Whatever may have been the intention of Nature when she produced Sir John Pynsent, there was no doubt as to his own conception of the part which he was fitted to play in the world.
He considered himself, and indeed he was, above all things, a manipulator of men. His talents in this direction had been displayed at school and at college, and when he settled down to political life in London, and impulsively began to suggest, to persuade, to contrive, and to organize, everyone with whom he came in contact acknowledged a superior mind, or, at any rate, a more ingenious and fertile mind. He had refused to bind himself down to an office, as his friends wanted him to do, or to take part in the direction of a "Central a.s.sociation" for dealing with men in the lump. It was absurd to think of tying Sir John to a place, or a routine, or a pledge of any kind. His art was to be ubiquitous; he aspired to be the great permeator of the Conservative party; and by sheer force of activity he soon became the best known and most popular of the younger generation of Tories.
His triumphs as a manager of men were not confined to public life. He was one of a numerous family, and he managed them all. Every Pynsent deferred to Sir John"s opinion, not merely because he was the head of the house, but because he had a.s.sumed the command, and justified the a.s.sumption by his shrewdness and common-sense.
The one person in the family who gave most anxiety was his half-sister, Anna. Sir John"s father had married a second time, when his son was a youth at Eton, and Anna, the fruit of this union, inherited, not only her mother"s jointure of twenty thousand pounds, but a considerable fortune from her mother"s elder brother, who had been a manufacturer in Vanebury. This fortune had been allowed to acc.u.mulate for the last eighteen years, as her father, and after him, her brother, had provided her with a home, and disdained to touch "Nan"s money." Sir John was a very good brother to her, and it was even rumored that he had married early chiefly for the purpose of providing Nan with an efficient chaperon. Whether this was true or not, he had certainly married a woman who suited him admirably; Lady Pynsent sympathized in all his tastes and ambitions, gave excellent dinner parties, and periodically brought a handsome boy into the world to inherit the family name and embarra.s.s the family resources. At present there were five of these boys, but as the family resources were exceedingly large, and Sir John was a most affectionate parent, the advent of each had been hailed with increasing satisfaction.
It was a great relief to Sir John"s mind to find that his wife and his sister were such good friends. He might be a manipulator of man, but he was not--he acknowledged to himself--always successful in his manipulation of women. If Selina had found Nan in the way, or if Nan had been jealous of Selina and Selina"s babies, Sir John felt that he would have been placed on the horns of a dilemma. But this had not been the case. Nan was in the schoolroom when Lady Pynsent first arrived at Culverley, and the child had been treated with kindness and discretion.
Nan repaid the kindness by an extravagant fondness for her little nephews, who treated her abominably, and the discretion by an absolute surrender of her will to Lady Pynsent"s as far as her intercourse with the outer world was concerned. With her inner life, she considered that Lady Pynsent had not much to do, and it was in its manifestation that Sir John observed the signs which made him anxious.
Nan, he said to himself, was a handsome girl, and one whom many men were sure to admire. Also, she had sixty thousand pounds of her own, of which she would be absolute mistress when she was twenty-one. It was a sum which was sure to attract fortune-hunters; and how could he tell whether Nan would not accept her first offer, and then stick to an unsuitable engagement with all the obstinacy which she was capable of displaying?
Nan sometimes made odd friends, and would not give them up at anybody"s bidding. How about the man she married? She would have her own way in that matter--Sir John was sure of it--and, after refusing all the eligible young men within reach, would (he told his wife repeatedly) end by taking up with a crooked stick at last.
"I don"t think she"ll do that," said Lady Pynsent when her husband appealed in this way to her. "Nan is very _difficile_. She is more likely to remain unmarried than marry an unsuitable man."
"Unmarried!" Sir John threw up his hands. "She _must_ marry! Why, if she doesn"t marry, she is just the girl to take up a thousand fads--to make herself the laughing-stock of the county!"
"She will not do that; she has too much good taste."
"Good taste won"t avail her! You know what her plans are already, to live in Vanebury as soon as she is twenty-one, and devote herself to the welfare of the working-people! Don"t you call that a fad? Won"t she make a laughing stock of herself and of us too? Why, it"s worse than Radicalism--it"s pure Socialism and Quixotry," said poor Sir John, who was proud of his Toryism.
