THE END OF THE CAMPAIGN
The great Polkington campaign was over and it had failed. Mrs.
Polkington and Chèrie cheered each other with assurances of a contrary
nature as long as they could, but for all that it had really failed
and they knew it. There had been some small successes by the way; they
had received a little recognition in superior places, and a few, a
very few, invitations of a superior order at the cost, of course, of
refusing and so offending some old friends and acquaintances. It might
perhaps have been possible to achieve the position at which Mrs.
Polkington aimed in the course of time, or a very long time; society
in the country moves slowly, and she could not afford to wait
indefinitely; her financial ability was not equal to it. Moreover,
there came into her affairs, not exactly a crash, but something so
unpleasantly like a full stop that she and Chèrie could not fail to
perceive it. This occurred on the day when they heard of Mr. Harding's
engagement. Mr. Harding was the eligible bachelor addition to county
society whose advent had materially assisted in giving definite form
to Mrs. Polkington's ambition. He had helped to feed it, too, during
the late summer and early autumn, for he had been friendly, though
Chèrie was forced to admit that his attentions to her had not been
very marked. But now the news was abroad that he was engaged to a girl
in his own circle; one whose mother had not yet extended any greater
recognition to Mrs. Polkington than an invitation to a Primrose League
Fête.
This news was abroad in the middle of October, and there was a certain
amount of unholy satisfaction in Marbridge. Some of the old friends
and acquaintances who Mrs. Polkington had offended, recognised the
Christian duty of forgiveness, and called upon her--to see how she
bore up. The Grayson girls, whose dance Chèrie had refused at the
beginning of the month, came to see her. But they put off their call a
day to suit some theatrical rehearsal; by which means they lost the
entertainment they promised themselves, for by the time they did come
Chèrie was ready for them and, with appropriate shyness, let it be
known that she herself was engaged to Mr. Brendon Smith.
At this piece of information the girls looked at one another, and
neither of them could think of anything smart to say. Afterwards they
told each other and their friends that it was "quick work," and "like
those Polkingtons." But at the time they could only offer suitable
congratulations to Chèrie, who received them and carried off the
situation with a charming mingling of assurance and graciousness,
which was worthy of her mother.
But the Graysons were right in saying it was quick work; late one
afternoon Chèrie heard of Mr. Harding's engagement; during the evening
she and her mother recognised their failure; in the night she saw that
Mr. Brendon Smith was her one chance of dignified withdrawal, and
before the next evening she had promised to marry him.
There were some people in Marbridge who pitied Mr. Smith (only the
Polkingtons put in the Brendon), but he did not need much pity, for
the good reason that he knew very well what he was doing and how it
was that his proposals came to be accepted. He was fond of Chèrie, and
appreciated both her beauty and her several valuable qualities; but he
had no illusions about her or her family, and he knew, when he made
it, that his proposal would be accepted to cover a retreat. He was not
at all a humble and diffident individual, but he did not mind being
taken on these terms; he even saw some advantage in it in dealing with
the Polkingtons. If there was any mistake in the matter it was Chèrie
when she said "Yes" to his suggestion, "Don't you think you'd better
marry me?" She probably did not know how completely she was getting
herself a master.
It was not a grand engagement; Mrs. Polkington could not pretend that
her son-in-law elect had aristocratic or influential connections; she
said so frankly--and her frankness, which was overstrained, was one of
her most engaging characteristics.
"It is no use pretending that I should not have been more pleased if
he had been better connected," she said to those old friends and
acquaintances whose Christianity led them to call. "I share your
opinion, dear Mrs. ----" (the name varied according to circumstances)
"about the value of birth; but one can't have everything; he is a most
able man, and really charming. It is such a good thing that he is so
much older than Chèrie; I always felt she needed an older man to guide
and care for her--he is positively devoted to her; you know, the
devotion of a man of that age is such a different thing from a boy's
affection."
After that the visitor could not reasonably do anything but inquire if
Mr. Smith was going to throw up the South African post which all the
town knew he was about to take before his engagement.
