THE CLEVER WOMAN OF THE FAMILY

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

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"Ah, well, I've been a sore plague to you, but I shall be off your
hands now."

"Eh! whose head have you been turning?"

"Alick, what do you think of Lord Keith?"

Alick was awake enough now! "The old ass!" he exclaimed. "But at
least you are out of his way now."

"Not at all. He is coming to Bath to-morrow to see my aunt."

"And you want me to go out to-morrow and stop him?"

"No, Alick, not exactly. I have been cast about the world too long
not to be thankful."

"Elizabeth!"

"Do not look so very much surprised," she said, in her sweet pleading
way. "May I not be supposed able to feel that noble kindness and
gracious manner, and be glad to have some one to look up to?"

"And how about Charlie Carleton?" demanded Alick, turning round full
on her.

"For shame, Alick!" she exclaimed hotly; "you who were the one to
persecute me about him, and tell me all sorts of things about his
being shallow and unprincipled, and not to be thought of, you to
bring him up against me now."

"I might think all you allege," returned Alick, gravely, "and yet be
much amazed at the new project."

Bessie laughed. "In fact you made a little romance, in which you
acted the part of sapient brother, and the poor little sister broke
her heart ever after! You wanted such an entertainment when you were
lying on the sofa, so you created a heroine and a villain, and
thundered down to the rescue."

"Very pretty, Bessie, but it will not do. It was long after I was
well again, and had joined."

"Then it was the well-considered effect of the musings of your
convalescence! When you have a sister to take care of, it is as well
to feel that you are doing it."

"Now, Elizabeth," said her brother, with seriousness not to be
laughed aside, and laying his hand on hers, "before I hear another
word on this matter, look me in the face and tell me deliberately
that you never cared for Carleton."

"I never thought for one moment of marrying him," said Bessie,
haughtily. "If I ever had any sort of mercy on him, it was all to
tease you. There, are you satisfied?"

"I must be, I suppose," he replied, and he sighed heavily. "When
was this settled?"

"Yesterday, walking up and down the esplanade. He will tell his
brother to-day, and I shall write to Lady Temple. Oh, Alick, he is
so kind, he spoke so highly of you."

"I must say," returned Alick, in the same grave tone, "that if you
wished for the care of an old man, I should have thought my uncle the
more agreeable of the two."

"He is little past fifty. You are very hard on him."

"On the contrary, I am sorry for him. You will always find it good
for him to do whatever suits yourself."

"Alick?" said his sister mournfully, "you have never forgotten or
forgiven my girlish bits of neglect after your wound."

"No, Bessie," he said, holding her hand kindly, "it is not the
neglect or the girlishness, but the excuses to me, still more to my
uncle, and most of all to yourself. They are what make me afraid for
you in what you are going to take upon yourself."

She did not answer immediately, and he pursued--"Are you driven to
this by dislike to living at Bishopsworthy? If so, do not be afraid
to tell me. I will make any arrangement, if you would prefer living
with Jane. We agreed once that it would be too expensive, but now I
could let you have another hundred a year."

"As if I would allow that, Alick! No, indeed! Lord Keith means you
to have all my share."

"Does he? There are more words than one to that question. And pray
is he going to provide properly for his poor daughter in the West
Indies?"

"I hope to induce him to take her into favour."

"Eh? and to make him give up to Colin Keith that Auchinvar estate
that he ought to have had when Archie Keith died?"

"You may be sure I shall do my best for the Colonel. Indeed, I do
think Lord Keith will consent to the marriage now."

"You have sacrificed yourself on that account?" he said, with irony
in his tone, that he could have repented the next moment, so good-
humoured was her reply, "That is understood, so give me the merit."

"The merit of, for his sake, becoming a grandmother. You have
thought of the daughters? Mrs. Comyn Menteith must be older than
yourself."

"Three years," said Bessie, in his own tone of acceptance of
startling facts, "and I shall have seven grandchildren in all, so you
see you must respect me."

"Do you know her sentiments?"

"I know what they will be when we have met. Never fear, Alick. If
she were not married it might be serious, being so, I have no fears."

Then came a silence, till a halt at the last station before Bath
roused Alick again.

"Bessie," he said, in the low voice the stoppage permitted, "don't
think me unkind. I believe you have waited on purpose to leave me no
time for expostulation, and what I have said has sounded the more
harsh in consequence."

