On the Sunday after their arrival, Mr Primrose and his daughter made
their appearance at church, and the people of the village stared at
them of course. The rector of Smatterton preached one of his best
sermons, and in his best style. The eloquence was lost upon all his
audience, except Mr Primrose and his daughter; they attended to the
preacher, and the rest of the congregation attended to them.
When the service was over, Penelope took her father to look at the
monument which had been raised in the churchyard to the memory of Dr
Greendale. It was a very handsome monument, and had been put up at the
expense of the Earl of Smatterton. There was a very long and elaborate
eulogium on the deceased, which had been drawn up, it is supposed,
by Mr Darnley, but subsequently corrected and altered by the Earl of
Smatterton in the first instance, and in the next by the stone-mason.
Mr Primrose had been so long out of England that, for aught he knew to
the contrary, it might be the fashion now to write nonsense on grave
stones. There was however a kind intention, and Mr Primrose was pleased
with it. While the father and daughter were thus mournfully enjoying
the contemplation of this memorial of their deceased relative's
virtues, the great boys and girls of the village who had been in the
habit of bowing and curtseying to Penelope, and who remembered that
their homage had been graciously received while she lived there under
her uncle's roof, now thronged almost rudely round them, as if with a
view of attracting the lady's notice.
For a little while Penelope was too much taken up to notice them;
but when her curiosity had been gratified, and her feelings had been
indulged by a few gentle and stainless tears shed to the memory of her
departed benefactor, she turned round and took particular notice of
such as she remembered. She asked them such questions as occurred to
her concerning their respective families and occupations, and she heard
many an old story repeated concerning the aged and infirm. Enquiries
were made by Penelope after grandfathers and grandmothers, and in one
or two instances of great grandmothers. These enquiries were copiously
or sheepishly answered, according to the several tastes and habits of
the persons answering them.
There was one little girl in the group whose face Penelope did not
recollect. The child looked very earnestly at her, and seemed several
times as if about to make an effort to speak, but awe held her back.
With her, and as if urging her on to speak, was another and greater
girl. And the greater girl moved the little one towards Miss Primrose,
and the poor little girl coloured up to the eyes; but she had gone too
far to retract, and she was emboldened at last by Penelope's kind looks
to make a very pretty curtsey and say, "Please Miss--"
The poor thing could get no farther, till Penelope relieved her
embarrassment by taking hold of her hand and saying, "Well, my dear,
what have you to say to me? I have no recollection that I have ever
seen you before. How long have you lived at Smatterton?"
Then the little one was emboldened to speak, and she told Penelope that
she had but recently come there, and that she had taken the liberty to
speak, because she had some few weeks ago picked up a letter directed
to Miss Primrose.
Hereupon the girl drew from her pocket a handkerchief which was
carefully folded up, and when with great ceremony the handkerchief was
unfolded, a letter made its appearance, which did not seem to have
required much careful enveloping to keep it clean. It was miserably
dirty, and the direction was barely visible. Penelope wondered indeed
that the child had been able to make out the inscription, so far as
to ascertain to whom it was addressed; but the hand-writing was so
manifestly Robert Darnley's, that the young lady felt too much emotion
and too eager a curiosity to wait to ask any farther particulars of the
mode, place and time in which the letter was found. Only waiting to ask
the child her name and place of abode, and to make such acknowledgment
as is expected in such cases, Penelope hastened home full of contending
and harassing thoughts, unable to form the slightest conjecture of a
satisfactory nature concerning this strange occurrence.
Now this letter, together with that which Robert Darnley had written
to Mr Primrose, and which Mr Primrose gave to his daughter for her
perusal, set the question completely at rest in the mind of Penelope,
and assured her that the young gentleman had not by any neglect
designed to break off the correspondence.
But when one difficulty was removed, another started up in its place.
