CHAPTER LXVIII.
From London to Baden.
On the following morning everybody was stirring by times at Mr.Palliser's house in Park Lane, and the master of that house yawned nomore. There is some life in starting for a long journey, and the lifeis the stronger and the fuller if the things and people to be carriedare numerous and troublesome. Lady Glencora was a little troublesome,and would not come down to breakfast in time. When rebuked on accountof this manifest breach of engagement, she asserted that the nexttrain would do just as well; and when Mr. Palliser proved to her,with much trouble, that the next train could not enable them toreach Paris on that day, she declared that it would be much morecomfortable to take a week in going than to hurry over the ground inone day. There was nothing she wanted so much as to see Folkestone.
"If that is the case, why did not you tell me so before?" said Mr.Palliser, in his gravest voice. "Richard and the carriage went downyesterday, and are already on board the packet."
"If Richard and the carriage are already on board the packet," saidLady Glencora, "of course we must follow them, and we must put offthe glories of Folkestone till we come back. Alice, haven't youobserved that, in travelling, you are always driven on by someRichard or some carriage, till you feel that you are a slave?"
All this was trying to Mr. Palliser; but I think that he enjoyed it,nevertheless, and that he was happy when he found that he did get hisfreight off from the Pimlico Station in the proper train.
Of course Lady Glencora and Alice were very ill crossing the Channel;of course the two maids were worse than their mistresses; of coursethe men kept out of their master's way when they were wanted, anddrank brandy-and-water with the steward down-stairs; and of courseLady Glencora declared that she would not allow herself to be carriedbeyond Boulogne that day;--but, nevertheless, they did get on toParis. Had Mr. Palliser become Chancellor of the Exchequer, as he hadonce hoped, he could hardly have worked harder than he did work. Itwas he who found out which carriage had been taken for them, and whoput, with his own hands, the ladies' dressing-cases and cloaks on tothe seats,--who laid out the novels, which, of course, were not readby the road,--and made preparations as though this stage of theirjourney was to take them a week, instead of five hours and a half.
"Oh, dear! how I have slept!" said Lady Glencora, as they came nearto Paris.
"I think you've been tolerably comfortable," said Mr. Palliser,joyfully.
"Since we got out of that horrid boat I have done pretty well. Why dothey make the boats so nasty? I'm sure they do it on purpose."
"It would be difficult to make them nice, I suppose?" said Alice.
"It is the sea that makes them uncomfortable," said Mr. Palliser.
"Never mind; we shan't have any more of it for twelve months, at anyrate. We can get to the Kurds, Alice, without getting into a packetagain. That, to my way of thinking, is the great comfort of theContinent. One can go everywhere without being seasick."
Mr. Palliser said nothing, but he sighed as he thought of being absentfor a whole year. He had said that such was his intention, and wouldnot at once go back from what he himself had said. But how was he tolive for twelve months out of the House of Commons? What was he todo with himself, with his intellect and his energy, during all thesecoming dreary days? And then,--he might have been Chancellor of theExchequer! He might even now, at this very moment, have been uponhis legs, making a financial statement of six hours' duration,to the delight of one-half of the House, and bewilderment of theother, instead of dragging cloaks across that dingy, dull, dirtywaiting-room at the Paris Station, in which British subjects are keptin prison while their boxes are being tumbled out of the carriages.
"But we are not to stop here;--are we?" said Lady Glencora,mournfully.
"No, dear;--I have given the keys to Richard. We will go on at once."
"But can't we have our things?"
"In about half an hour," pleaded Mr. Palliser.
"I suppose we must bear it, Alice?" said Lady Glencora as she gotinto the carriage that was waiting for her.
Alice thought of the last time in which she had been in thatroom,--when George and Kate had been with her,--and the two girlshad been quite content to wait patiently while their trunks werebeing examined. But Alice was now travelling with great people,--withpeople who never spoke of their wealth, or seemed ever to think ofit, but who showed their consciousness of it at every turn of theirlives. "After all," Alice had said to herself more than once, "Idoubt whether the burden is not greater than the pleasure."
