HOW WILL LEVETT WAS DISAPPOINTED.
Thus was Harry Temple at last pacified and brought to reason. In the
course of a short time he was so far recovered from his passion as to
declare his love for another woman whom he married. This shows how
fickle and fleeting are the affections of most men compared with those
of women; for I am truly of opinion that no woman can love more than
one man in her life, while a man appears capable of loving as many
as he pleases all at once or in turn, as the fancy seizes him. Could
Solomon have loved in very truth the whole seven hundred?
When I was no longer harassed by Harry's gloomy face and jealous
reproaches, I thought that the time was come when I ought to consider
how I should impart to my lord a knowledge of the truth, and I said
to myself, day after day: "To-morrow morning I will do it;" and in the
morning I said: "Nay, but in the evening." And sometimes I thought to
write it and sometimes to tell it him by word of mouth. Yet the days
passed and I did not tell him, being a coward, and rejoicing in the
sunshine of his love and kindness, which I could not bear to lose or
put in any danger.
And now you shall hear how this delay was the cause of a most dreadful
accident, which had well-nigh ruined and lost us altogether.
I could not but remember, when Harry Temple reproached me with
falsehood and faithlessness, that Will Levett had made use of nearly
the same words, making allowance for Will's rusticity. The suspicion
did certainly cross my mind, more than once, that Will may have meant
(though I understood him not) the same thing as Harry. And I remembered
how he pulled a sixpence out of his pocket and gave me the half, which
I threw upon the table unheeding, though every girl knows that a broken
sixpence is a pledge of betrothal. But I was in such great trouble and
anxiety, that I thought nothing of it and remembered nothing for long
afterwards. Yet if Harry came to claim a supposed promise at my hands,
why should not Will? which would be a thing much worse to meet, because
Harry was now amenable to reason, and by means of the strait-waistcoat
and bucket of cold water, with a little talk, I had persuaded him to
adopt a wiser course. But no reason ever availed anything with Will,
save the reason of desire or the opposition of superior force. As a
boy, he took everything he wanted, unless he could be prevented by a
hearty flogging; and he bullied every other boy save those who could by
superior strength compel him to behave properly. I have already shown
how he treated us when we were children and when we had grown up to
be great girls. So that, with this suspicion, and remembering Will's
dreadful temper and his masterfulness, I felt uneasy indeed when Nancy
told me that her brother was coming to Epsom.
"We shall be horribly ashamed of him," she said, laughing, though
vexed. "Indeed, I doubt if we shall be able to show our faces on the
Terrace, after Will has been here a day or two. Because, my dear, he
will thrash the men-servants, kiss the girls, insult the company--some
of whom will certainly run him through the body, while some he will
beat with his cudgel--get drunk in the taverns, and run an Indian muck
through the dance at the Assembly Rooms. I have told my father that
the best thing for him to do is to pretend that Will is no relation of
ours at all, only a rustic from our parish bearing the same name; or
perhaps we might go on a visit to London for a fortnight, so as to get
out of his way; and that, I think, would be the best. Kitty! think of
Will marching up and down the Terrace, a dozen dogs after him, his wig
uncombed, his hunting-coat stained with mud, halloing and bawling as
he goes, carrying an enormous club like Hercules--he certainly is very
much like Hercules--his mouth full of countrified oaths. However, he
does not like fine folks, and will not often show among us. And while
we are dancing in the rooms, he will be sitting at the door of a tavern
mostly, smoking a pipe of tobacco and taking a mug of October with any
who will sit beside him and hear his tales of badgers, ferrets, and
dogs. Well, fortunately, no one can deny the good blood of the Levetts,
which will, we hope, come out again in Will's children; and my father
is a baronet of James the First's creation, otherwise it would go hard
with our gentility."
"When do you expect him to come?"
"He sends word that he may come to-night or to-morrow, bringing with
him a horse which he proposes to match upon the Downs with any horse at
Epsom for thirty guineas a side. One match has been already fixed, and
will be run the next day, provided both horses are fresh. I hope Will
will not cheat, as he was accused of doing at Maidstone. I suppose we
shall all have to go to the Downs to see. Why do men like horse-racing,
I wonder? Crack goes the whip, the horses rush past, the people shout,
the race is over. Give me enjoyment which lasts a little longer, such
as a good country dance, or a few words with Peggy Baker on the
Terrace."