To this Mr. Polkington was obliged to answer, "No, he is going, and
going almost directly; that is my one hardship; I have got to lose
Chèrie at once, for he positively will not go without her. Of course,
it would be a thousand pities for him to throw it up, such an opening;
so very much better than he would ever have here, but it is hard to
lose my child--she seems a child to me still--almost before I have
realised that she is grown up. Their passages are taken already; they
will be married by license almost directly; there even won't be time
to get a trousseau, only the merest necessaries before the luggage has
to go."
It must not be thought that the news of Mr. Harding's engagement was
the one and only thing which convinced Mrs. Polkington and Chèrie that
the great campaign had failed; it was the finishing touch, no doubt,
in that it had made Chèrie feel the necessity of being immediately
engaged to some one, but there were other things at work. Captain
Polkington had returned from London just five days before they heard
the news, and three were quite sufficient to show his wife and
daughter that he was considerably the worse for his stay in town.
Bills too, had been coming in of late; not inoffensive, negligible
bills such as they were very well used to, but threatening insistent
bills, one even accompanied by a lawyer's letter. Then, to crown all,
Captain Polkington had a fit of virtue and repentance on the second
day after his return. It was not of long duration, and was, no doubt,
partly physical, and not unconnected with the effects of his decline
from the paths of temperance. But while it lasted, he read some of the
bills and talked about the way ruin stared him in the face and the
need there was for retrenchment, turning over a new leaf, facing facts
and kindred things. Also, which was more important, he wrote to his
wife's banker brother--he who had been instrumental in getting the
papers sent in years ago. To this influential person he said a good
deal about the state of the family finances, the need there was for
clearing matters up and starting on a better basis, and his own
determination to face things fairly and set to work in earnest. What
kind of work was not mentioned; apparently that had nothing to do with
the Captain's resolution; there was one thing, however, that was
mentioned definitely--the need for the banker brother's advice--and
pecuniary assistance. The answer to this letter was received on the
same day as the news of Mr. Harding's engagement. It came in the
evening, later than the news, and it was addressed to Mrs. Polkington,
not the Captain; it assisted her in recognising that the end of the
campaign had arrived. It said several unpleasant things, and it said
them plainly; not the most pleasant to the reader was the announcement
that the writer would himself come to Marbridge to look into matters
one day that week or the next. Under these circumstances it is not
perhaps so surprising that Chèrie found it advisable to accept Mr.
Brendon Smith's offer of marriage, and Mrs. Polkington found the
impossibility of getting a trousseau in time no very great
disadvantage.
When Julia came home it wanted but a short time to Chèrie's wedding. A
great deal seemed to have happened since she went away, not only to
her family, but, and that was less obviously correct, to herself. She
stood in the drawing-room on the morning after her return and looked
round her and felt that somehow she had travelled a long way from her
old point of view. The room was very untidy; it had not been used, and
so, in accordance with the Polkington custom, not been set tidy for
two days; dust lay thick on everything; there were dead leaves in the
vases, cigarette ash on the table, no coals on the half-laid fire. In
the merciless morning light Julia saw all the deficiencies; the way
things were set best side foremost, though, to her, the worst side
contrived still to show; the display there was everywhere, the
trumpery silver ornaments, all tarnished for want of rubbing, and of
no more intrinsic value and beauty than the tinfoil off champagne
bottles; the cracked pieces of china--rummage sale relics, she called
them--set forth in a glass-doored cabinet, as if they were heirlooms.
Mrs. Polkington had a romance about several of them that made them
seem like heirlooms to her friends and almost to herself. The whole,
as Julia looked around, struck her as shoddy and vulgar in its
unreality.
"I'm not coming back to it, no, I'm not," she said, half aloud; "the
corduroy and onions would be a great deal better."
Chèrie passed the open door at that minute and half heard her. "What
did you say?" she asked.
Julia looked round. "Nothing," she answered, "only that I am not
coming back to this sort of life."
"To Marbridge?" Chèrie asked, "or to the house? If it is the house you
mean, you need not trouble about that; there isn't much chance of your
being able to go on living here; you will have to move into something
less expensive. I am sure Uncle William will insist on it. There is
more room than you will want here after I am gone, and as for
appearance and society, there won't be much object in keeping that
up."
