AN IDLE MORNING.
The Dowager Lady Randolph had never found the Hall so dull. There was
nothing going on, nothing even to look forward to: one formal
dinner-party was the only thing to represent that large and cordial
hospitality which she was glad to think had in her own time
characterised the period when the Hall was open. She had never pretended
to be fond of the county society. In the late Sir Robert's time she had
not concealed the fact that the less time she spent in it the better she
was pleased. But when she was there, all the county had known it. She
was a woman who loved to live a large and liberal life. It was not so
much that she liked gaiety, or what is called pleasure, as that she
loved to have people about her, to be the dispenser of enjoyment, to
live a life in which there was always something going on. This is a
temperament which meets much censure from the world, and is stigmatised
as a love of excitement, and by many other unlovely names; but that is
hard upon the people who are born with it, and who are in many cases
benefactors to mankind. Lady Randolph's desire was that there should
always be something doing--"a magic lantern at the least," she had said.
Indeed, there can be no doubt that in managing that magic lantern she
would have given as much satisfaction to everybody, and perhaps managed
to enjoy herself as much, as if it had been the first entertainment in
Mayfair. She could not stagnate comfortably, she said; and as so much of
an ordinary woman's life must be stagnation more or less gracefully
veiled, it may be supposed that Lady Randolph had learned the useful
lesson of putting up with what she could get when what she liked was not
procurable. And it was seldom that she had been set down to so languid a
feast as the present. On former occasions a great deal more had been
going on, except the last year, which was that of the baby's birth, on
which occasion Lucy was, of course, out of the way of entertainment
altogether. Lady Randolph had, indeed, found her visits to the Hall
amusing, which was delightful, seeing they were duty visits as well. She
had stayed only a day or two at that time--just long enough to kiss the
baby and talk for half an hour at a time, on two or three distinct
opportunities, to the young mother in very subdued and caressing tones.
And she had been glad to get away again when she had performed this
duty, but yet did not grudge in the least the sacrifice she had made for
her family. The case, however, was quite different now: there was no
reason in the world why they should be quiet. The baby was
delicate!--could there be a more absurd reason for closing your house to
your friends, putting off your Christmas visits, entertaining not at
all, ignoring altogether the natural expectations of the county, which
did not elect a man to be its member in order that he might shut himself
up and superintend his nursery? It was ridiculous, his aunt felt; it
went to her nerves, and made her quite uncomfortable, to see all the
resources of the house, with which she was so well acquainted, wasted
upon four people. It was preposterous--an excellent cook, the best cook
almost she had ever come across, and only four to dine! People have
different ideas of what waste is--there are some who consider all large
expenditure, especially in the entertainment of guests, to be subject to
this censure. But Lady Randolph took a completely different view. The
wickedness of having such a cook and only a family party of four persons
to dine was that which offended her. It was scandalous, it was wicked.
If Lucy meant to live in this way let her return to her bourgeois
existence, and the small vulgar life in Farafield. It was ridiculous
living the life of a nobody here, and in Sir Tom's case was plainly
suicidal. How was he to hold up his face at another election, with the
consciousness that he had done nothing at all for his county, not even
given them a ball, nor so much as a magic lantern, she repeated,
bursting with a reprobation which could scarcely find words?
All this went through her mind with double force when she found herself
left alone in Lucy's morning-room, which was a bright room opening out
upon the flower garden, getting all the morning sun, and the full
advantage of the flowers when there were any. There were none, it is
true, at this moment, except a few snow-drops forcing their way through
the smooth turf under a tree which stood at the corner of a little bit
of lawn. Lady Randolph was not very fond of flowers, except in their
proper place, which meant when employed in the decoration of rooms in
the proper artistic way, and after the most approved fashion. Thus she
liked sunflowers when they were approved by society, and modest violets
and pansies in other developments of popular taste, but did not for her
own individual part care much which she had, so long as they looked well
in her vases, and "came well" against her draperies and furniture. She
had come down on this bright morning with her work, as it is the proper
thing for a lady to do, but she had no more idea of being left here
calmly and undisturbed to do that work than she had of attempting a
flight into the inviting and brilliant, if cold and frosty, skies. She
sat down with it between the fire and the sunny window, enjoying both
without being quite within the range of either. It was an ideal picture
of a lady no longer young or capable of much out-door life, or personal
emotion; a pretty room; a sunny, soft winter morning, almost as warm as
summer, the sunshine pouring in, a cheerful fire in the background to
make up what was lacking in respect of warmth; the softest of easiest
chairs, yet not too low or demoralising; a subdued sound breaking in now
and then from a distance, which pleasantly betrayed the existence of a
household; and in the midst of all, in a velvet gown, which was very
pretty to look at, and very comfortable to wear, and with a lace cap on
her head that had the same characteristics, a lady of sixty, in perfect
health, rich enough for all her requirements, without even the thought
of a dentist to trouble her. She had a piece of very pretty work in her
hand, the newspapers on the table, books within reach. And yet she was
not content! What a delightful ideal sketch might not be made of such a
moment! How she might have been thinking of her past, sweetly, with a
sigh, yet with a thankful thought of all the good things that had been
hers; of those whom she had loved, and who were gone from earth, as only
awaiting her a little farther on, and of those about her, with such a
tender commendation of them to God's blessing, and cordial desire for
their happiness, as would have reached the height of a prayer. And she
might have been feeling a tranquil pleasure in the material things about
her: the stillness, the warmth, the dreamy quiet, even the pretty work,
and the exemption from care which she had arrived at in the peaceful
concluding chapter of existence. This is what we all like to think of as
the condition of mind and circumstances in which age is best met. But we
are grieved to say that this was not in the least Lady Randolph's pose.