"Does Will know that I am here?" I asked.
"I suppose not," she replied. "Why, my dear, how is Will to know
anything? My father laid out large sums upon his education. Yet the end
of all is that he never reads anything, not even books on Farriery.
As for letters, he is well known not to read those which my mother
sometimes sends him; and as for sending any himself, I believe he has
forgotten the art of writing. He does everything by word of mouth, like
the savages. Perhaps he remembers how to read, because he cannot forget
his sufferings over the criss-cross-row and horn-book. Will, Kitty, is
an early Briton; he should be dressed in wool and painted with woad;
he lives by preference in a stable or a kennel; he ought to have the
body and tail and legs of a horse, then he could stay in the stable
altogether and be happy."
Perhaps, I thought, he would not know me again. But in this I was
deceived, as shall be presently shown.
Well, then, knowing that Nancy would help me in this possible trouble,
I told her exactly what happened between Will and myself, just as I had
told her about Harry, and asked her advice.
It might be that Will had clean forgotten his words, or it might be
that he had changed his mind; he might have fallen in love with some
girl of the village, or he might find me changed and no longer care for
pressing his suit.
Nancy looked grave.
"My brother Will," she said, "is as obstinate as he is pig-headed. I
am afraid he will expect you to fulfil the engagement which he may
think he has made. Never mind, my dear; do not think of it to distress
yourself. If he is obstinate, so are you. He cannot marry you against
your will."
He came the next morning, riding into town, followed by two servants,
one of whom led the famous horse which was to ride the race.
"There," whispered Nancy, "is my brother Will."
We were standing in the church porch after morning prayers, when he
came clattering down the street. He was really a handsome man for those
who like a man to be like Hercules for strength, to have full rosy
cheeks which later in life become fat and purple, a resolute eye, and a
strong, straight chin which means obstinacy.
"Oh, how strong he is!" said Nancy, looking after him. "He could crush
together half-a-dozen of our beaux and fribbles between his fingers,
and break all their ribs with a single flourish of his cudgel. Well,
Will!" she added, as her brother rode out of sight, "we shall meet
at dinner, I dare say. Do you remember, Kitty, how he would tease
and torment us, and make us cry? There ought to be no brothers and
sisters at all--the girls should grow up in one house, and the boys in
another--they should never meet till they are old enough to be lovers,
and never be together when they are too old to be lovers. Fancy the
stupidity of philosophers in putting men and women under the same
name, and calling us all humanity, or mankind, as their impudent way
is of putting it. What have they in common? Man drinks, and gambles,
and fights--woman sits at home and loves peace and moderation: man
wastes--woman saves: man loves to admire--we love to be admired. What
single quality have we in common except a desire to be amiable and seem
pleasing to the other sex?"
"Very likely," I replied, thinking of something else. "No doubt he has
long since forgotten the sixpence. No doubt he thinks no more of me or
the sixpence either."
I saw nothing of him that day, because he had so much to do with his
stable, and so much to attend to in the matter of his race, that he
did not appear upon the Terrace or at the Assembly Room. Harry Temple
shrugged his shoulders when I asked him if he had seen Will.
"I saw him," he said, "engaged in his usual occupations. He had just
cudgelled a stable-boy, was swearing at a groom, rubbing down his
racehorse with his own hands, and superintending the preparation of a
warm mash for his hack. He seems perfectly happy."
It was agreed, in spite of my fears, that we should make a party to
see this race the next morning. Nowadays it is no longer the _mode_
to seek health at Epsom Wells and on Banstead Downs. The votaries of
fashion go to Bath and Tunbridge; the old Wells are deserted, I hear
that the Assembly Rooms have fallen into decay, and there are no longer
the Monday public breakfast, the card-table, the music, the dancing,
which made the place a little heaven for the young in those times when
I myself was young. But in one respect Epsom has grown more frequented
and more renowned every year:
"On Epsom Downs, when racing does begin,
Large companies from every part come in."
