplification of life, therefore, took the place of sunsets, and
spread slowly round the table, moving with a steady sort of current;
there was nothing that flashed or sparkled, Mr. Osborne only suggesting
that if we all went to live in the country it would become as bad as a
town, and if we all lived on lentils, the price would go up so much that
few could afford it. Lady Ellington, however, cleared those small
matters up, gave it to be understood that Mr. Merivale owed a good deal
to her suggestions, and rather congratulated herself on having got
Madge's name introduced.
Dinner over, a variety of innocent pursuits occupied the party. Mr.
Dennison, with a good deal of address, did some conjuring tricks (the
same as he had done last night and the night before, and would do again
next night and the night after), Lord Dover continued to discuss
Gladys' grilse (it was such a fresh-run fish) with various members of
the party, and at ten o'clock was held what was called the "council of
war," though why "war" was not quite clear, since the purposes of it
were wholly pacific, and merely consisted in the discussion of plans for
the next day. Lord Ellington, it was settled, should try for a stag, Mr.
Osborne and his host were to go grouse-shooting together, Mr. Dennison
would be amply occupied in recording the upper beauties of the Glen--he
had not as yet painted more than three-quarters of a mile of it--Lady
Angela and Mrs. Dennison were to drive over and see some friends in the
neighbourhood, while it was universally acclaimed that Lady Fishmonger
Ellington should again exercise her remarkable skill on the river. And
on old Lady Ellington's saying that she would like to fish too, Mr.
Osborne rose to the occasion.
"We already have Lady Grilse Ellington," he said, "and I am sure
to-morrow evening we shall have Lady Salmon Ellington."
This brought the council of war to a really epigrammatic ending, and
Lady Dover rose with her customary speech.
"We all go to bed very early here, Lady Ellington," she said. "Being out
all day in the fresh air makes one sleepy. What is the glass doing,
Dover?"
"Going up a bit."
"Then let us hope you will have a fine day to-morrow for your painting,
Mr. Dennison. I shall come up the Glen with you in the morning, if you
will let me, and go down to the river after lunch to see what the
fishmongers--I beg their pardon, it is Lady Salmon and Lady Grilse, is
it not?--have done."
Before half-past ten therefore all the ladies were in their rooms, and
since breakfast was not till a quarter to ten next morning, it might be
hoped that they would all sleep off the effects of being out all day in
the fresh air. And though Lady Ellington did not feel in the least
inclined to go to her room, and almost everyone else would have sat up
as long as she chose, obliging, if necessary, her hostess to sit up too,
she never at Glen Callan found herself equal to proposing any other
arrangements than those which were made for her, or indeed of
criticising anything. For there was a deadly regularity about
everything, against which it was useless to rebel, and to dream of
suggesting anything was an unthinkable attitude to adopt. She knew, too,
exactly what would happen now, just as she had known speeches about the
barometer would precede their going upstairs. Lady Dover, since it was
her first night, would come with her to her room, ask her if she had
everything she wanted, poke the fire for her, and say, "Well, I am sure
you must be tired after your journey. I will leave you to get a good
rest. Breakfast at a quarter to ten, or would you sooner have it in your
room?"
But Lady Ellington felt she would probably be equal to facing the world
again after eleven hours of retirement, and said she would come down.
"It is a movable feast, dear," said Lady Dover, as she went out; "in
fact, we do not think punctuality at all a virtue at breakfast."
And a small but certain suspicion darted into Lady Ellington's mind that
her hostess had said exactly the same thing to her just a year ago, when
she came to Glen Callan. She wondered how often she had said it since.
