The Absentee (5 page)

'But it's gala I'm thinking of now. I hear you are to have the golden
Venus, my Lady Clonbrony, won't you?'

'Sir!'

This freezing monosyllable notwithstanding, Sir Terence pursued his
course fluently. 'The golden Venus!—Sure, Miss Nugent, you, that are so
quick, can't but know I would apostrophise Miss Broadhurst that is, but
that won't be long so, I hope. My Lord Colambre, have you seen much yet
of that young lady?'

'No, sir.'

'Then I hope you won't be long so. I hear great talk now of the Venus
of Medicis, and the Venus of this and that, with the Florence Venus, and
the sable Venus, and that other Venus, that's washing of her hair, and a
hundred other Venuses, some good, some bad. But, be that as it will, my
lord, trust a fool—ye may, when he tells you truth—the golden Venus
is the only one on earth that can stand, or that will stand, through all
ages and temperatures; for gold rules the court, gold rules the camp,
and men below, and heaven above.'

'Heaven above! Take care, Terry! Do you know what you're saying?'
interrupted Lord Clonbrony.

'Do I? Don't I?' replied Terry. 'Deny, if you please, my lord, that
it was for a golden pippin that the three goddesses FIT—and that the
HIPPOMENES was about golden apples—and did not Hercules rob a garden
for golden apples?—and did not the pious Eneas himself take a golden
branch with him, to make himself welcome to his father in hell?' said
Sir Terence, winking at Lord Colambre.

'Why, Terry, you know more about books than I should have suspected,'
said Lord Clonbrony.

'Nor you would not have suspected me to have such a great acquaintance
among the goddesses neither, would you, my lord? But, apropos, before we
quit, of what material, think ye, was that same Venus's famous girdle,
now, that made roses and lilies so quickly appear? Why, what was it, but
a girdle of sterling gold, I'll engage?—for gold is the only true thing
for a young man to look after in a wife.'

Sir Terence paused, but no applause ensued.

'Let them talk of Cupids and darts, and the mother of the Loves and
Graces. Minerva may sing odes and DYTHAMBRICS, or whatsoever her
wisdomship pleases. Let her sing, or let her say she'll never get a
husband in this world or the other, without she had a good thumping
FORTIN, and then she'd go off like wildfire.'

'No, no, Terry, there you're out; Minerva has too bad a character for
learning to be a favourite with gentlemen,' said Lord Clonbrony.

'Tut—Don't tell me!—I'd get her off before you could say Jack
Robinson, and thank you too, if she had fifty thousand down, or a
thousand a year in land. Would you have a man so d-d nice as to balk
when house and land is a-going—a-going—a-going!—because of the
encumbrance of a little learning? I never heard that Miss Broadhurst was
anything of a learned lady.'

'Miss Broadhurst!' said Grace Nugent; 'how did you get round to Miss
Broadhurst?'

'Oh! by the way of Tipperary,' said Lord Colambre.

'I beg your pardon, my lord, it was apropos to a good fortune, which,
I hope, will not be out of your way, even if you went by Tipperary. She
has, besides £100,000 in the funds, a clear landed property of £10,000
per annum. WELL! SOME PEOPLE TALK OF MORALITY, AND SOME OF RELIGION, BUT
GIVE ME A LITTLE SNUG PROPERTY. But, my lord, I've a little business
to transact this morning, and must not be idling and indulging myself
here.' So, bowing to the ladies, he departed.

'Really, I am glad that man is gone,' said Lady Clonbrony. 'What a
relief to one's ears! I am sure I wonder, my lord, how you can bear to
carry that strange creature always about with you—so vulgar as he is.'

'He diverts me,' said Lord Clonbrony, 'while many of your
correct-mannered fine ladies or gentlemen put me to sleep. What
signifies what accent people speak in that have nothing to say—hey,
Colambre?'

Lord Colambre, from respect to his father, did not express his opinion,
but his aversion to Sir Terence O'Fay was stronger even than his
mother's; though Lady Clonbrony's detestation of him was much increased
by perceiving that his coarse hints about Miss Broadhurst had operated
against her favourite scheme.

The next morning, at breakfast, Lord Clonbrony talked of bringing Sir
Terence with him that night to her gala. She absolutely grew pale with
horror.

'Good heavens! Lady Langdale, Mrs. Dareville, Lady Pococke, Lady
Chatterton, Lady D—, Lady G—, his Grace of V—; what would they
think of him? And Miss Broadhurst to see him going about with my Lord
Clonbrony!'—It could not be. No; her ladyship made the most solemn
and desperate protestation, that she would sooner give up her gala
altogether—tie up the knocker—say she was sick—rather be sick, or be
dead, than be obliged to have such a creature as Sir Terence O'Fay at
her gala.

