"And you must not send that letter, by any means," said her ladyship as she was leaving the room, poking with her umbrella at the epistle, which lay directed on Mrs. Robarts"s desk. "I can understand very well what it contains. You must alter it altogether, my dear." And then Lady Lufton went.
Mrs. Robarts instantly rushed to her desk and tore open her letter.
She looked at her watch and it was past four. She had hardly begun another when the postman came. "Oh, Mary," she said, "do make him wait. If he"ll wait a quarter of an hour I"ll give him a shilling."
"There"s no need of that, ma"am. Let him have a gla.s.s of beer."
"Very well, Mary; but don"t give him too much, for fear he should drop the letters about. I"ll be ready in ten minutes."
And in five minutes she had scrawled a very different sort of a letter. But he might want the money immediately, so she would not delay it for a day.
CHAPTER VI.
MR. HAROLD SMITH"S LECTURE.
On the whole the party at Chaldicotes was very pleasant, and the time pa.s.sed away quickly enough. Mr. Robarts"s chief friend there, independently of Mr. Sowerby, was Miss Dunstable, who seemed to take a great fancy to him, whereas she was not very accessible to the blandishments of Mr. Supplehouse, nor more specially courteous even to her host than good manners required of her. But then Mr.
Supplehouse and Mr. Sowerby were both bachelors, while Mark Robarts was a married man.
With Mr. Sowerby Robarts had more than one communication respecting Lord Lufton and his affairs, which he would willingly have avoided had it been possible. Sowerby was one of those men who are always mixing up business with pleasure, and who have usually some scheme in their mind which requires forwarding. Men of this cla.s.s have, as a rule, no daily work, no regular routine of labour; but it may be doubted whether they do not toil much more incessantly than those who have.
"Lufton is so dilatory," Mr. Sowerby said. "Why did he not arrange this at once, when he promised it? And then he is so afraid of that old woman at Framley Court. Well, my dear fellow, say what you will; she is an old woman and she"ll never be younger. But do write to Lufton and tell him that this delay is inconvenient to me; he"ll do anything for you, I know."
Mark said that he would write, and, indeed, did do so; but he did not at first like the tone of the conversation into which he was dragged.
It was very painful to him to hear Lady Lufton called an old woman, and hardly less so to discuss the propriety of Lord Lufton"s parting with his property. This was irksome to him, till habit made it easy.
But by degrees his feelings became less acute, and he accustomed himself to his friend Sowerby"s mode of talking.
And then on the Sat.u.r.day afternoon they all went over to Barchester.
Harold Smith during the last forty-eight hours had become crammed to overflowing with Sarawak, Labuan, New Guinea, and the Salomon Islands. As is the case with all men labouring under temporary specialities, he for the time had faith in nothing else, and was not content that any one near him should have any other faith. They called him Viscount Papua and Baron Borneo; and his wife, who headed the joke against him, insisted on having her t.i.tle. Miss Dunstable swore that she would wed none but a South Sea islander; and to Mark was offered the income and duties of Bishop of Spices. Nor did the Proudie family set themselves against these little sarcastic quips with any overwhelming severity. It is sweet to unbend oneself at the proper opportunity, and this was the proper opportunity for Mrs.
Proudie"s unbending. No mortal can be seriously wise at all hours; and in these happy hours did that usually wise mortal, the bishop, lay aside for awhile his serious wisdom.
"We think of dining at five to-morrow, my Lady Papua," said the facetious bishop; "will that suit his lordship and the affairs of State? he! he! he!" And the good prelate laughed at the fun.
How pleasantly young men and women of fifty or thereabouts can joke and flirt and poke their fun about, laughing and holding their sides, dealing in little innuendoes and rejoicing in nicknames when they have no Mentors of twenty-five or thirty near them to keep them in order. The vicar of Framley might perhaps have been regarded as such a Mentor, were it not for that capability of adapting himself to the company immediately around him on which he so much piqued himself.
He therefore also talked to my Lady Papua, and was jocose about the Baron,--not altogether to the satisfaction of Mr. Harold Smith himself.
For Mr. Harold Smith was in earnest and did not quite relish these jocundities. He had an idea that he could in about three months talk the British world into civilizing New Guinea, and that the world of Ba.r.s.etshire would be made to go with him by one night"s efforts.
