The Pillars of the House, V1

by Шарлотта Мэри Йондж

  The answer was the drawing off of her glove, and he fitted it on, but it was rather loose. 'I am afraid it will want a guard,' he said.

  'I'll ask Felix whether I may take one of Mamma's,' she said.

  For the shapely notable fingers had never worn a ring before this almost sacred pledge; and the few jewels either too valuable or not valuable enough for the parents to have parted with in times of need had never been touched.

  'Do,' he said; 'I shall like that. The year 1839. Was not that the year a certain little girl was born?'

  'The month. Our birthday is on the 19th.' And the coincidence gave all the foolish delight such facts do under the circumstances.

  'Was this long before she died?' asked Wilmet.

  'The last day of that August. You never saw her brass in the cloister?'

  'No; I never guessed that you were not Mrs. Harewood's son, though I wondered at your being so unlike the rest.'

  'She has been kindness itself,' he warmly said. 'My father did well both for himself and me in marrying.'

  'Tell me of your own mother,' said Wilmet, looking from the sparkling stones to the initials. 'L.-What was her name?'

  'Lucy. Lucy Oglandby. My father was tutor at Oglandby Hall. There was a long attachment, through much opposition; and even when he was made priest-vicar after waiting six years, her father could not consent. After six years more, when her health was failing, he gave a sort of sanction on his death-bed. The rest of the family contrived to get her fortune so tied up that after her death it was of no use to any one till I came of age. She only lived seven years after her marriage, and then the Oglandbys wanted to take possession of me, and I fancy that drove my father into marrying.'

  'Was it with them you went to stay?'

  'Yes, my father makes a point of it; and they have a turn for patronising me, if I would turn my back on home.'

  'Now I understand better,' said Wilmet.

  You understand how much you were wanting to me,' he said, rightly interpreting the words. 'After five years' absence, while my sisters were growing up, you can perceive that dear, fond, and hearty as our house is, it did not fulfil all that perhaps I had been rather unreasonable in expecting. O Wilmet, this time of leave would have been very different if you had not come to the precincts!'

  And so they fell back on the exquisite time present, which neither wished to disturb by looking beyond; and perhaps John felt as though his bird had scarcely perched, and any endeavours to hold it might make it flutter loose, while she was too glad of the calm and repose to renew the struggle between conflicting claims.

  At last, with basket laden with dark fruit, and lips vying with the babes in the wood, Stella was launched on them by Lance, when his sense of time overpowered his half shy, half diverted respect for their bliss. He was very curious, but had to be satisfied with Captain Harewood's manner of tossing Stella over the style, and bright look at himself.

  They did not get into the town till the chimes of half-past seven were pealing. Captain Harewood hurried into the hotel, to prepare for the evening; and Wilmet was mounting the stairs, still under the spell of her newly-found joy, when she was startled by Alda's voice in a key of querulous anger.

  'Exactly like you, always laying out for attention.'

  'What's this?' said Wilmet, as she saw Alda in her habit, standing with her back to the open door, and Geraldine leaning on the table, trembling and tearful, crimson and burning even to passion in her panting reply, 'I don't know-except that he helped me in from the garden.'

  'That's what I say,' retorted Alda. 'She is always putting herself forward to be interesting and get waited on. All affectation. I don't know such a flirt anywhere.'

  'Hush, Alda! you are insulting Cherry,' said Wilmet, in her tone of command.

  'Take care of yourself, Wilmet,' cried Alda; 'it is the way she goes on all day with Captain Harewood-reading poetry, and drawing, and all.'

  'Captain Harewood knows,' said Wilmet, coming to the support of the quivering Geraldine, 'that the kinder he is to Cherry the better I like it.'

  'Oh, if you do, it is your own concern. I only spoke for your sake. And Alda marched off, while Wilmet's strong tender arms helped Cherry into her own room, and tended her through one of those gusts, part repentant, part hysterical, which had belonged to her earlier girlhood, though the present was now enhanced by the tumult of insulted maidenliness. Formerly, Wilmet had not treated these attacks on the soft system, but now all her bracing severity was gone. Greatly incensed with Alda, she gave her whole self to sympathy with the victim, showing herself so ineffably sweet and loving, that Cherry felt a thrill of delicious surprise; and as her eye lit on the glittering ring, a little ecstatic cry, still slightly hysterical, welcomed the token.

