Newbury laughed; but Sir Wilfrid perceived the hurt feeling which mingled with the laugh.
"Absurd fellow!" said Sir Wilfrid. "His proceedings here amuse me a good deal--but they naturally annoy his mother. You have heard of the business with the Baptists?"
Newbury had seen some account of it in the local paper.
"Well now they"ve got their land--through Coryston. There always was a square piece in the very middle of the village--an _enclave_ belonging to an old maid, the daughter of a man who was a former butler of the Corystons, generations ago. She had migrated to Edinburgh, but Coryston has found her, got at her, and made her sell it--finding, I believe, the greater part of the money. It won"t be long before he"ll be laying the foundation-stone of the new Bethel--under his mother"s nose."
"A truly kind and filial thing to do!" said the young High Churchman, flushing.
Sir Wilfrid eyed him slyly.
"Moral--don"t keep a conscience--political or ecclesiastical. There"s nothing but mischief comes of it. And, for Heaven"s sake, don"t be a posthumous villain!"
"What"s that?"
"A man who makes an unjust will, and leaves everything to his wife," said Sir Wilfrid, calmly. "It"s played the deuce in this family, and will go on doing it."
Whereupon the late Lord Coryston"s executor produced an outline of the family history--up to date--for the benefit of Lady Coryston"s future son-in-law. Newbury, who was always singularly ignorant of the town gossip on such matters, received it with amazement. Nothing could be more unlike the strictly traditional ways which governed his own family in matters of money and inheritance.
"So Arthur inherits everything!"
"Hm--does he?" said Sir Wilfrid.
"But I thought--"
"Wait and see, my dear fellow, wait and see. He will only marry Miss Glenwilliam over his mother"s body--and if he does marry her he may whistle for the estates."
"Then James will have them?" said Newbury, smiling.
"Why not Marcia? She has as good a chance as anybody."
"I hope not!" Newbury"s tone showed a genuine discomfort.
"What is Lady Coryston doing?"
"About the Glenwilliam affair? Ah!--what isn"t she doing?" said Sir Wilfrid, significantly. "All the same, she lies low." As he spoke, his eyes fell upon the hillside and on the white cottage of the Atherstones emerging from the wood. He pointed.
"They will be there on Sunday fortnight--after the Martover meeting."
"Who? The Glenwilliams?"
Sir Wilfrid nodded.
"And I am of opinion that something will happen. When two highly inflammable bodies approach each other, something generally does happen."
CHAPTER XII
The weeks that followed offered no particular A event, but were none the less important to this history. Coryston was called off to an election in the north, where he made a series of speeches which perhaps in the end annoyed the Labor candidate he was supporting as much as the Tory he was attacking. For, generally reckoned a Socialist by friends and opponents alike, he preached openly, on this occasion, that Socialism was absurd, and none but fools would upset kings and cabinets, to be governed by committees.
And on one of his spare evenings he wrote a letter to Edward Newbury, loftily accepting him as a brother-in-law--on conditions.
"I see no reason," he wrote, "why you and I should not be good friends--if only I can induce you to take the line of common humanity in this pitiful case, which, as you know, has set our whole neighborhood aflame. Your _opinions_ on divorce don"t matter, of course, to me--nor mine to you. But there are cruelties of which all men are judges. And if you must--because of your opinions--commit yourself to one of them--why then, whether you marry Marcia or no, you and I can"t be friends. It would be mere hypocrisy to suppose it. And I tell you quite frankly that I shall do my best to influence Marcia. There seem to me to be one or two ways out of the business, that would at any rate relieve you of any active connivance with what you hold to be immorality. I have dealt with them in my letter to your father. But if you stand on your present fiat--"Separate--or go--"
well, then you and I"ll come to blows--Marcia or no Marcia. And I warn you that Marcia is at bottom a humanist--in the new sense--like me."
To which Newbury promptly replied:
"My dear Coryston--I am quite prepared to discuss the Betts case with you, whenever you return, and we can meet. But we cannot discuss it to any useful purpose, unless you are prepared to allow me, before we begin, the same freedom of opinion that you claim for yourself. It is no good ruling out opinion--or rather conviction--and supposing that we can agree, apart from conviction, on what is cruelty in this case, and what isn"t. The omitted point is vital. I find it difficult to write about Marcia--perhaps because my heart and mind are so full of her. All I can say is that the happiness she has brought me by consenting to be my wife must necessarily affect all I think and feel. And to begin with, it makes me very keen to understand and be friends with those she loves. She is very much attached to you--though much troubled often, as of course you know, by the line you have taken down here.... Let me know when you return--that I may come over to Knatchett. We can be brothers, can"t we?--even though we look at life so differently."
But to this Coryston, who had gone on to a Labor Congress in Scotland, made no reply.
The June days pa.s.sed on, bringing the "high midsummer pomps." Every day Newbury and Marcia met, and the Betts case was scarcely mentioned between them after Newbury had been able to tell her that Lord William in London had got from some Canadian magnates who happened to be there, a cordial and even enthusiastic promise of employment for John Betts, in connection with a Government experiment in Alberta. An opening was ready; the Newburys guaranteed all expenses; and at last Betts himself seemed to be reconciled to the prospect of emigration, being now, as always, determined to stick to his marriage. n.o.body wished to hurry him; he was considering the whole proposal; and in a week or two Newbury quite hoped that matters might be arranged.