The spring races were in April, and the summer races in June; but there
was a constant racing all the year round with the horses of country
gentlemen. They would bring them to make matches with all comers, at
such stakes as they could afford to venture on the horses; and in the
morning the company would crowd upon the Downs in goodly numbers to
bet upon the race, and shout to the winner. Sometimes ladies would go
too; not out of any love for the sport, or interest in horses, but
to please their lovers--a desire which is the cause of many a pretty
maid's sudden liking for some manly sport. I have known them even show
an interest in such rough sports as badger-drawing and otter-hunting:
they have been seen to ride after hounds in the midst of the hallos
and horns of the hunters: they have even gone with the gentlemen on
shooting-parties. Thus there were plenty of girls at Epsom ready to
please their gallants by standing about on the Downs (where the wind
plays havoc with powder and paint, and destroys irretrievably the
fabric of a head), while the panting horses were spurred over the long
course by the jockeys, and the backers cried and shouted.
Lord Chudleigh took little joy in this kind of sport, which, perhaps,
is a reason why I also disliked the sight. Nancy, also, as well as
myself, cared but little to see this famous Epsom sport; nor, indeed,
did any of the ladies who formed part of our more intimate company.
But on this occasion, as Will was to run a three-year-old of his own
training, and as he was going to ride the horse himself, and had
staked thirty guineas (beside bets) upon the event, it was judged a
duty owed to him by the family that all should go. Mrs. Esther went
out of respect to Lady Levett; Mr. Stallabras, because he remembered
how Pindar had sung of the Olympian Games, and was suddenly fired with
the desire of writing a Pindaric Ode upon the Epsom contests. Now,
it behoves a poet who sings of a horse-race, first to witness one.
Therefore he came to see how it would lend itself to modern metaphor.
Sir Miles came because he could get the chance of a few bets upon the
race, and because, when there were no cards to the fore, he liked, he
said, to hear me talk. Harry Temple came, grumbling and protesting that
for men of learning and fashion nothing was more barbarous and tedious
than this sport. Could we have had chariot-racing, with athletic games
after the manner of the ancients, he would have been pleased. As it
was, he hoped that Will would win, but feared that a clown and his
money were soon parted; with other remarks equally good-natured.
The race was to be run at half-past eleven. We had chairs for such
as preferred being carried, but the younger ladies walked. We made a
gallant procession as we came upon the course, all the ladies wearing
Will's colours, which were red and blue. They had railed off a piece of
ground where the better sort could stand without being molested by the
crowd which always congregates when a great race is to be run. Indeed,
on this occasion, it seemed as if all the idle fellows for twenty miles
round had gathered together on the Downs with one consent, and with
them half the rustics of the villages, the tradesmen and workmen of
Epsom, Leatherhead, and Dorking, and the greater part of the company
at the Wells. There were gipsies to tell our fortunes or steal our
poultry--but I, for one, had had enough already of fortune-telling from
the tent of the pretended Wizard of the masquerade: there were Italians
leading a bear: there were a couple of rough men with a bull which was
presently to be baited: a canvas enclosure was run up on poles, within
which the Cornish giant would wrestle all comers at sixpence a throw:
another, where a prize-fight would be held, admittance one shilling,
with twopence each for the defeated man: a puppet play was shown for
a penny: for twopence you might see a rare piece of art, the subject
of which I know not: and in wax, the histories of Fair Rosamond and
Susanna. Other amusements there were. I, at first, took all in honour
of Will and his race, but presently learned that a fair had been held
at Leatherhead the day before, and that these people, hearing of what
was forward, came over to get what could be picked up. And, as one fool
makes many, the knowledge of their coming, with the race for an excuse,
brought out all the country people, mouth agape, as is their wont.
The horses presently rode out of the paddock--a place where they weigh,
dress, put on the saddles, and adjust the preliminaries. Will in his
cap pulled over his ears like a nightcap (because a jockey wears no
wig), and in silk jacket, striped with blue and red, riding as if he
was part of the animal he sat, looked in his true place. Ever after
I have thought of the gallant show he made, while with left hand
holding the whip, he bridled the beautiful creature, which but for his
control would have been bounding and galloping over the plain. But they
explained to us that racehorses know when racing is meant, and behave
accordingly, save that they cannot always be refrained from starting
before the time.
