CHAPTER XIV
ROMANTIC LOVE PATHOLOGICALLY REGARDED BY FRANK VANCE AND ALBAN MORLEY.
Vance was before his easel, Lionel looking over his shoulder. Never was Darrell more genial than he was that day to Frank Vance. The two men took to each other at once, and talked as familiarly as if the retired lawyer and the rising painter were old fellow-travellers along the same road of life. Darrell was really an exquisite judge of art, and his praise was the more gratifying because discriminating. Of course he gave the due meed of panegyric to the female heads, by which the artist had become so renowned. Lionel took his kinsman aside, and, with a mournful expression of face, showed him the portrait by which, all those varying ideals had been suggested—the portrait of Sophy as Titania.
“And that is Lionel,” said the artist, pointing to the rough outline of Bottom.
“Pish!” said Lionel, angrily. Then turning to Darrell: “This is the Sophy we have failed to find, sir—is it not a lovely face?”
“It is indeed,” said Darrell. “But that nameless refinement in expression—that arch yet tender elegance in the simple, watchful attitude—these, Mr. Vance, must be your additions to the original.”
“No, I assure you, sir,” said Lionel: “besides that elegance, that refinement, there was a delicacy in the look and air of that child to which Vance failed to do justice. Own it, Frank.”
“Reassure yourself, Mr. Darrell,” said Vance, “of any fears which Lionel’s enthusiasm might excite. He tells me that Titania is in America; yet, after all, I would rather he saw her again—no cure for love at first sight like a second sight of the beloved object after a long absence.”
DARRELL (somewhat gravely).—“A hazardous remedy—it might kill, if it did not cure.”
COLONEL MORLEY.—“I suspect, from Vance’s manner, that he has tested its efficacy on his own person.”
LIONEL.—“NO, mon Colonel—I’ll answer for Vance. He in love! Never.”
Vance coloured—gave a touch to the nose of a Roman senator in the famous classical picture which he was then painting for a merchant at Manchester—and made no reply. Darrell looked at the artist with a sharp and searching glance.
COLONEL MORLEY.—“Then all the more credit to Vance for his intuitive perception of philosophical truth. Suppose, my dear Lionel, that we light, one idle day, on a beautiful novel, a glowing romance—suppose that, by chance, we are torn from the book in the middle of the interest—we remain under the spell of the illusion—we recall the scenes—we try to guess what should have been the sequel—we think that no romance ever was so captivating, simply because we were not allowed to conclude it. Well, if, some years afterwards, the romance fall again in our way, and we open at the page where we left off, we cry, in the maturity of our sober judgment, ‘Mawkish stuff!—is this the same thing that I once thought so beautiful?—how one’s tastes do alter!’”
DARRELL.—“Does it not depend on the age in which one began the romance?”
LIONEL.—“Rather, let me think, sir, upon the real depth of the interest—the true beauty of the—”
VANCE (interrupting).—“Heroine?—Not at all, Lionel. I once fell in love—incredible as it may seem to you—nine years ago last January. I was too poor then to aspire to any young lady’s hand—therefore I did not tell my love, but ‘let concealment,’ et cetera, et cetera. She went away with her mamma to complete her education on the Continent. I remained ‘Patience on a monument.’ She was always before my eyes—the slenderest, shyest creature just eighteen. I never had an idea that she could grow any older, less slender, or less shy. Well, four years afterwards (just before we made our excursion into Surrey, Lionel), she returned to England, still unmarried. I went to a party at which I knew she was to be-saw her, and was cured.”
“Bad case of small-pox, or what?” asked the Colonel, smiling.