"No, Alick," she said, "you are a kind brother in all but the
constructions you put upon my doings. I think it would be better if
there were more difference between our ages. You are a young
guardian, over anxious, and often morbidly fanciful about me during
your illness. I think we shall be happier together when you no
longer feel yourself responsible."

"The tables turned," muttered Alick.

"I am prepared for misconstruction," added Bessie. "I know it will
be supposed to be the title; the estate it cannot be, for you know
how poor a property it is; but I do not mean to care for the world.
Your opinion is a different thing, and I thought you would have seen
that I could not be insensible to such dignified kindness, and the
warmth of a nature that many people think cold."

"I don't like set speeches, Bessie."

"Then believe me, Alick. May I not love the fine old man that has
been so kind to me?"

"I hope you do," said Alick, slowly.

"And you can't believe it? Not with Lady Temple before you and hers
was really an old man."

"Do not talk of her or Sir Stephen either. No, Bessie," he added
more calmly after a time, "I may be doing great injustice to you
both, but I must speak what it is my duty to say. Lord Keith is a
hard, self-seeking man, who has been harsh and grasping towards his
family, and I verily believe came here bent on marriage, only because
his brother was no longer under his tyranny. He may not be harsh to
you, because he is past his vigour, and if he really loves you, you
have a power of governing; but from what I know of you, I cannot
believe in your loving him enough to make such management much better
than selfish manoeuvring. Therefore I cannot think this marriage for
your real welfare, or be other than bitterly grieved at it. Do not
answer, Bessie, but think this over, and if at any time this evening
you feel the least doubt of your happiness in this matter, telegraph
to me, and I will stop him."

"Indeed, Alick," she answered, without anger, "I believe you are very
anxious for my good."

It will readily be believed that Captain Keith received no telegram.

Nevertheless, as soon as his time was his own the next morning, he
rode to Avonmouth and sought out the Colonel, not perhaps with very
defined hopes of making any change in his sister's intentions, but
feeling that some attempt on his own part must be made, if only to
free himself from acquiescence, and thinking that Colin, as late
guardian to the one party, and brother to the other, was the most
proper medium.

Colonel Keith was taken by surprise at the manner in which his
cordial greeting was met. He himself had been far from displeased at
his brother's communication; it was a great relief to him personally,
as well as on Lady Temple's account, and he had been much charmed at
Bessie's good sense and engaging graces. As to disparity of years,
Lord Keith had really made himself much younger of late, and there
was much to excite a girl's romance in the courtesy of an elderly
man, the chief of her clan; moreover, the perfect affection and
happiness Colin had been used to witness in his general's family
disposed him to make light of that objection; and he perceived that
his brother was sufficiently bewitched to be likely to be kind and
indulgent to his bride.

He had not expected Alexander Keith to be as well pleased as he was
himself, but he was not prepared for his strong disapprobation, and
earnest desire to find some means of prevention, and he began to
reassure him upon the placability of Mrs. Comyn Menteith, the
daughter, as well as upon his brother's kindness to the objects of
his real affection.

"Oh, I am not afraid of that. She will manage him fast enough."

"Very likely, and for his good. Nor need you question his being a
safe guide for her in higher matters. Perhaps you are prejudiced
against him because his relations with me have not been happy, but
candidly, in them you know the worst of him; and no doubt he thought
himself purely acting for my welfare. I know much more of him now
that I have been at home with him, and I was greatly struck with his
real consideration for the good of all concerned with him."

"No, I am not thinking of Lord Keith. To speak it out, I cannot
believe that my sister has heart enough in this to justify her."

"Young girls often are more attracted by elderly men than by lads."

"You do not know Bessie as, I am sorry to say, I do," said Alick,
speaking slowly and sadly, and with a flush of shame on his cheek.
"I do not say that she says anything untrue, but the truth is not in
her. She is one of those selfish people who are infinitely better
liked than those five hundred times their worth, because they take
care to be always pleased."

"They give as much pleasure as they take."

"Yes, they take every one in. I wish to my heart I could be taken in
too, but I have seen too much of her avoidance of every service to my
uncle that she did not like. I verily believe, at this moment, that
one great inducement with her is to elude the care of him."

"Stern judgments, Alick. I know you would not speak thus without
warrant; but take it into account that marriage makes many a girl's
selfishness dual, and at last drowns the self."

