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STANDISH & Co., ! i i < ARMS. CRESTS 8c MONOGRAMS ENGRAVED ON i SK/il.S H\]) RINGS, GOLD, SILVER, IVORY. &c, &c. i 1 tfooh plates. Visiting darb, ^t-bomc. Dinner. i SBebbing ant) ^nbit;ition phitcs (BiqjrBfrffr. < JIKD/iLI.ISTS flflD LIYK1A' 1UITT0X JI1KKRN. < PHirtfEHjS 0V LlfjfoQWjiEl^. | ( Sfolfc an6 Silver I \unis an& jSfeala, 4 ANY PATTERN MADE TO ORDER. j 92, MOUNT STREET, GROSVENOR SQ.. < LONDON, W. §?1 P .A A- COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE, COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. JULIAN STURGIS, AUTHOR OF THRALDOM," "JOHN MAIDMENT," ETC. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1889. LONDON : rRINTF.D BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND »OKS, LIMITED, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. 82.3 St 37 c COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE, CHAPTER I. A youxg man came over the hill. He was walking on one of those public field-paths which lead the landless wayfarer through the homely beauties of England, and make him too for his little hour a lord of the happy land. He went with long strides and with the vigour of youth, but without the elasticity of the first morning hours. One would have known from his gait that he had been walking ^ all day. His strong, hob-nailed boots went steadily forward ; his stick was no longer swung in careless fashion ; his slouched hat was pushed a little back from his forehead. He tramped along in business-like way, like VOL. I. B 4 *3 2 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. a vagabond to the manner born. Over his left shoulder and under his right arm a thick red blanket was rolled and fastened. Invisible in the inner pocket of his old shooting-coat were lighter luxuries — a comb, a clasp-knife, and finally that tried companion of the English gentleman in every climate and all circumstances of life, his for richer for poorer, tlie last thing from which he parts except his life — the tooth-brush. The young man came over the hill, followed his little path across the v shallow valley ; but where the path began to rise again he left it, and climbing more quickly through a little hanging wood, came out above the trees on to a bare grassy knoll, which gave a wide view of all the country round. There he sat down with an inarticu- late murmur of satisfaction, stretched his I legs before him, and raised hi- eyebrow the view. It was a brown landscape, for the month was brown November; bnt no monotony of colour could hide tli COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 3 the land. A wide plain lay open at his feet, a plain to him who sat so high above it, but really a wide stretch of gently swelling land, of fertile but not heavy soil, of curves and lines delightful to the eye ; an open country, but with copses and coverts not a few, with grass and ploughed fields in fair proportion. The ploughed fields were of a warm, reddish brown ; the bare hedges of a colder, darker hue ; and the brightest specks were seen where the yellow-brown leaves of the young oaks still clung to the boughs. The pomp of summer had gone, with its dark deep leaves and yellow corn ; but if the scene of its splendour was now bare and brown, the brown was varied enough, and there was no look of bareness in the woods, which seemed to clothe the gentle slopes like the fur of some soft brown beast. The traveller was fond of the face of nature and of the face of England. He looked with much contentment across the wide expanse. His eyes wandered with enjoyment, but they 4 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOU8 came back again and again to one place, where, miles away, the tower of an un- castle rose above its more majestic trees. He ixded this tower with a wl air, half annoyed and half aran He had walked all day for a sight of it. and. w he saw it, he burst out langhii was his. JTis was that castle, which seemed to raise its head that it might announc* presence and its importance to the world. His were all these well-tilled fielU pleasant woods, as far as and farther than his eve could see. And much of the land through which he had tramped since dawn was his too. He looked at the good country dirt upon his boots and laugh in, thinking that even that was his, and again that the solid earth on which h< centre. He was young and fanciful, and he liked to amuse himself with such fan And then he remembered another 1 estate in another county, with its appropriate residence, and reports of landed | roperties COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 5 comparatively unimportant, and a yacht which was lying somewhere. And then too in London there was the family mansion, majestic in a majestic square ; and somewhere in less lordly districts a lot of land, on which houses were thickly built, and which, as he had heard, would enable him to smile at the lowest possible prices of agricultural produce. But it was not at low prices that he smiled like a Cheshire cat or a member of the Cobden Club. He smiled at himself and at the strange part which he was called upon to play. He was young and fanciful, and easily moved to laughter ; and he could not but be interested and amused by the new, and in its way brilliant, part which he was expected to play. But here lay the element of boredom. He was expected to play the part, and to play it according to the well-known traditions. Nothing was more firmly fixed than the proper rules of conduct for the young heir; and, as he looked at the tower, which seemed to be peering over the trees and on COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. nmly looking for him, lie felt an unmistakable repulsion and an unseemly levity arising within him. W his freedom over and the boyhood to which he clung for it- simplicity and joy? It amused him to think of himself comp* with thai castle in dignity ; it amused him, but it vexe I him too; and, even while he I there was vexation in the sound of his laughter. He knew that in that Btately abode was a country-house party gathered in his honour; he knew that he ought to have been at home to receive them twenty-four hours before; he knew that his uncle was there prepared to point out certain d his doinir, and that his aunt was there to urge him perhaps to duti en more important. lie was by no means sure that he 1 t<» these duties, and yet— and yet the wide landscape the tender light of even- ing was diffused. It was th. ami encounter that country-house party, and t<> surrender himself to th inted duties COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 7 of his position. There were people there whom he would like to see, but the people were a country-house party. " A country- house, party," he said to himself; "it is terrific." All the vagabond in the boy rose against the momentous words. He would have another night of freedom, come what would. He kissed his hand to the expectant tower, and went down the further slope of the knoll. He whistled as he walked back to the village, where he had dined at midday. Nobody in the village knew him, though, for aught he knew to the contrary, he might be owner of it all. He supped well as he had dined well ; and he amused himself by trying to excite the curiosity of the landlady, who was evidently surprised at seeing neither a bicycle nor a tricycle, neither a photographic camera nor a closely- strapped bundle of samples. He encouraged in her a dawning belief that he was something "in the detective line,''— a belief which was due to a happy notion that COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. detectives went about in disguise, and that to attract universal attention by a slouched hat and a Rocky-mountain blanket was but natural conduct of a member of the secret police, a tribute to the dramatic nec< disguise. A brother of an Anglican Oi who had recently visited the village, clad in a brown robe and with a rope round his waist, had excited in the good lady a like lively suspicion. After supper the vagabond took to the road again. If the end of his liberty were near at hand, he would have a deep draught for the last. The night was fair, the wind was light and westerly, and for a November night there was but little cold. He turned away into the fields, trespassing boldly his own tenant's land, skirted a little n lest some officious keeper of his own m seize him as a poacher, and soon found the suitable hay-stack which he sought. II over the hurdles which surrounded it. rolled himself close in his thick rod blanket, and lay COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 9 down to leeward of the stack. There he would sleep, as he had slept before, close to the kindly earth, beneath whose bare surface the life of the next year was stirring now. He liked to be so close to his mother earth. He pulled some handfuls of hay and rolled them in his cashmere scarf for a pillow ; and so he lay and watched the watching stars. And then he fell asleep, and slept soundly till the first chill of dawn. 10 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. CHAPTER II. One of the dreaded coun try-house party, perhaps the most terrible of all, was Lady Jane Lock. On the morning after that night, which her disappointing host spent beside the haystack, Lady Jane was in a pleasant room on the first floor of the Castle, but not in a pleasant humour. She was cross ; and, when she was cross, few things annoyed her more than her friend Susan Dormer's habit of smiling. Mrs. Dormer now lay on the sofa with her most provoking air of placidity. The sot her; the room suited her. Ind« had chosen the room for her boudoir on account of its double doors and its southern as] and, since she was the aunt of this absurdly rich young man, and had determined to keep COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 11 house for him until he married, these seemed good reasons for choosing the best room in the house as her own. Southern aspects and double doors were recommended by her doctor ; and to see her friend Jane " a little put out " did her good too, though this was no part of the doctor's prescription. Lady Jane stood exceedingly erect and stared out of the window without any apparent pleasure in the south ; and indeed the pleasant light, which came in, was not becoming to her, for her high colour, tempered by a liberal supply of violet powder, would have produced a better effect had she turned her back to the window. This great truth was very clear to Susan Dormer, whose own skin retained to a remarkable degree the clearness and softness of girlhood. But Lady Jane was not thinking of her own looks, but rather of the broad acres which stretched away before her eyes. She was a judge of parks ; she had married two daughters to them ; but there was no park so much to her 12 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUfi taste as this of Langleydale. What timber and what a ring-fence ! She knew the length of that fence. "I'd Letter have gone t<> Bolitho,' said, still staring out of window. " The Duke was most pressing," she added afl minute, since Mrs. Dormer kepi sil< I " Dukes are never pressing,' 1 murnr Mrs. Dormer from the sofa. " It is no good at all," said Lady Jane. "What is no good, dear?" asked 5 innocently. " No one has been in more country than I have," said Lady Jane, as if challenged contradiction. But her friend only sighed. " How 1 you must have been, poor dear!" Bhe with a soothing tone. " But never, never before has such a t : happened to me. My ho> ring at all, and not a word of explanation, lei alone apology ! " "I know it is very disappointing, d< COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 13 said her friend, as if she sought to comfort her, " when all your plans were so nicely laid too." " My plans ! " cried Lady Jane, starting as if at the flick of a whip. " I have told you before, Susan, that I will allow nobody to speak to me as if I were a worldly match- making mother. There is no character of which I have such a horror." " Did I say anything, dear, about match- making ? " asked her friend. " We all know you are not worldly, I am sure. Your poor dear Delia's marriage showed that." It was evident that this instance of her unworldliness failed to comfort Lady Jane Lock. She turned and looked straight at her friend, who met her with a candid smile. " No one could say that it was worldly of you, Jane," said Susan Dormer, " to marry your poor dear Delia to a scrub of a curate." " You know as well as I do, Susan, that Delia's husband is a Yicar. It is exceedingly likely that he will be made a rural dean." 14 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. " How charming ! " murmured Susan ; " a rural dean ! It's quite Arcadian* But it was nice of you, dear," she continued with gentle emphasis, " to marry her to some who was — who was nobody.' 1 " Adolphus's family is one of the oldest in England." "Really? How very nice! And is it really true that they only have mutton twice a week?" " Certainly not," said Lady Jane Lock ; " it is a detail, a ridiculous detail, but the vicarage, a most lovely vicarage embowered in roses, is in the heart of a famous sheep country. I see nothing to laugh at." " Nor I, dear." " Delia does not require much butch meat." " She is so right," said Mrs. Dormer, with a marked access of seriousness ; "my d says so. Twice a week is quite enough." "My daughter can have mutt on every day, if she wish." COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 15 " Yes, dear Jane ; but who would wish to have mutton every day ? You know, dear, I was only saying how nice and unworldly it was of you to marry poor dear Delia to a penniless nobody ! " " I have told you again and again, Susan, that, if Adolphus's mother had been a man, she would have been fifteenth baronet." " Yes, dear ; but if she had been a man, she wouldn't have been his mother." Lady Jane Lock was taken aback. Her friend's remark appeared to her equally indelicate and unanswerable. She sat down abruptly with a movement of disapproval and took up the Morning Post. "Any way, Jane," said Susan Dormer presently, "I think we can do better for Elizabeth." Lady Jane Lock perceptibly concentrated her attention on her paper. "Of course things suit me very well as they are," continued Susan, looking com- fortably around her, " but I know very well 16 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. that they can't stay like this. The poor dear boy is so absurdly rich, and he is not at all clever, except at books and that sort of thing — he can't escape long." The Morning Post rustled in Lady Jai hands, and a sound came from behind the paper, which was suspiciously like the v " coarse." " Of course, dear, as you say," continued Mrs. Dormer placidly, " of course the poor dear boy is sure to be married by somebody. So why not Elizabeth ? I am all for Elizabeth. I do like her so much ; she is so like her dear father." •• Xot in the least," said Lady J\{\\e, who had intended, like Iago, to speak no more. Mrs. Dormer ignored the contradiction, smiled and said, " Elizabeth hi beauty : she is not like poor Delia." " Many people," said Lady Jane, em- phatically, "admired Delia more than any of her sisters.'' "Did they, dear COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. IT " I cannot help it," continued the other loftily, "if the general taste of the day is inexpressibly vulgar." " Oh, poor dear Elizabeth ! " murmured Susan Dormer ; " that is too bad, Jane. I should never think of saying that Elizabeth looked vulgar. Perhaps she is not in the most refined style ; I go with you as far as that; but not vulgar — oh no, I really think not." Lady Jane Lock laid down the paper and looked at the friend. She opened her mouth, but shut it again with determination. After a time she asked this question : " Susan, do you think that Lord Lorrilaire is coming here at all ? " " Yes," said Mrs. Dormer, " I am sure that the poor boy will come. He* is odd, but he really would have let me know if he was not coming at all ; he knows that I asked people." " Does he know that I am here ? " Mrs. Dormer smiled. " I think thai lie vol. i. c 18 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. suspects, poor dear," she said ; " lie is not suspicious, but really after . — well, I for one hope that we shall make the match." She re] smiling. On her large fair face there was no sign that Bhe wae that she was 7iot, making the mo speeches to her friend. And te knew Jane so well that she knew exactly where to touch her with effect; and, when she was administering a little wholesome dig, then she smiled. Her smile was peculiar, for her mouth was so small in comparison with her smooth calm countenance, that a smile duced hardly any effect on her ex] A little extra amiability was sug she smiled and said that she hoped th would make the match. " I cannot tell you," said Lady Jane, stiffening herself like a grenadier, " how much I detest this talk of making man I regard it as little better than impiety.