CHAPTER XXXVII

THE RETREAT FROM BECKLEY

Never would the Countess believe that brother of hers, idiot as by nature

he might be, and heir to unnumbered epithets, would so far forget what

she had done for him, as to drag her through the mud for nothing: and so

she told Caroline again and again, vehemently.

It was about ten minutes before the time for descending to the

breakfast-table. She was dressed, and sat before the glass, smoothing her

hair, and applying the contents of a pot of cold cream to her forehead

between-whiles. With perfect sincerity she repeated that she could not

believe it. She had only trusted Evan once since their visit to Beckley;

and that this once he should, when treated as a man, turn traitor to

their common interests, and prove himself an utter baby, was a piece of

nonsense her great intelligence indignantly rejected.

'Then, if true,' she answered Caroline's assurances finally, 'if true, he

is not his father's son!'

By which it may be seen that she had indeed taken refuge in the Castle of

Negation against the whole army of facts.

'He is acting, Carry. He is acting the ideas of his ridiculous empty

noddle!'

'No,' said Caroline, mournfully, 'he is not. I have never known Evan to

lie.'

'Then you must forget the whipping he once had from his mother--little

dolt! little selfish pig! He obtains his reputation entirely from his

abominable selfishness, and then stands tall, and asks us to admire him.

He bursts with vanity. But if you lend your credence to it, Carry, how,

in the name of goodness, are you to appear at the breakfast?

'I was going to ask you whether you would come,' said Caroline, coldly.

'If I can get my hair to lie flat by any means at all, of course!'

returned the Countess. 'This dreadful horrid country pomade! Why did we

not bring a larger stock of the Andalugian Regenerator? Upon my honour,

my dear, you use a most enormous quantity; I must really tell you that.'

Conning here entered to say that Mr. Evan had given orders for the boxes

to be packed and everything got ready to depart by half-past eleven

o'clock, when the fly would call for them and convey them to Fallow field

in time to meet the coach for London.

The Countess turned her head round to Caroline like an astonished

automaton.

'Given orders!' she interjected.

'I have very little to get ready,' remarked Caroline.

'Be so good as to wait outside the door one instant,' said the Countess

to Conning, with particular urbanity.

Conning heard a great deal of vigorous whispering within, and when

summoned to re-appear, a note was handed to her to convey to Mr.

Harrington immediately. He was on the lawn; read it, and wrote back three

hasty lines in pencil.

'Louisa. You have my commands to quit this house, at the hour named, this

day. You will go with me. E. H.'

Conning was again requested to wait outside the Countess's door. She was

the bearer of another note. Evan read it likewise; tore it up, and said

that there was no answer.

The Castle of Negation held out no longer. Ruthless battalions poured

over the walls, blew up the Countess's propriety, made frightful ravages

in her complexion. Down fell her hair.

'You cannot possibly go to breakfast,' said Caroline.

'I must! I must!' cried the Countess. 'Why, my dear, if he has done

it-wretched creature! don't you perceive that, by withholding our

presences, we become implicated with him?' And the Countess, from a burst

of frenzy, put this practical question so shrewdly, that Caroline's wits

succumbed to her.

'But he has not done it; he is acting!' she pursued, restraining her

precious tears for higher purposes, as only true heroines can. 'Thinks to

frighten me into submission!'

'Do you not think Evan is right in wishing us to leave, after--after--'

Caroline humbly suggested.

'Say, before my venerable friend has departed this life,' the Countess

took her up. 'No, I do not. If he is a fool, I am not. No, Carry: I do

not jump into ditches for nothing. I will have something tangible for all

that I have endured. We are now tailors in this place, remember. If that

stigma is affixed to us, let us at least be remunerated for it. Come.'

Caroline's own hard struggle demanded all her strength yet she appeared

to hesitate. 'You will surely not disobey Evan, Louisa?'

'Disobey?' The Countess amazedly dislocated the syllables. 'Why, the boy

will be telling you next that he will not permit the Duke to visit you!