His wife only shook her head, and said, drily, that she would not undertake to prophesy.
"Prophesy? My dear Selina, I merely want you to exert common caution and foresight. There is but one thing to do with Anna. We must get her married as soon as ever we can, before she is twenty-one, if possible.
She must marry a man on our own side, some years older than herself--a man of the world, who will look after her property and teach her common-sense--a man who can restrain her, and guide her, and make her happy. I would give a thousand pounds to find such a man."
But in his own heart the baronet believed that he had found him, for he thought of his friend, Sydney Campion.
Campion had small private means, if any; he knew that; but then he seemed likely to be one of the foremost men of the day, and if he could achieve his present position at his age, what would he not be in ten years" time? Quite a match for Anna Pynsent, in spite of her beauty and her sixty thousand pounds. If Nan had been a little more commonplace, Sir John would have aspired higher for her. But there was a strain of "quixotry," as he called it, in her nature, which made him always uncertain as to her next action. And he felt that it would be a relief to him to have her safely married to a friend of his own, and one whom he could influence, if necessary, in the right direction, like Sydney Campion.
Campion was a handsome fellow, too, and popular, Sir John believed, with the ladies. It was all the more odd and unaccountable that Nan seemed to have taken a dislike to him. She would not talk about his doings; she would go out if she thought that he was likely to call. Sir John could not understand it. And Campion seemed shy of coming to the house in Eaton Square when the Pynsents returned to town; he was pleasant enough with Sir John at the Club, but he did not appear to wish for much social intercourse with Sir John"s wife and sister. The worthy baronet would have been a little huffed, but for the preoccupation of his mind with other matters, chiefly political.
But this was in November and December; and he knew that Campion"s mother had lately died, and that he was anxious about that clever sister of his, who had lately written a good novel, and then been ill, and had gone to Italy. There was that Walcott affair, too, which had lately come to Sir John"s ears, a very awkward affair for Campion to have his sister"s name mixed up in. Probably that was the reason why he was holding back. Very nice of Campion, very nice. And Sir John became doubly cordial in his manner, and pressed Sydney to dine with him next week.
With some reluctance, Sydney accepted the invitation. He had been perilously near making a fool of himself with Miss Pynsent, and he knew that she had found it out. It was quite enough to make him feel angry and resentful, and to wish to avoid her. At the same time, he was conscious of a feeling of regret that he had muddled matters so completely--for Miss Pynsent was a lovely girl, her violin-playing was delicious, she had sixty thousand pounds, and Sir John was his friend.
Sydney lost himself for a moment in a reverie.
"Not very likely," he said, waking up with a rather uneasy laugh. "At the best of times, I should never have had much chance. There are a good many reasons against it now." And it was with a slight shade upon his brow that he dismissed the matter from his mind and applied himself to business.
He need not have troubled himself. When he went to dine in Eaton Square, Miss Pynsent was absent. She had gone to spend the evening with a friend. Evidently, thought Sydney, with an odd feeling of discomfiture, because she wanted to avoid him. How ridiculous it was! What a self-conscious little fool she must be to take offense at a compliment, even if it were rather obvious, and not in the best possible taste! He began to feel angry with Miss Pynsent. It did not occur to him for some time that he was expending a great deal of unusual warmth and irritation on a very trifling matter. What were Miss Pynsent and her opinions to him? Other women admired him, if she did not; other women were ready enough to accept his flattery. But just because there was one thing out of his reach, one woman who showed a positive distaste for his society, Sydney, like the spoiled child of the world that he was, was possessed by a secret hankering for that one thing, for the good opinion of the woman who would have none of him. Vanity was chiefly to blame for this condition of things; but Sydney"s vanity was a plant of very long and steady growth.
He saw nothing more of the Pynsents, however, until February, when, on the day of the first drawing-room, he ran up against Sir John in Piccadilly.
"Come along," said Sir John instantly, "I want you to come to my wife"s.
I"m late, and she won"t scold me if you are with me. I shall use you as a buffer."
Sydney laughed and shook his head. "Very sorry, too busy, I"m afraid,"
he began.
But Sir John would not be baffled. He had put his hand within Sydney"s arm and was walking him rapidly down ---- Street.
