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EMILIA IN ENGLAND 
 
 GEORGE MEREDITH 
 
 AUTHOR OF " EVAN HARRINGTON " " THE ORDEAL OF RICHARD FEVEREL ' 
 " THE SHAVING OF SHAGPAT " 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 CHAPMAN & HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1864. 
 
 [ T?ie right of Translation Is reserved. ] 
 
LONDON : 
 
 BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS 
 
623 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 j 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 THE POLES. PRELUDE 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE EXPEDITION BY MOONLIGHT . . .. . . . 10 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 - Wilfrid's diplomacy 24 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 ^ Emilia's first trial in public 33 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ,r n EMILIA PLAYS ON THE CORNET 43 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 EMILIA SUPPLIES THE KEY TO HERSELF AND CONTINUES HER 
 
 PERFORMANCE ON THE CORNET 57 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 "- TREATS OF A CRISIS IN THE GOVERNMENT OF BROOKFIELD : 
 
 AND OF THE VIRTUE RESIDENT IN A TAIL-COAT . . 7S 
 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 IN WHICH A BIG DRUM SPEEDS THE MARCH OF EMILIAS 
 
 HISTORY 92 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE RIVAL CLUBS 108 
 
IV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PAGE 
 THE LADIES OF BROOKFIELD AT SCHOOL 117 
 
 CHAPTEE XL 
 
 IN WHICH WE SEE THE MAGNANIMITY THAT IS IN BEER . 132 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 SHOWING nOW SENTIMENT AND PASSION TAKE THE DISEASE 
 
 OF LOVE 152 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 CONTAINS A SHORT DISCOURSE ON PUPPETS .... 166 
 
 CHAPTER XIY. 
 
 THE BESWORTH QUESTION . . . . ~ . . . 172 
 
 CHAPTER XY. 
 Wilfrid's exhibition of treachery .... 200 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 HOW THE LADIES OF BROOKFIELD CAME TO THEIR RESOLVE 229 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 IN THE WOODS 254 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 RETURN OF THE SENTIMENTALIST INTO BONDAGE . . . 265 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 LIFE AT BROOKFIELD 276 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 FA* WILMING WEIR 292 
 
EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE POLES. PRELUDE. 
 
 We are to make acquaintance with some serious 
 damsels, as this English generation knows them, 
 and at a season verging towards May. The ladies 
 of Brookfield, Arabella, Cornelia, and Adela Pole, 
 daughters of a flourishing City-of-London merchant, 
 had been told of a singular thing: that in the 
 neighbouring fir-wood a voice was to be heard be- 
 night, so wonderfully sweet and richly toned, that 
 it required their strong sense to correct strange 
 imaginings concerning it. Adela was herself the 
 chief witness to its unearthly sweetness, and her 
 testimony was confirmed by Edward Buxley, whose 
 ear had likewise taken in the notes, though not on 
 the same night, as the pair publicly proved by dates. 
 Both declared that the voice belonged to an opera- 
 singer, or a spirit. The ladies of Brookfield, 
 
 VOL. I. B 
 
2 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 declining the alternative, perceived that this was 
 a surprise furnished for their amusement by the 
 latest celebrity of their circle, Mr. Pericles, their 
 father's business ally and fellow-speculator ; Mr. 
 Pericles, the Greek, the man who held millions of 
 money as dust compared to a human voice. For- 
 tified by this exquisite supposition, their strong 
 sense at once dismissed with scorn the idea of any- 
 thing unearthly, however divine, being heard at 
 night, in the nineteenth century, within sixteen 
 miles of London City. They agreed that Mr. 
 Pericles had hired some charming cantatrice to 
 draw them into the woods and delightfully be- 
 wilder them. It was to be expected of his 
 princely nature, they said. The Tinleys, of Blox- 
 holme, worshipped him for his wealth; the ladies 
 of Brookfield assured their friends that the fact of 
 his being a money-maker was redeemed in their 
 sight by his devotion to music. Music was now the 
 art in the ascendant at Brookfield. The ladies 
 (for it is as well to know at once that they were not 
 of that poor order of women who yield their admi- 
 ration to a thing for its abstract virtue only) — the 
 ladies were scaling society by the help of the Arts. 
 To this laudable end sacrifices were now made to 
 Euterpe to assist them. As mere daughters of a 
 
THE POLES. PRELUDE. 3 
 
 merchant, they were compelled to make their house 
 not simply attractive, but enticing ; and, seeing that 
 they liked music, it seemed a very agreeable device. 
 The Tinleys of Bloxholme still kept to dancing, 
 and had effectually driven away l£r. Pericles from 
 their gatherings. For Mr. Pericles said : " If that 
 they will go ' so/ I will be amused." He presented 
 a top-like triangular appearance for one staggering 
 second. The Tinleys did not go ' so ' at all, and 
 consequently they lost the satirical man, and were 
 called " the ballet-dancers " by Adela : which thorny 
 scoff her sisters permitted to pass about for a single 
 day, and no more. The Tinleys were their match 
 at epithets, and any low contention of this kind 
 obscured for them the social summit they hoped to 
 attain ; the dream whereof was their prime nourish- 
 ment. 
 
 That the Tinleys really were their match, they 
 acknowledged, upon the admission of the despicable 
 nature of the game. The Tinleys had winged a 
 dreadful shaft at them ; not in itself to be dreaded, 
 but that it struck a weak point : it was a common 
 shot that exploded a magazine ; and for a time it 
 quite upset their social policy, causing them to act 
 like simple young ladies who feel things and resent 
 them. The ladies of Brookfield had let it be known 
 
 B 2 
 
4 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 that, in their privacy together, they were Pole, 
 Polar, and North Pole. Pole, Polar, and North 
 Pole were designations of the three shades of 
 distance which they could convey in a how : a form 
 of salute they cherished as peculiarly their own ; 
 heing a method they had invented to rebuke the 
 intrusiveness of the outer world, and hold away all 
 strangers until approved worthy. Even friends had 
 occasionally to submit to it in a softened form. 
 Arabella, the eldest, and Adela, the youngest, alter- 
 nated Pole and Polar ; but North Pole was shared 
 by Cornelia with none. She was the fairest of the 
 three; a nobly-built person; her eyes not vacant 
 of tenderness when she put off her armour. In her 
 war-panoply before unhappy strangers, she was a 
 Britomart. They bowed to an iceberg, which re- 
 plied to them with the freezing indifference of the 
 floating colossus, when the winter sun despatches a 
 feeble greeting messenger beam from his miserable 
 Arctic wallet. The simile must be accepted in its 
 might, for no lesser one will express the scornful- 
 ness towards men displayed by this strikingly well- 
 favoured, formal lady, whose heart of hearts de- 
 manded for her as spouse, a lord, a philosopher, 
 and a Christian, in one : and he must be a member 
 of Parliament. Hence her isolated air. 
 
THE POLES. PRELUDE. 
 
 Now, when the ladies of Brookfield heard that 
 their Pole, Polar, and North Pole, the splendid 
 image of themselves, had been transformed by the 
 Tinleys, and defiled by them to Pole, Polony, and 
 Maypole, they should have laughed contemptuously; 
 but the terrible nerve of ridicule quivered in witness 
 against them, and was not to be stilled. They 
 could not understand why so coarse a thing should 
 affect them. It stuck in their flesh. It gave them 
 the idea that they saw their features hideous, but 
 real, in a magnifying mirror. 
 
 There was therefore a feud between the Tinleys 
 and the Poles ; and when Mr. Pericles entirely gave 
 up the former, the latter rewarded him by spreading 
 abroad every possible kind interpretation of his 
 atrocious bad manners. He was a Greek, of 
 Parisian gilding, whose Parisian hat flew off at a 
 moment's notice, and whose savage snarl was heard 
 at the slightest vexation. His talk of renowned 
 prime-donne by their Christian names, and the 
 way that he would catalogue emperors, statesmen, 
 and nobles, known to him, with a familiar indif- 
 ference, as things below the musical art, gave a 
 distinguishing tone to Brookfield, from which his 
 French accentuation of our tongue did not detract. 
 
 Mr. Pericles grimaced bitterly at any claim to 
 
6 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 excellence being set up for the mysterious voice in 
 the woods. Tapping one forefinger on the uplifted 
 point of the other, he observed that to sing abroad 
 in the night air of an English spring month was 
 conclusive of imbecility ; and that no imbecile sang 
 at all. Because, to sing, involved the highest 
 accomplishment of which the human spirit could 
 boast. Did the ladies see ? he asked. They 
 thought they saw that he carried on a deception 
 admirably. In return, they inquired whether he 
 would come with them and hunt the voice, saying 
 that they would catch it for him. " I shall catch a 
 cold for myself," said Mr. Pericles, from the eleva- 
 tion of a shrug, feeling that he was doomed to go 
 forth. He acted reluctance so well that the ladies 
 affected a pretty imperiousness ; and when at last 
 he consented to join the party, they thanked him 
 with a nicely simulated warmth, believing that they 
 had pleased him thoroughly. 
 
 Their brother "Wilfrid was at Brookfield. Six 
 months earlier he had returned from India, an 
 invalided cornet of light cavalry, with a reputation 
 for military dash and the prospect of a medal. 
 Then he was their heroic brother: he was now 
 their guard. They loved him tenderly, and admired 
 him when it was necessary ; but they had exhausted 
 
THE POLES. TPvELUDE. 7 
 
 their own sensations concerning his deeds of arms, 
 and fancied that he had served their purpose. And, 
 besides, valour is not an intellectual quality, they 
 said. They were ladies so aspiring, these daughters 
 of the merchant, Samuel Bolton Pole, that, if 
 Napoleon had been their brother, their imagina- 
 tions would have overtopped liim after his six 
 months' inaction in the Tuileries. They would by 
 that time have made a stepping-stone of the em- 
 peror. ' Mounting ' was the title given to this pro- 
 ceeding. They went on perpetually mounting. It is 
 still a good way from the head of the tallest of men 
 to the stars ; so they had their work before them ; 
 but, as they observed, they were young. To be 
 brief, they were very ambitious damsels, aiming at 
 they knew not exactly what, save that it was some- 
 thing so wide that it had not a name, and so 
 high in air that no one could see it. They knew 
 assuredly that their circle did not please them. 
 So, therefore, they were constantly extending and 
 refining it : extending it perhaps for the purpose of 
 refining it. Their susceptibilities demanded that 
 they should escape from a city circle. Having no 
 mother, they ruled their father's house and him, 
 and were at least commanders of whatsoever forces 
 they could summon for the task. 
 
H EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 It may be seen that they were sentimentalists. 
 That is to say, they supposed that they enjoyed 
 exclusive possession of the Nice Feelings, and ex- 
 clusively comprehended the Fine Shades. Whereof 
 more will be said ; but in the meantime it will 
 explain their propensity to mount; it will account 
 for their irritation at the material obstructions 
 surrounding them; and possibly the philosopher 
 will now have his eye on the source of that extra- 
 ordinary sense of superiority to mankind which was 
 the crown of their complacent brows. Eclipsed as 
 they may be in the gross appreciation of the world 
 by other people, who excel in this and that accom- 
 plishment, persons that nourish the Nice Feelings 
 and are intimate with the Fine Shades carry their 
 own test of intrinsic value. 
 
 Nor let the philosopher venture hastily to despise 
 them as pipers to dilettante life. Such persons 
 come to us in the order of civilisation. In their 
 ~way they help to civilise us. Sentimentalists are a 
 perfectly natural growth of a fat soil. Wealthy 
 rommunities must engender them. If with atten- 
 tive minds we mark the origin of classes, we shall 
 discern that the Nice Feelings and the Fine Shades 
 play a principal part in our human development 
 and social history. I dare not say that civilised 
 
THE POLES. PRELUDE. 9 
 
 man is to be studied with the eye of a naturalist ; 
 but my vulgar meaning might almost be twisted to 
 convey that our sentimentalists are a variety owing 
 their existence to a certain prolonged term of 
 comfortable feeding. The pig, it will be retorted, 
 passes likewise through this training. He does. 
 But in him it is not combined with an indigestion 
 of high German romances. Here is so notable a 
 difference, that he cannot possibly be said to be of 
 the family. And I maintain it against him, who 
 have nevertheless listened attentively to the eulogies 
 pronounced by the vendors of prize bacon. 
 
 After thus stating to you the vast pretensions of 
 the ladies of Brookfield, it would be unfair to sketch 
 their portraits. Nothing but comedy bordering on 
 burlesque could issue from the contrast, though 
 they graced a drawing-room, or a pew, and had 
 properly elegant habits and taste in dress, and 
 were all fair to the sight. Moreover, Adela had 
 not long quitted school. Outwardly they were not 
 unlike other young ladies with wits alert. They 
 were at the commencement of their labours on this 
 night of the expedition when they were fated to 
 meet something greatly confusing to them. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE EXPEDITION BY MOONLIGHT. 
 
 Half of a rosy mounting full moon was on the 
 verge of the east as the ladies, with attendant 
 cavaliers, passed, humming softly, through the 
 garden -gates. Arabella had, by right of birth, 
 made claim to Mr. Pericles : not without an un- 
 wontedly fretful remonstrance from Cornelia, who 
 said, " My dear, you must allow that I have some 
 talent for drawing men out." 
 
 And Arabella replied : " Certainty, dear, you 
 have ; and I think I have some too/' 
 
 The gentle altercation lasted half-an-hour, but 
 they got no farther than this. Mr. Pericles was 
 either hopeless of protecting himself from such 
 shrewd assailants, or indifferent to their attacks, 
 for all his defensive measures were against the cold. 
 He was muffled in a superbly-mounted bearskin, 
 which came up so closely about his ears that 
 Arabella had to repeat to him all her questions, and 
 as it were force a way for her voice through the 
 
THE EXPEDITION BY MOONLIGHT. 11 
 
 hide. This was provoking, since it not only 
 stemmed the natural flow of conversation, bat pre- 
 vented her imagination from decorating the reminis- 
 cence of it subsequently (which was her profound 
 secret pleasure), besides letting in the outer world 
 upon her. Take it as an axiom, when you utter a 
 sentimentalism, that more than one pair of ears 
 makes a cynical critic. A sentimentalism requires 
 secrecy. I can enjoy it, and shall treat it respect- 
 fully if you will confide it to me alone ; but I and 
 my friend must laugh at it outright. 
 
 u Does there not seem a soul in the moonlight? " 
 for instance. Arabella, after a rapturous glance at 
 the rosy orb, put it to Mr. Pericles, in subdued im- 
 pressive tones. She had to repeat her phrase ; Mr. 
 Pericles then echoing, with provoking monotony of 
 tone, " Sol ? " — whereupon " Soul ! " was reiterated, 
 somewhat sharply : and Mr. Pericles, peering over 
 the collar of the bear, with half an eye, continued 
 the sentence, in the manner of one sent thereby 
 farther from its meaning : — " Ze moonlight ? " 
 Despairing and exasperated, Arabella commenced 
 afresh : " I said, there seems a soul in it ; " and Mr. 
 Pericles assented bluntly : " In ze light ! M — which 
 sounded so little satisfactory that Arabella ex- 
 plained, "I mean the aspect;" and having said 
 
12 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 three times distinctly what she meant, in answer to 
 a terrific glare from the unsubmergecl whites of the 
 eyes of Mr. Pericles, this was his comment, almost 
 roared forth : 
 
 " Sol ! you say so-ivhole — in ze moonlight — Luna ? 
 Hein ? Ze aspect is of Sol !— Yez." 
 
 And Mr. Pericles sank into his bear again, while 
 Wilfrid Pole, who was swinging his long cavalry legs 
 to rearward, shouted; and Mr. Sumner, a rising 
 young barrister, walking beside Cornelia, smiled a 
 smile of extreme rigidity. Arabella was punished 
 for claiming rights of birth. She heard the mur- 
 muring course of the dialogue between Cornelia and 
 Mr. Sumner, sufficiently clear to tell her it was not 
 fictitious and was well sustained, while her heart 
 was kept thirsting for the key to it. In advance 
 were Adela, and Edward Buxley, who was only a 
 rich alderman's only son, but had the virtue of an 
 extraordinary power of drawing caricatures, and was 
 therefore useful in exaggerating the features of 
 disagreeable people, and showing how odious they 
 were : besides endearing pleasant ones by exhibit- 
 ing how comic they could be. Gossips averred that 
 before Mr. Pole had been worried by his daughters 
 into giving that mighty sum for Brookfield, Arabella 
 had accepted Edward as her suitor; but for some 
 
THE EXPEDITION BY MOONLIGHT. 13 
 
 reason or other he had apparently fallen from his 
 high estate. To tell the truth, Arabella conceived 
 that he had simply obeyed her wishes, while he 
 knew he was naughtily following his own; and 
 Adela, without introspection at all, was making her 
 virgin effort at the caricaturing of our sex in his 
 person : an art for which she promised well. 
 
 Out of the long black shadows of the solitary 
 trees of the park, and through low yellow moon- 
 light, they passed suddenly into the muffled ways of 
 the wood. Mr. Pericles was ineffably provoking. 
 He had come for gallantry's sake, and was not to be 
 rallied, and would echo every question in a roar, 
 and there was no drawing of the man out at all. 
 He knocked against branches, and tripped over 
 stumps, and ejaculated with energy ; but though he 
 gave no heed or help to his fair associate, she 
 thought not the worse of him, so heroic can women 
 be towards any creature that will permit himself to 
 be clothed by a mystery. At times the party hung 
 still, fancying the voice aloft, and then, after listen- 
 ing to the unrelieved stillness, they laughed, and 
 trod the stiff dry ferns and soft mosses once more. 
 At last they came to a decided halt, when the pro- 
 position to return caused Adela to come up to Mr. 
 Pericles, and say to him, " Xow, you must confess ! 
 
14 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 You have prohibited her from singing to-night so 
 that we may continue to he mystified. I call this 
 quite shameful of you ! " 
 
 And even as Mr. Pericles was protesting that he 
 was the most mystified of the company, his neck 
 lengthened, and his head went round, and his ear 
 was turned to the sky, while he breathed an elabo- 
 rate " Ah ! " And sure enough that was the voice 
 of the woods, cleaving the night-air, not distant. A 
 sleepy fire of early moonlight hung through the 
 dusky fir branches. The voice had the woods to 
 itself, and seemed to fill them and soar over them, 
 it was so full and rich, so light and sweet. And 
 now, to add to the marvel, they heard a harp ac- 
 companiment, the strings being faintly touched, but 
 with firm fingers. A woman's voice : on that could 
 be no dispute. Tell me, what opens Heaven more 
 flamingly to heart and mind, than the voice of a 
 woman, pouring clear accordant notes to the blue 
 night sky, that grows light blue to the moon ? 
 There was no flourish in her singing. All the notes 
 were firm, and rounded, and sovereignly distinct. 
 She seemed to have caught the ear of Night, 
 and sang confident of her charm. It was a grand 
 old Italian air, requiring severity of tone, and 
 power. Now into great mournful hollows the 
 
THE EXPEDITION BY MOONLIGHT 15 
 
 voice sank steadfastly. One soft sweep of the 
 strings succeeded a deep final note, and the hearers 
 breathed freely. 
 
 M Stradella ! " said the Greek, folding his arms. 
 
 The ladies were too deeply impressed to pursue 
 their play with him. Real emotions at once set 
 aside the semi-credence they had given to their own 
 suggestions. 
 
 " Hush ! she will sing again directly," whispered 
 Adela. " It is the most delicious contralto." Mur- 
 murs of objection to the voice being characterized 
 at all by any technical word, or even for a human 
 quality, were heard. 
 
 " Let me find zis woman ! ,; cried the prose 
 enthusiast, Mr. Pericles, imperiously, with his bear- 
 skin thrown back on his shoulders, and forth they 
 stepped, following him. 
 
 In the middle of the wood there was a sandy 
 moimcl, rising half the height of the lesser firs, 
 bounded by a green-grown vallum, where once an 
 old woman, hopelessly a witch, had squatted, and 
 defied the authorities to make her budge : nor could 
 they accomplish the task before her witch-soul had 
 taken wing in the form of a black night-bird, often 
 to be heard jarring above the spot. Lank dry 
 weeds, and nettles, and great lumps of green and 
 
16 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 gray rnoss, now stood on the poor old creature's 
 place of habitation, and the moon, slanting through 
 the fir-clumps, was scattered on the blossoms of 
 twisted orchard-trees, gone wild again. Amid this 
 desolation, a dwarfed pine, whose roots were par- 
 tially bared as they grasped the broken bank 
 that was its perch, threw far out a cedar-like 
 hand. In the shadow of it sat the fair singer. 
 A musing touch of her harp-strings drew the 
 intruders to the charmed circle, though they 
 could discern nothing save the glimmer of the 
 instrument and one set of fingers caressing it. 
 How she viewed their rather impertinent advance 
 towards her, till they had ranged in a half-circle 
 nearer and nearer, could not be guessed. She did 
 not seem abashed in any way, for, having preluded, 
 she threw herself into another song. 
 
 The charm was now more human, though 
 scarcely less powerful. This song was different 
 from the last : it was not the sculptured music of 
 the old school, but had the richness and fulness of 
 passionate blood that marks the modern Italian, 
 where there is much dallying with beauty in the 
 thick of sweet anguish. Here, at a certain passage 
 of the song, she gathered herself up and pitched a 
 nervous note, so shrewdly triumphing, that, as her 
 
THE EXPEDITION EY MOONLIGHT. IT 
 
 voice sank to rest, her hearers could not restrain a 
 deep murmur of admiration. 
 
 Then came an awkward moment. The ladies 
 did not wish to go, and they were not justified in 
 stopping. They were anxious to speak, and they 
 could not choose the word to utter. Mr. Peri 
 relieved them by moving _' his 
 
 hat, at the same time begging excuse for the rude- 
 ness they were guilty :. 
 
 The fan- singer answered, with the quickness that 
 showed a girl : <; Oh stay ; do stay, if I please 
 you ! *' A singular form of speech, it was thought 
 by the ladies. 
 
 She added : " I feel that I sing better when I 
 have people to listen to me." 
 
 "You find it more sympathetic, do you not?"' 
 remarked Cornelia. 
 
 "I don't know/" responded the unknown, with a 
 very honest smile. "I like it."* 
 
 She was evidently uneducated. u A profes- 
 sional ? " whispered Adela to Arabella. She 
 wanted little invitation to exhibit her skill, at 
 all events, for, at a word, the clear, bold, but 
 finely nervous voice, was pealing to a brisker 
 measure, that would have been joyous but for 
 one weird fall it had, coming unexpectedly, with- 
 vol. i. c 
 
18 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 out harshness, and winding up the song in a 
 ringing melancholy. 
 
 After a few bars had been sung, Mr. Pericles was 
 seen tapping his forehead perplexedly. The mo- 
 ment it ended, he cried out, in a tone of vexed 
 apology for strange ignorance: "But I know not it? 
 It is Italian — yes, I swear it is Italian ! But — who 
 then ? It is superbe ! But I know not it ! " 
 
 " It is mine," said the young person. 
 
 " Your music, miss ? " 
 
 " I mean, I composed it." 
 
 " Permit me to say, Brava ! " 
 
 The ladies instantly petitioned to have it sung to 
 them again : and whether or not they thought more 
 of it, or less, now that the authorship was known 
 to them, they were louder in their applause, which 
 seemed to make the little person very happy. 
 
 " You are sure it pleases you ? " she exclaimed. 
 
 They were very sure it pleased them. Somehow, 
 the ladies were growing gracious towards her, from 
 having previously felt too humble, it may be. She 
 was girlish in her manner, and not imposing in her 
 figure. She would be a sweet mystery to talk about, 
 they thought : but she had ceased to be quite the 
 same mystery to them. 
 
 "I would go on singing to you," she said; "I 
 
TIIE EXPEDITION BY MOONLIGHT. 19 
 
 could sing all night long : but my people at the 
 farm will not keep supper for me, when it's late, and 
 I shall have to go hungry to bed, if I wait." 
 
 " Have you far to go ? " ventured Adela. 
 
 " Only to Wilson's farm ; about ten minutes' 
 walk through the wood," she answered unhesita- 
 tingly. 
 
 Arabella wished to know whether she came fre- 
 quently to this lovely spot. 
 
 " When it does not rain, every evening," was the 
 reply. 
 
 "You feel that the place inspires you?" said 
 Cornelia. 
 
 "I'm obliged to come," she explained. "The 
 good old dame at the farm is ill, and she says that 
 music all day is enough for her, and I must come 
 here, or I should get no chance of playing at all at 
 night." 
 
 " But, surely you feel an inspiration in the place, 
 do you not ? " Cornelia persisted. 
 
 She looked at this lady as if she had got a hard 
 word given her to crack, and muttered : " I feel it 
 quite warm here. And I do begin to love the 
 place." 
 
 The stately Cornelia fell back a step. 
 
 The moon was now a silver ball on the edge of 
 
 c 2 
 
20 e:\iilia in England. 
 
 the circle of grey blue above the ring of firs, and by 
 the light falling on the strange little person, as she 
 stood out of the shadow to muffle up her harp, it 
 could be seen that she was simply clad, and that 
 her bonnet was not of the newest fashion. The 
 sisters remarked a boot-lace hanging loose. The 
 peculiar black lustre of her hair, and thickness of 
 her long black eyebrows, struck them likewise. 
 Her harp being now comfortably mantled, Cornet 
 Wilfrid Pole, who had been watching her and 
 balancing repeatedly on his forward foot, made a 
 stride, and " really could not allow her to carry it 
 herself," and begged her permission that he might 
 assist her. " It's very heavy, you know," he added. 
 
 u Too heav} T for me," said she, favouring him 
 with a thankful smile. "I have some one who does 
 that. Where is Jim ? " 
 
 She called for Jim, and from the back of the 
 sandy hillock, where he had been reclining, a broad- 
 shouldered rustic came lurching round to them. 
 
 " Xow, take my harp, if you please, and be as 
 careful as possible of branches, and don't stumble." 
 She uttered this as if she were giving Jim his 
 evening lesson: and then with a sudden cry she 
 laughed out : " Oh ! but I haven't played you your 
 tune, and you must have your tune ! " 
 
THE EXPEDITION BY MOONLIGHT. 21 
 
 Forthwith she stript the harp half bare, and 
 throwing a propitiatory bright glance at her audience 
 on the other side of her, she commenced thrumming 
 a kind of Giles Scroggins, native British, beer- 
 begotten air, while Jim smeared his mouth and 
 grinned, as one who sees his love dragged into 
 public view, and is not the man to be ashamed of her, 
 though he hopes you will hardly put him to the trial. 
 
 " This is his favourite tune, that he taught me" 
 she emphasised to the company. " I play it to him 
 every night, for a finish ; and then he takes care 
 not to knock my poor harp to pieces and tumble 
 about." 
 
 The gentlemen were amused by the Giles Scrog- 
 gins air, which she had delivered with a sufficient 
 sense of its lumping fun and leg-for-leg jollity, and 
 they laughed and applauded ; but the ladies were 
 silent after the performance, until the moment came 
 to thank her for the entertainment she had afforded 
 them ; and then they broke into gentle smiles, and 
 trusted they might have the pleasure of hearing her 
 another night. 
 
 " Oh ! just as often and as much as you like," 
 she said, and first held her hand to Arabella, next 
 to Cornelia, and then to Adela. She seemed to be 
 hesitating before the gentlemen, and when "Wilfrid 
 
22 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 raised his hat, she was put to some confusion, and 
 bowed rather awkwardly, and retired. 
 
 " Good night, miss ! " called Mr. Pericles. 
 
 " Good night, sir ! " she answered from a little 
 distance, and they could see that she was there 
 emboldened to drop a proper curtsey in accompani- 
 ment. 
 
 Then the ladies stood together and talked of her, 
 not with absolute enthusiasm. For, " Was it not 
 divine ? " said Adela ; and Cornelia asked her if 
 she meant the last piece ; and, " Oh, gracious ! not 
 that ! ** Adela exclaimed. And then it was disco- 
 vered how their common observation had fastened 
 on the boot-lace ; and this vagrant article became 
 the key to certain speculations on her condition and 
 character. 
 
 "I wish I'd had a dozen bouquets, that's all! " 
 cried Wilfrid. " She deserved them." 
 
 " Has she sentiment for what she sings ? or is it 
 only faculty ? " Cornelia put it to Mr. Sumner. * 
 
 That gentleman faintly defended the stranger for 
 the intrusion of the bumpkin tune. " She did it so 
 well! " he said. 
 
 " I complain that she did it too well," uttered 
 Cornelia, whose use of emphasis customarily implied 
 that the argument remained with her. 
 
THE EXPEDITION EY MOONLIGHT. 23 
 
 Talking in this manner, and leisurely marching 
 homeward, they were startled to hear Mr. Pericles, 
 who had wrapped himself impenetrably in the bear, 
 burst from his cogitation suddenly to cry out, in his 
 harshest foreign accent : " Yeaz ! " And thereupon 
 he threw open the folds, and laid out a forefinger, 
 and delivered himself: "I am made my mind! I 
 send her abroad to ze Academie for one, two, three 
 year. She shall be instructed as was not before. 
 Zen a noise at La Scala. No — Paris ! No — 
 London ! She shall astonish London fairst. — Yez ! 
 if I take a theatre ! Yez ! if I buy a newspaper ! 
 Yez! if I pay feefty-sossand pound ! " 
 
 His singular outlandish vehemence, and the 
 sweeping grandeur of a determination that lightly 
 assumed the corruptibility of our press, sent a smile- 
 circling among the ladies and gentlemen. The 
 youth who had wished to throw the fair unknown a 
 dozen bouquets, caught himself frowning at this 
 brilliant prospect for her, which was to give him his 
 opportunity. 
 
CHAPTEK III. 
 
 The next morning there were many " tra-las " 
 and " tum-te-tums " over the family breakfast-table ; 
 a constant humming and crying, "I have it;" and 
 after two or three bars, baffled pauses and confusion 
 of mind. Mr. Pericles was almost abusive at the 
 impotent efforts of the sisters to revive in his 
 memory that particular delicious melody, the com- 
 position of the fair singer herself. At last he grew 
 so impatient as to arrest their opening notes, and 
 even to interrupt their unmusical consultations, 
 with : " No : it is no use ; it is no use : no, no, I 
 say ! " But instantly he would plunge his forehead 
 into the palm of his hand, and rub it red, and work 
 his eyebrows frightfully, until tender humanity led 
 the sisters to resume. Adela's : " I'm sure it began 
 low down — turn ! " Cornelia's : " The key-note, I 
 am positive, was B flat — ta!" and Arabella's putting 
 of these two assertions together, and promise to 
 combine them at the piano when breakfast was at 
 
Wilfrid's diplomacy. 25 
 
 an end, though it was Sunday morning, were exas- 
 perating to the exquisite lover of music. Mr. 
 Pericles was really suffering torments. Do you 
 know what it is to pursue the sylph, and touch her 
 flying skirts, think you have caught her, and are 
 sure of her — that she is yours, the rapturous eva- 
 nescent darling ! when some well-meaning earthly 
 wretch interposes and trips you, and off she flies 
 and leaves you floundering ? A lovely melody nearly 
 grasped and lost in this fashion, tries the temper. 
 Apollo chasing Daphne could have been barely 
 polite to the wood-nymphs in his path, and Mr. 
 Pericles was rude to the daughters of his host. 
 Smoothing his clean square chin and thick 
 moustache hastily, with outspread thumb and 
 fingers, he implored them to spare his nerves. 
 Smiling rigidly, he trusted they would be merciful 
 to a sensitive ear. Mr. Pole — who, as an English- 
 man, could not understand anyone being so serious 
 in the pursuit of a tune — laughed, and asked 
 questions, and almost drove Mr. Pericles mad. On 
 a sudden the Greek's sallow visage lightened. " It 
 is to you ! it is to you ! " he cried, stretching his 
 finger at Wilfrid. The young officer, having appa- 
 rently waited till he had finished with his knife and 
 fork, was leaning his cheek on his fist, looking at 
 
26 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 nobody, and quietly humming a part of the air. 
 Mr. Pericles complimented and thanked him. 
 
 "But you have ear for music extraordinaire!" 
 he said. 
 
 Adela patted her brother fondly, remarking — 
 " Yes, when his feelings are concerned." 
 
 " Will you repeat zat? v asked the Greek. " ' To- 
 to-ri : ' hein? I lose it. ' To-to-ru:' bah ! I lose it; 
 1 To-ri : ' ' to-ru- -ri- -ro : ' it is no use : I lose it." 
 
 Neither his persuasions, nor his sneer, " Because 
 it is Sunday, perhaps ! " would induce Wilfrid to 
 be guilty of another attempt. The ladies tried 
 sisterly cajoleries on him fruitlessly, until Mr. 
 Pole, seeing the desperation of his guest, said : 
 " Why not have her up here, toon and all, some 
 weekday ? Sunday birds won't suit us, you know. 
 We've got a piano for her that's good enough for 
 the first of 'em, if money means anything." 
 
 The ladies murmured meekly : " Yes, papa." 
 
 " I shall find her for you while you go to your 
 charch," said Mr. Pericles. And here Wilfrid was 
 seized with a yawn, and rose, and asked his eldest 
 sister if she meant to attend the service that 
 morning. 
 
 " Undoubtedly," she answered ; and Mr. Pole 
 took it up : " That's our discipline, my boy. Must 
 
Wilfrid's diplomacy. 27 
 
 set an example : do our duty. All the house goes 
 to worship in the country." 
 
 " Why, in ze country ? " queried Mr. Pericles. 
 
 " Because " — Cornelia came to the rescue of her 
 sire ; but her impetuosity was either unsupported 
 by a reason, or she stooped to fit one to the com- 
 prehension of the interrogator : " Oh, because — 
 do you know, we have very select music at our 
 church ? » 
 
 "We have a highly-paid organist," added Arabella. 
 
 "Recently elected," said Adela. 
 
 "Ah! mon Dieu ! " Mr. Pericles ejaculated. 
 " Some music sound well at afar — mellow, you say. 
 I prefer your charch music mellow." 
 
 "Won't you come?" cried Wilfrid, with wonderful 
 briskness. 
 
 " Xo. Mellow for me ! " 
 
 The Greek's grinders flashed, and Wilfrid turned 
 off from him sulkily. He saw in fancy the robber- 
 Greek prowling about Wilson's farm, setting snares 
 for the marvellous night-bird, and it was with more 
 than his customary inattention to his sisters' refined 
 conversation, that he formed part of their male 
 escort to the place of worship. 
 
 Mr. Pericles met the church-goers on their 
 return in one of the green bowery lanes leading up 
 
28 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 to Brookfield. Cold as lie was to English scenes 
 and sentiments, his alien ideas were not unimpressed 
 by the picture of those daintily- clad young women 
 demurely stepping homeward, while the air held a 
 revel of skylarks, and the scented hedgeways 
 quickened with sunshine. 
 
 " You have missed a treat ! " Arabella greeted him. 
 
 " A sermon ? " said he. 
 
 The ladies would not tell him, until his com- 
 placent cynicism at the notion of his having missed 
 a sermon, spurred them to reveal that the organ had 
 been handled in a masterly manner ; and that 
 the voluntary played at the close of the service was 
 most exquisite. 
 
 " Even papa was in raptures." 
 
 "Very good indeed/' said Mr. Pole. "I'm no 
 judge ; but you might listen to that sort of playing 
 after dinner." 
 
 Mr. Pericles seemed to think that this was scarcely 
 a critical period, but he merely grimaced, and in- 
 quired : " Did you see ze player ?" 
 
 " Oh, no : they are hidden/' Arabella explained 
 to him, " behind a curtain." 
 
 "But, what!" shouted the impetuous Greek: 
 "have you no curiosity? A woman! Andzen, you 
 saw not her ? " 
 
WILFRID S DIPLOMACY. 29 
 
 "No," remarked Cornelia, in the same aggra- 
 vating sing-song voice of utter indifference : " we 
 don't know whether it was not a man. Our usual 
 organist is a man, I believe." 
 
 The eyes of the Greek whitened savagely, and he 
 relapsed into frigid politeness. 
 
 Wilfrid was not present to point their apprehen- 
 sions. He had loitered behind ; but when he joined 
 them in the house subsequently, he was cheerful, 
 and had a look of triumph about him which made 
 his sisters say, " So, you have been with the Cop- 
 leys:" and he allowed them to suppose it, if they 
 pleased ; the Copleys being young ladies of position 
 in the neighbourhood, of much higher standing than 
 the Tinleys, who, though very wealthy, could not 
 have given their brother such an air, the sisters 
 imagined. 
 
 At lunch, Wilfrid remarked, carelessly : " By the 
 way, I met that little girl we saw last night." 
 
 " The singer ! where ? " asked his sisters, with 
 one voice. 
 
 " Coming out of church." 
 
 " She goes to church, then !" 
 
 This exclamation showed the heathen they took 
 her to be. 
 
 " Why, she played the organ," said Wilfrid. 
 
30 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 " And how does she look by day ? How does she 
 dress?" 
 
 "Oh! very jolly little woman! Dresses quiet 
 enough." 
 
 " She played the organ ! It was she, then ! An 
 organist! Is there anything approaching to gen- 
 tility in her appearance ?" 
 
 "I — really Fm no judge," said Wilfrid. "You 
 had better ask Laura Tinley. She was talking to 
 her when I went up." 
 
 The sisters exchanged looks. Presently they 
 stood together in consultation. Then they spoke 
 with their aunt, Mrs. Lupin, and went to their papa. 
 The rapacity of those Tinleys for anything extra- 
 ordinary was known to them, but they would not 
 have conceived that their own discovery, their own 
 treasure, could have been caught up so quickly. If 
 the Tinleys got possession of her, the defection of 
 Mr. Pericles might be counted on, and the display 
 of a phenomenon would be lost to them. They 
 decided to go down to Wilson's farm that very day, 
 and forestall their rivals by having her up to Brook- 
 field. The idea of doing this had been in a corner 
 of their minds all the morning : it seemed now the 
 most sensible plan in the world. It was patronage, 
 in its right sense. And they might be of great 
 
Wilfrid's diplomacy. 31 
 
 service to her, by giving a proper elevation and tone 
 to her genius; while she might amuse them, and 
 their guests, and be let off, in fact, as a firework for 
 the nonce. Among the queenly cases of women 
 who are designing to become the heads of a circle 
 (if I may use the term), an accurate admeasurement 
 of reciprocal advantages can scarcely be expected to 
 rank; but the knowledge that an act, depending 
 upon us for execution, is capable of benefiting both 
 sides, will make the proceeding appear so unselfish, 
 that its wisdom is overlooked as well as its motives. 
 The sisters felt they were the patronesses of the 
 little obscure genius whom they longed for to 
 illumine their household, before they knew her 
 name. Comet "Wilfrid Pole must have chuckled 
 mightily to see them depart on their mission. 
 These ladies, who managed everybody, had them- 
 selves been very cleverly managed. It is doubtful 
 whether the scheme to surprise and delight Mr. 
 Pericles would have actuated the step they took, 
 but for the dread of seeing the rapacious Tinleys 
 snatch up their lawful prey. The Tinleys were 
 known to be quite capable of doing so. They had, 
 on a particular occasion, made transparent overtures 
 to a celebrity belonging to the Poles, whom they 
 had first met at Brookfield : could never have hoped 
 
32 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 to have seen had they not met him at Brookfield ; 
 and girls who behaved in this way would do any- 
 thing. The resolution was taken to steal a march 
 on them; nor did it seem at all odd to people 
 naturally so hospitable as the denizens of Brook- 
 field, that the stranger of yesterday should be the 
 guest of to-day. Kindness of heart combined with 
 a great scheme in the brain, easily put aside con- 
 ventional rules. 
 
 " But we don't know her name," they said, when 
 they had taken the advice of the gentlemen on what 
 they had decided upon : all excepting Mr. Pericles, 
 for whom the surprise was in store. 
 
 "Belloni— Miss Belloni," said Wilfrid. 
 
 " Are you sure ? How do you know ?" 
 
 " She told Laura Tinley." 
 
 Within five minutes of the receipt of this intel- 
 ligence, the ladies were on their way to Wilson's 
 farm. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 emilia's first trial in public. 
 
 The circle which the ladies of Brookfield were 
 designing to establish just now, was of this receipt : — 
 Celebrities, London residents, and County notables, 
 all in their severally due proportions, were to meet, 
 mix, and revolve : the Celebrities to shine ; the 
 Metropolitans to act as satellites ; the County igno- 
 ramuses to feel flattered in knowing that all stood 
 forth for their amusement : they being the butts of 
 the quick-witted Metropolitans whom they despised, 
 while the sons of renown were encouraged to be con- 
 scious of their magnanimous superiority over both 
 sets, for whose entertainment they were ticketed. 
 
 This is a pudding indeed ! And the contemplation 
 of the skill and energy required to get together and 
 compound such a Brookfield Pudding, well-nigh 
 leads one to think the work that is done out of doors 
 a very inferior business, and, as it were, mere gather- 
 ing of fuel for the fire inside. It was known in the 
 neighbourhood that the ladies were preparing one ; 
 
 VOL. I. D 
 
34 
 
 EMILIA IX ENGLAND. 
 
 and moreover that they had a new kind of plum; in 
 other words, that they intended to exhibit a prodigy 
 of genius, who would flow upon the world from 
 Brookfield. To announce her with the invitations, 
 rejecting the idea of a surprise in the assembly, had 
 been necessary, because there was no other way of 
 securing Lady Gosstre, who led the society of the 
 district. The great lady gave her promise to attend : 
 "though," as she said to Arabella, "you must know 
 I abominate musical parties, and think them the 
 most absurd of entertainments possible ; but if you 
 have anything to show, that's another matter." 
 
 Two or three chosen friends were invited down 
 beforehand to inspect the strange girl, and say what 
 they thought of her ; for the ladies themselves were 
 perplexed. They had found her to be common- 
 place : a creature without ideas, and with a decided 
 appetite. So when Tracy Runningbrook, who had 
 also been a plum in his day, and was still a poet, 
 said that she was exquisitely comic, they were 
 induced to take the humorous view of the inex- 
 plicable side in the character of Miss Belloni, and 
 tried to laugh at her eccentricities. Seeing that 
 Mr. Pericles approved of her voice as a singer, and 
 Tracy Runningbrook let pass her behaviour as a 
 girl, they conceived that on the whole they were 
 
Emilia's first trial in public. 35 
 
 safe in sounding a trumpet loudly. These gentle- 
 men were connoisseurs, each in his walk. 
 
 Concerning her position and parentage, nothing 
 was known. She had met Adela's delicately-search- 
 ing touches in that direction with a marked reserve. 
 It was impossible to ask her point-blank, after 
 j:>robing her with a dozen suggestions, for the 
 ingenuousness of an indifferent inquiry could not 
 then be assumed, so that Adela was constantly 
 baffled and felt that she must some day be exces- 
 sively ' fond with her/ which was annoying. The 
 girl lit up at any sign of affection. A kind look 
 gave summer depths to her dark eyes. Otherwise 
 she maintained a simple discretion and walked in her 
 own path, content to look quietly pleased on every- 
 body, as one who had plenty to think of and a voice 
 in her ear. 
 
 Apparently she was not to be taught to under- 
 stand 'limits : which must be explained as a sort of 
 magnetic submissiveness to the variations of Polar 
 caprice ; so that she should move about with ease, 
 be cheerful, friendly, and, at a signal, affectionate ; 
 still not failing to recognise the particular nooks 
 where the family chalk had traced a line. As the 
 day of exhibition approached, Adela thought she 
 would give her a lesson in limits. She ventured 
 
 d 2 
 
36 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 to bestow a small caress on the girl, after a compli- 
 ment; thinking that the compliment would be a 
 check: but the compliment was passed, and the 
 caress instantly replied to with two arms and a 
 tender mouth. At which, Adela took fright and 
 was glad to slip away. 
 
 At last the pudding flowed into the bag. 
 
 Emilia was posted by the ladies in a corner of the 
 room. Receiving her assurance that she was not 
 hungry, they felt satisfied that she wanted nothing. 
 "Wilfred came up to her to console her for her lone- 
 liness, until Mr. Pericles had stationed himself at 
 the back of her chair, and then Wilfrid nodded 
 languidly and attended to his graver duties. Who 
 would have imagined that she had hurt him ? But 
 she certainly looked with greater animation on Mr. 
 Pericles : and when Tracy Eunningbrook sat down 
 by her, a perfect little carol of chatter sprang up 
 between them. These two presented such a notice- 
 able contrast, side by side, that the ladies had to 
 send a message to separate them. She was perhaps 
 a little the taller of the two ; with smoothed hair 
 that had the gloss of black briony leaves, and eyes 
 like burning brands in a cave ; while Tracy's hair 
 was red as blown flame, with eyes of a gray-green 
 hue that may be seen glistening over wet sunset. 
 
EMILIA S FIRST TRIAL IN PUBLIC. 8 ' 
 
 People, who knew him, asked : " Who is slic 7 " and 
 it was not in the design of the ladies to have her 
 noted just yet. 
 
 Lady Gosstre's exclamation on entering the room 
 was presently heard. " Well ! and where's our 
 extraordinary genius? Pray, let me see her imme- 
 diately.'-' 
 
 Thereat Laura Tinley. with gross ill-breeding, 
 rushed up to Arabella, who was receiving her lady- 
 ship, and touching her arm, as if privileges were 
 permitted her, cried : " I'm dying to see her. Has 
 she come ? " 
 
 Arabella embraced the offensive girl in a hostess's 
 smile, and talked flowingly to the great lady. 
 
