The Small House at Allington
it was not so. Mind you, I can say nothing as coming from her. She
has not told me her own mind. But if you really love her, she will be
mad to refuse you."
"I do love her, Lily; that at any rate is true."
"Then go to her again. I am speaking for myself now. I cannot afford
to lose such a brother as you would be. I love you so dearly that I
cannot spare you. And she,--I think she'll learn to love you as you
would wish to be loved. You know her nature, how silent she is, and
averse to talk about herself. She has confessed nothing to me but
this,--that you spoke to her and took her by surprise. Are we to have
another chance? I know how wrong I am to ask such a question. But,
after all, is not the truth the best?"
"Another chance!"
"I know what you mean, and I think she is worthy to be your wife. I
do, indeed; and if so, she must be very worthy. You won't tell of me,
will you now, doctor?"
"No; I won't tell of you."
"And you'll try again?"
"Yes; I'll try again."
"God bless you, my brother! I hope,--I hope you'll be my brother."
Then, as he put out his hand to her once more, she raised her head
towards him, and he, stooping down, kissed her forehead. "Make mamma
come to me," were the last words she spoke as he went out at the
door.
"So you've made your speech," said Mrs. Dale.
"Yes, mamma."
"I hope it was a discreet speech."
"I hope it was, mamma. But it has made me so tired, and I believe
I'll go to bed. Do you know I don't think I should have done much
good down at the school to-day?"
Then Mrs. Dale, in her anxiety to repair what injury might have been
done to her daughter by over-exertion, omitted any further mention of
the farewell speech.
Dr. Crofts as he rode home enjoyed but little of the triumph of a
successful lover. "It may be that she's right," he said to himself;
"and, at any rate, I'll ask again." Nevertheless, that "No" which
Bell had spoken, and had repeated, still sounded in his ears harsh
and conclusive. There are men to whom a peal of noes rattling about
their ears never takes the sound of a true denial, and others to whom
the word once pronounced, be it whispered ever so softly, comes as
though it were an unchangeable verdict from the supreme
judgment-seat.
CHAPTER XLIII.
FIE, FIE!
[ILLUSTRATION: (untitled)]
Will any reader remember the loves,--no, not the loves; that word
is so decidedly ill-applied as to be incapable of awakening the
remembrance of any reader; but the flirtations--of Lady Dumbello and
Mr. Plantagenet Palliser? Those flirtations, as they had been carried
on at Courcy Castle, were laid bare in all their enormities to the
eye of the public, and it must be confessed that if the eye of the
public was shocked, that eye must be shocked very easily.
But the eye of the public was shocked, and people who were particular
as to their morals said very strange things. Lady De Courcy herself
said very strange things indeed, shaking her head, and dropping
mysterious words; whereas Lady Clandidlem spoke much more openly,
declaring her opinion that Lady Dumbello would be off before May.
They both agreed that it would not be altogether bad for Lord
Dumbello that he should lose his wife, but shook their heads very
sadly when they spoke of poor Plantagenet Palliser. As to the lady's
fate, that lady whom they had both almost worshipped during the days
at Courcy Castle,--they did not seem to trouble themselves about
that.
And it must be admitted that Mr. Palliser had been a little
imprudent,--imprudent, that is, if he knew anything about the rumours
afloat,--seeing that soon after his visit at Courcy Castle he had
gone down to Lady Hartletop's place in Shropshire, at which the
Dumbellos intended to spend the winter, and on leaving it had
expressed his intention of returning in February. The Hartletop
people had pressed him very much,--the pressure having come with
peculiar force from Lord Dumbello. Therefore it is reasonable to
suppose that the Hartletop people had at any rate not heard of the
rumour.
Mr. Plantagenet Palliser spent his Christmas with his uncle, the Duke
of Omnium, at Gatherum Castle. That is to say, he reached the castle
in time for dinner on Christmas eve, and left it on the morning after
Christmas day. This was in accordance with the usual practice of
his life, and the tenants, dependants, and followers of the Omnium
interest were always delighted to see this manifestation of a healthy
English domestic family feeling between the duke and his nephew.
But the amount of intercourse on such occasions between them was
generally trifling. The duke would smile as he put out his right hand
to his nephew, and say,--
"Well, Plantagenet,--very busy, I suppose?"
The duke was the only living being who called him Plantagenet to his
face, though there were some scores of men who talked of Planty Pal
behind his back. The duke had been the only living being so to call
him. Let us hope that it still was so, and that there had arisen
no feminine exception, dangerous in its nature and improper in its
circumstances.
"Well, Plantagenet," said the duke, on the present occasion, "very
busy, I suppose?"
"Yes, indeed, duke," said Mr. Palliser. "When a man gets the harness
on him he does not easily get quit of it."
The duke remembered that his nephew had made almost the same remark
at his last Christmas visit.
"By-the-by," said the duke, "I want to say a word or two to you
before you go."
Such a proposition on the duke's part was a great departure from
his usual practice, but the nephew of course undertook to obey his
uncle's behests.
"I'll see you before dinner to-morrow," said Plantagenet.