They stayed in Paris for a week, and during that time Alice foundthat she became very intimate with Mr. Palliser. At Matching shehad, in truth, seen but little of him, and had known nothing. Nowshe began to understand his character, and learned how to talk tohim, She allowed him to tell her of things in which Lady Glencoraresolutely persisted in taking no interest. She delighted him bywriting down in a little pocket-book the number of eggs that wereconsumed in Paris every day, whereas Glencora protested that theinformation was worth nothing unless her husband could tell her howmany of the eggs were good, and how many bad. And Alice was gladto find that a hundred and fifty thousand female operatives wereemployed in Paris, while Lady Glencora said it was a great shame,and that they ought all to have husbands. When Mr. Palliser explainedthat that was impossible, because of the redundancy of the femalepopulation, she angered him very much by asserting that she saw agreat many men walking about who, she was quite sure, had not wivesof their own.
"I do so wish you had married him!" Glencora said to Alice thatevening. "You would always have had a pocket-book ready to write downthe figures, and you would have pretended to care about the eggs, andthe bottles of wine, and the rest of it. As for me, I can't do it. IfI see an hungry woman, I can give her my money; or if she be a sickwoman, I can nurse her; or if I hear of a very wicked man, I can hatehim;--but I cannot take up poverty and crime in the lump. I neverbelieve it all. My mind isn't big enough."
They went into no society at Paris, and at the end of a week were allglad to leave it.
"I don't know that Baden will be any better," Lady Glencora said;"but, you know, we can leave that again after a bit,--and so we shallgo on getting nearer to the Kurds."
To this, Mr. Palliser demurred. "I think we had better make up ourmind to stay a month at Baden."
"But why should we make up our minds at all?" his wife pleaded.
"I like to have a plan," said Mr. Palliser.
"And so do I," said his wife,--"if only for the sake of not keepingit."
"There's nothing I hate so much as not carrying out my intentions,"said Mr. Palliser.
Upon this, Lady Glencora shrugged her shoulders, and made a mockgrimace to her cousin. All this her husband bore for a while meekly,and it must be acknowledged that he behaved very well. But, then,he had his own way in everything. Lady Glencora did not behave verywell,--contradicting her husband, and not considering, as, perhaps,she ought to have done, the sacrifice he was making on her behalf.But, then, she had her own way in nothing.
She had her own way in almost nothing; but on one point she didconquer her husband. He was minded to go from Paris back to Cologne,and so down the Rhine to Baden. Lady Glencora declared that she hatedthe Rhine,--that, of all rivers, it was the most distasteful toher; that, of all scenery, the scenery of the Rhine was the mostover-praised; and that she would be wretched all the time if shewere carried that way. Upon this, Mr. Palliser referred the matterto Alice; and she, who had last been upon the Rhine with hercousins Kate and George Vavasor, voted for going to Baden by way ofStrasbourg.
"We will go by Strasbourg, then," said Mr. Palliser, gallantly.
"Not that I want to see that horrid church again," said Glencora.
"Everything is alike horrid to you, I think," said her husband. "Youare determined not to be contented, so that it matters very littlewhich way we go."
"That's the truth," said his wife. "It does matter very little."
They got on to Bade
n,--with very little delay at Strasbourg, andfound half an hotel prepared for their reception. Here the carriagewas brought into use for the first time, and the mistress of thecarriage talked of sending home for Dandy and Flirt. Mr. Palliser,when he heard the proposition, calmly assured his wife that thehorses would not bear the journey. "They would be so out ofcondition," he said, "as not to be worth anything for two or threemonths."
"I only meant to ask for them if they could come in a balloon," saidLady Glencora.
This angered Mr. Palliser, who had really, for a few minutes, thoughtof pacifying his wife by sending for the horses.
"Alice," she asked, one morning, "how many eggs are eaten in Badenevery morning before ten o'clock?"
Mr. Palliser, who at the moment was in the act of eating one, threwdown his spoon, and pushed his plate from him.
"What's the matter, Plantagenet?" she asked.
"The matter!" he said. "But never mind; I am a fool to care for it."
"I declare I didn't know that I had done anything wrong," said LadyGlencora. "Alice, do you understand what it is?"
Alice said that she did understand very well.
"Of course she understands," said Mr. Palliser. "How can she helpit? And, indeed, Miss Vavasor, I am more unhappy than I can expressmyself, to think that your comfort should be disturbed in this way."
"Upon my word I think Alice is doing very well," said Lady Glencora."What is there to hurt her comfort? Nobody scolds her. Nobody tellsher that she is a fool. She never jokes, or does anything wicked,and, of course, she isn't punished."
Mr. Palliser, as he wandered that day alone through the gambling-roomsat the great Assembly House, thought that, after all, it might havebeen better for him to have remained in London, to have becomeChancellor of the Exchequer, and to have run all risks.