"Yes, when it is a marriage of affection. But the truth must be
told, Colonel. There was a trumpery idle fellow always loitering at
Littleworthy, and playing croquet. I set my face against it with all
my might, and she always laughed to scorn the notion that there was
anything in it, nor do I believe that she has heart enough to wish to
marry him. I could almost say I wish she had, but I never saw her
show the same pleasure in any one's attentions, and I believe he is
gone out to Rio in hopes of earning means to justify his addresses."

Colonel Keith sat gravely considering what he knew would not be
spoken lightly. "Do you mean that there was attachment enough to
make it desirable that you should tell my brother?"

"No, I could say nothing that she could not instantly contradict with
perfect truth, though not with perfect sincerity."

"Let me ask you one question, Alick--not a flattering one. May not
some of these private impressions of yours have been coloured by your
long illness!"

"That is what Bessie gives every one to understand," said Alick,
calmly. "She is right, to a certain degree, that suffering sharpened
my perceptions, and helplessness gave me time to draw conclusions.
If I had been well, I might have been as much enchanted as other
people; and if my uncle had not needed her care, and been neglected,
I could have thought that I was rendered exacting by illness. But I
imagine all I have said is not of the slightest use, only, if you
think it right to tell your brother to talk to me, I would rather
stand all the vituperation that would fall on me than allow this to
take place."

Colonel Keith walked up and down the room considering, whilst Alick
sat in a dejected attitude, shading his face, and not uttering how
very bitter it had been to him to make the accusation, nor how dear
the sister really was.

"I see no purpose that would be answered," said Colonel Keith, coming
to a pause at last; "you have nothing tangible to mention, even as to
the former affair that you suspect. I see a great deal in your view
of her to make you uneasy, but nothing that would not be capable of
explanation, above all to such a man as my brother. It would appear
like mere malevolence."

"Never mind what it would appear," said Alick, who was evidently in
such a ferment as his usually passive demeanour would have seemed
incapable of.

"If the appearance would entirely baffle the purpose, it must be
considered," said the Colonel; "and in this case it could only lead
to estrangement, which would be a lasting evil. I conclude that you
have remonstrated with your sister."

"As much as she gave me time for; but of course that is breath spent
in vain."

"Your uncle had the same means of judging as yourself."

"No, Colonel, he could do nothing! In the first place, there can be
no correspondence with him; and next, he is so devotedly fond of
Bessie, that he would no more believe anything against her than Lady
Temple would. I have tried that more than once."

"Then, Alick, there is nothing for it but to let it take its course;
and even upon your own view, your sister will be much safer married
than single."

"I had very little expectation of your saying anything else, but in
common honesty I felt bound to let you know."

"And now the best thing to be done is to forget all you have said."

"Which you will do the more easily as you think it an amiable
delusion of mine. Well, so much the better. I dare say you will
never think otherwise, and I would willingly believe that my senses
went after my fingers' ends."

The Colonel almost believed so himself. He was aware of the
miserably sensitive condition of shattered nerve in which Alick had
been sent home, and of the depression of spirits that had ensued on
the news of his father's death; and he thought it extremely probable
that his weary hours and solicitude for his gay young sister might
have made molehills into mountains, and that these now weighed on his
memory and conscience. At least, this seemed the only way of
accounting for an impression so contrary to that which Bessie Keith
made on every one else, and, by his own avowal, on the uncle whom he
so much revered. Every other voice proclaimed her winning, amiable,
obliging, considerate, and devoted to the service of her friends,
with much drollery and shrewdness of perception, tempered by kindness
of heart and unwillingness to give pain; and on that sore point of
residence with the blind uncle, it was quite possibly a bit of
Alick's exaggerated feeling to imagine the arrangement so desirable--
the young lady might be the better judge.

On the whole, the expostulation left Colonel Keith more uncomfortable
on Alick's account than on that of his brother.

CHAPTER XVI.

AN APPARITION.

"And there will be auld Geordie Tanner,
Who coft a young wife wi' his gowd."
JOANNA BAILLIE.

"Mamma," quoth Leoline, "I thought a woman must not marry her
grandfather. And she called him the patriarch of her clan."

"He is a cross old man," added Hubert. "He said children ought not
to be allowed on the esplanade, because he got into the way as I was
pushing the perambulator."

"This was the reason," said Francis, gravely, "that she stopped me
from braying at him. I shall know what people are at, when they talk
of disrespect another time."