Will's rival and competitor, whose name I forget (but I had never seen
him before), was a man of slighter figure, who rode equally well, but
did not at the same time appear to such advantage on horseback. Lord
Chudleigh explained to us that while Will rode naturally, sitting his
horse as if he understood what the creature wished to do, and where he
wanted to go; the other man sat him by rule of thumb, as if the horse
was to understand his master and not the master his horse. I have
ridden a great deal since then, and I know, now, the justice of my
lord's remarks, though I own that this perfect understanding between
horse and rider is not commonly found; and for my own part I remember
but one horse, three parts Arabian, with which I ever arrived at a
complete understanding. Even with him the understanding was onesided,
and ended in his always going whithersoever he pleased.
The adversary's colours were white and green; pretty colours, though
bad for the complexion of women; so that I was glad Will's were suited
to the roses of our cheeks.
They began by riding up and down for a quarter of an hour, Will looking
mighty important, stroking his horse, patting his neck, talking to him,
checking him when he broke into a canter or a gallop. The other man (he
in white and green) had trouble to keep his horse from fairly bolting
with him, which he did for a little distance more than once.
Then the starters took their places, and the judge his, in front of the
winning-post, and the horses started.
White and green led for a quarter of a mile; but Will was close behind:
it was pretty to see the eagerness of the horses--how they pressed
forward with straining necks.
"Will is holding back," cried Harry, with flashing eyes. "Wait till
they are over the hill."
"I feel like Pindar," cried Mr. Stallabras. "Would that Mr. Levett was
Hiero of Syracuse!"
"O Will!" exclaimed Nancy, as if he could hear. "Spur up your horse! If
you lose the race I will never forgive you."
We all stood with parted lips and beating hearts. Yes; we understood
the joy of horse-racing: the uncertainty of the struggle: the ambition
of the noble creatures: the eagerness of the riders: their skill: their
coolness: the shouts of the people--ah! the race is over.
Just before the finish, say two hundred yards the other side of the
winning-post, Will rose in his saddle, plied whip, and cried to his
horse. It answered with a rush, as if struck by a sudden determination
to be first: the other horse, a little tired perhaps, bounded onward
as well; but Will took the lead and kept it. In a moment the race was
finished, and Will rode gallantly past us, ahead by a whole length,
amid the cheers and applause of the people.
When the race was finished the visitors ran backward and forwards,
congratulating or condoling with each other. Many a long face was
pulled as the bets were paid: many a jolly face broadened and became
more jolly as the money went into pocket. And then I saw what is meant
by the old saying about money made over the devil's back. For those
who lost, lost outright, which cannot be denied: but those who won
immediately took their friends to the booths where beer and wine and
rum were sold, and straightway got rid of a portion of their winnings.
No doubt the rest went in the course of the day in debauchery. So that
the money won upon the race benefited no one except the people who sold
drink. And they, to my mind, are the last persons whom one would wish
to benefit, considering what a dreadful thing in this country is the
curse of drink.
If Will looked a gallant rider on horseback, he cut but a sorry figure
among the gentlemen when he came forth from the paddock, having taken
off his jacket and put on again his wig, coat, and waistcoat. For he
walked heavily, rolling in his gait (as a ploughboy not a sailor), and
his clothes were muddy and disordered, while his wig was awry. Lady
Levett beckoned to him, and he came towards us sheepishly bold, as is
the way with rustic gentlemen.
"So, Will," shouted his father heartily, "thou hast won the match. Well
rode, my boy!"
"Well rode!" cried all. "Well rode!"
He received our congratulations with a grin of satisfaction, saluting
the company with a grin, and his knuckles to his forehead like a
jockey. On recovering, he examined us all leisurely.
"Ay," he said. "There you are, Harry, talking to the women about books
and poetry and stuff. What good is that when a race is on? Might as
well have stayed at Cambridge. Well, Nancy--oh! I warrant you, so fine
as no one in the country would know you. Fine feathers make fine
birds, and----" here he saw me, and stared hard with his mouth open.