 Laura Tinley was punished by being requested 
 to lead off with a favourite song in a buzz. She 
 acceded, quite aware of the honour intended, and 
 sat at the piano, taming as much as possible her 
 pantomime of one that would be audible. Lady 
 Gosstre scanned the room, while Adela, following 
 her ladyship's eyeglass, named the guests. 
 
 " You get together a quaint set of men," said 
 Lady Gosstre. 
 
 "Women!" was on Adda's tongue's tip. She 
 had really thought well of her men. Her heart 
 sank. 
 
38 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 " In the country ! " she began. 
 
 " Yes, yes ! " went my lady. 
 
 These were the lessons that made the ladies of 
 Brookfielcl put a check upon youth's tendency to 
 feel delightful satisfaction with its immediate work, 
 and speedily conceive a discontented suspicion of 
 anything whatsoever that served them. 
 
 Two other sacrifices were offered at the piano 
 after Laura Tinley. Poor victims of ambition, they 
 arranged their dresses, smiled at the leaves, and 
 deliberately gave utterance to the dreadful nonsense 
 of the laureates of our drawing-rooms. Mr. Pericles 
 and Emilia exchanged scientific glances during the 
 performance. She was merciless to indifferent music. 
 "Wilfrid saw the glances pass. So, now, when Emilia 
 was beckoned to the piano, she passed by Wilfrid, 
 and had a cold look in return for beaming eyes. 
 
 According to directions, Emilia sang a simple 
 Neapolitan air. The singer was unknown, and was 
 generally taken for another sacrifice. 
 
 " Come ; that's rather pretty," Lady Gosstre 
 hailed the close. 
 
 "It is of ze people — such as zat," assented Mr. 
 Pericles. 
 
 Adela heard my lady ask for the singer's name. 
 She made her way to her sisters. Adela was 
 
emilia's first trial in public. 39 
 
 ordinarily the promoter, Cornelia the sifter, and 
 Arabella the director, of schemes in this manage- 
 ment. The ladies had a moment for counsel over a 
 music -book, for Arabella was about to do duty at 
 the piano. During a pause, Mr. Pole, lifting his 
 white waistcoat with the effort, sent a word abroad, 
 loudly and heartily, regardless of its guardian 
 aspirate, like a bold-faced hoyden flying from her 
 chaperone. They had dreaded it. The} r loved 
 their father, but declined to think his grammar 
 parental. Hushing together, they agreed that it 
 had been a false move to invite Lady Gosstre, who 
 did not care a bit for music, until the success of 
 their Genius was assured by persons who did. To 
 suppose that she would recognise a Genius failing a 
 special introduction, was absurd. The ladies could 
 turn upon aristocracy too, when it suited them. 
 
 Arabella had now to go through a nuartett. The 
 fever of ill-luck had seized the violin. He would 
 not tune. Then his string broke ; and while he 
 was arranging it the footman came up to Arabella. 
 Misfortunes, we know, are the most united family 
 on earth. The news brought to her was that a lady 
 of the name of Mrs. Chump was below. Holding 
 her features rigidly bound, not to betray perturba- 
 tion, Arabella confided the fact to Cornelia, who, 
 
40 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 with a similar mental and muscular compression, 
 said instantly, " Manoeuvre her." Adela remarked, 
 " If } t ou tell her the company is grand, she icill 
 come, and her Irish once heard here will destroy 
 us. The very name of Chump ! " 
 
 Mrs. Chump was the wealthy Irish widow of an 
 alderman, whose unaccountable bad taste in going 
 to Ireland for a wife, yet filled the ladies with 
 astonishment. She pretended to be in difficulties 
 with her lawyers; for which reason she strove to be 
 perpetually in consultation with her old flame and 
 present trustee, Mr. Pole. The ladies had fought 
 against her in London, and since their installation 
 at Brookfield they had announced to their father 
 that she was not to be endured there. Mr. Pole 
 had plaintively attempted to dilate on the virtues of 
 Martha Chump. "In her place," said the ladies, 
 and illustrated to him that amid a nosegay of 
 flowers there was no fit room for an exuberant 
 vegetable. The old man had sighed and seemed to 
 surrender. One thing was certain : Mrs. Chump 
 had never been seen at Brookfield. " She never 
 shall, save by the servants," said the ladies. 
 
 Emilia, not unmarked of Mr. Pericles, had gone 
 over to Wilfrid once or twice, to ask him if haply 
 he disapproved of anything she had done. Mr. 
 
emilia's first trial in tuelic. 41 
 
 Pericles shrugged, and went " Ah ! " as who should 
 say, " This must be stopped." Adela now came to 
 her and caught her hand, showering sweet whispers 
 on her, and bidding her go to her harp and do her 
 best. " We love you ; we all love you ! " was her 
 parting instigation. 
 
 The quartett was abandoned. Arabella had de- 
 parted with a firm countenance to combat Mrs. Chump. 
 
 Emilia sat by her harp. The saloon was criti- 
 cally still ; so still that Adela fancied she heard a 
 faint Irish protest from the parlour. Wilfrid was 
 perhaps the most critical auditor present : for he 
 doubted whether she could renew that singular 
 charm of her singing in the pale lighted woods. 
 The first smooth contralto notes took him captive. 
 He scarcely believed that this could be the raw girl 
 whom his sisters delicately pitied. 
 
 A murmur of plaudits, the low-thunder of gather- 
 ing acclamation, went round. Lady Gosstre looked 
 a satisfied " This will do." Wilfrid saw Emilia's 
 eyes appeal hopefully to Mr. Pericles. The con- 
 noisseur shrugged. A pain lodged visibly on her 
 black eyebrows. She gripped her harp, and her 
 eyelids appeared to quiver as she took the notes. 
 Again, and still singing, she turned her head to 
 him. The eyes of Mr. Pericles were white, as if 
 
42 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 upraised to intercede for her with the Powers of 
 Harmony. Her voice grew unnerved. On a sudden 
 she excited herself to pitch and give volume to that 
 note which had been the enchantment of the night 
 in the woods. It quavered. One might have 
 thought her caught by the throat. 
 
 Emilia gazed at no one now. She rose, -without 
 a word or an apology, keeping her eyes down. 
 
 " Fiasco ! " cruelly cried Mr. Pericles. 
 
 That was better to her than the silly kindness of 
 the people who deemed it well to encourage her 
 with applause. Emilia could not bear the clapping 
 of hands, and fled. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 EMILIA PLAYS OX THE CORNET. 
 
 The night was warm under a slowly-floating 
 moon. Full of compassion for the poor girl, who 
 had moved him if she had failed in winning the 
 assembly, Wilfrid stepped into the garden, where 
 he expected to find her, and to be the first to pet 
 and console her. Threading the scented shrubs, 
 he came upon a turn in one of the alleys, from 
 which point he had a view of her figure, as she 
 stood near a Portugal laurel on the lawn. Mr. 
 Pericles was by her side. Wilfrid's intention was to 
 join them. A loud sob from Emilia checked his foot. 
 
 " You are cruel," he heard her say. 
 
 " If it is good, I tell it you ; if it is bad, abomi- 
 nable, I tell it you, juste ze same," responded Mr. 
 Pericles. 
 
 " The others did not think it very bad." 
 
 " All ! bah !" Mr. Pericles cut her short. 
 
 Had they been talking of matters secret and too 
 sweet, Wilfrid would have retired, like a man of 
 
44 EMILIA IX ENGLAND. 
 
 honour. As it was, he continued to listen. The 
 tears of his poor little friend, moreover, seemed to 
 hold him there in the hope that he might afford 
 some help. 
 
 "Yes; I do not care for the others," she resumed. 
 " You praised me the night I first saw you." 
 
 " It is perhaps zat } r ou can sing to z' moon," 
 returned Mr. Pericles. " But, what ! a singer, she 
 must sing in a house. To-night it is warm, to- 
 morrow it is cold. If you sing through a cold, what 
 noise do we hear ? It is a nose, not a voice. It is 
 a trompet." 
 
 Emilia, with a whimpering firmness, replied : 
 " You said I am lazy. I am not." 
 
 " Not lazy," Mr. Pericles assented. 
 
 " Do I care for praise from people who do not 
 understand music ? It is not true. I only like to 
 please them." 
 
 " Be a street-organ," Mr. Pericles retorted. 
 
 " I must like to see them pleased when I sing," 
 said Emilia, desperately. 
 
 " And you like ze clap of ze hands. Yez. It is 
 quite natural. Yess. You are a good child, it is 
 clear. But, look. You are a voice uncultivated, 
 sauvage. You go wrong: I hear you: and dese 
 claps of zese noodels send you into squeaks and 
 
EMILIA PLAYS ON THE CORNET. 45 
 
 shrills, arid false ! false ! away you go. It is a 
 gallop ze wrong way." 
 
 Here Mr. Pericles attempted the most horrible 
 reproduction of Emilia's failure. She cried out as 
 if she had been bitten. 
 
 " What am I to do ?" she asked, sadly. 
 
 ' ; Xot now," Mr. Pericles answered. " You live 
 in London ? — at where ? " 
 
 ••Must I tell you?" 
 
 " Certainly, you must tell me." 
 
 " But, I am not going there ; I mean, not yet." 
 
 " You are going to sing to z moon through z 
 nose. Yez. For how long ? " 
 
 " These ladies have asked me to stay with them. 
 They make me so happy. When I leave them — 
 then!" 
 
 Emilia sighed. 
 
 u And zen?" quoth Mr. Pericles. 
 
 " Then, while my money lasts, I shall stay in the 
 country." 
 
 " How much money?" 
 
 "How much money have I?" Emilia frankly 
 and accurately summed up the condition of her 
 treasury. " Four pounds and nineteen shillings." 
 
 " Horn ! it is spent, and you go to your father 
 
46 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 "Yes!" 
 
 "Toze old Belloni ? " 
 
 " My father." 
 
 " No !*' cried Mr. Pericles, upon Emilia's melan- 
 choly utterance. He bent to her ear and rapidly 
 spoke, in an undertone, what seemed to be a vivid 
 sketch of a new course of fortune for her. Emilia 
 gave one jo} T ful outcry; and now Wilfrid retreated, 
 questioning within himself whether he should have 
 remained so long. But, as he argued, if he was 
 convinced that the rascally Greek fellow meant 
 mischief to her, was he not bound to employ every 
 stratagem to be her safeguard ? The influence Mr. 
 Pericles already exercised over her was immense 
 and mysterious. Within ten minutes she was sing- 
 ing triumphantly indoors. Wilfrid could hear 
 that her voice was firm and assured. She was 
 singing the song of the woods. He found to his 
 surprise that his heart dropped under some burden, 
 as if he had no longer force to sustain it. 
 
 By-and-by some of the members of the company 
 issued forth. Carriages were heard on the gravel, 
 and young men in couples, preparing to light the 
 ensign of happy release from the ladies (or of in- 
 demnification for their absence, if you please), 
 strolled about the grounds. 
 
EMILIA PLAYS ON THE CORNET. 47 
 
 " Did you see that little passage between Laura 
 Tinley and Bella Pole ? " said one, and forthwith 
 mimicked them : " Laura commencing : — ' We must 
 have her over to us.' — "' I fear we have pre-engaged 
 her.' — ' Oh, but you, dear, will do us the favour to 
 come, too?' — 'I fear, dear, our immediate engage- 
 ments will preclude the possibility.' — ' Surely, dear 
 Miss Pole, we may hope that you have not aban- 
 doned us ? ' — ' That, my dear Miss Tinley, is out of 
 the question.' — ' May we not name a day ? ' — ' If it 
 depends upon us, frankly, we cannot bid you do so.'" 
 
 The other joined him in laughter, adding : 
 " ' Frankly ' 's capital ! "What absurd creatures 
 women are ! How the deuce did you manage to 
 remember it all ? " 
 
 " My sister was at my elbow. She repeated it, 
 word for word."'' 
 
 " Ton my honour, women are wonderful crea- 
 tures!" 
 
 The two young men continued their remarks, 
 with a sense of perfect consistency. 
 
 Lady Gosstre, as she was being conducted to her 
 carriage, had pronounced aloud that Emilia was 
 decidedly worth hearing. 
 
 " She's better worth knowing," said Tracy Pam- 
 ningbrook. "I see you are all bent on spoiling her. 
 
48 EMILIA IX ENGLAND. 
 
 If you were to sit and talk with her, you would per- 
 ceive that she's meant for more than to make a 
 machine of her throat. What a throat it is ! She 
 has the most comical notion of things. I fancy 
 I'm looking at the budding of my own brain. She's 
 a born artist, but I'm afraid ever}'body's conspiring 
 to ruin her." 
 
 "Surely," said Adela, "we shall not do that, if 
 we encourage her in her art." 
 
 " He means another kind of art," said Lady 
 Gosstre. " The term ' artist,' applied to our sex, 
 signifies ' Frenchwoman ' with him. He does not 
 allow us to be anything but women. As artists, 
 then, we are largely privileged, I assure you." 
 
 " Are we placed under a professor to learn the 
 art?" Adela inquired, pleased with the subject 
 under such high patronage. 
 
 " Each new experience is your accomplished pro- 
 fessor/' said Tracy. " One can't call Cleopatra a 
 professor : she's but an illustrious example." 
 
 " Imp ! you are corrupt." With which my lady 
 tapped farewell on his shoulder. Leaning from the 
 carriage -window, she said : " I suppose I shall see 
 you at Eichford ? Merthyr Powys is coming this 
 week. And that reminds me : he would be the man 
 to appreciate your ' born artist.' Bring her to me. 
 
I.MILIA PLAYS OX THE CORNET. 40 
 
 "We will have a dinner. I will despatch a formal 
 invitation to-morrow. The season's bad out of 
 town for getting decent people to meet you. I will 
 do my best." 
 
 She bowed to Adela and Tracy. Mr. Pole, who 
 had hovered around the unfamiliar dialogue to 
 attend the great lady to the door, here came in for 
 a recognition, and bowed obsequiously to the back 
 of the carriage. 
 
 Arabella did not tell her sisters what weapon she 
 had employed to effect the rout of Mrs. Chump. 
 She gravely remarked that the woman had con- 
 sented to go, and her sisters thanked her. They 
 were mystified by Laura's non-recognition of Emilia, 
 and only suspected Wilfrid so faintly that they were 
 able to think they did not suspect him at all. On the 
 whole, the evening had been a success. It justified 
 the ladies in repeating a well-known Brookfield 
 phrase : ' We may be wrong in many things, but 
 never in our judgment of the merits of any given 
 person.' In the case of Tracy Eunningbrook, they 
 had furnished a signal instance of their discern- 
 ment. Him they had met at the house of a friend of 
 the Tinleys (a Colonel's wife distantly connected with 
 great houses). The Tinleys laughed at his flaming 
 head and him, but the ladies of Brookfield had ears 
 
 VOL. I. | 
 
50 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 and eyes for a certain tone and style about him, 
 before they learnt that he had a baronet for a 
 father, and an earl for a maternal grandfather. "When 
 this was mentioned, after his departure, they had 
 made him theirs, and the Tinleys had no chance. 
 Through Tracy, they achieved their introduction to 
 Lady Gosstre. And now they were to dine with her. 
 They did not say that this was through Emilia. 
 In fact, they felt a little that they had this evening 
 been a sort of background to their prodigy : which 
 was not in the design. Having observed, " She 
 sang deliciously," they dismissed her, and referred 
 to dresses, gaucheries of members of the company, 
 pretensions here and there, Lady Gosstre's walk, the 
 way to shuffle men and women, how to start themes 
 for them to converse upon, and so forth. Not 
 Juno and her court surveying our mortal require- 
 ments in divine independence of fatigue, could have 
 been more considerate for the shortcomings of 
 humanity. And while they were legislating this 
 and that for others, they still accepted hints for 
 their own improvement, as those who have Perfec- 
 tion in view may do. Lady Gosstre's carriage of 
 her shoulders, and general manner, were admitted 
 to be worthy of study. — " And did you notice when 
 Laura Tinley interrupted her conversation with 
 
EMILIA PLAYS ON TIIE CORNET. 51 
 
 Tracy Runningbrook, bow quietly sbe replied to the 
 fact and nothing else, so that Laura bad not another 
 word?" — "And did you observe her deference to 
 papa, as host ? " — " And did you not see, on more 
 than one occasion, with what consummate ease she 
 would turn a current of dialogue when it had gone 
 far enough ? " They had all noticed, seen, and 
 observed. They agreed that there was a quality 
 beyond art, beyond genius, beyond any special 
 cleverness; and that was, the great social quality of 
 taking, as by nature, without assumption, a queenly 
 position in a circle, and making harmony of all the 
 instruments to be found in it. High praise of 
 Lady Gosstre ensued. The ladies of Brookfield 
 allowed themselves to bow to her with the greater 
 humility, owing to the secret sense they nursed of 
 overtopping her still in that ineffable Something 
 which they alone possessed : a casket little people 
 will be wise in not hurrying our Father Time to 
 open for them, if they would continue to enjoy the 
 jewel they suppose it to contain. Finally, these 
 energetic young ladies said their prayers by the 
 morning twitter of the birds, and went to their 
 beds, less from a desire for rest than because custom 
 demanded it. 
 
 Three days later Emilia was a resident in the 
 
 E 2 
 
 U. OF ILL LIB. 
 
52 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 house, receiving lessons in demeanour from 
 Cornelia, and in horsemanship from Wilfrid, She 
 expressed no gratitude for kindnesses or wonder at 
 the change in her fortune, save that pleasure sat 
 like an inextinguishable light on her face. A 
 splendid new harp arrived one da} 7 , ticketed, ' For 
 Miss Emilia Belloni.' 
 
 " He does not know I have a second Christian 
 name," was her first remark, after an examination of 
 the instrument. 
 
 " ' He ' ? " quoth Adela. " May it not have been 
 a lady's gift ? " 
 
 Emilia clearly thought not. 
 
 " And to whom do you ascribe it ?" 
 
 " "Who sent it to me ? Mr. Pericles, of 
 course." 
 
 She touched the strings immediately, and sighed. 
 
 "Are you discontented with the tone, child?" 
 asked Adela. 
 
 " No. I can't guess what it cost ! " 
 
 Surely the ladies had reason to think her 
 commonplace ? 
 
 She explained herself better to Wilfrid, when he 
 returned to Brookfield after a short absence. 
 Showing the harp, " See what Mr. Pericles thinks 
 me worth!" she said. 
 
EMILIA PLAYS ON THE CORNET. 53 
 
 "Not more than that?" was his gallant rejoinder. 
 " Does it suit you ? " 
 
 " Yes ; in every way." 
 
 This was all she said about it. 
 
 In the morning after breakfast, she sat at harp or 
 piano, and then ran out to gather wild flowers and 
 learn the names of trees and birds. On almost all 
 occasions Wilfrid was her companion. He laughed 
 at the little sisterly revelations the ladies confided 
 concerning her too heartily for them to have any fear 
 that she was other than a toy to him. Few women 
 are aware with how much ease sentimental men can 
 laugh outwardly at what is internal torment. They 
 had apprised him of their wish to know what her 
 origin was, and of her peculiar reserve on that 
 topic : whereat he assured them that she would 
 have no secrets from him. His conduct of affairs 
 was so open that none could have supposed the 
 gallant cornet entangled in a maze of sentiment. 
 For, veritably, this girl was the last sort of girl to 
 please his fancy ; and he saw not a little of fair 
 ladies : by virtue of his heroic antecedents, he was 
 himself well seen of them. The gallant cornet 
 adored delicacy and a gilded refinement. The female 
 flower could not be too exquisitely cultivated to 
 satisfy him. And here he was, running after a little 
 
54 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 unformed girl, who had no care to conceal the fact 
 that she was an animal, nor any notion of the 
 necessity for doing so ! He had good reason to 
 laugh when his sisters talked of her. It was not a 
 pleasant note which came from the gallant cornet 
 then. But, in the meadows, or kindly conducting 
 Emilia's horse, he yielded pretty music. Emilia 
 wore Arabella's riding-habit, Adela's hat, and 
 Cornelia's gloves. Politic as the ladies of Brook - 
 field were, they were full of natural kindness ; and 
 Wilfrid, albeit a diplomatist, was not yet mature 
 enough to control and guide a very sentimental 
 heart. There was an element of dim imagination in 
 all the family : and it was this that consciously 
 elevated them over the world in prospect, and made 
 them unconsciously subject to what I must call the 
 spell of the poetic power. 
 
 Wilfrid in his soul wished that Emilia should 
 date from the day she had entered Brookfield. 
 But at times it seemed to him that a knowledge of 
 her antecedents might relieve him from his ridi- 
 culous perplexity of feeling. Besides, though her 
 voice struck emotion, she herself was unimpression- 
 able. " Cold by nature," he said, looking at the 
 unkindled fire. She shook hands like a boy. If 
 her fingers were touched and retained, they con- 
 
EMILIA PLAYS ON THE CORNET. 55 
 
 tinned to be fingers for as long as yon pleased. 
 Murmurs and whispers passed by her like the 
 breeze. She appeared also to have no enthusiasm 
 for her art, so that not even there could Wilfrid find 
 common ground. Italy, however, he discovered to 
 be the subject that made her light up. Of Italy he 
 would speak frequently, and with much simulated 
 fervour. 
 
 " Mr. Pericles is going to take me there," said 
 Emilia. " He told me to keep it secret. I have no 
 secrets from my friends. I am to learn in the 
 academy at Milan.'' 
 
 " "Would you not rather let me take you ? " 
 " Xot quite." She shook her head. " Xo ; 
 because you do not understand music as he does. 
 And are 3-ou as rich ? I cost a great deal of money 
 even for eating alone. But you will be glad when 
 you hear me when I come back. Do you hear that 
 nightingale ? It must be a nightingale." 
 
 She listened. " What things he makes us feel ! " 
 Bending her head, she walked on silently. 
 Wilfrid, he knew not why, had got a sudden hunger 
 for all the days of her life. He caught her hand 
 and, drawing her to a garden seat, said: "Come; 
 now tell me all about yourself before I knew you. 
 Do you mind ? " 
 
56 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 "I'll tell you anything you want to hear," said 
 Emilia. 
 
 He enjoined her to begin from the beginning. 
 
 " Everything about myself? " she asked. 
 
 "Everything. I have your permission to smoke ? " 
 
 Emilia smiled. " I wish I had some Italian 
 cigars to give you. My father sometimes has plenty 
 given to him." 
 
 Wilfrid did not contemplate his havannah with 
 less favour. 
 
 " Xow," said Emilia, taking a last sniff of the 
 flowers before surrendering her nostril to the 
 invading smoke. She looked at the scene fronting 
 her under a blue sky with slow flocks of clouds : 
 " How I like this ! " she exclaimed. " I almost 
 forget that I long for Italy, here." 
 
 Be} T ond a plot of flowers, a gold-green meadow 
 dipped to a ridge of gorse bordered by dark firs 
 and the tips of greenest larches. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 EMILIA SUPPLIES THE KEY TO HERSELF AND CON- 
 TINUES HER PERFORMANCE ON THE CORNET. 
 
 " My father is one of the most wonderful men in 
 the whole world ! " 
 
 Wilfred lifted an eyelid. 
 
 " He is one of the first-violins at the Italian 
 Opera ! " 
 
 ' The gallant cornet's critical appreciation of this 
 impressive announcement was expressed in a spiral 
 ebullition of smoke from his mouth. 
 
 " He is such a proud man ! And I don't wonder 
 at that : he has reason to be proud." 
 
 Again Wilfrid lifted an eyelid, and there is no 
 knowing but that ideas of a connection with foreign 
 Counts, Cardinals, and Princes passed hopefully 
 through him. 
 
 "Would you believe that he is really the own 
 nephew of Andronizetti ! " 
 
 "Deuce he is ! " said Wilfrid, in a mist. "Which 
 one ? " 
 
58 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 " The composer ! " 
 
 "Wilfrid emitted more smoke. 
 
 " Who composed — how I love him ! — that lovely 
 1 la, la, la, la/ and the ' te-de, ta-da, te-dio,' that 
 pleases you, out of ' II Maladetto.' And I am 
 descended from him ! Let me hope I shall not be 
 unworthy of him. You will never tell it till people 
 think as much of me, or nearly, will you? My 
 father says I shall never be so great, because I am 
 half English. It's not my fault. My mother was 
 English. But I feel that I am much more Italian 
 than English. How I long for Italy — like a thing 
 underground ! My father did something against the 
 Austrians, when he was a young man. "Would not 
 I have done it ? I am sure I would — I don't know 
 what. Whenever I think of Italy, night or day, 
 pant-pant goes my heart. The name of Italy is my 
 nightingale : I feel that somebody lives that I love, 
 and is ill-treated shamefully, crying out to me for 
 help. My father had to run away to save his life. 
 He was fifteen days lying in the rice-fields to escape 
 from the soldiers — which makes me hate a white 
 coat. Please, never wear one ! There was my 
 father ; and at night he used to steal out to one of 
 the villages, where was a good, true woman — so they 
 are, most, in Italy I She gave him food ; maize- 
 
EMILIA CONTINUES HER PERFORMANCE. 59 
 
 bread and wine, sometimes meat ; sometimes a 
 bottle of very good wine. When my father thinks 
 of it he cries, if there is gin smelling near him. 
 At last my father had to stop there day and night. 
 Then that good woman's daughter came to him to 
 keep him from starving ; she risked being stripped 
 naked and beaten with rods, to keep my father from 
 starving. \Yhen my father speaks of Sandra now, 
 it makes my mother — she does not like it. I am 
 named after her : Emilia Alessandra Belloni. 
 ' Sandra' is short for it. She did not know why I 
 was christened that, and will never call me anything 
 but Emilia, though my father says Sandra, always. 
 My father never speaks of that dear Sandra herself, 
 except when he is tipsy. Once I used to wish him 
 to be tipsy ; for then I used to sit at my piano 
 while he talked, and I made all his words go into 
 music. One night I did it so well, my father 
 jumped right up from his chair, shouting ' Italia ! ' 
 and he caught his wig off his head, and threw it 
 into the fire, and rushed out into the street quite 
 bald, and people thought him mad. 
 
 " It was the beginning of all our misfortunes ! 
 My father was taken and locked up in a place as a 
 tipsy man. That he has never forgiven the English 
 for ! It has made me and my mother miserable 
 
GO EMILIA IX ENGLAND. 
 
 ever since. My mother is sure it is all since that 
 night. Do you know, I remember, though I was so 
 young, that I felt the music — oh ! like a devil — in my 
 bosom ? Perhaps it was, and it passed out of me 
 and into him. Do you think it was ? " 
 
 Wilfrid answered : " Well, no ! I shouldn't 
 think you had anything to do with the devil/' 
 Indeed, he was beginning to think her one of the 
 smallest of frocked female essences. 
 
 " I lost my piano through it," she went on. " I 
 could not practice. I was the most miserable 
 creature in all the world till I fell in love with my 
 harp. My father would not pla} r to get money. He 
 sat in his chair, and only spoke to ask about meal- 
 time, and we had no money for food, except by 
 selling everything we had. Then my piano went. 
 So then I said to my mother, I will advertise to 
 give lessons, as other people do, and make money 
 for us all, myself. So we paid money for a brass 
 plate, and our landlady's kind son put it up on the 
 door for nothing, and we waited for pupils to come. 
 I used to pray to the Virgin that she would 
 blessedly send me pupils, for my poor mother's 
 complaints were so shrill and out of tune it's 
 impossible to tell you what I suffered. But by-and- 
 by my father saw the brass-plate. He fell into one 
 
EMILIA CONTINUES HER PERFORMANCE. CI 
 
 of his dreadful passions. We had to buy him 
 another wig. His passions were so expensive : my 
 mother used to say, c There goes our poor dinner 
 out of the window!' But, well! he went to get 
 employment now. He can, always, when he pleases ; 
 for such a touch on the violin as my father has, you 
 never heard. You feel yourself from top to toe, 
 when my father plays. I feel as if I breathed music 
 like air. One day came news from Italy, all in the 
 newspaper, of my father's friends and old com- 
 panions shot and murdered by the Austrians. He 
 read it in the evening, after we had had a quiet 
 day. I thought he did not mind it much, for he 
 read it out to us quite quietly ; and then he made me 
 sit on his knee and read it out. I cried with rage, 
 and he called to me, ' Sandra ! Peace ! ' and began 
 walking up and down the room, while my mother 
 got the bread and cheese and spread it on the table, 
 for we were beginning to be richer. I saw my 
 father take out his violin. He put it on the cloth 
 and looked at it. Then he took it up, and laid his 
 chin on it like a man full of love, and drew the bow 
 across just once. He whirled away the bow, and 
 knocked down our candle, and in the darkness I 
 ■heard something snap and break with a hollow 
 sound. When I could see, he had broken it, the 
 
62 EMILIA IX ENGLAND. 
 
 neck from the body — the dear old violin ! I could 
 cry still. I — I was too late to save it. I saw it 
 broken, and the empty belly, and the loose strings ! 
 It was murdering a spirit — that was ! My father 
 sat in a corner one whole week, moping like such 
 an old man ! I was nearly dead with my mother's 
 voice. By-and-by we were all silent, for there 
 was nothing to eat. So I said to my mother, ' I 
 will earn money.' My mother cried. I proposed 
 to take a lodging for myself, all by myself; go there 
 in the morning and return at night, and give 
 lessons, and get money for them. My landlady's 
 good son gave me the brass-plate again. Emilia 
 Alessandra Belloni ! I was glad to see my name. 
 I got two pupils very quickly : one, an old lady, 
 and one, a young one. The old lady — I mean, she 
 was not giay — wanted a gentleman to marry her, 
 and the landlady told me, she — I mean my pupil — 
 it makes me laugh — asked him what he thought of 
 her voice : for I had been singing. I earned a 
 great deal of moneys two pounds ten shillings a 
 week. I could afford to pay for lessons myself, I 
 thought. What an expense ! I had to pay ten 
 shillings for one lesson ! Some have to pay twenty ; 
 but I would pay it to learn from the best masters ; — • 
 and I had to make my father and mother live on 
 
EMILIA CONTINUES HER PERFORMANCE. G3 
 
 potatoes, and myself too, of course. If you buy 
 potatoes carefully, they are extremely cheap things 
 to live upon, and make you forget your hunger 
 more than anything else. 
 
 " I suppose," added Emilia, " you have never 
 lived upon potatoes entirely ? " 
 
 Wilfrid gave a quiet negative. 
 
 " But I was pining to learn, and was obliged to 
 keep them low. I could pitch any notes and I was 
 clear; but I was always ornamenting, and what I 
 want is to be an accurate singer. My music -master 
 was a German — not an Austrian — oh, no ! — I'm 
 sure he was not. At least, I don't think so, for I 
 liked him : he was harsh with me, but sometimes 
 he did stretch his fingers on my head, and turn it 
 round, and say words that I pretended not to think 
 of, though they sent me home burning. I began to 
 compose, and this gentleman tore up the whole 
 sheet in a rage, when I showed it him; but he gave 
 me a dinner, and left off charging me ten shillings — 
 only seven, and then five — and he gave me more 
 time than he gave others. He also did something 
 which I don't know yet whether I can thank him for. 
 He made me know the music of the great German. 
 I used to listen: I could not believe such music 
 could come from a German. He followed me about, 
 
CI EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 telling me I was his slave. For some time I could 
 not sleep. I laughed at myself for composing. He 
 was not an Austrian ; but when he was alive, he 
 lived in Vienna, the capital of Austria. He ate 
 Austrian bread, and why God gave him such a soul 
 of music I never can think ! — Well, by-and-by my 
 father wanted to know what I did in the day, and 
 why they never had anything but potatoes for 
 dinner. My mother came to me, and I told her to 
 say, I took walks. My father said I was an idle 
 girl, and like my mother — who was a slave to work. 
 People are often unjust ! So my father said he 
 would watch me. I had to cross the park to give a 
 lesson to a lacly who had a husband, and she 
 wanted to sing to him to keep him at home in the 
 evening. I used to pray he might not have much 
 ear for music. One day a gentleman came behind 
 me in the park. He showed me a handkerchief, 
 and asked me if it was mine. I felt for my own and 
 found it in my pocket. He was certain I had 
 dropped it. He looked in the corners for the name, 
 I told him my name — Emilia Alessandra Belloni. 
 He found A. F. G. there. It was a beautiful 
 cambric handkerchief, white and smooth. I told 
 him it must be a gentleman's, as it was so large; 
 but he said he had picked it up close by me, and he 
 
EMILIA CONTINUES HER PERFORMANCE. 65 
 
 could not take it, and I must ; and I was obliged to 
 keep it, though I would much rather not. Near the 
 end of the park he left me." 
 
 At this point Wilfrid roused up. " You met him 
 the next day near the same place ? " he remarked. 
 
 She turned to him with astonishment on her 
 features. " How did you know that ? How could 
 you know ? " 
 
 " Sort of thing that generally happens," said 
 Wilfrid. 
 
 "Yes; he was there," Emilia slowly pursued, 
 controlling her inclination to question further. 
 "He had forgotten about the handkerchief, for when 
 I saw him, I fancied he might have found the owner. 
 We talked together. He told me he was in the 
 Army, and I spoke of my father's playing and my 
 singing. He was so fond of music that I promised 
 him he should hear us both. He used to examine 
 my hand, and said they were sensitive fingers for 
 playing. I knew that. He had great hopes of me. 
 He said he would give me a box at the Opera, now 
 and then. I was mad with joy ; and so delighted to 
 have made a friend. I had never before made a 
 rich friend. I sang to him in the park. His eyes 
 looked beautiful with pleasure. I know I enchanted 
 him." 
 
 VOL. I. F 
 
GG EMILIA IX ENGLAND. 
 
 " How old were you then ? " inquired Wilfrid. 
 
 " Sixteen. I can sing better now, I know ; but I 
 had voice then, and he felt that I had. I forgot 
 where we were, till people stood round us, and he 
 hurried me away from them, and said I must sing to 
 him in some quiet place. I promised to, and he 
 promised he would have dinner for me at Richmond 
 Hill, in the country, and he would bring friends to 
 hear me." 
 
 " Go on," said Wilfrid, rather sharply. 
 
 She sighed. " I only saw him once after that. 
 It was such a miserable day ! It rained. It was 
 Saturday. I did not expect to find him in the rain ; 
 but there he stood, exactly where he had given me 
 the handkerchief. He smiled kindly, as I came up. 
 I dislike gloomy people ! His face was always 
 fresh and nice. His moustache reminded me of 
 Italy. I used to think of him under a great warm 
 sky, with olives and vine-trees and mulberries like 
 my father used to speak of. I could have flung my 
 arms about his neck." 
 
 " Did you ? " The cornet gave a strangled note. 
 
 " Oh, no ! " said Emilia, seriously. " But I told 
 him how happy the thought of going into the 
 country made me, and that it was almost like going 
 to Italy. He told me he would take me to Italy, if 
 
EMILIA CONTINUES HER PERFORMANCE. 07 
 
 I liked. I could have knelt at his feet. Unfor- 
 tunately, his friends could not come. Still, I was to 
 go, and dine, and float on the water, plucking 
 flowers. I determined to fancy myself in Venice, 
 which is the place my husband must take me to, 
 when I am married to him. I will give him my 
 whole body and soul for his love, when I am there !• ' 
 
 Here the cornet was capable of articulate music 
 for a moment, but it resolved itself into: "Well, 
 well! Yes, go on ! " 
 
 " I took his arm, this time. It gave me my first 
 timid feeling that I remember, and he laughed at me, 
 and drove it quite away, telling me his name : Augustus 
 
 Frederick what was it ? — Augustus Frederick 
 
 — it began with G something. O me ! have I really 
 forgotten ? Christian names are always easier to 
 remember. A captain, he was — a riding one : just 
 like you. I suppose you are all kind ? " 
 
 " Extremely," muttered the ironical cornet. 
 "A. F. G. ; — those are the initials on the hand- 
 kerchief ! " 
 
 " A. F. G. !— they are!" cried Emilia. "Then 
 it must have been his own handkerchief ! " 
 
 11 You have achieved the discovery," quoth 
 Wilfrid. " He dropped it there overnight, and 
 found it just as you were passing, in the morning." 
 
 f2 
 
68 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 " That must be impossible," said Emilia, and 
 dismissed the subject forthwith, in a feminine power 
 of resolve to be blind to it. 
 
 " I am afraid," she took up her narrative, " my 
 father is sometimes really almost mad. He does 
 such things ! I had walked under this gentle- 
 man's umbrella to the bridge between the park and 
 the gardens with the sheep, and beautiful flowers 
 in beds. In an instant my father came up right in 
 our faces. He caught hold of my left hand. I 
 thought he wanted to shake it, for he imitates 
 English ways at times, even with us at home, and 
 shakes our hands when he comes in. But he swung 
 me round. He stood looking angrily at this gentle- 
 man, and cried 'Yeas! yeas!' to every word he 
 spoke. The gentleman bowed to me, and asked me 
 to take his umbrella ; but I was afraid to ; and my 
 father came to me, — oh, Madonna, think of what 
 he did ! I saw that his pockets were very big. 
 He snatched out potatoes, and began throwing them 
 as hard as he could throw them at the gentleman, 
 and struck him with some of them. He threw nine 
 large potatoes ! I begged him to think of our 
 dinner ; but he cried ' Yeas ! it is our dinner we 
 give to your head, vagabond ! ' in his odd English. 
 I could not help running up to the gentleman to 
 
EMILIA CONTINUES HER PERFORMANCE. 69 
 
 beg for his pardon. He told me not to cry, and 
 put some potatoes he had been picking up all into 
 my hand. They were muddy, but he wiped them 
 first ; and he said it was not the first time he had 
 stood fire, and then said good-bye ; and I slipped 
 the potatoes into my pocket immediately, thankful 
 that they were not wasted. My father pulled me 
 away roughly from the laughing and staring people 
 on the bridge. But I knew the potatoes were only 
 bruised. Even three potatoes will prevent you from 
 starving. They were very fine ones, for I always 
 took care to buy them good. When I reached 
 home " 
 
 Wilfrid had risen, and was yawning with a 
 desperate grimace. He bade her continue, and 
 pitched back heavily into his seat. 
 
 " When I reached home and could be alone with 
 my mother, she told me my father had been out 
 watching me the day before, and that he had filled 
 his pockets that morning. She thought he was 
 going to walk out in the country and get people on 
 the road to cook them for him. That is what he 
 has done when he was miserable, — to make himself 
 quite miserable, I think, for he loves streets best. 
 Guess my surprise ! My mother was making my 
 head ache with her complaints, when, as I drew out 
 
70 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 the potatoes to show her we had some food, there 
 was a purse at the bottom of my pocket, — a beautiful 
 green purse ! that kind gentleman ! He must 
 have put it in my hand with the potatoes that my 
 father flung at him ! How I have cried to think I 
 may never sing to him my best to please him ! 
 My mother and I opened the purse eagerly. It had 
 ten pounds in paper money, and five sovereigns, and 
 silver, — I think four shillings. We determined to 
 keep it a secret ; and then we thought of the best 
 way of spending it, and decided not to spend it all, 
 but to keep some for when we wanted it dreadfully, 
 and for a lesson or two for me now and then, and a 
 music-score, and perhaps a good violin for my 
 father, and new strings for him and me, and meat 
 dinners now and then, and perhaps a day in the 
 country : for that was always one of my dreams as 
 I watched the clouds flying over London. They 
 seemed to be always coming from happy places and 
 going to happy places, never stopping where I was ! 
 I cannot be sorrowful long. You know that song of 
 mine that you like so much — my own composing ? 
 It was a song about that kind gentleman. I got 
 words to suit it as well as I could, from a penny 
 paper, but they don't mean anything that I mean, 
 and they are only words." 
 
EMILIA CONTINUES HER PERFORMANCE. 71 
 
 She did not appear to hear the gallant cornet's 
 denial that he cared particularly for that song. 
 
 " What I meant was, — that gentleman speaks — 
 1 1 have fought for Italy; I am an English hero and 
 have fought for Italy, because of an Italian child ; 
 but now I am wounded and a prisoner. When } T ou 
 shoot me, cruel Austrian s, I shall hear her voice 
 and think of nothing else, so you cannot hurt me." 
 
 Emilia turned spitefully on herself at this close. 
 " How I spoil it ! My words are alwaj'S stupid, 
 when I feel. — "Well, now my mother and I were 
 quite peaceful, and my father was better fed. One 
 night he brought home a Jew gentleman, beautifully 
 dressed, with diamonds all over him. He sparkled 
 like the Christmas cakes in pastrycooks' windows. 
 I sang to him, and he made quite a noise about me. 
 But the man made me so uncomfortable, touching 
 my shoulders, and I could not bear his hands, even 
 when he was praising me. I sang to him till the 
 landlady made me leave off, because of the other 
 lodgers who wanted to sleep. He came every even- 
 ing; and then said I should sing at a concert. It 
 turned out to be a public -house, and my father 
 would not let me go; but I was sorry; for in public 
 the man could not touch me as he did. It damped 
 the voice ! " 
 
72 EMILIA IX ENGLAND. 
 
 " I should like to know where that fellow lives," 
 cried the cornet. 
 
 " 1 don't know, I'm sure," she said. " He lends 
 money. Do jo\x want any ? I heard your sisters 
 say something, one day. You can always have all 
 that I have, you know." 
 
 A quick spirit of pity and honest kindness went 
 through Wilfrid's veins and threatened to play the 
 woman with his eyes, for a moment. He took her 
 hand and pressed it. She put her lips to his fingers 
 silently. 
 
 " Once," she continued, u when the Jew gentle- 
 man had left, I spoke to my father of his way with 
 me, and then my father took me on his knee, and 
 the things he told me of what that man felt for me 
 made my mother come and tear me away to bed. I 
 was obliged to submit to the Jew gentleman patting 
 ■and touching me always. He used to crush my 
 dreams afterwards ! I know my voice was going. 
 My father was so eager for me to please him, I did 
 ~my best; but I fell dull, and used to sit and shake 
 my head at my harp, crying ; or else I felt like an 
 angry animal, and could have torn the strings. 
 
 " Think how astonished I was when my mother 
 came to me to say my father had money in his 
 pockets! — one pound seventeen shillings, she 
 
EMILIA CONTINUES HER PERFORMANCE. 73 
 
 counted ; and he Lad not been playing ! Then he 
 brought home a new violin, and he said to me, ' I 
 shall go ; I shall play ; I am Orphee, and dinners 
 shall rise ! ' I was glad, and kissed him ; and he 
 said, ' This is Sandra's gift to me,' showing the 
 violin. I only knew what that meant two days 
 afterwards. Is a girl not seventeen fit to be 
 married ? " 
 
 With this abrupt and singular question she had 
 taken an indignant figure, and her eyes were fiery : 
 so that Wilfrid thought her much fitter than a 
 minute before. 
 
 "Married!" she exclaimed. " My mother told 
 me about that. You do not belong to yourself : you 
 are tied down. You are a slave, a drudge ; mustn't 
 dream, mustn't think ! I hate it. By-and-by, I 
 suppose it will happen. Not yet ! And yet that 
 man offered to take me to Italy. It was the Jew 
 gentleman. He said I should make money, if he 
 took me, and grow as rich as princesses. He 
 brought a friend to hear me, another Jew gentle- 
 man ; and he was delighted, and he met me near 
 our door the very next morning, and offered me a 
 ring with blue stones, and he proposed to marry me 
 also, and take me to Italy, if I would give up his 
 friend and choose him instead. This man did not 
 
74 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 touch me, and, do you know, for some time I really 
 thought I almost, very nearly, might, — if it had not 
 been for his face ! It was impossible to go to Italy 
 — yes, to go to heaven ! — through that face of his ! 
 That face of his was just like the pictures of 
 dancing men with animals' hairy legs and hoofs in 
 an old thick poetry book belonging to my mother. 
 Just fancy a nose that seemed to be pecking at 
 great fat red lips ! He met me and pressed me to go 
 continually, till all of a sudden up came the first Jew 
 gentleman, and he cried out quite loud in the street 
 that he was being robbed by the other; and they 
 stood and made a noise in the street, and I ran 
 away. But then I heard that my father had 
 borrowed money from the one who came first, and 
 that his violin came from that man ; and my father 
 told me the violin would be taken from him, and he 
 would have to go to prison, if I did not marry that 
 man. I went and cried in my mother's arms. I 
 shall never forget her kindness; for though she 
 could never see anybody crying without crying her- 
 self, she did not, and was quiet as a mouse, because 
 she knew how her voice hurt me. There's a large 
 print-shop in one of the great streets of London, 
 with coloured views of Italy. I used to go there 
 once, and stand there for I don't know how long, 
 
EMILIA CONTINUES HER PERFORMANCE. 75 
 
 looking at them, and trying to get those Jew gen- 
 tlemen ." 
 
 " Call them Jews — they're not gentlemen," inter- 
 posed Wilfrid. 
 
