CHAPTER XLI.
CHESTS AND HEARTS.
'Waketh a vision, and a voice within her Sweeter than dreams and dearer than complaint-- Is it a man thou lovest, and a sinner? No; but a soul, O woman! and a saint.' _Frederick W.H. Myers._
One snowy November night Lancelot caught cold, and aggravated theailment during his organist's duties on Sunday so much, that thoughhe resigned himself to Mrs. Froggatt's attentions on Monday, she soonfound herself obliged to supplement them by Mr. Rugg's; and her letteron the Wednesday caused Felix to bring Angela to nurse him through asharp attack of pleurisy, complicated with bronchitis.
All went well, and by the week before Christmas he was fit to be takenhome, uniting in persuading Mrs. Froggatt that her care was necessaryto him _en route_, chiefly because he and his brother could not bearto leave her to her widowed Christmas. She came, but nothing wouldinduce her to stay beyond Christmas Day; nor would she even wait tillFelix returned with the New Year to Bexley, to busy himself with theaccounts, about which Lance was concerning himself too much for hisgood, writing such characteristic notes that when, half way throughJanuary, Felix came home, he was disappointed to find so littleprogress made towards recovery. The great musical brow, big blue eyes,straight nose, and brown hairiness, seemed to have lost the cheeksfrom among them: there was a weary yearning look in the eyes, and thewhole demeanour was languid and dejected. Lance just crept into thepainting-room at noon, and spent the afternoon by the drawing-roomfire, talking a little at times, or amused by Wilmet's baby; but herboys were too much for him; and though he liked Stella's music, he wasfretted by Angela's careless notes, and had not energy to play forhimself. His voice indeed was scarcely serviceable even for speaking,and its absence always made him unhappy. A reader only in the way ofbusiness, books and newspapers were distasteful; and though he couldnot be ill-humoured, he was evidently a heavy burden to himself; sadand listless; he neither ate nor slept, and yet the actual symptomswere not unfavourable.
'He does not get on,' said Felix, as he and Clement stood consulting inthe library.
'He sleeps so badly, and has two hours or so of bad cough in the earlymorning, and that seems to exhaust him for the day.'
'So you wrote, and I told Rugg, who said that would wear off gradually;but I cannot see that he is mending.'
'Nor does he think so,' said Clement.
'Rugg declares that there is no reason he should not entirely get overthis, and he never gives any encouragement he can help. I shall notrest till May has seen him.'
'I should have sent if you had not been coming.'
'So he is low about himself, dear fellow! Have you had it out with him?'
'Nay, he seemed to me quite willing it should be so. If he is not, Idon't know who should be! He never seems to have been from under theshadow of his cathedral. I believe he rather puzzled Miss Isabella theother day!'
'You don't mean that she has been at him?
'Yes, she affected an entrance when no one was on guard but poor littleStella, who was dreadfully upset, and told Cherry all about it. Itseems the good lady is shocked at our all deceiving him.'
'And took it on herself to warn him?'
'And to inquire if he were a Christian, and into the foundation of hishope--all which he seems to have received as a kindness. Stella sayshe answered that he was quite aware of his condition, but he did notthink there was much need to grieve himself or others over it. Indeed,she--Miss Isabella--told me herself that he is a heavenly-minded youngman.'
'Yes, they met in the inmost heart of things, without battling on theoutworks. When I look back at that boy's life, I do not feel as if Ideserved him; I ought not to have let him sacrifice himself to thatlife at Bexley.'
'It was his own doing, poor fellow! and he sees his mistake.'
'None of us could realize at the time the force of contrast,' saidFelix; 'indeed, I should have thought him the last person to have beenaffected by it.'
'I did not mean that only. I meant the higher service,' said Clement,making Felix suspect that his consolations had been so applied as todeepen the depression, and resolve the more to write to Dr. May.
So two days later, with a certain passiveness, as though thephysician's visits were a matter of course, Lance, who had justfinished his tardy toilette, obeyed the summons into the library, andsubmitted to the examination, which ended in an assurance that therewas no tendency to pulmonary disease, and that care and patience wouldsoon subdue the remains of his illness.
'Thank you, Sir,' in a perplexed half-incredulous tone, as he leantback, not troubling himself to ask a question as to the treatment.
Dr. May waited a little, then looked steadily into his face. 'Now,Lance, we doctors ask startling questions. You've not fallen in love?'
'Not particularly,' said Lance, without a particle of blush, even if hehad had cheeks to blush with.
'What does that mean? Generally?'
'I never let myself go in for it. It was of no use.'
'Without letting yourself, then?'
'No, indeed!' returned Lance, almost petulantly; 'I never had thechance. How should I? It would have been something to care about.'
'This fellow does not half believe in me,' muttered the Doctor.
'Lance, do you remember consulting me before, when you thought yourbrains were addled by the sun-stroke?'
'They might as well have been, for any good I have done with them.'
'I thought you were one of the lights of Bexley.'
'A nice sort of light, and place too,' muttered he, with scantcourtesy; but the Doctor caught an idea from the dull weary tone.
'It must be a dullish sort of life,' he threw out.
'Can't be helped,' in the same tone, almost conveying that it wasmerely his own affair. 'It was my own doing; and I've been like thisbefore, and come round.'
'Your chest has been as sound as a bell before!' said the Doctor, witha little wilful misunderstanding.
'My chest,' with a sound of contempt.