VANCE—“Nay; everybody said she was extremely improved—that was the mischief—she had improved herself out of my fancy. I had been faithful as wax to one settled impression, and when I saw a fine, full-formed, young Frenchified lady, quite at her ease, armed with eyeglass and bouquet and bustle, away went my dream of the slim blushing maiden. The Colonel is quite right, Lionel; the romance once suspended, ‘tis a haunting remembrance till thrown again in our way, but complete disillusion if we try to renew it; though I swear that in my case the interest was deep, and the heroine improved in her beauty. So with you and that dear little creature. See her again, and you’ll tease, me no more to give you that portrait of Titania at watch over Bottom’s soft slumbers. All a Midsummer Night’s Dream, Lionel. Titania fades back into the arms of Oberon, and would not be Titania if you could make her—Mrs. Bottom.”
CHAPTER XV
EVEN COLONEL MORLEY, (KNOWING EVERYBODY AND EVERYTHING), IS PUZZLED WHEN IT COMES TO THE PLAIN QUESTION—“WHAT WILL HE DO WITH IT?”
“I am delighted with Vance,” said Darrell, when he and the Colonel were again walking arm-in-arm. “His is not one of those meagre intellects which have nothing to spare out of the professional line. He has humour. Humour—strength’s rich superfluity.”
“I like your definition,” said the Colonel. “And humour in Vance, though fantastic, is not without subtlety. There was much real kindness in his obvious design to quiz Lionel out of that silly enthusiasm for—”
“For a pretty child, reared up to be a strolling player,” interrupted Darrell. “Don’t call it silly enthusiasm. I call it chivalrous compassion. Were it other than compassion, it would not be enthusiasm—it would be degradation. But do you believe, then, that Vance’s confession of first love, and its cure, was but a whimsical invention?”
COLONEL MORLEY.—“Not so. Many a grave truth is spoken jestingly. I have no doubt that, allowing for the pardonable exaggeration of a raconteur, Vance was narrating an episode in his own life.”
DARRELL.—“Do you think that a grown man, who has ever really felt love, can make a jest of it, and to mere acquaintances?”
COLONEL MORLEY.—“Yes; if he be so thoroughly cured, that he has made a jest of it to himself. And the more lightly he speaks of it, perhaps the more solemnly at one time he felt it. Levity is his revenge on the passion that fooled him.”
DARRELL.—“You are evidently an experienced philosopher in the lore of such folly. ‘Consultas insapientis sapientiae.’ Yet I can scarcely believe that you have ever been in love.”
“Yes, I have,” said the Colonel bluntly, “and very often! Everybody at my age has—except yourself. So like a man’s observation, that,” continued the Colonel with much tartness. “No man ever thinks another man capable of a profound and romantic sentiment!”
DARRELL.—“True; I own my shallow fault, and beg you ten thousand pardons. So then you really believe, from your own experience, that there is much in Vance’s theory and your own very happy illustration? Could we, after many years, turn back to the romance at the page at which we left off, we should—”
COLONEL MORLEY.—“Not care a straw to read on! Certainly, half the peculiar charm of a person beloved must be ascribed to locality and circumstance.”
DARRELL.—“I don’t quite understand you.”
COLONEL MORLEY.—“Then, as you liked my former illustration, I will explain myself by another one more homely. In a room to which you are accustomed there is a piece of furniture, or an ornament, which so exactly suits the place that you say: ‘The prettiest thing I ever saw!’ You go away—you return—the piece of furniture or the ornament has been moved into another room. You see it there, and you say: ‘Bless me, is that the thing I so much admired!’ The strange room does not suit it—losing its old associations and accessories, it has lost its charm. So it is with human beings—seen in one place, the place would be nothing without them; seen in another, the place without them would be all the better!”
DARRELL (musingly)—“There are some puzzles in life which resemble the riddles a child asks you to solve. Your imagination cannot descend low enough for the right guess. Yet, when you are told, you are obliged to say, ‘How clever!’ Man lives to learn.”
“Since you have arrived at that conviction,” replied Colonel Morley, amused by his friend’s gravity, “I hope that you will rest satisfied with the experiences of Vance and myself; and that if you have a mind to propose to one of the young ladies whose merits we have already discussed, you will not deem it necessary to try what effect a prolonged absence might produce on your good resolution.”