 "Jews," she obeyed the dictate, "out of my 
 mind. When I saw views of Italy they danced and 
 grinned up and down the pictures. Oh, horrible ! 
 There was no singing for me then. My music died. 
 At last that oldish lady gave up her lessons, and 
 said to me, 'You little rogue ! you will do what I do, 
 some day ; ' for she was going to be married to that 
 young man who thought her voice so much im- 
 proved ; and she paid me three pounds, and gave 
 me one pound more, and some ribbon and gloves. 
 I went at once to my mother, and made her give me 
 five pounds out of the gentleman's purse. I took 
 my harp and music-scores. I did not know where I 
 was going, but only that I could not stop. My 
 mother cried : but she helped to pack my things. 
 If she disobeys me I act my father, and tower over 
 her, and frown, and make her mild. She was such 
 a poor good slave to me that day ! but I trusted her 
 no farther than the door. There I kissed her, full 
 of love, and reached the railway. They asked me 
 where I was going, and named places to me : I did 
 not know one. I shut my eyes, and prayed to be 
 
7G EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 directed, and chose Hillford. In the train I was full 
 of music in a moment. There I met farmer Wilson, 
 of the farm near us — where your sisters found me ; 
 and he was kind, and asked me about myself; and I 
 mentioned lodgings, and that I longed for woods 
 and meadows. Just as we were getting out of the 
 train, he said I was to come with him ; and I did, 
 very gladly. Then I met you ; and I am here. 
 All because I prayed to be directed — I do think 
 that ! " 
 
 Emilia clasped her hands, and looked pensively 
 towards the horizon sky, with a face of calm grate- 
 fulness. 
 
 The Cornet was on his legs. " So ! " he said. 
 " And you never saw anything more of that fellow 
 you kissed in the park ? " 
 
 " Kissed ? — that gentleman ? " returned Emilia. 
 " I have not kissed him. He did not want it. Men 
 kiss us when we are happy, and we kiss them when 
 they are unhappy." 
 
 Wilfrid was perhaps incompetent to test the truth 
 of this profound aphoristic remark, delivered with 
 the simplicity of natural conviction. The narrative 
 had, to his thinking, quite released him from his 
 temporary subjection to this little lady's sway. All 
 
EMILIA CONTINUES HER PERFORMANCE. 77 
 
 that lie felt for her personally now was pity. It 
 speaks something for the strength of the sentiment 
 with which he had first conceived her, that it was 
 not pelted to death, and turned to infinite disgust, 
 by her potatoes. For sentiment is a dainty, delicate 
 thing, incapable of bearing much : revengeful, too, 
 when it is outraged. Bruised and disfigured, it 
 stood up still, and fought against them. They were 
 very fine ones, as Emilia said, and they hit him 
 hard. However, he pitied her, and that protected 
 him like a shield. He told his sisters a tale of his 
 own, concerning the strange damsel, humorously 
 enough to make them see that he enjoyed her 
 presence as that of no common oddity. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 TEEATS OF A CRISIS IN THE GOVERNMENT OF 
 BROOIvFIELD *. AND OF THE VIRTUE RESIDENT IN 
 A TALL-COAT. 
 
 While Emilia was giving Wilfrid her history in 
 the garden, the ladies of Brookfield we're holding 
 consultation over a matter which was well calculated 
 to perplex and irritate them excessively. Mr. Pole 
 had received a curious short epistle from Mrs. 
 Chump, informing him of the atrocious treatment 
 she had met with at the hands of his daughter ; and 
 instead of reviewing the orthography, incoherence, 
 and deliberate vulgarity of the said piece of writing 
 with the contempt it deserved, he had taken the 
 unwonted course of telling Arabella that she had 
 done a thing she must necessarily repent of, or in 
 any case make apology for. An Eastern Queen, 
 thus addressed by her minister of the treasury, 
 could not have felt greater indignation. Arabella 
 had never seen her father show such perturbation 
 of mind. He spoke violently and imperiously. 
 
A CRISIS IN THE GOVERNMENT OF EROOKFIELD. 79 
 
 The apology was ordered to be despatched by that 
 night's post, after having been submitted to his 
 inspection. Mr. Pole had uttered mysterious 
 phrases : u You don't know what you've been 
 doing : " " You think the ship'll go on sailing with- 
 out wind : " " You'll drive the horse till he drops," 
 and such like; together with mutterings. The 
 words were of no import whatsoever to the ladies. 
 They were writings on the wall ; untranslatable. 
 But, as when the earth quakes our noble edifices 
 totter, their Palace of the Fine Shades and the 
 Nice Feelings groaned and creaked, and for a 
 moment they thought : " Where are we?" Very 
 soon they concluded that the speech Arabella had 
 heard was due to their darling papa's defective 
 education. 
 
 In the Council of Three, with reference to the 
 letter of apology to Mrs. Chump, Adela proposed, 
 if it pleased Arabella, to fight the battle of the 
 Republic. She was young, and wished both to 
 fight and to lead, as Arabella knew. She was 
 checked. " It must be left to me," said Arabella. 
 
 "Of course you resist, dear?" Cornelia carelessly 
 questioned. 
 
 " Assuredly I do." 
 
 " Better humiliation ! better anything ! better 
 
80 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 marriage ! than to submit in such a case," cried 
 Adela. 
 
 For, so united were the ladies of Brookfield, and 
 so bent on their grand hazy object, that they looked 
 upon married life unfavourably : and they had 
 besides an idea that Wedlock, until ' late in life ' 
 (the age of thirty, say), was the burial alive of 
 woman intellectual. 
 
 Towards midday, the ladies put on their garden 
 hats and went into the grounds together, for no 
 particular purpose. Near the west copse they 
 beheld Mr. Pole with Wilfrid and Emilia, talking 
 to a strange gentleman. Assuming a proper dignity, 
 they advanced, when, to their horror, Emilia ran 
 up to them, crying : " This is Mr. Pure ell Barrett, 
 the gentleman who plays the organ at church. I 
 met him in the woods before I knew you. I played 
 for him the other Sunday, and I want you to know 
 him." 
 
 She had hold of Arabella's hand and was drawing 
 her on. There was no opportunity for retreat. 
 Wilfrid looked as if he had already swallowed the 
 dose. Almost precipitated into the arms of the 
 ladies, Mr. Barrett bowed. He was a tolerably 
 youthful man, as decently attired as old black cloth 
 could help him to be. A sharp inspection satisfied 
 
A CRISIS IX THE GOVERNMENT OF BROOKFIELD. ^1 
 
 the ladies that his hat and hoots were inoffensive : 
 whereupon they gave him the three shades of dis- 
 tance, tempered so as not to wound his susceptible 
 poverty. 
 
 The superlative polar degree appeared to invigo- 
 rate Mr. Barrett. He devoted his remarks mainly 
 to Cornelia, and cheerfully received her frozen 
 monosyllables in exchange. The ladies talked of 
 Organs and Art, Emilia and Opera. He knew this 
 and that great organ, and all the operas ; but he 
 amazed the ladies by talking as if he knew great 
 people likewise. This brought out Mr. Pole, who, 
 since he had purchased Brookneld, had been extin- 
 guished by them and had not once thoroughly 
 enjoyed his money's worth. A courtly poor man 
 was a real pleasure to him. 
 
 Giving a semicircular sweep of his arm : " Here 
 you see my little estate, sir," he said. " You've 
 seen plenty bigger in Germany, and England too. 
 We can't get more than this handful in our tight 
 little island. Unless born to it, of course. Well • 
 we must be grateful that all our nobility don't go to 
 the dogs. We must preserve our great names. I 
 speak against my own interest." 
 
 He lifted Adela's chin on his forefinger. She 
 kept her eyes demurely downward, and then gazed 
 
 VOL. I. G 
 
82 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 at her sisters with gravity. These ladies took a 
 view of Mr. Barrett. His features wore an admi- 
 rable expression of simple interest. " Well, sir ; 
 suppose you dine with us to - day ? " Mr. Pole 
 bounced out. " Neighbours should be neigh- 
 bourly." 
 
 This abrupt invitation was decorously accepted. 
 
 " Plain dinner, you know. Nothing like what 
 you get at the tables of those Erzhogs, as you 
 call 'em, over in Germany. Simple fare ; sound 
 wine ! At all events, it won't hurt you. You'll 
 come? ** 
 
 Mr. Barrett bowed, murmuring thanks. This 
 was the very man Mr. Pole wanted to have at his 
 board occasionally : one who had known great 
 people, and would be thankful for a dinner. He 
 could depreciate himself as a mere wealthy British 
 merchant imposingly before such a man. His 
 daughters had completely cut him off from his 
 cronies ; and the sense of restriction, and compres- 
 sion, and that his own house was fast becoming 
 alien territory to him, made him pounce upon the 
 gentlemanly organist. His daughters wondered 
 why he should, in the presence of this stranger, 
 exaggerate his peculiar style of speech. But the 
 worthy merchant's consciousness of his identity 
 
A CRISIS IN THE GOVERNMENT OF BROOKFIELD. 83 
 
 was vanishing under the iron social rule of the 
 ladies. His perishing individuality prompted the 
 inexplicable invitation, and the form of it. 
 
 After Mr. Barrett had departed, the ladies 
 ventured to remonstrate with their papa. He at 
 once replied by asking whether the letter to Mrs. 
 Chump had been written ; and hearing that it had 
 not, he desired that Arabella should go into the 
 house and compose it straightway. The ladies 
 coloured. To Adela's astonishment, she found 
 that Arabella had turned. Joining her, she said, 
 " Dearest, what a moment you have lost ! We 
 could have stood firm, continually changing the 
 theme from Chump to Barrett, Barrett to Chump, 
 till papa's head would have twirled. He would 
 have began to think Mr. Barrett the Irish widow, 
 and Mrs. Chump the organist." 
 
 Arabella rejoined : " Your vat misleads you, 
 darling. I know what I am about. I decline a 
 wordy contest. To approach to a quarrel, or, say 
 dispute, with one's parent, apropos of such a person, 
 is something worse than evil policy, don't you 
 think ? " 
 
 So strongly did the sisters admire this delicate 
 way of masking a piece of rank cowardice, that they 
 forgave her. The craven feeling was common to 
 
 g2 
 
8i EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 them all, — which made it still more difficult to 
 forgive her. 
 
 " Of course, we resist ? " said Cornelia. 
 
 " Undoubtedly." 
 
 " We retire and retire," Adela remarked. " We 
 waste the royal forces. But, dear me, that makes 
 us insurgents ! " 
 
 She laughed, being slightly frivolous. Her elders 
 had the proper sentimental worship of youth and its 
 supposed quality of innocence, and caressed her. 
 
 At the ringing of the second dinner-bell, Mr. 
 Pole ran to the foot of the stairs and shouted for 
 Arabella, who returned no answer, and was late in 
 her appearance at table. Grace concluded, Mr. 
 Pole said, " Letter gone ? I wanted to see it, you 
 know." 
 
 " It was as well not, papa," Arabella replied. 
 
 Mr. Pole shook his head seriously. The ladies 
 were thankful for the presence of Mr. Barrett. 
 And lo ! this man was in perfect evening uniform. 
 He looked as gentlemanly a visitor as one might 
 wish to see. There was no trace of the poor 
 organist. Poverty seemed rather a gold-edge to 
 his tail-coat than a rebuke to it ; just as, contrary- 
 wise, great wealth is, to the imagination, really set 
 off by a careless costume. One need not explain 
 
A CRISIS IN THE GOVERNMENT OF EROOKFIELD. 85 
 
 how the mind acts in such cases : the fact, as I 
 have put it, is indisputable. And let the young 
 men of our generation mark the present chapter, 
 that they may know the virtue residing in a tail- 
 coat, and cling to it, whether buffeted by the waves, 
 or burnt out by the fire, of evil angry fortune. His 
 tail-coat safe, the youthful Briton is always ready 
 for any change in the mind of the moody goddess. 
 And it is an almost certain thing that, presuming 
 her to have a damsel of condition in view for him 
 as a compensation for the slaps he has received, he 
 must lose her, he cannot enter a mutual path with 
 her, if he shall have failed to retain this article of a 
 black tail, his social passport. I mean of course 
 that he retain respect for the article in question. 
 Respect for it firmly seated in his mind, the tail 
 may be said to be always handy. It is fortune's 
 uniform in Britain : the candlestick, if I may dare 
 to say so, to the candle ; nor need any young 
 islander despair of getting to himself her best gifts, 
 while he has her uniform at command, as glossy as 
 may be. 
 
 The ladies of Brookfield were really stormed by 
 Mr. Barrett's elegant tail. When, the first glass 
 of wine nodded over, Mr. Pole continued the 
 discourse of the morning, with allusions to French 
 
EMILIA IX ENGLAND. 
 
 cooks, and his cook, their sympathies were taken 
 captive by Mr. Barrett's tact: the door to their 
 sympathies having been opened to him as it were 
 by his attire. They could not guess what necessity 
 urged Mr. Pole to assert his locked-up self so 
 vehemently ; but it certainly made the stranger 
 shine with a beautiful mild lustre. Their spirits 
 partly succumbed to him by a process too 
 lengthened to explain here. Indeed, I dare do 
 no more than hint at these mysteries of feminine 
 emotion. I beg you to believe that when we are 
 dealing with that wonder, the human heart female, 
 the part played by a tail-coat and a composed 
 demeanour is not insignificant. No doubt the 
 ladies of Brookfield would have rebutted the idea 
 of a tail-coat influencing them in any way as 
 monstrous. But why was it, when Mr. Pole again 
 harped on his cook, in almost similar words, that 
 they were drawn to meet the eyes of the stranger, 
 on whom they printed one of the most fabulously 
 faint fleeting looks imaginable, with a propor- 
 tionately big meaning for him that might read 
 it ? It must have been that this uniform of a tail 
 had laid a basis of equality for the hour, otherwise 
 they never would have done so ; nor would he have 
 enjoyed the chance of showing them that he could 
 
A CRISIS IN THE OOYEBNMENT OF BROOKFIELD. E 7 
 
 respond to the remotest mystic indications, with 
 a muffled adroitness equal to their own, and so 
 encouraged them to commence a language leading 
 to intimacy with a rapidity that may well appear 
 magical to the uninitiated. In short, the man 
 really had the language of the very elect of polite 
 society. If you are not versed in this alphabet of 
 mute intelligence, you are in the ranks with waiters 
 and linendrapers, and are, as far as ladies are 
 concerned, tail-coated to no purpose. 
 
 Mr. Pole's fresh allusion to his cook : " I hope 
 you don't think I keep a man ! Xo ; no ; not in 
 the country. Wouldn't do. Plays the deuce, you 
 know. My opinion is, Mrs. Mallow's as clever as 
 any man-cook going. I'd back her:" — and Mr. 
 Barrett's speech: "She is an excellent person!" 
 delivered briefly, with no obtrusion of weariness, 
 confirmed the triumph of the latter ; a triumph all 
 the greater, that he seemed unconscious of it. They 
 leaped at one bound to the conclusion that there 
 wag a romance attached to him. Do not be 
 startled. An attested tail-coat, clearly out of its 
 element, must contain a story : that story must be 
 interesting ; until its secret is divulged, the subtle 
 essence of it spreads an aureole around the tail- 
 coat. The ladies declared, in their subsequent 
 
88 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 midnight conference, that Mr. Barrett was fit for 
 any society. They had visions of a great family 
 reduced : of a proud son choosing to earn his 
 bread honourably and humbly, by turning an exqui- 
 site taste to account. Many visions of him they 
 had. 
 
 Patronage of those beneath, much more than the 
 courting of those above them, delighted the ladies 
 of Brookfield. They allowed Emilia to give Mr. 
 Barrett invitations, and he became a frequent 
 visitor : always neat, pathetically well-brushed, and 
 a pleasanter pet than Emilia, because he never 
 shocked their niceties. He was an excellent talker, 
 and was very soon engaged in regular contests with 
 the argumentative Cornelia. Their political views 
 were not always the same, as Cornelia sometimes 
 had read the paper before he arrived. Happily, on 
 questions of religion, they coincided. Theories of 
 education occupied them mainly. In these contests 
 Mr. Barrett did not fail to acknowledge his errors, 
 when convicted, and his acknowledgment was heart}' 
 and ample. She had many clear triumphs. Still, 
 he could be positive : a very great charm in him. 
 Women cannot repose on a man who is not posi- 
 tive ; nor have the} 7 much gratification in con- 
 founding him. Wouldst thou, O man, amorously 
 
A CRISIS IN THE GOVERNMENT OF BROOKFIELD. 89 
 
 inclining ! attract to thee superior women, be posi- 
 tive. Be stupidly positive, rather than dubious at 
 all. Face fearful questions with a vizor of brass. 
 Array thyself in dogmas. Show thy decisive judg- 
 ment on the side of established power, or thy 
 enthusiasm in the rebel ranks, if it must be so ; 
 but be firm. Waver not. If women could tolerate 
 waverings and weakness, and did not rush to the 
 adoration of decision of mind, we should not 
 behold them turning contemptuously from philo- 
 sophers in their agony, to find refuge in the arms 
 of smirking orthodoxy. I do not say that Mr. 
 Barrett ventured to play the intelligent Cornelia 
 like a fish ; but such a fish was best secured by 
 the method he adopted : that of giving her signal 
 victory in trifles, while on vital matters he held his 
 own. 
 
 Very pleasant evenings now passed at Brookfield, 
 which were not at all disturbed by the wonder 
 expressed from time to time by Mr. Pole, that he 
 had not heard from Martha, meaning Mrs. Chump. 
 " You have Emilia,'' the ladies said ; this being 
 equivalent to, " She is one of that sort; " and Mr. 
 Pole understood it so, and fastened Emilia in one 
 arm, with " Now, a kiss, my dear, and then a toon." 
 Emilia readily gave both. As often as he heard 
 
90 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 instances of her want of ladylike training, he would 
 say, " Keep her here ; we'll better her." Mr. 
 Barrett assisted the ladies to see that there was 
 more in Emilia than even Mr. Pericles had. 
 perceived. Her story had. become partially known 
 to them ; and with two friendly dependents of the 
 household, one a gentleman and. the other a genius, 
 they felt that they had really attained a certain 
 eminence, which is a thing to be felt only when we 
 have something under our feet. Flying about with 
 a desperate grip on the extreme skirts of aris- 
 tocracy, the ladies knew to be the elevation of 
 dependency ; not true eminence ; and though they 
 admired the kite, they by no means wished to form 
 a part of its tail. They had brains. A circle was 
 what they wanted, and they had not to learn that 
 this is to be found or made only in the liberally- 
 educated class, into the atmosphere of which they 
 pressed like dungeoned plants. The parasite com- 
 pletes the animal, and a dependent assures us of 
 our position. The ladies of Brookfield, therefore, 
 let Emilia cling to them, remarking, that it seemed 
 to be their papa's settled wish that she should 
 reside among them for a time. Consequently, if 
 the indulgence had ever to be regretted, they would 
 not be to blame. In their hearts they were aware, 
 
A CRISIS IN THE GOVERNMENT OF BROOIvFIELD. 91 
 
 that it was Emilia who had obtained for them their 
 first invitation to Lady Gosstre's. Gratitude was 
 not a part of their policy, but when it assisted a 
 recognition of material facts, they did not repress 
 it. " And if," they said, " we can succeed in polish- 
 ing her and toning her, she may have something to 
 thank us for, in the event of her ultimately making 
 a name." That event being of course necessary for 
 the development of so proper a sentiment. Thus 
 the rides with Wilfrid continued, and the sweet 
 quiet evenings when she sang*. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 in which a eig drum speeds the march of 
 emilia's history. 
 
 The windows of Brookfield were thrown open to 
 the air of May, and bees wandered into the rooms, 
 gold spots of sunshine danced along the floors. 
 The garden- walks were dazzling, and the ladies 
 went from flower-bed to flower-bed in broad garden- 
 hats that were, as an occasional light glance flung at 
 a window-pane assured Adela, becoming. Sunshine 
 had burst on them suddenly, and there was no hat 
 to be found for Emilia, so Wilfrid placed his gold- 
 laced foraging-cap on her head, and the ladies, after 
 a moment's misgiving, allowed her to wear it, and 
 turned to observe her now and then. There was 
 never pertness in Emilia's look, which on the 
 contrary was singularly large and calm when it 
 reposed : perhaps her dramatic instinct prompted 
 her half -jaunty manner of leaning against the sunny 
 corner of the house where the Chinese honeysuckle 
 climbed. She was talking to Wilfrid. Her laughter 
 
THE MARCH of Emilia's history. 93 
 
 seemed careless and easy, and in keeping with the 
 southern litheness of her attitude. 
 
 " To suit the cap ; it's all to suit the cap," said 
 Adela, the keen of eye. Yet, critical as was this 
 lady, she acknowledged that it was no mere acting 
 effort to suit the cap. 
 
 The philosopher (I would keep him back if I 
 could) bids us mark that the crown and flower of the 
 nervous sj^stem, the head, is necessarily sensitive, 
 and to that degree that whatsoever we place on it, 
 does, for a certain period, change and shape us. 
 Of course the instant we call up the forces of the 
 brain, much of the impression departs : but what 
 remains is powerful, and fine-nerved. Woman is 
 especially subject to it. A girl may put on her 
 brother's boots, and they will not affect her spirit 
 strongly ; but as soon as she puts on her brother's 
 hat, she gives him a manly nod. The same phi- 
 losopher who fathers his dulness on me, asserts 
 that the modern vice of fastness (' Trotting on 
 the Epicene Border,' he has it) is bred by appa- 
 rently harmless practices of this description. He 
 offers to turn the current of a Republican's brain, 
 by resting a coronet on his forehead for just five 
 seconds. 
 
 Howsoever these things be, it was true that 
 
94 e:\iilia in England. 
 
 Emilia's feet presently crossed, and she was soon to 
 be seen with her right elbow doubled against her 
 head as she leaned to the wall, and the little left fist 
 stuck at her belt. And I maintain that she had no 
 sense at all of acting Spanish prince disguised as 
 page. Nor had she any idea that she was making 
 her friend Wilfrid's heart perform to her lightest 
 words and actions like any trained milk-white steed 
 in a circus. Sunlight, as well as Wilfrid's braided 
 cap, had some magical influence on her. He 
 assured her that she looked a charming boy, and 
 she said, " Do I ? " just lifting her chin. 
 
 A gardener was shaving the lawn. 
 
 "Please, spare those daisies,'' cried Emilia. 
 " Why do you cut away daisies ? " 
 
 The gardener objected that he really must make 
 the lawn smooth. Emilia called to Adela, who 
 came, and hearing the case, said : " Now this is nice 
 of you. I like you to love daisies and wish to 
 protect them. They disfigure a lawn, you know." 
 And Adela stooped, and picked one, and called it a 
 pet name, and dropped it. 
 
 She returned to her sisters in the conservatory, 
 and meeting Mr. Barrett at the door, made the 
 incident a topic. "You know how greatly our 
 Emilia rejoices us when she shows sentiment, and 
 
THE MARCH OF EMILIA S HISTORY. 05 
 
 our thirst is to direct her to appreciate Nature in its 
 humility as well as its grandeur."' 
 
 " One expects her to have all poetical feelings," 
 said Mr. Barrett, while the}' walked forth to the 
 lawn sloping to the tufted park grass, 
 
 Cornelia said : " You have read ~\ir. Famninc- 
 brook's story ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 But the man had not brought it back, and 
 her name was in it, written with her own 
 hand. 
 
 " Are you of my opinion in the matter ? " 
 
 " In the matter of the style ? I am and I am not. 
 Your condemnation may be correct in itself; but 
 you say, ' He coins words ; ' and he certainly forces 
 the phrase here and there, I must admit. The 
 point to be considered is, whether fiction demands a 
 perfectly smooth surface. Undoubtedly a scientific 
 work does, and a philosophical treatise should. 
 When we ask for facts simply, we feel the intrusion 
 of a style. Of fiction it is part. In the one case 
 the classical robe, in the other any mediaeval phan- 
 tasy of clothing." 
 
 " Yes ; true ; " said Cornelia, hesitating over her 
 argument. " Well, I must conclude, that I am not 
 imaginative." 
 
yb EMILIA IX ENGLAND. 
 
 " On the contrary, permit me to say that you 
 are. But your imagination is unpractised, and asks 
 to be fed with a spoon. We English are more 
 imaginative than most nations. 1 ' 
 
 " Then, why is it not manifested ? " 
 
 " We are still fighting against the Puritan 
 element, in literature as elsewhere." 
 
 " Your old bugbear, Mr. Barrett ! " 
 
 " And more than this : our language is not rich 
 in subtleties for prose. A writer who is not servile 
 and has insight, must coin from his own mint. In 
 poetry we are rich enough ; but in prose also we 
 owe everything to the licence our poets have taken 
 in the teeth of critics. Shall I give you examples ? 
 It is not necessary. Our simplest prose style is 
 nearer to poetry with us, for this reason, that the 
 poets have made it. Bead French poetry. With 
 the first couplet the sails are full, and you have 
 left the shores of prose far behind. Mr. Bunning- 
 brook coins words and risks expressions because an 
 imaginative Englishman, pen in hand, is the cadet 
 and vagabond of the family — an exploring adven- 
 turer ; whereas to a Frenchman it all comes 
 inherited like a well-filled purse. The audacity of 
 the French mind, and the French habit of quick 
 social intercourse, have made them nationally far 
 
THE MARCH OF EMILIAS HISTORY. 97 
 
 richer in language. Let me add, individually, us 
 much poorer. Bead their stereotyped descriptions. 
 They all say the same things. They have one big 
 Gallic trumpet. Wonderfully eloquent : we feel 
 that : but the person does not speak. And now, 
 you will be surprised to learn that, notwithstanding 
 what I have said, I should still side with Mr. 
 Bunningbrook's fair critic, rather than with him. 
 The reason is, that the necessity to write as he does 
 is so great that a strong barrier — a chevaux-de-frise 
 of pen points — must be raised against every newly 
 minted word and hazardous coiner, or we shall be 
 inundated. If he can leap the barrier, he and his 
 goods must be admitted. So it has been with our 
 greatest, so it must be with the rest of them, or we 
 shall have a Transatlantic literature. By no means 
 desirable, I think. Yet, see : when a piece of 
 Transatlantic slang happens to be tellingly true — 
 something coined from an absolute experience : 
 from a fight with the elements — we cannot resist it : 
 it invades us. In the same way poetic rashness of 
 the right quality enriches the language. I would 
 make it prove its quality." 
 
 Cornelia walked on gravely. His excuse for 
 dilating on the theme, prompted her to say : " You 
 give me new views : " while all her reflections 
 
 VOL. I. H 
 
98 EMILIA IX ENGLAND. 
 
 sounded from the depths : " And yet, the man who 
 talks thus is a hired organ-player ! " 
 
 This recurring thought, more than the cogency of 
 the new views, kept her from combating certain 
 fallacies in them which had struck her. 
 
 " Why do you not write, yourself, Mr. Barrett ? " 
 
 " I have not the habit." 
 
 " The habit ! " 
 
 " I have not heard the call/' 
 
 " Should it not come from within ? " 
 
 " And how are we to know it ? " 
 
 "If it calls to you loudly!" 
 
 " Then I know it to be vanity.' 
 
 '* But, the wish to make a name, is not 
 vanity." 
 
 " The wish to conceal a name may exist. 
 
 Cornelia took one of those little shy glances at 
 his features which print them on the brain. The 
 melancholy of his words threw a sombre hue about 
 him, and she began to think with mournfulness of 
 those firm thin lips fronting misfortune : those 
 sunken blue eyes under its shadow. 
 
 They walked up to Mr. Pole, who was standing 
 with Wilfrid and Emilia on the lawn ; giving ear to 
 a noise in the distance. 
 
 A bio: drum sounded on the confines of the Brook- 
 
THE MARCH OF Emm's HISTORY. 99 
 
 field estate. Soon it was seen entering the precincts 
 at one of the principal gates, followed by trombone, 
 and horn, and fife. In the rear trooped a regiment 
 of Sunday-garmented villagers, with a rambling tail 
 of loose-minded boys and girls. Blue and yellow 
 ribbons dangled from broad beaver hats, and there 
 were rosettes of the true-blue mingled with yellow 
 at button-holes ; and there was fun on the line of 
 march. Jokes plumped deep into the ribs, and were 
 answered with intelligent vivacity in the shape of 
 hearty thwacks, delivered wherever a surface was 
 favourable : a mode of repartee worthy of general 
 adoption, inasmuch as it can be passed on, and so 
 with certainty made to strike your neighbour as 
 forcibly as yourself : of which felicity of propagation 
 verbal wit cannot always boast. In the line of pro- 
 cession, the hat of a member of the corps shot sheer 
 into the sky from the compressed energy of his 
 brain; for he and all his comrades vociferously 
 denied having cast it up, and no other solution was 
 possible. This mysterious incident may tell you 
 that beer was thus early in the morning abroad. In 
 fact, it was the procession day of a provincial club- 
 feast, or celebration of the nuptials of Beef and 
 Beer ; whereof later you shall behold the illustrious 
 offspring. 
 
 h2 
 
100 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 All the Brookfiekl household were now upon the 
 lawn, awaiting the attack. Mr. Pole would have 
 liked to impound the inpouring host, drum and all, 
 for the audacity of the trespass, and then to have 
 fed them liberally, as a return for the compliment. 
 Aware that he was being treated to the honours of a 
 great man of the neighbourhood, he determined to 
 take it cheerfully. 
 
 " Come ; no laughing ! " he said, directing a 
 glance at the maids who were ranged behind their 
 mistresses. " 'Hem ! we must look pleased : we 
 mustn't mind their music, if they mean well." 
 
 Emilia, whose face was dismally screwed up at 
 the nerve-searching discord, said : " Why do they 
 try to play anything but a drum ? " 
 
 "In the country, — in the country;" Mr. Pole 
 emphasised. " We put up with this kind of thing 
 in the country. Different in town ; but we — a — say 
 nothing in the country. We must encourage 
 respect for the gentry, in the country: One of the 
 penalties of a country life. Not much harm in it. 
 New duties in the country." 
 
 He continued to speak to himself. In proportion 
 as he grew aware of the unnecessary nervous agita- 
 tion into which the drum was throwing him, he 
 assumed an air of repose, and said to Wilfrid : 
 
THE MARCH OF EMILIA'S HISTORY. 101 
 
 " Read the paper to-day?" and to Arabella, " Quiet 
 family dinner, I suppose ? " 
 
 M Yes, sir," be remarked to Mr. Barrett, as if 
 resuming an old conversation : " I dare say, you've 
 seen better marching in foreign parts. Eight — left; 
 right — left. Ha ! ha ! And not so bad, not so bad, 
 I call it ! with their right— left ; right— left. Ha ! 
 ha ! You've seen better. No need to tell me that. 
 But, in England, we look to the meaning of things. 
 We're a practical people. What's more, we're 
 volunteers. Volunteers in everything. We can't 
 make a regiment of ploughmen march like clock- 
 work in a minute ; and we don't want to. But, give 
 me the choice ; I'll back a body of volunteers any 
 day." 
 
 " I would rather be backed by them, sir," said 
 Mr. Barrett. 
 
 "Very good. I mean that. Honest intelligent 
 industry backing rank and wealth ! That makes a 
 nation strong. Look at England ! " 
 
 Mr. Barrett observed him stand out largely, as if 
 filled by the spirit of the big drum. 
 
 That instrument now gave a final flourish and 
 bang: whereat Sound, as if knocked on the head, 
 died languishingly. 
 
 And behold, a spokesman was seen in relief upon 
 
102 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 a background of grins that were oddly intermixed 
 ■with countenances of extraordinary solemnity. 
 
 The same commenced his propitiatory remarks 
 by assuring the proprietor of Brookfielcl that he, the 
 spokesman, and every man present, knew they had 
 taken a liberty in coming upon Squire Pole's 
 grounds without leave or warning. They knew 
 likewise that Squire Pole excused them. 
 
 Chorus of shouts from the divining brethren. 
 
 Plight glad they were to have such a gentleman as 
 Squire Pole among them : and if nobody gave him 
 a welcome last year that was not, the fault of the 
 Yellow-and-Blues. Eh, my boys ? 
 
 Groans and cheers. 
 
 Pcight sure was spokesman that Squire Pole was 
 the friend of the poor man, and liked nothing 
 better than to see him enjoy his holiday. As 
 why shouldn't he enjoy his holiday now and then, 
 and have a bit of relaxation as well as other 
 men? 
 
 Acquiescent token on the part of the new 
 dignitary, Squire Pole. 
 
 Spokesman was hereby encouraged to put it 
 boldly, whether a man was not a man all the world 
 over. 
 
 " For a' that ! " was sung out by some rare book- 
 
THE MARCH OF EMILIAS HISTORY. 103 
 
 worm to rearward : but no Scotchman being present, 
 no frenzy followed the quotation. 
 
 It was announced that the Club had come to do 
 homage to Squire Pole and ladies : the Junction 
 Club of Ipley and Hillford. What did Junction 
 mean ? Junction meant Harmony. Harmonious 
 they were, to be sure ; so they were joined to good 
 purpose. 
 
 Mr. Barrett sought Emilia's eye smilingly, but 
 she was intent on the proceedings. 
 
 A cry of " Bundle o' sticks, Tom Breeks. Don't 
 let slip bout bundle o' sticks," pulled spokesman 
 up short. He turned hurriedly to say, "All right," 
 and inflated his chest to do justice to the illustration 
 of the faggots of iEsop : but Mr. Tom Breeks had 
 either taken in too much air, or the ale that had 
 hitherto successfully prompted him was antipathetic 
 to the nice delicacy of an apologue ; for now his 
 arm began to work and his forehead had to be 
 mopped, and he lashed the words " Union and 
 Harmony " right and left, until, coming on a 
 sentence that sounded in his ears like the close of 
 his speech, he stared ahead, with a dim idea that he 
 had missed a point. " Bundle o' sticks," lustily 
 shouted, revived his apprehension: but the sole 
 effect was to make him look on the ground and lift 
 
104 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 his hat on the point of a perplexed finger. He 
 could not conceive how the bundle of sticks was to 
 be brought in now; or what to say concerning them. 
 Union and Harmony : — what more could be said ? 
 Mr. Tom Breeks tried a remonstrance with his 
 backers. He declared to them that he had finished, 
 and had brought in the Bundle. They replied that 
 they had not heard it; that the Bundle was the 
 foundation-sentiment of the Club ; the first toast, 
 after the Crown ; and that he must go on till the 
 Bundle had been brought in. Hereat, the unhappy 
 man faced Squire Pole again. It w T as too abject a 
 position for an Englishman to endure. Tom Breeks 
 cast his hat to earth. " I'm dashed if I can bring 
 in the Bundle ! " 
 
 There was no telling how conduct like this might 
 have been received by the Yellow-and-Blues, if Mr. 
 Barrett had not spoken. " You mean everything 
 when you say ' Union,' and you're quite right not 
 to be tautological. You can't give such a blow with 
 y r our fingers as you can with your fists, can you ? " 
 
 Up went a score of fists. " We've the fists : 
 we've the fists," was shouted. 
 
 Cornelia, smiling on Mr. Barrett, asked him why 
 he had confused the poor people with the long word 
 " tautological." 
 
THE MARCH OF EMILIA.' S HISTORY. 105 
 
 " I threw it as a bone," said he. " I think you 
 will observe that they are already quieter. They 
 are reflecting on what it signifies, and will by-and- 
 by quarrel as to the spelling of it. At any rate it 
 occupies them." 
 
 Cornelia laughed inwardly, and marked with pain 
 that his own humour gave him no merriment. 
 
 At the subsiding of the echoes that coupled 
 Squire Pole and the Junction Club together, Squire 
 Pole replied. He wished them well. He was glad 
 to see them, and sorry he had not ale enough on the 
 premises to regale every man of them. Clubs were 
 great institutions. One fist was stronger than a 
 thousand fingers — " as my friend here said just 
 now." Hereat the eyelids of Cornelia shed another 
 queenly smile on the happy originator of the 
 remark. 
 
 Squire Pole then descended to business. He 
 named the amount of his donation. At this 
 practical sign of his support, Heaven heard the 
 gratitude of the good fellows. The drum awoke 
 from its torpor, and summoned its brethren of the 
 band to give their various versions of the National 
 Anthem. 
 
 " Cant they be stopped ? " Emilia murmured, 
 clenching her little hands. 
 
10G EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 The patriotic nielody, delivered in sturdy demo- 
 cratic fashion, had to be endured. It died hard, 
 but did come to an end, piecemeal. Tom Breeks 
 then retired from the front, and became a unit once 
 more. There were flourishes that indicated a 
 termination of the proceedings, when another fellow 
 was propelled in advance, and he, shuffling and 
 ducking his head, to the cries of " Out wi' it, 
 Jim!" and, "Where's your stomach?" came still 
 further forward, and showed a most obsequious 
 grin. 
 
 " Why, it's Jim ! " exclaimed Emilia, on whom 
 Jim's eyes were fastened. Stepping nearer, she 
 said, " Do you want to speak to me ? " 
 
 Jim had this to say : which, divested of his petition 
 for pardon on the strength of his perfect knowledge 
 that he took a liberty, was, that the young lady had 
 promised, while staying at Wilson's farm, that she 
 would sing to the Club -fellows on the night of their 
 feast. 
 
 " I towl'd 'em they'd have a rare treat, miss," 
 mumbled Jim, " and they're all right mad for't, that 
 they be — bain't ye, boys ? " 
 
 That they were ! with not a few of the gesti- 
 culations of madness, too. 
 
 Emilia said : " I promised I would sing to them. 
 
THE MARCH OF EMILIA'S HISTORY. 107 
 
 I remember it quite well. Of course I will keep my 
 promise." 
 
 A tumult of acclamation welcomed her words, and 
 Jim looked immensely delighted. 
 
 She was informed by several voices that they were 
 the Yellow-and-Blues, and not the Blues: that she 
 must not go to the wrong set : and that their booth 
 was on Ipley Common : and that the}-, the Junction 
 Club, only would honour her rightly for the honour 
 she was going to do them ; all of which Emilia said 
 she would bear in mind. 
 
 Jim then retired hastily, having done something 
 that stout morning ale would alone have qualified 
 him to perform. The drum, in the noble belief that 
 it was leading, announced the return march, and 
 with three cheers for Squire Pole, and a crowning 
 one for the ladies, away trooped the procession. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE RIVAL CLUBS. 
 
 Hardly had the last sound of the drum passed 
 out of hearing, when the elastic thunder of a fresh 
 one claimed attention. The truth being, that the 
 Junction Club of Ipley and Hillford, whose colours 
 were yellow and blue, was a seceder from the old- 
 established Hillford Club, on which it had this day 
 shamefully stolen a march by parading everywhere 
 in the place of it, and disputing not only its pasture- 
 grounds but its identity. 
 
 There is no instrument whose sound proclaims 
 such vast internal satisfaction as the drum. I know 
 not whether it be that the sense we have of the 
 corpulency of this instrument predisposes us to 
 imagine it supremely content: as when an alder- 
 man is heard snoring the world is assured that it 
 listens to the voice of his own exceeding gratulation. 
 A light heart in a fat body ravishes not only the 
 world but the philosopher. If monotonous, the one 
 note of the drum is very correct. Like the speaking 
 
THE RIVAL CLUBS. 109 
 
 of great Nature, what it means is implied by the 
 measure. When the drum beats to the measure 
 of a common human pulsation it has a conquering 
 power: inspiring us neither to dance nor to trail 
 the members, but to march as life does, regularly. 
 and in hearty good order, and with a not exhaustive 
 jollity. It is a sacred instrument. 
 
 Now the drum which is heard to play in this 
 cheerful fashion, while at the same time we know 
 that discomfiture is cruelly harrying it : that its 
 inmost feelings are wounded, and that worse is in 
 store for it, affects the contemplative mind with an 
 inexpressibly grotesque commiseration. Do but 
 listen to this one, which is the joint corporate voice 
 of the men of Hillford. Outgeneraled, plundered, 
 turned to ridicule, it thumps with unabated brisk- 
 ness. Here indeed might Sentimentalisrn shed a 
 fertile tear ! 
 
 Anticipating that it will eventually be hung up 
 among our national symbols, I proceed. The drum 
 of Hillford entered the Brookfield grounds as Ipley 
 had done, and with a similar body of decorated 
 Clubmen ; sounding along until it faced the asto- 
 nished proprietor, who held up his hand and re- 
 quested to know the purpose of the visit. One 
 sentence of explanation sufficed. 
 
110 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 "What!" cried Mr. Pole, " do you think you 
 can milk a cow twice in ten minutes ? " 
 
 Several of the Hillford men acknowledged that it 
 would be rather sharp work. 
 
 Their case was stated : whereupon Mr. Pole told 
 them that he had just been ' milked,' and regretted 
 it, but requested them to see that he could not 
 possibly be equal to any second proceeding of the 
 sort. On their turning to consult together, he 
 advised them to bear it with fortitude. " All right, 
 sir ! " they said : and a voice from the ranks in- 
 formed him that their word was 'Jolly.' Then a 
 signal was given, and these indomitable fellows 
 cheered the lord of Brookfield as lustily as if they 
 had accomplished the feat of milking him twice in 
 an hour. Their lively hurrahs set him blinking in 
 extreme discomposure of spirit, and he was fum- 
 bling at his pocket, when the drum a little precipi- 
 tately thumped : the ranks fell into order, and the 
 departure was led by the tune of the ' King of the 
 Cannibal islands : ' a tune that is certain to create 
 a chorus on the march. On this occasion, the 
 
 line : — 
 
 "Oh ! didn't you know you were done, sir ! " 
 
 became general at the winding up of the tune. 
 Boys with their elders frisked as they chimed it, 
 
THE RIVAL CLUBS. Ill 
 
 casting an emphasis of infinite relish on the declara- 
 tion ' done ; ' as if they delighted in applying it to 
 Mr. Pole, though at their own expense. 
 Soon a verse grew up : — 
 
 " We marcli'd and calTd on Mister Pole, 
 Who hadn't a penny, upon his soul, 
 For Ipley came and took the whole, 
 
 And didn't you know you were done, sir ! " 
 
 I need not point out to the sagacious that Hill- 
 ford and not Mr. Pole had been ' done ; ' but this 
 was the genius of the men who transferred the 
 opprobrium to him. Nevertheless, though their 
 manner of welcoming misfortune was such, I, 
 knowing that there is not a deadlier animal than 
 a ' done ' Briton, have shudders for Ipley. 
 
 AVe relinquish the stream of an epic in turning 
 away from these mighty drums. 
 
 Mr. Pole stood questioning all who surrounded 
 him : " What could I do ? I couldn't subscribe to 
 both. They don't expect that of a lord, and I'm a 
 commoner. If these fellows quarrel and split, 
 are we to suffer for it? They can't agree, and 
 want us to pay double fines. This is how they 
 serve us." 
 
 Mr. Barrett, rather at a loss to account for his 
 excitement, said, that it must be admitted they had 
 
112 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 borne the trick played on them, with remarkable 
 good humour. 
 
 " Yes, but," Mr. Pole fumed, " I don't. They 
 put me in the wrong, between them. They make 
 me uncomfortable. I've a good mind to withdraw 
 my subscription to those rascals who came first, 
 and have nothing to do with any of them. Then, 
 you see, down I go for a niggardly fellow. That's 
 the reputation I get. Nothing of this in London ! 
 you make your money, pay your rates, and nobody 
 bothers a man." 
 
 " You should have done as our darling here did, 
 papa," said Adela. " Y r ou should have hinted some- 
 thing that might be construed a promise or not, as 
 we please to read it." 
 
 " If I promise I perform," returned Mr. Pole. 
 
 " Our Hillford people have cause for complaint," 
 Mr. Barrett observed. And to Emilia : " You will 
 hardly favour one party more than another, will 
 
 you?" 
 
 " I am for that poor man, Jim,"' said Emilia. 
 "He carried my harp evening after evening, and 
 would not even take sixpence for the trouble." 
 
 " Are you really going to sing there ? " 
 
 " Didn't you hear ? I promised." 
 
 " To-night ? " • 
 
THE RIVAL CLUBS. 118 
 
 " Yes ; certainly.*' 
 
 " Do you know what it is you have promised ? " 
 
 " To sing."' 
 
 Aclela glided to her sisters near at hand, and 
 these ladies presently hemmed Emilia in. They 
 had a method of treating matters they did not 
 countenance, as if nature had never conceived them, 
 and such were the monstrous issue of diseased 
 imaginations. It was hard for Emilia to hear that 
 what she designed to do was " utterly out of the 
 question and not to be for one moment thought of." 
 She reiterated, with the same interpreting stress, 
 that she had given her promise. 
 
 " Do you know, I praised 3-ou for putting them 
 off so cleverly," said Adela, in tones of gentle 
 reproach that bewildered Emilia. 
 
 "Must we remind you, then, that you are bound 
 by a previous promise ? " Cornelia made a counter- 
 demonstration with the word. " Have you not 
 promised to dine with us at Lady Gosstre's to- 
 night ? " 
 
 " Oh, of course I shall keep that," replied Emilia. 
 " I intend to. I will sing there, and then I will go 
 and sing to those poor people who never hear any- 
 thing but dreadful music — not music at all, but 
 something that seems to tear your flesh ! " 
 vol. 1. 1 
 
114 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 "Never mind our flesh," said Adela, pettishly: 
 melodiously remonstrating the next instant : " I 
 realty thought you could not be in earnest." 
 