'Have it your own way, my dear, as you have everything else!' cried
Lord Clonbrony, taking up his hat, and preparing to decamp; 'but, take
notice, if you won't receive him you need not expect me. So a good
morning to you, my Lady Clonbrony. You may find a worse friend in need,
yet, than that same Sir Terence O'Fay.'

'I trust I shall never be in need, my lord,' replied her ladyship. 'It
would be strange, indeed, if I were, with the fortune I brought.'

'Oh! that fortune of hers!' cried Lord Clonbrony, stopping both his ears
as he ran out of the room; 'shall I never hear the end of that fortune,
when I've seen the end of it long ago?'

During this matrimonial dialogue, Grace Nugent and Lord Colambre never
once looked at each other. Grace was very diligently trying the changes
that could be made in the positions of a china-mouse, a cat, a dog,
a cup, and a Brahmin, on the mantelpiece; Lord Colambre as diligently
reading the newspaper.

'Now, my dear Colambre,' said Lady Clonbrony, 'put down the paper,
and listen to me. Let me entreat you not to neglect Miss Broadhurst
to-night, as I know that the family come here chiefly on your account.'

'My dear mother, I never can neglect any deserving young lady, and
particularly one of your guests; but I shall be careful not to do more
than not to neglect, for I never will pretend what I do not feel.'

'But, my dear Colambre, Miss Broadhurst is everything you could wish,
except being a beauty.'

'Perhaps, madam,' said Lord Colambre, fixing his eyes on Grace Nugent,
'you think that I can see no farther than a handsome face?'

The unconscious Grace Nugent now made a warm eulogium of Miss
Broadhurst's sense, and wit, and independence of character.

'I did not know that Miss Broadhurst was a friend of yours, Miss
Nugent?'

'She is, I assure you, a friend of mine; and, as a proof, I will not
praise her at this moment. I will go farther still—I will promise that
I never will praise her to you till you begin to praise her to me.'

Lord Colambre smiled, and now listened, as if he wished that Grace
should go on speaking, even of Miss Broadhurst.

'That's my sweet Grace!' cried Lady Clonbrony. 'Oh! she knows how to
manage these men—not one of them can resist her!'

Lord Colambre, for his part, did not deny the truth of this assertion.

'Grace,' added Lady Clonbrony, 'make him promise to do as we would have
him.'

'No; promises are dangerous things to ask or to give,' said Grace. 'Men
and naughty children never make promises, especially promises to be
good, without longing to break them the next minute.'

'Well, at least, child, persuade him, I charge you, to make my gala
go off well. That's the first thing we ought to think of now. Ring the
bell! And all heads and hands I put in requisition for the gala.'

The opening of her gala, the display of her splendid reception-rooms,
the Turkish tent, the Alhambra, the pagoda, formed a proud moment
to Lady Clonbrony. Much did she enjoy, and much too naturally,
notwithstanding all her efforts to be stiff and stately, much too
naturally did she show her enjoyment of the surprise excited in some and
affected by others on their first entrance.

One young, very young lady expressed her astonishment so audibly as to
attract the notice of all the bystanders. Lady Clonbrony, delighted,
seized both her hands, shook them, and laughed heartily; then, as the
young lady with her party passed on, her ladyship recovered herself,
drew up her head, and said to the company near her—

'Poor thing! I hope I covered her little NAIVETE properly? How NEW she
must be!'

Then, with well-practised dignity, and half-subdued self-complacency
of aspect, her ladyship went gliding about—most importantly busy,
introducing my lady THIS to the sphynx candelabra, and my lady THAT to
the Trebisond trellice; placing some delightfully for the perspective of
the Alhambra; establishing others quite to her satisfaction on seraglio
ottomans; and honouring others with a seat under the statira, canopy.
Receiving and answering compliments from successive crowds of select
friends, imagining herself the mirror of fashion, and the admiration of
the whole world, Lady Clonbrony was, for her hour, as happy certainly as
ever woman was in similar circumstances.

Her son looked at her, and wished that this happiness could last.
Naturally inclined to sympathy, Lord Colambre reproached himself for not
feeling as gay at this instant as the occasion required. But the festive
scene, the blazing lights, the 'universal hubbub,' failed to raise his
spirits. As a dead weight upon them hung the remembrance of Mordicai's
denunciations; and, through the midst of this Eastern magnificence, this
unbounded profusion, he thought he saw future domestic misery and ruin
to those he loved best in the world.

