SUNDAY.
People are apt to talk of Sunday in the country as a pleasant thing, and
yet there are few things which require a more delicate combination of
circumstances to make it bearable. Far be it from me to say a word
against the English Sunday which is good for man and beast, and only a
little heavy upon the idle portion of the world, who have no particular
occasion for rest. Sunday at home, with one’s own occupations and
pleasures about one, is precisely what one chooses to make it,--an oasis
in the desert, a peaceful break upon the frets of life, or a weariness
and a nuisance, according to the inclinations of the individual. But
your Sunday is taken out of your hands when you visit your friends.
Frank Renton was nothing more than an ordinary young man, neither less
nor more devout than the average; and felt the weekly holiday often
enough lie heavy on his hands. But he, like everybody else, floated upon
the surface of the Sunday at Richmont,--a waif and stray, without any
will of his own, to be made what his entertainers pleased. Sunday
usually comprises morning church, which is one’s duty, and a blessed
relief from one’s friends; and then lunch, which is a happy interlude of
life; and then a dreadful afternoon to be got through somehow; enforced
aimless walks, if it is fine; aimless compulsory talk, in any case; if
it rains, confusion and despair till dinner comes,--a heavenly interval
of occupation! After that, if there is anything at all genial in the
nature of your interlocutors, the evening may be got through, with the
assistance of sacred music; but, oh, the joy, the relief, the
satisfaction, when ten o’clock comes, and one is justified in lighting
one’s candle and going to bed! Two girls in the house to walk with, and
talk to, naturally modified this frightful programme to the young man.
They all walked to church in the morning,--for Mr. Rich was
old-fashioned,--and after luncheon looked at each other to know what was
to be done. There was the flower-garden to visit, and the stables, and
Mr. Rich’s favourite walk round the grounds. Frank, being a stranger,
went through the whole of these varied operations. He visited the
flower-garden with Mrs. Rich, and the stables with Alf, and made the
round of the little park with the father and son together, and had all
the views pointed out to him. ‘But you know all this ground as well as
we do,’ the millionnaire said, though not until after he had cheerfully
pointed out everything that was to be seen, and all the points of
vision. ‘Ten thousand times better,’ Frank groaned to himself; but he
was too civil to speak out. It was a lovely day, in the end of April;
heaps of primroses were clustering in the woods, and the flower-beds
were gay with the first flush of spring; the lilacs and laburnums were
beginning to bloom; the orchards were all white, and the air full of
perfume. On such a day, as Mr. Rich justly said, it was a pleasure
merely to be out-of-doors. But Frank, who had abundant opportunity of
being out-of-doors, was indifferent to the pleasure. He had not anything
particular to say to Alf, and Alf had nothing particular to say to him.
So that Mr. Rich had it all his own way, and did the chief part of the
talking, and enjoyed himself. He went through the walks, a little in
advance of the two young men, with his hands folded under the tails of
his coat. His step was brisk, though theirs was sufficiently languid.
‘This was a sad desert when I came here,’ he would say, turning round,
and bringing them to a stop for a moment, ‘I had cartloads of rubbish
cleared away from this bank,--scrubby bushes, all choked and miserable,
without air to breathe or space to grow in. I had ’em all cleared away,
sir. And over there, there had been a little landslip, as you see, which
I stopped just in time. The whole slope would have fallen with those
pretty birches, but for what we had done. You can see how it’s all bound
and shored up. They told me I never could manage it; that a City man
knew nothing about such things. But just look at it now, and tell me if
anything could be more steady. It would defy an avalanche, that bank
would.’ And Mr. Rich stopped and patted the slope with his fat hands.
‘It seems beautifully done,’ said Frank, and Alf gave a little grunt, as
who should say, The old fellow knows what he is about.
