THE CLEVER WOMAN OF THE FAMILY

C >> Charlotte M. Yonge >> THE CLEVER WOMAN OF THE FAMILY

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At length, however, came a new feature into the quiet summer life at
Avonmouth. Colin looked in on Ermine one morning to announce, with
shrugged shoulders, and a face almost making game of himself, that
his brother was coming! Lord Keith had been called to London on
business, and would extend his journey to come and see what his
brother was doing.

"This comes of being the youngest of the family," observed Colin,
meditatively. "One is never supposed capable of taking care of one's
self. With Keith I shall be the gay extravagant young officer to the
end of my days."

"You are not forgiving to your brother," said Ermine.

"You have it in your power to make me so," he said eagerly.

"Then you would have nothing to forgive," she replied, smiling.

Lady Temple's first thought was a renewal of her ardent wish that
Ermine should be at Myrtlewood; and that Mackarel Lane, and the
governesship should be as much as possible kept out of sight. Even
Alison was on her side; not that she was ashamed of either, but she
wished that Ermine should see and judge with her own eyes of Colin's
conduct, and also eagerly hailed all that showed him still committed
to her sister. She was proportionably vexed that he did not think it
expedient to harass Ermine with further invitations.

"My brother knows the whole," he said, "and I do not wish to attempt
to conceal anything."

"I do not mean to conceal," faltered Fanny, "only I thought it might
save a shock--appearances--he might think better of it, if--"

"You thought only what was kind," answered the colonel, "and I thank
you for it most warmly; but this matter does not depend on my
brother's consent, and even if it did, Ermine's own true position is
that which is most honourable to her."

Having said this, he was forced to console Fanny in her shame at her
own kind attempt at this gentle little feminine subterfuge. He
gratified her, however, by not interfering with her hospitable
instincts of doing honour to and entertaining his brother, for whose
sake her first approach to a dinner party was given; a very small
one, but treated by her and her household as a far more natural
occurrence than was any sort of entertainment at the Homestead. She
even looked surprised, in her quiet way, at Mrs. Curtis's proffers of
assistance in the et ceteras, and gratefully answered for Coombe's
doing the right thing, without troubling herself further. Mrs.
Curtis was less easy in her mind, her housewifely soul questioned the
efficiency of her niece's establishment, and she was moreover
persuaded that Lord Keith must be bent on inspecting his brother's
choice, while even Rachel felt as if the toils of fate were being
drawn round her, and let Grace embellish her for the dinner party, in
an odd sort of mood, sometimes rejecting her attempts at decoration,
sometimes vouchsafing a glance at the glass, chiefly to judge whether
her looks were really as repellently practical and intellectual as
she had been in the habit of supposing. The wreath of white roses,
which she wore for the first time, certainly had a pleasing and
softening effect, and she was conscious that she had never looked so
well; then was vexed at the solicitude with which her mother looked
her over, and fairly blushed with annoyance at the good lady's
evident satisfaction.

But, after all, Rachel, at her best, could not have competed with the
grace of the quiet little figure that received them, the rich black
silk giving dignity to the slender form, and a sort of compromise
between veil and cap sheltering the delicate fair face; and with a
son on each side, Fanny looked so touchingly proud and well
supported, and the boys were so exultant and admiring at seeing her
thus dressed, that it was a very pretty sight, and struck the first
arrived of her guests, Mr. Touchett, quite dumb with admiration.
Colonel Hammond, the two Keiths, and their young kinsman, completed
the party. Lord Keith of Gowanbrae was best described by the said
young kinsman's words "a long-backed Scotchman." He was so intensely
Scottish that he made his brother look and sound the same, whereas
ordinarily neither air nor accent would have shown the colonel's
nation, and there was no definable likeness between them, except,
perhaps, the baldness of the forehead, but the remains of Lord
Keith's hair were silvered red, whereas Colin's thick beard and
scanty locks were dark brown, and with a far larger admixture of
hoar-frost, though he was the younger by twenty years, and his
brother's appearance gave the impression of a far greater age than
fifty-eight, there was the stoop of rheumatism, and a worn, thin look
on the face, with its high cheek bones, narrow lips, and cold eyes,
by no means winning. On the other hand, he was the most finished
gentleman that Grace and Rachel had ever encountered; he had all the
gallant polish of manner that the old Scottish nobility have
inherited from the French of the old regime--a manner that, though
Colin possessed all its essentials, had been in some degree rubbed
off in the frankness of his military life, but which the old nobleman
retained in its full perfection. Mrs. Curtis admired it extremely as
a specimen of the "old school," for which she had never ceased to
mourn; and Rachel felt as if it took her breath away by the likeness
to Louis XIV.; but, strange to say, Lady Temple acted as if she were
quite in her element. It might be that the old man's courtesy
brought back to her something of the tender chivalry of her soldier
husband, and that a sort of filial friendliness had become natural to
her towards an elderly man, for she responded at once, and devoted
herself to pleasing and entertaining him. Their civilities were
something quite amusing to watch, and in the evening, with a complete
perception of his tastes, she got up a rubber for him.

