Books: Modern Broods

C >> Charlotte Mary Yonge >> Modern Broods

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To that he kept, though he had a very kind letter from Mr. Eccles,
who had evidently been applied to, wishing not to stand in his light,
especially as he was engaged to be married, and telling him how it
might be possible to fairly compensate for the loss to the firm.
Between the lines, however, it was plain that it would be a great
blow, only possible because the agreement had been neglected; and
Hubert was only the more determined, out of gratitude for the
generosity, not to break what he felt to be an implied pledge; and
all the sisters sympathised with his determination.

He adhered to it even after his return to London, though his father
thought it a pity to lose the chance, if it could be accepted without
discourtesy to Mr. Eccles; and he had been interviewed by various
parties concerned, and there had been an attempt to dazzle him by the
prospects held out to him by an enthusiastic young member of the
firm. Perhaps he was too shrewd entirely to trust them, but at any
rate he felt his good faith to Eccles and Beamster a bond to hold him
fast from the temptation; and his heart was really set on the
consecration of the higher uses of his art; so that regard to the
simple rule of honour was an absolute relief to him.

So he wrote to Vera, who, if there were a secret wish on her part,
did not dare to give it shape; while all her sisters, to whom she
showed the letters that she scarcely comprehended, were open-mouthed
in their admiration. Thekla, who had been seized with a fit of
hagiology, went the length of comparing him to St. Barbara; even
Paula pronounced it a far-fetched resemblance.

It was some months later that Sir Ferdinand Travis Underwood had
decided on building a magnificent cathedral-like church for the
population rising around him in the Rocky Mountains; and meeting Lord
Rotherwood in London heard of the work at St. Kenelm's, and resorted
to Eccles and Beamster as the employers of young Delrio. There would
be plenty of varieties of beautiful material to be found near at hand
in the mountains; but Hubert was sent first for a short journey in
Italy to study the effect of the old mosaics as well as the frescoes,
and then to go out to America to the work that would last a
considerable time.

Vera was much excited by the notion of the Italian journey, and
thought she ought to have been married at once and have shared it,
including as it did a short visit to Rocca Marina. But she was
scarcely eighteen, and neither her trustee nor her elder sister
thought it advisable to dispense with the decision that her twenty-
first birthday must be waited for, at which she pouted. Hubert came
for two nights on his return, and was exceedingly full of his tour,
talking over Italian scenes and churches with Magdalen, who had never
seen them, but had the descriptions and the history at her fingers'
ends, and listened with delight to all the impressions of a mind full
of feeling and poetry. The time was only too short to discuss or
look out everything, and much was left to be copied and sent after
him, with many promises on Vera's part of writing everything for him,
and translating the books that Magdalen would refer to. He was
allowed to take Vera and Paulina to Filsted for a hurried visit to
his parents. When they came home again, it soon became plain that it
had not been a success. "I am glad to be at home again," said Paula,
as the pony carriage turned up the steep drive, and the girls jumped
out to walk. "I am quite glad to feel the stones under my feet
again!"

Magdalen laughed. "A new sentiment!" she said.

"I don't like the stones," said Vera, "but I did not know Filsted was
such a poky place."

"A dead flat!" added Paula. "No sea, no torrs! one wanted something
to look at! and SUCH a church!"

"Did you see Minnie Maitland?" put in Thekla.

"I saw all the Maitlands in a hurry," said Vera. "I don't remember
which was which. They were all dressed alike in horrid colours.
Hubert said they set his teeth on edge!"

"How was old Mrs. Delrio?"

"Just the same as ever, lean and pinched."

"But so kind!" added Paula. "She could not make enough of Flapsy."

"I should think not!" ejaculated Vera. "Enough! aye, and too much!
just fancy, no dinner napkins! and Edith went away and made the
scones herself!"

"Very praiseworthy," said Magdalen. "Don't you know how Hubert
always tells us what a dear devoted good girl she is?"

"Well, I only hope Hubert does not expect me to live in that way,"
said Vera. "His mother looks like a half-starved hare, and Edith is
giving lessons as a daily governess!

"Edith is very nice," said Paula; "and I never understood before how
excellent old Mr. Delrio's pictures are! Do you remember his
'Country Lane'? What a pity it did not sell!"

"Poor man!" said Magdalen. "He married too soon, and that has kept
him down."

