"You won"t come, Ferdinand?"
"I only offered to fill up the gap. One does as well as another."
Rose flicked her whip, and then declared she would not ride at all, and, gathering up her skirts, hurried back to the house.
As Laxley turned away, Evan stood before him.
The unhappy fellow was precipitated by the devil of his false position.
"I think one of us two must quit the field; if I go I will wait for you," he said.
"Oh; I understand," said Laxley. "But if it "s what I suppose you to mean, I must decline."
"I beg to know your grounds."
"You have tied my hands."
"You would escape under cover of superior station?"
"Escape! You have only to unsay--tell me you have a right to demand it."
The battle of the sophist victorious within him was done in a flash, as Evan measured his qualities beside this young man"s, and without a sense of lying, said: "I have."
He spoke firmly. He looked the thing he called himself now. The Countess, too, was a dazzling shield to her brother. The beautiful Mrs. Strike was a completer vindicator of him; though he had queer a.s.sociates, and talked oddly of his family that night in Fallow field.
"Very well, sir: I admit you manage to annoy me," said Laxley. "I can give you a lesson as well as another, if you want it."
Presently the two youths were seen bowing in the stiff curt style of those cavaliers who defer a pa.s.sage of temper for an appointed settlement. Harry rushed off to them with a shout, and they separated; Laxley speaking a word to Drummond, Evan--most judiciously, the Countess thought--joining his fair sister Caroline, whom the Duke held in converse.
Drummond returned laughing to the side of Mrs. Evremonde, nearing whom, the Countess, while one ear was being filled by Harry"s eulogy of her brother"s recent handling of Laxley, and while her intense gratification at the success of her patient management of her most difficult subject made her smiles no mask, heard, "Is it not impossible to suppose such a thing?" A hush ensued--the Countess pa.s.sed.
In the afternoon, the Jocelyns, William Harvey, and Drummond met together to consult about arranging the dispute; and deputations went to Laxley and to Evan. The former demanded an apology for certain expressions that day; and an equivalent to an admission that Mr.
Harrington had said, in Fallow field, that he was not a gentleman, in order to escape the consequences. All the Jocelyns laughed at his tenacity, and "gentleman" began to be bandied about in ridicule of the arrogant lean-headed adolescent. Evan was placable enough, but dogged; he declined to make any admission, though within himself he admitted that his antagonist was not in the position of an impostor; which he for one honest word among them would be exposed as being, and which a simple exercise of resolution to fly the place would save him from being further.
Lady Jocelyn enjoyed the fun, and still more the serious way in which her relatives regarded it.
"This comes of Rose having friends, Emily," said Mrs. Shorne.
There would have been a dispute to arrange between Lady Jocelyn and Mrs. Shorne, had not her ladyship been so firmly established in her phlegmatic philosophy. She said: "Quelle enfantillage! I dare say Rose was at the bottom of it: she can settle it best. Defer the encounter between the boys until they see they are in the form of donkeys.
They will; and then they"ll run on together, as long as their G.o.ddess permits."
"Indeed, Emily," said Mrs. Shorne, "I desire you, by all possible means, to keep the occurrence secret from Rose. She ought not to hear of it."
"No; I dare say she ought not," returned Lady Jocelyn; "but I wager you she does. You can teach her to pretend not to, if you like. Ecce signum."
Her ladyship pointed through the library window at Rose, who was walking with Laxley, and showing him her pearly teeth in return for one of his jokes: an exchange so manifestly unfair, that Lady Jocelyn"s womanhood, indifferent as she was, could not but feel that Rose had an object in view; which was true, for she was flattering Laxley into a consent to meet Evan half way.
The ladies murmured and hummed of these proceedings, and of Rose"s familiarity with Mr. Harrington; and the Countess in trepidation took Evan to herself, and spoke to him seriously; a thing she had not done since her residence in Beckley. She let him see that he must be on a friendly footing with everybody in the house, or go which latter alternative Evan told her he had decided on. "Yes," said the Countess, "and then you give people full warrant to say it was jealousy drove you hence; and you do but extinguish yourself to implicate dear Rose. In love, Evan, when you run away, you don"t live to fight another day."
She was commanded not to speak of love.
"Whatever it may be, my dear," said the Countess, "Mr. Laxley has used you ill. It may be that you put yourself at his feet"; and his sister looked at him, sighing a great sigh. She had, with violence, stayed her mouth concerning what she knew of the Fallow field business, dreading to alarm his sensitiveness; but she could not avoid giving him a little slap. It was only to make him remember by the smart that he must always suffer when he would not be guided by her.
Evan professed to the Jocelyns that he was willing to apologize to Laxley for certain expressions; determining to leave the house when he had done it. The Countess heard and nodded. The young men, sounded on both sides, were accordingly lured to the billiard-room, and pushed together: and when he had succeeded in thrusting the idea of Rose from the dispute, it did seem such folly to Evan"s common sense, that he spoke with pleasant bonhommie about it. That done, he entered into his acted part, and towered in his conceit considerably above these aristocratic boors, who were speechless and graceless, but tigers for their privileges and advantages.