* 1 "Oh!" said Mrs. Dormer, faintly. COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 10 " Some marriages are made in heaven," said Lady Jane Lock, with due solemnity. " And others in country-houses," said her friend. She was rather shocked when she had said it, and added promptly — " that is what Clara Chauncey says." " It is worthy of her," said Lady Jane, sharply. " Yes, dear," said Mrs. Dormer ; " she is so clever." " Clever, yes ! You know my opinion of Mrs. Chauncey." "Oh yes, dear." " A most dangerous woman ! " " Oh yes, dear," said Mrs. Dormer, smiling ; "but not dangerous to us. Poor dear Clara cannot interfere with our little plan." Lady Jane made no comment hut an im- patient snort. It was really an unlucky morning for Lady Jane Lock. There were many questions which she was eager to ask ; but on the other hand she felt that she could not open her mouth 20 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. without a fresh sacrifice of dignity. Here was such a good opportunity of a really useful talk with her friend ; but it seemed to her, as it often seemed to her, that her frie either so stupid or so perverse that she could get nothing from her but annoyance. was not even sure that Susan really 1» $He that young Lord Lorrilaire would really come ; and if he were not coming, she knew that she ought to be angling for a rem- invitation to Bolitho ; she wondered if the duke would ask her again. She was just making up her mind to start afresh with Susan, and to try to lead up by a new path to those questions which she longed to mere careless questions about the disposition of the property and such matters, when she heard the outer of the two doors opened, and the voice of Sir Villiers Hickory asking it' he mi glit come in. " Oh yes, do come in and amuse us, M Mrs. Dormer; "we are so dull. I am told to be amused after breakfast/' The voice of COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 21 Susan Dormer had no other tone so solemn as that in which she always referred to the advice of her doctor. Sir Villiers came in, looking brisk and business-like. He was a very good-looking man of his years. He had preserved his light figure and his clear eyes, which were almost colourless. For the rest, he was fresh- coloured, with that rather mottled look which rudely men acquire with time, thin-lipped and firm of jaw and chin. He was a slender, erect and alert elderly gentleman, and he was admirably dressed. He gave thought to his dress, determined that as an old man he would be neither fop nor sloven, and deter- mined too that his clothes should not look as if he thought about them. He was now dressed, as he held that a man ten years younger than himself should be dressed in a country house on a week day ; he had allowed himself the benefit of those ten years after due deliberation, having decided, and quite rightly, that he looked at least 22 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. ten years younger than his contemporaries at the Club. If Mrs. Dormer received Sir Villiers graciously, Lady Jane made no great effort to hide her annoyance. "I never expect to see men in the mornii she said; "why ain't you killing som " We can't always be killing," replied the gentleman sharply ; " we leave that to the ladies." It was a pretty speech, but not without a slight tartness, a mere suspicion of irony. Lady Jane only acknowledged it by a sniff; but Mrs. Dormer was charmed. " You are a dear man ! " she said. "Never mind that," said he. ''I have come to ask if you haven't heard anything of the boy." " Not a word," said Susan, smiling. "It'll be awkward if he don't turn up," he said. "He always turns up," said she placidly. "It is settled," said Sir Villiers, "that Palfrey is to make a big speech at Lai COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 23 and I have asked him in Archie's name to stay here for the affair." " But, my dear Villiers, I thought that the poor dear boy was a Radical or a Republican, or something." " It doesn't matter a fig what he was. He was nobody, and might have been a Shaker or a Peculiar Person for what anybody cared. But now he is somebody, and now it does matter. Langley Castle has always been the centre of the Tory party in the county, and Archie must give his money arid entertain the spouters and stumpers like other people. Palfrey will certainly come, and Archie must not only entertain him here, but must preside at his meeting." He went to the fireplace and put his hand on the bell. " May I ring ? " he asked. " Of course, Yilliers ; and we will see if anybody comes." " They come when I ring," he said. The bell was pulled with decision, and answered with promptitude. 24 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. " Has Hawkins heard from Lord Lorri- laire ?" asked Sir Villiers. "No, Sir Villiers," said the footman, "but his Lordship have arrived." "What?" cried Sir Villi* Lady Jane leapt in her scat, and even Mrs. Dormer turned her head. " Yes, Sir Villiers, he came in this morn through the window of the long drawing- room, when the housemaids were doing it. His Lordship went straight to the bath- room." " Well ? Where is he now ? " " His Lordship is asleep." " In his room ? " " Yes, Sir Villiers." " Did he bring his luggage ? " " His Lordship's luggage is at Langstone, at the Blue Boar." "The wrong house!" 1 Sir Villiers sharply; " a Radical pol-1 Tell Blake to send a cart for the lu_ —at once ! COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 25 " Yes, Sir Yilliers ; " and the man departed. When the two doors had been closed, Sir Yilliers looked sharply from one lady to the other. " We've got him," he said. " Yes," said Mrs. Dormer softly, smiling on Lady Jaue Lock, " we have got him." Lady Jane wished not to understand, wished to be indignant, but, before she could decide what it were best to express, she, much to her own surprise, gave vent to an abrupt crude laugh. 26 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. CHAPTER III. Presently young Lord Lorrilaire would wake from his dream of the sheep-fold and of the patient stars to find himself stretched on his patent bedstead, and under his own majestic roof. It seemed almost as likely that he would wake a little later from his dreams of freedom and of happy friendship to find himself an engaged man and a patent Conversative politician. His unci Villiers Hickory, if his view was somewhat narrow, saw all which it included, with a remarkable keenness. He was not embar- rassed by doubts ; he was a man of decision ; he had established the useful habit of ha his own way. His aunt, Mrs, I 1 . had a large store of that immovable ol which is only found in women, and in COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 2' of a lethargic and most amiable temperament. And, finally, Lady Jane Lock, though she disliked the reputation of a successful match- maker, was at least a most fortunate mother- in-law. Nevertheless, it was not the wishes of these relations and friends which were the chief danger of the young man, but rather the mood which now possessed him — a mood dangerously acquiescent. He was not de- ficient in character, as the popular phrase is. On the contrary, he had more character than could be set forth in pieces by a few sentences of even the most cunning analyst. He had always been a clever boy, clever and kind- hearted. His mother, who had lost her husband soon after the birth of this their only child, had retired to a small place in the country. There she had become by degrees, and in spite of her gentle methods, the lead- ing philanthropist of the neighbourhood ; and thence she had sent to London at long intervals certain works of fiction, which 28 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. betrayed on every page her tenderness of heart, her timid love of religion, her delicate literary taste, and her sublime ignorance of the world. By the side of this gentle mother her little boy had trotted into cottages, and ceased his cheerful babble for a moment, wondering that there was sorrow in the world. His mother had loved to' soften the little h which did not need it. The first money which the little hand had held was put into it that it might be given to the poor. Archie Rayner had learned, before he was breeched, that he must look about for t who needed help, and help them as well as he could. This seemed an uncommonly simple affair to the little boy, and, so long as it went no further than carrying half his pudding to the little lame boy at the lodge, it was simple enough. Archie went straight from home to a public school, and after the first night, when he cried himself to sleep, he found a pleasure quickly growing in the companionship o^l other little COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 29 boys. Playing with, zeal, working without lassitude, and idling less than most of his fellows, he had not much time to remember that there were any less fortunate lads in the world ; and, as his intelligence grew rapidly and he began to question this and that, the village and its wants, of which he read in his mother's letters, seemed so small in the dis- tance that he could scarcely help laughing at his mother's seriousness. It was like the little scraps of good advice which she put in her postscripts, and for which he loved her, though he laughed. Indeed, he laughed a great deal, being given to laughter, and a popular and pleasant person. And then, when he was sixteen years old, his tutor, who was what was called in those days a Philosophical Radical, was struck by one of his questions, which sounded intelligent, invited him to join his Debating Society, lent him some books, and administered to him an occasional sententious maxim as a stimulant to youthful thought. Thereupon a new world 30 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. seemed to open before the boy, who had not caught the true scholar's interest in the structure of the Greek and Latin lai He read eagerly, and, as he read and thought, his childhood's philanthropy r rong again within him ; and the questions, and political, which he asked hime 1 his tutor, tended more and more to take the practical shape— how to help the poor. It became apparent at once that this was no b simple affair as it had seemed in the far-off days of pennies and pudding. Presently he wrote home a boyish pompous letter to his mother, questioning her methods, and more than hinting that his researches were likely to lead to the conclusion that she was pauper- izing the parish. His mother was immen proud of his letter, and not at all disturbed by the criticism, having that power, imon in mothers, of combining an ad- miration of the cleverness of her child with complete indifference to his opinions. But the Debating Society and the Btimu- COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 31 lating tutor soon showed this young scholar that there were other interesting political ques- tions besides that of helping the poor. What was the object of politics ? He asked his tutor this question ; and his tutor put into his hands for answer Mill's " Essay on Liberty." This de- lighted the boy, for it brought simplicity again into matters which had seemed chaotic, and provided a touchstone by which he could try all Acts of Parliaments and all suggestions of Reformers. It was clear to him that Govern- ment had nothing to do with the poor, except to secure their liberty as it secured that of other citizens; he maintained in debate that even workhouses were contrary to right reason, though it might be inexpedient to level them at one stroke to the ground ; he recommended charity with all the approved safeguards to his fellow members as a matter of private enterprise. It says much for Archie Rayner that these fellow members liked him, in spite of his long speeches ; but then all his little world liked him. If he, who had not yet 32 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. learned the meaning of Philosophy, philo- sophized at too great length, he philosophized without effeminacy; for he loved the river in summer and the foot-ball field in winter, and, like the Athenians, he did much of his living, and even some of his debating, in fairest places and in the happy outer air. When Archie went up to Oxford, he thought that he knew a great deal abont many things, and he was confident at least that he carried with him the right foundation of the right political faith. He turned eagerly to the other Freshmen to see what their views were ; and, since he had gone up to an eminently intellectual Colleg und no lack of opinions. He may be said to have run straight into the arms of a young Mazzinist, and within twenty-four hours his radicalism had lost what now seemed to him its insular character; his zeal for Liberty had extended as far as the Sclavs, of whose existence he had been previously unaware : and his dry political maxims had been flo COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 33 by a new enthusiasm and glorified by all the sacred emotions of religion. With this young Mazzinist, Thomas Beck, who had been the prize boy of a great town in the North, and who was supported at Oxford by contributions of his wealthier townsfolk, Archie Rayner struck up a warm friendship. With him and with other youths he ex- changed ideas, as if ideas were inexhaustible. It was a splendid time ; but not much of it was exhausted before all their little opinions, which had seemed to be so firmly based, were crumbling. They discussed everything ; nothing was to be accepted without dis- cussion ; and the result was that Beck began to admit that Mazzini had expected too much from average people, and that men were hungry and wicked even in Republics ; while Archie was delighted with his new talent for paradox, and began to make light of that Liberty which included the liberty to be drunk daily, to starve in peace, and i<> spread disease by the foul condition of the VOL. I. d 3 4 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. house, which was, as freemen loved to an Englishman's castle. These happy and inquiring young men devoured the volumes of Carl vie, and attei in due course lectures on Philosophy. 