"Gad so!--it's Kitty! Hoop! Hollo!" Upon this he put both hands to his
mouth and raised such a shout that we all stopped our ears, and the
dogs barked and ran about furiously, as if in search of a fox. "Found
again! Kitty, I am right glad to see thee. Did I ride well? Were you
proud to see me coming in by a neck? Thinks I, 'I don't care who's
looking on, but I'll show them Will Levett knows how to ride.' If I'd
known it was you I would have landed the stakes by three clear lengths,
I would. Let me look at thee, Kitty. Now, gentlemen, by your leave." He
shoved aside Lord Chudleigh, and Harry, and pushed between them. "Let
me look at thee well--ay! more fine feathers--but"--here he swore great
oaths--"there never was anything beneath them but the finest of birds
ever hatched."
"Thank you, Will, for the compliment," I began.
"Why, if any one should compliment you, Kitty, who but I?"
I thought of the broken sixpence and trembled.
"A most pretty speech indeed," said Peggy Baker. "Another of Miss
Pleydell's swains, I suppose?"
"My brother," said Nancy, "has been Kitty's swain since he was old
enough to walk; that is, about the time when Kitty was born. He is as
old a swain as Mr. Temple here."
"I don't know naught about swains," said Will, "but I'm Kitty's
sweetheart. And if any man says nay to that, why let him step to the
front, and we'll have that business settled on the grass, and no time
wasted."
"Brother," cried Nancy, greatly incensed by a remark of such low
breeding, "remember that you are here among gentlemen, who do not fight
with cudgels and fists for the favours of ladies."
"Nay, dear Miss Levett," said Peggy, laughing; "I find Mr. William
vastly amusing. No doubt we might have a contest, a tournament after
the manner of the ancients, with Miss Pleydell as the Queen of Beauty,
to give her favours to the conquering knight. I believe we can often
witness a battle with swords and pistols, if we get up early enough,
in Hyde Park; but a duel with fists and cudgels would be much more
entertaining."
"Thank you, miss," said Will. "I should like to see the man who would
stand up against me."
"I think," Lord Chudleigh interposed, "that as no one is likely to
gratify this gentleman's strange invitation, we may return to the town.
Miss Pleydell, we wait your orders."
Will was about to say something rude, when his sister seized him by the
arm and whispered in his ear.
"O Lord! a lord!" he cried. "I beg your lordship's pardon. There, that
is just like you, Nancy, not to tell me at the beginning. Well, Kitty,
I am going to look after the horse. Then I will come to see thee."
"Your admirer is a bucolic of an order not often found among the sons
of such country gentlemen as Sir Robert Levett," said Lord Chudleigh
presently.
"He is addicted to horses and dogs, and he seems to consider that he
may claim--or show--some sort of equal attachment to me," I answered.
Then I told him the story of the broken sixpence, and how I became
engaged, without knowing it, to both Harry Temple and Will Levett on
the same day.
My lord laughed, and then became grave.
"I do not wonder," he said, "that all classes of men have fallen in
love with the sweetest and most charming of her sex. That does not
surprise me. Still, though we have disposed of Mr. Temple, who is, I
am bound to say, a gentleman open to reason, there may be more trouble
with this headstrong country lad, who is evidently in sober earnest, as
I saw from his eyes. What shall we do, Kitty?"
"My lord," I whispered, "let me advise for your safety. Withdraw
yourself for a while from Epsom. Give up Durdans and go to London. I
could not bear to see you embroiled with this rude and boisterous
clown. Oh, how could such a woman as Lady Levett have such a son? Leave
me to deal with him as best I can."
But he laughed at this. To be sure, fear had no part in the composition
of this noble, this incomparable man.
"Should I run away because a rustic says he loves my Kitty?" But then
his forehead clouded again. "Yet, alas! for my folly and my crime, I
may not call her my Kitty."
"Oh yes, my lord! Call me always thine. Indeed, I am all thine own, if
only I could think myself worthy."
We were walking together, the others a little distance behind us, and
he could do no more than touch my fingers with his own. Alas! the very
touch of his fingers caused a delightful tremor to run through my
veins--so helplessly, so deeply was I in love with him.
