"Why, certainly, certainly," he rejoined; apparently-if such a word can be used of one who had no apparent lights or shadows about him-complimented by the question. "As a particularly Angular man, I do not fit smoothly into the social circle, and consequently I have no other engagement at Christmas-time than to partake, on the twenty-fifth, of a boiled turkey and celery sauce with a-with a particularly Angular clerk I have the good fortune to possess, whose father, being a Norfolk farmer, sends him up (the turkey up), as a present to me, from the neighbourhood of Norwich. I should be quite proud of your wishing to see me, my dear. As a professional Receiver of rents, so very few people do wish to see me, that the novelty would be bracing."
For his ready acquiescence, the grateful Rosa put her hands upon his shoulders, stood on tiptoe, and instantly kissed him.
"Lord bless me!" cried Mr. Grewgious. "Thank you, my dear! The honour is almost equal to the pleasure. Miss Twinkleton, madam, I have had a most satisfactory conversation with my ward, and I will now release you from the inc.u.mbrance of my presence."
"Nay, sir," rejoined Miss Twinkleton, rising with a gracious condescension: "say not inc.u.mbrance. Not so, by any means. I cannot permit you to say so."
"Thank you, madam. I have read in the newspapers," said Mr. Grewgious, stammering a little, "that when a distinguished visitor (not that I am one: far from it) goes to a school (not that this is one: far from it), he asks for a holiday, or some sort of grace. It being now the afternoon in the-College-of which you are the eminent head, the young ladies might gain nothing, except in name, by having the rest of the day allowed them. But if there is any young lady at all under a cloud, might I solicit-"
"Ah, Mr. Grewgious, Mr. Grewgious!" cried Miss Twinkleton, with a chastely-rallying forefinger. "O you gentlemen, you gentlemen! Fie for shame, that you are so hard upon us poor maligned disciplinarians of our s.e.x, for your sakes! But as Miss Ferdinand is at present weighed down by an incubus"-Miss Twinkleton might have said a pen-and-ink-ubus of writing out Monsieur La Fontaine-"go to her, Rosa my dear, and tell her the penalty is remitted, in deference to the intercession of your guardian, Mr. Grewgious."
Miss Twinkleton here achieved a curtsey, suggestive of marvels happening to her respected legs, and which she came out of n.o.bly, three yards behind her starting-point.
As he held it inc.u.mbent upon him to call on Mr. Jasper before leaving Cloisterham, Mr. Grewgious went to the gatehouse, and climbed its postern stair. But Mr. Jasper"s door being closed, and presenting on a slip of paper the word "Cathedral," the fact of its being service-time was borne into the mind of Mr. Grewgious. So he descended the stair again, and, crossing the Close, paused at the great western folding-door of the Cathedral, which stood open on the fine and bright, though short-lived, afternoon, for the airing of the place.
"Dear me," said Mr. Grewgious, peeping in, "it"s like looking down the throat of Old Time."
Old Time heaved a mouldy sigh from tomb and arch and vault; and gloomy shadows began to deepen in corners; and damps began to rise from green patches of stone; and jewels, cast upon the pavement of the nave from stained gla.s.s by the declining sun, began to perish. Within the grill-gate of the chancel, up the steps surmounted loomingly by the fast-darkening organ, white robes could be dimly seen, and one feeble voice, rising and falling in a cracked, monotonous mutter, could at intervals be faintly heard. In the free outer air, the river, the green pastures, and the brown arable lands, the teeming hills and dales, were reddened by the sunset: while the distant little windows in windmills and farm homesteads, shone, patches of bright beaten gold. In the Cathedral, all became gray, murky, and sepulchral, and the cracked monotonous mutter went on like a dying voice, until the organ and the choir burst forth, and drowned it in a sea of music. Then, the sea fell, and the dying voice made another feeble effort, and then the sea rose high, and beat its life out, and lashed the roof, and surged among the arches, and pierced the heights of the great tower; and then the sea was dry, and all was still.
Mr. Grewgious had by that time walked to the chancel-steps, where he met the living waters coming out.
"Nothing is the matter?" Thus Jasper accosted him, rather quickly. "You have not been sent for?"
"Not at all, not at all. I came down of my own accord. I have been to my pretty ward"s, and am now homeward bound again."
"You found her thriving?"
"Blooming indeed. Most blooming. I merely came to tell her, seriously, what a betrothal by deceased parents is."
"And what is it-according to your judgment?"
Mr. Grewgious noticed the whiteness of the lips that asked the question, and put it down to the chilling account of the Cathedral.