"Can you bear it? You will not like to play?" murmured the colonel
to her, as he rung for the cards, recollecting the many evenings of
whist with her mother and Sir Stephen.

"Oh! I don't mind. I like anything like old times, and my aunt does
not like playing--"

No, for Mrs. Curtis had grown up in a family where cards were
disapproved, and she felt it a sad fall in Fanny to be playing with
all the skill of her long training, and receiving grand compliments
from Lord Keith on joint victories over the two colonels. It was a
distasteful game to all but the players, for Rachel felt slightly
hurt at the colonel's defection, and Mr. Touchett, with somewhat of
Mrs. Curtis's feeling that it was a backsliding in Lady Temple,
suddenly grew absent in a conversation that he was holding with young
Mr. Keith upon--of all subjects in the world--lending library books,
and finally repaired to the piano, where Grace was playing her
mother's favourite music, in hopes of distracting her mind from
Fanny's enormity; and there he stood, mechanically thanking Miss
Curtis, but all the time turning a melancholy eye upon the game.
Alick Keith, meanwhile, sat himself down near Rachel and her mother,
close to an open window, for it was so warm that even Mrs. Curtis
enjoyed the air; and perhaps because that watching the colonel had
made Rachel's discourses somewhat less ready than usual, he actually
obtained an interval in which to speak! He was going the next day to
Bishops Worthy, there to attend his cousin's wedding, and at the end
of a fortnight to bring his sister for her visit to Lady Temple.
This sister was evidently his great care, and it needed but little
leading to make him tell a good deal about her. She had, it seemed,
been sent home from the Cape at about ten years old, when the
regiment went to India, and her brother who had been at school, then
was with her for a short time before going out to join the regiment.

"Why," said Rachel, recovering her usual manner, "you have not been
ten years in the army!"

"I had my commission at sixteen," he answered.

"You are not six-and-twenty!" she exclaimed.

"You are as right as usual," was the reply, with his odd little
smile; "at least till the 1st of August."

"My dear!" said her mother, more alive than Rachel to his amusement
at her daughter's knowing his age better than he did himself, but
adding, politely, "you are hardly come to the time of life for liking
to hear that your looks deceived us."

"Boys are tolerated," he said, with a quick glance at Rachel; but at
that moment something many-legged and tickling flitted into the
light, and dashed over her face. Mrs. Curtis was by no means a
strong-minded woman in the matter of moths and crane-flies, disliking
almost equally their sudden personal attentions and their suicidal
propensities, and Rachel dutifully started up at once to give chase
to the father-long-legs, and put it out of window before it had
succeeded in deranging her mother's equanimity either by bouncing
into her face, or suspending itself by two or three legs in the wax
of the candle. Mr. Keith seconded her efforts, but the insect was
both lively and cunning, eluding them with a dexterity wonderful in
such an apparently over-limbed creature, until at last it kindly
rested for a moment with its wooden peg of a body sloping, and most
of its thread-like members prone upon a newspaper, where Rachel
descended on it with her pocket-handkerchief, and Mr. Keith tried to
inclose it with his hands at the same moment. To have crushed the
fly would have been melancholy, to have come down on the young
soldier's fingers, awkward; but Rachel did what was even more
shocking--her hands did descend on, what should have been fingers,
but they gave way under her--she felt only the leather of the glove
between her and the newspaper. She jumped and very nearly cried out,
looking up with an astonishment and horror only half reassured by his
extremely amused smile. "I beg your pardon; I'm so sorry--" she
gasped confused.

