CHAPTER XLVII

A YEAR LATER, THE COUNTESS DE SALDAR DE SANCORVO TO HER SISTER CAROLINE

'Rome.

'Let the post-mark be my reply to your letter received through the

Consulate, and most courteously delivered with the Consul's compliments.

We shall yet have an ambassador at Rome--mark your Louisa's words. Yes,

dearest! I am here, body and spirit! I have at last found a haven, a

refuge, and let those who condemn me compare the peace of their spirits

with mine. You think that you have quite conquered the dreadfulness of

our origin. My love, I smile at you! I know it to be impossible for the

Protestant heresy to offer a shade of consolation. Earthly-born, it

rather encourages earthly distinctions. It is the sweet sovereign

Pontiff alone who gathers all in his arms, not excepting tailors. Here,

if they could know it, is their blessed comfort!

'Thank Harriet for her message. She need say nothing. By refusing me her

hospitality, when she must have known that the house was as free of

creditors as any foreigner under the rank of Count is of soap, she drove

me to Mr. Duflian. Oh! how I rejoice at her exceeding unkindness! How

warmly I forgive her the unsisterly--to say the least--vindictiveness of

her unaccountable conduct! Her sufferings will one day be terrible. Good

little Andrew supplies her place to me. Why do you refuse his easily

afforded bounty? No one need know of it. I tell you candidly, I take

double, and the small good punch of a body is only too delighted. But

then, I can be discreet.

'Oh! the gentlemanliness of these infinitely maligned Jesuits! They

remind me immensely of Sir Charles Grandison, and those frontispiece

pictures to the novels we read when girls--I mean in manners and the

ideas they impose--not in dress or length of leg, of course. The same

winning softness; the same irresistible ascendancy over the female mind!

They require virtue for two, I assure you, and so I told Silva, who

laughed.

'But the charms of confession, my dear! I will talk of Evan first. I have

totally forgiven him. Attache to the Naples embassy, sounds tol-lol. In

such a position I can rejoice to see him, for it permits me to

acknowledge him. I am not sure that, spiritually, Rose will be his most

fitting helpmate. However, it is done, and I did it, and there is no more

to be said. The behaviour of Lord Laxley in refusing to surrender a young

lady who declared that her heart was with another, exceeds all I could

have supposed. One of the noble peers among his ancestors must have been

a pig! Oh! the Roman nobility! Grace, refinement, intrigue, perfect

comprehension of your ideas, wishes--the meanest trifles! Here you have

every worldly charm, and all crowned by Religion! This is my true

delight. I feel at last that whatsoever I do, I cannot go far wrong while

I am within hail of my gentle priest. I never could feel so before.

'The idea of Mr. Parsley proposing for the beautiful widow Strike! It was

indecent to do so so soon--widowed under such circumstances! But I dare

say he was as disinterested as a Protestant curate ever can be. Beauty is

a good dowry to bring a poor, lean, worldly curate of your Church, and he

knows that. Your bishops and arches are quite susceptible to beautiful

petitioners, and we know here how your livings and benefices are

dispensed. What do you intend to do? Come to me; come to the bosom of the

old and the only true Church, and I engage to marry you to a Roman prince

the very next morning or two. That is, if you have no ideas about

prosecuting a certain enterprise which I should not abandon. In that

case, stay. As Duchess of B., Mr. Duffian says you would be cordially

welcome to his Holiness, who may see women. That absurd report is all

nonsense. We do not kiss his toe, certainly, but we have privileges

equally enviable. Herbert is all charm. I confess he is a little

wearisome with his old ruins, and his Dante, the poet. He is quite of my

opinion, that Evan will never wash out the trade stain on him until he

comes over to the Church of Rome. I adjure you, Caroline, to lay this

clearly before our dear brother. In fact, while he continues a

Protestant, to me he is a tailor. But here Rose is the impediment. I know

her to be just one of those little dogged minds that are incapable of

receiving new impressions. Was it not evident in the way she stuck to

Evan after I had once brought them together? I am not at all astonished

that Mr. Raikes should have married her maid. It is a case of natural

selection. But it is amusing to think of him carrying on the old business

in 193, and with credit! I suppose his parents are to be pitied; but what

better is the creature fit for? Mama displeases me in consenting to act

as housekeeper to old Grumpus. I do not object to the fact, for it is

prospective; but she should have insisted on another place of resort than

Fallow field. I do not agree with you in thinking her right in refusing a

second marriage. Her age does not shelter her from scandal in your

Protestant communities.

'I am every day expecting Harry Jocelyn to turn up.

