"I should prefer you to go with Christopher, my dear; he is more thoughtful and dependable than Alan Tremaine. I always feel perfectly happy about you when you have Christopher to take care of you."
Elisabeth laughed her cousin to scorn. She did not want anybody to take care of her, she thought; she was perfectly able to take care of herself. But Miss Farringdon belonged to a time when single women of forty were supposed to require careful supervision; and Elisabeth was but four-and-twenty.
Christopher, when consulted, fell into the arrangement with alacrity; and it was arranged for him to take Elisabeth over to Burlingham on the one day that Coulson"s circus was on exhibition there. Elisabeth looked forward to the treat like a child; for she was by nature extremely fond of pleasure, and by circ.u.mstance little accustomed to it.
Great then was her disappointment when the morning of the day arrived, to receive a short note from Christopher saying that he was extremely sorry to inconvenience her, but that his business engagements made it impossible for him to take her to Burlingham that day; and adding various apologies and hopes that she would not be too angry with him.
She had so few treats that her disappointment at losing one was really acute for the moment; but what hurt her far more than the disappointment was the consciousness that Chris had obeyed the calls of business rather than her behest--had thought less of her pleasure than of the claims of the Osierfield. All Elisabeth"s pride (or was it her vanity?) rose up in arms at the slight which Christopher had thus put upon her; and she felt angrier with him than she had ever felt with anybody in her life before.
She began to pour out the vials of her wrath in the presence of Miss Farringdon; but that good lady was so much pleased to find a young man who cared more for business than for pleasure, or even for a young woman, that she accorded Elisabeth but scant sympathy. So Elisabeth possessed her wounded soul in extreme impatience, until such time as the offender himself should appear upon the scene, ready to receive those vials which had been specially prepared for his destruction.
He duly appeared about tea-time, and found Elisabeth consuming the smoke of her anger in the garden.
"I hope you are not very angry with me," he began in a humble tone, sitting down beside her on the old rustic seat; "but I found myself obliged to disappoint you as soon as I got to the works this morning; and I am sure you know me well enough to understand that it wasn"t my fault, and that I couldn"t help myself."
"I don"t know you well enough for anything of the kind," replied Elisabeth, flashing a pair of very bright eyes upon his discomfited face; "but I know you well enough to understand that you are just a ma.s.s of selfishness and horridness, and that you care for nothing but just what interests and pleases yourself."
Christopher was startled. "Elisabeth, you don"t mean that; you know you don"t."
"Yes; I do. I mean that I have always hated you, and that I hate you more than ever to-day. It was just like you to care more for the business than you did for me, and never to mind about my disappointment as long as that nasty old ironworks was satisfied. I tell you I hate you, and I hate the works, and I hate everything connected with you."
Christopher looked utterly astonished. He had no idea, he said to himself, that Elisabeth cared so much about going to Coulson"s circus; and he could not see anything in the frustration of a day"s excursion to account for such a storm of indignation as this. He did not realize that it was the rage of a monarch whose kingdom was in a state of rebellion, and whose dominion seemed in danger of slipping away altogether.
Elisabeth might not understand Christopher; but Christopher was not always guiltless of misunderstanding Elisabeth.
"And it was just like you," Elisabeth went on, "not to let me know till the last minute, when it was too late for anything to be done. If you had only had the consideration--I may say the mere civility--to send word last night that your royal highness could not be bothered with me and my affairs to-day, I could have arranged with Alan Tremaine to take me. He is always able to turn his attention for a time from his own pleasure to other people"s."
"But I thought I told you that it was not until I got to the works this morning that I discovered it would be impossible for me to take you to Burlingham to-day."
"Then you ought to have found it out sooner."
"Hang it all! I really can not find out things before they occur. Clever as I am, I am not quite clever enough for that. If I were, I should soon make my own fortune by telling other people theirs."
But Elisabeth was too angry to be flippant. "The fact is you care for nothing but yourself and your horrid old business. I always told you how it would be."
"You did. For whatever faults you may have to blame yourself, over-indulgence toward mine will never be one of them. You can make your conscience quite clear on that score." Christopher was as determined to treat the quarrel lightly as Elisabeth was to deal with it on serious grounds.