"I wonder whether it would be any harm if I were to put a few piecesof money on the table, just once?" Lady Glencora said to her cousin,on the evening of the same day, in one of those gambling salons.There had been some music on that evening in one side of thebuilding, and the Pallisers had gone to the rooms. But as neitherof the two ladies would dance, they had strayed away into the otherapartments.
"The greatest harm in the world!" said Alice; "and what on earthcould you gain by it? You don't really want any of those horridpeople's money?"
"I'll tell you what I want,--something to live for,--some excitement.Is it not a shame that I see around me so many people gettingamusement, and that I can get none? I'd go and sit out there, anddrink beer and hear the music, only Plantagenet wouldn't let me. Ithink I'll throw one piece on to the table to see what becomes ofit."
"I shall leave you if you do," said Alice.
"You are such a prude! It seems to me as if it must have been myspecial fate,--my good fate, I mean,--that has thrown me so much withyou. You look after me quite as carefully as Mr. Bott and Mrs. Marshamever did; but as I chose you myself, I can't very well complain, andI can't very well get rid of you."
"Do you want to get rid of me, Cora?"
"Sometimes. Do you know, there are moments when I almost make up mymind to go headlong to the devil,--when I think it is the best thingto be done. It's a hard thing for a woman to do, because she has toundergo so much obloquy before she gets used to it. A man can take todrinking, and gambling and all the rest of it, and nobody despiseshim a bit. The domestic old fogies give him lectures if they cancatch him, but he isn't fool enough for that. All he wants is money,and he goes away and has his fling. Now I have plenty of money,--or,at any rate, I had,--and I never got my fling yet. I do feel sotempted to rebel, and go ahead, and care for nothing."
"Throwing one piece on to the table wouldn't satisfy that longing."
"You think I should be like the wild beast that has tasted blood,and can't be controlled. Look at all these people here. There arehusbands gambling, and their wives don't know it; and wives gambling,and their husbands don't know it. I wonder whether Plantagenet everhas a fling? What a joke it would be to come and catch him!"
"I don't think you need be afraid."
"Afraid! I should like him all the better for it. If he came to me,some morning, and told me that he had lost a hundred thousand pounds,I should be so much more at my ease with him."
"You have no chance in that direction, I'm quite sure."
"None the least. He'd make a calculation that the chances were nineto seven against him, and then the speculation would seem to him tobe madness."
"I don't suppose he'd wish to try, even though he were sure ofwinning."
"Of course not. It would be a very vulgar kind of thing then.Look,--there's an opening there. I'll just put on one napoleon."
"You shall not. If you do, I'll leave you at once. Look at the womenwho are playing. Is there one there whom it would not disgrace you totouch? Look what they are. Look at their cheeks, and their eyes, andtheir hands. Those men who rake about the money are bad enough, butthe women look like fiends."
"You're not going to frighten me in that hobgoblin sort of way, youknow. I don't see anything the matter with any of the people."
"What do you think of that young woman who has just got a handful ofmoney from the man next to her?"
"I think she is very happy. I never get money given to me byhandfuls, and the man to whom I belong gives me no encouragementwhen I want to amuse myself." They were now standing near to one endof the table, and suddenly there came to be an opening through thecrowd up to the table itself. Lady Glencora, leaving Alice's side, atonce stepped up and deposited a piece of gold on one of the markedcompartments. As soon as she placed it she retreated again withflushed face, and took hold of Alice's arm. "There," she said,"I have done it." Alice, in her dismay, did not know what step totake. She could not scold her friend now, as the eyes of many wereturned upon them, nor could she, of course, leave her, as she hadthreatened. Lady Glencora laughed with her peculiar little lowlaughter, and stood her ground. "I was determined you shouldn'tfrighten me out of it," she said.
Lady Glencora at Baden.]
