"Do you know about the Parliament plan, then?" Pen asked.
"Know?--all the world knows! I have heard it talked about many times.
Lady Rockminster"s doctor talked about it to-day. I daresay it will be in the Chatteris paper to-morrow. It is all over the county that Sir Francis Clavering, of Clavering, is going to retire, in behalf of Mr.
Arthur Pendennis, of Fairoaks; and that the young and beautiful Miss Blanche Amory is----"
"What! that too?" asked Pendennis.
"That, too, dear Arthur. Tout se sait, as somebody would say, whom I intend to be very fond of; and who I am sure is very clever and pretty.
I have had a letter from Blanche. The kindest of letters. She speaks so warmly of you, Arthur! I hope--I know she feels what she writes.--When is it to be, Arthur? Why did you not tell me? I may come and live with you then, mayn"t I?"
"My home is yours, dear Laura, and everything I have," Pen said. "If I did not tell you, it was because--because--I do not know: nothing is decided as yet. No words have pa.s.sed between us. But you think Blanche could be happy with me--don"t you? Not a romantic fondness, you know.
I have no heart, I think; I"ve told her so: only a sober-sided attachment:--and want my wife on one side of the fire and my sister on the other,--Parliament in the session and Fairoaks in the holidays, and my Laura never to leave me until somebody who has a right comes to take her away."
Somebody who has a right--somebody with a right! Why did Pen, as he looked at the girl and slowly uttered the words, begin to feel angry and jealous of the invisible somebody with the right to take her away?
Anxious, but a minute ago, how she would take the news regarding his probable arrangements with Blanche, Pen was hurt somehow that she received the intelligence so easily, and took his happiness for granted.
"Until somebody comes," Laura said, with a laugh, "I will stay at home and be aunt Laura, and take care of the children when Blanche is in the world. I have arranged it all. I am an excellent housekeeper. Do you know I have been to market at Paris with Mrs. Beck, and have taken some lessons from M. Grandjean? And I have had some lessons in Paris in singing too, with the money which you sent me, you kind boy: and I can sing much better now: and I have learned to dance, though not so well as Blanche; and when you become a minister of state, Blanche shall present me:" and with this, and with a provoking good-humour, she performed for him the last Parisian curtsey.
Lady Rockminster came in whilst this curtsey was being performed, and gave to Arthur one finger to shake; which he took, and over which he bowed as well as he could, which, in truth, was very clumsily.
"So you are going to be married, sir," said the old lady.
"Scold him, Lady Rockminster, for not telling us," Laura said, going away: which, in truth, the old lady began instantly to do. "So you are going to marry, and to go into Parliament in place of that good-for-nothing Sir Francis Clavering. I wanted him to give my grandson his seat--why did he not give my grandson his seat? I hope you are to have a great deal of money with Miss Amory. I wouldn"t take her without a great deal."
"Sir Francis Clavering is tired of Parliament," Pen said, wincing, "and--and I rather wish to attempt that career. The rest of the story is at least premature."
"I wonder, when you had Laura at home, you could take up with such an affected little creature as that," the old lady continued.
"I am very sorry Miss Amory does not please your ladyship," said Pen, smiling.
"You mean--that it is no affair of mine, and that I am not going to marry her. Well, I"m not, and I"m very glad I am not--a little odious thing--when I think that a man could prefer her to my Laura, I"ve no patience with him, and so I tell you, Mr. Arthur Pendennis."
"I am very glad you see Laura with such favourable eyes," Pen said.
"You are very glad, and you are very sorry. What does it matter, sir, whether you are very glad or very sorry? A young man who prefers Miss Amory to Miss Bell has no business to be sorry or glad. A young man who takes up with such a crooked lump of affectation as that little Amory,--for she is crooked, I tell you she is,--after seeing my Laura, has no right to hold up his head again. Where is your friend Bluebeard?
The tall young man, I mean,--Warrington, isn"t his name? Why does he not come down, and marry Laura? What do the young men mean by not marrying such a girl as that? They all marry for money now. You are all selfish and cowards. We ran away with each other, and made foolish matches in my time. I have no patience with the young men! When I was at Paris in the winter, I asked all the three attaches at the Emba.s.sy why they did not fall in love with Miss Bell? They laughed--they said they wanted money.
You are all selfish--you are all cowards."
"I hope before you offered Miss Bell to the attaches," said Pen, with some heat, "you did her the favour to consult her?"