"Don't talk of her," cried Conrade, flinging himself round; "women
have no truth in them."

"Except the dear, darling, delightful mammy!" And the larger
proportion of boys precipitated themselves headlong upon her, so that
any one but a mother would have been buffeted out of breath in their
struggles for embracing ground; and even Lady Temple found it a
relief when Hubert, having been squeezed out, bethought himself of
extending the honourable exception to Miss Williams, and thus
effected a diversion. What would have been the young gentlemen's
reception of his lordship's previous proposal!

Yet in the fulness of her gladness the inconsistent widow, who had
thought Lord Keith so much too old for herself, gave her younger
friend heartfelt congratulations upon the blessing of being under
fatherly direction and guidance. She was entrusted with the
announcement to Rachel, who received it with a simple "Indeed!" and
left her cousin unmolested in her satisfaction, having long relegated
Fanny to the class of women who think having a friend about to be
married the next best thing to being married themselves, no matter to
whom.

"Aspirations in women are mere delusions," was her compensating sigh
to Grace. "There is no truer saying, than that a woman will receive
every man."

"I have always been glad that is aprocryphal," said Grace, "and
Eastern women have no choice."

"Nor are Western women better than Eastern," said Rachel. "It is all
circumstances. No mental power or acuteness has in any instance that
I have yet seen, been able to balance the propensity to bondage. The
utmost flight is, that the attachment should not be unworthy."

"I own that I am very much surprised," said Grace.

"I am not at all," said Rachel. "I have given up hoping better
things. I was beginning to have a high opinion of Bessie Keith's
capabilities, but womanhood was at the root all the time; and, as her
brother says, she has had great disadvantages, and I can make excuses
for her. She had not her heart filled with one definite scheme of
work and usefulness, such as deters the trifling and designing."

"Like the F. U. E. E.?"

"Yes, the more I see of the fate of other women, the more thankful I
am that my vocation has taken a formed and developed shape."

And thus Rachel could afford to speak without severity of the match,
though she abstained from congratulation. She did not see Captain
Keith for the next few days, but at last the two sisters met him at
the Cathedral door as they were getting into the carriage after a
day's shopping at Avoncester; and Grace offered her congratulations,
in accordance with her mother's old fashioned code.

"Thank you," he said; then turning to Rachel, "Did she write to you?"

"No."

"I thought not."

There was something marked in his tone, but his sister's silence was
not of long duration, for a letter arrived containing orders for
lace, entreating that a high pressure might be put on Mrs. Kelland,
and containing beauteous devices for the veil, which was to be
completed in a fearfully short time, since the wedding was to be
immediate, in order that Lord Keith might spend Christmas and the
ensuing cold months abroad. It was to take place at Bath, and was to
be as quiet as possible; "or else," wrote Miss Keith, "I should have
been enchanted to have overcome your reluctance to witness the base
surrender of female rights. I am afraid you are only too glad to be
let off, only don't thank me, but circumstances."

Rachel's principles revolted at the quantity of work demanded of the
victims to lace, and Grace could hardly obtain leave to consult Mrs.
Kelland. But she snapped at the order, for the honour and glory of
the thing, and undertook through the ramifications of her connexion
to obtain the whole bridal array complete. "For such a pleasant-
spoken lady as Miss Keith, she would sit up all night rather than
disappoint her."

The most implacable person of all was the old housekeeper, Tibbie.
She had been warmly attached to Lady Keith, and resented her having a
successor, and one younger than her daughters; and above all, ever
since the son and heir had died, she had reckoned on her own Master
Colin coming to the honours of the family, and regarded this new
marriage as a crossing of Providence. She vainly endeavoured to stir
up Master Colin to remonstrate on his brother's "makin' siccan a
fule's bargain wi' yon glaikit lass. My certie, but he'll hae the
warst o't, honest man; rinnin' after her, wi' a' her whigmaleries an'
cantrips. He'll rue the day that e'er he bowed his noble head to the
likes o' her, I'm jalousin."

It was to no purpose to remind her that the bride was a Keith in
blood; her great grandfather a son of the house of Gowanbrae; all the
subsequent descendants brave soldiers.