Thus we walked, not hand-in-hand, yet from time to time our hands
met: and thus we talked, not as betrothed lovers, yet as lovers: thus
my lord spoke to me, confiding to me his most secret affairs, his
projects, and his ambitions, as no man can tell them save to a woman he
loves. Truly, it was a sweet and delicious time. I fondly turn to it
now, after so many years, not, Heaven knows! with regret, any more than
September, rich in golden harvest and laden orchards, regrets the sweet
and tender April, when all the gardens were white and pink with the
blossoms of plum and pear and apple, and the fields were green with the
springing barley, oats, and wheat. Yet a dear, delightful time, only
spoiled by that skeleton in the cupboard, that consciousness that the
only person who stood between my lord and his happiness was--the woman
he loved. Heard man ever so strange, so pitiful a case?
At the foot of the hill Lord Chudleigh left us, and turned in the
direction of Durdans, where he remained all that day, coming not to
the Assembly in the evening. Mrs. Esther and I went home together to
dinner, and I know not who was the better pleased with the sport and
the gaiety of the morning, my kind madam or Cicely, the maid, who had
been upon the Downs and had her fortune told by the gipsies, and it was
a good one.
"But, my dear," said Mrs. Esther, "it is strange indeed that so loutish
and countrified a bumpkin should be the son of parents so well-bred as
Sir Robert and Lady Levett."
"Yet," I said, "the loutish bumpkin would have me marry him. Dear lady,
would you wish your Kitty to be the wife of a man who loves the stable
first, the kennel next, and his wife after his horses and his dogs?"
After dinner, as I expected, Will Levett called in person. He had been
drinking strong ale with his dinner, and his speech was thick.
"Your servant, madam," he said to Mrs. Esther. "I want speech, if I may
have it, with Miss Kitty, alone by herself, for all she sits with her
finger in her mouth yonder, as if she was not jumping with joy to see
me again."
"Sir!" I cried.
"Oh! I know your ways and tricks. No use pretending with me. Yet I like
them to be skittish. It is their nature to. For all your fine frocks,
you're none of you any better than Molly the blacksmith's girl, or
Sukey at the Mill. Never mind, my girl. Be as fresh and frolic as you
please. I like you the better for it--before we are married."
"Kitty dear," cried Mrs. Esther in alarm, "what does this gentleman
mean?"
"I do not know, dear madam. Pray, Will, if you can, explain what you
mean?"
"Explain? explain? Why----" here he swore again, but I will not write
down his profane and wicked language. Suffice it to say that he called
heaven and earth to witness his astonishment. "Why, you mean to look me
in the face and tell me you don't know?"
"We are old friends, Will," I said, "and I should like, for Nancy's
sake, and because Lady Levett has been almost a mother to me, out
of her extreme kindness, that we should remain friends. But when a
gentleman salutes me before a company of gentlemen and ladies as his
sweetheart, when he talks of fighting other gentlemen--like a rustic
on a village green----"
"Wouldst have me fight with swords and likely as not get killed, then?"
he asked.
"When he assumes these rights over me, I can ask, I think, for an
explanation."
"Certainly," said Mrs. Esther. "We are grieved, sir, to have even a
moment's disagreement with the son of so honourable a gentleman and so
gracious a lady as your respected father and worthy mother, but you
will acknowledge that your behaviour on the Downs was startling to a
young woman of such strict propriety as my dear Kitty."
He looked from one to the other as if in a dream.
Then he put his hand into his pocket and dragged out the half sixpence.
"What's that?" he asked me furiously.
"A broken sixpence, Will," I replied.
"Where is the other half?"
"Perhaps where it was left, on the table in the parlour of the
Vicarage."
"What!" he cried; "do you mean to say that you didn't break the
sixpence with me?"
"Do you mean to say, Will, that I did? As for you breaking it, I do not
deny that: I remember that you snapped it between your fingers without
asking me anything about it; but to say that I broke it, or assented to
your breaking it, or carried away the other half--Fie, Will, fie!"
