The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, v5

G >> George Meredith >> The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, v5

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

This etext was produced by Pat Castevans
and David Widger

THE ORDEAL OF RICHARD FEVEREL

By George Meredith

1905

BOOK 5.

XXXIV. CONQUEST OF AN EPICURE
XXXV. CLARE'S MARRIAGE
XXXVI. A DINNER-PARTY AT RICHMOND
XXXVII. MRS. BERRY ON MATRIMONY
XXXVIII. AN ENCHANTRESS

CHAPTER XXXIV

It was the month of July. The Solent ran up green waves before a full-
blowing South-wester. Gay little yachts bounded out like foam, and
flashed their sails, light as sea-nymphs. A crown of deep Summer blue
topped the flying mountains of cloud.

By an open window that looked on the brine through nodding roses, our
young bridal pair were at breakfast, regaling worthily, both of them.
Had the Scientific Humanist observed them, he could not have contested
the fact, that as a couple who had set up to be father and mother of
Britons, they were doing their duty. Files of egg-cups with
disintegrated shells bore witness to it, and they were still at work,
hardly talking from rapidity of exercise. Both were dressed for an
expedition. She had her bonnet on, and he his yachting-hat. His sleeves
were turned over at the wrists, and her gown showed its lining on her
lap. At times a chance word might spring a laugh, but eating was the
business of the hour, as I would have you to know it always will be where
Cupid is in earnest. Tribute flowed in to them from the subject land.
Neglected lies Love's penny-whistle on which they played so prettily and
charmed the spheres to hear them. What do they care for the spheres, who
have one another? Come, eggs! come, bread and butter! come, tea with
sugar in it and milk! and welcome, the jolly hours. That is a fair
interpretation of the music in them just now. Yonder instrument was good
only for the overture. After all, what finer aspiration can lovers have,
than to be free man and woman in the heart of plenty? And is it not a
glorious level to have attained? Ah, wretched Scientific Humanist! not
to be by and mark the admirable sight of these young creatures feeding.
It would have been a spell to exorcise the Manichee, methinks.

The mighty performance came to an end, and then, with a flourish of his
table-napkin, husband stood over wife, who met him on the confident
budding of her mouth. The poetry of mortals is their daily prose. Is it
not a glorious level to have attained? A short, quick-blooded kiss,
radiant, fresh, and honest as Aurora, and then Richard says without lack
of cheer, "No letter to-day, my Lucy!" whereat her sweet eyes dwell on
him a little seriously, but he cries, "Never mind! he'll be coming down
himself some morning. He has only to know her, and all's well! eh?" and
so saying he puts a hand beneath her chin, and seems to frame her fair
face in fancy, she smiling up to be looked at.

"But one thing I do want to ask my darling," says Lucy, and dropped into
his bosom with hands of petition. "Take me on board his yacht with him
to-day--not leave me with those people! Will he? I'm a good sailor, he
knows!"

"The best afloat!" laughs Richard, hugging her, "but, you know, you
darling bit of a sailor, they don't allow more than a certain number on
board for the race, and if they hear you've been with me, there'll be
cries of foul play! Besides, there's Lady Judith to talk to you about
Austin, and Lord Mountfalcon's compliments for you to listen to, and Mr.
Morton to take care of you."

Lucy's eyes fixed sideways an instant.

"I hope I don't frown and blush as I did?" she said, screwing her pliable
brows up to him winningly, and he bent his cheek against hers, and
murmured something delicious.

"And we shall be separated for--how many hours? one, two, three hours!"
she pouted to his flatteries.

"And then I shall come on board to receive my bride's congratulations."

"And then my husband will talk all the time to Lady Judith."

"And then I shall see my wife frowning and blushing at Lord Mountfalcon."

"Am I so foolish, Richard?" she forgot her trifling to ask in an earnest
way, and had another Aurorean kiss, just brushing the dew on her lips,
for answer.

After hiding a month in shyest shade, the pair of happy sinners had
wandered forth one day to look on men and marvel at them, and had chanced
to meet Mr. Morton of Poer Hall, Austin Wentworth's friend, and Ralph's
uncle. Mr. Morton had once been intimate with the baronet, but had given
him up for many years as impracticable and hopeless, for which reason he
was the more inclined to regard Richard's misdemeanour charitably, and to
lay the faults of the son on the father; and thinking society to be the
one thing requisite to the young man, he had introduced him to the people
he knew in the island; among others to the Lady Judith Felle, a fair
young dame, who introduced him to Lord Mountfalcon, a puissant nobleman;
who introduced him to the yachtsmen beginning to congregate; so that in a
few weeks he found himself in the centre of a brilliant company, and for
the first time in his life tasted what it was to have free intercourse
with his fellow-creatures of both sews. The son of a System was,
therefore, launched; not only through the surf, but in deep waters.