  'O Wilmet, oh! You have! You have-'

  'To be sure I have,' answered Wilmet, not in the lest heeding what she said in her anxiety to calm her sister. 'It is all right, if only you will not go and be silly about it.'

  The woman was so much more than her words, that their odd simplicity, coming from the grand-looking figure bending over her in tender solicitude, touched Cherry the more, and she threw her arms round her sister's neck, whispering, 'Oh! I am so glad!'

  Poor Wilmet! At that moment all her gladness had gone into a weight like lead on her heart, though it only made her more gentle. 'Dear Cherry,' she softly said, 'don't talk of anything to upset you. Will you be good and lie quite still while I take off my things, and then I'll come and dress you? You must not be knocked up to-night.'

  'Oh! I had much rather stay here!'

  'No indeed! John would be so disappointed. He does like you so much, and I always depend on you to make it pleasant for him. You can't send word that Alda has been scolding you.'

  'Oh dear! why can't I behave decently to her the moment we are alone together?'

  'Don't begin on that, for pity's sake, or you'll get crying again,' broke out Wilmet, in her natural voice. ''Tis she can't behave properly to anybody-that's all; so don't think any more about anything, like a good child, but lie still till I come back.'

  So up went Wilmet, not rejoicing in her room-mate, whom she found, as usual, all injured innocence and self-justification.

  'You have been petting Cherry all this time! She is quite spoilt among you! It is quite true what I said, though she didn't like it. In society, I never saw a more arrant flirt, with her pathetic ill- used airs. Why, Ferdinand actually found fault to-day with my manner to her!'

  Save for the effects, Wilmet was glad to hear it. 'Well, Alda, it is not always kind.'

  'I only don't fuss and coax her; I see through her better than you do. She is the sharp one. As I told Ferdinand, it is I who have reason to complain of his manner to her, only I know it is not his fault. If there were no other objection to this preposterous scheme of Felix's, she would be a reason against it.'

  'For shame, Alda! You don't consider what you are saying of your sister.'

  'I do!' said Alda. 'I have been more in the world than you, Wilmet, and I know what comes of sticking oneself down close to one's family, especially when there is that sort of spoilt invalid, backed up in all kinds of unreasonable expectations. I advise you to take care, Wilmet; you don't know what goes on in your absence. I should not wonder if it never came to an engagement after all.'

  At that moment Felix's step and knock were at the door. Wilmet went to it, and both her hands were clasped in her brother's. 'My Wilmet, my dear, this is well!'

  Then Alda turned from her glass and understood. 'What? He has spoken? O Wilmet, and you never told me!'

  'I had not time.'

  'And what a splendid ring! but it is not a proper engaged-ring. You can't wear it.'

  'I must! He wishes it. It was his mother's-Felix, may I have one of Mamma's for a guard?'

  'May you!' said Felix, smiling.

  'I should like you to give it to me. Come in.'

  He came to inspect the unlocking of the ponderous old inlaid dressing-case, with velve
t-lined compartments mostly empty, or only with little labelled papers of first curls, down as far as 'Edward Clement, 1842,' after which stern reality had absorbed sentiment-a sad declension from the blue enamel shrine with a pearl cypher, where Felix's downy flax reposed.

  To do Alda justice, there was no greed in her nature, and she even offered Wilmet a turquoise hoop of her own, instead of a little battered ring of three plaited strands of gold, which their mother had worn till her widowhood, and they believed to be the ring of her betrothal. And when Wilmet suggested that the locket would delight Cherry, Alda's ready assent inspired the hope that she felt some compunction for her jealous unkindness.

  The locket did prove a soothing charm, coupled with the little consultation as to the ribbon, and the capture of a smooth brown lock of the present to add to the original. And as the manly fingers dealt with the hasp, and the kind smile welcomed her pleasure, Cherry's heart felt that while she had her Felix, Alda need little comprehend her craving for attention from any one.