Anything more distasteful to her than this quiet could not be. It was
her principle and philosophy to live in the present. She drew many
experiences from the past, and a vast knowledge of the constitutions and
changes of society; but personally it did not amuse her to think of it,
and the future she declined to contemplate. It had disagreeable things
in it, of that there could be no doubt; and why go out and meet the
disagreeable? It was time enough when it arrived. There was probably
illness, and certainly dying, in it; things which she was brave enough
to face when they came, and no doubt would encounter in quite a
collected and courageous way. But why anticipate them? She lived
philosophically in the day as it came. After all whatever you do or
think, you cannot do much more. Your one day, your hour, is your world.
Acquit yourself fitly in that, and you will be able to encounter
whatever occurs.
This was the conviction on which Lady Randolph acted. But her pursuit
for the moment was not entertaining; she very quickly tired of her work.
Work is, on the whole, tiresome when there is no particular use in it,
when it is done solely for the sake of occupation, as ladies' work so
often is. It wants a meaning and a necessity to give it interest, and
Lady Randolph's had neither. She worked about ten minutes, and then she
paused and wondered what could have become of Lucy. Lucy was not a very
amusing companion, but she was somebody; and then Sir Tom would come in
occasionally to consult her, to give her some little piece of
information, and for a few minutes would talk and give his relative a
real pleasure. But even Lucy did not come; and soon Lady Randolph became
tired of looking out of the window and then walking to the fire, of
taking up the newspaper and throwing it down again, of doing a few
stitches, then letting the work fall on her lap; and above all, of
thinking, as she was forced to do, from sheer want of occupation. She
listened, and nobody came. Two or three times she thought she heard
steps approaching, but nobody came. She had thought of perhaps going out
since the morning was so fine, walking down to the village, which was
quite within her powers, and of planning several calls which might be
made in the afternoon to take advantage of the fine day. But she became
really fretted and annoyed as the morning crept along. Lucy was losing
even her politeness, the Dowager thought. This is what comes of what
people call happiness! They get so absorbed in themselves, there is no
possibility of paying ordinary attention to other people. At last, after
completely tiring herself out, Lady Randolph got up and put down her
work altogether, throwing it away with anger. She had not lived so long
in its sole company for years, and there is no describing how tired she
was of it. She got up and went out into the other rooms in search of
something to amuse her. Little Tom had just come in, but she did not go
to the nursery. She took care not to expose herself to that. She was
willing to allow that she did not understand babies; and then to see
such a pale little thing the heir of the Randolphs worried her. He ought
to have been a little Hercules; it wounded her that he was so puny and
pale. She went through the great drawing-room, and looked at all the
additions to the furniture and decorations that Tom and Lucy had made.
They had kept a number of the old things; but naturally they had added a
good deal of _bric-a-brac_, of old things that here were new. Then Lady
Randolph turned into the library. She had gone up to one of the
bookcases, and was leisurely contemplating the books, with a keen eye,
too, to the additions which had been made, when she heard a sound near
her, the unmistakable sound of turning over the leaves of a book. Lady
Randolph turned round with a start, and there was Jock, sunk into the
depths of a large chair with a tall folio supported on the arms of it.
She had not seen him when she came in, and, indeed, many people might
have come and gone without perceiving him, buried in his corner. Lady
Randolph was thankful for anybody to talk to, even a boy.
"Is it you?" she said. "I might have known it could be nobody but you.
Do you never do anything but read?"
"Sometimes," said Jock, who had done nothing but watch her since she
came into the room. She gave him a sort of half smile.
"It is more reasonable now than when you were a child," she said; "for I
hear you are doing extremely well at school, and gaining golden
opinions. That is quite as it should be. It is the only way you can
repay Lucy for all she has done for you."
"I don't think," said Jock, looking at her over his book, "that Lucy
wants to be repaid."
"Probably not," said Lady Randolph. Then she made a pause, and looked
from him to the book he held, and then to him again. "Perhaps you don't
think," she said, "there is anything to be repaid."