1 Carlyle and from the metaphysics from their own growth and from their own discussions, they learned that the univ was yet deeper and higher than they had thought, more mysterious, more complicated. It was no longer so simple a matter for a young man to decide what he should do with his life. To this practical question Archie Rayner, who was at bottom a very practical person, was for ever returning, to the vexation of some of his more brilliant com- rades, who preferred wider and less pen considerations. The universe alone was wide enough for them ; but Archie stuck firmly to his intention of being of some use in the world. Only it had become hard for him to tell how he could be of most use, or indeed of any use at all. From Carlyle, for example, COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 35 he learned that he should do that work which lay nearest to his hands : but this was small help to Archie, who declared with conviction that he could see no work close to his hands. He was an only child ; he had enough money ; he objected to be rich. Since he could not believe that it was his duty to make money, he could see no reason for embracing any one of the obvious professions. He regarded lawyers as a necessary evil ; his success at the Bar would take work from men who needed it more, and who would serve the public at least as well. He did not wish to compete with his mother in spinning delicate sentences ; he had at that time an amused contempt for novels. He might take a good degree and might get a Fellowship ; but the idea of eternal Oxford did not please him ; it seemed like the prolonging of youth without remaining young. He was not a poet. Finally, he could not give his life to the service of the poor, for be did not know how best to serve them. His beliefs had got loose ; 36 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. his opinions were changing under each new influence which he met ; he was but twenty- three years old. "When he had taken his degree with credit, the only fact, of which he felt certain, was that it would be well for him to go away alone for a while and to com in solitude that same old question, what work he should do in the world. So he made up his mind to go straight from Balliol to the Rocky Mountains, and for all his solemn doubts he felt a boyish joy in the contract. His mother shed some natural tears : she dreamed of bears and of Indians, and woke sobbing. She would rather have seen him safe in studious chambers, or, and this would have been best of all, in some such delightful vicarage as she had described in more than one of her novels. But he was determined to go, and, though he was very kind to his mother, he went. Archie had gone to think among the moun- tains. He found a silent mate, who knew them well, and he and his new friend camped out COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 37 together. The eternal snow, the canons cut deep in the mountains as if with one stroke of a knife of preternatural sharpness, above all the keen pure air, delighted the boy. Perhaps he thought ; it is certain that he walked long distances in search of black-tailed deer, and was less eager for a time to decide upon a life's career than to attain to a high degree of © © accuracy with the rifle. He once saw a bear and missed him clean, and the depression, from which he suffered for the next twenty- four hours, brought back on him in a flood his doubts of the nature of the universe and of his mission therein. But he could not be down-hearted in that delightful air; his breath quickened, his ears tingled, and he seemed within a little of flying ; at night he lay in his blankets reading Schwegler's " History of Philosophy," while his comrade smoked in silence. Whether this life would have led the boy to a definite decision about his future, it is impossible to say ; for it was cut short, before its first charm bad begun to 38 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. fail, by the most amazing news. One day he had been forced to journey down to Colorado Springs for a few necessaries of life, and he found there some letters, which told him that he had become Lord Lorrilaire, and had acquired, as heir of the late lord, lands and houses and a great fortune in moi Archie had not completed his University education without being asked if he were one of the Rayners of Langley ; he had answered generally that he believed so, and, if in his most communicative mood, he had added the information that the Rayners of Langley had done very well without him. Indeed, the late Lord Lorrilaire, who was the head of the family, had never shown that he was aware that there was a widowed Mrs. Rayner, who was connected with his family. The title and estates had gone from father to son for many generations ; and it had not occurred to this particular father that there was any doubt that the title and estates would pass in due course from him to his son. He was by COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 39 no means an old man, and his son was strong and active and sure to marry soon, as was the plain duty of an only son. Now, it happened that Lord Lorrilaire paid a visit to the house of a friend, and that this house, though it combined great dignity and antiquity with all the modern luxuries, was in a state by no means satisfactory to sanitary inspectors. Lord Lorrilaire carried home from this visit the seeds of typhoid fever ; he was stout and ruddy and too much inclined to fever ; it was presently known that he was in great danger. They telegraphed to his son, who was travelling in India ; and on the next day they were forced to telegraph again that Lord Lorrilaire was dead. The second telegram crossed another sent from India, which brought news that his son had had an accident while riding through a river and had been drowned, before help could be given. It was a question, which interested Society at the moment, whether the father or the son had died first. A question, which 40 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. interested them more, was the qnesti >n, who was the heir; but the people best informed were at a loss. Even Lady Jane Lock did not know, nor could she find the right man in the Peerage. It was reserved for the family lawyers, not without a moment's doubt, to declare that the title and estat Liiueshire, Loamshire, and the Parish of St. Mary-la-Bonne, passed to Archibald, only son of the late Captain Rayner of the R have a reason." All this she said with her pretty Burp air. Pretty she still was beyond all question, although she was always telling people with COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 47 her delightful simplicity that she was no longer young. It is true that her face was now pale and a little too thin, but the brown eyes were all the more effective. " Ah, you boys ! " she said again after a minute ; " you do ask so much of life. Look at me." He turned a lack-lustre eye upon her, as she con- tinued. " Suppose I were to begin com- plaining. What a tale I could tell ! Married to a — to my husband, to a man who cared for nothing but yachting, I who couldn't go on a river without qualms ! " He began to laugh in spite of himself. She regarded him gravely ; her talk was like the artless prattle of a child. " All on account of that yachting, and because I really could not spend my life at all sorts of angles, I have been cruelly abused and talked about, and " " You don't mind that much." " That shows how much you know. I used to think that I didn't mind what women said ; I was very foolish and defiant ; I know a great deal better now." She emitted a 48 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. little sigh. TTe could not help showing that he was a little amused; he thought her the cleverest woman in the worl 1. She needed very little encouragement to induce her to continue to talk about herself. " I lost the privilege," she said gravely, " of going to many of the dullest country houses in England." He laughed. " You need not laugh," she said ; "all my energies, my whole being is now directed to the one purpose of creeping back." "Of what?" " Of creeping back into those houses. Dear Susan Dormer ! She has never turned her back, her broad back, upon me. I cannot tell you how full of peace and gratitude 1 now when I am staying at Langley. Did you see the little paragraph in the paper ? n " I can't say I did." " ' Mrs. Chauncey has left town for Langley Castle,"' she murmured; "how peaceful it sounds, and how prosperous ! The one thing," she continued presently, "which all COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 49 women find absolutely necessary is to be able to look down on some other women. I am assured that you find that among the very lowest. I am now able to look down on women who do not stay at Langley." " You will be able to look down on me pretty soon," he said, relapsing into sullenness. " My dear boy, " she said, " I always have looked down upon you ; but you are not a woman, if you are a little womanish." " You needn't abuse me ; I am down enough on my luck, heaven knows ! " " Does it?" she asked with her innocent gravity. " What is the matter, if it is not cigarettes ? " He moved in his chair and grumbled inarticulately ; at last with a voice full of injury he said — " I used to come to you to help me." "Ah, if it had been a bad habit, you wouldn't have given it up ! " " Oh, I don't suppose you'll care ; I don't see why you should," he muttered. VOL. I. E 50 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. " About what ? " she asked. " About my getting the sack." " The sack ! What for ? " she asked again. " You ain't generally so stupid, Clara ; you must know that these women are going to marry Archie." " Are you so fond of your cousin Arch' she asked after a minute, " that you cannot bear the idea of his belonging to another ? " " Well," he answered defiantly, " it is uncommon hard on him ; he hasn't had a bit of fun ; and it's deuced hard on me. Here am I, older than him, and quite as near to the late lord, only it happened to be through a woman instead of a man." " Ah, that makes a difference," she said ; " women don't count ; they never do." " Well, it does seem hard lines," he said, aroused to a perceptibly higher level of animation, " that he should have every blessed thing which a man can want, and that I, who used to come here all the time and make myself useful n COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 51 " Useful ? " she asked with an air of surprise ; " my dear boy ! Useful ? " " Well, it is deuced hard. He was never near the place in his life till he came to take possession." " But why the sack ? " she asked. " I thought that he had done the handsome thing by you. I hear that you've taken the best rooms in the house for yourself." " Who told you that ? " " My maid. She had it from your man." " Well, I really shouldn't go listening to the servants' gossip," he said sulkily. " Wouldn't you ? You are so wrong. I always do. I learn everything from my maid. It is such a good plan ; it amuses her so much that she doesn't bother about her wages ; she is like a friend, you know ; she adores me." As he made no comment on these frank statements, she continued — " My maid says that you have taken the whole Tower wing for yourself and made it charming." , i-pjtfrt . « e u ut 52 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. " It's only three rooms," he said ; " and nobody used them. They were given up to mouldy targets and broken bird-cages— and black-beetles, I dare say." " Ugh ! " she said with a shudder. " T thought I was more worthy than a black-beetle. Perhaps I flattered myself." Re said this with more pleasure, feeling as it' he too could be witty. " Perhaps," she said with gravity ; " < never knows. And you have done the rooms well ? " " I think I've made 'em nice," he answered comfortably. " Archie told me to do what T liked with them, you know." " And to send the bill to him," she said, as if completing his sentence. " It wouldn't be much good their sending it to me," he said. " Of course he felt that I'd been devilishly badly treated — oh, I don't complain of Archie." " Don't you ? P>ut you don't want him to be married and to live happy ever after ; and COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 53 you do want to stay in your nice rooms, curled up like a gorged fox in a rabbit- warren." " You needn't call names," he muttered. " My dear boy," she said, " you are quite right : of course you want to stay where you are, and to drink his wine and to shoot his coverts and to ride his horses " " When I'm not too jumpy," he said, as she paused at a loss for the next luxury. " You know all about me, Clara," he continued ; " I always told you everything. You know I'm a nervous subject ; and you know I can't do without the luxuries of life. How can I ? " " Nerves and luxuries," she remarked thoughtfully, as if to herself. " How can I help you ? " she asked him presently. " You might advise me." " You don't want me to flirt with the boy," she said slowly, looking at him gravely with her round artless eyes ; " I am old enough to be his mother." " Clara, what nonsense " he began. 