"Inferior animals can dispense with a member more or less," he
replied, giving her the other corner of the paper, on which they bore
their capture to the window, and shook it till it took wing, with
various legs streaming behind it. "That venerable animal is
apparently indifferent to having left a third of two legs behind
him," and as he spoke he removed the already half drawn-off left-hand
glove, and let Rachel see for a moment that it had only covered the
thumb, forefinger, two joints of the middle, and one of the third;
the little finger was gone, and the whole hand much scarred. She was
still so much dismayed that she gasped out the first question she had
ever asked him--

"Where--?"

"Not under the handkerchief," he answered, picking it up as if he
thought she wanted convincing. "At Delhi, I imagine."

At that moment, Grace, as an act of general beneficence certainly
pleasing to her mother, began to sing. It was a stop to all
conversation, for Mrs. Curtis particularly disliked talking during
singing, and Rachel had to digest her discoveries at her leisure, as
soon as she could collect herself after the unnatural and strangely
lasting sensation of the solid giving way. So Grace was right, he
was no boy, but really older than Fanny, the companion of her
childhood, and who probably would have married her had not the
general come in the way! Here was, no doubt, the real enemy, while
they had all been thinking of Colonel Keith. A man only now
expecting his company! It would sound more absurd. Yet Rachel was
not wont to think how things would sound! And this fresh intense
dislike provoked her. Was it the unsuitability of the young widow
remarrying? "Surely, surely, it must not be that womanhood in its
contemptible side is still so strong that I want to keep all for
myself! Shame! And this may be the true life love, suppressed, now
able to revive! I have no right to be disgusted, I will watch
minutely, and judge if he will be a good guide and father to the
boys, though it may save the colonel trouble. Pish! what have I to
do with either? Why should I think about them? Yet I must care for
Fanny, I must dislike to see her lower herself even in the eyes of
the world. Would it really be lowering herself? I cannot tell, I
must think it out. I wish that game was over, or that Grace would
let one speak."

But songs and whist both lasted till the evening was ended by Lady
Temple coming up to the curate with her winnings and her pretty
smile, "Please, Mr. Touchett, let this go towards some treat for the
school children. I should not like to give it in any serious way,
you know, but just for some little pleasure for them."

If she had done it on purpose, she could not have better freshly
riveted his chains. That pensive simplicity, with the smile of
heartfelt satisfaction at giving pleasure to anybody, were more and
more engaging as her spirits recovered their tone, and the most
unsatisfactory consideration which Rachel carried away that evening
was that Alexander Keith being really somewhat the senior, if the
improvement in Fanny's spirits were really owing to his presence, the
objection on the score of age would not hold. But, thought Rachel,
Colonel Keith being her own, what united power they should have over
Fanny. Pooh! she had by no means resigned herself to have him,
though for Fanny's sake it might be well, and was there not a foolish
prejudice in favour of married women, that impeded the usefulness of
single ones? However, if the stiff, dry old man approved of her for
her fortune's sake, that would be quite reason enough for repugnance.

The stiff old man was the pink of courtesy, and paid his respects in
due order to his brother's friends the next day, Colin attending in
his old aide-de-camp fashion. It was curious to see them together.
The old peer was not at all ungracious to his brother; indeed, Colin
had been agreeably surprised by an amount of warmth and brotherliness
that he had never experienced from him before, as if old age had
brought a disposition to cling to the remnant of the once
inconveniently large family, and make much of the last survivor,
formerly an undesirable youngest favourite, looked on with jealous
eyes and thwarted and retaliated on for former petting, as soon as
the reins of government fell from the hands of the aged father. Now,
the elder brother was kind almost to patronizing, though evidently
persuaded that Colin was a gay careless youth, with no harm in him,
but needing to be looked after; and as to the Cape, India, and
Australia being a larger portion of the world than Gowanbrae,
Edinburgh, and London, his lordship would be incredulous to the day
of his death.

He paid his formal and gracious visits at Myrtlewood and the
Homestead, and then supposed that his brother would wish him to call
upon "these unfortunate ladies." Colin certainly would have been
vexed if he had openly slighted them; but Alison, whom the brothers
overtook on their way into Mackarel Lane, did not think the colonel
looked in the most felicitous frame of mind, and thought the most
charitable construction might be that he shared her wishes that she
could be a few minutes in advance; to secure that neither Rose's
sports nor Colinette's toilette were very prominent.