'If not your chest, what?'
'My--myself. The Everlasting Everything,' said Lance, with a sort ofimpatience, covering his face with his hands, as though--had twentyyears been subtracted from his age--he would have begun to cry.
'My dear boy,' said the Doctor, 'never mind me. Have it out. You don'tlike to complain to your brother, and you can't stand the life you areleading?'
'No use to say _can't_,' said Lance, looking up, with his browcontracted; 'I must and I will, if I am to get well. I got over itbefore, and I shall again, I suppose, when my strength comes back. Imade my bed, and must lie on it.'
'You mean that you chose your present business?' said the Doctor,trying another leading question.
'Ay. My brothers, as soon as they could, both offered me to go to theUniversity and take Holy Orders! but, as Clem said, my hurdy-gurdy wasa new toy, and I was as proud as Punch of it, and thought life offerednothing better; besides, I was always a dolt at classics, and thoughtthey would split my head.'
'Are you ever reminded of that sun-stroke?'
'Less every year; but summer sunshine still makes me sick and giddy,and now and then extra work brings on a racking headache.'
'Take my word, your instinct was right. You could not have stoodcollege work.'
'So I thought; but if I had scraped through, it would all have beenover now.'
'Very likely,' was the dry answer.
'Well, it would have been worth dying for. I did not know what I wasgiving up.'
'In position?'
'Partly. I was a mere boy, and did not see the difference as I do nowI have been with Will Harewood at Oxford, or when I come here. I keepout of it as much as I can, for it's just a mockery to go and mix withtheir friends here, and talk to a pretty girl, when I know she wouldnot touch me with a pair of tongs at home.'
'More shame for her, then. Have you no society at home?
'Oh yes, plenty of nice fellows--professionals, I mean, and a dinner
with the upper-crust now and then,' said Lance, laughing; 'not much initself, but making me cock of the walk in our own line--trade, I mean.Nice girls there are, too--if one had seen nothing else--but then, theykeep out of the way, and the others make themselves such fools. It wasgood fun once; but one gets sick of it, as one does of everything else.'
The vein of confidence had been found at last, and a mere demonstrationof sympathy was enough to draw him on. 'I seem to have got to the endof my tether with everything--Pursuivant and all. Even the organ, Ican do no more with it as it is; and it is no good crying out for morestops, for nobody cares. I have worked at the science as far as Milesor my own study can take me with my present means; and as it is, I knowmore than there is any power to use in my squirrel's cage, yet I can'tgo on into what there is beyond without giving my whole self to thatand nothing else.'
'Is that out of the question?'
'It would bring in no return; and I am not a gentleman at large, noram I sure of the right and expedience of it after all, nor whether thecraving is to praise God or please myself. What I have seen behind thescenes at musical festivals--ay, and before them too--has made me doubtwhether the most perfect music gets put to its full use.'
'Or ever can be here.'
'Ay. Practically, the anthem, chant, and hymn, have the directdevotional use; and that they may serve it, they must not too much gobeyond the average musical capacity of your congregation.'
'Quite true. You have thought it all out,' said Dr. May. 'I wish moreorganists saw it so.'
'That's just what the St. Oswald's people say I don't! Well, you seewhat it is. My poor brother Edgar told me how it would be when I wouldnot be a regular professional.'
'How what would be?'
'Why, that it would all get intolerably slow and flat, and that Ishould not be able to bear it. It is true enough, but I got over itonce.'
'And as you say, you will do so again. The life you embraced uponprinciple may for a time be distasteful, but the restlessness under itcan only be a trail. If I understand you right, Lance, your motto hasbeen
"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget her cunning."'
'Stay, stay, Dr. May. I don't regret that first decision--not atall--but the other--when they offered me to study for Holy Orders. Ifind I was like a soldier, who thought playing in the band was fightingin the ranks!' And Lance lay back in his chair, and shaded his facewith his thin hand.
'And that has been preying on you all this time?'
'Perhaps. I am for ever coming on facts about crime, misery,ignorance--here, there, everywhere; and I know that with a littleperseverance and resolution I might have been a priest, doing the onlywork worth doing--and behold, all I have done--has been--to gratify mypassion--for music--and call it--dedicating--' He had begun to coughdistressingly, and could not go on.
'If I had not known it was more spirits than lungs, I would not havelet you go on,' said Dr. May, when Lance could hear again. 'Yourpresent life is irksome, and you think you may have done wrong in notmaking an effort for the higher service?' Lance nodded assent. 'Butremember, non-commissioned officers are as much needed as commissionedones, and your Pursuivant is no mean weapon. It is really easier tofind clergy than thorough-going lay-men in a position like yours;and from all I can gather, if you had tried to fight your way toOrdination, you would only have broken down, and done nothing. So becontent, my boy. You have honestly put the higher duty foremost, and itwill come right somehow.'
'Only--'
'Hush! If the thermometer gets above 50 degrees, take a turn in thecloister. Fresh air will do sleep and spirits the most good; onlylay up entirely, and blister on any symptom of return of pain. Butgo about the house, and get back to family habits as you feel up tothem, not troubling yourself as to what is to come after. I'm wrong!You are _never_ to ride outside a velocipede in the rain again. Thatpleasure is for ever forbidden! Somewhere about the end of the eastwinds you may go into questions of the future, though to me it seemsthat your post is one of rare value and influence. While--as forthe "not impossible she," for whom it is worth while to go in inparticular--depend upon it, she is waiting for you, and will fall inyour way yet, even if, as Captain M'Intyre felicitously expresses it,your veins were filled with printers' ink! I should be ashamed to thinkit could be otherwise. Now rest. Don't speak.'