Now the baronet had so far compromised between the recurrence of his
softer feelings and the suggestions of his new familiar, that he had
determined to act toward Richard with justness. The world called it
magnanimity, and even Lady Blandish had some thoughts of the same kind
when she heard that he had decreed to Richard a handsome allowance, and
had scouted Mrs. Doria's proposal for him to contest the legality of the
marriage; but Sir Austin knew well he was simply just in not withholding
money from a youth so situated. And here again the world deceived him by
embellishing his conduct. For what is it to be just to whom we love! He
knew it was not magnanimous, but the cry of the world somehow fortified
him in the conceit that in dealing perfect justice to his son he was
doing all that was possible, because so much more than common fathers
would have done. He had shut his heart.

Consequently Richard did not want money. What he wanted more, and did
not get, was a word from his father, and though he said nothing to sadden
his young bride, she felt how much it preyed upon him to be at variance
with the man whom, now that he had offended him and gone against him, he
would have fallen on his knees to; the man who was as no other man to
him. She heard him of nights when she lay by his side, and the darkness,
and the broken mutterings, of those nights clothed the figure of the
strange stern man in her mind. Not that it affected the appetites of the
pretty pair. We must not expect that of Cupid enthroned and in
condition; under the influence of sea-air, too. The files of egg-cups
laugh at such an idea. Still the worm did gnaw them. Judge, then, of
their delight when, on this pleasant morning, as they were issuing from
the garden of their cottage to go down to the sea, they caught sight of
Tom Bakewell rushing up the road with a portmanteau on his shoulders,
and, some distance behind him, discerned Adrian.

"It's all right!" shouted Richard, and ran off to meet him, and never
left his hand till he had hauled him up, firing questions at him all the
way, to where Lucy stood.

"Lucy! this is Adrian, my cousin."--"Isn't he an angel?" his eyes seemed
to add; while Lucy's clearly answered, "That he is!"

The full-bodied angel ceremoniously bowed to her, and acted with reserved
unction the benefactor he saw in their greetings. "I think we are not
strangers," he was good enough to remark, and very quickly let them know
he had not breakfasted; on hearing which they hurried him into the house,
and Lucy put herself in motion to have him served.

"Dear old Rady," said Richard, tugging at his hand again, "how glad I am
you've come! I don't mind telling you we've been horridly wretched."

"Six, seven, eight, nine eggs," was Adrian's comment on a survey of the
breakfast-table.

"Why wouldn't he write? Why didn't he answer one of my letters? But
here you are, so I don't mind now. He wants to see us, does he? We'll
go up to-night. I've a match on at eleven; my little yacht--I've called
her the 'Blandish'--against Fred Cuirie's 'Begum.' I shall beat, but
whether I do or not, we'll go up to-night. What's the news? What are
they all doing?"

"My dear boy!" Adrian returned, sitting comfortably down, "let me put
myself a little more on an equal footing with you before I undertake to
reply. Half that number of eggs will be sufficient for an unmarried man,
and then we'll talk. They're all very well, as well as I can recollect
after the shaking my total vacuity has had this morning. I came over by
the first boat, and the sea, the sea has made me love mother earth, and
desire of her fruits."

Richard fretted restlessly opposite his cool relative.

"Adrian! what did he say when he heard of it? I want to know exactly
what words he said."

"Well says the sage, my son! 'Speech is the small change of Silence.'
He said less than I do."

"That's how he took it!" cried Richard, and plunged in meditation.

Soon the table was cleared, and laid out afresh, and Lucy preceded the
maid bearing eggs on the tray, and sat down unbonneted, and like a
thorough-bred housewife, to pour out the tea for him.

"Now we'll commence," said Adrian, tapping his egg with meditative
cheerfulness; but his expression soon changed to one of pain, all the
more alarming for his benevolent efforts to conceal it. Could it be
possible the egg was bad? oh, horror! Lucy watched him, and waited in
trepidation.

"This egg has boiled three minutes and three-quarters," he observed,
ceasing to contemplate it.

"Dear, dear!" said Lucy, "I boiled them myself exactly that time.
Richard likes them so. And you like them hard, Mr. Harley?"