54 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. " It can't be done," she said ; " you forget that I am creeping Lack. It might have amused me once, just to cut out the girl, and no harm done ; but now — my dear boy. / should get the sack : I would much rather it was you who got the sack." " Thank you ! " "I am just trembling in the balance with Lady J. now," she said ; u I am truckling to her, grovelling ; she was dreadfully annoyed at finding me here ; she wanted Susan Dormer to give me warning on the spot. Expect nothing from me. I have no energies left except for creeping back." Leonard Yale did not expostulate with his friend. He only shifted himself a little in his chair, pulled his sleek black moustache into a point, and bit his under lip. Mrs. Chauncey knew in a moment that he had not yet said what he wished to say. and that she had been wrong in thinking that he wis her to divert young Lord Lorrilaire from the dangers of matrimony. COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 55 " There's somebody else, you know," he said at last, " who might save Archie — I wanted to ask your advice, you know — if she were to come down, you know " "Who?" " You see, she's the only woman in London who knew Archie before. She w r as the parson's daughter down at his home, wherever it was." A slight change of expression came into Mrs. Chauncey's eyes, and the thin sensitive lips, which had been so long schooled in the concealment of feeling, pressed each other a little more tightly. She knew well of whom he was speaking, but she chose to keep her look of inquiry. " It's Mrs. Rutherford," he said, still look- ing at his boots. Then, as her continued silence made him nervous, he gave one glance in her direction, looked away again, and went on speaking. "You see, she don't want Archie to marry yet; she thinks he don't know anything of 56 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. the world, and that she knows all about it ; she thinks she's his only friend and has got a sort of mission to save him from match- making mothers; she was furious with Lady J. in London.'' "She is very pretty," said Mrs. Chaunc " I wish you'd advise me," he said ; ~ I wish you'd tell me if it would do for her to come down here." " You have asked her to come already," she said quietly. He opened his mouth as if he were going to lie, but he shut it again and pulled himself into a more upright position. " It's no good trying to humbug you," he said : " I've not asked her, for I've no right to ask anyl but I have written to her and told her who are here." " And that will bring her without com- mitting you to anything." " Do you think she'll come?" he asked almost deferentially. "You ought to know best," -lie said frankly ; "she certainly is very pretty.*' COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 57 " What's that got to do with it ? " Clara Chauncey knew that she was vexed, and did not mean to show it. It has been said that there is no love without jealousy : however that may be, there is plenty of jealousy without love. She was jealous now. She knew perfectly well that this boy was trying to break to her diplomatically that a younger and prettier woman was coming, and that he thought it necessary to be diplomatic because he thought that she would be jealous of his devotion to the new-comer. She would have liked to impress upon him with something more convincing than words, with the fire-irons perhaps, how very little she cared or ever had cared about him. But, though it is perfectly true that her warmest feeling for Leonard had been a mild amuse- ment in forming, as she called it, a handsome boy, who came to tea and could be sent for theatre tickets, yet it is no less true that it annoyed her to think of his devoting himself to anybody else. It annoyed her that she 58 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. would no longer be the pretty married woman of the party ; it annoyed her that this other woman was so young and looked so happy ; it annoyed her most of all that this sulky youth was trying to manage her and thought that she would be jealous on his account. His side-long looks annoyed her. " Of course she will come," she said : u she will propose herself to Lord Lorrilaire ; she will think it great fun to invite herself. She is an absurd little creature, married out of a parson's schoolroom, and thinks she knows the world ; but it is a pretty absurdity. She will come down full of importance to Bave the friend of her childhood. You admire her very much, don't you?" She asked this with a delightful frankness and one of her rare smiles. " Oh, of course I admire Mrs. Tom," he said with a clumsy masculine effort to answer her in the same tone ; " everybody admired her ; it was the thing this year." " And I do not wonder," she said ; " she is COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 59 so pretty and so fresh, so refreshingly fresh. It will be very pleasant for you if she comes." " It will save my place for me," he said with a happy inspiration ; " that's what matters to me." She sat looking at him with her air of quiet study. " Yes," she said, " that is what will always matter most to you. Of course it is too late to stop this plot of yours." " There's no plot of mine," he said ; " I just told her who were here. If she likes to propose herself, it's her own look-out." " If she gets into a scrape," she said, " that is her own look-out too. She need not look to you to help her." She made these state- ments with the coolness and certainty of a mathematical professor ; and they stung Leonard Yale to some show of temper. "Upon my word, Clara," he said, " you seem to be trying to say the most disagree- able things you can." "Who? I?" She seemed to be truly surprised. 60 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. " Yes, you," he answered ; " but never mind ! I'm so down that any one may hit me — and you most of all, of course." He slipped back to his depressed and dependent air. " Of course," she said, " you told me nothing of this until it was too late to stop her coming." "Oh, I dare say you can stop it, if you like," he said, " and leave poor Archie to be married, and set me adrift again just when I have a chance of pulling up and staying quiet and paying my debts " "And living on your rich bachelor cousin." she added for him, as he paused. " And the husband ? " she asked presently ; " has Mr. Eutherford no say in the matter ? " " Not much," answered Leonard, with a short laugh. " Eeally ? " she said ; " I used to know him a little. I should not have thought that lie was that sort of man." " She'll come, if she likes," said he. nodding his head. COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 61 His knowing air exasperated Mrs. Chauncey. She had a great power of self-control, but she knew that, if she continued to sit opposite to Leonard, she would presently say more than she meant to, show her annoyance, and then, angry with herself for showing annoy- ance, say yet more, and finally have several rash speeches of which to repent at leisure. So she rose from her chair, and looked at the clock, and said, " I cannot waste any more of my morning in talking to you ; " and so walked out of the room. Leonard Yale, left alone, let himself slide even lower down in his low arm-chair, and pushed his hands deep down into his trousers' pockets. He felt ill-used by fortune and by friends ; he doubted if he had any friends. He could not tell if this Clara Chauncey, who had pretended to be his friend and to lecture him for his good, meant to help him or to hinder him at this crisis. He told himself that after such a series of bad things, as only an unlucky chap experiences, he had at last 62 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. come in for a good thing; and that now it was at least ten to one that he would lose it. He recalled his first annoyance when lie found that he was not to he a penny the better for the death of the late lord, and his amazement when the present man, fresh from Colorado, had burst in upon him in his lodgings, sympathized warmly with his sense of ill-usage, and asked as a matter of course to be allowed to pay his debts, and to set him on his legs again. Since that astonishing visit Lenny had been wondering at odd times what this prosperous cousin (for Archie had insisted on the cousinship, which was none of the nearest) expected to get out of him in return. He had made a half-hearted sugges- tion that he should be an agent or sub-.:_ or something, but Archie had received it joke. He had a great many acquaintances whom it was considered a treat to know, male and female, of all shades ; but his cousin did not seem even to wish for introductions. He knew a man, who was one of the lew men COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 63 who knew a horse ; but his cousin had already commissioned his uncle Sir Yilliers to fill his stables. He knew the correct place to go to for cigarettes and the champagne which it was right to drink that year ; and Archie received his information on these points, but rather as if he humoured him. Lenny, recumbent in the big arm-chair, wondered once more if this new Lord Lorrilaire could be such a flat as to have paid his debts and filled his pockets for nothing. He could not believe that anybody would encumber himself unasked and at the very start of his life with poor relations. He assured himself with a knowing nod that if he had come in for all this, he would have had no hangers-on. If he did not imagine himself kicking himself out of Langley Castle, it was only because his imagination was limited. Nevertheless, he felt that he would be injured more deeply than ever, if lie were made to lose his hold now. And this haDg- ing-on was so uncertain a business for any 64 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. one who was not quite a prehensile ape. Before luncheon and in his dejected mood he was half inclined to give the whole thing up. The difficulties seemed enormous ; he felt chilly, in spite of the good fire, as he thought of all the trouble ; he would have to walk among egg-shells. He had seen the suspicion of him in the eyes of Lady Jane Lock within half an hour of her arrival. Mrs. Dormer was always kind, and Sir Yilliers had been a friend of his father ; but Sir Yilliers had a keen eye, and Mrs. Dormer saw so much more than she seemed to. And then his thoughts passed again to Clara Chauncey, and stirred him to fresh annoyance. Why in the world could not she say if she would help him or not ? If not, he might as well be packing his portmanteau. And Dora Rutherford ? "Would she come ? If she came, would it be known that he had brought her ? He hoped that she would come, and yet he feared. He feared his very hope, for it surprised him by his strength. If he could not trust his COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 65 friends, he could not trust himself either. He knew that his nerves might fail him at any time ; he dared not answer for his self- control at a critical moment. Already he felt feverish and good for nothing. Again he pronounced himself, with something like a smothered howl, to be the most unlucky brute in the world. VOL. I. 66 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. CHAPTER V. Young Lord Lorrilaire was grumbling too, as he got himself into his clothes with unusual difficulty on the morning after his return to Langleydale. He had plunged into his country-house party, and risen to the surface again and felt the better. And then the rest of his day had been full of amusing discoveries, which had made it almost as fascinating as a young adventurer's first day in a new world. And yet he grumbled, as he dressed himself. He did not like to spend so much time in the adornment of his person ; it seemed absurd ; and yet for that day at least he was bound to be particular about each wrinkle, and each button. He had grown so warm while he strove so conscientiously for accuracy, that COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 67 he had opened his windows to their utmost width, and the room, in which he still felt a stranger and explorer, was full of the clear cool air. A little too clear and cool it was for the ideal hunting morning ; but to Archie it seemed that on that portentous day the hunting was of small importance. He was to display himself, as his uncle had arranged, to the members of the Hunt ; he felt as if he were the object of the chase, and as if land- lords, farmers, the town contingent from Langstone, even horses and hounds were coming out to find him instead of the fox. His hat, his tie, his spurs, every detail of his appearance would be criticized, and his seat and his hands, about which no one had cared in happy days gone by. Severe eyes would be on his back as he rode at a hedge, mark hirn if he deviated from a rigid line across country, betray amazement if he grew bored and went home. Of his clothes he felt con- fident, for he had gone to him, whom Lenny had described tersely as the only breed Les- 68 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. maker ; but this putting them on was a tire- some business. It was only better than yielding himself to the hand of his body- servant ; for he had not had a body-servant siuce he had grown too big for a nurse, and he never breathed freely now till he had dis- missed this most oppressive burden of his state. He would much rather help his valet into his clothes than be helped into his own. As Archie tugged and buttoned, he re- membered other days, some at Oxford, and some in his mother's neighbourhood at home, when after duly counting the cost he had treated himself to a day's hunting. Much fun he had enjoyed upon hardly-worked strange-looking beasts, and, as they were always ready to go and Lis treats in this kind were rare, he had ridden his hardest and seen what he could. Much fun he had enjoyed ; and now memory, as is her happy way, smoothed away the little mishaps and dis- comforts, the unexpected cropper and the long ride home upon a tired screw, and COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. (J 9 showed him the pleasure only. Nobody cared then what he wore, or how he rode ; he did not feel as if he were clad in pasteboard, and he rode to please himself. Now it seemed to him that he must ride to satisfy his neigh- bours ; his uncle was evidently anxious, lest he should not show off the horses, which he had chosen. Archie thought of that row of animals in prime condition, and imagined each one of them expecting to be taken out in turn. It seemed as if it would take all his life, be the life's business of which he had dreamed, a business as distinct from pleasure as any other business, a truly British amuse- ment solemn as affairs of State, affording occupation to the unemployed, and with as little to show for it in the end as the exercise of the treadmill. Having arrived at this thought, he began to smile again, partly because he was nearly dressed, partly because the thought itself was extravagant. After all, he would presently feel a good horse moving under him, and that was pleasure ; 70 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. and, if the neighbours were critical, it was probably an exaggeration to assert that they would value him more than the fox ; the fox, though probably he was better known in the county, would after all excite the keener interest. He began to smile at his own folly in taking himself as seriously as if he were an Under-Secretary, or the manager of a theatre. And the air kept coming in at the open window, bringing health and good spirits, if it were by a touch too keen to satisfy the exigent sportsman ; and presently, when his glass showed him a cheerful young Englishman