He was rightly sent away, for to think of the folly Evan put into his

empty head! No; he shall have another wife, and Protestantism shall be

his forsaken mistress!

'See how your Louy has given up the world and its vanities! You expected

me to creep up to you contrite and whimpering? On the contrary, I never

felt prouder. And I am not going to live a lazy life, I can assure you.

The Church hath need of me! If only for the peace it hath given me on one

point, I am eternally bound to serve it.

'Postscript: I am persuaded of this; that it is utterly impossible for a

man to be a true gentleman who is not of the true Church. What it is I

cannot say; but it is as a convert that I appreciate my husband. Love is

made to me, dear, for Catholics are human. The other day it was a

question whether a lady or a gentleman should be compromised. It required

the grossest fib. The gentleman did not hesitate. And why? His priest was

handy. Fancy Lord Laxley in such a case. I shudder. This shows that your

religion precludes any possibility of the being the real gentleman, and

whatever Evan may think of himself, or Rose think of him, I KNOW THE

THING.'

ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS

A woman rises to her husband. But a man is what he is

A share of pity for the objects she despised

A sixpence kindly meant is worth any crown-piece that's grudged

A youth who is engaged in the occupation of eating his heart

A man who rejected medicine in extremity

A lover must have his delusions, just as a man must have a skin

A madman gets madder when you talk reason to him

A man to be trusted with the keys of anything

Abject sense of the lack of a circumference

Accustomed to be paid for by his country

Adept in the lie implied

Admirable scruples of an inveterate borrower

After a big blow, a very little one scarcely counts

Ah! how sweet to waltz through life with the right partner

Amiable mirror as being wilfully ruffled to confuse

An obedient creature enough where he must be

And not any of your grand ladies can match my wife at home

Any man is in love with any woman

Because you loved something better than me

Because men can't abide praise of another man

Because he stood so high with her now he feared the fall

Believed in her love, and judged it by the strength of his own

Bitten hard at experience, and know the value of a tooth

Bound to assure everybody at table he was perfectly happy

Brief negatives are not re-assuring to a lover's uneasy mind

British hunger for news; second only to that for beef

Brotherhood among the select who wear masks instead of faces

But a woman must now and then ingratiate herself

By forbearance, put it in the wrong

Can you not be told you are perfect without seeking to improve

Cheerful martyr

Command of countenance the Countess possessed

Commencement of a speech proves that you have made the plunge

Common voice of praise in the mouths of his creditors

Confident serenity inspired by evil prognostications

Damsel who has lost the third volume of an exciting novel

Eating, like scratching, only wants a beginning

Embarrassments of an uncongenial employment

Empty stomachs are foul counsellors

Enamoured young men have these notions

English maids are domesticated savage animals

Equally acceptable salted when it cannot be had fresh

Every woman that's married isn't in love with her husband

Eyes of a lover are not his own; but his hands and lips are

Far higher quality is the will that can subdue itself to wait

Feel no shame that I do not feel!

Feel they are not up to the people they are mixing with

Few feelings are single on this globe

Forty seconds too fast, as if it were a capital offence

Found it difficult to forgive her his own folly

Friend he would not shake off, but could not well link with

From head to foot nothing better than a moan made visible

Gentlefolks like straight-forwardness in their inferiors

Glimpse of her whole life in the horrid tomb of his embrace

Good nature, and means no more harm than he can help

Good and evil work together in this world

Gossip always has some solid foundation, however small

Graduated naturally enough the finer stages of self-deception

Gratuitous insult

Habit, what a sacred and admirable thing it is

Hated one thing alone--which was 'bother'

Have her profile very frequently while I am conversing with her

He has been tolerably honest, Tom, for a man and a lover

He grunted that a lying clock was hateful to him

He was in love, and subtle love will not be shamed and smothered

He kept saying to himself, 'to-morrow I will tell'

He had his character to maintain

He squandered the guineas, she patiently picked up the pence

His wife alone, had, as they termed it, kept him together

Hope which lies in giving men a dose of hysterics

How many degrees from love gratitude may be

I 'm a bachelor, and a person--you're married, and an object

I cannot live a life of deceit. A life of misery--not deceit

I take off my hat, Nan, when I see a cobbler's stall

I always wait for a thing to happen first

I never see anything, my dear

I did, replied Evan. 'I told a lie.'

I'll come as straight as I can

If we are to please you rightly, always allow us to play First

If I love you, need you care what anybody else thinks

In truth she sighed to feel as he did, above everybody

Incapable of putting the screw upon weak excited nature

Informed him that he never played jokes with money, or on men

Is he jealous? 'Only when I make him, he is.'