 "But," said Arabella, "can you find pleasure in 
 wasting your voice and really great capabilities on 
 such people ? " 
 
 Emilia caught her up — " This poor man ? But 
 he loves music : he really knows the good from the 
 bad. He never looks proud but when I sing to him." 
 
 The situation was one that Cornelia particularly 
 enjoyed. Here was a low form of intellect to be 
 instructed as to the precise meaning of a word, the 
 nature of a pledge. " There can be no harm that I 
 see, in your singing to this man," she commenced. 
 " You can bid him come" to one of the outhouses 
 here, if you desire, and sing to him. In the evening, 
 after his labour, will be the fit time. But, as your 
 friends, we cannot permit you to demean yourself 
 by going from our house to a public booth, where 
 vulgar men are smoking and drinking beer. I 
 wonder you have the courage to contemplate such 
 an act ! You have pledged your word. But if you 
 had pledged your word, child, to swing upon that 
 tree, suspended by your arms, for an hour, could 
 you keep it? I think not; and to recognise an 
 impossibility economises time and is one of the 
 
E RIVAL CLUBS. 115 
 
 virtues of a clear understanding. It is incompatible 
 that you should dine vrith Lady Gosstre, and then 
 run away to a drinking-booth. Society will never 
 tolerate one who is familiar with boors. If you are 
 to succeed in life, as we, your friends, can con- 
 scientiously say that we most earnestly hope and 
 trust you will do, you must be on good terms with 
 Society. You must ! You pledge your word to a 
 piece of folly. Emancipate yourself from it as 
 quickly as possible. Do you see ? This is foolish ; 
 it, therefore, cannot be. Decide, as a sensible crea- 
 ture.'' 
 
 At the close of this harangue, Cornelia, who had 
 stooped slightly to deliver it, regained her stately 
 posture, beautified in Mr. Barrett's sight by the 
 flush which an unwonted exercise in speech had 
 thrown upon her cheeks. 
 
 Emilia stood blinking like one sensible of having 
 been chidden in a strange tongue. 
 
 " Does it offend you — my going ? " she faltered. 
 
 " Offend ! — our concern is entirely for you," 
 observed Cornelia. 
 
 The explanation drew out a happy sparkle from 
 Emilia's eyes. She seized her hand, kissed it, and 
 cried : "I do thank you. I know I promised, but 
 indeed I am quite pleased to go ! " 
 
 12 
 
116 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Mr. Barrett swung hurriedly round and walked 
 some paces away with his head downward. The 
 ladies remained in a tolerant attitude for a minute 
 or so, silent. They then wheeled with one accord, 
 and Emilia was left to herself. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE LADIES OF BROOKFIELD AT SCHOOL. 
 
 Richfoed was an easy drive from Brookfield, 
 through lanes of elm and white hawthorn. 
 
 The ladies never acted so well as when they were 
 in the presence of a fact which they acknowledged, 
 but did not recognise. Albeit constrained to admit 
 that this was the first occasion of their ever being 
 on their way to the dinner-table of a person of 
 quality, they could refuse to look the admission in 
 the face. A peculiar lightness of heart beset them ; 
 for brooding ambition is richer in that first realising 
 step it takes, insignificant though it seem, than in 
 any subsequent achievement. I fear to say that 
 the hearts of the ladies boiled, because visages so. 
 sedate, and voices so monotonously indifferent, would 
 witness decidedly against me. The common avoid- 
 ance of any allusion to Richford testified to tli3 
 direction of their thoughts : and the absence of a 
 sign of exultation may be accepted as a proof of tho- 
 magnitude of that happiness of which they might 
 
118 EMILIA IX ENGLAND. 
 
 not exhibit a feature. The effort to repress it must 
 have cost them horrible pain. Adela, the youngest 
 
 of the three, transferred her inward joy to the cot- 
 
 i 
 
 tage children, whose staring faces from garden 
 porch and gate flashed by the carriage windows. 
 "How delighted they look!" she exclaimed more 
 than once, and informed her sisters that a country 
 life was surely the next thing to Paradise. " Those 
 children do look so happy!" Thus did the weak 
 one cunningly relieve herself. Arabella occupied 
 her mind by giving Emilia leading hints for con- 
 duct in the great house. " On the whole, though 
 there is no harm in your praising particular dishes, 
 as you do at home, it is better in society to say 
 nothing on those subjects until your opinion is 
 asked : and when you speak, it should be as one 
 who passes the subject by. Appreciate flavours, but 
 no dwelling on them ! The degrees of an expression 
 of approbation, naturally enough, vary with age. 
 Did my instinct prompt me to the discussion of 
 these themes, I should be allowed greater licence 
 than you/' And here Arabella was unable to resist 
 a little bit of the indulgence Adela had taken : 
 " You are sure to pass a most agreeable evening, 
 and one that you will remember." 
 
 Xorth Pole sat high above such petty consolation; 
 
THE LADIES OF BROOKFIELD AT SCHOOL. 110 
 
 seldom speaking, save just to show that her ideas 
 ranged at liberty, and could be spontaneously sym- 
 pathetic on selected topics. 
 
 Their ceremonious entrance to the state-room of 
 Richford accomplished, the ladies received the 
 greeting of the affable hostess; quietly perturbed, 
 but not enough so to disorder their artistic contem- 
 plation of her open actions, choice of phrase, and 
 b} T -play. Without communication or prearrange - 
 inent, each knew that the other would not let slip 
 the opportunity, and, after the first five minutes of 
 languid general converse, they were mentally at 
 work comparing notes with one another's imaginary 
 conversations, while they said "Yes," and " Indeed," 
 and "I think so," and appeared to belong to the 
 world about them. 
 
 M Merthyr, I do you the honour to hand this young 
 lady to your charge," said Lady Gosstre, putting on 
 equal terms with Emilia a gentleman of perhaps 
 five-and-thirty years; who reminded her of Mr. 
 Larrett, but was unclouded by that look of firm 
 sadness which characterised the poor organist. Mr. 
 Powys was a travelled Welsh squire, Lady Gosstre's 
 best talker, on whom, as Brookfield learnt to see, 
 she could perfectly rely to preserve the child from 
 any little drawing-room sins or dinner-table mis- 
 
120 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 adventures. This gentleman had made sacrifices 
 for the cause of Italy, in money, and, it was said, in 
 blood. He knew the country and loved the people. 
 Brookfield remarked that there was just a foreign 
 tinge in his manner; and that his smile, though 
 social to a degree unknown to the run of English 
 faces, did not give him all to you, and at a second 
 glance seemed plainly to say that he reserved much. 
 Adela fell to the lot of a hussar Captain : a cele- 
 brated beauty, not too foolish. She thought it 
 proper to punish him for his good looks till pro- 
 pitiated by his good temper. Nobody at Brookfield 
 could remember afterwards who took Arabella down 
 to dinner; she declaring that she had forgotten. 
 Her sisters, not unwilling to see insignificance 
 banished to annihilation, said that it must have 
 been nobody in person, and that he was a very 
 useful guest when ladies were engaged. Cornelia 
 had a different lot. She leaned on the right arm of 
 the Member for Hillford, the statistical debater, Sir 
 Twickenham Pry me, who had twice before, as he 
 ventured to remind her, enjoyed the honour of con- 
 versing, if not of dining, with her. Nay, more, he 
 revived their topics. " And I have come round to 
 your way of thinking as regards hustings addresses," 
 he said. " In nine cases out of ten — at least, 
 
THE LADIES OF BEOOKEIELD AT SCHOOL. 121 
 
 nineteen -twentieths of the House will furnish in- 
 stances — one can only, as you justly observed, 
 appeal to the comprehension of the mob by pledging 
 oneself either to their appetites or passions, and it 
 is better plainly to state the case and put it to them 
 in figures." Whether the Baronet knew what he 
 was saying is one matter : he knew what he 
 meant. 
 
 Wilfrid was cavalier to Lady Charlotte Chilling- 
 worth, of Stornley, about ten miles distant from 
 Hillford ; ninth daughter of a nobleman who passed 
 current as the Poor Marquis ; he having been ruined 
 when almost a boy in Paris, by the late illustrious 
 Lord Dartford. Her sisters had married captains 
 in the army and navy, lawyers, and parsons, impar- 
 tially. Lady- Charlotte was nine-and-twenty years 
 of age ; with clear and telling stone-blue eyes, firm 
 but not unsweet lips, slightly hollowed cheeks, and 
 a jaw that certainly tended to be square. Her 
 colour was healthy. Walking or standing her figure 
 was firmly poised. Her chief attraction was a bell- 
 toned laugh, fresh as a meadow spring. She had 
 met Wilfrid once in the hunting-field, so they soon 
 had common ground to run on. 
 
 Mr. Powys made Emilia happy by talking to her 
 of Italy, in the intervals of table anecdotes. 
 
122 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 " Why did you leave it?" she said. 
 " I found I had more shadows than the one 
 allotted me by nature ; and as I was accustomed to 
 a black one, and not half a dozen w T hite, I was fairly 
 frightened out of the country." 
 " You mean, Austrians." 
 "I do." 
 
 "Do you hate them?" 
 " Not at all." 
 
 " Then, how can you love the Italians ?" 
 " They themselves have taught me to do both ; 
 to love them and not to hate their enemies. Your 
 Italians are the least vindictive of all races of men." 
 "Merthyr! Merthyr!" went Lady Gosstre; Lady 
 Charlotte murmuring aloud: "And in the third 
 chapter of the Book of Paradox you will find these 
 words." 
 
 " We afford a practical example and forgive them, 
 do we not?" Mr. Powys smiled at Emilia. 
 She looked round her, and reddened a little. 
 " So long as you do not write that Christian word 
 with the point of a stiletto !" said Lady Charlotte. 
 
 " You are not mad about the Italians ?" Wilfrid 
 addressed her. 
 
 " Not mad about anything, I hope. If I am to 
 choose, I prefer the Austrians. A very gentlemanly 
 
THE LADIES OF BROOKFIELD AT SCHOOL. 123 
 
 set of men! At least, so I find them always. 
 Capital horsemen !" 
 
 "I will explain to you how it must be," said 
 Mr. Powys to Emilia. " An artistic people cannot 
 hate long. Hotly for the time, but the oppression 
 gone, and even in the dream of its going, they are 
 too human to be revengeful." 
 
 "Do we understand such very deep things?" 
 said Lady Gosstre, who was near enough to hear 
 clearly. 
 
 "Yes: for if I ask her whether she can hate 
 when her mind is given to music, she knows that 
 she cannot. She can love." 
 
 " Yet I think I have heard some Italian operatic 
 spitfires, and of some ! " said Lady Charlotte. 
 
 " What opinion do you pronounce in this con- 
 troversy?" Cornelia made appeal to Sir Twick- 
 enham. 
 
 " There are multitudes of cases," he began : and 
 took up another end of his statement : " It has been 
 computed that iive-and-twenty murders per month 
 to a population .... to a population of ninety 
 thousand souls, is a fair reckoning in a southern 
 latitude." 
 
 " Then we must allow for the latitude ?" 
 
 " I think so." 
 
124 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 " And also for the space into which the ninety thou- 
 sand souls are packed," quoth Tracy Runningbrook. 
 
 "Well! well!" went Sir Twickenham. 
 
 " The knife is the law to an Italian of the south," 
 said Mr. Powys. " He distrusts any other, because 
 he never gets it. Where law is established, or 
 tolerably secure, the knife is not used. Duels are 
 rare. There is too much bonhomie for the point 
 of honour." 
 
 " I should like to believe that all men are as just 
 to their mistresses," Lady Charlotte sighed, mock- 
 earnestly. 
 
 Presently Emiha touched the arm of Mr. Powys. 
 She looked agitated. " I want to be told the name 
 of that gentleman." His eyes were led to rest on 
 the handsome Hussar- captain. 
 
 " Do } r ou know him ? " 
 
 "Yes; but his name." 
 
 " Do me the favour to look at me. Captain 
 Gambler." 
 
 " So it is ! " 
 
 Captain Gainbier's face was resolutely kept in 
 profile to her. 
 
 ei I hear a rumour," said Lady Gosstre to 
 Arabella, " that you think of bidding for the 
 Besworth estate. Are you tired of Brookfield ? " 
 
THE LADIES OF BROOKFIELD AT SCnOOL. 125 
 
 " Not tired ; but Brookfield is modern, and I 
 confess that Beswortli lias won my heart." 
 
 " I shall congratulate myself on having you 
 nearer neighbours. Have you many, or any 
 rivals ? " 
 
 " There is some talk of the Tinleys wishing to 
 purchase it. I cannot see why." 
 
 " What people are they ? n asked Lady Charlotte. 
 " Do they hunt?" 
 
 " Oh, dear, no ! They are to society what 
 dissenters are to religion. I can't describe them 
 otherwise/' 
 
 " They pass before me in that description," said 
 Lady Gosstre. 
 
 " Besworth's an excellent centre for hunting," 
 Lady Charlotte remarked to Wilfrid. " I've always 
 had an affection for that place. The house is on 
 gravel; the river has trout; there's a splendid 
 sweep of grass for the horses to exercise. I think 
 there must be sixteen spare beds. At all events, I 
 know that number can be made up ; so that if you're 
 too poor to live much in London, you can always 
 have your set about you." 
 
 The eyes of the fair economist sparkled as she 
 dwelt on these particular advantages of Besworth. 
 
 Bichford boasted a show of flowers that might 
 
126 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 tempt its guests to parade the grounds on balmy 
 evenings. Wilfrid kept by the side of Lady Char- 
 lotte. She did not win his taste a bit. Had she 
 been younger, less decided in tone, and without a 
 title, it is very possible that she would have offended 
 his native, secret, and dominating fastidiousness 
 as much as did Emilia. Then, what made him 
 subject at all to her influence, as he felt himself 
 beginning to be ? She supplied a deficiency in the 
 youth. He was growing and uncertain: she was 
 set and decisive. In his soul he adored the extreme 
 refinement of woman, even up to the thin edge of 
 inanity (which neighbours what the philosopher 
 could tell him if he would, and would, if it were 
 permitted to him). Nothing was too white, too 
 saintly, or too misty, for his conception of abstract 
 woman. But the practical wants of our nature 
 guide ns best. Conversation with Lady Charlotte 
 seemed to strengthen and ripen him. He blushed 
 with pleasure when she said : " I remember reading 
 your name in the account of that last cavalry charge 
 on the Dewan. You slew a chief, I think. That 
 was creditable, for they are swordsmen. Cavalry in 
 Europe can't win much honour— not individual 
 honour, I mean. I suppose' being part of a vic- 
 torious machine is exhilarating. I confess I should 
 
THE LADIES OF BROOIvFIELD AT SCHOOL. 127 
 
 not think much of wearing that sort of feather. It's 
 right to do one's duty, comforting to trample down 
 opposition, and agreeable to shed blood ; but when 
 you have matched yourself man to man, and beaten — 
 why, then, I dub you knight." 
 
 Wilfrid bowed, half-laughing, in a luxurious 
 abandonment to his sensations. Possibly because 
 of their rule over him then, the change in him was 
 so instant from nattered delight to vexed perplexity. 
 Rounding one of the rhododendron banks, just as 
 he lifted his head from that acknowledgment of the 
 lady's commendation, he had sight of Emilia with 
 her hand in the hand of Captain Gambier. What 
 could it mean ? what right had he to hold her hand ? 
 Even if he knew her, what right ? 
 
 The words between Emilia and Captain Gambier 
 were few. 
 
 "Why did I not look at you during dinner?" 
 said he. " Was it not better to wait till we could 
 meet?" 
 
 " Then you will walk with me and talk to me all 
 the evening ? n 
 
 " No : but I will try and come down here next 
 week and meet you again/' 
 
 " Ana you going to-night ? " 
 
 • Yes." 
 
128 EMILIA IX ENGLAND. 
 
 " To-night? To-night before it strikes a quarter 
 to ten, I am going to leave here alone. If you 
 would come with me ! I want a companion. I know 
 they will not hurt me, but I don't like being alone. 
 I have given my promise to sing to some poor 
 people. My friends say I must not go. I must 
 go. I can't break a promise to poor people. And 
 you have never heard me really sing my best. 
 Come with me, and I will." 
 
 Captain Gambier required certain explanations. 
 He saw that a companion and protection would be 
 needed by his curious little friend, and as she was 
 resolved not to break her word, he engaged to take 
 her in the carriage that was to drive him to the station. 
 
 " You make me give up an appointment in town," 
 he said. 
 
 " Ah, but you will hear me sing," returned Emilia. 
 "We will drive to Brookfield and get my harp, 
 and then to Ipley Common. I am to be sure you will 
 be ready with the carriage at just a quarter to ten? " 
 
 The Captain gave her his assurance, and they 
 separated; he to seek out Adela, she to wander 
 about, the calmest of conspirators against the 
 serenity of a household. 
 
 Meeting Wilfrid and Lady Charlotte, Emilia was 
 asked by him, who it was she had quitted so abruptly. 
 
THE LADIES OF BROOKFIELD AT SCHOOL. 129 
 
 " That is the gentleman I told you of. Now I 
 know his name. It is Captain Gambler." 
 She was allowed to pass on. 
 " "What is this she says ? " Lady Charlotte asked. 
 " It appears . . . something about a meeting 
 somewhere accidentally, in the park, in London, 
 I think; I really don't know. She had forgotten 
 his name." 
 
 Lady Charlotte spurred him with an interrogative 
 " Yes ? " 
 
 " She wanted to remember his name. That's all. 
 He was kind to her." 
 
 " But, after all," remonstrated Lady Charlotte, 
 " that's only a characteristic of young men, is it 
 not ? no special distinction. You are all kind — to 
 girls, to women, to anything ! " 
 
 Captain Gambier and Adela crossed their path. 
 He spoke a passing word, Lady Charlotte returned 
 no answer, and was silent to her companion for 
 some minutes. Then she said, "If you feel any 
 responsibility about this little person, take my 
 advice, and don't let her have appointments and 
 meetings. They're bad in any case, and for a girl 
 who has no brother — has she? no: — well then, you 
 should make the best provision you can against the 
 cowardice of men. Most men are cowards." 
 vol. r. k 
 
130 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Emilia sang in the drawing-room. Brookfield 
 knew perfectly why she looked indifferent to the 
 plaudits and was not dissatisfied at hearing Lady 
 Gosstre say that she was a little helow the mark. 
 The kindly lady brought Emilia between herself and 
 Mr. Powys, saying, "I don't intend to let you be 
 the star of the evening and outshine us all." After 
 which, conversation commenced, and Brookfield had 
 reason to admire her ladyship's practised play upon 
 the social instrument, surely the grandest of all, the 
 chords being men and women. Consider what an 
 accomplishment this is ! 
 
 Albeit Brookfield knew itself a student at Bich- 
 ford, Adela was of too impatient a wit to refrain from 
 little ventures towards independence, if not rivalry. 
 "What tee do" she uttered distinctively once or 
 twice. Among other things she spoke of " our dis- 
 cover}^" to attest her declaration that, to wakeful 
 eyes, neither Hillford nor any other place on earth 
 was dull. Cornelia flushed at hearing the name of 
 Mr. Barrett pronounced publicly by her sister. 
 
 "An organist an accomplished man!" Lady 
 Gosstre repeated Adela's words. " Well, I suppose 
 it is possible, but it rather upsets one's notions, 
 does it not ? " 
 
 " Yes, but agreeably," said Adela, with boldness ; 
 
THE LADIES OF BROOK1TELD AT SCHOOL. 131 
 
 and related how he had been introduced, and hinted 
 that he was going to be patronised. 
 
 " The man cannot maintain himself on the 
 income that sort of office brings him," Lady Gosstre 
 observed. 
 
 " Oh, no," said Adela. " I fancy he does it 
 simply for some sort of occupation. One cannot 
 help imagining a disguise." 
 
 " Personally I confess to an objection to gentle- 
 men in disguise," said Lady Gosstre. " Barrett ! — 
 do you know the man ? ° 
 
 She addressed Mr. Powys. 
 
 " There used to be good quartett evenings given 
 by the Barretts of Bursey," he said. " Sir Justinian 
 Barrett married a Miss Purcell, who subsequently 
 preferred the musical accomplishments of a foreign 
 professor of the art." 
 
 "Purcell Barrett is his name," said Adela. 
 " Our Emilia brought him to us. Where is she ? 
 But, where can she be ? " 
 
 Adela rose. 
 
 " She pressed my hand, just now," said Lady 
 Gosstre. 
 
 " She was here when Captain Gambier quitted 
 
 the room," Arabella remarked. 
 
 41 Good Heaven ! " 
 
 x2 
 
132 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 The exclamation came from Adela. 
 
 " Ob, Lady Gosstre ! I fear to tell you what I 
 think she has done." 
 
 The scene of the rival Clubs was hurriedly 
 related, together with the preposterous pledge given 
 by Emilia that she would sing at the Ipley Booth : 
 " Among those dreadful men!" 
 
 "They will treat her respectfully," said Mr. 
 Powys. 
 
 " Worship her, I should imagine, Merthyr," said 
 Lady Gosstre. "For all that, she had better be 
 away. Beer is not a respectful spirit." 
 
 " I trust you will pardon her," Arabella pleaded. 
 " Everything that explanations of the impropriety 
 of such a thing could do, we have done. We 
 thought that at last we had convinced her. She is 
 quite untamed." 
 
 Mr. Powys now asked where this place was that 
 she had hurried to. 
 
 The unhappy ladies of Brookfield, quick as they 
 were to read every sign surrounding them, w T ere for 
 the moment too completely thrown off their balance 
 by Emilia's extraordinary exhibition of will, to see 
 that no reflex of her shameful and hideous pro- 
 ceeding had really fallen upon them. Their ex- 
 clamations were increasing, until Adela, who had 
 
THE LADIES OF BROOKFIELD AT SCHOOL. 133 
 
 been the noisiest, suddenly adopted Lady Gosstre's 
 tone. " If she has gone, I suppose she must be 
 simply fetched away/' 
 
 " Do you see what has happened ? " Lady 
 Charlotte murmured to Wilfrid, between a phrase. 
 
 He stumbled over a little piece of gallantry. 
 
 " Excellent ! But, say those things in French. 
 — Your dark-eyed maid has eloped. She left the 
 room five minutes after Captain Gambier." 
 
 Wilfrid sprang to his feet, looking eagerly to the 
 corners of the room. 
 
 " Pardon me," he said, and moved up to Lady 
 Gosstre. On the way, he questioned himself why his 
 heart should be beating at such a pace. Standing 
 at her ladyship's feet, he could scarcely speak. 
 
 " Yes, Wilfrid ; go after her," said Adela, divining 
 his object. 
 
 u By all means, go," added Lady Gosstre. 
 " Now she is there, you may as well let her keep 
 her promise ; and then hurry her home. They 
 will saddle you a horse down below, if you care to 
 have one." 
 
 Wilfrid thanked her ladyship, and declined the 
 horse. He was soon walking rapidly under a rough 
 sky in the direction of Ipley, with no firm thought 
 that he would find Emilia there. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 IN WHICH WE SEE THE MAGNANIMITY THAT IS IN 
 BEER. 
 
 At half-past nine of the clock on the evening of 
 this memorable day, a body of five-and-twenty stout 
 young fellows, prize runners, wrestlers/ boxers, and 
 topers, of the Hillford Club, set forth on a march to 
 Ipley Common. 
 
 Now, a foreigner, hearing of their destination and 
 the provocation they had endured, would have 
 supposed that they were bent upon deeds of ven- 
 geance; and it requires some knowledge of our 
 countrymen to take it as a fact that the idea and 
 aim of the expedition were simply to furnish the 
 offending Ipley boys a little music. Such were the 
 idea and the aim. Hillford had nothing to do with 
 consequences : no more than our England is res- 
 ponsible when she sails out among the empires and 
 hemispheres, saying, ' buy ' and ' sell,' and they 
 clamour to be eaten up entire. Foreigners per- 
 tinaciously misunderstand us. They have the 
 
THE MAGNANIMITY IN BEER. 135 
 
 barbarous habit of judging by results. Let us 
 know ourselves better. It is melancholy to con- 
 template the intrigues, and vile designs, and ven- 
 geances of other nations ; and still more so, after we 
 have written so many pages of intelligible histor} r , 
 to see them attributed to us. Will it never be per- 
 ceived that we do not sow the thing that happens ? 
 The source of the flooding stream which drinks up 
 those rich acres of low, fat land is not more 
 innocent than we. If, as does seem possible, we 
 are in a sort of alliance with Destiny, we have 
 signed no compact, and accomplish our work as 
 solidly and merrily as a wood-hatchet in the hands 
 of the woodman. This arrangement to give Ipley a 
 little music, was projected as a return for the 
 favours of the morning : nor have I in my time 
 heard anything comparable to it in charity of senti- 
 ment, when I consider the detestable outrage Hill- 
 ford suffered under. 
 
 The parading of the drum, the trombone, a horn, 
 two whistles, and a fife, in front of Hillford booth, 
 caught the fancy of the Clubmen, who roared out 
 parting adjurations that the music was not to be 
 spared ; and that Tom Breeks was a musical fellow, 
 with a fine empty pate, if any one of the instruments 
 should fail perchance. They were to give Ipley 
 
136 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 plenty of music : for Ipley wanted to be taught 
 harmony. Harmony was Ipley's weak point. "Gie 
 'em," said one jolly ruddy Hillford man, i{ gie 'em 
 whack fol, lol ! " And he smacked himself, and set 
 towards an invisible partner. Nor, as recent re- 
 nowned historians have proved, are observations of 
 this nature beneath the dignity of chronicle. They 
 vindicate, as they localise, the sincerity of Hillford. 
 
 Really, to be an islander full of ale, is to be the 
 kindest creature on or off two legs. For that veiy 
 reason, it may be, his wrath at bad blood is so easily 
 aroused. In our hot moods we would desire things 
 like unto ourselves, and object violently to whatso- 
 ever is unlike. And also we desire that the bene- 
 fits we shed be appreciated. If Ipley understands 
 neither our music nor our intent, haply we must 
 hold a performance on the impenetrable sconce of 
 Ipley. 
 
 At the hour named, the expedition, with many a 
 promise that the music should be sweet, departed 
 hilariously : Will Burdock, the left-handed cricketer 
 and hard-hitter, being leader; with Peter Bartho- 
 lomew, potboy, John Girling, miller's-man, and 
 Ned Thewk, gardener's assistant, for lieutenants. 
 On the march, silence was proclaimed, and partially 
 enforced, after two fights against authority. Near 
 
THE MAGNANIMITY IN BEER. 137 
 
 the sign of King William's Head, General Burdock 
 called a halt, and betrayed irresolution with refer- 
 ence to the route to be adopted ; but as none of his 
 troop could at all share such a condition of mind in 
 the neighbourhood of an inn, he was permitted to 
 debate peacefully with his lieutenants, while the rest 
 burst through the doors and hailed the landlord : a 
 proceeding he was quickly induced to imitate. 
 Thus, when the tail shows strongest decision of 
 purpose, the head must follow. 
 
 An accurate oinometer, or method of determining 
 what shall be the condition of the spirit of man 
 according to the degrees of wine or beer in him, 
 were surely of priceless service to us. For now 
 must we, to be certain of our sanity and dignity, 
 abstain, which is to clip, impoverish, imprison, the 
 soul : or else, taking wings of wine, we go aloft over 
 capes, and islands, and seas, but are even as 
 balloons that cannot make for any line, and are at 
 the mercy of the winds — without a choice, save to 
 come down by virtue of a collapse. Could we say 
 to ourselves, in the great style, This is the point 
 where desire to embrace humanity is merged in 
 vindictiveness towards individuals : where radiant 
 sweet temper culminates in tremendous wrath : 
 where the treasures of anticipation, waxing riotous, 
 
188 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 arouse the memory of wrongs : — in plain words, 
 could we know positively, and from the hand of 
 science, when we have had enough, we should 
 stop. There is not a doubt that we should stop. 
 It is so true that we should stop, that, I am 
 ready to say, ladies have no right to call us horrid 
 names, and complain of us, till they have helped 
 us to some such trustworthy scientific instrument 
 as this that I have called for. In its ahsence, 
 I am persuaded that the true natural oinometer 
 is the hat. Were the hat always worn during 
 potation ; were ladies when they retire to place it 
 on our heads, or, better still, chaplets of flowers ; 
 then, like the wise ancients, we should be able to 
 tell to a nicety how far we had advanced in our 
 dithyramb to the theme of fuddle and muddle. Un- 
 happily the hat does not forewarn : it is simply 
 indicative. I believe, nevertheless, that science 
 might set to work upon it forthwith, and found a 
 system. "When you mark men drinking who wear 
 their hats, and those hats are seen gradually 
 beginning to hang on the backs of their heads as 
 from pegs, in the fashion of a fez, the bald 
 projection of forehead looks jolly and frank: dis- 
 trust that sign : the may-fly of the soul is then 
 about to be gobbled up by the chub of the passions. 
 
THE MAGNANIMITY IN BEER. 139 
 
 A hat worn fez-fashion is a dangerous hat. A hat 
 on the brows shows a man who can take more, but 
 thinks he will go home instead, and does so, 
 peaceably. That is his determination. He may- 
 look like Macduff, but he is a lamb. The vinous 
 reverses the non-vinous passionate expression of the 
 hat. If I am discredited, I appeal to history, which 
 tells us that the hats of the Hillfordfive-and-twenty 
 were all exceedingly hindward-set when the march 
 was resumed. It followed that Peter Bartholomew, 
 potboy, made irritable objections to that old joke 
 which finished his name as it were a cat calling, and 
 the offence being repeated, he dealt an impartial 
 swing of his stick at divers heads, and told them to 
 take that, which they assured him they had done by 
 sending him flying into a hedge. Peter, being 
 reprimanded by his commanding officer, acknow- 
 ledged a hot desire to try his mettle, and the latter 
 responsible person had to be restrained from 
 granting the wish he cherished by John Girling, 
 whom he threw for his trouble :. and as Burdock was 
 the soundest hitter, numbers cried out against 
 Girling, revolting him with a sense of overwhelming 
 injustice that could be appeased only by his pros- 
 trating two stout lads and squaring against a third, 
 who came up from a cross-road. This one knocked 
 
140 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 him down with the gentleness of a fist that knows 
 how Beer should be treated, and then sung out, in 
 the voice of Wilfrid Pole : " Which is the nearest 
 way to Ipley, you fellows ? " 
 
 " Come along with us, sir, and we'll show you," 
 said Burdock. 
 
 "Are you going there ? " 
 
 " Well, that's pretty clear." 
 
 11 Hillford men, are you ? " 
 
 " We've left the women behind." 
 
 " I'm in a hurry, so, good-night." 
 
 " And so are we in a hurry, sir. But, you're a 
 gentleman, and we want to give them chaps at Ipley 
 a little surprise, d'ye see, in the way of a dollop o 
 music : and if you won't go givin' 'em warning, you 
 may trot; and that road '11 take you." 
 
 " All right," said Wilfrid, now fairly divided be- 
 tween his jealousy of Gambier and anxiety for Emilia. 
 
 Could her artist -nature, of which he had heard 
 perplexing talk, excuse her and make her heart 
 absolutely guiltless (what he called 'innocent'), in 
 trusting herself to any man's honour ? I regret to 
 say that the dainty adorers of the sex are even thus 
 grossly suspicious of all women when their senti- 
 ment is ever so triningly offended. 
 
 Lights on Ipley Common were seen from a rise 
 
THE MAGNANIMITY IN BEER. 141 
 
 of the hilly road. The moon was climbing through 
 drifts of torn black cloud. Hastening his pace for a 
 double reason now, Wilfrid had the booth within 
 hearing, listened a moment; and then stood fast. 
 His unconscious gasp of the words : " Thank God; 
 there she is ! " might have betrayed him to another. 
 She was sitting near one end of the booth, singing 
 as "Wilfrid had never yet heard her sing : her dark 
 eyes flashing. Behind her stood Captain Gam- 
 bier, keeping guard with all the composure of a 
 gentleman-usher at a royal presentation. Along 
 the tables, men and women were ranged facing 
 her ; open-mouthed, some of them : but for the 
 most part wearing a predetermined expression of 
 applausive judgment, as who should say, " Queer, 
 but good." They gave Emilia their faces, which 
 was all she wanted ; and silence, save for an in- 
 termingling soft snore, here and there, the elfin 
 trumpet of silence. To tell truth, certain heads 
 had bowed low to the majesty of beer, and were 
 down on the table between sprawling doubled 
 arms. No essay on the power of beer could exhibit 
 it more convincingly than the happy indifference 
 with which they 'received admonishing blows from 
 quart-pots, salutes from hot pipe-bowls, pricks from 
 pipe-ends, on nose, and cheek, and pate ; as if tc 
 
142 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 vindicate for their beloved beverage a right to rank 
 with that old classic drink wherewith the fairest 
 of women vanquished human ills. The majority, 
 however, had been snatched out of this bliss by the 
 intrusion of their wives, who sat beside them like 
 Consciences in petticoats ; and it must be said that 
 Emilia was in favour with the married men, for one 
 reason, because she gave these broad-ribboned 
 ladies a good excuse for allowing their lords to stop 
 where they were so comfortable, a continually- 
 extending five minutes longer. 
 
 Yet, though the words were foreign and the style 
 of the song and the singer were strange, many of 
 the older fellows' eyes twinkled, and their mouths 
 pursed with a kind of half-protesting pleasure. All 
 were reverent to the compliment paid them by 
 Emilia's presence. The general expression was 
 much like that seen when the popular ear is given 
 to the national anthem. Wilfrid hung at the 
 opening of the booth, a cynical spectator. For 
 what on earth made her throw such energy, and 
 glory of music, into a song before fellows like 
 these ? He laughed dolorously. " She hasn't a 
 particle of any sense of ridicule," he said to himself. 
 Forthwith her voice took hold of him, and led him 
 as heroes of old were led unwillingly into enchanted 
 
THE MAGNANIMITY IN BEER. 143 
 
 woods. If she had been singing things holy, a 
 hymn, a hallelujah, in this company, it struck him 
 that somehow it would have seemed appropriate ; 
 not objectionable ; at any rate, not ridiculous. Dr. 
 Watte would have put a girdle about her ; but a 
 song of romance sung in this atmosphere of pipes 
 and beer and boozy heads, chagrined Wilfrid in 
 proportion as the softer half of him began to 
 succumb to the deliciousness of her voice. 
 
 Ernilia may have had some warning sense that 
 admiration is only one ingredient of homage, and to 
 make it fast and true, affection must be won. Xow, 
 poor people, yokels, clods, cannot love what is 
 incomprehensible to them. An idol must have 
 their attributes : a king must show his face, now 
 and then : a song must appeal to their intelligence, 
 to subdue them quite. This, as we know, is not the 
 case in the higher circles. Eniilia may have 
 divined it : possibly from the very great respect 
 with which her finale was greeted. Vigorous as 
 the ' Brayvos 3 were, they sounded abashed : they 
 lacked abandonment. In fact, it was gratitude that 
 applauded, and not enthusiasm. " Hillford don't 
 hear stuff like that, do 'em ? " which was the main 
 verbal encomium passed, may be taken testificatorily 
 as to this point. 
 
144 EMILIA IX ENGLAND. 
 
 " Darne ! dame ! " cried Emilia, finding her way 
 quickly to one of the more decently-bonneted 
 women; "am I not glad to see you here! Did 
 I please you? And you, dear Farmer Wilson? 
 I caught sight of you just as I was finishing. I 
 remember the song you like, and I want to sing it. 
 I know the tune, but the words ! the words ! what 
 are the words ? Humming won't do." 
 
 " Ah, now ! " quoth Farmer "Wilson, pointing out 
 the end of his pipe, " that's what they'll swallow 
 down ; that's the song to make 'em kick. Sing 
 that, miss. Furrin songs 's all right enough; 
 but 'Ale it is my tipple, and England is my nation ! ' 
 Let's have something plain and flat on the surface, 
 miss." 
 
 Dame Wilson jogged her husband's arm, to make 
 him remember that talking was his dangerous 
 pastime, and sent abroad a petition for a song-book; 
 and after a space a very doggy-eared book, re- 
 sembling a poodle of that genus, was handed to 
 her. Then uprose a shout for this song and that ; 
 but Emilia fixed upon the one she had in view, and 
 walked back to her harp, with her head bent, 
 perusing it attentively all the way. There, she gave 
 the book to Captain Gambier, and begged him to 
 hold it open before her, with a passing light of eyes 
 
THE MAGNANIMITY IN BEER. 145 
 
 likely to be rather disturbing to a jealous spectator. 
 The Captain seized the book without wincing, and 
 displayed a remarkable equanimity of countenance 
 as he held it out, according to direction. No sooner 
 had Emilia struck a prelude of the well-known air, 
 than the interior of the booth was transfigured; 
 legs began to move, elbows jerked upward, fingers 
 fillipped : the whole body of them were ready to 
 duck and bow, dance, and do her bidding : she had 
 fairly caught their hearts. For, besides the pleasure 
 they had in their own familiar tune, it was wonderful 
 to them that Emilia should know what they knew. 
 This was the marvel, this the inspiration. She 
 smiled to see how true she had struck, and seemed 
 to swim on the pleasure she excited. Once, 
 as her voice dropped, she looked up at Captain 
 Gambier, so very archly, with the curving line of 
 her bare throat, that Wilfrid was dragged down 
 from his cynical observatory, and made to feel as a 
 common man among them all. 
 
 At the ' thrum - thrum ' on the harp-strings, 
 which wound up the song, frenzied shouts were 
 raised for a repetition. Emilia was perfectly willing 
 to gratify them ; Captain Gambier appeared to be 
 remonstrating with her, but she put up her joined 
 hands, mock-petitioningly, and he with great affa- 
 
146 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 bility held out the book anew. Wilfrid was thinking 
 of moving to her to take her forcibly away, when 
 she recommenced. 
 
 At the same instant — but who, knowing that a 
 house of glass is about to be shattered, can refrain 
 from admiring its glitter in the beams ?— Ipley 
 crooned a ready accompaniment : the sleepers had 
 been awakened: the women and the men were alive, 
 half-dancing, half-chorussing : here a baby was 
 tossed, and there an old fellow's elbow worked 
 mutely, expressive of the rollicking gaiety within 
 him : the whole length of the booth was in a 
 pleasing simmer, ready to overboil with shouts 
 humane and cheerful, while Emilia pitched her note 
 and led ; archly, and quite one with them all, and 
 yet in a way that critical Wilfrid could not object 
 to, so plainly did she sing to give happiness. 
 
 I cannot delay ; but I request you, that are here 
 privileged to soar aloft with the Muse, to fix your 
 minds upon one point in this flight. Let not the 
 heat and dust of the ensuing fray divert your 
 attention from the magnanimity of Beer. It will be 
 vindicated in the end : but be worthy of your seat 
 beside the Muse, who alone of us all can take one 
 view of the inevitable two that perplex mortal 
 udgments. 
 
THE MAGNANIMITY IN BXEB. 147 
 
 For, if Ipley had jumped jovially up, and met the 
 Hillford alarum with laughter, — how then ? Why, 
 then I maintain that the magnanimity of Beer would 
 have hlazed effulgent on the spot : there would have 
 been louder laughter and fraternal greetings. As it 
 was, the fire on the altar of Wisdom was again 
 kindled by Folly, and the steps to the altar were 
 broken heads, after the antique fashion. 
 
 In dismay, Ipley started. The members of the 
 Club stared. Emilia faltered in horror. 
 
 A moment her voice swam stemming the execrable 
 concert, but was overwhelmed. Wilfrid pressed 
 forward to her. They could hear nothing but the 
 din. The booth raged like an insurgent menagerie. 
 Outside it sounded of brazen beasts, and beasts that 
 whistled, beasts that boomed. A whirlwind huddled 
 them, and at last a cry, " We've got a visit from 
 Hillford," told the tale. At once the stoutest hearts 
 pressed to the opening. " My harp ! " Emilia 
 made her voice reach Wilfrid's ear. Unprovided 
 with weapons, Ipley parleyed. Hillford howled in 
 reply. The trombone brayed an interminable note, 
 that would have driven to madness quiescent cats 
 by steaming kettles, and quick, like the springing 
 pulse of battle, the drum thumped and thumped. 
 Blood could not hear it and keep from boiling. 
 
 l2 
 
148 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 The booth shook violently. Wilfrid and Gambier 
 threw over half-a-dozen chairs, forms, and tables, 
 to make a barrier for the protection of the women. 
 
 " Come," Wilfrid said to Emilia, "leave the harp. 
 I will get you another. Come." 
 
 " No, no," she cried, in her nervous fright. 
 
 " For God's sake, come ! " he reiterated, she, 
 stamping her foot, as to emphasise " No ! no ! no ! " 
 
 " But I will buy you another harp ; " he made 
 audible to her through the hubbub. 
 
 " This one ! " she gasped, with her hand on it. 
 " What will he think if he finds that I forsook 
 it?" 
 
 Wilfrid knew her to allude to the unknown person 
 who had given it to her. 
 
 " There — there," said he. " I sent it, and I can 
 get you another. So, come. Be good, and come." 
 
 " It was you ! " 
 
 Emilia looked at him. She seemed to have no 
 senses for the uproar about her. 
 
 But now the outer barricade was broken through, 
 and the rout pressed on the second line. Tom 
 Breeks, the orator, and Jim, transformed from a 
 lurching yokel to a lithe dog of battle, kept the 
 retreat of Ipley, challenging any two of Hillford to 
 settle the dispute. Captain Gambier attempted an 
 
THE MAGNANIMITY IN BEER. 149 
 
 authoritative parley, in the midst of which a Hillford 
 man made a long arm and struck Emilia's harp, till 
 the strings jarred loose and horrid. The noise 
 would have been enough to irritate Wilfrid beyond 
 endurance. When he saw the fellow continuing to 
 strike the harp-frame while Emilia clutched it, in a 
 feeble defence, against her bosom, he caught a thick 
 stick from a neighbouring hand and knocked that 
 Hillford man so clean to earth that Hillford 
 murmured at the blow. Wilfrid then joined the 
 front array. 
 
 "Half-a-dozen hits like that a piece, sir," nodded 
 Tom Breeks. 
 
 " There goes another ! " Jim shouted. 
 
 "Not quite, my lad," interposed Ned Thewk, 
 though Peter Bartholomew was reeling in confir- 
 mation. 
 
 His blow at Jim missed, but came sharply in the 
 swing on Wilfrid's cheek-bone. 
 
 Maddened at the immediate vision of that feature 
 swollen, purple, even as a plum with an assiduous 
 fly on it, certifying to ripeness : — Says the philoso- 
 pher, "We are never up to the mark of any position, 
 if we are in a position beneath our own mark ; " and 
 it is true that no hero in conflict should think of his 
 face, but Wilfrid was all the while protesting 
 
150 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 wratkfully against the folly of his having set foot in 
 such a place : — Maddened, I say, Wilfrid, a keen 
 swordsman, cleared a space. John Girling fell to 
 him: Ned Thewk fell to him, and the sconce of 
 Will Burdock rang. 
 
 " A rascally absurd business ! " said Gambier, 
 letting his stick do the part of a damnatory verb on 
 one of the enemy, while he added, " The drunken 
 vagabonds ! " 
 
 All the Hillford party were now in the booth. 
 Ipley, meantime, was not sleeping. Farmer Wilson 
 and a set of the Ipley men whom age had saga- 
 ciously instructed to prefer stratagem to force, had 
 slipped outside, and were labouring as busily as 
 their comrades within : stooping to the tent-pegs, 
 sending emissaries to the tent-poles. 
 
 "Drunk!" roared Will Burdock. "Did you 
 happen to say ' drunk ? ' " And looking all the 
 while at Gambier, he, with infernal cunning, swung 
 at Wilfrid's fated cheekbone. The latter rushed 
 furiously into the press of them, and there was a 
 charge from Ipley, and a lock, from which Wilfrid 
 extricated himself to hurry off Emilia. He per- 
 ceived that bad blood was boiling up. 
 
 " Forward ! " cried Will Burdock, and Hillford in 
 turn made a tide. 
 
THE MAGNANIMITY IN BEER. 151 
 
 As they caine on in numbers too great for lpley 
 to stand against, an obscuration fell over all. The 
 fight paused. Then a sensation as of some fellows 
 smoothing their polls and their cheeks, and leaning 
 on their shoulders with obtrusive affection, inspirited 
 them to lash about indiscriminately. "Whoops and 
 yells arose ; then peals of laughter. Homage to 
 the cleverness of lpley was paid in hurrahs, the 
 moment Hillford understood the stratagem by 
 which its men of valour were lamed and imprisoned. 
 The truth was, that the booth was down on them, 
 and they were struggling entangled in an enormous 
 bag of canvas. 
 
 Wilfrid drew Emilia from under the drooping 
 folds of the tent. He was allowed, on inspection of 
 features, to pass. The men of Hillford were cap- 
 tured one by one like wild geese, as with difficulty 
 they emerged, roaring, rolling with laughter, all. 
 
 Yea ; to such an extent did they laugh that they 
 can scarce be said to have done less than make the 
 joke of the foe their own. And this proves the 
 great and amazing magnanimity of Beer. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 SHOWING HOW SENTIMENT AND PASSION TAKE THE 
 DISEASE OF LOVE. 
 