  Yet her greeting to John Harewood was shy, tame, and frightened, compared with Alda's pretty graceful cordiality, as she told him that she was delighted, and envied Lance his powers of diplomacy. In fact, it was Alda who kept up the conversation, and made things pleasant, with the ease of society; while Felix was shy, Wilmet longed for silence, and Ferdinand looked like a picture of Spanish melancholy, such as had almost infected the whole table.

  'I believe I must ask you to bestow a little time on me,' he said, as soon as the meal was over; and Alda made it evident that she meant to be in the conclave, which took place in the back drawing-room. It was at once made evident that the Pursuivant proposal was abhorrent to her; not that she behaved to Felix, nor indeed did she ever do so to any of his sex, as she permitted herself to do to Geraldine, but she showed great displeasure at the idea having been started.

  'Things are unfortunate enough already,' she said, with something like Wilmet's dignity; 'but I should never forgive such hopeless ruin to dear Ferdinand's prospects.'

  'Have I not told you that no prospect is anything to me if you can only be mine?'

  'We know all that,' said Alda, drawing herself away rather sharply from the caressing hand, 'and therefore I must think for you, and I will not be the means of lowering your position in life.'

  'Alda, dearest!' cried Ferdinand, glancing at Felix in such genuine distress as made him interfere in pity.

  'We understand about position, Ferdinand; and you and Alda have been able to observe how far life is enjoyable in this lowered position.'

  'Felix,' said Alda, who had evidently wound herself up for this crisis, 'you know very well that you stand quite out of common rules; but I am sure you can see that however valuable your work may be, it would be wrong to draw Ferdinand to the same level.'

  'As for that,' said Ferdinand moodily, yet with the air of a banished prince, 'Felix knows what my father was; and if I knew that my grandfather was an honest man, it would be well. A stray wanderer, cast up at your door, has no right to talk of levels.'

  'You are not to talk,' said Alda, more affectionately. 'You are too generous to be allowed to think.'

  'In plain English, Alda,' said her brother, 'the objection is yours.'

  'I cannot see him sacrifice himself for my sake,' said Alda.

  'As though it could be a sacrifice!' exclaimed Ferdinand, 'when it opens the way to make you my own at once, my peerless beauty! If you-'

  'Come, we have had all this over before,' said Alda, shrinking a little petulantly as he hovered over her, speaking with the fervour of his Mexican nature, and his eyes glowing with eagerness; 'if you will not have common sense, I must.'

  'Common sense! It is not common sense I want! It is love!'

  'If you doubt my affection-' said Alda, with dignity, drawing back.

  'No! no! no! I never was so profane. Only it drives me frantic to hear you so coolly willing to keep us apart for-'

  'Because my affection is less selfish and narrow than yours,' said Alda, raising her voice as his became like a roll of distant thunder. 'I tell you I will not be the means of binding you to a petty provincial paper, that may give an immediate pittance, but will lead to nothing. Would that be love worth having? I appeal to Felix, his scheme though it was.'

  Felix was a very uncomfortable third party, especially as Alda's appeal implied a certain accusation of himself. 'I own,' he said, 'that this situation is not likely to lead to promotion, but it would be competence. Ferdinand would be satisfied, but you-'

  'I, who know what he is used to, cannot be satisfied for him.'

  'As if you-' gasped the lover; but Alda would not let him go on.

  'No,' she said, 'we must be patient. For him to remain in the Life- guards would be madness. but a few years at Mr. Brown's, with the interest he already has in the business, will open a career to him.'

  'And I can run down every Sunday,' said Ferdinand. 'It is her determination; I suppose she is right, Felix, but I wish-If I could wish her otherwise, she should be less prudent!'

  'I cannot see that she has any right to ask it of you,' indignantly exclaimed Felix.

  But he found this was putting his head into a hornet's nest. Ferdinand would not have contested her right to send him down among the lions, and would never have given her back her troth, like Knight Des Lorges. No, he hotly contended that Alda had a perfect right to make her own terms, and still more hotly, though most inconsistently, that to work at Peter Brown's was his own free choice.