“No!” said Darrell, with sudden animation. “Before three days are over my mind shall be made up.” “Bravo!—as to whom of the three you would ask in marriage?”
“Or as to the idea of ever marrying again. Adieu, I am going to knock at that door.”
“Mr. Vyvyan’s! Ah, is it so, indeed? Verily, you are a true Dare-all.”
“Do not be alarmed. I go afterwards to an exhibition with Lady Adela, and I dine with the Carr Viponts. My choice is not yet made, and my hand still free.”
“His hand still free!” muttered the Colonel, pursuing his walk alone. “Yes—but three days hence—O—What will he do with it?”
CHAPTER XVI
GUY DARRELL’S DECISION.
Guy Darrell returned home from Carr Vipont’s dinner at a late hour. On his table was a note from Lady Adela’s father, cordially inviting Darrell to pass the next week at his country-house; London was now emptying fast. On the table too was a parcel, containing a book which Darrell had lent to Miss Vyvyan some weeks ago, and a note from herself. In calling at her father’s house that morning, he had learned that Mr. Vyvyan had suddenly resolved to take her into Switzerland, with the view of passing the next winter in Italy. The room was filled with loungers of both sexes. Darrell had stayed but a short time. The leave-taking had been somewhat formal—Flora unusually silent. He opened her note, and read the first lines listlessly; those that followed, with a changing cheek and an earnest eye. He laid down the note very gently, again took it up and reperused. Then he held it to the candle, and it dropped from his hand in tinder. “The innocent child,” murmured he, with a soft paternal tenderness; “she knows not what she writes.” He began to pace the room with his habitual restlessness when in solitary thought—often stopping—often sighing heavily. At length his face cleared-his lips became firmly set. He summoned his favourite servant. “Mills,” said he, “I shall leave town on horseback as soon as the sun rises. Put what I may require for a day or two into the saddle-bags. Possibly, however I may be back by dinner-time. Call me at five o’clock, and then go round to the stables. I shall require no groom to attend me.”
The next morning, while the streets were deserted, no houses as yet astir, but the sun bright, the air fresh, Guy Darrell rode from his door. He did not return the same day, nor the next, nor at all. But, late in the evening of the second day, his horse, reeking hot and evidently hard-ridden, stopped at the porch of Fawley Manor-House; and Darrell flung himself from the saddle, and into Fairthorn’s arms. “Back again—back again—and to leave no more!” said he, looking round; “Spes et Fortuna valete!”
CHAPTER XVII
A MAN’S LETTER—UNSATISFACTORY AND PROVOKING AS A MAN’S LETTERS ALWAYS ARE.
GUY DARRELL To COLONEL MORLEY.
Fawley Manor-House, August 11, 18—. I HAVE decided, my dear Alban. I did not take three days to do so, though the third day may be just over ere you learn my decision. I shall never marry again: I abandon that last dream of declining years. My object in returning to the London world was to try whether I could not find, amongst the fairest and most attractive women that the world produces—at least to an English eye—some one who could inspire me with that singleness of affection which could alone justify the hope that I might win in return a wife’s esteem and a contented home. That object is now finally relinquished, and with it all idea of resuming the life of cities. I might have re-entered a political career, had I first secured to myself a mind sufficiently serene and healthful for duties that need the concentration of thought and desire. Such a state of mind I cannot secure. I have striven for it; I am baffled. It is said that politics are a jealous mistress—that they require the whole man. The saying is not invariably true in the application it commonly receives—that is, a politician may have some other employment of intellect, which rather enlarges his powers than distracts their political uses. Successful politicians have united with great parliamentary toil and triumph legal occupations or learned studies. But politics do require that the heart should be free, and at peace from all more absorbing private anxieties—from the gnawing of a memory or a care, which dulls ambition and paralyses energy. In this sense politics do require the whole man. If I return to politics now, I should fail to them, and they to me. I feel that the brief interval between me and the grave has need of repose: I find that repose here. I have therefore given the necessary orders to dismiss the pompous retinue which I left behind me, and instructed my agent to sell my London house for whatever it may fetch. I was unwilling to sell it before—unwilling to abandon the hope, however faint, that I might yet regain strength for action. But the very struggle to obtain such strength leaves me exhausted more.