Just your English order of mind, that cannot--brutes!--conceive of

friendship between high-born men and beautiful women. Beautiful as you

truly are, Carry, five years more will tell on you. But perhaps my

dearest is in a hurry to return to her Maxwell? At least he thwacks

well!'

Caroline's arm was taken. The Countess loved an occasional rhyme when a

point was to be made, and went off nodding and tripping till the time for

stateliness arrived, near the breakfast-room door. She indeed was acting.

At the bottom of her heart there was a dismal rage of passions: hatred of

those who would or might look tailor in her face: terrors concerning the

possible re-visitation of the vengeful Sir Abraham: dread of Evan and the

efforts to despise him: the shocks of many conflicting elements. Above it

all her countenance was calmly, sadly sweet: even as you may behold some

majestic lighthouse glimmering over the tumult of a midnight sea.

An unusual assemblage honoured the breakfast that morning. The news of

Mrs. Bonner's health was more favourable. How delighted was the Countess

to hear that! Mrs. Bonner was the only firm ground she stood on there,

and after receiving and giving gentle salutes, she talked of Mrs. Bonner,

and her night-watch by the sick bed, in a spirit of doleful hope. This

passed off the moments till she could settle herself to study faces.

Decidedly, every lady present looked glum, with the single exception of

Miss Current. Evan was by Lady Jocelyn's side. Her ladyship spoke to him;

but the Countess observed that no one else did. To herself, however, the

gentlemen were as attentive as ever. Evan sat three chairs distant from

her.

If the traitor expected his sister to share in his disgrace, by noticing

him, he was in error. On the contrary, the Countess joined the conspiracy

to exclude him, and would stop a mild laugh if perchance he looked up.

Presently Rose entered. She said 'Good morning' to one or two, and glided

into a seat.

That Evan was under Lady Jocelyn's protection soon became generally

apparent, and also that her ladyship was angry: an exhibition so rare

with her that it was the more remarked. Rose could see that she was a

culprit in her mother's eyes. She glanced from Evan to her. Lady

Jocelyn's mouth shut hard. The girl's senses then perceived the something

that was afloat at the table; she thought with a pang of horror: 'Has

Juliana told?' Juliana smiled on her; but the aspect of Mrs. Shorne, and

of Miss Carrington, spoke for their knowledge of that which must

henceforth be the perpetual reproof to her headstrong youth.

'At what hour do you leave us?' said Lady Jocelyn to Evan.

'When I leave the table, my lady. The fly will call for my sisters at

half-past eleven.'

'There is no necessity for you to start in advance?'

'I am going over to see my mother.'

Rose burned to speak to him now. Oh! why had she delayed! Why had she

swerved from her good rule of open, instant explanations? But Evan's

heart was stern to his love. Not only had she, by not coming, shown her

doubt of him,--she had betrayed him!

Between the Countess, Melville, Sir John, and the Duke, an animated

dialogue was going on, over which Miss Current played like a lively iris.

They could not part with the Countess. Melville said he should be left

stranded, and numerous pretty things were uttered by other gentlemen: by

the women not a word. Glancing from certain of them lingeringly to her

admirers, the Countess smiled her thanks, and then Andrew, pressed to

remain, said he was willing and happy, and so forth; and it seemed that

her admirers had prevailed over her reluctance, for the Countess ended

her little protests with a vanquished bow. Then there was a gradual

rising from table. Evan pressed Lady Jocelyn's hand, and turning from her

bent his head to Sir Franks, who, without offering an exchange of

cordialities, said, at arm's length: 'Good-bye, sir.' Melville also gave

him that greeting stiffly. Harry was perceived to rush to the other end

of the room, in quest of a fly apparently. Poor Caroline's heart ached

for her brother, to see him standing there in the shadow of many faces.

But he was not left to stand alone. Andrew quitted the circle of Sir

John, Seymour Jocelyn, Mr. George Uplift, and others, and linked his arm

to Evan's. Rose had gone. While Evan looked for her despairingly to say

his last word and hear her voice once more, Sir Franks said to his wife:

'See that Rose keeps up-stairs.'