* * * * *
Breakfast was a very bright and cheerful meal at Glen Callan; everyone
was refreshed by his long night after the day in the fresh air and ready
for another one. Lady Grilse and Lady Salmon were already spoken of by
the very clever names that Mr. Osborne had found for them, and he
further seemed inclined to christen Lord Ellington as Lord Stag. But the
dreary amazement in that gentleman's face when Mr. Osborne made
soundings on this point prevented its total success, though Dennison
considered it excellent. He himself, though he had to walk but half a
mile along a nearly level road to the particular point where he was
painting, had so keen a sense of local colour, that, in deference to the
fact that this road was in Scotland, he had put on knickerbockers, a
Norfolk jacket, and thick shooting-boots. The Norfolk jacket also had a
leather pad on the shoulder, so that the cloth should not be soiled by
contact with possible oil on the barrels of his gun. But since he never
carried nor had ever used a gun, this precaution was almost unnecessary.
Still there is no harm in being prepared for any contingency, however
unlikely.
The morning was cloudy but fine, and the clouds were high. In front of
the windows of the dining-room the ground fell sharply away into the
glen, through which brawled the coffee-coloured water of the river where
the two ladies were to fish, and Mr. Dennison, as he walked about eating
his porridge, a further recognition to the fact that this was Scotland,
drew attention to the beautiful contrasts of green and russet in the
glen. He also mislaid the spoon with which he had intended to eat his
porridge, and after drawing attention to his loss, apparently drew the
spoon out of Mr. Osborne's breast pocket. He was accustomed to be the
life and soul of the party, and had equal command over the flowers of
language and the easier feats of sleight of hand. The flowers of
language were his next preoccupation, for Lady Dover had hoped that
there would be enough sun for him to work at his picture.
"We landscape painters," he said, "are terribly at the mercy of the
elements. We may perhaps half-grasp a conception, a cloudy effect, it
may be, and then we are given a fortnight of bright and blazing
sunshine. What are we to do? Begin another picture? Ah, that is to let
the first conception fade. I spent a month once in Skye watching for an
effect I had seen ten years before. Not a stroke of the brush did I make
all that month; I waited. Then one morning it came."
He shrugged his shoulders.
"Quite a small picture," he said, "and I sold it for a song. But my
reward was the fact that I had waited for it. That was my imperishable
possession; my character, my artistic character, was at stake. And I
won; yes, I won."
Lady Dover broke in upon the sympathetic pause.
"But a portrait-painter, Mr. Dennison," she said; "surely he may have to
wait also for the same look to appear on the face of his sitter. Is not
the sitter as fickle as the clouds or the sun?"
Dennison had finished his porridge, and was seated on Lady Dover's left.
He drew with his long white forefinger a few imagined lines in the air.
"No, I don't think so," he said. "There are the features; the light can
be adjusted. You have but to awake again the train of thought that was
in the sitter's mind, and the expression, which after all is only a
matter of line, becomes the same again. Look at Dundas's pictures, for
instance. I do not deny their merit; but what is there? Five sweeps of
the brush is the face, literally no more. A piece of mere scene-painting
is the background, a bunch of bananas is the hand, I assure you, a bunch
of bananas. That would not be my scheme if I was a portrait painter. I
should study my sitter till the very finger-nails were an integral part
of the picture, so that the picture would be incomplete without them.
Poor Dundas, I think we have heard the last of him. This terrible----"
The silence that succeeded this unfortunate speech was one that might,
like darkness, be felt. Mr. Dennison, intoxicated by his own voice, had
"forgotten." The silence made him remember. But the silence, though
pregnant, was of almost infinitesimal duration, for Lord Dover
immediately resorted to the grilse caught the day before, which was now
kedgeree; his wife from the other end of the table, and without
consultation, recommended Mr. Osborne to try it, and Lady Angela looked
forward in anticipation to the lovely views that she and Mrs. Dennison
were certain to enjoy during their drive. But this instinctive buzz to
bury what had gone before died down, and the dead subject seemed like to
have a disconcerting and resurging silence. But Lady Dover, whose mind
was already made up on this subject, indicated her attitude. She turned
to Lady Ellington, who sat three places from her, and in her quiet voice
the social oracle thundered prophecy and promise--
"And how is dear Madge, Lady Salmon?" she said. "I wonder if we could
induce her and Mr. Dundas to come for a week or two before we go south?