You may believe that it is not without a pang, less of pride than of remorse, that I resign unfulfilled the object towards which all my earlier life was so resolutely shaped. The house I promised my father to re-found dies to dust in my grave. To my father’s blood no heir to my wealth can trace. Yet it is a consolation to think that Lionel Haughton is one on whom my father would have smiled approvingly. At my death, therefore, at least the old name will not die; Lionel Haughton will take and be worthy to bear it. Strange weakness of mine, you will say; but I cannot endure the thought that the old name should be quite blotted out of the land. I trust that Lionel may early form a suitable and happy marriage. Sure that he will not choose ignobly, I impose no fetters on his choice.
One word only on that hateful subject, confided so tardily to your friendship, left so thankfully to your discretion. Now that I have once more buried myself in Fawley, it is very unlikely that the man it pains me to name will seek me here. If he does, he cannot molest me as if I were in the London world. Continue, then, I pray you, to leave him alone. And, in adopting your own shrewd belief, that after all there is no such child as he pretends to claim, my mind becomes tranquillised on all that part of my private griefs.
Farewell, old school-friend! Here, so far as I can foretell—here, where my life began, it returns, when Heaven pleases, to close. Here I could not ask you to visit me: what is rest to me would be loss of time to you. But in my late and vain attempt to re-enter that existence in which you have calmly and wisely gathered round yourself, “all that should accompany old age-honour, love, obedience, troops of friends”—nothing so repaid the effort—nothing now so pleasantly remains to recollection—as the brief renewal of that easy commune which men like me never know, save with those whose laughter brings back to them a gale from the old playground. “Vive, vale;” I will not add, “Sis memor mei.” So many my obligations to your kindness, that you will be forced to remember me whenever you recall the not “painful subjects” of early friendship and lasting gratitude. Recall only those when reminded of GUY DARRELL.
CHAPTER XVIII
NO COINAGE IN CIRCULATION SO FLUCTUATES IN VALUE AS THE WORTH OF A MARRIAGEABLE MAN.
Colonel Morley was not surprised (that, we know, he could not be, by any fresh experience of human waywardness and caprice), but much disturbed and much vexed by the unexpected nature of Darrell’s communication. Schemes for Darrell’s future lead become plans of his own. Talk with his old school-fellow had, within the last three months, entered into the pleasures of his age. Darrell’s abrupt and final renunciation of this social world made at once a void in the business of Alban’s mind, and in the affections of Alban’s heart. And no adequate reason assigned for so sudden a flight and so morbid a resolve! Some tormenting remembrance—some rankling grief—distinct from those of which Alban was cognisant, from those in which he had been consulted, was implied, but by vague and general hints. But what was the remembrance or the grief, Alban Morley, who knew everything, was quite persuaded that Darrell would never suffer him to know. Could it be in any way connected with those three young ladies to whom Darrell’s attentions had been so perversely impartial? The Colonel did not fail to observe that to those young ladies Darrell’s letter made no allusion. Was it not possible that he had really felt for one of them a deeper sentiment than a man advanced in years ever likes to own even to his nearest friend—hazarded a proposal, and met with a rebuff? If so, Alban conjectured the female culprit by whom the sentiment had been inspired, and the rebuff administered. “That mischievous kitten, Flora Vyvyan,” growled the Colonel. “I always felt that she had the claws of a tigress under her patte de velours!” Roused by this suspicion, he sallied forth to call on the Vyvyans. Mr. Vyvyan, a widower, one of those quiet gentleman-like men who sit much in the drawing-room and like receiving morning visitors, was at home to him. “So Darrell has left town for the season,” said the Colonel, pushing straight to the point.
“Yes,” said Mr. Vyvyan. “I had a note from him this morning to say he had renounced all hope of—”
“What?” cried the Colonel.