'I want to speak to her,' was her ladyship's answer, and she moved to the

door.

Evan made way for her, bowing.

'You will be ready at half-past eleven, Louisa,' he said, with calm

distinctness, and passed from that purgatory.

Now honest Andrew attributed the treatment Evan met with to the exposure

of yesterday. He was frantic with democratic disgust.

'Why the devil don't they serve me like that; eh? 'Cause I got a few

coppers! There, Van! I'm a man of peace; but if you'll call any man of

'em out I'll stand your second--'pon my soul, I will. They must be

cowards, so there isn't much to fear. Confound the fellows, I tell 'em

every day I'm the son of a cobbler, and egad, they grow civiller. What do

they mean? Are cobblers ranked over tailors?'

'Perhaps that's it,' said Evan.

'Hang your gentlemen!' Andrew cried.

'Let us have breakfast first,' uttered a melancholy voice near them in

the passage.

'Jack!' said Evan. 'Where have you been?'

'I didn't know the breakfast-room,' Jack returned, 'and the fact is, my

spirits are so down, I couldn't muster up courage to ask one of the

footmen. I delivered your letter. Nothing hostile took place. I bowed

fiercely to let him know what he might expect. That generally stops it.

You see, I talk prose. I shall never talk anything else!'

Andrew recommenced his jests of yesterday with Jack. The latter bore them

patiently, as one who had endured worse.

'She has rejected me!' he whispered to Evan. 'Talk of the ingratitude of

women! Ten minutes ago I met her. She perked her eyebrows at me!--tried

to run away. "Miss Wheedle": I said. "If you please, I 'd rather not,"

says she. To cut it short, the sacrifice I made to her was the cause.

It's all over the house. She gave the most excruciating hint. Those

low-born females are so horribly indelicate. I stood confounded.

Commending his new humour, Evan persuaded him to breakfast immediately,

and hunger being one of Jack's solitary incitements to a sensible course

of conduct, the disconsolate gentleman followed its dictates. 'Go with

him, Andrew,' said Evan. 'He is here as my friend, and may be made

uncomfortable.'

'Yes, yes,--ha! ha! I'll follow the poor chap,' said Andrew. 'But what is

it all about? Louisa won't go, you know. Has the girl given you up

because she saw your mother, Van? I thought it was all right. Why the

deuce are you running away?'

'Because I've just seen that I ought never to have come, I suppose,' Evan

replied, controlling the wretched heaving of his chest.

'But Louisa won't go, Van.'

'Understand, my dear Andrew, that I know it to be quite imperative. Be

ready yourself with Caroline. Louisa will then make her choice. Pray help

me in this. We must not stay a minute more than is necessary in this

house.'

'It's an awful duty,' breathed Andrew, after a pause. 'I see nothing but

hot water at home. Why--but it's no use asking questions. My love to your

mother. I say, Van,--now isn't Lady Jocelyn a trump?'

'God bless her!' said Evan. And the moisture in Andrew's eyes affected

his own.

'She's the staunchest piece of woman-goods I ever--I know a hundred cases

of her!'

'I know one, and that 's enough,' said Evan.

Not a sign of Rose! Can Love die without its dear farewell on which it

feeds, away from the light, dying by bits? In Evan's heart Love seemed to

die, and all the pangs of a death were there as he trod along the gravel

and stepped beneath the gates of Beckley Court.

Meantime the gallant Countess was not in any way disposed to retreat on

account of Evan's defection. The behaviour toward him at the

breakfast-table proved to her that he had absolutely committed his

egregious folly, and as no General can have concert with a fool, she cut

him off from her affections resolutely. Her manifest disdain at his last

speech, said as much to everybody present. Besides, the lady was in her

element here, and compulsion is required to make us relinquish our

element. Lady Jocelyn certainly had not expressly begged of her to

remain: the Countess told Melville so, who said that if she required such

an invitation she should have it, but that a guest to whom they were so

much indebted, was bound to spare them these formalities.