"I merely came to tell her that it could not be considered binding, against any such reason for its dissolution as a want of affection, or want of disposition to carry it into effect, on the side of either party."
"May I ask, had you any especial reason for telling her that?"
Mr. Grewgious answered somewhat sharply: "The especial reason of doing my duty, sir. Simply that." Then he added: "Come, Mr. Jasper; I know your affection for your nephew, and that you are quick to feel on his behalf. I a.s.sure you that this implies not the least doubt of, or disrespect to, your nephew."
"You could not," returned Jasper, with a friendly pressure of his arm, as they walked on side by side, "speak more handsomely."
Mr. Grewgious pulled off his hat to smooth his head, and, having smoothed it, nodded it contentedly, and put his hat on again.
"I will wager," said Jasper, smiling-his lips were still so white that he was conscious of it, and bit and moistened them while speaking: "I will wager that she hinted no wish to be released from Ned."
"And you will win your wager, if you do," retorted Mr. Grewgious. "We should allow some margin for little maidenly delicacies in a young motherless creature, under such circ.u.mstances, I suppose; it is not in my line; what do you think?"
"There can be no doubt of it."
"I am glad you say so. Because," proceeded Mr. Grewgious, who had all this time very knowingly felt his way round to action on his remembrance of what she had said of Jasper himself: "because she seems to have some little delicate instinct that all preliminary arrangements had best be made between Mr. Edwin Drood and herself, don"t you see? She don"t want us, don"t you know?"
Jasper touched himself on the breast, and said, somewhat indistinctly: "You mean me."
Mr. Grewgious touched himself on the breast, and said: "I mean us. Therefore, let them have their little discussions and councils together, when Mr. Edwin Drood comes back here at Christmas; and then you and I will step in, and put the final touches to the business."
"So, you settled with her that you would come back at Christmas?" observed Jasper. "I see! Mr. Grewgious, as you quite fairly said just now, there is such an exceptional attachment between my nephew and me, that I am more sensitive for the dear, fortunate, happy, happy fellow than for myself. But it is only right that the young lady should be considered, as you have pointed out, and that I should accept my cue from you. I accept it. I understand that at Christmas they will complete their preparations for May, and that their marriage will be put in final train by themselves, and that nothing will remain for us but to put ourselves in train also, and have everything ready for our formal release from our trusts, on Edwin"s birthday."
"That is my understanding," a.s.sented Mr. Grewgious, as they shook hands to part. "G.o.d bless them both!"
"G.o.d save them both!" cried Jasper.
"I said, bless them," remarked the former, looking back over his shoulder.
"I said, save them," returned the latter. "Is there any difference?"
CHAPTER X-SMOOTHING THE WAY
It has been often enough remarked that women have a curious power of divining the characters of men, which would seem to be innate and instinctive; seeing that it is arrived at through no patient process of reasoning, that it can give no satisfactory or sufficient account of itself, and that it p.r.o.nounces in the most confident manner even against acc.u.mulated observation on the part of the other s.e.x. But it has not been quite so often remarked that this power (fallible, like every other human attribute) is for the most part absolutely incapable of self-revision; and that when it has delivered an adverse opinion which by all human lights is subsequently proved to have failed, it is undistinguishable from prejudice, in respect of its determination not to be corrected. Nay, the very possibility of contradiction or disproof, however remote, communicates to this feminine judgment from the first, in nine cases out of ten, the weakness attendant on the testimony of an interested witness; so personally and strongly does the fair diviner connect herself with her divination.
"Now, don"t you think, Ma dear," said the Minor Canon to his mother one day as she sat at her knitting in his little book-room, "that you are rather hard on Mr. Neville?"
"No, I do not, Sept," returned the old lady.
"Let us discuss it, Ma."
"I have no objection to discuss it, Sept. I trust, my dear, I am always open to discussion." There was a vibration in the old lady"s cap, as though she internally added: "and I should like to see the discussion that would change my mind!"
"Very good, Ma," said her conciliatory son. "There is nothing like being open to discussion."
"I hope not, my dear," returned the old lady, evidently shut to it.
"Well! Mr. Neville, on that unfortunate occasion, commits himself under provocation."
"And under mulled wine," added the old lady.
"I must admit the wine. Though I believe the two young men were much alike in that regard."
"I don"t," said the old lady.
"Why not, Ma?"
"Because I don"t," said the old lady. "Still, I am quite open to discussion."
"But, my dear Ma, I cannot see how we are to discuss, if you take that line."