All was right, however; Ermine's taste for the fitness of things had
trained Rose into keeping the little parlour never in stiff array,
but also never in a state to be ashamed of, and she herself was
sitting in the shade in the garden, whither, after the first
introduction, Colin and Rose brought seats; and the call, on the
whole, went off extremely well. Ermine naver let any one be
condescending to her, and conducted the conversation with her usual
graceful good breeding, while the colonel, with Rose on his knee,
half talked to the child, half listened and watched.

As soon as he had deposited his brother at the hotel, he came back
again, and in answer to Ermine's "Well," he demanded, "What she
thought of his brother, and if he were what she expected?"

"Very much, only older and feebler. And did he communicate his views
of Mackarel Lane? I saw him regarding, me as a species of mermaid or
syren, evidently thinking it a great shame that I have not a burnt
face. If he had only known about Rose!"

"The worst of it is that he wants me to go home with him, and I am
afraid I must do so, for now that he and I are the last in the
entail, there is an opportunity of making an arrangement about the
property, for which he is very anxious."

"Well, you know, I have long thought it would be very good for you."

"And when I am there I shall have to visit every one in the family;"
and he looked into her eyes to see if she would let them show
concern, but she kept up their brave sparkle as she still said, "You
know you ought."

"Then you deliver me up to Keith's tender mercies till--"

"Till you have done your duty--and forgiven him."

"Remember, Ermine, I can't spend a winter in Scotland. A cold always
makes the ball remind me of its presence in my chest, and I was told
that if I spent a winter at home, it must be on the Devonshire
coast."

"That ball is sufficient justification for ourselves, I allow," she
said, that one little word our making up for all that had gone
before.

"And meantime you will write to me--about Rose's education."

"To be sure, or what would be the use of growing old?"

Alison felt savage all through this interview. That perfect
understanding and the playful fiction about waiting for Rose left him
a great deal too free. Ermine might almost be supposed to want to
get rid of him, and even when he took leave she only remained for a
few minutes leaning her cheek on her hand, and scarcely indulged in a
sigh before asking to be wheeled into the house again, nor would she
make any remark, save "It has been too bright a summer to last for
ever. It would be very wrong to wish him to stay dangling here. Let
what will happen, he is himself."

It sounded far too like a deliberate resignation of him, and
persuasion that if he went he would not return to be all he had been.
However, the departure was not immediate, Lord Keith had taken a
fancy to the place and scenery, and wished to see all the lions of
the neighbourhood, so that there were various expeditions in the
carriages or on horseback, in which he displayed his grand courtesy
to Lady Temple, and Rachel enjoyed the colonel's conversation, and
would have enjoyed it still more if she had not been tracing a
meaning in every attention that he paid her, and considering whether
she was committing herself by receiving it. She was glad he was
going away that she might have time to face the subject, and make up
her mind, for she was convinced that the object of his journey was to
make himself certain of his prospects. When he said that he should
return for the winter, and that he had too much to leave at Avonmouth
to stay long away from it, there must be a meaning in his words.

Ermine had one more visit from Lord Keith, and this time he came
alone. He was in his most gracious and courteous mood, and sat
talking of indifferent things for some time, of his aunt Lady Alison,
and of Beauchamp in the old time, so that Ermine enjoyed the renewal
of old associations and names belonging to a world unlike her present
one. Then he came to Colin, his looks and his health, and his own
desire to see him quit the army.

Ermine assented to his health being hardly fit for the army, and
restrained the rising indignation as she recollected what a
difference the best surgical advice might have made ten years ago.

And then, Lord Keith said, a man could hardly be expected to settle
down without marrying. He wished earnestly to see his brother
married, but, unfortunately, charges on his estate would prevent him
from doing anything for him; and, in fact, he did not see any
possibility of his--of his marrying, except a person with some means.

"I understand," said Ermine, looking straight before her, and her
colour mounting.

"I was sure that a person of your great good sense would do so," said
Lord Keith. "I assure you no one can be more sensible than myself of
the extreme forbearance, discretion, and regard for my brother's true
welfare that has been shown here."