'Only one thing. My voice--will it come again?'
'Your voice? Of course. You spoke very well before I let you wear itout.'
'For speaking--oh yes--but singing?'
'Singing? Your throat was a good deal affected. Your voice--what kind?High tenor, did you say? Ah! those are very soon damaged; but one can'ttell; don't go trying experiments on it too soon. Happily, it is not avital question with you.' And as he saw the lip tremble, and a tear inthe eye, 'Don't fancy I meant to prepare you for its loss; I dare sayyou would rather lose a good deal besides.'
'I believe I had.'
'Let it alone then, and guard your throat.' And with a few morecounsels as to the treatment, Dr. May left him, and much consoledFelix and Cherry by assurances that the lungs were fast recovering,and that the spirits would probably follow them. And he then proceededto give a message that he was to deliver contingently upon hispatient's state--namely, the offer of a visit from Gertrude. His littlegranddaughter, Margaret Rivers, was at Dawlish, in so sad a state ofsuffering, that he and Ethel were to go and be with the parents; butGertrude was not wanted, and would gladly bestow herself upon Geraldine.
'You'll take care of her,' he said, with the solicitude that fathersnever lose for their youngest daughter. 'You have no young lords norprecipices to put in her way, I trust.'
'Lords, precipices, and thunder-storms, are equally improbable justnow,' said Cherry; 'the tithe-dinner and school-treat are the mostbrilliant entertainments in prospect.'
'I shall tell her to mind you like an Ethel the second. By-the-by,Ethel says she never saw any one so good for the child. She was ourspoilt one--at least, so Ethel says; though I'm an old fool of afather, and never saw it, and you are said to have put the womanlinessinto her.'
'I'm afraid I don't deserve the compliment. "I speks it growed."'
'To tell the truth, so do I,' laughed the Doctor.
Geraldine in her secret soul thought the development in maidenlinessdue to something besides age, for she knew what was the great bondbetween herself and Gertrude May; and bethinking herself of the entireextinction of all remaining sentiment for Alice Knevett, she couldnot but speculate on the possible results of the coming visit, andrecollect that to shrink from them would have no such excuse as in theformer case.
The announcement was not received with acclamation. Angela did notlike Gertrude May. Both were high-spirited free-spoken unconventionalgirls, in whom something of womanly grace was as yet slow in coming;but Gertrude was more essentially a lady, though louder voiced and lessnaturally graceful; nor had she a particle of flirtation, but dislikedyoung men, and was unpopular from irony and exclusiveness; whereasAngela was thoroughly the girl of the period in a highly stimulatedstate.
'Bother!' she exclaimed. 'She is nearly as bad as Miss May herself.'
'Indeed!' said Felix, in a much offended voice.
'As good then, and that's as bad!'
'Stuck-up, like all the Mays,' put in Bernard.
'They have been very good-natured to you,' said Felix again, in a toneof reproof.
'Soup tickets,' muttered Bernard.
'Take care, Bear,' said Cherry. 'Small minds repudiate gratitude.'
'Then Bernard's bound to entertain her,' said Lance.
'Catch me,' quoth Bernard.
'Perhaps she may alleviate his pangs for the faithless Countess,'suggested Angela.
'She!' The unutterable contempt of that monosyllable set all laughing,and he indignantly reiterated, 'She is stuck-up enough for tencountesses and duchesses to boot.'
'The monotony of Bear's ideas was always striking,' said Felix.
'He's got but one pole to
run up, poor Bruin!' said Angela. 'Now, Icould have found ever so many objections.'
'Only that it would be a queer way to welcome Cherry's guest,' saidClement, in reprobation.
'As if you liked her yourself, Clem!' exclaimed Angela, 'whenStoneborough is altogether in the rear, and not one of the whole crewbelongs to the E.C.U.'
'Is it impossible to be courteous to any one out of the E.C.U.?' saidClement so gravely, that the laughter was renewed; but Cherry had theuncomfortable certainty that if there had been a show of hands it wouldhave been on Bernard's side. Clement and the Mays had never harmonized;and Lance, who was always reluctant to face his sister's young-ladyassociates, now had no escape, and was ready to feel everything anoppression, so that his silence was an act of forbearance.
It was a good sign, that when Clement came in unobserved from Evensong,he found Lance at the piano, making twilight beautiful with somethingwonderfully yearning and mournful, but with a deep underkey ofresolution ever waxing stronger and stronger. Clement leant on thesettee, listening till his eyes grew moist; and when the cough forcedthe musician to desist, and come back exhausted to the sofa, he asked,'Where did that come from?'
'It is a Largo of Beethoven's in C Major. I fell in love with it whenwe had C---- at Minsterham.'
'Dr. May has done you good.'
'I don't know. I see he thinks my voice done for.'
'I would sooner have your fingers than your voice, Lance,' saidClement, appreciating the grief as Dr. May could not, never havingheard those notes.
Lance shook his head. The trouble was too deep and real for speech.
'Sooner or later we shall have our voices in perfection,' said Clement.'Meantime, who knows how good it may be for you to be parted from thatbeautiful thing!'