"This wench," he said, "is enough to drive a man mad. Yet, for all your
fine clothes and your paint and powder, Mistress Kitty, I've promised
to marry you. And marry you I will. Put that in your pipe, now."
"Marry me against my consent, Will? That can hardly be."
"Is it possible," cried Mrs. Esther, seriously displeased, "that we
have in this rude and discourteous person a son of Sir Robert Levett?"
"I never was crossed by woman or man or puppy yet," cried Will
doggedly, and taking no notice whatever of Mrs. Esther's rebuke; "and
I never will be! Why, for a whole year and more I've been making
preparations for it. I've broke in the colt out of Rosamund by Samson
and called him Kit, for you to ride. I've told the people round, so
as anybody knows there's no pride in me, that I'm going to marry a
parson's girl, without a farden, thof a baronet to be----"
Will easily dropped into rustic language, where I do not always follow
him.
"Oh, thank you, Will. That is kind indeed. But I would rather see
you show the pride due to your rank and birth. You ought to refuse
to marry a parson's girl. Or, if you are resolved to cast away your
pride, there's many a farmer's girl--there's Jenny of the Mill, or the
blacksmith's Sue: more proper persons for you, I am sure, and more
congenial to your tastes than the parson's girl."
"I don't mind your sneering--not a whit, I don't," he replied. "Wait
till we're married, and I warrant you shall see who's got the upper
hand! There'll be mighty little sneering then, I promise you."
This brutal and barbarous speech made me angry.
"Now, Will," I said, "get up and go away. We have had enough of your
rustic insolence. Why, sir, it is a disgrace that a gentleman should
be such a clown. Go away from Epsom: leave a company for which your
rudeness and ill-temper do not fit you: go back to your mug-house,
your pipe, your stables, and your kennels. If you think of marrying,
wed with one of your own rank. Do you hear, sir? one of your own rank!
Gentle born though you are, clown and churl is your nature. As for me,
I was never promised to you; and if I had been, the spectacle of this
amazing insolence would break a thousand promises."
He answered by an oath. But his eyes were full of dogged determination
which I knew of old; and I was terrified, wondering what he would do.
"I remember, when you were a boy, your self-will and heedlessness of
your sister and myself. But we are grown up now, sir, as well as
yourself, and you shall find that we are no longer your servants. What!
am I to marry this clown----"
"You shall pay for this!" said Will. "Wait a bit; you shall pay!"
"Am I to obey the command of this rude barbarian, and become his wife;
not to cross him, but to obey him in all his moods, because he wills
it? Are you, pray, the Great Bashaw?"
"Mr. Levett," said Mrs. Esther, "I think you had better go. The Kitty
you knew was a young and tender child; she is now a grown woman, with,
I am happy to say, a resolution of her own. Nor is she the penniless
girl that you suppose, but my heiress; though not a Pimpernel by blood,
yet a member of as good and honourable a house as yourself."
He swore again in his clumsy country fashion that he never yet was
baulked by woman, and would yet have his way; whereas, so far as he was
a prophet (I am translating his rustic language into polite English)
those who attempted to say him nay would in the long-run find reason
to repent with bitterness their own mistaken action. All his friends,
he said, knew Will Levett. No white-handed, slobbering, tea-drinking
hanger-on to petticoats was he; not so: he was very well known to
entertain that contempt for women which is due to a man who values his
self-respect and scorns lies, finery, and make-believe fine speeches.
And it was also very well known to all the country-side that, give him
but a fleer and a flout, he was ready with a cuff side o' the head; and
if more was wanted, with a yard of tough ash, or a fist that weighed
more than most. As for drink, he could toss it off with the best, and
carry as much; as for racing, we had seen what he could do and how
gallant a rider he was; and for hunting, shooting, badger-baiting,
bull-baiting, dog-fighting, and cocking, there was not, he was ready
to assure us, his match in all the country. Why, then, should a man,
of whom his country was proud--no mealy-mouthed, Frenchified, fine
gentleman, of whom he would fight a dozen at once, so great was his
courage--be sent about his business by a couple of women? He would
let us know! He pitied our want of discernment, and was sorry for the
sufferings which it would bring upon one of us, meaning Kitty; of which
sufferings he was himself to be the instrument.