Julia laughed. "You don't think I am a sufficiently marketable
commodity to be worth much outlay?" she said. "You are quite right;
besides, it is just that which I mean; I have come to the conclusion
that I don't admire the way we live here."
"So have I," Chèrie answered; "no one in their senses would; but it
was the best we could do in the circumstances and before you grumble
at it you had better be sure you don't get something worse."
Julia did not think she should do that, and Chèrie seeing it went on,
"Oh, of course you have got £50 a year, I know, but you can't live on
that; besides, I expect Uncle William will want you to do something
else with it."
"I shall do what I please," Julia replied, and Chèrie never doubted
it; she would have done no less herself had she been the fortunate
legatee, Uncle William or twenty Uncle Williams notwithstanding.
This important relative had not been to Marbridge yet, in spite of
what he wrote to his sister; he had not been able to get away. Indeed,
he was not able to do so until the day after Chèrie's wedding. Mrs.
Polkington was in a happy and contented frame of mind; the quiet
wedding had gone off quite as well as Violet's grander one--really, a
quiet wedding is more effective than a smart one in the dull time of
year, and always, of course, less expensive. Chèrie had looked lovely
in simple dress, and the presents, considering the quietness and
haste, were surprisingly numerous and handsome. Mr. Smith was liked
and respected by a wide circle. Mrs. Polkington felt satisfied and
also very pleased to have Violet, her favourite daughter, with her
again. She and Violet were talking over the events of the day with
mutual congratulation, when Mr. William Ponsonby was announced.
Fortunately, Violet's husband, Mr. Frazer, had gone to see his old
friend the vicar, and more fortunately still, he was persuaded to stay
and dine with him. It would have been rather awkward to have had him
present at the display of family washing which took place that
evening. Mr. Ponsonby did not mince matters; he said, perhaps not
altogether without justice, that he had had about enough of the
Polkingtons. He also said he wanted the truth, and seeing that his
sister had long ago found that about her own concerns so very
unattractive that she never dealt with it naked; it did not show
beautiful now. In the course of time, however, he got it, or near
enough for working purposes. Out came all the bills, and out came the
threatening letter and old account books and remembered debts both of
times past and present; and when he had got them all, he added them
up, showed Mrs. Polkington the total, and asked her what she was going
to do.
She said she did not know; privately she felt there was no need for
her to consider the question; was it not the one her self-invited
brother had come to answer? He did answer it, almost as soon as he
asked it.
"You will have to leave this house," he said, "sell what you can of
its contents and pay all that is possible of your debts. You won't be
able to pay many with that; the rest I shall have to arrange about, I
suppose. Oh, not pay; don't think that for a moment; I've paid a deal
more than I ought for you long ago. I mean to see the people and
arrange that you pay by degrees; you will have to devote most of your
income to that for a time. What will you live on in the meanwhile?
This legacy--it is you who have got it, isn't it?" he said, turning to
Julia; "I thought so. Fortunately the money is not in any way tied up,
you can get at the principal. Well, the best thing to be done is to
buy a good boarding-house. You could make a boarding-house pay,
Caroline," he went on to his sister, "if you tried; your social gifts
would be some use there--you will have to try."
Mrs. Polkington looked a little dismayed, and Violet said, "It would
be rather degrading, wouldn't it?"
"Not so degrading as being sued at the county court," her uncle
returned.
Mrs. Polkington felt there was truth in that, and, accustoming herself
to a new idea with her usual rapidity, she even began to see that the
alternative offered need not be so very unpleasant. Indeed, when she
came to think about it, it might be almost pleasant if the
boarding-house were very select; there would be society of a kind,
perhaps of a superior kind, even; she need not lose prestige and she
could still shine, and without such tremendous effort.
But her reflections were interrupted by the Captain.
"And what part have I in this scheme?" he asked.
His brother-in-law, to whom the question was addressed, considered a
moment. "Well, I really don't know," he said at last; "of course you
would live in the house."
"A burden on my wife and daughter! Idle, useless, not wanted!"