"On the contrary, I like them soft. Two minutes and a half, or three-
quarters at the outside. An egg should never rashly verge upon hardness-
-never. Three minutes is the excess of temerity."

"If Richard had told me! If I had only known!" the lovely little hostess
interjected ruefully, biting her lip.

"We mustn't expect him to pay attention to such matters," said Adrian,
trying to smile.

"Hang it! there are more eggs in the house," cried Richard, and pulled
savagely at the bell.

Lucy jumped up, saying, "Oh, yes! I will go and boil some exactly the
time you like. Pray let me go, Mr. Harley."

Adrian restrained her departure with a motion of his hand. "No," he
said, "I will be ruled by Richard's tastes, and heaven grant me his
digestion!"

Lucy threw a sad look at Richard, who stretched on a sofa, and left the
burden of the entertainment entirely to her. The eggs were a melancholy
beginning, but her ardour to please Adrian would not be damped, and she
deeply admired his resignation. If she failed in pleasing this glorious
herald of peace, no matter by what small misadventure, she apprehended
calamity; so there sat this fair dove with brows at work above her
serious smiling blue eyes, covertly studying every aspect of the plump-
faced epicure, that she might learn to propitiate him. "He shall not
think me timid and stupid," thought this brave girl, and indeed Adrian
was astonished to find that she could both chat and be useful, as well as
look ornamental. When he had finished one egg, behold, two fresh ones
came in, boiled according to his prescription. She had quietly given her
orders to the maid, and he had them without fuss. Possibly his look of
dismay at the offending eggs had not been altogether involuntary, and her
woman's instinct, inexperienced as she was, may have told her that he had
come prepared to be not very well satisfied with anything in Love's
cottage. There was mental faculty in those pliable brows to see through,
and combat, an unwitting wise youth.

How much she had achieved already she partly divined when Adrian said: "I
think now I'm in case to answer your questions, my dear boy--thanks to
Mrs. Richard," and he bowed to her his first direct acknowledgment of her
position. Lucy thrilled with pleasure.

"Ah!" cried Richard, and settled easily on his back.

"To begin, the Pilgrim has lost his Note-book, and has been persuaded to
offer a reward which shall maintain the happy finder thereof in an asylum
for life. Benson--superlative Benson--has turned his shoulders upon
Raynham. None know whither he has departed. It is believed that the
sole surviving member of the sect of the Shaddock-Dogmatists is under a
total eclipse of Woman."

"Benson gone?" Richard exclaimed. "What a tremendous time it seems since
I left Raynham!"

"So it is, my dear boy. The honeymoon is Mahomet's minute; or say, the
Persian King's water-pail that you read of in the story: You dip your
head in it, and when you draw it out, you discover that you have lived a
life. To resume your uncle Algernon still roams in pursuit of the lost
one--I should say, hops. Your uncle Hippias has a new and most
perplexing symptom; a determination of bride-cake to the nose. Ever
since your generous present to him, though he declares he never consumed
a morsel of it, he has been under the distressing illusion that his nose
is enormous, and I assure you he exhibits quite a maidenly timidity in
following it--through a doorway, for instance. He complains of its
terrible weight. I have conceived that Benson invisible might be sitting
on it. His hand, and the doctor's, are in hourly consultation with it,
but I fear it will not grow smaller. The Pilgrim has begotten upon it a
new Aphorism: that Size is a matter of opinion."

"Poor uncle Hippy!" said Richard, "I wonder he doesn't believe in magic.
There's nothing supernatural to rival the wonderful sensations he does
believe in. Good God! fancy coming to that!"

"I'm sure I'm very sorry," Lucy protested, "but I can't help laughing."

Charming to the wise youth her pretty laughter sounded.

"The Pilgrim has your notion, Richard. Whom does he not forestall?
'Confirmed dyspepsia is the apparatus of illusions,' and he accuses the
Ages that put faith in sorcery, of universal indigestion, which may have
been the case, owing to their infamous cookery. He says again, if you
remember, that our own Age is travelling back to darkness and ignorance
through dyspepsia. He lays the seat of wisdom in the centre of our
system, Mrs. Richard: for which reason you will understand how sensible I
am of the vast obligation I am under to you at the present moment, for
your especial care of mine."

Richard looked on at Lucy's little triumph, attributing Adrian's
subjugation to her beauty and sweetness. She had latterly received a
great many compliments on that score, which she did not care to hear, and
Adrian's homage to a practical quality was far pleasanter to the young
wife, who shrewdly guessed that her beauty would not help her much in the
struggle she had now to maintain. Adrian continuing to lecture on the
excelling virtues of wise cookery, a thought struck her: Where, where had
she tossed Mrs. Berry's book?