‘I flatter myself you won’t see better work anywhere,’ said the
millionnaire. ‘We City men know a thing or two, Mr. Frank. We may not be
so fine as you soldiers, but we have an eye for practical matters. I was
not much to brag of in the way of prosperity when I first came to this
neighbourhood. We took a little house down here, my wife and I, for
change in the summer; and I set my eye on this place. I said to myself,
‘If I thrive I’ll settle there, if money will buy it.’ And there’s
nothing money will not buy. Here I am, you see, and my children after
me. What would the Beauchamps have thought if they had known that the
very name of their place was to be changed, and it was to be called
after the Riches, people nobody ever heard of? But a great many people
have heard of me now.’
‘Immense numbers, I am sure, sir,’ said Frank, throwing away his cigar.
He had the natural civility of his family, and could not turn an
absolutely deaf ear, sick as he was of the monologue. Even Alf took his
cigar out of his mouth, and looked at it curiously, as if it perhaps
could clear up the situation. ‘All the same; I don’t see that we are
anything remarkable,’ said Alf; which was almost as great a puzzle to
his father as a similar accident was to Balaam.
‘Oh dear, no, not all remarkable,’ said Mr. Rich, after he had stared
wildly at his son; and he gave a glance at Frank, and a little nod, to
signify his appreciation of his boy. ‘I don’t suppose you soldiers have
much need for brains,’ he added, with benevolent jocularity. ‘But to
return to the subject. I don’t know if you have observed how much I have
done to the house, Mr. Frank. That music-room Nelly is so fond of was
the merest wreck and ruin. Lumber in it,--actually lumber!--old pictures
turned against the wall that were not worth sixpence, and trunks full of
old papers, and everything that is most dreary. I had Runnymede, the
architect, down, who knows all about that style of thing. I said, “Name
your own price, and take your time, and come and dine with me whenever
you are in the county.” These were all the conditions I made, and in six
months, sir, I had everything restored; and as pretty a little domestic
chapel,--the best judges tell me,--as exists in England. All money,
sir,--money and a little taste. You may think I have too high an opinion
of what money can do; but I don’t think one can have too high an idea.
It can do anything. It’s the greatest power known. You may have the best
intentions in the world, but you can’t carry them out without money. You
can’t serve your friends without money; for influence means money, you
know, however incorruptible we are now-a-days. When I stand and look
round me, and see all the changes that have been made, I feel that
nothing but money could have done it. We did not have all this by birth,
as the Beauchamps had. You should see my cattle at the farm. The
Beauchamps never could afford to keep up that home-farm. I feel sorry
for them; but it was clearly the best thing they could do to go away.
They were keeping the sunshine off the land, and preventing it from
thriving. You must have money, Mr. Renton, before you can do anything.
It would be a great deal better for you young men if you recognised that
at the first start.’
‘I don’t see what good it would do us,’ said Frank. ‘We can’t invent
money. Of course I know it would be very nice to have it,--but wishing
is not having;’ and with that he turned his eye towards the music-room,
the windows of which were open. He was wishing to be there, there could
be no doubt; but I don’t think there was any calculation in his head, or
at that moment the smallest recollection of the fifty thousand pounds.
‘That is true,’ said Mr. Rich; ‘but when it comes in your way you should
know better than to put it aside, as I have known some foolish young
fellows do. There is your brother, for instance. Knowing who he was, and
being neighbours, and so forth, why I’d have bought anything of his own
as fast as look at it,--anything! As for merit, I should never have
asked if it was good or bad. But, no! Instead of taking me to his own
studio, where he must have had something to show,--must have had, don’t
you see, or what is the good of a studio at all?--he took me to
Suffolk’s and I bought that picture instead. That is what I call running
in the face of Providence. Serve your friends next to yourself, if you
like,--I don’t object to that; but to serve them before yourself is
going counter to every right feeling. Friendship is all very well, but
you can command even friendship if you have money enough. You prefer to
think of disinterestedness and all that sort of thing, you young
fellows; but the only man that can really be disinterested is a rich
man. Therefore be as rich as you can,--that has been my motto all my
life.’
Frank laughed, though he did not much like the lecture. ‘That is all
very well,’ he said; ‘but how are we to grow rich, except on the turf,
or at cards, or something? And you are just as likely, for that matter,
to grow poorer than richer. They are having some music up there,’ he
said, turning decidedly in the direction of the music-room. Mr. Rich
shook his head.