 A pillar of dim silver rain fronted the moon on 
 the hills. Emilia walked hurriedly, with her head 
 bent, like a penitent : now and then peeping up and 
 breathing to the keen scent of the tender ferns. 
 Wilfred still grasped her hand, and led her across 
 the common, away from the rout. 
 
 When the uproar behind them had sunk, he said : 
 " You'll get your feet wet. I'm sorry you should 
 have to walk. How did you come here ? " 
 
 She answered : " I forget." 
 
 " You must have come here in some conveyance. 
 Did you walk ? " 
 
 Again she answered: f * I forget; " a little queru- 
 lously ; perhaps wilfully. 
 
 " Well ! " he persisted : " You must have got 
 your harp to this place by some means or 
 other ? " 
 
 " Yes, my harp ! " a sob checked her voice. 
 
SENTIMENT, PASSION, AND LOVE. 153 
 
 Wilfrid tried to soothe her. "Never mind the 
 harp. It's easily replaced." 
 
 11 Not that one ! " she moaned. 
 
 H We will get you another/' 
 
 " I shall never love any but that." 
 
 "Perhaps we may hear good news of it to- 
 morrow." 
 
 " No ; for I felt it die in my hands. The third 
 blow was the one that killed it. It's broken." 
 
 Wilfrid could not reproach her, and he had not 
 any desire to preach. So, as no idea of having 
 done amiss in coming to the booth to sing illumined 
 her, and she yet knew that she was in some way 
 guilty, she accused herself of disregard for that dear 
 harp while it was brilliant and serviceable. " Now 
 I remember what poor music I made of it ! I 
 touched it with cold fingers. The sound was thin, 
 as if it had no heart. Tick-tick! — I fancy I touched 
 it with a dead man's finger-nails." 
 
 She crossed her wrists tight at the clasp of her 
 waist, and letting her chin fall in her throat, shook 
 her body fretfully, much as a pettish little girl 
 might do. Wilfrid grimaced. * Tick-tick ' was not 
 a pathetic elegy in his ears. 
 
 " The only thing is, not to think about it," said 
 he. " It's only an instrument, after all." 
 
154 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 " It's the second one I have seen killed like a 
 living creature," replied Emilia. 
 
 They walked on silently, till Wilfrid remarked, 
 that lie wondered where Gambier was. She gave 
 no heed to the name. The little quiet footing and 
 the bowed head by his side, moved him to entreat 
 her not to be unhappy. Her voice had another 
 tone when she answered that she was not un- 
 happy. 
 
 " No tears at all?" Wilfrid stooped to get a 
 close view of her face. " I thought I saw one. If 
 it's about the harp, look ! — you shall go into that 
 cottage where the light is, sit there, and wait for me, 
 and I will bring you what remains of it. I dare say 
 we can have it mended." 
 
 Emilia lifted her eyes. " I am not crying for the 
 harp. If you go back I must go with you." 
 
 " That's out of the question. You must never be 
 found in that sort of place again." 
 
 "Let us leave the harp," she murmured. "You 
 cannot go without me. Let me sit here for a 
 minute, Sit with me." 
 
 She pointed to a place beside herself on the fork 
 of a dry log under flowering hawthorn. A pale 
 shadowy-blue centre of light among the clouds told 
 where the moon was. Rain had ceased, and the 
 
SENTIMENT, PASSION, AND LOVE. 155 
 
 refreshed earth smelt all of flowers, as if each breeze 
 going by held a nosegay to their nostrils. 
 
 Wilfrid was sensible of a sudden marked change 
 in her. His blood was quicker than his brain in 
 feeling it. Her voice now, even in common speaking, 
 had that vibrating richness which in her singing- 
 swept his nerves. 
 
 " If you cry, there must be a cause, you know," 
 he said, for the sake of keeping the conversation in 
 a safe channel. 
 
 " How brave you are ! " was Emilia's sedate ex- 
 clamation, in reply. 
 
 Her cheeks glowed, as if she had just uttered a 
 great confession, but while the colour mounted to 
 her eyes, they kept their affectionate intentness 
 upon him without a quiver of the lids. 
 
 "Do you think me a coward ? " she relieved him 
 by asking sharply, like one whom the thought had 
 turned into a darker path. " I am not. I hung my 
 head while you were fighting, because, what could I 
 do? I would not have left you. Girls can only 
 say, ' I will perish with him.' " 
 
 "But," Wilfrid tried to laugh, "there was no 
 necessity for that sort of devotion. What are you 
 thinking of? It was half in good-humour, all 
 through. Part of their fun ! " 
 
156 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Clearly Emilia's conception of the recent fray 
 was unchangeable. 
 
 " And the place for girls is at home ; that's 
 certain," he added. 
 
 " I should always like to be where . . . ." Her 
 voice flowed on with singular gravity to that stop. 
 
 Wilfrid's hand travelled mechanically to his 
 pricking cheek-bone. 
 
 Was it possible that a love-scene was coming on 
 as a pendant to that monstrously-ridiculous affair of 
 half-an-hour back? To know that she had sufficient 
 sensibility was gratifying, and flattering that it 
 aimed at him. She was really a darling little 
 woman: only too absurd! Had she been on the 
 point of saying that she would always like to be 
 where he, Wilfrid, was ? An odd touch of curiosity, 
 peculiar to the languid emotions, made him ask her 
 this: and to her soft" Yes," he continued briskly, 
 and in the style of condescending fellowship : " of 
 course we're not going to part ! " 
 
 "I wonder," said Emilia. 
 
 There she sat, evidently sounding right through 
 the future with her young brain, to hear what 
 Destiny might have to say. 
 
 The ' I wonder ' rang sweetly in his head. It 
 was as delicate a way of confessing, n I love you 
 
SENTIMENT, PASSION, AND LOVE. 157 
 
 with all my soul," as could be imagined. Extremely 
 refined young ladies could hardly have improved 
 upon it, saving with the angelic shades of sentiment 
 familiar to them. 
 
 Convinced that he had now heard enough for his 
 vanity, Wilfrid returned emphatically to the tone of 
 the world's highroad. 
 
 " By the way," he said, " you musn't have any 
 exaggerated idea of this night's work. Remember, 
 also, I have to share the honours with Captain 
 Gambier." 
 
 " I did not see him," said Emilia. 
 
 " Are you not cold ? " he asked, for a diversion, 
 though he had one of her hands. 
 
 She gave him the other. 
 
 He could not quit them abruptly : nor could he 
 hold both without being drawn to her. 
 
 "What is it you say?" Wilfrid whispered: 
 " 'men kiss us when we are happy.' Is that right ? 
 and are you happy ? " 
 
 She lifted a clear full face, to which he bent his 
 mouth. Over the flowering hawthorn the moon stood 
 like a wind-blown white rose of the heavens. The 
 kiss was given and taken. Strange to tell, it was 
 he who drew away from it almost bashfully, and 
 with new feelings. 
 
158 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Quite unaware that lie played the feminine part, 
 Wilfrid alluded to her flight from Pdchford, with 
 the instinct to sting his heart hy a revival of his 
 jealous sensations previously experienced, and so 
 taste the luxury of present satisfaction. 
 
 " "Why did you run away from me ? " he said, 
 semi-reproachfully. 
 
 " I promised." 
 
 "Would you not break a promise to stay with 
 me?" 
 
 " Now I would ! " 
 
 " You promised Captain Gambier ? " 
 
 " No : those poor people." 
 
 " You are sorry that you went ? " 
 
 No : she was happy. 
 
 " You have lost your harp by it," said Wilfrid. 
 
 " What do you think of me for not guessing — not 
 knowing who sent it?" she returned. "I feel guilty 
 of something all those days that I touched it, not 
 thinking of you. Wicked, filthy little creature that 
 I was ! I despise ungrateful girls." 
 
 "I detest anything that has to do with gratitude," 
 Wilfrid appended, " pray give me none. Why did 
 you go away with Captain Gambier ? " 
 
 " I was very fond of him," she replied, unhesita- 
 tingly, but speaking as it were with numbed lips. 
 
SENTIMENT, PASSION, AND LOVE. 159 
 
 " I wanted to tell him, to thank him and hold his 
 hand. I told him of my promise. He spoke to me 
 a moment in the garden, you know. He said he 
 was leaving to go to London early, and would wait 
 for me in the carriage : then we might talk. He 
 did not wish to talk to me in the garden." 
 
 "And you went with him in the carriage, and 
 told him you were so grateful ? " 
 
 "Yes; hut men do not like us to be grateful." 
 
 " So, he said he would do all sorts of things on 
 condition that you were not grateful ? " 
 
 11 He said — yes : — I forget : I do forget ! How 
 can I tell what he said ? " Emilia added piteously. 
 " I feel as if I had been emptied out of a sack ! " 
 
 Wilfrid was pierced with laughter : and then the 
 plain-spoken simile gave him a chilling sensation 
 while he was rising to the jealous pitch. 
 
 " Did he talk about taking you to Italy ? Put 
 your head into the sack, and think ! " 
 
 " Yes," she answered blandly, an affirmative that 
 caused him some astonishment, for he had struck at 
 once to the farthest end of his suspicions. 
 
 " He feels as I do about the Italian Schools," 
 said Emilia. " He wishes me to owe my learning 
 to him. He says it will make him happy, and I 
 thought so too." She threw in a "then." 
 
160 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Wilfrid looked moodily into the opposite hedge. 
 
 " Did he name the day for your going ? " he 
 asked presently, little anticipating another " Yes : " 
 but it came : and her rather faltering manner 
 showed her to be conscious, too, that the word was 
 getting to be a black one to him. 
 
 '•' Did you say you would go ? " 
 
 "I did." 
 
 Question and answer crossed like two rapiers. 
 
 "Wilfrid jumped up. 
 
 " The smell of this tree's detestable," he said, 
 glancing at the shadowing hawthorn. 
 
 Emilia rose quietly, plucked a flower of the tree, 
 and put it in her bosom. 
 
 Their way was down a green lane and across 
 long meadow-paths dim in the moonlight. A 
 nightingale was heard on this side and on that. 
 Overhead they had a great space of sky with broken 
 cloud full of the glory of the moon. The meadows 
 dipped to a brook, which was spanned by a plank. 
 Then there was an ascent through a cornfield to 
 a copse. Rounding this they had sight of Brook- 
 field. But while they were yet at the brook, Wilfrid 
 said, " When is it you're going to Italy ? " 
 
 In return he had an eager look, so that he was 
 half-ashamed to add, "With Captain Gambier, I 
 
SENTIMENT, PASSION, AND LOVE. 1G1 
 
 mean." He was suffering, and by being brutal he 
 expected to draw balm on himself; nor was he 
 deceived. 
 
 Emilia just then gave him her hand to be led 
 over, and answered, as she neared him, " I am 
 never to leave you." 
 
 " You never shall ! " Wilfrid caught her in his 
 arms, quite conquered by her, proud of her. He 
 reflected with a loving rapture that her manner at 
 that moment was equal to any lady's ; and the 
 phantom of her with her hand out, and her frank 
 look, and trustful footing, while she spoke those 
 words, kept on advancing to him all the way to 
 Brookfield, at the same time that the sober reality 
 murmured at his elbow. 
 
 Love, with his accustomed cunning, managed 
 thus to lift her out of the mire and array her in 
 his golden dress : to idealise her, as we say. Re- 
 conciled for the hour were the contesting instincts 
 in the nature of this youth : the adoration of 
 feminine refinement and the susceptibility to 
 sensuous impressions. But Emilia walked with 
 a hero : the dream of all her days ! one, generous 
 and gentle, as well as brave : who had fought for 
 her, had thought of her tenderly, was with her now, 
 having raised her to his level with a touch ! How 
 
162 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 much might they not accomplish together : he with 
 sword, she with harp ? Through shadowy alleys in 
 the clouds, Emilia saw the bright Italian plains 
 opening out to her : the cities of marble, such as 
 her imagination had fashioned them, porticos of 
 stately palaces, and towers, and statues white among 
 cypresses ; and farther, minutely-radiant in the 
 vista as a shining star, Venice of the sea. Fancy 
 made the flying minutes hours. Now, they marched 
 with the regiments of Italy, under the folds of her 
 free banner ; now, she sang to the victorious army, 
 waving the banner over them ; and now, she floated 
 in a gondola, and turning to him, the dear home of 
 her heart, yet pale with the bleeding of his wound for 
 Italy, said softly, in the tone that had power with 
 him, " Only let me please you ! " 
 
 "When? Where? What with?' 1 came the 
 blunt response from England, with electric speed, 
 and Emilia fell from the clouds. 
 
 " I meant my singing; I thought of how I sang 
 to you. Oh, happy time ! " she exclaimed, to cut 
 through the mist of vision in her mind. 
 
 "To me ? down at the booth?" muttered Wilfrid, 
 perplexed. 
 
 " Oh, no ! I mean, just now — " and languid with 
 the burden of so full a heart, she did not attempt to 
 
SENTIMENT, TASSI0X, AND LOVE. 163 
 
 explain herself further, though he said, invitingly, 
 " I thought I heard you humming ? " 
 
 Then he was seized with a desire to have the 
 force of her spirit upon him, for Brookfield was 
 in view; and with the sight of Brookfield, the 
 natural fascination waxed a shade fainter, and he 
 feared it might be going. This (he was happily as 
 ignorant as any other youth of the working of his 
 machinery) prompted him to bid her sing before 
 they parted. Emilia checked her steps at once to 
 do as he desired. Her throat filled, but the voice 
 quavered down again, like a fainting creature sick 
 unto death. She made another effort, and ended 
 with a sorrowful look at his narrowly-watching 
 eyes. 
 
 " I can't,*' she said ; and, in fear of his anger, 
 took his hand to beg forgiveness, while her eyelids 
 drooped. 
 
 Wilfrid locked her fingers in a strong pressure, 
 and walked on, silent as a man who has faced one 
 of the veiled mysteries of life. It struck a full 
 human blow on his heart, dragging him out of his 
 sentimental pastures precipitately. He felt her 
 fainting voice to be the intensest love -cry that could 
 be uttered. The sound of it coursed through his 
 blood, striking a rare illumination of sparks in his 
 
 m2 
 
16-4 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 not commonly brilliant brain. In truth, that little 
 episode showed an image of nature weak with the 
 burden of new love. I do not charge the young 
 cavalry officer with the power of perceiving images. 
 He saw no more than that she could not sing 
 because of what was in her heart towards him ; but 
 such a physical revelation was a divine love-con- 
 fession, coming involuntarily from one whose lips 
 had not formed the name of love ; and Wilfrid felt 
 it so deeply, that the exquisite flattery was almost 
 lost, in a certain awed sense of his being in the 
 presence of an absolute fact : a thing real, though it 
 was much talked about, and visible, though it did 
 not wear a hat or a petticoat. 
 
 It searched him thoroughly enough to keep him 
 from any further pledges in that direction, pro- 
 pitious as the moment was, while the moon slipped 
 over banks of marble into fields of blue, and all the 
 midnight promised silence. They passed quickly 
 -through the laurel shrubs, and round the lawn. 
 Lights were in the sleepless ladies' bed-room 
 windows. 
 
 "Do I love her ? " thought Wilfrid, as he was 
 about to pull at the bell, and the thought that he 
 should feel pain at being separated from her for 
 half-a-dozen hours, persuaded him that he did. 
 
SENTIMENT, PASSION, AND LOVE. 165 
 
 The self-restraint that withheld him from pro- 
 testing that he did, confirmed it. 
 
 " To-morrow morning," he whispered. 
 
 " I shall he down by daylight," answered Emilia. 
 
 "You are in the shade — I cannot see you," said he. 
 
 The door opened as Emilia was moving out of 
 the line of shadow. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 CONTAINS A SHORT DISCOURSE ON PUPPETS. 
 
 On the morrow Wilfrid was gone. No one had 
 seen him go. Emilia, while she touched the keys of 
 a muted piano softly in the morning quiet of the 
 house, had heard the front-door close. At that 
 hour one attributes every noise to the servants. 
 She played on and waited patiently, till the house- 
 maid expelled her into the dewy air. 
 
 The report from his bedchamber, telling the 
 ladies of his absence, added that he had taken 
 linen for a lengthened journey. 
 
 This curious retreat of my hero belongs to the 
 order of things that are done ' None know why ; ' 
 a curtain which drops conveniently upon either the 
 bewilderment of the showman or the infirmities of 
 the puppet. 
 
 I must own (though I need not to be told what 
 odium frowns on such a pretension to excess of 
 cleverness) that I do know why. I know why, and, 
 unfortunately for me, I have to tell what I know. 
 
A SHORT DISCOURSE ON PUPPETS. 1G7 
 
 If I do not tell, this narrative is so constituted that 
 there will be no moral to it. 
 
 One who studies man in puppets (in which 
 purpose lies the chief value of this amusing 
 species), must think that we are degenerating 
 rapidly. The puppet -hero, for instance, is a 
 changed being. We know what he was ; but now 
 he takes shelter in his wits. His organs affect 
 his destiny. Careless of the fact that the hero's 
 achievement is to conquer nature, he seems rather 
 to boast of his subservience to her. 
 
 Still, up to this day, the fixture of a nose 
 upon the puppet-hero's frontispiece has not been 
 attempted. Some one does it at last. When the 
 alternative came : " No nose to the hero, no moral 
 to the tale ; " could there be hesitation ? 
 
 And I would warn our sentimentalists to admit 
 the nose among the features proper to heroes, 
 otherwise the race will become extinct. There is 
 already an amount of dropping of the curtain that 
 is positively wearisome, even to extremely refined 
 persons, in order to save him from apparent mis- 
 conduct. He will have to go altogether, unless we 
 boldly figure him as other men. Manifestly the 
 moment his career as a fairy prince was at end, he 
 was on the high road to a nose. The beneficent 
 
168 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Power that discriminated for him having vanished 
 utterly, he was, like a bankrupt gentleman, obliged 
 to do all the work for himself. This is nothing 
 more than the tendency of the generations down- 
 wards from the ideal. 
 
 The springs that moved Wilfrid upon the present 
 occasion were simple. We will strip him of his 
 heroic trappings for one fleeting instant, and show 
 them. 
 
 Jumping briskly from a restless bed, his first act 
 was to address his features to the looking-glass : 
 and he saw surely the most glorious sight for a 
 hero of the knightly age that could possibly have 
 been offered. The battle of the previous night was 
 written there in one eloquent big lump, which 
 would have passed him current as hero from end to 
 end of the land in the great days of old. These 
 are the tea-table days. His preference was for the 
 visage of Wilfrid Pole, which he saw not. At the 
 aspect of the fearful mask, this young man stared, 
 and then cursed ; and then, by an odd transition, 
 he was reminded, as by the force of a sudden gust, 
 that Emilia's hair was redolent of pipe-smoke. 
 
 His remark was, " I can't be seen in this state/' 
 His thought (a dim reminiscence of poetical readings) : 
 " Ambrosial locks indeed ! " A sad irony, which 
 
A SHORT DISCOURSE ON PUPPETS. 169 
 
 told that much gold-leaf had peeled away from her 
 image in his heart. 
 
 Wilfrid was a gallant fellow, with good stuff in 
 him. But, he was young. Ponder on that pregnant 
 word, for you are about to see him grow. He was 
 less a coxcomb than shame -faced and sentimental ; 
 and one ma}- have these qualities, and be a coxcomb 
 to boot, and yet be a gallant fellow. One may also 
 be a gallant fellow, and harsh, exacting, double- 
 dealing, and I know not what besides, in youth. 
 The question asked by nature is, " Has he the 
 heart to take and keep an impression ? " For, if 
 he has, circumstance will force him on and carve 
 the figure of a brave man out of that mass of con- 
 tradictions. In return for such benefits, he pays 
 forfeit commonly of the dearest of the things prized 
 by him in this terrestrial life. Whereat, albeit 
 created man by her, he reproaches nature, and the 
 sculptor, circumstance ; forgetting that to make him 
 man is their sole duty, and that what betrayed him 
 was the difficulty thrown in their way by his 
 quondam self — the pleasant boonfellow ! 
 
 He forgets, in fact, that he was formerly led by 
 his nose, and sacrificed his deeper feeling to a low 
 disgust. 
 
 \Yhen the youth is called upon to look up, he can 
 
170 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 adore devoutly and ardently ; but when it is his 
 chance to look down on a fair head, he is, if not 
 worse, a sentimental despot. 
 
 Wilfrid was young, and under the dominion of 
 his senses ; which can be, if the sentimentalists 
 will believe me, as tyrannous and misleading when 
 super-refined as when ultra-bestial. He made a 
 good stout effort to resist the pipe-smoke. Emilia's 
 voice, her growing beauty, her simplicity, her 
 peculiar charms of feature, were all conjured up 
 to combat the dismal images suggested by that 
 fatal, dragging-down smell. It was vain. Horrible 
 pipe - smoke pervaded the memory of her. It 
 seemed to his offended dainty fancy that he could 
 never dissociate her from smoking-booths and 
 abominably bad tobacco ; and, let us add (for this 
 was part of the secret), that it never could dwell on 
 her without the companionship of a hideous dis- 
 figured countenance, claiming to be Wilfrid Pole. 
 He shuddered to think that he had virtually almost 
 engaged himself to this girl. Or, had he ? Was 
 his honour bound ? Distance appeared to answer 
 the question favourably. There was safety in being 
 distant from her. She possessed an incomprehen- 
 sible attractiveness. She was at once powerful and 
 pitiable : so that while he feared her, and was 
 
A SHORT DISCOURSE ON PUPPETS. 171 
 
 running from her spell, he said, from time to time, 
 " Poor little thing ! " and deeply hoped she would 
 not be unhappy. 
 
 A showman once (a novice in his art, or ambitious 
 beyond the mark), after a successful exhibition of 
 his dolls, handed them to the company, with the 
 observation, " Satisfy yourselves, ladies and gentle- 
 men." The latter, having satisfied themselves that 
 the capacity of the lower limbs was extraordinaiy, 
 returned them, disenchanted. That showman did 
 ill. But I am not imitating him. I do not wait 
 till after the performance, when it is too late to 
 revive illusion. To avoid having to drop the 
 curtain, I choose to explain an act on which the 
 story hinges, while it is advancing : which is, in 
 truth, an impulse of character. And I have faith 
 in my hero that he will bear his new and most 
 strange burden. I strike my drum and blow into 
 my pipes again with a merry confidence. I know 
 what I am about. The sentimentalists will be angry 
 with me ; but, then, they always have been. I 
 cannot please them. Instead of being more of 
 a puppet, I know my hero is less than he was. 
 Certainly I am much more in awe of him. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE BE S WORTH QUESTION. 
 
 Mr. Pole was one of those men whose characters 
 are read off at a glance. He was neat, insignificant, 
 and nervously cheerful; with the eyes of a bird, 
 that let you into no interior. His friends knew him 
 thoroughly. His daughters were never in doubt 
 about him. At the period of the purchase of Brook- 
 field he had been excitable and feverish, but that 
 was ascribed to the projected change in his habits, 
 and the stern necessity for an occasional family 
 intercommunication on the subject of money. He 
 had a remarkable shyness of this theme, and re- 
 versed its general treatment ; for he would pay, but 
 would not talk of it. If it had to be discussed 
 with the ladies, he puffed, and blinked, and looked 
 so much like a culprit that, though they rather 
 admired him for what seemed to them the germ of 
 a sense delicate above his condition, they would 
 have said of any man they had not known so per- 
 fectly, that he had painful reasons for wishing to 
 
THE BESWORTH QUESTION. 173 
 
 avoid it. Now that they spoke to him of Besworth, 
 assuring him that they were serious in their desire 
 to change their residence, the fit of shyness was 
 manifested, first in outrageous praise of Brookfield, 
 which was speedily and inexplicably followed by a 
 sort of implied assent to the proposition to depart 
 from it. For Besworth displayed numerous advan- 
 tages over Brookfield, and to contest one was to 
 plunge headlong into the money question. He ven- 
 tured to ask his daughters what good they expected 
 from the change. They replied that it was simply 
 this : that one might live fifty years at Brookfield 
 and not get such a circle as in two might be 
 established at Besworth. They were restricted. 
 They had gathering friends, and no means of 
 bringing them together. And the beauty of the 
 site of Besworth made them enthusiastic. 
 
 " Well, but," said Mr. Pole : " what does it lead 
 to ? Is there nothing to come after ? " 
 
 He explained: "You're girls, you know. You 
 won't always stop with me. You may do just as 
 well at Brookfield for yourselves, as over there." 
 
 The ladies blushed demurely. 
 
 " You forecast very kindly for us, papa," said 
 Cornelia. " Our object is entirely different." 
 
 " I wish I could see it," he returned. 
 
174 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 " But, you do see, papa, you do see/' interposed 
 Adela, " that a select life is preferable to that 
 higgledy-piggledy city-square existence so many 
 poor creatures are condemned to !" 
 
 " Select ! " said Mr. Pole, thinking that he had 
 hit upon a weakness in their argument ; " how can 
 it be select when you want to go to a place where 
 you may have a crowd about you?" 
 
 " Selection can only be made from a crowd," 
 remarked Arabella, with terrible placidity. " It is 
 where we see few that we are at the mercy of kind 
 fortune for our acquaintances." 
 
 " Don't you see, papa, that the difference between 
 the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie is, that the 
 former choose their sets, and the latter are obliged 
 to take what comes to them ? " said Adela. 
 
 This was the first domestic discussion upon 
 Besworth. The visit to Richford had produced the 
 usual effect on the ladies, who were now looking to 
 other heights from that level. The ladies said : 
 " We have only to press it with papa, and we shall 
 quit this place." But at the second discussion they 
 found they had not advanced. The only change 
 was in the emphasis their father added to the inter- 
 rogations already uttered. " What does it lead to ? 
 What's to come after? I see your object. But, 
 
THE BESWORTH QUESTION. 175 
 
 am I to go into a new house for the sake of getting 
 you out of it, and then be left there alone ? It's 
 against your interests, too. Never mind how. 
 Leave that to a business man. If your brother had 
 proposed it ... . but he's too reasonable." 
 
 The ladies, upon this hint, wrote to Wilfrid to 
 obtain his concurrence and assistance. He laughed 
 when he read the simple sentence : " We hope you 
 will not fancy that we have any peculiar personal 
 interest in view;" and replied to them that he was 
 sure they had none : that he looked upon Besworth 
 with favour, " and I may inform you," he pursued, 
 " that your taste is heartily applauded by Lady 
 Charlotte Clullingworth, she bids me tell you." 
 The letter was dated from Stornley, the estate of 
 the marquis, Lady Charlotte's father. Her lady- 
 ship's brother was a member of Wilfrid's club. 
 " He calls Besworth the most habitable place in 
 the county, and promises to be there as many 
 months out of the twelve as you like to have him. 
 I agree with him that Stornley can't hold a candle 
 to it. There are three residences in England that 
 might be preferred to it, aDd, of those, two arc 
 ducal." 
 
 The letter was a piece of that easy diplomacy 
 Ii comes from habit. The "of those, two are 
 
17G EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 ducal," was masterly. It affected the imagina- 
 tion of Brookfielcl. " Which two ? " And could 
 Besworth be brought to rival them ? Ultimately, it 
 might be ! The neighbourhood to London, too, 
 gave it noble advantages. Bapid relays of guests, 
 and a metropolitan reputation for country attractions, 
 would distinguish Besworth above most English 
 houses. A house where all the chief celebrities 
 might be encountered : a house under suave 
 feminine rule : a house, a home, to a chosen set, 
 and a refreshing fountain to a widening circle ! 
 
 " We have a dispute," they wrote playfully to 
 Wilfrid, " a dispute we wish you or Lady Charlotte 
 to settle. I, Arabella, know nothing of trout. I 
 Cornelia, know nothing of river-beds. I, Adela, 
 know nothing of engineering. But, we are per- 
 suaded, the latter, that the river running for a mile 
 through Besworth grounds may be deepened : we 
 are persuaded, the intermediate, that the attempt 
 will damage the channel : we are persuaded, the 
 first, that all the fish will go." 
 
 In reply, Wilfrid appeared to have taken them 
 in earnest. " I rode over yesterday with Lady 
 Charlotte," he said. "We think something might 
 be done, without at all endangering the fish or 
 spoiling the channel. At all events, the idea of 
 
THE BESWORTH QUESTION. 177 
 
 making the mile of broad water serviceable for boats 
 is too good to give up in a hurry. How about the 
 dining-hall ? I told Lady Charlotte you were sure 
 to insist upon a balcony for musicians. She 
 laughed. You will like her when you know her." 
 
 Thus the ladies of Brookfield were led on to be 
 more serious concerning Besworth than they had 
 thought of being, and began to feel that their honour 
 was pledged to purchase this surpassing family seat. 
 In a household where every want was supplied, and 
 money as a topic utterly banished, it is not sur- 
 prising that they should have had imperial views. 
 
 Adela was Wilfrid's favoured correspondent. 
 She described to him gaily the struggle with their 
 papa. " But, if you care for Besworth, } t ou may 
 calculate on it. — Or is it only for our sakes, as I 
 sometimes think ? — Besworth is won. Nothing but 
 the cost of the place (to be considered, you know ! ) 
 could withhold it from us ; and of that papa has not 
 uttered a syllable, though he conjures up every 
 possible objection to a change of abode, and will not 
 (perhaps, poor dear, cannot) see what we intend 
 doing in the world. Now, you know that rich men 
 invariably make the question of the cost their first 
 and loudest outer}'. I know that to be the case. 
 They call it their blood. Papa seems indifferent to 
 
 VOL. i. x 
 
178 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 this part of the affair. He does not even allude to it. 
 Still, we do not progress. It is just possible that 
 the Tinleys have an eye on beautiful Besworth. 
 Their own place is bad enough, but good enough 
 for them. Give them Besworth. and they will sit 
 upon the neighbourhood. We shall be invaded by 
 everything that is mean and low, and a great chance 
 will be gone for us. I think I may say, for the 
 county. The country ? Our advice is, that you 
 write to papa one of your cleverest letters. We 
 know, darling, what you can do with the pen as well 
 as the sword. Write word that you have written." 
 
 Wilfrid's reply stated that he considered it un- 
 advisable that he should add his voice to the 
 request, for the present. 
 
 The ladies submitted to this quietly until they 
 heard from their father one evening at dinner that 
 he had seen Wilfrid in the city. 
 
 "He doesn't waste his time like some young 
 people I know," said Mr. Pole, with a wink. 
 
 " Papa ! is it possible ? " cried Adela. 
 
 "Everything's possible, my dear/' 
 
 " Lady Charlotte ? " 
 
 " There is a Lady Charlotte." 
 
 "Who would be Lady Charlotte still, whatever 
 occurred ! " 
 
THE • BESWORTH QUESTION. 179 
 
 Mr. Pole laughed. "Xo, no. You get nothing 
 out of me. All I say is, be practical. The sun 
 isn't always shining." 
 
 He appeared to he elated with some secret good 
 news. 
 
 * Have you been over to Besworth, the last two 
 or three days?" he asked. 
 
 The ladies smiled radiantly, acknowledging 
 Wilfrid's wonderful persuasive powers, in their 
 hearts. 
 
 " No, papa ; we have not been," said Adela. " We 
 are always anxious to go, as I think you know/' 
 
 The merchant chirped over his glass. "Well, 
 well ! There's a way." 
 
 " Straight ? " 
 
 " Over a gate ; ha, ha ! " 
 
 His gaiety would have been perplexing, but for 
 the allusion to Lady Charlotte. 
 
 The sisters, in their unfailing midnight consulta- 
 tion, persuaded one another that Wilfrid had become 
 engaged to that lady. They wrote forthwith Fine 
 Shades to him on the subject. His answer was 
 Boeotian, and all about Besworth. " Press it now,'' 
 he said, " if you really want it. The iron is hot. 
 And above all things, let me beg you not to be 
 inconsiderate to the squire, when he and I are doing 
 
 N 2 
 
180 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 all we can for you. I mean, we are bound to 
 consider him, if there should happen to be anything 
 he wishes us to do." 
 
 What could the word " inconsiderate ' imply ? 
 The ladies were unable to summon an idea to solve 
 it. They were sure that no daughters could be 
 more perfectly considerate and ready to sacrifice 
 everything to their father. In the end, they de- 
 puted the volunteering Adela to sit with him in the 
 library, and put the question of Besworth decisively, 
 in the name of all. The3 r , meantime, who had a 
 contempt for sleep, waited aloft to hold debate over 
 the result of the interview. 
 
 An hour after midnight, Adela came to them, 
 looking pale and uncertain : her curls seeming to 
 drip, and her blue eyes wandering about the room, 
 as if she had seen a thing that kept her in a quiver 
 between belief and doubt. 
 
 The two ladies drew near to her, expressing no 
 verbal impatience, from which the habit of govern- 
 ment and great views naturally saved them, but 
 singularly curious. 
 
 Adela's first exclamation : " I wish I had not 
 gone," alarmed them. 
 
 " Has any change come to papa ? " breathed 
 Arabella. 
 
THE BESWORTH QUESTION. 181 
 
 Cornelia smiled. "Do you not know hiin too 
 well ? " 
 
 An acute glance from Adela made her ask 
 whether Besworth was to be surrendered. 
 
 " Oh, no ! my dear. We may have Besworth." 
 
 " Then, surely ! " 
 
 " But, there are conditions ? " said Arabella. 
 
 "Yes. Wilfrid's enigma is explained. Bella, 
 that woman has seen papa." 
 
 " What woman ? " 
 
 "Mrs. Chump." 
 
 " She has our permission to see him in town, if 
 that is any consolation to her." 
 
 " She has told him," continued Adela, " that no 
 explanation, or whatever it may be, was received by 
 her." 
 
 " Certainly not, if it was not sent." 
 
 " Papa," and Adela' s voice trembled, " papa will 
 not think of Besworth, — not a word of it ! — until — 
 until we consent to welcome that woman here as our 
 guest." 
 
 Cornelia was the first to break the silence that 
 followed this astounding intelligence. " Then," she 
 said, " Besworth is not to be thought of. You told 
 him so ? n 
 
 Adela's head drooped. " Oh ! " she cried, " what 
 
182 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 shall we do ? We skall be a laughing-stock to the 
 neighbourhood. The house will have to be locked 
 up. We shall live like hermits worried by a demon. 
 Her brogue ! Do you remember it ? It is not 
 simply Irish. It's Irish steeped in brine. It's 
 pickled Irish ! " 
 
 She feigned the bursting into tears of real vexation. 
 
 " You speak," said Cornelia, contemptuously, 
 " as if we had very humbly bowed our heads to the 
 infection.'" 
 
 " Papa making terms with us ! " murmured 
 Arabella. 
 
 " Pray, repeat his words." 
 
 Adela tossed her curls. "I will, as well as I 
 can. I began by speaking of Besworth cheerfully; 
 saying, that if he really had no strong affection for 
 Brookfield that would make him regret quitting it, 
 we saw innumerable advantages in the change of 
 residence proposed. Predilection, — not affection — 
 that was what I said. He replied that Besworth 
 was a large place, and I pointed out that therein lay 
 one of its principal merits. I expected what would 
 come. He alluded to the possibility of our changing 
 our condition. You know that idea haunts him. 
 I told him our opinion of the folly of the thing. I 
 noticed that he grew red in the face, and I said 
 
THE BESWORTH QUESTION. 183 
 
 that of course marriage was a thing ordained, but 
 that we objected to being submerged in matrimony 
 until we knew who and what we were. I confess 
 he did not make a bad reply, of its kind. ' You're 
 like a youngster playing truant that he may gain 
 knowledge.'' What do you think of it ? " 
 
 .** A smart piece of City-speech," was Arabella's 
 remark: Cornelia placidly observing, "Vulgarity 
 never contains more than a minimum of the truth." 
 " I said,"' she went on, " ' think as you will, papa, 
 we know we are right.' He looked really angry. 
 He said, that we have the absurdest ideas — you tell 
 me to repeat his words — of any girls that ever 
 existed ; and then he put a question : listen : I 
 give it without comment : ' I dare say, you all object 
 to widows marrying again.' I kept myself quiet. 
 ' Marrying again, papa ! If they marry once they 
 might as well marry a dozen times.' It was the best 
 way to irritate him. I did not intend it ; that is 
 all I can say. He jumped from his chair, rubbed 
 his hair, and almost ran up and down the library 
 floor, telling me that I prevaricated. 'You object 
 to a widow marrying at all — that's my question ! ' 
 he cried out loud. Of course I contained my voice 
 all the more. 'Distinctly, papa.' When I had 
 spoken, I could scarcely help laughing. He went 
 
184 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 like a pony that is being broken in, crying, I 
 don't know how many times, ' Why ? what's 
 your reason ? ' You may suppose, darlings, that I 
 declined to enter upon explanation. If a person is 
 dense upon a matter of pure sentiment, there is no 
 ground between us : he has simply a sense wanting. 
 1 What has all this to do with Besworth ? ' I asked. 
 * A great deal more than you fancy,' was his answer. 
 He seemed to speak every word at me in capital 
 letters. Then, as if a little ashamed, he sat down, 
 and reached out his hand to mine, and I saw his eyes 
 were moist. I drew my chair nearer to him. Now, 
 whether I did right or wrong in this, I do not know : 
 I leave it entirely to your judgment. If you con- 
 sider how I was placed, you will at all events excuse 
 me. What I did was — you know, the very farthest 
 suspicion one has of an extreme possibility, one 
 does not mind mentioning: I said, 'Papa, if it 
 should so happen that money is the objection to 
 Besworth, we will not trouble you.' At this, I can 
 only say that he behaved like an insane person. 
 He denounced me as wilfully insulting him that I 
 might avoid one subject." 
 
 " And what on earth can that be ? " interposed 
 Arabella. 
 
 " You may well ask. Could a genie have guessed 
 
THE BE8W0BTH QUESTION. 185 
 
 that Mrs. Chump was at the bottom of it all? 
 The conclusion of the dreadful discussion is this, 
 that papa offers to take the purchase of Besworth 
 into his consideration, if we, as I said before, will 
 receive Mrs. Chump as our honoured guest. I am 
 bound to say, poor dear old man, he spoke kindly, 
 as he always does, and kissed me, and offered to 
 give me anything I might want. I came from him 
 stupified. I have hardly got my senses about me yet." 
 
 The ladies caressed her, with grave looks; but 
 neither of them showed a perturbation of spirit 
 like that which distressed Adela. 
 
 "Wilfrid's meaning is now explained," said 
 Cornelia. " He is in league with papa ; or has 
 given in his adhesion to papa's demands, at least. 
 He is another example of the constant tendency in 
 men to be what they call ' practical ' at the expense 
 of honour and sincerity." 
 
 " I hope not," said Arabella. " In any case, that 
 need not depress you so seriously, darling." 
 
 She addressed Adela. 
 
 " Do you not see ? " Adela cried, in response. 
 " AYhat ! are you both blind to the real significance 
 of papa's words ? I could not have believed it ! 
 Or am I this time too acute ? I pray to Heaven it 
 may be so ! " 
 
180 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Both ladies desired lier to be explicit ; Arabella, 
 eagerly; Cornelia with distrust. 
 
 " The question of a widow marrying ! What is this 
 woman, whom papa wishes to force on us as our 
 guest ? Why should he do that ? Why should he 
 evince anxiety with regard to our opinion of the 
 decency of widows contemplating re-union? Ke- 
 member previous words and hints when we lived 
 in the City ! " 
 
 "This at least you may spare us," said Cornelia, 
 ruffling offended. 
 
 Adela smiled in tenderness for her beauty. 
 "But, it is important, if we are following a track, 
 dear. Think over it." 
 
 "No!" cried Arabella. "It cannot be time. 
 We might easily have guessed this, if we ever 
 dreamed of impossibilities." 
 
 " In such cases, when appearances lean in one 
 direction, set principles in the opposite balance," 
 added Cornelia. " What Adela apprehends may 
 seem to impend, but we know that papa is in- 
 capable of doing it. To know that, shuts the gates 
 of suspicion. She has allowed herself to be troubled 
 by a ghastly nightmare." 
 
 Adela believed in her own judgment too completely 
 not to be sure that her sisters were, perhaps un- 
 
THE BESWOItTII QUESTION. 187 
 
 knowingly, disguising a slowness of perception 
 they were ashamed of, by thus partially accusing 
 her of giddiness. She bit her lip. 
 
 " Very well; if you have no fears whatever, you 
 need not abandon the idea of Besworth." 
 
 " I abandon nothing," said Arabella. " If I have 
 to make a choice, I take that which is least objec- 
 tionable. I am chagrined, most, at the idea that 
 Wilfrid has been treacherous." 
 
 "Practical," Cornelia suggested. "You are not 
 speaking of one of our sex." 
 
 Questions were then put to Adela, whether Mr. 
 Pole had spoken in the manner of one who was 
 prompted : whether he hesitated as he spoke : 
 whether, in short, Wilfrid was seen behind his 
 tongue. Adela resolved that Wilfrid should have 
 one protectress. 
 
 " You are entirely mistaken in ascribing treachery 
 to him," she said. "It is papa that is changed. 
 You may suppose it to be without any reason, if you 
 please. I would tell you to study him for your- 
 selves, only I am convinced that these special 
 private interviews are anything but good policy, and 
 are strictly to be avoided, unless of course, as in 
 the present instance, we have something directly to 
 0o." 
 
188 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Towards dawn, the ladies had decreed that it was 
 policy to be quite passive, and provoke no word of 
 Mrs. Chump by making any allusion to Bes worth, 
 and by fencing with the mention of the place. 
 
 As they rarely failed to carry out any plan 
 deliberately conceived by them, Mr. Pole was 
 astonished to find that Besworth was altogether 
 dropped. After certain scattered attempts to bring 
 them upon Besworth, he shrugged, and resigned 
 himself, but without looking happy. 
 
 Indeed he looked so dismal that the ladies began 
 to think he had a great longing for Besworth. And 
 yet he did not go there, or even praise it to the dis- 
 credit of Brookfield ! They were perplexed. 
 
 " Let me ask you how it is," said Cornelia to Mr. 
 Barrett, "that a person whom we know — whose 
 actions and motives are as plain to us as though 
 discerned through a glass, should at times produce 
 a completer mystification than any other creature ? 
 Or have you not observed it ? " 
 
 " I have had better opportunities of observing it 
 than most people," Mr. Barrett replied, with one of 
 his saddest amused smiles. " I have come to the 
 conclusion that the person we know best is the one 
 whom we never understand." 
 
 " You answer me with a paradox." 
 
THE BESWORTH QUESTION. 189 
 
 " Is it not the natural attendant on an assump- 
 tion ? " 
 
 " What assumption ? " 
 
 " That you know a person thoroughly." 
 
 " May we not ? " 
 
 " Do you, when you acknowledge this ' complete 
 mystification ? ' " 
 
 "Yes." Cornelia smiled when she had said it. 
 " And no." 
 
 Mr. Barrett, with his eyes on her, laughed softly. 
 " Which is paradox at the fountain-head ! But, 
 when we say, we know any one, we mean commonly 
 that we are accustomed to his ways and habits of 
 mind ; or, that we can reckon on the predominant 
 influence of his appetites. Sometimes we can tell 
 which impulse is likely to be the most active, and 
 which principle the least restraining. The only 
 knowledge to be trusted is a grounded or scientific 
 study of the springs that move him, side by side 
 with his method of moving the springs. If you fail 
 to do this, you have two classes under your eyes : 
 you have sane and madman : and it will seem to you 
 that the ranks of the latter are constantly being 
 swollen in an extraordinary manner. The custom- 
 ary impression, as we get older, is that our friends 
 are the maddest people in the world. You see, we 
 
190 E^HLIA IX ENGLAND. 
 
 Lave grown accustomed to them ; and now, if they 
 bewilder us, our judgment, in self-defence, is com- 
 pelled to set them down lunatic." 
 
 Cornelia bowed her stately head with gentle 
 approving laughter. 
 
 " They must go, or they despatch us thither," she 
 said, while her fair face dimpled into serenity. The 
 remark was of a lower nature than an intellectual 
 discussion ordinarily drew from her : but could Mr. 
 Barrett have read in her heart, he might have seen 
 that his words were beginning to rob that organ of 
 its native sobriety. So that when he spoke a 
 cogent phrase, she was silenced, and became aware 
 of a strange exultation in her blood that obscured 
 grave thought. Cornelia attributed this display 
 of mental weakness altogether to Mr. Barrett's 
 mental force. The interposition of a fresh agency 
 was undreamt of by the lady. 
 
 Meanwhile, it was evident that Mr. Pole was a 
 victim to one of his fevers of shyness. He would 
 thrum on the table, frowning ; and then, as he met 
 the look of one of the ladies, try to disguise the 
 thought in his head with a forced laugh. Occa- 
 sionally, he would turn towards them, as if he had 
 just caught a lost idea that was peculiarly precious. 
 The ladies drawing up to attend to the communica- 
 
THE BESWOETH QUESTION. 191 
 
 tion, had a most trivial matter imparted to them, 
 and away he went. Several times he said to them : 
 "You don't make friends, as you ought; " and their 
 repudiation of the charge, made him repeat : " You 
 don't make friends — home friends.*' 
 
 " The house can be as full as we care to have it, 
 papa." 
 