'My golden idol!' Lance broke out in a sort of laughing coughing sob.
'At least, you have the comfort of knowing you never prostituted itto any ungodly purpose,' said Clement. 'You always treated it as Hisgoodly gift.'
Lance made no answer. Perhaps he felt at that moment that his voicehad been the chief thing that made his dull life pleasant to him, andthat to be either dumb or an offence to his own delicate ear was a lotto which he could hardly resign himself. Clement went to the piano, andsoftly sung 'Angels brightly shine forth.'
Angela came into the room with a light as he ended; Lance started up,and hastened out of the room.
He was rather worse than better for the next day or two, and shudderedwith annoyance when Gertrude May's wheels approached. He would not,however, vex Cherry by shirking the early dinner, where Gertrude, abright mixture of blue merino and swans' down, was making fun of herprecise brother Tom's inclination to escort her on this her firstsolitary journey, when she knew it was only 'because of his friend atEwmouth, who is equally crazy about microscopes and such unpleasantthings.'
'As microscopes?' said Felix.
'That depends on what you look at. Now Tom is making perquisitions intothe germs of all kinds of diseases and infections, and is never sohappy as when he gets an excuse for driving over to Ewmouth.'
'Is there anything so scientific there?'
'Mr. Elsted, the chemist. He was a fellow-student of Tom's, but hehasn't nerve enough to practise; so he is a kind of stickit doctor,though he has science at his fingers' ends--the right place for achemist, you'll say--so very sensibly he took to that line.'
'We must make friends with him,' said Felix.
'Do! It would be a great kindness. He is really very much of agentle--' where she awkwardly stopped, and caught herself up, colouringto the ears.
'Which cannot be said of all medical students,' said Felix, greatlyhelping her out.
'No! And as Tom could not come himself, he has given me a preciouslittle box to carry, which the post would squash. Don't be afraid; itisn't the plague, or the small-pox, or anything--'
'I thought of going to Ewmouth this afternoon if you like the drive,'said Cherry.
'You don't trust me! You want to be rid of Pandora's box.'
Of course there was more fun about it, resulting in the timid beingonly half certified that it contained only some slides of glass; butLance took his part in the teasing, nor did he forget--what Cherrytook care to tell him on her return--that Gertrude had shaken handscordially with the chemist under the very shadow of his purple jars.
Gertrude's spirits were not much affected by her niece's illness; andshe had been so seldom from home, that this was a new experience, fromwhich she derived as much freshness as she brought. The Squire wasalways her hero, and with him she was always on her best behaviour,as if trying to redeem her performance on the Kitten's Tail; while hetreated her--like all his sisters' friends--with the gentle playfulcourtesy that had first begun with Alice Knevett. A musical eveningseemed to have thoroughly fitted her in among the inhabitants, and inthe forenoon she repaired quite naturally to Cherry's painting-room.
'That's right, I have designs on you.'
'Me, myself me, or in character?'
'In character. I catch every one. One gets so tame and unreal withoutfact.'
'But you'll let me write to Ethel. It feels so queer without the oldthing. I'm not sure that my head is on the right way.'
'Pray write. You ought to be doing something.'
Just then a pair of slippered feet came noiselessly to the door, andwith 'Good morning, Miss May,' Lance came in, his sister exclaiming,'How early! You have not had your sleep after breakfast.'
'No, but I slept a good deal later this morning, which is a betterthing,' he said, advancing to a big arm-chair. Gertrude had hoped fora snug morning with Cherry; but he looked so wan, pinched, and shadowyin the morning light, that there was no grudging him the content withwhich he sank into his place, nor the anxiety with which Stella wassent down to hasten his beef-tea.
'Have you made your capture, Cherry?' he asked.
'I was beginning when you came.'
'Then Miss May has not seen your contribution to the "Rights of Woman."'
'I have only escaped from the subject at home. Mrs. Harvey Anderson hasbeen getting up a meeting for the Ladies' Suffrage, and wanted Ethel tocome to it.'
'O for her likeness!'
'What can you want of it?'
In answer, Cherry produced two cartoons. One was a kind of parody ofRaphael's School of Athens, all the figures female, not caricatures,but with a vein of satire throughout. The demonstration on the floorwas an endeavour to square the circle; some of the elder ladies weresquabbling, some of the younger furtively peeping at themselves inpocket-mirrors, or comparing ornaments; some in postures of weariness,one gazing eagerly as if responding to some signal, another mimickingher teacher, a third frowning at her rival's success. There was no airof union or harmony, but something of vanity and vexation of spiritpervaded all.
The companion was arranged on the same lines, but the portico wasa cloister, and the aisle of a church was dimly indicated througha door-way. The figures and occupations were the same, but all wasin harmony. The maidens, though mostly in secular garb, wore thecross; the central figure, in matronly beauty, was portioning out thehousehold tasks, while in the place of the harsh or sour or tyrannizingdisputatious ladies were women, some in hood and veil, but othersin ordinary dress, all dignified and sweet, while the damsels weresmiling happily over their employments, for the most part the sameas before, but in a different spirit. The demonstration on the floorwas no longer impossible. It was the circle of eternity spanned bythe Cross; the quizzing and teasing had ceased, the loiterers were attheir needlework; the rivals were united; the girl, whose glance downthe grove had been furtive, was now standing in the door-way, openlywatching for the little male figure in the distance. Both were in roughbold outline, almost scrawled, and here and there dashed with pen orIndian ink; but Geraldine's masterly hand showed wonderfully in thegrace and expression.
