The Virginians

by William Makepeace Thackeray

  CHAPTER LXXI. White Favours

  The little quarrel between George and his cousin caused the former todiscontinue his visits to Bloomsbury in a great measure; for Mr. Willwas more than ever assiduous in his attentions; and, now that both werebound over to peace, so outrageous in his behaviour, that George foundthe greatest difficulty in keeping his hands from his cousin. Theartless little Lydia had certainly a queer way of receiving her friends.But six weeks before madly jealous of George's preference for another,she now took occasion repeatedly to compliment Theo in her conversation.Miss Theo was such a quiet, gentle creature, Lyddy was sure George wasjust the husband for her. How fortunate that horrible quarrel had beenprevented! The constables had come up just in time; and it was quiteridiculous to hear Mr. Esmond cursing and swearing, and the rage he wasin at being disappointed of his duel! "But the arrival of the constablessaved your valuable life, dear Mr. George, and I am sure Miss Theo oughtto bless them forever," says Lyddy, with a soft smile. "You won'tstop and meet Mr. Esmond at dinner to-day? You don't like being in hiscompany? He can't do you any harm; and I am sure you will do him none."Kind speeches like these addressed by a little girl to a gentleman, andspoken by a strange inadvertency in company, and when other gentlemenand ladies were present, were not likely to render Mr. Warrington veryeager for the society of the young American lady.

  George's meeting with Mr. Will was not known for some days in DeanStreet, for he did not wish to disturb those kind folks with hisquarrel; but when the ladies were made aware of it, you may be surethere was a great flurry and to-do. "You were actually going to take afellow-creature's life, and you came to see us, and said not a word! Oh,George, it was shocking!" said Theo.

  "My dear, he had insulted me and my brother," pleaded George. "Could Ilet him call us both cowards, and sit by and say, Thank you?"

  The General sate by and looked very grave.

  "You know you think, papa, it is a wicked and un-Christian practice; andhave often said you wished gentlemen would have the courage to refuse!"

  "To refuse? Yes," says Mr. Lambert, still very glum.

  "It must require a prodigious strength of mind to refuse," says JackLambert, looking as gloomy as his father; "and I think if any man wereto call me a coward, I should be apt to forget my orders."

  "You see brother Jack is with me!" cries George.

  "I must not be against you, Mr. Warrington," says Jack Lambert.

  "Mr. Warrington!" cries George, turning very red.

  "Would you, a clergyman, have George break the Commandments, and commitmurder, John?" asks Theo, aghast.

  "I am a soldier's son, sister," says the young divine, drily. "Besides,Mr. Warrington has committed no murder at all. We must soon be hearingfrom Canada, father. The great question of the supremacy of the tworaces must be tried there ere long!" He turned his back on George as hespoke, and the latter eyed him with wonder.

  Hetty, looking rather pale at this original remark of brother Jack,is called out of the room by some artful pretext of her sister. Georgestarted up and followed the retreating girls to the door.

  "Great powers, gentlemen!" says he, coming back, "I believe, on myhonour, you are giving me the credit of shirking this affair with Mr.Esmond!" The clergyman and his father looked at one another.

  "A man's nearest and dearest are always the first to insult him," saysGeorge, flashing out.

  "You mean to say, 'Not guilty?' God bless thee, my boy!" cries theGeneral. "I told thee so, Jack." And he rubbed his hand across his eyes,and blushed, and wrung George's hand with all his might.

  "Not guilty of what, in heaven's name?" asks Mr. Warrington.

  "Nay," said the General, "Mr. Jack, here, brought the story. Let himtell it. I believe 'tis a ------ lie, with all my heart." And utteringthis wicked expression, the General fairly walked out of the room.

  The Rev. J. Lambert looked uncommonly foolish.

  "And what is this--this d----d lie, sir, that somebody has been tellingof me?" asked George, grinning at the young clergyman.

  "To question the courage of any man is always an offence to him," saysMr. Lambert, "and I rejoice that yours has been belied."

  "Who told the falsehood, sir, which you repeated?" bawls out Mr.Warrington. "I insist on the man's name!"

  "You forget you are bound over to keep the peace," says Jack.

  "Curse the peace, sir! We can go and fight in Holland. Tell me the man'sname, I say!"

  "Fair and softly, Mr. Warrington!" cries the young parson; "my hearingis perfectly good. It was not a man who told me the story which, Iconfess, I imparted to my father."

  "What?" asks George, the truth suddenly occurring. "Was it that artful,wicked little vixen in Bloomsbury Square?"

  "Vixen is not the word to apply to any young lady, George Warrington!"exclaims Lambert, "much less to the charming Miss Lydia. She artful--themost innocent of Heaven's creatures! She wicked--that angel! Withunfeigned delight that the quarrel should be over--with devout gratitudeto think that blood consanguineous should not be shed--she spoke interms of the highest praise of you for declining this quarrel, and ofthe deepest sympathy with you for taking the painful but only method ofaverting it."

