Books: He Knew He Was Right

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'It was a place that Trevelyan had got this young man to take for
Emily, and they had merely gone there to be with her. They had been
living in a little bit of a cottage; a sort of place that any any
ploughman would live in. Just that kind of cottage.'

'Goodness gracious!'

'And they've gone to another just like it so I'm told.'

'And can't he do anything better for them than that?' asked Sir
Marmaduke.

'I know nothing about him. I have met him, you know. He used to be with
Trevelyan that was when Nora took a fancy for him, of course. And I saw
him once down in Devonshire, when I must say he behaved uncommonly
badly doing all he could to foster Trevelyan's stupid jealousy.'

'He has changed his mind about that, I think.'

'Perhaps he has; but he behaved very badly then. Let him shew up his
income that, I take it, is the question in such a case as this. His
father was a clergyman, and therefore I suppose he must be considered
to he a gentleman. But has he means to support a wife, and keep up a
house in London? If he has not, that is an end to it, I should say.'

But Sir Marmaduke could not see his way to any such end, and, although
he still looked black. upon Nora, and talked to his wife of his
determination to stand no contumacy, and hinted at cursing,
disinheriting, and the like, he began to perceive that Nora would have
her own way. In his unhappiness he regretted this visit to England, and
almost thought that the Mandarins were a pleasanter residence than
London. He could do pretty much as he pleased there, and could live
quietly, without the trouble which encountered him now on every side.

Nora, immediately on her return to London, had written a note to Hugh,
simply telling him of her arrival and begging him to come and see her.
'Mamma,' the said, 'I must see him, and it would be nonsense to say
that he must not come here. I have done what I have said I would do,
and you ought not to make difficulties.' Lady Rowley declared that Sir
Marmaduke would be very angry if Hugh were admitted without his express
permission. 'I don't want to do anything in the dark,' continued Nora,
'but of course I must see him. I suppose it will be better that he
should come to me than that I should go to him?' Lady Rowley quite
understood the threat that was conveyed in this. It would be much
better that Hugh should come to the hotel, and that he should be
treated then as an accepted lover. She had come to that conclusion. But
she was obliged to vacillate for awhile between her husband and her
daughter. Hugh came of course, and Sir Marmaduke, by his wife's advice,
kept out of the way. Lady Rowley, though she was at home, kept herself
also out of the way, remaining above with her two other daughters. Nora
thus achieved the glory and happiness of receiving her lover alone.

'My own true girl!' he said, speaking with his arms still round her
waist.

'I am true enough; but whether I am your own that is another question.'

'You mean to be?'

'But papa doesn't mean it. Papa says that you are nobody, and that you
haven't got an income; and thinks that I had better go back and be an
old maid at the Mandarins.'

'And what do you think yourself, Nora?'

'What do I think? As far as I can understand, young ladies are not
allowed to think at all. They have to do what their papas tell them.
That will do, Hugh. You can talk without taking hold of me.'

'It is such a time since I have had a hold of you as you call it.'

'It will be much longer before you can do so again, if I go back to the
Islands with papa. I shall expect you to be true, you know; and it will
be ten years at the least before I can hope to be home again.'

'I don't think you mean to go, Nora.'

'But what am I to do? That idea of yours of walking out to the next
church and getting ourselves married sounds very nice and independent,
but you know that it is not practicable.'

'On the other hand, I know it is.'

'It is not practicable for me, Hugh. Of all things in the world I don't
want to be a Lydia. I won't do anything that anybody shall ever say
that your wife ought not to have done. Young women when they are
married ought to have their papas' and mammas' consent, I have been
thinking about it a great deal for the last month or two, and I have
made up my mind to that.'

'What is it all to come to, then?'

'I mean to get papa's consent. That is what it is to come to.'

'And if he is obstinate?'

'I shall coax him round at last. When the time for going comes, he'll
yield then.'

'But you will not go with them?' As he asked this he came to her and
tried again to take her by the waist; but she retreated from him, and
got herself clear from us arm. 'If you are afraid of me, I shall know
that you think it possible that we may be parted.'

'I am not a bit afraid of you, Hugh.'

'Nora, I think you ought to tell me something definitely.'

'I think I have been definite enough, sir. You may be sure of this,
however I will not go back to the Islands.'

'Give me your hand on that.'

'There is my hand. But, remember I had told you just as much before. I
don't mean to go back. I mean to stay here. I mean but I do not think I
will tell you all the things I mean to do.'