It 's us hard ones that get on best in the world

It is better for us both, of course

It was in a time before our joyful era of universal equality

It is no insignificant contest when love has to crush self-love

It's no use trying to be a gentleman if you can't pay for it

It's a fool that hopes for peace anywhere

Lay no petty traps for opportunity

Listened to one another, and blinded the world

Looked as proud as if he had just clapped down the full amount

Love is a contagious disease

Make no effort to amuse him. He is always occupied

Man without a penny in his pocket, and a gizzard full of pride

Married a wealthy manufacturer--bartered her blood for his money

Maxims of her own on the subject of rising and getting the worm

Men they regard as their natural prey

Men do not play truant from home at sixty years of age

Most youths are like Pope's women; they have no character

My belief is, you do it on purpose. Can't be such rank idiots

Never intended that we should play with flesh and blood

Never to despise the good opinion of the nonentities

No great harm done when you're silent

No conversation coming of it, her curiosity was violent

Notoriously been above the honours of grammar

Occasional instalments--just to freshen the account

Oh! I can't bear that class of people

One fool makes many, and so, no doubt, does one goose

One seed of a piece of folly will lurk and sprout to confound us

Our comedies are frequently youth's tragedies

Partake of a morning draught

Patronizing woman

Play second fiddle without looking foolish

Pride is the God of Pagans

Propitiate common sense on behalf of what seems tolerably absurd

Rare as epic song is the man who is thorough in what he does

Read one another perfectly in their mutual hypocrisies

Rebukes which give immeasurable rebounds

Recalling her to the subject-matter with all the patience

Refuge in the Castle of Negation against the whole army of facts

Remarked that the young men must fight it out together

Requiring natural services from her in the button department

Rose was much behind her age

Rose! what have I done? 'Nothing at all,' she said

Said she was what she would have given her hand not to be

Says you're so clever you ought to be a man

Second fiddle; he could only mean what she meant

Secrets throw on the outsiders the onus of raising a scandal

Sense, even if they can't understand it, flatters them so

She did not detest the Countess because she could not like her

She was unworthy to be the wife of a tailor

She, not disinclined to dilute her grief

She believed friendship practicable between men and women

She was at liberty to weep if she pleased

Sincere as far as she knew: as far as one who loves may be

Small beginnings, which are in reality the mighty barriers

Speech is poor where emotion is extreme

Speech that has to be hauled from the depths usually betrays

Spiritualism, and on the balm that it was

Such a man was banned by the world, which was to be despised?

Taking oath, as it were, by their lower nature

Tears that dried as soon as they had served their end

Tenderness which Mrs. Mel permitted rather than encouraged

That plain confession of a lack of wit; he offered combat

That beautiful trust which habit gives

The ass eats at my table, and treats me with contempt

The Countess dieted the vanity according to the nationality

The letter had a smack of crabbed age hardly counterfeit

The commonest things are the worst done

The thrust sinned in its shrewdness

The power to give and take flattery to any amount

The grey furniture of Time for his natural wear

Those numerous women who always know themselves to be right

Thus does Love avenge himself on the unsatisfactory Past

To be both generally blamed, and generally liked

To let people speak was a maxim of Mrs. Mel's, and a wise one

Took care to be late, so that all eyes beheld her

Touching a nerve

Toyed with little flowers of palest memory

Tradesman, and he never was known to have sent in a bill

Tried to be honest, and was as much so as his disease permitted

True enjoyment of the princely disposition

Two people love, there is no such thing as owing between them

Unfeminine of any woman to speak continuously anywhere

Virtuously zealous in an instant on behalf of the lovely dame

Vulgarity in others evoked vulgarity in her

Waited serenely for the certain disasters to enthrone her

We deprive all renegades of their spiritual titles

What a stock of axioms young people have handy

What will be thought of me? not a small matter to any of us

What he did, she took among other inevitable matters

What's an eccentric? a child grown grey!

When testy old gentlemen could commit slaughter with ecstasy

When you run away, you don't live to fight another day

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

Whose bounty was worse to him than his abuse

Why, he'll snap your head off for a word

With good wine to wash it down, one can swallow anything

With a proud humility

Wrapped in the comfort of his cowardice

You do want polish

You talk your mother with a vengeance

You accuse or you exonerate--Nobody can be half guilty

You rides when you can, and you walks when you must

You're the puppet of your women!

Youth is not alarmed by the sound of big sums

VITTORIA

By George Meredith

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