It will not be thought that the Countess intended to permit her brother"s departure. To have toiled, and yet more, to have lied and fretted her conscience, for nothing, was as little her principle, as to quit the field of action till she is forcibly driven from it is that of any woman.
"Going, my dear," she said coolly. "To-morrow? Oh! very well. You are the judge. And this creature--the insolvent to the apple-woman, who is coming, whom you would push here--will expose us, without a soul to guide his conduct, for I shall not remain. And Carry will not remain.
Carry---!" The Countess gave a semisob. "Carry must return to her brute--" meaning the gallant Marine, her possessor.
And the Countess, knowing that Evan loved his sister Caroline, incidentally related to him an episode in the domestic life of Major and Mrs. Strike.
"Greatly redounding to the credit of the n.o.ble martinet for the discipline he upholds," the Countess said, smiling at the stunned youth.
"I would advise you to give her time to recover from one bruise," she added. "You will do as it pleases you."
Evan was sent rushing from the Countess to Caroline, with whom the Countess was content to leave him.
The young man was daintily managed. Caroline asked him to stay, as she did not see him often, and (she brought it in at the close) her home was not very happy. She did not entreat him, but looking resigned, her lovely face conjured up the Major to Evan, and he thought, "Can I drive her back to her tyrant?" For so he juggled with himself to have but another day in the sunshine of Rose.
Andrew, too, threw out genial hints about the Brewery. Old Tom intended to retire, he said, and then they would see what they would see! He silenced every word about Lymport; called him a brewer already, and made absurd jokes, that were serviceable stuff nevertheless to the Countess, who deplored to this one and to that the chance existing that Evan might, by the urgent solicitations of his brother-in-law, give up diplomacy and its honours for a brewery and lucre!
Of course Evan knew that he was managed. The memoirs of a managed man have yet to be written; but if he be sincere he will tell you that he knew it all the time. He longed for the sugar-plum; he knew it was naughty to take it: he dared not for fear of the devil, and he shut his eyes while somebody else popped it into his mouth, and a.s.sumed his responsibility. Being man-driven or chicaned, is different from being managed. Being managed implies being led the way this other person thinks you should go: altogether for your own benefit, mind: you are to see with her eyes, that you may not disappoint your own appet.i.tes: which does not hurt the flesh, certainly; but does damage the conscience; and from the moment you have once succ.u.mbed, that function ceases to perform its office of moral strainer so well.
After all, was he not happier when he wrote himself tailor, than when he declared himself gentleman?
So he now imagined, till Rose, wishing him "Good night" on the balcony, and abandoning her hand with a steady sweet voice and gaze, said: "How generous of you to forgive my friend, dear Evan!" And the ravishing little glimpse of womanly softness in her, set his heart beating. If he thought at all, it was that he would have sacrificed body and soul for her.
CHAPTER XIX. SECOND DESPATCH OF THE COUNTESS
We do not advance very far in this second despatch, and it will be found chiefly serviceable for the indications it affords of our General"s skill in mining, and addiction to that branch of military science. For the moment I must beg that a little indulgence be granted to her.
"Purely business. Great haste. Something has happened. An event? I know not; but events may flow from it.
"A lady is here who has run away from the conjugal abode, and Lady Jocelyn shelters her, and is hospitable to another, who is more concerned in this lady"s sad fate than he should be. This may be morals, my dear: but please do not talk of Portugal now. A fineish woman with a great deal of hair worn as if her maid had given it one comb straight down and then rolled it up in a hurry round one finger. Malice would say carrots. It is called gold. Mr. Forth is in a gla.s.s house, and is wrong to cast his sneers at perfectly inoffensive people.
"Perfectly impossible we can remain at Beckley Court together--if not dangerous. Any means that Providence may designate, I would employ. It will be like exorcising a demon. Always excuseable. I only ask a little more time for stupid Evan. He might have little Bonner now. I should not object; but her family is not so good.
"Now, do attend. At once obtain a copy of Strike"s Company people. You understand--prospectuses. Tell me instantly if the Captain Evremonde in it is Captain Lawson Evremonde. Pump Strike. Excuse vulgar words.
Whether he is not Lord Laxley"s half-brother. Strike shall be of use to us. Whether he is not mad. Captain E----"s address. Oh! when I think of Strike--brute! and poor beautiful uncomplaining Carry and her shoulder!
But let us indeed most fervently hope that his Grace may be balm to it.
We must not pray for vengeance. It is sinful. Providence will inflict that. Always know that Providence is quite sure to. It comforts exceedingly.
"Oh, that Strike were altogether in the past tense! No knowing what the Duke might do--a widower and completely subjugated. It makes my bosom bound. The man tempts me to the wickedest Frenchy ideas. There!
We progress with dear venerable Mrs. Bonner. Truly pious--interested in your Louisa. She dreads that my husband will try to convert me to his creed. I can but weep and say--never!