'What am I to do?'

The Countess turned piteously to the diplomatist's wife.

She answered, retiringly: 'Indeed I cannot say.'

Upon this, the Countess accepted Melville's arm, and had some thoughts of

punishing the woman.

They were seen parading the lawn. Mr. George Uplift chuckled singularly.

'Just the old style,' he remarked, but corrected the inadvertence with a

'hem!' committing himself more shamefully the instant after. 'I'll wager

she has the old Dip. down on his knee before she cuts.'

'Bet can't be taken,' observed Sir John Loring. 'It requires a spy.'

Harry, however, had heard the remark, and because he wished to speak to

her, let us hope, and reproach her for certain things when she chose to

be disengaged, he likewise sallied out, being forlorn as a youth whose

sweet vanity is much hurt.

The Duke had paired off with Mrs. Strike. The lawn was fair in sunlight

where they walked. The air was rich with harvest smells, and the scent of

autumnal roses. Caroline was by nature luxurious and soft. The thought of

that drilled figure to which she was returning in bondage, may have

thrown into bright relief the polished and gracious nobleman who walked

by her side, shadowing forth the chances of a splendid freedom. Two

lovely tears fell from her eyes. The Duke watched them quietly.

'Do you know, they make me jealous?' he said.

Caroline answered him with a faint smile.

'Reassure me, my dear lady; you are not going with your brother this

morning?'

'Your Grace, I have no choice!'

'May I speak to you as your warmest friend? From what I hear, it appears

to be right that your brother should not stay. To the best of my ability

I will provide for him: but I sincerely desire to disconnect you from

those who are unworthy of you. Have you not promised to trust in me?

Pray, let me be your guide.'

Caroline replied to the heart of his words: 'I dare not.'

'What has changed you?'

'I am not changed, but awakened,' said Caroline.

The Duke paced on in silence.

'Pardon me if I comprehend nothing of such a change,' he resumed. 'I

asked you to sacrifice much; all that I could give in return I offered.

Is it the world you fear?'

'What is the world to such as I am?'

'Can you consider it a duty to deliver yourself bound to that man again?'

'Heaven pardon me, my lord, I think of that too little!'

The Duke's next question: 'Then what can it be?' stood in his eyes.

'Oh!' Caroline's touch quivered on his arm, 'Do not suppose me frivolous,

ungrateful, or--or cowardly. For myself you have offered more happiness

than I could have hoped for. To be allied to one so generous, I could

bear anything. Yesterday you had my word: give it me back to-day!'

Very curiously the Duke gazed on her, for there was evidence of internal

torture across her forehead.

'I may at least beg to know the cause for this request?'

She quelled some throbbing in her bosom. 'Yes.'

He waited, and she said: 'There is one--if I offended him, I could not

live. If now I followed my wishes, he would lose his faith in the last

creature that loves him. He is unhappy. I could bear what is called

disgrace, my lord--I shudder to say it--I could sin against heaven; but I

dare not do what would make him despise me.'

She was trembling violently; yet the nobleman, in his surprise, could not

forbear from asking who this person might be, whose influence on her

righteous actions was so strong.

'It is my brother, my lord,' she said.

Still more astonished, 'Your brother!' the Duke exclaimed. 'My dearest

lady, I would not wound you; but is not this a delusion? We are so placed

that we must speak plainly. Your brother I have reason to feel sure is

quite unworthy of you.'

'Unworthy? My brother Evan? Oh! he is noble, he is the best of men!'

'And how, between yesterday and to-day, has he changed you?'

'It is that yesterday I did not know him, and to-day I do.'

Her brother, a common tradesman, a man guilty of forgery and the utmost

baseness--all but kicked out of the house! The Duke was too delicate to

press her further. Moreover, Caroline had emphasized the 'yesterday' and

'to-day,' showing that the interval which had darkened Evan to everybody

else, had illumined him to her. He employed some courtly eloquence,

better unrecorded; but if her firm resolution perplexed him, it threw a

strange halo round the youth from whom it sprang.