One of the ministers at the table had in the meantime gone on withthe cards, and had called the game; and another minister had gentlypushed three or four more pieces of gold up to that which LadyGlencora had flung down, and had then cunningly caught her eye, and,with all the courtesy of which he was master, had pushed them furtheron towards her. She had supposed herself to be unknown there in thesalon, but no doubt all the croupiers and half the company knew wellenough who was the new customer at the table. There was still thespace open, near to which she stood, and then someone motioned to herto come and take up the money which she had won. She hesitated, andthen the croupier asked her, in that low, indifferent voice whichthese men always use, whether she desired that her money shouldremain. She nodded her head to him, and he at once drew the moneyback again to the spot on which she had placed the first napoleon.Again the cards were turned up softly, again the game was called,and again she won. The money was dealt out to her,--on this occasionwith a full hand. There were lying there between twenty and thirtynapoleons, of which she was the mistress. Her face had flushedbefore, but now it became very red. She caught hold of Alice, who wasliterally trembling beside her, and tried to laugh again. But therewas that in her eye which told Alice that she was really frightened.Some one then placed a chair for her at the table, and in herconfusion, not knowing what she was to do, she seated herself. "Comeaway," said Alice, taking hold of her, and disregarding everythingbut her own purpose, in the agony of the moment. "You must comeaway! You shall not sit there!" "I must get rid of that money," saidGlencora, trying to whisper her words, "and then I will come away."The croupier again asked her if the money was to remain, and sheagain nodded her head. Everybody at the table was now looking ather. The women especially were staring at her,--those horrid womenwith vermilion cheeks, and loud bonnets half off their heads, andhard, shameless eyes, and white gloves, which, when taken off in theardour of the game, disclosed dirty hands. They stared at her withthat fixed stare which
such women have, and Alice saw it all, andtrembled.
Again she won. "Leave it," said Alice, "and come away." "I can'tleave it," said Glencora. "If I do, there'll be a fuss. I'll gothe next time." What she said was, of course, in English, and wasprobably understood by no one near her; but it was easy to be seenthat she was troubled, and, of course, those around her looked ather the more because of her trouble. Again that little question andanswer went on between her and the croupier, and on this occasionthe money was piled up on the compartment--a heap of gold which madeenvious the hearts of many who stood around there. Alice had nowboth her hands on the back of the chair, needing support. If thedevil should persist, and increase that stock of gold again, shemust go and seek for Mr. Palliser. She knew not what else to do. Sheunderstood nothing of the table, or of its laws; but she supposedall those ministers of the game to be thieves, and believed thatall villainous contrivances were within their capacity. She thoughtthat they might go on adding to that heap so long as Lady Glencorawould sit there, presuming that they might thus get her into theirclutches. Of course, she did not sift her suspicions. Who does atsuch moments? "Come away at once, and leave it," she said, "or Ishall go." At that moment the croupier raked it all up, and carriedit all away; but Alice did not see that this had been done. A handhad been placed on her shoulder, and as she turned round her faceher eyes met those of Mr. Palliser. "It is all gone," said Glencora,laughing. And now she, turning round, also saw her husband. "I am soglad that you are come," said Alice. "Why did you bring her here?"said Mr. Palliser. There was anger in his tone, and anger in his eye.He took his wife's arm upon his own, and walked away quickly, whileAlice followed them alone. He went off at once, down the front stepsof the building, towards the hotel. What he said to his wife, Alicedid not hear; but her heart was swelling with the ill-usage to whichshe herself was subjected. Though she might have to go back aloneto England, she would tell him that he was ill-treating her. Shefollowed him on, up into their drawing-room, and there he stood withthe door open in his hand for her, while Lady Glencora threw herselfupon a sofa, and burst out into affected laughter. "Here's a piece ofwork," she said, "about a little accident."
"An accident!" said Mr. Palliser.
"Yes, an accident. You don't suppose that I sat down there meaning towin all that money?" Whereupon he looked at her with scorn.
"Mr. Palliser," said Alice, "you have treated me this evening in amanner I did not expect from you. It is clear that you blame me."
"I have not said a word, Miss Vavasor."
"No; you have not said a word. You know well how to show your angerwithout speaking. As I do not choose to undergo your displeasure, Iwill return to England by myself."
"Alice! Alice!" said Glencora, jumping up, "that is nonsense! Whatis all this trumpery thing about? Leave me, because he chooses to beangry about nothing?"
"Is it nothing that I find my wife playing at a commongambling-table, surrounded by all that is wretched andvile,--established there, seated, with heaps of gold before her?"
"You wrong me, Plantagenet," said Glencora. "There was only one heap,and that did not remain long. Did it, Alice?"
"It is impossible to make you ashamed of anything," he said.
"I certainly don't like being ashamed," she answered; "and don't feelany necessity on this occasion."
"If you don't object, Mr. Palliser," said Alice, "I will go to bed.You can think over all this at night,--and so can I. Good night,Glencora." Then Alice took her candle, and marched off to her ownroom, with all the dignity of which she was mistress.
Can You Forgive Her? Page 70