“Joining us in Switzerland. I am so sorry. Flora still more sorry. She is accustomed to have her own way, and she had set her heart on hearing Darrell read ‘Manfred’ in sight of the Jungfrau!”
“Um!” said the Colonel. “What might be sport to her might be death to him. A man at his age is not too old to fall in love with a young lady of hers. But he is too old not to be extremely ridiculous to such a young lady if he does.”
“Colonel Morley—Fie!” cried an angry voice behind him. Flora had entered the room unobserved. Her face was much flushed, and her eyelids looked as if tears had lately swelled beneath them, and were swelling still.
“What have I said to merit your rebuke?” asked the Colonel composedly.
“Said! coupled the thought of ridicule with the name of Mr. Darrell!”
“Take care, Morley,” said Mr. Vyvyan, laughing. “Flora is positively superstitious in her respect for Guy Darrell; and you cannot offend her more than by implying that he is mortal. Nay, child, it is very natural. Quite apart from his fame, there is something in that man’s familiar talk, or rather, perhaps, in the very sound of his voice, which makes most other society seem flat and insipid.
“I feel it myself. And when Flora’s young admirers flutter and babble round her—just after Darrell has quitted his chair beside her—they seem very poor company. I am sure, Flora,” continued Vyvyan kindly, “that the mere acquaintance of such a man has done you much good; and I am now in great hopes that, whenever you marry, it will be a man of sense.”
“Um!” again said the Colonel, eyeing Flora aslant, but with much attention. “How I wish, for my friend’s sake, that he was of an age which inspired Miss Vyvyan with less—veneration.”
Flora turned her back on the Colonel, looking out of the window, and her small foot beating the ground with nervous irritation.
“It was given out that Darrell intended to marry again,” said Mr. Vyvyan. “A man of that sort requires a very superior highly-educated woman; and if Miss Carr Vipont had been a little more of his age she would have just suited him. But I am patriot enough to hope that he will remain single, and have no wife but his country, like Mr. Pitt.” The Colonel having now satisfied his curiosity, and assured himself that Darrell was, there at least, no rejected suitor, rose and approached Flora to make peace and to take leave. As he held out his hand, he was struck with the change in a countenance usually so gay in its aspect—it spoke of more than dejection, it betrayed distress; when she took his hand, she retained it, and looked into his eyes wistfully; evidently there was something on her mind which she wished to express and did not know how. At length she said in a whisper: “You are Mr. Darrell’s most intimate friend; I have heard him say so; shall you see him soon?”
“I fear not; but why?”
“Why? you, his friend; do you not perceive that he is not happy? I, a mere stranger, saw it at the first. You should cheer and comfort him; you have that right—it is a noble privilege.”
“My dear young lady,” said the Colonel, touched, “you have a better heart than I thought for. It is true Darrell is not a happy man; but can you give me any message that might cheer him more than an old bachelor’s commonplace exhortations to take heart, forget the rains of yesterday, and hope for some gleam of sun on the morrow?”
“No,” said Flora, sadly, “it would be a presumption indeed in me, to affect the consoler’s part; but”—(her lips quivered)—“but if I may judge by his letter, I may never see him again.”
“His letter! He has written to you, then, as well as to your father?”
“Yes,” said Flora, confused and colouring, “a few lines in answer to a silly note of mine; yes, tell him that I shall never forget his kind counsels, his delicate, indulgent construction of—of—in short, tell him my father is right, and that I shall be better and wiser all my life for the few short weeks in which I have known Guy Darrell.”
“What secrets are you two whispering there?” asked Mr. Vyvyan from his easy-chair.
“Ask her ten years hence,” said the Colonel, as he retreated to the door. “The fairest leaves in the flower are the last that the bud will disclose.”