"So that's all about the home-people?" said Richard.

"All!" replied Adrian. "Or stay: you know Clare's going to be married?
Not? Your Aunt Helen"--

"Oh, bother my Aunt Helen! What do you think she had the impertinence to
write--but never mind! Is it to Ralph?"

"Your Aunt Helen, I was going to say, my dear boy, is an extraordinary
woman. It was from her originally that the Pilgrim first learnt to call
the female the practical animal. He studies us all, you know. The
Pilgrim's Scrip is the abstract portraiture of his surrounding relatives.
Well, your Aunt Helen"--

"Mrs. Doria Battledoria!" laughed Richard.

"--being foiled in a little pet scheme of her own--call it a System if
you like--of some ten or fifteen years' standing, with regard to Miss
Clare!"--

The fair Shuttlecockiana!"

"--instead of fretting like a man, and questioning
Providence, and turning herself and everybody else inside out, and seeing
the world upside down, what does the practical animal do? She wanted to
marry her to somebody she couldn't marry her to, so she resolved
instantly to marry her to somebody she could marry her to: and as old
gentlemen enter into these transactions with the practical animal the
most readily, she fixed upon an old gentleman; an unmarried old
gentleman, a rich old gentleman, and now a captive old gentleman. The
ceremony takes place in about a week from the present time. No doubt you
will receive your invitation in a day or two."

"And that cold, icy, wretched Clare has consented to marry an old man!"
groaned Richard. "I'll put a stop to that when I go to town."

Richard got up and strode about the room. Then he bethought him it was
time to go on board and make preparations.

"I'm off," he said. "Adrian, you'll take her. She goes in the Empress,
Mountfalcon's vessel. He starts us. A little schooner-yacht--such a
beauty! I'll have one like her some day. Good-bye, darling!" he
whispered to Lucy, and his hand and eyes lingered on her, and hers on
him, seeking to make up for the priceless kiss they were debarred from.
But she quickly looked away from him as he held her:--Adrian stood
silent: his brows were up, and his mouth dubiously contracted. He spoke
at last.

"Go on the water?"

"Yes. It's only to St. Helen's. Short and sharp."

"Do you grudge me the nourishment my poor system has just received, my
son?"

"Oh, bother your system! Put on your hat, and come along. I'll put you
on board in my boat."

"Richard! I have already paid the penalty of them who are condemned to
come to an island. I will go with you to the edge of the sea, and I will
meet you there when you return, and take up the Tale of the Tritons: but,
though I forfeit the pleasure of Mrs. Richard's company, I refuse to quit
the land."

"Yes, oh, Mr. Harley!" Lucy broke from her husband, "and I will stay with
you, if you please. I don't want to go among those people, and we can
see it all from the shore.

"Dearest! I don't want to go. You don't mind? Of course, I will go if
you wish, but I would so much rather stay;" and she lengthened her plea
in her attitude and look to melt the discontent she saw gathering.

Adrian protested that she had much better go; that he could amuse himself
very well till their return, and so forth; but she had schemes in her
pretty head, and held to it to be allowed to stay in spite of Lord
Mountfalcon's disappointment, cited by Richard, and at the great risk of
vexing her darling, as she saw. Richard pished, and glanced
contemptuously at Adrian. He gave way ungraciously.

"There, do as you like. Get your things ready to leave this evening.
No, I'm not angry."--Who could be? he seemed as he looked up from her
modest fondling to ask Adrian, and seized the indemnity of a kiss on her
forehead, which, however, did not immediately disperse the shade of
annoyance he felt.

"Good heavens!" he exclaimed. "Such a day as this, and a fellow refuses
to come on the water! Well, come along to the edge of the sea."
Adrian's angelic quality had quite worn off to him. He never thought of
devoting himself to make the most of the material there was: but somebody
else did, and that fair somebody succeeded wonderfully in a few short
hours. She induced Adrian to reflect that the baronet had only to see
her, and the family muddle would be smoothed at once. He came to it by
degrees; still the gradations were rapid. Her manner he liked; she was
certainly a nice picture: best of all, she was sensible. He forgot the
farmer's niece in her, she was so very sensible. She appeared really to
understand that it was a woman's duty to know how to cook.