It would be such a pleasure. She would enjoy these beautiful walks, I am
sure, and Mr. Dundas must be so very hard-worked that I am certain a
little holiday would do him good."
That was the _pronunciamento_ for which Lady Ellington really had come
here, weighing light all the discomfort of travel and the dulness of the
days that she anticipated. It had been forced, squirted as it were, out
of her hostess, but nobody had ever squirted out of Lady Dover anything
insincere. She often, in fact, refrained from saying all she meant, but
she never said what she did not mean. Her word was as good as the bond
of anybody else's; it was trustworthy coinage, sterling in its own
dominions. And Lady Ellington accepted it as such, not ringing it or
testing it in any way. That it was given her was quite enough.
"I am sure Madge would love to come," she said, "if she can only
tear"--she could not help hesitating a moment--"tear dear Evelyn away
from his work. He is so busy; everybody wants to be painted by him. And
I'm sure I don't wonder. His portrait of Madge! It is too extraordinary!
You expect her to get down from the easel and say something
characteristic. The hands, too, surely, Mr. Dennison, you don't think
the hands are like bunches of bananas in Mr. Dundas's picture of my
daughter?"
Mr. Dennison had not seen the picture; he hastened also to qualify what
he had said before. The qualification did not fare quite so well at his
hands as the missing spoon had done. That in itself was not
extraordinary, since there was no comparison between the respective
difficulties of effecting these two disappearances. But breakfast was
practically over, and the need for beating a further retreat was thus
reduced to an irreducible minimum.
The shooters and the stalker went their ways immediately, the motor-car
was also soon round to convey Lady Angela and Mrs. Dennison to their
friends, and it was not extraordinary that the artist did not join the
remainder of the party on the terrace. Gladys also had gone to consult
with the gillie on the question of flies, and thus in ten minutes Lady
Dover and Lady Ellington were alone in their after-breakfast stroll. The
latter, as usual, went straight to the point; she did not want to talk
about salmon pools and rowan-berries or the prospects of slain stags;
she had come here to find out what Lady Dover thought about Madge. For
this purpose she called Lady Dover by her Christian name, as one has to
begin some time. Her Christian name was Susan, a name inimical for
confidences, but it could not be helped now.
"Oh, Susan," she said, "you don't mind my calling you that, do you,
because I feel such friends with you. You have no idea how relieved I
am. I wanted so much to know what you thought about poor Madge, and I
should have found it so hard to begin, unless you had said what you did
say at breakfast about asking them here. Of course it was all a terrible
grief to me, you can well understand that."
"Yes, dear?" said Lady Dover interrogatively.
"I know you see what I mean. The marriage with Philip Home was so nice,
so suitable, and it was all arranged. People stopped in London
particularly for it."
Lady Dover's calm eyes surveyed the terrace, the glen, and lastly her
companion.
"But surely that is rather a conventional view to take," she said. "What
does a little inconvenience matter, if your daughter's happiness is
secured? I am told they are devoted to each other."
Now Lady Ellington in her most wild and wayward dreams had never
conceived it possible that she could be called, or remotely labelled,
"conventional" by Susan. She had much to learn, however.
"I hope I am not a slave to convention, or anything of the sort,"
continued Lady Dover; "but if Madge really loved Mr. Dundas, why on
earth should she not marry him? Suppose she had married Mr. Home, and
found out afterwards she was not really fond of him? One does not like
to contemplate such things; there is a certain suspicion of coarseness
even in the thought. I do not know what the view of the world may be,
for the view of the world concerns me very little, but I feel quite sure
that a girl is right in obeying the dictates of her own heart."
Lady Ellington longed to contradict all this; it was not in the least in
accord with what she felt, and what she felt she was accustomed to
state. Thus the suppression of it was not easy.
"How lovely those lights on the hillside are," said Lady Dover, in
parenthesis. "Mr. Dennison ought to see them before he settles on the
subject of his next picture. Yes, about Madge. I don't know what other
people think about it all, I only know what I think, and I am sure Dover
agrees with me. It was a love match, was it not? What more do you want?