From Mr. Vyvyan the Colonel went to Lord ——-’s. His lordship had also heard from Darrell that morning; Darrell declined the invitation to ——Hall; business at Fawley. Lady Adela had borne the disappointment with her wonted serenity of temper, and had gone out shopping. Darrell had certainly not offered his hand in that quarter; had he done so—whether refused or accepted—all persons yet left in London would have heard the news. Thence the Colonel repaired to Carr Vipont’s. Lady Selina was at home and exceedingly cross. Carr had been astonished by a letter from Mr. Darrell, dated Fawley—left town for the season without even calling to take leave—a most eccentric man. She feared his head was a little touched—that he knew it, but did not like to own it—perhaps the doctors had told him he must keep quiet, and not excite himself with politics. “I had thought,” said Lady Selina, “that he might have felt a growing attachment for Honoria; and considering the disparity of years, and that Honoria certainly might marry any one, he was too proud to incur the risk of refusal. But I will tell you in confidence, as a relation and dear friend, that Honoria has a very superior mind, and might have overlooked the mere age: congenial tastes—you understand. But on thinking it all over, I begin to doubt whether that be the true reason for his running away in this wild sort of manner. My maid tells me that his house-steward called to say that the establishment was to be broken up. That looks as if he had resigned London for good; just, too, when, Carr says, the CRISIS, so long put off, is sure to burst on us. I’m quite sick of clever men—one never knows how to trust them; if they are not dishonest they are eccentric! I have just been telling Honoria that clever men are, after all, the most tiresome husbands. Well, what makes you so silent? What do you say? Why don’t you speak?”
“I am slowly recovering from my shock,” said the Colonel. “So Darrell shirks the CRISIS, and has not even hinted a preference for Honoria, the very girl in all London that would have made him a safe, rational companion. I told him so, and he never denied it. But it is a comfort to think he is no loss. Old monster!”
“Nay,” said Lady Selina, mollified by so much sympathy, “I don’t say he is no loss. Honestly speaking—between ourselves—I think he is a very great loss. An alliance between him and Honoria would have united all the Vipont influence. Lord Montfort has the greatest confidence in Darrell; and if this CRISIS comes, it is absolutely necessary for the Vipont interest that it should find somebody who can speak. Really, my dear Colonel Morley, you, who have such an influence over this very odd man, should exert it now. One must not be over-nice in times of CRISIS; the country is at stake, Cousin Alban.”
“I will do my best,” said the Colonel; “I am quite aware that an alliance which would secure Darrell’s talents to the House of Vipont, and the House of Vipont to Darrell’s talents, would—but ‘tis no use talking, we must not sacrifice Honoria even on the altar of her country’s interest!”
“Sacrifice! Nonsense! The man is not young certainly, but then what a grand creature, and so clever.”
“Clever—yes! But that was your very objection to him five minutes ago.”
“I forgot the CRISIS.—One don’t want clever men every day, but there are days when one does want them!”
“I envy you that aphorism. But from what you now imply, I fear that Honoria may have allowed her thoughts to settle upon what may never take place; and if so, she may fret.”
“Fret! a daughter of mine fret!—and of all my daughters, Honoria! A girl of the best-disciplined mind! Fret! what a word!—vulgar!”
COLONEL MORLEY.—“So it is; I blush for it; but let us understand each other. If Darrell proposed for Honoria, you think, ambition apart, she would esteem him sufficiently for a decided preference.”
LADY SELINA,—“If that be his doubt, re-assure him. He is shy-men of genius are; Honoria would esteem him! Till he has actually proposed it would compromise her to say more even to you.”
COLONEL MORLEY.—“And if that be not the doubt, and if I ascertain that Darrell has no idea of proposing, Honoria would—”
LADY SELINA.—“Despise him. Ah, I see by your countenance that you think I should prepare her. Is it so, frankly?”
COLONEL MORLEY.—“Frankly, then. I think Guy Darrell, like many other men, has been so long in making up his mind to marry again that he has lost the right moment, and will never find it.”
Lady Selina smells at her vinaigrette, and replies in her softest, affectedest, civilest, and crushingest manner: “POOR—DEAR—OLD MAN!”