blushing at his own splendour, he even felt a slight pleasure in being properly turned out for the first time in his life. He restrained a tendency to fright his castle from its tremendous propriety with a " view halloa ! " and descended happy, if stiff, to meet his guests at breakfast. In dangerously easy mood was young Lord Lorrilaire, as he descended the stai] somewhat stiffly in his admirable breeches. COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 71 It even seemed the best fun possible to let things slide, and himself slide with them. It was likely that all things, his very life itself, would be settled for him, before he had done saying to himself that there was time to spare, and that he could assert himself on any future day. In the mean time it was pleasant and easy to please everybody. Lady Jane Lock did not approve of girls going out h anting. It was opposed to her theories of female education ; and the success of her daughters so far had given her no cause to doubt the wisdom of her theories. But she knew that Elizabeth was different ; she was not quite sure that she understood Elizabeth, though it seemed monstrous that she should not understand her own child. Elizabeth was never so happy as when she was on a horse ; and, when she longed for a day's hunting and an absolutely fit and proper guardian was at hand, her mother did not always prevent her. She did not prevent her on this day. She had asked her usual 72 COMEDY OF A COUNTKY HOUSE. questions on the previous evening, and had been assured that it was an easy sociable country with convenient gates and lanes, and further, that the meet was not one of the best. So she had entrusted her precious child to Sir Yilliers, who was the trustworthy of pioneers ; and she contented herself by making her usual statement that Elizabeth did not hunt, and so sent her out hunting. The meet was so near that they all mounted their hunters at the door ; and Archie observed with a smile that after all a good many of his new possessions would be ex- ercised on that day. He was mounting Sir Yilliers of course, and Lenny, and the best and kindest of the lot was brought round with a side-saddle for Miss Lock. And there was Tony Fotheringham, too, who completed this country-house party. Tony was one of Archie's new friends, and one who amused him always by a seriousiiL>s, which seemed highly comical in one so young and COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 73 so rosy. Tony was two years younger than bis host, and was as smooth and ruddy as the advertisement of a patent food ; but he took great care of himself and gave a great deal of thought to his health. Even now, as he sat on a horse which seemed distinctly too big for him, he looked seriously at the dining- room window, through winch Mrs. Dormer was gazing at the group, and was inclined to repent that he had not remained at home and had a good long talk with that sympathetic lady about his symptoms. However, it was too late for repentance, and he rode away with the rest, while Lady Jane stood on a step, defiant of the crisp air, and watched her girl and approved the fit of her habit. The girl was riding with Sir Yilliers, as she ought ; but her mother thought that she need not have talked so eagerly to him that it was as good as a hint to Lord Lorrilaire not to interrupt the conversation. She said to herself with some vexation that it was just like Elizabeth, whose notorious fault was 74 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. want of animation, to be animated at the wrong moment ; but then a day's hunting- was always becoming to Elizabeth and g her a colour and made her eyes sparkle. after all this might be a most fortunate day. Lady Jane watched them, till they had ridden out of sight, with her usual desire to re- arrange them and to order them all to do her will, but not without good hope. She did not spare a single thought for Bolitho. Archie's spirits rose with the movements of his horse, and they did not even fall when he was introduced to member after member of the Hunt. These members were cordial and brief; he forgot to think of their criticisms ; he began to feel the old ardour of the chase. Nor did his pleasant spirits foil, though the morning was spent in jogging from covert to covert. It was pleasant to be out on such a day, to receive friendly greet- ings, to see hounds again after a long interval, and to ride by the side of a handsome girl who was flushed with excitement and the COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 70 eager hope of a run. And after luncheon they did have a short run, and the country was easy and pleasant, and both Archie and Elizabeth went as well as anybody ; and, when they pulled up, the girl turned on her young host a face transfigured by new life and light. Her reel lips were parted, her eyes were shining, and little wandering hairs from her glossy head were curling above her ears. As she leaned forward to caress the neck of the good horse, she looked at his owner with gratitude and triumph, and Archie smiled back upon her with the frankest admiration. Was he not happy that he could give to this radiant being so glorious a gallop ? There was some use in wealth. The radiant being lost much of her radiance when she found that there was to be no more hunting on that day. She rebelled promptly, and murmured against the Master, who sent the hounds home so early. But she recovered her temper and became happy again, as they rode slowly homewards. She 76 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. discussed the run with Archie, who still rode beside her ; and when that subject was exhausted, and soon, for after all it had been a very short run, she went on talking with a want of reserve which she never showed except after excitement and quick exercise. She had been expressing such love of the country and its pleasures, that Archie re- minded her that she had seemed very happy sometimes in the London ball-rooms, which she now held cheap. " Oh yes," she said, " I liked this last- season ; I hated my first season, but I liked this; I began to know people, and I made some friends, and I wasn't always thinking if I was standing right or going into rooms properly, and I didn't feel obliged to agree with what everybody said to me." Archie laughed. " I shouldn't have thought that you would ever have agreed with everybody," he said. "But I did," she said emphatically, "and I used to be ashamed of myself: I used to go COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 7 7 home and hate myself! But in my second season I didn't care, and, if I didn't agree with people, I said so, or I didn't answer and let them think me dull. That is what many people think me." " Do they ? " he asked ; " they must be dull, I think ; you are silent sometimes." " What is the good of talking ? " she asked. " Well," he said, " it is supposed to convey ideas, when there are any. And what about your third season ? " " I shall like that better still," she answered. " You see, I don't care now what anybody- says of me." " Isn't that a trifle strong ? " said Archie. " No," she said. " I shall enjoy this next season," she continued after a minute, " as much as possible, and after that " She made so long a pause that he thought that she had forgotten that she had left her sentence unfinished. After all in these days no person of any pretension to fashion is expected to finish a sentence, and polite con- 78 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. versation is no more than an interchange of hints, generally about nothing. But Miss Lock had an unequivocal end for her sentence. " After that," she said, " I shall hate it." Archie was much amused by her decision. " Isn't it rather unnece he asked, "to make up your mind so long before? You see you've a whole season before you, which you've decided to enjoy very much indi perhaps when that is over you will look forward to the next." " No," she said with even more decision, and looking straight between her hoi ears. " No," she said; "I don't want to spend my life in going about to balls." " It must be a bore," he said with prompt conviction; " I should hate it myself. What would you rather do ? " He felt a real curiosity ; it was a new idea to him that girls also could be tired of ball-going and such amusements. " TThat would you like to do ? " he asked. "I don't know," she answered,— ki hunt." COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 79 " Oh ! " he said, disappointed ; " but per- haps you would be tired of that after your three seasons ; and besides, you can't do it in summer." " Do you suppose that I don't know when people hunt ? " she asked with scorn. Then, for they had turned into a road which had a nice broad border of grass, she touched her willing horse and set off at a canter. Archie followed her, and, when she had stopped and he was once more at her side, she said to him with superb unreasonableness, " Of course you think that no woman can care for any- thing but dancing and hunting." " I thought it was you," he said, " who wanted to spend your life in hunting." " Not at all," she said ; " I should like to do something useful ! " " Useful ? " he repeated. She nodded slightly, as if she did not care whether he believed her or not. She had certainly sur- prised him. He had held it most natural that a boy, whose ideas were not wholly 80 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. confined to horses, should wish to be useful in the world ; but that a girl, and a fashion- able girl, should have such a wish, was a new fact for him. He had seen little of such girls and thought little about them. Was this a fact at all ? He was not suspicious, but all the suspicion of which he was capable wafl ready to arise in him when he considered girls. He knew his ignorance of them ; and he wondered now if this girl who, under the influence of excitement and the healthy day, was really beautiful, had any real desire of anything but amusement ; he supposed that girls practised the art of being agreeable, and he wondered if this girl were assuming a more serious view that she might please him, who had been ticketed without doubt by her world as a prig. She looked beautiful ; he dismissed his uneasy doubt, as he looked at her. Moreover he asked himself why he should trouble himself, if she did care to pose a little for his benefit ? " Well ? " she asked, since he kept silence ; COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 81 " you think that's humbug, I suppose ? I suppose that you think that no woman can do any good ? Delia, my sister — she married a parson — a clergyman, I mean — I promised not to call him a parson." " Is that what you mean ? " he asked, laughing. " Do you mean that you would marry a pars — clergyman, I mean ? " " No." " Why not ? Oh, I beg your pardon if I am asking too many questions." " I don't mind," she said. " I am not good enough ; that's why." " As good as lots of parsons," he responded quickly — u well, clergymen, then." " Why do you talk as if everybody ought to marry somebody ? " she asked. " Isn't it the best thing for most people ? " he asked in his turn. . " I don't pretend to know," she said. She gave a little laugh, which had a touch of malice in it. " It's a bad look out," she said, "if it is so; our men friends don't VOL. I. G 82 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. marry — they can't afford it, or it's not the thing. Ask Mr. Fotheringham." " Tony ! " called out Lord Lorrilaire, turn- ing in his saddle. Everybody called him " Tony," though there seemed to be no better reason than that his name was " Francis Algernon." Tony rode up to them. He was glad to join them, for he had been jogging in the rear with Leonard Yale, who had been the most gloomy of companions. Leonard had been looking at the backs of his cousin and the young lady, and had fallen into deep despondency, declaring to himself that all was over, and that his days in Langleydale were numbered. Perhaps he would never again ride this beast, which suited him so well ; and at this thought he jerked the mouth of the beast which suited him so well and gave him the spur. He was apt to hurt the nearest creature, which felt, when he was annoyed. From this and other signs Tony had gathered that Lenny was out of temper ; and so he left him without regret, and joined the pair in COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 83 front. " Is it true," asked Archie, " that men don't marry nowadays ? " Tony considered the question with due gravity. It was even repeated before he answered it. " Well," he asked then, " what can a chap do ? What with huntin' and goin' racin' it's hard enough to live now anyway ! Most chaps are stone-broke without marryin'." " What did I tell you ? " asked Miss Lock of Archie. " Mr. Tony knows. He knows everything." " Not quite," said Tony, regarding her in the evening light with frank admiration. He often declared that Elizabeth Lock was " about as handsome as they make 'em." " The nicest chaps can't afford to marry," he said, beaming amiably upon her. " How sad ! " she answered. " What a pity that only poor men are nice ! " So saying, she cantered suddenly forward away from the young men, who began to jog on in pursuit side by side. " I say," said Tony, when he had been for 84 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. some time in deep thought, " wasn't that rather a nasty one for you ? " " What ? " asked Archie. " That about only poor men being nice." Archie only laughed ; and then Tony laughed too, and cried out " Good old Archie ! " which was one of his favourite phrases, kindly and encouraging, and coming in well at almost all times. COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 85 CHAPTER VI. In the mean time, while her daughter was riding in the happy air, Lady Jane Lock was in full enjoyment at home of that flattering excitement which immediately precedes com- plete success, and is even more delightful. She had written her morning's letters ; she had eaten her substantial luncheon ; and, when she returned from her afternoon's walk (she was a great believer in " the con- stitutional "), she was in a fine glow of virtue. She had taken as her companion by the way Tony Fotheringham's umbrella, which its careful owner never allowed to touch the ground, and with this for her walking-stick she had stumped valiantly through the lanes. which after the slight frost of the night had been growing softer all day long under the 86 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. genial influences of sun and thaw. She had left in the hall the precious umbrella with its ferule muddy, battered, and knocked to one side like the hat of a drunken man ; but she still wore her plain felt hat and her braided black jacket, as she stood with her straight back to the cheerful fire with the air of a man, if not of a field-marshal. However it may be with a commander in the field, it is certain that almost every woman, when the fortunes of the day incline distinctly to her