The hour was now eleven, and the Countess thought it full time to retire

to her entrenchment in Mrs. Bonner's chamber. She had great things still

to do: vast designs were in her hand awaiting the sanction of Providence.

Alas! that little idle promenade was soon to be repented. She had joined

her sister, thinking it safer to have her upstairs till they were quit of

Evan. The Duke and the diplomatist loitering in the rear, these two fair

women sailed across the lawn, conscious, doubtless, over all their

sorrows and schemes, of the freight of beauty they carried.

What meant that gathering on the steps? It was fortuitous, like

everything destined to confound us. There stood Lady Jocelyn with Andrew,

fretting his pate. Harry leant against a pillar, Miss Carrington, Mrs.

Shorne, and Mrs. Melville, supported by Mr. George Uplift, held

watchfully by. Juliana, with Master Alec and Miss Dorothy, were in the

background.

Why did our General see herself cut off from her stronghold, as by a

hostile band? She saw it by that sombre light in Juliana's eyes, which

had shown its ominous gleam whenever disasters were on the point of

unfolding.

Turning to Caroline, she said: 'Is there a back way?'

Too late! Andrew called.

'Come along, Louisa, Just time, and no more. Carry, are you packed?'

This in reality was the first note of the retreat from Beckley; and

having blown it, the hideous little trumpeter burst into scarlet

perspirations, mumbling to Lady Jocelyn: 'Now, my lady, mind you stand by

me.'

The Countess walked straight up to him.

'Dear Andrew! this sun is too powerful for you. I beg you, withdraw into

the shade of the house.'

She was about to help him with all her gentleness.

'Yes, yes. All right, Louisa rejoined Andrew. 'Come, go and pack. The fly

'll be here, you know--too late for the coach, if you don't mind, my

lass. Ain't you packed yet?'

The horrible fascination of vulgarity impelled the wretched lady to

answer: 'Are we herrings?' And then she laughed, but without any

accompaniment.

'I am now going to dear Mrs. Bonner,' she said, with a tender glance at

Lady Jocelyn.

'My mother is sleeping,' her ladyship remarked.

'Come, Carry, my darling!' cried Andrew.

Caroline looked at her sister. The Countess divined Andrew's shameful

trap.

'I was under an engagement to go and canvass this afternoon,' she said.

'Why, my dear Louisa, we've settled that in here this morning,' said

Andrew. 'Old Tom only stuck up a puppet to play with. We've knocked him

over, and march in victorious--eh, my lady?'

'Oh!' exclaimed the Countess, 'if Mr. Raikes shall indeed have listened

to my inducements!'

'Deuce a bit of inducements!' returned Andrew. 'The fellow's ashamed of

himself-ha! ha! Now then, Louisa.'

While they talked, Juliana had loosed Dorothy and Alec, and these imps

were seen rehearsing a remarkable play, in which the damsel held forth a

hand and the cavalier advanced and kissed it with a loud smack, being at

the same time reproached for his lack of grace.

'You are so English!' cried Dorothy, with perfect languor, and a

malicious twitter passed between two or three. Mr. George spluttered

indiscreetly.

The Countess observed the performance. Not to convert the retreat into a

total rout, she, with that dark flush which was her manner of blushing,

took formal leave of Lady Jocelyn, who, in return, simply said:

'Good-bye, Countess.' Mrs. Strike's hand she kindly shook.

The few digs and slaps and thrusts at gloomy Harry and prim Miss

Carrington and boorish Mr. George, wherewith the Countess, torn with

wrath, thought it necessary to cover her retreat, need not be told. She

struck the weak alone: Juliana she respected. Masterly tactics, for they

showed her power, gratified her vengeance, and left her unassailed. On

the road she had Andrew to tear to pieces. O delicious operation! And O

shameful brother to reduce her to such joys! And, O Providence! may a

poor desperate soul, betrayed through her devotion, unremunerated for her

humiliation and absolute hard work, accuse thee? The Countess would have

liked to. She felt it to be the instigation of the devil, and decided to

remain on the safe side still.

