CHAPTER I

IN WHICH OUR HERO'S WORLD GROWS SENSIBLY WIDER

In the autumn of 1862 Richard Calmady went up to Oxford. Not through

ostentation, but in obedience to the exigencies of the case, his going

was in a somewhat princely sort, so that the venerable city, moved from

the completeness of her scholarly and historic calm, turned her eyes,

in a flutter of quite mundane excitement, upon the newcomer. Julius

March accompanied Richard. Time and thought had moved forward; but the

towers and spires of Oxford, her fair cloisters and enchanting gardens,

her green meadows and noble elms, her rivers, Isis and Cherwell,

remained as when Julius too had been among the young and ardent of her

sons. He was greatly touched by this return to the Holy City of his

early manhood. He renewed old friendships. He reviewed the past, taking

the measure calmly of what life had promised, what it had given of

good. A pleasant house had been secured in St. Giles' Street; and a

contingent of the Brockhurst household, headed by Winter, went with the

two gentlemen, while Chaplin and a couple of grooms preceded them, in

charge of a goodly number of horse-boxes.

For that first saddle, fashioned now some six years ago by Josiah

Appleyard of Farley Row, had worked something as near a miracle as ever

yet was worked by pigskin. It was a singularly ugly saddle, running up

into a peak front and back, furnished with a complicated system of

straps and buckles and--in place of stirrups and stirrup-leathers--with

a pair of contrivances resembling old-fashioned holsters. Mary

Cathcart's brown eyes had grown moist on first beholding it. And

Colonel Ormiston had exclaimed, "Good God! Oh, well, poor dear little

chap, I suppose it's the best we can do for him." An ugly saddle--yet

had Josiah Appleyard ample reason to skip, goat-like, being glad. For,

ugly or not, it fulfilled its purpose, bringing custom to the maker and

happiness and health to the owner of it.

The boy rode fearlessly, while exercise and exertion begot in him a

certain light-heartedness and audacity good to see. The window-seat of

the Long Gallery, the book-shelves of the library, knew him but seldom

now. He was no less courteous, no less devoted to his mother, no less

in admiration of her beauty; but the young barbarian was well awake in

Dickie, and drove him out of doors, on to the moorland or into the

merry greenwood, with dog, and horse, and gun. On his well-broken pony

he shot over the golden stubble fields in autumn, brought down his

pheasants, stationed at the edge of the great coverts; went out for

long afternoons, rabbiting in the warrens and field banks, escorted by

spaniels and retrievers, and keepers carrying lithe, lemon-coloured

ferrets tied up in a bag.

Later, when he was older,--but this tried Katherine somewhat, reminding

her too keenly of another Richard Calmady and days long dead,--Winter,

a trifle reluctant at such shortening of his own virtuous slumbers,

would call Dickie and dress him, all in the gray of the summer morning;

while, at the little arched doorway in the west front, Chifney and a

groom with a led horse would await his coming, and the boy would mount

and ride away from the great, sleeping house. At such times a charm of

dewy freshness lay on grass and woodland, on hill and vale. The morning

star grew pale and vanished in the clear-flashing delight of sunrise,

as Richard rode forth to meet the string of racers; as he noted the

varying form and fortune of Rattlepate or Sweet Rosemary, of Yellow

Jacket, Morion or Light-o'-Love, over the short fragrant turf of the

gallop; as he felt the virile joy which the strength of the horses and

the pounding rush of them as they swept past him ever aroused in him.

Then he would ride on, by a short cut, to the old, red-brick

rubbing-house, crowning the rising ground on the farther side of the

lake, and wait there to see the finish, talking of professional matters

with Chifney meanwhile; or, turning his horse's head towards the wide,

distant view, sit silent, drawing near to nature and worshipping--with

the innocent gladness of a still virgin heart--in the temple of the

dawn.

Life at Oxford was set in a different key. The university city was well

disposed towards this young man of so great wealth and so strange

fortunes; and Richard was unsuspicious, and ready enough to meet

friendliness half-way. Yet it must be owned he suffered many bad

quarters of an hour. He was, at once, older in thought and younger in

practical experience than his fellow-undergraduates. He was cut off, of

necessity, from their sports. They would eat his breakfasts, drink his

wine, and show no violent objection to riding his horses. They were

considerate, almost anxiously careful of him, being generous and

good-hearted lads. And yet poor Dick was perturbed by the fear that

they were more at ease without him, that his presence acted as a slight

check upon their genial spirits and their rattling talk. And so it came

about that though his acquaintances were many, his friends were few.

Chief among the latter was Ludovic Quayle, a younger son of Lord

Fallowfeild--whom that kindly if not very intelligent nobleman had long

ago proposed to export from the Whitney to the Brockhurst nursery with

a view to the promotion of general cheerfulness. Mr. Ludovic Quayle was

a rather superfine, young gentleman, possessed of an excellent opinion

of himself, and a modest opinion of other persons--his father included.

But under his somewhat supercilious demeanour there was a vein of true

romance. He loved Richard Calmady; and neither time, nor opposing

interests, nor certain black chapters which had later to be read in the

history of life, destroyed or even weakened that love.