'You mean to be my wife?'

'Certainly some day, when the difficulty about the chairs and tables
can settle itself. The real question now is what am I to do with myself
when papa and mamma are gone?'

'Become Mrs H. Stanbury at once. Chairs and tables! You shall have
chairs and tables as many as you want. You won't be too proud to live
in lodgings for a few months?'

'There must be preliminaries, Hugh even for lodgings, though they may
be very slender. Papa goes in less than three weeks now, and mamma has
got something else to think of than my marriage garments. And then
there are all manner of difficulties, money difficulties and others,
out of which I don't see my way yet'. Hugh began to asseverate that it
was his business to help her through all money difficulties as well as
others; but she soon stopped his eloquence. 'It will be by-and-by,
Hugh, and I hope you'll support the burden like a man; but just at
present there is a hitch. I shouldn't have come over at all I should
have stayed with Emily in Italy, had I not thought that I was bound to
see you'

'My own darling!'

'When papa goes, I think that I had better go back to her.'

'I'll take you!' said Hugh, picturing to himself all the pleasures of
such a tour together, over the Alps.

'No you won't, because that would be improper. When we travel together
we must go Darby and Joan fashion, as man and wife. I think I had
better go back to Emily, because her position there is so terrible.
There must come some end to it, I suppose soon. He will be better, or
he will become so bad that that medical interference will be
unavoidable. But I do not like that she should be alone. She gave me a
home when she had one and I must always remember that I met you there.'
After this there was of course another attempt with Hugh's right arm,
which on this occasion was not altogether unsuccessful. And then she
told him of her friendship for Mr Glascock's wife, and of her intention
at some future time to visit them at Monkhams.

'And see all the glories that might have been your own,' he said.

'And think of the young man who has robbed me of them all! And you are
to go there too, so that you may see what you have done. There was a
time, Hugh, when I was very nearly pleasing all my friends and shewing
myself to be a young lady of high taste and noble fortune and an
obedient, good girl.'

'And why didn't you?'

'I thought I would wait just a little longer. Because because because
Oh, Hugh, how cross you were to me afterwards when you came down to
Nuncombe and would hardly speak to me!'

'And why didn't I speak to you?'

'I don't know. Because you were cross, and surly, and thinking of
nothing but your tobacco, I believe. Do you remember how we walked to
Liddon, and you hadn't a word for anybody?'

'I remember I wanted you to go down to the river with me, and you
wouldn't go.'

'You asked me only once, and I did so long to go with you. Do you
remember the rocks in the river? I remember the place as though I saw
it now; and how I longed to jump from one stone to another. Hugh, if we
are ever married, you must take me there, and let me jump on those
stones.'

'You pretended that you could not think of wetting your feet.'

'Of course I pretended because you were so cross, and so cold. Oh,
dear! I wonder whether you will ever know it all.'

'Don't I know it all now?'

'I suppose you do, nearly. There is mighty little of a secret in it,
and it is the same thing that is going on always. Only it seems so
strange to me that I should ever have loved any one so dearly and that
for next to no reason at all. You never made yourself very charming
that I know of did you?'

'I did my best. It wasn't much, I dare say.'

'You did nothing, sir except just let me fall in love with you. And you
were not quite sure that you would let me do that.'

'Nora, I don't think you do understand.'

'I do perfectly. Why were you cross with me, instead of saying one nice
word when you were down at Nuncombe? I do understand.'

'Why was it?'

'Because you did not think well enough of me to believe that I would
give myself to a man who had no fortune of his own. I know it now, and
I knew it then; and therefore I wouldn't dabble in the river with you.
But it's all over now, and we'll go and get wet together like dear
little children, and Priscilla shall scold us when we come back.'

