The Palliser Novels (223 page)

“Everybody says so; — and I am sure it is the fact. Do you know; — but perhaps you’ll think I am envious.”

“If I thought you envious of Lizzie, I should have to think you very foolish at the same time.”

“I don’t know what that means;” — she did know well enough what it meant; — “but sometimes to me she is almost frightful to look at.”

“In what way?”

“Oh, I can’t tell you. She looks like a beautiful animal that you are afraid to caress for fear it should bite you; — an animal that would be beautiful if its eyes were not so restless, and its teeth so sharp and so white.”

“How very odd.”

“Why odd, Mr. Greystock?”

“Because I feel exactly in the same way about her. I am not in the least afraid that she’ll bite me; and as for caressing the animal, — that kind of caressing which you mean, — it seems to me to be just what she’s made for. But, I do feel sometimes, that she is like a cat.”

“Something not quite so tame as a cat,” said Lucy.

“Nevertheless she is very lovely, — and very clever. Sometimes I think her the most beautiful woman I ever saw in the world.”

“Do you, indeed?”

“She will be immensely run after as Lady Fawn. When she pleases she can make her own house quite charming. I never knew a woman who could say pretty things to so many people at once.”

“You are making her out to be a paragon of perfection, Mr. Greystock.”

“And when you add to all the rest that she has four thousand a year, you must admit that Lord Fawn is a lucky man.”

“I have said nothing against it.”

“Four thousand a year is a very great consideration, Lucy.” Lucy for a while said nothing. She was making up her mind that she would say nothing; — that she would make no reply indicative of any feeling on her part. But she was not sufficiently strong to keep her resolution. “I wonder, Mr. Greystock,” she said, “that you did not attempt to win the great prize yourself. Cousins do marry.”

He had thought of attempting it, and at this moment he would not lie to her. “The cousinship had nothing to do with it,” he said.

“Perhaps you did think of it.”

“I did, Lucy. Yes, I did. Thank God, I only thought of it.” She could not refrain herself from looking up into his face and clasping her hands together. A woman never so dearly loves a man as when he confesses that he has been on the brink of a great crime, — but has refrained, and has not committed it. “I did think of it. I am not telling you that she would have taken me. I have no reason whatever for thinking so.”

“I am sure she would,” said Lucy, who did not in the least know what words she was uttering.

“It would have been simply for her money, — her money and her beauty. It would not have been because I love her.”

“Never — never ask a girl to marry you, unless you love her, Mr. Greystock.”

“Then there is only one that I can ever ask,” said he. There was nothing of course that she could say to this. If he did not choose to go further, she was not bound to understand him. But would he go further? She felt at the moment that an open declaration of his love to herself would make her happy for ever, even though it should be accompanied by an assurance that he could not marry her. If they only knew each other, — that it was so between them, — that, she thought, would be enough for her. And as for him — if a woman could bear such a position, surely he might bear it. “Do you know who that one is?” he asked.

“No,” she said, — shaking her head.

“Lucy, is that true?”

“What does it matter?”

“Lucy; — look at me, Lucy,” and he put his hand upon her arm.

“No, — no, — no!” she said.

“I love you so well, Lucy, that I never can love another. I have thought of many women, but could never even think of one, as a woman to love, except you. I have sometimes fancied I could marry for money and position, — to help myself on in the world by means of a wife, — but when my mind has run away with me, to revel amidst ideas of feminine sweetness, you have always — always been the heroine of the tale, as the mistress of the happy castle in the air.”

“Have I?” she asked.

“Always, — always. As regards this,” — and he struck himself on the breast, — “no man was ever more constant. Though I don’t think much of myself as a man, I know a woman when I see her.” But he did not ask her to be his wife; — nor did he wait at Fawn Court till Lady Fawn had come back with the carriage.