  It was incontestable that a South American merchant's career offered more possibilities of rising into opulence and consideration than the proprietorship of a country paper; and though Felix privately doubted whether desk-work would suit Ferdinand half as well as the work where he himself could have contributed wits, he could say no more. Ferdinand was greatly disappointed; but there was no sacrifice that he would not make, and persist in with his silent Spanish perseverance, for Alda's sake. Indeed, he could not bear not to begin at once. He would return at once to his regiment, send in his papers, and dispose of his horses and equipments, making arrangements with Peter Brown to enter his house. He seemed to be in a fever till the matter was in train, and was entirely past remonstrance. And Felix recognised that the lovers must act for themselves, and could only feel thoroughly vexed with Alda, and equally vexed with himself for the consternation with which he thought of having her at home three years longer!

  It was the next evening; and not only had Alda's own lover departed, but Captain Harewood was missing, and with him Lance, and the only explanation was from Bernard, that they were gone to Minsterham. No doubt Wilmet was sensible of a blank when she came home, though she would not allow it, and stoutly defended her Captain's right of going where and when he pleased without notice. She had to fight his battles, till late in the evening he walked in. 'Here we are! It is later than I expected.'

  'Where's Lance?'

  'He came in with me. Gone to his room, then.-Here, Geraldine, this little gentleman requests the honour of your leaning on him.'

  'Oh, what a beauty! What a dear little ivory monster! Turbaned head, serpent's tail, and such a fascinating face!'

  'Is the cane the right length! I measured yours.'

  'You don't mean that he is for me! So smooth and so steady! Where does he come from?'

  'From Benares-I bought him at the great fair; and from the moment I saw you, it was plain that in the eternal fitness of things he was destined to you.'

  'To make a Pagan of her,' said Felix. 'See her worshipping her little idol!'

  'Not my idol, but my prop and companion for life.'

  'Your Lord Gerald, laughed Felix, as she walked triumphantly round the room, perhaps her first unnecessary promenade since she was seven years old.

  'This is just the time I didn't expect you,' said Wilmet; 'is the seven o'clock train put on again?'

  'We didn't come by the train.' And Felix and Cherry smiled at one another as they detected that Wilmet's economical soul
was vexed. 'I wanted Lance to see his doctor again, and the railway seems so bad for his head that I drove.'

  'How very kind!' exclaimed Wilmet.

  'I am afraid I have not managed it well. I would not make an appointment, lest it should be a glaring day; so Manby was out, and we could only leave a message before going to the precincts. Lance was in wild spirits, and the boys gave him such an uproarious welcome, that old Canon Burley sent in to know what was the matter, and was told it was only little Underwood come back. He dined with us, but I am afraid I was off guard, for I never thought of his going and taking a place in the Cathedral.'

  'I should think not!' said Wilmet, 'except that it is in the nature of boys to be provoking, even about church-going. Then it has knocked him up.'

  'He was forced to come out in the Psalms; and Poulter, one of the lay-vicars, got anxious about him, and went after him when the Lesson began, found him with his head down on the table in the sacristy, and thought he had fainted, but he was only crying and entirely done up. Manby came just as Poulter brought him in, and gave him a proper good lecture.'

  'A very good thing,' said Wilmet, 'if one could only get him to believe there is any need of care when his head is not actually painful. What did Mr. Manby think of him?'

  'He says he is as well as could reasonably be hoped-quite recovered from the fever; but the sun-stroke was as severe as any he has seen in England, and coming on the top of all that overwork, both study and music, it has left an amount of irritability and excitability of brain that must not be trifled with. He made poor Lance confess all the little experiments he has been trying on himself, and ordered him to leave off whatever he is about at the first threatening of dizziness or pain.'

  'Then there's not much chance of his going back?'

  'Not before Christmas at soonest. One would think the poor little fellow must have been aware of that; but the verdict cut him up very much. I thought he had better be quiet till the heat of the day was past, so he lay on my bed till six o'clock, and then he said he was better, but he hardly spoke all the way home.'

  Wilmet went at once to see after him, and found him already in bed; but whether sleepy, suffering, or sorrowful, she could not make out, for he hid his eyes from the candle, and only muttered 'No, thank you,' in reply to whatever she offered, till she yielded to his evident longing for darkness and silence.