"A Keith ca' ye her! It's a queer kin' o' Keiths she's comed o', nae
better nor Englishers that haena sae muckle's set fit in our bonny
Scotland; an' sic scriechin', skirlin' tongues as they hae, a body
wad need to be gleg i' the uptak to understan' a word they say. Tak'
my word for't, Maister Colin, it's no a'thegither luve for his
lordship's grey hairs that gars yon gilpy lassock seek to become my
Leddy Keith."

"Nay, Tibbie, if you find fault with such a sweet, winning young
creature, I shall think it is all because you will not endure a
mistress at Gowanbrae over you."

"His lordship'll please himsel' wi' a leddy to be mistress o'
Gowanbrae, but auld Tibbie'll never cross the doorstane mair."

"Indeed you will, Tibbie; here are my brother's orders that you
should go down, as soon as you can conveniently make ready, and see
about the new plenishing."

"They may see to the plenishing that's to guide it after han, an'
that'll no be me. My lord'll behove to tak' his orders aff his young
leddy ance he's married on her, may be a whilie afore, but that's no
to bind ither folk, an' it's no to be thought that at my years I'm to
be puttin' up wi' a' ther new fangled English fykes an' nonsense
maggots. Na, na, Maister Colin, his lordship'll fend weel aneugh
wantin' Tibbie; an' what for suld I leave yerself, an' you settin' up
wi' a house o' yer ain? Deed an' my mind's made up, I'll e'en bide
wi' ye, an' nae mair about it."

"Stay, stay," cried Colin, a glow coming into his cheeks, "don't
reckon without your host, Tibbie. Do you think Gowanbrae the second
is never to have any mistress but yourself?"

"Haud awa' wi' ye, laddie, I ken fine what ye'ra ettlin' at, but
yon's a braw leddy, no like thae English folk, but a woman o'
understandin', an' mair by token I'm thinkin' she'll be gleg aneugh
to ken a body that'll serve her weel, an' see to the guidin' o' thae
feckless queens o' servant lasses, for bad's the best o' them ye'll
fin' hereawa'. Nae fear but her an' me'll put it up weel thegither,
an' a' gude be wi' ye baith."

After this Colin resigned himself and his household to Tibbie's
somewhat despotic government, at least for the present. To Ermine's
suggestion that her appellation hardly suited the dignity of her
station, he replied that Isabel was too romantic for southern ears,
and that her surname being the same as his own, he was hardly
prepared to have the title of Mrs. Keith pre-occupied. So after Mrs.
Curtis's example, the world for the most part knew the colonel's
housekeeper as Mrs. Tibbs.

She might be a tyrant, but liberties were taken with her territory;
for almost the first use that the colonel made of his house was to
ask a rheumatic sergeant, who had lately been invalided, to come and
benefit by the Avonmouth climate. Scottish hospitality softened
Tibbie's heart, and when she learnt that Sergeant O'Brien had helped
to carry Master Colin into camp after his wound, she thought nothing
too good for him. The Colonel then ventured to add to the party an
exemplary consumptive tailor from Mr. Mitchell's parish, who might
yet be saved by good living and good air. Some growls were elicited,
but he proved to be so deplorably the ninetieth rather than the ninth
part of a man, that Tibbie made it her point of honour to fatten him;
and the sergeant found him such an intelligent auditor of the Indian
exploits of the --th Highlanders that mutual respect was fully
established, and high politeness reigned supreme, even though the
tailor could never be induced to delight in the porridge, on which
the sergeant daily complimented the housekeeper in original and
magnificent metaphors.

Nor had the Colonel any anxieties in leaving the representatives of
the three nations together while he went to attend his brother's
wedding. He proposed that Tibbie should conduct Rose for the daily
walk of which he had made a great point, thinking that the child did
not get exercise enough, since she was so averse to going alone upon
the esplanade that her aunt forbore to press it. She manifested the
same reluctance to going out with Tibbie, and this the Colonel
ascribed to her fancying herself too old to be under the charge of a
nurse. It was trying to laugh her out of her dignity, but without
eliciting an answer, when, one afternoon just as they were entering
together upon the esplanade, he felt her hand tighten upon his own
with a nervous frightened clutch, as she pressed tremulously to his
side.

"What is it, my dear? That dog is not barking at you. He only wants
to have a stick thrown into the sea for him."

"Oh not the dog! It was--"

"Was, what?"

"HIM!" gasped Rose.

"Who?" inquired the Colonel, far from prepared for the reply, in a
terrified whisper,--

"Mr. Maddox."

"My dear child! Which, where?"

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