When he had finished this harangue he banged out of the room furiously,
and we heard him swearing on the stairs and in the passage, insomuch
that Cicely and her mother came up from the kitchen, and the former
threatened to bring up her mop if he did not instantly withdraw or
cease from terrifying the ladies by such dreadful words.
"My dear," said Mrs. Esther, "we have heard, alas! so many oaths that
we do not greatly fear them. Yet this young man is violent, and I will
to Lady Levett, there to complain about her son."
She put on her hat, and instantly walked to Sir Robert's lodgings, when
before the baronet, Lady Levett, and Nancy she laid her tale.
"I know not," said Lady Levett, weeping, "what hath made our son so
self-willed and so rustical. From a child he has chosen the kennel
rather than the hall, and stable-boys for companions rather than
gentlemen."
"Will is rough," said his father, "but I cannot believe that he would
do any hurt to Kitty, whom he hath known (and perhaps in his way loved)
for so long."
"Will is obstinate," said Nancy, "and he is proud and revengeful. He
has told all his friends that he was about to marry Kitty. When he goes
home again he will have to confess that he has been sent away."
"Yet it would be a great match for Kitty," said Will's mother.
"No, madam, with submission," said Mrs. Esther. "The disparity of rank
is not so great, as your ladyship will own, and Kitty will have all my
money. The real disparity is incompatibility of sentiment."
"Father," said Nancy, "you must talk to Will. And, Mrs. Pimpernel, take
care that Kitty be well guarded."
Sir Robert remonstrated with his son. He pointed out, in plain
terms, that the language he had used and the threats he had made were
such as to show him to be entirely unfitted to be the husband of any
gentlewoman: that Kitty was, he had reason to believe, promised to
another man: that it was absurd of him to suppose that a claim could
be founded on words addressed to a child overcome with grief at the
death of her father. He spoke gravely and seriously, but he might have
preached to the pigs for all the good he did.
Will replied that he meant to marry Kitty, and he would marry her: that
he would brain any man who stood in his way: that he never yet was
crossed by a woman, and he never would; with more to the same effect,
forgetting the respect due to his father.
Sir Robert, not losing his patience, as he would have been perfectly
justified in doing, went on to remonstrate with his son upon the
position which he was born to illustrate, and the duties which that
involved. Foremost among these, he said, were respect and deference to
the weaker sex. Savages and barbarous men, he reminded him, use women
with as little consideration as they use slaves; indeed, because women
are weak, they are, among wild tribes, slaves by birth. "But," he said,
"for a gentleman in this age of politeness to speak of forcing a lady
to marry him against her will is a thing unheard of."
"Why, lad," he continued, "when I was at thy years, I would have
scorned to think of a woman whose affections were otherwise bestowed.
It would have been a thing due to my own dignity, if not to the laws
of society, to leave her and look elsewhere. And what hath poor Kitty
done, I pray? Mistaken an offer of marriage (being then a mere child
and chit of sixteen) for an offer of friendship. Will, Will, turn thy
heart to a better mood."
Will said that it was no use talking, because his mind was made up:
that he was a true Kentishman, and a British bull-dog. Holdfast was
his name: when he made up his mind that he was going to get anything,
that thing he would have: that, as for Kitty, he could no more show
himself back upon the village-green, or in the village inn, or at any
cock-fighting, bull-baiting, badger-drawing, or horse-race in the
country-side, unless he had brought home Kitty as his wife. Wherefore,
he wanted no more ado, but let the girl come to her right mind, and
follow to heel, when she would find him (give him his own way, and no
cursed contrariness) the best husband in the world. But, if not----
Then Sir Robert spoke to other purpose. If, he told his son, he
molested Kitty in any way whatever, he would, in his capacity as
justice of the peace, have him instantly turned out of the town; if he
offered her any insult, or showed the least violence to her friends, he
promised him, upon his honour, to disinherit him.
"You may drink and smoke tobacco with your grooms and stable-boys at
home," he said. "I have long been resigned to that. But if you disgrace
your name in this place, as sure as you bear that name, you shall no
longer be heir to aught but a barren title."
Will answered not, but walked away with dogged looks.