"It is beautiful to see how proud they are of Hubert," said Paula,
"and his pretty gentle attention and deference to them both. Mr.
Delrio is really a gentleman, I am sure; but, Maidie," she said,
falling back with her, while Vera and Thekla mounted faster, "it was
very odd to see how different things looked to us from what they
seemed when we were at Mrs. Best's. Filsted High Street has grown so
small, and one could hardly breathe in Mrs. Delrio's stuffy drawing-
room. And as to Waring Grange, which we used to think just perfect,
it was all so pretentious and in such bad taste. Hubert saw it as
much as we did, but I could see he was on thorns to hinder Flapsy
from making observations."

Certainly the visit had not done much good, except in making the
girls appreciate the refinement of their surroundings at the Goyle.

And when letters arrived from Hubert at the American Vale Leston,
asking questions requiring some research in books, either Magdalen's
or at the Rock Quay library, Vera dawdled and sighed over them; and
when the more zealous Magdalen or Paula took all the trouble, and
left nothing for her to do but to copy their notes, and write the
letters, she grew cross. "It was for Hubert, and she did not want
any one else to meddle! So stupid! If he had only taken Pratt and
Pavis's offer, there would not have been all this bother!"

That, of course, she only ventured to utter before Paula and Thekla,
and it made them both so furious that she declared she was only in
joke, and did not mean it.

She was indulging in reflections on the general dulness of her lot,
and the lack of sympathy in her sisters, as she lingered by the
confectioner's window, with her eyes fixed on a gorgeous combination
of coloured bonbons, when Wilfred Merrifield sauntered out. "Fresh
from Paris!" he said. "Going to choose some?"

"Oh no, I haven't got any cash. M. A. keeps us horribly short."

"As usual with governors! But look here! Pocket this. Sweets to
the sweet, from an old chum!"

"Oh, Will, how jolly! Such a love of a box."

"Make haste! Some of the girls are lurking about, and if there is
any mischief to be made, trust Gill for doing it."

"Mischief!--" but before the words were out of her mouth, Gillian and
Mysie appeared from the next shop, a bootmaker's, and Mysie stood
aghast with, "What ARE you doing? Buying goodies! How very
ridiculous!"

"The proper thing between chums, isn't it, Vera?" said Wilfred, with
an indifferent air. "We aren't unlucky Sunday scholars, Mysie, to be
jumped upon! Good-bye, Vera, au revoir!"

He sauntered away with his hands in his pockets; while Gillian, from
her eldership of two years, and her engagement, gravely said, "Vera,
perhaps you do not fully know, but I should say this is not quite the
thing."

"He told you we are just chums!" exclaimed Vera. "As if there were
any harm in it! You've not got a sweet tooth yourself, so you need
not grudge me just a few goodies."

Gillian saw that it was of no use to prolong the dispute either for
the place or the time, and she hushed Mysie, who was about to
expostulate farther, and made her go away with a brief parting, such
as she hoped would impress on Vera that the sisters thought very
badly of her discretion and loyalty. They could not hear the
reflection, "They need not be so particular and so cross. Hubert
never thought of giving me anything nice like this. Why should not
my chum? Such a sweet little box too, with a dear girl's head on it!
Would Polly fuss about it, and set on Sister? I shall put it into my
own drawer, and then if they notice it, they may think somebody at
Filsted gave it! No one has any business to worry me about Hubert,
and Wilfred being civil to me. He IS a gentleman."

The gentleman had been overtaken by his sisters. He was walking his
bicycle up the hill rather breathlessly and slowly. Mysie
indignantly began, "Of all the stupid things to do, to give goodies
to that girl, like a baby!"

"I have been wishing to speak to you," said Gillian. "You are going
the way to get that foolish girl into a scrape."

"Oh, yes, of course. Sisters uniformly object to a little civility
to a pretty girl," carelessly answered Wilfred.

"Nonsense!" returned Mysie, hotly. "We don't care! only it is not
fair on Mr. Delrio."

"The painter cad! A very good thing too! The sacrifice ought to be
prevented. Is not that the general sentiment?"

"Wilfred!" cried the scandalised Mysie, "when it is all the other
way, and he is ever so much too good for her."

"Consummate prig! The cheek of him pretending to a lady!"

"But, Wilfred," went on downright Mysie, "is it only mischief, or do
you want to marry her yourself?"

"Draw your own conclusions," responded Wilfred, mounting his machine,
and spinning down the hill faster than they could follow on foot.

"What is to be done, Gill?" sighed Mysie. "Ought we to get mamma to
speak to him?"

"Better not," said Gillian, with more experience. "It would only
make it worse to take it seriously. Half of it is play--and half to
tease you."

"And," said Mysie, with due deference to the engaged sister, "how
about Mr. Delrio? Will it make him unhappy?"