Ermine bowed. He did not know that the vivid carmine that made her
look so handsome was not caused by gratification at his praise, but
by the struggle to brook it patiently.

"And now, knowing the influence over him that, most deservedly, you
must always possess, I am induced to hope that, as his sincere
friend, you will exert it in favour of the more prudent counsels."

"I have no influence over his judgment," said Ermine, a little
proudly.

"I mean," said Lord Keith, forced to much closer quarters, "you will
excuse me for speaking thus openly--that in the state of the case,
with so much depending on his making a satisfactory choice, I feel
convinced, with every regret, that you will feel it to be for his
true welfare--as indeed I infer that you have already endeavoured to
show him--to make a new beginning, and to look on the past as past."

There was something in the insinuating tone of this speech, increased
as it was by the modulation of his Scottish voice, that irritated his
hearer unspeakably, all the more because it was the very thing she
had been doing.

"Colonel Keith must judge for himself," she said, with a cold manner,
but a burning heart.

"I--I understand," said Lord Keith, "that you had most honourably,
most consistently, made him aware that--that what once might have
been desirable has unhappily become impossible."

"Well," said Ermine.

"And thus," he proceeded, "that the sincere friendship with which you
still regard him would prevent any encouragement to continue an
attachment, unhappily now hopeless and obstructive to his prospects."

Ermine's eyes flashed at the dictation. "Lord Keith," she said, "I
have never sought your brother's visits nor striven to prolong them;
but if he finds pleasure in them after a life of disappointment and
trouble, I cannot refuse nor discourage them."

"I am aware," said Lord Keith, rising as if to go, "that I have
trespassed long on your time, and made a suggestion only warranted by
the generosity with which you have hitherto acted."

"One may be generous of one's own, not of other people's," said
Ermine.

He looked at her puzzled, then said, "Perhaps it will be best to
speak categorically, Miss Williams. Let it be distinctly understood
that my brother Colin, in paying his addresses to you, is necessarily
without my sanction or future assistance."

"It might not be necessary, my lord. Good morning;" and her
courteous bow was an absolute dismissal.

But when Alison came home she found her more depressed than she had
allowed herself to be for years, and on asking what was the matter
was answered--

"Pride and perverseness, Ailie!" then, in reply to the eager
exclamation, "I believe he was justified in all he said. But, Ailie,
I have preached to Colin more than I had a right to do about
forgiving his brother. I did not know how provoking he can be.
I did not think it was still in me to fly out as I did!"

"He had no business to come here interfering and tormenting you,"
said Alison, hotly.

"I dare say he thought he had! But one could not think of that when
it came to threatening me with his giving no help to Colin if-- There
was no resisting telling him how little we cared!"

"You have not offended him so that he will keep Colin away!"

"The more he tried, the more Colin would come! No, I am not sorry
for having offended him. I don't mind him; but Ailie, how little one
knows! All the angry and bitter feelings that I thought burnt out
for ever when I lay waiting for death, are stirred up as hotly as
they were long ago. The old self is here as strong as ever! Ailie,
don't tell Colin about this; but to-morrow is a saint's day, and
would you see Mr. Touchett, and try to arrange for me to go to the
early service? I think then I might better be helped to conquer
this."

"But, Ermine, how can you? Eight o'clock, you know."

"Yes, dearest, it will give you a great deal of trouble, but you
never mind that, you know; and I am so much stronger than I used to
be, that you need not fear. Besides, I want help so much! And it is
the day Colin goes away!"

Alison obeyed, as she always obeyed her sister; and Lord Keith,
taking his constitutional turn before breakfast on the esplanade, was
met by what he so little expected to encounter that he had not time
to get out of the way--a Bath chair with Alison walking on one side,
his brother on the other. He bowed coldly, but Ermine held out her
hand, and he was obliged to come near.

"I am glad to have met you," she said.

"I am glad to see you out so early," he answered, confused.

"This is an exception," she said, smiling and really looking
beautiful. "Good-bye, I have thought over what passed yesterday, and
I believe we are more agreed than perhaps I gave you reason to
think."

There was a queenly air of dignified exchange of pardon in her manner
of giving her hand and bending her head as she again said "Good-bye,"
and signed to her driver to move on.

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