The banker had no desire to hurt Captain Polkington's feelings, but he
saw no reason why he should not hear the truth--that he had long been
all these things; idle, useless, unwanted, a burden not only to his
wife and daughters, but also to all relations and connections who
allowed themselves to be burdened. But the Captain's feelings were
hurt; he was surprised and injured, though convinced of little besides
the hardness of fate and the fact that his brother-in-law
misunderstood him. He turned to his wife for support, and she
supported, corroborating both what he said and what her brother did
too, though they were diametrically opposed. It looked rather as if
the discussion were going to wander off into side issues, but Julia
brought it back by inquiring of her uncle--
"What part have I in this scheme?"
"You will help your mother," he answered, "and of course the concern
will be nominally yours; that is to say, you will put your money in
it, invest it in that instead of railways or whatever it is now in. I
shall see that the thing is properly secured."
He glanced at Captain Polkington as he spoke, as if he thought he
might have designs upon the money or investment. Julia only said, "I
see," but in so soft a voice that she roused Mr. Ponsonby's
suspicions. He had dealt a good deal with men and women, and he did
not altogether like the amused observing eyes of the legatee, and he
distrusted her soft voice of seeming acquiescence.
"It is of no use for you to get any nonsensical ideas," he said,
"about what you will do and won't do; this is the only thing you can
do; you have got to make a living, and you have got to pay your debts;
beggars can't be choosers. The fact is, you have all lived on charity
so long that you have got demoralised."
Violet flushed. "Really," she began to say, "though you have helped us
once or twice, I don't think you have the right to insult--" but Mrs.
Polkington raised a quieting hand; she did not wish to offend her
brother.
He was not offended; he only spoke his mind rather plainly to them
all, which, though it did no harm, did little good either; they were
too old in their sins to profit by that now. After some more
unpleasant talk all round, the family conclave broke up; Mr. Frazer
came home, and every one went to bed.
Mr. Ponsonby had Julia's tiny room; there was nowhere else for him,
seeing Violet and her husband had the one she and her youngest sister
shared in their maiden days. Julia had to content herself with the
drawing-room sofa; it was a very uncomfortable sofa, and the blankets
kept slipping off so she did not sleep a great deal; but that did not
matter much; she had the more time to think things over. Dawn found
her sitting at the table wrapped in her blanket, writing by the light
of one of the piano candles; she glanced up as the first cold light
struggled in, and her face was very grave, it looked old, too, and
tired, with the weariness which accompanies renunciation, quite as
often as does peace or a sense of beatitude. She looked at the paper
before her, a completely worked-out table of expenditure, a sort of
statement of ways and means--the means being £50 a year. It could be
done; she knew that during the night when the plan took shape in her
mind; she had proved it to herself more than half-an-hour ago by
figures--but there was no margin. It could only be done by renouncing
that upon which she had set her heart; she could not work out the
scheme and pay the debt of honour to Rawson-Clew. The legacy had at
first seemed a heaven-sent gift for that purpose, but now, like the
blue daffodil, it seemed that it could not be used to pay the debt.
That was not to be paid by a heaven-sent gift any more than by a
devil-helped theft; slow, honest work and patient saving might pay it
in years, but nothing else it seemed. She put her elbows on the table
and propped her chin on her locked hands looking down at the
unanswerable figures, but they still told her the same hard truth.
"I might save it in time; I could do without this--and this," she told
herself. It is so easy to do without oneself when one's mind is set on
some purpose, but one has no right to expect others to do without,
too--the whole thing would be no good if the others had to; she knew
that. No, the debt could not be paid this way; she had no right to do
it; it was her own fancy, her hobby, perhaps. No one demanded that it
should be paid; law did not compel it; Rawson-Clew did not expect it;
her father considered that it no longer existed; it was to please
herself and herself alone that she would pay it, and her pleasure must
wait.
Possibly she did not reason quite all this; she only knew that she
could not do what she had set her heart on doing with the first of
Aunt Jane's money, and the renunciation cost her much, and gave her no
satisfaction at all. But the matter once decided, she put it at the
back of her mind, and by breakfast time she was her usual self; to
tell the truth, she was looking forward to a skirmish with Uncle
William, and that cheered her.
After breakfast she led Mr. Ponsonby to the drawing-room, and he came
not altogether unprepared for objections; he had half feared them last
night.