 " Yes, acquaintances! All very well, but, I mean 
 friends — rich friends." 
 
 "We will think of it, papa," said Adela, "when 
 we want money." 
 
 "It isn't that," he murmured. 
 
 Adela had written to Wilfrid a full account of 
 her interview with her father. Wilfrid's reply was 
 laconic. " If you cannot stand a week of the 
 brogue, give up Besworth, by all means." He made 
 no further allusion to the place. They engaged an 
 opera-box, for the purpose of holding a consultation 
 with him in town. He wrote evasively, but did not 
 appear, and the ladies, with Emilia between them, 
 listened to every foot-fall by the box-door, and were 
 too much preoccupied to marvel that Emilia was 
 just as inattentive to the music as they were. When 
 the curtain dropped, they noticed her dejection. 
 
 " What ails you ? " they asked. 
 
 "Let us go out of London to-night," she 
 
192 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 whispered, and it was difficult to persuade her that 
 she would see Brookfield again. 
 
 " Remember," said Adela, " it is you that run 
 away from us, not we from you." 
 
 Soft chidings of this description were the only 
 reproaches for her naughty conduct. She seemed 
 contrite : very still and timid, since that night of 
 adventure. The ladies were glad to observe it, 
 seeing that it lent her an air of refinement, and 
 proved her sensible to correction. 
 
 At last Mr. Pole broke the silence. He had 
 returned from business, humming and rubbing his 
 hands, like one newly primed with a suggestion 
 that was the key of a knotty problem. Observant 
 Adela said : " Have you seen Wilfrid, papa ? " 
 
 " Saw him in the morning," Mr. Pole replied, 
 carelessly. 
 
 Mr. Barrett was at the table. 
 
 "By the way, what do you think of our law of 
 primogeniture ? " Mr. Pole addressed him. 
 
 He replied with the usual allusion to a basis of 
 aristocracy. 
 
 "Well, it's the English system," said Mr. Pole. 
 " That's always in its favour at starting. I'm 
 Englishman enough to think that. There ought 
 to be an entail of every decent bit of property, eh ? " 
 
THE BESWOBTH QUESTION. 193 
 
 It was observed that Mr. Barrett reddened as he 
 said, " I certainly think that a young man should 
 not be subject to his father's caprice." 
 
 " Father's caprice ! That isn't common. But, if 
 you're founding a family, you must entail." 
 
 " AVe agree, sir, from my point of view, and from 
 yours." 
 
 "Knits the family bond, don't you think? I 
 mean, makes the trunk of the tree firm. It makes 
 the girls poor, though ! " 
 
 Mr. Barrett saw that he had some confused legal 
 ideas in his head, and that possibly there were 
 personal considerations in the background ; so he 
 let the subject pass. 
 
 When the guest had departed, Mr. Pole grew 
 demonstrative in his paternal caresses. He folded 
 Adela in one arm, and framed her chin in his 
 fingers : marks of affection dear to her before she 
 had outgrown them. 
 
 " So ! " he said, " you've given up Besworth, have 
 you ? " 
 
 At the name, Arabella and Cornelia drew nearer 
 to his chair. 
 
 "Given up Besworth, papa ? It is not we who 
 have given it up," said Adela. 
 
 " Yes, you have ; and quite right too. You say, 
 
 VOL. i. o 
 
194 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 * What's the use of it, for that's a sort of thing that 
 always goes to the son.' " 
 
 " You suppose, papa, that we indulge in ulterior 
 calculations ? " came from Cornelia. 
 
 " Well, you see, my love ! — no, I don't suppose it 
 at all. But to huy a place and split it up after two 
 or three years — I dare say they wouldn't insure me 
 for more, — that's nonsense. And it seems unfair 
 to you, as j-ou must think " 
 
 " Darling papa ! we are not selfish ! " it rejoiced 
 Adela to exclaim. 
 
 His face expressed a transparent simple-minded- 
 ness that won the confidence of the ladies and 
 awakened their ideal of generosity. 
 
 " I know what you mean, papa," said Ara- 
 bella. " But, we love Besworth ; and if we may 
 enjoy the place for the time that we are all 
 together, I shall think it sufficient. I do not look 
 beyond." 
 
 Her sisters echoed the sentiment, and sincerely. 
 They were as little sordid as creatures could be. 
 If deeply questioned, it would have been found that 
 their notion of the position Providence had placed 
 them in (in other words, of their father's unmen- 
 tioned wealth), permitted them to be as lavish as 
 they pleased. Mr. Pole had endowed them with a 
 
THE BESW0RTII QUESTION. 195 
 
 temperament similar to his own ; and he had edu- 
 cated it. In feminine earth it nourished wonder- 
 fully. Shy as himself, their slryness took other forms, 
 and developed with warm youth. Not only did it 
 shut them up from others (which is the first effect 
 of this disease), but it tyrannised over them inter- 
 nally : so that there were subjects they had no 
 power to bring their minds to consider. Money 
 was in the list. The Besworth question, as at 
 present considered, involved the money question. 
 All of them felt that; father and children. It is 
 not surprising, therefore, that they hurried over it 
 as speedily as they could, and by a most comical 
 exhibition of implied comprehension of meanings 
 and motives. 
 
 " Of course, we're only in the opening stage of 
 the business," said Mr. Pole. " There's nothing 
 decided, you know. Lots of things got to be con- 
 sidered. You mean what you say, do you ? Very 
 well. And you want me to think of it ? So I will. 
 And look, my dears, you know that — " (here his 
 voice grew husky, as was the case with it when 
 touching a shy topic even beneath the veil; but 
 they were above suspicion) " you know that — a — 
 that we must all give way a little to the other, now 
 and then. Nothing like being kind." 
 
 o 2 
 
19C EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 " Pray, have no fear, papa dear ! " rang the clear 
 voice of Arabella. 
 
 "Well, then, you're all for Besworth, even though 
 it isn't exactly for your own interests ? All right." 
 
 The ladies kissed him. 
 
 " We'll each stretch a point," he continued. 
 "We shall get on better if we do. Much ! You're 
 a little hard on people who're not up to the mark. 
 There's an end to that. Even your old father will 
 like you better." 
 
 These last remarks were unintelligible to the 
 withdrawing ladies. 
 
 On the morning that followed, Mr. Pole expressed 
 a hope that his daughters intended to give him a 
 good dinner that day ; and he winked humorously 
 and kindly : by which they understood him to be 
 addressing a sort of propitiation to them for the 
 respect he paid to his appetite. 
 
 " Papa," said Adela, " I myself will speak to 
 cook." 
 
 She added, with a smile thrown to her sisters, 
 without looking at them, " I dare say, she will know 
 who I am." 
 
 Mr. Pole went down to his wine-cellar, and was 
 there busy with bottles till the carriage came for 
 him. A bason was fetched that he might wash off 
 
THE BESWOIVTH QUESTION. 107 
 
 the dust and cobwebs in the passage. Having 
 rubbed his hands briskly with soap, he dipped his 
 head likewise, in an oblivious fit, and then turning 
 round to the ladies, said, "What have I forgotten?" 
 looking woebegone with his dripping vacant face. 
 " Oh, ah ! I remember now ; " and he chuckled 
 gladly. 
 
 He had just for one moment forgotten that he 
 was acting, and a pang of apprehension had caught 
 him when the water covered his face, to the effect 
 that he must forfeit the natural artistic sequence of 
 speech and conduct which disguised him so per- 
 fectly. Away he drove, nodding and waving his 
 hand. 
 
 " Dear, simple, innocent old man ! " was the piti- 
 ful thought in the bosoms of the ladies ; and if it 
 was accompanied by the mute exclamation, " How 
 singular that we should descend from him ! " it 
 would not have been for the first time. 
 
 They passed one of their delightful quiet days, 
 in which they paved the future with gold, and, if I 
 may use so bold a figure, lifted parasols against the 
 great sun that was to shine on them. Now they 
 listened to Emilia, and now strolled in the garden ; 
 conversed on the social skill of Lady Gosstre, who 
 was nevertheless narrow in her range ; and on the 
 
198 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 capacities of mansions, on the secret of mixing 
 people in society, and what to do with the women ! 
 A terrible problem, this latter one. Not terrible 
 (to hostesses) at a mere rout or drum, or at a dance 
 pure and simple, but terrible when you want good 
 talk to circulate : for then they are not, as a body, 
 amused ; and when they are not amused, you know, 
 they are not inclined to be harmless ; and in this 
 state they are vipers ; and where is society then ? 
 And yet you cannot do without them ! — which is the 
 revolving mystery. I need not say that I am not 
 responsible for these critical remarks. Such tender- 
 ness to the sex comes only from its sisters. 
 
 So went a day rich in fair dreams to the ladies ; 
 and at the hour of their father's return they walked 
 across the parvenu park, in a state of enthusiasm 
 for Besworth, that threw some portion of its deco- 
 rative light on the donor of Besworth. When his 
 carriage was heard on the road, they stood fast, and 
 greeted his appearance with a display of pocket- 
 handkerchiefs in the breeze, a proceeding that 
 should have astonished him, being novel; but 
 seemed not to do so, for it was immediately re- 
 sponded to by the vigorous waving of a pair of 
 pocket-handkerchiefs from the carriage-window! 
 The ladies smiled at this piece of simplicity which 
 
THE BE B WORTH QUESTION. 19 f J 
 
 prompted him to use both his hands, as if one 
 would not have been enough. Complacently they 
 continued waving. Then Adela looked at her 
 sisters : Cornelia's hand dropped : and Arabella, 
 the last to wave, was the first to exclaim : " That 
 must be a woman's arm ! " 
 
 The carriage stopped at the gate, and it was one 
 in the dress of a woman at least, and of the compass 
 of a big woman, who descended by the aid of Mr. 
 Pole. Safely alighted, she waved her pocket-hand- 
 kerchief afresh. The ladies of Brookfield did not 
 speak to one another; nor did they move their 
 eyes from the object approaching. A simultaneous 
 furtive extinction of three pocket-handkerchiefs 
 might have been noticed. There was no further 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Wilfrid's exhibition of treachery. 
 
 A letter from Brookfield apprised Wilfrid that 
 Mr. Pole had brought Mrs. Chump to the place as a 
 visitor, and that she was now in the house. Formal 
 as a circular, the idea of it appeared to be that the 
 bare fact would tell him enough and inspire him 
 with proper designs. No reply being sent, a second 
 letter arrived, formal too, but pointing out his duty 
 to succour his afflicted family, and furnishing a few 
 tragic particulars. Thus he learnt that while Mr. 
 Pole was advancing towards the three grouped 
 ladies, on the day of Mrs. Chump's arrival, he 
 called Arabella by name, and Arabella went forward 
 alone, and was engaged in conversation by Mrs. 
 Chump. Mr. Pole left them to make his way to 
 Adela and Cornelia. " Now, mind, I expect you to 
 keep to your agreement," he said. Gradually they 
 were led on to perceive that this simple-minded 
 man had understood their recent talk of Besworth 
 to signify a consent to the stipulation he had 
 
•Wilfrid's exhibition of treachery. 201 
 
 previously mentioned to Adela. "Perfect simplicity 
 is as deceiving as the depth of cunning," Adela 
 despairingly wrote, much to Wilfrid's amusement. 
 
 A third letter followed. It was of another tenor, 
 and ran thus, in Adela's handwriting : — 
 
 "My darling Wilfrid, 
 
 We have always known that some peculiar 
 assistance would never be wanting in our extremity 
 — aid, or comfort, or whatever you please to call it. 
 At all events, something to show we are not neg- 
 lected. That old notion of ours must be true. I 
 shall sav nothing of our sufferings in the house. 
 
 JO o 
 
 They continue. Yesterday, papa came from town, 
 looking important. He had up some of his best 
 wine for dinner. All through the service his eyes 
 were sparkling on Cornelia. I spare you a family 
 picture, while there is this huge blot on it. 
 Naughty brother ! But, listen ! your place is here, 
 for many reasons, as you will be quick enough to 
 see. After dinner, papa took Cornelia into the 
 library alone, and the}'' were together for ten 
 minutes. She came out very pale. She has been 
 proposed for by Sir Twickenham Pryme, our 
 member for the borough. I have always been sure 
 that Cornelia was born for Parliament, and he will 
 
202 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 be lucky if lie wins her. We know not yet, of 
 course, what her decision will be. The incident is 
 chiefly remarkable to us as a relief to what I need 
 not recount to you. But I wish to say one thing, 
 dear Wilfrid. You are gazetted to a lieutenancy, 
 and we congratulate you : but what I have to say is 
 apparently much more trifling, and it is, that — will 
 you take it to heart ? — it would do Arabella and 
 myself infinite good if we saw a little more of our 
 brother, and just a little less of a very gentlemanly 
 organ-player phenomenon, who talks so exceedingly 
 well. He is a very pleasant man, and appreciates 
 our ideas, and so forth ; but it is our duty to love 
 our brother best, and think of him foremost, and we 
 wish him to come and remind us of our duty. 
 
 " At our Cornelia's request, with our concurrence, 
 papa is silent in the house as to the purport of the 
 communication made by Sir T. P. 
 
 " By the way, are you at all conscious of a sound- 
 like absurdity in a Christian name of three syllables 
 preceding a surname of one ? Sir Twickenham 
 Pry me ! Cornelia's pronunciation of the name first 
 gave me the feeling. The ' Twickenham,' seems to 
 perform a sort of educated monkey kind of ridicu- 
 lously decorous pirouette and entrechat before the 
 1 Pryme.' I think that Cornelia feels it also. You 
 
Wilfrid's exhibition of treachery. 203 
 
 seem to fancy elastic limbs bending to the measure 
 of a solemn church-organ. Sir Timothy ? But 
 Sir Timothy does not jump with the same grave 
 agility as Sir Twickenham ! If she rejects him, it 
 will be half attributable to this. 
 
 M My own brother ! I expect no confidences, but 
 a whisper warns me that you have not been to 
 Stornley twice without experiencing the truth of our 
 old discovery, that the Poles are magnetic ? AVhy 
 should we conceal it from ourselves, if it be so ? I 
 think it a folly, and fraught with danger, for people 
 not to know their characteristics. If they attract, 
 they should keep in a circle where they will have 
 no reason to revolt at, or say, repent of what they 
 attract. My argumentative sister does not coincide. 
 If she did, she would lose her argument. 
 
 " Adieu ! Such is my dulness, I doubt whether 
 I have made my meaning clear. 
 
 " Your thrice affectionate 
 
 " Adela. 
 
 "P.S.— Lady Gosstre has just taken Emilia to 
 Eichford for a week. Papa starts for Bidport 
 to-morrow/' 
 
 This short and rather blunt exercise in Fine 
 Shades was read impatiently by Wilfrid. " Why 
 
204 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 doesn't she write plain to the sense ? " he asked, 
 with the usual injustice of men, who demand a 
 statement of facts, forgetting how few there are to 
 feed the post ; and that indication and suggestion 
 are the only language for the multitude of facts 
 unborn and possible. Twilight best shows to the 
 eye what may be. 
 
 " I suppose I must go down there," he said to 
 himself, keeping a meditative watch on the post- 
 script, as if it possessed the capability of slipping 
 away and deceiving him. "Does she mean that 
 Cornelia sees too much of this man Barrett? or, 
 what does she mean ? " And now he saw meanings 
 in the simple passages, and none at all in the 
 intricate ones ; and the double-meanings were 
 monsters that ate one another up till nothing 
 remained of them. In the end, however, he made a 
 wrathful guess and came to a resolution, which 
 brought him to the door of the house next day at 
 noon. He took some pains in noting the exact spot 
 where he had last seen Emilia half in moonlight, 
 and then dismissed her image peremptorily. The 
 house was apparently empty. Gainsford, the foot- 
 man, gave information that he thought the ladies 
 were upstairs, but did not volunteer to send a 
 maid to them. He stood in deferential footman's 
 
Wilfrid's exhibition of treachery. 205 
 
 attitude, with the aspect of a dog who would laugh 
 if he could, hut being a footman out of his natural 
 element, cannot. 
 
 " Here's a specimen of the new plan of treating 
 servants ! " thought Wilfrid, turning away. " To 
 act a farce for their benefit! That fellow will 
 explode when he gets down-stairs. I see how it is. 
 This woman, Chump, is making them behave like 
 schoolgirls." 
 
 He conceived the idea sharply, and forthwith, 
 without any preparation, he was ready to treat these 
 high-aspiring ladies like schoolgirls. Nor was there 
 a lack of justification ; for when they came down 
 to his shouts in the passage, they hushed, and held 
 a finger aloft, and looked altogether so unlike what 
 they aimed at being, that Wilfrid's sense of mastery 
 became almost contempt. 
 
 " I know perfectly what you have to tell me," he 
 said. " Mrs. Chump is here, you have quarrelled 
 with her, and she has shut her door, and you have 
 shut yours. It's quite intelligible and full of dignity. 
 I really can't smother my voice in consequence." 
 
 He laughed with unnecessary abandonment. 
 The sensitive young women wanted no other 
 schooling to recover themselves. In a moment 
 they were seen leaning back and contemplating him 
 
206 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 amusedly, as if he had been the comic spectacle, and 
 were laughing for a wager. There are few things 
 so sour as the swallowing of one's own forced laugh. 
 Wilfrid got it down, and commenced a lecture to 
 fill the awkward pause. His sisters maintained the 
 opera-stall posture of languid attention, contesting 
 his phrases simply with their eyebrows, and smiling. 
 He was no match for them while they chose to be 
 silent : and indeed if the business of life were 
 conducted in dumb show, women would beat men 
 hollow. They posture admirably. In dumb show 
 they are equally good for attack and defence. But 
 this is not the case in speech. So, when Arabella 
 explained that their hope was to see Mrs. Chump 
 go that day, owing to the rigorous exclusion of all 
 amusement and the outer world from the house, 
 "Wilfrid regained his superior footing and made his 
 lecture tell. In the middle of it, there rang a ciy 
 from the doorway that astonished even him, it was 
 so powerfully Irish. 
 
 " The lady you have called down is here," said 
 Arabella's cold glance, in answer to his. 
 
 They sat with folded hands while Wilfrid turned 
 to Mrs. Chump, who advanced, a shock of blue 
 satin to the eye, crying, on a jump: "Is ut Mr. 
 Wilfrud ? " 
 
WILFRID S EXHIBITION OF TREACHERY. 207 
 
 "It's I, ma'am." Wilfrid bowed, and the cen- 
 sorious ladies could not deny that his style was 
 good, if his object was to be familiar. And if that 
 was his object, he was paid for it. A great thick 
 kiss was planted on his cheek, with the motto : 
 " Harm to them that thinks ut." 
 
 Wilfrid bore the salute like a man who presumes 
 that he is nattered. 
 
 " And it's you ! " said Mrs. Chump. " I was just 
 off. I'm packed, and bonnutted, and ready for a 
 start ; becas, my dear, where there's none but 
 women, I don't think it natural to stop. You're 
 splendud ! How a little fella like Pole could go and 
 be father to such a mighty big son, with your bit of 
 moustache and your blue eyes ! Are they blue, or a 
 bit of grey in 'em ? " Mrs. Chump peered closely. 
 " They're kill'n', let their colour be annyhow. And I 
 that knew ye when ye were no bigger than my garter ! 
 Oh, sir ! don't talk of ut ; I'll be thinkin' of my 
 coffin. lVre glad to see me ? Say, yes. Do ! " 
 
 "Very glad," quoth Wilfrid. 
 
 " Upon your honour, now ? " 
 
 " Upon my honour ! " 
 
 " My dears " (Mrs. Chump turned to the ladies), 
 " I'll stop ; and just thank your brother fort, 
 though ye can't help being garls." 
 
208 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Reduced once more to demonstrate like school- 
 girls by this woman, the ladies rose together, and 
 were retiring, when Mrs. Chump swung round and 
 caught Arabella's hand. " See heer/' she motioned 
 to Wilfrid. Arabella made a bitter effort to dis- 
 engage herself. " See, now ! It's jeal'sy of me, 
 Mr. Wilfrud, becas I'm a widde and just an abom'- 
 nation to garls, poor darlin's ! And twenty shindies 
 per dime we've been bavin', and me such a placable 
 body, if ye'll onnly let m' explode. I'm all powder, 
 aver} T bit ! and might ha' been christened Saltpetre, 
 if born a boy. She hasn't so much as a shot to kill 
 a goose, says Chump, poor fella ! But he went, 
 annyway. I must kiss somebody when I talk of 'm. 
 Mr. Wilfrud, I'll take the garls and entitle myself 
 you." 
 
 Arabella was the first victim. Her remon- 
 strance was inarticulate. Cornelia's " Madam ! " 
 was smothered. Adela behaved better, being more 
 consciously under Wilfrid's eye ; she prepared her 
 pocket-handkerchief, received the salute, and deli- 
 berately effaced it. 
 
 "There!" said Mrs. Chump; "duty to begin 
 with. And now for you, Mr. Wilfrud." 
 
 The ladies escaped. Their misery could not be 
 conveyed to the mind. The woman was like a 
 
Wilfrid's exhibition of treachery. 209 
 
 demon come among them. They felt chiefly de- 
 graded, not by her vulgarity, but by their inability 
 to cope with it, and by the consequent sickening 
 sense of animal inefficiency — the block that 
 was put to all imaginative delight in the golden 
 hazy future they figured for themselves, and which 
 was their wine of life. An intellectual adversary 
 they could have combated ; this huge brogue- 
 burring engine quite overwhelmed them. Wilfrid's 
 worse than shameful behaviour was a common 
 rallying-point ; and yet, so absolutely critical were 
 they by nature, their blame of him was held 
 mentally in restraint by the superior ease of his 
 manner as contrasted with their own lamentably silly 
 awkwardness. Highly civilised natures do some- 
 times, and keen wits must always, feel dissatisfied 
 when they are not on the laughing side : their 
 dread of laughter is an instinctive respect for it. 
 
 Dinner brought them all together again. Wilfrid 
 took his father's seat, facing his Aunt Lupin, and 
 increased the distress of his sisters by his obser- 
 vance of every duty of a host to the dreadful 
 intruder, whom he thus established among them. 
 He was incomprehensible. His visit to Stornley 
 had wrought in him a total change. He used to 
 like being petted, and would regard everything as 
 
210 EMILIA IX ENGLAND. 
 
 right that his sisters did, before he went there ; and 
 was a languid, long-legged, indifferent cavalier, 
 representing men to them : things made to be 
 managed, snubbed, admired, but always virtually 
 subservient and in the background. Now, without 
 perceptible gradation, his superiority was suddenly 
 manifest; so that, irritated and apprehensive as they 
 were, they could not, by the aid of any of their 
 intricate mental machinery, look down on him. 
 They tried to; they tried hard to think him 
 despicable as well as treacherous. His style was 
 too good. When he informed Mrs. Chump that he 
 had hired a yacht for the season, and added, after 
 enlarging on the merits of the vessel, " I am under 
 your orders," his sisters were as creatures cut in 
 twain — one half abominating his conduct, the other 
 approving his style. The bow, the smile, were 
 perfect. The ladies had to make an effort to 
 recover their condemnatory judgment. 
 
 " Oh ! " cried Mrs. Chump ; " and if ye've got a 
 yacht, Mr. Wilfrud, won't ye have a great parcel o' 
 the arr'stocracy on board ? " 
 
 " You may spy a title by the aid of a telescope, '' 
 said Wilfrid. 
 
 " And I'm to come, I am ? " 
 
 11 Are you not elected captain ? " 
 
wilfpjd's exhibition of treachery. 211 
 
 " Oh, if ye've got lords and real ladus on board, 
 I'll come, be sure of ut ! I'll be as sick as a cat, I 
 will. But, 111 come, if it's the rroon o' my stomach. 
 I'd say to Chump, ' Oh, if ye'd onnly been born a 
 lord, or would just get yourself struck a knight on 
 one o' your shoolders, — oh, Chump ! ' I'd say, ' it 
 wouldn't be necessary to be rememberin' always the 
 words of the cerr'mony about lovin' and honourin' 
 and obeyin' of a little whistle of a fella like you.' 
 Poor lad ! he couldn't stop for his luck ! Did ye 
 ask me to take wine, Mr. Wilfrud ? I'll be cryin', 
 else, as a widde should, ye know ! " 
 
 Frequent administrations of wine arrested the 
 tears of Mrs. Chump, until it is possible that the 
 fulness of many a checked flow caused her to redden 
 and talk slightly at random. At the first mention 
 of their father's name, the ladies went out from the 
 room. It was foolish, for they might have watched 
 the effect of certain vinous inuendoes addressed to 
 Wilfrid's apprehensiveness; but they were weakened 
 and humbled, and everything they did was foolish. 
 From the fact that they offended their keen critical 
 taste, moreover, they were targets to the shaft 
 that wounds more fatally than all. Xo ridicule 
 knocks the strength out of us so thoroughly as our 
 own. 
 
 r 2 
 
212 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Whether or not he guessed their condition favour- 
 able for his plans, Wilfrid did not give them time to 
 call back their scattered powers. At the hour of 
 eleven he sent for Arabella to come to him in the 
 library. The council upstairs permitted Arabella 
 to go, on the understanding that she was prepared 
 for hostilities, and ready to tear the mask from 
 Wilfrid's face. 
 
 He commenced, without a shadow of circumlocu- 
 tion, and in a matter-of-fact way, as if all respect 
 for the peculiar genius of the House of Pole had 
 vanished : " I sent for you to talk a word or two 
 about this woman, who, I see, troubles you a little. 
 I'm sorry she's in the house." 
 
 "Indeed ! " went Arabella. 
 
 " I'm sorry she's in the house, not for my sake, 
 but for yours, since the proximity does not seem 
 to ... I needn't explain. It comes of your eternal 
 consultations. You are the eldest. Why not act 
 according to your judgment, which is generally 
 sound ? You listen to Adela, young as she is ; or 
 a look of Cornelia's leads you. The result is the 
 sort of scene I saw this afternoon. I confess, it 
 has changed my opinion of you ; it has, I grieve 
 to say it, This woman is your father's guest ; you 
 can't hurt her so much as you hurt him, if you mis- 
 
Wilfrid's exhibition of treachery. 213 
 
 behave to her. You can't openly object to her and 
 not cast a slur upon him. There is the whole case. 
 He has insisted, and you must submit. You should 
 have fought the battle before she came." 
 
 " She is here, owing to a miserable misconcep- 
 tion," said Arabella. 
 
 " Ah ! she is here, however. That is the essen- 
 tial, as your old governess Madame Timpan would 
 have said." 
 
 "Nor can a protest against coarseness be sweep - 
 ingly interpreted as a piece of unfilial behaviour," 
 said Arabella. 
 
 " She is coarse," Wilfrid nodded his head. 
 si There are some forms of coarseness which dow- 
 agers would call coarseness to notice. " 
 
 " Not if }'ou find it locked up in the house with 
 you — not if you suffer under a constant repulsion. 
 Pray, do not use these phrases to me, Wilfrid. An 
 accusation of coarseness cannot touch us." 
 
 "No, certainly," assented Wilfrid. "And you 
 have a right to protest. I disapprove the form of 
 your protest — nothing more. A schoolgirl's .... 
 but you complain of the use of comparisons." 
 
 " I complain, Wilfrid, of your want of sympathy." 
 
 " That for two or three weeks you must hear a 
 brogue at your elbow ? The poor creature is not so 
 
21-i EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 bad ; she is good-hearted. It's hard that you 
 should have to bear with her for that time and 
 receive nothing better than Besworth as your 
 reward." 
 
 " Very ; seeing that we endure the evil and 
 decline the sop with it ." 
 
 "How?" 
 
 " We have renounced Besworth.''' 
 
 "Have you! And did this renunciation make 
 you all sit on the edge of your chairs, this afternoon, 
 as if Edward Buxley had arranged you ? You give 
 up Besworth ? I'm afraid it's too late." 
 
 " Oh, Wilfrid ! can you be ignorant that some- 
 thing more is involved in the purchase of Besworth ? " 
 
 Arabella gazed at him with distressful eagerness, 
 as one who believes in the lingering of a vestige of 
 candour. 
 
 " Do you mean that my father may wish to give 
 this woman his name ? " said Wilfrid, coolly. "You 
 have sense enough to know that if you make his 
 home disagreeable, you are taking the right method 
 to drive him into such a course. Ha ! I don't 
 think it's to be feared, unless you pursue these con- 
 sultations. And let me say, for my part, we have 
 gone too far about Besworth, and can't recede." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
Wilfrid's exhibition of treachery. 215 
 
 " I have given out everywhere that the place is 
 ours. I did so almost at your instigation. Bes- 
 worth was nothing to me till you cried it up. And 
 now I won't detain you. I know I can rely on 
 your sense, if you will rely on it. Good-night, 
 Bella." 
 
 As she was going, a faint spark of courage revived 
 Arabella's wits. Seeing that she was now ready to 
 speak, he opened the door wide, and she kissed him 
 and went forth, feeling driven. 
 
 But while Arabella was attempting to give a 
 definite version of the interview to her sisters, a 
 message came requesting Adela to descend. The 
 ladies did not allow her to depart until two or three 
 ingenuous exclamations from her made them share 
 her curiosity. 
 
 " Ah ? " Wilfrid caught her hand as she came 
 in. " No, I don't intend to let it go. You may be 
 a fine lady, but you're a rogue, you know, and a 
 charming one, as I hear a friend of mine has been 
 saying. Shall I call him out ? Shall I fight him 
 with pistols, or swords, and leave him bleeding on 
 the ground, because he thinks you a pretty 
 rogue ? " 
 
 Adela struggled against the blandishment of this 
 old familiar style of converse — part fun, part flattery 
 
210 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 — dismissed since the great idea had governed 
 Brookfield. 
 
 "Please tell me what you called me down for, 
 dear ? " 
 
 " To give you a lesson in sitting on chairs. 
 * Adela, or the Puritan sister,' thus : you sit on the 
 extremest edge, and your eyes peruse the ceiling ; 
 and . . . " 
 
 " Oh ! will you ever forget that perfectly ridicu- 
 lous scene ? " Adela cried in anguish. 
 
 She was led by easy stages to talk of Besworth. 
 
 "Understand," said Wilfrid, "that I am in- 
 different about it. The idea sprung from you — I 
 mean, from my pretty sister Adela, who is President 
 of the Council of Three. I hold that young woman 
 responsible for all that they do. Am I wrong? 
 Oh, very well. You suggested Besworth, at all 
 events. And — if we quarrel, I shall cut off one of 
 your curls." 
 
 "We never will quarrel, my darling," quoth 
 Adela, softly. " Unless — " she added. 
 
 Wilfrid kissed her forehead. 
 
 "Unless what?" 
 
 " Well, then, you must tell me who it is that talks 
 of me in that objectionable manner ; I do not like 
 it." 
 
wilfeid's exhibition of teeacheey. 217 
 
 " Shall I convey that intimation ? " 
 
 " 1 choose to ask, simply that I may defend my- 
 self." 
 
 "I choose to keep him buried, then, simply to 
 save his life." 
 
 Adela made a mouth, and Wilfrid went on : " By 
 the way, I want you to know Lady Charlotte ; } t ou 
 will take to one another. She likes you, already — 
 says you want dash; but on that point there may be 
 two opinions." 
 
 " If dash," said Adela, quite beguiled, " — that is, 
 dash ! — what does it mean ? But, if Lady Charlotte 
 means by dash — am I really wanting in it ? I 
 should define it, the quality of being openly natural 
 without vulgarity ; and surely . . . ! " 
 
 " Then you two differ a little, and must meet and 
 settle your dispute. You don't differ about Bes- 
 worth : or, didn't. I never saw a woman so much 
 in love with a place as she is." 
 
 " A place ? " emphasised Adela. 
 
 "Don't be too arch. I comprehend. She won't 
 take me minus Besworth, j r ou may be sure." 
 
 "Did you, Wilfrid ! — but you did not — offer your- 
 self as owner of Besworth ? " 
 
 Wilfrid kept his eyes slanting on the floor. 
 
 "Now I see why you should still wish it," con- 
 
218 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 tinued Adela. " Perhaps you don't know the reason 
 which makes it impossible, or I would say — Bacchus ! 
 it must be compassed. You remember your old 
 schoolboy oath which you taught me ? We used to 
 swear always, by Bacchus ! " 
 
 Adela laughed and blushed, like one who petitions 
 pardon for this her utmost sin, that is not regretted 
 as it should be. 
 
 "Mrs. Chump again, isn't it?" said Wilfrid. 
 "Pole would be a preferable name. If she has 
 the ambition, it elevates her. And it would 
 be rather amusing to see the dear old boy in 
 love." 
 
 Adela gave her under-lip a distressful bite. 
 
 " Why do you, Wilfrid — why treat such matters 
 with levity?" 
 
 " Levity? I am the last to treat ninety thousand 
 pounds with levity." 
 
 " Has she so much ? " Adela glanced at him. 
 
 " She will be snapped up by some poor noble- 
 man. If I take her down to the yacht, one of Lady 
 Charlotte's brothers or uncles will bite, to a 
 certainty." 
 
 " It would be an excellent idea to take her ! " cried 
 Adela. 
 
 " Excellent ! and 111 do it, if you like." 
 
Wilfrid's exhibition of treachery. 219 
 
 " Could you bear the reflex of the woman ? " 
 
 " Don't you know that I am not in the habit of 
 sitting on the extreme edge ....?" 
 
 Adela started, breathing piteously : " Wilfrid, 
 dear ! you want something of me — what is it ? n 
 
 " Simply that you should behave civilly to your 
 father's guest." 
 
 " I had a fear, dear ; but I think too well of you 
 to entertain it for a moment. If civility is to win 
 Besworth for you, there is my hand." 
 
 " Be civil — that's all," said Wilfrid, pressing the 
 hand given. " These consultations of yours and 
 acting in concert — one tongue for three women, — 
 are a sort of missish, unripe nonsense, that one sees 
 only in bourgeoise girls — eh ? Give it up. Lady 
 Charlotte hit on it at a glance." 
 
 " And I, my chameleon brother, will return her 
 the compliment, some day," Adela said to herself, 
 as she hurried back to her sisters, bearing a message 
 for Cornelia. This lady required strong persuasion. 
 A word from Adela: " He will think you have some 
 good reason to deny him a private interview," sent 
 her straight to the stairs. 
 
 Wilfrid was walking up and down, with his arms 
 folded and his brows bent. Cornelia stood in the 
 doorway. 
 
220 EMILIA IX ENGLAND. 
 
 " You desire to speak to me, Wilfrid ? And in 
 private ? " 
 
 " I didn't wish to congratulate you publicly, that's 
 all. I know it's rather against your taste. We'll 
 shut the door, and sit down, if you don't mind. 
 Yes, I congratulate you, with all my heart," he said, 
 placing a chair for Cornelia. 
 
 " May I ask, wherefore ? " 
 
 " You don't think marriage a matter for con- 
 gratulation ? " 
 
 " Sometimes : as the case may he." 
 
 "Well, it's not marriage yet. I congratulate you 
 on your offer." 
 
 " I thank you." 
 
 " You accept it, of course." 
 
 " I reject it, certainly." 
 
 After this preliminary passage, Wilfrid remained 
 silent long enough for Cornelia to feel uneasy. 
 
 " I want 3 r ou to congratulate me also," he recom- 
 menced. " We poor fellows don't have offers, you 
 know. To he frank, I think Lady Charlotte Chil- 
 
 lingworth will have me, if She's awfully fond, 
 
 of Besworth, and I need not tell you that as she 
 has position in the world, I ought to show some- 
 thing in return. When you wrote about Besworth, 
 I knew it was as good as decided. I told her so 
 
Wilfrid's exhibition of treachery. 221 
 
 and Well, I fancy there's that sort of under- 
 standing between us. She will have me when .... 
 You know how the poorer members of the aristo- 
 cracy are situated. Her father's a peer, and has a 
 little influence. He might push me ; but she is 
 one of a large family; she has nothing. I am 
 certain you will not judge of her as common people 
 might. She does me a particular honour." 
 
 " Is she not much older than you, Wilfrid ? " said 
 Cornelia. 
 
 " Or, in other words," he added, " is she not a 
 very mercenary person ? " 
 
 " That, I did not even imply." 
 
 " Honestly, was it not in your head ? " 
 
 " Now you put it so plainly, I do say, it strikes 
 me disagreeably ; I have heard of nothing like it." 
 
 " Do you think it unreasonable that I should 
 marry into a noble family ? " 
 
 " That is, assuredly, not my meaning." 
 
 " Nevertheless, you are, on the whole, in favour 
 of beggarly alliances." 
 
 " No, Wilfrid." 
 
 "Why do you reject this offer that has been made 
 to you?" 
 
 Cornelia flushed and trembled ; the traitorous 
 feint had thrown her oft her guard. She said, 
 
222 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 faltering : M Would you have me marry one I do 
 not love ? " 
 
 * Well, well ! " He drew back. " You are going 
 to do your best to stop the purchase of Besworth ? " 
 
 " No ; I am quiescent." 
 
 u Though I tell you how deeply it concerns 
 me ! " 
 
 " Wilfrid, my own brother ! " (Cornelia flung 
 herself before him, catching his hand,) "I wish 
 you to be loved, first of all. Think of the horror of 
 a loveless marriage, however gilded ! Does a. 
 woman make stipulations ere she gives her hand ? 
 Does not love seek to give, to bestow ? I wish 
 you to marry well, but chiefly that you should be 
 loved." 
 
 Wilfrid pressed her head in both his hands. 
 
 " I never saw you look so handsome," he said. 
 " You've got back your old trick of blushing, too ! 
 Why do you tremble ? By the way, you seem to 
 have been learning a great deal about that business, 
 lately ? " 
 
 " What business ? " 
 
 "Love." 
 
 A river of blood overflowed her fair cheeks. 
 
 " How long has this been ? " his voice came to 
 her. 
 
Wilfrid's exhibition of treachery. 229 
 
 There was no escape. She was at his knees, and 
 must look up, or confess guilt. 
 
 " This ? " 
 
 " Come, my dearest girl ! " Wilfrid soothed her. 
 " I can help you, and will, if you'll take advice. 
 I've always known your heart was generous and 
 tender, under that ice you wear so well. How long 
 has this been going on ? " 
 
 " Wilfrid ! " 
 
 " You want plain speech ? " 
 
 She wanted that still less. 
 
 " We'll call it ' this,' " he said. " I have heard 
 of it, guessed it, and now see it. How far have you 
 pledged yourself in ' this ?'" 
 
 " How far ? " 
 
 Wilfrid held silent. Finding that her echo was 
 not accepted as an answer, she moaned his name 
 lovingly. It touched his heart, where a great 
 susceptibility to passion lay. As if the ghost of 
 Emilia were about him, he kissed his sister's 
 hand, and could not go on with his cruel interro- 
 gations. 
 
 His next question was dew of relief to her. 
 
 " Has your Emilia been quite happy, of late ? " 
 
 " Oh, quite, dear ! very. And sings with more 
 fire." 
 
224 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 " She's cheerful ? " 
 
 " She does not romp. Her ej^es are full and 
 bright." 
 
 " She's satisfied with everything here ? " 
 
 " How could she be otherwise ? " 
 
 " Yes, yes ! You weren't severe on her for that 
 escapade — I mean, when she ran away from Lady 
 Gosstre's? " 
 
 " We scarcely alluded to the subject, or permit- 
 ted her to." 
 
 " Or permitted her to ! " Wilfrid echoed, with a 
 grimace. " And she's cheerful now ? " 
 
 " Quite." 
 
 " I mean, she doesn't mope ? " 
 
 " Why should she ? " 
 
 Cornelia had been too hard-pressed to have 
 suspicion : the questions were an immense relief. 
 
 Wilfrid mused gloomily. Cornelia spoke further 
 of Emilia, and her delight in the visits of Mr. 
 Powys, who spent hours with her, like a man 
 fascinated. She flowed on, little aware that she 
 was fast restoring to Wilfrid all his judicial 
 severity. 
 
 He said, at last : " I suppose there's no engage- 
 ment existing ? " 
 
 " Engagement ? " 
 
"You have not, what they call, plighted your 
 troth to the man ? " 
 
 Cornelia struggled for evasion. She recognised 
 the fruitlessness of the effort, and abandoning it 
 stood up. 
 
 " I am engaged to no one." 
 
 "Well, I should hope not," said Wilfrid. "An 
 engagement might be broken." 
 
 " Not by me." 
 
 " It might, is all that I say. A romantic senti- 
 ment is tougher. Now, I have been straightforward 
 with you : will you be with me ? I shall not 
 hurt the man, or wound his feelings." 
 
 He paused; but it was to find that no admis- 
 sion of the truth, save what oozed out in ab- 
 sence of speech, was to be expected. She seemed, 
 after the fashion of women, to have got accus- 
 tomed to the new atmosphere into which he had 
 dragged her, without any conception of a forward 
 movement. 
 
 " I see I must explain to you how we are situ- 
 ated," said Wilfrid. "We are in a serious plight. 
 You should be civil to this woman for several 
 reasons — for your father's sake and your own. She 
 is very rich." 
 
 " Oh, Wilfrid ! " 
 
 VOL. I. Q 
 
220 EMILIA IX ENGLAND. 
 
 " Well, I find money well thought of every- 
 where." 
 
 " Has your late school been good for you ? " 
 
 " This woman, I repeat, is rich, and we want 
 mone} T . Oh ! not the ordinary notion of wanting 
 money, but the more we have the more power we 
 have. Our position depends on it." 
 
 " Yes, if we can be tempted to think so," flashed 
 Cornelia. 
 
 "Our position depends on it. If you posture, 
 and are poor, you provoke ridicule : and to think 
 of scorning money, is a piece of folly no girls of 
 condition are guilty of. Xow, you know I am fond 
 of you ; so I'll tell you this : you have a chance ; 
 don't miss it. Something unpleasant is threaten- 
 ing ; but you may escape it. It would be madness 
 to throw such a chance away, and it is your duty to 
 take advantage of it. "What is there plainer? You 
 are engaged to no one." 
 
 Cornelia came timidly close to him. " Pray, be 
 explicit ! " 
 
 "Well!— this offer." 
 
 '•' Yes ; but what — there is something to escape 
 from." 
 
 Wilfrid deliberately replied : " There is no doubt of 
 the Pater's intentions with regard to Mrs. Chump." 
 
Wilfrid's exhibition of treachery. 227 
 
 "He means ....?" 
 
 " He means to marry her.'" 
 
 " And you, Wilfrid ? " 
 
 ""Well, of course, he cuts me out. There — there ! 
 forgive me : but what can I do ? " 
 
 " Do you conspire — Wilfrid, is it possible ? — are 
 you an accomplice in the degradation of our 
 house ? " 
 
 Cornelia had regained her courage, perforce of 
 wrath. Wilfrid's singular grey eyes shot an odd 
 look at her. He is to be excused for not perceiving 
 the grandeur of the structure menaced ; for it was 
 invisible to all the world, though a real fabric. 
 
 " It's not I that marry a person beneath me,'" he 
 said. " If Mrs. Chump were poor, I should think 
 
 the Pater demented. As it is ! well, as it is, 
 
 there's grist to the mill, wind to the organ. You 
 must be aware " (and he leaned over to her with his 
 most suspicious gentleness of tone) — " you are 
 aware that all organs must be fed ; but you will 
 make a terrible mistake if you suppose for a mo- 
 ment that the human organ requires the same sort 
 of feeding as the one in Hillford Church." 
 
 " Good-night," said Cornelia, closing her lips, as 
 if for good. 
 
 Wilfrid pressed her hand. As she was going, 
 
2*28 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 the springs of kindness in his heart caused him to 
 say : " Forgive me, if I seemed rough." 
 
 " Yes, dear Wilfrid ; even brutality, rather than 
 your exultation over the wreck of what was noble in 
 you." 
 
 With which phrase Cornelia swept from the 
 room. 
 
CHAPTER XYT. 
 
 HOW THE LADIES OF EROOKFLELD CAME TO 
 THEIR RESOLVE. 
 
 " Seen Wilfrid ? " was Mr. Pole's first cheery call 
 to his daughters, on his return. An answer on that 
 head did not seem to be required by him, for he 
 went on : " Ah ! the boy's improved. That place 
 over there, Stornley, does him as much good as the 
 Army did, as to setting him up, you know ; common 
 sense, and a ready way of speaking and thinking- 
 He sees a thing now. Well, Martha, what do you. 
 — eh ? what's your opinion ? " 
 
 Airs. Chump was addressed. " Pole," she said, 
 fanning her cheek with vehement languor, " don't 
 ask me ! my heart's gone to the young fella." 
 
 In pursuance of a determination to which the 
 ladies of Brookfield had come, Adela, following her 
 sprightly fancy, now gave the lead in affability 
 towards Mrs. Chump. 
 
 " Has the conqueror run away with it to bury 
 it? " she laughed. 
 
