Chapter XII.
LADY CAROLINE.
She walked back to the verandah.
"I understand," she said, "that Lady Caroline wishes a word with me."
With a slight bow she led the way through a low window that opened uponthe Corderys' best parlour, through that apartment, and across a passageto the door of a smaller room lined with shelves--formerly a stillroomor store-chamber for home-made wines, cordials, preserves, but nowconverted into a boudoir for her use. Its one window looked out uponthe farmyard, now in shadow, and a farther doorway led to the dairy.It stood open, and beyond it the eye travelled down a vista of coolslate flags and polished cream-pans.
On the threshold Ruth stood aside to let Lady Caroline enter; followed,and closed the door; stepped across and closed the door of the dairy.Lady Caroline meanwhile found a seat, and, lifting her eyeglass, studiedat long range the library disposed upon the store shelves.
"We had best be quite frank," said she, as Ruth came back and stoodbefore her.
"If you please."
"Of course it is all very scandalous and--er--nauseating, though I daresay you are unable to see it in that light. I merely mention it injustice to myself, lest you should mistake me as underrating or evencondoning Sir Oliver's conduct. You will guess, at any rate, how itmust shock my daughter."
"Yes," said Ruth; and added, "Why did you bring her?"
The girl's attitude--erect before her, patient, but unflinching--hadalready gone some way to discompose Lady Caroline. This straightquestion fairly disconcerted her; the worse because she could notquarrel with the tone of it.
"I wish," she answered, "my Diana to face the facts of life, ugly thoughthey may be." As if aware that this hardly carried conviction--for,despite herself, something in Ruth began to impress her--she shiftedground and went on, "But we will not discuss my daughter, please.The point is, this state of things cannot continue. It may be hard foryou--I am trying to take your view of it--but what may pass in a youngman of blood cannot be permitted when he succeeds to a title and the--er--headship of his family. It becomes then his duty to give thatfamily clean heirs. I put it plainly?"
Ruth bent her head for assent.
"Oliver Vyell, as no doubt you know, has already been mixed up in oneentanglement, and has a child for reminder."
"Oh, but Dicky is the dearest child! The sweetest-natured, thecleanest-minded! Have you not seen him yet?"
Lady Caroline stared. As little as royalty did she understand beingcross-questioned. It gave her a quite unexpected sense of helplessness.
"I fear you do not at all grasp the position," she said severely."After all, I had done better to disregard your feelings, whatever theymay be, and come to terms at once."
"No," answered Ruth, musing; "I do not understand the position; but Iwant to, more than I can say--and your ladyship must help me, please."She paused a moment. "In New England we prize good birth, goodbreeding, and what we too call 'family'; but I think the word must meansomething different to you who live at home in England."
"I should hope so!" breathed Lady Caroline.
"It must be mixed up somehow with the great estates you have held forgenerations and the old houses you have lived in. No," she went on, asLady Caroline would have interrupted; "please let me work it out in myown way, and then you shall correct me where I am wrong. . . . I haveoften thought how beautiful it must be to live in such an old house, onethat has all its corners full of memories--the nurseries most of all--of children and grandchildren, that have grown up in gentleness andcourtesy and honour--"
"Good Lord!" Lady Caroline interjected. "You mean"--Ruth smiled--"that I am talking like a book? That is partly my fault and partly ourNew England way; because, you see, we have to get at these things frombooks. Does it, after all, matter how--if only we get it right? . . .There's a tradition--what, I believe, you call an 'atmosphere'--and youare proud of it and very jealous."
"If you see all this," said Lady Caroline, mollified, "our businessshould be easier, with a little common sense on your part."
"And it knits you," pursued Ruth, "into a sort of family conspiracy--the womenkind especially--like bees in a hive. The head of the familyis the queen bee, and you respect him amazingly; but all the same youkeep your own judgment, and know when to thwart and when to disobey him,for his own and the family's good. I think you disobeyed Sir Oliver incoming here; or, at least, deceived him and came here without hisknowledge."
"I am not accustomed," said Lady Caroline, rising, "to direct my conductupon my nephew's advice."
"That, more or less, is what I was trying to say. Dear madam, let mewarn you to do so, if you would manage his private affairs."
They faced each other now, upon declared war. Lady Caroline's neck wassuffused to a purplish red behind the ears. She gasped for speech.Before she found it there came a tapping on the door, and Diana Vyellentered.