"Uncle William," she said. "I have been thinking over your plan, and I
don't think I quite like it."
"I dare say not," her uncle answered; "I can believe it; but that's
neither here nor there, as I said last night, beggars can't be
choosers."
Julia did not, as Violet had, resent this; she was the one member of
the family who was not a beggar, and she knew perfectly well she could
be a chooser. She sat down. "Perhaps I had better say just what I
mean," she said pleasantly; "I am not going to do it."
"Not going to?" Mr. Ponsonby repeated indignantly. "Don't talk
nonsense; you have got to, there's nothing else open to you; I'm not
going to keep you all, feed, clothe and house you, and pay your debts
into the bargain!"
"No," said Julia; "no, naturally not; I did not think of that."
"What did you think of, then?" her uncle demanded; he remembered that
she had the nominal disposal of her own money, and though her
objections were ridiculous, even impertinent in the family
circumstances, they might be awkward. "What do you object to? I
suppose you don't like the idea of paying debts; none of you seem to."
"No," Julia answered; "it isn't that; of course the debts must be paid
in the way you say, it is the only way."
"I am glad you think so," the banker said sarcastically; "though I may
as well tell you, young lady, that it would still be done even without
your approval. What is it you don't like, spending your money for
other people?"
Julia smiled a little. "We may as well call it that," she said; "I
don't like the boarding-house investment."
"What do you like? Seeing your parents go to the poorhouse? That's
what will happen."
"No, they can come and live with me. I have got a large cottage, a
garden, a field, and £50 a year. If we keep pigs and poultry, and grow
things in the garden we can live in the cottage on the £50 a year till
the debts are all paid off; after that, of course, we should have
enough to be pretty comfortable. We need not keep a servant there, or
regard appearances or humbug--it would be very cheap."
"And nasty," her uncle added. He was not impressed with the wisdom of
this scheme; indeed he did not seriously contemplate it as possible.
"You are talking nonsense," he said; "absurd, childish nonsense; you
don't know anything about it; you have no idea what life in a cottage
means; the drudgery of cooking and scrubbing and so on; the doing
without society and the things you are used to; as for pigs and
gardening, why, you don't know how to dig a hole or grow a cabbage!"
But he was not quite right; Julia had learnt something about drudgery
in Holland, something about growing things, at least in theory, and so
much about doing without the society to which she was used at home
that she had absolutely no desire for it left. She made as much of
this plan to Mr. Ponsonby as was possible and desirable; enough, at
all events, to convince him that she had thought out her plan in every
detail and was very bent on it.
"I suppose the utter selfishness of this idea of yours has not struck
you," he said at last. "You may think you would like this kind of
life, though you wouldn't if you tried it, but how about your mother?"
"She won't like it," Julia admitted; "but then, on the other hand,
there is father. I suppose you know he has taken to drink lately and
at all times gambled as much as he could. What do you think would
become of him in a boarding-house in some fashionable place, with
nothing to do, and any amount of opportunity?"
Mr. Ponsonby did not feel able or willing to discuss the Captain's
delinquencies with his daughter; his only answer was, "What will
become of your mother keeping pigs and poultry and living in an
isolated cottage? It would be social extinction for her."
"The boarding-house would be moral extinction for father."
Mr. Ponsonby grew impatient. "I suppose you think," he said irritably,
"that you have reduced it to this--the sacrifice of one parent or the
other. You have no business to think about such things; but if you
had, to which do you owe the most duty? Who has done the most for
you?"
"Well," Julia answered slowly, "I'm not sure I am considering duty
only; people who don't pay their debts are not always great at duty,
you know. Perhaps it is really inclination with me. Father is fonder
of me than mother is; I have never been much of a social success.
Mother did not find me such good material to work upon, so naturally
she rather dropped me for the ones who were good material. I admire
mother the more, but I am sorrier for father, because he can't take
care of himself, and has no consolation left; it serves him right, of
course, but it must be very uncomfortable all the same. Do you see?"
"No, I don't," her uncle answered shortly; "I am old-fashioned enough
to think sons and daughters ought to do their duty to their parents,
not analyse them in this way." He forgot that he had in a measure
invited this analysis, and Julia did not remind him, although no doubt
she was aware of it.