Frank Greystock escaped from the dovecote before Lady Fawn had returned. He had not made his visit to Richmond with any purpose of seeing Lucy Morris, or of saying to her when he did see her anything special, — of saying anything that should, or anything that should not, have been said. He had gone there, in truth, simply because his cousin had asked him, and because it was almost a duty on his part to see his cousin on the momentous occasion of this new engagement. But he had declared to himself that old Lady Fawn was a fool, and that to see Lucy again would be very pleasant. “See her; — of course I’ll see her,” he had said. “Why should I be prevented from seeing her?” Now he had seen her, and as he returned by the train to London, he acknowledged to himself that it was no longer in his power to promote his fortune by marriage. He had at last said that to Lucy which made it impossible for him to offer his hand to any other woman. He had not, in truth, asked her to be his wife; but he had told her that he loved her, and could never love any other woman. He had asked for no answer to this assurance, and then he had left her.

In the course of that afternoon he did question himself as to his conduct to this girl, and subjected himself to some of the rigours of a cross-examination. He was not a man who could think of a girl as the one human being whom he loved above all others, and yet look forward with equanimity to the idea of doing her an injury. He could understand that a man unable to marry should be reticent as to his feelings, — supposing him to have been weak enough to have succumbed to a passion which could only mar his own prospects. He was frank enough in owning to himself that he had been thus weak. The weakness had come upon himself early in life, — and was there, an established fact. The girl was to him unlike any other girl; — or any man. There was to him a sweetness in her companionship which he could not analyse. She was not beautiful. She had none of the charms of fashion. He had never seen her well-dressed, — according to the ideas of dress which he found to be prevailing in the world. She was a little thing, who, as a man’s wife, could attract no attention by figure, form, or outward manner, — one who had quietly submitted herself to the position of a governess, and who did not seem to think that in doing so she obtained less than her due. But yet he knew her to be better than all the rest. For him, at any rate, she was better than all the rest. Her little hand was cool and sweet to him. Sometimes when he was heated and hard at work, he would fancy how it would be with him if she were by him, and would lay it on his brow. There was a sparkle in her eye that had to him more of sympathy in it than could be conveyed by all the other eyes in the world. There was an expression in her mouth when she smiled, which was more eloquent to him than any sound. There were a reality and a truth about her which came home to him, and made themselves known to him as firm rocks which could not be shaken. He had never declared to himself that deceit or hypocrisy in a woman was especially abominable. As a rule he looked for it in women, and would say that some amount of affectation was necessary to a woman’s character. He knew that his cousin Lizzie was a little liar, — that she was, as Lucy had said, a pretty animal that would turn and bite; — and yet he liked his cousin Lizzie. He did not want women to be perfect, — so he would say. But Lucy Morris, in his eyes, was perfect; and when he told her that she was ever the queen who reigned in those castles in the air which he built, — as others build them, he told her no more than the truth.

He had fallen into these feelings and could not now avoid them, or be quit of them; — but he could have been silent respecting them. He knew that in former days, down at Bobsborough, he had not been altogether silent. When he had first seen her at Fawn Court he had not been altogether silent. But he had been warned away from Fawn Court, and in that very warning there was conveyed, as it were, an absolution from the effect of words hitherto spoken. Though he had called Lady Fawn an old fool, he had known that it was so, — had, after a fashion, perceived her wisdom, — and had regarded himself as a man free to decide, without disgrace, that he might abandon ideas of ecstatic love and look out for a rich wife. Presuming himself to be reticent for the future in reference to his darling Lucy, he might do as he pleased with himself. Thus there had come a moment in which he had determined that he would ask his rich cousin to marry him. In that little project he had been interrupted, and the reader knows what had come of it. Lord Fawn’s success had not in the least annoyed him. He had only half resolved in regard to his cousin. She was very beautiful no doubt, and there was her income; — but he also knew that those teeth would bite and that those claws would scratch. But Lord Fawn’s success had given a turn to his thoughts, and had made him think, for a moment, that if a man loved, he should be true to his love. The reader also knows what had come of that, — how at last he had not been reticent. He had not asked Lucy to be his wife; but he had said that which made it impossible that he should marry any other woman without dishonour.