And so Dick, finding himself at sad disadvantage with most of the

charming young fellows about him in matters of play, turned to matters

of work, letting go the barbarian side of life for a while. In brain,

if not in body, he believed himself the equal of the best of them. His

ambition was fired by the desire of intellectual triumph. He would have

the success of the schools, since the success of the river and the

cricket-field were denied him. Not that Richard set any exaggerated

value upon academic honours. Only two things are necessary--this at

least was his code at that period--never to lapse from the instincts of

high-breeding and honour, and to see just as much of life, of men and

of affairs, as obedience to those instincts permits. Already the sense

of proportion was strong in Richard, fed perhaps by the galling sense

of personal deformity. Learning is but a part of the whole of man's

equipment, and a paltry enough part unless wisdom go along with it. But

the thirst of battle remained in Richard; and in this matter of

learning, at least, he could meet men of his own age and standing on

equal terms and overcome them in fair fight.

And so, during the last two years of his university course, he did meet

them and overcame, honours falling liberally to his share. Julius March

looked on in pleased surprise at the exploits of his former pupil.

While Ludovic Quayle, with raised eyebrows and half-tender,

half-ironical amusement relaxing the corners of his remarkably

beautiful mouth, would say:--

"Calmady, you really are a shameless glutton! How many more immortal

glories, any one of which would satisfy an ordinary man, do you propose

to swallow?"

"I suppose it's a bad year," Richard would answer. "The others can't

amount to very much, or, needless to say, I shouldn't walk over the

course."

"A charming little touch of modesty, as far as you yourself are

concerned," Ludovic answered. "But not strikingly flattering to the

others. I would rather suppose you abnormally clever, than all the rest

abnormally stupid--for, after all, you know, am I, my great self, not

among the rest?"

At which Dickie would laugh rather shamefacedly, and say:--"Oh

you!--why you know well enough you could do anything you liked if you

weren't so confoundedly lazy!"

And, meanwhile, at Brockhurst, as news arrived of these successes, Lady

Calmady's soul received comfort. Her step was light, her eyes full of

clear shining as she moved to and fro ordering the great house and

great estate. She felt repaid for the bitter pain of parting with her

darling, and sending him forth to face the curious, possibly scornful,

world of the university city. He had proved himself and won his spurs.

And this solaced her in the solitude and loneliness of her present

life. For her dear friend and companion Marie de Mirancourt had found

the final repose, before seeking that of the convent. Early one

February morning, in the second year of Richard's sojourn at Oxford,

fortified by the rites of the Church, she had passed the gates of death

peacefully, blessing and blessed. Katherine mourned for her, and would

continue to mourn with still and faithful sorrow, even while welcoming

home her young scholar, hearing the details of his past achievements

and hopes for the future, or entertaining--with all gracious

hospitality--such of his Oxford friends as he elected to invite to

Brockhurst.

It was on one of these last occasions, the young men having gone down

to the Gun-Room to smoke and discuss the day's pheasant shooting, that

Katherine had kept Julius March standing before the Chapel-Room fire,

and had looked at him, a certain wistfulness in her face.

"He is happy--don't you think, Julius?" she said. "He seems to me

really happier, more contented, than I have ever seen him since his

childhood."

"Yes, I also think that," Julius answered. "He has reason to be

contented. He has measured himself against other men and is satisfied

of his own powers."

"Every one admires him at Oxford?"

"Yes, they admire and envy him. He has been brilliantly successful."

Katherine drew herself up, clasping her hands behind her, and smiling

proudly as she mused, gazing into the crimson heart of the burning

logs. Then, after a silence, she turned suddenly to her companion.

"It is very sweet to have you here at home again, Julius," she said

gently. "I have missed you sorely since dearest Marie de Mirancourt

died. Live a little longer than I do, please. Ah! I am afraid it is no

small thing that I ask you to do for my sake, for I foresee that I

shall survive to a lamentably old age. But sacrifice yourself, Julius,

in the matter of living. Less than ever, when the shadows fall, shall I

be able to spare you."

For which words of his dear lady's, though spoken lightly, half in

jest, Julius March gave God great thanks that night.

It was about this period that two pieces of news, each proving

eventually to have much personal significance, reached Lady Calmady

from the outside world. The first took the form of a letter--a rather

pensive and tired letter--from her brother, William Ormiston, telling

her that his daughter Helen was about to marry the Comte de Vallorbes,

a young gentleman very well known both to Parisian and Neapolitan

society. The second took the form of an announcement in the _Morning

Post_, to the effect that Lady Tobemory, whose lamented death that

paper had already chronicled, had left the bulk of her not

inconsiderable fortune to her god-daughter Honoria, eldest child of

that distinguished officer General St. Quentin. In both cases Lady

Calmady wrote letters of congratulation, in the latter with very

sincere and lively pleasure. She held her cousin, General St. Quentin,

in affection for old sake's sake. Honoria she remembered as a

singularly graceful, high-bred, little maiden, fleet of foot as a

hind--too fleet of foot indeed for little Dickie's comfort of mind, and

therefore banished from the Brockhurst nursery. In the former case, her

congratulations being somewhat conventional, she added--in her own name

and that of Richard--a necklace of pearls, with a diamond clasp and

bars to it, of no mean value.

In the spring of 1865 Richard left Oxford for good, and took up his

residence once more at Brockhurst. But it was not until the autumn of

the following year, when he had reached the age of three-and-twenty,

and had already for some six months served his Queen and country in the

capacity of Justice of the Peace for the county of Southampton, that

any event occurred greatly affecting his fortunes, and therefore worthy

to set forth at large in this history.