"I should like to do my duty to them both," she said; "and I believe I
will do it best by going to the cottage. Father would get to be a
great nuisance to mother at the boarding-house after a time, almost as
bad as the pigs and poultry at the cottage. Also, if we had the
boarding-house, father's moral extinction would be complete, but if we
lived at the cottage mother's social one would not; she could go and
stay with Violet and other people the worst part of the time, while we
were shortest of money. Besides all that, there are two other things;
I like the cottage best myself, and I believe it to be the best--I
know the sort of living life we should live at a boarding-house--and
then there is Johnny Gillat."
Mr. Ponsonby had no recollection of who Johnny Gillat was, and he did
not trouble to ask; Julia's other reason was the one he seized upon.
"You like it!" he said; "yes, now we have come to the truth; the
person you are considering is yourself; I knew that all along; you
need not have troubled to wrap it up in all these grand
reasons--consideration for your father, and so on!"
"Oh, but think how much better it sounded!" Julia said, with twinkling
eyes.
Mr. Ponsonby did not see the twinkle; he read Julia a lecture on
selfishness and ended up by saying, "You are utterly selfish and
ingrain lazy, that's what you are; you don't want to do a stroke of
honest work for any one."
"Dishonest work is where I shine," Julia told him. "Oh, not
scoundrelly dishonesty, company promoting, and so on," (Mr. Ponsonby
was on several boards of directors, but he was not a company promoter,
still he snorted a little) "I mean real dishonest work; with a little
practice I would make such a thief as you do not meet every day in the
week."
"I can quite believe it," her uncle retorted grimly; "lazy people
generally do take to lying and stealing and, as I say, lazy is what
you are. Sooner than work for your living, you go and pig in a
cottage, because you think that way you can do nothing all day; lead
an idle life."
"Yes," Julia agreed sweetly; "I think that must be my reason--a nice
comfortable idle life with the pigs and poultry, and garden, and
cooking, and scrubbing, and two incompetent old men. I really think
you must be right."
Here it must be recorded, Mr. Ponsonby very nearly lost his temper,
and not without justification. Was he not giving time and
consideration and (probably) money to help this hopeless family on to
its legs again? And was it not more than mortal middle-aged man could
bear, not only to be opposed by the only member with any means, but
also to be made sly fun of by her? He gave Julia his opinion very
sharply, and no doubt she deserved it. But the worst of it was that
did not prevent her from exercising the right of the person who is not
a beggar to choose.
The Polkington family, who were soon afterwards called in to assist
at the discussion, sided with Mr. Ponsonby. Violet and Mrs. Polkington
with great decision, the Captain more weakly. Eventually he was won
over to Julia because her scheme seemed to hold a place for him where
he could flatter himself he was wanted. The argument went on and
angrily, on the part of some present; Julia was most amiable; but, as
the Van Heigens had found, she was an extremely awkward antagonist,
the more amiable, the more awkward, even in a weak position, as with
them, and in a strong one, as now, she was a great deal worse. Mr.
Ponsonby lost the train he meant to catch back to London; he did not
do it only for the benefit of his sister, but also because Julia had
given battle and he was not going to retire from the field. Violet and
Mr. Frazer deliberately postponed the hour of their departure; Violet
was determined not to leave things in this condition; Julia's plan,
she considered a disgrace to the whole family. Mr. Frazer was asked
not to come to the family council; Violet explained to him that they
were having trouble with Julia; she would tell him all about it
afterwards, but it distressed her mother so much that it would perhaps
be kinder if he was not there at the time. Mr. Frazer quite agreed; he
shared some of his wife's sentiments about appearances; also he had no
wish to be distressed either in mind or tastes.
Violet did tell him about it afterwards; a curtailed and selected
version, but one eminently suitable to the purpose. On hearing it he
was justly angry with Julia's heartless selfishness in keeping her
legacy to herself. He was also shocked at her determination to go and
live a farm labourer's life in a farm labourer's cottage. He was truly
sorry for Mrs. Polkington, between whom and himself there existed a
mutual affection and admiration. He said it was bitterly hard that her
one remaining daughter should treat her thus; that it was
barbarous, impossible, that a woman of her age, tastes, refinement and
gifts should be compelled to lead such a life as was proposed. In fact
he could not and would not permit it; he hoped that she would make her
home at his rectory; nay, he insisted upon it; both Violet and himself
would not take a refusal; she must and should come to them.