As he thought of what he had done himself, he tried to remember whether Lucy had said a word expressive of affection for himself. She had in truth spoken very few words, and he could remember almost every one of them. “Have I?” — she had asked, when he told her that she had ever been the princess reigning in his castles. And there had been a joy in the question which she had not attempted to conceal. She had hesitated not at all. She had not told him that she loved him. But there had been something sweeter than such protestation in the question she had asked him. “Is it indeed true,” she had said, “that I have been placed there where all my joy and all my glory lies?” It was not in her to tell a lie to him, even by a tone. She had intended to say nothing of her love, but he knew that it had all been told. “Have I?” — he repeated the words to himself a dozen times, and as he did so, he could hear her voice. Certainly there never was a voice that brought home to the hearer so strong a sense of its own truth!

Why should he not at once make up his mind to marry her? He could do it. There was no doubt of that. It was possible for him to alter the whole manner of his life, to give up his clubs, — to give up even Parliament, if the need to do so was there, — and to live as a married man on the earnings of his profession. There was no need why he should regard himself as a poor man. Two things, no doubt, were against his regarding himself as a rich man. Ever since he had commenced life in London he had been more or less in debt; and then, unfortunately, he had acquired a seat in Parliament at a period of his career in which the dangers of such a position were greater than the advantages. Nevertheless he could earn an income on which he and his wife, were he to marry, could live in all comfort; and as to his debts, if he would set his shoulder to the work they might be paid off in a twelvemonth. There was nothing in the prospect which would frighten Lucy, though there might be a question whether he possessed the courage needed for so violent a change.

He had chambers in the Temple; he lived in rooms which he hired from month to month in one of the big hotels at the West End; and he dined at his club, or at the House, when he was not dining with a friend. It was an expensive and a luxurious mode of life, — and one from the effects of which a man is prone to drift very quickly into selfishness. He was by no means given to drinking, — but he was already learning to like good wine. Small economies in reference to cab-hire, gloves, umbrellas, and railway fares were unknown to him. Sixpences and shillings were things with which, in his mind, it was grievous to have to burden the thoughts. The Greystocks had all lived after that fashion. Even the dean himself was not free from the charge of extravagance. All this Frank knew, and he did not hesitate to tell himself, that he must make a great change if he meant to marry Lucy Morris. And he was wise enough to know that the change would become more difficult every day that it was postponed. Hitherto the question had been an open question with him. Could it now be an open question any longer? As a man of honour, was he not bound to share his lot with Lucy Morris?

That evening, — that Saturday evening, — it so happened that he met John Eustace at a club to which they both belonged, and they dined together. They had long known each other, and had been thrown into closer intimacy by the marriage between Sir Florian and Lizzie. John Eustace had never been fond of Lizzie, and now, in truth, liked her less than ever; but he did like Lizzie’s cousin, and felt that possibly Frank might be of use to him in the growing difficulty of managing the heir’s property and looking after the heir’s interests. “You’ve let the widow slip through your fingers,” he said to Frank, as they sat together at the table.

“I told you Lord Fawn was to be the lucky man,” said Frank.

“I know you did. I hadn’t seen it. I can only say I wish it had been the other way.”

“Why so? Fawn isn’t a bad fellow.”

“No; — not exactly a bad fellow. He isn’t, you know, what I call a good fellow. In the first place, he is marrying her altogether for her money.”

“Which is just what you advised me to do.”

“I thought you really liked her. And then Fawn will be always afraid of her, — and won’t be in the least afraid of us. We shall have to fight him, and he won’t fight her. He’s a cantankerous fellow, — is Fawn, — when he’s not afraid of his adversary.”

“But why should there be any fighting?”

Eustace paused a minute, and rubbed his face and considered the matter before he answered. “She is troublesome, you know,” he said.

“What; Lizzie?”

“Yes; — and I begin to be afraid she’ll give us as much as we know how to do. I was with Camperdown to-day. I’m blessed if she hasn’t begun to cut down a whole side of a forest at Portray. She has no more right to touch the timber, except for repairs about the place, than you have.”