"If he finds out in time what a horrid little thing it is, I should
say it would be very well for him; but I don't want Will to be the
means."

"Oh! when his examination is over, and he gets an appointment, he
will go away, and it will be safe."

"I have not much hopes of his getting in!"

"Oh, Gill, none of us ever failed before."

On the side of the Goyle not much was known or cared about Wilfred's
little attentions, which were generally out of sight of Magdalen, and
did not amount to much; but Paula saw enough of them to consult
Agatha on, and to observe that Flapsy was going on just as she used
to at Filsted, and she thought Hubert would not like it.

"I believe Flapsy can't live without it," sighed Agatha.

"But would you speak to her? I don't think she ought to let him give
her boxes of bonbons--to keep up in her room, and never give a hint
to Maidie."

Agatha did speak but the effect was to set Vera into crying out at
every one being so intolerably cross about such a trifle, Gillian
Merrifield and all!

"Did Gillian speak to you?"

"Yes, as if she had any business to do so!"

"I am sure it is not the way she would treat Captain Armitage."

"I don't believe she cares for Captain Armitage one bit! You said
yourself that all the girls at Oxford thought she cared much more for
her horrid examination! I wouldn't be a dry, cold-hearted,
insensible stick like her for the world."

"Perhaps she is the more quietly in earnest," said Agatha, repenting
a little that she had told before Vera the college jokes over what
had leaked out of Gillian's reception of Ernley Armitage when he had
hastened up to Oxford as soon as his ship was paid off, and she had
been called down to him in the Lady Principal's room. Report said
that she had only prayed him to keep out of the way, and not to upset
her brain, and that he had meekly obeyed--as one who knew what it was
to have promotion depending on it.

It was a half truth, exaggerated, but it had not a happy effect on
Vera. Nevertheless, the finishing push of preparation brought on
such a succession of violent headaches as quite to disable the really
delicate boy. Moreover, the tutor declared that there had been
little chance of his success, and Dr. Dagger said that he had much
better not try again. The best hope for his health, and even for his
life, was to keep him at home for a few years, and give him light
work.

He had never been the pleasantest element in the household; and if
his parents were glad of the avoidance of the risk of a launch into
the world, and his mother's love rejoiced in the power of watching
over him, there were others who felt his temper a continual trial,
while his career was a perplexity.

However, Captain Henderson offered a clerkship at the Marble Works,
subject to Mr. White's approval; and this was gratefully accepted.
Nor did Agatha come home again at the Long Vacation for more than two
days, in which there was no time for consultation with her sisters on
matters of uncertain import.

Miss Arthuret and Elizabeth Merrifield had arranged together to take
the old roomy farmhouse on Penbeacon for three or four months, and
there receive parties of young women in need of rest, fresh air, and,
in some cases, of classes, or time for study. It was to be a sort of
Holiday House, though not altogether of idleness; and Dolores
undertook to be a kind of vice-president, with Agatha to pursue her
reading under her superintendence, and to assist in helping others,
governesses, students, schoolmistresses from Coalham, in whose behalf
indeed the scheme had been first started, and it was extremely
delightful to Agatha, among many others.

CHAPTER XIX--TWO WEDDINGS

"How happy by my mother's side
When some dear friend became a bride!
To shine beyond the rest I was
In gay embroidery drest.
Vain of my drapery's rich brocade,
I held my flowing locks to braid."
ANSTICE (from the Greek).

"Epidemics of marriage set in from time to time," said Jane Mohun.
"Gillian has set the fashion."

For the Rock Quay neighbourhood was in a state of excitement over a
letter from Mrs. White, of Rocca Marina, announcing the approaching
marriage of Mr. White's niece, Maura, with Lord Roger Grey, a nephew
of dear Emily's husband, and heir to the Dukedom. The White family
were coming home for the wedding, and the interest entirely eclipsed
that of Gillian Merrifield's. In fact, though that young lady
somewhat justified the Oxford stories, she was in a state of much
inward agitation between real love for Ernley, and pain in leaving
home, so she put on an absolutely imperturbable demeanour. Her
reserve and dread of comments made her so undemonstrative and
repressive to her Captain that there were those who doubted whether
she cared for him at all, or only looked on her wedding as a
mediaeval maiden might have done, as coming naturally a few years
after she had grown up. Ernley Armytage knew better, and so did her
parents. The wedding was hurried on by Captain Armytage's
appointment to a frigate on the coast of Southern America, where he
had to join at once, in lieu of a captain invalided home; and Gillian
accepted the arrangements, which would take her to Rio, "as much a
matter of course," said her aunt, "as if she had been a wife for ten
years." Her uncle, Mr. Mohun, was anxious that the marriage of his
sister Lily's daughter should take place at the family home,
Beechcroft. If there had been scruples, chiefly founded on the
largeness of the party, and the trouble to Mrs. Mohun, these were
forgotten in the convenience of being out of the way of Rockstone
gossip, as well as for other reasons.