There was something very remarkable in a letter being dropped out of
the bag; but though it was barely possible that such mishap might have
befallen one letter, it was by no means a supposable case that several
letters in succession passing between the same persons should all have
met with the same accident. In the interruption of these letters there
was clearly design and intention; but what was the design, or who was
the designer, Penelope could not conjecture. Her suspicions could not
find an object to rest upon; she was not aware of having any enemies,
and of course she could not imagine that any one but an enemy could
have behaved so cruelly. She concluded, therefore, as far as in such
a case any conclusion could be made, that the interruption of the
correspondence must have been effected by some enemy of Robert Darnley.
It was not very pleasant to have the idea of some concealed and
unascertained enemy, but there was something gratifying to Penelope in
having discovered that verily the cessation of the correspondence had
not been voluntary on the part of her lover. Therefore, as it appeared
from the letter which had been picked up that the young gentleman had
not ceased to write, even after he had some ground to fear that the
correspondence was discontinued by the young lady, and as it was also
manifest from the letter addressed to Mr Primrose, that Robert Darnley
was still desirous of an explanation of the young lady's silence,
Penelope could not any longer resist her father's proposal that he
should write to the young gentleman.
The answer was accordingly sent to Robert Darnley, and the explanation
which he sought was amply and fully given. He was also as much puzzled
as the young lady was at the circumstance of the letter being picked
up, and his conjectures found no resting place. His immediate impulse
was to make direct enquiry of the post-boy, and to extort from him, if
possible, some account of the very remarkable fact of a correspondence
actually suppressed by the failure of three letters in succession.
But there was a more interesting matter yet to attend to, and that
was the meeting with Penelope after a long absence and an interrupted
correspondence. Robert Darnley knew his father's temperament, and felt
a difficulty in mentioning the subject to him, but still he could not
think of renewing the acquaintance with a view to marriage, without
explicitly informing his father of the intention.
Mr Primrose and his daughter had now been at Smatterton a few days, and
as the two villages were so remarkably intimate with each other, it
was impossible for anything to take place in the one without its being
known in the other. The arrival of the parties had been made known,
as we have seen, at the rectory of Neverden, and apprehensions were
entertained by the daughters of Mr Darnley that their father would be
grievously liberal of his wise exhortations to his yet enamoured son.
And when two or three days had passed away, and not a word of public
notice had been taken of the fact in the family of the rector, the
young ladies began to please themselves with the hope that no notice
would be taken of the matter, and they trusted that some circumstance
or other might remove Penelope again, and finally, from Smatterton;
or, as they thought it not unlikely, their brother might soon fix his
affections elsewhere.
It was very clear to the young ladies that Miss Glossop,
notwithstanding her recent disappointment, was something of an admirer
of their brother; and it was obvious that Sir George Aimwell was
desirous of cultivating an acquaintance between the parties. The
worthy baronet was unusually eloquent in praising Miss Glossop, and
mightily ingenious in discovering innumerable, and to other eyes
undiscernible, good qualities in his fair kinswoman. But though Sir
George was a magistrate and a game preserver, he was no conjurer. He
was not aware that there could exist any diversities of taste; but he
seemed to imagine that those qualities which were agreeable to himself
must be agreeable to everybody else; and when he was descanting on the
multitudinous excellences of Miss Glossop, and describing her to Robert
Darnley as possessing every possible and impossible virtue, he did not
see that the young man's mind was of a complexion widely different from
his own. It was not therefore to this young lady that the daughters of
the rector of Neverden looked forward as the person likely to liberate
them from Miss Primrose.
Their hope was altogether of an undefined nature. They merely hoped and
trusted that something would occur to relieve them from their present
uncomfortable condition. This undefined hope is, perhaps, after all the
best that we can entertain. It may appear not very rational, but we
have a notion that in serious truth it is a great deal more rational
than that hope which seems to have a foundation in something probable:
for it is in the very nature and condition of earthly events, that
they almost invariably disappoint expectation and miserably mock our
sagacity. If therefore our hopes be of something definite, they will
be almost assuredly disappointed; but if we only hope generally and
indefinitely that something, we know not what, may occur to remove the
cause of our troubles, we may have a much better chance that we shall
not be disappointed. The chances in our favor are thus indefinitely
multiplied.