'I don't know whether I shall make anything of it,' she said. 'Isketched it in a kind of frenzy; and Felix is bent on my going on withit.'
&nb
sp; 'It would do for Punch, if for nothing else,' said Lance.
'For shame!' exclaimed Gertrude.
'No, it is a great compliment,' said Cherry; 'but what the Squire wantsis to have them in the Exhibition. Now I mean No. 1 to bring out--'
'The lesson of Tennyson's Princess,' interrupted Gertrude.
'In part, but going further into life. I mean that while woman worksmerely for the sake of self-cultivation, the clever grow conceitedand emulous, the practical harsh and rigid, the light or dull, vain,frivolous, deceitful, by way of escape, and it all gets absurd. But thebeing handmaids of the Church brings all right; and the School of St.Sophia develops even the intellect.'
'You'll have to write a key,' said Lance.
'I leave that to you gentlemen of the press. I don't expect that manywill enter into it, but if only a few do it will answer its purpose,and be worth doing. I want to know whether it conveys its meaning to afresh eye.'
'Let me see,' said Gertrude. 'Woman working every one for her own hand,is all nohow, either grim or silly, the laughing-stock of gods and men;while working for the Church makes all harmonious, and sets each in herplace.'
'It might as well be man as woman,' said Lance.
'More so, I believe,' said Cherry; 'because marriage gives woman ahead; so I think the married ones at least do not suffer so much incharacter from misbelief. Family life affords a sort of religionto those who do not know the truth; and so while man kept them insubjection, they did not need to think it out, as the single ones mustdo now.'
'The Church provides ties and object for them,' said Gertrude. 'Ethelwould like that.'
'Clan Hepburn would more than ever warn one against making an idol ofan abstraction,' said Lance. 'I couldn't help asking them what theythought of the Bride in the Revelation, and they warned me againsttaking the figurative literally; but they are deeply good old girls,though your St. Sophia has not had the training of them.'
'Not consciously,' said Cherry. 'They did her work, though, in the darktimes; and if she had thorough hold of them, they would not be meddlingwith the clergyman's province.'
So saying, she produced two more finished copies, the buildingelaborately put in, and some of the faces and figures worked upevidently from the life. Wilmet was the lovely matronly presidingspirit; Stella, the damsel in the place of one of the beautiful boysin the foreground of the School of Athens, though it had been hard tomake her look naughty enough for the first. Gertrude, to her greatamusement, recognised Lady Caergwent: 'So that's the use you make ofyour countesses?'
'It arose a good deal out of a talk with her about the dedication ofour powers; and she sent me a horrible photograph to do her bad selfby.'
'I declare you must have got Ethel's nut-cracker photograph for theoriginal of that forbidding astronomical female with the compasses.Why! her improved state is Ethel herself, only not quite sweetly oddenough. Did you mean it?'
'No; I only found it coming like Dr. May.'
'She shall sit! And I'll be one of the wicked ones, whenever youplease.'
'Then you must be a good one too.'
'Oh! I don't promise that. It is much flatter. Let me be the one who istaking off Urania Ethel's gestures. I declare you are too clever; theconstellation you've turned up on the globe is _vulpecula et anser_.'
'No, you fancied that, Gertrude.'
'No such thing! See the stars really make a little W just like it inthe sky, and observe the moral. Instead of a he-fox running off withthe goose, the vixen will thus run away with the gander.'
Cherry had not laughed so much for weeks, Lance not for a year.Stella's shoulders shook over her German exercise, and her voicesuggested: 'It ought to have been in the Southern Hemisphere, for theworld turned topsy-turvy.'
'The Southern Hemisphere is stupid, where it got out of sight of thedear old funny folks that named the stars. What shall we have in theworld set right?'
'Andromeda on the rock,' said Stella, 'and Perseus coming to let herout!'
'There's Perseus then coming down the walk,' said Gertrude.
'I hope that's me!' said Lance.
'Then you must be _Anser!_'
'_Anser!_' said Cherry. 'If he appears at all, it must be as Athene'sOwl.--What great eyes you have, my dear!'
In a moment she dashed into her first draught an owl, comicallyresembling Lance; 'the twinkling blink in its eyes looking out of thatindefinite bushiness,' as Gertrude said.
'Against the beard movement, Miss May?'
'There's only one moustache in the family!'
'Diplomatic,' laughed Cherry.
'Not wholly,' said Gertrude. 'One does go by one's brothers; and I liketo see people's expression.'
'But,' said Lance, 'I trust at least I'm the owl of the church tower,though I can't hoot any longer.'
'Athene's ought to be prying down with superior contempt upon theladies in the Academy.'
'Inspecting them!' said Cherry. 'Hearing them pronounce _vicissimwe-kiss-im_ in turns, and making a note.'
'I declare,' cried Gertrude, 'I've got the very man for the bad owl.How lucky I brought my photograph book!' She flew back to her room, andreturned in a moment with her album. 'I brought it to show Geraldineour New Zealand children, and Leonard's pupils,' she said; 'but justlook here. Transplant him, Cherry!'
The photograph represented a handsome, complacent looking,gentleman-like man, with certainly large eyes and an aquiline nose, andbushy beard, but nothing else owl-like about him.
'Who is he? What has he done?' asked Cherry.