230 E JULIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 " Och ! won't he know what it is to be a widde !" 
 cried Mrs. Chump. " A widde's heart takes aim 
 and flies straight as a bullet ; and the hearts o' you 
 garls, they're like whiffs o' tobacca, curlin' and wrig- 
 glin' and not knowin' where they're goin\ Marry 
 'em, Pole ! marry 'em ! " Mrs. Chump gesticulated, 
 with two dangling hands. " They're nice garls ; but, 
 lord ! they naver see a man, and they're stuputly 
 contented, and want to remain garls ; and, don't ye 
 see, it was naver meant to be ? Says I to Mr. 
 Wilfrid (and he agreed with me), ye might say, 
 nice sour grapes, as well as nice garls, if the 
 creatures think o' stoppin' where they are, and 
 what they are. It's horrud; and, upon my honour, 
 my heart aches for'm ! " 
 
 Mr. Pole threw an uneasy side-glance of in- 
 quisition at his daughters, to mark how they bore 
 this unaccustomed language, and haply intercede 
 between the unworthy woman and their judgment 
 of her. But the ladies merely smiled. Placidly 
 triumphant in its endurance, the smile said : " We 
 decline even to feel such a martyrdom as this." 
 
 " Well, you know, Martha ; I" he said, " I— no 
 father could wish — eh ? if you could manage to 
 persuade them not to be so fond of me. They 
 must think of their future, of course. They won't 
 
HOW THE LADIES CAME TO THEIR RESOLVE. 201 
 
 always have a home — a father, a father, I mean. 
 God grant they may never want ! — eh ? the dinner ; 
 boh ! let's in to dinner. Ma'am ! * 
 
 He bowed an arm to Mrs. Chump, who took it, 
 with a scared look at him : " "Why, if ye haven't got 
 a tear in your eye, Pole ? " 
 
 " Nonsense, nonsense," quoth he, bowing another 
 arm to Adela. 
 
 "Papa, I'm not to be winked at," said she, accept- 
 ing convoy ; and there was some laughter, all about 
 nothing, as they all went in to dinner. 
 
 The ladies were studiously forbearing in their 
 treatment of Mrs. Chump. Women are wonder- 
 fully quick scholars under ridicule, though it half- 
 kills them. Wilfrid's theory had impressed the 
 superior grace of civility upon their minds, and, now 
 that they practised it, they were pleased with the 
 contrast they presented. Not the less were they 
 maturing a serious resolve. The suspicion that 
 their father had secret vile designs in relation to 
 Mrs. Chump, they kept in the background. It was 
 enough for them that she was to be a visitor, and 
 would thus destroy the great circle they had pro- 
 jected. To accept her in the circle, they felt, was 
 out of the question. Wilfrid's plain-speaking broke 
 up the air-bubble, which they had so carefully 
 
232 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 blown, and in which they had embarked all their 
 young hopes. They had as much as given one 
 another a pledge that their home likewise should be 
 broken up. 
 
 " Are you not almost too severe a student ? " 
 Mr. Barrett happened to say to Cornelia, the day 
 after Wilfrid had worried her. 
 
 " Do I show the signs ?" she replied. 
 
 " By no means. But last night, was it not your 
 light that was not extinguished till morning ? " 
 
 "We soon have morning now," said Cornelia; 
 and her face was pale as the first hour of the dawn. 
 " Are you not a late footfarer, I may ask in 
 return ? " 
 
 "Mere restlessness. I have no appetite for 
 study. I took the liberty to cross the park from the 
 wood, and saw your — at least, I guessed it your 
 light, and then I met your brother." 
 
 " Yes ? you met him ? " 
 
 Mr. Barrett gestured an affirmative. 
 
 "And he — did he speak ? " 
 
 "He nodded. He was in some haste." 
 
 " But, then, you did not go to bed at all that 
 night? It is almost my turn to be lecturer, if I 
 might expect to be listened to." 
 
 " Do 3 T ou not know — or am I constitutionally 
 
HOW THE LAPIES CAME TO THEIR RESOLVE. 233 
 
 different from others ? " Mr. Barrett resumed : " I 
 can't be alone in feeling that there are certain 
 times and periods when what I would like to call 
 poisonous influences are abroad, that touch my fate 
 in the days to come. I know I am helpless. I can 
 only wander up and down." 
 
 "That sounds like a creed of fatalism." 
 
 " It is not a creed ; it is a matter of nerves. A 
 creed has its ' kismet.' The nerves are wild horses." 
 
 "It is something to be fought against," said 
 Cornelia, admonishingly. 
 
 " Is it something to be distrusted ? " 
 
 " I should say, yes." 
 
 " Then I was wrong ? " 
 
 He stooped eagerly, in his temperate way, to 
 catch sight of her answering face. Cornelia's 
 quick cheeks took fire. She fenced with a question 
 or two, and stood in a tremble, marvelling at his 
 intuition. For possibly, at that moment when he 
 stood watching her window-light (ah, poor heart!) 
 she was half-pledging her word to her sisters (in 
 a whirl of wrath at Wilfrid, herself, and the world), 
 that she would take the lead in breaking up 
 Brookfield. 
 
 An event occured that hurried them on. They 
 received a visit from their mother's brother, John 
 
234 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Pierson, a Colonel of Uhlans, in the Imperial — 
 Royal service. He had rarely been in communica- 
 tion with them ;] his visit was unexpected. His leave 
 of absence from his quarters in Italy was not longer 
 than a month, and he was on his way to Ireland, to 
 settle family business ; but he called, as he said, to 
 make acquaintance with his nieces. The ladies 
 soon discovered, in spite of his foreign-cut chin 
 and pronounced military habit of speech and 
 bearing, that he was at heart fervidly English. His 
 age was about fifty: a man of great force of shoulder 
 and potent length of arm, courteous and well-bred 
 in manner, he was altogether what is called a 
 model of a cavalry officer. Colonel Pierson paid 
 very little attention to his brother-in-law, but the 
 ladies were evidently much to his taste ; and when 
 he kissed Cornelia's hand, his eyes grew soft, as at a 
 recollection. 
 
 "You are what your mother once promised to 
 be," he said. To her he gave that mother's portrait, 
 taking it solemnly from his breast-pocket, and 
 attentively contemplating it before it left his hands. 
 The ladies pressed him for a thousand details of 
 their mammals youthful life ; they found it a 
 strange consolation to talk of her and image her 
 like Cornelia. The foreign halo about the Colonel 
 
HOW THE LADIES CAME TO THEIR RESOLVE. 235 
 
 had an effect on them that was almost like what 
 nobility produces ; and by degrees they heated their 
 minds to conceive that they were consenting to an 
 outrage on that mother's memory, in counte- 
 nancing Mrs. Chump's transparent ambition to take 
 her place, as they did by staying in the house with 
 the woman. The Colonel's few expressive glances 
 at Mrs. Chump, and Mrs. Chump's behaviour 
 before the Colonel, touched them with intense 
 distaste for their present surly aspect of life. 
 Civilized little people are moved to fulfil their 
 destinies and to write their histories as much by 
 distaste as by appetite. This fresh sentimental 
 emotion, which led them to glorify their mother's 
 image in their hearts, heightened and gave an acid 
 edge to their distaste for the thing they saw. Nor 
 was it wonderful that Cornelia, said to be so like that 
 mother, should think herself bound to accept the 
 office of taking the initiative in a practical protest 
 against the desecration of the name her mother had 
 borne. At times, I see that sentiment approaches 
 too near the Holy of earthly Holies for us to laugh 
 at it ; it has too much truth in it to be denounced — 
 nay, if we are not alert, and quick of wit, we shall 
 be deceived by it, and wonder in the end, as the fool 
 does, why heaven struck that final blow ; concluding 
 
236 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 that it was but another whimsy of the gods. The 
 ladies prayed to their mother. They were indeed 
 suffering vile torture. Ethereal eyes might pardon 
 the unconscious jugglery which made their hearts 
 cry out to her that the step they were about to 
 take was to save her children from seeming to 
 acquiesce in a dishonour to her memory. Some 
 such words Adela's tongue did not shrink from ; 
 and as it is a common habit for us to give to 
 the objects we mentally address just as much brain 
 as is wanted for the occasion, she is not to be held 
 singular. 
 
 Colonel Pierson promised to stay a week on his 
 return from Ireland. " Will that person be here?" 
 he designated Mrs. Chump ; who, among other 
 things, had reproached him for fighting with foreign 
 steel and wearing any uniform but the red. 
 
 The ladies and Colonel Pierson were soon of one 
 mind in relation to Mrs. Chump. Certain salient 
 quiet remarks dropped by him were cherished after 
 his departure; they were half- willing to think that he 
 had been directed to come to them, bearer of a 
 message from the heavenly world to urge them to 
 action. They had need of a spiritual exaltation, to 
 relieve them from the palpable depression caused 
 by the weight of Mrs. Chump. They encouraged one 
 
HOW THE LADIES CAME TO THEIR RESOLVE. 237 
 
 another with exclamations on the ocldness of a visit 
 from their mother's brother, at such a time of tribu- 
 lation, indecision, and general darkness- 
 
 Mrs. Chump remained on the field. When 
 Adela begged her papa to tell her how long the lady 
 was to stay, he replied : " Eh ? Ity the way, I 
 haven't asked her ; " and retreated from this almost 
 too obvious piece of simplicity, with, " I want you 
 to know her : I want you to like her — want you to 
 get to understand her. Won't talk about her going 
 just yet." 
 
 If they could have seen a limit to that wholesale 
 slaughter of the Nice Feelings, they might have 
 summoned patience to avoid the desperate step 
 to immediate relief: but they saw none. Their 
 father's quaint kindness and Wilfrid's treachery had 
 fixed her there, perhaps for good. The choice was, 
 to let London come and see them dragged through 
 the mire by the monstrous woman, or to seek new 
 homes. London, they contended, could not fur- 
 ther be put off, and would come, especially now 
 that the season was dying. After all, their parting 
 from one another was the bitterest thing to bear, 
 and as each seemed content to endure it for the 
 good of all, and as, properly considered, they did 
 not bury their ambition by separating, they said 
 
238 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 farewell to the young delicious dawn of it. By 
 means of Fine Shades it was understood that Brook- 
 field was to be abandoned. Not one direct word was 
 uttered. There were expressions of regret that the 
 Tillage children of Ipley would miss the supervising 
 eyes that had watched over them — perchance ! at 
 any rate, would lose them. All went on in the 
 household as before, and would have continued so, 
 but that they had a chief among them. This was 
 Adela Pole, who found her powers with the 
 occasion. 
 
 Adela thought decisively. '"'People never move 
 unless they are pushed." And when you have got 
 them to move ever so little, then propel ; but by no 
 means expect that a movement on their part means 
 progression. Without propulsion nothing results. 
 Adela saw what Cornelia meant to do. It was not 
 to fly to Sir Twickenham, but to dismiss Mr. Barrett. 
 Arabella consented to write to Edward Buxley, but 
 would not speak of old days, and barely alluded to 
 a misunderstanding ; though if she loved one man, 
 this was he. Adela was disengaged. She had 
 moreover to do penance, for a wrong committed; 
 and just as children will pinch themselves, pleased 
 up to the verge of unendurable pain, so do senti- 
 mentalists find a keen relish in performing secret 
 
HOW THE LADIES CAME TO THEIR HE SOLVE. 239 
 
 penance for self- accused offences. Thus they 
 become righteous to their own hearts, and evade, 
 as they hope, the public scourge. The wrong com- 
 mitted was (translated out of Fine Shades), that she 
 had made love to her sister's lover. In the original 
 tongue — she had innocently played with the sacred 
 fire of a strange affection ; a child in the temple ! — 
 Our penitent child took a keen pinching pleasure 
 in dictating words for Arabella to employ towards 
 Edward. 
 
 And then, recurring to her interview with Wilfrid, 
 it struck her : " Suppose that, after all, Money ! . . ." 
 Yes, Mammon has acted Hymen before now. 
 Nothing else explained Mrs. Chump, so she 
 thought, in one clear glimpse. Inveterate senti- 
 mental habit smeared the picture with two excla- 
 mations — " Impossible ! " and " Papa ! " I desire 
 it to be credited that these simple interjections 
 absolutely obscured her judgment. Little people 
 think either what they are made to think, or what 
 they choose to think ; and the education of girls is 
 to make them believe that facts are their enemies 
 — a naughty spying race, upon whom the dogs of 
 Pudeur are to be loosed, if they surprise them with- 
 out note of warning. Adela silenced her suspicion, 
 easily enough ; but this did not prevent her 
 
40 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 taking a measure to satisfy it. Petting her papa 
 one evening, she suddenly asked him for ninety 
 pounds. 
 
 " Ninety! 5 ' said Mr. Pole, taking a sharp breath. 
 He was as composed as possible. 
 
 " Is that too much, papa, darling ? " 
 
 " Not if you want it — not if you want it, of course 
 not." 
 
 " You seemed astonished." 
 
 " The sum ! it's an odd sum for -a girl to want. 
 Ten, twent}', fifty — a hundred ; but you never hear 
 of ninety, never ! unless it's to pay a debt ; and I 
 have all the bills, or your aunt has them." 
 
 " Well, papa, if it excites you, I will do without 
 it. It is for a charity, chiefly." 
 
 Mr. Pole fumbled in his pocket, muttering, "No 
 money here — cheque-book in town. I'll give it 
 you," he said aloud, " to-morrow morning — morrow 
 morning, early/' 
 
 " That will do, papa;" and Adela relieved him 
 immediately, by shooting far away from the topic. 
 
 The ladies retired early to their hall of council 
 in the bedchamber of Arabella, and some time after 
 midnight Cornelia went to her room ; but she could 
 not sleep. She affected, in her restlessness, to 
 think that her spirits required an intellectual 
 
HOW THE LADIES CAME TO THEIR RESOLVE. 241 
 
 sedative, so she went down to the library for a 
 book ; where she skimmed many — a fashion that may 
 be recommended, for assisting us to a sense of 
 sovereign superiority to authors., and also of serene 
 contempt for all mental difficulties. Fortified in 
 this way, Cornelia took a Plutarch and an Encyclo- 
 paedia under her arm, to return to her room. But 
 one volume fell, and as she stooped to recover it, 
 her candle shared its fate. She had to find her 
 way back in the dark. On the landing of the 
 stairs, she fancied that she heard a step and a 
 breath. The lady was of unshaken nerves. She 
 moved on steadily, her hand stretched cut a little 
 before her. What it touched was long in travelling 
 to her brain ; but when her paralysed heart beat 
 again, she knew that her hand clasped another 
 hand. Her nervous horror calmed as the feeling 
 came to her of the palpable weakness of the hand. 
 
 " Who are you ?" she asked. Some hoarse answer 
 struck her ear. She asked again, making her voice 
 distincter. The hand now returned her pressure 
 with force. She could feel that the person, who- 
 ever it was, stood collecting strength to speak. 
 Then the words came — 
 
 " What do you mean by imitating that woman's 
 brogue ? " 
 
942 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 " Papa ! " said Cornelia. 
 
 " Why do you talk Irish in the dark ? There, 
 good-night. I've just come up from the library ; 
 my candle dropped. I shouldn't have been 
 frightened, but you talked with such a twang." 
 
 "But, I have just come from the library myself," 
 said Cornelia. 
 
 " I mean, from the dining-room/' her father 
 corrected himself hastily. " I can't sit in the 
 library; shall have it altered — full of draughts. 
 Don't you think so, my dear ? Good-night. What's 
 this in your arm ? Books ! Ah, you study ! I can 
 get a light for myself." 
 
 The dialogue was sustained in the hard-whispered 
 tones prescribed by darkness. Cornelia kissed her 
 father's forehead, and they parted. 
 
 At breakfast in the morning, it was the habit of 
 all the ladies to assemble, partly to countenance the 
 decency of matin-prayers, and also to give the head 
 of the household their dutiful society till business 
 called him away. Adela, in earlier days, had 
 maintained that early rising was not fashionable ; but 
 she soon grasped the idea that a great rivalry with 
 Fashion, in minor matters (where the support of the 
 satirist might be counted on), was the proper policy 
 of Brookfield. Mrs. Chump was given to be 
 
HOW THE LADIES CAME TO THEIR RESOLVE. 213 
 
 extremely fashionable in her hours, and began her 
 Brookfield career by coming downstairs at ten and 
 eleven o'clock, when she found a desolate table, 
 well-stocked indeed, but without any of the exuberant 
 smiles of nourishment which a morning repast should 
 wear. 
 
 " You are a Protestant, ma'am, are you not ? v 
 Adela mildly questioned, after informing her that 
 she missed family prayer by her late descent. Mrs. 
 Chump assured her that she was a firm Protestant, 
 and liked to see faces at the breakfast-table. The 
 poor woman was reduced to submit to the rigour 
 of the hour, coming down flustered, and endeavour- 
 ing to look devout, while many uncertainties as to 
 the condition of the hooks of her attire distracted 
 her mind and fingers. On one occasion, Gainsford, 
 the footman, had been seen with his eye on her ; and 
 while Mr. Pole read of sacred things, at a pace 
 composed of slow march and amble, this unhappy 
 man was heard struggling to keep under and 
 extinguish a devil of laughter, by which his human 
 weakness was shaken. He retired from the room 
 with the speed of a voyager about to pay tribute on 
 high seas. Mr. Pole cast a pregnant look towards 
 the servants' row as he closed the book ; but the 
 expression of his daughters' faces positively signi- 
 
 B 2 
 
244 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 fied that no remark was to be made, and lie con- 
 tained himself. Later, the ladies told him that 
 Gainsford had done no worse than any uneducated 
 man would have been guilty of doing. Mrs. 
 Chump had, it appeared, a mother's feeling for one 
 flat curl on her rugged forehead, which was often 
 fondly caressed by her, for the sake of ascertaining 
 its fixity. Doubts of the precision of outline and 
 general welfare of this curl, apparently, caused her 
 to straighten her back and furtively raise her head, 
 with an easy upward motion, as of a cork alighted 
 in water, above the level of the looking-glass on her 
 left hand — an action she repeated, with a solemn 
 aspect, four times ; at which point Gainsford gave 
 way. The ladies accorded him ever} 7 extenuation 
 for the offence. They themselves, but for the 
 heroism of exalted natures, must have succumbed 
 to the gross temptation. " It is difficult, dear papa, 
 to bring one's mind to religious thoughts in her 
 company, even when she is quiescent/' they said. 
 Thus, by the prettiest exercise of charity that can 
 be conceived, they pleaded for the man Gainsford, 
 while they struck a blow at Mrs. Chump ; and in 
 performing one of the virtues laid down by religion, 
 proved their enemy to be hostile to its influences. 
 Mrs. Chump was this morning very late. The 
 
HOW THE LADIES CAME TO THEIR RESOLVE. 245 
 
 office of morning reader was new to Mr. Pole, who 
 had undertaken it, when first Squire of Brookfield, 
 at the dictate of the ladies his daughters ; so that, 
 waiting with the book before him and his audience 
 expectant, he lacked composure, spoke irritably in 
 an under-breath of " that woman," and asked twice 
 whether she was coming or not. At last the clump 
 of her feet was heard approaching. Mr. Pole com- 
 menced reading the instant she opened the door. 
 She stood there, with a face like a petrified Irish 
 outcry. An imploring sound of " Pole ! Pole ! " 
 issued from her. Then she caught up one hand to 
 her mouth, and rolled her head, in evident anguish 
 at the necessitated silence. A convulsion passed 
 along the row of maids, two of whom dipped to 
 their aprons ; but the ladies gazed with a sad con- 
 sciousness of wicked glee at the disgust she was 
 exciting in the bosom of their father. 
 
 " Will you shut the door ? " Mr. Pole sternly 
 addressed Mrs. Chump, at the conclusion of the 
 first prayer. 
 
 " Pole ! ye know that money ye gave me in notes ? 
 I must speak, Pole ! " 
 
 " Shut the door." 
 
 Mrs. Chump let go the door-handle with a moan. 
 The door was closed by Gainsford, now one of the 
 
24 G EMILIA IX ENGLAND. 
 
 gravest of footmen. A chair was placed for her, 
 and she sat down, desperately watching the reader 
 for the fall of his voice. The period was singularly 
 protracted. The ladies turned to one another, to 
 question with an eyelid why it was that extra 
 allowance was given that morning. Mr. Pole was 
 in a third prayer, stumbling on and picking him- 
 self up, apparently unaware that he had passed 
 the limit. This continued until the series of 
 ejaculations which accompanied him waxed hotter 
 —little muffled shrieks of: " Oh !— Deer ! — Oh, 
 Lard! — \Yhen will he stop? — Oh, mercy I Och ! 
 And me buiTstin' to speak ! — Oh ! what'll I do ? 
 I can't keep't in ! — Pole ! ye're kill'n me — Oh, 
 deer ! Fll be sayin' somethin' to vex the prophets 
 presently. Pole ! " 
 
 If it was a race that he ran with Mrs. Chump, 
 Mr. Pole was beaten. He came to a sudden 
 stop. 
 
 Mrs. Chump had become too deeply absorbed in 
 her impatience to notice the change in his tone; 
 and when he said, "Now then, to breakfast, quick! " 
 she was pursuing her lamentable interjections. At 
 sight of the servants trooping forth, she jumped up 
 and ran to the door. 
 
 " Ye don't go. — Pole, they're all here. And I've 
 
HOW THE LADIES CAME TO THEIR RESOLVE. 247 
 
 been robbed, I have. Avery note I had from ye, 
 Pole, all gone. And my purse left behind, like the 
 skin of a thing. Lord forbid I accuse annybody ; 
 but when I get up, my first rush is to feel in my 
 pocket. And, ask 'em ! — If ye didn't keep me so 
 poor, Pole, they'd know Fin a generous woman, but 
 I cann't bear to be robbed. And pinmoney's for 
 spendin^ ; annybod} T, ll tell ye that. And I ask ye 
 t' examine 'em, Pole ; for last night I counted my 
 notes, wantin' change, and I thought of a salmon I 
 bought on the banks of the Suir to make a present 
 to Chump, which was our onnly visit to Waterford 
 together : for he naver went t' Ireland before or after 
 — dyin* as he did ! and it's not his ingratitude, with 
 his talk of a Severrn salmon — to the deuce with 'm ! 
 that makes me soft — poor fella ! — I didn't mean 
 to the deuce ; — but since he's gone, his widde's just 
 unfit to bargain for a salmon at all, and aver} T body 
 robs her, and she's kept poor, and hatud 1 — 
 D'ye beer, Pole ? I've lost my money, my money ! 
 and I will speak, and ye shann't interrupt 
 me!° 
 
 During the delivery of this charge against the 
 household, Mr. Pole had several times waved to the 
 servants to begone ; but as they had always the 
 option to misunderstand authoritative gestures, 
 
248 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 the)' preferred remaining, and possibly he perceived 
 that they might claim to do so under accusation. 
 
 " How can you bring this charge against the 
 inmates of my house — eh? I guarantee the honesty 
 of all who serve me. Martha ! you must be mad, 
 mad! — Money? why, you never have money; you 
 waste it, if you do." 
 
 " Not money, Pole ? Oh ! and why ? Becas ye 
 keep me low o' purpose, till I cringe like a slut o' 
 the scullery, and cij out for halfpence. But, oh ! 
 that seventy-five pounds in notes ! " 
 
 Mr. Pole shook his head, as one who deals with 
 a gross delusion : ' ; I remember nothing about it." 
 
 "Not about ?" Mrs. Chump dropped her 
 
 chin. "Ye don't remember the givin' of me 
 just that sum of seventy-five, in eight notes, 
 Pole ? " 
 
 " Eh ? I daresay I have given you the amount, 
 one time or other. Now, let's be quiet about 
 it." 
 
 " Yesterday mornin', Pole ! And the night I go 
 to bed I count my money, and, says I, I'll not lock 
 ut up, for I'll onnly be unlockin' again to-morrow ; 
 and doin' a thing and undoin' ut's sign of a brain 
 that's addled — like yours, Pole, if ye say ye didn't go 
 to give me the notes." 
 
HOW THE LADIES CAME TO THEIR RESOLVE. 249 
 
 Mr. Pole frowned at her sagaciously. " Must 
 change your diet, Martha ! " 
 
 " My dite ? And what's my elite to do with 1113' 
 money ? " 
 
 " Who went into Mrs. Chump's bedchamber this 
 morning ? " asked Mr. Pole, generally. 
 
 A pretty little housemaid replied, with an indig- 
 nant flush, that she was the person. Mrs. Chump 
 acknowledged to being awake when the shutters 
 were opened, and agreed that it was not possible 
 her pockets could have been rifled then. 
 
 " So, you see, Martha, you're talking nonsense," 
 said Mr. Pole. " Do you know the numbers of 
 those notes ? " 
 
 " The numbers at the sides, ye mean, Pole ? " 
 
 " Ay, the numbers at the sides, if you like ; the 
 21593, and so on?" 
 
 " The 21593 ! Oh ! I cann't remember such a lot 
 as that, if ever I leave off repeatin' it." 
 
 " There ! you see, you're not fit to have money in 
 your possession, Martha. Everybody who has 
 bank-notes looks at the numbers. You have a trick 
 of fancying all sorts of sums in your pocket ; and 
 when you don't find them there, of course they're 
 lost ! Now, let's have some breakfast." 
 
 Arabella told the maids to go out. Mr. Pole 
 
250 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 turned to the breakfast-table, rubbing his hands. 
 Seeing herself and her case abandoned, Mrs. Chump 
 gave a deplorable shout. " Ye're crool ! and young 
 women that look on at a fellow- woman's mis'ry. 
 Oh ! how ye can do ut ! But soft hearts can be the 
 hardest. And all my seventy-five gone, gone ! and 
 no law out of annybody. And no frightenin' of 'cm 
 off from doin' the like another time ! Oh, I will, I 
 will have my money ! " 
 
 " Tush ! Come to breakfast, Martha," said Mr. 
 Pole. "You shall have money, if you want it; 
 you have only to ask. Now, will you promise to 
 be quiet ? and I'll give you this money — the amount 
 you've been dreaming about last night. I'll fetch 
 it. Now, let us have no scenes. Dry your eyes." 
 
 Mr. Pole went to his private room, and returned 
 just as Mrs. Chump had got upon a succession of 
 quieter sobs, with each one of which she addressed 
 a pathetic roll of her eyes to the utterly unsympa- 
 thetic ladies respectively. 
 
 "There, Martha; there's exactly the sum for 
 you — free gift. Say, thank you, and eat a good 
 breakfast to show your gratitude. Mind, you take 
 this money on condition that you let the servants 
 know you made a mistake." 
 
 Mrs. Chump sighed heavily, crumpling the notes, 
 
HOW THE LADIES CAME TO THEHl RESOLVE. 251 
 
 that the crisp sweet sound might solace her for the 
 hard condition. 
 
 ''And don't dream any more — not about money., 
 I mean,'' said Mr. Pole. 
 
 " Oh ! if I dream like that I'll he living double." 
 Mrs. Chump put her hand to the notes, and called 
 him kind, and pitied him for being the loser. The 
 sight of a fresh sum in her possession intoxicated 
 her. It was but feebly that she regretted the loss 
 to her Samuel Bolton Pole. " Wre memory's 
 worth more than that ! " she said, as she filled her 
 purse with the notes. " Annyhow, now I can treat 
 somebody," and she threw a wink of promise at 
 Adela. Adela's eyes took refuge with her papa, 
 who leaned over to her, and said : " You won't 
 mind waiting till you see me again ? She's taken 
 all I had." Adela nodded blankly, and the next 
 moment, with an angry glance towards Mrs, Chump, 
 '•'Papa," said she, "if you wish to see servants in 
 the house on your return, you must yourself speak 
 to them, and tell them that we, their master and 
 mistresses, do not regard then as thieves." Out of 
 this there came a quarrel as furious as the ladies 
 would permit it to be. For Mrs. Chump, though 
 willing to condone the offence for the sum she had 
 received, stuck infamy upon the whole list of them. 
 
252 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 " The Celtic nature," murmured Cornelia. And 
 the ladies maintained that their servants should be 
 respected, at any cost. " You, ma'am," said Ara- 
 bella, with a clear look peculiar to her when vindic- 
 tive — "you may have a stain on your character, 
 and you are not ruined by it. But these poor 
 creatures . . . ." 
 
 " Ye dare to compar' me ! " 
 
 " Contrast you, ma'am." 
 
 " It's just as imp'dent." 
 
 " I say, our servants, ma'am . . ." 
 
 " Oh ! to the deuce with your ' ma'am ; ' I hate 
 the word. It's like fittin' a cap on me. Ye want 
 to make one a turbaned dow'ger, ye malicious young 
 woman ! " 
 
 " Those are personages that are, I believe, ac- 
 cepted in society ! " 
 
 So the contest raged, Mrs. Chump being run 
 clean through the soul twenty times, without 
 touching the consciousness of that sensitive essence. 
 Mr. Pole appeared to take the part of his daughters, 
 and by-and-by Mrs. Chump, having failed to arouse 
 Mrs. Lupin's involuntary laugh (which always con- 
 soled her in such cases), huffed out of the room. 
 Then Mr. Pole, in an abruptly serious way, bashfully 
 entreated the ladies to be civil to Martha, who had 
 
HOW THE LADIES CAME TO THEIR RESOLVE. 253 
 
 the best heart in the world. It sounded as if he 
 were going to say more. After a pause, he added, 
 emphatically, " Do! " and went. He was many days 
 absent : nor did he speak to Adela of the money 
 she had asked for when he returned. Adela had 
 not the courage to allude to it. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 IN THE WOODS. 
 
 Emilia sat in her old place under the dwarf pine. 
 Mr. Powys had brought her back to Brookfield, 
 where she heard that Wilfrid had been seen; and 
 now her heart was in contest with an inexplicable 
 puzzle : " He was here, and did not come to rne ! " 
 Since that night when they had walked home from 
 Ipley Green, she had not suffered a moment of 
 longing. Her senses had lain as under a charm, 
 with heart at anchor and a mind free to work. No 
 one could have guessed that any human spell was on 
 the girl. "Wherever he is, he thinks of me. I 
 find him everywhere. He is safe, for I pray for him 
 and have my arms about him. He will come." So 
 she waited, as some grey lake lies, full and smooth, 
 awaiting the star below the twilight. If she let her 
 thoughts run on to the hour of their meeting, she 
 had to shut her eyes and press at her heart ; but as 
 yet she was not out of tune for daily life, and she 
 
IN THE WOODS. 255 
 
 could imagine how that hour was to be strewn with 
 new songs and hushed surprises. And ' thus ' he 
 would look : and * thus/ " My hero ! " breathed 
 Emilia, shuddering a little. But now she was per- 
 plexed. Now that he had come and gone, she began 
 to hunger bitterly for the sight of his face, and that 
 which had hitherto nourished her grew a sickly 
 phantom of delight. She wondered how she had 
 forced herself to be patient, and what it was that she 
 had found pleasure in. 
 
 None of the ladies were at home when Emilia re- 
 turned. She went out to the woods, and sat, 
 shadowed by the long bent branch ; watching 
 mechanically the slow rounding and yellowing of the 
 beam of sunlight over the thick floor of moss, up 
 against the fir-stems. The chaffinch and the linnet 
 flitted off the grey orchard twigs, singing from new 
 stations ; and the bee seemed to come questioning 
 the silence of the woods and droning disappointed 
 away. The first excess of any sad feeling is half 
 voluntary. Emilia could not help smiling, when she 
 lifted her head out of a musing fit, to find that she 
 had composed part of a minuet for the languid danc- 
 ing motes in the shaft of golden light at her feet. 
 " Can I remember it ? " she thought, and forgot the 
 incident with the effort. 
 
256 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Down at her right hand, bordering a water, stood 
 a sallow, a dead tree, channelled inside with the 
 brown trail of a goat-moth. Looking in this direc- 
 tion, she saw Cornelia advancing to the tree. When 
 the lady had reached it, she drew a little book from 
 her bosom, kissed it, and dropped it in the hollow. 
 This done, she passed among the firs. Emilia had 
 perceived that she was agitated : and with that 
 strange instinct of hearts beginning to stir, which 
 makes them divine at once where they will come 
 npon the secret of their own sensations, she ran 
 down to the tree and peered on tiptoe at the embed- 
 ded volume. On a blank page stood pencilled : 
 ' This is the last fruit of the tree. Come not to gather 
 more.' There was no meaning for her in that senti- 
 mental chord : but she must have got some glimpse 
 of a meaning; for now, as in an agony, her lips 
 fashioned the words : " If I forget his face I may as 
 well die ; " and she wandered on, striving more and 
 more vainly to call up his features. The — ' Does he 
 think of me ? ' and — ' What am I to him ? '—such 
 timorous little feather-play of feminine emotion she 
 knew nothing of : in her heart was the strong flood 
 of a passion. 
 
 She met Edward Buxley and Freshfield Sumner 
 at a cross-path, on their way to Brookfield; and 
 
IN THE WOODS. 257 
 
 then Adela joined the party, which soon embraced 
 Mr. Barrett, and subsequently Cornelia. All moved 
 on in a humming leisure, chattering by fits. Mr. 
 Sumner was delicately prepared to encounter Mrs. 
 Chump, "whom," said Adela, "Edward himself 
 finds it impossible to caricature ; " and she affected 
 to laugh at the woman. 
 
 " Happy the pencil that can reproduce ! " Mr. 
 Barrett exclaimed ; and, meeting his smile, Cornelia 
 said : " Do you know, my feeling is, and I cannot at 
 all account for it, that if she were a Catholic she 
 would not seem so gross ? " 
 
 " Some of the poetry of that religion would de- 
 scend upon her, possibly," returned Mr. Barrett. 
 
 " Do you mean," Freshfield said, quickly, " that 
 she would stand a fair chance of being sainted ? " 
 
 Out of this arose some polite fencing between the 
 two. Freshfield might have argued to advantage 
 in a court of law ; but he was no match, on such 
 topics and before such an audience, for a refined 
 sentimentalist. More than once he betrayed a dispo- 
 sition to take refuge in his class (he being son to one 
 of the puisne judges). Cornelia speedily punished 
 him, and to any correction from her he bowed his 
 head. 
 
 Adela was this dav jrifted with an extraordinary 
 
258 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 insight. Emilia alone of the party was as a blot to 
 her ; but the others she saw through, as if they had 
 been walking transparencies. She divined that 
 Edward and Freshfield had both come, in concert, 
 upon amorous business — that it was Freshfield's 
 object to help Edward to a private interview with 
 her, and, in return, Edward was to perform the 
 same service for him with Cornelia. So that Mr. 
 Barrett was shockingly in the way of both ; and the 
 perplexity of these stupid fellows — who would insist 
 upon wondering why the man Barrett and the girl 
 Emilia (musicians both : both, as it were, vagrants) 
 did not walk together and talk of quavers and minims 
 — was extremely comic. Passing the withered tree, 
 Mr. Barrett deserved thanks from Freshfield, if he 
 did not obtain them ; for he lingered, surrendering 
 his place. And then Adela knew that the weight of 
 Edward Buxley's remonstrative wrath had fallen on 
 silent Emilia, to whom she clung fondly. 
 
 " I have had a letter," Edward murmured, in the 
 voice that propitiates secrecy. 
 
 " A letter ? " she cried aloud ; and off flew the man 
 like a rabbit into his hole, the mask of him remaining. 
 
 Emilia presently found Mr. Barrett at her elbow. 
 His hand clasped the book Cornelia had placed in 
 the tree. 
 
IN THE WOODS. 259 
 
 " It is hers," said Emilia. 
 
 He opened it and pointed to his initials. She 
 looked in his face. 
 
 (; Are you very ill ? " 
 
 la turned round from Edward's neighbouring 
 head. ""Who is ill?" 
 
 Cornelia brought Freshfield to a stop : " 111 ? " 
 
 Before them all, book in hand, Mr. Barrett had 
 to give assurance that he was hearty, and to appear 
 to think that his words were accepted, in spite of 
 blanched jowl and reddened under-lid. Cornelia 
 threw him one glance : his eyes closed under it. 
 Adela found it necessary to address some such com- 
 forting exclamation as ' Goodness gracious ! ' to her 
 observant spirit. 
 
 In the i)ark-path, leading to the wood, Arabella 
 was seen as they came out the young branches that 
 fringed the firs. She hurried up. 
 
 " I have been looking for you. Papa has arrived 
 with Sir Twickenham Pryme, who dines with us/' 
 
 Adela unhesitatingly struck a blow. 
 
 " Lady Pryme, we make place for you." 
 
 And she crossed to Cornelia. Cornelia kept her 
 eyes fixed on Adela's mouth, as one looks at a place 
 whence a venomous reptile has darted out. Her 
 eyelids shut, and she stood a white sculpture of 
 
2G0 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 pain, pitiable to see. Emilia took her hand, en- 
 couraging the tightening fingers with a responsive 
 pressure. The group shuffled awkwardly together, 
 though Adela did her best. She was very angry 
 with Mr. Barrett for wearing that absurdly pale 
 aspect. She was even angry with his miserable 
 bankrupt face for mounting a muscular edition of 
 the smile Cornelia had shown. " His feelings ! " 
 she cried internally ; and the fact presented itself to 
 her, that feelings were a luxury utterly unfit for poor 
 men, who were to be accused of presumption for 
 indulging in them. 
 
 " Now, I suppose you are happy ? " she spoke low 
 between Arabella and Edward. 
 
 The effect of these words was to colour violently 
 two pairs of cheeks. Arabella's behaviour did not 
 quite satisfy the fair critic. Edward Buxley was 
 simply caught in a trap. He had the folly to 
 imagine that by laughing he released himself. 
 
 "Is not that the laugh of an engaged?" said 
 Adela to Freshfield. 
 
 He replied : " That would have been my idea 
 under other conditions," and looked meaningly. 
 
 She met the look with : " There are harsh con- 
 ditions in life, are there not ? " and left him suffi- 
 ciently occupied by his own sensations. 
 
IX THE WOODS. 201 
 
 "Mr. Barrett," she inquired (partly to assist the 
 wretch out of his compromising depression, and also 
 that the question represented a real matter of debate 
 in her mind), " I want your opinion ; will you give it 
 me ? Apropos of slang, why does it sit well on some 
 people ? It certainly does not vulgarise them. 
 After all, in many cases, it is what they call ' racy 
 idiom.' Perhaps our delicacy is strained ? " 
 
 Now, it was Mr. Barrett's established manner to 
 speak in a deliberately ready fashion upon the in- 
 troduction of a new topic. Habit made him, on 
 this occasion, respond instantly; but the opening 
 of the gates displayed the confusion of ideas within 
 and the raging tumult. 
 
 He said : " In many cases. There are two sorts. 
 If you could call it the language of nature ! which 
 anything .... I beg your pardon, Slang ! Polite 
 society rightly excludes it, because . . ." 
 
 "Yes, yes," returned Adela; "but do we do 
 rightly in submitting to the absolute tyranny ? 
 — I mean, I think, originality flies from us in 
 consequence." 
 
 The pitiable mortal became a trifle more lumi- 
 nous : " The objection is to the repetition of risked 
 phrases. A happy audacity of expression may pass. 
 It is bad taste to repeat it, that is all. Then there 
 
2G2 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 is the slang of heavy boorishness, and the slang of 
 impatient wit . . .** 
 
 "Is there any fine distinction between the ex- 
 tremes ? " said Cornelia, in as clear a tone as she 
 could summon. 
 
 "I think," observed Arabella, "that whatever 
 shows staleness speedily is self-condemned; and 
 that is the case with slang." 
 
 " And yet it's to avoid some feeling of the sort 
 that people employ it," was Adela's remark ; and the 
 discussion of this theme dropped lifelessly, and they 
 walked on as before. 
 
 Coming to a halt near the garden-gate, Adela 
 tapped Emilia's cheek, addressing her : " How 
 demure she has become ! " 
 
 "Ah ! " went Arabella, " does she know papa has 
 had a letter from Mr. Pericles, who wrote from 
 "Milan to say that he has made arrangements for her 
 to enter the academy there, and will come to fetch 
 her in a few days ? " 
 
 Emilia's wrists crossed below her neck, while she 
 gave ear. 
 
 " To take me away ? " she said. 
 
 The tragic attitude and outciy, with the mournful 
 flash of her eyes, might have told Emilia's tale. 
 
 Adela unwillingly shielded her by interpreting 
 
IX THE WOODS. 2G3 
 
 the scene. " See ! she must he . a born actress. 
 They always exaggerate in that style, so that you 
 would really think she had a mighty passion for 
 Brookfiekl." 
 
 " Or in it," suggested Freshfielcl. 
 
 " Or in it ! " she laughed assentingly. 
 
 Mr. Pole was perceived entering the garden, 
 rubbing his hands a little too obsequiously to some 
 remark of the Baronet's, -as the critical ladies 
 imagined. Sir Twickenham's arm spread out in a 
 sweep ; Mr. Pole's head nodded. After the cere- 
 mony of the salute, the ladies were informed of 
 Sir Twickenham's observation: Sir Twickenham 
 Pryme, a statistical member of Parliament, a well- 
 preserved half-century in age, a gentleman in 
 bearing, passably grey-headed, his whiskers brushed 
 out neatly, as if he knew them individually and had 
 the exact amount of them collectively at his fingers' 
 ends. Sir Twickenham had said of Mr. Pole's 
 infant park that if devoted to mangold-wurzel it 
 would be productive and would pay : whereas now 
 it was not ornamental and was waste. 
 
 " Sir Twickenham calculates," said Mr. Pole, 
 " that we should have a crop of — eh ? may I ask ? " 
 
 " The average ? " Sir Twickenham put in, on the 
 evident upward mounting of a sum in his brain. 
 
264 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 And then, with a relaxing look upon Cornelia : 
 " Perhaps you might have fifteen, sixteen, perhaps 
 for the first year ; or, say — you see, the exact acreage 
 is unknown to me. Say roughly, ten thousand 
 sacks the first year." 
 
 " Of what ? " inquired Cornelia. 
 
 " Mangold-wurzel," said the Baronet. 
 
 She gazed about her. Mr. Barrett was gone. 
 
 "But, no doubt, you take no interest in such 
 reckonings ? " Sir Twickenham added. 
 
 "On the contrary, I take every interest in prac- 
 tical details." 
 
 Practical men believe this when they hear it from 
 the lips of gentlewomen, and without philosophi- 
 cally analysing the fact, that it is because the 
 practical quality possesses simply the fascination 
 of a form of strength. Sir Twickenham pursued 
 his details. Day closed on Brookfield blankly. 
 Nevertheless, the ladies felt that the situation was 
 now dignified by tragic feeling, and remembering 
 keenly how they had been degraded of late, they 
 had a sad enjoyment of the situation. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 RETURN OF THE SENTIMENTALIST INTO BONDAGE. 
 
 Meantime Wilfrid was leading a town-life and 
 occasionally visiting Stornley. He was certainly 
 not in love with Lady Charlotte Chillingworth, but 
 he was in harness to that lady. In love we have 
 some idea whither we would go : in harness we are 
 simply driven, and the destination may be any- 
 where. To be reduced to this condition (which will 
 happen now and then in the case of very young men 
 who are growing up to something, and is, if a 
 momentary shame to them, rather a sign of promise 
 than not) the gentle male need not be deeply fasci- 
 nated. Lady Charlotte was not a fascinating person. 
 She did not lay herself out to attract. Had she 
 done so, she would have failed to catch Wilfrid, 
 whose soul thirsted for poetical refinement and 
 filmy delicacies in a woman. What she had, and 
 what he knew that he wanted, and could only at 
 intervals assume by acting as if he possessed it, was 
 a victorious aplomb, which gave her a sort of gallant 
 
2GQ EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 glory in his sight. He could act it well before his 
 sisters, and here and there a damsel ; and coming 
 fresh from Lady Charlotte's school, he had recently 
 done so with success, and had seen the ladies feel 
 towards him, as he felt under his instructress in the 
 art. Some nature, however, is required for every 
 piece of art. Wilfrid knew that he had been brutal 
 in his representation of the part, and the retrospect 
 of his conduct at Brookfielcl did not satisfy his 
 remorseless critical judgment. In consequence, 
 when he again saw Lady Charlotte, his admiration 
 of that one prized characteristic of hers paralysed 
 him. She looked, and moved, and spoke, as if the 
 earth were her own. She was a note of true music, 
 and he felt himself to be an indecisive chord ; 
 capable ultimately of a splendid performance, it 
 might be, but at present crying out to be played 
 upon. This is the condition of a man in harness, 
 whom witlings may call what they will. He is sub- 
 jugated : not won. In this state of subjugation he 
 will joyfully sacrifice as much as a man in love. 
 For, having no consolatory sense of happiness, such 
 as encircles and makes a nest for lovers, he seeks to 
 attain some stature, at least, by excesses of apparent 
 devotion. Lady Charlotte believed herself beloved 
 at last. She was about to strike thirty ; and 
 
RETURN OF THE SENTIMENTALIST INTO BONDAGE. 207 
 
 Rumour, stalking with a turban of cloud on her 
 head, — Enough that this shocking old celestial 
 dowager, from condemnation had passed to pity of 
 the dashing lady. Beloved at last ! After awhile 
 there is no question of our loving ; but we thirst for 
 love, if we have not had it. The key of Lady 
 Charlotte will come in the course of events. She 
 was at the doubtful hour of her life, a warm-hearted 
 woman, known to, be so by few: generally con- 
 signed by devout-visaged Scandal (for who save the 
 devout will dare to sit in the chair of judgment ?) 
 as a hopeless rebel against conventional laws; and 
 worse than that, far worse, — though what, is not 
 said. 
 
