KENELM arrived at Exmundham just in time to dress for dinner. His
arrival was not unexpected, for the morning after his father had
received his communication, Sir Peter had said to Lady
Chillingly--"that he had heard from Kenelm to the effect that he might
be down any day."
"Quite time he should come," said Lady Chillingly. "Have you his
letter about you?"
"No, my dear Caroline. Of course he sends you his kindest love, poor
fellow."
"Why poor fellow? Has he been ill?"
"No; but there seems to be something on his mind. If so we must do
what we can to relieve it. He is the best of sons, Caroline."
"I am sure I have nothing to say against him, except," added her
Ladyship, reflectively, "that I do wish he were a little more like
other young men."
"Hum--like Chillingly Gordon, for instance?"
"Well, yes; Mr. Gordon is a remarkably well-bred, sensible young man.
How different from that disagreeable, bearish father of his, who went
to law with you!"
"Very different indeed, but with just as much of the Chillingly blood
in him. How the Chillinglys ever gave birth to a Kenelm is a question
much more puzzling."
"Oh, my dear Sir Peter, don't be metaphysical. You know how I hate
puzzles."
"And yet, Caroline, I have to thank you for a puzzle which I can never
interpret by my brain. There are a great many puzzles in human nature
which can only be interpreted by the heart."
"Very true," said Lady Chillingly. "I suppose Kenelm is to have his
old room, just opposite to Mr. Gordon's."
"Ay--ay, just opposite. Opposite they will be all their lives. Only
think, Caroline, I have made a discovery!"
"Dear me! I hope not. Your discoveries are generally very expensive,
and bring us in contact with such very odd people."
"This discovery shall not cost us a penny, and I don't know any people
so odd as not to comprehend it. Briefly it is this: To genius the
first requisite is heart; it is no requisite at all to talent. My
dear Caroline, Gordon has as much talent as any young man I know, but
he wants the first requisite of genius. I am not by any means sure
that Kenelm has genius, but there is no doubt that he has the first
requisite of genius,--heart. Heart is a very perplexing, wayward,
irrational thing; and that perhaps accounts for the general incapacity
to comprehend genius, while any fool can comprehend talent. My dear
Caroline, you know that it is very seldom, not more than once in three
years, that I presume to have a will of my own against a will of
yours; but should there come a question in which our son's heart is
concerned, then (speaking between ourselves) my will must govern
yours."
"Sir Peter is growing more odd every day," said Lady Chillingly to
herself when left alone. "But he does not mean ill, and there are
worse husbands in the world."
Therewith she rang for her maid, gave requisite orders for the
preparing of Kenelm's room, which had not been slept in for many
months, and then consulted that functionary as to the adaptation of
some dress of hers, too costly to be laid aside, to the style of some
dress less costly which Lady Glenalvon had imported from Paris as /la
derniere mode/.
On the very day on which Kenelm arrived at Exmundham, Chillingly
Gordon had received this letter from Mr. Gerald Danvers.
DEAR GORDON,--In the ministerial changes announced as rumour in the
public papers, and which you may accept as certain, that sweet little
cherub--is to be sent to sit up aloft and pray there for the life of
poor Jack; namely, of the government he leaves below. In accepting
the peerage, which I persuaded him to do,--creates a vacancy for the
borough of -----, just the place for you, far better in every way than
Saxborough. ----- promises to recommend you to his committee. Come to
town at once. Yours, etc.
G. DANVERS.
Gordon showed this letter to Mr. Travers, and, on receiving the hearty
good-wishes of that gentleman, said, with emotion partly genuine,
partly assumed, "You cannot guess all that the realization of your
good-wishes would be. Once in the House of Commons, and my motives
for action are so strong that--do not think me very conceited if I
count upon Parliamentary success."
"My clear Gordon, I am as certain of your success as I am of my own
existence."
"Should I succeed,--should the great prizes of public life be within
my reach,--should I lift myself into a position that would warrant my
presumption, do you think I could come to you and say, 'There is an
object of ambition dearer to me than power and office,--the hope of
attaining which was the strongest of all my motives of action? And in
that hope shall I also have the good-wishes of the father of Cecilia
Travers?"
"My dear fellow, give me your hand; you speak manfully and candidly as
a gentleman should speak. I answer in the same spirit. I don't
pretend to say that I have not entertained views for Cecilia which
included hereditary rank and established fortune in a suitor to her
hand, though I never should have made them imperative conditions. I
am neither potentate nor /parvenu/ enough for that; and I can never
forget" (here every muscle in the man's face twitched) "that I myself
married for love, and was so happy. How happy Heaven only knows!
Still, if you had thus spoken a few weeks ago, I should not have
replied very favourably to your question. But now that I have seen so
much of you, my answer is this: If you lose your election,--if you
don't come into Parliament at all, you have my good-wishes all the
same. If you win my daughter's heart, there is no man on whom I would
more willingly bestow her hand. There she is, by herself too, in the
garden. Go and talk to her."
Gordon hesitated. He knew too well that he had not won her heart,
though he had no suspicion that it was given to another. And he was
much too clever not to know also how much he hazards who, in affairs
of courtship, is premature.
"Ah!" he said, "I cannot express my gratitude for words so generous,
encouragement so cheering. But I have never yet dared to utter to
Miss Travers a word that would prepare her even to harbour a thought
of me as a suitor. And I scarcely think I should have the courage to
go through this election with the grief of her rejection on my heart."
"Well, go in and win the election first; meanwhile, at all events,
take leave of Cecilia."
Gordon left his friend, and joined Miss Travers, resolved not indeed
to risk a formal declaration, but to sound his way to his chances of
acceptance.
The interview was very brief. He did sound his way skilfully, and
felt it very unsafe for his footsteps. The advantage of having gained
the approval of the father was too great to be lost altogether, by one
of those decided answers on the part of the daughter which allow of no
appeal, especially to a poor gentleman who wooes an heiress.
He returned to Travers, and said simply, "I bear with me her
good-wishes as well as yours. That is all. I leave myself in your
kind hands."
Then he hurried away to take leave of his host and hostess, say a few
significant words to the ally he had already gained in Mrs. Campion,
and within an hour was on his road to London, passing on his way the
train that bore Kenelm to Exmundham. Gordon was in high spirits. At
least he felt as certain of winning Cecilia as he did of winning his
election.
"I have never yet failed in what I desired," said he to himself,
"because I have ever taken pains not to fail."
The cause of Gordon's sudden departure created a great excitement in
that quiet circle, shared by all except Cecilia and Sir Peter.