[Illustration: "A wonderful woman"]
Julia smiled her approval; when things were worked up to this end; she
would have liked to clap her applause, it was so well done. Mrs.
Polkington and Violet were so admirable, they were already almost
convinced of all they said; in two days they would believe it quite as
much as Mr. Ponsonby did now. She did not in the least mind having to
appear as the ungrateful daughter; it fitted in so beautifully with
Violet's arrangement. And really the arrangement was very good; the
utilitarian feelings of the family did not suffer at wrenches and
splits as did more tender ones; no one would object much to an
advantageous division. And most advantageous it certainly was; the
cottage household would go better without Mrs. Polkington and she
would be far happier at the rectory. She would not make any trouble
there; rather, she would give her son-in-law cause to be glad of her
coming; there would be scope for her there, and she would possibly
develop better than she had ever had a chance of doing before.
So everything was decided. The house in East Street was to be given
up, and most of its contents sold; as Julia's cottage was furnished
already with Aunt Jane's things, she need only take a few extras from
the home. The debts were to be paid as far as possible now, and the
small income was to be divided; part was to go as pin money to Mrs.
Polkington, the main part of the remainder to go to the debts, and a
very small modicum to come with the Captain to the cottage.
Julia was quite satisfied, and let it be apparent. This, with her
obvious cheerfulness, rather incensed Violet, who regarded the sale of
their effects as rather a disgrace, and Julia's plans for the future,
as a great one.
"You ought to be ashamed of yourself," she told her younger sister,
just before she left Marbridge. "I am positively ashamed to think you
belong to us. It will be nice to meet Norfolk people at the Palace or
somewhere, who have seen you tending your pigs and doing your washing.
It is such an unusual name; I can quite fancy some one being
introduced to mother and thinking it odd that her name should be the
same as some dirty cottage people."
"Well," Julia suggested, "why not change it? Such a trifle as a name
surely need not stand in our way; we have got over worse things than
that. Mother can be something else, or I can; mother had better do it;
father will forget who he is if I make a change."
"Don't be absurd," Violet said; "I only wish you could change it
though; I never want to write to you as Julia Polkington in case some
servant were to notice the address; one never knows how these things
come out."
"Don't write as that," her sister told her; "address me as 'Julia
Snooks' or anything else you like; I am not particular."
Violet did not take this as a serious suggestion; nevertheless, Julia
told Mr. Frazer on the platform at Marbridge that she and Violet had
been having a christening, and that she was now Julia Snooks. Mr.
Ponsonby said it was ridiculous, to which Julia replied--
"That is what I am myself."
Mrs. Polkington said it was foolish too, but she did not say so
vehemently; she felt that in the Frazer circle, especially at the
Palace where she would meet people from everywhere, she might possibly
come across some one who had heard of Julia. It was unlikely; still it
is a small world, and Polkington an uncommon name. "Why not choose
something simple, like 'Gray'?" she suggested.
"Because," Julia answered, "that is what I am not."
* * * * *
But fate had one exceedingly bitter pill for Mrs. Polkington. On the
day after Chèrie and her husband sailed for South Africa, it was known
in Marbridge that the news of Mr. Harding's engagement was false. The
girl gossip had coupled with him was engaged, it is true, and to a Mr.
Harding, but to another and entirely different bearer of the name. The
real, eligible Mr. Harding called at East Street to explain to Mrs.
Polkington how the mistake had arisen, to tell her that he himself had
been away in the north for some weeks and so had heard nothing of it.
Also to hear--and he had heard nothing of that either--that Chèrie was
married and gone.
The news of Mr. Harding's freedom and his call, and what she fancied
it might have implied, did not reach Chèrie till after her arrival in
Africa. It did not tend to soothe the first weeks of married life, nor
to make easier the rigorous, but no doubt wholesome, breaking-in
process to which her husband wisely subjected her.