side, while yet enough of doubt remains to feed the excitement of her spirit, finds it hard to keep silence. Policy may still prevent her from announcing her game and prematurely singing her song of victory ; but her choice of subjects will indicate the direction of her thoughts, and it will be hard for her to keep out of her voice the sound of exultation. Lady Jane knew that the tea, for which she had conscientiously prepared herself by solitary exercise, would soon be there, and that the young people would soon be back from hunting ; and in the COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 87 mean time she could relieve herself by making a few general remarks. It was a good time for talk, for it was growing too dark for reading, and the lights had not yet been brought in. Mrs. Dormer had put down her novel with a tiny comical yawn ; and Mrs. Chauncey, for her part, was ready at this time to give the most complimentary attention to all the observations of Lady Jane Lock. " What I have always said to my girls," said Lady Jane, " is this. When you marry, make up your mind to have a house that people care to come to. It isn't the size of the house or the place ; it's the people you meet there ; that's what people care about." " How true ! " pronounced Clara Chauncey, from the shadows among which she sat. " If you mean to have the right sort of house," continued Lady Jane, " you must be firm at first. That is what I tell my girls. There is no sense in choking up your houses with a lot of dull people just because they happen to be old friends of the family, or 88 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. because your aunt Deborah married their uncle What's-his-name. There's no sense in it ; and, if you do it, you never will get the right people to come to stay with you." "How interesting!" murmured Mrs. Chauncey. " Cut off old friends and poor relations ! " " There is no need to be rude or disagree- able," said Lady Jane ; " when you do meet these people about, you can always be most kind. It is a very nice trait to be just the same to people when you meet them, though you may not have met for years. Everybody says that." " And it is so true," said Clara. " When you do meet, be as affectionate and nice as possible, and ask after all their children and everything. Only be sure never to go to see them. If they will come to see you, never be at home. Some people let them in once and try to be so disagreeable that they won't come again ; that is unlady- like and unnecessary. The simple thing is COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 89 never to be at home, and never to return their calls." " Admirable ! You have such a talent for making tilings clear. But the husband's friends ? Ain't they a difficulty ? " " Always be nice to your husband's friends," said Lady Jane promptly ; " that is the very first thing which I tell my girls." " But men do collect such strange friends," said Mrs. Chauncey ; " I don't mean those whom they can't expect their wives to know ; they present no difficulties whatever. I mean the friends who are respectable but impossible. What do you do with them ? " " Don't call," said Lady Jane ; " that's all ; it's just the same with them as with the others." " But don't they make a fuss ? — the hus- bands, I mean ; husbands are so touchy." " Yes," said Lady Jane ; " they are touchy ; but they are very forgetful. I tell my girls never to dispute with their husbands, always to seem to yield. If a man tells his wife t<> 90 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOU8 call on the What's-his-names, she can put it off, till he forgets all about it. He'll soon forget all about it — or pretend to. I know what men are. They like to have the right people in their houses just as much as we do ; but they like us to do the unpleasant part, and to pretend to know nothing about it." " Oh, Lady Jane," said Mrs. Chauncey, as if she were in a sort of respectful ecstasy, " what knowledge of the world — and of men ! They leave the dirty work to us, and look the other way, and profit by it. That is the whole duty of man." " A husband is so easily managed," said Lady Jane, " if you don't argue with him. Of course he blusters. Some day hell come home and say that he has met his old friend "What's-his-name in the street, and can't think what's the matter witli him ; he'll pre- tend to be annoyed with him and to wonder why he never comes near him ; but he will know in his heart. All that you have got to COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 91 do is to smile sympathetically. Always meet your husband with a smile ! That is what I tell my girls." "Lucky girls!" murmured Mrs. Chauncey. " Don't they say that to marry a Lock is a liberal education ? I am sure that I have heard some such saying. When I look at a place like this, and think of all the dangers, to which rich young men are exposed, I am tempted to say that there is no hope of safety for them but in a well-trained wife." " They don't know what is good for them," said Lady Jane, shortly. " Oh, but they do," said Clara — " at least, some of them do — don't they ? " Her question was so earnest and so innocent. " But then," she added, " they are so rare, these model wives." " Not at all," said Lady Jane ; " there are lots of nice well-brought-up English girls, if the men would only look at them, instead of going after Americans and things." " Ah ! but for a great position surely 92 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. something more is wanted — a something, a " "Distinction," said Lady Jane, "the air noble — that is a matter of com " Or a matter of corsets," quickly said Mrs. Chauncey. Here Susan Dormer, who bad been listening to the conversation with much placid enjoyment, began to shake with laughter, and Lady Jane, stung by the sudden idea that she was being trifled with, uttered a quick sound, which can only be described as a not unladylike snort. "Oh, do forgive me!" cried Clara Chaunc " it is unpardonable, I know ; but really and truly it is often that, isn't it ? I have known such common dumpy women gain quite an air from really good stays. Nothing is more important." To snort like the war-horse was in Lady Jane a sure sign of awakened suspicion, and it is by no means likely that she would have continued to express her views with so much freedom, even if the words " dumpy women " COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 93 had not been for her a new note of alarm. She could not but know that she did not stand much over five feet high, and that, though she was very straight, active, and energetic, she had acquired a certain solidity. She had never approved of Mrs. Chauncey ; and it is likely that she already repented of having favoured her with so many valuable hints on the art of living. Whether she would have contributed any further words of wisdom will remain for ever uncertain ; for, with a pleasant sound of young voices and some shutting of doors, the young people came in from hunting, and brought a quite new atmosphere into the fire-lit rooms. Archie reported that Sir Villiers and Tony had gone straight to the smoking-room, but that he and Lenny wanted tea ; and almost imme- diately tea was brought, and lamps so fully shaded that they made mere small oases of light in the soft warm dusk. It was a pleasant hour, with fragrant tea and chastened light, good rest after brisk 94 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. exercise, and liberal space. Perhaps nothing is so expressive of luxury as the combination of space and warmth. Even in most wintry weather it is easy for the most modest of men to make himself snug by shutting himself up with a good fire in a tiny room ; but a large house brought to one warmth from ground-floor to garret, whose inmates without chill from lofty rooms to spacious passages, is filled likewise with the very atmosphere of prosperity. It was this atmo- sphere which Lady Jane Lock, who had divested herself with an effort of the tight jacket, breathed with satisfaction ; and a - of mingled motherhood and ownership stole over her active spirit, as her eyes looked from the moderate room in which they sat. and betw r een the heavy portikres, which had been drawn widely open, the great, dimly lighted space of handsome rooms beyond. The m< fraction, more or less, of nose ; the n. shade, more or less, of natural yellow in the hair; and all, of which this warm spacious- COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 95 ness was a sign, might be for one sister, while another was counting coal in a chilly vicarage. Lady Jane Lock was in a mood of unusual softness, as she sipped her tea, when suddenly she seemed to hear a sound of wheels. It was very faint and far, but her alert spirit sprang, as it were, to arms. Nobody else seemed to hear anything ; and she gave no sign, old campaigner as she was. She finished her tea and asked for a second cup : only her spirit was attentive. The front door was on the other side of the house, and at the further end. She could hear no more. She had just decided that her ears had played her false, or that some untimely tradesman's cart had come ; she was just thinking that in the reign of a new mistress such irregularities of un- timely tradesmen should not be, when she saw figures advancing through the obscurity of the farther room. The first figure was un- mistakable, the rounded shape and noiseless amble of the butler; but who was following 1 1 i in ? Lady Jane looked with a quick eye 96 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. of inquiry at Mrs. Dormer, who had assured her unnecessarily often that no other gu were expected. Mrs. Dormer was looking too ; and in a moment more the butler emerged into the less uncertain light and annoui in his usual level tone — " Mrs. Rutherford." She came in beaming, wrapped in hand- some furs, bringing her own charm into the common place, as Venus leads her Graces. Her bright colour was the brighter for the evening cold ; her eyes were sparkling ; and even under the weight of fur her tall, slender, and beautiful figure moved with the ease of an active woodland creature. " Dora ! " cried Archie, leaping from his chair — " hurrah ! " They were but two words, but they ad- ministered two separate stabs to Lady Jane Lock. He went forward with both hands outstretched. " How awfully nice of yon ! " he cried. " Of course you have come to — and where's your husband ? " "He's in London," she answered, as Archie COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 97 took her long cloak from her shoulders ; " he's tremendously hard at work ; and besides, you know, nowadays one doesn't pay country-house visits with one's husband." She laughed at this pertness, but stopped rather abruptly, aware by this time of the contrast between her host's effusive welcome and the general coolness. Leonard Yale had risen when Archie rose, but had stepped back instead of forward, and was gazing at her with his large black eyes from the obscurity which lay around the lighted tea- table. She felt that he was looking at her with a world of meaning, and with a sudden impatieuce she turned from him to Mrs. Dormer, who had not moved. " Won't you have some tea ? " asked Mrs. Dormer. "lam afraid I've done a dreadful thing," said Mrs. Rutherford, " coming unannounced like a ghost." " Oh no," said Mrs. Dormer blandly. ' w Do you take cream and sugar ? " VOL. I. II 98 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. " I was so bored in London, and I thought — but you can pack me off to-morrow, if I am in the way." " Nonsense ! " cried out Archie ; " it's the most delightful thing in the world, and a thousand times better than if we had known about it beforehand. Aunt Susan, you'll see to Dora's room, and her maid and her luggage and things, and — and — oh yes, you know Lady Jane Lock, don't you, Dora ; " " Elizabeth," said Lady Jane, who seemed not to have heard the reference to herself, " go and lie down before dinner." " But I am not tired," said her daughter. " Nonsense ! " said Lady Jane sharply ; "you never know when you are tired." "How d'ye do, Lady Jane?" said Mrs. Rutherford. " Oh ! How d'ye do? Such a surprise! I do envy people who have the courage to do these odd amusing things. Come, Elizabeth." "I've plenty of courage," said Dora. She held out her hand with a smile to Miss Lock, COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 99 who was obediently following her mother from the room ; and the girl put her hand in hers for a moment. In that moment Dora perceived that Elizabeth's hand was larger than her own, and came to a decision also about her air, her figure, and the cut of her habit. She was extremely quick. As she let her hand fall, she came to a further decision on less obvious matters. " Sulky girl !" she said to herself; "but how hand- some — how dangerously handsome ! " " I think that I am really the last," said Mrs. Chauncey, advancing from the shadows and looking straight at Archie with a set smile. " Oh yes ; Dora," he said, " you know Mrs. Chauncey ? " It was now Mrs. Rutherford's tarn to freeze a little. " Oh ! How d'ye do ? " she said, ex- tending her slender fingers. Mrs. Chauncey pressed the slender fingers slightly, and smiled the more sweetly as she was conscious of a tendency to wring them 100 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. with all her nervous force. She knew then beyond all possibility of doubt that she hated Dora Rutherford ; she would like to wring her neck too, or at least her heart. COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 101 CHAPTER VII. The news of Archie's danger had come to Dora Rutherford at a happy moment, for she was looking about eagerly, almost anxiously, for something to do. She had been spending the autumn months in the home of her child- hood, the quiet comfortable rectory, which was so near to the home of Archie's mother, Mrs. Rayner. There she had been living a most domestic life with her parents and her husband. Her husband had been quite happy, working daily and steadily at that great report which was to enlighten the world, or at least a part of it ; but she, for her part, had found a strange want of occupation. She could not even take up again the little duties of her girlhood. Quick, clever, and energetic, she had taken each year, as she grew up at 102 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. home, more and more of the little daily duties of the house, garden, and village, from the hands of her mother ; but when Bhe married, her mother had been obliged to take them back again, and this good lady was wise enough to know that she would gain nothing by relinquishing them for a few months, but the trouble of again acquiring the useful habits, of which she was now mistress. So Dora had nothing to do but to visit Mrs. Eayner, and talk of Archie and his wonderful change of fortune ; or to ride with her hus- band, when he took his afternoon's exercise ; or to drive her mother in the pony can-' Her father, her mother, and