They were alone in the sitting-room for more than an hour, and Lady
Rowley was patient upstairs; as mothers will be patient in such
emergencies. Sophie and Lucy had gone out and left her; and there she
remained telling herself, as the weary minutes went by, that as the
thing was to be, it was well that the young people should be together.
Hugh Stanbury could never be to her what Mr Glascock would have been a
son-in-law to sit and think about, and dream of, and be proud of whose
existence as her son-in-law would in itself have been a happiness to
her out in her banishment at the other side of the world; but
nevertheless it was natural to her, as a soft-hearted loving mother
with many daughters, that any son-in-law should be dear to her. Now
that she had gradually brought herself round to believe in Nora's
marriage, she was disposed to make the best of Hugh, to remember that
he was certainly a clever man, that he was an honest fellow, and that
she had heard of him as a good son and a kind brother, and that he had
behaved well in reference to her Emily and Trevelyan. She was quite
willing now that Hugh should be happy, and she sat there thinking that
the time was very long, but still waiting patiently till she should be
summoned. 'You must let me go for mamma for a moment,' Nora said. 'I
want you to see her and make yourself a good boy before her. If you are
ever to be her son-in-law, you ought to be in her good graces.' Hugh
declared that he would do his best, and Nora fetched her mother.

Stanbury found some difficulty in making himself a 'good boy' in Lady
Rowley's presence; and Lady Rowley herself, for sometime, felt very
strongly the awkwardness of the meeting. She had never formally
recognised the young man as her daughter's accepted suitor, and as not
yet justified in doing so by any permission from Sir Marmaduke; but, as
the young people had been for the last hour or two alone together, with
her connivance and sanction, it was indispensable that she should in
some way signify her parental adherence to the arrangement. Nora began
by talking about Emily, and Trevelyan's condition and mode of living
were discussed. Then Lady Rowley said something about their coming
journey, and Hugh, with a lucky blunder, spoke of Nora's intended
return to Italy. 'We don't know how that may be,' said Lady Rowley.
'Her papa still wishes her to go back with us.'

'Mamma, you know that that is impossible,' said Nora.

'Not impossible, my love.'

'But she will not go back,' said Hugh. 'Lady Rowley, you would not
propose to separate us by such a distance as that?'

'It is Sir Marmaduke that you must ask.'

'Mamma, mamma!' exclaimed Nora, rushing to her mother's side, 'it is
not papa that we must ask not now. We want you to be our friend. Don't
we, Hugh? And, mamma, if you will really be our friend, of course, papa
will come round.'

'My dear Nora!'

'You know he will, mamma; and you know that you mean to be good and
kind to us. Of course I can't go back to the Islands with you. How
could I go so far and leave him behind? He might have half-a-dozen
wives before I could get back to him--'

'If you have not more trust in him than that--'

'Long engagements are awful bores,' said Hugh, finding it to be
necessary that he also should press forward his argument.

'I can trust him as far as I can see him,' said Nora, 'and therefore I
do not want to lose sight of him altogether.'

Lady Rowley of course gave way and embraced her accepted son-in-law.
After all it might have been worse. He saw his way clearly, he said, to
making six hundred a year, and did not at all doubt that before long he
would do better than that. He proposed that they should be married some
time in the autumn, but was willing to acknowledge that much must
depend on the position of Trevelyan and his wife. He would hold himself
ready at any moment, he said, to start to Italy, and would do all that
could be done by a brother. Then Lady Rowley gave him her blessing, and
kissed him again and Nora kissed him too, and hung upon him, and did
not push him away at all when his arm crept round her waist. And that
feeling came upon him which must surely be acknowledged by all engaged
young men when they first find themselves encouraged by mammas in the
taking of liberties which they have hitherto regarded as mysteries to
be hidden, especially from maternal eyes, that feeling of being a fine
fat calf decked out with ribbons for a sacrifice.