"I should certainly have escaped," said General Mohun. "I have no
notion of meeting that unmitigated scamp."

"Mr. White ought to be warned," said Jane.

"You'll do so, I suppose; and much good it will be."

"I do not imagine that it will. It will be too charming to surpass
Franciska and Ivinghoe; but if neither you nor Jasper will speak to
old Tom, I shall deliver my conscience to Ada."

"And be advised to mind your own business."

Nevertheless, Jane Mohun did deliver her conscience, when, on the day
after the arrival, there had been loud lamentations over the intended
absence of the Merrifield family. "It would have looked well to make
it a double wedding, all in the family," said Mr. White.

To which Miss Mohun only answered by a silence which Mrs. White was
unwilling to break, but Maura exclaimed -

"But I thought Valetta would be sure to be my bridesmaid. Such
friends as we were at the High School!"

It did not strike Miss Mohun that the friendship had been very close
or very beneficial; but Adeline added, "We thought she would pair so
well with Vera Prescott, and then uncle will give all the dresses--
white silk with cerise trimmings. We ordered them in Paris."

"Uncle Tom is so generous!" said Maura. "There is no end to his
kindness. I'll go and unpack some of the patterns, that Miss Mohun
may see them."

She tripped out of the room, and Jane exclaimed, "Poor child! Has
Emily written to you, Ada?"

"Yes, rather stiffly. Mr. White thinks it aristocratic pride."

"Ada, you know it is not that."

"Well, I suppose the Greys are hardly gratified by the connection,
though Mr. White will make it worth their while. You see the Duke
leaves everything in his power to his daughters, so poor Roger will
be very badly off."

"But--" There was so much expressed in that "but" that Adeline began
to answer one of the sentiments she supposed it to convey. "He can
do it easily--for all the rest are provided for by the Marble Works--
except the two eldest brothers. Richard has gone away, and Alexis--
oh, you know he has notions of his own that Mr. White does not like."

"Does Mr. White know all about Lord Roger, or why the Duke should cut
him off as far as possible?"

"My dear Jane, it is not charitable to bring things up against young
men's follies."

"It is a pretty considerable folly to have done what compelled him to
retire. Reginald was called in at the inquiry, and knows all about
it."

"But that was ages ago, and he has been quite distinguished in the
Turkish army."

"Yes; and I also know that English gentlemen have associated with him
as little as possible. I should call it a fatal thing to let Maura
marry him. What does Captain Henderson say?"

"Mr. White thinks that it is all jealousy. And really, Jenny, I do
not in the least believe that he will make her unhappy. He is old
enough to have quite outgrown all his wild ways, and he has quite
gentlemanly manners and ways. Besides, Maura likes him, and is quite
bent upon it."

Still there was a dissatisfied look on Jane's face, and Adeline went
on answering it, with tears in her eyes. "My dear Jane, I know what
you would say, and what Reginald and all the rest feel, that it is
not what we should like! But, my dear, don't let the whole family
rise up in arms! It would be of no use, only make it painful for me.
Maura is quite bent upon it, and she has arrived at turning her uncle
round her finger so much that I am sometimes hardly mistress of the
house! Oh, I don't tell any one, not Lily nor any one, but it will
really be a relief to me when she is gone, with her Greek coaxing
ways. Her uncle is wrapped up in her, and so proud of her being a
Duchess that he would condone anything. Indeed, I am always afraid
of her putting it into his head to suppose that her disappointment
about Ivinghoe was in any way owing to my family pride."

Jane was sorry for Adeline, and able to perceive how the wifely
feelings, which she had taken on herself, by choosing a man of
inferior breeding and nature clashed with her hereditary character
and principles.

"You are absolutely relieved that the Beechcroft wedding takes all of
us out of the way naturally and without offence," she said so kindly
that Ada laid her head on her sisterly shoulder, and allowed herself
to shed a few tears.

"Yes, yes," she said; "I am glad to have so good a reason to mention.
Only I do hope Jasper will not object to Valetta's coming back to be
bridesmaid. That would really be a blow and give offence, and it
would make difficulties with others--even James Henderson, who swears
by Jasper. I have often wished they would have done as I advised,
and have had this wedding at Rocca Marina, out of the way of
everybody! I sometimes think it will be the death of me. Do come
home to help me through it."