  "What method?" demands George, stamping his foot.

  "Why, of laying an information, to be sure!" says Mr. Jack; on whichGeorge burst forth into language much too violent for us to repeat here,and highly uncomplimentary to Miss Lydia.

  "Don't utter such words, sir!" cried the parson, who, as it seemed,now took his turn to be angry. "Do not insult, in my hearing, the mostcharming, the most innocent of her sex! If she has been mistaken in herinformation regarding you, and doubted your willingness to commit what,after all, is a crime--for a crime homicide is, and of the most awfuldescription--you, sir, have no right to blacken that angel's characterwith foul words: and, innocent yourself, should respect the mostinnocent as she is the most lovely of women! Oh, George, are you to bemy brother?"

  "I hope to have that honour," answered George, smiling. He began toperceive the other's drift.

  "What, then, what--though 'tis too much bliss to be hoped for by sinfulman--what, if she should one day be your sister? Who could see hercharms without being subjugated by them? I own that I am a slave. I ownthat those Latin Sapphics in the September number of the Gentleman'sMagazine, beginning Lydicae quondam cecinit venustae (with an Englishversion by my friend Hickson of Corpus), were mine. I have told mymother what hath passed between us, and Mrs. Lambert also thinks thatthe most lovely of her sex has deigned to look favourably on me. I havecomposed a letter--she another. She proposes to wait on Miss Lydia'sgrandpapa this very day, and to bring me the answer, which shall makeme the happiest or the most wretched of men! It was in the unrestrainedintercourse of family conversation that I chanced to impart to myfather the sentiments which my dear girl had uttered. Perhaps I spokeslightingly of your courage, which I don't doubt--by Heaven, I don'tdoubt: it may be, she has erred, too, regarding you. It may be thatthe fiend jealousy has been gnawing at my bosom, and--horriblesuspicion!--that I thought my sister's lover found too much favour withher I would have all my own. Ah, dear George, who knows his faults? I amas one distracted with passion. Confound it, sir! What right have you tolaugh at me? I would have you to know that risu inepto"

  "What, have you two boys made it up?" cries the General, entering atthis moment, in the midst of a roar of laughter from George.

  "I was giving my opinion to Mr. Warrington upon laughter, and upon hislaughter in particular," says Jack Lambert, in a fume.

  "George is bound over to keep the peace, Jack! Thou canst not fight himfor two years; and between now and then, let us trust you will have madeup your quarrel. Here is dinner, boys! We will drink absent friends, andan end to the war, and no fighting out of the profession!"

  George pleaded an engagement, as a reason for running away early fromhis dinner; and Jack must have speedily followed him, for when theformer, after transacting some brief business at his own lodgings, cameto Mr. Van den
Bosch's door, in Bloomsbury Square, he found the youngparson already in parley with a servant there. "His master and mistresshad left town yesterday," the servant said.

  "Poor Jack! And you had the decisive letter in your pocket?" Georgeasked of his future brother-in-law.

  "Well, yes,"--Jack owned he had the document--"and my mother has ordereda chair, and was coming to wait on Miss Lyddy," he whispered piteously,as the young men lingered on the steps.

  George had a note, too, in his pocket for the young lady, which he hadnot cared to mention to Jack. In truth, his business at home had been towrite a smart note to Miss Lyddy, with a message for the gentleman whohad brought her that funny story of his giving information regarding theduel! The family being absent, George, too, did not choose to leave hisnote. "If cousin Will has been the slander-bearer, I will go and makehim recant," thought George. "Will the family soon be back?" he blandlyasked.

  "They are gone to visit the quality," the servant replied. "Here is theaddress on this paper;" and George read, in Miss Lydia's hand, "The boxfrom Madam Hocquet's to be sent by the Farnham Flying Coach; addressedto Miss Van den Bosch, at the Right Honourable the Earl of Castlewood's,Castlewood, Hants."

  "Where?" cried poor Jack, aghast.

  "His lordship and their ladyships have been here often," the servantsaid, with much importance. "The families is quite intimate."

  This was very strange; for, in the course of their conversation, Lyddyhad owned but to one single visit from Lady Castlewood.

  "And they must be a-going to stay there some time, for Miss have tooka power of boxes and gowns with her!" the man added. And the young menwalked away, each crumpling his letter in his pocket.

  "What was that remark you made?" asks George of Jack, at someexclamation of the latter. "I think you said----"

  "Distraction! I am beside myself, George! I--I scarce know what I amsaying," groans the clergyman. "She is gone to Hampshire, and Mr. Esmondis gone with her!"