her husband more than all, were busy ; but she was idle. She did not like to be idle. She did not like to feel herself useless. Before the end of the visit, during which she had seemed to others a happy presence indeed, bringing sunshine every day into the shady corners of that quiet world, she had accumulated so much spare energy, that she could scarcely help COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 103 crying out when she woke in the morning at the thought of the long hours before her, in which she would have nothing to do. Nevertheless Dora did not allow her parents to suspect that she grew weary of this idle life, nor did she shorten by a single day the long visit which she had promised to them. Unluckily, when the change came, it was no change for the better. When she went up to London with her husband, she found their house and their establishment in excellent condition, and nothing for her to do but to order the daily dinner. Of London in November she had had no experience ; and now she did not like it. Her friends were all out of town ; and her husband was more busy than he had been in the country. The work which he had undertaken, first for his own enlightenment, and secondly for the instruction of others, was no less than the examination of all the kinds of land-tenure which are to be found on this small earth, and the setting forth of the merits and del 104 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. of each. Luckily there is not very much earth to be held in any way; and railways and telegraphs have made our little world so small, that any little holiday-taker can run round it and be back before he is missed. And yet there is enough solid surface to show various forms of ownership ; and to know all these forms, and all the effects of each, is no small work for a man who has a passion for thoroughness and a deep respect for truth. Such a man was Tom Rutherford. He was up to his knees in reports official and unofficial, in books written in many languages, in a growing flood of letters from all parts of the world ; and he set his teeth and worked through the mass of matter, carefully and steadily dividing the relevant from the irrele- vant, and bringing the former to shape and clearness with a patience and sturdy determin- ation which was all his own. In this work of her husband, who shut himself up alone morning after morning, Dora Rutherford had no share. When she had ordered dinner, COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 105 she felt that she had nothing to do for the rest of the day. She was restless and uneasy ; and so it happened that when she received Leonard Yale's letter and learned that Archie, the only friend of her childhood, the innocent unworldly being whom she had taken under her protection throughout the last London season, was in imminent danger of matrimony, she awoke with delight as from a weary dream. Here was something for her to do ; she could be of some use after all ; she heard the sound of trumpets and her eyes sparkled with desire of battle. She ran to try on her armour, and already she saw with her mind's eye the redoubtable Lady Jane Lock roll helpless in the dust. Her husband noted the new light in her eyes, and he did not refuse to let her go. He said that he could not leave his work at present, but would try to join her later ; and if he was hurt by her clear joy at going, he only showed it by renewing the attack on his work with a fresh pugnacity. 106 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. Dora Rutherford, when she came into the breakfast-room on the morning after her startling appearance at Langley Castle, waa keen as frosty air. She was rather late, for she had run out of door-, glancing about the immediate neighbourhood of the house with all the feelings of a strategist casting eager eye over a new country. She came in fresh and smiling, kissed Mrs. Dormer, as if she had never a doubt of her welcome, and seated herself with her face to all the windows. Thus she confronted the enemy. for Lady Jane Lock always sat with her back to the light at breakfast time. Mrs. Chauncey too, whom Dora preferred to regard as a foe, had this same habit, which indeed is not uncommon in ladies who are undergoing the ordeal of a country-house visit. All the men were present at breakfast except Leonard Yale, who after a day's limit- ing was apt to be even later than usual. Of his absence Dora was instantly aware, for she had decided that her first object must be to COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. ' 107 gain from liirn a clear statement of the present state of affairs. Until she could secure a private conversation with Mr. Yale, she could do nothing but keep a friendly eye on her dear Archie and be ready to make a third if necessary. Even this light task was denied her, for, when she asked Archie, as they were breakfasting, what he was going to do, he raised his eyebrows with a look both humorous and pathetic and said, " My agent has come for me." " Poor little boy ! " she said ; " but you must go like a good boy and not cry." " You don't know how I am bullied," he said ; " here's Uncle Yilliers with a list of people whom I must see, and the agent with a list of other sort of people, besides horses and farmhouses and pigs " " Aud guests," said Dora ; " don't leave us out — especially self-invited guests like me. "Don't call yourself names," he said ; "you know that you have a standing invitation 108 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. from me, so long as one stone of this ancestral dungeon stands upon another and Aunt Susan provides a crust for dinner." "There, Mrs. Rutherford," said Lady Jane, "you can't ask for anything more tlian that." There was a slight accent on the word " you ; " but Dora answered smiling — "I didn't ask for that; but I accept it all, I'll never leave you, Archie." " And Mr. Rutherford ? " asked Lady Jane, with a snort, which she had intended to be a laugh. " He is as fond of Archie as I am," - Dora; "he will never leave him either. Let us all swear never to leave him ! He has such big houses and so many of them ; it would be a kindness to him ; and we are such a pleasant party. We will all run after him wherever he goes. Let us all swear it ! You begin, Lady Jane." "Thank you," said Lady Jane, rising from the table ; " but / never run after people." " I do," said Dora ; " may I run after ; COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 103 and the agent this morning, Archie ? I will promise to be good, and not to speak unless I am spoken to." " No," answered Archie. " You'd be too distracting. You will see what is left of me at luncheon." This was useful information for Mrs. Eutherford, and she made a mental note of it, as she finished her coffee. It made her wish the more for the coming of Leonard Yale, for here was a nice open morning, during which Archie would be safe with his agent, and which she could devote to the necessary interview with the ally, who had called her to his aid and who alone could tell her how imminent was the young lord's danger, and what was the present state of the campaign. She was burning to take command. When she had seen Archie walk away with the agent and had loitered for some time, and had observed that Lady Jane, whose diplomacy lacked delicacy, was keep- ing a most obvious eye upon her, Dora went 110 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. upstairs to her room and dressed herself for a walk. Then she went downstairs again very quietly and slipped out of the house, seen by nobody but Mrs. Chauncey, who was of a more delicate order of diplomatists than Lady Jane Lock. Dora went straight to the kitchen-garden, which she had discovered in her hasty tour before breakfast. She was sure that, when Leonard Yale had once emerged from his own rooms, he would look for her ; and she decided that he should find her in the place most fit for confidential talk ; and so she chose her ground in the smaller kitchen- garden, where she was enclosed by high walls and could see from any part both of the entrances. Walking up and down beside the most sunny of the walls she became more and more impatient ; but she had not long to wait. She saw one of the green doors pushed open; and Mr. Tale came in. She noted his dejected air, before he caught sight of her, and the quick change which came over him COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. Ill when he saw her. He came up the straight path between the borders of old-fashioned flowers with unusual briskness. " At last," he said, " I've found you." " I've been waiting for you for the last hour," she said. " Waiting for me ? " he asked, as if it were impossible that she should wait for such an one as he. There was a nice blending of humility and reverence and tenderness in his tone. " Of course I was waiting for you," she answered impatiently. " How can I move until I know how things are now ? Is there immediate danger ? " " Immediate danger?" he repeated vaguely. " To Archie ? " she said. He had forgotten all about Archie. " Oh yes," he said, u of course — what a fool I am ! I am afraid things are going about as badly as usual." " Don't talk like that," she said ; " you promised me in London that you would give 112 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. up talking like a victim of Fate. It is so tiresome." " I'll try," he said humbly. " Come on," she said, beginning to walk up the path ; " tell me why you think things are going badly for Archie." He told her of trifling events which he had noticed since Lord Lorrilaire had joined his party, and especially of yesterday's hunting. " He was with her all day long," he said. She nodded gravely. " We must stop that sort of day," she said ; " the girl looks well in a habit. Does she look well on a horse ? " " Not bad," he answered ; " she is not like you." This compliment touched Dora Rutherford where her guard was weak; she was proud of her horsemanship ; she could not help smiling nor keep her eyes from shining. " You must keep up your courage," she said : " I see nothing to be afraid of. Archie COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 113 cannot be thinking of a serious step ; he is so natural, so entirely unembarrassed." " But isn't that his danger ? " he asked ; " he might be on the very edge and never know it. Another day like yesterday, and Lady J. would be capable of asking him his intentions." " The next move is mine," said Dora with glad confidence. Lenny looked at her with admiration. He thought again that there was nobody like her — no woman so brilliant and so charming ; his desire to interest her in himself was stronger than ever before. " I wish I could hope," he said with a sigh ; " and I do hope when you tell me to. You remember what you promised me in London ? You said you would be my friend." " Yes," she said ; " I promised to be your friend if you would give up bemoaning your fate." " I have had hard luck," he said sadly ; VOL. i. i 114 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. " you won't mind my saying that. I know it has been a great deal my own fault ; I have thrown away my chances. I have tried to be different since you advised me and promised to be my friend." " And I will be your friend," she said ; " 1 am here to help you as well as Archie." " Thank you," he said eagerly — " thank you." Then he added sadly, ' ; Nobody ever needed your help so much. This is my last chance and I owed it to you. It was you who told Archie of my existence, and that I — what may I say ? — had not been treated welL I owe everything to you." " Oh no," she said, but she liked the sound of the words. Of all the men who had paid her compliments during her short experience of the London Society which had received her so cordially as the most charming bride of the day, this man alone had appealed to her pity, and shown faith in her ability and helpfulness. The frank compliments to her looks, which our somewhat uncouth Society COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 115 permits, she had put aside half-pleased and half-embarrassed, and had promptly forgotten ; but the respect for her opinion and the wish for her advice, which had been constantly and delicately shown by this handsome ill- starred youth, had been compliments which she did not put aside nor forget. There are men, and not stupid men, whose cleverness is never roused to anything like its highest activity but by the wish to please the other sex. A man of this sort, who in the other relations of life has shown but small ability, if he once desire to arouse the interest of it woman, will exercise an amazing instinct in his choice of flattery and a tact in its use, which are denied to women themselves, or to all but the most rarely gifted. Such a man was Leonard Yale. He bent his head as he walked beside her, and assured her with an air which was almost one of veneration, and with the sound of truth in his voice, that but for her he would have been an outcast. " And if I lose this chance," he said, " I 116 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. shall have to go now. It isn't the luxuries and things I care about ; I can do without them ; I am not quite such a wretched creature that I can't do without that sort of thing. But this is my last chance of saving myself — of being saved by you, if you will save me." " Don't talk of saving," she said quickly ; " you will stay here ; I feel sure of it ; and you will find better things to do than playing and betting, and running into debt." "I will try," he said; " but it's a bad world." " No, no, no," she cried ; " it's a good world, and most amusing, and I don't believe that there is half so much harm in it as people say." " You always say that," he said, smiling sadly ; " and it is so right that you should believe that. It would be a vile world that wasn't good to you ; you are not like other women," " Yes, I am," she said ; " but we all like to COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 117 think we are different, and it is a mercy to think that one can be of some use to some- body." " You needn't say that," he said ; " every- body knows that your husband is one of the fortunate ones, bound to rise, to make a mark in the world, to do everything which a man ought " Here he stopped short, but his eloquent silence pointed the contrast. M What has that got to do with it ? " she asked. " He can interest you," he said ; " lay his plans before you, consult with you, ask your advice." "And do you suppose," she asked, "that Tom talks to me of his plans and would listen to my advice ? He might listen to me if I were a peasant proprietor or a professor of political economy. As it is " She stopped short. " I am awfully sorry," lie said after a minute; " I've said the wrong thing ; I had no idea that " 118 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. " That what ? " she asked, standing still and looking at him. He only answered her with his sympathetic eyes. " I am not com- plaining of