She spoke so like the Ada of old that it went to Jane's heart.

She promised that she would return in time to give the very
substantial assistance in which all believed, and the more
sentimental support in which nobody believed, though her distaste
arose tenfold after seeing the bridegroom, who looked like an old
satyr, all the more because Maura was like a Greek nymph. Mrs.
Henderson was much grieved, and had tried remonstrance with her
sister, but found her quite impervious.

Glad were all the Merrifields to escape to the quiet atmosphere of
Beechcroft, where the relations were able to congregate between the
Court, the Vicarage, and the more-distant Rotherwood; and the wedding
was an ideal one in ecclesiastical beauty, and the festivities of
those who had known and loved Lady Merrifield as Miss Lily in early
youth, grandmothers who had been her schoolchildren, and were pleased
to hear that she was a grandmother herself, and hoped in a year or
two to welcome her grandchildren.

Alethea and her little Somervilles she had seen en route to Canada,
and Phyllis was to come in due time when Bernard Underwood could be
spared from the bank in Colombo, and they would bring their little
pair.

In the matter of bridesmaids Gillian certainly had the advantage, for
she was amply provided with sisters and cousins, Dolores coming for a
few days for the wedding; whereas the six whom Maura had provided for
beforehand in Paris were only, as Miss Jane said, "scraped up" with
difficulty from former schoolfellows. Lord Roger's nieces would not
hear of being present. Paulina was unwillingly pressed into the
service, as well as the more willing Vera; but Mysie Merrifield was
not to be persuaded to give up her visit to Lady Phyllis, and Aunt
Jane could only carry home Valetta, who held the whole as "capital
fun," and liked the acquisition of the white silk and lace and cerise
ribbons. Dolores had negotiated that No. 6 of the Vanderkist girls
should spend a year with Miss Mohun for a final polish at the High
School at Rock Quay, so as to be with her brother Adrian, who was
completing his term at the preparatory school before his launch at
Winchester.

Wilfred also returned, father and uncle having decided that he did
not merit a game licence, nor to attack the partridges of Beechcroft,
and the prospect of the gaieties of Cliffe House consoled him.

Adeline had to endure her husband's mortification at other
disappointments. The Ducal family was wholly unrepresented. Even
Emily, the connecting link, would not venture on the journey; and the
clerical nephew was not sufficiently gratified by Lord Roger's
intention to se ranger to undertake to officiate; and a Bishop, who
had enjoyed the hospitality of Rocca Marina, proved to have other
engagements. No clergyman could be imported except Maura's brother
Alexis, who had been two years at work at Coalham under Mr. Richard
Burnet, and had just been appointed by the newly-chosen Bishop of
Onomootka, and both were to go out with him as chaplains. In the
meantime, while the Bishop was preparing, by tours in England, Alexis
undertook the duties of Mr. Flight's curate, rejoicing in the
opportunity of seeing his elder sister, and the old friends with whom
he had never been since his unlucky troubles with Gillian Merrifield,
now no more.

The delight of receiving him compensated to Kalliope Henderson for
much that was distressing to both in Maura's choice. The seven years
that had passed had made him into a noble-looking man, with a
handsome classical countenance, lighted up by earnestness and
devotion, a fine voice and much musical skill, together with a bright
attractive manner that, all unconsciously on his part, had turned the
heads of half the young womanhood of Coalham, and soon had the same
effect at Rock Quay.

Vera and Paulina were in a state of much excitement over their white
silks, in which the three other sisters took great pleasure in
arraying them, and Thekla only wished that Hubert could see them.
She should send him out a photograph, buying it herself with her own
money.

She was, of course, to see the wedding, in her Sunday white and broad
pink sash, of the appropriateness of which she was satisfied when, at
Beechcroft, they met Miss Mohun's young friend, Miss Vanderkist, in
the same garb. She and her brother had been put under Magdalen's
protection, as Miss Mohun was too much wanted at Cliffe House to look
after them; but Sir Adrian, a big boy of twelve, wanted to go his own
way, and only handed her over with "Hallo, Miss Prescott! you'll look
after this pussy-cat of ours while Aunt Jane is dosing Aunt Ada with
salts and sal volatile. She--I'll introduce you! Miss Prescott,
Miss Felicia Vanderkist! She wants to be looked after, she is a
little kitten that has never seen anything! I'm off to Martin's."

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