But the difficulty was, by what means the baronet could be brought to
consent to see her. He had not yet consented to see his son, and Adrian,
spurred by Lady Blandish, had ventured something in coming down. He was
not inclined to venture more. The small debate in his mind ended by his
throwing the burden on time. Time would bring the matter about.
Christians as well as Pagans are in the habit of phrasing this excuse for
folding their arms; "forgetful," says The Pilgrim's Scrip, "that the
devil's imps enter into no such armistice."

As she loitered along the shore with her amusing companion, Lucy had many
things to think of. There was her darling's match. The yachts were
started by pistol-shot by Lord Mountfalcon on board the Empress, and her
little heart beat after Richard's straining sails. Then there was the
strangeness of walking with a relative of Richard's, one who had lived by
his side so long. And the thought that perhaps this night she would have
to appear before the dreaded father of her husband.

"O Mr. Harley!" she said, "is it true--are we to go tonight? And me,"
she faltered, "will he see me?"

"Ah! that is what I wanted to talk to you about," said Adrian. "I made
some reply to our dear boy which he has slightly misinterpreted. Our
second person plural is liable to misconstruction by an ardent mind. I
said 'see you,' and he supposed--now, Mrs. Richard, I am sure you will
understand me. Just at present perhaps it would be advisable--when the
father and son have settled their accounts, the daughter-in-law can't be
a debtor."...

Lucy threw up her blue eyes. A half-cowardly delight at the chance of a
respite from the awful interview made her quickly apprehensive.

"O Mr. Harley! you think he should go alone first?"

"Well, that is my notion. But the fact is, he is such an excellent
husband that I fancy it will require more than a man's power of
persuasion to get him to go."

"But I will persuade him, Mr. Harley."
"Perhaps, if you would..."

"There is nothing I would not do for his happiness," murmured Lucy.

The wise youth pressed her hand with lymphatic approbation. They walked
on till the yachts had rounded the point.

"Is it to-night, Mr. Harley?" she asked with some trouble in her voice
now that her darling was out of sight.

"I don't imagine your eloquence even will get him to leave you to-night,"
Adrian replied gallantly. "Besides, I must speak for myself. To achieve
the passage to an island is enough for one day. No necessity exists for
any hurry, except in the brain of that impetuous boy. You must correct
it, Mrs. Richard. Men are made to be managed, and women are born
managers. Now, if you were to let him know that you don't want to go to-
night, and let him guess, after a day or two, that you would very much
rather... you might affect a peculiar repugnance. By taking it on
yourself, you see, this wild young man will not require such frightful
efforts of persuasion. Both his father and he are exceedingly delicate
subjects, and his father unfortunately is not in a position to be managed
directly. It's a strange office to propose to you, but it appears to
devolve upon you to manage the father through the son. Prodigal having
made his peace, you, who have done all the work from a distance,
naturally come into the circle of the paternal smile, knowing it due to
you. I see no other way. If Richard suspects that his father objects
for the present to welcome his daughter-in-law, hostilities will be
continued, the breach will be widened, bad will grow to worse, and I see
no end to it."

Adrian looked in her face, as much as to say: Now are you capable of this
piece of heroism? And it did seem hard to her that she should have to
tell Richard she shrank from any trial. But the proposition chimed in
with her fears and her wishes: she thought the wise youth very wise: the
poor child was not insensible to his flattery, and the subtler flattery
of making herself in some measure a sacrifice to the home she had
disturbed. She agreed to simulate as Adrian had suggested.

Victory is the commonest heritage of the hero, and when Richard came on
shore proclaiming that the Blandish had beaten the Begum by seven minutes
and three-quarters, he was hastily kissed and congratulated by his bride
with her fingers among the leaves of Dr. Kitchener, and anxiously
questioned about wine.

"Dearest! Mr. Harley wants to stay with us a little, and he thinks we
ought not to go immediately--that is, before he has had some letters, and
I feel... I would so much rather..."

"Ah! that's it, you coward!" said Richard. "Well, then, to-morrow. We
had a splendid race. Did you see us?"

"Oh, yes! I saw you and was sure my darling would win." And again she
threw on him the cold water of that solicitude about wine. "Mr. Harley
must have the best, you know, and we never drink it, and I'm so silly, I
don't know good wine, and if you would send Tom where he can get good
wine. I have seen to the dinner."

"So that's why you didn't come to meet me?"

"Pardon me, darling."

Well, I do, but Mountfalcon doesn't, and Lady Judith thinks you ought to
have been there."

"Ah, but my heart was with you!"

Richard put his hand to feel for the little heart: her eyelids softened,
and she ran away.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8