"Miss Bell has only a little money. Miss Bell must marry soon. Somebody must make a match for her, sir; and a girl can"t offer herself," said the old dowager, with great state. "Laura, my dear, I"ve been telling your cousin that all the young men are selfish; and that there is not a pennyworth of romance left among them. He is as bad as the rest."
"Have you been asking Arthur why he won"t marry me?" said Laura, with a kindling smile, coming back and taking her cousin"s hand. (She had been away, perhaps, to hide some traces of emotion, which she did not wish others to see.) "He is going to marry somebody else; and I intend to be very fond of her, and to go and live with them, provided he then does not ask every bachelor who comes to his house, why he does not marry me?"
The terrors of Pen"s conscience being thus appeased, and his examination before Laura over without any reproaches on the part of the latter, Pen began to find that his duty and inclination led him constantly to Baymouth, where Lady Rockminster informed him that a place was always reserved for him at her table. "And I recommend you to come often," the old lady said, "for Grandjean is an excellent cook, and to be with Laura and me will do your manners good. It is easy to see that you are always thinking about yourself. Don"t blush and stammer--almost all young men are always thinking about themselves. My sons and grandsons always were until I cured them. Come here, and let us teach you to behave properly; you will not have to carve, that is done at the side-table. Hecker will give you as much wine as is good for you; and on days when you are very good and amusing you shall have some champagne. Hecker, mind what I say. Mr. Pendennis is Miss Laura"s brother; and you will make him comfortable, and see that he does not have too much wine, or disturb me whilst I am taking my nap after dinner. You are selfish: I intend to cure you of being selfish. You will dine here when you have no other engagements; and if it rains you had better put up at the hotel." As long as the good lady could order everybody round about her, she was not hard to please; and all the slaves and subjects of her little dowager court trembled before her, but loved her.
She did not receive a very numerous or brilliant society. The doctor, of course, was admitted as a constant and faithful visitor; the vicar and his curate; and on public days the vicar"s wife and daughters, and some of the season visitors at Baymouth, were received at the old lady"s entertainments: but generally the company was a small one, and Mr.
Arthur drank his wine by himself, when Lady Rockminster retired to take her doze, and to be played and sung to sleep by Laura after dinner.
"If my music can give her a nap," said the good-natured girl, "ought I not to be very glad that it can do so much good? Lady Rockminster sleeps very little of nights: and I used to read to her until I fell ill at Paris, since when she will not hear of my sitting up."
"Why did you not write to me when you were ill?" asked Pen, with a blush.
"What good could you do me? I had Martha to nurse me and the doctor every day. You are too busy to write to women or to think about them.
You have your books and your newspapers, and your politics and your railroads to occupy you. I wrote when I was well."
And Pen looked at her, and blushed again, as he remembered that, during all the time of her illness, he had never written to her and had scarcely thought about her.
In consequence of his relationship, Pen was free to walk and ride with his cousin constantly, and in the course of those walks and rides, could appreciate the sweet frankness of her disposition, and the truth, simplicity, and kindliness of her fair and spotless heart. In their mother"s lifetime, she had never spoken so openly or so cordially as now. The desire of poor Helen to make an union between her two children, had caused a reserve on Laura"s part towards Pen; for which, under the altered circ.u.mstances of Arthur"s life, there was now no necessity.
He was engaged to another woman; and Laura became his sister at once,--hiding, or banishing from herself, any doubts which she might have as to his choice; striving to look cheerfully forward, and hope for his prosperity; promising herself to do all that affection might do to make her mother"s darling happy.
Their talk was often about the departed mother. And it was from a thousand stories which Laura told him that Arthur was made aware how constant and absorbing that silent maternal devotion had been; which had accompanied him present and absent through life, and had only ended with the fond widow"s last breath. One day the people in Clavering saw a lad in charge of a couple of horses at the churchyard-gate: and it was told over the place that Pen and Laura had visited Helen"s grave together.
Since Arthur had come down into the country, he had been there once or twice: but the sight of the sacred stone had brought no consolation to him. A guilty man doing a guilty deed: a mere speculator, content to lay down his faith and honour for a fortune and a worldly career; and owning that his life was but a contemptible surrender--what right had he in the holy place? what booted it to him in the world he lived in, that others were no better than himself? Arthur and Laura rode by the gates of Fairoaks; and he shook hands with his tenant"s children, playing on the lawn and the terrace--Laura looked steadily at the cottage wall, at the creeper on the porch and the magnolia growing up to her window. "Mr.