"My dear fellow, we"ve not seen you for an age. You may just as well look in this afternoon. Nan"s been presented to-day, and there"s a drawing-room tea going on--a function of adoration to the dresses, I believe. The women will take it as a personal compliment if you come and admire them."
Mentally, Sydney shrugged his shoulders. He had had enough of paying compliments to Miss Pynsent. But he saw that there was no help for it.
Sir John would be offended if he did not go, and really he had no engagement. And he rather wondered how Miss Pynsent would look in Court attire. She had worn a plain cotton and a flapping straw hat when he saw her last.
Lady Pynsent"s drawing-room was crowded, but she greeted her husband and Mr. Campion with great cordiality. She was wearing an elaborate costume of blue velvet and blush-rose satin, and bore an indescribable resemblance to a c.o.c.katoo. A dowager in black satin and two _debutantes_ in white, who belonged to some country place and were resting at Lady Pynsent"s house before going home in the evening, were also present; but at first Sydney did not see Nan Pynsent. She had entered a little morning-room, with two or three friends of her own age, who wanted to inspect her dress more narrowly; and it was not until Sydney had been in the room for five or ten minutes that she reappeared.
Was this stately and beautiful woman Nan Pynsent indeed? Sydney was not learned in the art of dress, or he might have appraised more exactly the effect produced by the exquisite lace, the soft white ostrich feathers, the milk-white pearls, that Nan was wearing on this memorable occasion.
He was well accustomed by this time to the sight of pretty girls and pretty dresses; but there was something in Miss Pynsent"s face and figure which struck him with a new and almost reluctant sort of admiration.
He was looking at her, without knowing how intent his gaze had become, when she glanced round and caught his eye. She bowed and colored slightly; then, after saying a word to Lady Pynsent, she came towards him. Sydney was uncomfortably conscious that her evident intention to speak to him made her a little nervous.
She held out her long, slim hand, and favored him with the pleasantest of smiles.
"How do you do, Mr. Campion? I have not met you for a long time, I think. How good of you to come to-day! Lady Pynsent is so pleased."
There was nothing for Sydney to do but to respond in the same gracious strain; but he was certainly more reserved than usual in his speech, and behaved with an almost exaggerated amount of respect and formality.
After the first two or three sentences he noticed that her eyes began to look abstractedly away from him, and that she answered one of his remarks at random. And while he was wondering, with some irritation, what this change might mean, she drew back into a bow window, and motioned to him almost imperceptibly to follow her. A heavy window curtain half hid them from curious eyes, and a bank of flowers in the window gave them an ostensible pretext for their withdrawal.
"Look at John"s gloxinias," said Nan. "They came from Culverley, you know. Oh, Mr. Campion, I want to tell you--I"m sorry that I was so rude to you at Culverley last summer."
This proceeding was so undignified and so unexpected that Sydney was stricken dumb with amaze.
"Perhaps you have forgotten it," said Nan, coloring hotly; "but I have not. It all came from you not knowing who I was, I suppose--Mrs. Murray told me that she believes you thought I was the governess; and if I had been, how odd it must have seemed to you that I should talk about your duties to the Vanebury laborers! You know I have some property there, and so----"
"Oh, it was perfectly natural, and I never thought of it again," said Sydney lamely. But she went on unheeding--
"And then I felt vexed, and when you asked me for a flower"--how innocently it was said!--"I know I banged the door in your face. Selina said I must have been very rude to you. And so I was."
But Selina had not meant that she should acknowledge her "rudeness" to Mr. Campion, nor had Nan told her of the bold admiration that she had read in Sydney"s eyes.
"Will you forgive me, Mr. Campion? You are such a friend of John"s that I should not like to think I had offended you."
"You never offended me, Miss Pynsent. In fact, I"m afraid--I--was very dense." He really did not know what to say; Miss Pynsent"s _navete_ almost alarmed him.
"Then you are not angry with me?"
How lovely were the eyes that looked so pleadingly into his face! Was she a coquette? But he could only answer as in duty bound--
"Not angry in the very least, Miss Pynsent."
"I am so glad. Because I want to talk to you about Vanebury one day. But I must not stop now, for there are all these people to talk to, you know."
"I may ask you to forgive the stupidity of my mistake, then?" said Sydney quickly.