"You have grown into a regular, commonplace, money-grubbing, business man, with no thoughts for anything higher than making iron and money and vulgar things like that."
"And making you angry--that is a source of distinct pleasure to me. You have no idea how charming you are when you are--well, for the sake of euphony we will say slightly ruffled, Miss Elisabeth Farringdon."
Elisabeth stamped her foot. "I wish to goodness you"d be serious sometimes! Frivolity is positively loathsome in a man."
"Then I repent it in dust and ashes, and shall rely upon your more sedate and serious mind to correct this tendency in me. Besides, as you generally blame me for erring in the opposite direction, it is a relief to find you smiting me on the other cheek as a change. It keeps up my mental circulation better."
"You are both too frivolous and too serious."
Christopher was unwise enough to laugh. "My dear child, I seem to make what is called "a corner" in vices; but even I can not reconcile the conflicting ones."
Then Elisabeth"s anger settled down into the quiet stage. "If you think it gentlemanly to disappoint a lady and then insult her, pray go on doing so; I can only say that I don"t."
"What on earth do you mean, Elisabeth? Do you really believe that I meant to vex you?" The laughter had entirely died out of Christopher"s face, and his voice was hoa.r.s.e.
"I don"t know what you meant, and I am afraid I don"t much mind. All I know is that you did disappoint me and did insult me, and that is enough for me. The purity of your motives is not my concern; I merely resent the impertinence of your behaviour."
Christopher rose from his seat; he was serious enough now. "You are unjust to me, Elisabeth, but I can not and will not attempt to justify myself. Good afternoon."
For a second the misery on his face penetrated the thunder-clouds of Elisabeth"s indignation. "Won"t you have some tea before you go?" she asked. It seemed brutal--even to her outraged feelings--to send so old a friend empty away.
Christopher"s smile was very bitter as he answered. "No, thank you. I am afraid, after the things you have said to me, I should hardly be able graciously to accept hospitality at your hands; and rather than accept it ungraciously, I will not accept it at all." And he turned on his heel and left her.
As she watched his retreating figure, one spasm of remorse shot through Elisabeth"s heart; but it was speedily stifled by the recollection that, for the first time in her life, Christopher had failed her, and had shown her plainly that there were, in his eyes, more important matters than Miss Elisabeth Farringdon and her whims and fancies. And what woman, worthy of the name, could extend mercy to a man who had openly displayed so flagrant a want of taste and discernment as this? Certainly not Elisabeth, nor any other fashioned after her pattern. She felt that she had as much right to be angry as had the prophet, when Almighty Wisdom saw fit to save the great city in which he was not particularly interested, and to destroy the gourd in which he was. And so, probably, she had.
For several days after this she kept clear of Christopher, nursing her anger in her heart; and he was so hurt and sore from the lashing which her tongue had given him, that he felt no inclination to come within the radius of that tongue"s bitterness again.
But one day, when Elisabeth was sitting on the floor of the Moat House drawing-room, playing with the baby and discussing new gowns with Felicia between times, Alan came in and remarked--
"It was wise of you to give up your excursion to Coulson"s circus last week, Elisabeth; as it has turned out it was chiefly a scare, and the case was greatly exaggerated; but it might have made you feel uncomfortable if you had gone. I suppose you saw the notice of the outbreak in that morning"s paper, and so gave it up at the last moment."
Elisabeth ceased from her free translation of the baby"s gurglings and her laudable endeavours suitably to reply to the same, and gave her whole attention to the baby"s father. "I don"t know what you mean. What scare and what outbreak are you talking about?"
"Didn"t you see," replied Alan, "that there was an outbreak of cholera at Coulson"s circus, and a frightful scare all through Burlingham in consequence? Of course the newspapers greatly exaggerated the danger, and so increased the scare; and I don"t know that I blame them for that.
I am not sure that the sensational way in which the press announces possible dangers to the community is not a safeguard for the community at large. To be alive to a danger is nine times out of ten to avoid a danger; and it is far better to be more frightened than hurt than to be more hurt than frightened--certainly for communities if not for individuals."
"But tell me about it. I never saw any account in the papers; and I"m glad I didn"t, for it would have frightened me out of my wits."