Meanwhile, though the pride of the Newburys concealed the fact as much as possible, not only from Marcia but from each other, the dilemma on the horns of which John and Alice Betts had found themselves impaled, was being eagerly, even pa.s.sionately discussed through the whole district. The supporters of the Newburys were many, for there were scores of persons on the Newbury estates who heartily sympathized with their point of view; but on the whole the defenders of the Betts marriage were more. The affair got into the newspapers, and a lecturer representing the "Rational Marriage Union" appeared from London, and addressed large and attentive audiences in the little towns. After one of these lectures, Newbury returning home at night from Coryston was pelted with stones and clods by men posted behind a hedge. He was only slightly hurt, and when Marcia tried to speak of it, his smile of frank contempt put the matter by. She could only be thankful that Coryston was still away.
For Lady Coryston, meanwhile, the Betts case scarcely existed. When it did come up, she would say impatiently that in her opinion such private matters were best left to the people concerned to settle; and it was evident that to her the High Anglican view of divorce was, like the inconvenient piety of Hoddon Grey, a thing of superfluity. But Marcia knew very well that her mother had no mind to give to such a trifle--or to anything, indeed--her own marriage not excepted--but Arthur"s disclosure, and Arthur"s intentions. What her mother"s plans were she could not discover. They lingered on at Coryston when, with the wedding so close in view, it would have been natural that they should return at once to London for shopping; and Marcia observed that her mother seemed to be more closely absorbed in politics than ever, while less attentive, perhaps, than usual to the affairs of the estate and the village. A poster announcing the Martover meeting was lying about in her sitting-room, and from a fragment of conversation overheard between her mother and Mr. Page, the agent, it seemed that Lady Coryston had been making elaborate inquiries as to those queer people, the Atherstones, with whom the Glenwilliams were to stay for the meeting. Was her mother afraid that Arthur would do something silly and public when they came down! Not the least likely! He had plenty of opportunities in London, with no local opinion, and no mother to worry him.
Yet when Parliament rea.s.sembled, and Arthur, with an offhand good-by to his mother, went back to his duties, Marcia in vain suggested to Lady Coryston that they also should return to St. James"s Square, partly to keep an eye on the backslider, partly with a view to "fittings," Lady Coryston curtly replied, that Marcia might have a motor whenever she pleased, to take her up to town, but that she herself meant for another fortnight to stay at Coryston. Marcia, much puzzled, could only write to James to beg him to play watch-dog; well aware, however, that if Arthur chose to press the pace, James could do nothing whatever to stop him.
On the day before the Glenwilliam meeting Lady Coryston, who had gone out westward through the park, was returning by motor from the direction of Martover, and reached her own big and prosperous village of Coryston Major about seven o"clock. She had been holding conference with a number of persons in the old borough of Martover, persons who might be trusted to turn a Radical meeting into a howling inferno, if the smallest c.h.i.n.k of opportunity were given them; and she was conscious of a good afternoon"s work. As she sat majestically erect in the corner of the motor, her brain was alive with plans. A pa.s.sion of political--and personal--hatred charged every vein. She was tired, but she would not admit it. On the contrary, not a day pa.s.sed that she did not say to herself that she was in the prime of life, that the best of her work as a party woman was still to do, and that even if Arthur did fail her--incredible defection!--she, alone, would fight to the end, and leave her mark, so far as a voteless woman of great possessions might, upon the country and its fortunes.
Yet the thought of Arthur was very bitter to her, and the expectation of the scene which--within forty-eight hours--she was deliberately preparing for herself. She meant to win her battle,--did not for one moment admit the possibility of losing it. But that her son would make her suffer for it she foresaw, and though she would not allow them to come into the open, there were dim fears and misgivings in the corners of her mind which made life disagreeable.
It was a fine summer evening, bright but cool. The streets of Coryston were full of people, and Lady Coryston distributed a suzerain"s greetings as she pa.s.sed along. Presently, at a spot ahead of her, she perceived a large crowd, and the motor slowed down.
"What"s the matter, Patterson?" she asked of her chauffeur.
"Layin" a stone--or somethin"--my lady," said the chauffeur in a puzzled voice.
"Laying a stone?" she repeated, wondering. Then, as the crowd parted before the motor, she caught sight of a piece of orchard ground which only that morning had been still hidden behind the high moss-grown palings which had screened it for a generation. Now the palings had been removed sufficiently to allow a broad pa.s.sage through, and the crowd outside was but an overflow from the crowd within. Lady Coryston perceived a platform with several black-coated persons in white ties, a small elderly lady, and half a dozen chairs upon it. At one end of the platform a large notice-board had apparently just been reared, for a couple of men were still at work on its supports. The board exhibited the words--"Site of the new Baptist Chapel for Coryston Major. All contributions to the building fund thankfully received."
There was no stone to be seen, gra.s.s and trees indeed were still untouched, but a public meeting was clearly proceeding, and in the chair, behind a small table, was a slight, fair-haired man, gesticulating with vigor.
Lady Coryston recognized her eldest son.
"Drive on, Patterson!" she said, furiously.
"I can"t, my lady--they"re too thick."
By this time the motor had reached the center of the gathering which filled the road, and the persons composing it had recognized Lady Coryston. A movement ran through the crowd; faces turned toward the motor, and then toward the platform; from the mother--back to the son. The faces seemed to have but one smile, conscious, sly, a little alarmed. And as the motor finally stopped--the chauffeur having no stomach for manslaughter--in front of the breach in the railings, the persons on the platform saw it, and understood what was the matter with the audience.
Coryston paused in his speech. There was a breathless moment. Then, stepping in front of the table, to the edge of the platform, he raised his voice:
"We scarcely expected, my friends, to see my mother, Lady Coryston, among us this evening. Lady Coryston has as good a right to her opinion as any of us have to ours. She has disapproved of this enterprise till now. She did not perhaps think there were so many Baptists--big and little Baptists--in Coryston--" he swept his hand round the audience with its fringe of babies.
"May we not hope that her presence to-night means that she has changed her mind--that she will not only support us--but that she will even send a check to the Building Fund! Three cheers for Lady Coryston!"