‘You won’t make much by music,’ he said,--‘at least, you amateurs don’t.
If I were Mrs. Severn I’d train that girl for the stage, or something.
Why not? She must work for her living, poor thing! And do you take my
advice, Mr. Frank,--don’t waste your chances, or refuse a good thing
when you may have it. Friends are all very well, but serve yourself
first. You know the proverb,--“He who will not when he may, when he
would he shall have nay.”’
‘If I should ever have any good things in my power I will recollect,’
said Frank, laughing. But he was disturbed by this strange persistency.
They had come at last, he thanked heaven, to the end of the walk; and it
was on Mr. Rich’s lips to propose another round. ‘I think I’ll go
up-stairs and see what the young ladies are doing,’ said Frank, hastily.
Then Alf uttered a haw-haw under his moustache, and his father chorused
loudly,--a liberty which the subject of this mirth somewhat resented.
‘Ay, do,’ said Mr. Rich; ‘more natural than listening to an old fogey
chattering, isn’t it? Go to the young ladies,--I don’t doubt you’ll be
very welcome; but nevertheless, Mr. Frank, don’t forget that I have been
giving you good advice,--and very good advice, too, you’ll find it. Come
along, Alf.’
Frank turned back to the house with a wonderful sense of relief, while
the father and son resumed their walk. What could old Rich mean? What
were the good things that might be coming his way that he was to be
careful not to refuse? The question sent the blood to his face, and a
thrill, for which it was difficult to account, through his whole frame.
Was it Nelly’s fortune that was thus waiting his acceptance? Was it----
He quickened his pace, and felt his temples throb, and something buzz in
his ears. He had put aside the idea. He had resolved in his own mind
that it was Laurie who was to face this question; but Laurie was gone,
and, so far as he could see, everybody was agreed in thrusting it on his
own notice. Was it necessary that he should go over all the arguments
once more? ‘Serve yourself first and then your friends,’ old Rich had
said, as if he had divined the intention of the young soldier to
transfer this possible piece of good fortune to his brother,--as if he
had any right to transfer Nelly Rich to any one! All this time she might
be, and probably was, quite unconscious of the whole business. A girl
might flirt a little with a man without ever thinking of him after. He
was the only fellow at present with whom she could flirt. His face grew
hotter and hotter as he went up-stairs. ‘Don’t waste your chances, or
refuse a good thing when you may have it,’ old Rich had said. After all,
Frank himself was but a younger son. However matters turned out, he
could not come in to a great fortune; and here was competence, comfort,
security, before him. Frank had never been brought up to be anything but
a young man of the world, and he did not know indeed how far it was
right for him to put aside this chance. It was not a temptation he had
to set his face against,--it was a reasonable, sensible prospect which
probably he would be a fool not to seize upon. His freedom, after all,
was but a poor thing to set against all that he would gain by such a
marriage,--freedom for the mess, and the club, and the monotonies of a
young man’s life! For gaiety is as monotonous in its way as dulness; and
Frank was man enough to feel that the kind of existence he was leading
was not so good or so delightful as to be held fast at all costs. He
would not be rendered miserable by being withdrawn from the mess. It
would be no unendurable bondage to have a bright little companion to go
everywhere with him! His mind dwelt for a moment on that thought with a
softening sense of tenderness and gratified vanity. Then he pulled
himself up, as it were, with a start. Was that Nelly, that sudden vision
that had flitted before him? or was it--some one else? Breathless, not
stopping to make any further investigation, he rushed up-stairs.