They were old antagonists; when he was a child and Lucy had insisted on
carrying him with her wherever she went, Lady Randolph had made no
objections, but she had not looked upon Jock with a friendly eye. And
afterwards, when he had interposed with his precocious wisdom, and
worsted her now and then, she had come to have a holy dread of him. But
now things had righted themselves, and Jock had attained an age of which
nobody could be afraid. The Dowager thought, as people are so apt to
think, that Jock was not grateful enough. He was very fond of Lucy, but
he took things as a matter of course, seldom or never remembering that
whereas Lucy was rich, he was poor, and all his luxuries and well-being
came from her. She was glad to take an opportunity of reminding him of
it, all the more as she was of opinion that Sir Tom did not sufficiently
impress this upon the boy, to whom she thought he was unnecessarily
kind. "I suppose," she resumed, after a pause, "that you come here
always in the holidays, and quite consider it as your home?"
Jock still sat and looked at her across his great folio. He made her no
reply. He was not so ready in the small interchanges of talk as he had
been at eight, and, besides, it was new to him to have the subject
introduced in this way. It is not amusing to plant arrows of this sort
in any one's flesh if they show no sign of any wound, and accordingly
Lady Randolph grew angry as Jock made no reply. "Is it considered good
manners," she said, "at school--when a lady speaks to you that you
should make no answer?"
"I was thinking," Jock said. "A fellow, whether he is at school, or not,
can't answer all that at once."
"I hope you do not mean to be impertinent. In that case I should be
obliged to speak to my nephew," said Lady Randolph. She had not intended
to quarrel with Jock. It was only the vacancy of the morning, and her
desire for movement of some sort, that had brought her to this; and now
she grew angry with Lucy as well as with Jock, having gone so much
farther than she had intended to go. She turned from him to the books
which she had been languidly examining, and began to take them out one
after another, impatiently, as if searching for something. Jock sat and
looked at her for some time, with the same sort of deliberate
observation with which he used to regard her when he was a child, seeing
(as she had always felt) through and through her. But presently another
impulse swayed him. He got himself out behind his book, and suddenly
appeared by her side, startling her nerves, which were usually so firm.
"If you will tell me what you want," he said, "I'll get it for you. I
know where they all are. If it is French you want, they are up there. I
like going up the ladder," he added, half to himself.
Perhaps it was this confession of childishness, perhaps the unlooked-for
civility, that touched her. She turned round with a subdued half
frightened air, feeling that there was no telling how to take this
strange creature, and said, half apologetically, "I think I should like
a French--novel. They are not--so--long, you know, as the English," and
sat down in the chair he rolled towards her. Jock was at the top of the
ladder in a moment. She watched him, making a little comment in her own
mind about Tom's motive in placing books of this description in such a
place--in order to keep them out of Lucy's way, she said to herself.
Jock brought her down half a dozen to choose from, and even the eye of
Jock, who doubtless knew nothing about them, made Lady Randolph a little
more scrupulous than usual in choosing her book. She was one of those
women who like the piquancy and freedom of French fiction. She would say
to persons of like tastes that the English proprieties were tame beside
the other, and she thought herself old enough to be altogether beyond
any risk of harm. Perhaps this was why she divined Sir Tom's motive in
placing them at the top of the shelves; divined and approved, for though
she read all that came in her way, she would not have liked Lucy to
share that privilege. She said to Jock as he brought them to her,
"They are shorter than the English. I can't carry three volumes about,
you know; all these are in one; but I should not advise you to take to
this sort of reading, Jock."
"I don't want to," said Jock, briefly; then he added more gravely, "I
can't construe French like you. I suppose you just open it and go
straight on?"
"I do," said Lady Randolph, with a smile.
She was mollified, for her French was excellent, and she liked a little
compliment, of whatever kind.
"You should give your mind to it; it is the most useful of all
languages," she said.
"And Lucy is not great at it either," said Jock.
"That is true, and it is a pity," said Lady Randolph, quite restored to
good-humour. "I would take her in hand myself, but I have so many things
to do. Do you know where she is, for I have not seen her all this
morning?"
"No more have I," said Jock. "I think they have just gone off somewhere
together. Lucy never minds. She ought to pay a little attention when
there are people in the house."
"That is just what I have been thinking," Lady Randolph said. "I am at
home, of course, here; it does not matter for me, and you are her
brother--but she really ought; I think I must speak seriously to her."
"To whom are you going to speak seriously? I hope not to me, my dear
aunt," said Sir Tom, coming in. He did not look quite his usual self. He
was a little pale, and he had an air about him as of some disagreeable
surprise. He had the post-bag in his hand--for there was a post twice a
day--and opened it as he spoke. Lady Randolph, with her quick
perception, saw at once that something had happened, and jumped at the
idea of a first quarrel. It was generally the butler Williams who opened
the letter-bag; but he was out of the way, and Sir Tom had taken the
office on himself. He took out the contents with a little impatience,
throwing across to her her share of the correspondence. "Hallo," he
said. "Here is a letter for Lucy from your tutor, Jock. What have you
been doing, my young man?"
"Oh, I know what it's about," Jock said in a tone of satisfaction. Sir
Tom turned round and looked at him with the letter in his hand, as if he
would have liked to throw it at his head.