The hope of the young ladies, that nothing would be said about Miss
Primrose because nothing had been said about her for several days,
was disappointed on the very morning that Mr Primrose sent his answer
to Robert Darnley, explaining the cause of the suspension of the
correspondence. The note from Mr Primrose was brought to Neverden by
the trusty servant and universal genius who performed at Smatterton
rectory the various duties of footman, groom, gardener, butler,
stable-boy, and porter.
Mr Darnley, whose eyes were ever vigilant, no sooner saw the messenger
than he conjectured what was the object of his coming; that is, he so
far conjectured as to form an idea that the note was with reference
to Miss Primrose. When therefore the reverend gentleman heard that a
note was actually brought from Smatterton rectory, and addressed to Mr
Robert Darnley, the feeling of curiosity was strongly excited to know
what was the object of the said note. But, to say nothing of curiosity,
the elder Mr Darnley felt that it was his duty to be acquainted with
all correspondence carried on with persons under his roof, especially
with members of his own family.
Impelled then by a double motive--the power of curiosity and a sense of
duty--the rector of Neverden very peremptorily commanded the attendance
of his son in the study. The command was as promptly obeyed as it had
been authoritatively given.
"You have had a note from Smatterton this morning?" said the father.
"I have, sir," replied the son steadily, but respectfully.
"And may I be permitted to know the contents of that communication?"
"Most assuredly, sir," replied the young gentleman: "I intended to
acquaint you with its contents as soon as I had read it."
Robert Darnley then handed the paper to his father, who perused it
with eager haste and anxious excitement. Rapidly however as the rector
read the communication, he discerned two facts which made him angry,
and, as he said, astonished. We have observed that the astonishment
rests upon the testimony only of Mr Darnley's own saying; and we
have made that observation, because we think that Mr Darnley was not
strictly correct in his assertion: we do not believe that Mr Darnley
was at all astonished at those facts. He was no doubt angry when
he discovered that his son had written to Mr Primrose; and there is
nothing incredible in the idea that he was angry at the anticipation of
a renewal of the acquaintance between his son and Miss Primrose. But he
was not astonished at these things, and he ought not to have said that
he was. It is however a very common practice, for the sake of giving
pathos and effect to moral exhortation or expostulation, to express an
astonishment which is not felt. This is a species of lying, and Mrs
Opie would certainly set it down as such.
Mr Darnley not only said that he was astonished, but absolutely
affected to look astonished. But that dramatic species of visual
rebuke was by no means adapted to produce an impression on Mr Darnley
the younger; and had the trick been played off by any one else than a
parent, the young gentleman would certainly have laughed. It has been
often observed, that children are much more knowing than is generally
supposed, and the same observation may be applied to children of a
larger growth. But parents cannot well help considering their children
as always children.
"And so," said the rector of Neverden, "you have actually had the
folly to write to Mr Primrose, and to endeavour to renew an acquaintance
which was clearly and positively broken off by Miss Primrose herself?"
"I think, sir," responded with much gentleness the rector's son,
"that, if you read this note attentively, you will see that Miss
Primrose did not positively break the acquaintance, but that by some
means, as yet unknown, the letters which should have passed between us
were intercepted. Proof of that is given in the singular circumstance,
that the last letter which I wrote to Smatterton from India was the
other day picked up by a child."
Mr Darnley smiled a smile of incredulity and compassionate
condescension.
"Foolish boy," said he, "and can you suffer yourself to be so easily
deceived as to believe this story?"
"Surely you will not go so far as to say that Miss Primrose would
descend to the meanness of asserting an untruth."
"I am asserting nothing concerning Miss Primrose. This note is not
her's, it is her father's; and I do know that Mr Primrose can use
profane language; I have heard him. And would such a man hesitate at
untruth for the sake of an establishment for his daughter? Besides what
can be more clear than that, now the negotiation with Lord Spoonbill is
broken off, they are very willing to apply to you again."
There is great power in imagination. Mr Darnley had taken it into
his head that Penelope had really been simple enough to admire Lord
Spoonbill, and vain enough to aspire to title on the strength of
personal beauty. She was what is commonly called a fine young woman,
and there was in her deportment, especially in the season of health and
spirits, while her uncle lived, a certain constitutional magnificence
of manner which might easily bear the name of pride and haughtiness.