my husband," she said shortly. It was at this moment, when they v. standing together in front of the northern wall of the garden, that Mrs. Chauncey pushed open one of the doors for the admission of herself and Lady Jane Lock. Neither Dora Rutherford nor Leonard Yale saw her, and she drew back and shut the door again, when Lady Jane had had time for one good look. " Let us go back to the house by another way," suggested Clara Chauncey. " What does it mean ? " asked Lady Jane authoritatively. " Oh, surely," began Clara, and stopped with a little laugh. " Xo," she began again, " it really is not ill-natured. Surely you must have noticed it in London : I go out so little myself, but I thought that it was common talk. Surely you know ? " COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 119 " I know that he is a most dangerous and scandalous young man/' said Lady Jane. " And penniless," said Mrs. Chauncey. " What was that shocking story about him ? " asked Lady Jane. " Oh, you mean the year before last," said Clara ; " poor Mr. Yale ! Nobody remembers a scandal which is more than a year old." " I know that it was dreadfully disgraceful." " Oh yes ! " said Clara ; " but he was so young ; they said he didn't know ! " " Old enough to know better," said Lady Jane, as she stumped sturdily towards the house : " it was cards, or a horse, or some- thing. I never can remember those stupid male scandals." Lady Jane Lock was a moralist. She dis- approved of married women's flirtations, however harmless ; but she could not help thinking that, if Mrs. Eutherford must have an attentive cavalier, it was well that it should not be young Lord Lorrilaire. She had just completed an arrangement of Lord 120 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. Lorrilaire's afternoon, which gave her the liveliest satisfaction, and the only thing which she had feared had been the interference of Dora Rutherford. "It must be time for luncheon," she said, and perceived with satisfaction that she had an appetite. COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 121 CHAPTER VIII. Lady Jane was patiently absorbing a liberal portion of roly-poly pudding, a disli of which she was particularly fond, when Dora Ruther- ford came in, still equipped with hat and jacket, and very late for luncheon. " So sorry to be late," she said to Mrs. Dormer ; " and who's the pony cart for ? " " Is there a pony cart ? " asked Mrs. Dormer absently. " Yes, and there it goes," said Dora, whose quick ears caught the sound of wheels. Lady Jane looked up from her roly-poly, and Susan Dormer began to laugh a little in her silent comfortable manner. " Jane wanted Elizabeth to see the ruined Abbey," she said, "and poor dear Archie " 122 COMEDY OF AjOOUNTBY HOUSE. " Archie ! The Abbey ! I must see it ! " cried Dora. In a moment she was out of the room, flying down the passage and out of the front door. Down the Avenue she sped like a deer or the lightest of Diana's nymphs. Lady Jane gripped her spoon and fork and breathed hard. How could she go on calmly with that pudding in the presence of such extraordinary conduct ? She looked with indignation at her friend Susan, who could only shake her head and laugh. " Good old Mrs. Rutherford," murmured Tony Fotheringham at the window; "what a constitution she must have ! " Ten minutes later Lord Lorrilaire entei his dining-room laughing, and blushing a little ; but he met the inquiring stare of the speechless Lady Jane without other sign of shame. " It's all right," he said ; " there hasn't been an accident ; it's Dora." " What's Dora ? " asked Lady Jane hotly. "What isn't Dora?'' he said, laughing; " there never was any one like her." COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 123 Lady Jane bit her tongue, that she might not say that she devoutly hoped not. " We pulled up at the first gate," said Archie, " and I jumped out to open it, and I happened to look back, and there was Dora coming like a racer. She does run beauti- fully." " Nice feminine accomplishment ! " said Lady Jane sharply. " Yes," said Archie ; " isn't it pretty to see a girl run really well ? " " Where's Elizabeth ? " asked Lady Jane. " Oh, they've gone on together." " Gone on together ! " " Yes," said Archie ; " that was what Dora wanted. As soon as she could speak plain, she said that she was dying to see the old Abbey ; and so she turned me out and took the reins." " And you let her ? " cried Lady Jane, who found it hard to hide the contempt which she felt for this rich young man. " She is perfectly safe," said Archie ; " I 124 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. assure you you needn't be a bit afraid ; she drives a great deal better than I do." "But she hasn't had any luncheon," said Mrs. Dormer. " She said she didn't want any." " She'll never find the way," said Sir Villiers. "I didn't think of that," said Archie; "but at least she is as likely to find it as I was ; you know I'm a stranger in these parts." His invincible good-humour annoyed Lady Jane Lock, who could not perceive in him any signs of disappointment. She had a speech on the tip of her tongue, which she had tried hard to restrain, but now she could hold it no longer. " It is not as a whip that I distrust "Mrs. Eutherford," she said with decision. Archie turned quickly and looked at her. " That's all very well as a joke," he said, with a slight laugh ; " but of course every- body knows that there's nobody who can be trusted as Dora can. I give you my word COMEDY OP A COUNTRY HOUSE. 125 you may be perfectly easy about Miss Lock." " Thank you ! I am not at all uneasy about my daughter," said Lady Jane as she walked stiffly out of the room. She was exceedingly annoyed ; she had not even had the heart to finish that good pudding. She took herself roundly to task for having lost her temper and offended her host ; she, who prided her- self on being a good mother, had failed to do her duty as a mother. She went out for one of her solitary walks and came back full of good resolutions. She was able to receive her daughter with a smile, and to thank Mrs. Rutherford in Archie's presence for having taken such good care of her. " I was rather nervous," she admitted with her straight- forward air, " till Lord Lorrilaire assured me that you were a safe whip." " I can drive anything," said Dora cheer- fully ; " I enjoyed it enormously." " And the Abbey ? " asked Mrs. Chauncey, looking up innocently from her low chair by 126 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. the tea-table ; " is it really such a splendid rum r " The Abbey ?" repeated Dora vaguely. " Yes — the Abbey which you were dying to see." "Oh yes," said Dora, "the Abbey — we didn't find the Abbey." " What a disappointment ! " said Clara, with her round eyes gravely sympathetic. " Terrible ! " said Dora ; "do give me some tea, Mrs. Dormer ! It's awfully rude, but I am so hungry; I had no luncheon, you know. In that afternoon's skirmish the victory had been with Dora Rutherford ; and yel was not wholly happy. She had had a walk and a run and a drive, and she had mi- ner luncheon ; and so it happened that even she was a little tired, and when she had finished her tea, she was glad to go to her room and rest a little before dinner. The curtains had been drawn across the windows. and the room, with its big bed and handsome COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 127 old-fashioned furniture, was lighted only, but most agreeably lighted, by the cheerful wood- fire on the hearth. Wrapped in her dressing- gown and reclining in an arm-chair, Dora looked lazily into the fire and was glad for once to rest. She could venture to repose for an hour after her first success ; she had seen the girl go to her room before she had yielded to her own feeling of weariness. Resting now in that pleasant place and at that pleasant hour she ought to have been wholly happy ; but she was not. She could not help a feeling of uneasiness about this girl, whom she was bound to defeat. During their drive she had tried to study her, but she had been baffled by her apparent stolidity. Elizabeth had shown no sign of disappoint- ment, when her attendant cavalier had been banished from the pony-cart; and for the rest of the afternoon she had shown no emotion of any kind. To Dora's questions about indifferent matters she had answered briefly and with the air of giving the expected 128 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. -^ answers to matter-of-course questions. It appeared that she liked Londou, that she liked the country, that she liked riding, that she should like to go abroad but liked to at home, that she liked dogs but did not dislike cats, and that she did not know if Bhe liked parrots or not ; she did not hesitate to say where she got her dresses and her jackets. Dora felt no wiser at the end of their drive, and said to herself with con- viction that this was a handsome, heavy, stupid girl ; but yet a doubt remained. She had an uneasy feeling that Elizabeth might be more deep than stupid, and that she did not understand her. Xow Dora Rutherford thought that she could read girls at a glance, and she was impatient under the suspicion that this girl baffled her legitimate curiosity. She would have liked to be perfectly certain that she knew all about Miss Lock and knew that she was in all ways unworthy of her dear Archie ; for then she would have fought her campaign with a heart as light as her COMEDY OP A COUNTRY HOUSE. 129 courage was undoubted. However, fight she must, and conquer she would. Her heart was not light, as she sat before that cheerful fire, or at least not so light as usual. She felt lonely ; she was accustomed to be popular, and she did not like the thought that not a woman in the house was glad of her presence. She took it as a matter of course that all the men were glad, and especially Archie, the friend of her childhood. And Leonard Yale too was more glad than the others ; she was important to him ; he needed her help ; he respected her opinions*. His admiration and respect soothed her as she sat thinking. And yet she felt lonely. She missed her husband. That was a fact, which she recognized with some surprise. She made a little face at the fire, prompting herself to be aggrieved at her husband's absence, as if he had left her and not she him. She even said to herself that lie might have come too, if he had wished ; and that the land of this VOL. I. K. 130 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. habitable globe would not have run away while his report thereon was suspended for a day or two. Yet she could not feel comfort- ably aggrieved. She could not help thinking of her husband with tenderness, with melan- choly. She put down this uncommon mood to going without luncheon ; but she was not content with this explanation. She missed her husband. This was a fact ; and, as she considered this fact again, she began to feel pleasure in it. She did not care to go beyond it. She sat curled up in the big chair and allowed herself to dwell upon the fact that she missed her husband. It was another proof, where none was necessary, how deeply she loved her husband. She had married him because she loved him. Whenever she had felt disappointment in her life as a married woman, she had always gone back to her love of her husband and to his love of her. These twin facts arc the important facts of married life; and Dora Rutherford was wise enough to know this. Looking into the • COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 131 wood-fire and thinking of Tom, she warmed her heart once again with the assurance that they loved each other ; she missed her husband very much indeed and was glad of it, though it made her melancholy. And yet, when Dora told herself so truly that, where husband and wife love each other and each is sure of the other's love, all disappointments in their life are in com- parison as nothing, she began straightway to slip, as she was apt to do, into unprofitable consideration of a certain disappointment. Dora had married for love ; but she had not married, as no loving fool, however foolish and however deep in love, has ever married in this world, with an empty head. She had promised to marry Tom Rutherford because she loved him ; but it was impossible for this clever, well-taught, and energetic girl to have but one thought. As a fact, she had had many thoughts, when she promised to marry Tom. She had known well that she was marrying a man of uncommon ability, a 132 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. strong man whom his elders, if wise, re- spected, and whom the best of the younger men looked to as a likely leader. He was some fifteen years older than she, and had given proofs of his ability, which all might read. She knew that he had given his time to study of the state of the world, and of the theory and practice of politics ; that he had made his studies in no amateur's mood, but with steady industry and dogged perse- verance ; that he had shown great powers of accumulating and using knowledge. He had travelled round the world, too, and had used his eyes for looking on life as well as on hooka. The occasional papers, which he had published, had shown mastery of the subjects on which he wrote, clearness of thought and of expression ; and they had never failed to attract attention. He had spoken now and then on the political questions of the day : and he had lectured in towns in the North and had firmly held the attention of North- country miners and artisans. He had made COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. 133 no haste to go into Parliament ; but it was generally understood that he could go in at his own time. Party leaders were well aware of his existence, and even careful to show him no discourtesy. In any crisis of more than common interest many sensible people looked for the expression of his opinion. It was known that at the next general election many constituencies would be candidates for his favour, and that some at least would be willing to pay his election expenses. In short Tom Rutherford, when he was thirty- five years old, was a rising man, and more- over conspicuous among rising men on account of an unusual accuracy of information and the possession of certain settled opinions, which were the result of much study and thought, and which would not be changed, as those who knew him knew well, for the sake of any office or the gain of any votes. He was not only a rising man; he was a strong man too. Looking into the fire, and thinking of her 134 COMEDY OF A COUNTRY HOUSE. husband and of the place which he was winning in the world, Dora felt the usual pride; but it was accompanied, as usual, by regret. Alone in her room, she blushed and O 7 bit her lip for shame when she remembered her girlish confidence and her girlish dreams. She remembered her love and admiration for her husband, her certainty of his future greatness, and her certainty that she, the girl who felt old because she was out of her teens, would be his chief helper. Once more >h