  "Othello could not have spoken better! and she has a pretty scoundrelin her company!" says Mr. George. "Ha! here is your mother's chair!"Indeed, at this moment poor Aunt Lambert came swinging down GreatRussell Street, preceded by her footman. "'Tis no use going farther,Aunt Lambert!" cries George. "Our little bird has flown."

  "What little bird?"

  "The bird Jack wished to pair with:--the Lyddy bird, aunt. Why, Jack, Iprotest you are swearing again! This morning 'twas the Sixth Commandmentyou wanted to break; and now----"

  "Confound it! leave me alone, Mr. Warrington, do you hear?" growls Jack,looking very savage; and away he strides far out of the reach of hismother's bearers.

  "What is the matter, George?" asks the lady.

  George, who has not been very well pleased with brother Jack's behaviourall day, says: "Brother Jack has not a fine temper, Aunt Lambert. Heinforms you all that I am a coward, and remonstrates with me for beingangry. He finds his mistress gone to the country, and he bawls, andstamps, and swears. O fie! Oh, Aunt Lambert, beware of jealousy! Did theGeneral ever make you jealous?"

  "You will make me very angry if you speak to me in this way," says poorAunt Lambert from her chair.

  "I am respectfully dumb. I make my bow. I withdraw," says George, witha low bow, and turns towards Holborn. His soul was wrath within him.He was bent on quarrelling with somebody. Had he met cousin Will thatnight, it had gone ill with his sureties.

  He sought Will at all his haunts, at Arthur's, at his own house. ThereLady Castlewood's servants informed him that they believed Mr. Esmondhad gone to join the family in Hants. He wrote a letter to his cousin:

  "My dear, kind cousin William," he said, "you know I am bound over, andwould not quarrel with any one, much less with a dear, truth-telling,affectionate kinsman, whom my brother insulted by caning. But if you canfind any one who says that I prevented a meeting the other day by givinginformation, will you tell your informant that I think it is not I butsomebody else is the coward? And I write to Mr. Van den Bosch by thesame post, to inform him and Miss Lyddy that I find some rascal has beentelling them lies to my discredit, and to beg them to have a care ofsuch persons." And, these neat letters being despatched, Mr. Warringtondressed himself, showed himself at the play, and took supper cheerfullyat the Bedford.

  In a few days George found a letter on his breakfast-table franked"Castlewood," and, indeed, written by that nobleman.

  "Dear Cousin," my lord wrote, "there has been so much annoyance in ourfamily of late, that I am sure 'tis time our quarrels should cease. Twodays since my brother William brought me a very angry letter, signed G.Warrington, and at the same time, to my great grief and pain, acquaintedme with a quarrel that had taken place between you, in which, to saythe least, your conduct was violent. 'Tis an ill use to put good wineto--that to which you applied good Mr. Van den Bosch's. Sure, before anold man, young ones should be more respectful. I do not deny that Wm.'slanguage and behaviour are often irritating. I know he has often triedmy temper, and that within the 24 hours.

  "Ah! why should we not all live happily together? You know, cousin,I have ever professed a sincere regard for you--that I am a sincereadmirer of the admirable young lady to whom you are engaged, and to whomI offer my most cordial compliments and remembrances. I would live inharmony with all my family where 'tis possible--the more because I hopeto introduce to it a Countess of Castlewood.

  "At my mature age, 'tis not uncommon for a man to choose a young wife.My Lydia (you will divine that I am happy in being able to call mine theelegant Miss Van den Bosch) will naturally survive me. After soothingmy declining years, I shall not be jealous if at their close sheshould select some happy man to succeed me; though I shall envy him thepossession of so much perfection and beauty. Though of a noble Dutchfamily, her rank, the dear girl declares, is not equal to mine, whichshe confesses that she is pleased to share. I, on the other hand, shallnot be sorry to see descendants to my house, and to have it, through myLady Castlewood's means, restored to something of the splendour which itknew before two or three improvident predecessors impaired it. My Lydia,who is by my side, sends you and the charming Lambert family her warmestremembrances.

  "The marriage will take place very speedily here. May I hope to see youat church? My brother will not be present to quarrel with you. WhenI and dear Lydia announced the match to him yesterday, he took theintelligence in bad part, uttered language that I know he will one dayregret, and is at present on a visit to some neighbours. The DowagerLady Castlewood retains the house at Kensington; we having our ownestablishment, where you will ever be welcomed, dear cousin, by youraffectionate humble servant, CASTLEWOOD."

  From the London Magazine of November 1759:

  "Saturday, October 13th, married, at his seat, Castlewood, Hants, theRight Honourable Eugene, Earl of Castlewood, to the beautiful Miss Vanden Bosch, of Virginia. 70,000 pounds."