Now as Mr Darnley was himself a proud man, he did not like pride;
and there is nothing at all paradoxical or inconsistent in this. It
is perfectly natural that those who feel a pleasure in looking down
on others and being looked up to, should not be pleased with such as
indulge them not in their favourite occupation.
There had not indeed ever been in the behaviour of Penelope towards
Mr Darnley anything actually disrespectful; but Mr Darnley could see
that her spirit was high and essentially unsubmissive. He had therefore
always called her proud; and as soon as any suspicion arose of the
withdrawing of her affections from Robert Darnley, immediately the
father concluded that this change was owing to the young lady's pride
aspiring to the hand of Lord Spoonbill; and when she went to London
to the Countess, then his suspicion seemed corroborated; and when
she returned to Smatterton, and when Mr Primrose sent the note in
question to Neverden, then did Mr Darnley feel himself assured that the
young lady had been disappointed in her calculations concerning Lord
Spoonbill, and that now she repented her folly in renouncing the hand
of Robert Darnley, and wished to recall the affection which she had
spurned.
Under such persuasion, from which not all the logic in the world could
move him, he smiled at the credulity and the weakness of the young man,
while the young man was equally astonished and grieved at the immovable
obstinacy of his father. Such cases sometimes occur, and perplexing are
they when they do occur, in which a son bearing all possible respect
towards a father feels himself yet justified in the court of his own
conscience in acting contrary to his father's will. Thus situated was
the son of the rector of Neverden. He found that it would be in vain
to use any arguments, and he was firm in his intention of taking the
earliest opportunity of acknowledging the receipt of Mr Primrose's
letter, and of expressing his full determination to renew the
acquaintance with Penelope. So far was the young man from participating
in his father's suspicions, that the very arguments which the father
had used, and the particulars which he had stated, did but strengthen
his own opinion of the purity and correctness of the young lady's
conduct; and when he considered the circumstances under which she had
been placed, he felt a degree of pity for her, and he pitied her also
that she laboured under those untoward and unfounded suspicions which
had been excited by the idle tongue of Zephaniah Pringle.
It became in fact to Robert Darnley a matter of conscience to rectify
all misunderstandings as early as possible. Without therefore affecting
to enter into any elaborate discussion with his father, he merely
replied to what had been said: "I cannot say that I view this affair
in the same light that you do, sir; and I am satisfied that if you had
a knowledge of all the facts, you would not have reason to blame Miss
Primrose. I will not pretend to argue with you, or to presume to put
my knowledge of the world in competition with yours. But I must take
the liberty to say firmly, though respectfully, that it is my intention
to see Mr and Miss Primrose, and if I find that Penelope is still the
same amiable and pure-minded young woman as she was when I first made
her an offer of my hand, I will repeat that offer; and I am convinced
your prejudice will wear off, if not by my arguments, at least they
will give way to the young lady's real excellence of character."
Mr Darnley was not accustomed to be contradicted. Neither his wife
nor his daughters ever disputed his will, or affected to oppose their
logic to his determinations. Of his son's obedience and gentleness of
disposition he had always entertained the highest opinion, and with
reason: but he forgot that everything has its limits, and there is a
point beyond which compliance and obedience cannot go. If Mr Darnley
had said at the close of his son's last speech, "I am astonished,"
he would have spoken truly. He was indeed astonished, but he was
not frightened out of his propriety; he was rather frightened into
propriety.
For a few seconds he was absolutely speechless and almost breathless.
But soon respiration returned, and the power of speech returned
with it; and his momentary gasp of astonishment gave him time for
consideration. He considered in that brief interval that he had no more
power over his son than his son chose to give him, and he thought it a
pity to endanger his influence by attempting to retain his authority.
Subduing himself, he replied:
"If you will be obstinate there is no help for it. But I could wish
that you would listen to reason."
Thus speaking, Mr Darnley left the apartment, angry but endeavouring to
keep himself calm.