They were both there as usual;--Nelly in the low chair, with a book in
her hand, talking to Alice, who stood leaning against the window, which
was open. The sounds Frank had heard had been imaginary sounds. ‘Come
and talk,’ Nelly had said, not caring at that moment for music. The soft
air breathing through the window,--the sight of the budding trees and
green of the park,--the sweetness of the flowers, were all music to
Alice. How different it was from Fitzroy Square! The world, with which
the child had as yet made so little acquaintance, breathed melodies to
her from every corner. She was glad to play for anybody who asked her;
but for herself, music was not so much a necessity there as at home. And
she was very content to stand by the open casement with that sweetness
which was sweeter even than the Lieder breathing about her, and the air
rustling softly through her curls. Nelly was asking her all sorts of
questions about home, and about Laurie Renton, who had at that moment an
interest for her. Why had he gone away so suddenly? Had anything
happened? ‘You did not refuse him, did you?’ she had asked, just as
Frank entered the house.
‘I,--refuse him? What do you mean?’ cried Alice, opening her brown eyes.
‘I mean what everybody means,’ cried Nelly. ‘Alice, my dear, you are a
perfect baby. Did you never hear of a girl refusing a man before? Then
you must have been very badly brought up. Perhaps you think we are to
give in to them whenever they ask us; but that would never suit me.’
‘I have not thought anything about it,’ said Alice, with a sudden blush
on her innocent cheeks.
‘And yet you are sixteen,’ said Nelly. ‘I had not only thought about it,
but done it, before I was your age. But then I have money. In this house
we think a great deal of money. It seems quite right and natural to them
all that men should ask me, and pretend to be in love with me, because
papa is rich. Did you hear Frank Renton say last night he would never
marry for that? Young men are all so frightfully prudent now-a-days;
they laugh, and smirk, and say, ‘Oh yes, of course,’ and look at me as
if I was something into the bargain that had to be taken with my
fortune. I wish I had been an artist’s daughter, like you. Then I could
have taken up my father’s profession, and nobody would have thought it
strange. If I married that Laurie Renton now----’ said Nelly, with
meditative calm. Alice’s blush grew deeper and deeper, and she turned
away her face. She was a fanciful child, full of ideas which most people
would think overstrained; and it made her cheeks flame, though she had
nothing to do with it, to hear Nelly’s philosophical peradventures. And
then she remembered how suddenly Mr. Frank Renton had come in upon them
last night. If he should by chance hear anything of a conversation like
this!
‘I don’t know what you mean. I--can’t--understand how you can--speak
so,’ said Alice.
‘That is because you have been kept in the nursery, and never heard
anything,’ said Nelly; ‘and much the best thing too. But it is long
enough since I have been in the nursery, and there are always heaps of
people about the house who do not care a straw for us. Why shouldn’t I
have married Laurie Renton? It would have been a very good thing for
him, and he is living just as I should like to live. Ah! you have heard
a great deal about love, and all that nonsense,’ said Nelly, with a
sigh.
‘I have never heard anything about it. Why should people talk of such
things?’ cried the indignant Alice.
‘Why shouldn’t you talk of anything you think about?’ said her
companion; ‘for of course you have thought about it, and read about it,
and believe in it. But one comes not to believe. I don’t care a straw
for Laurie Renton. I don’t know him. I have seen him once, and most
likely I shall never see him again. But he and I might have made what
you may call a reasonable match. He would have been a great deal the
better of my money; and I should have been much the better of having him
to go about with me, and take care of me, and tell me what to do. It
would have been the very thing for us both.’ And Nelly sighed again,
having thus oddly brought herself just to the same point to which
Frank’s deliberations had brought him. But the sigh was not for Laurie;
indeed, as she admitted, she did not know Laurie. If Frank had been like
his brother, perhaps---- But he was not like his brother, nor was he
like herself. He was Frank, a young Guardsman and butterfly, like the
rest; one of the men who had seized upon her own faulty sketch, and
taken no notice of Suffolk’s beautiful picture; a young fellow,--she
said to herself,--without two ideas in his head; and yet----; ‘I suppose
you don’t know much about his brother?’ she said to Alice, leaning her
arm upon the broad ledge of the window, and her head on that. The two
girls were in this attitude, the one looking up to the other, when Frank
himself arrived at the door.
This time he was very modest and discreet. He knocked, which startled
them much, and then he asked, ‘May I come in?’ and entered softly after
a pause. ‘I was told I might come,’ said Frank, folding his hands. ‘I
hope I have not done anything wrong.’