CHAPTER XCI - FOUR O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING

Another week went by and Sir Marmaduke had even yet not surrendered. He
quite understood that Nora was not to go back to the Islands. And had
visited Mr and Mrs Outhouse at St. Diddulph's in order to secure a home
for her there, if it might be possible. Mr Outhouse did not refuse, but
gave the permission in such a fashion as to make it almost equal to a
refusal. 'He was,' he said, 'much attached to his niece Nora, but he
had heard that there was a love affair.' Sir Marmaduke, of course,
could not deny the love affair. There was certainly a love affair of
which he did not personally approve, as the gentleman had no fixed
income and as far as he could understand no fixed profession.'such a
love affair,' thought Mr Outhouse, 'was a sort of thing that he didn't
know how to manage at all. If Nora came to him, was the young man to
visit at the house, or was he not?' Then Mrs Outhouse said something as
to the necessity of an anti-Stanbury pledge on Nora's part, and Sir
Marmaduke found that that scheme must be abandoned. Mrs Trevelyan had
written from Florence more than once or twice, and in her last letter
had said that she would prefer not to have Nora with her. She was at
that time living in lodgings at Siena and had her boy there also. She
saw her husband every other day; but nevertheless according to her
statements her visits to Casalunga were made in opposition to his
wishes. He had even expressed a desire that she should leave Siena and
return to England. He had once gone so far as to say that if she would
do so, he would follow her. But she clearly did not believe him, and in
all her letters spoke of him as one whom she could not regard as being
under the guidance of reason. She had taken her child with her once or
twice to the house, and on the first occasion Trevelyan had made much
of his son, had wept over him, and professed that in losing him he had
lost his only treasure; but after that he had not noticed the boy, and
latterly she had gone alone. She thought that perhaps her visits
cheered him, breaking the intensity of his solitude; but he never
expressed himself gratified by them, never asked her to remain at the
house, never returned with her into Siena, and continually spoke of her
return to England as a step which must be taken soon and the sooner the
better. He intended to follow her, he said; and she explained very
fully how manifest was his wish that she should go, by the temptation
to do so which he thought that he held out by this promise. He had
spoken, on every occasion of her presence with him, of Sir Marmaduke's
attempt to prove him to be a madman; but declared that he was afraid of
no one in England, and would face all the lawyers in Chancery Lane and
all the doctors in Savile Row. Nevertheless, so said Mrs Trevelyan, he
would undoubtedly remain at Casalunga till after Sir Marmaduke should
have sailed. He was not so mad but that he knew that no one else would
be so keen to take steps against him as would Sir Marmaduke. As for his
health, her account of him was very sad. 'He seemed,' she said, 'to be
withering away.' His hand was mere skin and bone. His hair and beard so
covered his thin long cheeks, that there was nothing left of his face
but his bright, large, melancholy eyes. His legs had become so frail
and weak that they would hardly bear his weight as he walked; and his
clothes, though he had taken a fancy to throw aside all that he had
brought with him from England, hung so loose about him that they seemed
as though they would fall from him. Once she had ventured to send out
to him from Siena a doctor to whom she had been recommended in
Florence; but he had taken the visit in very bad part, had told the
gentleman that he had no need for any medical services, and had been
furious with her, because of her offence in having sent such a visitor.
He had told her that if ever she ventured to take such a liberty again,
he would demand the child back, and refuse her permission inside the
gates of Casalunga. 'Don't come, at any rate, till I send for you,' Mrs
Trevelyan said in her last letter to her sister. 'Your being here would
do no good, and would, I think, make him feel that he was being
watched. My hope is, at last, to get him to return with me. If you were
here, I think this would be less likely. And then why should you be
mixed up with such unutterable sadness and distress more than is
essentially necessary? My health stands wonderfully well, though the
heat here is very great. It is cooler at Casalunga than in the town of
which I am glad for his sake. He perspires so profusely that it seems
to me he cannot stand the waste much longer. I know he will not go to
England as long as papa is there but I hope that he may be induced to
do so by slow stages as soon as he knows that papa has gone. Mind you
send me a newspaper, so that he may see it stated in print that papa
has sailed.'

It followed as one consequence of these letters from Florence that Nora
was debarred from the Italian scheme as a mode of passing her time till
some house should be open for her reception. She had suggested to Hugh
that she might go for a few weeks to Nuncombe Putney, but he had
explained to her the nature of his mother's cottage, and had told her
that there was no hole there in which she could lay her head. 'There
never was such a forlorn young woman,' she said. 'When papa goes I
shall literally be without shelter.' There had come a letter from Mrs
Glascock at least it was signed Caroline Glascock, though another name
might have been used dated from Milan, saying that they were hurrying
back to Naples even at that season of the year, because Lord
Peterborough was dead. 'And she is Lady Peterborough!' said Lady
Rowley, unable to repress the expression of the old regrets. 'Of course
she is Lady Peterborough, mamma; what else should she be? though she
does not so sign herself.' 'We think,' said the American peeress, 'that
we shall be at Monkhams before the end of August, and Charles says that
you are to come just the same. There will be nobody else there, of
course, because of Lord Peterborough's death.' 'I saw it in the paper,'
said Sir Marmaduke, 'and quite forgot to mention it.'