 At Stornley the following letter from Emilia hit 
 its mark : — 
 
 " Dear Mr. Wilfrid, 
 
 It is time for me to see you. Come when 
 you have read this letter. I cannot tell you how I 
 am, because my heart feels beating in another body. 
 Pray come ; come now. Come on a swift horse. 
 The thought of you galloping to me goes through 
 me like a flame that hums. You will come, I 
 know. It is time. If I write foolishly, do forgive 
 me. I can only make sure of the spelling, and 
 
2G8 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 I cannot please you on paper, only when I see 
 
 vou. 
 
 The signature of "Emilia Alessandra Belloni " 
 was given with her wonted proud nourish. 
 
 Wilfrid stared at the writing. " What ! all this 
 time she has been thinking the same thing ! " Her 
 constancy did not swim before him in alluring 
 colours. He regarded it as a species of folly. 
 Disgust had left him. The pool of Memory would 
 have had to be stirred to remind him of the pipe- 
 smoke in her hair. " You are sure to please me 
 when you see me ? " he murmured. " You are very 
 confident, young lady ! " So much had her charm 
 faded. And then he thought kindly of her, and 
 that a meeting would not be good for her, and that 
 she ought to go to Italy and follow her profession. 
 "If she grows famous," whispered coxcombry, "why 
 then oneself will take a little of the praises given 
 to her." And that seemed eminently satisfactory. 
 Men think in this way when you have loved them, 
 ladies. All men ? No ; only the coxcombs ; but it 
 is to these that you give your fresh affection. They 
 are, as it were, the band of the regiment of adorers, 
 marching ahead, while we sober working soldiers 
 follow to their music. " If she grows famous, why 
 
RETURN OF THE SENTIMENTALIST INTO BONDAGE. 2G9 
 
 then I can bear in mind that her heart was once in 
 my possession : and may return to its old owner, 
 perchance." Wilfrid indulged in a pleasant little 
 dream of her singing at the Opera-house, and he, 
 tied to a ferocious, detested wife, how softly and 
 luxuriously would he then be sighing for the old 
 time ! It was partly good seed in his nature, and 
 an apprehension of her force of soul, that kept him 
 from a thought of evil to her. Passion does not 
 inspire dark appetite. Dainty innocence does, I 
 am told. Things are tested by the emotions they 
 provoke. Wilfrid knew that there was no trifling 
 with Emilia, so he put the letter by, commenting 
 thus: "She's right, she doesn't spell badly." 
 Behind which, to those who have caught the springs 
 of his character, volumes may be seen. 
 
 He put the letter by. Two days later, at noon, 
 the card of Captain Gainbier was brought to him 
 in the billiard-room, — on it was written : " Miss 
 Belloni waits on horseback to see you." Wilfrid 
 thought " waits ! " and the impossibility of escape 
 gave him a notion of her power. 
 
 " So, you are letting that go on," said Lady 
 Charlotte, when she heard that Emilia and the 
 Captain were in company. 
 
 " There is no fear for her, whatever." 
 
270 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 " There is always fear when a man gives every 
 minute of his time to that kind of business," 
 retorted her ladyship. 
 
 Wilfrid smiled the smile of the knowing. Rivalry 
 with Gambier (and successful too ! ) did not make 
 Emilia's admiration so tasteless. Some one cries 
 out : w But, what a w T eak creature is this young 
 man ! " I reply, he was at a critical stage of his 
 career. All of us are weak in the period of growth, 
 and are of small worth before the hour of trial. 
 This fellow had been fattening all his life on 
 prosperity ; the very best dish in the world : but it 
 does not prove us. It fattens and strengthens 
 us, just as the sun does. Adversity is the 
 inspector of our constitutions; she simply tries 
 our muscle and powers of endurance, and should 
 be a periodical visitor. But, until she comes, no 
 man is known. Wilfrid was not absolutely engaged 
 to Lady Charlotte (she had taken care of that), and 
 being free, and feeling his heart beat in more lively 
 fashion, he turned almost delightedly to the girl he 
 could not escape from. As when the wriggling eel 
 that has been prodded by the countryman's fork, 
 finds that no amount of wriggling will release it, lo 
 it twists in a knot around the imprisoning prong. 
 This simile says more than I mean it to say, but 
 
RETURN OF THE SENTIMENTALIST INTO BONDAGE. 271 
 
 those who understand similes will know the measure 
 due to them. 
 
 There sat Emilia on her horse. " Has Gambier 
 been giving her lessons ? " thought Wilfrid. She 
 sat up, well-balanced; and, as he approached, began 
 to lean gently forward to him. A greeting ' equal 
 to any lady's,' there was no doubt. This was the 
 point Emilia had to attain, in his severe contem- 
 plation. A born lady, on her assured level, stood 
 a chance of becoming a goddess ; but ladyship 
 was Emilia's highest mark. Such is the state of 
 things to the sentimental fancy when girls are 
 at a disadvantage. She smiled, and held both 
 hands. He gave her one, nodding kindly, but 
 was too confused to be the light-hearted cava- 
 lier. Lady Charlotte walked up to her horse's 
 side, after receiving Captain Gambier's salute, 
 and said : " Come, catch hold of my hands and 
 jump." 
 
 " No," replied Emilia ; " I only came to see 
 him." 
 
 " But you will see him, and me in the bargain, if 
 you stay." 
 
 " I fancy she has given her word to return early,*' 
 interposed Wilfrid. 
 
 " Then we'll ride back with her," said Lady 
 
272 EMILIA IX ENGLAND. 
 
 Charlotte. " Give me five minutes. I'll order a 
 horse out for you." 
 
 She smiled, and considerately removed the Cap- 
 tain, by despatching him to the stables. 
 
 A quivering dimple of tenderness hung for a 
 moment in Emilia's cheeks, as she looked upon 
 Wilfrid. Then she said, falteringly, " I think they 
 wish to be as we do." 
 
 " Alone ? " cried Wilfrid. 
 
 " Yes ; that is why I brought him over. He will 
 come anywhere with me." 
 
 " You must be mistaken." 
 
 "No; I know it." 
 
 " Did he tell you so ? " 
 
 "No; Mr. Powys did." 
 
 " Told you that Lady Charlotte " 
 
 " Yes. Not, is; but, was. And he used that word, 
 . . . there is no word like it, . . . he said ' her 
 lover' — Oh! mine!" Emilia lifted her arms. 
 Her voice from its deepest fall had risen to a cry. 
 
 Wilfrid caught her as she slipped from her 
 saddle. His heart was in a tumult ; stirred both 
 ways : stirred with wrath and with love. Pie 
 clasped her tightly. 
 
 " Am I ?— am I ? " he breathed. 
 
 " My lover ! " Emilia murmured. 
 
RETURN OF THE SENTIMENTALIST INTO BONDAGE. 273 
 
 He was her slave again. 
 
 For, here was something absolutely his own. 
 His own from the roots ; from the first growth of 
 sensation. Something with the bloom on it : to 
 which no other finger could point and say : " There 
 is my mark." 
 
 (And, ladies, if you will consent to be likened to 
 a fruit, you must bear with these observations, and 
 really deserve the stigma. If you will smile on 
 men, because they adore you as vegetable products, 
 take what ensues.) 
 
 Lad} T Charlotte did no more than double the time 
 she had asked for. The party were soon at a quiet 
 canter up the lanes ; but entering a broad furzy 
 common with bramble-plots and oak-shaws, the 
 Amazon flew ahead. Emilia's eyes were so taken 
 with her, that she failed to observe a tiny red- 
 flowing runlet in the clay, with yellow-ridged banks 
 almost baked to brick. Over it she was borne, but 
 at the expense of a shaking that caused her to rely 
 on her hold of the reins, ignorant of the notions of 
 a horse outstripped. Wilfrid looked to see that the 
 jump had been accomplished, and was satisfied. 
 Gambier was pressing his hack to keep a respect- 
 able second. Lady Charlotte spun round suddenly, 
 crying, " Catch the mare ! " and gallopped back to 
 
274 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Emilia, who was deposited on a bush of bramble. 
 Dismounting promptly, the lady said : " My child, 
 you're not hurt ? " 
 
 " Not a bit," blinked Emilia. 
 
 < : Not frightened?" 
 
 " Not a bit," was half whispered. 
 
 " That's brave. Now jump on your feet. Tell 
 me why you rode over to us this morning. Quick. 
 Don't hesitate." 
 
 " Because I want Wilfrid to see his sister 
 Cornelia," came the answer, with the required 
 absence of indecision. 
 
 Emilia ran straightway to meet Wilfrid approach- 
 ing ; and as both her hands, according to her 
 fashion, were stretched out to him to assure him 
 of her safety and take his clasp, forgetful of the 
 instincts derived from riding-habits, her feet became 
 entangled; she trod herself down, falling plump 
 forward and looking foolish — perhaps for the first 
 time in her life plainly, feeling so. 
 
 " Up ! little woman," said Lady Charlotte, sup- 
 porting her elbow. 
 
 " Now, Sir Wilfrid, we part here ; and don't 
 spoil her courage, now she has had a spill, 
 by any ' assiduous attentions ' and precautions. 
 She's sure to take as many as are needed. If 
 
RETURN OF THE SENTIMENTALIST INTO'BONDAGE. 275 
 
 Captain Garnbier thinks I require an escort, lie 
 may offer." 
 
 The Captain, taken by surprise, bowed, and 
 flowed in ardent commonplace. Wilfrid did not 
 look of a wholesome colour. 
 
 " Do you return ? " he stammered ; not without a 
 certain aspect of righteous reproach. 
 
 " Yes. You will ride over to us again, probably, 
 in a day or two ? Captain Garnbier will see me 
 safe from the savage admirers that crowd this 
 country, if I interpreted him rightly ? " 
 
 Emilia was lifted to her seat. Lacly Charlotte 
 sprang unassisted to hers. " Ta-ta ! " she waved 
 her fingers from her lips. The pairs then sepa- 
 rated; one couple turning into green lanes, the 
 other dipping to blue hills. 
 
 t 2 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 LIFE AT BROOKFIELD. 
 
 Gossip of course was excited on the subject of 
 the choice of a partner made by the member for the 
 county. Cornelia placed her sisters in one of their 
 most pleasing of difficulties. She had not as yet 
 pledged her word. It was supposed that she con- 
 sidered it due to herself to withhold her word for a 
 term. The rumour in the family was, that Sir 
 Twickenham appreciated her hesitation, and desired 
 that he might be intimately known before he was 
 finally accepted. This subtle courtesy compensated 
 for his statistical stiffness of speech, so that nobody 
 at Brookfield subscribed to Freshfield Sumner's 
 spiteful saying, that the Baronet's intellect stood 
 like a paralytic, propped up between a nought and 
 a one. When the Tinleys called, they heard that 
 Cornelia's acceptance of the Baronet was doubtful. 
 The Copleys, on the other hand, distinctly .under- 
 stood that she had decided in his favour. Owing to 
 
LIFE AT BROOKFIELD. 277 
 
 the amiable dissension between the Copleys and the 
 Tinleys, each party called again ; giving the ladies 
 of Brookfield further opportunity for studying one 
 of the levels from which they had risen. Arabella 
 did almost all the fencing with Laura Tinley, 
 contemptuously as a youth of station returned from 
 college will turn and foil an ill-conditioned vil- 
 lager, whom formerly he has encountered on the 
 green. 
 
 " Had they often met, previous to the .... the 
 proposal ? n inquired Laura ; and laughed : " I was 
 going to say { popping/ M 
 
 " Pray, do not check yourself, if a phrase appears 
 to suit you," returned Arabella. 
 
 " But it was in the neighbourhood, was it not ? " 
 
 " They have met in the neighbourhood." 
 
 " At Bichford ? " 
 
 " Also at Bichford." 
 
 " We thought it was sudden, dear ; that's all.-" 
 
 " Why should it not be ? " 
 
 " Perhaps the best things are, it is true." 
 
 " You congratulate us upon a benefit ? " 
 
 " He is to be congratulated seriously. Naturally. 
 When she decides, let me know early, I do entreat 
 you, because . . . well, I am of a different opinion 
 from some people, who talk of another attachment, 
 
278 EMILIA IX ENGLAND. 
 
 or engagement, and I do not believe in it, and have 
 said so." 
 
 Rising to depart, Laura Tinley resumed : " Most 
 singular ! You are aware, of course, that poor 
 creature, our organist — I ought to say yours — who 
 looked (it was Mr. Sumner I heard say it — such a 
 good thing !) — ' as if he had been a gentleman in 
 another world, and was the ghost of one in this ' : — 
 really one of the cleverest things ! but he is clever ! 
 — Barrett's his name : Barrett and some musical 
 name before it, like Handel. I mean one that we 
 are used to. "Well, the man has totally and unex- 
 pectedly thrown up his situation." 
 
 " His appointment," said Arabella. Permitting no 
 surprise to be visible, she paused : " Yes. I don't 
 think we shall give our consent to her filling the post." 
 
 Laura let it be seen that her adversary was here a 
 sentence too quick for her. 
 
 " Ah ! you mean your little Miss Belloni ? " 
 
 " Was it not of her you were thinking ? " 
 
 "When? " asked Laura, shamefully bewildered. 
 
 " When you alluded to Mr. Barrett's vacant 
 place." 
 
 " Not at the moment." 
 
 " I thought you must be pointing to her advance- 
 ment." 
 
LIFE AT ER00KF1ELD. 
 
 " I confess it was not in my mind." 
 
 " In what consisted the singularity, then ? " 
 
 " The singularity ? " 
 
 ''You prefaced your remarks with the exclamation, 
 ' Singular ! ' " 
 
 Laura showed that Arabella had passed her 
 guard. She hastened to compliment her on her 
 kindness to Emilia, and so sheathed her weapon for 
 the time, having just enjoyed a casual inspection 
 of Mrs. Chump entering the room, and heard the 
 brogue an instant. 
 
 "Irish!" she whispered, smiling, with a sort of 
 astonished discernment of the nationality, and swept 
 through the doorway : thus conveying forcibly to 
 Arabella her knowledge of what the ladies of Brook- 
 field were enduring : a fine Parthian shot. 
 
 That Cornelia should hold a notable county 
 man, a Baronet and owner of great acres, in a 
 state between acceptance and rejection, was con- 
 sidered high policy by the ladies, whom the idea of 
 it elevated ; and they encouraged her to pursue this 
 course, without having a suspicion, shrewd as they 
 were, that it was followed for any other object than 
 the honour of the family. But Mr, Pole was in the 
 utmost perplexity, and spoke of Baronets as things 
 almost holy, to be kneeled to, prayed for. He 
 
280 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 was profane. " I thought, papa," said Cornelia, 
 " that women conferred the favour when they gave 
 their hands ! " 
 
 It was a new light to the plain merchant. " How 
 should you say if a Prince came and asked for you? " 
 
 " Still that he asked a favour at my hands." 
 
 " Oh! " went Mr. Pole, in the voice of a man 
 whose reason is outraged. The placidity of Cor- 
 nelia's reply was not without its effect on him, 
 nevertheless. He had always thought his girls 
 extraordinary girls, and born to be distinguished. 
 " Perhaps she has a lord in view," he concluded : 
 it being his constant delusion to suppose that high 
 towering female sense has always a practical aim at 
 a material thing. He was no judge of the sex in its 
 youth. " Just speak to her," he said to "Wilfrid. 
 
 "Wilfrid had heard from Emilia that there was a 
 tragic background to this outward placidity ; tears 
 on the pillow at night and long vigils. Emilia had 
 surprised her weeping, and though she obtained no 
 confidences, the soft mood was so strong in the 
 stately lady, that she consented to weep on while 
 Emilia clasped her. Petitioning on her behalf to 
 Wilfrid for aid, Emilia had told him the scene ; and 
 he, with a man's stupidity, alluded to it, not thinking 
 what his knowledge of it revealed to a woman. 
 
LIFE AT BROOKFIELD. 281 
 
 " Why do you vacillate, and keep us all in the 
 dark as to what you mean ? " he began. 
 
 " I am not prepared," said Cornelia ; the voice of 
 humility issuing from a monument. 
 
 " One of your oracular phrases ! Are you pre- 
 pared to be straightforward in your dealings? " 
 
 " I am prepared for any sacrifice, Wilfrid." 
 
 " The marrying of a man in his position is a 
 sacrifice ! " 
 
 " I cannot leave papa." 
 
 " And why not ? " 
 
 "He is ill. He does not speak of it, but he 
 is ill. His actions are strange. They are unac- 
 countable." 
 
 " He has an old friend to reside in his house ? " 
 
 " It is not that. I have noticed him. His mind 
 .... he requires watching. 
 
 "And how long is it since you made this dis- 
 covery ? ,J 
 
 " One sees clearer perhaps when one is not quite 
 happy." 
 
 " Not happy ! Then it's for him that you turn the 
 night to tears ? " 
 
 Cornelia closed her lips. She divined that her 
 betrayer must be close in his confidence. She 
 went shortly after to Emilia, whose secret at once 
 
282 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 stood out bare to a kindled suspicion. There was 
 no fear that Cornelia would put her finger on it 
 accusingly, or speak of it directly. She had the 
 sentimentalist's profound respect for the name and 
 notion of love. She addressed Emilia vaguely, 
 bidding her keep guard on her emotions, and telling 
 her there was one test of the truth of masculine 
 protestations ; this, Will he marry you ? The 
 which, if you are poor, is a passably infallible test. 
 Emilia sucked this in thoughtfully. She heard 
 that lovers were false. Why then, of course they 
 were not like her lover! Cornelia finished what 
 she deemed her duty, and departed, while Emilia 
 thought : " I wonder whether he could be false to 
 me ; " and she gave herself shrewd half- delicious 
 j airings of pain, forcing herself to contemplate the 
 impossible thing. 
 
 She was in this state when Mrs. Chump came 
 across her, and with a slight pressure of a sovereign 
 into her hand, said : — f There, it's for you, little 
 Belloni! and I see ye've been thinkin' me one 
 o' the scrape-hards and close-fists. It's Pole who 
 keeps me low, on purpose. -And I'm a wretch if I 
 haven't my purse full, so you see I'm all in the dark 
 in the house, and don'"t know half so much as the 
 sluts o' the kitchen. So, ye '11 tell me, little 
 
LITE AT BR00KFIELD. 283 
 
 Belloni, is Arabella goin' to marry Mr. Annybody? 
 And is Cornelia goin' to marry Sir Tickleham ? 
 And whether Mr. Wilfrud's goin' to marry Lady 
 Charlotte CkiU'nworth ? Becas, my dear, there's 
 Arr'bella, who's sharp, she is, as a north-easter in 
 January, (which Chump 'd cry out for, for the sake 
 of his ships, poor fella — he kneelm' by ; s bedside in 
 a long night-go wn and lookin' just twice what he 
 was ! ) she has me like a nail to my vary words, and 
 shows me that notkin' can happen becas o' what I've 
 said. And Cornelia — if ye ; ll fancy a tall codfish on 
 its tail : ' Mrs. Chump, I beg ye'll not go to believe 
 anny thing of me.' So I says to her, ' Cornelia ! my 
 dear ! do ye think, now, it's true that Chump went 
 and marrud his cook, that ye treat me so ? becas my 
 father,' I tell her, ' he dealt in porrk in a large way, 
 and I was a fine woman, full of the arr'stocracy, and 
 Chump a little puffed-out bladder of a man.' So 
 then she says: — 'Mrs. Chump, I listen to no 
 gossup : listen you to no gossup.' And Mr. 
 "Wilfrud, my dear, he sends me on the flat o' my 
 back, laughin'. And Ad'la she takes and turns 
 me right about, so that I don't see the thing Fni 
 askin' after; and there's nobody but you, little 
 Belloni, to help me, and if ye do, ye shall know 
 what the crumple o 3 paper sounds like." 
 
284 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Mrs. Chump gave a sugary suck with her tongue. 
 Emilia returned the money to her. 
 
 " IVre foolush ! " said Mrs. Chump. " A shut 
 fist's good in fight and had in friendship. Do ye 
 know that ? Open your hand." 
 
 "Excuse me," persisted Emilia. 
 
 " Pooh ! take the money, or I'll say ye're in a 
 conspiracy to make me blindman's-buff o' the 
 parrty. Take lit." 
 
 " I don't want it." 
 
 " May be, it's not enough ? " 
 
 " I don't want any, ma'am." 
 
 " ■ Ma'am,' to the deuce with ye ! I'll be callin' 
 ye a forr'ner in a minute, I will." 
 
 Emilia walked away from a volley of terrific 
 threats. 
 
 For some reason, unfathomed by her, she wanted 
 to be alone with Wilfrid and put a question to him. 
 No other, in sooth, than the infallible test. Xot, 
 mind you, that she wished to be married. But 
 something she had heard (she had forgotten what it 
 was) disturbed her, and that recent trifling with 
 pain, in her excess of happiness, laid her open to it. 
 Her heart was weaker, and fluttered, as if with a 
 broken wing. She thought, " if I can be near him to 
 lean against him for one full hour!" it would make 
 
LIFE AT BROOKFIELD. 285 
 
 her strong again. For, she found that if her heart 
 was rising on a broad breath, suddenly, for no 
 reason that she knew, it seemed to stop in its rise, 
 break, and sink, like a wind-beaten billow. Once 
 or twice, in a quick fear, she thought : " What is 
 this? Is this a malady coining before death?" 
 She walked out gloomily, thinking of the darkness 
 of the world to Wilfrid, if she should die. She 
 plucked flowers, and then reproached herself with 
 plucking them. She tried to sing. " Xo, not till 
 I have been with him alone ; " she said, chiding her 
 voice to silence. A shadow crossed her mind, as a 
 spring-mist dulls the glory of May. " Suppose all 
 singing has gone from me — will he love wretched 
 me ? " 
 
 By-and-by she met him in the house. " Come 
 out of doors to-night," she whispered. 
 
 Wilfrid's spirit of intrigue was never to be taken 
 by surprise. " In the wood, under the pine, at 
 nine," he replied. 
 
 "Not there," said Emilia, seeing this place 
 mournfully dark from Cornelia's grief. " It is too 
 still ; say, where there's water falling. One can't 
 be unhappy by noisy water." 
 
 Wilfrid considered, and named Wilming Weir. 
 " And there well sit and you'll sing to me. 
 
28G EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 I won't dine at home, so they won't susp — a — 
 fancy anything. — Soh ! and you want very much 
 to be with me, my bird ? What am I ? " He bent 
 his head. 
 
 " My lover." 
 
 He pressed her hand rapturously, half- doubting 
 whether her pronunciation of the word had not a 
 rather too confident twang. 
 
 Was it not delightful, he asked her, that they 
 should be thus one to the other, and none know of 
 it. She thought so too, and smiled happily, pro- 
 mising secrecy, at his request. For the sake of 
 continuing so felicitous a life. 
 
 "You, you know, have an appointment with 
 Captain Gambier, and I with Lady Charlotte 
 Chillingworth," said he. "How dare you make 
 appointments with a Captain of Hussars ? " and he 
 bent her knuckles fondlingly. 
 
 Emilia smiled as before. He left her with a 
 distinct impression that she did not comprehend 
 that part of her lesson. 
 
 Wilfrid had just bled his father of a considerable 
 sum of money ; having assured him that he was the 
 accepted suitor of Lady Charlotte Chillingworth, 
 besides making himself pleasant in allusion to Mrs. 
 Chump, so far as to cast some imputation on his 
 
LirE AT BKOOKFIELD. 287 
 
 sisters' judgment for not perceiving the virtues of 
 the widow. The sum was improvidently large. 
 Mr. Pole did not hear aright when he heard it 
 named. Even at the repetition, he went : "Eh ?" two 
 or three times, vacantly. The amount was distinctly 
 nailed to his ear : whereupon he said, "Ah! — yes! 
 you young fellows want money: must have it, I 
 suppose. Up from the bowels of the earth ! Up 
 from the — : you're sure they're not playing the 
 fool with you, over there ? " 
 
 Wilfrid understood the indication to Stornley. 
 " I think you need have no fear of that, sir." And 
 so his father thought, after an examination of the 
 youth, who was of manly shape, and had a fresh, 
 non-fatuous, air. 
 
 "Well, if that's all right . . ." sighed Air. Pole. 
 " Of course you'll always know that money's money. 
 I wish your sisters wouldn't lose their time, as 
 they do. Time's worth more than money. What 
 sum ? * 
 
 " I told you, sir, I wanted — there's the yacht, you 
 know, and a lot of tradesmen's bills, which you don't 
 like to see standing : — about — perhaps I had better 
 name the round sum. Suppose you write down 
 eight hundred. I shan't want more for some 
 months. If you fancy it too much . . . ' 
 
288 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Mr. Pole had lifted his head. But he spoke 
 nothing. His lips and brows were rigid in appa- 
 rent calculation. Wilfrid kept his position for a 
 minute or so ; and then, a little piqued, he moved 
 about. He had inherited the antipathy to the 
 discussion of the money question, and fretted to 
 find it unnecessarily prolonged. 
 
 " Shall I come to you on this business another 
 time, sir ? " 
 
 "No, God bless my soul ! " cried his father ; " are 
 you going to keep this hanging over me for ever ? 
 Eight hundred, you said." He mumbled : " salary 
 of a chief clerk of twenty years* standing. Eight : 
 twice four : — there you have it exactly ." 
 
 " Will you send it me in a letter," said Wilfrid, 
 out of patience. 
 
 "I'll send it you in a letter," assented his father. 
 Upon which Wilfrid changed his mind. "I can 
 take a chair, though. I can easily wait for it 
 now." 
 
 " Save trouble, if I send it. Eh ? " 
 
 " Do you wish to see whether you can afford it, 
 sir?" 
 
 "I wish to see you show more sense — with your 
 confounded 'afford/ Have you any idea of bankers' 
 books ? — bankers' accounts ?" Mr. Pole fished his 
 
LIFE AT BROOKFIELD. 289 
 
 cheque-book from a drawer and wrote Wilfrid's 
 name and the sum, tore out the leaf and tossed it to 
 him. "There, I've written to-day. Don't present 
 it for a week." He rubbed his forehead hastily, 
 touching here and there a paper to put it scru- 
 pulously in a line with the others. Wilfrid left him, 
 and thought: "Kind old boy ! Of course, he always 
 means kindly, but I think I see a glimpse of avarice 
 as a sort of a sign of age coming on. I hope he'll 
 live long !" 
 
 Wilfrid was walking in the garden, imagining 
 perhaps that he was thinking, as the swarming 
 sensations of little people help them to imagine, 
 when Cornelia ran hurriedly up to him and said : 
 " Come with me to papa. He is ill : I fear he is 
 going to have a fit." 
 
 " I left him sound and well, just now," said 
 Wilfrid. " This is your mania." 
 
 " I found him gasping in his chair not two 
 minutes after you quitted him. Dearest, he is in a 
 dangerous state !" 
 
 Wilfrid stept backed to his father, and was 
 saluted with a ready " well ? " as he entered ; but 
 the mask had slipped from half of the old mans 
 face, and for the first time in his life Wilfrid per- 
 ceived that he had become an old man. 
 
 YOL. l u 
 
290 EMILIA LN ENGLAND. 
 
 " Well, sir, you sent for me ? " lie said. 
 
 " Girls always try to persuade you you're ill — 
 that's all," returned Mr. Pole. His voice was 
 subdued ; but turning to Cornelia, he fired up: " It's 
 preposterous to tell a man who carries on a business 
 like mine, you've observed for a long while that 
 he's queer ! — There, my dear child, I know you 
 mean well. I shall look all right the day you're 
 married." 
 
 This allusion, and the sudden kindness, drew a 
 storm of tears to Cornelia's eyelids. 
 
 " Papa ! if you will but tell me what it is ! " she 
 moaned. 
 
 A nervous frenzy seemed to take possession of 
 him. He ordered her out of the room. 
 
 She was gone, but his arm was still stretched 
 out, and his expression of irritated command did 
 not subside. 
 
 Wilfrid took his arm and put it gently down on 
 the chair, saying : " You're not quite the thing to- 
 day, sir." 
 
 "Are you a fool as well?" Mr. Pole retorted. 
 " What do you know of, to make me ill ? I live a 
 regular life. I eat and drink just as you all do; and 
 if I have a headache, I'm stunned with a whole 
 family screaming as hard as they can that I'm going 
 
LIFE AT BROOKFIELD. 201 
 
 to die. Damned hard ! I say, sir, it's — " He 
 fell into a feebleness. 
 
 " A little glass of brandy, I think," Wilfrid sug- 
 gested ; and when Mr. Pole had gathered his mind 
 he assented, begging his son particularly to take 
 precautions to prevent anyone from entering the 
 room until he had tasted the reviving liquor. 
 
 u 2 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 BY WLLMING WEIR. 
 
 A half -circle of high -banked greensward, 
 studded with old park-trees, hung round the roar 
 of the water ; distant enough from the white - 
 twisting fall to be mirrored on a smooth-heaved 
 surface, while its outpushing brushwood below 
 drooped under burdens of drowned reed flags that 
 caught the foam. Keen scent of hay, crossing the 
 dark air, met Emilia as she entered the river- 
 meadow. A little more, and she saw the white 
 weir-piles shining, and the grey roller just beginning 
 to glisten to the moon. Eastward on her left, 
 behind a cedar, the moon had cast off a thick 
 cloud, and shone through the cedar-bars with a 
 yellowish hazy softness, making rosy gold of the 
 first passion of the tide, which, writhing and 
 straining on through many lights, grew wide upon 
 the wonderful velvet darkness underlying the 
 wooded banks. With the full force of a voum? soul 
 
BY WILMING WBIE. 2'J3 
 
 that leaps from beauty seen to uniinagined beauty, 
 Emilia stood and watched the picture. Then she 
 sat down, hushed, awaiting her lover. 
 
 Wilfrid, as it chanced, was ten minutes late. 
 She did not hear his voice till he had sunk on his 
 knee by her side. 
 
 <; What a reverie ! " he said, half jealously. 
 " Isn't it lovely here ? " 
 
 Emilia pressed his hand, but without turning her 
 face to him, as her habit was. He took it for shy- 
 ness, and encouraged her with soft exclamations and 
 expansive tenderness. 
 
 " I wish I had not come here ! " she murmured. 
 
 " Tell me, why ? " He folded his arm about her 
 waist. 
 
 " Why did you let me wait ? " said she. 
 
 Wilfrid drew out his watch; blamed the acci- 
 dent that had detained him, and remarked that 
 there were not many minutes to witness against 
 him. 
 
 She appeared to throw off her moodiness. " You 
 are here at last. Let me hold your hand, and 
 think, and be quite silent." 
 
 "You shall hold my hand, and think, and be 
 quite silent, my own girl ! if you will tell me what's 
 on your mind." 
 
204 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Emilia thought it enough to look in his face, 
 smiling. 
 
 " Has anyone annoyed you ? u he cried out. 
 
 " No one." 
 
 " Then receive the command of your lord, that 
 you kiss him." 
 
 u I will kiss him," said Emilia ; and did so. 
 
 The salute might have appeased an imperious 
 lord, but was not so satisfactory to an exacting 
 lover. He perceived, however, that, whether as 
 lover or as lord, he must wait for her now, owing 
 to her having waited for him : so, he sat by 
 her, permitting his hand to be softly squeezed, 
 and trying to get at least in the track of her 
 ideas, while her ear was turned to the weir, and 
 her eyes were on the glowing edges of the cedar- 
 tree. 
 
 Finally, on one of many deep breaths, she said : 
 " It's over. Why were you late ? But, never mind, 
 now. Never let it be long again when I am 
 expecting you. It's then I feel so much at his 
 mercy. I mean, if I am where I hear falling water; 
 sometimes thunder." 
 
 Wilfrid masked his complete mystification with a 
 caressing smile ; not without a growing respect for 
 the only person who could make him experience the 
 
V>Y WILMIXG WEIR. 295 
 
 pangs of conscious silliness. You see, he was not a 
 coxcomb. 
 
 " That German ! " Emilia enlightened him. 
 
 " Your old music-master ? " 
 
 11 1 wish it, I wish it ! I should soon be free from 
 him. Don't you know that dreadful man I told you 
 about, who's like a black angel to me, because there 
 is no music like his ? and he's a German ! I tolcl 
 you how I first dreamed about him, and then 
 regularly every night, after talking with my father 
 about Italy and his black-yellow Tedeschi, this man 
 came over my pillow and made me call him Master, 
 Master. And he is. He seems as if he were the 
 master of my soul, mocking me, making me worship 
 him in spite of my hate. I came here, thinking 
 only of you. I heard the water like a great 
 symphony. I fell into dreaming of my music. 
 That> when I'm at his mercy. There's no one like 
 him. I must detest music to get free from him. 
 How can I ? He is like the God of music/" 
 
 Wilfrid now remembered certain of her allusions 
 to this rival, who had hitherto touched him very 
 little. Perhaps it was partly the lovely scene that 
 lifted him to a spiritual jealousy, partly his suscep- 
 tibility to a sentimental exaggeration, and partly 
 the mysterious new charm in Emilia's manner, that 
 
*96 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 was as a bordering lustre, showing how the Ml 
 orb was rising behind her. 
 
 " His name ? " Wilfrid asked for. 
 
 Emilia's lips broke to the second letter of the 
 alphabet ; but she cut short the word. " Why- 
 should you hear it ? And now that you are here, 
 you drive him away. And the best is," she laughed, 
 "I am sure you will not remember any of his pieces. 
 I wish I could not — not that it's the memory ; but 
 he seems all round me, up in the air, and when the 
 trees move all together .... you chase him away, 
 my lover ! " 
 
 It was like a break in music, the way that Emilia 
 suddenly closed her sentence ; coming with a shock 
 of flattering surprise upon Wilfrid. 
 
 Then she pursued : " My English lover ! I am 
 like Italy, in chains to that German, and you .... 
 but no, no, no ! It's not quite a likeness, for my 
 German is not a brute. I have seen his picture in 
 shop-windows : the wind seemed in his hair, and he 
 seemed to hear with his eyes: his forehead frowning 
 so. Look at me, and see. So ! " 
 
 Emilia pressed up the hair from her temples and 
 bent her brows. 
 
 " It does not increase your beauty," said Wilfrid. 
 
 " There's the difference ! " Emilia sighed mildly. 
 
BY WILMING WEIR. 297 
 
 " He sees angels, cherubs, and fairies, and imps, 
 and devils ; or he hears them : they come before 
 him from far off, in music. They do to me, now 
 and then. Only now and then, when my head's on 
 fire. — My lover ! " 
 
 Wilfrid pressed his mouth to the sweet instru- 
 ment. She took his kiss fully, and gave her own 
 frankly, in return. Then, sighing a very little, she 
 said : " Do not kiss me much." 
 
 " Why not ? " 
 
 " No ! " 
 
 " But, look at me." 
 
 " I will look at you. Only take my hand. See, 
 the moon is getting whiter. The water there is 
 like a pool of snakes, and then they struggle out, 
 and roll over and over, and stream on lengthwise. 
 I can see their long flat heads, and their eyes : 
 almost, their skins. No, my lover ! do not kiss me. 
 I lose my peace." 
 
 Wilfrid was not willing to relinquish his ad- 
 vantage, and the tender deep tone of the remon- 
 strance was most musical and catching. What if he 
 pulled her to earth from that rival of his in her 
 soul ? She would then be wholly his own. His 
 lover's sentiment had grown ragingly jealous of the 
 lordly German. But Emilia said, " I have you on 
 
29R EMILIA IX ENGLAND. 
 
 my heart more when I touch your hand only, and 
 think. If you kiss me, I go into a cloud, and lose 
 your face in my mind." 
 
 " Yes, yes ; " replied Wilfrid, pleased to sustain 
 the argument for the sake of its fruitful promises. 
 " But you must submit to be kissed, my darling. 
 You will have to." 
 
 She gazed inquiringly. 
 
 " When you are married, I mean." 
 
 " When will 3-011 many me ? " she said. 
 
 The heir-apparent of the house of Pole blinked 
 probably at that moment more foolishly than most 
 mortal men have done. Taming his astonishment 
 to represent a smile, he remarked : " When ? are 
 you thinking about it already ? " 
 
 She answered, in a quiet voice that conveyed the 
 fact forcibly, " Yes." 
 
 " But you're too young yet : and you're going to 
 Italy, to learn in the schools. You wouldn't take a 
 husband there with you, would you ? What would 
 the poor devil do ? " 
 
 " But you are not too young," said she. 
 
 Wilfrid supposed not. 
 
 " Could you not go to my Italy with me ? " 
 
 " Impossible ! What ! as a dangling husband ? " 
 Wilfrid laughed scornfully. 
 
BY WILMING WEIR. 209 
 
 " They would love you, too," she said. " They 
 are such loving people. Oh, come ! Consent to 
 come, my lover ! I must learn. If I do not, you 
 will despise me. How can I bring anything to 
 lay at your feet, my dear ! my dear ! if I do 
 not ? " 
 
 " Impossible !" Wilfrid reiterated, as one who had 
 found moorings in the word. 
 
 " Then, I will give up Italy ! " 
 
 He had not previously acted hypocrite towards 
 this amazing girl. Nevertheless, it became difficult 
 not to do so. He could scarcely believe that he had 
 on a sudden, and by strange agency, slipped into 
 an earnest situation. Emilia's attitude and tone 
 awakened him to see it. Her hands w r ere clenched 
 straight down from her shoulders : all that she 
 conceived herself to be renouncing for his sake was 
 expressed in her face. 
 
 " Would you, really ? " he murmured. 
 
 " I will ! " 
 
 " And be English altogether ? " 
 
 " Be yours ! " 
 
 " Mine ? " 
 
 " Yes; from this time." 
 
 Now stirred his better nature : though not before 
 had he sceptically touched her lips and found them 
 
300 EMILIA IX ENGLAND. 
 
 cold, as if the fire had been taken out of them by 
 what they had uttered. He felt that it was no 
 animal love, but the force of a soul drawn to 
 him; and, forgetting the hypocritical foundation 
 he had laid, he said : " How proud I shall be of 
 you ! " 
 
 "I shall go with you to battle," returned Emilia. 
 
 " My little darling ! You won't care to see those 
 black fellows killed, will you ? " 
 
 Emilia shuddered. "No; poor things ! Why do 
 you hurt them ? Kill wicked people, tyrant white- 
 coats ! And we will not talk of killing, now. Proud 
 of me ? If I can make you ! " 
 
 " You sigh so heavily ! " 
 
 " Something makes me feel like a little beggar." 
 
 " "When I tell you I love you ? " 
 
 " Yes ; but I only feel rich when I am giving ; 
 and I seem to have nothing to give, now: — now that 
 I have lost Italy ! ° 
 
 " But you give me your love, don't you ? " 
 
 " All of it. But I seem to give it to you in tatters : 
 it's like a beggar; like a day without any sun." 
 
 " Do you think I shall have that idea when I 
 hear you sing to me, and know that this little leap- 
 ins fountain of music here is mine ? " 
 
 Dim rays of a thought led Emilia to remark, 
 
BY WILMING WE HI. 301 
 
 " Must not men kneel to women ? I mean, if they 
 are to love them for ever ? " 
 
 Wilfrid smiled gallantly : " I will kneel to you, if 
 it pleases you." 
 
 11 Not now. You should have done so, once, I 
 dreamed : only once, just for a moment, in Italy ; 
 when all were crying out to me that I had caught 
 their hearts. I fancied standing out like a bright 
 thing in a dark crowd, and then saying ' I am his ! ' 
 pointing to you, and folding my arms, waiting for 
 you to take me." 
 
 The lover's imagination fired at the picture, and 
 immediately he told a lover's lie ; for the emotion 
 excited by the thought of her glory, coloured 
 deliciously that image of her abnegation of all to 
 him. He said : " I would rather have you as you 
 are." 
 
 Emilia leaned to him more, and the pair fixed 
 their eyes on the moon, that had now topped the 
 cedar, and was pure silver : silver on the grass, on 
 the leafage, on the waters. And in the west, facing 
 it, was an arch of twilight and tremulous rose ; as if 
 a spirit hung there over the shrouded sun. 
 
 "At least/' thought Wilfrid, " Heaven, and the 
 beauty of the world, approve my choice." And he 
 looked up, fancying that he had a courage almost 
 
302 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 serene to meet his kindred with Emilia on his 
 arm. 
 
 She felt his arm dreamily stressing its clasp about 
 her, and said : " Now I know you love me. And 
 you shall take me as I am. I need not be so poor 
 after all. My dear ! my dear S I camiot see bej^ond 
 you." 
 
 " Is that your misery ? u said he. 
 
 " My delight ! my pleasure ! One can live a life 
 anywhere. And how can I belong to Italy, if I am 
 yours ? Do you know, when we were silent just 
 now, I was thinking that water was the history of 
 the world flowing out before me, all mixed up of 
 kings and queens, and warriors with armour, and 
 shouting armies ; battles and numbers of mixed 
 people ; and great red sunsets, with women kneeling 
 under them. Do you know those long low sunsets ? 
 I love them. They look like blood spilt for love. 
 The noise of the water, and the moist green 
 smell, gave me hundreds of pictures that seemed to 
 hug me. I thought — what could stir music in me 
 more than this ? and, am I not just as rich if I stay 
 here with my lover, instead of flying to strange 
 countries, that I shall not care for now ? So, you 
 shall take me as I am. I do not feel poor any 
 longer." 
 
BY WILMIXG WEIR. 303 
 
 With that she gave him both her hands. 
 
 "Yes," said Wilfrid. 
 
 As if struck by the ridicule of so feeble a note, 
 falling upon her passionate speech, he followed it 
 up with the " yes ! " of a man : adding : " What- 
 ever you are, you are my deal' girl; my own love ; 
 mine ! " 
 
 Having said it, he was screwed up to feel it as 
 nearly as possible, such virtue is there in uttered 
 words. 
 
 Then he set about resolutely stud}'ing to appre- 
 ciate her in the new character she had assumed to 
 him. It is barely to be supposed that he should 
 understand what in her love for him she sacrificed 
 in giving up Italy, as she phrased it. He had some 
 little notion of the sacrifice ; but, as he did not 
 demand any sacrifice of the sort, and as this involved 
 a question perplexing, irritating, absurd, he did not 
 regard it very favourably. As mistress of his fancy, 
 her prospective musical triumphs were the crown of 
 gold hanging over her. As wife of his bosom, they 
 were not to be thought of. But the wife of his 
 bosom must take her place by virtue of some 
 wondrous charm. What was it that Emilia could 
 show, if not music ? Beautiful eyebrows : thick rare 
 eyebrows, no doubt : couched upon her full eyes, 
 
304 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 they were a marvel : and her eyes were a marvel. 
 She had a sweet mouth, too, though the upper 
 lip did not boast the aristocratic conventional 
 curve of adorable pride, or the under lip a pretty 
 droop to a petty, rounded chin. Her face was 
 like the after-sunset across a rose-garden, with 
 the wings of an eagle poised outspread on the light. 
 Some such coloured, vague, magnified impression 
 Wilfrid took of her. Still it was not quite enough 
 to make him scorn contempt, should it whisper: 
 nor even quite enough to combat successfully the 
 image of elegant dames in their chosen attitudes — 
 the queenly moments when perhaps they enter an 
 assembly, or pour out tea with an exquisite exhibi- 
 tion of arm, or recline upon a couch, commanding 
 homage of the world of little men. What else had 
 this girl to count upon to make her exclusive ? A 
 devoted heart; she had a loyal heart, and perfect 
 frankness : a mind impressible, intelligent, and 
 fresh. She gave promise of fair companionship at 
 all seasons. She could put a spell upon him, more- 
 over. By that power of hers, never wilfully exer- 
 cised, she came, in spite of the effect left on him by 
 her early awkwardnesses and ' animalities,' nearer 
 to his idea of superhuman nature than anything he 
 knew of. But how would she be regarded when the 
 
BY WILMIXG WEIR. 305 
 
 announcement of Mrs. Wilfrid Pole brought scru- 
 tinising eyes and gossiping mouths to hear on 
 her? 
 
 It mattered nothing. He kissed her, and the 
 vision of the critical world faded to a blank. What- 
 ever she was, he was her prime luminaiy, so he 
 determined to think that he cast light upon a 
 precious, an unrivalled land. 
 
 "You are my own, are you not, Emilia? " 
 
 "Yes ; I am," she answered simply. 
 
 " That water seems to say ■ for ever/ M he 
 murmured ; and Emilia's fingers pressed upon his. 
 
 Of marriage there was no further word. Her 
 heart was evidently quite at ease; and that it should 
 be so without chaining him to a date, was Wilfrid's 
 peculiar desire. He could pledge himself to eter- 
 nity, but shrank from being bound to eleven o'clock 
 on the morrow morning. 
 
 So, now, the soft Summer hours flew like white 
 doves from off the mounting moon, and the lovers 
 turned to go, all being still : even the noise of the 
 waters still to their ears, as life that is muffled in 
 sleep. They saw the cedar gray-edged under the 
 moon : and Night, that clung like a bat beneath its 
 ancient open palms. The bordering sward about 
 the falls shone silvery. In its shadow was a swan. 
 
 VOL. I. x 
 
J3 06 EMILIA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 These scenes are but beckoning hands to the hearts 
 of lovers, waving them on to that Eden which they 
 claim : but when the hour has fled, they know it ; 
 and by the palpitating light in it they know that 
 it holds the best of them. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 BRADLURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS 
 
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