"It broke out among a troupe of acrobats who had just come straight from the South of France, and evidently brought the infection with them. They were at once isolated, and such prompt and efficient measures were taken to prevent the spread of the disease, that there have been no more cases, either in the circus or in the town. Now, I should imagine, all danger of its spreading is practically over; but, of course, it made everybody in the neighbourhood, and everybody who had been to the circus, very nervous and uncomfortable for a few days. The local authorities, however, omitted no possible precaution which should a.s.sist them in stamping out the epidemic, should those few cases have started an epidemic--which was, of course, possible, though hardly likely."
And then Alan proceeded to expound his views on the matter of sanitary authorities in general and of those of Burlingham in particular, to which Felicia listened with absorbing attention and Elisabeth did not listen at all.
Soon after this she took her leave; and all along the homeward walk through Badgering Woods she was conscious of feeling ashamed of herself--a very rare sensation with Elisabeth, and by no means an agreeable one. She was by nature so self-reliant and so irresponsible that she seldom regretted anything that she had done; if she had acted wisely, all was well; and if she had not acted wisely, it was over and done with, and what was the use of bothering any more about it? This was her usual point of view, and it proved as a rule a most comfortable one.
But now she could not fail to see that she had been in the wrong--hopelessly and flagrantly in the wrong--and that she had behaved abominably to Christopher into the bargain. She had to climb down, as other ruling powers have had to climb down before now; and the act of climbing down is neither a becoming nor an exhilarating form of exercise to ruling powers. But at the back of her humble contrition there was a feeling of gladness in the knowledge that Christopher had not really failed her after all, and that her kingdom was still her own as it had been in her childish days; and there was also a n.o.bler feeling of higher joy in the consciousness that--quite apart from his att.i.tude toward her--Christopher was still the Christopher that she had always in her inmost soul believed him to be; that she was not wrong in the idea she had formed of him long ago. It is very human to be glad on our own account when people are as fond of us as we expected them to be; but it is divine to be glad, solely for their sakes, when they act up to their own ideals, quite apart from us. And there was a touch of divinity in Elisabeth"s gladness just then, though the rest of her was extremely human--and feminine at that.
On her way home she encountered Caleb Bateson going back to work after dinner, and she told him to ask Mr. Thornley to come up to the Willows that afternoon, as she wanted to see him. She preferred to send a verbal message, as by so doing she postponed for a few hours that climbing-down process which she so much disliked; although it is frequently easier to climb down by means of one"s pen than by means of one"s tongue.
Christopher felt no pleasure in receiving her message. He was not angry with her, although he marvelled at the unreasonableness and injustice of a s.e.x that thinks more of a day"s pleasure than a life"s devotion; he did not know that it was over the life"s devotion and not the day"s pleasure that Elisabeth had fought so hard that day; but his encounter with her had strangely tired him, and taken the zest out of his life, and he had no appet.i.te for any more of such disastrous and inglorious warfare.
But he obeyed her mandate all the same, having learned the important political lesson that the fact of a Government"s being in the wrong is no excuse for not obeying the orders of that Government; and he waited for her in the drawing-room at the Willows, looking out toward the sunset and wondering how hard upon him Elisabeth was going to be. And his thoughts were so full of her that he did not hear her come into the room until she clasped both her hands round his arm and looked up into his gloomy face, saying--
"Oh! Chris, I"m so dreadfully ashamed of myself."
The clouds were dispelled at once, and Christopher smiled as he had not smiled for a week. "Never mind," he said, patting the hands that were on his arm; "it"s all right."
But Elisabeth, having set out upon the descent, was prepared to climb down handsomely. "It isn"t all right; it"s all wrong. I was simply fiendish to you, and I shall never forgive myself--never."
"Oh, yes; you will. And for goodness" sake don"t worry over it. I"m glad you have found out that I wasn"t quite the selfish brute that I seemed; and that"s the end of the matter."
"Dear me! no; it isn"t. It is only the beginning. I want to tell you how dreadfully sorry I am, and to ask you to forgive me."
"I"ve nothing to forgive."
"Yes, you have; lots." And Elisabeth was nearer the mark than Christopher.