The only object present on which his eye rested with pleasure was Grace
Nugent. Beautiful—in elegant and dignified simplicity—thoughtless
of herself—yet with a look of thought, and with an air of melancholy,
which accorded exactly with his own feelings, and which he believed to
arise from the same reflections that had passed in his own mind.

'Miss Broadhurst, Colambre! all the Broadhursts!' said his mother,
wakening him, as she passed by, to receive them as they entered.
Miss Broadhurst appeared, plainly dressed—plainly, even to
singularity—without any diamonds or ornament.

'Brought Philippa to you, my dear Lady Clonbrony, this figure, rather
than not bring her at all,' said puffing Mrs. Broadhurst; 'and had all
the difficulty in the world to get her out at all, and now I've promised
she shall stay but half an hour. Sore throat—terrible cold she took
in the morning. I'll swear for her, she'd not have come for any one but
you.'

The young lady did not seem inclined to swear, or even to say this
for herself; she stood wonderfully unconcerned and passive, with an
expression of humour lurking in her eyes, and about the corners of
her mouth; whilst Lady Clonbrony was 'shocked,' and 'gratified,'
and 'concerned' and 'flattered' and whilst everybody was hoping, and
fearing, and busying themselves about her—'Miss Broadhurst, you'd
better sit here!'—'Oh, for Heaven's sake! Miss Broadhurst, not there!'
'Miss Broadhurst, if you'll take my opinion;' and 'Miss Broadhurst, if I
may advise—'

'Grace Nugent!' cried Lady Clonbrony—'Miss Broadhurst always listens to
you. Do, my dear, persuade Miss Broadhurst to take care of herself, and
let us take her to the inner little pagoda, where she can be so warm and
so retired—the very thing for an invalid. Colambre! pioneer the way for
us, for the crowd's immense.'

Lady Anne and Lady Catharine H—, Lady Langdale's daughters, were at
this time leaning on Miss Nugent's arm, and moved along with this
party to the inner pagoda. There was to be cards in one room, music in
another, dancing in a third, and, in this little room, there were prints
and chess-boards, etc.

'Here you will be quite to yourselves,' said Lady Clonbrony; 'let
me establish you comfortably in this, which I call my sanctuary—my
SNUGGERY—Colambre, that little table!—Miss Broadhurst, you play chess?
Colambre, you'll play with Miss Broadhurst—'

'I thank your ladyship,' said Miss Broadhurst, 'but I know nothing of
chess, but the moves. Lady Catharine, you will play, and I will look
on.'

Miss Broadhurst drew her seat to the fire; Lady Catharine sat down to
play with Lord Colambre; Lady Clonbrony withdrew, again recommending
Miss Broadhurst to Grace Nugent's care. After some commonplace
conversation, Lady Anne H—, looking at the company in the adjoining
apartment, asked her sister how old Miss Somebody was, who passed by.
This led to reflections upon the comparative age and youthful appearance
of several of their acquaintance, and upon the care with which mothers
concealed the age of their daughters. Glances passed between Lady
Catharine and Lady Anne.

'For my part,' said Miss Broadhurst, 'my mother would 'labour that point
of secrecy in vain for me; for I am willing to tell my age, even if
my face did not tell it for me, to all whom it may concern. I am past
three-and-twenty—shall be four-and-twenty the 5th of next July.'

'Three-and-twenty! Bless me! I thought you were not twenty!' cried Lady
Anne.

'Four-and-twenty next July!—impossible!' cried Lady Catharine.

'Very possible,' said Miss Broadhurst, quite unconcerned.

'Now, Lord Colambre, would you believe it? Can you believe it?' asked
Lady Catharine.

'Yes, he can,' said Miss Broadhurst. 'Don't you see that he believes it
as firmly as you and I do? Why should you force his lordship to pay a
compliment contrary to his better judgment, or to extort a smile from
him under false pretences? I am sure he sees that you, ladies, and I
trust he perceives that I, do not think the worse of him for this.'

Lord Colambre smiled now without any false pretence; and, relieved at
once from all apprehension of her joining in his mother's views, or of
her expecting particular attention from him, he became at ease with Miss
Broadhurst, shelved a desire to converse with her, and listened eagerly
to what she said. He recollected that Grace Nugent had told him that
this young lady had no common character; and, neglecting his move at
chess, he looked up at Grace as much as to say, 'DRAW HER OUT, pray.'