And Nelly looked up at him with a sudden blush. He was handsome, and
young, and full of that splendid freedom and independence of movement
which girls, being excluded from it, admire so intensely. Why should he
insist on coming, and stand thus suppliant, with his hands folded,
unless---- And last night he had knelt,--he had gone down on his knees
as men are not in the habit of doing out of novels; and he was not like
the other men. He was not exactly like them, at least, as they were like
each other. And---- Nelly extended her hand, which was unnecessary.
‘When a man has made up his mind in this determined way to effect an
entrance, of course he must do it,’ said Nelly. ‘Come in, since you will
come. Come and talk: we were talking of you, and you can give us all
the information we want.’
‘Talking of me?--that is too much happiness,’ said Frank.
‘That is, of your brother, which comes to about the same thing,’ said
Nelly, carelessly. ‘Please give us a full account of all you have ever
done, and your motives for doing it. I am full of curiosity to-day. It
is Sunday, and one has nothing else to do. You had better begin at Eton,
and tell us all about it,’ cried the girl, laying back her head upon her
high-backed chair, and looking full at him, with that calm observation
in her face which is so exasperating to ordinary mortals. Frank was not
exasperated, however, for there was a certain trace of nervousness in
Nelly’s audacity. As for Alice, she was horror-stricken.
‘Oh, Nelly! how can you speak so?’ she cried. To Alice, Frank Renton was
a paladin,--too fine a being to approach with freedom at all, much less
with candid questioning. Tell them everything he ever did! He would be
angry, Alice thought. ‘Oh, Nelly! how dare you?’ she cried. And Frank
was as much touched by the sound of that soft little exclamation as if
her utterances had been those of the highest wisdom.
‘Begin with Eton?’ he said. ‘It is so long ago I forget; and besides, I
have always been so good, and gentle, and well behaved, that there is
nothing to tell about me. I will tell you about Laurie, if you like. He
was always an unlucky fellow,--too late for everything, and never quite
sure whether he was right or wrong;--but the best fellow that ever was
born. You would have liked Laurie if you had known him. And I wanted you
to know him,’ continued Frank. ‘You would have suited each other so
well.’
‘Should we?’ said Nelly, still looking up, and leaning back her head
against the high back of her chair. ‘Alice, please go and play us
something. If you cannot manage the organ, there is the piano. Mr.
Renton, tell me why you wanted me to know your brother, and why you
thought he would have particularly suited me.’ The question brought the
guilty blood to Frank’s face. What a little inquisitor she was! What
strange, outspoken people were the entire family! ‘Why did you think he
would have suited me?--tell me,’ she asked, looking fixedly into his
face.
‘Oh, I only thought,--I don’t know that I had any motive;--I suppose
because you are both fond of pictures, and both.’--here Frank paused to
take breath,--‘both,--why both artists, you know, in a way,’ he said,
with confusion; and during this broken utterance Nelly never once
removed from him her brilliant eyes.
‘I see,’ she said quietly, while Frank looked out at the window, and saw
Mr. Rich and Alf leisurely turning down towards the woods, and wished
he were with them after all. Being advised for his good was bad enough,
but to have his secrets thus demanded of him, and himself looked through
and through, was worse. Confound it! what did she see? that he had been
thinking of handing her over to Laurie? that he had been ready to
traffic with her, presuming on the notice she had taken of him, and
coolly planning to get her money for his brother? Was this what she saw,
the little sorceress? Just then Alice, who had been sent away not to
disturb the investigation, began to strike some plaintive chords on the
piano. Ah, there was a creature who would never gaze at a man with such
disdainful, suspicious scrutiny--a consolatory being, that would sweeten
and smooth life, and make its sorrows bearable, instead of adding
distraction to distraction! Frank felt sure that she had heard what was
passing, and struck in at the most difficult moment to relieve his
embarrassment and tranquillise his mind. Bless her! and of the other he
had said, in his perplexity, Confound her! While he stood silent,
looking out, the music stole about his heart and caressed and soothed
him. He felt as if it had not been the music but the musician who did
so; but of course that was nonsense. It freed him from the necessity of
making Nelly any further answer, or asking what it was she saw, as a man
strong in conscious right might have done. But all Frank’s consciousness
was of wrong.