'Done! He's a school inspector! Don't you have inspections here? Notunder Government? O thrice happy people! If ever you _do_ wish tosee my dearly beloved sister Ethel in the position of a toad under aharrow!'
'But why, you have got her harrow in your book?'
'He isn't our proper district harrow,' said Gertrude. 'He's baddererand wusserer nor that! He's my sister Mary's brother-in-law, and Tom'sbosom friend!'
'Worse and worse!' said Cherry, laughing.
'Exactly, for he comes down for Sundays! He is the youngest of theCheviots by a good many years, born after they had got prosperous, andcockered up beyond all measure--went and got everything a man could goin for at Oxford--horrid fellow--and then turned school inspector, andwrites smart articles in Harvey Anderson's Magazine.'
'Rupert Cheviot; I know the fellow's style,' said Lance; 'but may I askwhy he is in your book?'
'Because Mary gave me the book, and stuck him in so fast there's noeradicating him; but I shall paste him over before long. Luckily, hegenerally talks to Ethel. They are always fighting, and I believe shelikes him; and he doesn't know what to make of such a clever womanbeing so narrow, you see.--Now, an' you love me, Cherry, put him upthere--an owl, inspecting the Academy!'
Just then, Angela burst in to say that Major Harewood wanted Felix tocome and see about the new barn, and Felix had sent to ask if Miss Maywould come out before the warmth of the short day was past.
'That's hard,' said Lance, as she went; 'you'll lose the light.'
'Never mind, there will be plenty of time. The pensive face is what Iwant. It can be rather fine.'
'Rather!' in an indignant tone.
Lance slept in the third room in the corridor, opening into Clement's,as Clement's did into Felix's--an arrangement convenient in the earlierstage of his convalescence, and enabling Clement still to take carethat his fire never was let out.
'I say, Clem,' he said, from his bed, the next morning, 'you haven'tsuch a thing as a spare razor--mine were left at Marshlands.'
'No, I haven't.'
'I wish you would see if Felix has.'
'Are you mad, to want to begin shaving now?'
'Not at all. It had better be done before it gets thicker, and I haveto go out.'
The application brought Felix in, demanding, 'Are you gone crazy,Lance?'
'I thought I might as well titivate myself for the tithe dinner thisevening.'
'You need not trouble yourself about that. You'll not
dine with us; andif you did, the farmers would excuse you. I thought you were only tooglad of an apology for cultivating that furze brake.'
'One may as well be fit to be seen.'
'Exactly my sentiments,' said Felix; 'but you must submit for thepresent. If you say any more, I shall lock up all my razors from theraving lunatic.'
'Yes,' added Clement. 'Would you like an axe at the same time, to cutoff your head?'
Lance subsided; and Felix walked back to his room, and smiled to therisk of his own cheeks over his shaving, as he muttered, 'Tithe dinner,quotha?'
The tithe and rent dinner were always combined soon after Christmas,and the Squire and Vicar had agreed that it was best not to make ita wholesale entertainment at the Rood, but to have a civilized partyin the Priory, bringing the guests into the drawing-room afterwards.The numbers of superior tenants were not sufficient to make thisunmanageable, and the compliment was appreciated. One or two elderlymen might have preferred devouring the value of their tithe at the inn,and enjoying subsequent tobacco and spirits, but most liked the beingtreated as gentlemen; and the evening was always an odd mixture ofboredom, amusement, and gratification.
The audit occupied most of the day, and the dinner was at the primitivehour of six, the ladies of the house appearing thereat. Gertrude, whowas worked up to think it capital fun, was warned to deck herself inher best; and she rejoiced that Ethel had enforced preparations forpossible gaieties, so that she could appear in a pink silk, presentedto her for Mrs. Rivers's last public occasion, and a wreath of clematis.
Her splendours were not thrown away, for the Squire met her on thestairs, and exclaimed, 'That's right, I'm grateful to you;' and nextmoment she saw Mrs. Harewood uncloaking, and revealing the black velvether husband always urged on her, and a set of pearls that had not seenthe light since the last old aunt retired into old-maidenhood. The ValeLeston opinion was that Mrs. Harewood was the finest woman to look atwho had existed since her great-grandmother, Lady Geraldine.
Lance was in the drawing-room when the ladies came in after dinner,shaking out their plumes and relating their experiences. Angela hadtalked hunting with a young farmer whom she wanted to allure into thechoir, though Cherry doubted whether Clement would like to have himthere. Cherry had given Mr. Hodnet an account of the Caergwent wedding,in which Penbeacon had had so much share, and had received a lamentover Mr. Harewood's absence that winter. 'He was a gentleman that wasstrong in the pulpit.'
'That's his tincture of Irish eloquence, and the _go_ that he has inhim!' said Angela.
'I believe the poor people do prefer his preaching to Clement's,' saidWilmet.
'On the variety principle, I believe,' said Cherry.
'Of which they never get enough,' said Angela.
'After all,' said Cherry, 'inherent poetry does tell more than oneguesses upon an audience.'
'Ah, ha!' said Lance; 'I've got a novelty in that line for you.'
'From Will? You don't mean that you've been revelling in the secondpost?'
'Ay! Some one fetched it from Ewmouth, just as your knives and forksbegan to clatter. I was just thinking what notes predominated, when incame this budget from San Remo. It is satisfactory to hear that whilemy Lord and my Lady think it the dullest place in the world, our twolovers find it simply delicious.'