Of course if Mr. Home had been a duke and Madge a girl without any
position----"
"You mean it is just a question of degree?" asked Lady Ellington.
"Ah, my dear--er--Margaret," said Lady Dover, with a certain intonation
of relief, because she was sure that her excellent memory had not played
her false, "everything is a question of degree; there is nothing in the
world into which circumstances, mitigating or the reverse, do not
enter. How beautiful the rowan-berries are, I wish Mr. Dennison could
see them. They would work into his foreground so well. I must take him
to the end of the terrace to-morrow. Yes; but the mitigating
circumstances are here so strong. She threw over Mr. Home, who is
charming--I met him twice last year at dinner somewhere, and we asked
him to lunch, only he could not come--and has married a man who is
charming also, with whom she fell in love. How vivid his portraits are,
too; I am going to be painted by him next spring, if he can find time.
Almost too vivid, perhaps; they seem to jump out on you. But that is my
view about the whole question. Supposing she had married Mr. Home, and
had fallen in love afterwards! That sort of tragedy is so dreadful; such
extraordinary cleverness is required to avoid all the horror of
publicity. I could never survive publicity."
"But there is publicity as it is," said Lady Ellington. "Poor Madge!
What will people think of her? And of me?"
Lady Dover throughout this conversation had given justification after
justification for the importance that Lady Ellington attached to her
verdict. She gave more now.
"There is publicity, it is true," she said; "but no sense of
respectability has been offended. Of her, they will think that she fell
in love and followed her instincts. Of you, they will think that you
tried, like an excellent mother, to secure an excellent match for your
daughter, but that your daughter chose for herself."
Lady Dover's serene face grew a shade more shrewd.
"You see, she has not married Tom or Dick or James," she said. "Mr.
Dundas, in fact, is a sufficiently important person. Was it that you
meant, by the way, by saying it was a question of degree? I don't know
what his income is; it may be precarious. But he has great talent. And
talent happens to be rather fashionable. I daresay it is only a phase,
but after all one wants, if the sacrifice of no principle is involved,
to be abreast with the world."
Now Lady Ellington could not possibly have been called a conceited
woman, and her conviction that she was herself pretty well abreast of
the world was founded on sober experience. She was up to most things, in
fact; the world, on the whole, did not worst her. Yet when Susan spoke
of being abreast of the world, she was conscious that another plane
altogether was indicated, a plane to which she had to struggle and
aspire, whereas Susan moved quite easily and naturally on it. All the
way from Golspie she had been labeling her hostess as conventional, but
what if this conventionalism came out on the other side, so to speak,
and was really the summit of worldly wisdom, a peak, not a mediocre
plateau, where Susan and others walked gently about, as at some place of
corrective waters, exchanging commonplaces. For Lady Dover, she was
beginning to see, was not in the least conventional because it was the
way of the world; she was conventional because she was made like that.
It was the world, in fact, which was conventional because it was like
Lady Dover, not Lady Dover who was conventional because she was like the
world. Indeed she had spoken no more than the truth when she said the
opinion of the world did not matter to her--it did not; she never had to
take it into consideration, simply because it was quite certain to
coincide with her own. And Lady Ellington found herself thinking that
when Susan died her portrait ought really to be put in a stained glass
window, a figure that should typify for all time the solid, respectable,
virtuous aspects of the British aristocracy.
They walked in silence for a few moments, for there was really nothing
more to say on the subject. Then Lady Ellington took Susan's arm and
pressed it.
"It is a great, great relief to me to know you feel like that," she
said, "and you have made my line with regard to Madge so clear. Poor
Madge, I have been too hard on her, but the disappointment was so great.
I could not help feeling for Philip, too."
"Of course one is always sorry for people in trouble," said Lady Dover,
"particularly if it is not their fault. I will write to Madge this
morning. And now, do you know, it is almost time you went off to the
river. I insist on your being Lady Salmon by this evening. Mr. Osborne
is so quick and clever, is he not?"