"Ah, do," said the duke. "I'll not keep you five minutes." And at six
o'clock on the following afternoon the two were closeted together in
the duke's private room.
"I don't suppose there is much in it," began the duke, "but people
are talking about you and Lady Dumbello."
"Upon my word, people are very kind." And Mr. Palliser bethought
himself of the fact,--for it certainly was a fact,--that people for
a great many years had talked about his uncle and Lady Dumbello's
mother-in-law.
"Yes; kind enough; are they not? You've just come from Hartlebury,
I believe." Hartlebury was the Marquis of Hartletop's seat in
Shropshire.
"Yes, I have. And I'm going there again in February."
"Ah, I'm sorry for that. Not that I mean, of course, to interfere
with your arrangements. You will acknowledge that I have not often
done so, in any matter whatever."
"No; you have not," said the nephew, comforting himself with an
inward assurance that no such interference on his uncle's part could
have been possible.
"But in this instance it would suit me, and I really think it would
suit you too, that you should be as little at Hartlebury as possible.
You have said you would go there, and of course you will go. But if I
were you, I would not stay above a day or two."
Mr. Plantagenet Palliser received everything he had in the world from
his uncle. He sat in Parliament through his uncle's interest, and
received an allowance of ever so many thousand a year which his uncle
could stop to-morrow by his mere word. He was his uncle's heir, and
the dukedom, with certain entailed properties, must ultimately fall
to him, unless his uncle should marry and have a son. But by far the
greater portion of the duke's property was unentailed; the duke might
probably live for the next twenty years or more; and it was quite
possible that, if offended, he might marry and become a father. It
may be said that no man could well be more dependent on another than
Plantagenet Palliser was upon his uncle; and it may be said also that
no father or uncle ever troubled his heir with less interference.
Nevertheless, the nephew immediately felt himself aggrieved by this
allusion to his private life, and resolved at once that he would not
submit to such surveillance.
"I don't know how long I shall stay," said he; "but I cannot say that
my visit will be influenced one way or the other by such a rumour as
that."
"No; probably not. But it may perhaps be influenced by my request."
And the duke, as he spoke, looked a little savage.
"You wouldn't ask me to regard a report that has no foundation."
"I am not asking about its foundation. Nor do I in the least wish to
interfere with your manner in life." By which last observation the
duke intended his nephew to understand that he was quite at liberty
to take away any other gentleman's wife, but that he was not at
liberty to give occasion even for a surmise that he wanted to take
Lord Dumbello's wife. "The fact is this, Plantagenet. I have for many
years been intimate with that family. I have not many intimacies, and
shall probably never increase them. Such friends as I have, I wish
to keep, and you will easily perceive that any such report as that
which I have mentioned, might make it unpleasant for me to go to
Hartlebury, or for the Hartlebury people to come here." The duke
certainly could not have spoken plainer, and Mr. Palliser understood
him thoroughly. Two such alliances between the two families could not
be expected to run pleasantly together, and even the rumour of any
such second alliance might interfere with the pleasantness of the
former one.
"That's all," said the duke.
"It's a most absurd slander," said Mr. Palliser.
"I dare say. Those slanders always are absurd; but what can we do?
We can't tie up people's tongues." And the duke looked as though he
wished to have the subject considered as finished, and to be left
alone.
"But we can disregard them," said the nephew, indiscreetly.
"You may. I have never been able to do so. And yet, I believe, I
have not earned for myself the reputation of being subject to the
voices of men. You think that I am asking much of you; but you should
remember that hitherto I have given much and have asked nothing. I
expect you to oblige me in this matter."
Then Mr. Plantagenet Palliser left the room, knowing that he had been
threatened. What the duke had said amounted to this.--If you go on
dangling after Lady Dumbello, I'll stop the seven thousand a year
which I give you. I'll oppose your next return at Silverbridge, and
I'll make a will and leave away from you Matching and The Horns,--a
beautiful little place in Surrey, the use of which had been already
offered to Mr. Palliser in the event of his marriage; all the
Littlebury estate in Yorkshire, and the enormous Scotch property. Of
my personal goods, and money invested in loans, shares, and funds,
you shall never touch a shilling, or the value of a shilling. And, if
I find that I can suit myself, it may be that I'll leave you plain
Mr. Plantagenet Palliser, with a little first cousin for the head of
your family.
The full amount of this threat Mr. Palliser understood, and, as he
thought of it, he acknowledged to himself that he had never felt for
Lady Dumbello anything like love. No conversation between them had
ever been warmer than that of which the reader has seen a sample.
Lady Dumbello had been nothing to him. But now,--now that the matter
had been put before him in this way, might it not become him, as a
gentleman, to fall in love with so very beautiful a woman, whose name
had already been linked with his own? We all know that story of the
priest, who, by his question in the confessional, taught the ostler
to grease the horses' teeth. "I never did yet," said the ostler, "but
I'll have a try at it." In this case, the duke had acted the part of
the priest, and Mr. Palliser, before the night was over, had almost
become as ready a pupil as the ostler. As to the threat, it would ill
become him, as a Palliser and a Plantagenet, to regard it. The duke