That same evening there was a long family discussion about Nora's
prospects. They were all together in the gloomy sitting-room at Gregg's
Hotel, and Sir Marmaduke had not yielded. The ladies had begun to feel
that it would be well not to press him to yield. Practically he had
yielded. There was now no question of cursing and of so-called
disinheritance. Nora was to remain in England, of course with the
intention of being married to Hugh Stanbury; and the difficulty
consisted in the need of an immediate home for her. It wanted now but
twelve days to that on which the family were to sail from Southampton,
and nothing had been settled. 'If papa will allow me something ever so
small, and will trust me, I will live alone in lodgings,' said Nora.

'It is the maddest thing I ever heard,' said Sir Marmaduke.

'Who would take care of you, Nora?' asked Lady Rowley.

'And who would walk about with you?' said Lucy.

'I don't see how it would be possible to live alone like that,' said
Sophie.

'Nobody would take care of me, and nobody would walk about with me, and
I could live alone very well,' said Nora. 'I don't see why a young
woman is to be supposed to be so absolutely helpless as all that comes
to. Of course it won't be very nice but it need not be for long.'

'Why not for long?' asked Sir Marmaduke.

'Not for very long,' said Nora.

'It does not seem to me,' said Sir Marmaduke, after a considerable
pause, 'that this gentleman himself is so particularly anxious for the
match. I have heard no day named, and no rational proposition made.'

'Papa, that is unfair, most unfair and ungenerous.'

'Nora,' said her mother, 'do not speak in that way to your father.'

'Mamma, it is unfair. Papa accuses Mr Stanbury of being being lukewarm
and untrue of not being in earnest.'

'I would rather that he were not in earnest,' said Sir Marmaduke.

'Mr Stanbury is ready at any time,' continued Nora. 'He would have the
banns at once read, and marry me in three weeks if I would let him.'

'Good gracious, Nora!' exclaimed Lady Rowley.

'But I have refused to name any day, or to make any arrangement,
because I did not wish to do so before papa had given his consent. That
is why things are in this way. If papa will but let me take a room till
I can go to Monkhams, I will have everything arranged from there. You
can trust Mr Glascock for that, and you can trust her.'

'I suppose your papa will make you some allowance,' said Lady Rowley.

'She is entitled to nothing, as she has refused to go to her proper
home,' said Sir Marmaduke.

The conversation, which had now become very disagreeable, was not
allowed to go any further. And it was well that it should be
interrupted. They all knew that Sir Marmaduke must be brought round by
degrees, and that both Nora and Lady Rowley had gone as far as was
prudent at present. But all trouble on this head was suddenly ended for
this evening by the entrance of the waiter with a telegram. It was
addressed to Lady Rowley, and she opened it with trembling hands as
ladies always do open telegrams. It was from Emily Trevelyan. 'Louis is
much worse. Let somebody come to me. Hugh Stanbury would be the best.'

In a few minutes they were so much disturbed that no one quite knew
what should be done at once. Lady Rowley began by declaring that she
would go herself. Sir Marmaduke of course pointed out that this was
impossible, and suggested that he would send a lawyer. Nora professed
herself ready to start immediately on the journey, but was stopped by a
proposition from her sister Lucy that in that case Hugh Stanbury would
of course go with her. Lady Rowley asked whether Hugh would go, and
Nora asserted that he would go immediately as a matter of course. She
was sure he would go, let the people at the D. R. say what they might.
According to her there was always somebody at the call of the editor of
the D. R. to do the work of anybody else, when anybody else wanted to
go away. Sir Marmaduke shook his head, and was very uneasy. He still
thought that a lawyer would be best, feeling, no doubt, that if
Stanbury's services were used on such an occasion, there must be an end
of all opposition to the marriage. But before half-an-hour was over
Stanbury was sent for. The boots of the hotel went off in a cab to the
office of the D. R. with a note from Lady Rowley. 'Dear Mr Stanbury We
have had a telegram from Emily, and want to see you, at once. Please
come. We shall sit up and wait for you till you do come E. R.'

It was very distressing to them because, let the result be what it
might, it was all but impossible that Mrs Trevelyan should be with them
before they had sailed, and it was quite out of the question that they
should now postpone their journey. Were Stanbury to start by the
morning train on the following day, he could not reach Siena till the
afternoon of the fourth day; and let the result be what it might when
he arrived there, it would be out of the question that Emily Trevelyan
should come back quite at once, or that she should travel at the same
speed. Of course they might hear again by telegram, and also by letter;
but they could not see her, or have any hand in her plans. 'If anything
were to happen, she might have come with us,' said Lady Rowley.