He did not understand why others should be less serious, and was inclined to resent somewhat stiffly the amenities of our friend Mark.
"We must not keep the Baron waiting," said Mark, as they were preparing to start for Barchester.
"I don"t know what you mean by the Baron, sir," said Harold Smith.
"But perhaps the joke will be against you, when you are getting up into your pulpit to-morrow and sending the hat round among the clodhoppers of Chaldicotes."
"Those who live in gla.s.s houses shouldn"t throw stones; eh, Baron?"
said Miss Dunstable. "Mr. Robarts"s sermon will be too near akin to your lecture to allow of his laughing."
"If we can do nothing towards instructing the outer world till it"s done by the parsons," said Harold Smith, "the outer world will have to wait a long time, I fear."
"n.o.body can do anything of that kind short of a member of Parliament and a would-be minister," whispered Mrs. Harold.
And so they were all very pleasant together, in spite of a little fencing with edge-tools; and at three o"clock the _cortege_ of carriages started for Barchester, that of the bishop, of course, leading the way. His lordship, however, was not in it.
"Mrs. Proudie, I"m sure you"ll let me go with you," said Miss Dunstable, at the last moment, as she came down the big stone steps.
"I want to hear the rest of that story about Mr. Slope."
Now this upset everything. The bishop was to have gone with his wife, Mrs. Smith, and Mark Robarts; and Mr. Sowerby had so arranged matters that he could have accompanied Miss Dunstable in his phaeton. But no one ever dreamed of denying Miss Dunstable anything. Of course Mark gave way; but it ended in the bishop declaring that he had no special predilection for his own carriage, which he did in compliance with a glance from his wife"s eye. Then other changes of course followed, and, at last, Mr. Sowerby and Harold Smith were the joint occupants of the phaeton.
The poor lecturer, as he seated himself, made some remark such as those he had been making for the last two days--for out of a full heart the mouth speaketh. But he spoke to an impatient listener.
"D---- the South Sea islanders," said Mr. Sowerby. "You"ll have it all your own way in a few minutes, like a bull in a china-shop; but for Heaven"s sake let us have a little peace till that time comes."
It appeared that Mr. Sowerby"s little plan of having Miss Dunstable for his companion was not quite insignificant; and, indeed, it may be said that but few of his little plans were so. At the present moment he flung himself back in the carriage and prepared for sleep. He could further no plan of his by a _tete-a-tete_ conversation with his brother-in-law.
And then Mrs. Proudie began her story about Mr. Slope, or rather recommenced it. She was very fond of talking about this gentleman, who had once been her pet chaplain but was now her bitterest foe; and in telling the story, she had sometimes to whisper to Miss Dunstable, for there were one or two fie-fie little anecdotes about a married lady, not altogether fit for young Mr. Robarts"s ears. But Mrs.
Harold Smith insisted on having them out loud, and Miss Dunstable would gratify that lady in spite of Mrs. Proudie"s winks.
"What, kissing her hand, and he a clergyman!" said Miss Dunstable.
"I did not think they ever did such things, Mr. Robarts."
"Still waters run deepest," said Mrs. Harold Smith.
"Hush-h-h," looked, rather than spoke, Mrs. Proudie. "The grief of spirit which that bad man caused me nearly broke my heart, and all the while, you know, he was courting--" and then Mrs. Proudie whispered a name.
"What, the dean"s wife!" shouted Miss Dunstable, in a voice which made the coachman of the next carriage give a chuck to his horses as he overheard her.
"The archdeacon"s sister-in-law!" screamed Mrs. Harold Smith.
"What might he not have attempted next?" said Miss Dunstable.
"She wasn"t the dean"s wife then, you know," said Mrs. Proudie, explaining.
"Well, you"ve a gay set in the chapter, I must say," said Miss Dunstable. "You ought to make one of them in Barchester, Mr.
Robarts."
"Only perhaps Mrs. Robarts might not like it," said Mrs. Harold Smith.
"And then the schemes which he tried on with the bishop!" said Mrs.
Proudie.
"It"s all fair in love and war, you know," said Miss Dunstable.
"But he little knew whom he had to deal with when he began that,"
said Mrs. Proudie.
"The bishop was too many for him," suggested Mrs. Harold Smith, very maliciously.
"If the bishop was not, somebody else was; and he was obliged to leave Barchester in utter disgrace. He has since married the wife of some tallow-chandler."