'Is that the subject of the poem?'
'It might be,' said Gertrude.
'Only it would be hard on my Lord and my Lady,' said Angel.
'The question would be,' said Cherry, 'how long it takes to be so usedto one another that localities cease to be indifferent.'
'How long does it take, Wilmet?' saucily asked Angela.
Wilmet did not choose to answer; and Stella's voice quietly mentionedhow Lizzie Bruce and her lover broke off their engagement after beingshut up together for a whole wet Sunday.
'How very lucky for them!' said Gertrude.
'They agreed it would be impossible to spend life together,' saidCherry. 'But what is the poem, Lance?'
'The Song of the Electric Wires.'
'Nonsense!'
'They do sing,' said Gertrude. 'I have often wished one could makesomething of those Aeolian-harp sounds.'
'Have you?' said Lance. 'I've tried ever so often to get them on theviolin. I'll show you.'
It was the first time he had spoken of touching his instrument; butWilmet intercepted Stella, who was going as a matter of course tofetch it, by saying the sound would make the farmers expect a dance.
'So much the better,' said Angela. 'One waltz with Harry Palting, andmy victory would be complete.'
'It seems,' proceeded Lance, 'that poor Bobbie held herself ready tostart off with Bill in case I had been worse; and when the telegraphrelieved their minds, the reaction showed itself in these verses.'
'Which Bobbie was there to secure,' added Cherry. 'I wonder how manyof his get lost for want of her to copy them out, and make him polishthem.'
'When a man hasn't a spark of vanity he misses a very good workingmachine,' said Lance.
'Spurring machine, you mean,' said Gertrude.
'Let me have them, Lance; you can't read them,' interposed Cherry.
Strange as was the subject, there was a wild airy grace about thelines, by turns joyous and pathetic, and really going well to thefitful music of the winds upon the wires. Lance went up to the piano,and struck a note or two; and that wonderful power he possessed overthe instrument brought the very expression, if not the sound, and madeGertrude exclaim with delight, 'Oh! do make a song of it with a pianoaccompaniment; I am sure you can.'
'If _you_ tell me I can,' said Lance, flushing and smiling, thoughperhaps aware of more technical difficulty than she knew; but theopening of the dining-room door, and the warm greeting of his brother'stenants, broke off his promise.
He worked so hard and so merrily the next day in preparing theChristmas-tree for the schools, in spite--foolish fellow!--of warnings,chills, and catches of breath, that at the moment of projection, hewas quite overcome by the throng, noise and glare, and forced to beata hasty retreat to the drawing-room, whither Miss Bridget Hepburn soonpursued him.
Finding him for the first time on the sofa, looking worn out she viewedhis assurances that he was really much better as a melancholy delusion,and warned him against being beguiled by false hopes out of thatblessed frame of mind. John Harewood, divining what she was about,presently came in to the rescue; not that he could remove her, for shewas burning to communicate a semi-confidential piece of information,namely, the intended marriage of Mrs. Fulbert Underwood to Mr. Smiles,whose sickly wife had been dead about a year. The other two sisterswere communicating the same intelligence to any one they could catch inanything like privacy all the evening. It was not at all unsatisfactoryintelligence, for on the strength of Clement's appointment havingcaused his resignation, Mr. Smiles had expected him to supply all hismost pressing needs, from educating his son to paying for his wife'sfuneral. The worst of it was that it was hardly credible that Mrs.Fulbert would be so foolish as to bestow her handsome jointure upon himand his seven children; but as he had just taken a curacy in a popularwatering-place, there might be attractions; and at any rate, Clementwould be exempted from finding funds for his move.
Lance could not help feeling that if to be weary of everything andindifferent to the future were a blessed frame, he had certainly lostit, and it made the subsequent night of pain and distress all theless endurable, as well as the captivity to bed and blisters thatensued; nor was it till Sunday evening that he could return to thepainting-room, where all the family collected as they dropped in oneby one from Evensong and the subsequent choir-practice, and stood andlounged about in the Sunday gossip, deaf to all to the manner born.
Felix came in last, having been looking at his letters, for he neverhad time to do more than glance at a few of the more interesting in themorning.
'It is true,' he said quietly.
'What, about Mrs. Fulbert? Has she written?'
'Yes; a great deal about the
love she always had for Mr. Smiles's dearlittle family, and an entreaty to me not to deprive her of the threehundred a year that she was to forfeit by remarriage.'
'Was she? cried Bernard. 'How jolly!'
'So it seems, though I had forgotten it. She keeps all the settlement,of course.'
'I remember about it,' said Clement. 'Her husband begged his father todo something for her; and he detested her so, poor woman, that it wentvery much against the grain with him, and by way of some solace, hemust have made this charge on the estate contingent on her remaining awidow.'
'You'll never go on with it, Felix!' exclaimed Angela.
'I hope it will not break off the match,' added Cherry. 'There are somepeople whom one would willingly bribe to keep out of one's way.'
'They do it knowingly?' said Gertrude.
'I imagine so; Smiles managed to know most things.'
'Ay!' said Angela. 'But you see he went on precedents. He knew whatAlice Lamb had effected, and had some personal experience of thisVicar!'
'Felix! you are not going to be so absurd!' expostulated Bernard. 'Why,it would keep a hunter!'
'Or a curate,' said Angela.