It was Nelly who was the first to speak. She changed her position
rapidly, and with it her manner and all that was objectionable in her
looks. She leaned forward to him with her arm on the ledge of the
window. ‘I am impertinent,’ she said; ‘yes, I know you think so; but you
must not be angry, Mr. Renton, as Alice says.’
‘Angry!’ cried Frank.
‘Yes, angry; you might be, for I have been very disagreeable. I can’t
help being disagreeable now and then. You are very fond of your brother,
and you wanted me to know him. It was a great compliment; and before you
came I was saying to Alice how I wished I could have gone with him, and
lived just as he did. But I can’t, you know. A girl never can do
anything she wants to do. That is what makes us envy you so, and admire
your independence and your freedom,’ said Nelly, looking up with
different eyes,--with eyes as plaintive and insinuating as the
music,--into Frank’s face.
What could he do? He was mollified in spite of himself. ‘Not so very
independent, after all,’ he said. ‘A subaltern cannot boast of much in
that way. I have to come and go as I am told, and ask leave before I can
get away to see my friends.’
‘And have a hard life altogether,’ said Nelly. ‘That is very sad; but if
I were to ask leave ever so they would not let me go to Rome as your
brother has done. I wish he had been my brother, and then I might have
gone with him; but our poor boys don’t understand that sort of thing.
George knows about the money market and all that. And when Harry comes
home he will probably be able to talk of indigo. Isn’t it indigo? And
Alf,--what should you say Alf knows most about, Mr. Renton?’ said Nelly,
with fun dancing in her eyes.
Poor Alf! Frank could not but laugh, though he was conscious of not
being particularly clever himself. And it was impossible not to look
down upon the sparkling face that gazed up at him. The music plucked at
his heart and called him to attention; but he could not be so rude as to
turn from Nelly. And then something might still be done in Laurie’s
interest. ‘If you go to Italy next winter you will meet my brother,’ he
said; ‘at least I hope so. I should like to be able to tell him to look
out for you, if I knew when you were going;--I am sure he could be of
use.’
‘Next winter!’ said Nelly, ‘that is a long time off yet. No one can tell
what may have happened before next winter. Do you expect to be gone from
here that you speak in that uncertain way about where we are going?’
‘I expect to be in India by that time,’ said Frank.
‘In India? Oh, yes, I remember; so you said,’ said Nelly, and made a
pause; then she asked suddenly, with a hurried glance at him, ‘And you
think there is nothing that could happen that would make you change
your mind?’
‘I don’t know what could happen that would change my mind,’ said Frank.
He faltered as he spoke, knowing that there was one thing,--and that her
very self,--which might alter all his plans; and yet feeling no desire
to have his plans altered; but a more energetic determination, on the
contrary, to carry them out. But what could a girl possibly mean by such
a question? Not that, surely, of all things in the world! The pause that
ensued was full of embarrassment. And the music swept in again suddenly
and filled the whole place, and the rustling, palpitating silence
between them. Nelly spoke no more. She let her head drop upon one hand,
and with the fingers of her other beat time softly on the little table.