Happily for Evan, she was not ready with her packing by half-past eleven.

It was near twelve when he, pacing in front of the inn, observed Polly

Wheedle, followed some yards in the rear by John Raikes, advancing

towards him. Now Polly had been somewhat delayed by Jack's persecutions,

and Evan declining to attend to the masked speech of her mission, which

directed him to go at once down a certain lane in the neighbourhood of

the park, some minutes were lost.

'Why, Mr. Harrington,' said Polly, 'it's Miss Rose: she's had leave from

her Ma. Can you stop away, when it's quite proper?'

Evan hesitated. Before he could conquer the dark spirit, lo, Rose

appeared, walking up the village street. Polly and her adorer fell back.

Timidly, unlike herself, Rose neared him.

'I have offended you, Evan. You would not come to me: I have come to

you.'

'I am glad to be able to say good-bye to you, Rose,' was his pretty

response.

Could she have touched his hand then, the blood of these lovers rushing

to one channel must have made all clear. At least he could hardly have

struck her true heart with his miserable lie. But that chance was lost

they were in the street, where passions have no play.

'Tell me, Evan,--it is not true.'

He, refining on his misery, thought, She would not ask it if she trusted

me: and answered her: 'You have heard it from your mother, Rose.'

'But I will not believe it from any lips but yours, Evan. Oh, speak,

speak!'

It pleased him to think: How could one who loved me believe it even then?

He said: 'It can scarcely do good to make me repeat it, Rose.'

And then, seeing her dear bosom heave quickly, he was tempted to fall on

his knees to her with a wild outcry of love. The chance was lost. The

inexorable street forbade it.

There they stood in silence, gasping at the barrier that divided them.

Suddenly a noise was heard. 'Stop! stop!' cried the voice of John Raikes.

'When a lady and gentleman are talking together, sir, do you lean your

long ears over them--ha?'

Looking round, Evan beheld Laxley a step behind, and Jack rushing up to

him, seizing his collar, and instantly undergoing ignominious prostration

for his heroic defence of the privacy of lovers.

'Stand aside'; said Laxley, imperiously. 'Rosey so you've come for me.

Take my arm. You are under my protection.'

Another forlorn 'Is it true?' Rose cast toward Evan with her eyes. He

wavered under them.

'Did you receive my letter?' he demanded of Laxley.

'I decline to hold converse with you,' said Laxley, drawing Rose's hand

on his arm.

'You will meet me to-day or to-morrow?'

'I am in the habit of selecting my own company.'

Rose disengaged her hand. Evan grasped it. No word of farewell was

uttered. Her mouth moved, but her eyes were hard shut, and nothing save

her hand's strenuous pressure, equalling his own, told that their parting

had been spoken, the link violently snapped.

Mr. John Raikes had been picked up and pulled away by Polly. She now

rushed to Evan: 'Good-bye, and God bless you, dear Mr. Harrington. I'll

find means of letting you know how she is. And he shan't have her, mind!'

Rose was walking by Laxley's side, but not leaning on his arm. Evan

blessed her for this. Ere she was out of sight the fly rolled down the

street. She did not heed it, did not once turn her head. Ah, bitter

unkindness!

When Love is hurt, it is self-love that requires the opiate. Conning gave

it him in the form of a note in a handwriting not known to him. It said:

'I do not believe it, and nothing will ever make me.

'JULIANA.'

Evan could not forget these words. They coloured his farewell to Beckley:

the dear old downs, the hopgardens, the long grey farms walled with

clipped yew, the home of his lost love! He thought of them through weary

nights when the ghostly image with the hard shut eyelids and the

quivering lips would rise and sway irresolutely in air till a shape out

of the darkness extinguished it. Pride is the God of Pagans. Juliana had

honoured his God. The spirit of Juliana seemed to pass into the body of

Rose, and suffer for him as that ghostly image visibly suffered.