'Still more amusing to you, Angel,' retorted Bernard.
'But, Felix, _do_ promise me you'll do nothing foolish. For my personalsatisfaction,' pleaded Angela.
'That is a promise no one can be warranted in giving, Angela.'
'He's afraid of himself!' cried Angela. 'She has only to get him into acorner--like Alice.'
'Then it is well I am going away to-morrow.'
'Very unreasonable,' muttered Lance.
'What, to be so soft--I think it is indeed! I don't care for the money,but how those critters will triumph!'
'He never said they would have it,' said Cherry.
'Oh! if he is only teasing.--What are you going to do, Felix?'
'I do not know. I must look at the terms of the will.'
Gertrude looked triumphantly at Angela, as much as to say, 'Could younot trust his common sense and justice?'
But Felix put a stop to the conversation by asking Lance whether theusual Sunday evening hymns would be too much for him.
'Not at all,' he said, 'provided Angela would sing nothing she hadnot studied;' and then finding Gertrude took this as a hint, he wasdreadfully distressed, and nearly implied that dissonance from her wasbetter than harmony from any one else. She, on the other hand, wasas ever, greatly impressed with the sweetness of Felix's voice, andrefused, as they went down to supper, to believe that Lance's could bebetter.
'I do not know that it is in what you heard to-night,' said Cherry;'but Lance had some notes that none of them could come near, except--'and there she paused, thinking of the voice that still at times shelonged for with inexpressible longing.
Gertrude was full of pity, though disappointed to find that Mr.Underwood was going away so early that he bade her good-bye as well asgood-night, in spite of her protestation that she should be up to seehim off, and binding over Stella, who was always the morning star ofearly travellers, to wake her in time for his 6.30 breakfast.
It was not far from that time when Felix, coming into Lance's room, wasstruck with his refreshed and brightened look even at this his worsttime, a sort of indefinable look of hope and recovery.
'You have had a good night?'
'Yes; I slept till just now. I believe this last bout of mustard hasdone me a power of good. The tightness is gone as it never went before.'
'That's the best news I've heard yet.'
'Better than Mrs. Fulbert?'
'Oh, I was coming to that. I have looked at the abstract of the willthis morning, and I don't feel myself in the least bound to continuethe annuity. Then I have been going over things this week; and whatwith the falling in of the Blackstone lease, and the winding up of theRectory business, I shall be likely to get into smooth waters soonerthan I expected. So if you can hold on to the end of the year, I willthen, if all goes right, do whichever you please--give up the concernat Bexley to you, or let you have an allowance to enable you to go onwith your music.'
'Have I been grumbling?' said Lance.
'Can't one see a thing without its being grumbled at one? It is a hardlife, yours, Lancey. I did not understand how hard till I took thistaste of it, and I am heartily grieved at having let you go on under ittill you broke down. I must try some other plan for you when you can goback.'
'No, no; don't upset Mrs. Frog. Summer will be coming, and I prefer herto Mrs. Lamb any day. Give her my love, and tell her I'm mending. Notthat I see any sense in your going,' he added, but somehow a littleless freely than usual.
'You want to see Lamb's report of the speeches at the sessions? Anycommands?'
'Yes; I want some music-paper, and my portfolio of violin music. If youare sending any books, it might come at once. And tell Ellis he hadbetter not attempt that anthem from the Creation next Sunday, unlessSpeers is come home to take the tenor.'
'I might do that.'
'You don't mean to stay over Sunday?'
'It is of no use to be always running backwards and forwards; I like aSunday at the old place now and then,' said Felix. 'Good-bye, Lancey;let me find you twice yourself when I come back!'
'I could not thank the old Giant,' said Lance, when Cherry looked in onhim; 'but will you tell him, I feel as if he had taken out the stopperthat bunged me up from everything. Only it is absurd of him to go intobanishment just when this place is so uncommonly pleasant?'
Cherry thought she could guess, and that it was not so entirelydistrust of Mr. Lamb's capacity as it was convenient for the familyto suppose. And after all, Lance was protesting from dutiful habit ofunselfishness, but it may be doubted whether he _really_ was quite assorry as usual to part with his brother.
The early rising to see him off had been effected; but his absencedid not disturb the good spirits of the party. Lance was gainingground quickly, and resumed more of the ordinary family habits everyday--sustaining his spirits the better when left behind on their allgoing out, because Gertrude May did not unite with Angela in abusingthe weather for not bringing a skateable frost, and far less in runningwild after a sight of the hunt. Nay, she decidedly snubbed that greathandsome idle fellow Bernard for abusing Felix and the Fates for notmounting him, and sat soberly at home at her music lesson, when heand Angela went off upon the chestnut and Ratton, to see the meet andbemoan themselves. Gertrude had been slow to exhibit her music beforethe Underwoods, and had good-humouredly justified Angela's exaggeratedexcruciation, owning that she had never had any teaching worthy ofthe name. Lance had diffidently offered a few hints, and they werenot accepted as Angela was wont to receive his criticisms; so theydeveloped into instruction, delightful to both, even though much of itconsisted in unlearning!
And when the little niece had rallied, and Dr. May fetched his daughterhome, Lance did not flag, but was once more the bright Lance of formerdays, and spent his time between Pursuivant work and labour over somemusical achievement, dividing himself between a blotted score, hisviolin, and piano, using by preference Theodore as a critic, withStella to interpret his gestures.