The subject of the conversation was nothing to her; that was the
inference in her change of attitude. ‘Listen; how lovely that is!’ were
the first words she spoke; and yet she admitted that she did not care
for music. Frank stood and leaned upon the open casement, with his eyes
vacantly fixed upon the green world without; and though there was still
the vibration in the air caused by the strange, secret, unacknowledged
duel which had been going on between Nelly and himself, the sweet sounds
once more entered into and possessed him. The strain took him upon its
growing current like a toy, and flooded him, as it were, with changed
sensations and a curious quietness. It soothed, and cheered, and stilled
him all in a moment. And strangely enough, though he was a young man who
should have known better, all these results seemed to him to have been
produced not by the music but by the musician. It was to Frank as if
Alice herself had whispered a soft ‘Never mind’ into his ear, and had
charmed him instantly into such dreams as put away from him all
recollection of the former embarrassment. He stood thus till long after
Nelly had ceased to beat with her fingers on the table, and till she had
almost grown tired of wondering at his absorbed countenance. She had
suffered the music to end that particular conversation, feeling that it
could go no further; but she had naturally expected that another
conversation should begin after a proper interval. But such an idea did
not occur to Frank. He was really absorbed in the music,--a thing which
bewildered Nelly. She sat and beat time for five minutes, and then she
stopped and looked at the Guardsman and at Alice with a look of wonder
in her face. But Frank did not even observe her look. When she could no
longer refrain herself, she burst into sudden speech.
‘I do not understand music,’ she said. ‘Do you know what that means, you
two? You are both so absorbed you have lost sight of everything else.
Does it mean anything? Pray tell me what it is?’
‘What it means?’ said Frank; and Alice, though she had but half heard
the question, paused as by instinct, the chords still vibrating under
her fingers. She had been perfectly passive, taking no part in the talk,
not even knowing what was said; yet suddenly she too felt as Frank did,
that they were engaged in opposite armies, two against one. Nelly
affronted, a little hurt, angry without meaning to be angry, stood on
one side--and on the other, the performer and the listener stood
together, having forgotten everything. Alice felt this by instinct, with
a quick pang of sorrow, yet of satisfaction. He and she were on the same
side. It was pleasant not to stand alone.
‘You look moon-struck,’ said Nelly, more and more indignant, ‘and it is
still broad daylight. Yes; tell me what it means. What wailing spirit is
in the keys? I cannot make it out. I have been listening and wondering
for ten minutes. I know what books mean, and pictures; but I can’t
understand music. Tell me, you two, who are fond of it, what it is all
about?’
Then Frank turned round upon Alice, and a look of mutual appeal passed
between them. Mean? It was part of a mass; but Frank, for his part at
least, did not know the solemn words to which the music was wedded; and
he wanted no meaning that could be put into words. He felt what it was,
instinctively. It was the only poetry of which his mind was susceptible.
Alice was more fanciful, more imaginative, perhaps more intellectual
than the young Guardsman; but yet the question was to her much what the
question, What did ‘In Memoriam’ mean? would have been to a mind of
different inclinations. The two looked at each other in a momentary
wondering consultation. They were the two against one, connected by a
secret bond. In a moment the colour flamed from one young face to the
other. A sensation of happiness, tenderness, exquisite satisfaction and
contentment, came over them both. Neither could explain, and yet both
knew, felt, and felt together. And were ashamed!--Surely a more innocent
bond could not have been. As for Nelly, with her quick eyes she saw the
glance, and understood, and flamed up also, all over, with resentment
and indignation, and a mortified sense of being superseded.
‘Yes.’ she said, with a hard little laugh, ‘consult each other! I have
asked heaps of musical people the same question; but they never could
tell me. What is it about? Is there a story in it, or any meaning? Have
a consultation; two heads are better than one. And please, when you make
it out, tell me,’ she cried, rising from her seat. ‘I will go and get a
book that I can understand.’
And before they could either of them say a word she was gone out of the
room. The movement was so sudden, that they were both taken by surprise.
‘What is the matter? Is she affronted?’ said Frank, with a secret sense
that he himself was the sinner. As for Alice, she was struck with
consternation. ‘What have we done?’ she said, faltering, and then
recollected herself, and blushed more deeply than ever. And there was a
pause of dismay, during which the two strangers listened and waited for
the return of the daughter of the house. Then Alice rose with tears in
her eyes.
‘Mr. Renton, I am so sorry,’ she said. ‘Miss Hadley always tells me
musical people are so selfish, thinking everybody must like it. I will
go and beg Nelly’s pardon. I did not mean any harm.’
‘Harm?’ said Frank with indignation; but before he could add another
word he found himself alone.