Pendennis rode by to-day," one of the boys told his mother, "with a lady, and he stopped and talked to us, and he asked for a bit of honeysuckle off the porch, and gave it the lady. I couldn"t see if she was pretty; she had her veil down. She was riding one of Cramp"s horses, out of Baymouth."
As they rode over the downs between home and Baymouth, Pen did not speak much, though they rode very close together. He was thinking what a mockery life was, and how men refuse happiness when they may have it; or, having it, kick it down; or barter it, with their eyes open, for a little worthless money or beggarly honour. And then the thought came, what does it matter for the little s.p.a.ce? The lives of the best and purest of us are consumed in a vain desire, and end in a disappointment: as the dear soul"s who sleeps in her grave yonder. She had her selfish ambition, as much as Caesar had; and died, baulked of her life"s longing. The stone covers over our hopes and our memories. Our place knows us not. "Other people"s children are playing on the gra.s.s," he broke out, in a hard voice, "where you and I used to play, Laura. And you see how the magnolia we planted has grown up since our time. I have been round to one or two of the cottages where my mother used to visit.
It is scarcely more than a year that she is gone, and the people whom she used to benefit care no more for her death than for Queen Anne"s. We are all selfish: the world is selfish: there are but a few exceptions, like you, my dear, to shine like good deeds in a naughty world, and make the blackness more dismal."
"I wish you would not speak in that way, Arthur," said Laura, looking down and bending her head to the honeysuckle on her breast. "When you told the little boy to give me this, you were not selfish."
"A pretty sacrifice I made to get it for you!" said the sneerer.
"But your heart was kind and full of love when you did so. One cannot ask for more than love and kindness; and if you think humbly of yourself Arthur, the love and kindness are--diminished--are they? I often thought our dearest mother spoiled you at home, by worshipping you; and that if you are--I hate the word--what you say, her too great fondness helped to make you so. And as for the world, when men go out into it, I suppose they cannot be otherwise than selfish. You have to fight for yourself, and to get on for yourself, and to make a name for yourself. Mamma and your uncle both encouraged you in this ambition. If it is a vain thing, why pursue it? I suppose such a clever man as you intend to do a great deal of good to the country, by going into Parliament, or you would not wish to be there. What are you going to do when you are in the House of Commons?"
"Women don"t understand about politics, my dear," Pen said sneering at himself as he spoke.
"But why don"t you make us understand? I could never tell about Mr.
Pynsent why he should like to be there so much. He is not a clever man----"
"He certainly is not a genius, Pynsent," said Pen.
"Lady Diana says that he attends Committees all day; that then again he is at the House all night; that he always votes as he is told; that he never speaks; that he will never get on beyond a subordinate place; and as his grandmother tells him, he is choked with red-tape. Are you going to follow the same career; Arthur? What is there in it so brilliant that you should be so eager for it? I would rather that you should stop at home, and write books--good books, kind books, with gentle kind thoughts, such as you have, dear Arthur, and such as might do people good to read. And if you do not win fame, what then? You own it is vanity, and you can live very happily without it. I must not pretend to advise; but I take you at your own word about the world; and as you own it is wicked, and that it tires you, ask you why you don"t leave it?"
"And what would you have me do?" asked Arthur.
"I would have you bring your wife to Fairoaks to live there, and study, and do good round about you. I would like to see your own children playing on the lawn, Arthur, and that we might pray in our mother"s church again once more, dear brother. If the world is a temptation, are we not told to pray that we may not be led into it?"
"Do you think Blanche would make a good wife for a petty country gentleman? Do you think I should become the character very well, Laura?"
Pen asked. "Remember temptation walks about the hedgerows as well as the city streets: and idleness is the greatest tempter of all."
"What does--does Mr. Warrington say?" said Laura, as a blush mounted up to her cheek, and of which Pen saw the fervour, though Laura"s veil fell over her face to hide it.
Pen rode on by Laura"s side silently for a while. George"s name so mentioned brought back the past to him, and the thoughts which he had once had regarding George and Laura. Why should the recurrence of the thought agitate him, now that he knew the union was impossible? Why should he be curious to know if, during the months of their intimacy, Laura had felt a regard for Warrington? From that day until the present time George had never alluded to his story, and Arthur remembered now that since then George had scarcely ever mentioned Laura"s name.
At last he cane close to her. "Tell me something, Laura," he said.
She put back her veil and looked at him. "What is it, Arthur?" she asked--though from the tremor of her voice she guessed very well.
"Tell me--but for George"s misfortune--I never knew him speak of it before or since that day--would you--would you have given him--what you refused me?"